Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro:

(Luke) 20 “Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of heaven is yours.

21 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst, because you will be filled.”

(Matt) 4 “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will be comforted.”

(Luke) 22 “Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you, insult you, and slander your name as evil because of the Son of Man.

23 Rejoice in that day and leap for joy.

Take note—your reward is great in heaven, for this is the way their ancestors used to treat the prophets.”

This, of course, followed by a discourse about loving your enemies; this is how Jesus began his ministry, as recorded by Matthew.

This word affirms a state of blessing that already exists.

Each beatitude declaring how a group of people usually regarded as afflicted are actually blessed.

Implying that those blessed don’t have to do anything to attain this blessing, Jesus declares that they have already been blessed simply by finding themselves in an affliction they would likely much rather not have.

The Beatitudes are not conditions of salvation or roadmaps by which one merits entry to God’s kingdom but declarations of God’s grace.

I think Jesus is inviting those who belong to each blessed group to experience God’s grace because the kingdom of heaven has drawn near.

Consider the blessing to those who mourn.

We don’t usually think of mourning as a blessing.

It is a predicament.

But with the coming of the kingdom of heaven, mourning becomes a blessing because the mourners “will be comforted.”

The implication is that God himself will do the comforting.

The affliction of mourning becomes the blessing of a profound relationship with God.

Transition:

Let me take this opportunity to assure you that I am well aware we are working our way through a series in Ecclesiastes.

You see, the author has attributed “meaningless” or “futile” to just about all human existence.

We could also describe this as brokenness—something is broken when it doesn’t work right.

When it comes to brokenness in this world, we need to realize two things.

Sometimes we are broken because of our sin, and sometimes we are broken because we live in a fallen, broken world.

Illustration:

I remember living as a bachelor, young in my marriage when my wife and I were still dual military; after my wife had deployed, I was hungry and decided to cook a frozen pizza.

I read, cook for 20 minutes at 375o—naturally, I believed this to open for interpretation—and so I put the poor, doomed meal in at 425o for 10 minutes.

In my defense, it was only 50oextra, and for half the time!

I ate takeout that night, but not before grieving the loss of my highly anticipated favorite slice of comfort food, cleaning the oven, and airing out the house.

I had departed from the manufacturer’s instructions.

Application:

Ecclesiastes makes something abundantly clear: all of humanity—including each and every one of us—has sinned, departing from God’s design for the world.

When we rebel against our design, we end up broken.

We know this to be true experientially, and of course, anytime we attempt to use something in a way that its manufacturer didn’t intend for it to be used—or cooked—it gets broken, or burnt, or doesn’t work.

Point 1:

God has a design for everything.

That’s the point where we encounter the blessing.

In my experience, it’s really hard to encounter God in a meaningful way when I’m not aware of my need for him.

If I had tasted the cheesy deliciousness and the savory goodness that would have been my Digiorno’s Deep Dish Crispy Pan-Crust Pepperoni Pizza, I wouldn’t have been bummed.

Quite the opposite, in fact.

We see this sentiment in verse 3; some of your translations word it differently.

The NIV reads: “because a sad face is good for the heart.”

It was through my mourning that I was made aware of my need.

Not my need for sustenance, that was made aware to me by my empty belly.

Still, my longing—long after the void wasn’t filled with the unfulfilling replacement meal—the comfort left unprovided in the wake of what would have been my comfort meal.

God has a design for everything.

Even through adversity, it is the illumination of our need through the value placed on the need made known through that awareness by which we are blessed.

Consider the response Jesus gave the Pharisees when (Matt) 11“they asked his disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and `sinners’?”

…so, he replied, 12“it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.”

Of course, we know the Pharisees were sick too, but it’s about the awareness we are privy to through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

God has a design for everything.

Transition:

Sometimes we are broken because of our own sin, and perhaps God assigns intervention to reveal some of our needs, but sometimes our brokenness is due to the sin done against us.

For example, if you are hurt by someone else, then that is someone sinning against and breaking you.

Still, other times, our brokenness is simply due to the fact that we live in a broken and fallen world.

Ecclesiastes points this out repeatedly in chapter seven, things don’t work the way we think they should.

In verse 15, for instance, the righteous suffer while the wicked prosper.

Time and time again, in the wisdom literature, we see concession that things don’t always work out as they should.

Proverbs also recognizes these discrepancies and points them out, but Ecclesiastes seems to dwell on them more.

Exposition:

And the New Testament continues this theme.

Jesus calls those who suffer “blessed,” as I listed at the beginning, but he provides a different reason from our beloved Old Testament teacher.

Jesus tends to point to the future that awaits.

Paul echoes this thought, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us” (Rom 8:18–19).

Elsewhere, “we do not lose heart.

Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.

For this momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal” (2 Cor 4:16–18).

Similarly, Peter encourages suffering Christians, “rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed” (1 Pet 4:13).

And John proclaims the good news, “’blessed are the dead who from now on die in the Lord.’

‘Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘they will rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them’ ” (Rev 14:13–14).

In James, chapter 1, verses 2–5, “My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.

If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you.”

Application:

Looking again at our series passage, in verses 1-12, our teacher discerns some relative good in events we usually think of as bad: death, sorrow, mourning, rebuke, and adversity, which we hear echoed in Jesus’ teachings.

Solomon shares the intent he had meant to communicate through Ecclesiastes in chapter 12, verse 11, saying it was meant to shepherd us, exposing the brokenness of the world—a brokenness that can only beget brokenness and bring emptiness.

Thus, in my introduction of the series in chapter one, I described the book with a quote describing it as “the most staggering messianic prophecy to appear in the Old Testament.”

As we saw in Ecclesiastes 3, God’s plan for our lives includes both prosperity and adversity.

They’re mixed together to bring about something beautiful, even though we cannot see what that is right now from our vantage on earth and in time, so we trust God.

Illustration:

In Superman Returns, Lois Lane tells Clark Kent, “The world doesn’t need a savior.”

And maybe she was like the Pharisees, un-needing of the doctor’s touch, unaware of her own brokenness.

Thankfully, it really was to her good fortune that Clark was indeed Superman.

In Job chapter 40, God replies from a whirlwind to the now 39 chapters of back and forth and asserting his innocence.

He was virtually without reply—I say virtually because if you fact-check me, he literally said, “I have nothing to say”—but the remarkable thing captured by the author is that he covers his mouth.

Now we’re unsure if it was because of the dust storm or if he was attempting to eat his own words, stuff them back in, or prevent further dumb things from falling out.

But what is clear is that he gained an immediate appreciation for the complexity, enormity, and entirety of God’s role in perspective to his woes; mind you, he lost all of his worldly possessions, his children died, and his health deteriorated.

Point 2:

The only thing I think we can compare that to is: in our temptation to blame God or defend our own righteousness, is if God showed up in a whirlwind or a portal through time and we were able to witness the passion, the hanging of Jesus on the cross for our sin.

Sin leads to brokenness and meaninglessness, but also that it is not where God leaves us.

The author plays some devil’s advocate and shows us that reality, but he says, and in a minute we’ll get there, certainly, that’s not where our Bible stops; the Gospel is the answer to our brokenness and meaninglessness.

So, whereas the first point was that God has a design for everything,even adversity in its relation to our awareness of our need, the second point is two-fold.

First, that sin leads to brokenness and meaninglessness.

And second, the Gospel is the answer to our brokenness and meaninglessness.

Verse 13, “Consider the work of God, for who can straighten out what He has made crooked?”

Transition:

In the second half of the chapter, the author changes his tone a bit.

He goes from a more poetic, proverb-type of list of sayings to prose or a more discourse-like style, offering his own input.

We have to recognize our Scriptures weren’t written cover to cover.

There are different genres, much like variety in any Barnes & Noble today, there are different sections.