Christ: Rejected and Chief

Christ the rock of our foundation

Matthew 7:24-27 English Standard Version (Chapter 7)

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 this story we talk of two men. One is wise and one is foolish. Their action of doing the words of Christ is compared to the foundations of their homes. The wise one builds their house on a firm foundation. The other builds his house on sand. He does not DO the things that Christ has said.

Note the similarities between the two men. Both built their house. Both heard truth. We can presume that both resided in their homes for some time. Their houses may have been lovely. There was nothing noticeably different about the homes from the external view. Yet there was going to be an inevitable disaster.

When I lived in Noel, we lived in the parsonage. It was a fairly plain brick house. Next to us was a wooden home where it had been for many many years. From the outside, there wasn’t any real differences. Both had families that lived in them. Both had cars parked in front. Both had grass surrounding them that needed mowed. Yet under the surface, there was a drastic difference. Our house was built on a foundation make of concrete. The neighbors house had nooo foundation. When I say none, I mean it. It was literally built on upon a couple of timbers that been laid on the ground. It was laid on wood. You had dirt… then wood.... That was your house. I’m sure that it was decorated nicely. It was well maintained. Yet there was an issue. The rains came. Rain will always come. Winds blew. Wind will always blow. The wood became wet. The wood deteriorated. No matter how much work a person had done to that house, it could not stop the inevitable. The house was going to fall eventually because the foundation was not secure.

This fits in with our understanding of salvation. Over and over in Scripture we see the same thing said. Repent and Believe… Repent and Believe.... We know that we are saved through faith. We in no way bring anything to our salvation other than the sin that made it necessary. We are not righteous, but Christ is. Our hope is in the righteousness of Christ. So we have faith. However, we can not leave repentance out of the equation. Christ is not our savior if we have nothing to be saved from. Our sin is the issue that requires the blood of Christ. As the Gospel of Mark states… The kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel. Therefore, the person who hears the words of Christ and does not DO them is filled with knowledge but no repentance. There is no salvation for they feel there is nothing to be saved from. The blood shed on the cross is an intellectual curiosity and serves no real purpose if I do not understand that THAT blood was shed to cover MY sin…

The Getty’s have a beautiful hymn entitled Christ our Hope in Life and Death. It asks, “Who holds our days within his hand? What comes, apart from his command? And what will keep us to the end?” The answer is given, “The love of Christ in which we stand.” The foundation that we have in Christ is secure and strong. It will endure. It is our hope and our joy.

Yet we know that many will not rely on that foundation. That isn’t a surprise. There are many instances in Scripture comparing Christ to a rock. They show a rock that is rejected and despised.Reasons for our stumbling

Christ the rejected one

Isaiah 8:11-15 English Standard Version (Chapter 8)

11 For the LORD spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying: 12 “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. 13 But the LORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. 14 And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 15 And many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.”

The setting of this passage is Isaiah warning God’s people to be not be afraid of a coming invasion by Assyria. There are reminders that they are to look to a greater truth than the world looks to. They are not to be caught up with the political machinations of the day. Instead, their heart is to be focused on God. He is holy. He is their sanctuary. Who is ‘he’ and ‘him’ referring to? (God) Yet look at the last part of that verse 14. It says ‘he’ will be a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling. ‘ He’ will be a trap and a snare. ‘He’ will be the object that they will stumble on. They will fall and be broken on ‘him’. They will be snared and taken as a result. Please note. It is the same God that is having a profoundly different effect on different people. The same God that is a refuge to some, is a source of offense to others. What distinguishes one from the other? It is the ones that reject God’s word. They do not do the things God has commanded.

The offending action is given in verse 5

English Standard Version Chapter 8

5 The LORD spoke to me again: 6 “Because this people has refused the waters of Shiloah that flow gently, and rejoice over Rezin and the son of Remaliah, 7 therefore, behold, the Lord is bringing up against them the waters of the River, mighty and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory. And it will rise over all its channels and go over all its banks, 8 and it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass on, reaching even to the neck, and its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land

The waters of Shiloah are a small stream that flowed in Jerusalem. It represents the way that God has sustained his people. God’s actions were gentle. The actions of Assyria will ‘rise over its’ banks and destroy Judah. They rejoiced in other people and their actions and not God. They were rejecting God’s word and will experience the consequences.

This passage is quoted elsewhere in Scripture. Christ is displayed as a ‘stone of stumbling’ and a ‘rock of offense’ in I Peter 2:8. This passage refers to Psalm 118:22 “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” It shows Christ to not be embraced, but to be rejected.

English Standard Version Chapter 2

7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,

“The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone,”

8 and

“A stone of stumbling,

and a rock of offense.”

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

As a side note, pay attention to the fact that God was the one being referred to in Isaiah. In the quotation in I Peter, Jesus is the one being referred to. This is another example of the deity of Christ displayed in Scripture.

But back to the subject at hand, Christ is being referred to as our refuge for those that believe and a source of stumbling and offense for those that reject him. Clearly, this is spelled out in scripture for us. Lets look at this big picture. You’ve heard me ramble on several times about the promise of the savior several times in Scripture.

Throughout, there is a consistent promise that there will be SOMEONE coming. In scripture, we see that there will be the ‘seed of a woman’ who will crush the head of the serpent in Genesis. We see that the entire world will be blessed through Abraham's seed. We see that the line of David will reign forever. We get details about the location of his birth. We get descriptions of his life and ministry. We get details about his death. Looking at scripture, we get a pretty clear idea that this Jesus of Nazareth was planned from the beginning of time to come and save and rule in glory for all of time.

And in case you had any doubt whatsoever that this Jesus was indeed that promised Christ… Jesus proved that he was indeed the Christ by doing numerous miracles. As John 20:30–31 “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

And just in case you are really kind of stubborn, you can hear the words of Jesus himself. Matthew 12:38-42

Matthew 12:38–42 (ESV)

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

And in light of THAT evidence, we still have a Christ that was rejected. We still have a Christ that was led to the cross. It is painful that Jesus was treated in such a way. It is somehow worse that it was the religious leaders that drove the rejection and ultimate execution of Jesus. They were in the clearest position to KNOW that he was the Christ. Yet, they were the ones that drove the people to cry out ‘Crucify him’.

One of my favorite stories about this is found in Luke 19. I enjoy it because I see Jesus going out of his way to deliberately fulfill a prophecy about the Christ. He is clearly showing himself to be the promised one in a way that they would have no doubt. In this passage, we see Jesus entering Jerusalem before the Passover. There was a prophecy in Zechariah 9:9 telling that their king would come to them riding on the colt of a donkey. Jesus procured a colt and rode into town. The crowds sang a Psalm about the coming of the Christ. They waved palm branches. It was truly a joyous sight. It is fascinating to see how Christ had carefully concealed his true identity to the masses until this occasion. Now, he is showing himself to be the Christ. In that high point of Christ’s ministry, we see Jesus weeping. In verse 41 it says Luke 19:41-44

Luke 19:41–44 ESV

And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

The people had ultimately rejected their Christ despite evidence to the contrary. There was not a lack of proof. To be blunt, there is not an amount of proof that will override unbelief. Their unbelief would ultimately lead to their judgement.

We are given the reasons why they did so in our passage in Peter. Look at the two reasons.

Reasons for our stumbling

They disobey the word

They were destined to do so

I want you to understand that God allowed the opportunity for the Pharisees to accept him as their Christ and to repent. I want you to also know that the Pharisees were destined to reject Christ. These are not in contradiction to one another. No, I do not understand the greatness of God. I don’t understand how God can be completely sovereign and all man to have free will. I do know that Jesus fulfilled every conceivable test that could possibly be fulfilled in the plain view of men who should have recognized him first. I also know that they rejected him just as prophecy said that they would. To be honest, there isn’t any difference between the Pharisees and ourselves. We are equally in need of a savior. We also have ample evidence that Jesus is that savior. Yet we also choose to reject him. We reject him through our disobedience.

There is something broken in us. We sin. There is not any amount of convincing that can be done to persuade us to be righteous. Simply put, we are not righteous. We choose to be unrighteous as a simple matter that we are unrighteous as part of our nature. It is natural to us. Ephesians 2 says we are ‘dead in our sin’. Can a dead man bring himself to life? If he could, he would be God. If we are not God, then we will remain dead. We, as possessing a fallen nature, will forever choose to disobey God as a matter of course. Our situation is hopeless. There is nothing we can do that will cause our dead heart to beat. There is nothing of our own power that will cause our dead spirit to rise.

Look at this in light of our passage on the house built on sand. We build our house based on our own efforts. We spend time making it in the way we like. We live in it. We may enjoy it very much for a season. Yet we are living on borrowed time. As we have not built our house on a solid foundation, our house will not stand. Our disobedience will eventually cause our judgement. The house will fall because it was built on a foundation drawn from the efforts of a dead man.

The fact that we DO have life as Christians is evidence of God’s great mercy. As the famous scripture says, “WHILE we were sinners, Christ died for us”. He did not wait for our obedience. He provided Grace before it was recieved. He drew us to himself before we believed. I believe that regeneration proceeds faith as faith is spoken of as a gift in Ephesians. Think of the extraordinary consequences of that! God has taken your rotten, no good, disobedient self and loved you. He has drawn you, saved you, sanctifies you, and will one day glorify you. We serve a great God!