Friday, January 11, 2019

Faith that Overcomes

Faith that Overcomes

Developing Convictions that guide us

Faith - a conviction, a belief, 

Persistence and endurance Heb 11 Heb 12

Heb 11 - people of endurance and faith

Faith and Endurance

2 Dear brothers and sisters,[a] when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

Heb 12 - witnesses - run with endurance - 

Hebrews 12:1-2,7 NLT

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. [2] We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God's throne.

Dictionary Definition

Endurance - Patience

Original Word

ὑπομονή

Transliterated Word

hupomonē

Phonetic Spelling

hoop-om-on-ay'

Parts of Speech

Noun Feminine

Strong's Definition

From G5278; cheerful (or hopeful) endurance constancy: - enduring patience patient continuance (waiting).

Thayer's Definition

steadfastness, constancy, endurance

in the NT the characteristic of a man who is not swerved from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings

patiently, and steadfastly

a patient, steadfast waiting for

a patient enduring, sustaining, perseverance

Cheerful hopeful endurance

Convictions that lead to hopeful endurance

These are my personal convictions that guide me and both require faith and build faith

God is good and loves us


God is at work and wants us to grow


God's plan is bigger than we can comprehend

When I look at the people of faith in the Bible, they are a mixed bunch.

Most of them found themselves in situations they did not plan and probably would not necessarily choose to be placed or to have wanted to find themselves

Esther - used to save the Jewish people

(Joseph - used by God to saved a family/clan,

Moses - used by God to free a people group

Esther - used by God to save a nation

Jesus - came to save the whole world - which is what the others looked forward to.)

Esther is a key player in the book named after her which is notable for its actual absence of the mention of God. However it forms part of the canon of Scripture, and we can learn much about faith. 

Not just Esther's faith, but also the faith and the wisdom of her uncle Mordecai

So to some background.

Esther 1:1-4  (NLT)

The King’s Banquet

1 These events happened in the days of King Xerxes,[a] who reigned over 127 provinces stretching from India to Ethiopia.[b] 2 At that time Xerxes ruled his empire from his royal throne at the fortress of Susa. 3 In the third year of his reign, he gave a banquet for all his nobles and officials. He invited all the military officers of Persia and Media as well as the princes and nobles of the provinces. 4 The celebration lasted 180 days—a tremendous display of the opulent wealth of his empire and the pomp and splendor of his majesty.

It goes on to tell us that they then feasted for another seven days. This is some party

Queen Vashti was called to come and show off her beauty before the nobles etc and she refused to do so. The king becomes angry, sends her away and then later gets lonely and decides on a beauty quest for a new queen. 

Clearly this is before the days of Women's Lib, Feminist movements and the #MeToo movement. 

Esther 2: 2-4

Esther Becomes Queen

2 But after Xerxes’ anger had subsided, he began thinking about Vashti and what she had done and the decree he had made. 2 So his personal attendants suggested, “Let us search the empire to find beautiful young virgins for the king. 3 Let the king appoint agents in each province to bring these beautiful young women into the royal harem at the fortress of Susa. Hegai, the king’s eunuch in charge of the harem, will see that they are all given beauty treatments. 4 After that, the young woman who most pleases the king will be made queen instead of Vashti.” This advice was very appealing to the king, so he put the plan into effect.

I bet it was appealing to the king. Not sure how appealing it was to the young women. They basically had to give up their freedom and become part of the harem. For a young Jewish girl with her whole life before her this can't have been a joyous prospect. 

In Esther we see a young Jewish girl placed in a difficult situation for someone from her upbringing. With only a few wise words from Mordecai, she leaves for the Harem.

But God had other ideas. Somehow, in the midst of this, Mordecai must have wondered what was happening. He stayed as close to Esther as he could, and remarkably Esther found favour with the King and is crowned queen. (after what is basically a beauty contest after months of treatment etc. 

I wonder what it was like with a whole bunch of women, vying for the kings attention, and carrying on like twerps - a bit like the bachelor show maybe!!

He's a man of loyalty to Esther - he continues o follow her progress, and he is loyal to the king. We tend with this story, to focus on Esther and her faith, and risk she took , to go in and see the king. But in actual fact, the story in many ways is about the faithfulness, wisdom, faith and loyalty of Mordecai in the face of opposition. 

Esther 2:21-23

Mordecai’s Loyalty to the King

21 One day as Mordecai was on duty at the king’s gate, two of the king’s eunuchs, Bigthana[g] and Teresh—who were guards at the door of the king’s private quarters—became angry at King Xerxes and plotted to assassinate him. 22 But Mordecai heard about the plot and gave the information to Queen Esther. She then told the king about it and gave Mordecai credit for the report. 23 When an investigation was made and Mordecai’s story was found to be true, the two men were impaled on a sharpened pole. This was all recorded in The Book of the History of King Xerxes’ Reign.

Faith is having the courage of our convictions 

The rest of the narrative is around Haman's hatred of Mordecai, his desire to remove Mordecai by removing the Jews (by genocide), and then of Mordecai's challenge to Esther. 

Mordecai was a man of his convictions. 

Haman’s Plot against the Jews

3 Some time later King Xerxes promoted Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite over all the other nobles, making him the most powerful official in the empire. 2 All the king’s officials would bow down before Haman to show him respect whenever he passed by, for so the king had commanded. But Mordecai refused to bow down or show him respect.

3 Then the palace officials at the king’s gate asked Mordecai, “Why are you disobeying the king’s command?” 4 They spoke to him day after day, but still he refused to comply with the order. So they spoke to Haman about this to see if he would tolerate Mordecai’s conduct, since Mordecai had told them he was a Jew.

5 When Haman saw that Mordecai would not bow down or show him respect, he was filled with rage. 6 He had learned of Mordecai’s nationality, so he decided it was not enough to lay hands on Mordecai alone. Instead, he looked for a way to destroy all the Jews throughout the entire empire of Xerxes.

Here, Mordecai is following through on his conviction of only bowing to honour God, not people. It takes courage to do so in the face of opposition. Haman decides that its not just enough to get rid of Mordecai, but all the Jews.

If it was just himself, I don't think Mordecai would have sought out Esther, but his loyalty to God and his people, his desire to save people, helped him to see, that Esther was placed in to this place of honour as queen for this time and this purpose. 

Esther 4:10-14

10 Then Esther told Hathach to go back and relay this message to Mordecai: 11 “All the king’s officials and even the people in the provinces know that anyone who appears before the king in his inner court without being invited is doomed to die unless the king holds out his gold scepter. And the king has not called for me to come to him for thirty days.” 12 So Hathach[a] gave Esther’s message to Mordecai.

13 Mordecai sent this reply to Esther: “Don’t think for a moment that because you’re in the palace you will escape when all other Jews are killed. 14 If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?”

His convictions in one way lead to the situation. His conviction in God's goodness, his conviction, that somehow, God was at work behind the scenes, enabled him to have a faith, accompanied by action that would see the Jews saved. 

James - Faith without action is dead. Faith with action is what transforms it to an overcoming faith. A reality of faith as opposed to a lip service of faith. 

Faith without Good Deeds Is Dead

14 What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone?15 Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing,16 and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?

17 So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.

18 Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.”

19 You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God.[f] Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. 20 How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless?

21 Don’t you remember that our ancestor Abraham was shown to be right with God by his actions when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?22 You see, his faith and his actions worked together. His actions made his faith complete. 23 And so it happened just as the Scriptures say: “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.”[g] He was even called the friend of God.[h] 24 So you see, we are shown to be right with God by what we do, not by faith alone.

25 Rahab the prostitute is another example. She was shown to be right with God by her actions when she hid those messengers and sent them safely away by a different road. 26 Just as the body is dead without breath,[i] so also faith is dead without good works.

We see this when Peter was asked to drop his net on the other side of the boat, after fishing all night and not catching anything. We see it when Rahab hid the spies and hung the red cord from her window, and we see it when the widow collected jars and filled them with oil etc. 

Non of it really made sense. But it was faith with action and each person was able to overcome. God was at work, when they couldn't at first see it. 

God was at work, behind the scenes at all times. Mordecai in his wisdom seems to understand this.   

Faith that God will intervene (think about Daniel's friends in the fiery furnace)

What areas of your life can you look back on and see that God was at work behind the scenes? All of us can probably look back and say we couldn't see it at the time, we wondered what God was doing. 

But the sun is always shining above the clouds. We need to remember , when its tough, that a faith that overcomes, knows God is at work, that he has placed us where we are, even when we don't understand it at the time. 

When we begin to grasp this, we can begin to see that God is in control. 

He sees the bigger picture when we see only the circumstances. 

Faith trusts that God has a bigger picture in mind, a bigger purpose. Faith trusts in a certainty that is not always seen.

Mordecai began to grasp this, but Esther had not yet grasped it. 

This is where we see the phrase "for such a time". We like to think that this means our "such a time" is going to be marvellous, wonderful and straight forward. 

"It's our Year", "its our time" etc. 

However, Esther's life in the palace was not always easy and her placement "for this time" was fraught with danger and risk. 

God's bigger picture requires us to be prepared to take risks. As Esther grabs hold of her purpose, we see her willing to place her destiny in God's hands, and God's bigger plan and purpose. 

How does she handle this?

She garners the support of others.  

Esther 4:15-17

15 Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: 16 “Go and gather together all the Jews of Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will do the same. And then, though it is against the law, I will go in to see the king. If I must die, I must die.”17 So Mordecai went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.

Esther asks other to fast and she too says she will fast. Why fasting. In Jewish understanding, fasting is associated with prayer. Matt 6:5-17 Jesus connects fasting and prayer together. 

To have an overcoming faith, requires us to seek the face of God in prayer, to be prepared to go without sustenance, to develop spiritual strength.

But she also understood the power of two or three gathered together. There is power in people of the same purpose praying together. 

Matthew 18:19-20

19 “I also tell you this: If two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you. 20 For where two or three gather together as my followers,[h] I am there among them.”

She and Mordecai did not isolate themselves.

They intentionally drew support from those around them for the common cause and for good. 

They began to put their faith into action, to seek God and to step out with courage. 

They saw that a greater purpose was being played out. 

God loves his people and is looking after them.

God is at work

God has the bigger picture

No comments:

Post a Comment