What Does Pentecost Mean?

Here's my sermon from June 12, 2011, the Day of Pentecost. The text is Acts 2:1-21.

The Hand of God

Here is my sermon from June 5, 2011. I was blessed to serve as guest preacher at Hope Lutheran Church in Victoria. My brother-in-law is the pastor there and regularly posts his sermons on this website. I invite you to visit their website as well and listen to his sermons as well.

The text is 1 Peter 5:6-11.

Here is the link.

If the plug-in doesn't work, try it in Internet Explorer. I tried to play it in Chrome and it refused to work.

Zephaniah

God’s judgement is a key theme in Zephaniah and includes judgement on Judah, Judah’s enemies, Jerusalem and judgement on the nations.

A key component of that judgement is the great Day of the Lord, the day that God will come and carry out His judgement upon the world. Zephaniah gives a very graphic description: “A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty battlements.” (1:15-16) Zephaniah makes it clear that gold and silver, which man so often depends on, will not save them when this day comes (v. 18). Only in God, in His righteousness, trusting and depending on Him, seeking no righteousness in ourselves, might we be hidden from God’s wrath (2:3). In other words, by faith we are hidden in God, in Christ as His righteousness covers us so we no longer appear sinful to God but appear as Christ.

And that is why we have God’s law and His punishment—to correct us and lead us back to Him (3:7). Paul describes the Law as a schoolmaster, showing us how we have failed to live up to do God’s demands and live in righteousness and as He would want (Galatians). The Law is not just there so we would know how we should live, but so we would know that we can’t live as we ought to. Instead the Law leads us to the one who could live up to its demands for us—Jesus Christ.

The book of Zephaniah ends with the theme of God gathering not only Israel, but all nations to Himself (3:9-20). God will be the one gathering them and purifying them and their speech. He will put His Word on their lips, making them confess His name and keep it holy. Through His cross God will sanctify us who trust in Him to make us as we were meant to be. God works in us so that we might live as He would want and restores us to the glory that He meant us to always have. God promises that through the cross He is restoring His Israel to glory which will be fully known when Christ returns and brings us into His new creation.