The expression “The Day of The Lord” is explained in the context of “… bringing terror and slaughter to Egypt and all her regional allies”

TRANSCRIPT OF THE SERMON (to follow on Thursday ...)
There is a “button” labelled “Save Video” (or “Download Video” sometimes). See below (“PS0” for full info)

PS2: ::: The latest development on the “Transcript” section is that the text-file will be subject to far less preparation than before – less editing and correction. It will still be converted to sentence-column form as before, but any trimming and polishing will be left to the user. Any shortcomings in the transcription software should be pretty obvious and so not a problem in getting the meaning (and the audio file will provide the necessary clarification if required )

PS1: ::: {not-so-}NEW FORMAT of the transcript.
To ease the processing and preparation of the transcript, and we hope improve the readability of the text, a new format was been adopted in mid October. This breaks the text into sentences instead of arbitrarily-sized “paragraphs”. When the reader opens the file in a program such as Notepad (in MS Windows), then the appearance can be just like a newspaper column. The format is such that the user has many options available, depending on preferences and what software they like to use.
Any feedback on usefulness, improvement suggestions, or whatever, would be most welcome.

PS0 ::::: TRANSCRIPT OF THE SERMON
There is a “button” labelled “Save Video” (or “Download Video” sometimes). This actually links to a text-file to download. It is a transcript of the sermon. At present it is at an experimental stage: it is an aid to getting the most out of the sermon audio. There is no substitute for listening to the verbal delivery of a sermon. However, searching through an audio file lasting the best part of an hour can be somewhat difficult. When you approach the search knowing that you’re sure there is something about “redemption”, for example, then a transcript text-search can take you right there and show you the time in the recording where you will find it! The file is simple “text” rather than a more sophisticated form so that you can edit or reformat as you prefer. This transcript is in 2 forms (in the one file). One half consists of normal text arrangement. These ‘blocks’ were at purely arbitrary boundaries (boundaries were inserted at about 800 character intervals, purely to avoid having one huge unbroken deluge of text, i.e. no attempt at grammatical accuracy). The format has now been changed as described above in PS1. The other section is short bunches of words (8 to 12 nomally) beneath the TIMES at which they occur (for the whole sermon).
This facility is in development (“experimental” as mentioned above) so any feedback on usefulness, improvement suggestions, or whatever, would be most welcome.

The post Ezekiel Chapters 29 & 30 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

Paul’s assertion that Israel’s current spiritual blindness is temporary, and a future restoration assured, is not merely his opinion, but is firmly rooted in Old Testament prophecies. The sheer volume of scripture dedicated to Israel’s disobedience, dispersion, regathering, and restoration underscores its centrality to God’s redemptive plan.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

The post Romans 11 28-36 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

This first part of a three-part topical study on ‘The Inheritance of the Saints’ was given by pastor Barry on 3rd September 2023.

The Bible says much about what we can expect in our eternal home, yet so often it is not thought about or considered.

In this study we ask what Heaven will be like? Why does the Bible speak of our eternal home as a tangible hope we should have? Why should our understanding of Heaven shape the way we live our lives here and now?

The PowerPoint slides used in this study are available for free download.

May you be encouraged and strengthened by this study.

The post Looking Forward To Our Heavenly Home first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

In this study we look at the incredible events of Palm Sunday. Why was this day so important? Why did Jesus hold Israel accountable for not knowing the significance of this day, and why did Jesus pronounce national blindness on Israel for ‘missing the day of their visitation’?

The answer is found in a prophecy recorded over 500 years beforehand in the book of Daniel chapter 9 – one of the most astonishing prophicies in the Bible!

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

The PowerPoint slides used in this study are available for free download.

The post Luke Ch19:45-48 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

On a day where we are encouraged to remember those who have given their lives to secure our freedom – for which we are indeed grateful, pastor Barry calls us also to remember the One who gave His life while we were yet sinners to secure our freedom, to set the captives free and proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord!

In Luke’s gospel Jesus is seen living a life ‘let by the Spirit’. It would serve us well to remember that everything Jesus did was led by the Spirit, in the power of the Spirit. If our lives are to be effective as Christians, we too must be filled with the Spirit and be led by the Spirit.

As Jesus returns to Galilee from His baptism by John in the Jordan, he comes to Nazareth and on the Sabbath day is given the opportunity to preach in the Synagogue – the same synagogue He had no doubt attended many times as a boy growing up in that town.

He is passed the scroll of Isaiah and reads from Isaiah 61:1-2, declaring that is the fulfilment of Isaiah’s words – but omits the last part of the sentence! It was the acceptable year of the Lord, but was not yet the day of vengeance of God – there is an interval of almost two thousand years between the first part of Isaiah 61:2 and the second part. The sentence in Isaiah jumps straight from the time of Jesus’ first coming, to the time of His Second Coming – when it will be ‘the day of vengeance of God’!

There are actually 24 of these ‘dispensational gaps’ in scripture that seem – intentionally – to omit the Church Age.

In Luke 19, the ‘prophetic clock’ stopped ticking for the Jews on Palm Sunday as Jesus rode into Jerusalem and Jesus pronounces national blindness upon Israel (Luke 19:42) for missing the day it had been prophesied the Messiah would come. That blindness will last until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in (Romans 11:25). We are now in the ‘Church age’ when God is grafting gentiles into the olive tree (see Romans Ch 11).

Once ‘the fullness of the Gentiles has come in’, all Israel will be saved (Acts 15:14-16) and the clock will start ticking again.

In Luke chapter 4 we see Jesus – in the power of the Spirit – heal the sick, set captives free and fulfil in actions the words of Isaiah 61:1-2. This should have been enough to convince all that He was the Messiah.

The lesson here is that if we believe Jesus is the Messiah, we will bring our sick loved ones to Him, continually bringing them before His throne, believing in faith that He will heal and deliver them from the clutches of the enemy.

Jesus should be the very first one we turn to, not as is so often the case, our last resort!

Do we believe Jesus has the power to heal today? Do we believe He is the same, yesterday, today and forever? Do we believe He can set our loved ones free?

If we do we will pray in faith, “And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him” (James 5:15).

This is something we ought to remember!

May you be encouraged, challenged, and blessed by this study.

The PowerPoint slides used in this session are available for free download.

The post Luke Ch4 15-44 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

This also brings us to the end of our study in the Minor Prophets.

Throughout the Minor Prophets we have seen God’s faithfulness to the Nation of Israel, keeping His covenant with the nation that had been given to Abraham; yet God is a just God and Israel, before being restored, must be judged for her sins as a nation.

Malachi draws all of this to a close and calls for a people who will offer sincere offerings from the heart out of a love for the God that has called and chosen them.

Malachi also introduces us to two great voices who will ‘prepare the way of the LORD’. Firstly, John the Baptist, who prepared the way at Christ’s first advent, and then Elijah who will return and prepare the way for Christ’s 2nd Advent!

May you be blessed and  encouraged by this study.

(The PowerPoint slides used in this study are available for free download)

The post Malachi Ch3-4 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

In this concluding study in our verse-by-verse journey though Zechariah we see Zechariah reiterate the LORD’s promises to His people, Israel.

They will be blessed and one day dwell in peace and safety in their land, but first there must come a time of testing – the time of Jacob’s troubles (Jer 30:7), but though two-thirds of the Jews remaining in Jerusalem will be killed by the armies of Antichrist, Israel will emerge from this fire victorious because the LORD will fight for them.

These chapters allude to some huge geographical and meteorological changes to come and we get a glimpse of just how unlike anything the world has yet seen the ‘Day of the LORD’ will be.

This incredible prophetic book leaves us in no doubt that the kingdom Jesus told us to pray for really is coming! He will soon rule and reign over the whole earth from Jerusalem; the nations of this world will become subject to Him, and the unconditional promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob will be fulfilled.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this book and this study.

The post Zechariah Ch13-14 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

In these incredible chapters the answer is given as to why God has not yet poured out on Israel the blessings that were foretold and promised back in chapter 10.

• “This Chapter explains why the blessings and promises of the previous chapter are in abeyance for Israel. By rejecting their true Shepherd-Messiah at his first advent, they will experience rejection themselves, climaxing in their accepting of the false shepherd in the time of their greatest woe”. – Dr Chuck Missler

Zechariah reveals that, following the Babylonian captivity, rather than repenting and turning to God, Israel’s ‘shepherd’s (their national leaders) had continued the same unjust and corrupt behavior that brought judgment on the nation before. So, in the same manner, there will be a time of woe and desolation for the Nation before the time of blessing (already foretold in this book) will begin.

God had made a covenant with Israel to keep the gentile nations restrained so long as Israel  walked with God. But if they forsook that covenant God would forsake them and scatrter them among the nations of this world – but even then His grace and mercy would hear their cry, when in their anguish they repented and called out to Him.  See Lev 18:24-30 / Deut 4:26-31 / Deut 28

Chapter 11 opens with the declaration that judgment was coming from the north (vs 1-3), not this time from the Babylonians, but rather from Rome.

In verse 4 however, prior to the judgment coming, God calls for the Messiah, Israel’s Shepherd, to feed the flock, even though they would reject His words.

• The Shepherd depicted by Zechariah can only be the Messiah. The reason they were called “the flock of slaughter” sprang from the fact that slaughter was their irrevocable destiny, just so long as the Jews preferred their own evil shepherds to the True One. Zechariah’s instruction here to “Feed the flock” refers to Christ himself coming into the ranks of the Chosen People to instruct and lead them in the paths of righteousness. “Last of All“* God sent his Son in the hope of averting their self-motivated dash to destruction”   – James Coffman#

Verses 6-11 then proceed to lay out the coming judgment where Israel will be handed over to the gentiles.

In verse 12-13 we see the prophecy of Israel’s rejection of their Messiah at the hands of Judas, for 30 pieces of silver – the price of a slave. The tragic irony of this is that, not only did Israel reject their true Shepherd, they will embrace a false shepherd – Antichrist.

Jesus Himself said: “I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive”. (John 5:43)

Verse 15-17 introduce us (again) to this false-shepherd who will come in his own name, and seek to devour the sheep!  – so much so that Israel will face the greatest affliction in their history  at the hands of Antichrist during the coming time of Tribulation (referred to by Jeremiah as the ‘time of Jacob’s trouble’ – Jeremiah 30:7).

Antichrist will bring together the nations of the world in an unprecedented wave of antisemitism, and Jerusalem – a city mentioned over 800 times in the Bible – will become the touch-paper that will lead to the climactic battle of Armageddon.

However, in the midst of this affliction, God will pour upon Israel the ‘the spirit of grace and of supplications’ (Ch 11 v10), and they will suddenly realise that Yeshua (Jesus) is, and always has been, their Messiah! Then it will dawn on them that they have been wrong about Jesus, horribly wrong! It will produce such an intense sorrow and national mourning from the leaders of the nation to the ordinary Jew.

We see in this a Biblical principle that should fill us with great comfort; for it doesn’t matter how far away our children, family members or friends go away from the LORD, it doesn’t matter if they reject Him altogether (as Israel did Jesus), IF they repent and turn to Him, even in the lowest and hardest of times, God is merciful and, like with the prodigal son, there is a tender welcome awaiting from the Father for all who (re)turn to Him!

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

The post Zechariah Ch11-12 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

In this study we look at the last of a series of eight visions that the prophet Zechariah had in one night. Each vision unveiled a little more of God’s plan to restore and rebuild the nation of Israel following the Babylonian captivity. The scope of these visions takes us from 518 B.C. when Zechariah had these visions, to the time ahead of us when Jesus will return to establish His kingdom on Earth.

In this eighth vision Zechariah sees two ‘mountains’ in juxtaposition, as if squaring up for battle. These may well represent the kingdom of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of this world, for we see that in the midst of them come riding four horsemen and chariots that bear a striking resemblance to the four horsemen we see in Revelation chapter 6. These are angelic beings that are ushering in a time of judgment, after which Israel’s enemies will be silenced and our King & high priest  will be crowned.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this teaching.

The post Zechariah Ch6 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

Zechariah had a series of visions, all apparently in one night. These visions not only gave comfort to Zechariah and the remnant that had returned from captivity in Babylon at that time, but also prophetically outline significant events that will take place as God restores His people Israel and readies the earth for the Millennial reign of Christ.

In the 4th vision Zechariah sees a menorah – the 7-branched lampstand that God gave Moses the instructions to build for the Tabernacle in Exodus 37.

In Revelation chapter 1, Jesus tells us that this lampstand, that was made from one solid piece of pure gold and hammered into shape, is an idiom of the Church. The Church also is one body in Christ, hammered into shape by our Master craftsman’s tender love and moulding. We are purified through the testing of our faith (see James 1: 2-3). As with the menorah we are to be filled with the oil of His Holy Spirit and bear His light to all around us.

Either side of this (that is, either side of the Church), Zechariah sees two olive trees, representative of the Nation of Israel. It is no coincidence that following the return from Babylon, God dealt with Israel up until the time they rejected their Messiah (see Luke 19:41-44). Whilst the early Church was indeed entirely Jewish, it soon became clear that the Gospel was to now go to the gentiles (see Acts ch10). Though many Jews believed, as a Nation, Israel’s eyes will remain blinded ‘until the fulness of the gentiles has come in’ (See Romans 11: 25-26).

God gives Zechariah comfort, declaring that the Temple will be rebuilt, that all the problems then facing the Nation of Israel, that seemed like a mountain to overcome, would be levelled. God’s promises to Israel would be fulfilled, not by might, nor by power, but by His Spirit. It would be God’s Spirit that would be breathed upon and indwell the Church. The Church would be a work of Divine grace for Jew and gentile alike.

From what we read in scripture, following the Church-age, God’s attention will be once again wholly turned to Israel. Zechariah’s attention in then focused upon the two olive branches (seemingly as distinct yet part of one of the olive trees).  Zechariah is told that these are two anointed individuals that will (one day) stand before God, to serve Him.

We see these two individuals appear again in Revelation ch 11, as two witnesses whom God will raise up to preach to the world after the Church has been removed at the time of the Rapture.

They will perform miraculous signs and wonders as a witness and demonstration of God’s omnipotence and sovereignty during the first three-and-a-half-years of the coming time of Tribulation.

Zechariah Chapter 5 also seems to foretell an event that will occur during this time.

All false religion began in Babylon at the time of Nimrod and the Tower of Babel, shortly after the time of the Flood (see Genesis 10). Throughout the ages, false religion has taken many forms and faces, but Revelation 17 & 18 reveal that a One World religion is on our horizon, that will come under the umbrella of the Roman Catholic Church. This religious system has and will exert incredible pressure and influence over the kings of the earth, and Zechariah sees that it will eventually return to the plain of Shinar (modern Day Iraq) where Babel was located. There God will use the kings of the earth to pour out His wrath and judgment on this ‘abomination’ that has kept so many from the truth. Isaiah 13/14, Jeremiah 50/51 and Revelation 17/18 all foretell this coming judgment that was birthed and will be consumed in Babylon.

May you be blessed and encouraged to study God’s Word more as we see these day’s approaching!

The post Zechariah Ch 4-5 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

Zechariah was born in Israel shortly after the nation had returned from their 70 year captivity in Babylon. In the first 6 chapters we have recorded a series of 8 visions that all occured in the same night. The visions depict the future of the nation of Israel from that time to the time when the Messiah returns and establishes His kingdom on earth.

In the first 2 visions we are shown that:

1) The Messiah will come to Jerusalem.

2) His house shall be built in Jerusalem.

3) Jerusalem’s boundaries would expand

4) God will, once again, choose Jerusalem

In this study we look at the 3rd vision  which expands the 3rd and 4th points.

This 3rd vision focuses on ‘The man with the measuring line’. There is clearly a picture of Nehemiah, who led the work of rebuilding following the captivity. But that is just a type of what was to come.  Just  as a builder uses a measuring line as he is planning to build, to prepare the foundation, so God did this with Israel, not just in Nehemiah’s day, but in recent times also.

What happens when you are about to take possession of a piece of land or a property? A survey has to be completed. Jonathan Cahn comments:

‘The land must be defined or redefined, its length, its breadth, its borders, its parameters. And if there’s no existing survey, then a survey must be made. The land must be defined, mapped out . . . measured and so the measuring line. So in the days of Zechariah, when the Jewish people were returning to the land, the man with the measuring line comes to the city in a vision. And his appearance is a sign of what is yet to take place. It happened in the ancient world. So too it would happen again in the modern. The ancient sign would again manifest in the world . . . in modern times. The man with the measuring line would again come to Jerusalem. And his appearance would be a sign of what was yet to come’.

Prophetically, the man with the measuring line was the British army officer Charles Warren. In 1867 he came to Israel at the request of  Palestine Exploration Fund on a mission to survey and map out Jerusalem, to measure the Holy City.

Warren’s work would constitute the first extensive excavation of biblical Jerusalem, the first extensive measuring of the biblical foundations of the Temple Mount and of the city itself. It would usher in a new age of biblical archaeology.

Jonathan Cahn again comments:

“After nearly two thousand years of exile, the man with the measuring line reappeared in Jerusalem as a sign that God was about to bring about a restoration. A measuring line is used when one is about to build something. So then the reappearance of the man with the measuring line in the person of Charles Warren was a sign that God was about to act, to move again, to build something . . . to rebuild that which once was and had fallen . . . the nation of Israel!”

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

The post Zechariah Ch2 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

Israel had returned from Babylon in 537 B.C. following the decree of Cyrus to allow them to return home. 19 years later the prophet Haggai stepped onto the scene and declared “Consider your ways”! In just a few months the heart of the people had changed from one of fear to one of boldness and the foundation of the Temple, that by then had lain in ruins for 89 years, was started.

Two months after Haggai started to preach, another young jewish man, in his mid to late teens, part of the new generation of  Jews born in the land, stood up to reveal a series of 8 visions God had given him in one night. These visions were so profound they challenge world governments and the religious establishment even to this day.

As we begin a journey though this incredible book, we will have unveiled, the history and future of the nation of Israel from their return from Babylon, to the first coming of Messiah, and then to the second coming of Messiah. We will see God’s verdict pronounced on the gentile nations of this world for their mistreatment of Israel, and God’s ultimate plan to bless the family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when the LORD God Himself will rule over the whole earth from Jerusalem.

In the opening verse of chapter 1 we are given a brief genealogy of Zechariah: “the word of the LORD unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet”. 

There are no meaningless details in the Bible, and this opening statement is an example of that fact, for in this list of names are a statement that sets the tone for the whole of this book.

• Zechariah = “Whom Yahweh Remembers.”
• Son of Berechiah = “Yahweh Blesses.”
• Son of Iddo = “The Appointed Time.”

This book of Zechariah is the account of a God who remembers, and who blesses His people at the appointed time!

May you be blessed and encouraged as we journey through this book.

The post Zechariah – Intro & Ch1 1-2 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

In Chapter 2, Zephaniah lays out the coming judgment upon the gentile nations surrounding Israel, for two key reasons: 1) they had not been content with the land allotted to them by the Lord and had wanted more – at Israel’s expense, 2) they had treated Israel cruelly and provoked God’s wrath.

In chapter 3, the attention turns once more to Israel’s leaders, who were given ample opportunity to change their ways, yet continued in immorality and injustice. God reminds them He had been in their midst all along and seen everything they had done, now it was time to give account!

Then Zephaniah zooms out to show that what took place in 606 B.C. and the following years, was a dress rehearsal for the ‘main event’ that is due to be played out on the world’s stage any moment now!

Just as God had judged the gentile nations in Zephaniah’s day, so He will gather all the nations of the world together as sheep and goats. Those who have treated Israel well, will be granted the joy of entering the millennial kingdom of Jesus. Those who have treated Israel with contempt will be destroyed, just as Philistia, Edom, Assyria and Babylon were long ago.

Zephaniah ends with a wonderful song of praise to the God who faithfully kept His word to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give their descendants the land of Israel as a possession forever. The dispersed of Judah will return to their land from all the nations they had been driven to. There will be peace, healing, justice and joy. God will rule over the house of Israel and they, through their affliction, will come to the place of loving and serving their God and Messiah.

May you be blessed and encouraged by the faithfulness of our covenant-keeping God!

The post Zephaniah Ch2 – 3 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

This first part of our two-part study in the book of Zephaniah was given by pastor Barry Forder at Calvary Chapel Portsmouth on 13th March 2022.

Zephaniah was the great grandson of king Hezekiah. In the opening verse He traces his genealogy back through four generations, possibly to demonstrate his right to speak and his understanding of the corruptness of Judah’s kings. Following Hezekiah there had been over half a century of evil rule by Manasseh and Amon, but then, 8 year old Josiah came to the throne, surrounded by Godly influences – including his cousin, Zephaniah.

Zephaniah’s thunderous message of the coming wrath of God on account of Israel’s idolatry clearly had an impact on this young king, for in 2 Chronicles 34 we read:  “in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father: and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images. And they brake down the altars of Baalim in his presence; and the images, that were on high above them, he cut down; and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images, he brake in pieces, and made dust of them, and strowed it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them. And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. And so did he in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, with their mattocks round about. And when he had broken down the altars and the groves, and had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.” (2 Chron 34:3-7).

The threefold theme of this book is

–1) The sin of Israel

–2) Judgment on Israel’s neighbours (Gentile nations)

• 6 specific nations are mentioned by name

–Philistines / Cherethites / Moabites / Ammonites / Ethiopians / Assyrians

–3) The restoration under Messiah

The key phrase is ‘the day of the Lord’, occurring twice (vs 1 & 14 of Ch1), but alluded to 12 times.

• Chapter 1:7 – the day of Jehovah
• Chapter 1:8 – the day of Jehovah’s sacrifice
• Chapter 1:9- the same day
• Chapter 1:10 – that day
• Chapter 1:14- the great day of Jehovah
• Chapter 1:15-16- a day of wrath, of trouble and distress
• Chapter 1:18- the day of Jehovah’s wrath
• Chapter 2:2 – the day of Jehovah’s anger
• Chapter 2:3 – the day of Jehovah’s anger
• Chapter 3:8 – the day that I rise up to the prey, says Jehovah
• Chapter 3:11- that day
• Chapter 3:16- that day

The prophecies in this book span history, speaking to the days in which Zephaniah lived of the coming judgment on Judah at the hand of the Babylonians; but it also speaks with uncomfortable clarity into our own times of the “day of the LORD” which is on our imminent horizon.

Arend Remmers said: “The whole book makes it clear that Zephaniah looks far ahead of the imminent destruction of Jerusalem on to that dreadful day of Jehovah, the day of His anger and judgment, upon which however will follow the blessing of the millennial reign of peace”.   

Zephaniah’s name means “The Lord hides [His precious ones]”, and one of the greatest truths revealed in this book is that God not only gives people and nations time to repent before bringing judgment, but that when the judgment finally comes, He will provide for, protect and even remove His own prior to pouring out His wrath.

This should come as no surprise as we see ‘the Judge of all the earth’ doing right (Gen 18:25)  and removing Lot from Sodom and Gomorrah before His judgment fell. David echoed this principle in Psalm 27 when he declared: “For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock”. (Psalm 27:5).

In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul reminded the Thessalonian believers of the coming ‘day of the LORD’, but stated that 1) we are not in darkness that this day would overtake us, and 2) that God has promised us a way of escaping the coming time of judgment, for we are not appointed to wrath, but rather are to ‘hidden in the day of the LORD’s great judgment’. (See 1 Thess 5:19). Jesus Himself confirmed that there would be a “way of escaping these things” in Luke 21:36.

200 years before Zephaniah, Isaiah records “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.”

It is clear from this verse that the ‘indignation’ Isaiah refers to is the coming ‘day of the LORD’. In agreement with Zephaniah 2:3, the promise is made that the meek of the earth will be hid during this time.

Many Christians are ignorant of the Rapture of the church, the very thing Paul said we should NOT be ignorant about!

The Rapture is the fulfilment of a number of specific prophecies. Firstly, it fulfils the promise of Jesus to come back and take us to a place He has prepared for us (See John 14:1-3). Second, it fulfils the need for the Holy Spirit indwelt Church to be removed in order that the “mystery of iniquity can be revealed” (2 Thess  2:6-8). Thirdly, it is the time when the Heavenly Bridegroom will come and claim His bride, with the blowing of the Shofar (Ram’s horn), taking her back to Heaven for the marriage supper where Jesus will drink from the fruit of the vine once more as He promised His disciples at the Last Supper. (See 1 Thess 4:15-18 / Matt 22:2 / Matt 26:29). Finally, it is the fulfilment of this promise (Zephaniah 2:3) that the humble (meek) among the repentant Gentile nations, who seek righteousness, will be hid BEFORE His wrath is poured out on this idolatrous and unbelieving world.

When God used the Babylonians in Zephaniah’s day to bring judgment on Judah, there was no one who could say they had not been warned. Both Israel and her gentile neighbours had been given ample warning by God’s prophets.

Just so today. God has given ample warning. We have seen pestilences, earthquakes, famines, wars and rumours of wars. These are just the beginning. It is going to get much worse. Today is the day of salvation.

24 times in this short book we find ‘I will…’ statements of God. God is not going to sit passively by while morality is abandoned in the pursuit of so-called pleasure, injustice is promoted as ‘freedom of choice’, and from the classroom’s to the media, God’s Word is ridiculed and silenced in the name of inclusivity and tolerance.

Just as Zephaniah saw coming on near horizon in his day, we are entering a time of darkness, famine, war and turmoil.

There is only one place of safety, it is in the LORD God Almighty, Jehovah, Yeshua.

May you be stirred by this prophet who wrote what he did to stir all who have ears to hear!

The post Zephaniah Ch1 – Ch2v3 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.