Esther 2026

We are beginning a brand new series.

In our evening services, we're gonna be working our way through this tremendous Old Testament story. The book of Esther chapter 1. So do turn there or you can follow along in this on the screen, and then we'll sing sands of time. And then after that, Rory's gonna come and preach this to us. ESster 1.

There's some great names in here, isn't there? I mean, really? This is what happened during the time of xerxes. The xerxes who ruled over 127 provinces stretching from India to cush. At that time, king xerxes reigned from his royal throne in the citadel of Susa.

And in the 3rd year of his reign, he gave a banquet for all his nobles and officials. The military leaders of Persia and media, the princes, and the nobles of the provinces were present. For a full 180 days, he displayed the vast wealth of his kingdom and the splendor and the glory of his majesty. When these days were over, the king gave a banquet, lasting 7 days in the enclosed garden of the king's palace for all the people from the least to the greatest who were in the citadel of Susa. The garden had hangings of white and blue linen, fastened with cords of white linen and purple material to silver rings on marble pillars.

There were couches of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement of porphyry marble, mother of pearl, and other costly stones. Wine was served in goblets of gold, each 1 different from the other. And the royal wine was abundant in keeping with the king's liberality. By the king's command, each guest was allowed to drink without restriction for the king instructed all the wine stewards to serve each man what he wished. Queen Vashti also gave a banquet for the women in the Royal Palace of King xerxes.

On the 7th day when King xerxes was high in spirits from wine. He commanded the 7 eunuchs who served him, mehomen, Bistha, Harbonna, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar, and carcass, to bring before him, Queen Vashti wearing her royal crown in order to display her beauty to the people and nobles for she was lovely to look at. But when the attendants delivered the king's command, Queen Vashti refused to come. Then the king became furious and burned with anger. Since it was customary for the king to consult experts in matters of law and justice, he spoke with the wise men who understood the times and were closest to the king, Karhena Shethar, Admatha Tarshish, Mares, Marcina, and Maemukan, the 7 nobles of Persia and media who had special access to the king and were highest in the kingdom.

According to the law, what must be done to Queen Vashti he asked? She has not obeyed the command of king xerxes that the eunuchs have taken to her. Then memo can replied in the presence of the king and the nobles. Queen Vashti has done wrong, and not only against the king, but also against all the nobles and the peoples of all the provinces of king xerxes. For the queen's conduct will become known to all the women, and so they will despise their husbands and say, King Xerxes commanded Queen Bashti to be brought before him, but she would not come.

This very day, the Persian and median women of the nobility who have heard about the queen's conduct will respond to all the king's nobles in the same way and there will be no end of disrespect and discord. Therefore, if it pleases the king, let him issue a royal decree and let it be written in the laws of Persia and media which cannot be repealed. That Vashti is never again to enter the presence of King xerxes. Also, let the king give her royal position to someone else who is better than she. Then when the king's edict is proclaimed throughout all his vast realm, all the women will respect their husbands from the least to the greatest.

The king and his nobles were pleased with this advice. So the king did as Maemukam proposed. He sent dispatches to all parts of the kingdom to each province in its own script and to each people in their own language proclaiming that every man should be ruler over his own household using his native tongue. Thank you. Okay.

Welcome everybody. For those who don't know me, my name is Rory. 1 of the members of staff here at at Cornerstone. And, Hopefully, you're excited by, the next few weeks in the book of Vesta. I thought before we got into it, it'd be worth saying a couple of things.

I mean, Just to just to start off with, we all love stories, don't we? I mean, I you might remember from a very young age being excited to hear those famous words of once upon a time. And, we love them. We love stories, whether that's a novel or an audiobook for those you can't read. And I know those who do read despise those who like listening to audiobooks, whether it's a a great TV show or a film, We all love and connect to story, don't we?

Stories make us laugh. They can make us cry. If you're watching something with my wife, they make you high behind the pillow. They they do stuff to us that we really do connect with them. And I think you you'd agree that the best elements of of a story is that they have compelling characters.

They have characters that we resonate with. They have characters that are exciting. They have engaging conflict. So there are there are villains, and there are good guys. There are there are cliff hangers.

There's humor, and I was there's more than just the humor of laughing at people's names, in in here. There's drama, there's plot twists. We're gonna see all of that. And Esther, the book of Esther has all of these things. And so I would encourage you if you haven't already read Esther after this sermon to go go away, read the whole book.

Because if you read the whole book, you'll you'll understand what's going on. And it will be I mean, I remember the very 1st time I read Esther as a teenage lad. And, oh, it was so good. I mean, I was only meant to be doing a chapter a day or something like that, but I had to finish it. It was just so gripping.

Had to find out what happened. So you know it's a good story when you have to get to the end, and that's what Esther does for us. Now when we come to the Old Testament and we're coming to read Old Testament narrative, we've gotta be a little bit careful because we have to make sure that we read it by understanding the bigger picture of what's going on. Otherwise, what you end up doing is you come to a book like Esther, and you just you end up making morals that actually isn't what the intended author has, for us. We must remember when we come to old testament narrative that this is gonna teach us something about god's redemptive plan.

That that means that he will rescue his people ultimately fulfilled in the person of the lord Jesus Christ. This book yes. It's a book in Jewish history. Yes. It's a book for those who know about it that establish establishes a a celebration called Purim.

But ultimately, this is a Christian book. And it points us to the person of the lord Jesus Christ and what it means to be a follower of him. So we've gotta make sure we understand the bigger picture, and we've gotta be thinking all the time that the scriptures are pointing us to the very person of the lord Jesus Christ. And so just a quick note in terms of historical placement, I've got a timeline. I know.

Wow. What a guy. I'm thinking about the time and place. So the the book of Esther is, set in the Persian empire. So just imagine in Persia.

Not hard to think about today. It's hot. No. Okay. Move on.

And, if you know about the person, the Persian empire come after the Babylonian empire, and we are in this this area here. I've even got a laser pointer, a proper teacher, in the period of king xerxes. So we're probably looking around this period of 4 8 5 4 8 6 to to 4 6 4 or 4 6 5. In terms of of the bible story, we've gone through the the time where Israel had been taken into exile by the Babylonian Empire. If you know, king Neddy Keneza, he'd taken, he'd conquered, Jerusalem.

He'd taken the people. He'd taken them to Babylon. But after that, the Persian and the Mees takeover, and Cyrus, says that the Jews can go back to their homeland. And many of the Jews did go, but there are others and there are characters in the story who stayed in the Persian empire and sort of assimilated. They sort of became part of the culture, and that's kind of where we are in terms of the biblical picture.

Is that all all good, everyone with me on that. That's not part of my sermon. So, now I'm gonna pray. It's classic. And then my sermon starts.

So you can't be asleep yet. Don't be asleep. Okay. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much, for this wonderful story of, Esther.

We pray father that even as we read that, you'd have been stirring our hearts and exciting us about the things that you will teach us. We pray father, that you will show us just how great you are. What a powerful god you are, what a incredible savior and king the lord Jesus is as we consider this story. So do help us tonight, help us to stay alert and awake, with your help. We know we can do this.

And so we pray that you do, and we pray these things in Jesus' name. Oh, man. Well, begin by asking you, who runs the world? And the answer is not girls. Who rules the world?

Who is the most powerful? Who is the person who is in control? What does that look like in our world? Now I imagine as soon as I ask that that question, you'll have a lot of answers coming to mind. Only last week, we had a a man become the 1st trillionaire.

Wow. Yeah. At 1110000000000 dollars, the 1st trillionaire, Elon Musk. Is it is this the man with all the money. Does he have all the power?

Has he all got the control? Is he the 1 in control? I was reading a a news article just last week, and it it reminded us that at this time, we've seem to have gone back to a a 19 hundreds power dynamic, don't we? You think about world wars, you think just after the world wars, we have these leaders, these sort of great powerful, all all so they seem to portray themselves as great, powerful leaders, don't we? Now is it is it putin that's in control?

Xi Jinping, if I said that right? Is it trump? Are these those who are in control? They've got the money. They've got the wealth.

They've got the influence. They've got the power. Is it our influence? Is there other authorities that you think they're the ones who are in control? Who's in control?

That's my 1st point. The king is in control. The king is in control. As we read Esther 1, I I don't know if you thought about who's in control here. At 1st glance, it seems obvious.

Right? If you were just scanning down that chapter, you might wanna do it now, what is the answer to the question who's in control? It seems obvious to me it would seem that if you just look at it, it's Xerxes, isn't it? King Xerxes is the 1 that this chapter is all about. He he's he's he's mentioned by name, by king, or just by what he's doing, just under 40 times, I think.

I tried to count myself. He's he he he feels like this is the man in control. Straight away we're introduced to him, aren't we in verse 1? This is what happened. During the time of xerxes.

The xerxes who ruled over 127 provinces stretching from India to cush. At that time, King xerxes reigned from his royal throne in the citadel of Susa. You wanna know what we're meant to think when we we we read those 1st words, you're meant to think it looks like Xerxes is the 1 in control, doesn't it? He's the 1 who's in control. He's the 1 who rules.

If you know anything about Persian history, the title for Persian Kings, which was 1st taken on by Cyrus or Darius, 1 of the 2. Was king of kings. And that's the name that xerxes is gonna adopt for himself. He's the king of kings. He's the goat is what he's saying there.

And he wants to show off. He wants to show it off. And so verse 3, you'll notice he he he puts on this incredible banquet for all the most important people in the kingdom. And did you see how long this banquet goes on for verse 4 to 5? I mean, I don't know how what the longest party you've been to.

You know, sometimes you get people's weddings go on for, you know, days. Some, you know, some traditions have a week long celebration. His his Zurich's party for a full 180 days. This is a 6 month party. I I looked up what the longest party was, and this was it.

6 months of partying. And then once you've done that, you know, once you've finished the 6 month party, you think, well, what should we do? Oh, Zurich thinks, let's have another party. And so on after a 6 month party goes, well, 1st 5. We're gonna have another party in my garden, for 7 days.

So then he has a 7 day garden party in this citadel of of Susa. He's trying to show that he is the king of the world. Xerxes is portraying himself as the king of the world. And if you read through the the passage, you would have seen on almost felt like the way that he's described, and the ways that his party is described, and the way that his palace is described, it feels almost godlike, doesn't it? Doesn't it feel like he's god?

Did he notice the words? He's he's he's firstly look at his vast empire? That he's the king over. He's the king over 127 provinces stretching from India all the way to Cush. Oh, I've got a picture of that, if you wanna see, is is that's his that's his empire in yellow.

And and and really that region that you see there, India to Kush is the known world. There's not much else known outside of this world. And so in other words, all the world that you see King Xerxes is the king of. It was the the kingdom that they might say that the sun never went down on. And then you look at the the words.

Sorry. So Keep up there. In verse 4. What is he trying to show off in verse 4? Well, he's displaying his vast wealth, the splendor, and glory of his majesty.

Aren't they words that we would usually gift to god that he's he has splendor, and he has wealth, and he has glory, and he's majestic. But these are words given to xerxes in this passage. In the whole book of Esther, in all 167 verses, Zurich's name is mentioned 190 times. He's displayed here as a provider of food and drink, where is he having his 2nd party, but in a garden? What does that remind us of?

And then you look at the decorations. It's just elaborate, it's opulent. I don't know if you've ever looked. When people are really rich, they just buy things that are really expensive, but have no purpose for them. I always feel.

I read read about someone who actually had a a gold toilet. What is the point? But, you know, you look at the decorations of this place as there's linen that is blue and white. That that sort that sort of gives us flashbacks to maybe temple or tabernacle imagery. There's gold and silver couches.

If you want a new bed or a new sofa, would you like a gold or silver 1? Yeah. Well, that's what that's what, Xerxes has. Then there's this amazing pavement of, like, stones that I guess most of us aren't familiar with in verse 6. You'll see porphyry, whatever the dickens that is, marble, mother of pearl, and other cuss all these costly stones, this this rich royal stuff.

And then these goblets, such a weird detail such a interesting detail. Every single gold goblet with a different design. It's excessive, isn't it? But all of this is kind of giving us a feel that he is the 1 in control, that he is in charge that he's almost god like, and you'd look at the length of time that the 2nd party goes on, it goes on for 7 days. The 2 groups of people that Tom did so well in reading, well done, Tom.

I haven't given him a no, don't give him a clap. 7 lots of people. 7 is the the number of god, the complete number, 7 days of creation. And look how generous he is in verse 8. This party that is for the least and the greatest, all people by the king's command, each guest was allowed to drink without restriction.

Gosh, for the king instructed all the wine stewards to serve each man what he wished. Here they are. Their servants walking around with the greatest bottle of champagne base. Did anyone know what the biggest bottle of champagne is called? Pardon?

No. It's called Melchizedek. Hey. See fun facts as well as a good 17. There you go.

And they're coming around giving and anybody can have as much as they want, or you can go either you can go hard, or you can go easy. It's up to you. Whatever we wanna do. And even Vashti, who holds her own banquet, has to do at at King Zerxes' royal palace in verse 9. None can compare to King Zerxes, can they?

He is the 1 in charge. He's the 1 who has the power. This is a quote because he drank his own Kool Aid Xerxes. He says this. I am Xerxes, the great king, the only king, the king of all countries which speak all kinds of languages, the king of this entire big, far reaching were world.

That's searches for you. And he wants to show everybody that he is in charge. And so you can imagine a people that find themselves in the Persian empire who think this here I don't know where god is, but here is a a man who's great, who has riches, And if we fall in line with him and we just copy what's going on in our culture, we'll do okay in this world. Isn't that our world though? Now is it great that Elon Musk has now got 1110000000000.

Oh, wow. All those people that are authorities in our life we look up to, and we wanna chase, and we have to listen to their ideology, and we have to follow their ways. And, obviously, that makes sense because Exaxes is in control, isn't he? Or is he? Take a closer look.

Is Xerxes really in control? Here's my 2nd point. Is the king in control? Is the king in control. Look firstly with me at verse 10 to 12.

On the 7th day, when King Zerxes was in high spirits from the wine, he commanded the 7 units who served him, Mohuman, Vista, Hobona, Bigther, Abakther, Zithar, and carcass, to bring before him Queen Vashti wearing her royal crown in order to display her beauty to the people and nobles for she was lovely to look at. When the attendants delivered the king's command, Queen Vashti refused to come. Then the king became furious and burned with anger. So you had the choice at this king's banquet to go easy or to go hard. And Xerxes has clearly gone for the latter option on the old drink front hasn't he.

He's gone hard. And after he's had a lot of drink, he thinks, oh, I've got a bright idea because usually, you have your brightest idea when you're drunk. And he's thought, mhmm, I have a lovely, lovely, beautiful wife, and I'd like to show her after all my mates. Wow. What a great idea.

So I guess it's 7 UNics, powerful men, audio go lads. Go and get go and get Vashti so that we could all have a good ogle at my wife. And so off they go. And these are powerful men, by the way, these UNics, and they come into Vash in. They say, come on.

We wanna we wanna all look at you. Weird. And she says, no. And as soon as xerxes hears this report, that he has been refused, He completely flies off the handle, doesn't he? He's raging.

He burns with anger probably not helped by the fact that he's completely piled full of booze. And that's it for him. This is a man who's meant to be the ruler of the world. And what you clearly see here is that he's ruled by a grape. This is a man who's meant to control all things, but he can't even control his own anger.

This is a man who is said here, I am Zurich. He's the great king, the only king of the king of all countries which meet all kinds of languages, The king of his entire big, far reaching world. But when he calls his wife to come in, she says, no. Which is quite funny, isn't it? I'm the king of the world.

Can you tell Vash to come in here? She said, no. What? No? The king?

No. I'm not having it says Vashti. I'm not coming. And so he's utterly offended, and he cannot be offended. Can he?

He's like a petulant child, sir, because he's here, isn't he? He's raging that he's had some slight disobedience to him. And so something needs to be done. And so he in comes the whole cabinet Listen, this is now an emergency because my wife said no to come in to be ogled at. Let's get in all the 7 lads who are who are the most wise men in the in the in the in the in the note.

And and what does he say? Verse 15, according to law, because, obviously, she's broken law here, hasn't she? Saying, no. That's against the law surely. That's a crime.

I'm offended. According to the law, what must be done to Queen Vashti? He asks She has not obeyed the commander of King Xerxes that the units have taken to her. Something needs to be done. And so Memukan, what a name that is, stands up and he backs his king, because it's probably politically expedient for him to do so.

And what does he do? Well, what does someone who's offended want to hear from those who are close, they wanna hear that the problem is bigger than it actually is. And so that's what Mnuchin tells him. He says, look, not only has she gone against you. She's gonna she's cause she's gonna cause the biggest stir in the whole of the empire because, you know, if they hear that Queen Vashti disobeyed you, hot, all the wise are gonna be running riot There's gonna be protests on the street.

There's gonna be women just walking out on their husbands. It's gonna be a disaster. You know? And and and verse 80, he says there will be no end of disrespect and discord because of this 1 little tiny act of disobedience, Mmoo could say it's gonna be worldwide. The consequences of this.

And so he then suggests this decree. And you'll notice that the decree verse 19 to 22 is that Vashti will never ever return to the presence of King Xerxes that her position will go to, as it says, in the verses, a better candidate, and an edict will be read about this all over the knee all over the empire. And then when they hear about how you dealt with Vashti, those women will fall right in line. That's what he's saying. Then they will respect their husbands because it was close before They were about to disrespect, but now they know.

And so in his drunkenness, this obviously pleases xerxes, and it is done. And that la that e that goes out to the hole kingdom. But I don't know if you spot the irony there. He's sent a decree to say that he's banishing Vashti for her disobedience so that now the whole kingdom knows that Vashti disobeyed him just because he was slightly offended. So ironic.

See, xerxes we have seen is ruled by a grape. He's ruled by his anger. He can't control his wife, and I don't know if you noticed. He can't even make his own decisions. He didn't make this decision, did he?

That's a pattern you're gonna see through the whole book. I don't think someone might correct me afterwards. I'm pretty sure Zurich's makes no decision on his own in the whole book. This is the king of the world. He's so fragile, isn't he?

Do you see the folly of giving ourselves to such men? To going after such men, for going after riches that clearly don't transform, for going after leaders who are ruled so by their their passions, the leaders in this world are just mere human beings who are ruled by pride and lack of control and anger. And what consequences those things bring? I mean, can you imagine the next day? Zerxes wakes up.

He's probably got a wee bit of a sore head. Did I really get rid of my wife for that? Never to see her again. Can't be repealed by law. They'll they seem so powerful.

I know. But I think if you have a closer look at people and closer look at men and women, so fragile, so unstable, so easy to lose control, so easy to receive a vote of no confidence. And so Here's the question. Is the king really in control? Is he really in control?

Yes. He is in control. Just not this 1. And so here's my 3rd point. The king is in control.

The king is in control. The true king god is the 1 who is in control. I don't know if you noticed in the 1st chapter how many times was god mentioned. None. Here's something else for you.

If you've never read the book of Esther, god's not mentioned once. 1 of 2 books that and song of songs, not once is God mentioned. I mean, that has upset people before thinking, well, why why is it in our Bible? Because even though he's not mentioned, even though he's hidden, he's always there at work. You know, we talked about great films and maybe great theater productions.

There's a director, not seen just out in there directing all things, making sure that all things go as the film needs to go, as the theater production needs to go, that director is god. He is the 1 who is truly in control. He is the sovereign 1. He is the 1 that has been working. All of these things that have happened.

He is the 1 that has has known that Zerxes is gonna hold a ridiculously long a feast of 180 days and a 7 day banquet. He knows that in his hands, here is Azerxes who is so controlled by wine and his anger that he would fly off the handle, and he would would cast out Vashti, but that her position would be given to a better candidate of which we find out is Esther later on. He is in control of all these things. He is 1 that is creator of the world, not just the ruler. He is the ruler, but he's creator.

He's a displayer of wealth and splendor and glory and majesty the heavens declare his glory. Creation screams out that god is who god is. He's the provider of all good things. He is the 1 who is slow to anger, though. He is the 1 who is controlled by no passion, controlled by no man, controlled by no woman.

He is 1 who receives no counsel or he doesn't need counsel advice. He's god. He's omniscient. He knows all things. And when Jesus, the king came, Oh, how gloriously different to xerxes he is.

1 who doesn't just use and abuse people for his own benefit, but 1 who actually serves all the way, who would even bend the knee and wash his disciples' feet, who would even go to the most excruciating of death in the the cross. The 1 who was humble, the 1 who was self controlled, how gorgeous and how different Jesus is to xerxes. And then at the end of the Bible, we get given an even better picture of Jesus, not better, but a more round picture of Jesus. Revelation is an amazing book. Because like this book, it's written to a people that could see an empire like Rome and think they're in control.

And it would be easy to say, let's just follow the empire let's just fall in. Let's just assimilate. Let's just live as they live. And the apostle John, as he is in that state as he lives in that that that time. Jesus personally comes down, and he peels back the curtain, and he reveals to him that there is 1 on the throne who is bigger and better and more glorious and it was always in control, the lamb himself.

And so we have these verses from revelation. I'm just gonna read 3 verses, 3 passages. Sorry. Revelation 19. I love this verse.

I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse whose rider is called faithful and true with justice. He judges and wages war. His eyes are like blazing fire and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no 1 knows, but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the word of god.

The armies of heaven were following him riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen white and clean, coming out of his mouth, is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. He will rule them with an iron scepter. He treads the wine press of the fury of the wrath of god or my team. And then verse 16 of that, that pastor says this. On his robe and on his thigh, he has this name written, king of kings, and lord of lords.

Revelation 19 9, then the angel said to me, write this. Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the lamb. And he added these are the true words of god. And Revelation 21 5 to 6 says he who was seated on the throne saying, I am making everything new. Then he said write this down for these words are trustworthy and true.

He said to me, it is done. I am the alpha and the omega the beginning and the end to the 30, I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. I mean, that's a much better phrase than Xerxes, isn't it? I'm King Xerxes. Look at Jesus.

He's the ruler, not just off the known world, not even just off the entire world, but he is the ruler of the entire universe. This is a Jesus who doesn't give a banquet for 180 days, but gives an eternal wedding supper of everlasting joy. He beckons people to his garden city in Revelation 22. Oh, ice cream. We could do with that, couldn't we?

This is 1 who is truly the king of kings and the lord of lords. Sort of sinister when you say it in that that music, isn't it? He's the king of kings. He's the lord of lords. That title doesn't belong to xerxes.

That title doesn't belong to any other. But the 1 who is truly the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. So who is in control? Who's in control? It's not Xxes.

It's not Xxes. I mean, where Xerxes now? Where is this kingdom? Where is his porphyry, marble floor? Gone?

Who's in control? It's not any leader. It's not the richest man in the world. It's not the world leaders who bathe for power at the moment. It's not you.

You're not the ruler. You're not in control. The only 1 who is in control of all things is King Jesus. And so what will you do with that? What will you do with that?

Well, are you gonna be 1 who follows the world and follows its leaders and does what this world tells you to do because it's practical. Are you gonna be 1 who says I'm gonna decide what I do? I'm gonna not submit to King Jesus, but I'll submit to all others. We'll even This passage hopefully is showing you how catastrophic that will be. Or will you follow Jesus?

Isn't he supremely better? You might not always see him. You might not always see what he's doing. It may be hidden, but we know he's always at work. And as we go through this amazing book of Esther, you're gonna see it.

And you're gonna see it as we look at Esther, and it points us to what he does on the cross. So who you're gonna follow? The 1 Who isn't in control or the 1 who is? Let's pray. Father, we thank you again for this wonderful story.

We thank you for what it shows us about our world in a sense. It's so easy to think that others are in control that others have the power. It's so easy for us to try and go for it ourselves and be ruled by our own passions. But this passage shows us that there is no 1, no man, no woman in this world who is in control. But there is 1 behind the scene.

There is 1 who is knitting all these things together for his glorious, redemptive plan of salvation. And that 1 is you. We thank you for the fact that you are just so different to the rulers of this age. We thank you that you are creator You are sustainer, you are a displayer, you are provider, you are the 1 who is the lord's gracious and compassionate and slow to anger, controlled by none. We thank you for the lord Jesus Christ and how utterly different he is.

We thank you that he was the 1 who left his crown behind to serve us to the to serve us to the cross in the ultimate act of humility. We thank you also what that achieved that he is the god man who is ruling the entire universe that he is the god man who put an offer, a banquet, the water of life for anybody without restriction to drink off. We praise you that he is the king of kings and the lord of lords. And so we pray that we will bow the knee to him and to him alone in his name, amen.