Growth and Growth.

Eleven men on a Galilean hillside, listening to their leader. Go and tell all the world, i have all authority, and i'll be with you. All the doubts and worries of the last few days seem like a dream...He's alive, and He's coming with us. It's all going to be ok.

Why did Jesus choose just twelve? You know He could have efficiently disciples a thousand times that number. Why twelve when one was a betrayer? Why not disciple all of Israel, and send them out? Now you're a light to the nations.

The church always works when it's the shepherd boy agains the giant. The church is Ruth, starving and looking for mercy, the church is Esther, casting herself on the mercy of the king, the church is Jeremiah preaching from the sewer, the church is the unpopular kids at Corinth High School. And in that way, the church thrives. Jesus loses about twenty thousand followers in a day in John 6, and then turns to His guys and asks if they're leaving too. He doesn't count gain and loss like we do, His ushers aren't in the balcony counting because the Kingdom of God is not a matter of flesh and blood.

The Kingdom advances as Bibles are opened in caves in northern Iraq. Demons flee as the Gospel is proclaimed from makeshift pulpits in primary schools in southern England. The sick are healed as 'thus saith the Lord,' rings out from a multi million dollar campus in Texas.

Trendy music isn't growing the Church. Neither a light show, or the best kids work in town, or the greatest summer camps, or the newest programs, or the biggest offerings. Those things might grow a church, but not the Church.

The Church grows as one man finds other faithful men to find other faithful men. It always has. Not the rich and the famous, but the poor, the weak, the needy. Men like you and me.

Reading Esther Like Christians

We've been looking at Esther together in Children's Church over the last couple of weeks, and, as we've done so, i've done my best to teach the 5 through 11 year olds in the class how to read Esther as if it were a book of the Bible.

There are a lot of problems with this, not least that no one ever seems to pray and wait on the LORD in Esther, people just do things (unless, of course, that is the Christian way of doing things, but more of that another time perhaps). The biggest issue with Esther i've tried to teach though, is chapter one, specifically, encouraging us to read Esther 1 as Christians, not as feminists.

A popular understanding of Esther 1 goes like this. The King has a party, get's drunk and wants his wife to entertain his friends. Poor Vashti, we think,  and we applaud her bold and brave stand against this appalling misogynist.

but what if we were to read the book like Christians? What if we were to read this slightly odd book as if it were part of the Bible? What if we were to look for the same themes in Esther that we see in the rest of the Bible?

Let's move from the least important to the most. First of all, imagine if i held a dinner party for my closest friends, but Rachel is nowhere to be seen. We've obviously eating take out. Wouldn't i be weird if at some point i didn't want my friends to see my wife? To enjoy her company with me? It would be very strange if every time we had people over to our house i hid Rachel away. No! She is, literally, my better half, go get Rachel, and let's enjoy our marriage and our friends. There's no hint of misogyny there is there?

Second, Jeremiah Burroughs, by way of Dave Bish says, 'the lives of those who are married, ought to resemble the blessedness, as far as possible, the condition of a people reconciled to God...Married people should live so that all who behold the sweetness, the happiness of their lives, may be reminded by this of the sweetness and happiness which is in the church's communion with Jesus Christ.'

Which leads us to point number three. Look at the language and images used in Esther 1. Ahasuerus is the King of the known world, and he loves to share his abundance with his people. There is a 180 day feast, followed by a 7 day feast in the garden. What else do we find in the garden? White cotton curtains, violet hangings fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rods. The feast, the great communion with the great king takes place in the citadel, in the inner sanctuary, which looks like a garden-temple.

And what happens on the seventh day in the garden temple? The queen rejects her king! The king wants to walk with his bride in the cool of the day, but she's hiding in the bushes and won't come out.  She, like Adam and Eve before her, and you and I after her, rebels against the king, and is exiled from the garden.

If we really believe the Bible is one coherent book, telling one coherent story, then we shouldn't let whispers of that story in any individual book escape our notice. We should look at Esther 1 as a retelling of Genesis 1. We should look at Vashti and see our refusal to delight in the Lord's goodness. We should see the abundance of our King, our Maker, our Redeemer and our Husband, and not let anything stop us placing our delight in Him.

We should read Esther 1 like Christians.

Cool Things Happen On The Third Day

Jonah was three days and nights in the belly of the great fish, on the third day he was vomited out. Cool things happen on the third day...

Abraham took the son of the promise up the mountain on the third day, and he was ransomed for a sacrifice that God provided. 

Genesis 22:3-5  So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. ⁴ On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.⁵ Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy^[a] will go over there and worship and come again to you.” 

As they walked through the wilderness, it was on the third day that the LORD met Moses and gave Him the law. On the third day in the wilderness the story of revelation continued. 

Exodus 19:1-3 On the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. ² They set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai, and they encamped in the wilderness. There Israel encamped before the mountain, ³ while Moses went up to God. The Lord called to him out of the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel

After being chased through the wilderness and fighting a war, on the third day, God's anointed King, David, was crowned King, with the news that Saul was dead.

2 Samuel 1:1-3 After the death of Saul, when David had returned from striking down the Amalekites, David remained two days in Ziklag. ² And on the third day, behold, a man came from Saul's camp, with his clothes torn and dirt on his head. And when he came to David, he fell to the ground and paid homage.³ David said to him, “Where do you come from?” And he said to him, “I have escaped from the camp of Israel.” 

On the third day, showing her total faith in God, Esther went before the King to represent her people. She was the only one who could have an audience with the King, and it might've cost her her life.

Esther 5:1-3 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. ² 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.”

On the third day, God's people will be revived, they will return, they will be raised up.

Hosea 6:1-3 Come, let us return to the Lord;

    for he has torn us, that he may heal us;    he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.² After two days he will revive us;    on the third day he will raise us up,    that we may live before him.³ Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord;     his going out is sure as the dawn;he will come to us as the showers,     as the spring rains that water the earth