Grace Evangelical Free Church // Wyoming, MN podcast

47:23

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: 2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; 3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 6 a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; 7 a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 8 a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. INTRODUCTION Good morning, Grace. Welcome to the most famous passage in Ecclesiastes. If someone has heard of only one part of this book, this is almost certainly it. It’s been made popular by various artists for many years. The majority of this passage is a poem and there’s something particularly gripping about its simplicity and scope. As we make our way through it, you’ll notice that the Preacher does not interpret or explain his observations at all. We’ll get into that a bit next week. You’ll also notice three main claims of the text and sermon: (1) All seasons belong to God, (2) God’s sovereignty is comprehensive, and (3) A biblical worldview is able to accommodate all of the poem’s claims. The big idea of this passage is that every time and season of our lives belongs to God, for His glory and our good. The main takeaways are to learn to conform our preferences to God’s purposes and to develop a better standard by which to judge the seasons than our convenience. ALL SEASONS BELONG TO GOD You may have heard me say once or twice that I am not a big fan of winter. Mid-summer definitely isn’t my first choice either. Late spring and all of fall are the best times of the year, weather-wise, in my humble opinion. You may be interested to learn that I’ve done a bit of introspection as to why that is (joking). In the end, it doesn’t seem to be anything profound or virtuous that is shaping my perspective. I think it’s as simple as convenience. The cold of winter and the heat of summer make ordinary things more difficult and everything harder to enjoy. On the one hand, like all of you, I’m certainly entitled to my personal seasonal preferences. On the other hand, however, I know that I’m not thinking rightly about this in some ways. God made the seasons and each for His good purposes. We see that consistently throughout the Bible. After the Flood, God declared to Noah, “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22). And in Psalm 74:16-17 we’re told, “Yours is the day, yours also the night; you have established the heavenly lights and the sun. 17 You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth; you have made summer and winter.” The Prophet Daniel affirms that it is God who “changes times and seasons” (2:21). Grace, how would we know the extent of God’s holiness (Daniel 7:9) or His washing away of our sins in Jesus if we did not have winter snow (Isaiah 1:18)? How would we know the full measure of new, restored life that is ours in Christ if not for the blooms of spring? How would we know the consuming power of God apart from the fierce summer heat? And how would we know the nature of dying to ourselves apart from the falling leaves of autumn? In all of this, I’ve come to recognize my need to learn to conform my preferences to God’s seasonal purposes. In that, I’ve come to recognize that I need a better standard by which to judge the seasons than my personal preference or convenience. And in that I’ve come to recognize that the alternative is to dishonor God and miss out on learning the important lessons He’s embedded into each season. The bottom line is that each season belongs equally to God and is equally an instrument of God for bringing about the glory of His name and the good of His people. That is, in many ways, the heart of this passage. What is true of the calendar seasons, is also true of the rest of our lives. Our every life-season (circumstance) belongs to God. God has a good purpose for our every experience and He is working it out in all we encounter. That’s what the Preacher was saying in v.1. 1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven… There is a season for everything and a time for every matter because God has determined it to be so. Grace, we are about to consider many seasons of your life and mine. The key to bear in mind as we do is that the Preacher understood all of them to be from the hand of God. That might not sound surprising until we recognize that roughly half of those seasons—like winter and mid-summer—are not pleasant. Indeed, they are anything but convenient or comfortable. Roughly half of the seasons and times mentioned by the Preacher are things we typically try to avoid at all costs. And yet, pleasant times and grievous times alike are divinely-orchestrated, the Preacher writes. And just like I need to learn that God’s goodness and glory flow equally from each of the annual, calendar seasons, we must learn that they flow just as freely from each time and season of life. We need to learn to conform our preferences to God’s purposes in all our circumstances. We need a better standard by which to judge the seasons of our lives than our personal preferences or convenience. And we need to recognize that the alternative is to dishonor God and miss out on learning the important lessons He’s embedded into our every circumstance. Again, helping us with those things is at the heart of this passage. All seasons belong to God. THE COMPREHENSIVE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD Ecclesiastes 3:1 is a declaration of God’s sovereignty over the times and seasons our lives. Ecclesiastes 3:2-8 is a poem that unpacks that in comprehensive fashion. Among other things, the Preacher’s poem describes the impact of the sovereignty of God on our lives. He uses fourteen pairs to get at the fact that God is at work in everything we experience throughout our entire lives. The Preacher does not (in this section) speak to the reason behind or aim of the sovereign God’s comprehensive governance, only that it is comprehensive governance. Whole Life Collectively, the fourteen pairs are intended to cover the whole span of the human life, beginning to end. The opening line is clearly intended to highlight this, “a time to be born, and a time to die…”. In other words, God is sovereign over the times and seasons of our lives from birth to death, and every moment in between. Grace, it is not hyperbole to say that you have never spent a single second alone. God has been with you without interruption for your entire life. And God had a good and glorious purpose that He was carrying out in every single moment. Whole Experience At the same time, as the rest of the pairs in the rest of the poem are meant to indicate, God is sovereign over the whole of our experiences as well. He’s not just with us in some general, overarching way. He is that, but He’s also with us in each and everything we experience within that time. I invite you to take a moment and draw to mind three or four things you’ve experienced in life. They can be big or small, significant or insignificant, recent or long-past. Just try to draw to mind a few times in your life. I thought of moving out of my parents’ house (embrace/refrain from), getting married (mourn/dance) and having kids (born/die), and MSU’s 2000 national championship in basketball (weep/laugh). As I’m sure you can see, every one of the experiences I though of are covered in the scope of the poem. I imagine the ones you thought of are equally easy to see as well. We’ll get into the specifics of the poem’s pairs in just a minute, but for now, the point is simple: Every moment and experience of our lives are within God’s sovereign plan. It is right to say that there is a time and place for all we have and will encounter. Indeed, the Preacher’s poem is meant to affirm the simple, yet profound reality that by God’s design, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven…” As we make our way down the list, it is right to wonder how some of these times and seasons could be glorious and good. When we consider death, killing, breaking down, mourning, losing, and hating, for instance, glory and good probably aren’t the first things that come to mind. Understanding how each is a part of God’s plan, therefore, is important. WORLDVIEW Everything covered in the Preacher’s poem makes up a biblical worldview and points to the need for one. That is, a key aspect of living in this world as God intends, and with the kind of meaning and purpose the Preacher was seeking, is having a thoroughly biblical view of everything in it. We need to see the world as God sees it and this poem is a significant help to that end. Our brains, from the earliest age, are continually trying to make sense of the world around us. We can’t not look for an explanation for our experiences. In many ways, that’s what Ecclesiastes is all about, the Preacher’s explicit and thorough attempts to do what we all do by nature: make sense of what we encounter. The Preacher looked around and saw all the things listed in vs.2-8 and tried as hard as he could to find the meaning of them all, especially as they relate to the hand of God. Eventually, we all experience the things the Preacher lists in his poem. But why? What do they mean? How do they fit into the whole? How does God use them for glory and good? We must, by our very God-given nature, ask and attempt to answer those questions. To do so is to construct a worldview. The main question is not, therefore, whether or not we have a worldview. The main question is how accurate our view of the world is. And, once again, the Preacher’s poem goes a long way to help us with this. If you can’t clearly and confidently explain how each end of each pair fits into God’s plan for the world, then you still have work to do on your worldview (which we all have, of course). When is the time to be born, die, plant, pluck, kill, heal, …? Birth and Death (2a) At God’s sovereign hand there is… 2 a time to be born, and a time to die… Each of the Preacher’s poem pairs has both a physical and spiritual component to them in God’s design, perhaps none more important than this one. Physically, there is, of course, a time to be born. This is the easiest of all to see. In the very first chapter of the Bible, we read, “ 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth…” Being fruitful, multiplying, and filling the earth means that God intends mankind to have babies. It is God who opens and closes wombs (Genesis 29:31) and God who knits us together in the womb (Psalm 139:13). There is a time for babies to be born and it is the Lord who sovereignly determines those times. What’s more, we need not only to be born physically, but spiritually as well. Sin is such that we are born physically alive, but spiritually dead (1 Corinthians 15:2). If we are to be made right with God, therefore, we need to be born again. This too is from the Lord (John 3:1-8). It is God who grants spiritual birth as much as physical. Again, I imagine that if you already understand God’s hand in any of Ecclesiastes 3:2-8, it will be this one; that God determines the time for birth and new birth. But what about death? Is that too really determined by God? Both physically and spiritually we see this from the first pages of the Bible and throughout as well. To Adam and Eve, God said, “ 16 … “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:15-17). As you know, Adam and Eve eventually ate of the forbidden tree. At the very moment they did, they died spiritually and made certain that eventually they would die physically as well. And in that, they came to represent all mankind, bringing death to all their offspring (1 Corinthians 15:22). In Job 14:5 we’re told that mankind’s “days are determined [by God], and the number of his months is with [God], and [God has] appointed his limits that he cannot pass…”. Likewise, in Acts 17:24 we read that God “himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he … determined allotted periods…”. Practically, this means that for a church to be healthy, we need to have a balance between births and funerals. We need steady reminders that death is, as the Preacher has already said, inevitable, and that life is short. This helps us to look to God and feel an appropriate sense of urgency to bring the gospel to the world. Likewise, we need steady reminders that God is the God of life too. We need to see babies to know our vulnerability and dependence, to remember the new life that is in Christ, and to long for the day that all will be made new. And all of this in its God-appointed time and season for glory and good. At God’s sovereign hand there is… 2 a time to be born, and a time to die… I won’t go into as much detail with all of the pairs as this one, but I wanted to unpack this one a bit more to show you how to think biblically about the Preacher’s poem pairs. What I did for this one (and more) can be done for them all. Plant and Pluck (2b) At God’s sovereign hand there is… 2 a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; A biblical worldview emphasizes that part of our purpose on earth is to make the earth bear fruit (Genesis 1:28-30). This is true on the physical level—we’re meant to plant seeds that will grow into food, flowers, and timber—and on the spiritual level—we’re meant to plant gospel seeds everywhere we go that others might believe in Jesus and be saved (Matthew 28:18-20). In the same way, a biblical view of the world emphasizes the need not only to plant, but also to harvest ( “pluck up what is planted” ). God’s people were even commanded by God to celebrate His harvest blessing with an annual festival (Numbers 28). And even more significantly, God’s people are meant to join with the angels in rejoicing whenever a sinner repents and a spiritual harvest is reaped (Luke 15:10). Kill and Heal (3a) At God’s sovereign hand there is…3 a time to kill, and a time to heal… The Bible is filled with stories of God’s healing of the suffering and sick (Luke 4:40) and commands for His people to do the same (Luke 10). To be a Christian is to reject indifference to the hardships of others and to love our every neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-39). If Christianity lived out is anything, it’s a recognition of God’s grace in our lives compelling us to give grace to those around us. A time to heal seems clear and godly, but a time to kill? Isn’t that outright prohibited (Exodus 20:13)? Yes and no. The unjust taking of a life is certainly prohibited and there is no time or season for that (that’s the heart of the sixth Commandment). At the same time, since the Fall, there are times, at God’s hand and ordained by God in which killing is just. God Himself killed animals to provide cover for Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:21). God commanded His people to kill animals as sacrifices (Leviticus 23:19). God Himself ordered the killing of His enemies (Isaiah 63:1-6). God gave the governing authorities the power to punish evil with the sword (Romans 13:1-7). In the last days, God will eternally kill all who remain in rebellion against Him (Revelation 19:20). And God predestined the killing of His Son for the forgiveness of sins from before time (Titus 1:2). It is sometimes hard to consider, but sin requires killing, and in that way, it is a gracious thing that God has ordained times and seasons to kill, to hold back and atone for sin. Break and Build (3b) The fourth of the Preacher’s poetic pairs is found in the fact that at God’s sovereign hand there is… 3 a time to break down, and a time to build up; God’s people are to build up families and cities (Genesis 1:28). He commanded His people to build the Temple (2 Chronicles 1-6). We are to build one another up with our words (Ephesians 4:29) and in the faith (1 Thessalonians 5:11). He is building His Church (Matthew 16:18). There are seasons as well, equally ordained by God, to break down towers (Genesis 11) and idols (Exodus 34:13). We are to break down “arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:5). The Lord will break down the work of the proud (Proverbs 15:25) and the wicked (Psalm 28:5). Grace, the world we live in, by God’s design, is such that we must be people who build and break in due season. We dishonor God when we neglect either in their proper time. Weep and Laugh (4a) At God’s sovereign hand there is… 4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; To live as God intends us to live and requires of us, we must weep with those who weep (Romans 12:15). There is a time to cry at the sinfulness and destruction of sin (Luke 19:41-44) and in grief over our sin (Matthew 26:75). It is right to weep when the pain of loss is severe (John 11:35). And, there is a time to laugh and rejoice in the fellowship of the saints and in recognition of the kindness of God. In a sermon a few weeks ago I said, “Laughter is a satisfying gift of God when it is rooted in gladness at the kindness of God and Christian fellowship. The righteous are men and women of deep belly laughs, flowing from the joy of the Lord.” Mourn and Dance (4b) At God’s sovereign hand there is… 4 a time to mourn, and a time to dance; Just as we are meant to weep with those who weep, we are to mourn with those who mourn (Romans 12:15). Godliness does not mean that hard things aren’t hard. As long as there is sin, there must be grief in the people of God. Godly men and women are not indifferent to the vile nature of sin or the suffering of others. At the same time, God’s grace in Christ is such that sin is not ultimately winning. Everywhere we look we can see evidence of God’s glory and victory (2 Samuel 6:14). Every where we look we see evidences of grace. Everywhere we look in the Bible, we find promises of God (Romans 8:28). Everywhere we look there is some aspect of God’s nature and work to celebrate with dancing. I hope you’re beginning to see the pattern. And I hope that within it, you are beginning to see that this world is such that there is a time and season for things on the opposite end of the spectrum. And in that is another important lesson still: Whenever we are mourning, someone else is dancing, even as whenever we are dancing someone else is mourning. At the same time you are burying a spouse, someone else is getting ready for their wedding day. It is good and right for both to happen at the same time. It is a means of God’s comforting grace to see others dancing while we are in mourning. It is grace to remember that it has not always been like this and that this will not last forever. At the same time, it is a sobering means of God’s grace to see those who are mourning while we are dancing. This keeps us from making idols of the object of our joy and reminds us that we are made for something greater than the best this broken world has to offer—that’s a lesson the Preacher, evidently, hadn’t quite learned yet. At God’s sovereign hand there is… 4 a time to mourn, and a time to dance… and both, by God’s gracious design, often happen at the same time. Cast and Gather (5a) At God’s sovereign hand there is… 5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; This one is the trickiest of all the pairs. No one seems confident in the meaning of this one. In addition, unlike the rest of the pairs of pairs (two pairs/verse), the pair of pairs in v.5 have no obvious connection. It seems to be a kind of break in the rhythm of the poem. Nevertheless, at the very least it means that there is a time when it is good to remove stones (as a farmer would do before planting a field) and a good time to gather them together (as a farmer would to build a stone wall). Embrace and Release (5b) The eight pair lets us know that at God’s sovereign hand there is… 5 a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing… There are few things better than the embrace of your spouse (Song of Songs 2:6) or your child or a good friend. One of the sweetest things I’ve experienced is the hug of a brother in Christ whom I’ve labored in the gospel with across the world. There is an immediate connection when serving with suffering saints. There are times to refrain from embracing as well; like when we send missionaries (Matthew 10:5; Luke 22:35) or excommunicate someone from our fellowship (Titus 3:10). Both are hard, but right in their own way. Like the rest of the pairs, for every godly person there are regular times in which we must be hugging others and regular times in which we must let go. Both are from the Lord for glory and good at the right time. Seek and Lose (6a) At God’s sovereign hand there is… 6 a time to seek, and a time to lose; It is good for God’s people to seek wisdom (Proverbs 3:13). It is good for God’s people to seek the salvation of non-Christians (Luke 19:10) and to seek to restore Christians who have wandered from the faith (Matthew 18:15). At the same time, there are seasons in which the opposite of seeking (losing) is what we must do. On the most practical level possible, this means that we cannot hold onto anything in this life so firmly (other than our faith in Christ) that we will not let it go. At some point, we need to be willing to give up the search for every lost thing so as not to sacrifice everything else for it. Jesus even gave this example in letting go of the salvation of others if they steadfastly refuse to receive the good news (Luke 9:5). On a more profound level, we must lose our lives so that we can gain them (Matthew 10:39). We must lose whatever parts of our bodies that cause us to sin so that we can save our souls (Matthew 5:29). And we must lose the whole world that we might gain salvation (Luke 9:25). Keep and Cast (6b) At God’s sovereign hand there is… 6 a time to keep, and a time to cast away; This second pair in v.6 is very similar to the first. To keep and seek are tightly paralleled, even as to lose and cast away are as well. In this life, God has ordained that there are times to hold onto something and to let it go. This refers to family heirlooms and to friendships. It refers to ministries within the church (VBS is an effective tool in certain seasons and not in others) and to approaches to the spiritual disciplines (one Bible reading plan my serve someone well as a new believer but not as well as they mature). Tear and Sew (7a) At God’s sovereign hand there is… 7 a time to tear, and a time to sew… The Preacher’s eleventh poem pair concerns tearing and sowing. It is likely that the Preacher had in mind the tearing of garments associated with mourning. When the people of God were exceptionally angry or distraught, they would tear their clothes as a symbol of great grief (2 Kings 22:11). There are things in this world that ought to tear our hearts and cause us to anguish and lament. At the same time, it is right to cease our mourning at some point (to sew back together the clothes we tear in our grief). Our mourning cannot go on forever, for there is new mercy each day. The main point, once again, is that living rightly under the sun often means doing opposite things at their God-given times. It is the time and season that determines the appropriateness of certain things rather than the things themselves. Silence and Speech (7b) At God’s sovereign hand there is… 7 a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; The Proverbs (some, perhaps, written by the Preacher himself) are filled with such wisdom. Proverbs 10:19 When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent. Proverbs 13:3 Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life; he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin. Proverbs 15:23 To make an apt answer is a joy to a man, and a word in season, how good it is! Proverbs 16:24 Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body. Proverbs 21:23 Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble. Sometimes godliness means speaking the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15) and sometimes it means listening in love. Sometimes God intends us to correct and rebuke (2 Timothy 3:16) and sometimes He intends us to sit silently with our friends. Sometimes we hold our tongue and overlook an offense (Proverbs 19:11) and sometimes we take our offense to our brother or sister (Matthew 18:15). By God’s design, there is a time and a season for talking and for remaining silent. And we need God’s Word, God’s wisdom, and God’s Spirit to know when it’s which season. Love and Hate (8a) At God’s sovereign hand there is… 8 a time to love, and a time to hate; If there is a consistent message in the Bible it is that all mankind ought to love God above all things (Matthew 22:37). If there’s a second consistent message in the Bible it is that all mankind ought to love our neighbors as God loves us and we love ourselves (Matthew 22:39). Beginning to end, God means us to love even our enemies (Matthew 5:44). Beginning to end, God means us to love everything righteous (Psalm 45:7). Beginning to end, God means us to love our brothers and sisters of the faith (Romans 12:9-10). But the truth is, as the Preacher recognized, if we love well, we will also hate well. That probably sounds a bit counterintuitive, but God’s Word assures us that it is not. If loving someone well means giving all of yourself for the best of that person, then we ought to hate everything that gets in the way of what’s best for a person. That is how God loves and why he hates. God hates every abominable thing, especially those who “burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods” (Deuteronomy 12:31). God hates false gods and the alters constructed for them (Deuteronomy 16:22). He hates all evil doers (Psalm 5:5) and those who love violence (Psalm 11:5). He hates those who hate His people (Psalm 139:21). The Lord hates “haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, 18 a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, 19 a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers” (Proverbs 6:17-19). We ought, therefore, to hate what the Lord hates because we love what the Lord loves. Our hatred for wicked things, along with the knowledge that God set His love upon us while we were still wicked things ourselves, compels us to love in far greater ways than we otherwise could. And all of this is because God has made it so, each in its proper time and season. War and Peace (8b) Finally, the Preacher’s fourteenth poem pair is that according to God’s sovereign hand there is… 8 a time for war, and a time for peace. Whenever possible, insofar as it depends on us, we live at peace with those around us (Romans 12:18). More significantly still, all who are in Christ have perfect, eternal peace with God (Romans 5:1). But because of the world we live in, there’s a kind of peace that is only on the other side of war. Therefore, we make war on our sin and flesh (Romans 8:13). We make war on the schemes of the devil (Ephesians 6:12). And in the end, we will join God in making war against everything that sets itself up against Him (Revelation 19:11-16). There really is a time for each and every pair in this poem. The time is set and ruled by our sovereign God. Understanding that is a key component to viewing the world as it truly is and for living it as we ought. CONCLUSION This really is a remarkable passage. Its main message is that every season is God’s season and, therefore, men and women of God give ourselves to learning what God has for each season. With the Spirit’s help, we train ourselves to love God’s appointed seasons more than the comfort they might provide. We seek to gain every possible grace from whatever season we’re in, knowing it’s all from the hand of God in Jesus for all who will receive Him in faith. In other words, the big idea of this passage is that every time and season of our lives belongs to God, for His glory and our good. And the main takeaways are to learn to conform our preferences to God’s purposes and to develop a better standard by which to judge the seasons than our convenience.…

Grace Evangelical Free Church // Wyoming, MN

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The Two Gifts Of God 45:36

for 11 dage siden45:36

45:36

Ecclesiastes 2:18-26 I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, 19 and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. 20 So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, 21 because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. 22 What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? 23 For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity. 24 There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, 25 for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? 26 For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind. INTRODUCTION We’re only two chapters and six weeks into Ecclesiastes, but I want to remind you how the book begins, “…vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” I put that up there with Genesis and John’s Gospel for the most memorable beginnings of any book in the Bible. I mentioned early on that I think the primary idea the Preacher has in mind with the word (rendered into English as) “vanity,” is “mysterious” (or “enigma” or “inscrutable”). The Preacher’s main argument is that life under the sun (that is, life lived according to observational wisdom on this cursed earth) is annoyingly impossible to understand. Things ordinarily work in certain ways, but not always, and the inconsistencies lead to a level of unpredictability that is often a source of great frustration. Many people feel the same frustration but remain convinced that the solution remains just outside of their grasp. Life is not quite (or maybe not at all) what I want right now, but if I could just get the thing, or more of the thing, or get rid of the thing, it would make sense and be satisfying. The reality, however, is that we only think that’s the case because none of us have ever gotten the full measure of the thing we think will solve the vanity of life and allow us to live a life of genuine meaning and satisfaction. And for that reason, we hold out hope. But the question is, of course, is it well-founded hope? Is it a legitimate hope? Can anything under the sun actually bear the weight of that hope? The backdrop of Ecclesiastes is that the Preacher felt all the same ways, but had more money and more power to use it than any of us could ever dream of. He used all that money and power to the point all of us are trying to get. And Ecclesiastes is largely his report on what he found when he got there: Even there, “…vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” Rather than simply declare his conclusion, though, the Preacher takes us on a good deal of his journey. He reports not just his findings, but his process as well. He tells us the things he tried all the way to the end. So far, we’ve seen his (failed) attempts to find meaning and significance through understating, pleasure, and various approaches to life (wisdom, madness, and folly). This morning, we’ll see a fourth attempt. In it, the Preacher tried to find meaning and significance through his work, his labor, his toil, through the things he built, created, and managed. The big idea of this passage is that work for its own sake can never provide the kind of meaning and significance we long and are made for. The main takeaways are to look first to Jesus and then to work as unto Him. TOIL UNDER THE SUN I do wonder how you’d describe your relationship with work. Is it easy for you to imagine a scenario in which you could find genuine, lasting satisfaction in life from the work you’re currently doing? If not your current role, can you imagine a role that would? If so, if you can imagine a scenario where work could provide genuine joy, I imagine that the kind of work you have in mind will look a lot like that of the Preacher. Do you remember how spectacular his work was? 2:4-7 I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. 5 I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. 6 I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees… 7 I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. That’s a lot of significant work and a lot to show for it. There’s a lot there to be proud of and to enjoy. You might think that you could be happy if you could do that work (or something like it). And who wouldn’t be happy once it was complete. Even though much of that is what many of us are working for right now (a number of beautiful, tranquil homes, with lots of bountiful land and animals), none of us have come close to it, so we don’t really know. I Hated All My Toil (18, 20, 22) But again, what we imagine, the Preacher accomplished. So, what was his conclusion? Was he as happy as we imagine ourselves to be if we’d done that work, accomplished those things, and had them to enjoy? Did his work provide for him what we seek from it? Quite the opposite. 18 I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, 20 So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun… 22 What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? 23 For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity. Hatred, despair, sorrow, vexation, restlessness, vanity. That sounds similar to what the Preacher found in his previous attempts; which was a long, long way from what he was looking for. Can you relate? Have you ever felt this way about your work? Have you recently used any of those terms to describe your experience with your company, boss, business, home, or other place of toil? Over the years I’ve prayed with many people who shared with me many such sentiments regarding their work. Some just don’t like work on its face. They consider work as a necessary evil; one to be avoided if at all possible. Others are vexed by work because they don’t seem to be able to turn it off. It seems like it’s constantly pulling at them. Others confessed knowing the vanity of work because they’ve unsuccessfully tried to find their identity in it—in the type of job they have or the title within it or the success they’ve attained from it. Others still have told me they experience despair from their work because it seems so insignificant, even undignified. Others hate their work because they have a really difficult boss or coworkers. And others have expressed persistent restlessness at work because their company stands for things that prick their consciences. As real and common as these reasons are for many of us, the Preacher had different reasons still for despising his toil—three of them. Eventually, Everything Ends in the Hands of Another (18, 21) The Preacher’s first reason for hating his work was that he knew that no matter what he did, everything he worked for would eventually end up in someone else’s hands, someone who didn’t work one bit for any of it. All by itself, that’s kind of depressing, isn’t it? It’s a harsh thought that the thought that the average American works something like 90,000 hours in their lifetime (40 hours/week @ 45 years) and we don’t get to keep anything from it in the long run. Whatever else might be true of your thoughts on work, that’s a hard pill to swallow; all those hours, all the challenges, all the frustrations, all the sacrifices, and in the end, no matter what you do, none of it will be yours in almost no time. The Preacher said this in a couple of different ways. 18 I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me… 21 … sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. Sometimes the product of our lifetime of work ends in the hands of our surviving spouse, sometimes our kids, sometimes in an estate sale to a stranger, and sometimes simply abandoned to decay. For all kinds of reasons, our stuff will end up in all kinds of hands, but the simple fact remains that eventually everything we work day after day after day to acquire will no longer be ours. The Preacher realized this, hated it, and called it a “great evil”. Rather than provide satisfaction, the fact that the he had worked so hard and gained so much, seems only to have caused even more grief than for those, like us, who have less to show for our work. Sometimes it Ends in the Hands of Fools (19) A second reason he hated his toil was that he knew that not only would it end up in someone else’s hands, but it was as likely to end up in the hands of a fool as someone wise. It’s one kind of hardship to have your stuff to go to someone you love who will try to honor it, but it’s another kind of hardship altogether to have it go to a fool who will do nothing but neglect or squander it. The Preacher wonders about this at the beginning of v.19, “…and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool?” This is the stereotypical parent who created a successful business from the ground up; coming from poverty, working hard, doing it right, having nothing given to them, only to have the profits left to a kid who was lazy, disinterested, entitled, arrogant, wasteful, and selfish. It’s an unpleasant thought to imagine millions of hard, honestly-earned dollars being spent on the lusts of the flesh by someone who didn’t earn or appreciate any of it. This was a much bigger deal in the Preacher’s day as well. Inheritance was a lot more of a pressing concern in the past. You may recall some of the many stories in the Bible describing the serious problems that resulted from inheritance issues, and many of those because the inheritors were fools. There is unquestionably a part of that that is vexing vanity and the Preacher hated it. The more he worked and the more he gained, the more this possibility haunted him and robbed him of joy in his toil. Far from providing meaning, purpose, and satisfaction, it caused him to give his heart up to despair. Sometimes it Will Be Managed by a Fool (19) The thought of all the fruits of his labor falling into the hands of someone else led to one level of vexation. The thought of it all falling into the hands of a fool led to yet another level. But the third and final reason work failed to provide satisfaction for the Preacher, which was on another level still, was the thought of it being managed by fools. In other words, it’s one thing to leave a pile of money in the hands of a fool, but it’s another thing entirely to leave the management of your name, reputation, company, or great works in the hands of one. 19 Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. Since Ecclesiastes is written in the voice of King Solomon, it’s particularly important to recognize the fool that King Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, was. When Solomon died, Rehoboam inherited his father’s kingdom and crown. Being the fool that he was, he rejected the wisdom of the wise and took his counsel instead from other fools. Their counsel and Rehoboam’s choice was to exploit his subjects for wicked, worldly, personal gain. And as a result, his people rebelled and the kingdom was splintered. He ended up mismanaging that which was left to him to the extent that he lost ten of the twelve tribes of Israel (1 Kings 12). The Preacher’s concerns couldn’t have been more appropriate. Hatred, despair, sorrow, vexation, restlessness, and vanity make sense. It’s hard not to think of this today when it comes to those in charge of certain denominations. They bear the names of Martin Luther and flow out of the faithfulness of the Wesleys, but are now managed by fools. It’s staggering to think of some of the perversions of the gospel done in the names of these men who labored at such great cost for its purity. THERE IS NOTHING BETTER FOR A PERSON (24A) But the Preacher didn’t end there. In vs.24-26 we see, somewhat surprisingly, that the Preacher covered some new ground with his conclusions. What comes next, Grace, is one of the main reasons I felt burdened to preach through this book. It’s one of the most important things you’ll hear in Ecclesiastes; indeed, it’s one of the most important things you’ll your life. I hope that doesn’t seem like an exaggeration once we’ve considered it. The first part of what makes this section so remarkable begins at the beginning of v.24. 24 There is nothing better for a person than that… I’d like to offer two reasons why it’s good to pause here. First, to recognize that the way a person finishes that sentence is everything! Getting it right or wrong is, 100% of the time, a matter of eternal consequences. Close is not enough and almost won’t do. Everything hangs in the balance as we choose our words. We will never get what the Preacher was after (a life of genuine, lasting, meaning and satisfaction) if we don’t settle on the fact that it only comes from finishing that sentence rightly. And second reason to pause here is to give you a chance to do so. How do you finish the sentence, “There is nothing better for a person than that…”? What is the best life? What is best for a person? Not everyone has consciously answered that question, but everyone functionally has. We can’t not answer it in the sense that, inevitably, every moment of our lives is a living out of what we believe the answer to be. Your life tells your answer to that question even if you never thought about it or don’t have the words to express it. We are all chasing something because we believe that there is nothing better for a person than that. The Preacher, in these few, simple words, affords us the opportunity to consider carefully, name explicitly, and scrupulously evaluate our answer. And all by itself, that is a great gift. So, Grace, what is your life aimed at and will it lead where you’re hoping it will lead? As we’re about to see, the Preacher finishes that sentence in a certain way, and there is important truth in it, but giving us the question is at least as big a gift as is giving us his answer. Don’t let up until you know your answer, Grace. And once you do know it, don’t let up until you know it’s right. WE NEED TWO GIFTS, NOT ONE With that, then, how did the Preacher finish the sentence? 24 There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. The essence of the Preacher’s answer is that because everything, in the end, is left to someone else (possibly a fool), the best thing we can do is enjoy what God has given us while we have it. Like I said, there’s some important truth to that. But within it, and in the few verses that follow, is something far, far more important still. We are about to see that a big part of the secret of life is in coming to recognize that the happiness and satisfaction we need and long for requires two gifts, not just one. And that revelation is one of the biggest reasons I’m preaching through Ecclesiastes. The First Gift (24a) In this passage the Preacher describes a first gift of toil/work that results in something to eat and drink. Simply, we need to see that fruitful labor is a gift from God. It is so easy for us to forget that every good thing is a gift from God (James 1:17). It’s particularly easy to forget this when it comes to the more mundane things of life, like breathing, sleeping, consciousness, and health (at least until we lose those things). The more ordinary they seem, the more we’re prone to think of them as part of us rather than the gifts of God that they are. Understanding this, the Preacher picked three things to name: eating, drinking, and fulfilling labor. If we have any of those things—good food to eat, clean water to drink, and profitable work to be done—it is because, and only because God gave them to us as a gift. We need each of these things to survive and thrive in this world as God has made it and because of that, they really are gifts from God. The Second Gift (24b-26) At the same time, however, as any parent of a toddler knows all-too-well, just having food, drink, and work do not satisfy all by themselves. “I don’t want this food, I want that food. I don’t want vegetables, I want Mac-and-Cheese. I don’t want milk, I want juice. I don’t want this juice, I want that juice. I don’t want to put my clothes in the hamper, I want to play. I don’t want to produce anything beneficial, I only want to consume.” Toddlers often don’t think of any of those things as gifts, much less find enjoyment in them. But that kind of misplaced dissatisfaction certainly isn’t unique to two-year-olds, is it? Adults, as you know, we often don’t move on, we just move on to more sophisticated versions of the same thing. “I don’t care what we eat, I just want someone else to cook it for me. I don’t just want good things to drink, I want the things I drink to be made in a certain year. I don’t just want honest, productive work that provides, I want to work a job that better fits my hobbies, values my contributions, and sounds good when I explain it to others.” This is the Preacher’s great gift to us. He helps us to see that true satisfaction requires not one gift from God, but two. We need the thing itself (food, water, work, relationship, hobby, etc.)—that’s the first gift—and the ability to enjoy the thing—that’s the second gift. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, 25 for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? 26 For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind. There are few things going on in these verses, including another declaration of vanity in the fact that some people seem destined by God to do nothing but labor for the gain of others. The critical idea, however, is in revealing the fact that we mistakenly believe that the first gift is all we need. That is, the biggest mistake that most of us make is not in believing that there is joy to be found in the things we seek on earth. The biggest mistake, rather, is believing that those things are the actual source of the joy. We mistakenly believe that the thing itself will satisfy. Apart from the grace of God, we all live our lives under the mistaken belief that if we could just have the gift of a kid, or another kid, or a slightly older, more independent kid we could be truly happy. Or, if we could just have the gift of a job, or an new job, or a promotion/raise within our job; a hobby, or a new hobby, or more time and money to enjoy our hobby; to do better in school, or to be done with school, or to get into the right school; to get into a relationship, or to help a hurting relationship, or to begin a new relationship after the loss of a spouse; to be in ministry, or be in a different ministry, or get out of a certain ministry, then we’d be content. Every one of us in this room has at one point or another convinced ourselves that if we could only get that thing, or the next thing, or a little more of the thing after that (the first gift), then we could be happy. As I said, and as I hope you are beginning to see wasn’t an exaggeration, one of the items at the very top of the list of gifts God gives through Ecclesiastes is this: Joy in anything on earth requires two gifts, not just one. It requires the gift of the thing itself AND it requires the second gift of the ability to enjoy it. We need God to give us the good gift of the marriage, job, kid, hobby, ministry, etc, and we need God to give us a second gift of joy in it. What’s more and greater is the fact that when we have this second gift, we can be satisfied with any measure or lack of the first gift. Listen to words of the Apostle Paul to this effect, “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:11-13). Paul received the second gift of God’s pleasure, so that he wasn’t at all dependent on a particular measure of the first for joy and satisfaction and contentment. The fullest example of our need for two gifts from God is found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. There’s a remarkable picture of it that many of us read last week in our Bible reading. It’s found in Acts 16. By that point in Acts, the apostles, including the Apostle Paul, had spread the gospel in an ever-increasing arc throughout the known world. That’s the first gift. Having the good news of Jesus is truly a gift all by itself. There are many in the world who lack even this. Which is why we have missions. Which is why we spend tens of thousands of dollars as a church to give this gift to those who do not have it. At the same time, however, as we saw over and over in John’s Gospel, and as we see over and over in the book of Acts, and as we see over and over in our own lives, having the gift of the gospel (having the words and concepts) is not enough for us to become recipients of the good news; to be reconciled to God through it. We need to come to the point that we see it for what it is and trust in it with all we have. And to do that, we need a second gift from God. In Acts 16 we find that a woman named Lydia was one of the many who received the first gift, the gift of the gospel, through the ministry of Paul. And in v.14 we’re told that she received the second gift from God as well. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. 15 And after she was baptized, and her household as well. The thing I love most about this short passage is that it describes this second gift in the simplest and most straightforward way that I’m aware of. Nowhere else in the Bible is the need for God’s second gift of regeneration talked about in such clear terms. Life is like this. Work is like this. The Preacher helps us to see that it’s not enough to simply have the gift of work or the gift of fruitful work. To find what the Preacher was searching for but didn’t find, we need a second gift of God as well—the ability to enjoy the work and its fruit in Him. And so, Grace, the great lesson is to stop believing that the satisfaction you are searching for is in any first gift; in any thing or person or place or possession or position. Stop wasting your life pursuing wrong answers to the question of “There’s nothing better for a person than that…”. Instead, recognize through the Preacher’s failure to do so, that true joy comes, always and only, from God’s second gift—the gift of joy in whatever type or measure of the first gift he’s pleased to give us, which is ours in Christ. TOILING WITH AN ABOVE THE SUN PERSPECTIVE With all of that, as I’ve tried to do each week, having heard from the Preacher concerning an under-the-sun perspective on work, I want to close by offering an abbreviated above-the-sun one. Five years ago, in preaching through the beginning passages of Genesis, I delivered an entire sermon doing just that. I used a good number of words unpacking biblical principles on work. I’m simply going to list them below to give you a taste of some of what the Preacher missed. I encourage you to pick one or two of the things on this list and dig deeper into them this week. God is always working (Genesis 2:1-3, summarizing Genesis 1; John 5:17). God delights in his work (Genesis 1:31; Psalm 149:4; Jeremiah 9:24). God’s work is primarily to create (Genesis 1-2), order (Genesis 1-2), and care for (Psalm 145:14-16); and then it is to rescue (2 Timothy 4:16; Colossians 1:13) and restore (1 Peter 5:10; Revelation 21:1-5). God invites us to join him in His work and His delight in it (Genesis 1:28, 2:15; Psalm 127:1). Joining God in His work and delight means working as God works: creating (Genesis 1:28), ordering (Genesis 2:20), caring for (Genesis 2:15), rescuing (Matthew 28:18-20), and redeeming (Matthew 28:18-20). Whenever we work like God our work has value and dignity. Because God is always working for the good of the world, so should we (Matthew 5:45). Because God calls us to join in his work and his delight, work is not something we do primarily to make money. Rather, glorifying God by doing the work of creating, ordering, caring for, rescuing, and redeeming is our aim, and as we do it well, we often gain the added benefit of being paid for it. Because of the fact that in our work we are joining in God’s work, we are also representing God in all we do (2 Corinthians 5:20; Colossians 3:23-24; Ephesians 6:5-6). In all of these ways our work can and should be as much a part of our worship of God as our time here on Sunday morning (1 Corinthians 10:31; Romans 12:1). We must be ministry minded in our work, seeing it as an opportunity to show and speak the good news of God’s work for us in Jesus (Matthew 28:18-20; 1 Peter 3:15). The Holy Spirit is living in us to empower us for good work (Ephesians 3:16). We were made for work, but we were also made for rest. God gave us this example in Genesis 2:1-3 and then later the command to join him in rest and promised to be our rest (Matthew 11:28-30). Work is harder and less fruitful because of the fall (Genesis 3:17-19). The Preacher seems not to have yet risen above this understanding. All of this together means, as the Preacher half-learned, work is a critical component of a life of meaning, but it is never the meaning of life. There is great joy to be had in work, but only when we work as God has called us to work: for Hs glory, according to His example, in His delight, and through faith in His Son. And when we work like this, we know that God has given us two gifts (not just one), that He is pleased with our every act of work offered in faith, that He will use it for good, and that contrary to the Preacher’s conclusion, our work performed in faith really will last forever; whether in the souls of men or in the pleasure of God. CONCLUSION While the conclusion of our passage really does offer us the first truly above-the-sun look on things, we’re left with the sense that the Preacher didn’t really grasp the magnitude of what he saw. He didn’t understand the full measure of his insight. Thanks be to God that we have the whole counsel of God and that the Spirit of God has opened our eyes (like Paul and Lydia) to it. Thanks be to God that everyone who has received the good gift of the gospel, along with the second gift of ears to hear it, knows true and eternal satisfaction in Jesus. And thanks be to God that everyone in Jesus can also find genuine delight in joining God in His work and pleasure in it—physical and spiritual, labor for bread and labor for souls. And so, Grace, work hard as unto the Lord. Build great things for God’s glory and the good of the world. Serve well. Be an excellent boss or laborer. Leave what you can to your kids, for the sake of the Kingdom of God. Seek the joy of the Lord in those things. And give yourself to the work of proclaiming Christ to the nations and presenting others as mature in Christ (Colossians 1:28).…

Grace Evangelical Free Church // Wyoming, MN

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Wisdom, Madness, And Folly 35:23

for 18 dage siden35:23

35:23

Ecclesiastes 2:12-17 So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly. For what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done. 13 Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. 14 The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them. 15 Then I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. 16 For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool! 17 So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind. INTRODUCTION Once again, the second half of Ecclesiastes chapter 1 and all of chapter 2 (1:12-2:26) is one larger section. In it the Preacher examines four different aspects of life in his quest to find meaning and significance “under the sun”. We’re on aspect three this week. The Preacher’s first attempt (1:12-18) to find an “under the sun” life worth living was all about trying to find satisfaction through making sense of the world around him. He did so by examining it with (observational) wisdom. His conclusions were that the world is bad, vain, beyond repair, vexing, and sorrowful. In his second attempt (2:1-11) the Preacher tried to find genuine satisfaction through mere hedonism; the simple pursuit of pleasure. To that end, the Preacher tried all the laughter, wine, great works, servants, possessions, treasure, and entertainment that money can buy. His conclusion was that “all [is] vanity and a striving after wind, and there [is] nothing to be gained under the sun” (2:11). And in this third attempt to find a satisfying life under the sun (2:12-17), the Preacher considered whether or not it makes any difference how you live in the world. Neither understanding, nor hedonism worked to provide genuine satisfaction, “So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly…” (12). He watched those acting according to each and made a few observations about the results. As we will see, and as you’ve probably come to imagine, the result was very much the same as with his previous attempts. The big questions are: Is there any discernable difference between the lives of those who live according to wisdom, madness, and folly? Do any of them prosper more than the others? Do any of them have more overall joy in life? Do things end up any better for any of them? In other words, if you’ve ever known what was wise, but felt like you’d rather do something different; if you’ve ever felt like you know better than what you’ve been told is right; if you’ve ever felt like things that are wrong are just more fun than things that are wise, this is the sermon for you. The Preacher felt the same way. More importantly, under God’s inspiration, we get to see and, Lord willing, learn from his conclusions. The big idea of this passage is that God moves in mysterious ways. Things simply don’t work in ways that are predictable, but that’s by God’s good design. We need more than our own reason or desires to live a life of meaning and significance. And the main takeaway is to trust God’s Word and promises rather than our interpretation of our circumstances. WISDOM, MADNESS, AND FOLLY (12) Look with me once again at the beginning of the first verse of our passage. 12 So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly… At the university I went to, everyone had to take Psychology 101 as freshman. One of the requirements for the class was to sign up for a certain number of hours as a participant for grad student research projects. I don’t remember much besides the fact that they’d have us do certain things and watch how it all worked out. We were never told what, exactly, the project was trying to determine, only that our response to whatever was put in front of us was a key component of it. In some ways, that’s the picture here. It comes across as a kind of formal sociological research project. The Preacher observed various subjects in order to discover whether or not there was any discernable difference in their quality of life. What was the same and what was different for each group of subjects? What ended well and what ended poorly? Who fared better and who fared worse? Before we consider the results of the Preacher’s considerations, let’s get clear on the (familiar) participants: the wise, the mad, and the fool. The Wise The first group the Preacher examined was the wise. This is the eighth time in less than 30 verses that the Preacher has referred to wisdom. It’s clearly an important theme for him (causing further echoes of Solomon to ring in our ears). At the same time, we must remember that the wisdom he’s referring to is largely general-revelation wisdom (rather than special-revelation wisdom). That is, it is mainly the kind of wisdom someone gains by being a careful observer of the world, not the kind someone gains from carefully studying the wisdom of God in the Word of God. It’s not bad wisdom; it’s just (as we’ll see) insufficient wisdom. This is the culturally religious and the altruistic agnostic. This is the generational farmer and the thoughtful grandma. It’s the person who is careful to live according to things as they really are on the horizontal level. It’s the Jordan Petersons or the J.K. Rowlings. The Mad The second observed group was the mad. This is the third time the Preacher used the word madness; another familiar idea in Ecclesiastes. And as I’ve mentioned each time, it is a madness of morality, not sanity. He was not watching the insane, the crazy. He was watching the lives of those who lived according to their base desires; according to the desires of their flesh. The Preacher observed those characterized by immorality. This is most of Hollywood and late high school – 20 something guys. The Fool And the third group explicitly named by the Preacher is the fool. Like madness, this is the third time he has made reference to folly. Folly is different than madness in that it is more about being determined to choose one’s own path than it is about conscious, willful rebellion. Fools don’t think of themselves as rebels, just as rightly confident in having discovered a better path. Fools are wise in their own eyes (and only in their own eyes). This is the godless wealthy and well educated. This is the arrogant atheist. It is Jr. High boys. It’s the confident advocate of any world in which Christ is not King. The Preacher watched an untold number of people whom he determined to be living lives of wisdom, madness, and folly, and did his best to keep track of how it went for them. As we’ll see, he ends up lumping the mad and the fool into the same category. Some have called it “mad fools”. Without explicitly saying so, it seems that through his observations, the Preacher recognized that there really are only two ways to live—the way of wisdom and the various ways of folly. At the end of v.12 he mused, “For what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done.” To be honest, trying to work through this clause on my own and then wading through the commentators’ attempts was somewhat dizzying. It’s a hard passage to translate and a harder passage to interpret. In the end, I think the gist of it is this: “I, the Preacher, considered many people who were wise, many who were mad, and many who were fools. I did so to determine which, if any, of these groups of people lived the most satisfied, meaningful lives. Having done so, you can trust my conclusions because I used all my unmatched wisdom and kingly resources to answer that question. And for that reason, everyone who follows, anyone who repeats my efforts, anyone who tries to answer the same questions, will only be doing what I’ve already done, but in a less-informed, less-thorough, and less-rigorous way. I am giving you the final word on the subject. Trust the science” With that kind of personal endorsement, we’re right to wonder what conclusions he came to. What were the results of his considerations? THE RESULTS (13-17) The Preacher came to three main conclusions: (1) There are important differences between the wise and the mad fool, (2) The wise and the mad fool experience the same things in the end, and (3) All is still vanity, which the Preacher despised. Let’s consider each from the text. There Are Important Differences Between the Wise and the Fool (13-14a) In verses 13-14 the Preacher speaks to a couple of differences between the wise and the fool. Look at v.13. 13 Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. The wise are different than fools in that there is more (or a certain type of) gain in wisdom than folly. There is more to gain in the sense that life generally goes better for those who walk according to well-grounded wisdom than it does for those who continually reject that path or invent their own. And that, in the same way that it is better to walk in the (literal, not moral) light than the darkness. It’s easy to prove this obvious point. We just need two volunteers; one to run through the fellowship hall as fast as you can, with all the tables, chairs, spilled crayons, walls, and doors in the total dark of night and another to do so in the full light of day. Who do you think is going to fare better? The answer, as we all know, is the one who does so in the day. I remember being a foolish teenager at a ski resort. We got our hands on some sleds one night and decided to try to bomb the back of a ski hill with them. It was awesome for about 25 yards and then I hit a large, sharp rock. It tore my pants and cut my leg pretty severely at the knee. I honestly can’t believe that I didn’t break my leg. It left a scar for many years. The thing is, it was dark enough that night that I couldn’t even really see what I’d hit. It wasn’t until we went back the next day and saw how ridiculous it was. In fact, in the light of day, I saw that I was probably lucky to have hit the rock since it only got worse from there. If I’d seen the hill in daylight, I’d never have tried to sled down it. With that kind of picture in mind, the Preacher concluded, “ 14 The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness…”. In considering the lives of the wise and the fool, the Preacher saw that it was like comparing those who walk in the light vs. the dark. There is almost always a more desirable outcome for those who walk in wisdom and light (who have eyes to see), than for those who walk in folly and dark (who are blind). Often, it’s not all that close. You’ve experienced the same thing, right? You have found, like the Preacher, that in general… Proverbs 12:4 An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones. And Proverbs 12:8 A man is commended according to his good sense, but one of twisted mind is despised. And Proverbs 12:11 Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense. And Proverbs 12:18 There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. And Proverbs 12:24 The hand of the diligent will rule, while the slothful will be put to forced labor. And Proverbs 13:18 Poverty and disgrace come to him who ignores instruction, but whoever heeds reproof is honored. Things don’t always work out like this, but they usually do. This world ordinarily works like this. Again, the Preacher’s first conclusion from his considerations was that there is an important difference between the wise and the fool—there is more gain in living a life of under-the-sun wisdom than one of folly. At the Same Time, the Wise and the Mad-Fool Experience the Same Things in the End (14b-16) That kind of sounds like progress, doesn’t it? In 1:17-18 he declared, “I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind. 18 For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.” In 2:13-14a, after a second consideration of the three, he sounds more optimistic, doesn’t he? Well, sort of. At the same time, though, he also observed that the wise and the fool experience the same things in the end. When it matters most, every ends up dead and forgottenness. Death. Regardless of whatever increased, short-term gain someone might get from living in the light of wisdom, 14 … yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them. 15 Then I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” 16 … How the wise dies just like the fool! The “same event” is death. Everyone dies, no matter what they do in this life. The wisest and the foolishest both, eventually, end up as dust in the ground. The fact that the Preacher was wiser and richer and more powerful than anyone before him in Israel did nothing to change the fact that he would (and did) die just like the most foolish, poorest, and weakest person. The Preacher discovered that in the length of time it takes for a puff of smoke to dissipate, every man, woman, and child will die. We’re not here, then we’re here for a short while in a harsh world, and then we die; everyone, always, without exception. Forgottenness. But it gets worse. Not only do we all meet the same fate in death, but before long, no matter what we do in this world, we’re all forgotten—wise and fool alike; much gain or little; powerful or weak. 16 For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten… In a far more poetic and succinct way than I’m able, one commentator summarizes the Preacher’ second conclusion, “If one fate comes to all, and that fate is extinction (forgotten in death), it robs every man of his dignity and every project of its point” (Kidner, TME, 34). Just like that, what appeared to be a crack in the Preacher’s vexation, what appeared to be a ray of light in the tunnel, all but vanished. Have you ever felt like that? Has it ever seemed to you that it just doesn’t matter what you do? Have you ever thought that everything is simply out of your control and heading toward something regardless of whatever attempts you might make to steer things differently? Oh, how futile it can all feel. And the Preacher, who examined this more than anyone, felt it deep in his bones. But the Preacher wasn’t done. He has one more main conclusion to share from his considerations. Look at the second half of v.16. All Is Still Vanity (16-17) 16 And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. In the end, then, the Preacher came to the same conclusion he had each previous time–vanity. His third attempt led to the exact same conclusion that his first two did. What started out looking like it had promise, eventually ended in the same place. As you all know, hard things happen in life. One thing that can help mitigate the difficulty of a hardship is hope in a solution. What’s often even more comforting is a number of possible solutions. In order to really feel the weight of the Preacher’s next words, we need to imagine a real hardship—being diagnosed with some significant ailment, a serious relational strain, paying for a piece of land that you later find out cannot support a septic system, losing your job, etc. Now imagine that after coming to grips with the reality of the hardship, you start to put together a list of ways to overcome it—and it really does seem like there are a number of possible (maybe even probable) solutions. Then you order the possible solutions from most likely to least and you begin to try them out. If the first one, the most likely in your estimation, fails, it’s frustrating, but not that big of a deal since you have several more good possibilities. But as the second and third fail, and as the remaining ones decrease in probability of success, what do you think? How do you feel? This was the case for the Preacher. He lacked a sense of meaning and significance in his life. He made a list of possible ways to find meaning and significance, but one by one they failed to the point that… 17 So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind. Rather than taking a more positive step, the Preacher seems to have taken one large step back. Living according to wisdom, madness, and folly, living under the sun, is no better than hedonism or understanding. It’s all mystery. It’s all enigma. None of it makes much sense. None of those things make life predictable or allow a person to really shape their lives, much less the end of their lives. No matter what you do under the sun, nothing is really in your control and it all funnels to the same place in the end. It’s hard to imagine something more frustrating than that. Indeed, the Preacher “hated life.” All of life under the sun was “grievous” to him. Everything that he reached for was impossible to grasp, as if he was continually trying to shepherd the wind (“striving after wind”). Again, let me ask, can you relate to the Preacher? Have you ever come to the point that you hated life, or at least certain aspects of it, because nothing really made sense? Nothing you did made things any better? Your sickness just wouldn’t end. Your marriage just wouldn’t heal. Your kids just wouldn’t obey. Your anxiety just wouldn’t lift. Your loneliness just wouldn’t abate. Your loved one just wouldn’t get better. Your boss or coworker just wouldn’t let up on his criticism. Your finances just wouldn’t get stable. If you’ve felt what the Preacher felt because of these (or similar) things. Please listen carefully to my conclusion. CONCLUSION Once again, the Preacher was spot on in his evaluation and conclusions. There is nothing false in this passage. The flaw was not in the Preacher’s calculus. The flaw was in his methodology. The Preacher’s problem was that he needed to evaluate four groups, not just three. He left out of his study the most important group. It really was like studying the cause of lung cancer among everyone but smokers, or looking for ice cubes everywhere but in the freezer, or trying to field a winning hockey team with everyone but people who know how to skate. It doesn’t matter that much how thorough your study is, if it’s missing the right subjects. Again, the Preacher was right in concluding that all is vanity for the earthly wise, the mad, and the fool. But there really is another group. Had he studied that group, he would have found something entirely different. The fourth group, the missing group, is those who live according to the promises of God. Under-the-sun wisdom, even the Proverbial wisdom of God, are good for their intended purpose, but their intended purpose was never to meet mankind’s deepest needs or answer our deepest questions. More than a way to make sense of this world, to find pleasure in this world, or to live in this world in a gianful way, we need to be forgiven of our sins, to be reconciled to God, and to learn to live according to the promises of God. That (and only that) is where the meaning and satisfaction the Preacher was (and we all are) seeking come from. As we’ve seen, the Preacher did not have access to the full measure of the promises of God, but he did have enough to be made righteous by God and happy in God through hope in God. He did have enough to know that God promised to provide a way for mankind to be made right with Him. The Preacher couldn’t have known that was Jesus, but he should have known that his hope would come from the Savior God promised to send. An example of that is found in Genesis 3:15, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” The Prophets spoke of the promised Savior as well. We see a familiar example of that in Isaiah 7:14, “…the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” The Preacher, and most of the OT writers, had access to these promises and many more like it. And yet, once again, although the Preacher didn’t have everything we have, he had enough for righteousness. That is why it can be said of Abraham that he “believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:3). We do not know how many men and women of genuine faith the Preacher might have considered in Israel at that time, but we do know (from Hebrews 11) that there were many faithful saints Let’s close then, with a Hebrews 11 call to live, not (like the Preacher) according to our assessment of our circumstances, but in faith in the promises of God (like so many who had gone before and came after the Preacher). God does work in mysterious ways, but His promises are faithful guides through every mystery. And by living out of them, we can have what the Preacher missed. Hebrews 11:13-16 These all died in faith [the faithful saints the Preacher would have known about and ought to have considered], not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. The men and women who set their hope in the promises of God are the ones the Preacher ought to have considered. Just two chapters later in Hebrews we find the methodology the Preacher lacked, “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith” (Hebrews 13:7). We know that Jesus is the Savior God promised to send. We know that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. We know that there is genuine salvation and satisfaction in no other. And we know that for those who live according to the promises of God for us in Jesus, death is not the end and we will never be forgotten as God’s beloved sons and daughters. The Preacher was so close. May we learn from his mistake and live according to the Word and promises of God as we turn in faith to Jesus.…

Grace Evangelical Free Church // Wyoming, MN

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I Will Test You With Pleasure 40:24

for 24 dage siden40:24

40:24

1 I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But behold, this also was vanity. 2 I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?” 3 I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life. 4 I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. 5 I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. 6 I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. 7 I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. 8 I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man. 9 So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. 10 And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. 11 Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun. INTRODUCTION What constitutes the good life? Where is genuine and lasting satisfaction found? You may remember from last week’s sermon that Ecclesiastes 1:12-2:26 (the second half of chapter 1 and all of chapter 2) is one larger section and that in it the Preacher examines four different aspects of life in an attempt to answer those questions. The Preacher’s first attempt (last week) to find an “under the sun” life worth living consisted of a quest to understand the world through wisdom. He thought that if he could just make sense of things, a fulfilling life might follow. What’s more, we’re told that he did so with more access to the world and more under-the-sun wisdom than nearly anyone else in history. In other words, if anyone was going to be able to do so, it was him. His conclusions, however, discouragingly, were that the world is bad, vain, beyond repair, vexing, and sorrowful. In his second attempt, found in our passage for this morning, the Preacher tried a different approach. If satisfaction isn’t found in understanding, perhaps it’s found in mere hedonism; in the simple pursuit of pleasure. To that end, the Preacher shares in some detail the process he went through to find out. He also shares his conclusions. In all of that, as I hope to help you see, we’re given a remarkable gift from the Lord. The big idea of this passage is that true and lasting satisfaction is never found in the pleasures of this world, especially when they are sought for their own sake. And the main takeaway is to seek fullness of joy in the one place that it is found, in the presence of God, through faith in Jesus Christ. THE NEXT ATTEMPT AND THE CONCLUSION UPFRONT (1) Again, remember, the Preacher’s main aim in this larger section is to find a way to live a life of meaning, significance, and satisfaction under the sun. His first attempt failed in spectacular fashion. But what about his second attempt? Helpfully, he begins by explicitly naming it and his conclusion from it in the very first verse. The Second Attempt What was the Preacher’s second attempt? Look at the first half of 2:1. “ 1 I said in my heart, ‘Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself…’” Some years ago, in the midst of some philosophical/theological debate with a friend—a non-Christian, well-educated, thoughtful, gainfully employed, married, father of three—I asked him to explicitly name his moral code. That is, I asked him to help me understand how he decided what to do in any given situation. His answer was a bit sheepish, but simple and crystal clear, (paraphrasing) “I suppose I do whatever I think will make me most happy.” To be clear, he certainly had a category for finding happiness in sacrificing for his wife and kids and giving money to charity. It wasn’t as if he meant an entirely self-centered, selfish pursuit of happiness, but it was all about his happiness nonetheless. More specifically, it was all about an under-the-sun happiness. He couldn’t really imagine anything more. In a very real way, that’s what the Preacher was talking about. He decided to “test his heart” to see if it might find genuine and lasting pleasure in the things of earth (11). We’ll come back to the specific places he sought earthly pleasure, but for now, it’s important that we simply acknowledge his aim: testing various pleasures to see if through them he could live a satisfying life. The Same Conclusion And rather than make his readers wait, the Preacher immediately revealed the results of his heart-test, “ 1 …behold, this also was vanity.” Just like seeking satisfaction through understanding, the pursuit of satisfaction through pleasure is also nothing more than vapor, a puff of smoke. It also is mysterious in its inability to deliver on what it promised. All by itself, that’s a powerful warning and a significant gift (we’ll come back to that in a bit). If all we had concerning the outcome of the pursuit of pleasure, was what we find in v.1, we’d be well-served. In particular, we’re shown the need to be really careful concerning what we say in our heart and what we decide to test it with. As I’m sure you all know, our feelings and desires often lead us into trouble. As helpful as that is, the grace of God, through the insight of the Preacher, is greater still. What follows (in vs.2-8) is an itemized list of the Preacher’s hollow, hedonistic pursuits. And then in vs.9-11 we find the Preacher’s expanded conclusion from his pursuits. THE PROCESS EXAMINED (2-11) In all seriousness, if I were to ask every one of you to write down a top-five list of the things you most want in this life, I wonder how close it would be to the things the Preacher tried. Another way to frame it would be to ask you what are the main things in this life that, if you were to have unlimited access to them, are most likely to truly satisfy you? Please consider carefully your answers to those questions as we make our way through this list of seven things that the Preacher tried, employing all his vast power and resources, to find lasting pleasure in. The Search (2-8) 1. Pleasure through Laughter (2). 2 I said of laughter, ‘It is mad,’ and of pleasure, ‘What use is it?’”. The key word in this verse, v.2, is “mad.” It has the same root as the “madness” of 1:17 (“I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly”). And just like 1:17, it refers more to morality than sanity. The kind of laughter the preacher sought was from what the NT calls “crude joking” (Ephesians 5:4). He brought in the comedians from HBO and SNL. He sought pleasure from laughter elicited from unrighteousness. Even righteous laughter can’t provide what the Preacher was looking for, but sinful laughter definitely can’t. And for that reason, the Preacher rightly asked, “What use is it?”. 2. Pleasure through Wine (3). Laughter elicited by coarse joking didn’t do it, but what about wine? Maybe that would be different. 3 I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life. For a second time, the Preacher explained that his pursuit of pleasure was anything but cursory. It was anything but flippant. He “searched with [his] heart.” He gave all of himself to this pursuit. He did his best to get deep into his own heart. His testing was thoroughly thorough in every manner, and specifically, here, with wine. There’s a bit of uncertainty surrounding the nature of the Preacher’s wine-driven pleasure pursuit. In fact, he mentions two, seemingly conflicting, aspects of this pursuit. He says, “I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom…” but also, “how to lay hold on folly…”. If all we had the was the second thing he said (“how to lay hold on folly”) we would assume that a key aspect of his search was intoxication; pleasure through drunken parties. And if all we had was the first thing he said (”my heart still guiding me with wisdom”), we would probably assume he went to wine not (mainly) to be made drunk by it, but to appreciate it as a connoisseur. The idea would most likely that he tried to find satisfaction in the pleasure of wine-tasting. Either way, the point is that a life of satisfaction “during the few days of [man’s] life [on earth]” was the ultimate goal, and pleasure through wine was a means the Preacher tested to see if it was able to provide. 3. Pleasure through Great Works (4-6). Next, the Preacher tells us that he tried to find lasting pleasure through building, planting, and cultivating great things. 4 I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. 5 I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. 6 I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. I do wonder whether the pursuit of pleasure was more aimed at the commissioning and oversight of those projects or the enjoyment of them once completed. Many have sought pleasure in each and both; in the power to create and in the enjoyment of things created. Either way, when we consider the vast measures of wealth, resources, and manpower at the Preacher’s disposal (more on all of that in just a minute), it’s not hard to imagine what a significant accomplishment and how beautiful all of that must have been. This is a good place to pause to ask you all to consider again the question I asked earlier. What if you had all the access you wanted to your favorite comedians, the best wine, and the ability to create and enjoy anything you wanted? Do you think that would be enough for you to be truly satisfied? 4. Pleasure through Servants (7a). In the beginning of v.7, the Preacher spoke of another potential source of pleasure, the accumulation of servants. 7 I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house… The basic idea here is one we’ve all had, I’m sure: A life where you only have to do the work you want to do and someone else does all the rest for you. You get to work in the shop or craft or teach or garden or cook or whatever you like and someone else pays all the bills, changes all the diapers, handles all the discipline and doctor appointments, plans for the future, and does all the cleaning and dishes. Perhaps, the Preacher wondered (like so many of us), if I can just give myself to the things I like best, if I only work within my specific gifts, if I can get rid of all the responsibilities in my life that I’m particularly inefficient at or frustrated by, I can be satisfied in the pleasure that brings. And so, he bought an untold number of servants to test his heart in this (undoubtedly to help with his great works, flocks, herds, and household). 5. Pleasure through Possessions (7b). A fifth (of seven) test, connected to the accumulation of servants, was that of possessions. In the ancient world, the most significant possessions were often animals. 7 … I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. If the Preacher is in fact Solomon, we’re told in 2 Chronicles 7(:4) that he sacrificed (not had, sacrificed) 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. What a staggering number. I’m not sure I can even imagine what that means from a logistical, boarding, feeding, cleaning, perspective. But the main point is that the Preacher wanted to see if accumulating animals in that vast of a quantity would satisfy his heart. I don’t know exactly what the modern-day equivalent would be. Maybe businesses or houses or cabins or cars or toys to support hobbies. Regardless, the Preacher tested to see whether the accumulation of more of the most valuable possessions could provide enough pleasure for a life of genuine satisfaction. And in that, once again, we’re invited to test ourselves in this as well. Can you have enough stuff to be happy? 6. Pleasure Through Treasure (8a). Perhaps the most obvious, the places most of us would think of first, are the last two named by the Preacher. In the beginning of v.8 he tells us that he sought satisfying pleasure in treasure. 8 I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces… The Preacher wondered if gathering in vast sums of wealth would do the trick. Again, even if the Preacher wasn’t Solomon, Solomon gives us the benchmark for accumulating silver and gold. 1 Kings 10:14 tells us that “the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold, 15 besides that which came from the explorers and from the business of the merchants, and from all the kings of the west and from the governors of the land.” In case you’re not up on your ancient measurements, a talent was around 75lbs. That means that Solomon brough in over 50,000lbs (25 tons) of gold every year. On the low end, that would probably put Solomon’s worth at over 2 trillion dollars in today’s money. He certainly succeeded in accumulating wealth, but was it enough to satisfy? Do you think it would be for you? 7. Pleasure through Entertainment (8b). Finally, the Preacher sought to satisfy his heart with the pleasure of entertainment. 8 … I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man. Singers and sex. Concerning singers, it’s important to recognize that music was much harder to come by in the Preacher’s day. There were, of course, no recordings. And instruments and training to use them were far scarcer. But the Preacher, with his vast wealth and power, gathered them together for his pleasure. And concerning his pursuit of satisfaction through physical pleasure, one final time we look to King Solomon as the benchmark for what the Preacher likely had in mind. 1 Kings 11:3 says that he had “700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines.” I do not intend to speculate how that worked itself out, but needless to say, the Preacher did not skimp on this (or any) pursuit of pleasure. Again, how about you? Unlimited concerts, records, and access to your favorite musicians. Functionally unlimited access to physical pleasure. Could you be satisfied by that? We might wonder how could you not be? The Scope (9-10) One of the key features of the Preacher’s pursuit that I’ve mentioned repeatedly was his unparalleled power and wealth that gave him access to the things of the world to examine and his unparallel wisdom with which to examine them. The Preacher himself explicitly states that in v.9. 9 So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. The result is that there was nothing on earth that the Preacher knew of but did not try. He names seven specific things, but his pursuits went even beyond those. He gave himself to every single pleasure known to him. 10 And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure… (The second part of v.10 simply explains the earthly means by which he gained the resources necessary to indulge in every possible pleasure. 10 …for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil.) Again, all of that is virtually impossible to imagine. And if we’re honest, most of it is probably pretty appealing. But was it enough? The Conclusion (11) Before coming back to the Preacher’s conclusion, I’d like to point out one more aspect of the Preacher’s quest and ask you to bring a now familiar question to a point. The thing I’d like to point out is that in this context, the Preacher was testing his heart with every pleasure to see if he could find satisfaction in life. Not for his family. Not for those in his household. Not for the people over whom he was king. And certainly not for the people he’d employed (or conscripted) to provide the various pleasures he sought (the comedians who elicited laughter, the wine makers or vineyard managers who produced the wine he consumed, the carpenters and gardeners who built and tended his “great works,” the servants who freed him from work, the shepherds and herdsmen who tended his flocks, the bankers who stored his vast treasure, the singers who sang, or the concubines who performed). There’s a possible allusion to others in v.3, but far and away, the Preacher was after his own pleasure and his alone. 1 I said in my heart…”enjoy yourself.” 3 I searched with my heart how to cheer my body 4 I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. 5 I made myself gardens and parks 6 I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. 8 I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings 10 I kept my heart from no pleasure There’s something profoundly selfish about the Preacher’s hedonism. It’s rather staggering, really, to consider the hundreds (probably thousands?) of people and millions (probably billions?) of dollars spent in pursuit of his own pleasure. And that leads to the question I’d like to bring to a point. If you could have all of those things (all the laughter, wine, great works, servants, possessions, treasure, and entertainment that money can buy), do you think you would be satisfied? Most of us are chasing satisfaction in those same exact things all these thousands of years later. Do you really believe that if you got them, they’d provide meaningful satisfaction? It’s an extremely important question, especially if we’re going to get the full measure of benefit out of the Preacher’s conclusion. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you get to the bottom of this for yourself. Ask the Spirit to test your heart in this matter. And ask the Spirit to help you learn from the Preacher. We heard the shortened version of the Preacher’s conclusion in v.1. He unpacks it a bit more in v.11. 11 Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun. Everyone who has ever tried to find genuine satisfaction in someone or something falls into one of two categories. Either they eventually gained access to it or they didn’t. Either you got the job, the promotion, the girl/guy, the kids, the cabin, the toys, the money, the retirement account, the work of art, the signed copy, the degree, the income bracket, the trip—whatever you thought would make you happy—or you are still seeking it. Those in the second category (still seeking the person/thing) often remain convinced that they could be happy if only they were to get the thing they sought. The result is usually a life of longed-for pleasure that continually seems just out of reach. There are some, however, who fall into the first category (who get the under-the-sun thing(s) they sought). The Preacher was one of them. And the end result is the same for all who do. All the time, money, and energy the Preacher spent; everything that the Preacher tried; all the people the Preacher involved…all of it, every ounce of it, he concluded was vanity (mystery, enigma, futility), all if it was completely illusive (like trying to catch wind), nothing to be gained in the end! Perhaps one of the most straight-forward and well-known quotes on this idea came from quarterback, Tom Brady, after winning his third Superbowl (a year in which he led his team to an undefeated 16-0 record, set the single-season touchdown pass record, and was MVP). During the course of an interview with 60 minutes he said, “Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there’s something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, ‘Hey man, this is what is.’ I reached my goal, my dream, my life. I think, ‘God, it’s got to be more than this.’ I mean this isn’t, this can’t be what it’s all cracked up to be … I love playing football and I love being quarterback for this team. But at the same time, I think there are a lot of other parts about me that I’m trying to find.” I do not mean to say that there is no joy for those who got the thing they chased. I do mean to say, however, with the Preacher, that there is a difference between short-term joy and genuine satisfaction. I also mean to say, with the Preacher that nothing under the sun can provide genuine satisfaction. Many things promise it and advertisers pay lots of money to make you believe it, but all are (by God’s irrevokable design) impotent to do so. As I said at the beginning, seeing all of this in the Preacher is a remarkable gift from God. It’s a gift in that it frees us from looking for satisfaction where it will never be found. Rightly read, it frees us from the zealous, hollow pursuit of the next mirage and then the next and then the next. For most of us, we will never get the full measure of the things we are seeking. And for that reason, we can live on under the delusion that it might be found in those things. The Preacher, however, had all of those things, and came to see first-hand that they cannot provide what they promised. His access is our God-given warning. AN ABOVE-THE-SUN PERSPECTIVE ON PLEASURE I want to conclude with an above-the-sun take on all of this; on the relationship between pleasure and satisfaction. The Preacher showed us one side, but there’s another that’s just as important. That is, we know now where true satisfaction is not found, but does God’s Word give us any help on where it is found? Satisfaction is Found in God Alone What my non-Christian friend said, as well as what the Preacher was after in our passage, is the inevitable aim of every human heart. Believe it or not, part of being made in God’s image is the continually pursuit of highest joy. We must seek our satisfaction. We can’t not. God made us that way. The only difference between men is where they seek it. Said another way, there is nothing wrong in any of the Preacher’s pursuits. Every single one of them has a proper place in the life of a Christian. Every single one of them can be a righteous source of satisfaction, properly pursued. Every single one of them were in the first Garden (the Garden of Eden) and will be in the last (in the new heavens and earth). In fact, this entire passage is in many ways the Preacher’s right longing for the Garden and a wrong attempt to recreate it by his own hand. The chief end of man really is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever! Our God-given highest purpose in life is to seek and find satisfaction…in God. The Preacher looked in creation for what can only be found in the Creator. I just read of King David’s (possibly the Preacher’s own father) acknowledgement of this in my QT this week. In Psalm 27:4 he declares, “One thing I have asked of the LORD, that I will seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the says of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple.” Why would David want to dwell in the house of God and gaze upon His beauty continually? Because, as another of His songs highlights, “In [God’s] presence [and in His presence alone] there is fullness of joy; at [His] right hand are pleasures forever more” (Psalm 16:11). True, full, eternal satisfaction is found in God’s presence and pleasure. And we know that access to the presence and pleasure of God is ours by grace, through faith, in Jesus Christ alone. He alone was able to atone for our sins (including the sins of seeking our joy by placing our hope in what will be destroyed) and reconcile us to God. Grace Church, hear me clearly and tell your neighbors joyfully, it is right that you want to be truly and lastingly satisfied. It is right to seek that. God has put that desire (that need) in you. But you must seek it where it can be found. And it is found (eternally!) in Christ alone. Every other pursuit—every.single.one—leads in delusion, disappointment, and eventually (if not repented of) destruction. Satisfaction in God Allows Satisfaction in His Creation The news that we can have our heart’s true desire in Jesus gets even better though. When that happens, when we find our true satisfaction in God through Jesus, the rest of His creation opens itself up to us as well. Indeed, laughter (contrary to the Preacher’s experience) is a satisfying gift of God when it is rooted in gladness at the kindness of God and Christian fellowship. The righteous are men and women of deep belly laughs, flowing from the joy of the Lord. Wine is a satisfying gift of God when it is a part of godly celebrations (Psalm 104:15) and more importantly, the celebration of the gospel that is the Lord’s Supper (Matthew 26:26-28). It will be a part of the great marriage supper of the Lamb (Matthew 26:29)! Building works of wonder (homes, gardens, parks, trees, ponds) are satisfying gifts of God when they are done for His glory and the good of his people. It is a part of God’s earliest (pre-Fall) commands to exercise dominion over the earth (Genesis 1-2) and a significant means of pointing people to the glory of God. Having servants is a satisfying gift of God when our treatment of them is a blessing to them and they aid us in righteous pursuits (Colossians 4:1). Jesus Himself said and modeled, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all” (Mark 9:35). Having possessions is a satisfying gift of God when the possessions are used to care for the vulnerable and provide a sight pin to God’s glory. Indeed, Jesus is in heaven right now preparing a place of His followers in the mansion of God (John 14:2). Being wealthy is a satisfying gift of God when we view ourselves not as owners of the wealth, but as stewards of God’s (Matthew 25:14–30); using it all for His purposes and glory as His ambassadors (2 Corinthians 9:6-7). Music is a satisfying gift of God when it is excellent and celebrates that which is good, beautiful, and true. God’s people are commanded to address “one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart…” (Ephesians 5:1). And singing will be our native tongue throughout eternity (Revelation 15:3). And sex is a satisfying gift of God when it is experienced in its proper place (within a covenant marriage) and for its intended purposes (procreation, protection, and communion). In other words, everything the Preacher tried was a good gift of God. His problem was that he sought each in an under-the-sun way—as ends in themselves—when he was meant to seek God first and all those things for God’s purposes—for the glory of God, for the good of mankind, and according to God’s design. Grace, the big idea of this passage is that true and lasting satisfaction is never found in the pleasures of this world when they are sought for their own sake. And the main takeaway is to seek fullness of joy in the one place that it is found, in the presence of God, through faith in Jesus Christ.…

Grace Evangelical Free Church // Wyoming, MN

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There Is Mystery In Wisdom 44:32

for 5 weeks siden44:32

44:32

Ecclesiastes 1:12-18 I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13 And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 14 I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. 15 What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted. 16 I said in my heart, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.” 17 And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind. 18 For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow. INTRODUCTION Many years ago, Socrates, a philosopher in Ancient Greece, was charged with the capital crimes of failing to acknowledge the proper gods and of corrupting the youth of Athens with his teaching. Socrates was put on trial for those things and was ultimately found guilty and put to death. Socrates maintained his innocence throughout the trial and refused to recant. In his mind, he was doing nothing but seeking truth and virtue. Indeed, for Socrates (as he is portrayed by Plato), there was simply no other way to live. He famously said, “ The life which is unexamined is not worth living. ” In other words, if Socrates had to choose between a life in which he was forced to stop pursuing truth and death, he would (and did) choose death. By all accounts, it was common grace alone that caused Socrates to have such zeal for understanding. He looked out into the world and into the hearts of men and wanted to understand what he saw; so much so that he didn’t want to live in a world where he couldn’t. We would do well to imitate his desire to understand God and the world He made. Indeed, the Bible has many commands, like the one in Philippians 4:8, to do just that: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things .” The gist of the Apostle Paul’s command is for Christians to think hard about the things in this world that are worth thinking about. The Bible not only commands us to think carefully about the world around us, though. It also gives us several examples of men and women of God who did so. In fact, that’s exactly what we have in our passage for this morning. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Preacher determined to examine every aspect of life under the sun, to use only wisdom, and then to share his conclusions. The big idea of this passage is that all human wisdom has limits. Wisdom is better than folly, but it alone is not sufficient to predict life under the sun with 100% accuracy. And that is often really, really frustrating. The main takeaway, therefore, is to seek wisdom, reject folly, and live ultimately according to the promises of God that are ours in Jesus. THREE PRELIMINARY MATTERS Before we get into the heart of our passage, there are three things I want to point out to help you follow along. First, our passage for this morning is the beginning of a larger section that runs all the way to the end of chapter 2. In that larger section, the Preacher considers the under-the-sun vanity of looking at the world by wisdom (our passage for today), the pursuit of pleasure, living by wisdom, and our daily work. In other words, for the next several weeks, we’ll consider the mysterious nature of several ordinary aspects of life. Second, the Preacher makes two statements in this passage that have led many to conclude he could be no one other than King Solomon (v.12 and v.16). The first one is found in v.12. There, the Preacher identifies himself as king over Israel in Jerusalem. The argument is that Solomon is the only son of David (1:1) who could have said that, since after Solomon the kingdom was divided and from that point on the king in Jerusalem was only the king of the southern tribes, the king of Judah. The second statement that those who believe Solomon to be the Preacher point to is v.16. “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me.” That lines up with what we’re told of Solomon in 1 Kings 4:29-31. “And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore, 30 so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. 31 For he was wiser than all other men…” . As I said in my first sermon, I do think there is a good case to be made for Solomon as the author of Ecclesiastes. And yet, the two main things to see are that it is written with Solomon’s voice (even if Solomon isn’t the author; one commentator refers to the Preacher as a “second Solomon”) and it is intentionally anonymous. In my estimation, we lose more than we gain when we try to definitively go beyond those two things. And the third preliminary point I’d like to make is to share the simple outline of this sermon. There are three main sections. In the first, we’ll consider the fact that the Preacher decided to examine the world with wisdom. In the second, we’ll consider the Preacher’s conclusions from having done so. And in the third, we’ll reexamine some of what the Preacher wrote from an above the sun perspective. With that, let’s get into the text and begin looking at the fact that mystery inevitably results from any attempt to interpret the world around us through the lens of wisdom. WISDOM AS AN INTERPRETATIVE LENS FOR LIFE UNDER THE SUN In our passage, the Preacher makes a few extraordinary claims. The first of which is found in the first half of v.13 and again in the first half of v.14. Examining Every Aspect of Life Under the Sun 13 And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven… 14 I have seen everything that is done under the sun… The Preacher determined to go on a quest. And the keys to really appreciating the significance of the quest are its nature, aim, and scope. Of its nature, it was self-assigned and earnest. The quest was not given to the Preacher. It was something he decided to embark on of his own volition. It’s like the weirdos who choose to willingly subject themselves to the rigors of running marathons; who pay for the pain of training and racing hundreds of miles over many months. It was not only self-assigned, though, it was also earnest. The Preacher says that he “applied [his] heart” (13 and again in 17) to the quest. Another way to translate that is he “gave [His] heart” to the quest. This is further emphasized by the twin clauses, “to seek out” and “to search out”. Somewhat like saying “holy, holy, holy,” the repetition is meant to emphasize the earnestness with which he engaged the quest. He gave his whole heart, all of himself, to seeking and searching. He decided to do it and he determined to hold nothing back. Head-first, no hesitation. This is not merely an aspiring marathon runner who was pressured and decided reluctantly to give it a shot. It’s an aspiring marathon runner who, unprompted, went all-in from the beginning; bought clothes for every condition, bought all the pairs of shoes upfront, changed the diet for maximum benefit, found the best base fitness and refining training plans, and cleared everything necessary out of the schedule to fully train. I wonder what you have applied your heart to. Is there anything that someone might describe you as having given your whole self to? It’s important that we all do that and (as we’re about to see) it’s really important that we give ourselves to the right thing and in the right way. So, what exactly was the Preacher’s quest and what was its scope? What did the he give his whole heart to seeking and searching out and to what extent did he do so? The short version of the aim of the quest is: understanding. The Preacher wanted to be able to make sense of the things in life. He wanted to be able to really understand the world around him. Therefore, he gave himself entirely to figuring out “that which is done under heaven (13) , or, that which is “done under the sun” (14) .” Finally, concerning the scope of the Preacher’s quest, it’s critical for us to understand that the Preacher earnestly set out on a self-assigned quest to understand “all that is done under heaven” (13) and “everything that is done under the sun” (14). All of us have certain things we like to know more about; that we’re eager to understand. I love finding out more ways to use my lathe or catch trout on a fly rod, for instance. I know others who like to study certain aspects of their work to be able to do their job better. Still others have been through particularly hard things in life and long to know more about how to help themselves and others to heal from that. There’s an entire philosophy of education that is built around the idea that people always learn better when they study things they care about. But the Preacher didn’t limit himself to examining a few areas of personal interest. Astonishingly, he tells the reader (in this passage and repeatedly throughout the book) that he determined to leave no stone unturned. His quest was for nothing short of making sense of everything around him. He gave his whole heart to seeking and searching understanding regarding work, time, family, the sun, the wind, the waters, the human body, history, wisdom, happiness, morality, pleasure, folly, aging, gardens, buildings, parks, plants, servants, animals, treasures, rulers, conquering, ruling, marriage, sex, memory, inheritance, food, God’s sovereignty, birth and death, sowing and harvesting, killing and healing, tearing down and building up, tears and laughter, mourning and dancing, eliminating and gathering, hugging and keeping distance, seeking and letting go, destroying and mending, silence and speaking, loving and hating, making war and making peace, and that’s just what he explicitly names in the first three-and-a-half chapters! He skipped the marathon and jumped straight to a desert 100 miler. Even more astonishingly though is that the Preacher claims to have actually done it. 14 I have seen everything that is done under the sun… To be clear, he was not claiming to have seen everything that could be seen. God alone can do that. It is to say, however, that he really did examine everything that he encountered. All by itself, that’s pretty staggering. Therefore, when we add to that the fact that the Preacher had more ability to encounter more things than almost anyone in the history of the world (because of his vast power and wealth), we can see that this is an even bigger deal than it already seems. Again, the Preacher determined to give his whole self to seeking to understand all that is under the sun, and he did so to an unmatched degree. Using Only Wisdom There’s one more aspect of this first point to examine before we move on to the Preacher’s findings. There’s one more question to ask. Through what lens did he look at the things done under the sun? That might sound like a strange question, but it’s critical. Doing what the Preacher did by looking through different lenses makes a world of difference. For instance, if the Preacher examined everything under the sun, looking to find that which brough him the most intense and sustained pleasure, his conclusions would be a lot different than they were. Likewise, if the lens through which he was looking was that of how best to conquer the world in light of how the world works, it would have been a lot different still. If his perspective was to examine all things in order to find the most leisure in life, his analysis would have been different. And if the lens was to look at the whole world to find the best path for ending all conflicts, it’s a different game again. Let me ask you all quickly, through what lens do you examine the world? When you get sick or offered a promotion or get bullied at school or tempted with a new sin or see a beautiful sunset or loose a loved one or move into a new stage of life or make a new friend or find a one-legged seagull, how do you process what you’re experiencing or seeing? How are you evaluating the things you encounter in this life? Those are the kinds of things the Preacher’s seeking and searching shine a light on for us. He helps us to see that our answers to those questions are truly significant. Again, then, what was the Preacher’s lens? It was, he tells us, one thing and one thing only. 13 And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What’s more, the Preacher tells us in v.16 that he did so with no small amount of wisdom. 16 I said in my heart, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.” In the same way that the Preacher was best able to examine all things since his power and wealth afforded him greater access to all things, his exceptional wisdom put him in an unparalleled place to be able to evaluate them. If anyone was going to be able to accurately and helpfully grasp life under the sun it was going to be the Preacher for he had more access and wisdom than anyone. He tells the reader that he “Applied [his] heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven” (13). In other words, he determined to use only wisdom to consider everything he encountered. He decided to evaluate everything under the sun by wisdom alone; not impulse, not mere desire, not semi-sanctified common sense, not popular opinion, not opinion at all, not self-satisfaction, only wisdom. The Preacher even went so far as to use wisdom to evaluate “madness and folly” (17). 17 And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly… The main point here is that the Preacher used wisdom to consider whether immorality and foolishness led to a better outcome than wisdom itself. (We can’t help but to think of some of Solomon’s many foolish choices, like taking hundreds of wives and concubines.) The Preacher really and earnestly determined to and did! seek and search for understanding in everything under the sun with more wisdom than anyone before. That sounds like a high and noble quest, doesn’t it? Before answering that question, however, there’s an important caveat that I need to share. There’s a key clarification that we all need to grasp concerning the primary kind of wisdom employed by the Preacher. One commentator notes, “The Hebrew word for wisdom is a broad term. Here it refers to what human beings can learn about the world without any special revelation from God” (Ryken, PTWC, 38). That is good in a sense. Many have used such wisdom to discover amazing things about God’s world; even non-Christians and atheists. It is right to look at a corn seed and observe how long it takes to germinate and what soil it grows best in and how much sun and water it needs and what kind of yield it can be expected to produce. Billions of people have been fed because of the kind of wisdom the Preacher used in studying corn. And yet, the same commentator continues, “The question is, how far will such wisdom take us? Will it help us to know and worship Jesus Christ as the Son of God? Will it lead us in the way of life everlasting? Will it help us understand why everything matters” (Ryken, PTWC, 38)? The answer to each of those questions is, of course, no. This kind of wisdom is utterly unable to answer many “what” questions and absolutely no “why” questions. By itself, it can help us to see a great deal, but nowhere near everything we need. We’re about to see this in unmistakable fashion in the Preacher’s conclusions. THE RESULT OF USING WISDOM AS AN INTERPRETATIVE LENS FOR LIFE UNDER THE SUN Once again, if anyone was going to be able to accurately and helpfully grasp life under the sun it was going to be the Preacher. So, what was the result? What were his conclusions after having given it his best shot? His findings seem to fall fairly neatly under a single banner: discouraging. Through approaching all of life under the sun with more common grace wisdom, with a greater measure of natural revelation, than anyone before him, the Preacher concluded his quest profoundly discouraged. The Preacher used five different terms to describe his conclusions and not one of them is positive. Unhappy Business (13) The first place we see the grim/gloomy/discouraged conclusion of the Preacher is in v.13. Immediately after describing his self-imposed, whole-hearted, wisdom-quest for understanding, he concluded: “ 13 …It is an unhappy business…”. It is not clear from this passage whether the “unhappy business” refers to life in general or the quest for understanding specifically. What is clear, though, is that the word for “unhappy” is more moral than emotional. It’s closer to bad/evil than to sad. In other words, the Preacher’s first conclusion is that wisdom has taught him that a very significant part of human existence is bad. That’s not a great start. Vanity (14, 17) The Preacher’s next conclusion strikes a similarly somber, even if familiar, note. He determined that in light of everything he’d seen under the sun that “ 14 … all is vanity and a striving after wind.” He concluded the same thing after considering the benefits of living according to wisdom instead of madness and folly, “I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind” (17). Everything is mystery with a side of futility. You’ve probably heard the expression “herding cats”. The point is that it’s really hard to get a group of cats together. Striving after wind (or shepherding the wind) is even harder. Indeed, it’s impossible. Life under the sun is mysterious to the point that it’s impossible to grasp. That’s what the Preacher concluded. Beyond Repair (15) In v.15 we find another facet of the Preacher’s conclusion, this time in the form of a Proverb. 15 What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted. The gist of the Proverb is that the world under the sun is filled with things that are beyond repair. This includes moral corruption, but is not merely or mainly that. The picture is like a crumpled piece of paper. Have you ever tried to smooth one out? If so, you know that it can be made better, but never fully restored to its original crispness. It’s the fight between friends that leaves a painful memory that fades, but not entirely. It’s the picture or video you shouldn’t have seen, but can’t unsee. It’s the car crash or loss of a loved one or health diagnosis that leaves behind a measure of anxiety that never fully goes away, no matter what happens next or how much time passes. All the Preacher’s tests, using all the Preacher’s wisdom, led him to conclude that the world is filled with crooked things and mankind is powerless to make them straight again. The second part of the proverb only enhances the frustration. It most likely communicates the simple fact that on top of the continual futility we feel from our inability to fully restore what we know to be broken, we also feel the futility of things we will never even be able to name. As everyone of us has experienced, there are things wrong with the world that we continually feel without ever knowing exactly what they are. Much Vexation (18) The final two conclusions come from another proverb in v.18. The first half says, 18 For in much wisdom is much vexation… Vexation in this sense refers to “an irritation, a frustration of the soul verging on anger” (Ryken, PTWC, 43). The main idea the Preacher discovered was that as he grew in and applied wisdom to the world he encountered, it only led to more and deeper frustration. That kind of examination of the world with that kind of wisdom did not provide relief, only a growing irritation at the realization that not only are things not as they ought to be, but also that there’s nothing that we can do about it. Increased Sorrow (18) Finally, and maybe most gloomily/discouragingly, in the second half of the proverb of v.18 we read, 18 …he who increases knowledge increases sorrow. Perhaps the simplest way to reword this is: If you don’t know how things are supposed to be, you can’t be upset that they’re not that way. Ignorance, as they say, is bliss. By applying wisdom to every aspect of life the Preacher came to better understand how things ought to be, but also that they are much further from that than he had ever imagined. That realization increased his sorrow. How many of you have ever had a significant disagreement/argument with someone you’re really close to (a friend or family member or spouse)? By “significant,” I mean something more than a simple misunderstanding or a brief dust up? Sins were committed, feelings were hurt, great and prolonged difficulty was experienced. Let me press one level deeper. How many of you, during one of those significant disagreements, believed yourself to have had your head around things in such a way that should have been helpful? You thought you had a decent understanding of the situation—both sides. You thought you had a decent handle on what God’s Word has to say about a situation like that—both sides. And as far as you were able to tell, you wanted, and were trying, to honor God and the person you were arguing with. But… Wisdom (at least the measure you had) wasn’t working. As much as you tried to act in wisdom, it didn’t help resolve the situation. Of course, none of us are perfect, but as far as you could tell, you were doing what was right and for right reasons. Nevertheless, it didn’t help, and in some ways, it even made things worse. Indeed, trying unsuccessfully to act in wisdom usually only makes things harder. Trying to do what’s right only to have it backfire in your face is often more frustrating, more challenging, and more upsetting than if you hadn’t. Sacrificially doing what’s right in the face of persistent rejection tends to only increases the sorrow, permanently bending things for both people. And to make matters even more that way—more unhappy business (13), more vanity (14, 17), more beyond repair (15), much more vexation (18), and more increased sorrow (18)—is the fact that all of this, the Preacher discovered, is that which “ 13 …God has given to the children of man to be busy with.” It’s not only the way things are, but God’s hand is in all of that on some level. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity! We’ve all felt this; sometimes with the kind of crushing weight the Preacher experienced. Some of us are in it right now. The more you understand, the harder things are. The harder you try, the worse things get. This life is one big mystery, with the unavoidable cumulative effect of unhappy, vexation and sorrow. So, what are we to do with all of this? How are we to make sense of this, especially if God is involved in all of it? That leads to the final section. LIVING UNDER THE SUN ACCORDING TO THE ABOVE THE SUN WISDOM OF GOD If all the under the sun wisdom available to us is not sufficient to live a life of joy and contentment, then what are we to do? Simply, we must seek and live by a higher wisdom, above the sun wisdom. We need not only general revelation, we need special revelation as well. All the under the sun wisdom in the world is never sufficient to live in this world as we were made to do so. And in that way, all the under the sun wisdom in the world cannot lead to a life of genuine satisfaction and fulfillment. The path to those things is found in the promises of God alone, which are ours in the Word of God alone. There are, of course, many promises of God to us in Jesus, but there are two of particular significance regarding the Preacher’s observations and conclusions: promises concerning the nature of sin and God’s relationship to it. He certainly had some measure of awareness of these, but like the rest of his understanding (along with every man before Christ), it was incomplete. Sin of Mankind Things are the way the Preacher observed because of the corrupting effects of sin. Again, of course, the Preacher knew of sin, but he did not know the full measure of its corrupting effects. In a very real way, all that the Preacher experienced can be summed up by two NT verses: Romans 8:7-8 and Romans 8:22. Concerning the reason the Preacher experienced what he did in mankind, Romans 8:7-8 cuts straight to the heart of the matter, “the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” And concerning the reason the Preacher experienced what he did in the rest of creation, Romans 8:22 sums it up, “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.” Under the sun wisdom is sufficient to recognize the corruption of men and the fact that the rest of creation is struggling, it’s sufficient to recognize that there is nothing that man can do to fix it, and it’s sufficient to know that if that’s all there is, it is vexing and sorrowful indeed. But we need above the sun wisdom (wisdom from God, given in His Word) to really grasp the extent of what’s happening, why that’s happening, and what can be done about it. And that leads to the second promise of God. The Sovereignty of God The world is the way the Preacher observed because of sin and mankind is powerless to do anything about it. But God’s Word tells us what under the sun wisdom can’t: that every ounce of the sovereignty of God is continually at work in every single thing the Preacher saw for the greatest good of those whose hope is in Jesus. The Preacher was right to conclude that God was in everything he experienced, but he was wrong about how. We find that promise just a few verses later in Romans 8. Romans 8:28-30 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” Practically, this means that in every aspect of the mystery the Preacher discovered through wisdom is being worked by God for the good of His people. It is not, therefore, ultimately unhappiness, vanity, striving after wind, vexation, and sorrow, but temporal and eternal gladness and peace and joy in Jesus. Grace, the world is as the Preacher observed, but it is also more than that; much more than that. For every visible display of hevel (vanity), is a billion purposeful, gracious, merciful, good, loving works of God in and around in through them all. And a life of clarity (not mystery) comes only when God’s grace opens our eyes to that in His Word. CONCLUSION All of the Preacher’s wisdom, great as it was, is addressed by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 1:18-22 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” 20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.…

Grace Evangelical Free Church // Wyoming, MN

1
There Is Nothing New Under The Sun 39:10

for 6 weeks siden39:10

39:10

Ecclesiastes 1:1-11 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. 2 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. 3 What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? 4 A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. 5 The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises. 6 The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns. 7 All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. 8 All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. 9 What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. 10 Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us. 11 There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after. INTRODUCTION Welcome back to Ecclesiastes. Last week I preached my first sermon on Ecclesiastes. In it I tried to give you all the lay of the land in order to set you up well to get the most out of our time in this book. To that end, there were three main parts to the sermon. First, concerning the author, “the Preacher,” I said that the book is purposefully anonymous, certainly in the voice of King Solomon, and ultimately from God (12:11). The second section concerned the main themes of Ecclesiastes. Those are vanity (usually referring to mystery), the sovereignty of God (which is true, but also makes the mystery of life even more mysterious), and under the sun (life on earth, under the curse). And third, I mentioned that the main message of Ecclesiastes is that all of life appears mysterious, but there is more than meets the eye. I attempted to sum all of all of that up with the simple phrase: Vanity below, glory above”. This morning we’ll get into the text itself. More specifically, we’ll get into some of the details of the vanity observed by the Preacher under the sun. The big idea of this passage is that there is great mystery in understanding how life can have real meaning when there is nothing new under the sun and everything comes back around again. Above the sun, though, we’re able to see that God is making all things new and the rhythms of this world are profound means of grace. The main takeaway is to enter into the rhythms of God’s design as the means of grace they are. THERE’S NOTHING IS NEW UNDER THE SUN The main vanity banner over this section is the simple fact that no matter what we do, life just keeps moving on in cyclical fashion. In that way, in a certain under-the-sun sense, all of life is a treadmill; always moving, always working, not really getting anywhere. The Preacher insists that our own lives and bodies and nature all point to the around-and-around-and-around way things work. There is nothing truly new under the sun. Everything that we experience is simply a “coming back around” of older stuff. Consider Your Life (3-4, 11) For many people, two of the main areas of life are work and family. The Preacher invites us to consider the cyclical vanity of each. Consider your work (3). 3 What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? We spend so many hours, over so many days, for so many years working. Sometimes we do so for pay and sometimes for free. But what do we really gain from any of it? The treadmill runs constantly and quickly at our house. We cut buckthorn, spray the stems, and burn the branches; only to have it pop up in another location soon after. I spend a couple of hours mowing the grass every week or so and it just grows back. We shovel the snow, only to have it snow again. We cut vines, only to have them spring up ten feet away. We plant new trees each year, only to have emerald ash boar and oak wilt take out half of the existing trees. We pick the Japanese beetles off our raspberry bushes and apple trees only to have them come back with a vengeance the next day. How about your work? I know several people at Grace who get paid to experience the same kind of cycle that we do at our house. I know others of you who work in the tech industry. You generate report after report after report; or write code, fix code, write code, fix code; or install software, address the new issues the new software creates, maintain the software, and then start all over. Others experience the same cycle driving packages around; fill up a truck, deliver the contents of the truck, go home, and start all over again tomorrow; always more packages, never less. Moms, how many diapers have you changed, messes have you cleaned up, and exact same instructions have you issued, day after day after day. And on and on and on. Very little of what we produce under the sun lasts for long and none of it lasts forever. The best of our efforts require constant maintenance and most require regular replacement. And what is gained in all that cyclical labor? A paycheck to buy stuff, which requires another paycheck to maintain the stuff. A paycheck to buy enough food and drink to eat until our next paycheck comes to buy more food and drink. A paycheck to go on a vacation to rest up so we can go back to work to save up for our next vacation. A paycheck to save up for kids’ college, so they can get a job, to save up for their kids to go to college. A paycheck to allow us to get into a bigger house, with more room, only to require more paychecks to fill those rooms and repair more things that break in them. Under the sun, our labor is a treadmill that never stops and never really gets anywhere. Consider your family (4). 4 A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. Older folks, look around the room. Unless you’re behind a pillar, it should be pretty easy to see that there are several pregnant women. I’m might seems otherwise, but on the grand scale, it wasn’t that long ago when your home was your mother’s womb. Likewise, it wasn’t that long ago that you were struggling to learn how to walk and talk; run and read; play sports and make friends. Look around the room again. You’ll see a gaggle of distracted, naïve, invincible teenagers. You were just there too. And then came early adulthood where everything was new and exciting and a bit scarry. Most of you dated, married, and had kids, then older kids, then empty nest, and then your kids had kids. Your body slowed down, retirement neared, retirement past. Soon, most of your life was behind you. And then, one day, as the Preacher will soon explain, you will return to dust even as the cycle of life continues on without interruption without you, just as it has for generation after generation after generation. Very few of us have clear memories of just three generations before us—our great grandparents. Almost none of us know anything significant at all about the generation before that, much less the hundreds of generations that we came from before that. As hard as it might be to hear, in 75 years, the memory of nearly all of us will be basically gone from the earth. And around and around it goes, even as it has gone and will continue to go. That’s the essence of the final verse in our passage. 11 There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after. Under the sun, our families are in a cycle that never stops and never really gets anywhere. Consider the World Around You (5-7) It’s not just our lives though that run on a cycle. Consider the world around you as well, says the Preacher. Consider the sun (5). 5 The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises. Day after day after day we look to the east to see the sun come up, and it does. The angle varies throughout the year, but day after day and month after month, we watch it move across the sky toward the west only to see it eventually disappear behind the horizon. And then it begins again. Always moving, never getting anywhere. Lap after lap after lap. Consider the wind (6). 6 The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns. The wind functions in much the same way. It is always blowing and never getting anywhere. Even as we watch the jet stream on a weather website, there is no end to the cycle. The arrows move to some degree, but eventually it always ends where it started. Consider the rivers (7). They too prove the Preacher’s point. 7 All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. The sun, the wind, and the rivers of earth—nature itself—testifies to the cyclical nature of the world under the sun. In the Preacher’s context, Jerusalem, the Jordan River poured gallon after gallon after gallon into the Dead Sea. Day and night, week and month, year and decade of water being added to the Sea. And yet, although it is always being filled, it is never full. Evaporation, condensation, precipitation, collection; the water cycle is…cyclical and the Preacher felt it. Consider Your Own Body (8-10) Your life, the world around you, and even your very own body is a part of an endless cycle. Example after example from the most familiar aspects of our lives are meant to drive home the vanity of things. They are meant to help us feel what the Preacher felt. They are meant to give words and meaning to what we’ve all felt. Consider your eyes and ears (8b). …the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. Like rivers into lakes, our eyes and ears are constantly being filled, but are never full. We scroll on our phones and scroll on our phones and scroll on our phones, but our eyes are never filled. We travel to place after place after place to fill our eyes with the wonders of the world, but they never saturate. Our eyes are constantly moving around, looking here and there at this and that, always trying to take in more, for every waking hour, but they never get enough. The same thing is true with our ears. We are constantly looking for new conversations, new music, new sounds, and new silence. Continually those things come, but we always seek more. Always more input, never full. Verses 8a and 9-10 sort of sum all of this up and invite us to join the Preacher in breathing a sigh of tiredness as a result. 8 All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it… It’s hard to explain how exhausting it can be to stay on this cycle for long. You get up, you work hard at things that vary in levels of inefficiency, you try to produce and maintain a good attitude and healthy relationships, you battle sin and discouragement, you say the same thing to your kids for the 1000th time or wish you could say the same thing to your kids for the 1001st time now that they’re all gone, you make meals and do laundry, you make a mess and clean up, you get dirty and take a shower, you try to find some rest through some form of entertainment and go to bed, only to wake up and do it all again the next day. Indeed, the Preacher says, 9 What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. 10 Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us. Not only is your life like that, but that’s what life has been like since (almost) the beginning. And not only has this been the experience of every human being of all time, but it is true of everything else in creation as well. What is new under the sun? Nothing. What about the internet? That’s just a means of storing and communicating information; something that has been done since the start. What about SpaceX? That’s just a means of transportation. Mankind has always been discovering new ways to travel faster and further. What about the new movie or album or song that just came out? Those are just new ways of informing or entertaining or celebrating. Under the sun, it’s all just rearranging something old. At the end of all of this, the Preacher’s main point is this: Just look around and you’ll see what I’m saying. It’s everywhere. It’s even in you. It just doesn’t seem to matter what you do, since everything just circles back around again at some point. You will do what you will do, it will be over and forgotten soon, and very little will be different because of any of it. Again, the thing I love most about Ecclesiastes, and the thing I think is most helpful for us, is the honest way in which it speaks of this. All of that is true. The world is like that. We are like that. Most of us are either too afraid to admit it or we’re too overwhelmed by it to think clearly about it. But life under the sun really does works like this. It just does. And as long as we look for understanding and meaning under the sun, all we will know is the mystery and frustration and weariness . ABOVE THE SUN, EVERYTHING IS DIFFERENT So, what are we to do about all of this? Is that it? Do we just suck it up and plow forward? Do we just pretend not to notice? Do we simply accept the mystery and apparent futility of the cycle? The Preacher’s initial question was, “What do we gain from all our labor?” . That is, what do we gain from working hard under the sun in order to gain the things the world has to offer? Jesus’ answer is: Nothing. In fact, Jesus said that even if we gained the whole world through our labor, it would still be nothing (Matt 16:26). The curse of sin means that not only is vanity all there is under the sun, it also means that it’s the best there will ever be. Things only gets worse as the full measure of the curse of sin comes to fruition after death. But Grace, as I shared last week, and as so many of you know so well, there is more to reality than that which is under the sun. And in that way, there is more available to us than unsolved mystery. The great doxology of Romans reads (16:25-27), “Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages 26 but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— 27 to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.” The good news of Jesus is that the mystery is solved! So what does that mean for the things we just considered? It means at least two significant things: There is newness above the sun and God has infused the cycle with grace. There Is Newness Above the Sun (Psalm 113:4-6; Isaiah 43:19; Jeremiah 31:31; Ezekiel 36:26; Luke 22:20; Revelation 21:1) In the first illustration I gave last week, I suggested that the idea of life under the sun is like flying in an airplane in or under the cloud line on a rainy, foggy, gloomy day. Looking out the window, it’s hard to make out anything and harder still to make sense of whatever you see. Everything is veiled and hard to recognize and understand. Much of the Preacher’s perspective is just like that. He’s telling the truth, but from a very limited perspective. Everything is as he says it is, but only sort of. But I also mentioned last week that once the airplane climbs above the clouds, everything is different. Below the clouds it seems as if all there is, is clouds and fog and rain. Above the clouds, however, the sky is blue and the sun is shing over an expanse that is unimaginably greater than the cloud cover of the cloudiest day. The distance between the earth and the clouds is around 9,000’. That’s a lot of rain and fog and gloom to take in. But the distance between the clouds and the sun is around 90,000,000 miles. That’s a whole lot more sun and clear sky. To be clear, all the fog and confusion and mystery of life under the sun is .000002% (five zeros) of the clarity and light above the sun. Grace, please hear me here: The glorious work of God is immeasurably greater than the mystery of our experience. However confusing and frustrating and futile life can seem (and be), God is working the greatest good in all of it. Knowing that and believing the promises of God in Christ surrounding that is what it means to live above the sun and make sense of and find meaning and blessing in the cyclical nature of things. Psalm 113:4-6 The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens! 5 Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, 6 who looks far down on the heavens and the earth? In our passage for this morning, the Preacher highlighted the cyclical nature of things and the fact that because of it, there is nothing new under the sun. For us to see these things rightly, and to live joyfully in them, we need the Lord’s perspective, who sees from on high. And the first thing this does for us is help us to see that while there is nothing new under the sun, that is not the case above the sun. Isaiah 43:19 Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Jeremiah 31:31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah… Ezekiel 36:26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you Luke 22:20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. Revelation 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. What cannot be done or seen under the sun is ordinary work above the sun. Every frustration and weariness named by the Preacher is overcome and overwhelmed when we grasp what God is doing in it. This means that your every report, diaper change, package delivered, code fixed, conversation had, lesson taught, and lawn mowed has meaning and significance in Jesus. It is all being used by God as a significant part of the newness He is continually working! Be amazed and energized by this, Grace. But there’s more. Not only is there newness above the sun, there is grace in the cycle on earth. There is Grace in the Cycle (2 Peter 3:4; Colossians 3:23-24; Galatians 6:9; Hebrews 12:3; Acts 2:38-39; Psalm 19:1-2, 113:3, 104:3-4, 147:18; Lamentations 3:22-23) In the New Testament, Peter affirms the Preacher’s cyclical observation. “…ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation…” (2 Peter 3:4). A second significant aspect of God’s perspective concerning the cyclical nature of things on earth is that rather than wearisomeness, for those who have access to God’s above-the-sun perspective, in His Word, illuminated by His Spirit, through faith in His Son, there is amazing grace in it. The Preacher invited us to consider our work, our family, the sun, the wind, the rivers, and our eyes and ears. Of the cyclical nature of our work, we’re told, Colossians 3:23-24 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. Galatians 6:9 (2 Thessalonians 3:13) …let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. Hebrews 12:3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted… Again, this really does mean that doing the cyclical work of changing your 1000th diaper of your baby or answering the 1000th question of your grandkid or delivering packages day after day or writing code to fix your code to fix your code or cleaning up messes over and over or praying for your unbelieving child for the third decade or sharing the gospel with your neighbor for the 10th time, is good and that there is grace in the repetition. Of the cyclical nature of our family, of the generations, we’re told, Acts 2:38-39 Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. God has a people from each generation and the cyclical nature of life gives us the chance to proclaim the gospel to them that they might be forgiven in God’s perfect timing. Of the cyclical nature of the sun and sky, we’re told, Psalm 19:1-2 (113:3) The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. 2 Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. The rotations of the heavenly bodies are all meant to remind us of the unending, unwavering glory of God. Of the cyclical nature of the wind and water, we’re told, 104:3-4 (147:18) He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters; he makes the clouds his chariot; he rides on the wings of the wind; 4 he makes his messengers winds, his ministers a flaming fire. Since the power and glory of God are without limit and since they fill the earth, something needs to be able to continually carry it continually and everywhere, over and over. The cycle of the wind and water were designed for that. Every time you see a stream, ever flowing but never ending, remember the glory of God. What’s more, within the cycle and rhythm of God, we’re promised, Lamentations 3:22-23 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. The sun does what it does, by God’s design, as a means of delivering mercy to God’s people continually. Particular grace as a gathered people on the Lord’s Day each week. The cyclical nature of God’s design brings renewal, refreshment, and ministry as we participate in the Lord’s Supper in the rhythm of our gathering. The cycle of each new year brings another chance to remember and celebrate the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus (Christmas and Easter). The dawn of each new generation is a reminder of the new birth that is ours in Jesus. And on and on. How awesome is our God who confounds the wise and proud under the sun and reveals His wisdom and grace and glory to the humble in Christ, taking us above the clouds to see what He is doing. CONCLUSION There is a seemingly never-ending cycle in this world. It impacts every aspect of our lives. The Preacher highlights the fact that there is nothing new under the sun and, therefore, all things seem mysterious, futile, wearisome, repetitive, and finite. But in Christ, by the Spirit, and through the Word, we are given an above-the-sun perspective—God’s perspective—on all of that. And from that perspective we can see that God is truly making all things new and that there is amazing grace in the cycle and rhythm. Such is the mystery that had been kept hidden for (cyclical) ages and generations, but has now been revealed to us in Jesus.…

Grace Evangelical Free Church // Wyoming, MN

1
Vanity Below, Glory Above 49:22

for 7 weeks siden49:22

49:22

Ecclesiastes 1:1-2 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. 2 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. INTRODUCTION Good morning, Grace. To be honest, it’s been a while since I’ve been this excited to start preaching through a book of the Bible. I think the main reason for my extra excitement is that in a truly unique way (which becomes apparent almost immediately when you begin to read it) Ecclesiastes directly, unblinkingly, honestly, and unashamedly addresses two of the most significant questions for all mankind. It addresses two questions that most of us have felt in our bones for our whole lives. Questions that are at the heart of all the pastoral counseling I’ve done, every bump in every relationship, every pursuit and loss of pleasure, and every believer and unbeliever’s longing for understanding: 1) What is the world like, and 2) What can we do about it? More specifically, regarding the first question, Ecclesiastes observes, asks, and attempts to answer (over and over and over): Why is life often so frustrating, so disappointing, so confusing, so inefficient, so lonely, so discouraging, so unjust, so short, so tragic, so harsh, unpredictable, so fleeting? Why is it often so hard to experience any prolonged joy, peace, clarity, perspective, or contentment? And perhaps even more importantly, Ecclesiastes also attempts to answer the question of what we ought to do about the fact that the world is like that? How should we/can we live in a world like the one we’re in? On one level, there is a heavy, heavy dose of sobriety in Ecclesiastes. It just isn’t a happy book. Nevertheless, I’m excited to spend the next (not sure how) many months working through it with you all because it provides great clarity, which is a far greater gift than fleeting happiness. What’s more, it provides clarity for everyone. If you are a Christian, you will find immense help in this book to understand the world around you, your experiences in it, as well as how to live an abundant life within it. If you are a skeptical, board teenager or young adult, you will quickly find that Ecclesiastes explains why you are always trying to find something fun, but that the fun is never quite as fun as you’d hoped and never lasts as long as you want. And, at the exact same time, if you are the most ardent atheist, you will find that Ecclesiastes deals with the world as it is in a way that you’ll certainly find refreshing. It does not deny, but affirms many of the exact things that drive you to disbelief in God. It joins you in your sense of skepticism and futility, but it doesn’t stay there. The main message of Ecclesiastes is that under the sun, all is vanity, but there is more than meets the eye in God’s world. The Preacher gives us glimpses of what the rest of the Bible (the NT in particular) makes crystal clear: above the sun is glory beyond imagination. Sin has made it so that we cannot see above apart from God’s help. God’s grace has made it so that we can live below in fullness of joy. The main takeaways are to ask God to help us see the glory above and to live according to His promises as we wait for His answer below. THE PREACHER There are three main parts to this sermon. We’ll consider the author of Ecclesiastes, the main themes of Ecclesiastes (the perspective of the Preacher), and the main message of Ecclesiastes. Having started at the end (with the main message and takeaway of Ecclesiastes), let’s back up a bit. I want to show you where I got that from the text, beginning with the author. Of that, I’d like to point out five things. The Preacher First, Ecclesiastes begins by naming the author (sort of). As we heard Jen read and as you can see on the screen behind me in v.1, Ecclesiastes contains “the words of the Preacher” . That title (and no other) is mentioned six other times as well. The word “Preacher” is a translation of the Hebrew, “Qoheleth.” “Ecclesiastes” is the Greek translation. That might sound familiar to you (beyond the title of this book). “Ecclesiastes” comes from the same root as “Ecclesia,” the Greek word that we translate “church”. The basic meaning of the root (in both Hebrew and Greek) is “assembly” ( which is what a church is ). The literal meaning in both the Hebrew and Greek is something like “assembly addresser” . And because the term has religious connotations, the idea is “One who addresses a religious assembly.” That’s why the ESV translates it “the Preacher.” In other words, “Qoheleth” (the Preacher) is almost certainly not a person’s name, but a title. Traditionally Understood to be Solomon That leads to the second key regarding the author of Ecclesiastes. Who is “the Preacher”? It’s an understatement to say that there’s been a lot of discussion and debate on this question. The traditional view has been that King Solomon was the Preacher. This idea derives from numerous passages. “The son of David, King in Jerusalem” (1:1). “I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem” (1:12). “And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven” (1:13). “I said in my heart, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge” (1:16). And when we compare the things the Preacher did in 2:4-9 with the description of the things Solomon did in 1 Kings 3-4, and the proverbs of Ecclesiastes with the Proverbs of Solomon, it’s hard not to make the connection. Whether Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes or not—that is, whether He is the Preacher or not—it is clear that whoever did purposefully wrote with Solomonic wisdom and voice; that is, Ecclesiastes is clearly written from the perspective of Solomon. That is not to say that the author (if not Solomon) was attempting to deceitfully pass himself off as Solomon, only that he understood that Solomon was the best person to speak to the issues at hand. This was not uncommon in the ancient world. Purposefully Anonymous I think the next two points are far more important than definitively answering the questions of who the Preacher was. The third thing to see in the way of authorship, then, is that Ecclesiastes is purposefully anonymous. We can rest easy not knowing for sure who wrote it because, under the inspiration of God, a title is used (“the Preacher”) where a name could have been provided. If we needed to know who, specifically, wrote Ecclesiastes we would have been told. In that way, Ecclesiastes is like the NT book of Hebrews. Inspired by God The fourth point and the most important aspect of the authorship of Ecclesiastes, however, is found at the very end of the book. In 12:11, we’re told, “The words of the wise … are given by one Shepherd [that is, God Himself].” It is often helpful to know the human author of the books of the Bible, but the most important thing, every time, is the fact that they wrote under God’s inspiration. That seems to me to be of particular importance in Ecclesiastes because it’s such an unusual book and because Ecclesiastes asks questions that we need the rest of God’s Word to answer. Frame Narrator There’s one more item of note here. You may have noticed that 1:1-11 and 12:9-14 (along with 7:27) are written in third person (he, the Preacher) while the rest is written in first person (I, the Preacher). Some have suggested that the beginning and end were written by someone that scholars call the “frame narrator,” someone who compiled and framed up the words of the Preacher. This matters on some level when it comes to interpretation (which I’ll point out at the very end of the book), but what matters most, once again, is that whether there is one human voice or two in Ecclesiastes, the most important and guiding voice is God’s. Ecclesiastes is in the Bible not because of the wishes of the Preacher, Solomon, the frame narrator, or anyone else under the sun. It is in the Bible because it is the Word of God, maker of heave and earth. Grace, as I mentioned earlier, I have a particular affinity for Ecclesiastes because of its blunt honesty. I resonate with this book because the author keeps pushing. As I read Ecclesiastes, and as I encountered the Preacher’s peeling back layer after layer, I kept cheering him on. Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” But I’ve always responded with, “Yeah, but I know parents who did and kids who didn’t.” Early on, that made me nervous. My assumption was always that the word of God was right and I was wrong, but I wanted to understand better. That seems to be the disposition of the Preacher as well. I wasn’t sure at first if that was OK, but books like Ecclesiastes helped me to learn that there is a way to honor God in seeking understanding. THE PREACHER’S PERSPECTIVE One of the biggest questions—probably the biggest, actually—that we need to settle on in Ecclesiastes is the main message of the book. What’s Ecclesiastes all about? I shared some of my thoughts on that at the beginning, and I’m going to come back to it in greater detail at the end, but in order to get there we need to consider the Preacher’s perspective. How does he see the world? In reading, listening, studying, and praying over Ecclesiastes, it seems to me that there are three main themes that we need to get our heads around in order to grasp the main message of the book: The vanity of this life, the sovereignty of God over all things, and the meaning of the phrase, “under the sun.” Vanity The first theme is found in the word translated “vanity” ( hevel ) in the ESV. The only thing about Ecclesiastes that is debated more than its authorship, is the meaning of this word, “vanity”. It’s so hotly debated because it occurs thirty-eight times in just twelve chapters (it is clearly the most significant word for the Preacher) and because its range of meanings is significant. There are four possible meanings. Short, fleeting, elusive. The literal meaning of the Hebrew word is “vapor” or “breath” or “puff of smoke”. In that way, it carries the meaning of here for a brief moment and then gone, short, fleeting, elusive. Insubstantial. The second possible meaning is related to the first. A puff of smoke is not only short-lived, it is also insubstantial, without substance, not something that can be grasped or held onto. Meaningless, absurd, futile, pointless. A third aspect of hevel carries the idea of meaningless, absurd, futile, pointless. The NIV favors this idea, translating the word as “meaningless”. The NASB does so as well, but uses the word futile, “Futility of futilities.” Enigmatic, mysterious, unpredictable. A final connotation is enigmatic, mysterious, and unpredictable. The idea is that there are no exact formulas to follow in this life, consistent input does not equal consistent output. With even the briefest consideration, it’s easy to see that when you plug each of these possible meanings into the various passages in Ecclesiastes, you get very different results. What’s more, there’s no question that each of those things are true in a certain sense. Life is short, hard to grasp, futile, and mysterious. But which did the Preacher have primarily in mind? My sense is that the fourth meaning is primary, with at least hints of the others in various places. In that way, truly grasping the main message of Ecclesiastes means understanding that all of life is mysterious to the Preacher. It is unpredictable and inconsistent. As I hope to help you see in the coming months, most of what we experience in life is tied to this simple truth: all is vanity—mysterious, enigmatic, unpredictable. I’m not sure I’ve ever come across someone who has felt that deeper and articulated it clearer than the Preacher in Ecclesiastes. He gives many, many examples of what He means by that (we’ll see a bunch right off the bat next week in 1:3-11). Let me try to capture it this way… Why do you have a time of sweetest communion in your quiet time one day and then, doing the exact same things, God feels completely distant the next? We’ve all experienced that. Why is it? Or, why does God heal one of your sick family members through your faithful prayers and not another? Why does one person respond to your passionate gospel plea with faith and another in anger? Why do some people who live morally bankrupt lives live to be 90, with lots of money, and die peacefully in their sleep, while others who try to honor God in everything, die far too young? Why do fools often prosper and the wise often suffer? Why does one of your kids love the Lord and another doesn’t? Why does your DG seem to be a place of life and growth for one season and dry and difficult the next? Why do people at your work who are lazy have the boss’s favor and the hard workers get taken advantage of? Why can it be so hard to love your spouse at times and so easy and joyful at others? Why do septic alarms only go off at night and in the winter? Why does it always snow on Saturday nights? Why do church furnaces go out on Sunday mornings? The answer to all of these questions is vanity. All of life is like this the Preacher says. You can’t set your watch by any of it, for there is no guarantee that what is today is what will be tomorrow. This might be best summed up in 9:11 where the Preacher reflects, “Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all.” Everyone has experienced this vanity. And the thoughtful person asks why? Why is all vanity? That leads nicely to the next main theme, the Sovereignty of God. Sovereignty of God Why is everything so mysterious, enigmatic, and unpredictable? We’ll see that the Preacher gives several reasons throughout Ecclesiastes, but underneath them all is (surprisingly) the sovereignty of God. Eating, drinking, and finding enjoyment are from the sovereign hand of God (2:24-25, 3:13, 5:17, 18). Likewise, wisdom, knowledge and joy are from the sovereign hand of God (2:26). God is sovereign over every event in time (3:1-8). The days of a man’s life are a gift from the sovereign God (5:18). Wealth, possessions, power, and honor and (as we’ll soon see, critical for the Preacher is the fact that) the ability to enjoy them are from the sovereign hand of God as well (5:18-19; 6:2) God is sovereign over the ability to straighten things and make them crooked (7:13) God sovereignly makes days of joyful prosperity and adversity (7:14). All the deeds of all men are in the sovereign hand of God (9:1). God sovereignly made everything (11:4). God is the sovereign judge of all men (11:9; 12:14). For the Preacher, God’s sovereignty is unquestionable, but it is also what makes the mystery of life so great. Since God is sovereign, He could have made things differently. He could have made things predictable and understandable. He could have made all things efficient for His creatures. He could have made things so that hard, honest work always gains. He could have made it so that the wise and the foolish, the righteous and the wicked, the generous and the selfish do not all meet the same fate. He could have made it so that wisdom always works. He could have, in His sovereignty, made the world such that fearing and obeying Him always lead to joy. A significant portion of the message of Ecclesiastes is tied to the fact that the world is all vanity by God’s sovereign decree and that is a hard pill to swallow for the Preacher (and for many). Under the Sun Again, there are many important themes in Ecclesiastes. Death, joy, wisdom, chasing after the wind, and the fear of the Lord are among them. But the big three, from my perspective, are vanity, the sovereignty of God (both of which we’ve just considered) and finally the idea of living under the sun. Right away in 1:3, we find this phrase, “What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils ‘under the sun’”? A few verses later (1:9) we’re told that there is “nothing new ‘under the sun’”. In 1:14 we’re told that everything done “under the sun” is “vanity and a striving after the wind.” The idea only picks up steam from there, occurring nearly 30 more times throughout the book (2:17, 18, 19, 20, 22; 3:16; 4:1, 3, 7, 15; 5:15, 18; 6:1, 5, 12; 7:11; 8:8, 15, 17; 9:3, 6, 9, 11, 13; 10:5). Man toils under the sun, he lives righteous or wicked lives under the sun, oppresses and is oppressed by others under the sun, riches and poverty are found under the sun, enjoyment and misery are experienced under the sun, God works under the sun, and men die under the sun. In short, for the Preacher, the phrase “under the sun” refers to life on earth. All mankind lives under the sun. There is no other place for man to live. But the phrase also has a spiritual connotation embedded in it. More fully, then, “life under the sun” means life on earth, under the curse. It is infused with a spiritual blindness that comes from the fall. The Preacher feels this even if he can’t entirely explain it. We find it in passages like 7:20, “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.” This theme (under the sun) is particularly important because it brings the first two themes together (vanity and God’s sovereignty). Life is mysterious at every turn, according to the sovereign will of God, because we are all under the sun; that is, because we are all blinded by sin to that which is above the sun and brings clarity and meaning to life. And that leads to the final section. THE MAIN MESSAGE OF ECCLESIASTES Having considered all that we have, we’re in the right place to answer the question: What is the main message of Ecclesiastes? To explain what I think that means, I think I’ve come up with two helpful illustrations. Imagine a day that is utterly gloomy—cloudy, foggy, rainy, muddy? It’s hard to see more than a few feet in front of you, it’s hard to be joyful because it seems like everything is working against it, everything is a bit harder and messier than it seems like it should be, everything that you can see is dark and unclear. Have you ever flown on an airplane on a day like that? I can’t remember the first time I experienced it, but it’s pretty discouraging to look out the window and see nothing but rain drops and miserable ground crewmen and women. What’s more, it’s honestly a little scarry imagining the plane and pilots needing to perform in the inclement weather and with such limited visibility. Once the plane takes off, the further you travel and the higher you climb you can’t help but to notice that it’s the same everywhere. There doesn’t seem to be anyway or any place to escape the gloom. As you climb into the clouds, it only seems to get worse. Your already limited visibility drops to nearly nothing. There is often significant turbulence at this point. It seems as if there’s only darkness and difficulty everywhere. But then, and if you’ve experienced this you know how amazing this can be, your airplane pops out above the clouds and all you can see is perfect, blue, sunny sky for countess more miles than anything below. The distance of gloom is about 1/1,000,000th of the distance of clarity and sun, but you just can’t see that from below. That, I believe, is the basic message of Ecclesiastes. Because of Adam and Eve’s sin and the resulting curse of our sovereign God, life really is gloomy, cloudy, foggy, rainy, muddy—vanity. And because of Adam and Eve’s sin and the resulting curse of our sovereign God, we simply cannot see past the gloom, clouds, fog, rain, mud, and vanity of life under the sun. The sun (the glory and wisdom and goodness and perfect plan of God) is always out there, but it’s not often easy to see. This illustration also helps explain why the book is so challenging to read. The Preacher doesn’t seem to have spent a lot of time above the clouds. He knows the sun is up there, but he doesn’t seem to have been able to see very often. He genuinely believes that God is real and working great things, but the Preacher struggles (like so many of us) to see and understand it in real time. Let me share a second example. How many of you have ever seen a tapestry up close? More importantly, how many of you have ever seen a tapestry being made up close? I want to show you three pictures i that I think will be helpful. The first picture is of a loom. It is what people use to make tapestries. In Ecclesiastes, this represents the sovereign hand of God, working in all creation, above and below the sun. He is purposeful and orderly. The second picture is of the back of a completed tapestry. As you can tell, it is knotted and tangled. There doesn’t seem to be much order or purpose to it. In fact, it looks really messy and chaotic. It doesn’t seem like anything good could possibly come out of it. In Ecclesiastes, this represents the vanity of life under the sun. At best, this image is mysterious, enigmatic, and unpredictable. Again, this is what life looks like (at least on the inside) to anyone who is honest about it. Most of the time in this life we only get to see the back, the messiness. The third and final picture is the front of the completed tapestry. The picture doesn’t do it justice, but it is a beautiful tapestry of an older sister leading her younger, nervous sister toward a bunny. In Ecclesiastes, this represents the fact that God is always working in His sovereign, mysterious ways. It is always the case that God is making good things for His people, even when it looks like the opposite. As I said above, one of the features of Ecclesiastes is that the Preacher doesn’t seem to have seen the front very clearly or very often. He believes it’s there by God’s hand and design, but he chose to live a life of faith in God’s promises in spite of the vanity he could see. That is, I believe, the heart of the final two verses in this remarkable book. In 12:13-14 we’re told, “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.” (This idea is also found, as we’ll see when we get there in 3:13, 5:19, and 7:2.) What is the message of Ecclesiastes? It is that in this life everything looks chaotic, futile, frustrating, pointless, broken, confusing. Even when things look OK for a time, they always, eventually (even if a generation or two later) break down again; every strong government, every faithful family, every healthy church, every successful sports franchise. Some last longer and some shorter, but all, eventually revert to hardship and struggle and loss. And because of that, we have two choices. Either we will (1) Live according to the way things look (which the author refers to as living “under the sun”, or (2) We will live according to the promises of God (life above the sun). For those who choose the second option (above the sun, according to God’s promises), there is no real tension in the hardships of life. Life is still often difficult, but there is peace in the trust that God is always working a greater good in every vanity than if things were any other way. One cannot always see the sun shining, but one can believe God that it always is. In that is peace that surpasses knowledge and transcends every circumstance. But for those who choose the first option (to live only according to the way things seem), which is all of us sometimes and some of us all the time, life is a constant temptation toward practical atheism, fatalism, and cynicism. Life is always and only cloudy and gray and the best we can do is to try to find some joy, even in the knowledge that it is certain to be fleeting. Ecclesiastes was written largely to those who have chosen, or are stuck in the first option, in order to convince them to choose the second. And in that way, once again, Ecclesiastes answers two main questions: (1) What is life like under the sun, and (2) What can be done about it. What is life like? In short, it is harsh. For it has the constant appearance of vanity, futility, frustration, unpredictability; utter, complete, unchangeable vanity, futility, frustration, and unpredictability. What do we do about it? In short, the Ecclesiastes’ answer is to trust in God’s Word (fear and obey Him) and enjoy His blessings as much as you are able under the sun. CONCLUSION The Preacher doesn’t take us much beyond that, but thanks be to God that we have the whole Bible and not just the words of the Preacher. I want to close, then, with a very brief contrast between this Preacher and another who would come later. The Preacher, as we will see (especially in 2:4–10), had everything. He experienced every pleasure the world has to offer; and yet he found them all lacking. He found in frustrating ways that nothing in this life is able to satisfy on its own. Rather than providing any kind of lasting satisfaction, the Preacher’s conclusion was, “Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun” (2:11). The Preacher had everything and yet found little beyond fleeting moments of pleasure. He struggled mightily to see past the vanity, above the sun. As I said, later, from the same family line as the Preacher, came another preacher. This one had none of the pleasures of his forefather. In fact, he knew only the lack of everything the Preacher tried. And yet his conclusion was different. 8 Indeed, [he wrote,] I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead” ( Philippians 3:8-11 ). The Apostle Paul, by God’s grace, was able to see above the sun like few others ever have. And because of that, he found profound meaning and joy in all of the vanities of life under the sun. The great gift of Ecclesiastes is a plea to help you to see that nothing under the sun can satisfy, and therein a plea to look above the sun through Jesus Christ our Lord. i I found each of these at https://warpedforgood.com/2020/02/tapestry-promise/ (Return)…

Grace Evangelical Free Church // Wyoming, MN

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This Is Grace, Part 2: What we Believe, Teach, and Do 48:20

for 8 weeks siden48:20

48:20

Good morning! My name is Colin Rueter, one of the pastors here at Grace. My sermon this morning is part two of “This is Grace.” Last Sunday, Pastor Dave walked us through the good news of Jesus, the Gospel and our Statement of Faith. The gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, is what unifies all Christians. The Statement of Faith from the EFCA (denomination) is the next level of distinctives from other churches. Do we remember the four parts of the Gospel? GOD, MAN, CHRIST, RESPONSE This morning, I have the privilege to share more specifically what makes Grace Church more refined in belief: our mission statement, the building blocks of being a disciple here, and our core values. Pastor Dave was at the wide end of the funnel, the low-hanging fruit of Christianity, and I am now narrowing down to the distinctives of Grace Church. This is what makes Grace distinct from other churches. We are not saying we are better or that we are the true church, the aim is distinctives for us as Grace Church, key aspects that we speak to, aim for, and treasure from God’s word. These have come about, primarily, from the church seeking to say: “Who are we and what do we believe?” and putting those down in writing. The aim of what we do is to present one another mature in Christ – in order to do that we need some guidance from God’s word with specifics for us at Grace Church in Wyoming, MN in the year 2025. It is interesting doing this as a new pastor, because I am learning to know these better, love them deeper, and share them with joy to others. But as Susan and I prayed about next ministry steps, we looked for specific values and theology, specific doctrines and methods in ministry, where I could thrive as a pastor and enter into the Lord’s work faithfully. We have that here, projected in the mission statement, practically set in the core values. So, whether you have been a part of Grace for years or months, or this is your first time, our prayer is that you would know, love, and share the mission and values of Grace with the utmost joy as you share the Gospel with others. Pastor Dave’s aim from last week: Firmly establish us in the truths of God so that we might live out our faith with greater confidence, clarity, joy, and unity. Main Point: At Grace Church, we would be unified on specific truths of God for our faith from His word to reach maturity in Christ. As we grow in our love for these truths within the family of Grace Church, we pray it will lead us to joyful obedience as we reach Wyoming and the ends of the earth with the Gospel. This morning, I would like to walk through three specific aspects of Grace Church: 1) Our Mission; 2) Building Blocks; 3) Core Values #1) Our Mission ‘Become a People Treasuring Christ and the Building of His Kingdom’ “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” Matthew 13:44 The mission statement is in place to give us a specific aim within the Great Commission, which is the mission of every church over all time. Grace Church exists in a specific time, a specific location, and thus, our mission must be Grace-specific. The key in the mission is to become something – what? A people who treasure Christ – He is our supreme worth, treasure, most valuable possession, our hope, and our joy. We not only treasure Christ, but we treasure Him building the Kingdom. We don’t build it, He does, we act as citizens and ambassadors within that Kingdom…but Christ builds it. Matthew 16:18 – “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” 2 Cor. 5:20 – “We are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” Hebrews 11:10, 13-16: “For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God…These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.” To help guide and guard the process of fulfillment of the mission, we have something called Ministry City. Ministry City is a way of putting “flesh on the bones” of the mission. I am not going to explain it in depth here this morning, but I want to share that this structure exists to guide, protect, and bring clarity to what we do for ministry, how we do ministry, and that it is grounded in the word and aims to bring glory to God. #2) Building Blocks 1) Membership [Acts 20:28; Romans 12:3–13; Hebrews 10:24-25] Baptism: Matthew 28:19–20; Acts 2:38–41; Colossians 2:9–13 One act of obedience as a Christian is to be baptized. From this act of obedience is the step to covenant membership – we call meaningful membership – into a local church body. If you are interested in this step, talk to Pastor Dave, myself or one of the elders. It is meaningful because it is more than just getting to vote or snagging a cool mug. It is a commitment to a specific people in a specific time and place for God’s purposes. Membership is not you deciding what church suits your preferences, but seeing the good hand of God in connecting you with brothers and sisters that He has chosen for you. This is good, both for the church and for you. This is a practical and important step to work out the over 50 ‘one-anothers’ in the New Testament. 2) Sunday Morning [Acts 2:42; Ephesians 5:19-21; Colossians 3:15-16; 2 Timothy 4:2] This is primarily the worship service that you are sitting in now. I am including Berea in this as a privilege to sit under teaching within the scriptures and interact with others as a means of grace for our spiritual well-being. Please come, as you are able, to Sunday school for kids and Berea for teens on up. Sunday morning is, primarily, this service. Being here, as you are able, to sing, pray, confess sin, and sit under the proclamation of the word is God’s kindness to you each week. It is a means of grace to sit next to your brothers and sisters each week. Sunday morning is the best way to be present with this family, to be seen and see others. You can truly be and are a blessing to someone here this morning. As we live our lives with one another, as your story is shared and you’re prayed over, your presence here at Grace us a blessing, a sign that God is at work and His grace empowers. More could be said, but I will simply say don’t neglect this gathering, brothers and sisters. The local church is a gift, a visible gathering of the blood-bought people of God to lift His name high and a means of grace to transform us more into the image of His beloved Son. 3) Discipleship Groups [Matthew 28:16-20; Colossians 1:28-29; 2 Timothy 2:1-2; Hebrews 3:12–14] We call these DG’s. Every church has language unique to them, we are no exception. A building block of being a healthy church at Grace means we have an arena of shepherding and discipleship. In these smaller groups outside of a Sunday, an elder oversees each group, fellowship happens, prayers are spoken, care is given, love is seen. The elders have the opportunity to interact on a smaller level with people that God has given them to know, lead, feed, and protect. It is our privilege as elders to engage the souls among us. It is a privilege to interact as people of Grace outside a Sunday to act upon the “one anothers” in scripture on a micro-level. If you are not regularly going to a DG, make it a priority after establishing being here on a Sunday. If you need a ride, ask. If you can’t make one night of the week work, ask an elder about another evening group to join. We want and need you plugged in. 4) Everything Else (Every other ministry that occurs within Grace Church: G2g, Masculine Mandate, Adorned, etc.) Every other ministry at Grace falls into this category. This is simply an area of various ministries that we have here. Like any ministry, we pray about, evaluate, and act upon whether they help us fulfill our mission and the Great Commission. As elders, along with the ministry leaders, we want to do ministry well for the sake of the saints and the glory of God, not because we have always done a particular program. Does it help us make disciples….? #3) Core Values We at Grace Church earnestly desire and prayerfully strive to be a purposeful church. This is why we have a mission, guiding principles (Ministry City), and why Core Values are written and spoken of. More than just ideas drawn from a hat, these are specific values that we see in the word of God, values that we treasure, and values that each of us here at Grace should aim at and grow in. …God-Centered We value the centrality of God in everything. We exist by Him, through Him and for Him. The chief purpose of every decision, event, meeting or ministry exists to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. (How is God glorified?) [ “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” Romans 11:36 ] Application of Core Value: The goal of this church is not to make great the name of Grace Church. We pray, worship, and preach from the knowledge and joy that without God, we are hopeless. Ministry exists so that we would know the Lord our God. …Christ-Treasuring We value Jesus as the One who reveals God to us, and it is our goal to not only trust and obey Him but to treasure and savor Him with all our heart, soul, strength and mind. (How is the Lord Jesus exalted?) [ “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.” Col. 1:15-18 ] Application of Core Value: Jesus is everything. In our worship service, we look to Jesus. In our classes, we desire to know and seek Jesus, for adults down to the kiddos. We see Him as the treasure, not the means to a treasure. This is the heart of the Gospel – not a ticket to Heaven, but a reconciliation and relationship to Christ. …Faith-Building We value faith in Christ as both a gift from God and the vital and fundamental response of the Christian to God. Without faith it is impossible to please God, and therefore we make it our goal to build each up in the faith. Helping each other to live daily upon the promises of God must be a high priority. (How is our faith in God strengthened?) [ “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” Hebrews 10:23-25 ] Application of Core Value: Evangelism: Heaven rejoices when someone comes to faith. We rejoice. AND, we long to grow in faith together, which is disciple-making. We desire to present everyone mature in Christ. In discipleship, in ministry, the aim is not knowledge alone, but a maturing of acting in faith to the glory of Christ. …Prayer-Empowered We value prayer because we are dependent people. We believe that we must make prayer the visible engine of all our efforts in ministry and worship. (Have we dependently asked God’s help through prayer?) [ “Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:5-7 ] Application of Core Value: Prayer should be step #1 in all we do. We pray throughout morning service, before classes, we pray for one another during DG, in our one-on-one meetings as we disciple, and corporate prayer every Wednesday at noon. We pray in the morning, over meals together, and before we lay down at night. Prayer is dependence on the One who we need. We can do this better, but we aim to be a church that thrives in prayer. …Bible-Saturated We value being saturated with the Word of God, the Bible, which is God’s reliable, authoritative and sufficient revelation. We desire to grow a love for the Word, as well as a deepening understanding of it, in each person within the church. (What does the Word say or infer? Is the Bible front and center?) [ “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Psalm 119:105 ] Application of Core Value: We love the Bible. This is the truth. It is a lamp to our feet and light for our path. When we desire to know God’s will, we pray and we seek the word. The sermons on Sunday are not man’s wisdom, but God’s revelation to His people. The curriculum we use, the basis for our discussions, the guidance for our families is the word of God. …Disciple-Producing We value growth in “Christ-likeness” in every believer, as all of us become the disciples God intends us to be. We value an intentionality to make and reproduce disciples according to God’s Word. (How are we growing closer to Jesus [and into the image of God]?) [ “And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20 ] Making disciples is a process, which means form and structure is needed in order to guide that process. As a mature believer, you know that investing into another person is the supernatural working of God to help them contemplate and grow in their faith as you are growing as well. Each of us should be thinking and acting towards the aim of presenting one another mature in Christ. If you look at the Building Blocks within Grace, you will see a formal structure of Sunday mornings becoming more flexible in our DG’s that have specific structure, yet a little more informal, which should lead to smaller groups of discipleship (one-on-one; couple to couple) – still with structure using our discipleship tracks to guide and evaluate growth in faith. The tracks in particular grant clarity to know what we are doing (making disciples) and tracks (pun-intended) for that action to answer the question: how do we know we are producing disciples? Application of Core Value: We have DG’s, growing as followers of Christ, taking one step closer to Him by fellowship, study, and prayer. We have Discipleship Tracks to help grow and mature followers in all areas of life. Parents, your children are little disciples, the Family Roadmap is a view of how to make progress by God’s grace. As followers of Christ, our thought should be towards helping one other person take the next step towards Christ, in relationship, likeness, and action. …Family-Strengthening We value building up strong marriages and families, where God’s Word is taught and lived out, where husbands love their wives (as Christ), where wives respect their husbands, where hearts of parents are turned towards their children, and children towards their parents. (How does this positively and negatively affect families?) [ “But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments.” Psalm 103:17-18 ] Application of Core Value: We love marriage, dare I say Biblical marriage. We love families, whether we are single, married, with kids or without, we uphold the gift of God in these areas. The best thing for this community, the state, the nation is healthy marriages and healthy families. Pray for the marriages in this church, pray for the kiddos here to come to saving faith, pray that we would see, value, and uphold biblical marriage and family. …Love-Expressing We value the Spirit-led expression of love within the body of Christ and towards unbelievers. We desire to grow as a true family grows or as a healthy body functions. We believe this love comes by the Holy Spirit through faith in Christ. (How does this demonstrate the love of Christ?) [ “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:35 ] Application of Core Value: We think of others more than we think of ourselves. Love sacrifices for a greater good. It was the love of God that sent Christ for redemption. We seek to imitate this. The watching world will know that we treasure Christ when we love one another like He did. Relationships built in DG should grow our love and action towards others in this church. …Relationship-Pursuing We value the intentional pursuit of authentic, healthy relationships. God created us for community and in a world where so many miss the mark, the church must strive to get it right by actively pursuing the “one another” commands of Scripture. (How does this build and strength biblically healthy relationships?) [ “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Galatians 6:2 ] Application of Core Value: It is nothing to gather here on a Sunday morning if we don’t grow in relationship to one another. This means sacrifice, being open and honest to who we are and what we struggle with, this is a growing trait of the Christian. To be in authentic, intentional, confessional relationships is the beauty of this family. Confess sin, minister to one another with the Gospel, and listen to one another. This is acted out in DG’s and smaller gatherings as you get to know others. How can you bear one another’s burdens unless you grow in relationship. …and Mission-Mobilizing We value missions and evangelism as the privilege God has given us as His ambassadors, accomplishing His goal of spreading the knowledge of His glory to all the nations. We desire to pursue Christ’s guidance and empowerment in the building of His Kingdom among all the peoples of the world, because we treasure Him above all things. [ “May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations. Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you! Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth.” Psalm 67:1-4 ] Application of Core Value: We, of course, desire to reach Wyoming and into surrounding communities. We support the gospel reaching the nations. We desire all nations to praise the Living God, to know that redemption has come, and to fulfill the Great Commission by supporting and sending into other cultures with the gospel. One final note on distinctives as Grace Church. For the last number of years, we have had a section in our membership book that list some of the theological convictions that leadership have held to and taught. The helpful step for leadership has been to put these in writing, like the list at the back of the Membership booklet. As elders, we see this as a working document that we are discussing and hope to teach in the coming months. These distinctives have brought clarity in theology and unity in decisions for us as elders. Close We want to be a faithful church and want you to be a faithful follower of Christ. Our prayer, again, has been and will be for us to do this together – seek to treasure Christ and the Building of His Kingdom. This is an invitation to seek the things of God, to grow and grow together. Join us, ask if you don’t know where to start, it is for our joy and the joy of our neighbors. This is the call that God has placed on us here at Grace Church and we long for you to be a part of it. Grace Church, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete one another’s joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. May we aim to do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than ourselves. Let each of us look not only to our own interests, but also to the interests of others. May we have this mind among ourselves, which is ours in Christ Jesus…Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone here at Grace Church mature in Christ [Phil. 2:1-5 & Col. 1:28]. Let’s pray.…

Grace Evangelical Free Church // Wyoming, MN

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This Is Grace – What We Believe, Teach, And Do 42:51

for 9 weeks siden42:51

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Philippians 2:1-5 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus… INTRODUCTION Good morning and happy new year! The Lord is kind to give us rhythms of life as a means of renewal. He’s woven them into the very fabric of reality—with each morning, each week, each new season, and each new year. Many of those have come together today; I hope in such a way that you all feel a fresh burden to follow Jesus in faith and a rejuvenated hope in His promises. In that way, it is good to embrace the God-given rhythm of the new year with new resolve to begin (and stick to) a Bible reading plan, share your faith more consistently, use your gifts to strengthen the church in a new way, actively keep a prayer journal, find some specific way to consistently help the vulnerable, make a plan to fast regularly this year, memorize a larger passage of scripture, and, as Roxie just read, and as we’ll focus on this morning, seek to be of the same mind as your brothers and sisters at Grace. Again, we all feel an added draw to grow in Christ right now by God’s design. Let’s lean into that. One way we want to help with that (especially same-mindedness) is by spending the next two sermons laying out a some of what defines us as a church—both doctrinally and practically. Our main aim in doing so is to more firmly establish ourselves in the truths of God so that we might live out our faith with greater confidence, clarity, joy, and unity. Before I pray and we dive in, I’d like to say a brief word about how we chose to structure the two sermons. This morning, I’m going to stay at a high level. That is, I’m going to share with you some things that our church is built upon (the gospel and the main points of our doctrinal statement). These are things that all true churches will agree upon. What I am going to share today is jam packed with life-giving, life-altering, life-directing glory, but there is very little about it that is unique to Grace Church. Then, next Sunday, Pastor Colin is going to share some things that are distinctive about our church (our mission statement, philosophy of ministry, the building blocks of our ministry, and our core values). We believe every one of them is deeply rooted in God’s Word. Therefore, many churches will agree with many of these things, but all of them are worded in more-or-less Grace specific ways. The picture we want you to have in mind is that of a narrowing funnel. I’m starting today at the widest part of the funnel (things all Christians believe) and Pastor Colin will finish next week at the narrowest part of the funnel (things that are most distinctive of us at Grace Church). The key to all of this is that we firmly believe that everything we’re about to share is either explicitly taught in God’s Word or a practical implication of something that is. As such, we hope to make that easy for you to see. What’s more, we hope to make it all easy to love and apply, with one mind. We couldn’t possibly exhaustively cover all of the topics we’ll introduce in the next two weeks in two hundred sermons. What we can (and, Lord willing, will) do, though, is to briefly introduce each point, share the primary biblical texts that they come from, and offer brief pastoral reflections on why they’re worth treasuring and striving to live more fully in light of, together. THE GOSPEL Again, the widest part of the “Christian funnel” is the gospel (which means “good news”). To be a Christian is to have heard and believed in the gospel. No gospel, no Christian. (A quick aside—that I’m pretty sure I’ve shared before—for those of you who, like me, did not grow up as believers…When I was first approached by some people in a campus ministry, they asked me if I believed the gospel. I had never been asked a question like that before. I didn’t know what they meant. All I could think of was the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), but their question didn’t quite fit that. I had no idea what “the gospel” was. Thankfully, they shared it with me. Even more thankfully, the Spirit gave me ears to hear for the first time in my life.) What, then, is the gospel, the good news that someone must believe to be a Christian? In one sense, it’s the simplest thing in the world. It’s something every child can understand. 1 Timothy 1:15, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” At the same time, the gospel is so awesome that it will take an eternity to unpack. Truly, learning the fullness of the gospel—the good news of Jesus—is what we will be doing forever in heaven. In just a minute, I’m going to share a very simple version of the gospel. But first, I’d like to draw your attention to three resources for those of you who want to dig deeper than we’ll go today. First, on December 15th, in one of my last sermons on the Gospel of John, I unpacked the gospel as thoroughly as I ever have in a single sermon. That might be a helpful place to start if you want to know more (it’s on our website). Second, we have more than a hundred copies of a book called, “What Is the Gospel?” We’d love to give you one for a fuller explanation still. The four points of the gospel that I’m about to share with you are from that book. And third, we have something we call a “discipleship track” that focuses on unpacking the gospel in terms of both knowledge and implication. It is designed to help one person unpack the gospel with another over the course of several weeks. If you are interested in being taken through that track, please let us know and we will be glad to pair you up with someone. Again, then, what is the good news that all Christians have in common; that we need to know and believe in to be a Christian; that constitute the substance of the faith necessary for salvation; that we are of one mind concerning? It’s easily understood, remembered, and explained with four simple terms: God, man, Christ, and response. God (Genesis 1:1; Psalm 103:19; Psalm 88:14; Isaiah 33:22) The gospel always, always begins with God. None of the rest of the gospel (or the Christian life or life in general) makes sense apart from the God of the Bible. All reality (including the gospel) is inescapably rooted in the unchanging nature of God. And while God’s nature is inexhaustible, there are four particular attributes that anchor the gospel: Creator, King, righteous, and judge. The Bible opens with the simple declaration that “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). God made all that has been made and so all that has been made belongs to God. It’s His. We’re His. Not only did God make the heavens and earth (and all that is in them), but He also rules over the heavens and earth (and all that is in them as well). David sang of this great truth, “The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all” (Psalm 103:19). All creation must do what God says for He is King. If God were anything other than what He is, that would be terrible news. If everything belonged to God and was obliged to submit to God, but God was lazy or mean or dumb or evil, then we would be in the worst kind of trouble (like a cosmic, eternal version of the worst human government). But because God is who He is, it is the best news of all. In particular, God is perfectly righteous. He is right in all He is and does. His every command is not only binding, but it is best. It is good. It is wise. It is perfect. Of this, another of the Psalmists celebrates the fact that “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of [God’s] throne… (Psalm 88:14). God is Creator, King, righteous, and the judge of all. He is continually evaluating His creation’s conformity to His righteous rule. The prophet Isaiah declares, “…the Lord is our judge; the Lord is our lawgiver…” (Isaiah 33:22). No corner of creation has ever escaped the watching eye of God for one fraction of a second. Again, Grace, the beginning of who we are as a people, as a church, as Christians is rooted in the nature of God. Man (Genesis 1:26; Romans 3:23) God created all mankind in His image (Genesis 1:26) to glorify and enjoy God forever (Isaiah 43:7). That is, as our creator and King God assigned to all of us meaning and purpose. And as our righteous judge He perfectly evaluates whether or not we are in keeping with His decrees. For all who live in perfect conformity with God’s design and rule, there is eternal life and perfect fellowship (1 John 1:3). But the wages of any measure of disobedience is eternal death in perfect punishment (Romans 6:23). Tragically, all mankind since the first man (Adam) has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). This means that since Adam, all mankind has been born into condemnation and death. What’s worse, not only are all people dead in our trespasses and sins, we are powerless to do anything about it. We are stuck in our death (Ephesians 2:1). That does not sound like good news, but believe it or not, it is an essential component of it. For, before we can accept the rescue of Jesus, we must acknowledge our profound need for it. Christ (Romans 5:8; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 3:18) And that leads us to the “good” part of the news. While we were yet sinners, Jesus Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). More than that, He rose from the dead as the firstborn of many (Romans 8:29). Jesus died and rose in our place. He who knew no sin, became sin that we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). Having none of His own, Jesus paid our sin debt. Truly God and truly man, Jesus became the substitute sacrifice for man, doing for us what we were powerless to do for ourselves. Response (Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2:8-9) The primary question is how we gain access to the saving work of Jesus. How do we benefit from His suffering, death, and resurrection? How does Jesus become our substitute sacrifice such that we become the righteous sons and daughters of God? The answer is faith. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through [faith in] Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:23). It is by grace that we are saved through faith, not as a result of our works so that no one may boast (Ephesians 2:8-9). To try to work for your salvation is to continue to remain in sin and fall short of the glory of God. To be saved by Jesus, therefore, is to give up working and begin trusting in what God has already done for you. This is the good news, Grace. This is the gospel in simple form. It is ours to be received in faith. It is the beginning and foundation of the Christian life. Apart from receiving these child-like truths we remain lost and condemned in sin. But by placing our trust in them, we will be forgiven and freed. Would you do so now?! And if you already have, would you be reminded to continue coming back here every time you grow weary from trying to do it on your own or puffed up from mistakenly believing that you are. Would you remember how simple and humbling the good news really is and turn to it in fresh faith? And would you ask the Lord to help this be the start and focus of the same-mindedness that He’s called us to? To rightly understand and treasure this good news together is to bring unity and cancel out so many would-be dividers. If you will do these things, know that it is God’s grace. It is His grace that sent Jesus, accepted Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf, sent the gospel to us, opened our ears to hear, and keeps us hoping in Him. DOCTRINAL STATEMENT As I said at the very beginning, placing your faith in the good news of Jesus, the gospel we just considered, is something all Christians have in common. It is the most fundamental aspect of the “one mind” Paul commands. Our church’s doctrinal statement, which is the EFCA’s doctrinal statement , narrows the funnel just a bit. It contains bedrock doctrines of the Christian faith. And in that way, many of the things we just covered (in the gospel) are, as you will see, baked into and expanded on in our doctrinal statement. (I put a link to the statement with loads of key biblical texts that support it in the manuscript.) God (2 Corinthians 13:14) Just as the gospel begins with God, so too does our doctrinal statement. There are many true things about God that you do not need to know to become a Christian. At the same time, there are certain things about God that you cannot reject as a Christian. God as eternal and trinitarian are two such things. In that way, our doctrinal statement expands on the first point of the gospel. Let’s say it together. We believe in one God, Creator of all things, holy, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in a loving unity of three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Having limitless knowledge and sovereign power, God has graciously purposed from eternity to redeem a people for Himself and to make all things new for His own glory. One of the simplest passages that contains much of this is Paul’s benediction in 2 Corinthians 13, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” And all of this matters, once again, because the God we love, the God who saves us, and the God who unites us in one-mindedness, is the God who is. There is one God, He is infinitely glorious, and these are among the central aspects of His glory. There is no other God who is and there is no other God who saves. This is who we believe in and treasure, Grace. The Bible (2 Timothy 3:16) The second clause of our doctrinal statement concerns the Word of God. God’s Word is absolutely necessary to know God’s will and all Christians must accept its authority on our lives. That’s the point of passages like 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” In that way… We believe that God has spoken in the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, through the words of human authors. As the verbally inspired Word of God, the Bible is without error in the original writings, the complete revelation of His will for salvation, and the ultimate authority by which every realm of human knowledge and endeavor should be judged. Therefore, it is to be believed in all that it teaches, obeyed in all that it requires, and trusted in all that it promises. To be a member of Grace Church is to be of one mind concerning the fact that God has given us His Word which alone is inerrant and is alone necessary and sufficient for revealing the will of God to the world. Let us give ourselves to taking this in, therefore, Grace. Grab a Bible reading plan from the table in the back. Come to Berea each week. Memorize larger passages of Scripture. Pray consistently for the Spirit’s help to understand, love, and apply the truths of God’s Word. Study God’s Word carefully. And do all of this in increasing measure together. The Human Condition (Genesis 6:5) The third clause of our doctrinal statement is virtually identical to the second point of the gospel. It affirms the goodness of man in God’s original creation, as well as the fall of all mankind in Adam and the death that results. As Genesis 6:5 says, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” When combined with Romans 5:12, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned,” with one (humble, contrite) mind we can say together… We believe that God created Adam and Eve in His image, but they sinned when tempted by Satan. In union with Adam, human beings are sinners by nature and by choice, alienated from God, and under His wrath. Only through God’s saving work in Jesus Christ can we be rescued, reconciled and renewed. Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12) The fourth clause speaks to the nature of Jesus. It speaks on the idea that is found in Colossians 1(:15-19). “He is the image of the invisible God… 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 … He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell…” We believe that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, fully God and fully man, one Person in two natures. Jesus—Israel’s promised Messiah—was conceived through the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, arose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father as our High Priest and Advocate. Once again, our doctrinal statement adds to our understanding of Jesus’ nature (God-man, Spirit-conceived, virgin-born, crucified, glorified, and perpetually-advocating). These things, rightly understood are worship-fuel. They are why we not only believe in Jesus, but treasure Jesus. By God’s Grace, they are a growing part of the mind we all share. The Work of Christ (Acts 4:12) To know and believe the first four clauses of our doctrinal statement is to long for Jesus and the rescue that He alone can provide. For, “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). To be a Christian is to know that Jesus is not only a Savior, but the Savior. This is why… We believe that Jesus Christ, as our representative and substitute, shed His blood on the cross as the perfect, all-sufficient sacrifice for our sins. His atoning death and victorious resurrection constitute the only ground for salvation. This clause helps us see the uniqueness of Jesus as Savior as well as a bit more of the means by which He was able to and did accomplish salvation for sinners. The more we are able to grasp these things, the more we will praise God and be unified in our thinking. The Holy Spirit (John 14:16) Having established the triune nature of God and having considered the persons of God the Father and Son, it is right to affirm together certain truths about the third person of the godhead, the Holy Spirit. Like Jesus, the Spirit was with God in the beginning (Genesis 1:2). The Spirit would come upon different people to accomplish God’s purposes throughout the OT (1 Samuel 16:13). And according to Jesus’ promise, the Spirit came to dwell in all Christians after Jesus ascended back to the right hand of God (John 14:26-28). In John 14(:16-26) we read Jesus’ words, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever… 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” Therefore… We believe that the Holy Spirit, in all that He does, glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ. He convicts the world of its guilt. He regenerates sinners, and in Him they are baptized into union with Christ and adopted as heirs in the family of God. He also indwells, illuminates, guides, equips and empowers believers for Christ-like living and service. Understanding every single piece of this is not essential to salvation, but it is vital for spiritual growth. That is, these are central truths to the Christian faith and the maturing Christian life. The Spirit now works in all Christians in awesome ways; including making and maintaining one mind among us. The Church (Acts 20:28) The seventh clause of our doctrinal statement concerns the nature of the gathered followers of Jesus, the Church. The Church, by God’s design, is both universal (all true believers) and local (Christians gathered in a particular place). Both are critical to coming to, living out, growing in, and persevering in our faith, our witness to the world, and honoring God. Acts 20:28 is one of the more challenging, encouraging, and defining passages on the Church for me as a pastor. There Paul charged the Ephesian elders to “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.” When we become Christians, we are saved into a people. Likewise, living out the Christian life is meant to happen among a people; a people whom we are meant to be united with in one mindedness concerning these things. And so we say together… We believe that the true church comprises all who have been justified by God’s grace through faith alone in Christ alone. They are united by the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ, of which He is the Head. The true church is manifest in local churches, whose membership should be composed only of believers. The Lord Jesus mandated two ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which visibly and tangibly express the gospel. Though they are not the means of salvation, when celebrated by the church in genuine faith, these ordinances confirm and nourish the believer. Christian Living (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24) Three more clauses. The next is a statement on the nature of Christian life. Once a person comes to faith in Jesus, once a person becomes a Christian, we are right to ask, what’s next? In 1 Thessalonians 5, after giving a list of commands to the church for holiness (things that the Christians in Thessalonica were to work hard at—love, peace, help, patience, grace, good, joy, prayer, thanksgiving), Paul reminded them that it would be God who would bless their hard work. “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.” This is why… We believe that God’s justifying grace must not be separated from His sanctifying power and purpose. God commands us to love Him supremely and others sacrificially, and to live out our faith with care for one another, compassion toward the poor and justice for the oppressed. With God’s Word, the Spirit’s power, and fervent prayer in Christ’s name, we are to combat the spiritual forces of evil. In obedience to Christ’s commission, we are to make disciples among all people, always bearing witness to the gospel in word and deed. Grace, we are defined in part by the belief that everyone who becomes a Christian by God’s grace, will also by God’s grace grow in godliness. Becoming more like Jesus is proof that we truly believe in Jesus. Let’s ask the Spirit to make us one mind in this. Christ’s Return (Hebrews 9:27-28) The ninth clause concerns the return of Jesus. God promised for centuries to send a Savior. He was faithful to His promises in Jesus, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Having accomplished all that He was given by the Father—having lived a sinless life, taken on the full measure of the wrath of God, died on a cross, risen from the dead, and having ascended back to the Father’s right hand—God made another promise: That Jesus would one day return to judge the living and the dead and to make all things right forever for those whose faith is in Him. Hebrews 9:27–28 Just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. Therefore, with one mind we can say with one voice… We believe in the personal, bodily and glorious return of our Lord Jesus Christ. The coming of Christ, at a time known only to God, demands constant expectancy and, as our blessed hope, motivates the believer to godly living, sacrificial service and energetic mission. Believe this great promise, Grace. Set your hope upon it. Remind one another of it. On that day, all division ends and every knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Response and Eternal Destiny (Romans 2:6-8) Finally, therefore, it is urgent that we be of one mind concerning the consequences of all these things. Romans 2:6-8 [God] will render to each one according to his works: 7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; 8 but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. To receive them in faith is to know everlasting, resurrection life in Jesus. To reject them, however, is to know eternal death. We believe that God commands everyone everywhere to believe the gospel by turning to Him in repentance and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that God will raise the dead bodily and judge the world, assigning the unbeliever to condemnation and eternal conscious punishment and the believer to eternal blessedness and joy with the Lord in the new heaven and the new earth, to the praise of His glorious grace. Amen. Oh, what glorious truths these are! Oh, that God might be pleased to fill us with all the wonder they ought to bring. Oh, that we might together learn to love them more and live more fully in light of them as one body. CONCLUSION In conclusion, and once again, most of what we considered in the gospel and our church’s doctrinal statement is mere Christianity. That is, believing in most of what we just heard is common to all Christians. Indeed, most of it is part of the very definition of Christianity. It is certainly what we believe at Grace. Again, next week, Pastor Colin will narrow the funnel a bit more in helping us to consider more Grace Church-specific beliefs and practices. For now, though, let us ask the Spirit to keep us from being underwhelmed or numb to these things. Let’s ask Him to grant us understanding of them, love for them, and obedience to them according to the promise of God. Let’s give ourselves to being increasingly united around them and transformed by them. And not, in obedience to Christ’s command and consistent with our doctrinal statement on the Church we turn our attention to the Lord’s Table.…

Grace Evangelical Free Church // Wyoming, MN

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John’s Gospel – A Recap And Reflection 48:54

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