Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
John 5:19-29
“For everything there is a season”
There are some seasons in life which we enjoy more than others.
There are some seasons in life which we hope just never happen.
I have a friend who just loves the Christmas season and if my friend could make the Christmas season last for 365 days of the year- she would.
I love the Christmas season, however, I think if the Christmas season lasted all year, I would probably soon come to dislike the Christmas season a lot- I think the Christmas season remains good because it is a season that just comes around once a year.
There are seasons in our lives which we all have in which we just want to end as quickly as possible, like those depressing seasons. And perhaps why those seasons are so depressing, is because when we are in the middle of those seasons, we think they will last forever…..but friends, let me assure you today, if you are in the middle of a depressing season- it won’t last forever.
Tomorrow is a new day and the sun will rise again.
Look at what the writer of ecclesiasts had to say about seasons.
Look at Ecclesiastes 3:1 with me:
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.
Friends, there are seasons in life, and so we should not be surprised if we have good seasons, bad seasons and everything in the middle.
Because we live in a fallen world, a world that is groaning in frustration due to sin, as Romans 8:20 tells us, we live in an imperfect world, where we are always seeing the consequences of sin, bad stuff happens, like death, death is bad, it is the ultimate consequence of sin. We also see the goodness of God and so all the good seasons are the evidence of God’s grace to us.
Friends, there are also rhythms in life that God ordained and so we cannot expect everything to be the same all the time, and just like Christmas, we should actually thank God that it is not the same all the time.
God actually gave us rhythms in life, which for our sake, we need to embrace.
God created a pattern for us to work for 6 days and rest for 7. There is a time for work and a time for rest. If we just had a season of work with no rest, we will wear ourselves out, if we just have a season of rest and no work, we will rust ourselves out. God gave us different rhythms that are good for us.
God gave us seasons, summer, winter, autumn, spring, - different things happen in these seasons, different veggies are grown in each season, different flowers are grown in each season, some seasons are hot, some cold. God gave us different seasons that are good for us.
Just think about the basic gift of sleep- we need sleep, if we never slept, we would all be lunatics- it is good to embrace the sleep-awake-sleep-awake pattern.
It is also good to know that in some seasons in life you will go without something that you may have in another season. For example, you can’t be both awake and asleep at the same time, you have to go without one while you are in the rhythm of another- and that is a good thing.
Perhaps we live in an age, where we just want everything all the time.
We just don’t like waiting for anything, we don’t want to go without- ever.
Perhaps business people would forgo sleep if they could, so they could spend more time making money. “Time is money is the motto”. Sleeping isn’t productive…
Perhaps more than anything, NETFLIX – (which our household all watch) is the classic example of wanting to have what you want whenever you want it!-
When I was a lad, I had to wait a whole week, before I could watch a one hour highlights “footy” show- at 9pm on a Saturday- our young people would just not put up with that nonsense anymore. They can watch any match highlight at any time they want, at any place- they could even watch 3 match highlights at the same time if they have enough devices.
Friends, not only are there seasons and God-given rhythms in life, but God has ordained all seasons of our life.
Yes, we have a responsibility for what we do in those seasons of life, but ultimately it is God who ordains our seasons- both good and bad seasons.
And so yes we are responsible of whether we remain silent in a season, or whether we speak up. We are responsible for whether we tear down or build up, we are responsible for whether we embrace something of whether we refrain from it, but ultimately all our seasons, all our time, is in the hand of God.
As much as we think we can control the seasons in our life- we can’t- it is God who ordains them all.
We know, there are many seasons in life which we simply cannot control.
Like a time to be born……..we didn’t chose when we would be born, or like a time to die, we should not chose when we think we should die, God decides that.
In our seasons of weeping………we don’t plan to weep, but often we weep because of a season which we are going through.
In our seasons of laughter……. we laugh as a response to the season of life we are going through.
When we think about some seasons that God has ordained for us, we must wonder why he would allow us to go through some of those seasons.
For example, there is a season to kill, a season to hate, a season for war.
No-one wants to go through any of those seasons, and yet when we do go through those seasons, we can be confident that God is working for our good in those seasons.
In Genesis, we read that when Joseph’s brothers showed a time of hatred for Joseph and sold him to the slave traders and practically brought a time of killing to Joseph (at least that’s what his father thought), we know that the time of evil shown to Joseph was actually a time that God used that season for good.
God used that time of evil in Joseph’s life to work out good, not just for Joseph, but the whole world, as God was able to use Joseph to feed the world during a time of famine.
Just listen to what Joseph said to his brothers as they grovelled for his forgiveness, after their father died and God had put Joseph in a position of supreme power.
Genesis 50:20 says: (this is Joseph speaking to his brothers)
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today
Friends we have to trust the promise of God in Romans 8:28, where God has promised that for those who love God, all things (that is all things) all seasons, work together for good”.
However, unlike Joseph, who was able to see in his lifetime, how the evil that was done against him worked for good, we may not see that good until we reach the next life. We may never see justice in our life time, we never see the fruits of our labour in the Lord in this lifetime, we may never see that sustained time of peace in our life time.
Just like Dieterich Bonhoffer who fought against the injustice of Adolf Hitler, but didn’t reap the rewards when Hitler was defeated, as Bonhoffer was executed in April 1945, two months before D- day. He was hung with no official charge laid before him.
The scriptures tells us, we know that one day God will make everything beautiful in its time (verse 11), one day, God will bring justice, one day God will judge the righteous and the wicked. One day Dietrich Bonhoffer will see the fruits of the last sermon. He preached before the Nazi’s killed him, as those lives whom he touched through his writings, will be rejoicing with him in glory.
As the gospel writer John recorded for us in John 5, there will be a day when Jesus judges the whole world. And on that day, everything will be made beautiful, the wicked will be punished the righteous will be vindicated and the glory of the Lord will be perfectly shown.
We all know that this day is coming, we all at least know in our hearts, that there is more to this life than just what we can see. In verse 11, it tells us that God has put eternity in our hearts. We know there is eternity, but we humans just can’t figure it all out, we can’t figure out eternity past and eternity future, and so the scriptures encourage us to just enjoy the time that God has given us on this earth and trust God with eternity.
Until that day comes, when Jesus returns and makes everything beautiful, we now live in a time and will continue to live in a time, where justice and wickedness, exist side by side, a time where righteousness and wickedness exist side by side. We know this truth by just looking at our world.
Look at verse 16 with me:
Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness
There is so much evil in this world and yet at the same time there is so much beauty. We live in a world that was created by God, that was labelled good, and yet it is also broken by sin.
Perhaps one of the most prominent events in history that encapsulated this good and bad existing side by side, was during the first world war in 1914 on Christmas day. After months of killing one another, the British and Germans had a day of ceasefire. The Germans started to sing silent night late Christmas eve and the British joined in. A football match between the British and Germans took place the next day- Christmas day, on the killing fields of the “no-man’s land”. After the game, both returned to their trenches and fighting soon followed.
There was a place of peace in the centre of war, both good and bad existed together.
When the perfect, sinless man- Jesus hung on a cross for our sins, the righteousness of God was surrounded by the wickedness of man. On the cross of Calvary, 2,000 years ago, the light of the world pierced into the wickedness of this world. That beautiful act of self-sacrifice was carried out by the hands of wicked men.
Jesus was like the beautiful rose amongst the thorns.
When Jesus came down to this earth, he showed that righteousness and wicked both existed on this earth at the same time.
However, what Jesus did on the cross, was to ensure that the thorns would never choke the roses, he ensured that the wickedness would never overtake the righteous, he ensured that death would never overtake life. What Jesus did on the cross, was to show us glimpses of what it will be like one day, when there will be no more darkness, no more wickedness.
Jesus showed us a glimpse of what it will be like, when the darkness will cast away from the light forever.
Friends, when Jesus returns and brings judgement, no longer will good and bad exist side by side, but it will just be good, all the time. There will be no more seasons of sorrow, no more seasons of grief, no more seasons of pain, no more seasons of death.
And perhaps, you like me, find that hard to fathom, because we live in this sinful world, perhaps you find it frightening, and yet friends, we shouldn’t, because this is how God created us to live in the first place- a place where sin did not rule, a place where we had perfect union with God, all the time.
At that time when Jesus judges the earth, and makes all things beautiful, all will be exposed and brought into the light.
But until that day comes, (and by the way, we shouldn’t waist our time figuring out when that day will come) , until that day, how do we shine the light in the darkness now, how can we, as followers of Jesus, be the rose amongst the thorns.
Well, I am going to give you one very practical challenge today, but you may want to come up with some other ways to show peace amongst the chaos of this world.
Number 1- Get into the rhythm of coming to church every week.
It shows people what we value and it is actually good for us, - God wants us to meet together regularly under his word and encourage one another.
Number 2- and this is one you need to keep me accountable to-Show hospitality- Invite someone for a meal once a week. Invite someone who you haven’t before for lunch. Shine the light of Jesus by being hospitable.
If we were able to keep these two simple rhythms in our life, we would hopefully give others a glimpse of what we have to look forward in our future.
Whatever season you are going through, or whatever season you may go through, let me encourage you to keep these two rhythms in your life.
Let us pray.
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