Life and Death

Paul Hamilton

Exposition of Ecclesiastes • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

0 ratings

· 392 views

Notes

Transcript

READ Eccl. 8: 16-9:12 > Pray

As we come to the end of chapter 8 and into chapter 9 Solomon is starting to wrap up his argument: we’re moving towards the end of this beautiful book.

As Solomon wraps things up, he’ll be repeating himself some as he brings these various strings together for our consideration. This repetition is necessary. God here, through Solomon is working to shape our thinking about life in a profoundly different way from the way we have been accustomed to.

Any time you want to change deeply-ingrained patterns of thought, those changes need to be worked deep in, to expose all the ways, and little assumptions we hold, and they need to be challenged, usually many times before we believe it and live differently.

Living with the end in view, living like you know you will die gives us the perspective to work for what will matter, to get excited about what will matters! And to find hope in the sorrow, and meaning in the miseries of life.

Our culture pulls us away to think less and less about the future. Finding meaning by being immersed in the moment. Because without God, death is empty, it is a devourer of meaning, the future in that bleak reality provides no hope. The future is death and that is where meaning ends.

Without God there is no purpose beyond what we make up, and no meaning but what we can fake and no hope beyond what we can pretend, because with out a creator, this is simply an accident.

To make sense of things in the most basic way, we must grapple with LIFE and DEATH.

And so, let’s see how Solomon begins to wrap up his thinking, starting with this most basic understanding of our existence… LIFE and DEATH.

To do that, I’ll start and end with Life, and then we’ll have three points about Death in the middle, and I’ll be taking some of the text out of order to organize them for this sermon. Then we’ll close this morning seeing how Christ makes all the difference.

I. Life is a Mystery

Ecclesiastes 8:16–17 (ESV) — 16 When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on earth, how neither day nor night do one’s eyes see sleep, 17 then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out.

Look at some of the language in this passage, Solomon APPLIED his heart to know. Man may TOIL in seeking – WORK at understanding, a wise man may CLAIM to know… BUT

He cannot find it out! He will seek, work, toil! but he will not find it out, he may claim to know, but he cannot find it out.

This is a theme Solomon as touched on before, there is a conflict in our experience. We desperately want to know more, we want the big picture, we want to know the beginning to the end, but we don’t have access to all the information.

Solomon worked and worked to know… THEN, he writes “I saw the work of God, that man CANNOT find out the work that is done under the sun.

There is a limit to our perceptions, a limit to our understanding, we are finite, and try as we might we cannot comprehend all of God. That is an inescapable mystery.

Psalm 145:3 (ESV) — 3 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.

TO understand all of reality we have to understand God. He is unsearchable. Google can’t get there!

hear the words of Zophar in Job…

Job 11:7–8 (ESV) — 7 “Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty? 8 It is higher than heaven—what can you do? Deeper than Sheol—what can you know?

It’s impossible, we can’t get it all. So, there is this impossibility built into our quest to know. In the Garden what was withheld from Adam and Eve? the fruit of the tree of the KNOWLEDGE of good and evil. there is something in us that rebels at that, why shouldn’t I know everything?! then i can be like God! we want to know it all, to be God! requiring no faith, no trust, knowing it on our own!

That mystery of knowing and it is there for a reason - we can’t know everything we can’t be God, so that we must rest in God. That doesn’t mean we can’t know anything. But it means there is a mystery that we cannot pierce.

Deuteronomy 29:29 (ESV) — 29 “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

The secret things belong to God, but what he has revealed in the creation, and in his word we can know. That belongs to us. So, we can rest in Who God is, God is God, we are not, and then, starting with God, we can make sense of the world around us. trusting in what God has said, and then from that stability of reason and meaning, makes sense of the objective reality around us.

Life is a Mystery, so we rest in God. The complete and perfect one. Now three things about death.

II. Death Is Certain

Ecclesiastes 9:1–3 (ESV) — 1 But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know; both are before him. 2 It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. 3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

From that mystery of life, one thing is certain – you are going to die. He describes that mystery again…

Life is confusing, stuff happens in life, and all our deeds are in the invisible hand of God. and sometimes we think, is this the love or hate? It’s confusing. Bad things happen, we tried our best, bad people get ahead. What’s going on here?!

But out of that confusion there is one certainty and it brings clarity. Righteous and the wicked, clean and unclean (using the categories of the Old Covenant holiness code – unclean things could not come into God’s presence, until they were ritually cleaned.) those who sacrifice and those who don’t, the good and evil. They all die. They all die – that is the certainty.

So, Solomon looks out over the world, and sees – the heart of people full of evil and we’re all a little crazy. And then they die.

Just think through your past, and out into the lives of those around you. all a little crazy. Fear drives choices, bad judgement, excess, like the madness of addiction, knowing its bad but doing it anyway, hoping, wanting, needing something different from reality. – we’re a little crazy!

The mystery of it all bears down, and we want something else, something we can control and manipulate, something simple we can understand, whether it’s some conspiracy theory or some social theory – we want to make it all makes sense.

But reality is this is a world full of sinners with evil hearts , all a little crazy – there’s no secret, sin hurts, bad choices hurt, life is hard and it is often dull and difficult

and we all die before we figure much out. Death is certain, that isn’t a mystery.

III. Death Is Bitter

Ecclesiastes 9:4–6 (ESV) — 4 But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. 5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. 6 Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun.

However confusing and mysterious life is, death is bitter. At least the living have hope. A living dog is better than a dead lion.

Remember Solomon is looking at the world under the sun. here under the sun that lion may have been the king of beasts, he may have had his harem do his hunting for me, he may have had a glorious mane,

But now he’s dead. And his rotting corpse can’t do anything. A mangy dog lurking in the shadows fighting desperately over scraps to survive is better than that dead lion.

The dead have no more share in all that is done under the sun. there is no more doing, no more questing, searching for meaning. Their love, hate, envy all end, and perhaps worst of all they are forgotten.

This is why it seems so bitter, if this is all there is, here under the sun, ultimately it can’t matter because not even the memory of our lives remains. If this is all there is our future is nothingness.

So our pretending about meaning and morality come to nothing. Our sacrifices mean nothing, our accomplishments mean nothing. We will all die. And then nothing, bad folks get away with badness, goodness isn’t rewarded. It doesn’t matter.

The living have to bear the burden of the knowledge of their certain death but the dead know nothing.

It is bitter. Death is the destroyer of meaning under the sun. – Death is certain and bitter, and then

IV. Death Is Unexpected

Here skip down to 9: 11

Ecclesiastes 9:11–12 (ESV) — 11 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. 12 For man does not know his time. Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them.

You can do all you want to try and avoid death. But life is a tenuous and senseless thing. The race is not to the swift. You trip and fall, you break a leg… or the battle isn’t always won by the strongest,

Time and events happen to us all. “Chance” literally the word means “occurrences” thing happen and it doesn’t seem to have a reason. Out of the mystery of life, death springs unlooked for, unexpected.

Your plans fall to the wayside. Sometimes you get in your own way and self-destruct your plans and dreams sometimes you’re limited by circumstances, sometimes others get in your way… but often life just doesn’t work out exactly like you expected. One writer put it this way:

“As we grow up, we replace our childhood dreams of being a ballerina or a firefighter with hopes of an apprenticeship, or a degree, and a job, and a husband and children, and a house in a certain part of town with a big dining room where people can come and go and laugh and eat and talk together. You might simply want to grow old happily with your family and grandchildren around you. Ecclesiastes says maybe you will do all these things, or maybe you will be dead before the year ends. Maybe you’ll never get that job. Maybe you’ll get married and have kids but never the house you want. Can you see what the preacher is saying to us? Put your faith in something else that is not under the sun, because one event under the sun might change all your best-laid plans” ‘for man does not know his time.’” (Gibson, 111)

Or as the New Testament writer James put it:

James 4:13–15 (ESV) — 13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

Life is mysterious, we can’t see all the workings of God, but what we can see, is so often life is out of our control, and this certain and bitter death comes when we’re not expecting it. so what? Should we despair? Give up? Do evil? Our last point

V. Life Is for Living

Jump back up to verse 7,

Ecclesiastes 9:7–10 (ESV) — 7 Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do. 8 Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head. 9 Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.

If we can accept that life is a mystery, and we can’t know it all, we start with the fear of the Lord. Leave being God to God. Take what he has revealed to us as our foundation, then you focus on living your life before him. Don’t live for the things, Live for God and live the life he gives you with Joy.

Solomon uses all these verbs:

A. GO! –

get moving, don’t sit around and wait. This mysterious life is the only one you have to live. Trust God and live it! Death will come one day, so live life now! this is your day to live.

B. Eat and Drink with a merry heart!

When God gives you good things enjoy them. Trust in God, believe on Jesus and live. God has already approved what you do!

Think of Adam and Eve in the Garden. God created this world for our enjoyment! To satisfy us so that we would glorify God.

God approves of you enjoying these things. That’s why he gave them to you. Sin makes an idol of them - so we worship them, hurt others to get them....

but God is glorified when we enjoy his good gifts with Thanks! Eat and drink let your heart be merry… God is good!

C. Celebrate!

Let your garments be white and oil on your head! This is the language of festive dress, white garments of celebration, and the oil of gladness on your head!

Psalm 23:5 (ESV) — 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

This is the symbol of joy and festivity! Celebrate, don’t be a gloomy Gus, see life for what it is! With all the mystery, with death ahead, this life is a gift, live it in the joy of the Lord!

D. Enjoy Life with the wife that you love!

whatever that life is, you can’t control much of that. these are your days, this is your portion. Fighting doesn’t change it. Getting angry and shaking your hands at God, that doesn’t change it. it just makes you more miserable. This is your life. your one life.

So work to live it with joy. Love your wife, love your husband! Choose to do it. Your life will be better! Enjoy your life. God didn’t give you life to make you miserable, but for you to rest in him so that you can find the simple joys of the life he has given you. Look and find them! do the work to fuel your gratitude that we talked about last week!

Look and Enjoy your life that God gives you!

E. Do whatever you do, with all your might!

Trust God and Live. Don’t live a little, live a lot! Do your work with all your might. Love your family with all your might. Help your neighbors with all your might.

Live your life with all your might!

1 Corinthians 10:31 (ESV) — 31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Do everything as unto the Lord! So do it with all your might! You will die and you will have no more opportunities to do anything under the sun, your time here will end. So take each moment you have and glorify God by living with joy in this world!

If this were all there is… if death were the end and there was no meaning,-- there is no point – you’d do the least required to get the most benefit. ‘

But, resting in the reality of God, Death is not the end… God gives everything purpose, there is meaning, there is a judgment so that everything does matter!

From that certainty of GOD and the reality of eternity - trust in Christ and run with all your might, be at peace with God so you can pour your energy in living the life God has given you!

Solomon, saw that from his place in the Old Covenant! How much clearer is that when we look at who we are and what we have in CHRIST!!

CHRIST MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE!

In Christ there is Certainty.

We can know God –

John 14:6–7 (ESV) — 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

Christ is the image of the invisible God, He displays God to us! That which was hidden and invisible is now made known! Christ explains God!

we can be certain about who God is!

We can know love –

1 John 3:16 (ESV) — 16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

we don’t have to guess, is this love or hate… we can know this is LOVE! We have a greater experience and understanding of God’s love for us through Jesus Christ! God strengthens us in our inner man to KNOW the LOVE of Christ - in height, depth, length and breadth, the love that is beyond understanding! we can know it!

We can know we are accepted –

Ephesians 1:7–10 (ESV) — 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

We can know we are accepted, redeemed, forgiven. this is for all who will come and rests in Christ, to believe on him, stop rejecting life and hope! it is here for you to take and believe and live! you can know you are accepted in GOD by trusting in Jesus Christ and looking to him.

We can know that life matters –

The Judgment is the ultimate reality that brings meaning. There are eternal consequences to how we live our lives. Christ will come back and your life will matter, what you do will matter, nothing is forgotten.

GREEK - don’t audit. - it’s too hard you’ll give up. you need that grade, the coming judgment to get the sense your work matters. life is too hard, if there is not judgment - no valuation - no assessment does this choice matter… then we just do what seems good to us, it doesn’t really matter. i’ll die, you’ll die, we’ll all die, and be forgotten.

But life is not a thing you can audit, all of life matters! there is a judgment

Matthew 25:31–32 (ESV) — 31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

How you live matters. Either you lived for Christ, being changed by him, doing good for him, or you’ve rejected him, and lived for yourself, doing what made you seem better, or what you wanted.

but no, It all matters, that is a truth that lives in our hearts. life matters. Death is not a nothingness, it is the doorway to eternity. Life has meaning because of what comes next.

In all the mystery of the world Christ came from God, the image of the invisible God to explain God, to reveal him to us! IN Christ we still cannot know all of the mystery, but he gives us certainty upon which we can build our lives!

So life can make sense, there is hope and joy in the objective reality of Christ. Morality and purpose make sense, there is a law giver a source of goodness and we were created in his image. Rejecting the ultimate reality leaves us with form of morality and purpose, but with no foundation, it makes no sense.

In Christ there is real certainty! Believe on him, rest in him, come and see, explore, test him out, dig in and see! and know!

In Christ Life is Good!

John 10:10 (ESV) — 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Philippians 4:4 (ESV) — 4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.

Even when life is hard, even when there are trials and suffering, in Christ there is peace, we can be content and rejoice in him.

because in Christ, life is Good!

In Christ Life is eternal!

John 3:16 (ESV) — 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Eternal life is the life of Christ that wells up in the hearts of every believer. It is the life that fills us up and spills out into the world, it is the life that we will enjoy forever with Christ.

It is the abundant life – lived in the joy of each moment for God’s glory. And each joy is simply a foretaste of heaven. Of that life lived in perfection forever. Christ Jesus died for the sins of the world and was raised victorious over sin and death.

That bitter Death is defeated! Forever with Christ all the wrongs are made right where all the right is glorified. Where all is as it should be!

1 Corinthians 15:42–44 (ESV) — 42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. ...

So friends, believe on Christ, rest in him and in this life! death has been defeated! and LIVE YOUR LIFE IN CHRIST! GO! ENJOY! Live! DO!

Put on Christ and live for him and in him and through him! display him in this world for glory’s sake! These are the words of life! Believe on Christ, trust in him! And live!

Pray

Sing: Christ Our Hope in Life and Death

2 Corinthians 13:14 (NASB95) — 14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.

Related Media

Related Sermons