Sermon Tone Analysis

Albert Camus was an atheistic french philosopher, author and journalist.

He made famous the philosophical ideology known as absurdism.

In his book the myth of Sisyphus He describes the normal routine of many people… “Rising, streetcar, four hours in the office or the factory, meal, streetcar, four hours of work, meal, sleep and Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday according to the same rhythm.”

He describes … We are born, then the merry-go-round of life, then we die.

He declares that the life is absolutely absurd.

Round and round we go where we will stop nobody knows.

Its the same old, same old.

We are just running around in circles.

Over and over again.

I feel just like a hamster on the wheel.

I just can’t ever get ahead.

I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.

The more things change the more they stay the same.

We would say about life, what Keith Sweat sang about his girlfriend.

Merry go round and round.

Does it seem like in our world today that we just cannot seem to get ahead.

Even as Christians we seem to experience the same day to day drudgery that we finish today and know that we will do again tomorrow.

We struggle because we tend to walk in both worlds.

Focus more on the horizontal rather then the vertical.

A good friend of mine worked for the post office and he said that the holidays are hard because the mail just keeps coming and you just cannot get ahead.

And the next day comes and it is the same thing.

Is this kinda like how life feels to many of us today?

Even as Christians we find ourselves trusting the things of the world instead of trusting in Christ.

Once again we find that the world does not give us what it promised.

The world does not fulfill.

Life under the sun without Christ is gonna feel like walking on a treadmill.

Without Christ… Round and round it goes.

We can walk for miles and still be in the same place we started.

Ecclesiastes 1:

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever.

Good Question

The Circle of Life

Nothing New

All Things New

The first thing we will explore today is the good key rhetorical question that is asked by Qoheleth.

Then we will look at a vivid illustration of how all that is under the sun is subject to the circle of life.

Third we will see how all things repeats itself and that is why there is nothing new under the sun.

Finally, we will see how our Lord Jesus came into this world to make all things new.

Thesis: Though sin and the pattern of this world cause us to be focused and distracted by what the world promises to offer, but it is the truth of scripture and the power of the Holy Spirit that opens our eyes and ears to behold the love and work of Christ does indeed make all things new even under the sun.

I. Good Question

- This rhetorical question asked by the preacher serves as a clue to understanding the introductory conclusion of Ecclesiastes.

A. The Preacher begins with a rhetorical question - a question asked in order to create a dramatic effect or to make a point rather than to get an answer.

The author desires to draw us into this exploration.

Think about it.

- Dr. Bartholomew - Thus, although Qohelet will regularly conclude that he cannot find any benefit in labor, the openness to the rhetorical question of is important to maintain - this openness invites the reader to participate in Qoheleth’s struggle about the meaning of life.

B. What do we get or what do we gain.

Yitron - is a commercial term that is ordinarily used in business.

It refers to something that is left after all expenses have been paid.

It is understood as making a profit.

Gain is the return for the investment of hard work.

C.

So what is essentially happening here is that Solomon is asking if this is all worth it.

Is that not what we ask about a job?

An investment?

Many of us have the idea that we will get more if we just work a little, but Qoheleth doubts it.

What will we have to show for all our hard work when life is done?

D. The Question is rhetorical… we know what the answer is.

What do we gain or profit for all of our hard work under the sun?

Nothing.

No matter how hard we work under the sun we will not really gain anything.

Sometimes we feel like we lost more than we gained.

- A rich man was determined to give his mother a birthday present that would outshine all others.

He read of a bird that had a vocabulary of 4000 words, could speak in numerous languages and sing 3 operatic arias.

He immediately bought the bird for $50,000 and had it delivered to his mother.

The next day he phoned to see if she had received the bird.

"What did you think of the bird?" he asked.

She replied, "It was delicious."

E. We just can’t get ahead with life done under the sun.

What do we gain… nothing, but this is all that is done under the sun.

Under the sun, is understood as under heaven.

Which means this world.

II.

The Circle of Life

- Why do we demand a profit for our work, when all of creation does not?

A. We hear all the time of our advancements and progress...economic development, technological advances, evolutionary improvements—but it is all an illusion.

With all the new technology, if we really think about it, we really have not progressed.

And you know what?

This is the way it is for all creation.

economic development, technological advances, evolutionary improvements—but it is all a myth.

B. It is customary for us to think of the next generation of people in the sense of progress.

We believe that children are our future… The next generation will be able to accomplish and go beyond anything that we could have ever dreamed and change the world.

It could seem like an endless processional of people coming and going … ah but the earth remains the same.

Nothing changes in the world.

lists a series of things that never seem to go anywhere or gain anything.

Ryken, P. G. (2010).

Ecclesiastes: Why everything matters (p.

25).

Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.

C. Jerome said, “What is more vain than this vanity: that the earth, which was made for humans, stays—but humans themselves, the lords of the earth, suddenly dissolve into the dust?”

Ryken, P. G. (2010).

Ecclesiastes: Why everything matters (p.

25).

Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.

D. The Sun rises and sets.

Even the daily journey of the sun seems pointless.