Foundations and Authority
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Building can be a challenge
Building can be a challenge
Play ground building woes. Building on top of clay. If not done right, it can be disastrous.
If you build in the valley, you run a good chance of having foundation issues, but water is plentiful.
If you build on the side of a mountain your foundation will be more solid but water can be hard to come by.
In tonight’s passage, Jesus is coming to the end of his most well known sermon and is about to deliver his third and final challenge as he confronts his audience in thier choice of life or destruction, being known by Him or being told to Depart from Him.
In tonights challenge, Jesus uses a common building analogy. He points to two houses that are built on two different foundations.
In TX one of the biggest issues in buying a home or selling a home was the fear that you might have foundation issues. The frustrating part is, the foundation is the one part of the home that is not seen. IT’s walked on, walls stand up on them, plumbing and electrical can be run through them but the biggest thing is that if your foundation shifts, your house could be in big trouble. You see, in TX, at least where I lived, there was only about 18” of top soil, then you ran into an almost unlimited layer of lime stone. That sounds good, right? Building your home on rock sounds good, well, only if there aren’t shifting plates of limestone underneath your home. The best way to know if you had foundation issues is you’d see cracks in the drywall, or in the ceiling.
This foundation that Jesus speaks of was prophesied about in the book of Isaiah. When the word of the Lord came to Isaiah in chapter 28, God was warning the people in Jerusalem of the same thing that Jesus warns of in Matthew 7:24-27.
16 therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’ 17 And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line; and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter.”
It is this same foundation that Paul writes of in 1 Corinthians 3:11
11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Two Foundations
Two Foundations
Let’s see what Jesus says in tonights passage about these two foundations.
24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
In Jesus’ illustration of the two builders, each house might have looked the same from the outside. The real foundation of our life is usually hidden and is only proven in the storm, and we could say that the storms come from both heaven (rain) and earth (floods).
“The wise and the foolish man were both engaged in precisely the same avocations, and to a considerable extent achieved the same design; both of them undertook to build houses, both of them persevered in building, both of them finished their houses. The likeness between them is very considerable.” (Spurgeon)
Jesus warns us that the foundations of our lives will be shaken at some time or another, both now (in trials) and in the ultimate judgment before God.
Matthew (D. Conclusion: The Kingdom or Destruction (7:13–27))
Jesus made it even clearer that the criterion for a righteous life is obedience to Jesus’ teaching. His righteousness was opposed to the pharisee’s self-righteous works. Note these words of mine (7:24, 26). The possessive pronoun mine is in the emphatic beginning position in that phrase. Jesus was equating his own words with the will of his Father (7:21). Jesus was claiming to have the same authority as the God who authored the Old Testament Scriptures—a claim he also implied in clarifying the original intent of the law in Chapter 5.
Matthew D. Conclusion: The Kingdom or Destruction (7:13–27)
The people represented by the two builders share one similarity and one difference. Both “keep on hearing” the words of Jesus. The present tense may imply that both hearers had been exposed to his teachings. In any case, both hearers were now accountable to obey what they had heard. However, the first person “keeps on doing” what Jesus taught, while the second “keeps on not doing” what Jesus taught.
The first man was wise; the second man was foolish. The first man found stability and blessing in this life and in eternity; the second experienced calamity in this life and in eternity (the rain, floods, and winds can represent both hardships in this life and God’s final judgment).
Notice that wisdom (the rock) means to put the words of Jesus into practice.
Jeremiah gives a stern warning in chapter 17.
5 Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. 6 He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. 7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. 8 He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
“Wherein lay the second builder’s folly? Not in deliberately seeking a bad foundation, but in taking no thought of foundation…His fault was not an error in judgment, but inconsiderateness. It is not, as is commonly supposed, a question of two foundations, but of looking to, and neglecting to look to, the foundation.” (Bruce)
Repeatedly throughout scripture we see God making challenges to be a man who trusts in the Him and abandons his own human logic and sinful ways. To simply know the way is one thing. To merely know that God’s words are a firm foundation are not enough. You have to choose to build your life on them, rejecting the ways of the world and our flesh.
The revelation of the Kingdom of God in the Sermon on the Mount drives us back again and again as needy sinners who are to be pursuing the one person we need the most! Jesus Christ and His word, our firm foundation.
This passage isn’t just about foundations though. Throughout the entire sermon on the mount Jesus is making the case that He has come to fulfill the Law. The Law was given to Moses by God himself and now here comes a man named Jesus who is claiming to be fulfilling the Law, completing the Law?
He’s not ready to fully complete it in His death burial and resurrection, but he speaks here to this crowd with the authority of God. Because He is God.
Look back through this sermon and you will see phrases like, “but I tell you” or “but I say to you” or “Truly (most assuredly) I say to you”. He claims to know what reward people will receive, whether from God or from man.
Jesus’ Claimed Authority
Jesus’ Claimed Authority
28 And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, 29 for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.
Matthew D. Conclusion: The Kingdom or Destruction (7:13–27)
Jesus did not leave it to the crowd to perceive his authority (7:28–29). He claimed it openly. This is quite an audacious claim, unless he actually had the authority to make it. Jesus did not give his skeptics much room to maneuver in their opinion of who he was—he was either everything he says he was … or he was nothing at all. He must be fully accepted or fully rejected, for no “good moral teacher” would say the astonishing things Jesus did unless they were true. Jesus is God’s Son.
His audience could not but notice that Jesus taught with an authority lacking in the other teachers in His day, who often only quoted other rabbis. Jesus spoke with inherent authority, and the authority of God’s revealed Word.
“Two things surprised them: the substance of his teaching, and the manner of it. They had never heard such doctrine before; the precepts which he had given were quite new to their thoughts. But their main astonishment was at his manner: there was a certainty, a power, a weight about it, such as they had never seen.” (Spurgeon)
Matthew E. The Crowd Recognizes the King’s Authority (7:28–29)
This is the only one of five discourses Matthew recorded in which he commented on the crowd’s response. This does not mean that this discourse was unique, for Matthew continued to use the same word of the crowds response to Jesus’ teaching in a more general way (13:54; 19:25; 22:33). Most likely, he wanted his readers to understand that the crowd had this kind of response to Jesus’ teaching wherever he went and whatever he taught.
Both the content and manner of Jesus’ teaching were overwhelming. Unlike other teachers, he taught with authority (7:29). Unlike them, he did not cite other authorities—only his own and his Father’s. And it was he alone who decided who would enter the kingdom and on what basis they would do so—through a personal relationship with God.
4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
What are you building your life on? Is it the rock of Jesus and Him crucified? Or is it on the shifting sand of the world?
Look at the rest of the story in Isaiah 28.
14 Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers, who rule this people in Jerusalem! 15 Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have an agreement, when the overwhelming whip passes through it will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter”; 16 therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’ 17 And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line; and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter.” 18 Then your covenant with death will be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand; when the overwhelming scourge passes through, you will be beaten down by it. 19 As often as it passes through it will take you; for morning by morning it will pass through, by day and by night; and it will be sheer terror to understand the message.
The world has made a covenant with death, lies and falsehood. Jesus is the tested, precious cornerstone, our sure foundation. What are you basing your life on today? I pray that it is the very words of Jesus!
Let’s pray.