Mocked

Hi there, today my sister and are writing a post together on Zephaniah 2:15 which says:

“This is the city of revelry
that lived in safety.
She said to herself,
“I am the one! And there is none besides me.”
What a ruin she has become,
a lair for wild beasts!
All who pass by her scoff
and shake their fists.”

God is talking about Assyria right now. He is giving the list of nations that would be slain by God for their sins. But how does this point forward to Christ death on the cross? How can one nation being destroyed point forward to the savior who would save us from sin?

Well, that nation is a picture of us, or what would have been us. We would have been crushed for our sins. We all would have been scoffed at. We all deserved a cruel death for our sin. But then, Jesus came. He came as the savior to the world. He took all that punishment for us! He bore the wrath of God. People spit in His face and scoffed Him. They laughed at Him and mocked Him. We went free because He died; we live because He had God’s wrath on Him.

Those who mocked Jesus and spit in His face were the ones who were saved by Him. Jesus died for His enemies (which includes us), that is amazing.

Peace and love, Joy Cleveland and,
Grace and Truth, Charity Cleveland

The Sermon: Prayer

Today the Sermon was from Luke 11:1-4, which is the start of The Lord’s Prayer. But within about 10 minutes the pastor got the Gospel! Yay!  I’ll show you how:

In the beginning of Luke 11 Jesus starts with the word “Father” which the pastor said would be strange to the Jews who did not usually start their prayers with Father. Then the Pastor mentioned how one of the few times that Jesus did not call God “Father” was at the cross when He said “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” at the cross! He said that the reason that Jesus did not call God “Father” was that He had all of our sins, and all of God’s wrath on Him.

That was what really stuck out to me, although the pastor mentioned the Gospel many more times!

Grace and truth, Charity

Distant Nations…

The word that God has given me and my sister today is in Zephaniah 2:11 which says:

“The Lord will be awesome to them
 when he destroys all the gods of the earth.
Distant nations will bow down to him,
all of them in their own lands.”

The Lord would destroy the gods of the earth so that distant nations would bow down to Him. They would worship Him even though they were not the chosen nation of God. We are like those distant nations; we were sinful and we despised God. But God did something that allowed us (even though we are not Jews) to become the remnant of Judah! The Spiritual remnant of Judah!

What did God do? And why? God sent His one and only son down from heaven to die for us sinners on the cross. And the truth is that He didn’t only die for those who are not Jews, He died for the Jews as well (because even the Jews were sinful). So why did Jesus do that? Because of John 3:16:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (NIV)

God loved us so much, even though we were sinners. He loved us so much that He gave His son for us on a cross with all of our wrath and sin on Him! He atoned for our sins so that we could live!

Grace and truth, Charity Cleveland and,
Peace and love, Joy Cleveland

Gospel

Hi there, today the pastor preached a sermon more geared towards teaching Christians (which is understandable because the passage was not exactly full of the Gospel). However, we will show you the Gospel in the passage He preached from. He preached from Luke 10:38-42 which says:

“As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one.[a] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

When we went over the passage, we found the Gospel. When Jesus came into Mary and Martha’s home it is a symbol of how Jesus came into our lives, and when Jesus taught Mary it is a symbol of how Jesus poured out His life for us on the cross.

This passage isn’t full of the Gospel, but this is how we found it.

Peace and love, Joy Cleveland and,
Grace and Truth, Charity Cleveland

The Remnant of Judah

Hi there, today my sister and I are writing our post together on Zephaniah 2:7 which says:

“That land will belong
to the remnant of the people of Judah;
there they will find pasture.
In the evening they will lie down
in the houses of Ashkelon.
The Lord their God will care for them;
he will restore their fortunes.”

This passage is talking about a time when “the remnant of Judah” would have rest, and would be cared for my God. But who exactly is the remnant of Judah? Physically you could say that those who were left in Judah were the remnant of Judah. However, spiritually the remnant of Judah is much more. In fact, it is all believers all over the world! How? Because Jesus (God’s son) gave us the right to become children of God, to become the remnant of the true spiritual Judah.

This passage also say that they would lie down in pastures where the houses of Ashkelon had stood. And in Psalm 23 David says “He makes me lie down in green pastures…”, this is all pointing forward to us! We are given spiritual rest in Jesus because He died for us and took all of our troubles onto Him. I’m not saying we won’t worry or have any problems, but Jesus gives us rest.

This passage also says “The Lord their God will care for them; He will restore their fortunes.” Since we (believers) are the remnant of Judah, and it is saying that God will care for the remnant of Judah; then that means that God will care for us! In fact, He has already cared for us and loved us so much that He sent His son for us on the cross. Now, God will continue to care for us; whatever need we have we can give to Jesus.

Grace and Truth, Charity Cleveland, and
Peace and love, Joy Cleveland

The Sermon

Hello again! Today we heard another Gospel sermon! I’m so happy to have gotten a good spiritual meal! So here is my summary of the sermon:

He preached from Luke 10:27-37 where Jesus tells the rich young ruler about the Good Samaritan. The pastor said that many commentaries said that this was a disciplinary passage, however this is not a disciplinary passage. The rich young ruler wasn’t a disciple of Jesus so it couldn’t be a disciplinary passage!

The pastor said that the rich young ruler thought that he could somehow work his way into heaven, but Jesus said that you had to have more righteousness than the Pharisees. Which means you have to be perfect, and all humans are flawed and cannot be perfect on their own. The pastor said that the only way to be saved and to have life or get inheritance from God was to trust in Jesus and Jesus alone!

Praise the Lord that we had such a wonderful sermon today; I hope you had a great sermon today too!

Grace and truth, Charity Cleveland

The Sacrifice Prepared, and the Day of Doom

Today my sister and I are going to write on Zephaniah 1:7 and Zephaniah 1:15. Zephaniah 1:7 says:

“7 Be silent before the Sovereign Lord,
for the day of the Lord is near.
The Lord has prepared a sacrifice;
he has consecrated those he has invited.”

What sacrifice could the Lord have prepared? The Israelites had been offering sacrifices since they had been led out of Egypt. What’s so special about this sacrifice? This sacrifice was perfect, this sacrifice wouldn’t just atone for Israel’s sins, He would atone for the sins of the whole world! Jesus, God’s one and only son, became a sacrifice for us.

“2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”

Jesus is our atonement, and He only needed to die once. He is the sacrifice that takes away the sins of the past and the future (and the present)!

Verse 7 also says “He has consecrated those He has invited.” We are the guests, we have been invited and consecrated through Jesus’ death and resurrection! We certainly didn’t deserve to be consecrated, but God (out of His love for us) cleansed us and consecrated us!

Zephaniah 1:15 says:

“That day will be a day of wrath—
a day of distress and anguish,
a day of trouble and ruin,
a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and blackness—”

The Lord is saying here that He would make a day of wrath to punish the people for their sin. He is saying that it would be a horrible day for mankind. There would be distress anguish, trouble ruin, darkness and gloom. This is actually a prophecy for a long time from this passage. This is prophesying about the cross.

At the cross, God poured out His wrath on the sin of mankind. But He didn’t pour His wrath out on us; He poured His wrath out on His perfect son. He crucified Jesus on the cross, so that we could go free. This prophecy was completely fulfilled… there was anguish, wrath, trouble, ruin, gloom, and even darkness, gloom, clouds, and blackness:

“From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land.” (Matthew 27:45)

The blackness of our sin covered Jesus, so that we might be saved. He died in our place. Praise God!

Grace and truth, Charity Cleveland and,
Peace and love, Joy Cleveland