Christian Reality
This week, I had the privilege of helping lead a preaching workshop on Ecclesiastes with The Charles Simeon Trust, a faithful ministry that has trained thousands of men and women to be sound Bible teachers. We had seventy-two men for two-and-a-half days of rigorous training. There’s a great deal of work to be done prior to even coming. The workshop includes instructional talks, expositions, and small group sessions where we discuss the work on assigned texts that we prepare beforehand. Being among Christian brothers, most of us in the trenches of ministry whether vocationally or not, during the time we often share our joys and struggles and we pray for one another.
What so many of us felt during this week’s workshop is how Ecclesiastes uniquely rings true about our Christian experience. What do I mean? Though the gospel is our ultimate hope, Jesus doesn’t resolve all the frustrations of life “under the sun” by which the Preacher means something like, “life in between the fall and the final redemption that will occur when Jesus comes back.” Yes, someday soon, we will be raised imperishable. But for now, we engage in foolish pleasure seeking that leaves us empty or worse. We seek after security in wealth and in relationships that can’t deliver. We grow old and eventually die. This is all “vanity” to the author. We know that he was a king who denied himself no pleasure on earth. And yet, he describes his pleasure-drenched life as a “chasing after the wind.” Have you ever tried to capture a gust? It’s impossible! So is trying to find lasting fulfillment in a world frustrated by sin!
What Ecclesiastes helps us to do is accept our lot and bear hardship in hope. Not only this, but it helps us to delight in God’s good gifts, accepting that on the walls of the best this life has to offer, the paint is peeling. Ecclesiastes helps us adjust our expectations about life in this world—and in doing so, as we fear God, we can actually enjoy our short stay here, as mixed of a bag as it is. I hope that this little trailer for Ecclesiastes nudges you to take up and read. As you read it with an eye towards Jesus and his work of redemption, you will be wiser, and a bit more joyful as well!
