Right Here, Right Now

Background to passage: Esther has become queen after the former queen rebelled against the king’s command. Haman, the chief advisor to King Ahasuerus of Persia, hated Mordecai, Esther’s adoptive father, because as a Jew he would not bow down to him like the other officials. Haman devised a plan to have all the Jews in the kingdom killed and got the king to sign it.

The account here is the interaction between Mordecai and Esther as he instructs her to intercede for the Jews before the king.

Esther 4:12–17 ESV

12 And they told Mordecai what Esther had said. 13 Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. 14 For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” 15 Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, 16 “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.” 17 Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.

Opening illustration: Talk about Matt and Caleb Strevel. On Monday, Jan 20th, our prayer focus was gravity and the potential of this season of our church. It asked us to think about our seriousness

Main thought: Just as Mordecai, Esther, and the Jews were in circumstances where the results were unclear, faith was present, God was at work, and would use this as an opportunity to be glorified. Western Heights has been dealing with a lack of clarity, but faith is present, God is at work, and He is going to use this opportunity to glorify himself in his church.

1) Brokenness (v. 1-3)

Esther 4:1–3 ESV

1 When Mordecai learned all that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and he cried out with a loud and bitter cry. 2 He went up to the entrance of the king’s gate, for no one was allowed to enter the king’s gate clothed in sackcloth. 3 And in every province, wherever the king’s command and his decree reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and many of them lay in sackcloth and ashes.

1) Brokenness (v. 1-3)

Explanation: In the OT, this is the classic picture of brokenness, lament, weeping, fasting, and even repentance. The scenario is grave. Life and death hang in the balance. However, God promises to be near to the brokenhearted. He promises to hear the prayers of the contrite. God’s heart of compassion moves toward those who fling themselves at has his feet for deliverance. And if we skip ahead just a little into the next verse (v. 14), we see that faith is very much present.

Argumentation:

Illustration: Talk about the time I was betrayed by a friend, caused me to lose funding for a church plant that I was approved for. After having already resigned as our DOM, we were starting a church with $17K of start up funds that were now gone, and everything hung in the balance.

Application: As a church, the physical lives of our members are not in the balance. However, the 78 year life of this church is threatened. The worldly culture is attacking. A transient population results in constant turnover of membership. Membership in and of itself is difficult because of fading loyalties and unwillingness to commit. An aging congregation has led to some significance members passing to meet their Savior. Financial difficulties in society have affected our budget. Vision has been lacking and thus after 20 years, a critical mass has been reached.

But God has been sustaining us, and he is not done here. During this month of prayer and fasting, we must ask ourselves if we are truly placing ourselves at his throne of mercy. We must examine if our repentance and contrition is true. Are we broken to cry out to God for deliverance. I don’t think we are. We cry out in January, not only because of brokenness, but with great faith in a God who provides and delivers and rescues and loves the church for whom he died and the world in which we live.

2) Providence (v. 14)

Esther 4:14 ESV

14 For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

2) Providence (v. 14)

Explanation: Mordecai asked her to go into the king and plead for the lives of the Jews. She explained how things work in going to the king, and how she might not be quite the apple of his eye anymore. Mordecai pressed harder and indicated a curse or a reality that even when God delivered the Jews another way, her father’s house will perish. His last statement indicated his understanding of the providence of God - that he may have placed her in the palace with the favor of the king in order for the Jews to be preserved.

God’s providence is his hand orchestrating all events to bring about his ends for his glory. It is a doctrine that is laden with mystery, but a doctrine of great peace during suffering. Every variable, ever action, every reaction in this account God is superintending.

Matthew 10:29–31 ESV

29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

Job 38:34–38 ESV

34 “Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that a flood of waters may cover you? 35 Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go and say to you, ‘Here we are’? 36 Who has put wisdom in the inward parts or given understanding to the mind? 37 Who can number the clouds by wisdom? Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens, 38 when the dust runs into a mass and the clods stick fast together?

Psalm 135:6 ESV

6 Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.

Proverbs 21:1 ESV

1 The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.

Illustration: I heard an NPR reporter interviewing a well-known pastor about the tsunami of 2004 that killed over 250K people. He stated with all confidence that Jesus knew about that wave, and could have at any time said “peace be still” and that wave would have laid down calm and flat as a pancake. And because he didn’t, he allowed it, and therefore it had design. He said that we couldn’t know exactly what the design was, but God was doing a million things through that tragedy, but he named some things that He might have been doing. He said that we don’t have to protect God from his own sovereignty during tragedy and suffering, because if we take away a sovereign God from people on the front end of a tragedy, you do not have a sovereign God to offer them on the back side of tragedy.

Application: We must rest in confidence that God has his hand on every detail of life; our lives individually, our life as a church. Whatever circumstance you are in now, God is orchestrating it for your good and his glory. Each one of those particulars mentioned above that position our church where we are today are God-ordained. He may not be the proximate cause, but he is the designer and craftsman.

Therefore, the gravity and significance of the circumstances we find ourselves in is due to God having a plan for us, an opportunity to us. In Esther’s case it was the destruction of the Jews, but for us it’s the salvation of many, it’s the gospel to the world, it’s the command to make disciples, it’s the command to love God and love people. Church, we must strike while the iron is hot. You are here for such a time as this. Western Heights is here for such a time as this. Don’t miss it! Pray that we see the door that Jesus has open for us, and walk through it. The place is right here, the time is right now. Let’s exhibit the zeal and passion that we are called to focus on today as a church.

3) Courage (v. 15-17)

Esther 4:15–17 ESV

15 Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, 16 “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.” 17 Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.

3) Courage (v. 15-17)

Explanation: We most often think of this book in terms of v. 14. However, when I was taught how to simply remember the historical books in a discipleship class called “The OT Made Simple” v. 16 is what we were supposed to remember. Think, this was a young girl in a harem of wives and concubines. Even if she is the favorite, remember how easily King Ahasuerus replaces wives. The punishment for entering the king’s presence without an invitation was only one thing - death. In such a patriarchal society, she was willing to take the slim chance that the King would extend the scepter. If he didn’t, she dies. This was truly a life or death decision.

What if the king was not in the mood to see people that day? What if another wife was in there? What if they were strategizing for their next military conquest? “If I perish, I perish.” When you think of Esther think of these words.

Philippians 1:19–21 ESV

19 for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, 20 as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Illustration: I spoke with a pastor a couple of weeks ago that had to move space and money in the church, and was no longer able to support a fellowship group. A hard conversation ensued with the leader of this group. Carefully, tactfully, lovingly, the pastor had to explain that other things took priority at that point in time to make disciples.

Application: Would that we would have that kind of courage. Through our refocus process, we have been pushed to examine what we do here in every aspect, and why we do it. Sometimes we don’t know why we do things and sometimes we know why, but it’s not happening, but we keep doing it anyway. The student who stood up in class and asked the professor to tell them “how to deal with these projects, so they could get back to ministry.”

If, in fact, the Refocus Team returns with a plan to make disciples, love people, minister in the community better than currently we are, are we going to embrace it or fight for things that draw away from our vision? We have a certain amount of time (hours you are willing to give), money, and facilities, and we have to decide how to use them. Are we committed to Jesus, to making disciples, to the glorification of God and the gospel, or are we committed to self? This will take courage. This will take dying to self. This will take sacrifice. This will take determination. So, let us fast and pray, and go with Jesus outside the camp

Hebrews 13:13–15 ESV

13 Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. 15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.

Closing illustration: pick up the green sermon notebook. The sermon from Luke 17 is not in there. Not sure what I wrote it on, but it was my first. I had surrendered to my understanding of God’s call on my life to preach the gospel as his minister, and all I ever wanted to know was for sure that God was in it. It was August of 1998 at Zion Hill Baptist Church between Clinton and Knoxville that I got up into the pulpit with a church that expected a sermon from God.

Recap