The issue is... the bridge?

My Iranian friends and I sat together in Denny's yesterday afternoon. What a joyful time in sharing between a non-practicing Jew,  a non-practicing Muslim, and me. We talked about so many things: politics, love, our own stories... good times. One of the topics we discussed I want to share with you here. It has to do with... love and sin. Please read on.

Each of us agreed that we all want others to treat us well, and similarly, we desire to treat everyone fairly. That's decency. Most societies in the world, Persian, American, Australian... most want to demonstrate love in some measure. Agreed. So why, they wanted to know, do we need religion and more importantly, why do we need God?

Good question. My answers? Most probably, all of us have a personally defined level of decency to which we ascribe. We think older people should be cared for, and we think husbands should not cheat on their wives. We think of honoring people who serve others or their countries, even without being asked, and certainly those who are not being honored are especially noble people. We think murder is wrong and fair wages and a fair go should be extended to everyone. Mostly true? OK.

But how many of us actually live up to that decency standard? If we are rigorously honest with ourselves, we all fall short of this standard. We don't want to fail, but in whatever category we lay out, it is in that field that we have personally failed.

"Of course," you say. "We all are human after all, and Shakespeare said, 'To err is human.' " Exactly. We live substandard lives; we fail, not all the time, but enough that if we are honest with ourselves, we wouldn't put ourselves up for the Nobel Prize of Holiness or of Giving or the Mother Teresa Doppelganger Award. Some may be closer to their decency goal and others are...well, further away.  See diagram 1.

As the diagram shows, individuals (represented by the colors reaching up) are at various levels of decency completion. Some would argue that they are approaching decency, but I aver that the more you know of the standards of human decency and the more you know yourself, the more you know how far short we fall.

But that's only human decency. I believe there is a standard which exceeds human considerations of goodness and kindness, fairness and equity. That standard is from the Almighty and no one has even gotten close to that... ever!

So what is a person to do? Give up? Not at all! The gap between our goal and our performance is titled so many things, but in my world, it's titled one thing-- "sin." And sin needs to be defined and then properly dealt with. Like any disease or injury, like any need or failing.. if we can detail it and define it, perhaps we can investigate how to overcome it.  The red spotty lines below are the separation between the God standard and our performance review. It's simply called 'sin' in the Scriptures.

This is confirmed by the Bible in the Older Testament where Solomon says, "there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who does not sin." (Eccl. 7.20) The Newer Testament echoes that with "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." (Romans 3.23)

The distance between our human efforts and activities of justice and decency can be long or short, but be sure of this, it exists for each of us. 

"Neither of these sounds very hopeful," I said to my Persian friends, "but there is hope!"

You see, the Almighty didn't want to leave us in this horrible situation of failure. He sent His only Son as a BRIDGE to help cross the chasm. Only He could bring it. Only He could do this. See diagram 3. 

Here we see the Bridge from heaven coming down and in our example dealing with the yellow person, particularly. One-by-one, that's how God acts. He reaches out and touches us, personally. First we admit our sins, and then He can sort out how to help us see the light. 

The hope of mankind is not in education, nor philosophy, nor even in religion. The hope of the world is Yeshua, God's only Son, our Bridge, who came from heaven to dwell among us, to live and teach, to die for our sins and to bring us to eternal life. That death 'for our sins' means to take away the guilt, the shame, the punishment that we deserved, and to bridge us back to the Lord.
The Scriptures teach this in Isaiah 53, "Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging, we are healed. 

All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him." (verses 4-6)

Our sin is not the final statement. It's merely the declaration of the problem. And God as the Master Problem Solver answers with Isaiah's words, and with these from Paul, "The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Messiah Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6.23). 

What a mighty God we have!! He loved us, made us, watched us walk away from Him into our own sins, and aches to be in relationship with us again. He sent Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah, to earth to fix that identified problem. The bridge is open. What will you do? Stay on your side? Or cross over? The choice is yours. Join us on this road to Holy Destiny.

What really matters? Football, stock market, and mother

The advertising campaign for Godzilla (about 15 years ago) said, "Size does matter." The great monster could take out a whole city if it wanted, they alleged. The Hollywood crowd and the public were not too keen on their slogan and even less on the movie. Flop.

Others talk about education that matters or costs involved in a significant trade. The big slogan in some circles last year was "Black lives matter." Students in Australia just now are sitting their high school exams and many are alleging that "test results don't matter." 

Last night I was in Kansas City, and the team I've cheered for since about 1962, the Kansas City Chiefs, were in a tight battle with the Oakland Raiders on Thursday Night Football. I hoped my friend with whom I'm staying would record the game at his home so I could give myself to other matters as I was speaking at an evangelists' fellowship at IHOP. In fact, I didn't even think about the game, although I mentioned it once during my talk. There's a time for everything, and last night was the time to be in the moment with the people at the fellowship.

The pastor in charge of the KCEF and I went out to dinner after the meeting, and at the restaurant were several televisions broadcasting the game, but we didn't engage with it at all, but rather stayed in very good deep conversation about our lives in Messiah. 

I returned to my friend's home and it was already late. I didn't know how to use his three remote controls to find the recording. After several attempts, I gave up. I lay back. I slept. Then this morning I awoke and gave it a go one more time. Hooray. I sorted it all out and found the recording on his DVR. He missed the opening quarter of the game and almost all the fourth quarter, but what I saw was pretty good. At the end of the recording, I was disappointed as the Chiefs were ahead, but I didn't know the final result. 

Then the newspaper arrived and I found out that our team had lost in the last few seconds of the game. Oh, no! Disappointment again!

I got online and read a bit more of the results and a bit of sadness hit me. Even so, I have a life to live, so how do I put this in perspective?

Some would say, "Don't care about football." Others will live in the continual rehashing of the game and be armchair quarterbacks re-analyzing each decision and chiding the coach or specific players for their failures which caused the loss. My question remains this morning... what really matters?
Yesterday I watched the news as the stock market went over 23,000 for the first time ever and stock analysts were talking about why this happened. Then United Airlines stock took a serious hit and fell 12% in a day and the talking heads had their opinions about such and I wondered, "What does all this really matter?" 

Matter. Substance. Stuff. One dictionary described 'matter' as coming from the 12th to 13th century in the Old French word matere which in turn came from the Latin materia “matter, substance”, from mater “mother”. WHAT? If Mother is the root of what matters, how does that work?

Some would say I ponder too much. Maybe my own mother would say so. Still, consideration of this idea, what matters, or things that don't matter, is all about perspective and orientation. King David put things into good order as he realigned the roles of the Levites in Bible days. In 1 Chronicles in the Bible, we read this:

Now David built houses for himself in the city of David; and he prepared a place for the ark of God, and pitched a tent for it. Then David said, “^aNo one is to carry the ark of God but the Levites; for the Lord chose them to carry the ark of God, and to minister to Him forever.” And David assembled all Israel at Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the Lord to its place, which he had prepared for it. Then David called for Zadok and Abiathar the priests, and for the Levites, for Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel, and Amminadab, and said to them, “You are the heads of the fathers’ households of the Levites; consecrate yourselves both you and your relatives, that you may bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel, to the place that I have prepared for it.  Because you did not carry it at the first, the Lord our God made an outburst on us, for we did not seek Him according to the ordinance.” So the priests and the Levites consecrated themselves to bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel. and the sons of the Levites carried the ark of God on their shoulders, with the poles thereon as Moses had commanded according to the word of the Lord. 

So it was David, with the elders of Israel and the captains over thousands, who went to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord from the house of Obed-edom with joy. 

Now David was clothed with a robe of fine linen with all the Levites who were carrying the ark, and the singers and Chenaniah the leader of the singing with the singers. David also wore an ephod of linen. Thus all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the Lord with shouting, and with sound of the horn, with trumpets, with loud-sounding cymbals, with harps and lyres. 

It happened when the ark of the covenant of the Lord came to the city of David, that Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and making merry; and she despised him in her heart. And they brought in the ark of God and placed it inside the tent which David had pitched for it, and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before God. When David had finished offering the burnt offering and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord. And he distributed to everyone of Israel, both man and woman, to everyone a loaf of bread and a portion of meat and a raisin cake. (chapter 15 verses 1- chapter 16.3)

Matter. What mattered to King David was not the applause of the people nor even of his wife. He wanted to fix a mistake from the past, and he chose to seek God first this time. He wanted to get things right. And get what matters to the top of his 'to do' list.

Yeshua said something about this also. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

What were the 'these things?" They were lesser in significance to the Messiah. He spoke about them earlier with "Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’"

The stuff, the matter that fills the advertising budgets of the televisions and the newspapers are what we will eat, drink or wear. Yeshua said, "They don't matter." What he meant was "Put them in an order of importance." Care about the stock market; care about your football team, even care about your mother. But worry... not a good idea.

What really matters, most of all, is to seek God first thing today and tomorrow and each day of your life. Remember Him. Ponder Him. What is God saying and doing in your life just now? What is He saying to the world? What does He want for us and our mishpochah? 

That, dear reader, is the key to abundant life. What really matters is the pleasure of God. Enjoy Him today. He won't disappoint you like the airline stock or the 11 men and the coach on the field. Even your mother will fail you at times. But God will never disappoint you if you seek Him. And know Him. And love Him. 

Thank God it's Friday. 

The Pittsburgh Platform

The Pittsburgh Platform was a formulation of principles agreed upon by the Reform movement at the Pittsburgh Conference in 1885. Convened at the behest of Kaufmann Kohler of New York, the conference was chaired by Isaac M. Wise, one of the foremost figures in Reform Judaism.

The principles agreed upon symbolized the merger of the Eastern U.S. and Germanic wings of the Reform movement, distinguished it from Orthodox and Conservative Judaism and remained the basic tenets of Reform Judaism for nearly half a century until their revision by the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) in the Columbus Platform of 1937.

An examination of the Pittsburgh Platform indicates religious optimism, acceptance of other religious perspectives and emphasis on the Bible as the consecration of the Jewish people to its mission. It also makes modern sensibility the standard by rejecting halachic restrictions on diet, priestly purity and dress and discarding Jewish peoplehood. "We consider ourselves no longer a nation, but a religious community."

The following points were agreed upon and became known as the Pittsburgh Platform:

1. We recognize in every religion an attempt to grasp the Infinite, and in every mode, source or book of revelation held sacred in any religious system the consciousness of the indwelling of God in man. We hold that Judaism presents the highest conception of the God­idea as taught in our Holy Scriptures and developed and spiritualized by the Jewish teachers, in accordance with the moral and philosophical progress of their respective ages. We maintain that Judaism preserved and defended midst continual struggles and trials and under enforced isolation, this God­idea as the central religious truth for the human race.

2. We recognize in the Bible the record of the consecration of the Jewish people to its mission as the priest of the one God, and value it as the most potent instrument of religious and moral instruction. We hold that the modern discoveries of scientific researches in the domain of nature and history are not antagonistic to the doctrines of Judaism, the Bible reflecting the primitive ideas of its own age, and at times clothing its conception of divine Providence and Justice dealing with men in miraculous narratives. 

3. We recognize in the Mosaic legislation a system of training the Jewish people for its mission during its national life in Palestine, and today we accept as binding only its moral laws, and maintain only such ceremonies as elevate and sanctify our lives, but reject al such as are not adapted to the views and habits of modern civilization. 

4. We hold that all such Mosaic and rabbinical laws as regulate diet, priestly purity, and dress originated in ages and under the influence of ideas entirely foreign to our present mental and spiritual state. They fail to impress the modern Jew with a spirit of priestly holiness; their observance in our days is apt rather to obstruct than to further modern spiritual elevation. 

5. We recognize, in the modern era of universal culture of heart and intellect, the approaching of the realization of Israel s great Messianic hope for the establishment of the kingdom of truth, justice, and peace among all men. We consider ourselves no longer a nation, but a religious community, and therefore expect neither a return to Palestine, nor a sacrificial worship under the sons of Aaron, nor the restoration of any of the laws concerning the Jewish state. 

6. We recognize in Judaism a progressive religion, ever striving to be in accord with the postulates of reason. We are convinced of the utmost necessity of preserving the historical identity with our great past. Christianity and Islam, being daughter religions of Judaism, we appreciate their providential mission, to aid in the spreading of monotheistic and moral truth. We acknowledge that the spirit of broad humanity of our age is our ally in the fulfillment of our mission, and therefore we extend the hand of fellowship to all who cooperate with us in the establishment of the reign of truth and righteousness among men. 

7. We reassert the doctrine of Judaism that the soul is immortal, grounding the belief on the divine nature of human spirit, which forever finds bliss in righteousness and misery in wickedness. We reject as ideas not rooted in Judaism, the beliefs both in bodily resurrection and in Gehenna and Eden (Hell and Paradise) as abodes for everlasting punishment and reward. 

8. In full accordance with the spirit of the Mosaic legislation, which strives to regulate the relations between rich and poor, we deem it our duty to participate in the great task of modern times, to solve, on the basis of justice and righteousness, the problems presented by the contrasts and evils of the present organization of society.

Courage in a complicated world: A message on Esther

The Hollywood Director who doesn't show himself

By Bob Mendelsohn

Given at North Beach Baptist Church

8 October 2017

Perth Australia

[The church in Perth’s northern suburbs asked me to give a talk, an overview on the Book of Esther. They also gave the message a title, “Courage in a Complicated World.”]

Good evening. Thank you Brad [pastor of the evening congregation] for the kind invitation.  It's always good to be back in Perth, and here at North Beach, to be with you to share with you from the Older Testament book of Esther.  Hopefully by what we discuss today, you will learn some valuable lessons for your life and your relationship with God, that will last long after the last BOO is shouted at the name of the villain of our story, Haman.

I’ve been given the assignment of Opening Batsman for your next Bible talk series. And I appreciate that opportunity. Some of you will be quite familiar with the story of the biblical book of Esther. For others, this might be first time you will consider the book, which we call a megillah in Hebrew, meaning a 'scroll'.  Or maybe this is even more of an outculture experience, as some of you have never really considered the Bible as relevant for yourself. Let me rehearse therefore a bit of the story, in Shakespeare or Hollywood storyboard style. This then, the story of the Hollywood Director who hides himself.

Act I: All's Quiet

First, the situation, what we might title "All's quiet on the Shushan Front." This is Act I. You might expect the narrator's voice saying, "Once upon a time…"The book introduces the characters one at a time, in classic progression. And I will introduce them to you as well. First, King Xerxes, later named Ahasuerus, rules a vast Persian Empire, which was much larger than modern Iran, the kingdom that now speaks Farsi or Persian. 127 provinces composed Xerxes's realm from India to Ethiopia. And if we wanted we could end right there with "…and they all lived happily ever after… The End."  This is often the fanciful thinking of the non-literate, the dream of the well wishers. No real story starts and ends so quickly. There must of necessity be conflict and resolution or we simply have a dull half hour of a bit of characters intersecting.

Peter Kreeft is one of my favorite authors and apologists. He argues this point well in his 1985 book "Making Sense out of Suffering." He asks us to think about a story which has no conflict, with nice characters and nice people living nicely together compared to a story with troubles and suffering. He says a story needs conflict to keep a child's interest. And I quote:

 "Author: Which fairy tales would you write?

Reader: The second one of course; the one with all the crazy stuff in it.

Author: The suffering , you mean?

Reader: It makes a better story, yes." (page 82)

Act II: Trouble Arises

Sure enough, then, we have Act II. Trouble Arises. As in the old silent movies of Hollywood, the evil Simon Legree appears to collect the unpayable rent. First there is trouble in the king's palace. Seems Ahaseurus' wife named Vashti refuses one of those royal edicts; she won't show her face to the king. Whatever it was, it's not a good idea to go against the boss, in those days for sure. Even if you are the queen, you still will be punished. Vashti gets booted from the palace, and the word gets out that a contest is on to find a replacement. How will they find the replacement? By conducting a beauty contest. Not a bad thing to include in a movie, eh? And maybe Aussie Jennifer Hawkins might have a go.

After some milk baths, our new heroine for whom the book is named, Esther wins, gets the gold medal, and becomes Queen.  Of course some know her by her Hebrew name Hadassah, which means 'myrtle' and the myrtle leaf is the shape of her very beautiful eyes.

We are also introduced to the evil villain, wearing all black, even with a black cape, and his name in this movie is Haman. He is a descendant of the famous movie bad guy Amalek, who starred in the earlier movie by the same Director. That movie featured Moses and the travelling former slaves, the Jewish people in the wilderness. But we digress.

One more crucial character you have to know is named Mordecai. He is a cousin or uncle of Esther, and will play a crucial role several times in the show. He's as central as Puck in Midsummer Night's Dream who always seems to have the right word, sometimes even to fix his own mistakes!

So we had Trouble in the Palace, and as Act II ends, we have Trouble also in the Land. Why? Seems that Haman has figured out how to be a villain of major consideration. He was a Fifth Century BCE Hitler, who thought the Jewish people were a marked people, worthy of extermination and ruin. He proposed his final solution and King Ahasuerus accepted it. Oy. The Director of our movie zooms in on the sneer, on the snidely confident laughter of Haman, and we are left with a cold chill up our spine.

Act III: Plan B

Even though Esther is the queen, something that should guarantee her personal safety, as Act 3 begins, we find her cousin Mordecai coming by for a visit. Not a friendly chat, but a powerful soliloquy of possibility and confidence. He tells her in no uncertain terms that the Jews need a Plan B. So Esther and Mordecai strategize; they work it out. You see, both Mordecai and Esther would be killed if the plot unfolded as Haman desired. We get the feeling that the Director wants both characters to survive at least for a while.

So, their plan is to call a fast. Ta'anit Esther, it's called in modern Judaism, the Fast of Esther. They invite all the Jews of Shushan to fast. After those 3 days, Esther was going to go to the king and ask for this last edict to be overturned. Not too hard, but obviously one plan that takes a lot of chutzpah to carry out.

Mordecai instructs his young ward. He tells her, "Who knows? Perhaps you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" This was a new thought to Esther, and after due consideration, she replied with that famous line shown often in the trailer of this movie. The Queen replies, "If I perish, I perish" This trailer has been shown for generations now, and will continue long after this comes out on Blue Ray 3D DVD. This moment gives us the title to tonight’s talk: Courage in a Complicated World.

Esther knows the best way to a man's signet ring is through his stomach, so she has a pair of banquets. Plan B is executed to perfection. The Banquet takes place exposing the Axis of Haman's evil.  Jewish survival is assured, and the madman is hanged on a gallows, standing on a platform higher than one built for any Grand Final medal ceremony.

Act IV: They lived happily ever after

It all comes out in the end, just like things always do in Hollywood, right? The good guys win and the bad guys get theirs as Haman dies on the gallows built for others and all 10 of Haman's sons die, and we leave the theater singing the theme song and eating ice cream bars. But is that what this movie is all about?

Problems at hand

Let's talk about some of the problems of the script, that is, the book of Esther in the Bible. First problem: there is no actual mention of God by name. That's right, it is a Jewish book written about a Jewish problem and an answer given apparently from heaven, God Himself, though, is not mentioned even once. Shocking, no?

Problem two, here is a whole community of Jews living a long way from Israel, when the way was opened up decades earlier in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah for all Jews to return from captivity in Babylon.  And according to Jewish tradition, they should have moved back. So we have this problem of renegade disobedient Jews living among Gentiles, and dealing with the commensurate sociological problems of interrelationships.

Other problems…the Law, the Torah is not mentioned, nor is animal sacrifice. Also, the Newer Testament does not quote even once from the book of Esther. Although fasting is spoken of and done, there is no mention of prayers. Finally, they did not find any fragments of this book in the Dead Sea Scrolls, which is no big megillah. 

Or is it? I think it is fascinating that the name of God is not mentioned. But perhaps I need to remember our movie image. The Director stamps the whole project with scene changes and zooms. He makes actors move close or directs their movements across the stage of our view. But during the movie, we never see the Director. After the movie is over, and Hollywood rewards its own in the Academy Awards, then we meet him personally. And perhaps that's the way to think of the Almighty in this case.

Who else but God could have organized the beauty contest? And that the Jewish girl would be so well placed at just the right time? And that Mordecai, whose good deed done to the king in the prequel, before our movie began, is rewarded for it while we watch this movie? Esther is God's story marked by God's deliverance in God's timing with God's signature… all without His name visibly made manifest. Can you imagine?

Some Messianic Jews might have some trouble with the lack of mention of the Law or Shabbat in the text. Some Israeli Jewish believers in Jesus might remove this book from their canon if they really could. Why?  Jews who have a chance to live in the Land are living outside it. "What a shanda! And no wonder there is trouble," they would say.

But I allege that God pervades, he is all through the book and all through the Jewish holiday of Purim. That holiday is mentioned 5 times in Esther chapter 9. Purim is known as a festive time, sort of a Jewish Halloween, where people dress up in costumes and give away candy and food baskets to others. Shalach manot is a substantial part of the holiday for adults. Of course, so is getting drunk. But that's another story that I'll let others address.

What about this 'name made manifest' idea? I remember an incident some years ago.  I was over visiting two ladies who were confessed atheists. They invited me to lunch and before the meal, there was great discussion about prayer. They didn't want to pray and they didn't want me to pray. Then they changed their minds and offered me to pray if I felt it necessary for my enjoyment of their meal they provided. All the while, I remained fairly quiet, eavesdropping as if I were removed from the situation, although we were all at the same table. After about 5 minutes of this, they said, 'ok, go ahead and pray if you must.' I answered, "We've already prayed. Prayer is to acknowledge God over you and with you, and with all this lively discussion, I believe God is well acknowledged." You can bet these ladies were quite frustrated.

Applications

Let me draw some conclusions from our Esther story today for me personally and hopefully for you as well and answer some of those problems as well.

1)        The people of God, even in Israel, can get excited about God being everywhere doing His thing. He does save His people, even those who are rebellious or reluctant, living outside the Land. In other words, His grace is not conditional on my previous compliance, but on His mercy and love.

2)        God is not always showing His name, though He is always working. Remember Yeshua healed people and would tell them, "Go and tell no one." There is timing to revelation and God does it perfectly here. And God does it perfectly with you and me. How surprising it was for me to meet Messiah in the person and the surprising name of Yeshua. I'd been raised an Orthodox Jew in Kansas City, and all of a sudden, I was seeing the name of Jesus as fulfillment of the Bible prophecies, Jesus: the one whom I'd never respected even from afar.

3)        There is a time to risk. Or as the title of tonight’s message says, “Courage in a Complicated World.” Esther went to the king without an appointment or an invitation and that was risky. Mordecai went to the king turning in some treasonous men, and this was risky not knowing whether the king would understand and if the Persian Mafia might not take Mordecai down for dobbing in two of their own. I love the Hallmark greeting card which said, "Let us love, let us risk, let us lay down our lives for one another…. You go first." Risk is never convenient; it is immeasurably difficult, but if you go through with it, you will be the better. "Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all." Where is God calling you? Will you risk relationships to go there?

4)        Were it not for God, all the Hamans and the Hitlers and the Herods of the world would have won long ago and destroyed the Jewish people. But God will save His chosen people and defend Israel. What encouragement we can take from that in these troubled times as well. The story is told of Adolph Hitler in a speech he gave in January 1944, he is quoted, "If the Nazis go down to defeat, the Jews will celebrate a "second Purim." Then two years later in 1946 during the Nuremberg Trials, 11 Nazis were quickly found guilty and sentenced to death. Goering committed suicide before he could be hanged. As the 10 Nazis- like Haman's 10 sons- went to their deaths, one of them Julius Streicher, shouted, "Purimfest!" Even they knew God had delivered the Jews. Yes there are many issues related to the Holocaust: guilt, shame, anger, sadness. But atheism is a lousy response to the Holocaust. God has saved us. The Lord is the Mighty Deliverer.

5)                 The prophecies of the coming Messiah from Moses to Daniel would have been known in part by the people of Esther’s day. I'm not sure how the story perpetuated, but it makes sense to me that Esther as queen affected the Persian folks so well and for so long that just a few centuries later, the stories were still being told. Esther the queen probably told them about the Future King, the Messiah, to come. And it was a group of magi from the East, like from Persia they say, who followed a star to Jerusalem and finally to Bethlehem to meet the "Star that arose out of Jacob and the scepter that would not depart from Israel." (Numbers 24) This once and future king, Yeshua, Jesus of Nazareth is the Great Hope of the Jewish people today. We who know Him discover that He is the Director to the movie. He is the secret hidden from the ages past. And His death and resurrection, which is marked by Christians all over the globe each Sunday, was Plan A for God for the redemption of Israel and the nations.

Yes, just as in our movie today, everything seemed quiet at the beginning of human history back at the Beginning of the Bible record. The Garden of Eden was a beautiful and ongoing pleasure village. Then sin entered and God had to work out the buy-back procedures, making treaties along the way until He made a final covenant with all who will trust in Him in the Passion of Messiah. How far were we separate from God? Try to get back to the Garden. It's like sand dunes, and you are in the hole of one. Try to dig out of the dusty sand. Or try to get yourself out of a Joondalup golf course bunker. You will only make the hole larger and your plight deeper. No one else could fix it, not even Bob the Builder. In the same way, although personally, you might have thought everything was fine with you, quiet if you will, trouble started brewing. Perhaps there was trouble at work or with your family or neighbors, troubles in dealing with close friends, or even internal struggles about your own person. Where is Plan B? Where is the way of escape from this trouble? I believe the best way to your answer, to the King of Kings’ signet ring, is through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus. You get to trust Him. You get to look to Him to find eternal life and to find answers to your often-unsettled situations.

If you don't yet know this one about whom we speak here, this Jesus, and would like to, then today, right where you are, won't you receive His lordship over you? He is the unnoticed director of all things and wants to help you survive the pains of this life, no matter the cost. He wants to forgive your sins and make you born again to a living hope. If you've never received Jesus as Messiah and Savior, and would like to do so, please pray this prayer in quiet whispers along with me from the honest depths of your heart.

Pray like this, "Lord I'm a sinner and have messed up my life pretty dramatically. You alone can fix it. I cannot. My sins are great and your character is to have mercy. Even on me. Thanks for that. Please forgive my sins and make me born again. I receive Jesus as my Savior and Lord, and ask you to make this real to me. Give me strength to trust you each day. In Jesus's name. Amen."

If you prayed that prayer for the first time today, please see the folks up front here after the service who will advise you about what's next and can assist you in your new journey of faith. How exciting!

Those of you who are believers, I challenge you to continue living a life of risk. Proclaim the name of the One who is ever present. Yeshua our Messiah who is ever working even on behalf of those who don't deserve it. Amen? You may not have to move 16,000 kilometres and 2 hemispheres like I did to preach to the people of Australia. You only have to survive the struggles of traversing the CBD and the GST, but you get to share the Good News message with folks in your offices and in your neighborhoods. You get to make known the Director who is for so many unseen. Maybe this year during the season of Purim which will be as usual a month before Passover, along with sending gift baskets of food to others, you could begin or continue sending gift baskets of the Word of God to those in your sphere of influence? They will thank you one day. It's worth the risk, don't you think?

And that’s the ministry of Jews for Jesus, risk takers who are working in 13 countries and 25 cities worldwide with full time staff even here in Australia. I moved here 19 years ago to found the ministry and it’s been a good innings. And a big thank you to those of you who have been generous in donation to Jews for Jesus. To all of you, would you please fill out that Jews for Jesus involvement card in your bulletin and give it to me at the resource table during supper? I’d appreciate the opportunity to speak to you again and again through our newsletter.

Our teams worldwide are evangelizing as you saw in the opening video in winter in Russia and New York and London. You can pray and I hope you will pray for us. We are out on the streets in Sydney and Bondi, where our book shop is open all week. And where Jewish people drop in every week. Pray for open hearts in the Jewish community. Pray for strength of our bodies to keep on keeping on, no matter the response. Pray for a few more Jewish believers to join us in our work, and we will keep you updated via the newsletter. Thanks again Brad for letting me come.

May God bless us all today, in the name of the Messiah Yeshua, amen.

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Sources for Nazi stories:

http://jewishsf.com/bk960308/iapurim.htm