Mark Driscoll Audio

Jesus is a better Esther who came into human history as one of God’s people. God’s people in the Persian Empire were spared death because Esther finally identified with them, but all of God’s people are spared eternal death because Jesus Christ identifies with us. We are all Haman; we will either hang on our own cross for our own sin like him, or Jesus hung on a cross in our place for our sin.

Through the story of God’s covenant people in Esther, we learn to not question God’s providence, but assume it. “Coincidence” is the non-Christian’s word for providence. We learn from the examples of Haman and Mordecai that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. And grieving accomplishes nothing without repenting, as we see when Haman only has worldly sorrow and never truly repents.

Your identity—who you think you are—determines how you live. Esther now sees herself as one of God’s people. Haman’s identity, though, is in his idolatry: his glory, power, honor, recognition, and success. If you’re one of God’s people, your identity isn’t achieved, it’s received. Your identity doesn’t need to be in your idolatry, like Haman’s, because Jesus gives a better identity.

Mordecai and Esther aren’t perfect, but they’re making progress and changing. Mordecai’s faith is activated in mourning and weeping. He trusts that God is always with his people, and that God is in control. Esther’s faith is action in the face of opposition and possible death. Only she can serve as mediator to reconcile Xerxes and her people, just as Jesus is the one mediator between God and men.

Our lives are marked by sins, mistakes, and tragedies. The story of King Xerxes, Haman, Mordecai, and Esther is no different. Mordecai and Esther fail to walk faithfully with God, Xerxes cares more for money than people, and Haman decrees the murder of all Jews. Though there is no evidence that God shows up to deliver his people, there remains hope for the coming of a greater King.

King Xerxes chased glory but received misery, trying to replace God with a woman to use, not love. We meet Mordecai and his adopted daughter, Esther, who are part of the compromised, worldly, disobedient people of God living away from Jerusalem. Esther wasn’t walking with God but God still walked with her, giving her favor, changing and saving her heart and life so that she could save his people.

King Xerxes chased glory but received misery, trying to replace God with a woman to use, not love. We meet Mordecai and his adopted daughter, Esther, who are part of the compromised, worldly, disobedient people of God living away from Jerusalem. Esther wasn’t walking with God but God still walked with her, giving her favor, changing and saving her heart and life so that she could save his people.

Xerxes was the greatest king in the history of the world to his day, but in his kingdom, addictions were fed, men were castrated, and women were mistreated. Every generation chases the same foolish myth: if we could just get a good king with a good kingdom, then we’d have a heavenly life on a fallen earth. But when fallen, faulty, flawed sinners sit on a throne, you never get a glorious kingdom.

King Xerxes was the most powerful and wealthy man on the earth during his reign over the vast Persian Empire. He was worshiped as a god. He throws a 6-month, all-expenses-paid party to show his own glory. There’s something in us that wants to be king and

Jesus is the most generous giver ever: he was rich but became poor, sacrificing himself to pay our debt to God. Everything we enjoy is a gift from him; we give because he’s given. It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor—are you generous? Generosity is measured by sacrifice, not percentage. It’s not a question of rich or poor, but righteous or unrighteous stewardship. God loves a cheerful giver.

In this special episode, we take a break from Jesus Loves His Church to bring you a sermon Pastor Mark preached out of Nehemiah 13 on work and worship. God commands his people to sabbath, but the people of Judah were breaking this command, so Nehemiah shut down the gates to the city, forcing the people not to work. Yet they still refused to repent or obey, and the merchants lined up outside the city, wasting the Sabbath by waiting for the gates to open. Pastor Mark draws a parallel between their sins and our own. We too can quickly fall into idolizing work and wealth at the expense of worshiping God and resting with family and friends.

In this special episode, we take a break from Jesus Loves His Church to bring you a sermon Pastor Mark preached out of Nehemiah 13 on work and worship. God commands his people to sabbath, but the people of Judah were breaking this command, so Nehemiah shut down the gates to the city, forcing the people not to work. Yet they still refused to repent or obey, and the merchants lined up outside the city, wasting the Sabbath by waiting for the gates to open. Pastor Mark draws a parallel between their sins and our own. We too can quickly fall into idolizing work and wealth at the expense of worshiping God and resting with family and friends.

Jesus works through the church, the body of Christ. Like a body, the church has many members who are one. Through the Holy Spirit, Jesus says we will do greater works than he did—not in kind, but in number. The church needs people like you, and unlike you. No one can say to another, “I have no need of you.” There is unity, but not uniformity; there is diversity, but there need not be division. Which part of this body are you? Where will you serve?

John, the one whom Jesus loved, couldn’t stop talking about Jesus’ love. He tells God’s children to love one another, not to hate one another. “Hate” can be hot hostility or cold indifference. It can mean that you want to kill someone—like Cain did his brother Abel—or you just want to critique them. We’re more like Cain than Abel, but Jesus still loves us. Love is defined at the cross of Jesus. Stop hating others by closing your eyes to their needs. Jesus loves, then we love. Jesus serves, then we serve. Jesus gives, then we give. It starts with Jesus. He changes us so we can be more like him.

How should Christians deal with conflict? Jesus tells us (the offenders, the offended, and those in the middle alike) how to deal with interpersonal conflict in Matthew 18:15–20. He gives us eight painful questions for reconciliation between Christians, culminating with, what does Jesus think about your behavior? Jesus the God-man is the only one who can reconcile us to both God and one another.