The Starbucks near where I live, which is where I usually go on Saturday mornings to try to work on my sermon a bit more.
A Christian friend of mine that I hadn't seen in about three or four years, he bumped in.
He happened to be in that Starbucks. He doesn't live there, but he happened to be there for whatever reason.
And he asked me how it's going, and he saw that I had my Bible out. I was working on my sermon.
So he asked me what I was preaching on on Sunday.
And I said to him, I'm preaching on something that if I was to make a list of the things I don't want to ever preach on,
if I can somehow manage to avoid it, this would be really high up on the list.
Because I'm going to talk about holy war.
You know those parts in the Old Testament where God tells people to go and fight people and kill them?
That's not an easy text.
And I've wrestled with it all week.
But that's what we're going to look at.
And if some of you are here and you're wondering, well, why, George, why don't you just sort of change it?
Why don't you talk about something different?
One of the things that we do here, it's a very, very ancient custom,
is that when we do our sermons, we preach through books of the Bible.
That's the way the Bible is written.
The Bible is written as a collection of 66 different books, 39 of them before Jesus.
That's what we call the Old Testament.
And 27 of the books were written about Jesus and about his early disciples.
And that's what we call the New Testament.
And we preach through books of the Bible.
And one of the good things about preaching through the books of the Bible
is it forces us to look at things that we wouldn't normally talk about.
And in fact, actually, this is maybe a very helpful thing for us to look at, holy war.
You might not think so by the time I'm finished.
I don't know.
But if you think about it, one of the great fears in our culture today, I think,
is that religion causes violence.
It's a very, very common belief.
And people might not say to you, if they find out that you're a devout Christian,
those of us here who are devout Christians,
people might not say to you, oh, you're a devout Christian.
You probably are in favor of violence or what you believe causes violence.
But they'd always wonder that a little bit about you.
It's something which has changed in our culture.
Many of you are too young to know when it was anything different than the way it is now.
But it is a common view that Christianity, like all other religions, causes violence,
maybe except certain types of Buddhism, the Zen type in particular,
and certain types of Hinduism.
But all others cause violence.
And so we're going to look at that today.
So it's Esther chapter 7 and chapter 8.
We're looking at two chapters today.
If you don't have a Bible with you, the text will be up on the screen.
As you can see, the sermon series has been the story of Esther,
the hidden God in a broken world.
We live in a broken world, and God is hidden most of the time.
He works through providence.
And the book of Esther is a very, very powerful book that helps us to understand this whole doctrine and teaching of providence.
And just before we start reading of chapter 7, verse 1,
what's just happened, what the big thing that's been going on in the book just up until now that has to be dealt with
is that a man by the name of Haman, who's the second most important person in the Persian Empire,
because that's where the book is set,
he has managed to orchestrate events in such a way that genocide is planned against the Jewish people,
that on a certain day that's coming up, the machinery of the state,
the organs of the different instruments of the culture are all going to be set for a particular day.
The result of that day, when it's over, is that every single Jewish person, young and old, male and female,
every single Jewish person will die.
And it's just in a sense, like obviously it's a bit different because it's a different time period,
but it's just like what happened in Nazi Germany, like the bureaucracy, the military, the police, the judiciary,
the governors, the politicians, everything is organized towards the annihilation of a people group.
And through a series of, through providence, from the king's point of view, through a series of circumstances,
but from our viewpoint, through providence, a Jewish woman who didn't practice her faith at all,
but lived as a Persian becomes one of the king of Persia's queens, and her name is Esther.
And just shortly before this, she has a conversion experience,
and her conversion experience is connected to the planned genocide of her people.
And she decides that she, even though it's, I mean, it's just one of those really, it's one of those,
do you know that the Christian church often grows during violent persecutions?
That all Christian missionaries were expelled out of communist China, I think it was in 1950, maybe it was 1949,
but it was around then.
And I believe that they estimated that when the Christians, all the missionaries were kicked out of China,
all of them, this is pre-internet, all of them were kicked out of China.
All of them were kicked out of China.
I think they estimated there was a million Chinese Christians.
The estimates today are that there's well over 100 million Chinese Christians,
that inexplicably, despite an atheist state that worked a crackdown on Christianity,
Christianity grew, even though it was persecuted.
And in the threat of the impending destruction of the Jewish people, Esther becomes Jewish.
Jewish.
And she's challenged by her uncle Mordecai to use her role to plead for her people.
And then we talk about that in a couple of, that's what happens is prior to this in the story.
And she finally gets an opportunity to talk to the king and to Haman,
and confront Haman and plead for herself and her people.
But when the opportunity comes, she gets cold feet and she can't go through with it.
But just before all is lost, she asks if the king will come the next day for a new feast.
And in between, there's another big adventure where Haman wants to kill Mordecai,
Esther's adopted father.
But now the second day, and that gets foiled by providence,
and now we come to the second day.
And I guess the question is, will Esther have cold feet?
Or will she go through with crying for her people to be delivered in herself?
And here's where we catch up.
Chapter 7, verse 1.
So the king and Haman went into the feast with Queen Esther.
And on the second day, as they were drinking wine after the feast,
the king again said to Esther,
What is your wish, Queen Esther?
It shall be granted to you.
And what is your request?
Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.
Then Queen Esther answered,
If I have found favor in your sight, O king,
and if it please the king,
let my life be granted me for my wish,
and my people for my request.
For we have been sold, I and my people,
to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated.
If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women,
I would have been silent,
for our affliction is not to be compared with the loss to the king.
Just sort of pause.
Esther here is very brilliant.
You know, she has to keep her eye on the ball,
and the eye on the ball is that in about ten months,
nine and a half months, every Jew will be killed.
Now, she needs to get the king to do something to stop this.
And what she can't do is say,
King, you ordered us to all be killed,
because that's going to lose the argument right there, won't it?
She has to get him on board,
and she does it in a very brilliant way.
In fact, saying that she doesn't want to hurt the king at all.
But this is what's happened.
Now, here's one of the things which is in the story.
It's a very small detail, but it's very, very telling.
Most of us notice it in other people and rarely see it in ourselves,
but we are like other people.
We do it as well.
We can do something which is quite, quite bad, quite, quite wrong,
but we don't even maybe think about it as being very wrong.
And afterwards, even if we've been involved in doing something that's wrong
or making a decision,
we've been part of a room that's made a very bad decision.
Afterwards, it's as if somebody else made the decision,
and we forget about it altogether.
Because what we're going to see right now
is that the king hasn't the vaguest idea in the world,
what Esther's talking about.
He has no clue.
Like, he's just sitting there.
If it was being filmed, it would be like,
uh?
Like, what's going...
Like, what are you talking about?
Like, I'm the king.
Like, what are you talking about?
How's this going on in my kingdom?
And I don't know about it.
So we see that in verse 5.
Then King Xerxes...
That's not how you pronounce it.
That's who the king is.
The King Xerxes.
He has multiple names,
and the Xerxes is easier to pronounce than that,
so I'm going to say Xerxes.
Then the king said to Queen Esther,
Who is he?
And where is he?
Who has dared to do this?
And probably even Haman doesn't understand,
because, you see,
Haman has been boasting to his friends
that the queen treats him as a friend
and is inviting only the king and him to his meal.
So he probably has absolutely no idea
what her next words are going to be,
because remember,
she's been living like a Persian.
Her conversion is very, very recent.
It's only weeks...
It's only like a week old.
Not even a week old.
So the king says,
What?
Who would dare to kill you?
And Esther said,
Verse 6,
A foe and enemy,
This wicked Haman.
And Haman was terrified
before the king and the queen.
He wouldn't have said,
My God.
I don't know what God he would worship.
But he would have said,
Probably bleepity, bleepity, bleep.
Esther's Jewish.
I didn't know.
And now he's stuck.
And he can tell by the king's angry outburst.
He's offered her half his kingdom,
which is politeness.
But what he really means is,
You can make a big ask of me, Esther.
Make a big ask.
And whatever your big ask is,
I'll do whatever I can.
He's in a great mood.
He's affectionate towards her.
Haman doesn't see this coming.
He's completely and utterly blindsided.
Esther tells him that all she wants
is to be able to not be killed.
The king is outraged.
Anybody would want a king
kill his wife, Esther.
And then she says,
It's all because of Haman.
He is completely and utterly terrified.
Probably a man who had to rise
to be the second in the empire,
only under the king.
He had to be one of the world's smoothest talkers.
But as you could well imagine,
words will fail
in a situation like that,
especially with no preparation.
So what happens?
Well, verse 7,
And the king arose in his wrath.
We just, you know,
we get angry.
We just want to move.
Like you jump up.
You're just furious.
Furious.
And he, he, he,
king arose in his wrath
from the wine drinking
and went into the palace garden
just beside.
But Haman stayed to beg
for his life from Queen Esther.
For he saw that harm
was determined against him
by the king.
And the king returned
from the palace garden,
probably just there for a moment,
to the place where
they were drinking wine
as Haman was falling
on the couch,
probably by accident,
where Esther was.
And the king said,
Will he even assault the queen
in my presence
in my own house?
As the word left
the mouth of the king,
they covered Haman's face.
Now just pause.
That's an idiom.
Remember, like,
what, what,
an idiom is something
like if I said,
you know,
you do this,
do this,
and Bob's your uncle.
Okay?
In other words,
it's an idiom for saying
you do this,
it's guaranteed
that it's going to work.
Okay?
And so,
and the words
cover your faith
is literal,
it's an idiom.
But what it means is,
you know how often
in countries
that practice
capital punishment
and in Canada
when capital punishment
was practiced,
the condemned man
or woman
before they're hanged
or shot
or whatever it is
that they're going to do,
it was often
very customary
that a hood,
like either a blindfold
if it was,
you know,
you're going to be shot,
but if it's some other type,
often a hood
was put over them,
the sentence
in the past,
you're about to die
and the hood
goes over you
just before they
fire the guns,
press the button,
like whatever it is.
And that's what
the idiom is.
It's,
the idiom is
that as the words
leave the king,
it's as if the onlookers
can just see
that the hood
that you put on
just before you die
has now been covering
his face.
That's what it means.
And things can now
can get worse.
You know,
because what can often
happen for powerful people
is that
for those of us
who've had any type of power,
but I've had
virtually no power
in my life.
But for powerful people,
powerful people
can live under the myth,
the illusion,
that lots of other people
like the fact
that they have power.
But no,
that's not actually
how it works.
Those under them
often gripe
and complain
and are looking forward
to their downfall.
So now,
this idiom about
it's obvious
that Haman's about to die,
then Harbona,
verse 9,
one of the eunuchs
in attendance
on the king said,
moreover,
the gallows
that Haman,
this guy,
had prepared
for Mordecai,
you know,
the hero
that you just rewarded
earlier today,
that guy?
Well,
Haman,
you know,
Mordecai,
whose word saved the king,
is standing at Haman,
I'll say that again,
moreover,
the gallows
that Haman
has prepared for Mordecai,
whose word saved the king,
that's Mordecai,
yet that gallows
is standing at Haman's house,
75 feet high.
And the king said,
in a sense,
oh,
perfect,
hang him on that.
So they hanged Haman
on the gallows
that he had prepared
for Mordecai,
then the wrath
of the king abated.
Now,
as I've said before,
if you're a guest here,
they hanged
is a good word,
but it's not really,
I don't know why
they don't use
the right perfect word,
they impale him,
that's how they kill him.
I don't know how
they would have done it,
but the stake
would have had
a big point at the end
and they drop him on
and I guess they push him
down enough
to make sure he won't fall
and that's how he would
either slowly
or quickly die.
But notice here,
then the wrath
of the king abated.
Now,
this is a big problem
and this is one
of the other things
in this story
which is so psychologically real
because isn't it often
the case,
you bring to politicians
or you bring to somebody
important
or somebody who's powerful
this big problem
and they get the problem
and they do something
which is good.
It's not that they do something,
they do something that's good
and then they go,
oh, okay,
well that's finished
and they go to walk away.
But one moment,
Haman's dead,
but what about the genocide?
The king's wrath
has quenched
and as we see
in a moment,
it's as if he goes on,
okay,
well that's dealt with,
let's talk about
some other things now
and you can well imagine,
it's hard to sort of frustrate
but that's why,
you know,
reading stories like this often,
you need to read them slowly
and notice the words
because the words
are very carefully chosen
and you can well imagine
that Esther is,
what?
like,
don't stop now,
like,
what about the genocide?
And it's as if it's gone
from the king's mind.
So,
later on that day,
verse,
chapter 8,
verse 1,
king,
the king,
gave to queen Esther
the house of Haman,
the enemy of the Jews
and Mordecai came before
the king for Esther,
had told the king
what he was to her
and the king took off
his signet ring
which he had taken
from Haman
and gave it to Mordecai
and Esther sent Mordecai
over the house of Haman.
Very briefly,
as you well know,
most of the world
doesn't have property rights
and most of the world
throughout history
hasn't had property rights
and they definitely
didn't have property rights
here.
So,
Haman's widow
can't just say,
well,
you know,
I'm secure
with all my property.
In that day,
if you were considered
a traitor to the king,
all of your properties
forfeit.
All of it.
So,
the king
just says,
all of Haman's property
is now mine
and I'm going to give it
to the queen,
my queen Esther.
and Esther gets Mordecai
to be her manager.
It's still Esther's property,
not Mordecai's.
And at the same time,
Mordecai gets a promotion,
whether it's actually
to the same level of Haman
or just,
but he goes from being
whatever level,
mid-level bureaucrat he was
to like,
at least one of the seven advisors
of the king
and he gets this huge promotion.
but once again,
at the end of chapter,
verse two,
what about the genocide?
I mean,
that's still going to go ahead.
You haven't stopped it,
king.
So,
Esther,
the text is a little bit messy.
What we do know
is that Esther now
does something
that once again
she risks her life
by violating protocol
in a way
that,
well,
literally,
could have the king
could kill her.
And maybe what it is
is that it's a formal function,
function,
but she comes up
and even though
she's the queen,
she can be the queen
with the king
in an intimate way
when they're
in an intimate situation,
but right now
it's a formal situation,
it's like a legal situation
and there's advisors
and there's others
all around
and what she does
is something
that if anybody does it,
they're worthy of death.
She leaves wherever it is
she's standing,
probably off to the side,
and she falls down
in front of the king
and she grabs him
and she starts crying out
and by doing this
she risks her life.
Look what happens
in verse 3 and 4.
Then Esther spoke again
to the king.
She fell at his feet
and wept
and pleaded with him
to avert the evil plan
of Haman the Agagite
and the plot
that he had devised
against the Jews.
When the king held out
the royal scepter
to Esther,
Esther rose
and just pause there
as those of you
who were here earlier
or you know
something about it,
when somebody does something
that's just a huge,
this is a cruel culture.
The sentence to do something
that's inappropriate
like this is death
and if the king
who has his scepter,
so it's a very royal,
this isn't just them
talking about in the chambers,
this is a very,
very formal thing.
I don't know,
it'd be like as if
somebody burst,
left the side,
one of the,
you know,
in parliament
and dashes
and clings to Trudeau
during a formal presentation
or something like that,
only you,
you know,
you can't,
you can't get killed
for that.
I don't know,
maybe you died at Twitter
by a hundred and thousand
angry Twitter tweets
or something,
but that's just not
real death,
that's just honor death,
shame or something.
But anyway,
nobody still answered me
why anybody would care
that 75,000 people
say nasty things
on Twitter about you,
people you don't know,
don't care about
and probably have thought
about it for exactly
one millisecond
and can tweet the opposite
thing a week later
or even a day later.
Nobody,
anyway,
never mind,
that's a side.
We'll get back to the text.
So anyway,
she does something
and the only way that,
the only way that the,
the person's life
will be spared,
if the king does nothing,
you die.
So the only thing
that will spare your life
is if the king
takes his scepter up
and sort of holds it out
to touch you
and that's what saves
your life
and that's what
the king does.
So Esther risks
her life again.
She's passionate
about this,
very courageous.
Her faith
in God's provision
to deliver
makes her bold.
That's what's going on.
Her faith
that the Lord
will deliver his people
makes her bold.
She knows she might die
but she knows
the Lord will deliver
his people
and maybe he's going
to use her
and even if,
even if he's not
going to use her,
even if she dies,
she knows
he's going to deliver
and maybe he will
use her.
It makes her bold.
So she does this
and the king
lifts up his scepter
and touches her
and in verse 5,
Esther rose
and stood before the king
and she said,
if it please the king
and if I have found
favor in his sight
and if the thing
seems right
before the king
and I am pleasing
in his eyes,
let an order
be written
to revoke
the letters
devised by
Haman the Agagite
the son of Hamadatha
which he wrote
to destroy the Jews
who were in all
the provinces
of the king
for how can I bear
to see the calamity
that is coming
to my people
or how can I bear
to see the destruction
of my kindred?
In other words,
king,
you gotta deal
with the genocide.
You gotta deal
with the genocide.
Then king Xerxes
said to queen Esther
and to Mordecai the Jew,
behold,
I have given Esther
the house of Haman
and they have
hanged him on the gallows
because he intended
to lay hands
on the Jews.
But,
this is so classic,
right?
But you may write
as you please
with regard to the Jews
in the name of the king
and seal it
with the king's ring
for an edict
written in the name
of the king
and seal it
with the king's ring
cannot be revoked.
So,
this is part of the problem
that he can't revoke
the order
and he hasn't been able
to figure out
or he had not thought
about it
but he says,
okay,
I'm gonna give you
permission
under my authority
to come up with
a solution to the problem
and this is gonna get us
to the nub of the text
which is very difficult.
So,
what's the solution
going to be?
I don't know,
bring in some mediators,
have people stand
in front
and link arms
to protect the Jews.
Like,
before we get
to the nub
of the problem,
the problem
is we're gonna see
in a moment
is
they're gonna ask,
they're gonna give
the Jewish people
permission
to arm themselves
and attack
those who are gonna
attack them
and kill them.
Bump.
help.
But just as we're
starting to think that
which is a very
horrible thing,
you have to ask
yourself for a second,
this is actually
a real historical event,
like what are the options?
To shame them
on Twitter?
I don't know.
To have like
a peace ceremony?
Like,
I don't know.
Like,
is that gonna work?
People have been given
the official power
and the military,
the police,
the judiciary,
the nobles,
the powerful people,
the local people,
have all been given
permission
to attack and kill
every Jew,
man,
woman,
and child,
old and young,
on the same day.
So,
here's the solution.
Verse 9.
The king's scribes
were summoned
at that time
in the third month,
which is the month
of Sivan,
on the 23rd day.
And an edict
was written
according to all
that Mordecai commanded
concerning the Jews,
to the satraps
and the governors
and the officials
of the provinces
from India
to Ethiopia,
127 provinces,
to each province
in its own script
and to each people
in its own language,
and also to the Jews
in their own script
and language.
Just pause.
All of this language,
if you go back
in chapter 3
and you check it,
you'll see that
it's almost word for word
what happens
when the edict
is being made
to cause genocide.
But an interesting thing
is you realize now
that the original edict
to kill all the Jews
wasn't written in Hebrew.
It's another one of the,
you see,
one of the things
which is so powerful
about this whole story
is it helps you
to understand genocide,
which is a profound evil.
But even at the level
of the edict
to kill all the Jews,
in the very edict itself,
there's a disempowering,
there's a turning
the Jewish people
into nothings,
people who don't exist
because they don't even
send the edict
in their own language
because it's as if
they already
do not exist
as human beings.
And now this edict
which is going to go out
that's going to try
to solve this
in its very language
reinstates them
as human beings.
Their language
is recognized
and they're named
as a people.
And in verse 10,
and he wrote the name
of King Xerxes
and sealed it,
sorry,
he wrote in the name
of King Xerxes
and sealed it
with the king's signet ring.
Then he sent the letters
by mounted couriers
riding on swift horses
that were used
in the king's service,
bred from the royal stud,
saying that the king
allowed the Jews,
here's the awkward passage
which we need to spend
a few minutes
thinking about.
The king allowed
the Jews,
verse 11,
who were in every city
to gather
and defend their lives
to destroy,
to kill,
and to annihilate
any armed force
of any people
or province
that might attack them,
children
and women
included,
and to plunder
their goods.
On one day
throughout all the provinces
of King Xerxes
on the 13th day
of the 12th month
which is the month
of Adar,
a copy of what was written
was to be issued
as a decree
in every province
being publicly displayed
to all people
and the Jews
were to be ready
in that day
to take vengeance
on their enemies.
So the couriers
mounted on their swift horses
that were used
in the king's service,
rode out hurriedly,
urged by the king's command,
and the decree
was issued in Susa,
the cat's citadel.
And we'll just stop
reading there.
So,
most of us
have probably,
you know,
what we learn about Esther
is sanitized versions
that lead out,
leave this out.
So, you know,
here's the thing.
We can't say,
well,
you know,
there's lots of things
that are bad
in the Old Testament
that go on
and one of the ways
that we deal with it
is we just say,
well,
it's just recording
what's happened.
It's not saying
that it was good.
It's just recording
what happened.
We can't say that here
because,
in fact,
the whole book
of Esther
is to,
at the end of it,
is to become
a holiday
which is to be kept
by Jewish people
forever
where they remember
God's delivering them
from the hands
of their enemies
who wanted to kill them.
So it actually
has a very special status,
this holy war
which comes at the end.
It's to be remembered.
So we can't just say,
well,
you know,
that's not that
the Lord was wanting
this to happen.
And this is where
Canadians expect me
to say,
well,
we know better now.
We know better now.
Now,
by the way,
those of you
who weren't watching,
I did that on purpose
because that's what happens
when Christians do that.
When they say,
well,
we know better now,
what we're doing is this.
Well,
we know better now.
In fact,
I want to talk about me.
You know,
I understand why
under pressure
we do things like that.
I won't tell about it now,
but I shared with my wife yesterday.
I had a bit of a witnessing
opportunity yesterday.
Caught me completely
and utterly flat-footed.
I probably said nothing right
and I wish I could get a do-over.
So I understand
when under pressure
we say things like that
and it's a hard topic,
but it's not really
an out that Christians can take.
So I can imagine
my friends
my non-Christian friends
would now
probably want to look at me
and wonder
and maybe say,
George,
do you believe in holy war?
You're a Christian
and you believe the Bible.
So do you believe
that holy war is good
and just
and Christians should do it?
And I,
you can just imagine
that if somebody
actually was to ask me
that question after this,
I know a couple of people
that if they were here
after the service,
if I hadn't outed it,
they would ask me that question
now that I've brought them
to the point
that they see the problem.
And,
and my answer will be,
which I'm going to try
to explain
over the next few minutes,
is,
no,
I don't believe
that holy war
is practiced anymore
and is just,
would never be just today
and it's not something
that Christians
should ever do.
but I understand
what holy war
is pointing to
in the Old Testament
and that it's actually
pointing to something
really important.
Something,
and by the way,
we're going to talk about
this a bit more next week
because this is just
the plan next week
we see what happens
and how it's to be remembered.
And I,
I'd say it's an important
part of salvation history
but now,
with Jesus,
everything changes.
It's not just that
I'm going to say
we know better now,
it's that really,
literally,
everything in the Bible,
all these 39 books
in the Bible
written before
the time of Jesus,
we read them now
to understand
how they help us
to understand
who Jesus is
and why he's important
and what he does for us
and how everything
has changed.
And so,
I understand
why God
had this as part
of the Old Testament
and because of Jesus
it's not something
that Christians
should ever do now
and that's not,
well,
in fact,
that probably would
surprise people,
might have surprised you
that that's what I'm going to say.
But that's,
I think,
what the message
of the text is.
And so,
the question might be,
George,
that,
you know what,
George,
you think that
Holy War
was all right,
I sort of like it,
obviously I like it
that you don't think
it's right now,
but you think,
George,
that just sounds
so arrogant,
it just sounds
so wrong,
it just sounds
so bad,
it just sounds
so inconsistent
to think that
there can be
any excuse
for killing
that's going to involve
women and children
and all these people,
George,
that just seems wrong.
Let me tell you a story,
true story,
a couple of weeks ago,
one of the baristas
that I've talked to
quite a few times
about the Christian faith,
and they can get
very down on themselves,
and I,
there happened to be
a bit of a,
just by coincidence,
a bit of a break,
nobody else up,
I went up to get a refill,
and I said,
oh,
how you doing?
And they said,
well,
how are you doing?
And I said,
well,
I'm doing fine.
They said,
well,
that must be nice.
I don't know,
I'm like,
my life just,
sucks,
and nothing's working
well for me,
and I don't know,
just things seem
like there's no much,
not much value.
And I said to the fellow,
I said,
you know,
you are a person
of vast worth
and are precious,
but you possess
vast worth
and significance.
And he looked at me,
and he said,
well,
that's your opinion.
And I was about
to do the Canadian
thing and said,
well,
that is my opinion.
But somebody must have
been praying for me
at that instant
because just as I was
about to say,
well,
that is my opinion,
I changed what I said
and I said,
no,
it's not my opinion.
I believe it's true.
I believe what I just
said to you about
is like objectively
true.
I said,
it's central
to what I believe
is true.
Like,
I believe
that you're made
in the image of God
and therefore
have this vast
significance and worth
and Jesus loved you
so much
that he came
to die for you.
And they just
looked at me
and another customer
came up
to get a coffee
and they nodded
at me
in a way
that I knew
that the conversation
was over.
I didn't want
to push Bob on it.
He just nodded
and I moved on.
I put my sucra
or whatever it is,
artificial sweetener
in my herbal tea.
It was a refill.
So,
but here's the point
about this story.
You see,
for most Canadians,
when they hear
that you're a Christian
or they hear
you're Muslim,
they hear you're a Buddhist,
what they think
is this,
that religion
is just a matter
of opinion.
It's not talking
about anything true.
It's personal.
It's private.
It's spiritual.
And you know what?
If Buddhism
gets you through
the day,
good for you.
If Islam
gets you through
the day,
good for you.
If reading
the Bible
helps you get
through the day,
good for you.
Like if having
a shot of
Johnny Walkers
as soon as you
get home
gets you through
the day,
good for you.
Like it's just
a matter of taste.
It's just a matter
of preference.
It's just a matter
of what helps you,
gives you some,
helps you get
through the day.
So,
if religion
is just something
about helping you
get through the day,
but it's going
to lead you
to kill people,
then that's
terrible.
Like that's
horrendous.
But you see,
and in a sense
that's why Bob,
when I said to him
that he was of value
and of this
vast significance
and worth
because he was made
in the image of God
and he said my opinion,
he's just saying,
well that's just
a religious way
of speaking.
And I was going
to respond like a Canadian,
but I said no,
I'm saying what I think
is true.
And you see,
that's the big difference.
And to begin
to get your handle on,
and we as Canadians,
Christians,
those of us here,
probably almost all of us
are Christians,
when we hear this text,
part of this Canadian
mindset seeps in
that religion
is just something personal.
It's just something private.
It's just something
about helping you
get through the day.
But you see,
to me,
this is not the,
this,
God is just as real
as an iceberg.
For me to say
that the Lord exists
is the same as for me
to say that Ottawa exists.
I believe
I am saying something
which is completely
and utterly true.
And I am very simple-minded.
When I stand here
in front of you
and I close my eyes
or I open my eyes
and I pray,
I believe
I am talking
literally
to a God
who exists
who can hear me.
And you can act
in response
to my prayers.
When I pray
that ask the Father
and ask the Son
to pour the Holy Spirit
out upon us,
I literally believe
there is a God
who exists
who hears me.
And I believe
that any time
I ask for the Holy Spirit,
for the Father
to send the Holy Spirit,
that he always answers
that prayer with yes.
And I believe
the Holy Spirit
does fall in some way
upon us.
Like,
really does.
When I pray that prayer,
I am very simple-minded.
But if you believe
that the Lord
really exists,
like,
really exists,
then that's going
to have to start
to change
the way you read
the Bible.
It's going to have
to be read
in a different way
and we have to think
about holy war
in a different way
because religion
isn't just about,
Christianity
isn't just one
other religion
about how to get
some comfort
to get through our day
and the nice thing
about reading the Bible
is it's cheaper
than buying
expensive scotch
every day.
And,
you know,
which might be
how some people
look at it.
I wish I could
get into religion
because scotch
is so expensive.
But I just,
I really believe
there is a God
who does exist.
So,
how does that,
how does that
help us to understand
this particular text?
Well,
one more story.
Oh,
I'm running out of time.
I'm going to keep going.
In the book of Acts,
there's a very interesting story
that helps us to understand
this and all the holy war things.
I'm not going to try
to deal with this.
I'm going to cut some things out,
but I'm going to,
I want to stay to it
because it's,
I think the Lord
needs us to gather
around this text
to help us to,
to lose our fear
of reading the Old Testament,
to trust God's word
and to trust Jesus
and recognize
how precious
and important he is.
In the book of Acts,
Saul is a guy,
he's not converted,
he persecutes Christians
and there's this
spectacular story
in Acts 9
about how the Lord
appears to,
to,
to Saul,
like,
appears to Saul
and all everybody sees
is this bright light
and Saul hears a voice
that speaks to him
and he hears the voice
of Jesus speak to him
and the first words
that Jesus says
to Saul
isn't,
why are you persecuting Christians?
He says,
why are you persecuting
me?
Why are you persecuting me?
If you could put
the first point up,
this is,
helps us to understand
a lot about
what goes on
with holy war
in the Old Testament.
Is that when you
seek to destroy,
I'm borrowing the language
that Mordecai had,
you see,
amongst other things,
whatever,
sort of,
whatever Mordecai says
for the Jewish people
to do,
all he does
is duplicate
the language
of those
who are going
to commit genocide.
And so,
when you seek
to destroy,
to kill,
and to annihilate
the Lord's covenant people,
you are really
seeking to destroy,
to kill,
and to annihilate
the Lord himself.
See,
Acts 9 helps us
to understand
the Old Testament.
Jesus' words,
why are you
persecuting me?
Haman
thought
the gods
had given him,
by casting the Purim,
the lots,
had given him
the permission
and the blessing
to kill.
but the gods
that he was
consulting
were idols,
they don't exist,
they're ashes
in your mouth,
and the god
who really
does exist,
it is his
covenant people.
And when Haman
set out
to attack,
to destroy,
to kill,
and to annihilate
the Lord's covenant people,
he was actually
seeking to annihilate,
to destroy,
and to kill
the Lord.
And there's another thing
about the New Testament
that helps us
to understand this as well.
The Old Testament
is all about grace,
believe it or not.
If you go back,
I tell Christians
and non-Christians
this all the time.
I said,
you go back
and look at Exodus,
you look at Deuteronomy,
you look at the Ten Commandments,
and how does it begin?
It begins,
I am the Lord,
your God,
who redeemed you
out of slavery
into Egypt.
I redeemed you.
And given that
I have redeemed you,
that I am now
your God
and you are my people,
how shall you
then live
in light of redemption,
which is all by grace
and God's power.
And in the New Testament,
we understand
that when we put our faith
and trust in Jesus,
that he saves us,
he saves me.
And we understand
that even though
we use this one word,
Jesus has saved me.
When I put my faith
and trust in him,
he saves me.
There's in fact,
implicit in that,
three different tenses
of the word saves.
On one hand,
I can say
that when I put my faith
and trust in Jesus,
he saved me.
I am made right with his.
I am adopted.
I am given new life
from above.
I am his by adoption
and grace.
He will never let me go.
I am saved.
I am justified.
I am made right with God.
But at the same time,
I am,
I can say
that he is saving me
right now.
That I am becoming,
as redemption grips me,
that I am to become,
as the gospel grips me,
as it shapes me,
as it nudges me
into new ways of living,
as it draws me
into new ways of living,
as it shapes me
into new ways of living,
as I become more like Jesus,
as I become more fit for heaven,
I am being saved right now.
Because it's not that
he just saved me
a long time ago
and then he leaves me alone.
No, I am being saved right now.
The Holy Spirit indwells me.
I am being saved right now.
And at the same time,
I know there are so many times
my salvation is,
I screw up.
I have to confess my sins.
I have to come to,
I need to call out
for more grace and mercy.
Not that I need more.
It's all been given to me
in Jesus when I've been redeemed.
I'm being saved.
But I also know
that in the future,
I will be saved.
I will be glorified.
I will live in a new heaven
and a new earth
with a resurrection body.
I have been saved.
I am being saved.
I will be saved.
And that helps us to see
in a picture way
what's going on
in the Old Testament
where before Jesus,
part of the preparation
for Jesus coming
is that the Lord
redeems one people,
not the smartest people,
not the brightest people,
not the holiest people,
He saves out of love.
And if you could put up
the next point,
then we see that
in the Old Testament,
it's true that
the Lord has delivered,
is delivering,
and will deliver
His covenant people.
The Lord has delivered,
is delivering,
and will deliver
His covenant people.
And that means that
not only did He redeem
the Jewish people
out of slavery
and bondage
in Egypt,
but He will continue
to deliver His people
because He is their God
and He will deliver them.
And so in the face
of a new Amalekite
who desires to annihilate
the covenant people
without them realizing
that they are actually
trying to annihilate
the true God
that does exist,
He says,
I will deliver
My people.
I will deliver
My people.
And it's only
in those cases
in the Old Testament
that holy war
is to be understood.
It's a consequence
of the fact
that the Lord
will deliver His people.
If you could put up
the next point,
how is it that Jesus
changes everything?
We've already seen it
in some very small ways.
But the thing
which is so remarkable,
we're going to talk
about this more next week,
that's so remarkable,
is that when Jesus
comes amongst us
as a fulfillment
of an Old Testament prophecy,
He is called,
in the book of Isaiah,
they say that there will be
one born one day
whose name is Emmanuel,
which means
the Lord with us.
It means He's with us.
It means He's among us.
It means He's for us.
It means He comes amongst us
as one of us.
And so when we are
to understand
as Christians,
is that when Jesus comes,
well, He comes not just
to be with us,
but to save us.
And He saves us
by standing
in our place.
What do Christians
recognize
that in my place
condemned,
Emmanuel,
the Lord with us,
stood?
that you see,
in a sense,
every holy war story
in the Old Testament,
on one hand,
we can look at it
and say,
that's a picture
of the fact
that the Lord
will continue
to deliver me
and that one day
He will deliver me
into His eternal kingdom.
But Christians
can't only look
at the Old Testament
and look at the Jewish people.
They also have to look
at those who aren't Jewish.
and they have to understand
that on one hand,
that enemy of the Lord
who wants to kill the Lord
is me.
In a sense,
every Christian
is to say,
I am Haman.
And what we understand
in this profound text
is the Lord
seeing our deep need
comes amongst us
and bears the death,
the penalty,
the justice
that we could not withstand.
And He does it
to save us.
If you put up
the final point, please.
And this doesn't mean
to,
this isn't sounding arrogant
or anything like that.
It's not that
there's nothing special
about me.
And there's nothing special
about Canadians.
I just made a,
if you could,
see,
here,
no one can enter
the Lord's new covenant
by their birth,
by their accomplishments,
by their say-so,
or by their connections.
Nobody can.
But if you receive
the gospel,
and that you
is any you,
there is no person
in the world
so rich and successful
and holy
that they do not need
the gospel.
And there is nobody
that we will ever meet
who is so broken,
so forgotten,
so worthless,
so passed over,
so defeated
that this offer
is not made to them.
But if you receive
the gospel
with repentance
and faith,
the Lord will give you
new life from heaven
and bring you
into His new covenant.
You know,
our church,
this is a quick list.
Our church has people
in it from Uganda,
from Rwanda,
from Belgium,
from the United Kingdom,
from the United States,
from Italy,
from Russia,
from China,
from Taiwan,
from Canada,
from India,
from Barbados,
from Netherlands,
and from Australia.
It's for anybody.
And it's for everybody.
But it has to be received
by faith.
And when you receive it
by faith,
you will be saved.
And He will save you
right now,
forever,
and He will continue
to work in you
to make you more
like Jesus,
and He will one day
bring you to glory.
Please stand.
Thank you.
There is no better time
than now
to call upon the Lord.
There is no better time
now than to call
upon the Lord,
and He's not waiting
for you to pass
the theology test
for all the perfect
things to say.
All you have to say,
Lord,
is,
Lord,
be my Savior.
I want
you to be
my Savior
and my Lord.
Please,
Jesus.
Your own words.
Let's pray.
Father,
thank you for Jesus.
Thank you
that He is Emmanuel.
Thank you
that you keep
your words.
You kept
your word
of prophecies
sent hundreds
and hundreds
of years
before Jesus.
You kept them all.
He came.
He fulfilled
those prophecies
of His first coming.
He is Emmanuel.
He did live
amongst us
as one of us.
He is for us.
He is for us
even to the point
of dying on the cross
for us,
that He died
for His enemies.
Not that He saw
us as enemies,
but we were His enemies,
and He died for us
while we were His enemies.
And we thank you
for that, Father,
that you would die
for me when I was
your enemy,
that, Lord,
you would die for me.
You would take
my call
that you would be
my Savior
when I was
your enemy,
that you would
do that for me.
Father,
thank you so much
for Jesus.
Thank you for salvation.
Thank you, Father,
for the gift
of the Holy Spirit.
Father,
make us disciples
of Jesus
who are gripped
by the gospel,
learning to live
for your glory.
And all God's people
said,
Amen.