Safety in the Lord

Text: Zephaniah 3:11–20

We're at the final sermon in the series on Zephaniah, the happy part of the book. It is really happy. We're building off what we saw last time in Zephaniah. 

We saw in Zephaniah 3:8 that the Lord calls his faithful few to wait on him. And he had some very particular reasons that he gave. He's calling the faithful believers to seek the Lord together, and to wait on Him. What he's promised is to right all wrongs through judgment, and he's promised that he would transform the faithful few into new people from all tribes and tongues and nations (that was verses 9–10). 

Now we're going to see some more reasons to wait on the Lord. What Zephaniah is going to do in the second half of chapter 3 is to fill out this call to wait. He's going to say, don't just wait on the Lord, worship while you wait in hope. 

Here is how he builds that case. He's going to give two reasons to hope while you're waiting. Don't just wait, wait in hope. Here's two hopes (quoted verbatim from Jason DeRouchie):

1. The New Jerusalem will not live in shame (11–13) 

2. God promises he will save completely (16–20) 

But in between the hopes he gives a call to worship: 

1. The New Jerusalem will not live in shame (11–13) 

2. Call to Worship (14–15)

3. God promises he will save completely (16–20) 

So here is where we are going today: 

1. The New Jerusalem will not live in shame (11–13) 

2. Call to Worship (14–15)

3. God promises he will save completely (16–20) 

Let’s start with hope number 1: The New Jerusalem will not live in shame (11–13). Look at verse 11:

“On that day you shall not be put to shame because of the deeds by which you have rebelled against me; for then I will remove from your midst your proudly exultant ones, and you shall no longer be haughty in my holy mountain.” (Zephaniah 3:11 ESV)

What he's picturing is this global gathering of worshipers (that's the *you* in verse 11) will one day see the Lord come and renew all things. And on that day you will not be put to shame. He describes what he's going to do. He's going to remove the exalted and haughty, and he's going to keep—look at verse 12:

“But I will leave in your midst a people humble and lowly. They shall seek refuge in the name of the LORD,” (Zephaniah 3:12 ESV)

So he is removing the wicked and persevering the humble and lowly, or those who are seeking God. Here’s the description of Jerusalem from last week:

“Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled, the oppressing city!” (Zephaniah 3:1 ESV)

And then look at verse five at the very end: 

 “The LORD within her is righteous; he does no injustice; every morning he shows forth his justice; each dawn he does not fail; but the unjust knows no shame.” (Zephaniah 3:5 ESV)

 In the current Jerusalem, in Zephaniah's day, they're surrounded by wickedness and oppression and shame. God's promise is that those who are faithful to him, they will be in a new city, a city where there is no shame — where those people are removed. In their place are those who sought the Lord.

Now this portion of Scripture gives those restored people and place a name or names. You see it in verse 13, Israel. You see another name in verse 14: “daughter of Zion” and “O daughter of Jerusalem”. In verse 16, he calls them just Jerusalem. 

But in this renewed state, rather than these terms—Israel, Jerusalem, Zion—being associated with like a piece of turf in the Middle East, notice what Zephaniah is doing. At the end of his book, he is saying, “Oh, this Israel/Jerusalem/Zion is not just those who are born national Israelites.” 

No, rather this is a city, it's a renewed city, filled with people from every tribe and tongue and nations. Remember verse 3:10 — people from the southern end of the world, worshipers from Cush, who are gathered together and are worshiping. 

The picture here is of a new heavens and new earth where people are seeking the Lord together. I want you to think when you hear these terms Jerusalem, Israel, daughters of Zion, I don't want you to be picturing a piece of turf in the Middle East. I want you to be picturing a people from every tribe and tongue and nation — renewed worshippers of God in a new Jerusalem. Here's how Zephaniah describes them:

“those who are left in Israel; they shall do no injustice and speak no lies, nor shall there be found in their mouth a deceitful tongue. For they shall graze and lie down, and none shall make them afraid.” (Zephaniah 3:13 ESV)

He’s trying to say, “Hey, look at you look at modern day Jerusalem. It's broken, oppressive, rebellious, but there's a new Jerusalem coming with worshipers from all over, who will be restored, and who won't be oppressing.” 

I'm not just trying to just do this fancy replacing the words of Israel and Jerusalem so that we can apply it to our lives. The Bible does this often. Take Jerusalem, for example. It's to describe this new heavens in the New Testament — just like I’m saying it is in Zephaniah. There we see that New Jerusalem has been brought about by Christ, and New Jerusalem is the term used to describe our new home. Look at Revelation 21 with me so I can show you what I mean: 

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” (Revelation 21:1–2 ESV) 

It goes on to describe worship at this new heavens and new earth—this new Jerusalem. Zephaniah is saying, “Wait on the Lord. Because this new Jerusalem is coming in which you no longer live in shame.” The whole point here is that we are to wait on the Lord in hope. This is not just mindless waiting, This is waiting grounded in real, true hope. A hope of a day when oppression will be no more, and instead it will be a new place. 

It’s just like what we were just talking about in Matthew 5:3:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3 ESV)

Jesus picked up this language saying, “Yes, the promises that those who seek the Lord those who are humble those who are trusting in him, theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And it's coming. So wait, wait and hope.”

I was thinking about how hope and waiting work together this week. We can endure waiting when we know the great hope on the other side of the waiting. 

If you tell someone “hey, just wait, wait here for me”. They respond, “Oh, well, why am I gonna wait, why? for what.” And you say, “just waiting for me.” And then you leave and you don’t come back for two days. Are they going to be there waiting? No. Because they are going to think, “What am I even waiting for? I have no direction, no hope, no vision. And so that I'm moving on. I gotta go eat. I want to go sleep. I'm not just sitting here waiting.” 

But a new Chick-fil-A comes into town, and I don't know what it is, like the first 100 people or something get Chick-fil-A free for a year. What do people do? They build their tents outside. They weather whatever storms come. They're there and they're waiting. Why? Because they know the goodness that's coming on the other side. So they wait. And they're happy to wait. They wait in hope because of what’s coming. And Zephaniah is simply just saying, “Hey, wait for the Lord. And let me tell you why. Here's a new Jerusalem is coming where you will no longer live in shame.” And this hope that’s coming tomorrow gives them strength today. 

And now he's just so moved by this that he's going to say, “Yeah, don’t, just wait. Worship while you're waiting. Because it's that good.” 

Just picture - those people who are waiting for Chick-fil-A for a year? Are they waiting in anger or begrudgingly. No. They're happy. They're stoked to get Chick-fil-A for a year. 

Zephaniah is going to move to simply say, “Don't just wait in anger and frustration.” Worship while you’re waiting. 

So we have seen hope one: the new Jerusalem is coming where you will live in no shame. And now we are going to see him interrupt the case of hope he is building to call God’s people to worship. 

Let’s look now, at verses 14 through 15. Let’s start with verse 14: 

“Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem!” (Zephaniah 3:14 ESV)

There are four commands in this section. He's calling them sing aloud, shout, rejoice, and exalt. I'm just summarizing that as worship. Praise God. Exalted him, why? Look at verse 15:

“The LORD has taken away the judgments against you; he has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil.” (Zephaniah 3:15 ESV)

Number one, he's taken away the judgments given to you. Number two, he's removing your enemies. You don't have to fear anymore. Let’s dig in and get in this reality. 

The first thing that sticks out as I'm reading Zephaniah is: how is verse 15 even possible? He's calling the people to worship because, and the reason one, he has taken away the judgments against you. In verse 11, he identifies the rebellious deed of the people. How are they removed? How?  

God, he's a righteous God, who needs to be just. He has to punish sin. He can’t just ignore it like it never happened. He would no longer be just. So how is it removed? And on this side of the cross, we know more fully than even those in Zephaniah's day. The answer is Jesus.

Here is what I mean. Look at Romans 3 beginning in verse 23: 

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God [everyone is guilty], and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” (Romans 3:23–26 ESV)

God, to uphold justice, must condemn sin. But he says to those who trust in him, “You're forgiven. Your judgments are gone.” How? Because of Jesus. Those who put their faith in Jesus, God's just punishment goes to Jesus, And the person who trusts in him gets forgiveness instead of punishment. Remembering that never gets old. 

Look, if you haven't come to Jesus, there's no other answer for you. You will be judged. You will be those who were proud, and you will be removed and will not be in this new heavenly Jerusalem. Or you will be among those who put your trust in Jesus and are restored. Don't wait. 

Now, for Zephaniah, in his day, he's saying, “This is such a firm, rock solid reality, even in Zephaniah's day, that it should move us to worship.”

Let’s see how firm this reality is for Zephaniah. Look again at verse 15, notice how in the previous verses he was using words like “shall” or “will.” These words are in the future tense. But in verse 15, he switches to the present tense, as if it has already happened. 

“The LORD has taken away the judgments against you; he has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil.” (Zephaniah 3:15 ESV)

Zephaniah is calling believers in his day to wait and hope. And he's calling them the worship in the way that looks at these future promises and sees them as a present reality. These have moved from just mere hopes to present realities. What Zephaniah is actually calling the people to do is to live and to worship in such a way that you are living as if these future realities have already happened. 

When I asked Jacque, my wife, to be my girlfriend, she said, “Maybe, let me think about it.” Here’s the thing, I swore that she said yes.

And the thing is, I had to go to work. So I go to work, and while I’m at work, she's agonizing, ”Should I or should I not date this guy.”

Meanwhile, I thought she said yes, so I'm living in this reality. I don't know, maybe I thought this is a really good thing that we should date and I’m living like we are. In hindsight, it was a future reality, and I was living like it was really happening. 

I go into work, and I'm so happy. I'm so stoked. I am smiling. My boss (I'm working at Wendy’s) asks, what's up with you, man? I got this big ole smile on, and I say, “I got a girlfriend. He’s like, “Whatever, just get to work.”

Actually, I had friends that came in visit me that day, and I'm like, guys, I'm dating Jacque, and I'm just stoked. I was actually living in a future reality as if it was present. 

Okay, well later that day she hears from people that we are dating. So when I see her that night, she pulls me aside and says, “I heard we are dating. I didn’t say yes.” Oops, surprise to me. She said she had been in agony and crying all afternoon so torn as to what to do. And I still didn’t know what to do. But, she said, “well, since everything thinks we are dating, let’s try it.” Whew. 

Now I’m not giving that as dating advice. I’m trying to paint a picture of what it looked like, as an imperfect example, of me (unknowingly living) in a future reality. A reality that hadn’t come yet. But I was so sure it had. 

Zephaniah, wants us to live with that kind of joy and happiness. The kind of joy that even when the reality hasn’t fully come, we are living like is has. The difference between my story and Zephaniah is that there is only sure confidence that it will come to pass. There is no misunderstanding or “Don not hearing right.” God really is saying this will happen, and we can live like it already has. And what does that living look like—worship while you wait in hope. Worship while suffering happens. Worship while fear mounts around you. Worship while oppression is everywhere. Worship because hope is real. It’s coming. 

These are future realities, like we saw in Revelation 21. So remember, Zephaniah is always looking through multiple lenses. He is thinking about his day and about the final day—like the one in Revelation. But last time we talked about this middle day, in which the Lord comes in his Son, Jesus. 

What happens is very literally, promises from that future day begin to break in and actually start happening now. As Christians, that means we have even more fuel than in Zephaniah's day because what we have begun to taste these realities, these future realities of our sin being forgiven, of humble being exalted, or of all of these promises that the conquering King is taking out our enemies, is happening. 

Yes, we still hope in the day in which it will be fully realized. But it's already begun now in Jesus. Let me show you what I mean. Look at both John 12:13–15 and Zephaniah 3:14–15. I’m going to highlight these words in Zephaniah: King of Israel, fear not, and Daughter of Zion. And we're going to highlight them here in John. Now, John is talking about the triumphal entry (what we celebrate on Palm Sunday), and here is what he says: 

“So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written ,“Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!”” (John 12:13–15 ESV) [Or in verse 16 it literally says, “Fear not”]

“Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! The LORD has taken away the judgments against you; he has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil.” (Zephaniah 3:14–15 ESV)

What does that mean? Well, it means that John is seeing the realities promised in Zephaniah — Your King is here. He's in your midst, he will clear out your enemies. Your sins have been forgiven, all of that — he is seeing Jesus’ triumphal entry on a donkey coming into Jerusalem as the beginning of that fulfillment. Jesus is coming in and saying, “I am God in the flesh. I am beginning to defeat your enemies. You are beginning to see for yourself that your sins are forgiven in me.”

As believers then, we are called to praise and glorify — to worship, to rejoice, to exalt God, as we wait for him. As those on this side of the cross, we've seen the deposit in his Son. He begins to fulfill these promises, and more is coming. 

Keep this in mind as we move to the second hope in Zephaniah 3:16–20—God will save completely. Full restoration is coming. 

So we have seen:

• The New Jerusalem will not live in shame (11–13) 

• Call to Worship (14–15)

And now we are going to see the final reason for hope:

• Yahweh promises he will save completely (16–20) 

And now we are going to see the final reason for hope:

“On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:” (Zephaniah 3:16 ESV)

He begins it by saying “on that day,” on the day when this restoration comes, which now we see is both on the final day like in Revelation 21 and on the day when Jesus comes. It’s both of those days. We're now picturing both of these things on that day. 

 What's going to happen, according to verse 16, is there's going to be a speech given and the speech begins like this: 

 “On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: “Fear not, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak.”” (Zephaniah 3:16 ESV)

 In other words, don't be afraid. He continues in verse 17: 

“The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save;” (Zephaniah 3:17 ESV)

In picturing the final day , the Lord is going to come in, and he's going to finally wipe out his enemies. But also in this speech, it's a call to those who are living in this in between time. This speech makes sense to those living in light of Jesus, who have experienced some of the rescue, but are still surrounded by junk. 

In between time, in which the Lord has begun to bring about his full salvation in Christ, but yet there's reason to fear oppression that still surrounds them because the Lord hasn’t come a second time yet to fulfill all that he promises. 

Zephaniah then has great words of life to those who are in the in between time. Those words are: don't fear because the Lord God is in your midst. This morning if you want evidence of that, look at Jesus. He's in your midst, a mighty one who will save. 

He's begun to save, and he will save completely. Therefore don't fear. And now he's going to paint a picture of full restoration that's already beginning to be realized in Jesus and will be completely realized in the final day. 

Here's how he describes it. He says:

“The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17 ESV)

Loud singing, exalting, rejoicing - is that recalling any verses we just read? Maybe verse 14, were called to sing, to shout, to rejoice, to exalt. And then the promise says, God will do the same. He's going to sing and exalt over his children. It's coming. And God's going to delight over his renewed creation. He keeps going, 

“I will gather those of you who mourn for the festival, so that you will no longer suffer reproach. Behold, at that time I will deal with all your oppressors. And I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth.” (Zephaniah 3:18–19 ESV)

It's just that picture again of restoration of the lame, of the broken, of the meek, of the humble, who are broken. It’s a picture of them being restored. That day is coming — the day with full restoration. Revelation talks about it:

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”” (Revelation 21:1–4 ESV)

That's the promise. And then you ask, okay, did that happen in the middle when Jesus came? Yeah. Remember, Jesus heals the sick and the lame. He's beginning to bring about these realities, the foretaste. It's come. Healing, restoration, it's begun in Jesus, and it's coming fully on the last day. 

The whole point is, wait, hold on and worship while you wait in hope. He finishes saying: 

“At that time I will bring you in, at the time when I gather you together; for I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes,” says the LORD.” (Zephaniah 3:20 ESV)

It will be restored. And God will exalt us and his name will be exalted. Zephaniah is calling God's faithful people to wait on him. But he's calling them to wait in hope– hope of a future reality that's already peeking through, even in Zephaniah's day, truly begun in Jesus, and fully realized on the last day. In light of that, he’s calling for worship. 

What is the message and the theme of Zephaniah? What is he doing? What he is trying to do in his book is that he's trying to call God's faithful people to wait patiently on the Lord. To gather together to seek him together as they wait in hope. But he’s calling them to do it while worshipping. In the words of Jason DeRouchie, it's an invitation to satisfaction. 

Enjoy today, in light of future reality. It is a move to call God's people to endure, to persevere, to not give up, to link arms together, seek the Lord, and he will fulfill his promises. Wait on Him. But do so with joy and hope and happiness today. 

Let me try to bring home the message of the book of Zephaniah, which is a very dark book with very rich hope. It's dark in it's realism of judgment coming to those who don't seek the Lord. But the promise to those who do are precious. 

Zephaniah is full of needed fuel for those who are trying to hold on to the Lord until the end. For us believers, those who've been bought by Christ, we're left waiting. 

We're living in this truth that God's future kingdom has already come in so many ways. But we're also in this, “but not yet” time. There's still more to come, and we're still feeling oppression, and we're feeling hardship and suffering. So what do we do? We worship and wait in hope? We live as those who are happy right now because of those future realities. Here's how James puts it:

“Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.” (James 5:7–8 ESV)

You establish your heart in the Lord to say whatever is happening in life, whatever comes between now and when I'm with the Lord restored, I'm establishing my heart knowing God's coming. We get to tell ourselves, I’ve seen it in the coming of the Son, his Son, Jesus, and he's coming back soon to bring full restoration.

That security grounds you when people persecute you as a Christian. When you're starting to get anxious about anything. Here's how Matthew talks about it:

“Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:31–33 ESV)

Matthew paints this mindset for believers. You're going to have a lot of things in life you're worrying about because you're all ready, but it is not yet time. Those of you who have security in Jesus, things are hard whether it's persecution or you literally don't know where your next check is going to come from to pay for your clothes and food. So you're anxious. You're prone to anxiety. 

Matthew says, “Don't be anxious.” Why? Because God's got you, and his solution is to set your eyes on God and his righteousness. Set your eyes on God and his righteousness and all these things were added. If you would seek him, if you would do that, you're going to be fine. So what's the logic there? Like, how does this future reality that comes about because of God and his righteousness help us in our present worries? How does remembering your sure salvation actually help you today to not worry about what you're going to eat tomorrow? I think texts like Romans 8:32 put it all together: 

“He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32 ESV)

God gives his Son to save us. If he's done that, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things. If God would give his Son that we would have this salvation, if he would give the life of his Son, do you think it's hard for him to give you clothes and food? In this way, God’s future salvation that will come in a new heavens and new earth, and that current salvation that has come in Christ, help us not only to maintain faith, but to help us fight any kind of anxiety. 

Zephaniah is calling us to a biblical mindset that worships why we wait in hope. And for some in Zephaniah's day, and for some in today's day, it's literally hope that they need when a gun is at their head, when a sword is at their throat, and the call is to deny this Jesus.

And what do you do in that moment? Well, I'm guessing you're going be scared for your life, rightly. Fear is going to bubble up and anxiety is going to bubble up. And how do you endure? Realistically, it's going to be hard at that moment, but you look and you say, wait a minute, restoration is coming. My hope is that the oppressor will be banished, and those faithful will be restored. And so you say back to them? No, I love him. 

Or for most of us in this room? That's probably not your daily walk to work. But your work with someone who one day is speaking down about believers, “Oh, Christian blah, blah, blah.”

And you have a chance in a moment,  Do I just let it go? Maybe. We might in that moment. But we might speak up and say something: “Look, I'm sorry for how you felt by Christians. Well, that's not me. I want you to know this.” And you identify yourself as a Christian to them. And don’t know where it's going to go. You don't know maybe the slander that they might speak down about you. But you're one who says, “Okay, now I have hope and it sustains me beyond any oppression.” 

Or literally, if you're anxious about whatever it is in your life. I have no idea what that might be. For some of you, it's when this pandemic is going to end. For some of you, I know, it's friends who are running away from the Lord, and you're aching for them. For some of you, it's just so much surety right now. So much of life up in the air. Maybe, you're nervous about the economy, or you're nervous about a conversation you need to have. 

Zephaniah, the logic of that book, is to say, hold fast to your God, trust in Him. These sure promises of full restoration are going to come. You can be sure that he's going to meet you even now. Whatever conversation you need to have, whatever money you feel is not there in the anxiety you feel. You bring it all to the Lord knowing he will give you everything you need.

Wait on the Lord in hope, but do so in worship. I want that for us. What we're going to do is we're going to sing. We're going to sing about the Lord holding us fast.

There's a lot that comes our way. And we need the Lord to help hold us fast. Lord, you got to remind me of these promises so that I can hold on to them and endure.