Remembering
Esther • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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*This morning we will conclude with the Book of Esther.
*As I mentioned when we first started, God is never mentioned. Jehovah is ever mentioned. In fact the only thing spiritually we seen is a mention of fasting. But even though we do not see his name, we see that he is workig throughout the book to keep his promise that oe day a Messiah would be born a Jew.
*Over the last four weeks we have see Esther come from nothing to be raised up as the queen of a great empire, and would be placed in a position to save her people. This was obviously God’s doing. Esther’s uncle reminded here of this when he said...
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?”
Esther was in teh right place at the right time. We know, it was God who did this. We know it was God’s plan. And she did. She placed herself at risk ad God was faithful.
CREED: THE BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD....
How many of you remember your teachers name from P1? What about the food that you recieved on March 28th last year?
This morning as we close out the book of Esther we are going to see that Esther ad the Jewish people that have people saved from elimination, began to remember. Now when you live as long as me, you won’t remember everything, but you will remember the important things.
Open your Bibles to Esther Chapter 8.
Haman plot has been revealed, he has been hanged and now he is dead. But the story is not finished. Look at Chapter 8, verse 3:
3 Then Esther spoke again to the king. She fell at his feet and wept and pleaded with him to avert the evil plan of Haman the Agagite and the plot that he had devised against the Jews. 4 When the king held out the golden scepter to Esther, Esther rose and stood before the king. 5 And she said, “If it please the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and if the thing seems right before the king, and I am pleasing in his eyes, let an order be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman the Agagite, the son of Hammedatha, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the provinces of the king. 6 For how can I bear to see the calamity that is coming to my people? Or how can I bear to see the destruction of my kindred?” 7 Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, “Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and they have hanged him on the gallows, because he intended to lay hands on the Jews. 8 But you may write as you please with regard to the Jews, in the name of the king, and seal it with the king’s ring, for an edict written in the name of the king and sealed with the king’s ring cannot be revoked.”
Hama was dead, but the letters, the decrees had already been set out into the 127 states to kill the Jews. So Esther begs the King to stop the letters. If he doesn’t, the killing of the Jews will still happen. The King now transfers all the powers that Haman had over to Mordecai. He now wears the ring and because of that he gives the authority for the Jews to fight back.
The rest of the chapter 8 and into Chapter 9, we see that the Jewish people stood up and they were saved. They were a small amount, but God protected them ad they became the victors and not the victims.
It was time for a celebration. Look at Chapter 9 verse 20...
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.
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.
It was time for a celebration, ad this was not just one celebration, it was a traditio that began here 2,400 years ago, and still, all of these years later, Jewish people all over the world celebrate Poor-em. That’s how you say it…Poor-em.
It says here that it was practiced on the “fourteenth day of the month Adar (uh-daar) and also the fifteenth day of the same, year by year.” The Hebrew calendar had months that were called different names. They still had 12 months in a year, they just used different names. The month of Uh-daar on the Hebrew calendar is the same as our March. So every year after that, and still today, Jewish people come together to celebrate what God did through Esther in saving his people.
How do we remember? How do you remember God’s faithfulness in your life? Or, do you easily forget? What if we were to have our own persoa celebrations to help us remember his faithfulness. What about if we remember the time we were saved, and every year we would look back on that day ad celebrate it. Maybe you do’t remember the exact day, but maybe your remember the month. So maybe on that moth o a day you chose each year, you will celebrate that day by praising God for his salvation given freely to you.
12 I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds.
Ponder (think about).... think about all of the ways God has answered your prayers or blessed you. Think about them, remember.
When you remember those ways and they come to your mind…give thanks. When the Jewish people every year celebrate their deliverance during the festival (Poor)-um, they give thanks to Jehovah for saving them. We, as New Testament Christian should be doig the same when we see the way he loves us.
1 I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.
We remember.
We give thanks.
We tell.
When we have something good happen to us, we want to tell somebody. When Chukwudi had his second child, he wanted to tell everyone, and everyone was happy to here. Whe you have somethig good that happens to you, you want others to know. So when you remember, you give thanks, the you should tell others.
Do remember what God told Joshua to tell those Israelites that had been brought through the wilderness? As they were crossing the Jordan River, God told them that the stones that the priests ad the Levites stepped on crossig the Jordan, he told them to make an alter.
21 And he said to the people of Israel, “When your children ask their fathers in times to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 22 then you shall let your children know, ‘Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.’
This is one of the ways we can remember and give thanks....by passing on what God has done for us.
4. We have traditions.
What are some traditions we have? We gather for worship. We meet for Sunday night praise and Tuesday and Wednesday Bible Study. It is our custom to gather together. It’s a tradition that we spend this time in worship and God’s Word.
5. Here’s another way we can remember…write it down. Think about keeping an exercise book. And in it, begin to write down the ways you see God working in your life. You can also write down some prayer requests. Then in times you get down, go back, read what you have written and it will be a time of encouragement.
6. And the last way we can remember, is to think about these words…do this, in remembrance of me.” Those were the words of Jesus on the night he would be arrested and would later go to the cross.
And with those words, he told us that we should remember until the day he returns.
And to help us remember he gave the church something to practice. So this morning, we are going to remember what Jesus did for us.
As we do, two things.
1. This communion is only for those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. If you have not done that. If you have not prayed and given him you life, then, for now, you should not take.
2. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 11:28-29
28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
So before we take the bread and the cup, I am going to ask you to bow and pray. Ask God if there is anything, any sin, that would get in the way of taking this bread ad juice. And if there is, repent of it before we start.
Communion:
1 Corinthians 11:23–26 (ESV)
23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
I hope we ever forget what Jesus did for us. I pray that not a day goes by that we rest our head i our bed and we haven’t remembered the price that was paid for our eternal salvation.
Let’s close out the book of Esther..
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 was a good time for God’s people. The Jews had bee saved. In the largest Kingdom of the world at the time they had favor with the King who was not a Jew. Everything seemed to be good. But as history moves forward, this protection over the Jews goes away. This was about 400 years before Jesus was born. The next rulers were part of the Sa-lucid Empire, the they were followed by the Roman Empire. The Selucide Empire and the Roman Empire came into power during the time between the Old & New Testament (400 years, Intertesetametal Period)
So what I want you to see is that God was still working. His plan of redemption was still on track. But for the Jewish people the road was not easy. They could not depend on the king or the govement to save them or watch over them. Their salvation was not in the government, their salvation would only be through God…Jesus Christ set down to mankind.
As we look back at history and consider the timeline from Esthers day to the day Jesus Christ would enter the world, we see that there was no protection for the Jewish people from the government. I fact Israel was not recognized as a nation again until 1948. That is almost 2,348 years.
Why do I say all of this? Because government cannot save you. Government cannot save your soul. Tinubu, Obi, Nigeria cannot be your salvation. The US, my president cannot ensure my salvation… only one person can, and he died on a cross to prove it.