Ecclesiastes 3

Intro

The most dreaded phrase of my entire middle school and high school career: It’s time to wake up. From a very early age, we are quickly made accustomed to the fact that its just about always “time for something.” Its either time to sleep, time to wake up, time to play, time to eat, time to think about what you’ve done, time to go, time to come back home, time for school, time for recess, time for work, time for a break. When I was young, I used to look forward to when I was older and people couldn’t tell me “it’s time for this or that.” What a fool I was. Now a three year old tells me when it’s time to play princesses. Our entire lives are made up of a long string of “its time for”’s, sandwiched between the two ultimate ones that we have absolutely zero control over: its time to be born, and its time to die.

This life is east of Eden

Those really are the two that sum up what this life is like under the sun. These are the two things which bind every single person in this world together. No matter where you are, what your circumstances are, the color of your skin, whether you have given your life to good or to evil, whether you speak English or Chinese, whether you prefer sports or study. There are two things that everyone will experience: what it is to be born, and what it is to die. We will all experience the gift of life, and the evil of death.

And, none of us will have any say about when either of those things happen.

The poem of the Preacher here is a beautiful composition that captures the reality of our time here: a bittersweet mixture of joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, gain and loss, closeness and distance, love and hate.

I am sure that everyone here can relate to that, and nobody can call the Preacher a liar here. Whether we like it or not, we all experience these things.

Some of us may try to avoid it, live life to the extreme, break the mold, go for sponteneity, but I promise you its gonna be time to drink water soon. Its gonna be time to eat soon after that, and then itll be time to sleep. Before much longer, it’ll be time to wake up and then tomorrow will be time to either mourn, weep, or both; and you don’t even know it yet.

After he starts by recognizing the uncontrollable bookends of life: to be born and to die, he goes through 13 more pairs of bittersweet life experiences that captures the fullness of the human experience.

A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted. Farmers know they are dependent!

A time to kill (sacrifices) and a time to heal (after you’ve been injured)

A time to break down (when something has become corrupted) and a time to build up (when there is an unmet need)

A time to weep (when we lose loved ones) and a time to laugh (when I am playing with my girls)

Through all of these observations, the Preacher is reminding us of all of the ups and downs of life, and he is also reminding us of all of the things over which we have no control.

The Preacher makes a statement that sounds familiar to us, but has some pretty jarring consequences when you stop to think about it.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 ESV

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

Do you believe that? think about it for a minute. There is a time for everything. Every matter under heaven. It’s easy to say yes to that in times or joy, but it gets harder to speak those words from the place of pain.

Everyone is comfortable with the idea that there is a season for peace, but do you believe there is a season for war?

Everyone like the idea that there is a time to show love, but do you believe there is a time to hate?

Everyone wants to experience the times of laughter, but do you believe there is a time set aside for weeping?

Think about what the Preacher is implying here: throughout the course of your life there has already been dedicated both in times past and times to come seasons of great and intense joy, and awful pain, and everything in between.

Surely you believe that these things will happen, but do you also believe that they have purpose?

We believe, and the Preacher is operating under the belief, that God alone is Sovereign. He is control of all things and there is nothing that happens outside of his authority.

Now we need to be careful here, because there are two extreme responses we must avoid.

On the one side, we must be careful not to fall into what we might call an “hyperactive optisim” that calls evil things good. It can be a dangerous trap for the Christian who believes in the Sovereignty of God to then proclaim that nothing is evil and there’s no reason to be sad ever.

There is another poem you may or may not be familiar with. It was written by a man named William Ernest Henley and it is called Invictus, which is Latin for “Unconquered.” It is a poem about his unconquerable soul, and it ends with these words:

Ecclesiastes Chapter 6: The Terrific Truth about Time (Ecclesiastes 3:1–15)

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

A very inspiring poem maybe, but this man has been dead for over 100 years. He struggled for much of his life with chronic tuberculosis, until one day he fell off of a railway car which caused his disease to get even worse, and he eventually died. A sad story to be sure, but it makes his poem seem so ridiculous. How “unconquerable” was this man? Even worse, how unconquerable does he find his soul today? Either he submitted it to the kingship of Christ, or he found just how broken he really was.

we tend to do this in the good times, convincing ourselves that we are the masters of our own fate.

On the other side, we must be careful not to fall into what we might call a hyperactive pessimism that fails to see the purpose of every matter under heaven and succumbs to the difficulties we find ourselves in.

We tend to do this in the bad times, when we get tunnel vision and can’t see the light at the end of all of this.

All this goes to show the danger we can step into if we try to convince ourselves that we are sovereign over the happenings in our own lives. We simply are not and cannot be.

So we know what to avoid, but how do we know how to respond to these things? What do we do when we find ourselves in pain, mourning, war, surrounded by difficulty?

The answer comes when we consider that we are living in a story that exists between two gardens.

I am sure you are familiar with these gardens. The first was Eden. If Solomon had lived in that place, his poem would have sounded much different. It would have gone something like,

There is a time to be born, and a time to enjoy that life

A time to love, and a time to receive love.

A time for peace, and a time for prosperity.

In that first garden, there was no death or pain or difficulty.

How then did the story change so drastically? Well, it was our first parents that ruined the world. They sinned against God, and in their rebellion, ushered in all the pain.

And ever since then, all of their kids have continued in the traditions of their parents; and that includes you and me.

We live in a story that is taking place “East of Eden,” to borrow the language of several commentators. A story that takes place after the fall, where we are subject to all the pains and miseries of this life.

But that isn’t the end of the story! I mentioned that we are living inbetween two gardens, and the second is even better than the first. The Apostle John got a glimpse of this second garden and he wrote about it in Revelation, which gives us hope for the future.

Hope for the Future

English Standard Version (Chapter 21)

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. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”

All of history has been a story of God redeeming his people who fled the first garden and bringing them to the second garden, and Jesus Christ is the centerpiece to this story of redemption.

Jesus has secured an eternal paradise for the people who rejected the first one.

We don’t have to wonder if the pain will end; we know that there is a time coming where all that sin brought into this world will finally be wiped out of this world through the power of the redemption that is found in Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Paul considered these things when he wrote his epistle to the church in Rome. A few weeks ago I mentioned that Romans 8 seems to be playing off of these concepts we find in Ecclesiastes, and its there we can find a godly response to all these things that life brings our way.

Romans 8:22 (ESV)

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

But Paul also knew the end of the story East of Eden, which led him to make these next comments:

Romans 8:23–25 (ESV)

And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Paul admits that we groan at times as we endure this life East of Eden, but it isn’t a hopeless groaning. In fact, we are full of hope for what comes next! Paul knows that Jesus Christ has defeated evil, darkness, pain, and sin. Paul knows that everyone who has faith in Jesus Christ are conquerers and will overcome the miseries we find ourselves in.p

But we don’t only have hope for the future.

Hope for the Present

Romans 8:28 (ESV)

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Notice the attitude towards difficulty and suffering: it is a confidence that none of it is wasted.

It is a hope that none of this is wasted

So, have hope! Yes, have hope in all circumstances. Laughter will come and go in seasons, dancing will come and go in seasons, pain will come and go in seasons, but HOPE! Hope never leaves us, because hope has been delivered to us once for all by the eternal Son of God Jesus Christ.

brothers and sisters, I know that life can be really hard

never forget Jesus and the hope you have in him, hope for the future and hope for now.

The life to come is the new Eden

FCF: Because of our sin, there is a time for pain.

CFC: Christ is redeeming all things

Big Idea: Because we know Christ is redeeming all things, we can endure present suffering convinced that God is using everything to bring us into his perfect Kingdom.