The story of Esther is a story of the Emperor of ancient Persia, who married a beautiful Jewish girl named Esther who had been raised by her cousin, Mordecai. The latter two persons were captives, taken from the city of Jerusalem and brought over into the kingdom of Persia.
In the court of this Emperor was a very slimy character named Haman who became the Prime Minister of the kingdom. As time passed, antagonism had developed between Haman and Mordecai. Haman, wanting to rid the empire of Mordecai, created a fiendish plan to destroy all the Jews in the kingdom. What he did not know was this: Esther, the queen, was a Jewess.
Mordecai became aware of the plot and prevailed upon Queen Esther to brave the disfavor of the king by going to him without invitation, to plead the cause of her people.
The whole story becomes of fascinating interest and meaning to us when we discover that this is not merely a story of the ancient past, but is also a divinely inspired, magnificently accurate portrayal of what is going on in each of our lives at this very moment.
Each of us is a king over a kingdom; the kingdom is each of our lives. The spirit persons of each of us who have been born again have been made alive in Jesus Christ. This is the queen that has come into your life.
Mordecai, in this story, is a figure of the Holy Spirit moving to preserve the fruit of the Spirit in our kingdom. And slyly at work in us is Haman -- that which the Bible calls the flesh, the SARX, tricking us into believing that the only way we will ever get what we want is by choosing our own way and ignoring the life of Jesus Christ within us. This will be our Pastor’s sermon for today.
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