Every time I hear the word “season” I think of the song “Turn, Turn, Turn.” It was recorded by Pete Seeger and the Byrds in 1965. The majority of people who heard and liked this song had no idea it was based on the words found in the 3rd chapter of Ecclesiastes, all except the last line in the song “A time for peace”……..”I swear it's not too late.” 45% of the royalties for the song are donated to the "Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions," because, in Seeger's own words, (“in addition to the music”) I did write six words.”
This morning I want you to look around you. Look over this building, and the faces of those sitting around you. You see, this is a different place than when you walked into this morning. And those of you who came into this place this morning are different, because you just stepped into a new season.
You thought you were just coming to church, but you didn’t count on moving into a new level, a new dimension of God this morning.
I want you to look at the person on your right and tell them, “I just stepped into a new season.”
In Ecclesiastes we read the words of wisdom from Solomon, David’s son:
“There is an appointed time for everything,
and a season for every purpose under the heavens:
A time to be born and a time to die,
A time to plant and a time to uproot,
A time to kill and a time to heal,
A time to tear down and a time to build,
A time to weep and a time to laugh,
A time to mourn and a time to dance,
A time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
A time to search and a time to give up,
A time to keep and a time to throw away,
A time to tear and a time to mend,
A time to be silent and a time to speak,
A time to love and a time to hate,
A time for war and a time for peace.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)
These verses picture human experience as a tapestry woven of times. There is indeed a time for everything and a season for every activity under Heaven. Te totality of life is captured here, utilizing the literary figure of “merism” in a series of opposites.
Merism involves the statement of polar extremes as a way of embracing everything that lies between them.
We find many examples of merisms in the Bible. Starting with Genesis 1:1; “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” which indicates that God created the whole universe. Or in David’s Psalm 139 he writes; “Oh Lord, You have searched me and know me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up” indicating that God is aware of our every move. Another of my favorite Psalms, also written by David is Psalm 103 where he writes “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions (our sins) from us.” Merisms also figure in a number of familiar English expressions. When we mean to say that someone searched thoroughly, everywhere, we often say that someone searched high and low.
Merisms frequently figure in the writing of lawyers and are a hallmark of legal style. The two parts of the legal merism Last Will and Testament at one time referred to two documents, enforced in two separate courts: the will represented real or immoveable property such as land and the testament represented all other belongings. It became customary to combine the instruments in a single document, and the name has continued ever since. If you look at ancient Near Eastern literature, this form was used quite often, and Solomon uses it here. It is interesting to note that in Solomon’s list of opposites there are twenty eight items in fourteen pairs – multiples of seven, the number symbolizing completion or perfection in the Bible.
You see we serve a God of season. We see it in creation. God created the four seasons that are based upon the rotation of the Earth as it orbits the Sun. The seasons change as the earth moves, but the sun in our planetary system remains constant, and everything revolves around it.
In many ways we see the signature of the same artist in our lives. Much like the earth, our lives should revolve around the Son, Jesus Christ. Our lives will change, and we will enter and exit many seasons, but the Son remains constant yesterday, today and forever.
Just like we said earlier, we serve a God of seasons. But God doesn’t measure seasons with clocks and calendars, but through truth and revelation. Whenever God gives you a fresh Word, you’ve just stepped into a new season.
But just like our Scripture verse says, to everything there is a season. Every aspect of our lives is as to a season. And there is a purpose for those seasons. There is a reason for the season. There is a purpose for the process.
There are seasons you didn’t want to go through. But through those seasons you learned some things. And you wouldn’t have learned them if hadn’t gone through some things.
There are seasons you’ve gone through, that you don’t know why you had to. But there is a reason for that season.
And just because you are going through some stuff, or have gone through a rough season, doesn’t mean God is finished with you because “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” It’s not just any old work, but a good work. You’ve just stepped into a new season.
This morning we are going to take a quick glance at the life of one disciple that I believe almost everybody can identify with. Of course I am talking of Peter. And Peter certainly went through some seasons in his life.
Change is inevitable. It’s going to happen. We look outside at the world around us and notice things are different today than they were ten years ago, last year or even yesterday. But remember we serve a God of seasons.
Looking at Peter, he entered into a new season when Jesus called him to follow.
“And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” They immediately left their nets and followed Him.” – Matthew 4:18-20
One day Peter was just an ordinary fisherman, until, I said until, Jesus came walking by. And when Jesus gave Peter the word, his life was changed.
Jesus said follow me and I will make you. Peter stepped into a new season, and was changed. He was made into, transformed, from a nobody to a somebody. In other words, Jesus was going to make something Peter wasn’t before. There was more than just a change in vocation that occurred in Peter, but an inward change took place.
The word “make” in the Greek can also be translated “sprout forth”. There is a miracle in you. And the seasons in your life have served a purpose to nurture that seed, and now, today, you have stepped into a new season in which that miracle is about to spout forth.
A new season always brings new challenges.
There is no doubt that when Peter was called to follow Jesus that he was faced not only with many changes in his life, but many challenges. His faith was challenged by stepping out of a storm battered boat to walk on the water. His feelings were challenged when one minute he was proclaiming Jesus the Son of God, and the next minute being rebuked by Jesus, and being called Satan, and having Jesus turn his back on him telling him to get behind him.
(Matthew 16:23)
His humility was challenged when the Son of God, the Light of the World, the Alpha the Omega, the Beginning and the End, lowered Himself to the point of a servant to wash Peter’s feet.
But in all these instances, Peter stepped up to the challenge. However, there is that one particular time when it seems as if Peter stepped into a season of failure, and he went from a follower of Jesus to one who followed Him at a distance. And in the courtyard Peter denied knowing the Lord three times. (Matthew 26:69-75) And that is exactly what happens to us when we step into a season where it seems as if all is going to hell in a hand basket, you feel dry and empty and despite your best efforts you feel as if you’ve let the Lord down and you begin to believe you are a complete and total failure. You are still trying to follow Jesus, but you are following at a distance.
But remember, there is purpose for every season. What Peter didn’t know, and many of us today fail to realize is, that Christ’s love is greater than you’re failures. When you fail to meet the challenge, there is a grace and a mercy that is far greater than your shortcomings.
Now Peter had a choice. He could have done what many of us do today is use our failures as an excuse as to why we can’t continue seeing our miracle lived out in our lives. But that was before he had encounter with the risen Savior.
When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” “But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.”
“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”
(Mark 16:1-8)
Jesus told him to go to Jerusalem and wait, because there was something coming. He told Peter not to leave Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit descended. And there in an upper room Peter and 119 others began seeking God. Having their hearts fixed on one thing, and only one thing.
They waited it out, sought it out, prayed out and then the Holy Spirit consumed that place, in the same way He desires to consume those who get together in one heart and one purpose, who will wait it out seek it out, and pray it through.
In Acts chapter 2 Peter stepped into a new season. The very season that we are stepping into today two thousand years later.
A new season can always transform lives.
Peter was transformed from a fisherman into a fearless man of God.
There are some interesting quotations about seasons of change:
“Sometimes we stare so long at a door that is closing that we see too late the one that is open.” Alexander Graham Bell
“Isn't it astonishing that all these secrets have been preserved for so many years just so we could discover them!” Orville Wright
A new season always brings new changes. “The only thing certain in life are death and taxes?” Benjamin Franklin. Someone else said "Death and taxes may be certain, but we don't have to die every year."
Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
“I have not failed; I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” Thomas A. Edison
“Yesterday's home runs don't win today's games. All ballplayers should quit when it starts to feel as if all the baselines run uphill.” Babe Ruth
To everything there is a season and a purpose under Heaven. God loved each of us before the world was created. He knows us by name. God will always guide and direct us through all the seasons of life. Amen.
