Does Anything Matter?

Introduction

Ecclesiastes 1:1–11 (ESV)

1 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?

Introductory Idea

Vanity of vanities! All is vanity!

Meaninglessness

Breath

Vapor

Bubbles

Mentioned 34x

Wisdom

Pleasure

Toil

Death

Wealth

Inequity

The praise of the wicked

Life itself

Youth

An Unanswered Question

Question to consider. Does anything matter?

Question to Reveal Vanity

What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?

This feels like a Sunday school question with an easy, spiritual right answer

The preacher doesn’t give the Sunday school answer though. Instead he makes a bunch of depressing observations

Depressing Observations

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.

Illustrations

Generations

Sunsrise and sunset

Wind

Streams

Conclusion

Everything is weariness

Nothing is new

Bad Answers

Apathy

Desperation

A Hint at the Right Answer

This passage doesn’t give us the answer, but it gives us a hint

Life Under the Sun (28x)

Ecclesiastes 1:3 NIV

3 What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun?

Shorthand life in this world

When he talks about life under the sun he is ignoring the existence of life over the sun.

There are still hints of life over the sun

Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV

11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

How Does Jesus Respond to the Hopelessness of this Life?

He focuses on life out of this world

Matthew 6:19–24 NIV

19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! 24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

Matthew 16:26 NIV

26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

John 8:21–23 NIV

21 Once more Jesus said to them, “I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.” 22 This made the Jews ask, “Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, ‘Where I go, you cannot come’?” 23 But he continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.

The question for us is, should we live for this world or the next one?