Sermon Tone Analysis

The Right To Celebrate

If you ever get the chance to visit Kill Devil Hills at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, that is where Orville and Wilbur Wright flew their homemade invention—what would become the world’s first controlled, sustained flight in a heavier-than-air craft.

To this day, a memorial stands on the spot where they first lifted off more than a century ago.

Sons of a protestant pastor, these brothers had figured out the concept of “wing warping”—a system of manipulating the edges of a plane’s wings to allow the wind to elevate or lower the plane, turn or keep it straight.

It was the critical piece in the puzzle that no one had yet figured out.

And their ingenuity paid off.

On December 17, 1903, the Wright brothers tossed a coin to see who would pilot the plane.

Orville won the toss and climbed aboard the aircraft he and his brother had built in their bicycle shop back home.

The airplane coasted down the sand bar on a wooden rail and then rose into the air for twelve seconds, traveling 120 feet.

It was one small step for man (the Wright brothers) … one giant leap for mankind—and the possibility of air travel!

In The Bishop’s Boys, it catalogs not only the absorbing story of how they invented the airplane, but it also gives interesting accounts of their family life.

One of the things I read that intrigued me was the fact that their father originally believed God had not created man to fly.

He wasn’t all that happy with his sons’ fascination with airplanes.

In fact, for several years he never even asked for the opportunity to fly with them.

But after six years of watching his sons’ success grow into a world-wide phenomenon, he finally relented and asked for a ride in their airplane—at 86 years of age.

The boys were actually a little nervous; they weren’t too sure how he’d react to flying through the air.

Orville was at the rudder and they flew around an open field for nearly ten minutes.

At one point in the flight, Orville’s father leaned close to his ear and shouted above the roar of the engine the words his son would never forget: “Higher, Orville, higher!”1

So much for the bishop’s reservations against flight.

Today, you can stand beneath a massive 60-foot monument at Kitty Hawk, where a memorial has been erected as a constant reminder of two preacher’s kids who changed the world.

Memorials are great kept in their place obviously.

Our calendars are full of dates that have historical significance from Memorial Day to Veteran’s Day.

They help to give our past due significance and put our present into perspective.

They remind us that some things are worth remembering.

The last few verses of Esther tell us of a memorial of events worth celebrating.

Jews still celebrate Purim a festival that began here in Esther 9:17 as a spontaneous celebration.

The fear was ended, the fight was over and all they wanted to do was celebrate and it was all over the kingdom.

The closest we could understand it would be the celebration that spilled into the streets after news hit the airwaves that World War II had ended.

People all over the world danced and laughed and hugged each other as if they were long-lost friends.

There were no strangers on that day.

Everyone was united in their joy.

We have all seen that classic photograph taken in Times Square just after the news was delivered.

In the midst of all the spontaneous celebration, a sailor grabbed a young nurse in his arms and planted a big kiss on her.

Most peopl thought it was just a romantic kiss between two young lovebirds.

It was actually a kiss shared between two complete strangers.

The war was over and everybody was happy.

Today the sailor would be in jail and the nurse would be seeing a therapist to get past the assault.

The fight was over and a spontaneous celebration that would become a fixed tradition had begun.

The first day was designated for those living in the kingdom and the second for those living with in the walls of Jerusalem.

It’s interesting that during World War II the Nazis hated any mention of the Book of Esther.

In fact, one historian recorded that if a Jew arrived at one of the concentration camps with the Book of Esther in his or her possession, that Jew was immediately put to death.

The Nazis wanted no message of hope or deliverance whispered inside the barracks of the death camps.

Still, many of the inmates of Auschwitz, Dachau, and Treblinka produced written copies of the Book of Esther from memory and then huddled together, reading them quietly to each other in secret during the Feast days of Purim.

The memorial still gave them hope … even inside a camp that had marked them for death.

It should be convicting that the Jews despite their rejection of Christ as the Messiah still clung to Esther with hope and conviction.

It should encourage the Church today this is a preview of the age of Grace in which God is often silent, but not absent and always protects and preserves His Church.

A Common Queen

One of the first parallels we draw is that Esther who is nothing special just a common, conquered, citizen… becomes queen.

For the first time in Persian history and possibly the only time the king rejected centuries of law and tradition to place the crown on a commoners head… but not just any commoner a peasant, orphan, foreigner exiled from Israel.

We are fallen sons of Adam and daughters of Eve.-C.S. Lewis

We are nothing more than common sinners alienated from God, but God through Christ allows us to be adopted as sons and daughters into His royal family… and we are given full rights and privileges right along with the biological children/Israel.

And if that wasn’t enough he promises to crown us his bride and that we will reign with him in eternity.

I am not preaching to commoners… rather I am preaching to royalty.

I am not encouraging peasant to press on…I am expositing the Word of God to future kings and queens.

What we observe happening to Esther will one day take place for every believer.

• You’ll trade the common clothes of mortality for the royal robes of immortality.

• You’ll trade the body of failure and imperfection for a glorified body that is sinless and perfected in holiness.

• You’ll trade the sorrow and sadness of earth for the joy and pleasure of heaven.

• You’ll trade the fear and uncertainty of speaking to an invisible God for the thrill and wonder of speaking to God … face-to-face.

The Irreversible Death Warrant

The second parallel we see the Death Warrant.

Just like the king’s edict by way of Haman to kill all the Jews… mankind is under a death warrant sworn out against all men.

It is important to remember that the Jews were not condemned for what they had done, but rather because of who they were.

They didn’t individually need todo anything… Mordecai had already done it.

Just like Adam did for mankind.

They didn’t need to commit treason, murder or any other heinous crime they were jews nd that was all it took.

Just like we don’t have to commit some heinous crime to go to Hell… you are a part of a fallen race.

The murderer and the moral man are no different under this death warrant.

The rich and educated face the same end as the poor and illiterate.

If you don’t believe it just take a look at the local graveyard it is a silent testimony to the irrevocable and unavoidable nature of this death warrant.

The death rate is one out of one.

Just like Haman’s edict the jews were without hope they were not allowed to protect themselves.

We are completely defenseless against this death warrant brought on the human race, as well.

Oliver Winchester and his wife Sarah once lived in New Haven, Connecticut.

Oliver is known for inventing the Winchester rifle—the first true repeating rifle, used by the Union Army during the Civil War.

Upon the invention of his rifle, government and private contractors made him unbelievably wealthy.

Life went better than they could have dreamed for about four years.

Tragically, Sarah gave birth to a daughter named Annie who died only two weeks after her birth.

Sarah was so shattered by the loss that she became a recluse and nearly lost her mind.

Several years later, Sarah’s grief was only compounded when Oliver contracted tuberculosis and died.

She became the heiress to his vast fortune, but no amount of money could alleviate her loneliness and sorrow.

At a friend’s suggestion, Sarah sought to contact her deceased husband through a spiritist—a necromancer.

During her séance, the medium informed Sarah that her husband was in the room with them.

According to the medium, Oliver was delivering the message that the Winchester family was cursed because of his invention of the Winchester rifle.

The spirits of those who were killed by his rifle were seeking vengeance.

The spiritist told Sarah that the only solution was to move to a remote location and build a house for these spirits.

Supposedly, Oliver had also communicated that as long as Sarah continued to build the house, she would live.

But if she ever stopped building on that property and home, she would die.

Sarah immediately sold her home in New Haven, moved west with her fortune, and bought a home that was already being constructed on 162 acres of land.

She bought the entire estate and then threw away the building plans.

For the next thirty-six years her construction crew built and rebuilt, altering one section of the house after another.

The sounds of hammers and saws could be heard day and night.

Railway cars brought in supplies, and every morning Sarah met with the foreman to sketch out new rooms.

Much of it had no rhyme or reason; rooms were added to rooms, wings were added onto wings; flat areas were transformed into towers and peaks; staircases were built that led nowhere.

Doors were hung that opened to nothing, and closets were built that opened onto blank walls.

Hallways even doubled back upon themselves as the house became a vast, expensive maze, designed to both house and confuse the evil spirits that tormented her mind.

Sarah Winchester depleted her fortune by building the sprawling, confusing mansion.

But then, on the night of September 4, 1922, after holding another séance, Sarah Winchester went up to her bedroom and, at the age of 83, died in her sleep.

Oliver had told her that as long as she continued building, she would remain alive.

He was wrong.5