Sermon Tone Analysis

Life is short is it not?…

The sports world this week gave us a reminder of how close all of us are to death…Damar Hamlin (age 24) story …read another story this week about a 17 year old basketball player who died suddenly at home...

We often think of athletes as the picture of health and practically invincible…in the prime of their life…if I only had the physique and abilities of an athlete, if I had the fame of a celebrity,if I had the wealth of fortune 500 CEO, then my life would have meaning.

Be honest…as you sit here this morning...How are you completing this phrase “Life would have much more meaning for me if....I would be happier and more satisfied with my life if...”

Today we embark upon a new study through the book of Ecclesiastes...

Why Study Ecclesiastes?

To the everyday reader of the Bible, Ecclesiastes appears to be a gloomy view of life.

You might even be tempted to think that the author has no relationship with God at all because how can a person have a relationship with God and see such negativity.

One of the questions many people ask today is “Why does a powerful Creator allow evil on the earth?

Why is life filled with so many unresolved inconsistencies?

Why am I here?”

Ecclesiastes answers those questions and many like them.

It is honest about the troubles of life.

More than anything else in the Bible, Ecclesiastes captures the futility and frustration of a fallen world.

It is honest about the drudgery of work, the injustice of government, the dissatisfaction of foolish pleasure, and the mind-numbing tedium of everyday life—“the treadmill of our existence.”

Think of Ecclesiastes as the only book of the Bible written on a Monday morning.

Reading it helps us to be honest with God about the problems of life—even those of us who trust in the goodness of God.

It teaches us what will happen to us if we choose what the world tries to offer instead of what God has to give.

The writer of this book had more money, enjoyed more pleasure, and possessed more human wisdom than anyone else in the world, yet everything still ended in frustration.

The same will happen to us if we live for ourselves rather than for God.

He writes to say, “don’t make the same mistakes I did...”

It asks the biggest and hardest questions that people still have today.

What is the meaning of life?

Why am I so unhappy?

Does God really care?

Why is there so much suffering and injustice in the world?

Is life really worth living?

These are the kinds of intellectual and practical questions that the writer wants to ask.

The writer is not satisfied with the kind of easy answers that children sometimes get in Sunday school.

In fact, part of his spiritual struggle is with the very answers that he has always been given.

It will help us worship the one true God.

For all of its sad disappointments and skeptical doubts, this book teaches many great truths about God.

It presents him as the Mighty Creator and Sovereign Lord, the transcendent and all-powerful ruler of the universe.

Ecclesiastes will help us grow in the knowledge of God.

It teaches us how to live for God and not just for ourselves.

It gives us some of the basic principles we need to build a God-centered worldview, like the goodness of creation and our own absolute dependence on the Creator.

Then, on the basis of these principles, Ecclesiastes gives many specific instructions about everyday issues like money, sex, and power.

It also has many things to say about death, which may be the most practical issue of all.

In short, there are many good reasons to study Ecclesiastes.

This is especially true for anyone who is still deciding what to believe and what not to believe.

Read Eccl 1:1-11.

Who is “the Preacher”?

The writer identifies himself as “the Preacher” ...Qoheleth…pronounced co-hel-et…it can also be translated as the Teacher, the Philosopher, the Spokesman.

The root word means to gather, collect, or assemble.

the verb form refers to the gathering or assembly of a community of people, especially for the worship of God.

So Qoheleth is not so much a teacher in a classroom but more like a pastor in a church.

It literally means one who speaks in the assembly.

Some of you lovingly call me Preacher…you would use this term if you were Jewish.

He is preaching wisdom to a gathering of the people of God.

The title of the book comes from the Greek word “ekklesia” which is the common word for church in the New Testament.

It is not a building, it is a gathering of people to worship God.

Ecclesiastes is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Qoheleth.

He further identifies himself as “son of David, king in Jerusalem”.

With this identification, our minds immediately go to Solomon.

Eccl.

1:16 …he identifies himself as one who has acquired increased wisdom (see also 1 Kings 3:12-13).

We know from Scripture that in spite of all his wisdom, Solomon wandered from God and fell hard into sin.

Ecclesiastes is the painful autobiography of Solomon, who for most of his life, squandered God’s blessings on his own pleasures instead of God’s glory.

He writes to successive generations of his own and others to encourage them and warn them not to follow the path he took.

Paul would echo this same thought to the church of Corinth in 1 Cor.

1:18-31 and 1 Cor 2:13-16.

What is the theme of Ecclesiastes?

Solomon states his purpose in Ecclesiastes 1:2 ““Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “Vanity of vanities!

All is vanity.””

He reiterates his purpose in Eccl 12:8 ““Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “all is vanity!””

Solomon emphatically declares that the whole sum of human existence is meaningless, futile, unknowable.

Throughout the book you will see the word “vanity”

Solomon uses this term 37x in the book…because Ecclesiastes is a form of Hebrew poetry, there is a great deal of figurative language...

He uses this genre to challenge us to pay attention...

The Hebrew word is hevel literally meaning breath or vapor…like a puff of smoke rising from a fire, or the sight of your breath on a cold morning...

Solomon uses this term broadly in 3 ways…in each case it looks at the nature of man’s activity…it does not necessarily mean that something is altogether worthless...

Fleeting or transitory…vapor like

Life is like that…a vapor… it is elusive…so insubstantial that when we try to get a handle on it, it slips through our fingers.

Life is also transitory…it can disappear as quickly as it comes…no one is guaranteed tomorrow!

Psalm 39:5 ““Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths, And my lifetime as nothing in Your sight; Surely every man at his best is a mere breath.

Selah.”

James 4:14 “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.

You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.”

Futile or meaningless…focuses on the cursed condition of the universe and its effects on man’s earthly experiences

There is not one single aspect of human existence that escapes the frustration of futility.

It is all absurd, useless, and futile.

Solomon will take all the things people use to find satisfaction in life and show how empty they are.

He speaks to this from experience, because he pursued them all…knowledge, money, pleasure, and power.

Incomprehensible…gives consideration to life’s unanswered questions.

The context will determine which meaning Solomon is focusing on.

The most common meaning is incomprehensible or unknowable, referring to the mysteries of God’s purposes.

There are just certain things about life we cannot comprehend.

Sooner or later we are going to agree with Solomon’s conclusions.

When we seek satisfaction and purpose in our earthly goals and ambitions, we will always come up empty.

We try to satisfy our longings through pleasures only to find they dissipate quickly and we move on to the next pleasure.

We try to find satisfaction in getting more money only to find we want more money.

We try to find ways to be more important only to find not everybody thinks we are important.

Ultimately, we all die and what is left…nothing!

(Never see a Hearse pulling a U-Haul, open up ancient tombs and the stuff they buried them with is still there).

In our study of Ecclesiastes we will discover that on top of all that, Solomon becomes frustrated even more when he thinks about the part God plays in it all.

He never gives up his faith in the power and sovereignty of God, but the things about the world that frustrate him are the same things that frustrate him about the God who created the world.

Perhaps you are sitting there and thinking “this is really a downer of a book to study, not sure I want to sit through this study”… call me when it’s over...let me also say this...

Even though Solomon takes a sober view of life, he has a solid hope in the goodness of God and the lasting quality of His gifts.

Besides the abundance of the word vanity, Solomon uses another phrase repeatedly… “under the sun”… by using this phrase he is communicating the futility of all things from the HUMAN PERSPECTIVE.

When we limit our vision to what we see now on earth, instead of seeing God at work in these things, life will be empty and futile.