The Hidden Hand of God – A Study of Esther

The God Who Turns our Sorrow into Joy

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Good morning, church. It’s great seeing all of you here this morning. We’re continuing and actually concluding our series through the Book of Esther today. We’ve entitled this series, “The Hidden Hand of God” and Esther is a unique book.

It’s one of only two books in the Bible named after a woman, the other being Ruth. And it’s even more unique in that it is the only book of the Bible that never names the name of God. But yet, even though God is not mentioned, he is not missing. You can see him on every page here through his actions and through the way he’s working behind the scenes. In these past few chapters, we’ve seen a young Jewish girl, a young Jewish orphan girl, in exile and elevated in what I’ve been calling the first ever “Miss Universe” contest.

She was lifted up to be Queen of Persia. As a result of this, her adopted father, who was her cousin, but because she was an orphan, took her in and raised her, Mordecai, uncovered a forgotten assassination plot against the king. The second in command, Haman, devised a wicked plot to kill all the Jews; to commit genocide, because Mordecai would not bow down to him. We watched Esther risk her life to speak up to the king.

We saw God interrupt the King of Persia’s sleep. He had a sleepless night and reversed the course of history. And Haman fell on the very gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. And through every twist and turn, the hidden hand of God was at work behind the scenes. Now, in these final verses, the crisis has passed.

The enemy has fallen, and the people have been delivered. The story ends with Mordecai and Esther writing letters to establish a commemorative feast that they called Purim, a permanent reminder that what looked like certain destruction had turned their sorrow into joy. And they established this annual Jewish holiday so that the people of God would not forget how he rescued them. And the truth is, that’s important because we’re forgetful people. We’re forgetful people.

We tend to remember the pains of the past. We tend to remember the sins of the past. We remember our past failures. We remember our past embarrassments, even maybe something that we did as teenagers we bring back to mind from time to time.

But we have a hard time remembering the blessings of God. We have a hard time, it seems, remembering what God has done and how he has worked in our lives and how he sustains and delivers us. We have a kind of “spiritual amnesia,” it seems, when it comes to remembering what God has done. And if we’re not careful, we’ll misinterpret what God has done by his mercy and his deliverance. And we’ll call it coincidence.

We’ll say, well, we had good luck, and we’ll dismiss it, when in fact it was the hidden hand of God always at work in our lives. And so many of you, you know that you came to faith in Jesus at some point in your life and you weren’t noticing the hand of God in your life, but you look back on it now and you go, you know, I see now that God was already at work in my life. He was already moving and pursuing me. Now, some have observed that the command to remember may be among the most repeated themes in the Bible, that this idea of remembrance is commanded over and over again because his people are prone to forgetfulness. And so the book of Esther reminds us that God not only works to deliver his people, but he calls us to remember what he has done.

He calls us to remembrance. And so in this final section, really that’s what we’re dealing with here. The deliverance has happened, the happiness has come. But now there’s this new feast that’s being called for by the people of God. In this final section, Esther and Mordecai establish an antichrist festival called Purim to commemorate how God had turned their sorrow into joy.

And we can see how this last section points to the Gospel of Jesus and how it parallels some gospel principles of Jesus Christ. And as we look at the text today, I think we’ll see how the Gospel turns our sorrow into joy. So let’s look at the text today. We’ll be looking for three gospel parallels. We’ll unpack it together.

I don’t have to read as much as brother Mike did last week. Now, if you were here last week, I’m thankful for Mike Laramee, who covered the pulpit last week so that I could attend and encourage the church, Living Stone Church in Apex that our church is supporting. In fact, be praying for them. Their launch is right now. It’s happening today.

Last week they were doing their final training and Robin and I showed up. They were so happy to see us and we were encouraged as well. And I’m also thankful to you that you allow me as your pastor to build a teaching team so I can get away from time to time. Because just like you, I need to be reminded. I need to hear preaching and teaching and I need to worship just like you do.

And so it’s good for me to get a break and go to encourage and to be encouraged. So we had a good time. Mike Laramee told me he thought I gave him the hardest section. In fact, I watched online and he read for 10 minutes last week, didn’t he?

It was a long section. But he and I both agreed it turned out to be a great section of the scripture. I think Mike did a great job last week. And so we’re going to pick up now at verse 20 of chapter 9. Esther 9:20-10:3 (ESV) 20 And Mordecai recorded these things and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, 21 obliging them to keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and also the fifteenth day of the same, year by year, 22 as the days on which the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and gifts to the poor. 23 So the Jews accepted what they had started to do, and what Mordecai had written to them.

24 For Haman the Agagite, the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur (that is, cast lots), to crush and to destroy them. 25 But when it came before the king, he gave orders in writing that his evil plan that he had devised against the Jews should return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. 26 Therefore they called these days Purim, after the term Pur. Therefore, because of all that was written in this letter, and of what they had faced in this matter, and of what had happened to them, 27 the Jews firmly obligated themselves and their offspring and all who joined them, that without fail they would keep these two days according to what was written and at the time appointed every year, 28 that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, in every clan, province, and city, and that these days of Purim should never fall into disuse among the Jews, nor should the commemoration of these days cease among their descendants. 29 Then Queen Esther, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew gave full written authority, confirming this second letter about Purim.

30 Letters were sent to all the Jews, to the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, in words of peace and truth, 31 that these days of Purim should be observed at their appointed seasons, as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther obligated them, and as they had obligated themselves and their offspring, with regard to their fasts and their lamenting. 32 The command of Esther confirmed these practices of Purim, and it was recorded in writing. 10:1 King Ahasuerus imposed tax on the land and on the coastlands of the sea. 2 And all the acts of his power and might, and the full account of the high honor of Mordecai, to which the king advanced him, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia? 3 For Mordecai the Jew was second in rank to King Ahasuerus, and he was great among the Jews and popular with the multitude of his brothers,

for he sought the welfare of his people and spoke peace to all his people.” This is God’s word. Amen. We’re looking for three gospel parallels that turn our sorrow into joy. Here’s the first parallel:

1. The parallel of the great reversal.

The parallel of the great reversal. We see in these verses, the word, “turned.” In verse 22, “turned for them from sorrow into gladness.” Then we see in verse 25, “return on his own head.” This is the idea of something being flipped or reversed.

They turned their sorrow into joy, into gladness. They’re fasting into feasting, they’re mourning into a holiday. So there was a reversal of circumstance, a reversal of attitude, a complete turnaround. And on the flip side, there was a reversal on Haman, who had been rejoicing, who had been happy and had been elevated to second position, the second chair next to the king. But now he ends up hanged on the gallows that he had built to hang Mordecai on because Mordecai wouldn’t bow down to him.

And so we see a reversal for both parts. In fact, if you go back to chapter nine, verse one, it actually uses the word reversal, that this is the great reversal, this great turnaround. Notice that as we read about this, that in verse 20, the first letter, there’s two letters in chapter nine that’s being referenced. The second letter is found in verse 29, but the first letter in verse 20 was written by Mordecai alone, because not only were their situations reversed, but Mordecai actually ends up being second in command. So now he’s in the second chair.

He’s actually taken Haman’s position. He gets the signet ring of the king, he has the authority of the king. So he sends out a letter and gives them a record. It says he recorded these things. What things?

What had happened. How Haman was going to commit genocide against all the Jews, but how God turned it around. And he gives him a record of the story, and then he also calls them to a feast that they were to celebrate on two days, on the 14th and 15th of Adar, which is according to the Hebrew calendar. Adar is a Hebrew month. Now, the Hebrews, to be clear, followed the lunar calendar, so their calendar was determined by the turning of the moon, whereas the Gregorian calendar, which is the one we follow (today’s May 31st) is based on the solar calendar.

And that’s why every Spring we have a hard time knowing when Easter is going to be for that year. Somebody has to tell us, because Easter happens at Jewish Passover. And so Jewish Passover keeps moving around because it’s based on the lunar calendar. Well, so in the same situation, this idea of Purim moves around a little bit. It tends to be in the early couple of weeks of March. This year, 2026, Purim was celebrated on March 2nd and 3rd, for instance.

And next year it’ll be at a different time, based on the lunar calendar. And so Mordecai gives us instruction for this to take place in the month of Adar on these two days.

He gives the record to the Jews so that they know the story.

He gives them the story. This is why, as I’m reading it, although the book of Esther has no autograph, we know that it’s God’s word, but we don’t know who the name of the human author is. But verse 20 causes me to suspect the possibility. This is just an opinion, that Mordecai may have been the human author because he wrote this record.

Perhaps Esther’s the author, but that’s me just suggesting the possibility. If we get to heaven and find out I was wrong, I’m okay with that. I’m in heaven. I’m with Jesus. I’m okay.

That’s not the only thing that I’m getting wrong. I’m sure I get a lot of things wrong, but he gets it all right, and we’ll be glad about that someday. Well, it could have been Mordecai. And so he sends out this record. And so this is important.

And so as we think about this returning on his own head, this whole idea of the turnaround, of the great reversal; how does this point to the gospel? How is this a parallel of the gospel? Well, let’s just kind of think through it for a second. So Haman is going to kill all of God’s people. For three days, he’s happy as a lark.

Once the word goes out, he’s “Cast Pur,” the poor are throwing dice. They are lots that they throw based on luck. And he’s picked the day it’s going to happen. He calls it for the 12th day, the day of Adar, the 14th day.

And so it was a matter of lady luck, according to his view, that he allowed the gods to choose based on luck, what day Haman was going to kill all the Jews. And so all this has turned on his head. And so for three days he’s fired up. And for three days, all the Jews are fasting because Esther called for a fast and they’re mourning.

So Mordecai, he’s sitting at the city gates in sackcloth and ashes, weeping aloud. For three days, this has been going on, right? Does three days trigger anything in your head?

So for three days, the minions of hell, Satan, and all of the evil plotting against Jesus. So that one thing that the Jews and the Gentiles could agree on, the one thing that the Romans and the Jews could agree on, is that they were going to crucify Jesus. And for three days, it looked like hell won, right? For three days, hell is celebrating and the people of God are weeping. But three days later, Esther goes into the king.

She boldly goes in. After three days of fasting and weeping, she goes in. She gets up and goes in. Three days later, after Jesus is crucified, he gets up. He gets up and Satan has the whole thing turned on his head, the whole thing returned back on his head.

The verse that we read in Genesis chapter three, which many refer to as the First Gospel, the Protoevangelio, the very first gospel, is in verse 15, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” It’s proven true that you thought you were going to do something here, but he’s turned it back on your own head. And so the victory, the complete reversal has taken place. Paul writes a little about this in Colossians chapter two. Colossians 2:13-15 (NLT) 13 “You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away.

That’s your condition from birth spiritually dead to God. We’re born spiritually dead to God. (That’s what Paul is saying. You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away.) Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins.

14 He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. 15 In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.” He disarmed the spiritual. He flipped it on its head.

He performed the great reversal. And so we see that God is in the business of reversing our situation. He reverses it. The psalmist in Psalm 30 says this in Psalm 30:11 (ESV) “You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;

you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness.” Is there someone here today that is grieving?

You’re covered with sadness? There’s a broken relationship in your life? Have you had something happen in your life recently that’s caused your life to turn towards darkness? God’s in the business of the great reversal. The work he did on the cross can be yours today.

He can do a fresh work in you today. And he can reverse your mourning into dancing, your sackcloth into being clothed with gladness. This reversal points to the cross, doesn’t it? It really does. It points to the cross.

And at the cross, what appeared to be Satan’s greatest victory ends up being his ultimate defeat. God overturned our sentence of condemnation and transformed the instrument of death into the means of salvation. How strange that they would call for a festival to be named after the dice, the lot that was cast to determine their day of demise. How strange it is to name it after the Pur; let’s call it Purim, because Haman Cast Pur in order to choose the day of our death.

That’s a strange name for a festival. It would be strange for the people of God to do a thing like that. You know, to take the symbol of Christ’s suffering, the cross, and start wearing it as a piece of jewelry and to put it on our buildings, to somehow take the cross, which was only known by the people of Rome as the most utterly despicable form of death, and to reverse it so that it becomes the symbol of deliverance and life. Do you see how this points to the Gospel? In fact, the great reversal reminds me of

the great turnaround that we have in Christ; the great return in terms of exchange. The great exchange. Now, like a lot of men, I assume I’m like a lot of men.

I don’t like to return things. I don’t like to go through the trouble. Okay, I bought the wrong thing or whatever. I don’t want to go stand in the return line and have to deal with whatever, all that, you know. But my wife, well, she’ll return things in a minute. She has no problem with it.

She’ll talk to them. She’ll tell them there was something wrong with it, it was the wrong size. She comes out of the store with several bags and

sometimes she goes back to the store with more bags than she came out with. I don’t know how that works. Maybe she’s like a lot of women. They don’t mind. They don’t mind getting a good deal.

I just don’t like the trouble of it, you know. Are you going to take that back? I don’t know. I might need it someday like that.

But I’m glad that there’s one man, his name is Jesus, who went to the cross and offered the great exchange. I’m glad he’s not like me. Because at the cross he took my sin and he exchanged it for his righteousness. At the cross, he took my death. He died my death that I might receive his eternal life.

At the cross he cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He took my separation from God that I might be adopted into God’s family as a child of God. Oh, that’s the great exchange. That’s the great reversal. He’s turned Satan’s desire for me inside out.

He’s reversed it and he’s offered this great exchange. Perhaps today you’re living in a season, wondering where God is. God, where are you? You’re in pain; you’re struggling.

If you’ll turn it over to God, he can turn your sorrow into gladness and there’ll be a day when you look back and you’ll go, oh, that time when I thought he wasn’t there, He was there the whole time. Could it be because you couldn’t hear his voice, because you were deaf to his voice? Could it be that you couldn’t see his hand because you were blind to his activity?

But there comes a day in Christ where our eyes are open and our ears are open and we realize God was at work behind the scenes all along, bringing me into his fold. Do you know him today, the one who reverses our fortune and turns our destruction into delight and our mourning into dancing? This is the first parallel that I see here’s the second:

2. The parallel of keeping remembrance.

That’s what this last section, these last few verses are about. It’s about the establishment of the remembrance of what God did to deliver the people. And they named this remembrance “Purim.” Notice, in verse 27, the Jews firmly dedicated, they firmly obligated themselves and their offspring to what Mordecai wrote. Later there’s a second letter written, as we look down in verse 29 that they both signed their autograph to.

At the end, they both signatured it “Queen Esther” and “Mordecai.” And the Jews, soon as they got the letter, it says over and over again, they obligated themselves. It also repeats this statement, “these days must be remembered and kept;” you see that in verse 28. In fact, the word keep or kept is in there three times.

You see it in verse 21, “obliging them to keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and also the fifteenth day of the same, year by year,” Verse 27, “ the Jews firmly obligated themselves and their offspring and all who joined them, that without fail they would keep these two days according to what was written and at the time appointed every year,” And then verse 28, “that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, in every clan, province, and city, and that these days of Purim should never fall into disuse among the Jews, nor should the commemoration of these days cease among their descendants.” This idea of keeping to keep is active remembering, not passive, that they will prioritize these two days on their calendar every year to remember what God did to rescue them.

They were going to obligate themselves and their offspring as well. They were going to obligate ourselves to keep this remembrance. In his book, The Queen You Thought You Knew, Rabbi David Fohrman, suggests a wordplay may be in view because the Persian word “pur” and the Hebrew word “par” (הֵפֵר), which means to annul or cancel, sound similar. So naming the festival Purim was a double entendre. This word “pur,” means a lot. And Purim, by the way, if you have interest in the Hebrew language, has a “mem” sound at the

end; that means it’s a plural. We put an S at the end of our nouns to show that it’s a plural noun, but the Hebrews put the M sound at the end. So Purim, lots. Or maybe it’s referring to the two days, because it’s the 14th and the 15th of Adar. And so Purim, it’s plural.

But Rabbi Fohrman suggests that it might also be a wordplay because he says that the Persian word pur sounds like the Hebrew word par, which means to annul or cancel. The reason he suggests this is he thinks it’s strange that they named it Purim. They named it after the very thing that was the lot that chose the day of their destruction, or that the decision was made. He suggests it would be like saying, let’s call our remembrance of the Holocaust victims the Holocaust festival or something like, it’s strange.

And that’s his suggestion. And some rabbis agree with him. But when I look at the scripture, maybe my Hebrew is not good enough. Maybe I just didn’t pick that up until I read his book. But when I look at it, it just says this verse 26,

“Therefore they called these days Purim, after the term Pur…” Therefore they called these days Purim after the term poor. It just seems that’s as simple as it gets. In fact, I was reading another book. I was reading this book entitled, “Inconspicuous Providence,” by Dr. Brian Gregory.

He says, “By naming the festival “Purim,” attention is focused on something deeper. And it is this: the lot, or destiny, of God’s people is not left up to chance and it is not determined by someone like Haman casting lots before his gods. No, only God determines the lot of his people.” In other words, I don’t believe in coincidence.

I believe in “God incidence.” I don’t believe in luck. I believe that God is sovereign. We have to understand that here’s what Haman was doing– he was asking the gods to control the casting of the lots.

And he was saying, okay, on what month should they die? Okay, the month of Adar. So, and then what day? The first day? No. The second day?

No. And then it gets up to the 14th day. That’s the day they’re supposed to die. That’s how he made that decision.

What a dumb way to make a decision, to base it on luck, Lady Luck. What a dumb way to make a decision. Well, there are many dumb ways to make decisions, right? All you have to do is look back on your own life, right? You’ve made some dumb decisions. So have I.

We’ve all made dumb decisions, right? I still remember being a young person, a young teenager, and trying to get up the nerve to make that phone call, to ask a little girl out. And young people today, you have no idea how hard it used to be, okay? You had to walk to the one phone that was in your house, and it was hanging in the hallway. It was a black phone.

It took you a long time just to dial up the numbers. It took you a long time to do that. And then the possibility that the father would answer, hello, you would hang up. That’s the first thing you do. What I would do to try to get up the nerve; should I call her?

Is now the right time to call her? I would go out to my basketball goal. If I make this one, then God wants me to call her. Now, don’t judge. I’m 14 years old, okay?

I want to call her and ask her if she can be my girlfriend. I missed it. Okay, all right, Lord. Best two out of three.

Best two out of three. And so you’ve made dumb decisions. So have I. And it’s based on luck here. That’s what Haman did.

But the truth is, God is in charge. Look what the book of Proverbs says, Proverbs 16:33 (ESV) “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.” There’s no luck. There’s no coincidence.

God is the architect of history. He is sovereign over all things. To this day, the Jews still celebrate Purim. I mentioned this year that it was on March 2nd and 3rd.

They read the whole book of Esther. They read it on the evening of the 14th in the synagogue, and then they read it again on the day of the 15th in the synagogue. You might find it interesting that the children show up in costumes. And some of the adults, too, because they just love it. And they show up and all the little girls want to dress as, guess who?

Esther. They want to all come in with a little crown on their heads, dressed like Esther. And the little boys, they want to be Mordecai, the hero, right? And some of them want to be King Xerxes or King Ahasuerus. Very few want to be Haman, but there’s some little boys who do.

Now, some of you moms and dads know, because you have a little boy like that that would love to be the bad guy. You know, I want to be Haman. And they dress up in these parts. And the other thing is, they read through the whole thing, and every time they say the name Haman, the people go “boo”

and they stomp their feet and they have these little noise makers that they spin. Boo every time you say Haman. Now, I’ve known this the whole time we were studying this book together. I didn’t tell you about it. I know how you people roll. You would have been very disruptive while I was reading.

It’s hard to get some of you to say, “Amen,” but you would boo and stomp your feet every time I would say the name Haman. I guarantee you would have done it.

I have waited till the last sermon to tell you about it. They give gifts to one another, they give charity to the poor, and then they conclude with a festival meal. They still practice Purim to this day. They firmly obligated themselves.

The second letter is down in verse 29, “Then Queen Esther, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew gave full written authority, confirming this second letter about Purim.” And so the first letter seems to be the record of what happened and asking them to do the festival. The second letter formalizes it under the civil authority of Mordecai, who has the signet ring of the king, and under the ceremonial authority of Queen Esther, who adds her name to it to confirm the practices of it and how it would happen. And so it’s firmly established in the calendar.

They’re called to this remembrance. Now, why am I making such a big deal about the details of the remembrance, why it was so important? It’s because “remember” is one of the most important commands in the Bible. Indeed, as we think about our Lord Jesus and what he said in Luke 22, it says, Luke 22:19-20 (ESV) 19 “And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” Do this in remembrance of me. Why? Because we’re forgetful people. We forget what he’s done. 20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

Whenever you drink it, you proclaim my death until I return. Why? Because we forget. We’re forgetful people. Maybe I should say this.

We’re people who remember the wrong things and forget the important things. We are forgetful people spiritually. We forget what God has done. And so we’re called to remember. The Apostle Paul, in his second letter to Timothy, says, 2 Timothy 2:8 (ESV) “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel.”

Remember him. Why do we need these commands to remember? Why? It’s because we’re forgetful people. Eugene Peterson says this.

He says, “Scripture is fundamentally a remembering book for a forgetful people.” The Bible is a remembering book for forgetful people. Why do we remember birthdays? Why do we celebrate birthdays, anniversaries? Heaven help the man that forgets his wedding anniversary.

Right? Why do we remember that this summer is the US 250th anniversary, right? We are celebrating this summer. Why? Why do we remember?

Because it’s important. We should make it a priority. It’s so that we won’t forget what people did to lay down their lives so that we might have this nation to live in. Why do we do this, it’s because we’re forgetful people.

Walter Brueggemann argues that biblical faith is built on “acts of remembering that resist amnesia” and that worship is essentially “re-remembering.”

Why do we gather on Sundays? Why are you here? Why are you here? Why do we come together?

The church meets on Sunday. That’s why we don’t meet on Saturday because he was still in the tomb. He’d not risen yet. Since the first century, we’ve met on Sunday, the first day of the week.

So we tithe the first day of the week to the Lord so that the whole week is set apart for him. Why do we do it? Because before Saturday comes, we get forgetful. Every week we go back out into the world, we get forgetful. We need to gather again fresh every first day of the week and remember.

And how do we do this? How do we keep remembering? By singing the praise songs that engage our hearts. We remember.

We sing of what God has done through Christ Jesus, through the preaching of God’s word, so that we remember what God has done through the giving of tithes and offerings. We bring gifts, remembering that we’ve given our whole lives to him. Why do we do it together? It’s because he’s called us to be a people, One people. Together, we are called.

And so we gather for power and we scatter for proclamation. We gather for encouragement, we scatter for evangelism. Gary, you’ve made such a big deal about this. Well, they made a big deal about it.

They wrote two letters about it to make sure everybody got it. And the people seriously obligated themselves. In other words, they counted it as their duty to not forget because they knew how easy it was to forget. And they obligated their offspring. Why am I mentioning that?

Well, I’ll tell you why. It’s because we just celebrated these fifth graders that are going to be sixth graders in the Fall, and this evening they get to go to youth for the first time. And let me tell you, one of them belongs to me.

All of them actually belong to me, the way I think about it. But one of them is my grandson, Ace. He has been talking about this for months, that he finally gets to join his big brother, Sammy, at youth. And you might not think that’s a big deal, but it’s a big deal to him.

It’s a big deal to him. But here’s the unfortunate thing for Ace and these others that were standing on the stage. They don’t drive yet.

They don’t drive yet. Their parents will have to get out of their recliners on a Sunday afternoon. They’ll have to pull away from whatever sport they’re watching on the television and take their young person to youth. They’ll have to obligate themselves to raise up their children. They didn’t miss their kindergarten graduation.

Oh, man, everybody showed up for that. But there’s something that happens to parenting. They become teenagers. We get forgetful. They can’t drive themselves.

And that’s why we see this statistic today in the church: that young people go to church, they graduate from high school, go to college, and something like 80% of them never come back. Why? Because their parents taught them one thing with their mouth, but gave them a different priority with their decisions and their behaviors. They made gathering together with God’s people something that was lower on their priority list. And so they taught them, by their behavior rather than their words, what really mattered.

And so they raised a generation of forgetful people.

That’s why I’m making such a big deal about it. It’s because we’re called to remember. That’s why we worship. That’s why we have communion. That’s why we testify and give testimony.

That’s why we read Scripture. That’s why we preach. That’s why we gather, because it matters.

This leads us to the third parallel:

3. The parallel of the exalted Representative.

The parallel of the exalted representative. We’re in those final three verses of chapter 10. We’re surprised that the book named after Esther writes its last chapter about Mordecai. Why is this? He’s second in rank. He’s considered great among his people. He’s described as one who sought the welfare of his people. So he’s seeking the welfare of his people towards the king.

And he speaks peace to the people. He’s a representative. He’s a mediator. He’s a go between. Who could this point to in the Gospel?

Who could that be? You see, this is what the Old Testament is doing over and over again. It’s given us types, it’s given us certain behaviors and scenes that all point so that we will recognize Jesus the Messiah when he comes. And so even Mordecai here, who had been in chapter four, sitting at the city gates in sackcloth and ashes and mourning and crying and then in chapter eight, he’s wearing a crown and purple robes. What a reversal.

He was suffering. He was weeping. Now he’s the second seat at the right hand of the king. And the king says, here’s my signet ring.

I give you all authority. Who does that sound like? Well, let me give you a clue. His name is Jesus. And so Paul writes in Philippians 2:6-11, 6 “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance

as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” He went as low, low, low down the ladder of love, and then God lifted him up. And Mordecai is a Christological type. We see in Mordecai that he’s a go between.

He speaks to the king on behalf of his people, and he speaks peace to his people on behalf of the king. And so he offers peace to the people. He offers shalom and peace to them. 1 Timothy Paul writes this, 1 Timothy 2:5 (ESV) “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”

In Romans, Paul writes, Romans 8:34 (NKJV) “Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.” We see in these closing three verses that Mordecai is a Christological type, pointing to Jesus where he’s at now for us. It does have one strange verse though, doesn’t it? The first part of chapter 10. King Ahasuerus imposed tax on the land.

Why is this dropped in there?

This is strange. Oh, by the way, I have to pay more tax now under King Ahasuerus. Probably because he went up against those Spartans where the 300 at Thermopylae stopped him briefly and cost him so much. And he spent so much money trying to take on the Greek city states and failed that now he started this huge tax, which may have led to, in about 12 years, he’s assassinated in his inner court. It doesn’t end well for King Xerxes, King Ahasuerus.

But there it is, dropped right there. Why? Why is it there? Well, they’ve been delivered, but they’re still in Persia, and they still have to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s. They’re still there, and we’ve been delivered but we’re still in this world.

And so there’s this tension between joy and sorrow, between grief and mourning and celebration, between fasting and feasting. Why? Because we’re still taxed by this world. There’s still the reality of it. There’s the “already not yet;” that we already have all this in Jesus, but not yet.

But it’s coming. It’s coming soon. We see in this book of Esther that God is the author of the ultimate happy ending. I hate it when I go to spend money at a theater and I go to a movie and it has a bad ending. Why did I waste money on this?

I wanted to feel happy. I’m glad God writes not only the book of Esther with a happy ending, but the whole thing has the happiest of endings. It ends well because Jesus ends well. He turns our deepest sorrow into everlasting joy. His call to remembrance and his provision of a perfect mediator in Jesus is what we see here.

The story of Esther reminds us that even when God seems silent, he’s not still. He’s working behind the scenes. And the Gospel assures us that Christ has defeated our greatest enemy. Our deepest sorrow has been overcome and our future joy is secure. Let’s pray.

Lord, I pray first of all for that person that’s here today that came in with sorrow, came in with grief, came in with brokenness. Why not turn your life over to Jesus today? He’s been at work in your life all along. He’s brought you to this point. Why not surrender your life to him?

You can do it in prayer. Prayer is just talking to God. Pray like this, Dear Lord Jesus, I’m a sinner and I need a savior. I believe you died on the cross for my sins and that you were raised from the grave.

Come and live in me.

Forgive me of my sin. Adopt me into your family. I surrender my life to you. I want to be a child of God. I want you to be my Lord and Savior.

I promise to follow you all the days of my life. Are you ready to pray that prayer today? If you prayed with me just now, believing in your heart, God will save you. Others are here today, and you’re a believer. You’re a follower of Jesus.

But you’ve got your priorities out of order. You’ve become spiritually forgetful. You’ve not made remembering a priority.

Would you ask for forgiveness right now? Would you repent? Dear Lord Jesus, please forgive me. Forgive me for putting other things ahead of you. Forgive me for forgetting my first love.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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Very thankful you’re here today. We are concluding our series in the Book of Esther. And I just want to say something as we come to a close. It’s been such a thrill to study this book, to preach this book. And I want to say just unashamedly, the Lord has really done some great things, I think, in our church over the last six weeks.

I’ve been, I shouldn’t be, but I’ve been so surprised at how many people have made decisions of faith or other faithful moves through the Book of Esther. People coming to Christ, people wanting to be baptized, various things all through a book where God is never mentioned. His hidden hand is at work, but his name is never spoken. And so I’ve been so thrilled by that and I’m thankful for that this morning. Also, I want to remind you today that our church is in a network of churches that are trying to build more disciples and plant more churches.

And today, the church we’re supporting this year, Livingstone Church and Cary, they are launching this morning. And so keep them in your prayers today. Pastor Drew and his family and they have a great core team, we just want to celebrate with them. They’re probably well underway right now. And so I pray that the Lord has blessed them today, but keep them in your prayers.

We were some years ago in their very shoes and those first few weeks are insane. And so I just pray for them today. But let’s continue as we study Esther. We are concluding it today. It’s been a six week series titled the Hidden Hand of God.

And what we’ve seen is just how much God has moved in this story. That he’s taken an orphan girl named Esther and promoted her to queen. That he’s helped a man named Mordecai to uncover terrible plots and that he has now risen to power. In the midst of that, there’s a terrible conflict. A man named Haman has tried to wipe out not only Mordecai and a few Jews, no, he’s tried to wipe out all of the people of God throughout the entire Persian Empire.

And yet God has turned the tables on that and has caused Haman’s own plans to go against him. And now at the point we’re at the story wrapping things up, the people of God have defended themselves. The enemies of God’s people have been destroyed. Haman has been hung on his own gallows that he made for Mordecai. All of that has happened.

And after last week, you’re probably thinking, all right, we’ve got a nice bow on it. Story’s over. And you’d be right in one sense, but wrong in another. And here’s why. Here’s why this story ends the way it does.

Because I think the Bible truly knows something about us as human beings that we are really, really bad at remembering things. And some of you are better than others. But most of us have a tendency to. To forget things that God has done in our life. Most of us have a tendency to not remember the things that are really important in our story.

And some of us, in fact, I would argue so often in Christian culture, if you will, we’re not particularly good at partying and we ought to be great at it because guess what? We’re all heading towards a place, we’re all heading towards eternity, where it is going to be a non stop celebration of the Son of God. That’s what heaven is truly as a place of praise, of worship, of celebration. The Bible says there will be feasts, there will be joy, there will be peace, there will be a party. And so in fact, church should be preparation.

Our getting together should be preparation for heaven. And so as we dig into today’s text, it might seem strange, but to me it’s so important because guess what? We are a forgetful people. And we tend to remember only the bad stuff. We tend to remember the pain, the disappointments, the fears, the anxieties.

We’re incredibly good at remembering the negative and not particularly good at remembering the good things God has done. Yeah, sure, the Christians in the room, you know very well, hey, you know, Christ died for me. But it’s not something we consider very often. It’s not something that comes to our minds every day and perhaps should and all the wonders that he has done in our lives. I pray today that as we dig into this text, that this word remember would really jump out of the page to you, that this whole work of what God has done in this story is meant to point us to Jesus, that we will remember.

I could make the argument, in fact, that this very strange thing we do every Sunday where we get together and we clap and we sing and we play songs and we preach a Bible that’s 2,000 years old. I could make the argument that that is very odd and perhaps you would agree, except for this fact. We know that we come here to worship a holy God who is eternal and present in this moment. We know that. And so much of what we’re doing in worship is all around remembering.

In fact, we come here, we know, we know the story of the cross, we know the story of the resurrection. So why do we sing it again and again and again? Because we need to remember it. Why do we read books and stories and verses that we’ve read so many times? Because we need to remember.

We have some sort of spiritual amnesia. And it’s so important as we dig into the Book of Esther that God has called these people to remember, just as he’s called us again and again to put the gospel first in our lives. So here we go. We’re finishing our story today. We’re seeing this festival that was instituted in.

In the ancient times called Purim. And they still practice this today in modern Israel, among the modern Jews, they still practice this. And it’s meant to point us to something that the whole scripture. I could make the argument the whole book of the Bible is meant to parallel us, every story, parallel us with the gospel. And it’s become abundantly true here in the Book of Esther that I pray as we dig in today, you will see by the Gospel of Jesus that our sorrows are being turned into joys, just as they were in Esther, just as they were in every ancient story, just as they were at the cross.

And I pray the text today will give you three gospel parallels that turn our sorrow into joy. So we’re going to finish together. We’re in chapter nine of Esther, verse 20, and we’re going to finish the book. This is a shorter passage than we’ve been through, so I might hit my time mark. We’ll find out.

Find out together. Verse 20. It says, Mordecai recorded these things and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, and both near and far, obliging them to keep the 14th day of the month Adar, and also the 15th day of the same year by year as the days on which the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned turned from their sorrow into gladness and from mourning into holiday, and that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days of sending gifts of food to one another and gifts to the poor. I like this feast. This sounds good.

So the Jews accepted what they had started to do and what Mordecai had written to them. For Haman the Agagite, the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against them to destroy them, and had cast pur, that is, cast lots, to crush and to destroy them. But when it came before the king, he gave orders in writing that his evil plan that he had devised against the Jews were should return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. Therefore they called these days Purim after the term per. Therefore, because of all that was written in this letter, and of what they had faced in this matter, and of what had happened to them, the Jews listen to these words firmly obligated themselves and their offspring, and all who joined them, that without fail they would keep these two days according to that to what was written and at the time appointed every year, that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, in every clan, in every province, in every city, and that among the Jews, and that these days of Purim should never fall into disuse among the Jews, nor should the commemoration of these days cease among their descendants.

Verse 29. It says, Then Queen Esther, the daughter of Abihel and Mordecai the Jew, gave full written authority confirming this second letter about Purim, Letters that were then sent to all the Jews, 127 provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, in words of peace and of truth, that these days a Purim should be observed at their appointed seasons as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had obligated them. And as they obligated themselves and their offspring with regard to their fasts and their lamenting, the command of Esther confirmed that these practices apurim. And it was in writing, recorded in writing. And the book ends this way.

King Ahasuerus then imposed a tax on the land and on the coastlands of the sea, and all the acts of his power and might, and the full account of the high honor of Mordecai to which the king advanced him. Are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia? For Mordecai the Jew was second in rank to King Ahasuerus, and he was great among the Jews and popular with the multitude of his brothers, for he sought the welfare of his people and spoke peace to all his people. God bless the reading of the book of Esther. Amen.

It’s been a joy to study this with you. And what we’re going to see here are three really clear gospel parallels that God is turning sorrow into joy. This first one is a point we’ve touched several times, and I think it’s right that we would conclude here. And that is the parallel of a great reversal. Of the great reversal.

I could make the argument that the entire Bible is this a story of a great reversal, that what looked like the enemy has won the people that God created have failed, they have disobeyed, they are opposed to God. We what looked like a big miss, a big mess up. God has reversed all that he does so by the person of Jesus, by his own son, by the cross, by the resurrection. He has done a great reversal. And you could make the argument the whole narrative of scripture is about that, that God turns what looks like sorrow into joy.

All this begins to unpack here in such an unusual way. The words turn or return are so prominent here in chapter nine. It’s meant to point us to this idea that what looked terrible has actually been reversed. Something incredible has happened in this story that what looked like the casting of dice so that the people of God would all perish. Instead, God has used that very thing for his own glory.

Now, at face value, I would make the argument that this is a very strange thing to call your holiday. It’d be like, hey, this is the feast of dice casting. This is the feast of gambling. This is a strange feast. In fact, it’s even weirder that you would call it the thing that almost meant your annihilation.

Let’s call it the time that Haman got together with some buddies of his and cast dice that almost wiped us out. Let’s call it that. That’s strange. Unless you consider something else, unless you consider, Let me ask you this. What would you say is the prominent symbol of Christianity?

A symbol? The cross. Now that’s odd that our symbol is a torture execution device. Hey, we’re a lot like the Jews in this then, aren’t we? We look at the very thing that the enemy meant to destroy the son of God and to ruin humanity.

We take that very thing and say, that’s our emblem. Because he thought he’d won and he lost. He thought he had victory and we’ve won by the cross. The people of God here in the ancient text have done the same thing. Hey, you thought you cast dice and you could ruin God’s plan.

You were wrong. The great reversal has happened. I love actually that they titled it this Purim Lots, because instead of what they thought would happen, it says in verse 25 that those very things returned to the very head of Haman. He plots, he pours all this out and literally he’s hanged on his own gallows. This is the kind of business that God is in, the business of great reversals, of turning sorrows into joys.

It’s not always immediate. Sometimes it’s seasonal, sometimes it takes time. But here’s what we know in the scheme of all Eternity. God has taken the story of humanity, which was once a great sorrow, and is creating a great joy that’s endless. We know that on a permanent thing.

But even individually, he’s doing this. The psalmist writes in chapter 30, you have turned from me my mourning into dancing. You have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness in Christ. God has reversed our sins and turned the plans of the Evil One against Him. This is one of my favorite verses in Scripture.

I love how it ends. I want to read it for you. Colossians, chapter two. Paul writes to us something that’s true, that you were dead. He says, you were dead.

This means you weren’t just lost, you were dead because of your sins and because of your sinful nature had not yet been cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ. He forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away. How?

By nailing it to the cross. And here’s a beautiful sentence. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross. I want you to see just a clear parallel here in this story.

It’s incredible. The very thing that Haman built to hang Mordecai, the man of God was this thing that was going to be so incredibly high that almost everyone in the city would be able to see it. 75ft up in the sky. You would see Mordecai, who Haman hated. And instead of that happening, the great reversal occurs, and Haman himself is hung there so that the whole city would see you.

Don’t mess with God’s people. The very thing that is meant to point us to the same thing Christ has done. The Evil One thought he had won. But as Paul writes, instead, this very occasion becomes open shame.

The Evil One missed something. He does a lot. He missed some incredible things early. He’s missing them now, he’s missing them later. He didn’t understand something, that the God who authors and writes the universe, the one who creates, has every right to make changes.

I don’t think the Evil One foresaw this, that God would say, you know what? I’m getting up. I’m not staying in the tomb. Perhaps he didn’t see this. If he did, he was very foolish in thinking he took Christ out.

And so the very thing that he thought he had won, the victory becomes a shameful moment for him. So that now the people of God. You understand what this means. Now we can look this in the face and go. I have no fear, I have no concern, because Christ has turned the plots of the evil one into open shame.

Perhaps today you’re in some kind of season of sorrow. Maybe you’re wondering where God is in some kind of pain point in your life. I love the book of Esther. As we’ve studied it together, as we come to a conclusion together. I think one of the most helpful things to me has been in this story, the fact that God is at work in a hidden way, almost behind the curtain kind of way.

And the reason I find that so helpful is that’s been most of my life. Certainly God works in miraculous ways. Certainly God speaks to me in word and prayer. And there are moments where I can clearly see the hand of God at work. But so often it’s these little things that he’s doing.

He’s not in the earthquakes or the rainstorms or the. No, like to the prophet. He comes in a quiet wind. So often it’s been that way in my life. There’s small little details, little acts that the Lord is at work in.

I pray today you would see this reversal in your own life. All right, so that’s kind of a repeated phrase throughout the text that I wanted to end with. But let’s get to kind of the bulk parallel of this story and it’s this, the parallel of keeping remembrance. This is so important in chapter nine and ten. They’ve made it a.

A point throughout this to say obligated, kept, remembered never falls in disuse. It seems almost redundant. It’s like they’ve gone overboard to remind us, hey, I want you to do this thing. Remember this thing. And the reason for that is because we have terrible spiritual amnesia.

Because tomorrow is what, tomorrow’s Monday and you’re going to wake up and forgotten everything we just did today. And I don’t blame you for that. I’m going to do the same thing. I’m going to step out tomorrow and go, what do I got to do today? And I’m going to have forgotten all the truths that God has perhaps poured into my life and all the wonders and all the miracles.

And there’s probably going to be something I face tomorrow that raises my blood pressure a little bit, that makes me feel a certain way. And in those moments, I have the worst case of spiritual amnesia. And so it’s not surprising at all to me that not just in Esther, but in all these Bible stories, God says again and again, remember, remember. Because you’re a forgetful people and so am I. I Love what one commentator writes on this idea of a holiday called Purim. He says this festival is focused on something deeper, the lot, the destiny that God’s people are not left up to chance, but is rather determined by someone like Haman casting lots before his gods.

I want you to understand. No, only God determines the lot of his people. There’s a surprising text in the book of Proverbs, chapter 16 I want to remind you of today. It says the lot is cast into the lap, but it’s every decision is from the Lord. So Haman thought he was casting dice and he’d won.

And the Lord is saying, no, I’m over that. I’m in charge of that. I had this habit when I was a teenager of I like to go outside and shoot basketball in order to make important life decisions. You are probably thinking, this is really strange, but you’ve done something like this. I bet the little girl with the flower going, he loves me, he loves me not.

He loves me. This was kind of my moment at basketball, but I was trying to be more manly so I would come out there. All right, tomorrow I’m going to talk to her. I hadn’t talked to her yet. I think we made eye contact today though.

That was a step. If I make this shot, I’m going to talk to her tomorrow. Oh, missed it. Oh, best two out of three. Best two out of three.

All right, I’m going to talk to her tomorrow. This was the way I made decisions in my teenage years. If I make the basket, I make the move, alright? And it did not work out. I didn’t dig a lot in school.

There’s probably a lot of reasons for that other than just me missing basketball shots. But I made some other decisions like this in my life. These are not meant to be ways to make decisions. I want you to hear something. The text is not saying, hey, the right way to hear from God is to roll some dice.

It is not saying that. It is saying God still used it. Even though it’s foolishness. It’s foolishness to try to make a basket and say, I’ll take this job if I make it. What?

Pray, my friend, listen for the Lord. I made a pretty crazy decision in my life. I feel like this is closer to what God wants, but probably still not spot on. A few years ago, 20 some years ago, in fact, I was going through a one year Bible study. And if you’ve ever done the one year Bible, there’s some Old Testament, there’s some psalms, there’s some New Testament I think there’s a proverb too, right?

That was the version I was doing. And that morning I was so convinced that, that I wanted to ask this little girl out named Nicole. I wanted to ask her to marry me. I had become convinced of this. And I said, lord, if it’s possible, can you give me an answer?

In the Bible reading I have today, and I happen to be in Psalm chapter 20, where the Bible says, God will give you the desires of your heart. I said, I’ll take it. I’ll take that. Now I’ll say it’s worked out pretty good so far. But I’m not saying that’s the best way to hear from God.

But God does these things. He is over every decision, even the wickedness and foolishness of man. God is sovereign. Haman thought, I’m going to cast some dice and this stuff is in my hands. It’s up to me.

In fact, he casts them before false and evil gods. God says, no, this is my. This is my world. These are my people. And he acts in a powerful way.

So then the very people who he saves, they call it, after this kind of wicked act, they call it that you rolled the dice and you lost because you rolled the dice against a holy God. That’s a bad idea. And so let’s call it Purim. So the people, they obligated themselves, they remembered, they never let it fall in disuse. Esther confirms it.

That’s what chapter nine is all about. And it’s really what the whole Bible is all about. It’s why every Sunday we get together and we do something that might be kind of strange to an outsider. But the reason we do it is simple, because Christ Jesus told us to do this. I want to read for you this.

We call this, and some face, the Eucharist. We call it the Lord’s Supper. Communion, it’s been called. In Luke, chapter 22, it says that Jesus took bread and we had given thanks. He broke it and gave it to them, saying, this is my body which is given for you.

Do this in remembrance of me. And likewise, the cup after they had eaten, saying, this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. He says, do this in remembrance of me. Why? Because guess what, Christian, we have a tendency to forget the cross of Christ.

Not in like, an eternal sense, but in a daily sense that we get so busy or we get so caught up, or we get so afraid or we get so anxious, we get so involved in something that we forget, I am a sinner. Saved by grace. God the Father sent his one and only son to die for me. That’s how much he cares about me. Somebody in the room today is feeling so low.

You’re feeling so discouraged. You feel like a nobody. You feel like nothing’s going to line up for you. You. You have some sense of this, perhaps.

Why does bad stuff always happen to me? And this is the kind of language you’re saying to yourself, but I want to tell you something true and that ain’t it, what you’re telling yourself, not true. Here’s what is true. The Son of God died for you. He loved you that much.

And not everything’s going right for you, perhaps, but one thing went really right for you. God, the Messiah, died for you. And he has a wonderful plan for your life that includes a couple of bumps. He included bumps in all of our stories. I want you to know that if you thought your story was going to be some kind of smooth sailing, you missed it.

Those who were closest to Jesus in the New Testament, I want you to read that again at some point. Read the book of Acts sometime soon and find out. The people closest to Jesus who were honoring him with their lives and doing what he called them to do, they faced a lot of bumps, for most of them, to their very death. 11 of the 12 disciples were martyred. Do you understand?

It cost them everything, but it was worth everything. It was worth it all. So, friend, don’t be looking for a life that has no bumps. Instead, remember what Christ has done. This is what the people have been challenged to do.

I know it was tough. We. We spent a year really in mourning. We spent a year then, like, anticipating this terrible day when the nation might come out and fight us. But God showed up and he delivered us.

So we’re going to come together and remember his victory. We’re going to come together and remember what he’s done. Paul he further commands believers to remember Jesus. This is what he writes to his disciple Timothy. He says, remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel.

This is why I think there’s a certain sense where it’s totally good for us to celebrate stuff. I know there’s a common discussion if you go online, and I wouldn’t recommend you go here, because you can get in an absolute abyss of crazy theology, but there’s a lot of discussion about should we celebrate certain things, should we celebrate Easter or Christmas or birthdays and this and that, and there’s arguments on both sides. I find all of it to be somewhat irrelevant. And here’s why. I think there’s a sense in Christianity that we should constantly be remembering powerful moments.

In fact, Sunday morning is not our Sabbath. Sunday morning is our remembering the resurrection. There’s a huge difference in why the church gets together on Sundays to honor resurrection, not just to practice old law. There’s so many holidays around this. Like, there’s a discussion on whether we should do Easter.

Now, I got to admit, Easter is a terrible name. It’s based on some stuff that has other meanings. But is it okay for the church to get together once a year and make a really big deal about the cross and the resurrection? We really should do that every Sunday. We really do too at this church.

But one day a year we’re going to make a huge deal. I think it’s good that every once in a while we celebrate the fact that Christ the King of the universe was born of a virgin and came in the incarnate flesh. I think that’s good. I think it’s okay, my friends, that every once in a while you might get together with your loved ones and say, hey, we’re thankful that grandma’s 80. Good, because it should be a celebration of life.

Hey, I’m glad that little Timmy is five. Good. Now I will make an argument and it’s not caught on yet in my family, but I feel like birthdays should be for the mom who bore the child. I don’t know what to do with this yet, but it seems to me that kid did nothing that day. There was no work on his part.

I feel like we should have many, many mother’s days, if you will. There should be lots of them. Plus that would be pretty cool. I think we should celebrate the mom who bore that big headed baby, which all of mine were celebrate. Why do we do wedding anniversaries?

Why do we celebrate July 4th, Memorial Day? Because we’re forgetful. We’re forgetful people. I love that your family would get together to celebrate grandma turning 80 because otherwise you might forget to call her. What a value that is.

Put these things in your life. There should be a habit in your life of Sunday worship. Not out of a sense of like empty obedience, but out of a sense of I need to remember at least weekly, really daily, what God has done for me. So let me come and sing and let me come and listen and let me be encouraged and challenged.

I love what a few writers have to say about this. Eugene Peterson wrote once. He said scripture is fundamentally a remembering book for a forgetful people. He’s right. Walter Brueggemann argues this.

He says acts of remembering that resist amnesia. In fact, he argued, worship is essentially re remembering. So this strange thing we do called church is all about remembering what God has done. So God is repeatedly telling us, remember, remember. Because forgetfulness is one of the great dangers to your heart.

It really is that you’re going to face odds at times that make you feel very low at times you’ll be on mountaintops. And don’t be surprised that you’ll forget in those moments too. You’ll forget him here and you’ll forget him here. Here, you think, boy, I’m somebody, I’ve accomplished much. And you forget him there too.

We have dangers on all sides of forgetfulness. I want you to hear this. Today. God is faithful. He is strengthening your faith.

That’s why we worship. That’s why we do communion. That’s why we share our testimony. That’s why Scripture is read. It’s why we do it all.

To remind. Now here’s the third and final thing, and I hope that this point has been so clear as we’ve gone through these six weeks in the Book of Esther, that there is a great parallel in all stories of an exalted representative. I would make an even bigger story. Not only is the Bible a big parallel that all points to the Messiah, the whole book is these types after types after types that point us to Jesus. I might make the argument that almost every powerful story you ever see or read is a type of Christ.

Some of your favorite stories, there are Christological types in them because at our core, I think we all desire Messiah at the core of our being. We long for a God who loves us and saves us. It’s in our DNA, if you will. And so there’s a great parallel in Esther of a exalted representative. And the words are specific.

As we conclude here in chapter 10, we’ve got Mordecai, now elevated second and rank. But I don’t want you to miss something. There was a verse I read a minute ago that should have stuck out to you like a sore thumb. Chapter 10, verse 1, it says, King Ahasuerus imposed tax on the land and on the coastlands of the sea. And you should have read that and went, what in the absolute world.

We’re having a good day. Things are going well. We’re here at church on Sunday. We’re reading that the people of God have victory. We’re reading that Mordecai’s second in command.

And now we read tax Gross. Where’s that in my. Where’s that come from? I’ll tell you. It’s in there for a reason.

It’s in there for you and me. It’s not just for the people of God. That verse one is for you and me. Because guess what? Persia is still Persia.

This ain’t heaven, friends. We live in America. There’s a lot of great things, but this ain’t heaven.

Babylon’s still Babylon. Rome’s still Rome. America’s still America. We. We have good leaders and bad leaders.

We have faithful leaders and very unfaithful leaders. Persia is still a mess. This guy named King Ahasuerus and other texts known as King Xerxes. It’s not years later that he is in fact assassinated by some people. It’s been apparently a common trend.

Mordecai stops one in chapter two. It happens in actual history, and it’s terrible. In fact, this thing happens and it’s blamed on one of his sons. And one of his other sons blessed, he believes it and kills his own brother. It’s terrible tragedy.

Persia is still Persia. Xerxes is doing attacks. Why? Because historically he’s rolled over into Greece and gotten his nose bloodied. If you’ve ever seen the movie 300, there’s some crazy stuff in that movie.

I’ll just say that. And it’s very, very fictional, but it’s based on an actual event that happened where the Persians really got their noses bloodied. And he went back home beaten and battered. And now he’s doing a tax because he needs to raise the army up again. They’ve lost much, so he’s taxing the people.

Persia is still Persia. I love what one writer said. It says, despite deliverance, the Jews remain dispersed under foreign authority. My friends, here’s the truth of your reality right now. Christ has come.

Christ has won. The cross is done. The resurrection has happened. You, you are new in Christ Jesus. Your sins are paid for and your eternity is sealed.

That’s all true. And yet you’re not there yet. This ain’t heaven. The kingdom of heaven is coming. It is near.

We’re experiencing like, moments of it. We’re in that season before the wedding where you’re getting excited, but the wedding hadn’t happened yet.

The intimacy. Not yet. Nope. None of it. But there’s an eager expectation.

This is a good word to us today. I think this one was left in there for all people, for all time to remember that we are still in exile. We, as believers in Christ Jesus, we are so Much like the people in this day, we. We get to remember the wonders of what God has done, while at the same time remembering God has not come yet. We are in exile.

So guess what? Right in the middle, when everything seems to be going right, boy, my finances are in order. Boy, everything’s going. I think she’s not mad at me today. I think he’s going to be nice.

I think my kids might obey. I think work’s going well. My boss is actually in a good mood, huh? Tax.

That’s a good word to us today. To not put our eggs in the basket of something that’s not the Lord Jesus. If I could just get my finances right, all would be well. Sure you should. But don’t expect to be at peace and at joy and have comfort, the comfort of the Holy Spirit, because you did this external action.

The peace of Christ comes from the peace of Christ, not from circumstances. If I could just. If he would just love me. If he would just say, yeah, if she would just say yes to me. If it’s all this external stuff, it’s not going to supply the comfort you desire.

That’s the word today to you. Here in chapter 10, verse 1. Persia is going to keep on being Persia. I have good news though. Christ is king and he’s coming again.

So put your hope there. You’re exiles right now. All of us are. We are exiles in a foreign land. Live like it.

You know what? Haman was right about one thing, that the Jewish people did not obey the laws of their land. He was right about that. They did not see King Ahasuerus as their king. He was right.

And that’s true of you and me. We make good citizens because we’re good people who try to follow Jesus. But we make bad citizens in one way, because we put very little stock in the fact that people up here are going to make our lives better.

Because what it means to be Christian is an exile. You good with it. I pray you would understand this point. This will set you free. It will set you free.

I’m in exile at my workplace. I don’t have to climb the company ladder in order to feel fulfilled. I’m fulfilled in Christ Jesus. So now, as this book concludes, it’s a very strange way it concludes, just matter of fact. Oh, by the way, Mordecai is now second in command.

He had favor all the people and he sought their good. The end. Okay, this was all meant to point us to something. Then why does it end with this Mordecai? Why do we have this story of this Esther, because all of it was meant to point to a far greater representative, our mediator.

More Mordecai has been a mediator to the people. Now we see this story wrap up to point us to Jesus. Paul writes to Timothy in 1 Timothy. He says, there’s one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And we know that Christ in this very moment is interceding for us.

In the book of Romans, it says, who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died. And furthermore, he is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, making what? Making intercession for us.

That means he’s standing there in the courtroom saying, I paid for that. I paid for that. Now, I got to admit something. Part of my walk with Jesus is to not make him have to keep vouching for me all the time. I’d love to come before the throne room and say and hear, well done, good and faithful servant.

Not, hey, you’re in. But boy, I had to vouch for you a lot. I don’t really want to hear that from God, from Christ. I’d rather him say, hey, you’re an imperfect dude, but well done, good and faithful. I want to hear that so bad.

But he’s making intercession. This whole story of Esther, this whole story of the Bible, the way that this text ends is so clearly pointing to Jesus. It uses the same words here in verses 2 and 3 of chapter 10. It says that Mordecai has become second in rank. The very same Hebrew words that are used of Joseph, who is also a Christological type.

Joseph gets this word, as we studied earlier this year, he gets this word, you’re going to be great. You’re going to lead your family. And then he gets sold into slavery and spends somewhere around 17 years in slavery and in prison before he’s finally called second in rank of Pharaoh. So Joseph is meant to point us to this pattern that we see throughout Scripture. Joseph goes from suffering to exaltation to, the people are saved because he’s the one who’s there ready for the famine.

And the people of God are saved. We got this story in David. David hears this great word when he’s a kid. Hey, you’re going to be somebody. You’re going to be king.

And then he spends years in exile, all almost being killed by King Saul. And then God exalts him and the people are saved. We’ve got this story here in Mordecai. Mordecai looks like he’s going to get promoted. No, instead it looks like he’s going to get killed.

There’s suffering and then there’s exaltation, and then the people are saved. You see it over and over and over again. Now we have the person of Christ. Oh, man. Eager expectation.

We got Luke, chapter two. The angels are coming and singing. Something great’s happening. The magi have come from a foreign land and the people reject him and they have him crucified, suffering. And then the Bible says he has been raised to a seat above all others, that every knee should bow and every tongue confess exaltation and our salvation.

Okay, Jonathan, I see that. What’s the point of all that? Because we are a forgetful people. So the Bible says, I’m going to tell you a story a hundred times and then maybe you’ll remember this was all about Jesus. So I’m going to tell you.

Joseph, David, Daniel, Mordecai. So you’ll see Jesus. I pray tomorrow. I pray this week. I pray that you’re able to remember Christ and what he’s done.

Not just the gospel, but the wonders he’s doing in your life right now. And there are many an exercise, a powerful exercise I would beg you to consider is either tomorrow morning when you roll out of bed, or tomorrow night when you’re about to go to bed, that you would just take time to try to thank the Lord for as many things as you can imagine. And when you do this exercise, if you’ve never done it, you’ll think of a lot. You’ll think of a lot. Some of it’s as basic as this.

Thank you, Lord, that yet again today I am drawing breath. Thank you today that I can walk on this stage. Thank you today that I can move.

I pulled my back so bad last fall that I got to admit it’s nice to just get up and walk. If you’ve ever done that, I’m telling you, that’s something some of you have done far worse. So when you just get up and move around, when you can see, when you can hear, when you can taste food, man, there’s little things we take for granted. Thank you, Lord, for these things. Suffering to exaltation to salvation.

As we conclude the Book of Esther, I pray that you would remember that God has done wonders in your life, greatest of which is the cross of Christ for you. If you’ve never put your faith in that, today is the day. Let’s pray now together. CHURCH Heavenly Father, we ask. We ask that you would lead us in a way that was obvious to us, that we would no longer just walk our own path.

God, that as we’ve read the book of Esther, if anything else, we have so clearly seen a picture of the gospel. I thank you for this book today. I thank you for the time of study in it. I pray for your people this morning. I pray for myself.

Let this be not just information, not just knowledge, but true conviction that moves us. That, God, we would remember constantly of the wonders you’ve done in our lives, greatest of which is your sacrifice on the cross. Lord Jesus, thank you today for what you did for us 2000 years ago. And you set us free from all sin for all time, forever. Thank you.

Thank you for that. Lord. Let us never, ever, ever get over that. That tomorrow, no matter what, we face a difficult schedule, a difficult appointment or a great day, everything went right and still we have a tendency to forget you. God, help us to be a people of the book, a people who remember constantly, a people who sing your praises, a people who make much of your glory.

Help us to be that. For that dear person who’s come in today and they’re recognizing full well that the reason they can’t have this kind of peace and comfort and put their faith in the things they remember and the things they acknowledge is because they’ve never put their yes there ever. If that’s you, my friend, today’s the day. I’m thankful you’re here. I don’t know what guided you into that this room.

But I know you’re here for a reason. And I just pray today would be the day you’d put your faith in Christ Jesus, that your hope for the future, your truest hope, is in him. If that’s you, my friend, you’re ready to make a confession of faith, would you say simply with me in prayer, Jesus, you are lord of my life. You are the king Jesus. Thank you for dying for my sins.

I believe that today. Thank you, God, for raising Christ Jesus from the dead. I put my faith in these things, and I’m asking now, Lord Jesus, would you lead me in a way that I can’t imagine? Because I’ve tried to do life on my own and I’ve made mistakes here and there and it’s been a mess. That peace that I long for, I can’t find it, Lord, would you guide me to it beside still waters, as the book of Psalms says, that I would see peace in you, that God, you would guide me towards the things you’ve called me to, that my life would feel purposeful and not aimless.

Dear friend, thank you for being here today. I’m so encouraged by your prayer. We pray with you the same thing. Lord, guide us beside still waters. Help us to remember you often, moment by moment, day after day.

Lord, that our faith would be in you. We would put these things and make much of them that the way in which we think of you and remember you would guide us to be a lot more joyful and at peace with people because we wouldn’t be letting everything, every little happening control our joy. God, guide us in this way. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.

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