Esther

[00:00:00] Let's jump right into our series today, exploring the Old Testament, discovering the. Say it with me, the Savior. And we're gonna be in Esther. So flipping your Bibles over to Esther, that's 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and then after Nehemiah is the book of Esther. So that's where you can land yourself there. [00:00:19] Chapter one. [00:00:20] Let me pray. And then we will get right into the text that we have before us. So if you would bow your heads and pray with me. [00:00:30] Oh, Father in heaven, we are so grateful this morning as we even just sung these last two songs, reminding ourselves of your complete power over all things, your complete sovereignty over all things. Even when things are hard in our lives, when chaos is perhaps abounding, even right now in the lives of some here today, we are grateful that we know the end of the story because of our faith and our trust in you. [00:00:56] Glorious days are ahead. And even still, while we walk through a season of hardship, we know without a shadow of a doubt that you are with us, that you have not abandoned us. [00:01:05] So we're grateful for that this morning. We do particularly pray this morning for the ministry of Sparrow Medical and the work that they are doing in Yolo county, reaching and connecting with families who may have had a pregnancy that was unplanned or even perhaps planned. But they're resourcing them, they're pointing them towards you. They're teaching them, and walking with moms and dads and even young children through your word and showing them your powerful and wonderful plan for their lives. [00:01:32] People are being saved because of what they are doing. So we are thankful for the work they're doing. We ask that you would bolster the ministry there. You would bless the ministry, you would strengthen those who are working and serving alongside and the many different opportunities they have to resource families and to serve families. We just ask that you would, as we specifically think about and pray for them this month, that you would walk alongside those in leadership there, that you'd walk alongside those families that are being resourced and you would show them your incredible love for them and desire to be in relationship with them. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. [00:02:06] All right, chapter one is where we're going to start. [00:02:10] How many of you have played chess before? How many of you know how to play chess? [00:02:16] How many of you would consider yourselves good chess players? [00:02:20] All right, now team up, all of you. Raising your hands right now. Let me know how that goes this week. How many of you know what chess is, but you would consider yourself not a Good chess player. [00:02:29] How many of you have no idea what chess is, but you've only played checkers? [00:02:36] Okay, so here we are. So chess, it's an interesting thing, what I want you to do. If you know anything about the game of chess, and maybe you don't, so maybe checkers is where you land. [00:02:46] I want you to imagine for a moment that you are a piece on the chessboard. You can pick a piece on the chessboard, and if you don't know anything about chess, I don't know, you could just figure out you're just imagining yourself as one of those little guys walking around or gals walking around. [00:03:02] Maybe you're a pawn or a rook or a knight or something. You imagine yourself as a piece on the chess board. Now, as we think about you as that piece on the chessboard, you might be just that individual. You're on the chess board. So imagine me, I'm a pawn, let's say, on the chessboard. And I look across and I see what's the next row of guys that are there in front of me would be other pawns on the other side of the board. [00:03:26] And by the way, this analogy is going to break down. I'm aware of that. [00:03:30] So just work with me for a minute. [00:03:33] On one side of the board, there's obviously the player over here behind me, who's going to move the pieces on their side. And. And then the other side of the board, there's the player back here, the individual playing chess, moving their pieces. So I want you to just stick with me here. Imagine one side of the chessboard. [00:03:49] This is going to get crazy here in a second. One side of the chessboard is the devil playing, and the other side of the chessboard is God playing. Okay, now, as we look at the Book of Esther, I want you to kind of have this picture in your mind of chess pieces being moved and being, if you will, navigated around this board for the purpose of why do you play chess? Cause you wanna win, right? Now, obviously, we know that the enemy wants to win, but is he going to beat his opponent? Who's the opponent? God? Is he going to beat God? No, God. We're all on the same page there still. Now, obviously, this is where it breaks down in the book that we're looking at. And even in our life, God and the enemy, there's this battle that's being waged. But we know, and we just sung a song about this. Who already won? [00:04:39] God did. Right. Now, we know this is where the analogy breaks down, is we still have choice. Okay, now, the pieces on a chessboard, they don't have choice, but that's where the analogy breaks down. But I want you to have this picture of this chessboard going on here as we go through this book. Are you with me so far? Let's get right into this book and have that picture kind of there, that analogy going on. And we'll touch back into that analogy as we walk through this book. Let's look at the snapshot just of the whole book. Where are we going? What's going on here? If you want to just kind of take a picture of this or write this down, go to the next slide. The snapshot here of the Book of Esther. In the book of Esther, a young Jewish orphan named Esther is providentially placed as queen of Persia. And through her courage and. And God's unseen hand, she and her cousin. His name is Mordecai. Go to the next slide. I think it's somewhere on there. The snapshot. Keep going. There you go. Her cousin Mordecai thwart the wicked plot of the guy named. You know, the story Haman to annihilate the Jews, turning a day of intended destruction into one of great deliverance and the institution of a feast called Purim. And that is actually a holiday that is celebrated or remember and remembered to this day. [00:05:57] One of the curious and even exciting things about this book in the Bible is that as we kind of have this picture of this battle going on back and forth between good and evil. Now, when does this take place? Last week, if you were with us, we talked about three characters. [00:06:14] Zerubbabel was one of them, Ezra was the other, and Nehemiah was the other. And we talked about how the nation of Israel had been taken from Jerusalem and. And taken to a place called in exile. What was it called? Babylon. They were there in Babylon for 70 years, and then they were allowed to go back to Jerusalem, and they went back in three waves. Can someone say three waves? Three waves. Three waves. All right, so those three waves were led by these three individuals. Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah. Now, Zerubbabel, he's the first one. He went back to Jerusalem and he led the rebuilding of the temple. And. And Ezra was the second guy who went back, and he kind of helped rebuild the culture around God's word. Right in between Zerubbabel and Ezra is where Esther fits in the timeline. Okay, so that's where that's fitting in in our storyline that we are looking at. All right, let's Go to the basics because this is really important for you to write down as you're writing things in your outline and then we'll get into the actual outline portion. So the author of the book. Unknown. I know kind of a downer there sometimes. Some people consider it might be Mordecai. He's a key player in this book. Perhaps Ezra, the second guy that we talked about here. He was a priest, he was a scribe, he was familiar with the law of what was happening with the Babylonians and the Persians. So that's very possible as well. [00:07:32] Where does this take place? In a place called Susa. Can you guys say Susa? Susa. And that's the capital city of Persia. And Persia was the country that the nation that took over the Babylonian empire right around the time of Daniel, which we'll talk about down the road. [00:07:50] Susa today it's called Shush. It's in Iran. And if you want to know kind of how far this place, this location is, Susa is from Jerusalem. It's about a 353 hour walk to Jerusalem. [00:08:06] Now that is according to Google Maps. [00:08:08] So they didn't have that then. And that is to say if you walked eight hours a day, you'd be walking for a month and a half to get back home. That's a long ways, right? So long ways from home. So that's the location. I'll show you a map in just a minute time frame. You can see there 438 to 473. So it covers about 10 years of time. The book of Esther does. There's some graphics that I put on the screen for you, kind of helping us to see where in the timeline from Genesis to the end of the New Testament that this fits. We're right in that place where there's that balloon. The exile has already happened. That's when they packed up from Jerusalem and they went to Babylon and now they're allowed to go back. Some people have gone back to Jerusalem and so there's a celebration time. Esther falls right in there. Go to the next one. We're in the timeline of the Bible somewhere. This is kind of the end of the Old Testament. And we're going to see a lot of other things that we're going to talk about in the prophets. The that's going to fit into that timeline. Go to the next slide. And then where in the world is this? On the screen you can see that circle is where Susa is. You can see the Mediterranean Sea, the Indian Sea. And in the box there's Jerusalem there. How far of a walk is that? How many hours? [00:09:17] 353 hours. That's a long, long ways away. So it looked kind of close on the map. If you were walking, it would take quite some time to get there. [00:09:28] There's some key characters here. You can leave that on the screen. Some key characters. Obviously the name of the book is Esther. She's obviously a key character in this. Her Hebrew name is not Esther. Her Hebrew name is Hadassah. Can you say Hadassah? Hadassah. That's her Hebrew name. Most people did not know that. And then the name that she's often called, obviously in this book, the name Esther means star. Hadassah means myrtle. Mordecai is her cousin, and he's the one who's taking care of her as his own daughter. It says he's from the tribe of Benjamin, same tribe as King Saul quite some time prior. There's the king. What's the king's name? Any of you have read this book before? [00:10:10] Xerxes. I hear Xerxes, and I hear maybe somebody says Ahasuerus. Right? Some of your Bibles say Ahasuerus, and some of your Bibles say Xerxes. And. And that is literally just Ahasuerus is the Hebrew name for the king and Xerxes is the Greek name. So both of you are right. [00:10:31] So as you're reading through this, you're going to see Ahasuerus or a Xerxes, depending on what version of Bible you're reading. And that's just depending on Hebrew or Greek name that you are reading. And he reigns. His kingdom reaches all the way from about Ethiopia to India. So it covers a very, very large area of the world. [00:10:48] And then there's the arch nemesis here in the story. Right. Doesn't any good story have a bad guy? Here's the bad guy. His name is Haman. And he actually, there's a reason that he hates the Jews so much. [00:11:02] You might be wondering, what is that reason? Well, I'll tell you later on. We'll get to it. Let's get into the outline that you have in front of you in chapters one and two. You can write this in on your outline. [00:11:14] The royal banquet, behavior and beckon. And we'll have some of these similar words as we kind of go through our time here. It's the royal banquet and behavior and beckon. So have your Bibles open. Hopefully it's open already. Your screens, whatever you're looking at in chapters one and two, we're Just going to kind of walk through this story together. The first starts off with this royal. What's the first B. [00:11:36] The banquet. So there's two banquets that start off this book with. We start off, the first banquet lasts for 180 days, which is a long time for a banquet, isn't it? Any of you gone to a banquet for 180 days, that's a long time, that'd be a lot of food. [00:11:52] The first banquet goes on for 180 days and the king, his name is, we're just going to call him Ahasuerus because I don't know, that's harder to say than Xerxes. So let's do that. [00:12:03] He has this first big old banquet for this long period of time for military leaders, for governors, for rulers. And it's most likely to see, as you read, read through the chapter one to show off the incredible wealth that he has. Remember his kingdom reaches from India to Ethiopia. That's a huge kingdom. And so he's showing off a bunch of his wealth to these leaders. Now why is he doing that? Is he just showing off because he wants to show off? Well, perhaps, but also there's this growing opposition that's rising in the west for him. And the guy's name, the opposition that's rising is the Greeks and, and the Greek leader of the military, his name is Philip. And you're like, why is this important? Because Philip's son is one day going to take over the nation of Persia. And Philip's son, his name is Alexander the Great. So this is right in that time frame when he's realizing there's some really strong, really strong nation rising up over in the west over there. I want to show off to all of these generals how strong we are and hopefully garner some more support to fight against these guys over here. Well after that goes on for a very long time, this big celebration happening for how long? [00:13:17] 180 days. He then probably has the second banquet that lasts for about a week and it's probably to say thank you to all of those people in his city who hosted people from all over the land to have this incredible banquet. So he has a seven day feast after that, which again 187 days of feasting and celebration. [00:13:39] And then after, at the end of all of this, he calls his wife and he says he wants her to show up in front of all of these royal people, all these people he's showing off to put on the screen here verse 11 in your Bibles of chapter one. He says this. He says he wants to bring queen anybody. What's her name, Vashti, before the king with her royal crown in order to show her to the peoples and the princes and. And to show off her beauty because she was lovely to look at. But Queen Vashti did what? Refused to come to the king's command, delivered by the Enochs. So at this, the king became enraged, and his anger burned within him. By the way, this is not the first time we're gonna see the king enraged. [00:14:21] And so what does he do? With some wise in quotes, counsel that he brings alongside this, he said, what should we do? And he says, well, you know what? You should remove her as queen, and you should have a new queen who's going to honor and respect you. And so this is when the first beauty pageant occurs, and they go and find a bunch of women from all over the place, and they bring them over, and he ends up, by God's. Remember the chessboard that we talked about? [00:14:49] He ends up, just by chance, picking this particular young lady named Hadassah, or Esther, that happens to be a Jew. She doesn't reveal that, but God knows that, doesn't he? Mordecai knows that. And what does it say? Chapter one speaks about this a little bit, or chapter two speaks about this a little bit on the screen here. The king loved Esther more than all the other women, and she won grace and favor in his sight more than all of the other virgins that were called. So that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of the person who was there before, Queen Vashti. So that's the first part. This banquet, this behavior that is of the queen, and then the beckon that is the calling of another person to be queen. Now, before we go look at point two, there's one quick lesson for us, and it's this. If you like to write things down, maybe jot this down somewhere before we look at the next section. It's this. [00:15:42] When you're angry, consider not making big decisions, because most of the time, when we're really angry, we think we know exactly what's going on. [00:15:53] Oftentimes we're not seeing clearly or thinking clearly. Now, I know that God had a hand in all of this, but just a lesson for all of us, when you get enraged about something, don't start making laws or edicts. Just take a minute step back, think clearly. Engage some other people. So when you're angry, take a step back. Let's look at point two on your outline. It's a plan to kill, a plot to destroy, a plan to kill, a plot to. [00:16:19] If you look at the tail end of chapter two, you see this Mordecai, he is sitting at the gate. He has some standing in the nation. And Mordecai overhears these two people talking about the king, who they don't seem to like. And they have this assassination plot for the king and the king. And Mordecai hears about this, and even though he has no relationship with the king, he says, wait, I know somebody who does have a relationship with the queen. A. With a king. Who is it Esther? Right, Because Mordecai and Esther are related. Then he goes and he tells Esther, hey, and this is important in the story, he says to Esther, there's these people, they're planning to kill the king. And Esther warns the king, they do this deep dive into this. They do some detective work there and they find out that it's true. And these people are punished. And Mordecai, does he get rewarded for this? [00:17:11] No, he, even though he literally just saved the king's life, he gets no reward for this. [00:17:18] And then five years goes by with nothing. And look in your Bibles. This is where we look at the next section here. If you look in your Bibles, there, five years goes by. And it doesn't say that right away, but we see five years goes by. And then we get introduced to the arch nemesis of the story. And his name is what, Haman. [00:17:40] So Haman, it says, is an Agagite. And an Agagite is a sub tribe of the Canaanites, the descendants of. And I told you earlier, I was going to tell you why he hated the Jews so much. This is when it is. He is a sub tribe of the Canaanites. And from his tribe, if you go down the lineage a little bit, there is this king called a king named Agag. Now some of you might go, I remember that name from somewhere. If you go back in your Bibles, you don't need to right now, but if you go back in your Bibles to First Samuel, chapter 15, there is the Amalekites and King Saul and Samuel. And God has said to King Saul, you need to completely destroy the Amalekites. The king of this Amalekite nation, his name is Agag. Does that sound familiar? [00:18:31] Well, Saul does not completely destroy the Amalekite nation. [00:18:37] He actually leaves some of them alive, including the king. The king's name is Agag. [00:18:43] It's like relationship here. Samuel finds out about this he brings the king before him. And I'm just using the word my Bible uses not to be gruesome. It literally says, Samuel hacked Agag to pieces. [00:18:59] So now you have some connection. Agag, who was related now to Haman, he remembers these people, the Jewish people, and what happened with his nation and the nation of Israel. You can see now maybe there's some deep seated hate between Haman and the Jewish people. [00:19:19] So Haman, he, for some reason, we don't know why, is elevated among all of the other rulers. [00:19:25] And then he and Mordecai have this standoff and everybody is supposed to bow down in front of Haman because he's second in charge of this massive kingdom. But Mordecai, does he bow down before him? No. [00:19:39] And there seems to be this rise inside of Haman, this anger, this bitterness of something that happened 550 years prior that he still is angry about, that he's still fuming about. I remember what happened to my descendants and what your people did to my people 550 years before. And so the anger that Haman has is not just Mordecai's not bowing down before me. It seems he remembers this deep seated feud. And so what does Haman do? This is where the plan to kill we talked about that Mordecai stopped the plot to destroy. Here's what Haman says. He says, well, I don't want to just destroy Mordecai, because he's not just mad at Mordecai, is he? He's mad at who? The nation of Israel. Right, because of what happened 550 years prior. Plus on top of that as well, how much they have been at conflict. So here's Haman's plan. He says, I want to destroy all of these people, but when should that happen? [00:20:34] So what he does is he takes, for lack of kind of a better term for us, he takes some dice and he rolls some dice to try to pick a time frame that the people of Israel should be destroyed. And where he casts lots. The word casting lots, you can look in your Bible, the Hebrew word for casting lots is literally pur. [00:20:54] And that is where? Well, again, I won't tell you, we're going to get to that in a minute. [00:21:00] So what he does is he literally casts lots and he picks a time 11 months ahead for when he wants to destroy the nation of Israel. That's a pretty dark plan, right? [00:21:11] He wants to quite literally bring about a Jewish holocaust before Hitler. [00:21:21] Well, God is still in charge, isn't he? [00:21:24] And so what the king does, though, thinking he still is. This is all his grand plan, not the enemy behind him. His grand plan is he goes to the king and he deceptively think about the people who were against Daniel in Babylon earlier. He deceptively says to the king, hey, there's some people who don't follow you. They don't worship your gods. [00:21:42] You just don't want these people. They're kind of a cost to you. You can get more money. I'll give you money even if you let me get rid of these people. And he doesn't give any more details about that to the king. And the king goes, well, I trust Haman, so, sure, Haman, that sounds like a great idea. Do whatever you want to do. I'll take your money, you can get rid of these pests in my nation. [00:22:00] And that's where point two kind of comes to its close. At the end of chapter three, if you are looking at this chessboard, it looks like the enemy's side is advancing and they're going to win. [00:22:12] It looks like the nation of Israel is going to be destroyed. Because quite literally at this point right now, there's a death date. [00:22:22] Imagine being a Jew with a death date. Imagine anybody with a death date. Lesson here for us before we go to point three, it's this. Maybe write this down somewhere. Hate is dangerous. It will make you someone you don't recognize and cause you to do horrible things. In the case of Haman, it caused him to plan a Jewish holocaust. [00:22:42] And in this case, God protected the Jews. [00:22:46] The question for us here today is, is there deep hate or perhaps bitterness or resentment in your hearts towards anyone in your life right now? [00:22:56] And I would encourage you to ask God about that, because there can be times in our lives that we can get annoyed with someone. We can be bothered by someone we just hope we just kind of like, I'll just push it off to the side. But we don't actually deal with it with God and with God's people. And that hate festers in us. And it quite literally, as we see here, can create someone in us that we never thought we would become friends. Hate is dangerous. [00:23:18] Let's look at point three on our outline in God's Word, chapters four and five, there's this death date that's been put out. People are made aware of it, but there's a particular individual who has not been made aware of it because she's been removed from the people and her name is Esther. She doesn't know what's going on. Look in your Bibles, in chapter four, verse one. I'm going to read from my Bible. Here you can read from yours. I'm reading from esv. It says this. When Mordecai learned all that had been done, that is, this edict had just been put out from India to how far? [00:23:50] Ethiopia. That is all 127 provinces that the king is in charge of. All of the Jews were supposed to die here. Not just in Susa, in the capital city, but everywhere. When Mordecai learned all that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes. And he went out into the midst of the city and he cried with a loud and bitter cry. You can see why he'd be doing that, right? [00:24:15] It's not just his death, but the death of literally thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people that he loves that are his people. [00:24:25] Well, Esther doesn't seem to know about this. And so she actually finds out that her uncle or her cousin is there in the court and he's wearing sackcloth and ashes. That is just something. That sackcloth would have been something, some people say it could have been like goats fur, very uncomfortable for them to wear. And then literally taking ashes and putting it on their head, putting it on their body. It was a sign of lament, of weeping, of something horrible happening. She finds out that this is going on with her relative, and so she kindly sends some new clothes and says, you should get changed. And here's what he does. He seems to realize she doesn't know what's going on. And he takes a copy of this paper that is written with their death date on it, and he sends it back to Esther along with a request. And here's what he says. [00:25:12] You can see this, the grief that he has. He sends it back to Esther and he says, this is what's going on and this is why I am grieving. This is what's about to happen to your people. And so here's what I want you to do. Please, you have an in with the king, right? [00:25:27] Go to the king and tell him, please spare the people of Israel, don't let them die. And she sends a message back to him saying, listen, I think that's a good idea, except there's a problem that you might not be aware of. [00:25:43] But if I go before the king and he hasn't asked for me, which by the way, he hasn't asked to see me in like a month. If I just show up and he's having a bad day, remember, he's had a bad day before. [00:25:56] If he's having a bad day and he doesn't want to see me, I literally could die just by entering into the same room that he's in. [00:26:03] And so she sends that message back to Mordecai, and he says, all right, I get that, but you might die if he doesn't. Like, if he's having a bad day, we are all going to die. [00:26:16] Like, that's sure. We are all going to die. And here's what he says. Chapter 4, verse 14 through 16. On the screen here, he says, if you keep silent, relief and deliverance may rise from the Jews from another place. That is, I trust that God is going to protect us in some way because we are his people. [00:26:32] But know this, you and your father's house will. [00:26:36] Why? Because she is a Jew as well. And who knows whether this is so good. Who knows whether you have not come into the kingdom for such a time as what, this. [00:26:48] Then Esther told them to tell Mordecai, go gather. That's the other word that you wrote down. That's the other G word. There was grief. And then gather, gather all the Jews found in Susa, this massive city, and hold a fast on my behalf and pray, Pray that God will work here. [00:27:04] And then I, after three days of this fast, I will go before the King, probably with my hands trembling, hoping he's having a good day, and I will go. Verse 16 says, I will go before the King, though it is against the law, and if I perish, then I perish. [00:27:24] And that's exactly what we see that she does. [00:27:28] Meanwhile, we have this other G word that you wrote down, grief gathering. And what was the other one? [00:27:34] Gallows. You're like, how does that fit in here? If you look through the text here in front of you, what you see is Mordecai shows up back on the scene, right? He just can't get rid of him yet. By the way, he's coming. [00:27:47] Mordecai shows up, back on the scene, and he is fuming still about, I'm sorry, Haman shows up, back on the scene, he's fuming about Mordecai. And so he goes home. [00:27:56] As you know, for example, if you're married husbands, you go home and you hopefully talk with your wives about things on your mind. If you don't, I recommend it. [00:28:04] Go home. Or you talk to somebody in your life about what's going on. And so he goes home, Haman does, and he tells his wife, I'm so annoyed with Mordecai I don't like him. And go on and on and on. And here's what his wife says. [00:28:17] She, by the way, is on the enemy's side of the chessboard. He said, I have a great idea for you. What you should do is you should make gallows. There's the word. And we want to pause there for a minute because most of us imagine hanging somebody in the time that this is going on in Persia, that was not the most common way or common way even of killing somebody, especially as a spectacle. That was later on what they would have done. And again, I'm sorry, this is sort of gruesome. Not sort of. It is. They would not hang somebody like with a rope. They would often impale the person and then they would raise up a stake, whatever, that would have been very high for everyone to see. And so when we see gallows, it's a term still used by death, by using something to raise somebody up. That's the idea of gallows is death and then really advertising or showing off the dead person's body. Right. Kind of gruesome. Right. We're on the same page there. [00:29:14] So that's what the plan was. So we see like 75 foot gallows. This massive pole most likely is what would have been constructed. And the plan would have been to kill Mordecai and then hang his body up for everyone to be able to see. [00:29:28] Messy. Yes. [00:29:29] Well, chapter six is when we have this plot twist. But before we get to this, what you can write down, quick lesson for us is Esther had great courage, didn't she? If I perish, then I what? [00:29:47] Perish? And we ask ourselves this question then. [00:29:50] Where do you need courage in your life right now? [00:29:54] Where do you need to have courage when you walk with Christ and listen to him above all other noises? [00:30:01] Hear this. Acts of courage will be regularly evident in your life when you walk with Christ and listen to Him. Above all else, acts of courage will regularly mark your life. And so we ask ourselves even this question. As men and women in this room, boys and girls, are we marked with courage? [00:30:21] Because when we walk with Christ in this journey of walking our Christian life, he's going to call us to do courageous things. And courage doesn't mean looking for dangerous things to do. [00:30:33] It isn't ignoring the real fears that we might have. It's this. Courage is looking something dangerous, looking at something dangerous right in the eyes and realizing it's necessary and not turning back. It's not to say, I'm not afraid, but it's Saying, this is necessary. And that's exactly what Esther did. This is necessary to save my people. And Esther's act of courage inspired people, saved millions of lives and inspired people for thousands of years. We're still talking about it today. Her act of courage. [00:31:09] Friends, where do you need to practice courage? [00:31:13] So I said there was a plot twist. [00:31:15] This is when we're looking at this chess board, and if you will, the enemy has just put the other side in check. Now, if you're not familiar with chess, that just means it looks like he's about to win. [00:31:29] So the other side, the Israelites, have been now put in check, if you will. And this plot twist is when God turns Satan's check into God's checkmate. And so let's look at point four in your outline. You can see this. Haman is honored. And Mordecai is honored. And Haman is hanged. I told you things were gonna change for him. [00:31:51] That same night that Haman is talking with his wife about making these gallows for Mordecai, someone says, hey, Esther is calling. Cause she wants to have a special dinner with you and the king. It's gonna be something elaborate and something special. And so Haman gets taken. Taken over to Esther and the king. And they're having this special dinner. And at that dinner, there's something announced. [00:32:17] Oh, sorry, let me jump. Let me jump backwards here for a second. Honored Mordecai. Honored. He's there. Haman's there making this gallows. He again calls away to the king because he wants to ask the king for the death of Mordecai. And as he's going back to the king, the king has been having struggles sleeping that night. And he remembers, through someone reading minutes to him about something that happened five years prior, remembers Mordecai saving his life. Remember that part of the story? [00:32:43] And so Haman comes running into the king, and the king has this question. He's like, man, I haven't said thank you to Mordecai. How should I say thank you to Mordecai? Meanwhile, Haman's thinking, I would like to kill Mordecai. And Haman's thinking, the king's like, I want to praise and honor Mordecai. And so he. Haman runs in, and the king's thinking, how can I praise Mordecai? And so haman says, hey, Mr. King, I have a question. And the king says, I have a question too. [00:33:13] Very different questions, right? [00:33:15] And so, because he's the king, he gets to ask his question. First. And so he says to Haman, haman, how should I honor someone? He's done great things for me. What can I do for him? And so Haman, being prideful and arrogant, says, I have all sorts of great ideas on how you can honor somebody thinking it's going to be who that he honors himself. And so he gives this big elaborate plan, including whoever this other official is parading this guy around his city and honoring him. And then the king says, that's a great idea, Haman. We should definitely do that. And Haman's thinking, yes, we should. You should make sure you do that. For who, Mordecai? And just imagine the sucker punch that Haman is feeling in that exact moment. But he is not the king, Haman. And so he has to obey the king, and that's exactly what he does. And he then is still incredibly angry at him. [00:34:12] And then we have this dinner that Esther has planned, and. And Haman is there, and the king is there. And then Esther says this. [00:34:23] I have a question, a request of you. And the king says, yes, anything that you want. [00:34:28] And here's the request. [00:34:30] Can we not kill all of my people? [00:34:34] Would that be okay with you, Mr. King? Can we not kill them all? [00:34:38] And the king's like, what are you talking about? Like, I love you. Why would you die? Why would all of your people die? And she then points to the other guy in the room. Who is that, Haman? [00:34:50] And the king looks over at Haman, and remember how the king has kind of an anger thing going on? [00:34:55] The king looks over at Haman and he is enraged again. [00:35:00] And then somebody comes over to the king when he's thinking, what should I do with this guy Haman? Who, by the way, Haman, is now laying at the feet of Esther begging for his life, because he knows what happens when you make the king angry. [00:35:12] He's begging for his life at Esther's feet. And someone comes over to the king and says, hey, Mr. King, Haman planned to kill Mordecai, the guy you just honored on some gallows that he made 75ft high. [00:35:26] And so what does the king say again in his anger? He says, well, I know what to do with those gallows. [00:35:31] Haman should be hung there instead. [00:35:34] And that's exactly what happens. [00:35:37] We look, here's this checkmate, if you will, that God is playing five on your outline. [00:35:42] Then we have this new law that is put out. The king says to Esther, listen, I don't want you to die, and I don't want your people to die. And so here is my signet ring. And you now can make a new law. And here's what Esther says, her and Mordecai, together, they make a new law. And here's what the law is. Quite literally, you could just write those words down. It's this. The Jews now can defend themselves. [00:36:05] They can destroy anyone who wants to destroy them. And then they say, you should dedicate this day as a special day among God's people, among the Israelites, to remember this particular day of salvation. Now, if you remember Daniel in the lion's den, the king did not want to throw Daniel into the lion's den, but because he had written a law saying that if somebody prayed to another God, they had to go to the lion's den. [00:36:32] Similarly, this king could not just change the law. He couldn't say, well, I made a law to kill all the Jews, and now we're just going to destroy or void that law that wasn't allowed in their kingdom. So the new law said the Jews can defend themselves against anyone who wants to destroy them. And that's exactly what they did. And anyone who came to kill or destroy any of the Jews, they protected themselves. And it says this in the Bible. It says this, that 75 who went to destroy the Jewish people were killed instead. And 500 people, even in the capital city were killed because they wanted to destroy the Jewish people. And they didn't do this. The Jews didn't do this for their own gain. They did it literally to protect themselves from this holocaust that was put before them and then this dedication that was put before them. Esther and Mordecai said, we need to celebrate this, what used to be the death date. Remember that? We need to celebrate this date that should have been the death date. And now we should celebrate it as a day of salvation. Can someone say salvation? [00:37:36] And the day, what we're gonna call this day of salvation is Purim. Now, remember I used that word, pur before, and that meant what? [00:37:47] Casting lots. Literally, Hebrew word is pur. P U R, I am Purim. [00:37:53] So literally the same words that we have for poor, or casting lots for the date that was supposed to be everyone in Israel, all these Israelites were supposed to die. Now they're all saved. And they literally used Haman's plan, if you will, to now to remember God. [00:38:10] Here's God at this chessboard. God had checkmate in the end. [00:38:15] Even though the enemy thought he was going to win, God won in the end. [00:38:21] That reminds us and shows us that Jesus is not Void in the midst of this. Even though the book of Esther never once uses the word God, which seems strange, right? The Bible is about God. [00:38:34] We see here, like this chessboard, they're looking across at the other players and they don't see or the other pieces on the board. They don't see the player behind these pieces. We do though, don't we? [00:38:46] We see God working in the midst of this chess game that's going on. We see that God never has abandoned his people. And particularly on the Savior portion, you can see this. We see Jesus showing up lessons about Jesus as well. [00:39:01] Particularly this. You could write this in point 1. [00:39:04] Under Savior, Jesus is the only Savior. Amen. [00:39:08] He is the only Savior. Just as Esther was the only person who could approach the king on behalf of her people and say, please save them, so too Jesus is the only one who can save his people. You and I. He is the only one who can say, there's these people that I love and I will die in their place. There is no other way you and I or anybody else in the world can get to heaven apart from Jesus Christ. Amen. He is the only Savior. And because of his Hebrews talks about this. For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross. Think about Esther. She knew there could be great joy. If I have great courage and step into the throne room of the king, I could die. And if I perish, I will perish. But I know that my courage is going to lead to the salvation of many other people. [00:39:59] So too Jesus endured something incredibly hard so that we could be saved. John 14:6 says this. I am the Jesus speaking. I am the way and the truth and the life. He is the only way to life. Point 2. You could write this in Under Savior is this Jesus reversed the tree's purpose. [00:40:20] Remember Haman and Mordecai who was supposed to originally be hung or killed? [00:40:27] Mordecai was. But God stepped in and and reversed the purpose of that tree. [00:40:35] We see this, the gallows, though they were translated, even a piece of wood. [00:40:39] And we can see the clear mirroring between the cross, don't we? [00:40:43] Someplace that we were supposed to die. A place representing our own death because of our own sin. Galatians 3:3 on the screen here shows us this. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse. For who? Us. That's the reversal. For it is written. Cursed is everyone who hangs on the tree. In other words, he did what was due us. He took the curse or the death that was due you and I. He reversed that. [00:41:08] Haman ends up being hung on the very same tree he built for Mordecai. The decree for the Jew's destruction is reversed, turning a day of mourning into joy and deliverance. What was meant for evil? God turned into what? [00:41:21] Good. [00:41:23] Reversal again. [00:41:25] Application for us, God, humanity, and then me. You could write these in. It's on the screen. This kind of brings conclusion for us before we go into communion. [00:41:36] What does this teach us about God? I said earlier, the fact that God is not mentioned in this story does not mean that he is absent or he's removed from it. His silence in the text is not the same as him abandoning his people. [00:41:48] God reminds us. What does it teach us about God? God remains deeply committed to his promise, to his people, to their welfare, even in the midst of conflict and uncertainty and chaos. And there can be a sense even in our lives. Imagine the boat, Remember the disciples in the boat during the storm? And Jesus is sleeping. They're like, don't you care? We can ask that same question of God, can't we, when life is chaotic for us, there's storms going on. We can ask God, don't you care? Aren't you there? [00:42:16] And here's the answer. Even as we look at the book of Esther, in the midst of chaos, when it seems like the enemy is winning in the game, if you will, of our life and with things going on in our life, the enemy is going to win. And God says, I have not abandoned you. I am going to be faithful to you. Even when things seem completely out of control, keep doing the right thing. That's the call for us then today, isn't it? God has not abandoned us. Don't abandon your faithfulness. [00:42:45] Press on even in the midst of hardship, just as we see Esther. She pressed on in the midst of uncertainty. [00:42:53] What did we learn about humanity? It's this pride is often the default of mankind. But practicing bold humility rooted in God's sovereignty results in success for us and for others. [00:43:06] The king's pride was obvious. [00:43:08] Haman's pride was obvious. [00:43:12] Esther, though, practiced bold humility. [00:43:18] She wasn't passive, and she also wasn't prideful. [00:43:21] Mordecai. He was true to his convictions, not bowing before man, even if it meant his own death. [00:43:27] And in the end, they were honored for walking rightly. And for us, it may mean, and for our brothers and sisters around the world. Many of them die because they stand for what is right. But they are honored in heaven, friends, honored in heaven. What does this teach us about you and me. [00:43:42] You can write this down somewhere if you want. Thinking about Mordecai and Esther, asking ourselves again in the first person, do I realize that God has placed me where I am today for a reason and a purpose? Thinking about Esther, thinking about Mordecai, am I stewarding my role and my position with the same value that God places on it? And if not, what do I need to do to change that? [00:44:04] Perhaps you're a boss today, or you're a business owner, you're a parent, or you're a plumber, you're a mechanic, you're a mother, you're a teacher, you're an expert in technology, you're a firefighter, or you're a fast food worker, you work in the medical field, or you're in the military, if you're a dad, or if you're in daycare, whatever the thing may be, ask yourself that question. Do you realize that God has placed you where you are today for a very particular reason, for a very particular purpose? [00:44:29] God has you there, right where you are for a reason. [00:44:34] Are you stewarding that position with the same value that God places on it, wherever you might be today? [00:44:42] And maybe, maybe you've never submitted to Him. Maybe you're here today and you've never trusted in him as your Lord and Savior. [00:44:51] You want to know where God wants you submitting to Him. That's his purpose for you today. Let's pray. [00:44:58] Father in heaven, we are grateful for your love and your care for us, for the value that you put on us, that you came into the world to die in our place. You saw us as worth saving. [00:45:12] And so, Lord, I ask that you would continue to show us your purpose for us in our life. [00:45:20] Remind us that you are still working. Even if there's chaos in our life or things are peaceful right now, if things are confusing or things are hard, that you've placed us where we are for a reason and that you have not left us, you have not abandoned us. Even if we don't see you working right now, help us to press on in the midst of that hardship, to walk with joy, knowing that you will never leave us and that you will never forsake us. [00:45:44] In Jesus name, Amen. [00:45:47] We're going to shift our time a little bit, as I said earlier, to a time of communion. That is a time where we can remember the work that God has done in seeing us as people who are far from him. [00:45:59] Stuck. [00:46:01] Stuck in sin, unable to get us out, ourselves, out. The punishment for sin is what the wages of sin is what death is death. [00:46:14] And Jesus said, I will step into the place where they are supposed to die, and I will die in their place. This is called a substitutionary atonement. Can we say that together? It's a big phrase, substitutionary atonement. That means Jesus saw where we were supposed to go, and he says, I will go in their place. I will be their substitute. [00:46:35] Now, in the Old Testament, where we see this is when we sin, the wages of sin is what death. God said this. Well, I don't want them to die in their sin and forever be apart from me. I want them to experience my love and my forgiveness. So I will have an animal be a substitute instead of them dying because of their sin. And so we saw animal sacrifices in the Old Testament over and over and over again where the animal was a partial substitute, if you will. Covered sin for a moment, but it was something for them to look ahead, knowing one day the substitute's not just going to be there for a moment, but be there forever. [00:47:10] And so even at particularly Passover, when there was a Passover lamb that died in place of the people, they celebrate this meal called the Passover meal, remembering that we could have died, but we took the blood of an animal and it was applied to us so that we did not die. And it was commanded to the people of Israel for years and years to come. Keep celebrating the Passover as a reminder of substitutionary. What was the term? Atonement. Reminding you that blood has to be shed because of sin, but someone greater is coming, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And so we fast forward 2000 years from the time of the first Passover to Jesus. [00:47:57] And we see Jesus sitting down at a table with his disciples, celebrating the Passover meal, celebrating the promise that one day someone would come to be the complete and true substitute for mankind's sin. [00:48:12] And it says this in Matthew, chapter 26. Ushers, you can walk down. And as they were eating, Jesus took the bread. And after blessing it, he broke it and he gave it to his disciples. He said, take this and eat. Now, even at the Passover meal, they would have taken bread and they would have shared it with one another. But he now is going to infuse new meaning. He's gonna say, something different is happening here. [00:48:32] He says, take and eat. This is my body. [00:48:35] And then he took a cup when he had given thanks, and he said to them, drink of it, all of you. This is the blood of my covenant which is poured out for many, for the forgiveness of sin. We talked about this already, right? The blood of the animal at first covered for a time, but here Jesus is saying, my blood is going to completely forgive. Not briefly cover, but it's going to forgive. Wipe away. [00:48:57] Jesus said, I will be the substitute that the animals never could be. And so now, today, Jesus says that we should continue to practice this gathering together and eating of the bread and drinking of the cup, reminding ourselves that he is the only substitute for our sin. We cannot work our way into heaven, work our way into a right place with God. And so if you are new here, but you're a Christian, we would encourage you, take and eat with us. This is a unifying act. [00:49:25] If you're not a follower of Jesus, if you've never said to Jesus, I need your blood to cover me, but you've been trying to make your way to God by yourself, never applying the blood of Jesus to you. Let the plate pass in front of you. This isn't for you. This is for those of you here today who have said, I've taken the blood of Jesus and applied it to me. He has taken his blood and said, you are forgiven. Now you are stamped as we pass the plate, as the ushers pass the plate, I want you to do three things. Reflect on the seriousness of sin, because sin is serious. Jesus went to the cross because of it. [00:49:57] Remember. [00:49:59] Remember the power of Jesus. Forgiveness, the power of his blood shed on your behalf. And then rejoice. Rejoice knowing that you and I, if you're a follower of Jesus today, are free because of what Jesus has done. You're no longer under the bondage sin. You're no longer chained down anymore. [00:50:26] 1 Corinthians 11 says this. [00:50:29] Paul speaking. He says this. For I received from the Lord that which I delivered to you, the Lord Jesus. On the night he was betrayed, he took bread. When he had given thanks, he broke it. He said this. This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. [00:50:44] So as we hold up the wafer here that you have in front of us, we're remembering the cost of sin. We're remembering what Jesus was willing to do on our behalf. Let's eat together. [00:51:00] In the same way, he also took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. [00:51:09] For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death and our forgiveness until he comes, recognizing the resurrection that happened, the conquering power that he has. Let's drink together. [00:51:27] Father in heaven, we are able to come before you boldly, with confidence this morning. Because of what Jesus has done on our behalf. [00:51:35] We're able to know without the shadow of a doubt that you won. [00:51:41] Though there be a battle continuing even to this day raging in the world around us, you win. [00:51:48] We know that. [00:51:50] And as we serving today as your ambassadors, people brought into your family, into your kingdom, we know that though things are hard at times, you won't. [00:52:02] We're grateful for that. We're grateful for the forgiveness we experience each day in you. [00:52:06] I pray that you help us to continue to experience the joy of our salvation. [00:52:11] In Jesus name, amen.