Build Your House on the Rock

Introduction

Hearing the words of Jesus without doing them is a shaky foundation for life

internal and external threats

State: Jesus recognizes that we do not live in a world where things are all good by nature. Without the proper care given, we are all in danger of seeing our lives brought to ruin. This is because we face many threats — both from outside of ourselves and from inside our selves.

Main threat — disobeying God’s word. In other words, sin. We live as sinners in a sinful world which threatens to destroy us.

External — opportunities to sin are all around us

Internal — We all face temptations because of sinful desires within ourselves.

These threats are not anything light or inconsequential — that we have these sinful desires inside of us, and that they come out of us as we sin against God in our disobedience, these things will destroy us.

Jesus is teaching us that it isn’t enough to simply listen to his teachings: these are teachings that must become the foundation for your entire life. These are teachings that cannot simply be absorbed like information in a lecture then sorted through and discarded at your whim.

These are not even teachings that become some form of easy-believism. Jesus is challenging his audience here as he tells them that it isn’t enough to simply have been in the audience. He warns them against walking away from that place and dropping the the teachings they just heard.

He warns them that this life will bring plenty of winds and rain, and as they stand now, they have no foundation with which they can withstand them. He teaches them that his teaching is the foundation, but to talk away and neglect the teaching would be to continue to build their lives while neglecting a firm foundation.

Illustrate: If you were seeking to build a new house for your family, you would definitely want to make sure you were hiring qualified individuals. You would want a builder that had degrees in architectural design, who had a lot of experience in the field, who had seen houses built before. You would feel comfortable the more built out his resume was. As you sat down with him he could prove his extensive knowledge about every last detail when it comes to building top-notch houses that will last for multiple lifetimes.

But what if he had all of that knowledge in his head, and then decided not to employ any of it when it came time to build? Would the house still hold up to the necessary requirements just because the builder knew everything there was to know about building a house? Or would it have required him to employ that knowledge every step of the way as the building was happening?

You see, we as Christians need to be careful that we do not become like the builder who has all the answers but refuses to apply his knowledge to his craft.

Apply: Simply going to church, becoming a member, or claiming to be a Christian will not be sufficient as a foundation for your life. There will be many who hear the word of Christ proclaimed and yet are content never to let it affect their living who will, as a result, face great destruction.

The foundation for your life must be just that: foundational. Jesus cannot simply be an aesthetic you wear around — he does you no good in that capacity. Listening to his teachings without making his teachings the core of your life will do nothing for you. It isn’t enough to try and clean yourself up a bit here and there on the outside while remaining sinful and broken on the inside. The teachings of Christ must break through, beyond just being things that you hear, and they must become truths that you live by, truths that begin to direct your entire life.

If they don’t become this foundation for life, Jesus is warning that a great fall is coming.’

Transition: This is the negative half of this text — to hear the words of Jesus and not do them leads to destruction. That is only half of the saying though. We now look at the positive claims of Jesus here.

Jesus Christ is the only firm foundation which cannot be shaken

State:

When Jesus says, “these words of mine,” he isn’t just referring to what came immediately before this. He is referring in part to the entire sermon on the mount that he just delivered, and in some sense to the fulness of his teachings.

Jesus is not referring to any one command or word that he has given, but rather to his words as a whole.

This is what the Apostle Paul would continue to teach in places like Colossians 2:6-7

Colossians 2:6–7 ESV

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

and in Ephesians 4:14

Ephesians 4:14 ESV

so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

The idea here is that the teachings of Jesus Christ, when heard and applied to life, become a foundation so firm and unshakeable that nothing in this world can destroy you. If everything in this life, our sinful passions and desires, become to us a foundation of shifting sands that end in our destruction, the word of Christ is a bedrock that stands true through it all.

This is not simply to say that we listen to any one part of his teachings either. This is not to say that we isolate out the commands from his teachings and then commit ourselves to practice them in isolation from his message concerning the salvation of our souls. Likewise, we do not isolate the message concerning our salvation from the commands that he gives, taking one and leaving the other. Rather, we see that the teaching is to be taken as a whole, and all of it is to be made into the foundation for life.

This is no small word of encouragement to his disciples, for Jesus knows not just the possibility of difficulty in life, but he knows their exact difficulties that they will specifically come to encounter.

I think, for example, of Peter, sitting in the crowd listening. Jesus knows what Peter will endure for his sake. He knows the trials and tribulations coming his way. He knows that on the day that Peter rejects the word of Christ in his life, when it will become something that he believes internally but refuses to act on externally, he will be greatly shaken. He also knows that following his denial, Peter will reaffirm his faith in Christ and continue to live on the foundation of his word. Jesus knows that Peter would face imprisonment, beatings, and character assassination. He knows that one day he will even be crucified upside-down for his faith in Christ — He is telling Peter now that if he builds his life on the Word of Christ, then not even these will be able to shake him.

I think of all those disciples in that crowd for whom Jesus had particular struggles in mind when he taught them that if they found their lives upon Christ and his teachings, then they would be able to stand against all of it. Jesus here is preparing his listeners for all of the difficulties that will soon be coming their way by leading them to the firm foundation, which is his Word.

So its worth recognizing that founding your life upon Christs word by both listening to it and doing it will not prevent the winds and the rain from coming, for nothing will do that, but it will provide the greatest possible protection against them.

Illustrate: Anyone who is a parent here can sympathize with what Jesus is doing here. As a parent, it can be a painful thing to think about all of the hardships that your kids will experience as people living in this world. You hope that they won’t ever have their heart broken, that they won’t make the same mistakes you made, that they won’t bury themselves in financial difficulties, and you do everything you can to guide them away from such difficulties. While good parents can definitely help set their kids up for success, one part of parenting is helping to prepare them for when the pain does come into their lives. Acknowledging that you can’t shield them from it forever, you begin to prepare them to weather those storms that they can’t avoid completely.

In this text we see that Jesus, in his gospel, has made perfect provision for all his people against the storms of this world. That provision is properly contained in his teaching, in his gospel. When we receive that Word, not just as a nice thought but as his authoritative word and as the foundation on which we will build our lives, we ensure that we will weather every storm in this life.

Apply:

What does this mean for you? What does this mean for your faith, your Christianity?

Really, it should mean everything. It shows us that the idea of “easy believism,” as it is sometimes called, is actually a horrible teaching that is doing many people a great disservice. By teaching people that they can simply say a prayer and profess to believe in Jesus without actually following his Word in their lives is setting them up for great destruction. While we might think we’re being kind and fighting against legalism when we tell people that the way they live doesn’t matter, we’re putting them in great danger when the winds and rains do come into their life.

It also should provide us with a new motivation to follow Christ’s teachings. The words of Christ are not arbitrary or irrelevent to us, they aren’t some mysterious sets of busy work just to make your life less fun and interesting. Christ’s teachings actually become to us this unshakeable foundation for our lives.

Would you set your kids up in such a way that they would be able to make it through everything that this life throws at them? Would you value knowing that you stand on an unshakeable foundation? Whatever practical things you do to try and prepare yourself and your loved ones for the future, there can be no substitute for building your lives on the rock that is Jesus Christ.

This is true for everyone — resolve yourself to be committed to his word and to submit yourself to its authority. Believe in the word that he spoke, and treasure it beyond anything else in your life.

As parents, make sure you’re doing all you can to give this foundation to your children by raising them up to know Jesus and his Word that he gives us.

As children, know that it is never too early to stand on this foundation. Jesus has given this foundation to any who will come to him, including even the smallest among us.

As sinners, know that this foundation was given especially for you. Though you may have seen your fair share of storms, and though you may have experienced some destruction already, it’s never too late to begin digging and stand on this firm foundation.

As Christians, do not be content to have the gospel be on your lips; rather, let it be the course of your life. Believe the gospel with your heart, and live it out with your body. Make these teachings more than a ticket to heaven, stand on them as the foundation which you build the rest of your life on. And I assure you, whatever difficulties may come, nothing will be able to shake such a foundation as the one our Lord Jesus Christ has laid for us in his word.

FCF: A life not founded on Christ’s teachings is unstable and bound for destruction

CFC: Christ’s teaching provides a foundation for life so stable that nothing in this world can tear it down.

Call: