God's Great Heart of Love Toward His Own (Zephaniah)

Zephaniah, an OT prophet, warned Judah during the reign of Josiah (637-608 BC; about 80 years after the northern kingdom of Israel was defeated by Assyria) that their final days were near (Zeph 1:7). Their divine judgment will come at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar (605-586 BC), who would conquer and exile them about 20 years later (Zeph 1:4-13).
 
This outline/overview of Zephaniah is from a sermon by Mike Bullmore (senior pastor of CrossWay Community Church, Bristol, Wisconsin), which was delivered at the Gospel Coalition 2011 in Chicago. Watch the video, or listen to the audio of "God's Great Heart Toward His Own" here. Bullmore explained and expounded the message of Zephaniah in 3 steps:

1. There appears to be no hope. (God's judgment is rightly against all mankind.)
2. There is a glimmer of hope. (A word of hope is spoken.)
3. This glimmer bursts into a great and glorious rejoicing of God's people.
   

Here are my previous summations of the 3 chapters of Zephaniah:

1. No Hope (Be Silent Before God) (Zeph 1:1-18)
2. A Glimmer of Hope (Seek the Lord You Who Are Humble) (Zeph 2:1-3:8)
3. Sing, Shout, Be Glad, Rejoice (God Preserves The Meek and Humble) (Zeph 3:9-20)

Zephaniah, along with other OT prophets, is pregnant with the message of the Bible. Therefore it is pregnant with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Granted, in the earlier stages of salvation history and of progressive revelation, the shape of and the specific contours and content of the gospel is harder to detect. But Zephaniah very well has the entire Bible in miniature (as with the other books in the OT), for the gospel is present in Zephaniah in utero.

Are You Growing Spiritually? Making Progress?

Ponder these probing, painful questions:

• Are you growing (2 Pet 3:18)?
• Are you showing progress (1 Tim 4:15)?
• Are you working harder (1 Cor 15:10; Phil 2:12)?

What is God like? (Ezekiel 1)

This chart of Ezekiel gives an overview. Check out this excellent computer graphics animation describing the incredible vision seen in Ezek 1:1-28.

Ezekial was 25 when taken into Babylonian captivity, and 30 when called into ministry (Ezek 1:1), the age when priests commenced their office. He was a captured Israelite in forced exile. He is unusual and strange, and so is his book, which we may often not read, or hear sermons on. Historically, young rabbis were encouraged not to read Ezekiel until age 30, lest they become discouraged as to how hard Scripture is.

The outline below is from a sermon by Mark Dever (Capitol Hill Baptist Church) entitled A Vision of God, or "What is God like?" One of the most vivid records in the Bible of a vision of God is in Ezek 1:1-28, where Dever explains 5 things we can learn about God.

The Gravest Question Before The Church

Ponder these questions: What are your thoughts about God? What do you conceive God to be like?

Whatever we may (or may not) think of God, it will fully dictate and determine the way we live and think.

If we think little or nothing of God, then we ourselves become the measure of all things, based entirely and subjectively on our own ideas, thoughts, speculations, pride, self-confidence, experiences, culture, traditions, expectations, prejudices, "wisdom," etc.

If we think that God or others "owe" me for being good, or that God should do for me what I want, it will surely affect the way we live in the world and interact with others.

So, what do you really think about God? About your church?

Perhaps, A.W. Tozer says it best in the first chapter of his book, Knowledge of the Holy:

5 Questions Charles Simeon asked John Wesley

Charles Simeon (1759 – 1836), a Calvinist, was an influential English clergyman. John Wesley (1703 - 1791), an Arminian, was the founder of the Methodist church. In an attempt to resolve any differences between them, Simeon asked Wesley the following questions:

JONAH

"(Jonah is) probably the best known yet least understood book in the Bible." Ray Stedman

"The story of Jonah the prophet swallowed by the giant fish is simple enough to delight a child and complex enough to confound a scholar." Janet Howe Gaines

"(Jonah) is a subtly crafted narrative about the idols that drive our actions on many levels and pull us farther from God even when we think we are doing (God's) will." Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods, 133

"It is one thing to know the doctrine of salvation by grace, and quite another to know the grace of the doctrine of salvation. This is the lesson of Jonah, the prophet who knew God's grace but was challenged by God inwardly to embrace it." Richard Phillips, Jonah & Micah, 3

"(Jonah) is really a book about ... how one man came, through painful experience, to discover the true character of the God whom he had already served in the earlier years of his life. He was to find the doctrine about God (with which he had long been familiar) come alive in his experience." Sinclair Ferguson, Man Overboard! The Story of Jonah, 2008, xi

"Jonah brings us face to face with such important issues as God's grace for the wicked, God's sovereignty over his servants, and the intense human struggle involved with forgiveness and repentance." Richard Philips, Jonah & Micah, 4

"The Book of Jonah is not so much about this great fish that appears in the middle of the book ... [but] in order to teach Jonah that he has a gracious God." Sinclair Ferguson, "What Jonah Learned," in The Doctrines of Grace, 2006, audio recording

"Jonah is a storied presentation of the gospel, a story of sin and grace, of desperation and deliverance. It reveals the fact that while you and I are great sinners, God is a great Savior, and that while our sin reaches far, his grace reaches farther. God is in the business of relentlessly pursuing rebels like us and he comes after us not to angrily strip away our freedom, but to affectionately strip away our slavery so that we might become truly free." Tullian Tchividjian, Surprised by God, 18

"(From Jonah) we learn about the danger we experience when we run from God's will, the deliverance we experience when we submit to God's will, the deliverance others experience when we fulfill God's will, and the depression we experience when we doubt God's will." Tchividjian, Surprised by Grace, 25

Intro: The book of Jonah mainly recounts a story from the life of the prophet himself. The closest parallels are the accounts of Elijah and Elisha in 1 and 2 Kings. Since Jonah begins his ministry shortly after the time of Elijah and Elisha, he likely was one of their immediate successors, and may have been a personal disciple of the latter.

Jonah's world: According to 2 Kings 14:25, Jonah was a prophet in the time of King Jeroboam II, one of many wicked kings of the northern kingdom of Israel. It was 150 years since the death of King Solomon, and the nation had long been divided. 10 of Israel's 12 tribes were united as the northern kingdom, while only Judah and Benjamin held to the Davidic throne in Jerusalem and worshiped at the temple that Solomon built.

The northern kingdom had recurrent problems with constant idolatry and rebellion against the Lord. This was the main issue with which the prophets contended. But there were also political and military problems, for just north of them was the Assyrian Empire, the superpower of the time, which was an ominous threat and Israel's constant concern.

The prophets of the northern kingdom, like Elijah, called the kings and the nation to repentance. But the prophets were also messengers of grace. Over and over again, God showed mercy to his wayward people, often through the ministry of these prophets. It is in this connection that Jonah is mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25-27. For a time, Assyria was divided and suffered from famine, so that Israel's former boundaries were restored. In this way, God demonstrated his grace to Israel, renewed their hope, and encouraged their repentance. Jonah, who delivered the good news, saw the grace and mercy of God.

Israel had done nothing to merit God's favor; instead, their wickedness deserved God's wrath. Yet God was merciful. God reached out a hand of favor to woo his wayward people. Though Jonah saw God's grace up close, he still had much to learn about the grace of God, just as we do today.

References:

1. Counterfeit Gods, 2009, Tim Keller, The Hidden Idols in Our Lives, 126-153
2. Jonah & Micah, 2010, Reformed Expository Commentary, Richard D. Phillips
3. Surprised by Grace, God's Relentless Pursuit of Rebels, 2010, Tullian Tchividjian
4. ESV Study Bible, 2008
   
5. The Reformation Study Bible, 2005
   
6. The MacArthur Study Bible, 2006
   

18) The Beginning (Mark 15:37-16:7)

"The resurrection was as inconceivable for the 1st disciples, as impossible for them to believe, as it is for many of us today. The people of Jesus' day were not predisposed to believe in resurrection any more than we are." 216

"If you can't dance and you long to dance, in the resurrection you'll dance perfectly. If you're lonely, in the resurrection you will have perfect love. If you're empty, in the resurrection you will be fully satisfied." 223

Intro: In every messianic movement in Israel, the messianic leader was killed and the movement collapsed. But after Jesus' death, Christianity spread through the entire Roman empire in 300 years. What caused the explosive growth in Christianity after its founder's death?

17) The End (Mark 14:53-15:39)

"Christianity is the only religious faith that says that God himself actually suffered, actually cried out in suffering." Tim Keller, King's Cross, 208

"If you see Jesus losing the infinite love of his Father out of his infinite love for you, it will melt your hardness." 210

"Spiritual darkness comes when we turn away from God as our true light and make something else the center of our life." 203
"When you are in spiritual darkness, although you may feel your life is headed in the right direction, you are actually profoundly disoriented." 203

"Also, if you center on anything but God, you suffer a loss of identity. Your identity will be fragile and insecure... It's based on human approval. It's based on how well you perform. You don't really know who you are. In the darkness you can't see yourself." 204

ACTS

Introduction: Acts is a selective history of the early church following the resurrection of Christ. We have 4 accounts of Jesus, but only one of the early church, where the author Luke traces only the ministries of Peter (chs. 1-12) and Paul (chs. 13-28). So Acts or the "Acts of the Apostles" occupies an indispensable place in the Bible. It is the first work of church history ever penned, where Acts records the initial response to the Great Commission (Matt 28:19-20), as it provides information on the first 3 decades of the church's existence, which is found nowhere else in the NT. Acts:

1. emphasizes that Jesus of Nazareth was Israel's long-awaited Messiah,
2. declares that the gospel is offered to all men (not merely the Jewish people), and
3. stresses the work of the Holy Spirit (mentioned > 50 times)
   

As Hebrews sets forth the theology of the transition from the Old Covenant to the New, Acts depicts the New Covenant's practical outworking in the life of the church.