Ecclesiastes 9:1-12

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 92
• Hymn — O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing (#164)
• Prayer of Invocation
• Psalm Reading — Psalm 26
• Hymn — I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord (#353)
• Pastoral Prayer
• Scripture Reading — Ecclesiastes 9:1-12
• Sermon
• Hymn — The Sands of Time Are Sinking (#546)
• Benediction — 2 Corinthians 13:14

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Sermon Title: Humbly Contemplating Life and Death Under the Sun

Scripture: Ecclesiastes 9:1-12

I. Humbly Contemplate That Death Is One Certainty of Life

A. The preacher's methodology: laying all things to heart and examining them with humility (Ecclesiastes 9:1)

1. Man's limited perspective means much of life remains unexplainable and perplexing
2. Humility is the required posture as we consider matters of life and death

B. Death comes to all — the one universal certainty (Ecclesiastes 9:2-3)

1. The same event (death) happens to the righteous and the wicked, the clean and the unclean
2. Death itself is presented as an evil — an intruder, not the way things are supposed to be
3. There is no apparent justice in death's indiscriminate reach

C. The living have hope precisely because they can know they will die (Ecclesiastes 9:4-6)

1. A living dog is better than a dead lion — the living can still contemplate and respond to death
2. Yet the hearts of men are full of evil and madness; they live as though death makes no difference
3. The knowledge of death is only as good as the impression it makes upon a life
4. Two questions to contemplate: What is a good death? And what good is death?

II. Humbly Contemplate That Life Is Full of Many Uncertainties

A. Outcomes in life do not always follow expected patterns (Ecclesiastes 9:11)

1. The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong
2. "Time and happenings happen to all" — life brings events that defy explanation and expectation
3. Example: the 1980 U.S. hockey team's Miracle on Ice upset of the Soviet national team

B. The day of death is itself uncertain (Ecclesiastes 9:12)

1. Like fish taken in a net or birds caught in a snare, man does not know his time
2. Personal illustration: a cousin killed in a car accident, unaware his time had come

C. James mirrors the preacher's teaching on uncertainty (James 4:13-16)

1. Life is a mist — do not boast as though you control tomorrow
2. The right response is humble trust: "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that"
3. Neither pride in supposed control nor paralysis from anxiety, but humble, active trust

III. Live Between the Certainty and the Uncertainties

A. A call to live — the imperatives of Ecclesiastes 9:7-10

1. Go, eat, drink, enjoy life, let your garments be white, work with all your might
2. The purpose of Ecclesiastes is ultimately a call to live well Under the Sun

B. The reason for this way of life: God has already approved what you do (Ecclesiastes 9:7)

1. Food, drink, marriage, and work are good gifts from God to be enjoyed, not abused
2. White garments and oil on the head — the opposite of sackcloth and ashes; an overall posture of gladness
3. There is a time to weep and a time to laugh (Ecclesiastes 3), but on the whole there is much reason for joy

C. Jesus embodies and fulfills the message of these verses

1. Jesus came eating and drinking, enjoying table fellowship with his disciples
2. His first miracle was at a wedding, multiplying wine for merry hearts (John 2)
3. He leaves his disciples bread and a cup — each meal is a foretaste of the eternal feast
4. He lived in full awareness of his looming death, and his resurrection guarantees the promised table

D. Every call to eat and drink with joy points forward to eternal fellowship with Christ

1. A table in the midst — we are invited to enjoy good gifts now as a foretaste of glory
2. In the new heavens and new earth there will be no more death, mourning, crying, or pain
3. Enjoying God's gifts now trains the eyes of faith to long for that eternal banquet
4. Life Under the Sun is lived not in denial of death or uncertainty, but in humble contemplation of both while setting the heart on the better hope of the better country