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other nations, he trusted the Lord, who miraculously
(Zephaniah 1:1-6)
delivered them.
SUBJECT:
Shortly after this, Hezekiah fell ill, and the
F.C.F:
PROPOSITION:
Lord told him he was about to die. But he pleaded for
INTRODUCTION:
his life, and the Lord gave him 15 more years. The
A. Beloit College recently released its annual
Bible records only two events during these 15 years.
report on the unique features of the freshman class of
First, Hezekiah betrayed his nation by boastfully
2016 which sets them apart from older peers. Some
showing their treasures to the Babylonians, who later
examples:
came back to conquer and confiscate them. The other
1. They have always lived in cyberspace,
thing was that he fathered a son, Manasseh, who
addicted to a new generation of “electronic
became the wickedest king in Judah’s history.
narcotics.”
B. Manasseh succeeded his father to the
2. They have never seen an airplane “ticket.”
throne when he was only 12 years old and he reigned
3. Bill Clinton is a senior statesman of whose
55 years. Here’s a small sampling of his evil work
presidency they have little knowledge.
from 2 Kings 21: “2 And he did what was evil in the
4. They watch television everywhere but on a
sight of the LORD, according to the despicable
television.
practices of the nations whom the LORD drove out
5. The Biblical sources of terms such as
before the people of Israel. 3 For he rebuilt the high
“Forbidden Fruit,” “The writing on the wall,” “Good
places that Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he
Samaritan,” and “The Promised Land” are unknown
erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as
to most of them.
Ahab king of Israel had done, and worshiped all the
B. The prophet Zephaniah faced a generation
host of heaven and served them. 4 And he built altars
that had never known the true worship of God. It
in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had
seems a bit startling, but two whole generations grew
said, “In Jerusalem will I put my name.” 5 And he
up largely unaware of their true spiritual heritage.
built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts
They had never participated in the pure worship of
of the house of the LORD. 6 And he burned his son
the Living God, their covenant God who chose them
as an offering and used fortune-telling and omens
from among all nations, rescued them from slavery
and dealt with mediums and with wizards. He did
and death, and settled them in the Promised Land, a
much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to
land flowing with milk and honey. Zephaniah faced
anger.” You get the picture.
the daunting task of attempting to rebuild a nation
The Lord chastened Manasseh, allowing him
that had been utterly ruined by idolatry, the
to be captured by the Babylonians, deported for a
importation and worship of false gods.
time in shame and humiliation, where he finally
repented and was restored briefly to the throne. He
I. A GENERATION WHO DID NOT KNOW
attempted some small reforms, but it was too little,
THE LORD.
too late. His wicked son Amon succeeded him. He
was so evil that his servants assassinated him after
A. To understand the situation which
two years. Amon’s son, Josiah was set on the throne
Zephaniah addressed, we need a bit of historical
at the age of eight. And at this time the Lord raised
review. Zephaniah’s great-great-grandfather was the
up Zephaniah as his spokesman: “1The word of the
good king Hezekiah. He ascended to the throne of
LORD that came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, son
Judah when he was 25 years old and reigned for 29
of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah, in the
years. He was the son of the utterly faithless and
days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.”
wicked king Ahaz. But Hezekiah was a faithful,
C. And what we must see is that one, even
reforming king who put away idolatry and led the
two generations grew up under the evil reigns of
people into seeking the Lord. He witnessed the
Manasseh and Amon. The second of these
destruction of the northern nation of Israel at the hand
generations had no personal experience with
of the Assyrians, and when the same Assyrian force
faithfulness, with the pure worship and service to the
advanced against him, instead of faithlessly trusting
Lord. How does the prophet awaken them from their
slumber? How does he rekindle a fire that has never
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A GENERATION UNAWARE
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burned in most of their hearts? How does he rebuild
religion of power. Baal was the thunder-god who
that which had never stood before?
rode upon the storm and spread his seed on the land
He begins by enlisting their sympathy. Enemy
in the refreshing rains. He was also the god of sexual
nations surrounded them and threatened them
immorality and was often moved into activity, they
constantly. So he opens with the announcement of the
supposed, when his followers worshiped sex and
Lord’s fierce judgment looming on the horizon. 2 “I
practiced fornication and adultery.
will utterly sweep away everything from the face of
And then Zephaniah seems to address the
the earth,” declares the LORD. 3 “I will sweep away
middle generation, those who perhaps remembered
man and beast; I will sweep away the birds of the
and even tipped their hats to the traditional religion of
heavens and the fish of the sea, and the rubble with
their ancestors. “5 those who bow down on the roofs
the wicked. I will cut off mankind from the face of
to the host of the heavens, those who bow down and
the earth,” declares the LORD.
swear to the LORD and yet swear by Milcom….”
What would his first hearers think of that
You can see the blending of religions, following the
message? I think they would be pretty pleased. They
faith of their fathers to an extent, but also embracing
would assume that Judah’s ancestral God, the LORD,
the new religions as well, perhaps, superstitiously
was saying that he was going to punish the nations,
trying to cover all bases—appealing to whichever
their enemies. He was going to destroy them utterly
god happened to be answering the phone or striking
so that they would no longer pose any threat. I can
their fancy at the moment.
hear a few “Amens” from the crowd. Up to this point
Finally, he addresses, I think, the older
he had them in the palm of his hand. “Go get ‘em,
generation, those who did know, perhaps in their
Lord! Trash the nations! Sweep them all away! Go
childhood, the true worship of the Lord, but were the
God!”
first ones to turn away from the Lord. “6 those who
There must have been multiple cases of
have turned back from following the LORD, who do
whiplash at what he said next, as heads snapped
not seek the LORD or inquire of him.” The
around by the startling, alarming surprise. Zephaniah
implication is that this generation had once sought
said, 4 “I will stretch out my hand against Judah
the Lord by did so no longer.
and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem….”
E. So the situation is pretty clear. For nearly
God’s fierce wrath was not against the nations, those
60 years, encompassing two or three generations,
people out there—it was against his own people. I’m
God’s covenant people had abandoned him,
sure he had their full attention now. I’m sure you
abandoned his holy Law, abandoned his worship, and
could have heard a pin drop.
abandoned his Temple, for idols, for religions that
Of course they would never have expected
they thought would suit and serve them better.
this. They did not know any better. Oh, well, grandpa
Remarkably, they had watched their northern
and grandma may have held faint memories of going
neighbor, Israel, do the same thing a couple of
to the temple when they were children, but that died
generations ahead of them. They had seen their
out long ago. Mom and Dad had no knowledge of the
decline and eventually their utter destruction, and yet
true worship of the Lord, and so the youth could not
they slavishly followed them on this downward spiral
possibly understand.
into ruin.
D. I could be wrong, but it seems that the
And the prophet Zephaniah is called to preach
Prophet is describing three generations. He starts
to this wayward, intentionally ignorant and unfaithful
with the youngest, the young adults perhaps with
people as a new king ascends to the throne, grandson
small children. 4 “I will stretch out my hand against
of the depraved Manasseh and son of Amon who
Judah and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem;
followed in his footsteps, who had recently been
and I will cut off from this place the remnant of Baal
assassinated.
and the name of the idolatrous priests along with the
priests….” By this time, the idolatrous worship of
II. ANOTHER GENERATION THAT DOES
Baal had been in place for so long that it was now the
NOT KNOW THE LORD.
tradition, the establishment. And so, whatever pastors
or priests there were had been trained in Baal
A. It is frequently difficult and often
Theological Seminary. Baalism was a glamorous
dangerous to make direct applications to our own day
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from the historical situations described in the Bible.
And yet in this instance, I think it is required. And
that is because it is apparent that the church in North
America is in a nearly identical, spiritual situation.
We do have a precedent to examine, another
church that began to stray long ago. We can
anticipate the outcome of our present course, for we
are following the path that others have trod a
generation or so before us. I’m talking about the
church in Western Europe, the church which was our
spiritual mother and grandmother. She started down
the road of unfaithfulness long before we did.
Presently the church in Western Europe,
including Great Britain, is in serious trouble. She
used to be on life-support; now the family has been
called in, she is gasping her final breaths. Only 1-3%
of the people in Western Europe are a meaningful
part of any Christian church. Ignorance of the most
basic truths of the Christian faith is so complete that
evangelists cannot assume anything, but must
thoroughly explain every word they say.
In England, leaders of the religion, “Jedi
Knights,” claim it is the fourth largest religion in the
land. Theologian David F. Wells notes, “Indeed…in
Europe there are vast stretches that have not a single
shred of Christian presence left, except, of course, the
empty churches and cathedrals….The same is true in
Britain. In New Zealand next Sunday and in
Australia, only between two and three percent will go
to any church at all. So this perception that
Christianity is on the run before our modern,
secularizing, postmodern world is an entirely correct
perception.” Church attendance in Europe used to be
assessed using a weekly model. Now the phrase is “at
least once a month,” and the figure is about 15%
attending “at least once a month.” Many in Western
Europe report that they do not personally know
anyone who seriously believes that Christianity is
true, nobody.
B. What about here in North America? In the
1970s and 80s some evangelical churches attempted
an experiment with a new way of doing church. They
consciously adopted the business model of giving the
customers what they wanted. So these churches
offered emotionalism and entertainment, along with
popular psychotherapy, sold in a sophisticated,
upscale package, and the consumers came in droves.
Many, many churches began to imitate their strategy
and were wildly successful. But, as David Wells
3
points out, it was not the kind of success that had
much to do with the kingdom of God.
What these extremely popular and pervasive
churches did was to train a whole generation to
expect a certain kind of so-called “worship
experience”: worship that was entertaining, bathed in
new technology, stroking both the emotions and the
ego, and requiring little response except to write a
check, perhaps try out some of the self-improvement
tips, and come back to the new show next week.
And the result has been striking. Not only do
the designers of this experiment in a new way of
doing church admit that it doesn’t work, it doesn’t
make disciples, people who seriously follow Jesus
Christ, across the boards church attendance has
declined dramatically, and most dramatically among
young people. Youth expert Ron Luce estimates that
88% of those who grow up going to church do not
return beyond high school graduation. More serious,
like the people of Zephaniah’s day, a whole
generation or two has grown up never experiencing
the true worship of God, only this entertaining
substitute. The new model has been the only model.
Worship as a Lord’s Day meeting called by God and
controlled by the rules in his Word is utterly beyond
their experience base. For them, God never was the
focus of worship, but rather self and the needs of self
were in the spotlight: self-esteem, self-promotion,
self-help, and self-improvement. How could it be
otherwise when the goal was to attract the consumer,
when most important core principle was “the
customer is always right”?
To our Lord’s admonition to count the cost
before following him, the average person today
would respond, “Cost? It’s not supposed to cost
anything, it’s supposed to provide everything!” Much
of what our Lord Jesus said about suffering for his
sake, sacrifice, discipleship, and dying to self is
utterly unintelligible. And, as in Zephaniah’s day,
this decline now spans three generations as the
people of my generation who invented it are now
grandparents. And personally, I want to apologize for
the part my generation played in promoting this
decline. It was on our watch that this nonsense was
allowed to lead the church down this sorry dead end,
and it’s time we admit it and turn back.
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CONCLUSION
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Here’s what’s encouraging. Zephaniah’s
preaching worked! Follow the story of this young
king, Josiah. He had everything against him. He was
a part of that ruined generation, grandson of wicked
Manasseh, son of evil Amon, only eight years old
when he came to the throne. He had everything
against him, and yet, somehow he grew strong in the
Lord. 2 Kings 22 records the good news: “1 Josiah
was eight years old when he began to reign, and he
reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s
name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of
Bozkath. 2 And he did what was right in the eyes of
the LORD and walked in all the way of David his
father, and he did not turn aside to the right or to the
left.” A decade or so later, the book of the Law, the
Word of God, was rediscovered in the temple. Josiah
read it and led the nation in repentance and revival
according to the Word of God.
The Bible does not clearly draw the
connection, but it does preserve the severe preaching
of this man, Zephaniah, in one of the darkest, most
critical times in their history. And the result was
widespread reformation and revival of the church of
God.
And I am encouraged by what I see: several
young, serious, uncompromising leaders arising,
repenting of past folly, solidly committed to the
Word of God.
And I want to call you to join that
reformation, that restoration. As we plough through
Zephaniah’s preaching, as we allow the Word to sting
and smite us in the power of the Holy Spirit, may we
be called and moved to repentance and restored faith
in our Lord Jesus Christ. 
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