What is Reality?

1. Read: Ecclesiastes 1:12-18

2. About the Text:

1) Most people would look at you funny if you put this question to them.

2) Oddly enough, it is one of the top religious questions asked on google.

3) In response, many would simply say, what I can touch, taste, smell, see and hear.

4) If you look at Ecclesiastes chapter 1, that seems to be what he is criticizing.

5) This book sets out on a quest to define what is ultimately real.

6) The answer may not be as obvious as we think it is.

3. Ref. to S, T, P, O, and A.

1. If God does not exist, then . . .

1) Nothing matters, and there is no ultimate purpose in life.

2) The world is only a vast illusion that will eventually disappear forever.

3) People are just very complicated animals.

2. If God exists, then . . .

1) There is purpose and life is meaningful.

2) The world is a real place where something significant happens.

3) People are eternal beings.

3. The Bible says . . .

1) “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14:1).

2) “Before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever You had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God” (Psalm 90:2).

3) “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable” (Isaiah 40:28).

4) “Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets’” (Matthew 22:37-40).

1. People are eternal beings.

1) We were created to live forever.

2) It is why there is a tree of life in the garden of Eden (Genesis 2:9).

2. What things people do have objective relevance.

1) God is keeping a book.

2) “And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books” (Revelation 20:12).

3) “For God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, Whether good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:14).

4) “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account” (Hebrews 4:13).

3. They will live forever in an eternal state.

1) Heaven

a. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3-4).

b. “Who ‘will render to each one according to his deeds’ eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality” (Romans 2:6-7).

2) Hell

a. “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28).

b. “but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek” (Romans 2:8-9).

1. Relationship is inherent in God.

1) He is triune – The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19).

2) This means the three have a relationship with one another.

2. God made people to have a relationship with them.

1) “And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’” (Acts 17:26-28).

2) “You shall be My people, And I will be your God” (Jeremiah 30:22).

3) “That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3).

3. God made people to have relationships with one another.

1) “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brethren to dwell together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1).

2) “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2:42).

1. What is Reality?

1) God is Real

2) People are Real

3) Relationships are Real

2. Invitation