The other day I was asked to do a teaching on at my church
for a Wednesday night. As I prepared and delivered that message God popped
something out to me. Jesus did again for me what He did for those here in this
verse:
Luk 24:45-48 ESV Then he opened their minds to understand the
Scriptures, (46) and said to them, "Thus
it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the
dead, (47) and that
repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all
nations, beginning from Jerusalem. (48) You are witnesses
of these things.
I was doing my teaching through a part on Esther. I will
not bother you with what my teaching was about. But what I do want to share
with you is what I saw about Christ Jesus there!
let us read this together now:
Est 5:2-4 ESV And when the king saw Queen Esther standing
in the court, she won favor in his sight, and he held out to Esther the golden
scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther approached and touched the tip of the
scepter. (3) And the king said to her, "What is it,
Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given you, even to the half of
my kingdom." (4) And Esther
said, "If it please the king, let the king and Haman come today to a feast
that I have prepared for the king."
Question 1. In verse two, what did the King hold out to Esther?
A short little back ground here. I hope we all know how
Esther got to this point. But if not let me recap for you. King Ahasuerus and
his right hand man Haman decided to bring death, destruction, and to annihilate
all of the Jews. that was the first of the two death sentences on Queen Esther.
The second death sentence over Esther was when she went
before the King without being summoned. look:
Est 4:11 ESV "All the king's servants and the people
of the king's provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside
the inner court without being called, there is but one law—to be put to death,
except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter so that he may
live. But as for me, I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty
days."
We see here that death was to be given to those whom the
King did not send for. though there was an exception to that rule.
Question 2. What does the King hold out that the person may live?
So you see Queen Esther had two death sentences out on her
life....
This is where the story gets bad for you and I.... are we
not like Quest Esther? We have sin upon sin in our life. We have a death
sentence upon death sentence. We all have walked in some kind of bondage to
habitual sinning.
But there is good news! God, the King has mercy on us! He
has grace for us! He has love for us! He sent His Son to us so that He may be
the payment for our sins! That He may take the full wrath and punishment for
us, so that we do not have to! Now that is love!
In our story of Esther and the King. We see a beautifully
picture of Jesus' work on the cross for us. Just as King Ahasuerus lowered his
golden scepter, so our God has lowered His golden scepter to us! Jesus is that
golden scepter! We have already found favor in God's eyes, He sent His son do
die for us.
Question 3. According to Est_5:2 what must we do be given life?
Just as Esther touched the golden scepter, so we too must
touch Jesus! Jesus' finished work on the cross is where we find life! Jesus
said that He came that He may give life, and more abundantly Joh_10:10!
To bring this to a close. I want to look at one final
thing. Where is God? Where does He sit?.... That’s right on His throne. So how
could we ever think to come before Him in His throne room? Look at what Hebrews
says about this very thing:
Heb
4:16 ESV Let us then with confidence
draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to
help in time of need.
But how is this so? How can we come boldly? look:
Heb 10:19 ESV Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence
to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,
We come near to Father that we may touch Jesus (the Golden
scepter) that we may be given life! That we may bring our cares to Him. Because
He knows us! Hebrews 4 said this too:
Heb 4:14-15 ESV Since then we have a great high priest who
has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our
confession. (15) For we do not have a high priest who is
unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been
tempted as we are, yet without sin.
This story from Esther though Christ's coming, and the
writer of Hebrews has remained the same! It truly is good news that we cannot
keep to ourselves! We always hold true to his confession of Christ Jesus and
His finished work on the cross. Isn’t that what we really do here as mentors?
We are that living proof that Jesus is a life given! And because of Him we now
have the "boldness" to come into the throne room.
What if we looked at this a different way. because we have
a sure confidence to come before God, what if we didn’t come alone? You see we
are told to be in the world but not of it. We are to be a light to the world. A
picture of what Christ can do! Our students and those we live around maybe lost
with a death sentence upon a death sentence. It is our job to walk with them,
living out the love we have been shown, and bringing them into the throne room
before God. That just as the "Golden scepter" was extended to us,
that it may be extended to them. When we bring men before God we are in need of
grace and mercy, yes for us, but for them as well. We all can come boldly
because of what Jesus did on the cross!
In closing let me encourage us always bring this good news
to our students. That is: That Jesus is the life giver! That His finished work
on the cross gives life to them, and brakes the chains of bondage off! We do
this by encouraging them, loving them, and bringing them to God that they too
may touch Jesus and live.
Your Brother in Christ
Grace and Peace be with you
Nate Cook, Setting Captives Free Team
Member
And Jesus said to me:
Eze 3:10b-11a "...Receive into your heart all My words
that I speak to you, and hear with your ears, and go, get
to the captives..."
