Good morning, everyone. If you haven't already turned to Esther chapter four, you can go ahead and do that now. And as you're doing that, I wanna begin the message this morning with an illustration that comes out of a Sunday morning communion message delivered by John Piper back in 1989, a message that he entitled, At the Price of God's Own Blood. This is a story that he's gonna relate here about the history of Moravian missions. And as I say that, for some of you, that probably rings a bell. You're perhaps familiar with some of that story or some version of that story. And for others of you, maybe not so much. But let me read out of the text from that message. I've been moved deeply recently in reading about the life of Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzerdorf. Many of you know about him, some don't. He was a German born in 1700 who founded a community of earnest Christians called Hernhut, which means the Lord's Watch. The community became part of the Moravian Church and was best known for its unparalleled missionary zeal. In 1727, the community started a round-the-clock prayer watch that lasted unbroken for 100 years. There were about 300 persons in the community at the beginning, and various ones covenanted to pray for one of the 24 hours in the day. In 1792, 65 years later, with the lamp of prayer still burning, the little community had sent out 300 missionaries to the unreached peoples of the West Indies, Greenland, Lapland, Turkey, and North America. They were utterly and radically dedicated to making Jesus known. I mention this not only because I dream of a church saturated with prayer and sold out utterly to Christ and ready to leave everything for His call. I mention it this morning because behind this community at Hern Hut, there was an experience of a deep humbling and cleansing and power based on the blood of Jesus. After Zinzendorf had finished the university, he took a trip throughout Europe, looking at some of the cultural high spots, and something very unexpected happened. In the art museum at Dusseldorf, he saw a painting of Domenico Fetti entitled, Ecce Homo, not sure I'm pronouncing that right, Behold the Man. It was a portrait of Christ with the crown of thorns pressed down on his head and blood running down his face. Beneath the portrait were the words, I have done this for you, what have you done for me? All of his life, Zinzerdorf looked back at that encounter as utterly life-changing. As he stood there, as it were, watching his savior suffer and bleed, he said to himself, I have loved him for a long time, but I've never actually done anything for him. From now on, I will do whatever he leads me to do. For the rest of his life, the blood of Jesus had a central place in the doctrine and devotion of Zinzerdorf and his community at Hernhut. And the story goes that when the first two young missionaries boarded the ship in Copenhagen to sail to the West Indies, perhaps never to return, 20 out of the first 29 missionaries to St. Thomas and St. Croix died in those first years. They lifted their hands as if in sacred pledge and called out to their friends on shore, may the lamb that was slain receive the reward of his suffering. Let's pray. Heavenly Fathers. We come before You this morning as Your people and we open up, Lord, the pages of the book of Esther. Father, we pray that You would take Your Word and use it, Lord, to speak truths to us. The truths that we need to hear. Truths, Lord, about Christ. Truths, Lord, about the promises that have been made sure in Him. I pray that such things, Lord, will have an effect through the work of Your Holy Spirit in our hearts and lives, to stir up Your people for the sake of the Kingdom. I pray this in His name. Amen. So before we jump into the message here then, I wanna do a little bit of review. I know there's some of you here with us this morning and it's been a while since I've preached here in Esther. So let's just take a moment and kind of step back and look at the book of Esther. The overall theme here in the book of Esther is that it's a story about the providential preservation of a chosen people by the hand of an unseen God. The name of God is never once mentioned in the book of Esther. That's a unique feature of this book. And to go through this book of story as related to this central theme, I've decided to divide Esther into four episodes. And each one of these episodes, I feel, teaches us something new about the providential preservation of God's people. And so in episode 1, which covered chapters 1 and 2, We saw that God's providential preservation is accomplished through selected representation. That's the story of how King Ahasuerus set aside Queen Vashti and then set out endeavor to take up a new queen for himself. And Esther was chosen out of the people to be his new queen. And really, in so doing, became a selected representative for the people of God, for the Jews. And we see God's providence starting to be worked out here, the way in which he's going to preserve his people. Last week, we entered into, or not last week, I'm sorry, three weeks ago, we entered into episode two, which covers chapter three and four. And we looked at particularly chapter three, and this episode is God's providential preservation is accomplished through perilous intervention. In chapter three, we learned of how Haman, because of his hatred for Mordecai, a man that it says is the enemy of the Jews, got the king to issue a decree and approve a decree that would provide for the annihilation of all of the Jews, not only in Susa, the capital city, but throughout the entire Persian kingdom that would commence on the 13th day of the 12th month, the day that he had selected out by the casting of lots, which is integral to the story, this idea of providence. He had casted lots to figure out what would be the best day in which he should have the Jews annihilated. And in that message, we consider the fact that God often leads his people through dark valleys. And I said that dark valleys are really a small episode that portray the grand episode of redemptive history. That dark valleys are, though rooted originally in the sin of Adam, which set into motion the curse and all of its effects on humanity, dark valleys oftentimes are associated also with obedience, when people seek to do what's right before God. Dark valleys are good and for God's glory. that dark valleys are a passage with hope for those who belong to God. So that's where we left off last time. And so we wanna continue this episode now in chapter four. And again, as we often see in redemptive history and certainly in the grand story itself, the way out of the dark valley, And in particular, this decree of destruction is through a perilous intervention. So what do I mean by perilous intervention? For you children, that may be just a couple of large words that don't make any sense to you. What I mean by that is there's often a person of courageous faith that God raises up as an instrument to deliver his people from some sort of peril or hazard or danger at hand. So some examples of that that we can see in scripture would be Moses, Joshua, Deborah and Jael, Gideon, Rahab and David. And this story here, that person is Queen Esther. So I wanna make this morning some observations about this perilous intervention as it relates to the providential preservation of God's people. Now, I don't know if anyone brought peas for lunch today, but you're gonna be tired of peas by the time I finish this message this morning. So hopefully no one did. I don't usually transliterate, but this morning, it's just the way it worked out. So I've got four peas here in particular. Use that word. So they are this here in the overview. The preparation. of perilous intervention, the pattern of perilous intervention, the paramount of perilous intervention, and the participation of perilous intervention. A lot of Ps. So let's go ahead and begin with the preparation of perilous intervention, which is fasting and prayer. And this really is sort of a tangential lesson, as I've done in the other ones. Sometimes we see things here that may not be necessary to the very heart and the core of what's going on in terms of providence and preservation. But there are topics that I think are worth looking at and worth discussing. And so it does tie in here to what's going on. this fasting and prayer that's happening here. In verse 16, particularly, we read this, Esther speaking, go assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maidens also will fast in the same way. Now, I wanna point out that the word prayer is never found here. And in fact, it was interesting as I was doing preparation, I listened to a message this week and the pastor had a particular view that I guess is different than my view. He sees Mordecai and Esther as being disobedient Jews who have brought upon themselves a great hazard because they should have returned back to the promised land. And he looks at them and says, this time of fasting was prayerless, and it's just sort of representative for the people that they were. You've got Mordecai, who's too cowardly to go approach the king himself, and so he tries to get Esther to do it, and she balks at it, and he has to twist her arm to get her to go. That was kind of his take on the whole thing. Now, that's not my perspective. I guess I don't read that into this story here. You know, I think that the way the author is portraying them is more of people who are trying to live out their faith, and people of courageous faith, people who are rewarded, in fact, in their faith. And, you know, while we can't know exactly what's going on, I would have to say this, I would agree with him to this point. Fasting and prayer doesn't obligate God to do anything. And God often intervenes in spite of us. That's true. There is no one righteous. I mean, these are people like us. These are people who have their own set of sins. And so I'm not trying to portray them as something that they're not. And certainly any intervention of God is always done by His mercy and by His grace. But I don't think that thought seems to capture well what's going on. And while the word itself, prayer, is not found here, I think one could at least say this, that the fasting that they're participating is a form of prayer, a pleading with God, a seeking of God, a crying out to God for His mercy. Now as we look at scripture, we can see that there are a variety of reasons that people fast and pray. I sort of looked at them and tried to categorize the different ways we see in scripture fasting and prayer happening. There's a fasting and prayer that's related to repentance, and that's actually very common. One example would be Daniel, in Daniel chapter 9, who sought the Lord with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes to confess the sins of Israel, and to call upon God for forgiveness and restoration. There's fasting and prayer for mourning. We see that in the case of the death of Saul and Jonathan, and all Israel spent time in fasting and in prayer following their death. We see it for spiritual solitude, where people simply just want to draw near to hear from God and to commune with God. Some examples would be Moses on the mountain, Elijah in the wilderness, Jesus in the wilderness at the onset of his ministry, and Paul after his conversion. We see fasting and prayer given for intercession. Some examples would be Anna in the temple said that she was constantly going and fasting and praying for the people of God. David, as Bathsheba's first child was ill, spent time in intercession with fasting and prayer. We also see it used for guidance and for dedication. The commissioning of Barnabas and Paul would be an example. and also the appointing of elders were types of situations where people were fasting in prayer for the Lord to give them guidance and to sort of dedicate their plans to the Lord. And then of course, we see it as here in Esther, when in distress and in peril. So these are all ways in which we can see fasting and prayer being utilized throughout scripture. And there's a variety of ways to fast also that we see in scripture, modes of fasting. Sort of the regular fast would be fasting from all food and beverages except for water. That would be sort of a typical means of fasting. There's an absolute fast which we see here which is from all food and water, Moses and Elijah. were miraculously sustained during their 40 days of fasting. And then we also see partial fasts, fasts that happen from selected items. We see that in the case of Daniel chapter 10 and the fasts that happen there. Fasting ought to be done with the right attitude. Fasting ought to be done with the right attitude. It seems to me that scripture gives us two essential attitudes that need to be present in the midst of fasting, and that's sincerity and humility. Fasting ought to be marked by, first of all, sincerity. What do I mean by that? I mean that there's something sincere and genuine that's happening in the heart of the person who's going before God. We see that often accompanied by obedience, because in Isaiah 58, God is displeased with the fast of those who are going before him, and yet, at the same time, in the midst of oppressing their countrymen. So that's not the kind of fast that you need to take part in. We also see it in a sincerity that's of an earnest nature. People fast because there is something that's on their hearts to do, or at least that's the right kind of attitude that ought to accompany fasting. And secondly, fasting ought to be marked by humility. It's not a display of your piety to others. Jesus warned against the fasts that were intended merely for the attention of men to appear spiritual, rather than trying to gain the attention of God and entreating Him. We see that in Matthew chapter 6, verses 16 through 18, his instructions. He says, whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full, but you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your father who is in secret. And your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. Fasting is to be done with a humbling of oneself before God. And such a humility that recognizes God's position and our position. Again, God is not obligated when we fast. We can't obligate God. He's not a genie in a bottle that we just have to massage the right sort of way to get Him to do what we want Him to do. It is a setting aside of good and lawful things as a demonstration to yourself and a God that you desperately need Him. You need His presence, you need His guidance, you need His intervention, because He is ultimately the answer to every need that we have. Those are the right sorts of attitudes that ought to be present when we fast. And finally, just a comment here that fasting is commended but not commanded. There actually is no command in scripture that binds the believer to participate in a fast. Nonetheless, because of the examples in scripture and even the teaching of Christ, it certainly is held out as an acceptable and even a commendable practice. And there are many examples we can go to in scripture, even in the New Testament, and certainly throughout the history of the church. But what we don't want to do, what we want to caution against is making it into some sort of rote thing that has no meaning or no purpose to it. So anyways, just a few thoughts I wanted to share with you this morning as we see Esther and Mordecai engaging in this fast in preparation of the perilous intervention. So next I wanna consider the pattern of perilous intervention. And first of all we see here identification with the need of God's covenant people. Identification with the need of God's covenant people. We saw again in chapters one and two how God providentially brought Esther into the position of queen. so that she would be a representative of his people. And Mordecai recognizes this when he says to Esther, do not imagine that you and the king's palace can escape any more than all of the Jews. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this. Mordecai points out to Esther, You're a Jew, you're one of God's people, and therefore, even though she's royalty, she's under the same threats, and she needs to identify herself with this threat, this peril, this need of the people of God. and to do so in order that through the position that God had brought her into, she might be used as the deliverance of his people. Secondly, we see here in the pattern that there is self-sacrifice for the good of God's covenant people. Here's Esther's response. And by the way, this passage right here is at the heart of the book of Esther. We're looking really at the very core, the centerpiece of this whole book, right here in this exchange between Mordecai and Esther. Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, go assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maidens also will fast in the same way. And thus I will go into the king, which is not according to the law. And if I perish, I perish. So Mordecai went away and did just as Esther had commanded him. So Esther's role here in the deliverance of God's people not only required herself to identify herself with the people, but it called her to a certain act of self-sacrifice. Those famous words, if I perish, I perish. She's going to risk her very life. She's going to, as it were, surrender herself. for the sake of God's people and for the good of His kingdom. You see, self-sacrifice is the opposite of self-preservation. And by nature, we are people of self-preservation. That's just part of our flesh, the way that we operate. We like to preserve ourselves. And so this goes against the nature's bent here. In fact, self-preservation works out this way. It's happy to give, happy to help, happy to serve so long as it doesn't cost me anything. So long as there's no substantial sacrifice on my part. But self-sacrifice is self-denial. A giving up of something good, even life itself, in order to serve the interests of another. But there's one more thing here that's going on that undergirds this plan of Mordecai and Esther, and Matt's already mentioned that, and that is this confidence in the promises of God's covenant people. So listen again to what Mordecai says to her. He says, for if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, and you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you've not attained royalty for such a time as this. You know, Mordecai and Esther can't see the end of the story. It wasn't as though they had a little book and they said, oh, let's flip ahead and see how this comes out. They don't know what's gonna happen. They don't know, there's no personal promise to Esther that God is going to actually use her. She doesn't know. They have no idea how it's gonna work out, and yet, they have this certain confidence that one way or another, God is going to deliver His covenant people. Why? Because God said He would, and God is faithful to His covenant promises. And I meant to come up with a citation here, and Matt supplied it for us at the beginning out of Jeremiah. God said He would. It's what God said He would do, and they believed what God said. And such confidence in the promises of God is what allows Esther to move forward in a courageous faith. A faith that's willing to take risks to put her life on the line. In other words, it's a courageous faith that's resting on the sure promises of God. And this is going to lead us to the next point, because as we now stand on this side of the cross, we can see that such faith is predicated upon the sure rewards of Christ in whom all the promises of God are yes and amen. So we move to this next point that the paramount of perilous intervention is Jesus. He is perilous intervention. It's found in him. As we consider the story of Esther, it points us towards Christ, our Lord Jesus. Esther's just a pale picture of his perilous intervention. Consider the parallels here. He identified with the need of God's covenant people. God sent Jesus to be the selected representative of his people. And he not only took on flesh and became a man for the sake of God's kingdom and his elect, but he took upon himself the very curse that belonged to us. I mean, that's identification. He didn't have to do that. Surely, as we read in Isaiah 53, four, surely our griefs he himself bore and our sorrows he carried. Secondly, He sacrificed Himself for the good of God's covenant people. He was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Or as Jesus Himself said, for even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many. He was willing to perish that His people might have life. And thirdly, he became the surety of all God's promises towards his covenant people. Mordecai and Esther were trusting in the promises of God. Christ was the promise of God. And his path of courage wasn't just faith, it was the certain path of victory. For as many as are the promises of God, in him they are yes, therefore also through him, he is our amen to the glory of God through us. And so I wanna stop here and this is where I wanna pose the kids question. So this is something we can discuss on Wednesday evening, children. This is what I want you to gain out of this particular passage here. The question being, how does God preserve his people? through the rewards gained by the self-sacrifice of Jesus. Put that up there for you. How does God preserve his people? Through the rewards gained by the self-sacrifice of Jesus. And finally, I wanna end here with one more P, that is the participation of perilous intervention. This is the application of this passage. Now, while we may not be called into such a position as Esther, we are called to live with a courageous faith like Esther. And we do so by being united to the perilous intervention of Christ. That is, in a manner of speaking, that we participate in His perilous intervention. As Paul said, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Now, that may not look like approaching a king hoping he's going to lower the golden scepter. But it might look like pulling your children out of public school so you can educate them at home. It might look like traveling to another country to adopt a child. I mean, there's a lot of different ways that this could be manifested in the lives of God's people. It might mean going to another country to help set up a Bible training center. I mean, there's all sorts of ways that we can participate in that sort of perilous intervention of Christ. I wanna look particularly then at three ways here. Already here. We need to be identified with the needs of God's covenant people. The church is the covenant people of God. And His people are those for whom Christ has died. Those are the people that we identify with. And there's two implications here. First of all, that calls for an identification with the local body. We need to be faithfully caring for the needs of those that are here in our local body. We need to weep with those who weep. We need to bear one another's burdens and thereby fulfill the law of Christ, as Paul says. Or as Paul writes to the Galatians, so then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people and especially to those who are the household of the faith. We also, though, there's another implication here. We need to be seeking out the lost to bring them into the church. There are those for whom Christ has suffered and died that need salvation through the proclamation of the gospel. And that's one of the implications of what it means to identify ourself with the needs of God's covenant people. Secondly, We need to be self-sacrificing for the good of God's covenant people. Following Christ means surrendering ourselves for the sake of His kingdom. As Paul said, I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. And this attitude of surrender is for all believers. Jesus himself said, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Matthew Henry, in speaking to this point, says this, he says, we are prone to shrink from the services that are attended with peril or loss. But when the cause of Christ and his people demand it, we must take up our cross and follow him. I also included a quote here from Jim Elliot. Surely those who know the great passionate heart of Jehovah must deny their own loves to share in the expression of his. Consider the call from the throne above, go ye. And from round about, come over and help us. And even the call from the damned souls below, send Lazarus to my brothers that they come not to this place. Impelled then by these voices, I dare not stay at home while Kichwa perish. So what if the well-fed church in the homeland needs stirring? They have the scriptures, Moses and the prophets and a whole lot more. Their condemnation is written on their bank books and in the dust on their Bible covers. American believers have sold their lives to the service of mammon and God is his rightful way of dealing with those who succumb to the spirit of Laodicea. Let the passionate words of Jim Elliot brush up against you there. We need to be self-sacrificing for the good of God's covenant people. Thirdly, we need to be confident in the promises of God's covenant people with a confidence that is resting on the sure rewards of Christ. We may not know what the end of the story is. You know, one of the great comforts when we set out to plant this church, I kept thinking about all of my inadequacies, all of the dangers, the risks, and there was all of these things that were starting to trouble my mind, but then I was captured by the words of Christ concerning this church. He said, I will build my church. And then I realized, oh, I get it. I may fail, it doesn't matter. Because Christ, if my heart is in serving Christ, He's gonna accomplish His purposes in spite of me. Right? And so, that was so encouraging to me, to grab hold of those words. It doesn't matter. You know, all of the things that we set out to do, we need to do so resting on the promises of God. God will accomplish all of His purposes We talked about that's what providence is about. In spite of our own failures, through the work of Christ, which becomes the foundation of courageous faith. Quoting from an author of an article that Matt sent me, which was really good, called Faith in the Hallway. They said this, it's a good observation. Waiting on the Lord by faith is not a fatalistic or passive endeavor. Neither do we mean that faith is a set of good deeds we use to secure God's grace and favor. Faith is the gift of God. When we say by faith, we mean that we ask the grounds for our hope and courage. I'm sorry, when asked the grounds for our hope and courage, while living a cross bearing life, we are free to grant that in the eyes of the world, our lives might look pitiable. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. It's the ground of our courageous faith. That's what we rested upon. So in conclusion, I just want to go back again. This is the attitude that fueled the Moravian missionaries whose story I used to begin this message. Those men who with courageous faith sought a participation. with the perilous intervention of Christ, who called out as their ship left the shore, may the lamb that was slain receive the reward of his suffering. And I wanna close with a question that Piper asked his congregation in this message that I quoted, which I think really drives the point home. And this is the question. Has the Lord obtained the reward of His sufferings in your life? It's a hard question. Are you pursuing in your life the things that He bled to obtain? When we come to the Lord's table here in a few moments, and with the cup and the bread, proclaim His death, will you be able to say to Him with a clear conscience, there's nothing I want more in my life than what you bled to obtain. There is no reward in my life that I want more than the reward of your suffering. These are good questions. Hard questions, serious questions. And Piper goes on to say this in a very pastoral way. He says, if you look at your life and come up wanting, as we all will, do not forget this. The reward of his suffering is also the forgiveness of sins. and the justification by faith, and the reconciliation with God, and cleansing of conscience, and final victory over Satan. Let's close in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we want to live as people with courageous faith, with a faith that just rests completely on the finished work of Christ and all of his sure rewards, to be used by you in whatever manner you would use us, to be used by you in such a way that you would indeed, through Christ, receive the full reward of his suffering. God, we need Your Spirit to do a work in us, to make us that kind of people. And we pray that indeed You would do so. Lord, we ask all of these things in His name. Amen. So I want to take a moment to open it up then for any questions or comments from the men about the message here this morning. or corrections, or additions, or other words to edify. One thing I think about Esther 4, again this is kind of one of those tangential things, but for those Reformed Church, those who exalt strongly the sovereignty of God. We see here that the sovereignty of God is never a reason not to act. That the sovereignty of God isn't passive, a passive belief that God will do. We know that God will do, therefore we act in faith on it. And Mordecai makes that plain. God will save. He doesn't use God, but that's the background there. God will save. but you are still a responsible actor, one who can change what will happen under God's sovereignty, and you must use that responsibility to act. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said something very similar. They said, God can deliver us out of the fiery furnace, but if he doesn't, we're still not going to bow anyway, right? They didn't know the outcome. They knew that God could do that, that that's the sort of thing God would do, but they didn't know. They don't control God. We're not over providence, but we don't let that sovereignty of God interfere with us living our lives in faith. That's an excellent point. Any other thoughts?