When you know who you are, then you know what to do. In Christ, you are new. No longer are you alienated from God and walking in the futility of a darkened mind. The old is gone; the new has come. Put off the old self and put on the new self. Knowing your new identity in Christ allows you to change how you think, how you act, and what you desire.
Jesus is in heaven, serving the church and giving gifts. He gives us himself, the Holy Spirit, and other people. To each Christian he also gives spiritual gifts to be cultivated (1 Cor. 12; Rom. 12; Eph. 4; 1 Pet. 4). Some have multiple gifts and different levels of a gift. God gives gifts to equip the saints and build up the body of Christ. Your gift is not your identity, but how are you gifted?
When we pray, we’re talking to our Dad. Prayer can be silent or aloud. You can pray alone or in a group. God always answers prayer with: yes, no, or later. Prayer can cause God to act, but oftentimes prayer is to change us. Praying also keeps us from grumbling and gossiping. From Paul’s prayer for his church, we learn that prayer is personal, relational, asking, yearning, expecting, and revealing.
Christians will suffer; knowing what kind of suffering it is can help you endure your own affliction as well as comfort others in theirs. How are you and others around you afflicted? From Paul’s suffering, we see that we can be afflicted for others’ good, our growth, and God’s glory. How could your affliction be used as others are watching? Don’t waste your affliction; invest it. Don’t lose heart.
If you’re a Christian, Jesus appreciates you. This means that God’s faithful people can receive encouragement and thankfulness from Jesus, even if they don’t receive such from other people. When you know that Jesus appreciates you, you exchange grumbling for praying, competing for celebrating, bitterness for thankfulness, performing for serving, and boasting for encouraging.
There are only two categories of human beings: those who are in Adam, and those who are in Christ. Are you in Adam or in Christ? In Ephesians 1, Paul says that if you are in Christ, you can be faithful, you are blessed, you were chosen and made blameless, you are forgiven, you can know the will of God, you are reconciled, you have an inheritance, you have hope, and you have the Holy Spirit.
If you’re a Christian, you’re a missionary, sent into school, work, business, or neighborhood. Esther and Mordecai weren’t in vocational ministry—they were politicians—but they were effective missionaries because they were in the pagan culture. To be a missionary is to be simultaneously faithful to the Word of God and to be in the context of pagan people, like Jesus was. Who are you evangelizing?
Jesus is a better Esther who came into human history as one of God’s people. God’s people in the Persian Empire were spared death because Esther finally identified with them, but all of God’s people are spared eternal death because Jesus Christ identifies with us. We are all Haman; we will either hang on our own cross for our own sin like him, or Jesus hung on a cross in our place for our sin.
Your identity—who you think you are—determines how you live. Esther now sees herself as one of God’s people. Haman’s identity, though, is in his idolatry: his glory, power, honor, recognition, and success. If you’re one of God’s people, your identity isn’t achieved, it’s received. Your identity doesn’t need to be in your idolatry, like Haman’s, because Jesus gives a better identity.
Mordecai and Esther aren’t perfect, but they’re making progress and changing. Mordecai’s faith is activated in mourning and weeping. He trusts that God is always with his people, and that God is in control. Esther’s faith is action in the face of opposition and possible death. Only she can serve as mediator to reconcile Xerxes and her people, just as Jesus is the one mediator between God and men.
Pastor Mark preaches on Jesus’ letter to the church in Ephesus from the ancient city of Ephesus itself. Jesus commends the Ephesians for how they serve faithfully, endure hardship, have sound doctrine, and hate heretics, but his big criticism is that they are not very loving. Instead of merely criticizing the Ephesians, we must read Jesus’ words humbly and realize how we could become like them.
Sexual assault is an epidemic: 1 of 4 women and 1 of 6 men have been assaulted—including Pastor Mark’s wife, Grace. Sin would leave us as shamed, defiled victims, but in Jesus, we are cleansed from all unrighteousness if today we turn from sin and trust in him. Two key books on assault from Mars Hill leaders: Rid of My Disgrace and Redemption .