Ecclesiastes 3 | How does one make sense of the puzzle of TIME?

Okay.

So, chapter 3. There is a time for

everything and a season for every

activity 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. What do workers gain for all

their toil? I have seen the burden God

has laid on the human race. 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. I know there is

nothing better for people than to be

happy and to do good while they live.

That each of them may eat and drink and

find satisfaction in all their toil.

This is the gift of God. I know that

everything God does will endure forever.

Nothing can be added to it and nothing

taken from it. God does it so that

people will fear him. Whatever is has

already been and what will be has been

before. And God will call the past to

account. And I saw something else under

the sun. In the place of judgment,

wickedness was there. And in the place

of justice, wickedness was there. I said

to myself, "God will bring into judgment

both the righteous and the wicked. For

there will be a time for every activity,

a time to judge every deed." I also said

to myself, "As for humans, God tests

them so that they may see that they are

like the animals. Surely the fate of

human beings is like that of the

animals. The same fate awaits them both.

As one dies, so dies the other. All have

the same breath. Humans have no

advantage over animals. Everything is

meaningless. All go to the same place.

All come from dust and to dust all

return. Who knows if the human spirit

rises upward or if the spirit of the

animal goes down into the earth? So I

saw that there is nothing better for a

person than to enjoy their work because

there is because that is their lot. For

who can bring them to see what will

happen after them?

Thank you, Nicola, and thank you,

Olivia.

Heavy words in that passage. Let's pray.

Father,

your perfect love and kindness have no

end.

Father, you've given us a mediator in

heaven, Jesus Christ, your son.

You've given us a mediator on earth, the

spirit who interceds for us.

We ask that by your spirit, you would

show us the glory of your son, so that

we would enjoy you as our father. Help

us now. Amen.

>> [clears throat]

>> Time.

Time.

How does one make sense of the puzzle

of time?

Verse 11. No one is able to fathom what

God has done from beginning to end.

The puzzle of time.

Imagine if every book you ever read was

missing the first three chapters and the

last three chapters. What would that be

like?

Imagine if every film you watched was

wor was missing the first 25 minutes and

the last 25 minutes. What would that be

like?

That's a bit what it's like for us to

try and understand time. We live in the

middle of history and we don't know the

beginning

from the end. We haven't understood it.

And so we have this puzzle of time.

He

vapor that can't be grasped.

How was your week?

I was paying attention this week. My

week had a whole lot of heel in it.

Let's play a little game.

Do you know the game Pictionary?

Okay, I want you to imagine you're

playing the If you have if you have pen

and paper, you can try. Okay. Um I want

you to imagine we're having a game of

Pictionary. I've got a timer here and

I'm being generous because this timer is

90 seconds, not 60. Say giving you extra

time. Okay? And what I'm going to do is

I'm going to read the clue and I want

you to imagine that you have to draw

this. The clue has to be guessed with

absolute or has to be said with absolute

precision, word for word. Okay? And so

before I turn the timer, here's your

clue. Are you ready? Okay. Going to read

the clue. You've got 90 seconds. Ready?

Here's your clue. Nostalgic trip to the

Pharaoh Islands for a daredevilish clam

digging adventure while vigorously

chewing cherry menthol flavored airwaves

gum. Go.

You got 90 seconds.

What's your response to that?

Your response is that's not possible.

What's the point of trying? Right?

There's no way I can get that clue out

of the guessers in 90 seconds. That is

just not going to happen no matter how

you try. And yet, Pictionary is meant to

be enjoyable, isn't it? So maybe you

should take the 90 seconds and at least

try to have a laugh in your futility.

Why even try? 90 seconds scratching out

this picture that is going to be far too

vague, far too confusing,

far too futile.

That's what Ecclesiastes 3 is like in

relation to us trying to work out the

puzzle of time. It seems futile. And

above all, we're running out of time to

figure it out.

Where have we been? Chapters one.

Chapter two. The teacher has been there.

He's done that. He's seen it all in the

world. He's seen what life under the sun

is like. And his declaration, it's vapor

of vapors. Everything is vapor. Hebel.

Hebel means that you cannot grasp the

vapor. You can't contain it. And there's

three ways in which you can't control

Hebel, the vapor. One is you can't grasp

it to understand it.

Life. Two, you can't grasp time

and control it. And three, you can't

grasp control of your life. Oh, we try,

don't we? But you can't

heel

vapor. And their conclusion is this is a

chasing after the wind. It's like trying

to shepherd the wind. You try to outrun

it. You try to wrestle it and restrain

it. You try to res um corral the wind

and it just cannot be done. And so the

conclusion of the teacher is what is to

be gained under the sun?

Hey, wait a minute. gain.

Doesn't that sound a little like our

series in Luke's gospel?

Doesn't that sound like the words of

Jesus? What gain?

The reason is because the whole of the

Bible is about Jesus.

That means Ecclesiastes

is about Jesus. And that's why we're

intent on trying to walk our path

through the heel of Ecclesiastes all our

way to seeing Jesus.

Last week, Kevin brought out something

that's been very helpful to us from

Bobby Jameson. Bobby Jameson's written a

book and he talks about the fact that

the teacher is actually viewing life

under the sun from three different

levels. And so I'm going to call these

three levels Hebel level one, Hebel

level two, and heaven level three. Okay?

So Hebel level one is the ground floor.

It's living life at the street level.

It's living life where the one true God

is not really in the picture. Oh, a bit

of spirituality is allowed here, but in

the end of the day, this short life is

all that matters at Hebel level one. In

our western societies, the rising of

theme is what we call secularism. And in

a couple weeks time when we look at

chapter 4, we're going to talk a bit

about secularism. That's the whole view

of secularism. This life is all that

matters.

This is the street level. And at this

level, Hebel looks chaotic,

confusing, absurd,

broken,

vapor.

Can't grasp it.

Heb level two. Heb level two is you go

up the stairs to the next level. And

from that level, you're looking at the

same things. But what you're seeing is

that actually despite all this chaos,

there are many good gifts from God that

I'm receiving in my life under the sun.

And so heaven level two is a place where

we can experience enjoyment,

happiness,

contentment,

shalom, peace. Even in the middle of the

vapor, the heel, even in the brokenness,

I can see God's good gifts. That's Hebel

level two. Then he heaven level three

which is beyond the sun [clears throat]

above the sun where we see that God is

everlasting. God is almighty. God is all

knowing. God is the God of perfect

justice and God is the God of perfect

goodness to us. So worship him with

trembling trust. Fear him. [snorts]

Chapter three is going to bring us

through all three levels. and I'm going

to end up at heaven level. Even though

the passage doesn't lay out exactly like

that in Hebrew writing, what they tend

to do is put the meat in the middle of

the sandwich. And that's the way it

goes. Verses 12 to 14 or verse 11 to 14

really contains the meat of chapter 3,

which is the bit we often miss when we

go to funerals and they read those first

day verses, right? They leave out verses

9 and 10, which are key to understanding

verses 1 to 8. There we are. So, we're

going to work through these levels. Heb

level one. The vantage point of time

from Hebel level one which is at the

street level. The first thing we see

here is time. The seasons keep changing.

Verses 1 to8. Look at verse one. There

is a time for everything and a season

for every activity under the heavens.

[clears throat]

Seasons for every activity. Do you see

them? Birth

and dying,

laughing,

weeping,

mourning,

dancing,

war,

peace. And so we see these seasons for

every activity, cycles. There's nothing

new. They all just keep coming around

again and again like the seasons. And

yet we also experience these opposite

activities.

death, birth, we experience opposites,

these repeated activities. And wisdom

involves knowingness,

knowing that there is a time for one

thing and a time for the other, which is

opposite. There's a time for embracing,

but there's also a time for not

embracing. There's a time for tearing

and a time for mending. This is wisdom

and we're we need to try and learn this

skill. What's gone into the past is

gone. So we can see that summer 2025,

we can expect summer to come again in

2026, can't we? Yes, we can. But summer

2025 will never come again. Time is like

a river flowing in one direction

downhill.

And a word for those of us who are

trying to apply wisdom like this. Can I

just say this to you because many of you

are experiencing different seasons in

life right now. Some of these extremes

in the seasons.

Can I say this to you? Whatever season

you happen to be in right now,

it won't last.

There will be a different season. You

will experience it a very different

season soon. I say this for the

encouragement of those who are

experiencing a very difficult and

troubled and dark season. But I also say

this for the realism of those of you who

are experiencing a season of rejoicing

and celebration.

The seasons change wisdom.

Another thing we see here is time the

toilsome burden of what humans do under

the sun. Verses 9 and 10. This is the

bit we often don't go on to read where

he concludes, what do workers gain from

their toil. I have seen the burden God

has laid on the human race or more

correctly on the children of Adam. Did

you know that Adam, this word Adam comes

up five times in chapter 3? We're

glimpsing the garden from here.

What's the point? What's to be gained?

That was last Sunday. And now we're

looking at what humans do. A toilome

burden for the children of Adam. And we

want to remember Eden is in view. And we

hope to talk about this again when we

get to chapter 4.

The toilsome burden of what humans do.

Then we also see time. It's without

without the beginning and the end. It

makes no sense. Look with me at verse

11. He has set

eternity in the human heart. Yet no one

can fathom what God has done from

beginning to end. Without the beginning

and the end, time doesn't make any

sense. And that's our problem.

God has set eternity within the inmost

man of every human. We are all hardwired

by our creator with a transcendent sense

of what is eternal and everlasting.

That's actually beautiful, isn't it?

Within us, a craving for the eternal.

It's breathtaking.

But also, that's a restless and

troubling reality for us because we're

not yet there in eternity.

We have this inescapable craving for

eternity, but

no one can discover what God has done

from beginning to end. It's unsettling.

It's disturbing. It's like those films

we've tried to watch without the first

25 minutes and the last 25 minutes. It's

like those books without the first three

chapters and the last three chapters.

Can we just make an application here?

Can I say to everyone in this room,

stop ignoring the sense of the eternal

and transcendent that God has put

hardwired into your heart because it is

your hope that you would tap into. God

has put eternity in your heart. But

there's this transcendence. There's a

longing for more. There must be more to

this life.

Stephven Curtis Chapman wrote a song

decades ago and says this. There is more

to this life. More than living and

dying,

more than just trying to make it through

the day. There's more to this life. More

than these eyes of mine can see. And

there's more than this life alone can

be.

Eternity.

Jesus came to tell us this.

So, I want you just to hang on because

we're actually headed for heaven level

three. We're going to get there, okay?

We're going to rise. We're starting at

the bottom level, street level. But the

issue here is that time is

undiscoverable. It's uncontrollable.

It's ungraspable. Vapor Heb

time. The third, the fourth thing we

really need to see about at Hebel level

one is this.

We're running out of it.

We are dust. Look with me please at

verse 20.

All go to the same place. All come from

dust and to dust all return.

[clears throat]

Psalm 103 tells us God knows we are

dust.

We need to know that we are dust. That's

wisdom. And this is the big inescapable

drum beat that keeps coming through

Ecclesiastes. All of us are dying.

I read this week very helpfully that

actually we all know we're dying.

But very few of us believe we're dying.

Because if we believed we're dying, we

would live very differently than we do.

Wisdom involves living life backwards.

As helpful thought from David Gibson, we

need to live our lives in light of the

end of our lives. This is Ecclesiastes.

Understand the end of your life and live

life accordingly. Live life backwards.

Here we find wisdom.

We find wisdom in knowing that we are

dust. There's wisdom here for the young

and for the old.

Someone's helpfully said, "Inside every

old person

is a young person who's asking

themselves, how did this happen?"

And those of you who are older, you know

what I'm talking about. As I get older,

I understand that.

And some of you might be here young

thinking, I hear you about time, but I

got loads of time. And those of us who

are older are here to tell you, oh no,

you do not.

You're dust. It's passing away quickly.

Can I just say to those of you who are

younger, thank God

for the graying and balding heads among

us, and you should seek them out for

wisdom because they have lived far more

seasons than you have in life. Let's

treasure the wisdom of the older among

us.

Now, it's key to to mention quickly that

when the teacher here talks about the

death of animals and humans, he's not

saying animals and humans are the are

the same. In other parts of

Ecclesiastes, he will make clear that

distinction that humans are made in the

image of God and animals are not. So

here he's simply making a reflection on

mortality, vapor, dust, dying, passing

away. The spark of life leaves an

animal. It returns to the dust to the

grave.

The spark of love of life also leaves a

human.

We return to dust

to the grave.

Also, he's not teaching here in this

chapter that when a human dies, that's

the end. There's no more. If you look at

Ecclesiastes 12:7, you'll see that this

Ecclesiastes 12:7

this is not the end when we die. And

this is part of the conflict that we all

experience within us. We're feeling

conflicted here. It is

eternity. According to this passage,

eternity is the natural habitat of our

hearts.

But this temporary life under the sun is

the natural habitat that we experience

in our existence in these bodies. So

we're torn.

Let's move to heba level two. We got to

get up. Okay, let's move higher. Heb

level two, the vantage point of time

that's there. And what we see here is

time. Enjoy God's good gifts within

time. Let's go up the stairs to level

two. Look with me, please, at verses 12

and 13. I know that there is nothing

better for people than to be happy and

to do good while they live, that each of

them may eat and drink and find

satisfaction in all their toil. This is

the gift of God. Verse 22, if you look

down to the end. So I saw that there is

nothing better for a person than to

enjoy their work because that is their

lot.

He level two, time. Enjoy God's good

gifts given to you within time.

We can apply this straight away.

You're meant to enjoy your life.

When a person is given good gifts in

life

and they are unable to enjoy those good

gifts,

the teacher will conclude this is a

sickening tragedy.

It is a dreadful state of affairs. Read

chapter 5, chapter 6. We'll get there.

Can I ask you, do you know somebody that

has so many good things in life and they

just cannot enjoy any of them?

I've known a few of those people and it

is a tragic state of affairs.

Learn to enjoy what God has given you

even through all the confusion and the

heel.

Life can be enjoyed. Labor can be

enjoyed. God's good gifts can be

enjoyed. Enjoy those g good gifts. And

above all, thank the good the giftgiver

for all those good gifts.

Are you breathing clean air?

Enjoy that. It's a good gift.

When you eat that segment of a

clementine and it's particularly sweet

and that flavor just bursts into your

mouth, enjoy that and thank the giver.

This week I had some fresh strawberries

with some yogurt and some granola.

Just enjoy it and thank the giver.

This week I'm thankful for birds.

I like walking. I love birds. I am not a

bird scientist. I probably wish I was,

but I'm not. I'm not a bird watcher, but

I'm just a bird lover. I just enjoy

them.

Birds are incredible. They are a daily

sign of my father's majesty,

creativity,

design,

beauty, knowledge, wisdom, and power as

the creator. Birds are these living,

organic,

self fueling flying machines.

It's remarkable.

They have such agility and capability.

They're marvelously and meticulously

engineered in such a delicate way. They

can do things that human engineered

flying machines can't do at all.

They can reproduce life.

But you know, this week I just enjoyed

Oh, do they sing?

As I was walking along, I was like, "How

many birds can I hear?" And I just

realized there's no way you could count.

Hundreds, thousands in the trees. How

many varieties of birds? I'm not a bird

watcher. I don't know. But let's say

dozens

enjoy God's good gifts. So music and

singing,

sport, education,

employment, art, these are good gifts

from God. Learn to enjoy them at Hebel

level two. We need to learn about this

level. Can I just put a little asterisk

there and say we must not Romans 1

exchange the gifts for the giver. We

must through the gifts continue to give

thanks to the giver and worship him.

Otherwise we end up in idolatry.

Then let's move up to heaven level

three. Let's get there. The vantage

point of time from heaven level three.

Life viewed from beyond the sun or above

the sun.

The first thing we hear see here in the

passage is time. Perfect justice is

coming. There's a time

for justice. And this is the view from

heaven.

Verse 15,

last words. God will call the past to

account. Verse

17. I said to myself, God will bring

into judgment both the righteous and the

wicked. And there will be a time for

every activity, a time to judge every

deed.

Justice

from the perspective of the heaven level

view of what's going on down here under

the sun, justice is good news.

Justice is something we should enjoy.

When you see the terrible injustices in

the news,

when you read your evening echo and you

see that someone has done something

destructive and devious in our city.

When you know someone who's done

something and it seems they've got away

with it.

When you see corruption and wickedness

and greed and exploitation and it's in

the justice system and in the government

or some other authority figure, justice

is good news. Remember this. God

will

call the past to account.

heaven level view.

As Christians, if you're a Christian, we

long for things to be made new. All

things made new. But all things cannot

be made new until Jesus comes as the

judge and rules with perfect justice and

all the past wrongs are brought to

account.

I know there's too many here in our

congregation

have suffered abuse in their past.

It's an absolutely horrific tragedy that

things like this were done to so many of

you. Should never happen.

But I want you to know this. If you are

someone who has been abused in your

past,

good news. God will call the past to

account.

And as his church, we must not tolerate

abuse. Abuse needs to be stopped.

Did you know there's a worship song

actually written as a song of worship

from the perspective of someone who's

been abused? It's called We Long for

That Day by Saul Fen.

It says these words, "God will judge

this world so full of evil and bring

each work of darkness into light.

On that day, his enemies will tremble

when our king returns in glorious might.

Finally, oppression will be over.

Secret acts of cruelty made known.

Nowhere left to hide for the abuser.

Every deed laid bare before the throne.

We long for that day when Jesus comes

again.

When sorrow and pain will all come to an

end.

and justice is done and evil cast away.

Oh, may we all be found in Christ that

day. We can worship God because of his

perfect justice. Know this good news.

God will judge the with the wicked. He

will do so in his perfect time. He waits

patiently for sinners to repent. He

waits patiently for us to repent. Are

you repenting?

But there's also bad news in this

justice piece. 2 Corinthians 5 says we

must

all

appear before the judgment seat of

Christ.

We need to see I need to see that I am

among those who've committed grave

injustices and wrongs against God in

rebellion and against others.

And God will call the past to account.

You and I will not get away with the

wrongs we have done. There is a time for

justice. And this brings us into the

place where we can really enjoy God's

great gift.

The cross

of Jesus,

the place where perfect justice occurs.

Jesus took our iniquities, our

rebellion, our sin on himself and said,

"Punish me. Let the wrath fall on me

instead of on them.

I will be the substitute who will take

the place of my people so that perfect

justice for their wrongs is served and

they can go free." Enjoy God's good

gift.

The day of justice will bring trembling,

but the day of justice must also be

celebrated.

God will call the past to account.

Know this,

enjoy it,

celebrate it,

tremble and trust. But above all,

believers enjoy Jesus and his cross

where perfect justice for us was

satisfied.

Hallelujah.

There's another aspect of time at the

heaven level

and it's this. God is the beginning and

the end of time. Fear him. Look at verse

11 with me. He has made everything

beautiful in his time. He has also set

eternity in the hearts in the human

heart. Yet no one can fathom what God

has done from beginning to end. Then

verse 14, I know that everything God

does will endure forever.

Nothing can be added to it and nothing

taken from it. God does it so that

people will fear

him.

The teacher discovers that time has one

maker and one master.

God created time. He understands time

from beginning to end with and he rules

over time with absolute precision and

absolute perfection. Our problem is we

can't grasp time and control it, can we?

We'll never master it. But God is the

master of time, and nothing can ever

change or thwart his plans within time.

We try as humans to do our things, but

God reigns over time.

But why does God reign over time? Verse

14,

he does this

so that people, the children of Adam,

will fear him.

He does this so that people will fear

him.

God works in time so that we would

worship him and glorify him and tremble

and trust before him. Fear him.

My time is not primarily about me. It's

about him.

When I try to make his big story all

about myself, it is never going to make

sense.

This is why time is such a puzzle for

us.

There's a contrast in this passage.

There's the things humans do in time

and the conclusion of the teacher is

what's the point? What's to be gained?

And then there's the thing go things God

does in time and they are beautiful.

They're everlasting.

They're purposeful. They're

unchangeable.

And so we trust him. What's the point

that we would fear him? And I've been

very helped with this idea. What is the

fear of the Lord? It consists of

trembling

trust.

So I tremble before God because I am

weak

and he is overwhelmingly almighty.

So I tremble. But I also tremble before

God because he is the holy God of

perfect justice.

And I am unholy and I've committed so

many injustices.

So I tremble. But that's not all. I

tremble and I trust him.

I trust him. He is the God who speaks

the truth and who loves me and who gave

his one and only son for me. And so I

put my trust in him. I have no other

hope but him. He is my life. My life is

all about him. And so he calls me to

this trembling trust. What is God doing

in time? He's calling people to fear him

in trembling trust before him.

So what are we going to do about all

this? Ecclesiastes 3 and time. How do we

make sense of the puzzle of time?

Well, the truth is we look to the one,

the only one who can make sense of it

for us because we can't work it out

ourselves. We're too weak to. We're

we're passing away too quickly.

We can't get there.

Time is passing.

So, a couple of just a couple things.

One of them I've already mentioned by

way of how we should apply this one,

enjoy God's good gifts.

That lovely crunchy apple, your family,

a sunset, a job well done, your next

meal. Just enjoy them.

and thank God the giver of good things.

I think we need to learn to live a lot

better at heel level two.

But let's not forget that he's raising

us up to a heavenward perspective.

Heaven level three.

And what I would say is from that

perspective,

we need to enjoy God's greatest gift.

That's the main application. Enjoy God's

greatest gift. Listen to these words.

When the fullness of time

had come,

God sent forth his son,

born of a woman, [clears throat]

born to redeem. Galatians 4:es 4 and 5.

We have a reason for confidence in

relation to time. The timeless son of

God

took on humanity

came down into our heel existence.

Lived life under the sun within the

frustrations of time on this in this

world.

And he did this so that he could rescue

us from the clutches of that great

enemy, death. Because that's our

problem.

He died in our place so that justice

would be done for our sins. And that's

not all. He rose again to show us that

life under the sun is not all there is

to be lived. It doesn't get the last

word.

Jesus is the center of the whole story

of all human life. He started it all. He

finishes it all. In Revelation 1, we

have this revelation of who Jesus is.

And Jesus says, "I am the living one. I

was dead, but now I am alive forever and

ever." And listen, I hold the keys

to death

and Hades, the grave.

I'm the living one forever.

Jesus,

we hear later in Revelation, is the

alpha and the omega, which is our

version of the A to the Zed.

He's the beginning and the end.

And so, you need to know the one who

holds the keys of death and the grave.

You need to know him. And Jesus is the

one, the only one who can unlock the

puzzle of time for us. It's through him

that we begin to understand that he is

the beginning and the end who also took

on humanity to be among us so that we

could be his.

Why did he come? He came so that whoever

believes in him will not perish but have

everlasting

life.

What was his message? His message sound

a lot like the teacher. What's the

point? What's to be gained if you gain

the whole world yet you forfeit your

eternal soul? God has set eternity in

your heart.

Jesus is the key to the puzzle of time

and only he can help us make sense of

time.

Can I ask you

you personally?

Have you ever come to him

in trembling trust?

Are you trembling and trusting him

today? The master of time, the beginning

and the end. You can't understand time,

but Jesus defines time. He created time.

He upholds time. You can't control time,

but you can enjoy God's good gifts

within time. You cannot master time, but

there is one master of time, Jesus, our

Lord.

Worship him. Tremble in trust before

him. Fear him. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for these words of

Ecclesiastes 3. We pray that they would

point us like an arrow to Jesus, the one

who intercedes for us, seated at your

right hand,

the perfect master of time, who holds

all things in his hands. Help us to

tremble and trust before him. Amen.