Ecclesiastes 1 NIV
2 "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."
3 What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?
4 Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.
5 The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.
6 The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.
7 All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.
8 All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.
9 What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there anything of which one can say, "Look! This is something new"? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.
11 There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.
I wonder if those words rung in the head of the rich man – he had all anyone could want, well possessions anyway. He purchased rugs that had been imported from the far east he furnished his home with beautiful things maybe even surrounded himself with beautiful women, not caring that they were there only for his money. But like so many rich people, his life was empty. He was really alone. Like the words of Ecclesiastes he rightly questioned what he really had gained from all his hard work – his life was essentially meaningless – simply amassing more and more wealth. He knew people didn’t like him, well in fact he knew most of them despised him. And yes others just like him, even some of those who worked for him in the city, died and were buried and forgotten about after the most token period of mourning. They made no mark on history, thy wouldn’t be remembered for anything and the only way they touched peoples lives was to fleece them. And he would go the same way – another generation, come and gone. Is this really it? Is this all there is? Is life really doomed to be meaningless or simply vanity as the KJV puts it?
He had heard about something that rubbed up against that passage from scripture..something that may be new, a man who was saying surprising things and offering people something more than the trivia of life – although of course it was the diseased and poor who were flocking to him looking for some sort of release – no that wasn’t him – I’m alright, I have everything I need. OK I’m not handsome, I’m not liked but I’m rich! I can buy pretty much anything 0 even friends. But his own words sounded hollow in his ears – meaningless, hopeless forgotten, irrelevant – they were the words that haunted him as he approached the edge of the crowd. He wasn’t going to loose his dignity pushing through the rabble to get a view but the closer he got and the bigger the crowd grew the more curious he became – curiosity that gave way to a kind of hunger.
He needed to know more – what if these people were right – what if there was something else – what if life wasn’t meaningless what if there was more than this? He saw a tree, just budding in the early spring sunshine, and he remembered the last time he’d climbed one – he’d just been a boy. A boy of religious parents – wouldn’t they be proud of him – a rich government employee – a senior manager, responsible for a dozen or more tax collectors in the city… wouldn’t they be astonished at how well he’d done at how big his hose was? Well maybe, as long as they didn’t find out about his dishonesty – but that was part of the job, it was expected… accepted even… but they would know, everyone knew, they knew where it all came from, the pain his work created in families in communities already struggling to feed their children. They’d be disappointed, he knew that really, they had taught him better but it had become obscured so quickly by the meaningless accrual of possessions and the empty promise of the life he’d chosen.
As he climbed the tree his heart was heavy – he was restless, his belly full but in every other way, empty. He could see the man they were all talking about in the distance – people pushed in all around him – men trying to make space so he could walk down the street. He realized that he wasn’t even going to hear what this man Jesus had to say – but he’d just wanted a glimpse of him. As Jesus drew level with the tree he looked up – looked him right in the eye – what a look, a searching look and as people turned to look too he thought Oh no – here we go…they’ll know who I am…but the man called his name, he shouted Zaccheus – hurry up, get down from that tree, I need to stay at your house! How was it possible, how?! He called my name – but Zaccheus didn’t delay, he literally jumped out of the tree and oblivious to the shouts and jeers of the people around him, pushing, yelling even spitting at him – he led this man Jesus to his home. And of course we all know that Zaccheus discovered that life isn’t meaningless, life isn’t without purpose and Jesus went to his house to teach others about repentance. Zaccheus realized the emptiness of his life and filled it with the hope that Christ gave him that afternoon in Jericho. A hope of glory to come and the chance to live a life that wasn’t empty but a life characterized by the hope given to him by the son of God – a living hope expressed by the Holy Spirit abiding in him – guiding his life and helping him live a life of example to others who’d been just like him.
Charles G Finney born in 1792 wrote this:
Christ is our Hope. Our only rational expectation is from Him. Christ in us is our Hope of glory. Without Christ in us, we have no hope of glory. Christ in the Gospel, Christ on the cross, Christ risen, Christ in Heaven, all is hope of an external type to the believer; but Christ in us, Christ actually present, living, and reigning in us, as really as He lives and reigns in glory, is the only bedrock and the only well-grounded Hope a real Christian has.
The soul that does not know, truly, Spiritually know Christ has absolutely no well-grounded hope. He may hope that he is good enough. He may hope that his sins are forgiven, that he shall be somehow saved in the end. But without knowing and embracing Christ he can have no hope of glory.
The book of Romans is clear about hopelessness:
Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death."
Romans 6:21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!
Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned
Romans 1:32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
It’s also a book that is clear about hope in Christ:
Romans 5: 1ff Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
Romans 5:10 For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
Romans 8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.
Romans 8:24 In hope we have been saved…35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? NOTHING and v37: we overwhelmingly NASV conquer all these things through Him who loved us – nothing shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’
So lets just back up a bit in Romans 8
Listen to this – carefully.. 23 we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering.
We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)
Patience and confidence – we wait brethren, we wait – we wait with eager hope for the day when Christ returns to gather us home. We wait – we wait for the fulfillment of His promise – we wait with a patient and confident hope, looking forward to something else, something better than this. Peter 3:15 says, “but set apart Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence.”
While we wait, we need to be ready to share the hope that it in us – with gentleness, not judging people but showing them that life needn’t be shallow and meaningless that there is more than this... How often do we encounter people in crisis? People , even among our own number who are struggling to cope – we need to give them a glimpse of Christ. Its understandable that people slide down the slope of despair, particularly when they have no faith – for without it there really is no more than this! There is no hope to look forward to.
A number of years ago researchers performed an experiment to see the effect hope has on those undergoing hardship. Two sets of laboratory rats were placed in separate tubs of water. The researchers left one set in the water and found that within an hour they had all drowned. The other rats were periodically lifted out of the water and then returned. When that happened, the second set of rats swam for over 24 hours. Why? Not because they were given a rest, but because they suddenly had hope! Those animals somehow hoped that if they could stay afloat just a little longer, someone would reach down and rescue them. If hope holds such power for unthinking rodents, how much greater should its effect be on our lives.
We need hope – but a sure hope – a hope founded on a promise made by God himself. George Bernard Shaw is perhaps most renowned as a free thinker and liberal philosopher. In his last writings we read, "The science to which I pinned my faith is bankrupt. Its counsels, which should have established the millennium, led, instead, directly to the suicide of Europe. I believed them once. In their name I helped to destroy the faith of millions of worshippers in the temples of a thousand creeds. And now they look at me and witness the great tragedy of an atheist who has lost his faith."
Listen to this from James 1:16ff
Don’t be misled, my dear brothers and sisters. Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow. He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession.
We should be careful that we don’t get bogged down in the world around us or let in overly influence how we think or feel. Often the world seems to offer us other sources of hope. It rarely suggests waiting patiently for anything! encouraging us to run from here to there – to a new job, to a new house, a different doctor, a different church, or no church, better friends, a better husband or wife.
Martin Luther said “not in works, not in any other thing, but purely in hope, the heart of man rejoices. The one who seeks to find joy apart from this hope will labor much, but will labor in vain.” Then Luther goes on to remind us of the Bible story of the woman who went from doctor to doctor for 12 years, spending all she had until she met Jesus. Luther adds: “this happens also to those who run here and there with their troubled conscience, now consult these folks, then consult those, now do this, then do that, and try everything in order to quiet their heart but do not seek the hope which gives rest to the soul and which they too could have within themselves.” Our hope is not to be found in running from place to place or in smug resignation to the evils of life, but rather in patient, consistent belief and trust that in Christ.
When we are buffeted with the storms of life we have the church to rally round us, we have a route to God through Christ in prayer and we have the Lord with us and in us to reassure us in times of tribulation, distress, persecution, famine nakedness peril or sword – Romans 8 - all of these we conquer through Him who loved us – and if that’s our experience now it won’t be our experience later. If we go it alone, if we travel through life without him we not only live a hollow life but a life that holds no hope for the future. Psalm 9:10 Those who know the Lord trust Him because he will not leave those who come to Him..
Be with me, Lord--I cannot live without Thee, I dare not try to take one step alone. I cannot bear the loads of life, unaided, I need Thy strength to lean myself upon.
Be with me, Lord, and then if dangers threaten, If storms of trial burst above my head, If lashing seas leap everywhere about me, They cannot harm, or make my heart afraid.
Be with me, Lord! No other gift or blessing Thou couldst bestow could with this one compare— A constant sense of Thy abiding presence, Where e’er I am, to feel that Thou art near.
Be with me Lord, when loneliness o’er-takes me, When I must weep amid the fires of pain, And when shall come the hour of "my departure" For "worlds unknown," O Lord, be with me then.
And isn’t that it – our hope in Christ is an eternal hope – Jesus wants you to trust him . Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
He doesn’t want you to be troubled so he reassures us with these truths –
I am waiting for you he says, and have ample room for you – there are many rooms in my fathers house – why does he say that? Do you think Zaccheus had been told often – there’s no room for you here? Have you been excluded, shut out by people… No you can’t come join in – my friends don’t like you, no you don’t fit in, no you can’t be in the team, no you can’t have a job, no you’re the wrong colour, no I don’t love you anymore… some of the saddest words on earth are – There’s no room here for you. it won’t happen in heaven – there is room for all who trust Him.
1Cor 15 ..if Christ has not been raised, then your faith has nothing to it; you are still guilty of your sins. And those in Christ who have already died are lost. If our hope in Christ is for this life only, we should be pitied more than anyone else in the world.
20 But Christ has truly been raised from the dead—the first one and proof that those who sleep in death will also be raised.
Hope is the bridge between what we experience in this life and what we can anticipate in the next. Jesus will reward those who have hope in Him – not just in the hear and now – for this life only, but for eternity. If it wasn’t true we should be pitied for our empty faith – but brethren it is true – Christ was raised from the dead as we shall be – that is what we hope for – for new resurrection – for the moment when we like Zaccheus glimpse the Lord and realize the hope of his promise – receiving a new imperishable body, a place in his house – no pain, no suffering..
There was a hymn on the disc I handed out last year that we didn’t learn because it isn’t in our hymn book – Its called Beauty for Ashes inspired by these beautiful words from Isaiah 61:1-3
He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted..to comfort all who mourn..to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes..and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.
To be crowned with beauty is a familiar idea – but Isaiah’s words echo the Eastern custom of mourning with sackcloth and ashes – also the manner in which Judah would mourn its captivity – something unlikely to happen to us – dragged off to live as slaves in another country...but we all know about being brokenhearted and despondent never more than at the death of someone we love. The hymn goes like this.
Beauty for ashes God hath decreed!
Help He provideth for every need;
What is unlovely He will restore;
Grace all-sufficient: what need we more?
God gives for sadness "garments of praise";
Stars for our twilight, strength for our days;
Hope for tomorrow, care for today,
Light for our footsteps all of life’s way.
Beauty for ashes, gladness for tears,
Sunshine for darkness, faith for our fears;
Peace for our turmoil, concord for strife,
Heaven at evening--then endless life
God offers us a unique hope in the depths of despair and as Isaiah says – those who are his - swap mourning for joy – why? Because in Christ we have hope…there is more than this, life isn’t meaningless, life needn’t be simply vanity – Christ died for us and according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Be patient brethren – he is coming soon.
