Face to Face with the King

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Please enjoy the following sermon. We are back in the book of Esther, and we're in chapter five today.

If you've not been with us, we have been going through Esther, and we have now reached the halfway mark of this book.

A lot has already happened, and more is yet to come.

We've seen, if you remember, the Jews living in Persia, still without their land, as subject to an ungodly pagan ruler who makes laws according to his pleasure that cannot be changed.

We saw a man rise up and come to power that desires to destroy the chosen people of God.

And it uses all the might and force of the kingdom to accomplish just that.

And while this plan is revealed as the story unfolds, we find out that all along, from the very beginning of the story,

God had been at work behind the scenes to place a certain young woman in a specific place, at a specific time, for a specific purpose.

That was one of the high points of the book. We saw that in chapter four last time, when Mordecai had told

Esther that perhaps she had come to the position of queen for the very reason to save her people, to be their mediator, to be their intercessor.

She was in the position to go to the king to plead for the lives of the

Jews. The Lord had placed her there without her even realizing it, so that she could be the very means through which he would save his people from this looming destruction.

The passage before us today is another scene of great importance in the story.

Really, it sets the tone, it sets the direction for the rest of the book.

Facing death, under the threat of death, the queen goes now to the king.

And the question is, what will happen? Will the to her, or will she indeed, as she had said at the end of the previous chapter, perish?

That's no doubt the question that the Jews, as well as Esther, were asking.

They can do nothing but wait and see. And so I want to now look at these events as they unfold in the first few verses, or the first eight verses of Esther chapter five.

We're going to read the text, and then we're going to walk through the narrative first. We're going to examine three scenes, or within this episode as a whole.

We'll look at first Esther's approach as she goes to the king.

And we'll look at the king's response to Esther approaching him. And then lastly, we'll look at Esther's request.

And then what we'll do after, we'll bring it all together, and we'll draw some some application out of the whole.

I'd like to really get into it right away without spending any more time on introductions.

And so if you would look at Esther chapter five, beginning in verse one. On the third day,

Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king's palace, in front of the king's quarters, while the king was sitting on his royal throne inside the throne room opposite the entrance to the palace.

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. 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.

And Esther said, if it please the king, let the king and Haman come today to a feast that I've prepared for the king.

Then the king said, bring Haman quickly so that we may do as Esther has asked.

So the king and Haman came to the feast that Esther had prepared. And as they were drinking wine after the feast, the king said to Esther, what is your wish?

It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.

Then Esther answered, my wish and my request is, if I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it please the king to grant my wish and fulfill my request, let the king and Haman come to the feast that I'll prepare for them.

And tomorrow I will do as the king has said. Let's begin by considering Esther's approach.

If you think back in chapter four, we saw this exchange between Mordecai and his cousin.

He had come to the palace, you remember, to inform Esther of this edict to kill all the

Jews and asked her to plead with the king for the lives of the people.

But Esther was hesitant, wasn't she? She needed a little bit of convincing, and so Mordecai had responded to her by telling her that it is perhaps for this very reason, to save the

Jews, that she may have become queen. And Esther asks Mordecai and all the

Jews in the capital to fast for three days, and she and her women would join them in this three -day fast, and then she will go to their lament, and she would most likely die for doing so.

That's how that last chapter ended, this cliffhanger, if you will.

And now in verse one, in chapter five, we pick up right where we left off. On that third day of that feast,

Esther now goes to the king. She's fasted, she's besieged the time has now come for her to go and act, and she prepares herself.

She puts on her royal robes. The Persians paid very close attention to one's clothing, not only in the presence of the king, but also within the palace complex itself.

You remember that was why Mordecai was not allowed to enter and had to stay at the king's gate, because he was clothed in ashes and sackcloth.

It's very similar to how we dress for formal events or certain jobs.

But now Queen Esther, rather, acts as a queen. She puts on the appropriate attire that allows her to enter the throne room.

Of course, the circumstances are serious, and what is about to happen is of great importance.

It is of, it is most appropriate for her to put on these royal garments. We see this, this shift in, of scenery.

If you notice, then in verse one, the king is referenced three times. It says his palace, his quarters, and his sitting on his throne.

We're moving now from this mourning, this lamenting, the crying out in the city with sackcloth and ashes, and fasting into the very presence of the king.

Esther is headed toward the inner chambers, to the very throne room of the most powerful person in Persia, if not the world at the time.

To the one who really holds life and death in his hand. Imagine her just walking from her chamber toward that room.

She might be robed in these extravagant clothes, but underneath that there's a heart of great unrest, as she readies herself to be face to face with death.

You remember that law from chapter four, verse 11, that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the court without being called by him, they were to be put to death, unless Ahasuerus would raise his golden scepter.

And there were no exceptions, not even for his own wife. And she had not been called.

She had not been invited. In fact, she hadn't even seen her husband for at least 30 days prior.

And this law, this law was not, it really was not an empty threat.

There are excavations from another capital city of the Persian kingdom that have shown depictions of the

Persian king seated on the throne, holding the scepter in his hand, and he's flanked by some of his officials, and one of them is holding an ax.

On top of that, the renowned church historian Philip Schaff shares a case about Ahasuerus, who beheaded some of his own engineers because one of their constructions had failed.

And we've already learned how Vashti had been removed from the king's presence after refusing to come, after he had called for her.

Esther is up against all of this, but then there's another law still.

The very edict that decreed the death of all the Jews. If she was to go to intercede for them, and even if her life would be spared here, her husband would find out that she too was one of them, and according to that law would still have to die.

And he loved the Persians and the Medes. We saw in chapter 1, verse 19, could not be repealed.

It couldn't be altered. More literally, it actually means it couldn't pass away. Esther knew who she was meeting, and she knew what was at stake.

In fact, she had expressed that very thing at the end of the previous chapter when she said, if I perish,

I perish. The Hebrew construction there conveys a sense of certainty.

She goes facing death. She can only hope that this golden scepter would be raised and grant her life.

I notice that she also goes by herself. Mordecai is not with her. The Jews in the capital are outside the gates mourning and waiting.

She's to go to plead for them, but there's no one to plead for her. She stands all alone. Tensions are high.

She had no audible voice from God that had told her to go. The people have no idea if salvation was going to be on the horizon, or if they would again hear about a queen that is going to be replaced.

And so she enters that inner court. She comes into the presence of the king, having fasted, put on her royal attire.

There's now nothing more she can do at that very moment. Facing death, will she see that scepter being raised, or the executioner step forward?

But then the king responds to her in verses two and three. He sees her standing there in her royal garments.

She doesn't say a word. Ahasuerus looks at her, and she wins his favor. Against all expectations, he raises this scepter, this sign of power and authority, and he makes clear that her life is spared, that she is pardoned from the law that said her life would be taken.

Esther doesn't receive what she expected, but gains favor instead. She approaches.

She touches the scepter of gratitude and thanksgiving. Her life was spared.

Xerxes did not have to. He doesn't gain much from it. He doesn't need, apparently he doesn't need

Esther. He hadn't had any need for her for a month. He's got numerous concubines.

Women were a commodity to him really. Surely he could replace Esther with another at any time, yet he pardons.

But not only does he grant her life, he goes beyond that. Look in verse three.

We read, 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.

The king knows that she's come for a purpose. Her attire, the law that cost her her life, could cost her her life.

It's clear she's come with a purpose, and so he offers her to fulfill her request.

Even to the half of my kingdom, he said. There's a figure of speech that expresses this great generosity.

It allows one to express their request freely without hindrance to the king.

You remember Herod in Mark chapter six at his birthday used the same expression when his niece comes and does this dance for him and all his guests, and he's so pleased with it that he promises her whatever she asks, up to half of his kingdom.

And then he, no matter how sorry he felt about this request, ends up giving her what she desires, the head of John on a platter.

That's the most generous offer from the king to his queen. Not even Haman, who was over all the officials in all the kingdom, had received such an offer.

Don't let this go unnoticed here, this change in the king. There's a change in this relationship, not only because of what

Esther was facing regarding the law, but Ahasuerus himself. Remember Vashti had been removed for much less.

This queen now enters his throne room without being called, and now he is seeking to fulfill her request.

His affection that had been cold toward her for a while, seems to have turned once again.

The Lord has heard the praying and the fasting of Esther and the people. And what he has done is he has turned the king's heart, as Proverbs 21 verse one says, the king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the

Lord. He turns it wherever he will. We see the same thing, similar thing in Daniel, when he, the prophet goes and speaks to Nebuchadnezzar's son,

Belshazzar. And he talks to him about his father's humbling. And he explains to him that Nebuchadnezzar was humbled, so that he would know that the most high

God rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he will.

Of course God had raised up Cyrus 50 to 60 years prior to Esther to fulfill the prophecies of Jeremiah.

He then stirred up the spirit of Cyrus to allow the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple.

The Lord is able to erect even the godless according to his purposes and the good of his people.

That's what's going on here. By the Lord's hand, unknown to Xerxes himself,

Esther's life is preserved. And instead of certain death, she finds favor and is told to ask whatever she desires.

She's no longer seen as an offender in the eyes of the king, but receives pardon and blessing.

And that blessing will not be withdrawn from her for the rest of the book. We could even say that it only increases to the point where she is eventually given the house of Haman and is instrumental in writing a new edict regarding the destruction of the

Jews. That's how much the Lord has turned the king to favor

Esther. On this last scene we see

Esther's request in verses four through eight. Or perhaps to be a little more precise, she makes two requests.

After having won her husband's favor and this generous offer of giving her essentially whatever she asked for, for the first time now

Esther speaks in this scene. And what she's saying is interesting in verse four.

And Esther said, if it pleased the king, let the king in Haman come today to a feast that I have prepared for the king.

Why is this interesting? Well she doesn't actually directly ask for the thing that she came for.

Everything she's gone through, the fasting, the seeking the Lord, the building the courage to even get to this point.

And she doesn't even address the problem that brought her there. That's not what we expect.

I mean wouldn't it make sense if she immediately put the danger of the Jews forward saying, oh king

I've come with the goal of pleading for the lives of my people. Your closest ally has plotted to destroy them.

This is a matter of greatest urgency. And so she asked for him as well as Haman, her greatest enemy, to join them, to join her for a feast.

What's up with that? Commentators have offered some answers. Some have suggested that she's purposely trying to set things up in a certain way so that Haman, Haman's fall would be great.

Or that she's running some intricate scheme as it were behind the scenes and is manipulating the king like a puppet to put him in a position where he cannot say no once she reveals her real intent.

I believe it's more likely that she's being wise and waiting for the right moment and making sure that she really has won the favor of the king.

Think of the context. Before she's going to make a request regarding a law that cannot be changed and condemns her to death, some confidence would be good that Ahasuerus is serious about his delight in her.

And his response even begins to show some degree of that confidence because he quickly calls for Haman to come to do as Esther had asked.

And the the ESV is actually not quite the best translation yet, I don't think. The King James and the

NASB, I believe, capture that sense a little bit better. They translate it as to do as Esther desires or as Esther has said.

A more literal translation still would read to do the word of Esther or to do according to the word of Esther.

It's as if the king now is obeying what Esther says and he's eager to do so.

In addition to his readiness now on another level of confidence is added because Haman's attendance.

One scholar points out that it's rather unusual to be invited to a banquet by the

Persian queen. Persian kings, you see, were very generally protective of their wives.

And we see this in later in chapter 7 and verse 8 when Ahasuerus witnesses

Haman on the couch with Esther as he seeks to plead for his life after it was revealed that he plotted to kill the

Jews. And he's immediately taken away as a result to be hanged. Rashti had a separate feast for the women only.

But here the king is very willing to do what his wife desires. So they join her and they they're drinking wine and the question again is posed in verse 6.

What is your wish? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom it shall be fulfilled.

Surely this time Esther would make her true request known. But once again she gives a similar answer to the first but not exactly the same.

She says my wish and my request is verse 8. If I have found favor in the sight of the king and if it pleased the king to grant my wish and fulfill my request let the king and Haman come to the feast that I will prepare for them and tomorrow

I will do as the king has said. She says if I have found favor with the king. One more time she makes sure that he's favorable towards her and advise the two of them to the second feast the following day.

Their attendance at that feast will show if she truly has found that favor. Of course this hesitancy

I believe is understandable. We've come to know in the Hasuerus as a man that acts rashly often according to what others put before him not much according to his own will.

And even life in the palace's queen has had its challenges if she doesn't get to be with her husband.

It's reasonable to question his immediate affection and to be wise how to go about such requests.

What we come away with is that by the power of the hidden hand of God Esther receives not what she expected but receives favor, receives pardon and blessing in the offer to request anything she desired.

Now there are a few things I'd like us to consider as we pull all of this together.

Esther going before the king facing death, finding his favor, having her request granted.

I think it's one of the most vivid pictures in the entire book of our relationship to the heavenly king.

I've wrestled with this all week. I'm telling you how to apply this text. No doubt there are different applications we could draw from this, but I pray it's from the

Lord. I couldn't, I could not get away from this. It weighed so heavy on me.

I trust that those of you who are in Christ can see this, how this applies to you.

And I pray that the Lord will bring this home to your hearts, because I think one day we will face a similar scenario.

What do I mean? I'm speaking about a theme that we don't necessarily enjoy speaking or thinking about.

A somber theme, a theme of tremendous importance. That is our death.

Of course we are not to be consumed by it, but we do well at times to consider it.

The reality of it and what is to come after. After all the physical death, what is it but a doorway into eternity.

And the enemy has been pretty successful, I'd say, in removing the thought of death from many people's minds.

Especially the younger generations, teenagers to adults. Those that feel the strength of their 20s.

Those that feel the comfort from having settled in a career and family in their 30s. They never think of it.

Life just seems to go on forever. Of course our wealth doesn't really add to our forgetfulness or only adds to our forgetfulness.

At the same time many elderly, many ill, are being murdered by so -called doctors, while soon -to -be parents give permission to have their children killed.

Death has become nothing but a means for convenience to some, while sin increases all the more.

And when it comes down to it, there are no more important things in life than our death.

Whether we die in Christ or outside of Christ. You see

Esther goes before a king facing death and there will be a day for every single one of us in this very room when we have to stand before the

King of glory, the King of holiness, justice, and righteousness.

That day has been fixed. It will not be moved.

It will not be cancelled in his appointment that you will not miss whether you want to or not.

You face death. Are you aware of that? You will die.

This life will come to an end. Whether you're young now or whether you're old, that heart in your chest will stop beating.

It may do so much quicker than you think. This life is fleeting.

It's a mist. It's a vapor. You might have 70 years.

By reason of strength 80. And each year seems to go faster than the one before.

And you're not even guaranteed those 70 or 80 years. You're not guaranteed next year.

Not even tomorrow. You're guaranteed to die. What does the scripture say?

It is appointed for man to die once and after that comes judgment. You will stand before the

Lord. One day the books will be opened and you must give an account to Him.

Is that not sobering? All of us ought to seriously consider that.

I want to ask you, those of you who know you're not in Christ, there are some of you here, you know you're not in Him.

As well as those of you who profess to be in Christ. What will you say on that day when you stand face to face not with the human king but the king of the universe?

I want to tell you something. You cannot put on your finest garment because you don't have one fine enough.

The finest one that you think you may have has holes, filth and dirt.

You'll be of no help gaining His favor. You can't take your parents with you either.

You can't take your friends with you to put in a good word for you. You'll stand there alone.

Everything open before the Lord. Everything laid bare before His eyes.

He knows every little sin. Everything done in secret and under the cover of darkness.

He will not let it slide. Don't fashion a God after your own image who will sweep your sin under the rug and forget about it.

The God of the Bible is no such God. He's a holy

God and only He is holy. He's glorious in holiness.

His eyes are too pure to see evil and look at wrong and tolerate it. He's light and there's no darkness at all.

No spot of sin. He's righteous in all His ways. He's without fault.

He's perfectly pure. Sin, evil cannot enter His presence.

And so don't think that you who are by nature sinful can enter into His holy presence.

On that day you face death. You face eternal death. The wages of sin is death.

Sin brings forth death. In fact whoever does not believe on the

Son of God is condemned already. Every seemingly small act of unrighteousness, every act of disobedience to His commands will lead to eternal separation from God.

First Corinthians 6. Some of you know this. It says do not be deceived. Some of you here are deceived still.

Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

There are more of these lists in the New Testament. And before any of you can say

I have not murdered a man, Christ Himself rebukes you.

He says if you're angry with someone you are a murderer. If you commit lust, looking with your eyes you're an adulterer.

And what are idolatry, greed, but sins of the heart. You see every thought, whether it be anger, lust, or greed known to no one but you condemn you before God.

Do you ever think about that? Does it even concern you?

Even in the slightest. We're talking about your very soul.

Do you understand the stakes? Eternal separation from God, facing the wrath of God for all eternity in a lake of fire.

There will not even be a drop of water to cool your tongue forever. You see

I'm not, I'm not trying to scare you. I don't believe anybody will be scared into heaven.

But you must understand the reality of facing the Divine King. And some of you have heard this a million times, but you're still deaf, you're still blind, and you're still stubborn.

And yes, it's possible to make a profession of Christ and not be in Him.

Some of the most terrifying words in all of Scripture are the words of Christ Himself. When He says what?

Not everyone who says to Me Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven. But the one who does the will of My Father is in heaven.

Are you ready? Are you ready to die? Are you ready to go before God?

Please think about this. Think about it while you still can.

You will not have another chance to reconsider on that day. You know we don't like to hear about this.

Some even condemn the putting forth of this, but it is true. It is the reality.

It is absolute certainty that you will stand before Him facing eternal death.

But, but praise be to God. No?

One of the greatest words in all the Scriptures. But God.

And facing death is not the only truth. It's not the only thing we even see in these verses regarding our facing death.

Esther was accepted by the King. She won favor. And what does this point us to but Christ?

Really? What else does it show us? Pardon and blessing are extended to her by the raising of the golden scepter.

The Holy King before whom we all must stand. His favor to the sinner is reached or handed to him in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Think about this. She was not called. She was not invited, not asked to enter into the presence of Xerxes.

Matthew Henry writes this. She was not called, but we are. She had a law against her.

We have a promise. Many a promise in favor of us. You are called.

Called to come humbly. Repent and believe is the invitation. Come unto

Christ. The call. He's rich in mercy to all who call on Him.

He will not withhold His pardon from you if you come to Him with a broken spirit, a contrite heart, with a godly grief, pleading with Him, repenting of your sin, acknowledging that you have sinned and broken

His law and deserve condemnation. But believe in Jesus Christ.

He has truly come. He's lived without sinning. He has paid the price for your sin.

He satisfied the wrath of God reserved for you in His death that you, that you in this chair may live.

Was it not sweet Christian? Is it not sweet to you still? Does it not make your soul sing for joy that He has opened your ears to hear the effectual call and you believed on the

Son of God for the forgiveness of sins, though the law condemns you to death? The grace of God is on your side and you came to Him and you received.

You received a garment far superior to royal robes.

You're clothed in Christ's righteousness and before God that righteousness belongs now to you.

It's credited to your account. Your sins remembered no more. The wrath of God satisfied by the death of the sinless one and you can now be in the presence of the

Holy King. Yes we come condemned to death, but it's the very same

King that has made a way for you to stand before Him and live. And that way is Jesus Christ alone.

And there is no other means of finding favor with God. And all of these, these hidden sins, these secret sins that will be made known on the face of those ones, all of them, they're taken away by Christ.

You see He pays for all of them. He doesn't leave a single one unpaid for you to deal with. Isn't that marvelous?

Now why then are some of you still not coming to Him? Why are you playing games with your soul?

Why do we as Christians at times still put so much faith in our service, in our

Bible reading, in our praying. Sure we're to pursue these things, but too often we take comfort in them.

Thinking surely the Lord is pleased with me because I'm doing X, Y, and Z. Yes He delights in us doing what

He commands us to do, but ultimately He's pleased with us because He's pleased with Christ in you and His favor upon you is based on Him alone.

There's another aspect to a relationship with God that we can see here. Asherah not only grants life to Esther, but generously offers to fulfill her request.

Now come openly and ask of her husband without holding back, without reservation.

Fear of death is turned into blessing. If an ungodly man, right, who has the power to destroy whole nations before him, who is under no compulsion to let this woman live, much less make such an awful.

And if even those of us who are evil give good things to our children, how much more will your

Father who is in heaven give good things to you now who ask of Him in Christ.

You can approach your Heavenly Father boldly. You can come before His throne. You have this generous promise.

Ask and you shall receive the promise that through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving you can make your requests known to Him continually without ceasing at any time.

You don't have to wait for the right time. You have the promise that if you ask according to His will, what is revealed in the

Scriptures, He will hear you in whatever you ask. You have the promise that He delights in giving good things to you who ask of Him.

What have you done with these promises? Have you grabbed a hold of them?

I think too often we don't. We're hesitant like Esther perhaps to ask, waiting for the right time, perhaps afraid to ask, too slow to take the promises, the privileges and blessings of being able to ask and put them to use.

We still trust in the arm of the flesh too much at times. I think we can solve our own problems because we're not always quite convinced we actually have the ear of God.

But you see Christian, the Lord has already given you the most valuable thing in Christ.

Everything you can ask for now will be nothing in comparison to Him. And if He gladly gave

Him for you, how much more will He give everything else to His beloved children if they would only come?

How easy it is for Him to fulfill your request if we ask.

If you ask in Christ according to His will, He will hold absolutely nothing back. And this blessing that we now have in Christ, it will last forever.

See Esther will not lose the favor of the king for the rest of the story. She gained it in chapter two when she was chosen queen.

Seemingly lost it when her husband decided not to be with her. But now she finds it once again. And this time it will not depart.

Brothers and sisters, the Lord has given you in Christ blessing and privilege that will not depart from you.

You will not one day find that your sins will no longer be washed away.

That you will be counted guilty once again for the ones that He has already paid for by His blood.

You will not find that one day Christ has withdrawn from you saying, I no longer count him or her among my sheep.

You will not find Him casting you aside, leaving you behind, letting go of you.

You will not find God's pardon in Him to run out for you. You will not lose

His favor in Christ. You will not find His ear closed to your requests, but find

Him in all things for all days faithful. And you're actually headed toward a greater blessing still.

If you're in Christ now, there is no need for fear of death. You can face it confidently because you will enter that blessing through the door of physical death.

And when you walk through that door you will experience the fullness of your Savior. Fully sanctified being in His very presence face to face.

We're headed for a never departing blessing and joy. It has already begun now, but it will increase when one day the dwelling place of God will be with man.

When He will dwell with them and they will be His people, and He will be with them as their

God forever. That is the pardon that you have in Christ before the king.

That is the blessing that you have from the King in Christ. So I want to ask one more time as we close, perhaps those of you who are not in Him.

Are you ready to face the King when His life comes to an end for you?

Will you enter with His people into a greater blessing still because you found His never -ending pardon and favor in Jesus Christ?

Or will you face that death, suffering, separation from God? These are weighty matters.

Consider them with all seriousness. Please and listen, listen to the call of the gospel to come to Christ by repentance and faith.

Esther went before the king alone without a mediator, without an intercessor. But there is one that is ready and willing to go before you.

And I promise you based on the Word of God, if you believe on Him, if you have faith in Him, that you too will find everlasting pardon and blessing before the

King. Let's pray. You can visit us at our website, graceedmonton .ca.