Sermon Tone Analysis

There’s a well-known story I want to tell you this morning about authority.

Now, this story may or may not be true; I was unable to find the original source, so I can’t confirm whether it really happened or it’s just a good story.

It’s a favorite story of motivational speakers and leadership consultants, and it’s been used as a sermon illustration by so many preachers that I’ve concluded it must be a requirement of pastors to use this story at least once in their ministries.

So, in order to meet the apparent requirement — and because it illustrates so well what we’ll be talking about today as we conclude our study of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount — I will share it with you now.

A U.S. battleship had been at sea on training maneuvers with its squadron during heavy weather for several days, when, one night, with patchy fog all around them and low visibility, the officer who was on watch on the bridge saw a light shining in the distance.

“Light, bearing on the starboard bow,” he reported to the captain.

“Is it steady or moving astern?” the captain asked.

“Steady, Captain.”

That meant the battleship was on a collision course with whatever ship the light belonged to.

The captain called to the signalman, "Signal that ship: 'We are on a collision course, advise you change course twenty degrees.'"

Back came the signal, "Advisable for you to change course twenty degrees."

The captain said, "Send: "I'm a captain, change course twenty degrees.'"

"I'm a seaman second-class," came the reply.

"You had better change course twenty degrees."

By that time the captain was furious.

He growled at the signalman, "Send: 'I'm a battleship.

Change course twenty degrees.'"

Back came the flashing light, "I'm a lighthouse."

So, the battleship changed its course 20 degrees.

Whether or not this is a true story, you can see why its such a popular one to share in leadership seminars and the like.

And the moral is clear: When someone speaks with authority, there can be grave consequences for not following their directions.

And, as we turn to the last section of the Sermon on the Mount, beginning in Matthew 7, verse 24, we’ll see today that Jesus both spoke with authority and called for obedience from his listeners then and from us now.

Let’s read this passage together, and then we’ll talk about these closing words of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount.

Now, this is the fourth set of choices Jesus has talked about in His conclusion to the Sermon on the Mount.

He talked about the narrow and wide gates in the passage we studied three weeks ago.

He talked about the good tree and the bad tree in the passage we studied two weeks ago.

He talked about the true claim and the false claim in last week’s passage.

And in today’s passage, He talks about the strong foundation and the weak foundation.

As you can see, in every case, there are only two choices.

You see, the gospel IS exclusive, and that’s one of the things the world hates about it.

The world wants you to believe that all roads lead to heaven, that as long as you’re a good person (whatever that means), you will find, as one of my friends put it the other day, enlightenment.

But Jesus said that the gate is small and the road is narrow that leads to eternal life, but the road is broad and the gate wide that leads to destruction.

The world wants you to believe that everyone who says nice, Christian-y things about Jesus teaches truth.

But Jesus said a bad tree cannot produce good fruit, and the bad trees will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

Many in the Christian world want to believe that they’ve been saved because of some prayer they recited or because they were baptized or because they’ve been in church all their lives or even because of all the Christian work they have done.

But Jesus said “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for THEIRS is the kingdom of heaven.”

In other words, blessed are those who understand that they are spiritually bankrupt and have no righteousness of their own that would put God in their debt.

And Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.”

The world says it doesn’t matter how you respond to Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount.

Actually, what the world often says is that Jesus was a great moral teacher, and this sermon includes some fine moral lessons.

But Jesus said He is the authoritative judge who will decide who is able to enter the kingdom of heaven, and He said only those whose righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees of His time will be admitted into His kingdom.

The others, He said, will be like the foolish man who built his house on the sand, and great was its fall when the rains fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house.

In this week’s passage, there is a wise man and a foolish man, and I want you to note that both of them heard Jesus’ words.

They both heard what He taught.

They both had that first element of faith that I talked about last week, notitia.

They had the information He had presented.

Perhaps you do, as well.

Perhaps you’ve been in the church all your life, and you’ve heard all the Bible stories.

Maybe you’ve heard that Jesus is the Son of God.

Maybe you’ve heard that you are a sinner, separated by your sins from fellowship with the God who created you in His own image for fellowship with Him.

Maybe you’ve heard that Jesus came to earth to live a sinless life as a man so that when He sacrificed Himself on a cross, bearing the weight of and the guilt for all of your sins and mine, he could endure the just penalty for rebellion against God so that we would not have to do so.

Maybe you’ve heard that His resurrection on the third day was evidence that God had accepted His sacrifice on our behalf as full payment for our sins against Him.

Maybe you’ve heard that those who put their faith in Jesus and His sacrifice will be saved and have eternal life — life in everlasting and perfect fellowship with the Father and the Son in the kingdom of heaven.

Are you, then, the wise man or the foolish man from this parable of Christ that we read just a few minutes ago?

There’s no way to know.

Remember, the wise man and the foolish man both had the information.

They both had notitia.

But remember that there was a second element of saving faith that we talked about last week — assensus, or agreement.

And you may recall that, as we talked about the two claims last week, we concluded that the question whose answer will matter when each of us stands before Jesus’ throne of judgment in heaven will not be, “Do you know Jesus?” but rather “Does Jesus know you?”

Jesus talked about two groups in verses 21-23, and both of them called Him “Lord, Lord,” so they both recognized Him as the King and rightful Judge.

And one of those groups even described all the work they had done “in His name,” so they agreed that His name is powerful and authoritative.

But only one of those groups will enter the kingdom of heaven.

To the other group, Jesus will say, “I never knew you; depart from Me.

I think there is a parallel between that passage and today’s passage.

Both the wise man and the foolish man seem to have built houses that probably looked beautiful and strong to anyone passing by.

Maybe, just like those who would say that the Sermon on the Mount is simply a great moral code, they took the moral lessons Jesus taught here and applied them to their lives.

Perhaps they agreed that this code of conduct Jesus had presented made sense and might even make the world a better place.

If you do that, you will, indeed, appear to be enlightened.

If you pursue peace; look for ways to make things right in the world; control your anger; renounce lust; love your spouse; live authentically, honestly, and generously; love your enemies; give to the poor and fast and pray, then you will have built a beautiful house, indeed.

You will have that second element of saving faith, assensus or agreement.

You will have shown that you agree with Jesus that this is the way people are supposed to live.

Both of the men in this parable of warning heard what Jesus said, and they both built houses, and to the casual bystander, both houses looked beautiful and strong.

But what was the difference?

One had a foundation on the rock, and the other was simply built on the sand.

I can imagine that the one who built on the sand must have looked at his finished house and marveled at how good a job he had done.

How many hours must he have spent squaring all the corners and cutting all the fine details of the trim and staining the deck.

And yet, when the trial of the storm came — that great trial of judgment before the throne of Christ — the house fell, and great was its fall.

It was utterly destroyed.

His beautiful house had been built without a foundation, and the storm of Christ’s judgment revealed all those beautiful works for what they were — an assemblage of sticks that could not weather the storm.

But then there’s the wise man, who built his house upon the rock.

It’s interesting to think about what his house might have looked like.

Maybe it was just as beautiful as the foolish man’s house.

Maybe he had been just as careful as the foolish man to square his corners and cut out the fine details of the trim and even stain the deck.

That’s certainly the proper way to build a house, and as we peel back the metaphor that Jesus used in this parable, we can see that living the way Jesus described in this Sermon on the Mount is the proper response for those who call Him their king.

To act on Jesus’ words is to, as Matthew Henry put it, “conscientiously ... abstain from the sins that he forbids, and to perform the duties that he requires.

Our thoughts and affections, our words and actions, the temper of our minds, and the tenour of our lives, must [conform] to the gospel of Christ; that is the doing he requires.”

[Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1994), 1647.]

But what’s really interesting to me is that the wise man’s house did not weather the storm of Christ’s judgment because of how well it was built.

No, the wise man’s house stood through the storm because of the foundation upon which it had been built.

Maybe he didn’t stain the deck.

Maybe all the light switches, like in the house my father built, were installed upside down.

Maybe the paint was peeling and the corners were out of square.

Maybe he never conquered anger or lust in his life.

Maybe he wasn’t as generous as he should have been.

Maybe he forgot to fast and pray.

All those things will have an effect on the rewards he will receive in heaven, because they will reveal that he loved something on earth more than he loved Jesus.

But none of those things will cause his house to fall before Jesus’ throne of judgment, because his house had been built on a rock.

Jesus is the rock of our salvation.

He alone is the firm foundation that will support your house on the day of judgment.

And houses that are built upon that rock have all three elements of saving faith.