Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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--- Title Slide
Scripture Intro:
Scripture Reading (“Please stand…”)
Just so you know that we are going to get to some good news...
---
Pray...
Intro:
When you look around at the world,
do you ever wonder why God allows it all?
Genocides (Holocaust, Darfur in the Sudan, Rwanda- Hutu’s/Tutsi’s)
Millions of people lost their lives.
A twisting of sexuality (pornography, sex trafficking, abuse)...
Dishonesty and deceit.
Lying and stealing seem to be accepted form today.
But where is God?
What is he doing?
Why does he not intervene on a mass scale?
These questions are not new.
Actually, God’s people have been asking this type of question for centuries...
“How long, O Lord?”
And actually,
we see this question before the throne of God.
But God’s answer is astounding...
What we are instinctively crying out for...
is God to move against the sinfulness of this world.
But that is rooted in a concept that is not very popular in modern thought.
God’s Judgment for Sin
This concept is all over the Minor Prophets.
The evil of people and nations.
And God saying that judgment is coming unless they repent.
Then, God bringing in his righteous judgment.
(v. 2) “gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat”
The word “Jehoshaphat” means “Yahweh judges”
“I will enter into judgment with them”
Why? (v.
2b-3)
“because they have divided up my land,
and have cast lots for my people,
and have traded a boy for a prostitute,
and have sold a girl for wine and have drunk it.”
Both Obadiah and Nahum speak of casting lots over refugees,
which then lead to the horrors that come with the capture of a city
by a foreign army.
Often times, the soldiers of victorious armies took boys and girls,
and sold them as slaves.
(older people were killed off)
In Joel 3, these children were regarded so cheaply...
selling them as slaves only bought a single night of debauchery
or only a drink of wine.
Amos 2 speaks of the devaluing of people,
“they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals— “
The Old Testament several times speaks of “gathering” the nations for judgment.
Similar to Zeph 3:8—“I have decided to assemble the nations, to gather the kingdoms and to pour out my wrath on them.”
Here is the description of the judgment.
The language of the destruction of the cosmos...
is often used to figuratively describe the end of a nation.
The imagery of the harvest...
Joel is the only prophets that uses both harvest and treading the wine press..
and both are describing judgment.
This is the reversal of Joel 2:24 (not on screen)
That ought to have us weep over our sin...
over our friends who are not right with the Lord.
This is why Jesus wept over Jerusalem.
B/c this was due to them for their rebellion against God.
Remember Joel 3:4 speaks of this judgment falling on Tyre and Sidon...
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The Cross
The biggest proof that God means what he says about judgment on sin...
is the cross.
Why would God send his own Son to die a horrific death,
unless that was the only way to bring salvation?
Jesus incurs the judgment that his people deserve.
The wrath of God was poured out on Jesus,
so we could be brought into his family
God’s Justice for His People
Often times,
people that have a hard time accepting the judgment of God...
at the same time,
demand that he act against injustice.
But if you think about it,
you can’t have it both ways.
If you correctly protest against something like (v. 3)
“cast lots for my people”, traded a boy for a prostitute”, “sold a girl for wine”
You are correct to call that abhorrent.
However, when you then expect God to move against that behavior...
you are calling for justice.
Yet, God can’t call something “unjust”...
without calling it deserving of judgment.
So think of the inconsistency of the thinking: “Wanting justice, but not judgment.”
Wrongs pushed back.
Abuser punished.
Yet, when that same discussion ends up on God judges evil,
then people say “God is a vengeful God.”
B/c the same truth that would move him against injustice...
is the same truth that causes him to judge sin.
What is the nuance in our thinking when we claim justice but not judgment?
We rate degrees of evil.
God needs to move against the really bad stuff (murder, rape, oppression),
but the minor stuff (the sin of suburban life),
that doesn’t really deserve his judgment and wrath.
(v. 1)
joel 3:1 ““For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,”
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