Eagles Nest Church
Sunday Morning Worship Service

      • 2 Corinthians 9:7ESV

      • James 2:8ESV

  • The First Noel
  • Angels We Have Heard On High
  • What Child Is This
  • O Come O Come Emmanuel

      • Esther 3ESV

      • Esther 3:1-2ESV

      • Esther 3:3-4ESV

      • Esther 3:5-6ESV

      • Esther 3:7ESV

      • Esther 3:8ESV

      • Esther 3:9-10ESV

      • Esther 3:11ESV

      • Esther 3:12ESV

      • Esther 3:13ESV

      • Esther 3:14-15ESV

      • Esther 3ESV

  • There once was a young boy whose father loved developing photographs in a darkroom,
    who often brought his son in with him while he worked.
    The room was silent.
    Dim.
    with only a soft red light that barely let you see anything at all.
    And the boy hated it.
    It felt wrong to him.
    It was too dark.
    Too quiet.
    and slow, with too much waiting.
    He would often tug on his father’s sleeve and whisper,
    “Can we turn the lights on now? I want to see the picture.”
    But his father always said the same thing.
    “If we turn the lights on too soon, the picture dies.
    So the boy waited.
    He watched shadows instead of shapes.
    He listened to the soft movements of a father he could barely see.
    And slowly…
    eventually…
    almost magically… the image began to appear.
    What looked like nothing was becoming something beautiful.
    Years later, after his father passed away,
    he found a note taped to the back of his dad’s favorite print he had given him.
    Which said:
    “You can trust the one who creates beauty in the dark.”
    And church, that is exactly where Esther chapter 3 meets us.
    in one of the Bible’s great darkroom chapters.
    which shows us a red-tinted world with more shadows than clarity.
    Haman rises.
    A death decree is given.
    There is no beauty,
    no light,
    no explanation.
    Just a dark and silent world with a God who feels hidden.
    But hidden does not mean absent.
    The darkness is temporary,
    because our Father is already developing a work we cannot yet see.
    which is a picture of His deliverance.
    But…
    To trust in God’s deliverance in the shadows, we must rest in:
    God’s rule over evil’s rise (v. 1-6)
    God’s restraint on evil’s reach (v. 7-11)
    God’s reversal of evil’s plans (v. 12-15)
    Last week, chapter 2 ended on a strange note:
    Mordecai uncovers a plot to assassinate the king.
    He reports it.
    He saves the king’s life.
    And what happens?
    Nothing.
    No recognition.
    No honor.
    No reward.
    Just silence.
    And the author wants you to remember that moment as you step into chapter 3,
    because chapter 3 begins with the exact opposite movement.
    Mordecai, a faithful Jew, is overlooked.
    Haman, a wicked man, is exalted.
    Why?
    The text doesn’t tell us.
    That contrast is intentional.
    It is meant to feel wrong.
    Mordecai does what is right and gains nothing.
    Haman does nothing and gains everything.
    That’s supposed to bother you.
    Because that is what life often feels like, isn’t it?
    Sometimes the good do die young,
    Anyone here ever experienced anything like this before?
    You walk in integrity and it costs you.
    Someone else cuts corners and gets promoted.
    You obey God and suffer.
    Someone else rebels and prospers.
    We all have!
    We’ve all tasted that sinking feeling in the chest when injustice wins the morning.
    But don’t miss what the author here is showing us.
    He’s not saying: “Look at how unfair life is”
    He’s seeing: “Look closer…”
    Because what feels like the chaos of a broken world is actually the darkroom of God.
    You don’t see the picture yet.
    You only see shadows.
    But God is still developing something beautiful.
    Some of you are standing in that exact space right now.
    You don’t know what God is doing with your marriage, your health, your job, your kids, or your future.
    All you see are blurred shapes and threats you can’t name.
    But the Christian life isn’t lived by sight.
    It is lived by trusting the Father whose hands are still moving in the darkroom.
    And if you look around this room,
    we are surrounded by people who have lived this.
    People who have walked through hardship after hardship,
    and still have a smile on their face because they trust the God Who turns darkness into light!
    That’s what Esther is setting us up for.
    That’s what’s it’s calling us to do.
    And all of that, in just verse 1 so far.
    In verse 2, there is some salt rubbed into the wound.
    The king commands everyone to bow down to Haman.
    Everyone does…
    except Mordecai.
    In verse 3, all the kings servants and all the kings men try to get Mordecai to change course,
    But they can’t put Humpty Dumpty together again,
    as Mordecai refuses outright.
    he won’t do it.
    And we want to know why, right?
    Why wouldn’t he bow?
    There are three possibilities:
    1. Maybe he was bitter that Haman was promoted while he was ignored.
    2. Maybe he believed bowing to Haman crossed into false worship.
    3. Or maybe he refused because Haman was an Agagite, an ancient enemy of Israel.
    So which one is it?
    Honestly… I don’t know…
    Aren’t you glad you came to church today?
    to find out all of things I don’t know about this passage…
    While the text doesn’t tell us Mordecai’s motive,
    it does tell us the author’s motive…
    And it’s so much more important!
    because the author is doing something far bigger than describing a workplace conflict between two men.
    He is pulling a thread that stretches all the way back to Genesis.
    Haman isn’t just “Haman.”
    He is “Haman the Agagite.”
    The author tells you that not once, but 5 times throughout this book.
    And it’s because he’s trying to show us the cosmic battle between God and Satan, 
    And just a quick heads up, 
    But  I’m gonna geek out pretty hard here for a minute about this. 
    So here’s the backstory there.
    Remember Jacob and his brother Esau?
    Were they best buds?
    No they weren’t…
    Jacob conned him out of his birth right,
    and Esau wasn’t happy about it.
    And sure, they sort of patched things up,
    But that conflict would carry over for generations.
    Genesis 25:23 ESV
    And the Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.”
    OK stick with me here,
    because if you miss this, you’re going to miss Esther.
    And honestly, you’re going to miss a huge piece of your Bible.
    This wasn’t simply a promise that Esau would serve Jacob,
    It was a promise of covenantal conflict between Esau’s descendents and Jacob’s.
    And that’s EXACTLY what happens.
    In Numbers 20, when Israel (Jacob’s descendents) are looking for safe passage,
    Edom (Esau’s descendents) respond with refusal and threaten to attack them.
    And this covenantal conflict keeps happen over and over again
    between them all throughout the Old Testament.
    In Exodus 19, the nation of Israel is on their way out of Egypt after God delivered them from slavery,
    And guess who shows up to give them grief on their way out…
    The Amalekites,
    who are descendents of… Esau…
    attack Israel from the rear,
    pick off the elderly, women, and children…
    And God is so angered by it,
    that He promises to blot their memory completely out of existence!
    So a years later,
    We find King Saul fighting this nasty demon-worshiping Almalakite king named…
    AGAG…
    Now quickly remind me…
    What was Haman’s title again?
    Haman the… AGAG-ITE.
    Is it all coming together yet?
    The author of Esther is saying:
    “Remember that nasty demon-worshiper king that King Saul was suppose to kill, but did’t, so the prophet Samuel had to step in and hacked him into pieces…”
    “remember that guy and His Jew hating people the Amalakites that God promised to wipe out”
    “Well here is his descendent again centuries later trying to wipe the Jews out.”
    That’s why the author doesn’t tell us why Mordecai refuses to bow,
    It’s because ultimately it doesn’t matter
    it’s not an interpersonal relationship conflict between two men,
    it’s a cosmic conflict with being two supernatural powers:
    God and Satan.
    Sure, neither of their names are mentioned…
    But come on….
    Their names are all over these pages in a brilliant way!
    And the more we let this photo develop,
    the more we see it!
    And after seeing it,
    I’m convinced that Esther is really a Christmas book.
    Do you see why?
    Because if there are no Jews - there is no Jesus.
    And if there’s no Jesus - there is Savior.
    And if there’s no Savior - there is only an edict of death for us all!
    No life,
    No joy,
    No heaven,
    Just hell!
    And Esther, it’s brilliant way is quietly shouting that!
    it’s shouting that God will not lose the cosmic battle!
    He will protect His people!
    He will triumph!
    And EVERY KNEE WILL BOW AND TONGUE WILL CONFESS THAT JESUS, THE JEWISH MESSIAH IS LORD!
    I warned you I was gonna geek out about this a little,
    but ya better buckle up,
    because we are just getting started.
    To trust in God’s deliverance in the shadows, we must rest in:
    God’s rule over evil’s rise (v. 1-6)
    God’s restraint on evil’s reach (v. 7-11)
    In verse 7, Haman cast the “pur”
    which is their version of rolling the dice.
    But he’s not playing Yahtzee,
    He’s asking demons what to do like the good little AGAG-GITE he is.
    He’s looking for supernatural guidance.
    And ironically, that’s EXACTLY what he gets…
    but not from demonic spiritual powers,
    but from the ultimate spiritual power which is Yahweh God.
    He thinks he’s picking a day based on demonic favor.
    but in reality he’s picking a date based on divine disfavor.
    And one that gives God’s people favor.
    Because look at what the dice land on.
    Not tomorrow.
    Not next week.
    Not next month.
    And entire year out!
    And if you’re reading this for the first time, you might miss how strange that is.
    Haman is furious.
    He wants Mordecai dead.
    He wants all the Jews dead.
    He wants this handled now.
    So why wait twelve months?
    If darkness is in charge, why the delay?
    It’s because darkness is not in charge,
    it is completely RESTRAINED by God!
    Some of ya’ll are giving Satan too much credit…
    But he’s just a mean dog on a leash.
    who’s bark is worse than his bite.
    Only God is sovereign.
    Only God is all-knowing.
    Only God is everywhere.
    Satan is none of those things.
    So why are you acting like He is?
    When your politician loses,
    when your health, wealth, or job is gone,
    Who do you look to?
    Who do you blame?
    Satan…
    My friends you’re giving him too much credit!
    Because last time I checked the sovereign God of universe is the only sovereign being.
    And only He knows and controls the future.
    not horoscopes,
    Not zodiac signs,
    not fleeces or whispers in the night.
    All of that is just Agagite Divination!
    So put your newspapers away,
    stop doom scrolling a feed of bad news,
    stop re-hearsing worst-case scenariors in your mind,
    and start getting on your knees with God’s Word and pray!
    Pray to the God Who knows and writes the end from the beginning,
    Trust that everything that comes your way flows from His sovereign hand.
    And by faith believe that God rules over and restrains on evil’s reach!
    ALL OF IT!
    EVERY LAST OUNCE OF IT!
    And do now matter how dark things look.
    In verse 8, Haman goes to King Xerxes,
    he offers an insanely huge bribe,
    the king accepts, but tells him to keep the money…
    because he was flexing his power instead of using his brain.
    Which was pretty stupid on two levels.
    One, he was close to broke after losing that battle to the Greeks,
    and for two, he unknowingly agrees to wipe out his wife Esther and all her people.
    And Haman’s pitch is as slick as it is evil.
    He paints the Jews as lawbreakers,
    as people who don’t fit,
    as a threat to the empire.
    It’s the same strategy every enemy of God’s people has used throughout history:
    Daniel showed us this with Antiochus Epiphanes.
    History showed us this with Adolph Hitler.
    And every God-hating ruler who has targeted the Jews has followed the same script.
    Why?
    Because Scripture teaches there is a spirit of antichrist at work in the world.
    Not just the Antichrist at the end of the age,
    but the recurring pattern John talks about in 1 John 2:18,
    where many “anti-Christs” rise up in opposition to God’s people.
    It’s the same old playbook.
    Twist the truth.
    Inflame fear.
    Make faithfulness look dangerous.
    Then justify violence in the name of peace.
    Haman is one in a long line of men who embody that God-hating spirit.
    He isn’t THE Antichrist,
    but he is cut from the same cloth.
    And that is exactly why the author slows down and lets you feel the weight of this moment.
    This isn’t just politics
    This is spiritual warfare dressed up in government paperwork.
    And my friends,
    remember that spiritual warfare doesn’t just happen in palaces.
    It happens on Monday afternoons when you’re worn thin and tempted to compromise.
    It happens in the quiet moments when bitterness whispers your name.
    It happens in the unseen places where no one claps for faithfulness but God.
    So where do you feel that pull this week?
    Where do you know the battle will be waiting for you when you get home today?
    Because that’s where real spiritual battlefield lies.
    We need to slow down and pay attention to what the author is showing us,
    not just what the Haman’s of this world are doing.
    Evil is active.
    Evil is loud.
    Evil is scheming.
    But evil is limited.
    Haman can plot.
    Haman can slander.
    Haman can bribe.
    Haman can rage.
    But Haman’s of this world cannot move one inch beyond the boundary God sets.
    Do you believe that?
    Does your life reflect that belief in your prayers, your worries, and your fears?
    Because when you feel crushed by the machinery of evil in this fallen world,
    when you feel outnumbered or powerless,
    Scripture pulls back the curtain and shows you the real picture:
    The people who seem to hold all the power
    don’t even know what they are doing.
    Look at Xerxes…
    No questions…
    No concerns…
    He just blindly hands his signet ring over to Haman to seal the death warrant for God’s people.
    And that blindness from Xerxes is the setup,
    because the God who restrains evil is now about to reverse the very plans formed against His people.
    To trust in God’s deliverance in the shadows, we must rest in:
    God’s rule over evil’s rise (v. 1-6)
    God’s restraint on evil’s reach (v. 7-11)
    God’s reversal of evil’s plans (v. 12-15)
    In verse 12, the decree to exterminate the Jews goes out on the thirteenth day of the first month…
    If you were a Jewish reader, that date would hit you like a freight train.
    Because that is the night before Passover.
    The night when God redeemed Israel from Egypt.
    The night when judgment passed over His people through the blood of a lamb.
    The night when God showed He could break the back of the greatest empire on earth.
    And now, on that same exact date,
    another empire writes a new decree of death for God’s people.
    The irony is so thick you could cut it with a knife.
    What Haman means as a death sentence,
    God is already positioning as the setup for a second Passover.
    Not the original rescue from Egypt,
    not even merely the rescue in Esther’s day,
    but the shadow pointing to the ultimate, new and better Passover!
    Because like the Jewish people,
    We all have received a written decree of death.
    We all stand as helpless people who are condemned.
    No escape.
    No defense.
    No human power who can save us from Satan, the ultimate Haman.
    And yet…
    Once again…
    God provided a better Lamb,
    a better Advocate,
    a better Deliverer to save His people.
    Verse 12 says that this decree went out in
    every language,
    to every people,
    across the whole empire.
    But centuries later,
    another decree was written in every language,
    and was placed above the head of a crucified Savior:
    “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”
    And what LOOKED LIKE DEATH!
    WHAT LOOKED LIKE SATAN’S VICTORY!
    was the sealing of his defeat,
    just as it was for HAMAN!
    For on on the 3rd day,
    Death could not hold Him!
    The grave could not keep Him!
    Hell itself could not stop Him.
    Because through Jesus Christ,
    God took the greatest death decree ever written against humanity
    And turned it into FREEDOM AND LIFE!
    That’s the story of Esther!
    That’s the story of Christmas
    And the story of every soul who trust in the one who creates beauty in the dark!
    Because of Jesus,
    that Dog Satan has no fangs!
    Death has no sting!
    Hell hath no victory!
    So what is their to fear?
    Because while the people of Susa were thrown into confusion,
    The God of heaven wasn’t in confusion!
    He wasn’t panicking in a state of disarray!
    No,
    He was doing the same thing He was doing for 3 days while hell cheered after Christ’s death.
    HE LAUGHED!
    Psalm 2 ESV
    Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”
    Psalm 2 ESV
    He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.
    Psalm 2 ESV
    Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
    Psalm 2 ESV
    Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. [But] Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
    Psalm 2 isn’t just a warning to the nations.
    It is the announcement of a King who has already come.
    The One the nations raged against.
    The One hell tried to silence.
    The One every Haman in history has opposed.
    He arrived in the quiet of Bethlehem while the world slept.
    And while kings plotted and empires schemed,
    God placed His Son on Zion
    and said,
    “This is My King. This is My Son.”
    “And His kingdom will not fail.”
    That’s the joy Esther points us to.
    The nations rage,
    but heaven laughs
    because Christ has come.
    The decree of death is undone.
    The true Passover Lamb has died and now lives!
    And that is joy to the world for all who take refuge in Him!
    No more fear…
    No more worry…
    No more shame…
    Nothing but joy, incredible joy!
    So when the shadows press in this week,
    Remember this chapter.
    Remember Psalm 2.
    Remember that heaven is not wringing its hands when the world shakes.
    The King of Kings has already risen and already reigns.
    And if you belong to Him, your story is safe.
    Even in the dark.
    And when a truth like that settles into your heart,
    there’s really only one thing left to do.
    You worship.
    You sing.
    as the great hymn writer Isaac Watts put.
    Let us love and sing and wonder,
    let us praise the Savior’s name!
    He has hushed the law’s loud thunder,
    he has quenched Mount Sinai’s flame:
    He has washed us with his blood,
    he has brought us nigh to God.

      • Genesis 25:23ESV

      • Psalm 2ESV

      • Psalm 2ESV

      • Psalm 2ESV

      • Psalm 2ESV

  • Joy To The World

      • Numbers 6:24–26ESV

Eagles Nest Church
pastorzach@eaglesnestmn.org
(218) 562-5252
http://www.eaglesnestmn.org
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