I presented my first Sermon ever today :)
And I thought: Given that I've written all this out anyway, why not just post it up on my blog for everyone else who wasn't there to read?
So here it is :)
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What are you looking forward to?
Did anyone recognise that clip from the Simpsons? If you
haven’t seen it before, basically the story is that Homer Simpson goes all-out
at a Japanese Restaurant and decides to try out exotic “fugu”. Unfortunately,
the chef cut it the wrong way, which meant that the bits that Homer ate were
quite likely toxic. As you saw in the clip, Dr Hibbert makes the grim
declaration that Homer will be dead within 24 hours. Knowing this, Homer then goes about ticking
off his “Bucket list”, scrambling to do everything he felt he needed to do
before he died, from spending time with Bart, Lisa and his own dad, to making a
video recording for Maggie, to having a final drink with his mates, to telling
off his boss. Confronted with the reality of his imminent death and the
realisation that he no longer has the time to do ALL the things he wanted to,
Homer’s life and priorities are transformed for a single day. Until, at least,
the next day when he finds out that he wasn’t going to die. Yet.
People act depending on their situation. If you have millions
of dollars, you can afford to buy a house without thinking much about it. If
you have ten dollars left in your wallet, though, you think carefully before
you spend. If you have an assignment due in a few weeks’ time, you might not
care much about it. If it was due tomorrow though, you’d start panicking and
work up a frenzy over it.
Before the Fugu scare, Homer couldn’t care less about what he
did. He thinks that life just keeps going on and on, and he isn’t really in a
hurry to make anything out of his life. But when he is told he only has 24
hours left to live, his perspective changes drastically. Suddenly, he realises
how precious every moment of his life is, and how much unfished business that
he had in this life, and how much he needs to do before he died. He rushes
about trying to pack EVERYTHING he wanted to do before he died into a single
day. Life has changed; things are more urgent.
What about us? Do we
have this sense of urgency?
At this point, some may ask: “Well, what’s the rush? We’re
not going to die anytime soon! We’re too young to be thinking about that!”
Ah! But how do you know
that?
In one sense, what I have to say today is nothing new at all.
We all know that death is coming – none of us believe that it will happen
any time soon for any of us, but we all know it will come, later rather than
sooner.
On the other hand though, do any of you actually believe that you will die? I would go so
far as to say that very few of us actually believe
this deep in our hearts. King David summarises this condition well in Psalm 39
where he says, “Yes, every mortal man is only a vapor. Certainly, man walks about like a mere shadow. Indeed, they frantically
rush around in vain, gathering possessions without knowing who will get them.”
(Psalm 39:5-6)
We rush about our daily lives working on our assignments,
earning our money, building our little empires, all the while ignoring the tiny
fact that all this can come crashing down in a single moment. We fill our schedules months in
advance, expecting that we’re going to be
there to do those things. As James says, we say to ourselves, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and
such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.” We are
so certain of our ability to determine our own destinies that we forget
that ultimately, it is God who is in
control, not us. How foolish! “You don’t
even know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be! For you are
like smoke that appears for a little while, then vanishes.” (James 4:13-14)
Whether you like it or not, Death is universal and inevitable
– everyone dies. “For all have
sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) And just as all
have sinned, all will die. Furthermore, none
of us know when we will die; in fact, if you really believe what the Bible
says, then we in fact have no control
over when we will die. (cf Psalm
139:16)
This begs the question: In the face of such an immovable and
unpredictable reality how, then, should we live? Should we cower in fear,
knowing that we could die at any moment? Or should we be apathetic to death,
knowing that we cannot do anything to stop it? Or should we be the tragic
romantic and fight against it anyway, despite the futility of it all?
Well, that depends on what you believe about
Death. As I said before, people act depending on their situation. If they are
headed for a dead end, hope is lost. But if they can see even a possibility for
something better, hope can be restored.
Ecclesiastes is the book where King Solomon, one of the
wisest men on earth, explores the issue of the emptiness of life “under the sun”. Solomon demonstrates that if you
take life “as is”, going by only what you can see, touch, taste, smell and feel
– ie from a materialistic World-View - then life loses a lot of its meaning.
The Holman uses the word “futile” as a translation of the original Hebrew word
“hebel”, but it actually can be translated into a lot of other English words
because none of these words really capture the full meaning of the original.
Just to give you an understanding of the condition that Solomon describes life
“under the sun”, here are some other translations of the word “hebel”:
-
Futility (HCSB)
-
Vanity (ASV, NKJV, ESV, NASB)
-
Meaningless (NIV, NLT)
-
Useless (GNT)
-
Smoke (Message)
-
Perfectly pointless (CEB)
-
Of no use (NLV)
-
Mist, Breath (Voice)
-
“a thing that
doesn't last; that which is insubstantial, fleeting; a thing without power.”
So as you can see, Solomon, after searching deeply with his
wisdom, comes to the conclusion that life “under the sun” – that is, without consideration of the immaterial
– is rather empty and pointless.
In the passage from Ecclesiastes that was read earlier (Ecclesiastes
3:16-22), it focuses down on how the issue of Death adds to the
“meaninglessness” of life under the sun. If both humans and animals share the
same fate, what benefit is there to being human at all? Man, for all his
greatness, ingenuity, hard work and skill, for all his depth of compassion,
mercy, love and passion, cannot escape the clutches of Death. In the end, he
becomes dust, just like any other living thing. If the material is all that there is to Existence, then
what is the point of doing anything?
If you come from nothing, have no particular reason to be here, and are going
nowhere, then what’s the point?! That, my friends, is the cold, logical
conclusion of the materialistic, Atheistic world-view. Man, for all his
brilliance, is just dust.
It’s kinda like Maths.
Have you ever wondered what the point of studying complex Maths in
highschool was? You go to ALL this effort to get an Asian Pass in the subject,
and then you barely ever use it again after you graduate. So much work, for so
little gain. ^^”
If you live life with a perspective that only the material,
physical things matter, then how can you have hope? For the very definition of hope is “A feeling of
expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.” If you expect that nothing is going to happen; that after
all is said and done, it all comes to nothing,
then there is no hope. A life without God is hebel.
But what is the alternative?
You may have noticed that today there were two Bible
Readings. These were deliberately put together so you could compare and
contrast them.
Philippians was written by Paul during one of the times that
he was imprisoned, and when quite likely his life was in danger. But if you
read the letter, it sounds like he doesn’t care about that fact at all! Have a
look:
“For me,
living is Christ and dying is gain. Now if I live on in the flesh, this means
fruitful work for me; and I don’t know which one I should choose. I am
pressured by both. I have the desire to depart and be with Christ—which is far
better— but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you. Since I am
persuaded of this, I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for
your progress and joy in the faith, so that, because of me, your confidence may
grow in Christ Jesus when I come to you again.” (Philippians
1:21-26)
It sounds like he’s almost disappointed that, as far as he could work out, he probably won’t
be allowed to die and be with Jesus! Now, Paul wasn’t depressed and suicidal
and wishing that it was all over; he was genuinely hopeful of death. This was because he expected and anticipated
something much better after Death, namely being with Jesus. Elsewhere, Paul says that he counts anything he might
have lost for the sake of Christ as dung.
The only thing he wanted more in the
world than to be with Jesus was to serve Jesus with all of his heart, soul,
mind and strength. It was this that
gave him the fire in his heart to strive with all his might for the glory of God. Later on in Philippians, Paul
says, “But one thing I do: Forgetting
what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my
goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians
3:13-14)
What are you looking forward to? What gives you hope?
What drives your life? Is it the hope
that, one day, you will once again be with Christ, and the deepest longing of
your heart for relationship with God will be fulfilled? Or are you being driven
by finite and “hebel” things like the desire for wealth, comfort, power or
fame? Do you even have hope in your
life? Are you even looking forward to
anything? Or are you just drifting from one moment to the next, not really caring
about where you’re going next?
The fact of the matter, though, is that we are all going somewhere. Dragged on by the unstoppable currents of time, all of us will pass through the Shadow of
the Valley of Death, and after that we will either spend Eternity together with
our Father in Heaven, or exiled forever from His presence. There is no other
option. So where are you going to go?
What are you going to look forward to?
If all you have to look forward to is Death followed by annihilation and non-existence, then the future is bleak, hopeless, meaningless, hebel. But if you can see the Bigger Picture, raise your eyes up to heaven, and see the Great Purpose for which you are made for, to worship and glorify God, then life is filled with so much hope, hope that is absolutely and utterly unshakeable.
Why should I save a man’s life with my medical skills, only
for them to die again in a few years’ time? Saving them only for them to die
again is hebel. BUT, if you put God into the picture, it’s different, isn’t it?
Now I’m saving them so they can live a few more years, so that they can have more opportunities to get to know Jesus, and
so they can spend Eternity with Him. That has a much more lasting purpose.
Why should I bother with making sure that the finances of a
company are in order when, at the end of the day, it will all certainly
dissolve into nothing?! Well, the point is: if you make sure that the finances
are in order, you are ensuring that the company stays afloat, so that people
stay employed, so that families are fed, and so that opportunities will arise
for the Gospel to enter their lives.
Why should I bother with doing well at school or uni when it
all counts for nothing at the end of the day? To do well just for the sake of
doing well is hebel. To do well just for the sake of getting a good job is
hebel. But to do well in order to be more capable of spreading the Gospel, to
enable you to enter into special opportunities to share God’s love with the
world, THAT is meaningful and hopeful, because it has eternal and lasting
significance.
Living in light of the inevitability of Death as the final
and only endpoint is hopeless. Living
in light of the inevitability of Eternal Life is full of hope - not simply because we are alive, but because we will fulfil our highest purpose in existence:
to love, cherish and worship our God. It is ONLY by living and dying in light
of the Gospel that true and purposeful meaning can be found. For Paul, for the
Apostles, for all Christians, THIS is the central hope that drives us
onwards. It is THIS hope that allows
us, even in our darkest moments of despair when everything seems to be falling apart, to say, “The LORD gave and
the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be PRAISED!” THIS is the thing that allows Christians
to have joy in spite of times of hardship and strife, not because God will make
our Earthly lives easier later on, but because HE WILL TAKE US HOME after all is said and done. This is what keeps us RUNNING. As Hebrews 12 says: “Therefore,
since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay
aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with
endurance the race that lies before us, keeping
our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy
that lay before Him endured a cross and despised the shame and has sat down at
the right hand of God’s throne.”
Which leads to my next question: If you are here today and
you claim to be a Christian, IS this
the hope that is driving you forward? Is the hope of the Gospel really the central motivation in your
life? At the end of the day, can you really say “to live is Christ, and to die
is gain”? Can you really say,
“Father, not my will but Yours be done?” Or are you so caught up by the hebel
things of this world, the marks, the career, the retirement plan, the next
holiday, whatever distraction it might be, and find it hard to focus on what your
goal really should be?
If you have been distracted from the goal of the Cross, then
I would like to invite you to come back and analyse what you’re doing, the
inconsistency in your life. Jesus didn’t die for you so you could live a calm
and cushy life. He didn’t die so you could win that game of LoL, to help you
pass that exam so that you can save face, or to make a lot of money so you can
live in luxury. He died to save you from the World, not to
indulge in it. We don’t belong here,
so don’t act like you do!
For those of you who are Christians and already have this
hope, then my message for you today is this: Take heart, and remember what you
hope for. Remember that glorious goal that you are heading towards, and everything else will fade into
insignificance; no amount of pain or suffering that you sustain for the sake of
the Gospel will be in vain. None of it is meaningless; none of it is hebel.
If you are not
a Christian, then let me ask you once again: What are you looking forward to?
Have you even thought about that? Do you know that at any moment, you will be called to account for your answer to this
question? Do you know the urgency of
your situation? Do you know that your life is as limited as Homer Simpson’s
was, except that he knew the timeframe whereas you don’t? The answer to this
question is surprisingly critical and fundamental to your entire existence. It will do you well to consider your answer
carefully.
And if you are here and you aren’t a Christian, and have
already firmly settled on the answer that the future that you are looking
forward to is not in Christ, I have
this to say: I am glad that you have made a decision on this issue, and
appreciate that you have considered this thoroughly already. But can I invite
you, implore you, to please re-evaluate
your stance. You may have found a hope elsewhere outside of Christ, but may I
humbly suggest that the book of Ecclesiastes demonstrates that hope cannot be
found outside of a living relationship with Christ.
And for those of you who haven’t been listening: LISTEN!
Your life is at stake. Don’t waste your life. Christ is your life.
Remember: You can die at any time. You have Eternity to look
forward to, whether it is with Jesus or without Jesus. Live for that Eternity,
rather than the present.
Look forward to Christ.
