Fellowship Illustrated in Esther

Turn, please, to the book of 1 John. 1 John, please. We're going to read in chapter 1 a little bit, and we're going to go back to the book of Esther.

1 John 1. We'll read together at verse number 1. 1 John 1 verse 1, That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life, for the life was manifested, and we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. That which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. These things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.

This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us.

Now back to the book of Esther. And you say, what a strange combination. That's all right.

I'd like to look at fellowship in the book of Esther. Fellowship. It is kind of the elephant in the room of every assembly.

You say, what do you mean by that? Well, in recent years, our fellowship has been tried. And in every assembly represented here, there are divisions that have been masked over with plaster. Lines that have been drawn in the sand that should something happen, there'll be division.

If God allows another test of the assemblies as He has in recent years, you know as well as I that things are going to fracture. So how then can we as God's people be in fellowship? What is it going to take for us to get back into real fellowship and knit together as one? As one. We see a little glimpse here in the book of Esther.

We'll read it together in chapter 5, I believe it is. Chapter 4, rather. Counting on a little of your memory for the book and what's taking place here in the context.

The decree now has gone out that all the Jews are going to die. The reason the Jews are going to die is because Mordecai has offended a wicked man, Haman. And he would not violate his law with God, God's law.

He would not sin against his God. And so therefore he sinned against this man Haman by not bowing down to him. And now the decree goes out that all the Jews in all the kingdom are to die.

Chapter 4, verse 1. When Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes and put on sackcloth with ashes and went out into the midst of the city and cried with a loud and bitter cry and came even before the king's gate for none might enter into the king's gate clothed in sackcloth. And in every province whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews and fasting and weeping and wailing and many lay in sackcloth and ashes. Now go to chapter 8, please.

Now what's taking place in the meantime is the Lord has worked all things out according to His good pleasure and now there's a second decree that is given. And that is that the Jews can defend themselves. Chapter 8, verse 11.

When the king granted the Jews which were in every city to gather themselves together and to stand for their life. To destroy and to slay and to cause to perish all the power of the people and province that would assault them. Drop down now verse 15.

Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal apparel, blue and white and with a great crown of gold and with a garment of fine linen and purple and the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad. The Jews had light and gladness and joy and honor. And in every province and in every city whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a good day.

And many of the people of the land became Jews for the fear of the Jews fell upon them. And the Lord will bless to us the reading of His precious word. Now to start we'll give the definition of really fellowship.

It is a sharing in common. It is a bond together. It is to be as the word indicates fellows in the same ship.

Rowing together, striving together for the same goal, working together for the same purpose. So as God's people here today we're looking at fellowship. If we're going to be in fellowship one with another we must first be in fellowship with God.

And as we go down this little list of things in chapter 8 of Esther, it reminded me of 1 John. For in 1 John they had light, and they had joy, and they had gladness. And my brother Al has already laid the foundation here of that our fellowship with God, our fellowship one with another must start first of all with the fear of the Lord.

Fear of the Lord. It must start there. For if there is no reverence for God, if there is no fear of the Lord, more than just a respect, a genuine fear of God, a fear of the Lord, we have no fellowship with God and we have no fellowship one with another.

A fellowship is not just that we all agree in the same thing. We could all agree on the same thing, in the same topic, and we could all be wrong. It reminds me of Rudyard Kipling's book, The Jungle Book.

And you remember there the story, it's been a long time, forgive me if I miss the details, but there's these monkeys and they're in the temple. And they're saying, we are the wisest monkeys in the world. And it must be so because we all agree.

What standard are we going by? We could all be in agreement, we could be the wisest monkeys in the world, but whose standard? So when it comes to true fellowship with God, and our fellowship with one another must stem from our fellowship with Him, it must start with the fear of the Lord. You'll remember before you were saved, every single person here genuinely saved by the grace of God. Where did it start? Fear of the Lord.

Fear of the Lord. We weren't right with God. We understood our guilt before God.

We understood the consequences. We understood, could I put it this way in the terms of Esther, the first decree. That we're all going to die.

I want to just say this, if you've never been there, you've never had a real understanding of sin and guilt and judgment before God, when did your fellowship with God start? It starts with God and we agree with Him and what we are in His sight. Okay, so that's just kind of the start. When we come to Esther now, we've got this decree.

And where we read in chapter 4, it was the first time in this book that all the Jews in all the kingdom were in fellowship. From India to Ethiopia. That was the Persian Empire.

And now this decree has gone out that all the Jews in this whole entire kingdom, this whole entire empire, they're going to die. You see, if you'd look at the nation before this, what would you see? They were living in a strange land. There were some that had gone back to Jerusalem to work and to rebuild the temple and to rebuild the walls of the city.

There were some that were doing that. Others stayed back in the provinces of the kingdom. Why? Their hearts weren't one for the things of God.

They were not united in the things of God. They were not excited and interested in restoring that which brought glory to God. They were not in fellowship with one another.

There were those that, could I put it this way, they were comfortable. They were comfortable in a foreign land. So you've got those that went back to seek to restore the glory to Jehovah.

There were those that were comfortable in the land. They were prosperous in the land. There were those that were oblivious to the things of God that were Jews in that land.

Could care less. That was the nation of Israel. God's people.

Before the decree came that they're all going to die. So it struck me like this. The first time these people were in true fellowship was when the reality come upon all of them that on the 13th day of the 12th month they were all going to perish.

How do we know they're in fellowship? Because throughout the whole land they were in sackcloth and in ashes. And they were weeping with a loud cry and crying unto their God. And the fear of the Lord was real again.

What about us today? Some of us are caught in the group that would be the prosperous group. We're comfortable in a strange land. As pilgrims in this land, we're absolutely at home.

We're absolutely comfortable. We wouldn't change a thing. Life is good.

There are some brethren here and sisters here. And you're interested in the glory of God and the kingdom of God. And you're trying to rebuild and you're trying to see the purposes of God.

Bring glory to God. There are some of us here and maybe in every one of us we'll find aspects of all three of these things. And we're oblivious.

We're oblivious to the purposes of God. How then can we all be in fellowship? How can fellowship with people of different personalities and different cultures and different backgrounds, even different languages, how can we be united in harmony one with another? Not until we're in harmony and united with Him. That's the key.

And Al has brought it forth. It is the fear of the Lord. And so now these people, they're all the same.

They see the reality that they need God. They need God. They would have thought that, wouldn't they, in days gone by.

In all their thinking, they would see, wow, we're in a strange land and it sure would be nice. No one was willing to make a move but just a few that went back. And now the reality comes and they need the Lord.

Some of them, for the first time in their life, they would realize that they needed the Lord in a capacity such as this. And fellowship and their need, they shared the same need, was real. They prayed together.

They prayed together. How is the prayer life in your assembly? Is the prayer meeting the normal for most places? It's maybe 40% max of the people that are on the roll of the assembly? Brethren, in days to come, if we don't pray together, there's no way we'll stay together. Would it be your heart's desire when the prayer meeting comes to drop everything you are doing and be there? That would show fellowship with God.

And that would show fellowship with the believers. We're examining our hearts today. Are we in fellowship with God? Or is it pretend? This is real.

Oh, in these days, these Jews, they would have maybe got together. Maybe they would have had a synagogue here and there. Who knows what they had there? I don't know.

Maybe you do. Fill me in on it later. But you see, when this became reality in their life, they were in fellowship.

In sackcloth, and in ashes, and in repentance, and in prayers, and in tears. And I suggest today this, we would do well to feel the burden they felt. There's a lot of repentance in my life that needs to take place.

We're probably all in fellowship with that. So the first time in the book of Esther we see God's people in true fellowship is when they see their need. And the fear and the reverence of God is now real.

They are in great danger. And they're crying out to God as one man. And I understand that it would have taken time for the decree to get through all the acres of the broad kingdom.

But when they got the news, they were the same. I can almost see it like dominoes because it has to start somewhere. And as one of them would bow the knee and fall upon their face starting with Mordecai, all the way through the land.

And you see the dominoes go. What is it? They're all in fellowship. And they're together.

Together in their need. Together in their fear of the Lord. So you've got the prosperous.

You've got the people that are oblivious. There's an element in Christians today of nervousness. Some of us, just to skip really the oblivious part, we take comfort in our ignorance.

And what we don't know, we don't bother us. But there's others of us in God's people that are nervous. They're nervous.

I like to sit in the woods and I like to watch the animals. I like to hunt the animals, to be honest. And I pay attention to their behavior.

And the nervous ones are interesting to watch. Their ears are always pointed. The deer have one ear pointed this way, one ear pointed this way.

And their eyes are everywhere. And they're checking the wind. And they're very edgy and they're very nervous.

And I see that among the sheep of God's people. We're very edgy and we're very nervous in these days in which we live. We're nervous because we can detect the evil.

It's no secret that evil is abounding and that which is wrong is being made right. And it's making us nervous. And we're nervous when we consider false teachers that are creeping in.

And the things that we're hearing and the things that we're learning and the things that are being taught that aren't right and they're false doctrine and they are error. How are these things going to be straightened out? Fellowship with God first. Fellowship with Him.

And so now we come through the long story and we come now to chapter 8. And what we have here is what was linking in my mind with John to bring it into the New Testament realm. What do these people have as they come to this second decree? Notice this. The king granted them that in every city, fellowship everywhere, they gather together.

In every city, God's people could gather together. They couldn't reverse the decree. It was an unreversible decree.

It was signed with the king's ring. It was the law of the Medes and Persians. Every Jew on the 13th day of the 12th month was to be destroyed.

But the king issues a second decree that they had the right, the privilege to gather together. Interesting terminology, isn't it? Gather His people together. Gather them together.

You see, these people, if you were there and there were other Jews in your city, and you know that on this day the enemies are going to come and seek to destroy you, would you stay home and hide in your basement? Would you go to meet with the believers? Would you go meet with the other Jews? Stand for the faith. Stand for one another. To be fellows in the same ship, in the same city.

Fellowship. It's not every man for himself now, is it? It's every man one for another. And that's fellowship.

It's not every man doing his own things, what's right in their own eyes. It's every man now looking for the good and for the benefit and for the well-being and the preservation of his brother. Fellowship.

So they have that privilege. And they have that privilege now to defend themselves. What is God doing? You see, God's never mentioned in this book, but God's purposes are being displayed all the way through.

And His promises are being fulfilled. Even the promise that He was going to rid the earth of Amalek, and that's who Haman belonged to. He was Agite.

God's going to deal with him. And what Joshua started in the desert, now it's going to be finished here in Shushan. Haman and his sons and his relatives are all going to be wiped out.

God's still working. His people are comfortable in a strange place. God's still working.

Is He working today? He is. What's He working for? To bring His people into fellowship with Himself. With our Lord Jesus Christ.

And with one another. Every instance that comes into our life, we should be thankful for, that draws us closer to Him. And pulls us from this world.

And the transformation it seeks to bring upon us. You see, we live in a world where division is being indoctrinated into everything. And it's in the assembly.

It's here. How are we going to get back? First of all, the fear of the Lord. Second of all, it is going to be the interest in the gathering together.

It's going to be an interest in the assembly. And you'll understand the application here that we're seeking to make. But notice this now.

They've got Mordecai and he's going out now in royal apparel in blue and white with a great crown. And the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad. Notice verse 16.

What do these Jews have in common? They had light. They had light. We read about that in 1 John, didn't we? About the light.

They had light. It was all darkness before and now these people, they have light. It's really light for growth.

And there they are. They've got this light. Something that was missing.

Something that they didn't have. It seems as though they were bumping around in the dark. Groping in the dark.

And now they have light. One with another. Yes, because they have fellowship with God.

And what we read together here is to walk in the light. We know by the Gospel of John that He is the light. And if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.

And the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. They had light together. Light to grow.

They were the only ones in the world with light. The Gentiles were in the dark. They were in the darkness.

Israel, God's chosen people, they were given the light, and they shared the light. How is it that you and I are going to walk together and be in fellowship together only when we walk in the light? There's no fellowship to all walk in the dark. But to walk in the light and to appreciate the light and to walk with one another.

How can two walk together unless they be agreed? How are we going to be agreed when we're walking together in the light that God has given? It starts with the fear of the Lord. It continues then with walking in the light. Walking in the light.

Then what happens to these people? It says here that they had gladness and joy. We'll link those two together. Gladness and joy.

Exceeding pleasure and rejoicing together. Christians that are enjoying their salvation together. We'll be in fellowship together.

They will be exceeding glad together. How could you be a Jew and not completely rejoice in the fact that this decree now, there is expectation. The decree that they're all to perish, now there's expectation that they can live.

And as a spiritual Jew, what would you be seeing behind the scenes? You'd be seeing God work again. Can you imagine the magnitude of this empire? Every Jew being in the same mind. What would America be like if every Christian was of the same mind walking in the light in fellowship with God and with believers? Wouldn't there have to be power? Would there be rejoicing? Yes, there would be rejoicing.

Would there be gladness? Yes. So they're walking in the light. Now this needs to be us if we're going to continue in fellowship.

We can't start in the light and then switch to darkness. That'll never do. But now they're in the light.

And because they're in the light, now they're enjoying gladness and joy. And they're enjoying... What are they enjoying? Evidence of God working on their behalf. Have you enjoyed it, dear believer? That in your circumstances of life, God working on your behalf, in your assembly, to see God working on your behalf.

The joy and the gladness and the fellowship. I have to say something I've noticed in recent years. It seems like in gospel meetings when someone gets saved, there isn't the big ado that there used to be.

Have you noticed that, brother? Someone gets saved, professes to be saved. It used to be hugs and tears. Oh, happy day! Is it the same? Or is it, well, I hope they're real.

Seriously. When someone professes to be saved, listening to the gospel, reading their Bible, alone with God, are we still in great gladness and great joy? Someone just said, well, you don't know if they're saved or not. I don't.

God does. The Lord knows them that are His. Rejoice.

So they're rejoicing. Now remember, the deliverance hasn't come yet. These people are rejoicing ahead of time.

They're being thankful ahead of time. They're exceeding pleasurable ahead of time. And that one Jew has been spared yet.

The day hasn't come yet. What's that evidence? It's evidence of fellowship and faith in God. The fear of the Lord, yes.

Absolutely. The joy of the Lord. Faith in God.

What else? They had a good day. They had a good day. Hard to come by nowadays, isn't it? If you're not pulled in a thousand different directions every day and have to be in a thousand different places at the same time, it's not a normal day anymore.

These dear Jews, they had a good day. Likely a day that they hadn't had for decades. Decades.

When was the last time you had a good day? I hope today is the first day. We have a good day. They're in fellowship.

And they're rejoicing. They have a good day. This touches your heart.

What else do they have? And many of the people of the land became Jews. Converts. Others that saw the light that the Jews were walking in.

Others. No, no. What comes first? Others with a fear of the Lord.

Others that saw these Jews now with their light, with their joy, with their pleasure. They wanted to be like them. They wanted whatever it was that they had.

Can your neighbors, can your friends say that about you? I want what they have. You see, they were enjoying, weren't they, the joy of really the salvation. To bring it into our context.

They were enjoying the joy of their salvation. It was the joy of the Lord. You see, we're trying to get back to the Lord.

The fear of the Lord, yes. Absolutely. The joy of the Lord.

The light of the Lord. And they're enjoying these things together, and others are like, these people have power with God. They do.

And we want their God. Because our God has no power. And our God doesn't speak, and our God doesn't deliver, like their God has obviously done for them.

And we want to be like them. And there were people that were converted. They were converted.

You see, it says here that they had honor. And that just means the dignity, and the wealth, and the precious things, and the value that these people had honor. They had value.

I hope you enjoy the value that you are to God. And come into agreement of what God says He thinks of you. What does He think of you? We've been reminded over this morning that we are the children of God.

And God values you dear friend, dear believer here today. To the greatest extent. To the utmost.

That He sent His Son to die upon the cross to save your soul. The value. They're enjoying the value that God has placed upon them.

They had honor. What did they have? They had remembrance. They had something to look back on.

What about us? We look back. We look back at those days. And we look forward and expect those days.

In fellowship with God. In fellowship one with another. Remember, it starts with the fear of the Lord.

And then you've got the light of the Lord. And you've got the joy of the Lord. And you've got the value of the Lord that He puts upon us.

Let us appreciate Him, our Lord Jesus Christ, today. And walk with Him. And with one another.