Building On The Rock

BUILDING ON THE ROCK.

Matthew 7:21-29.

In the end, there will be those who PROFESS, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, and in your name have cast out demons, and in your name done many wonderful works?” to whom Jesus will PROFESS, “I never knew you: depart from me, you (all) that work (literally) LAWLESSNESS” (Matthew 7:21-23). This indicates that whatever these people were or are doing is not, after all, the will of the Father. In other words, both the words and the deeds are emptied of any meaningful relationship with Jesus.

Mere profession of Jesus’ deity: “Lord, Lord” - even if accompanied by our vaunted “many wonderful works” - will not fit us for entry into “the kingdom of heaven.” The person who will “enter the kingdom of heaven,” says Jesus, is the one who “does the will of my Father which in heaven”; i.e. the one who, “HEARS these sayings of mine, and DOES THEM” (Matthew 7:24).

What we are looking at in the account of the wise builder who built his house upon a rock (Matthew 7:24-25) is one man’s relationship with Jesus. This man is not a hearer only, but a doer also (cf. James 1:25). That is what it is to build our house upon the Rock (cf. Joshua 24:15). We are not spared the rain, the floods, the winds: but when our lives are built upon Jesus, we are on solid ground (cf. Psalm 18:2).

It is also true to say that the edifice could be the church: for Jesus later said, ‘Upon this Rock will I build My Church’ (Matthew 16:18). On what Rock? Peter? - No, but upon what Peter had said: ‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God’ (Matthew 16:16). The Rock upon which the Church is founded IS our Lord Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:11; 1 Corinthians 10:4).

Conversely, we have the man who was only a hearer of Jesus’ words, but not a doer of them (cf. James 1:22). Jesus likened this man to a foolish builder, who built his house upon the sand (Matthew 7:26-27). Faced with the same rain, floods and winds his work did not endure, but at last came tumbling to the ground: “and great was the fall of it,” Jesus punctuates!

“And when Jesus had ended these sayings, the PEOPLE were astonished at His teaching: for He taught them as One having authority, and not as the scribes” (Matthew 7:28-29).

Why the reaction? Well, the scribes used to teach on the authority of others, as in ‘Rabbi A. said that Rabbi B. said that Rabbi C. was of the opinion that (this Scripture) means this or that’; but Jesus taught them as One having His own authority!

Jesus has authority to pronounce who are the blessed (Matthew 5:3-11). Jesus even dares to suggest that His disciples will be persecuted ‘for my sake’ (Matthew 5:11). Jesus pronounces His disciples to be ‘salt of the earth’ and ‘light of the world’ (Matthew 5:13-14). In a daring claim, Jesus announces that ‘I have come’ (inferring the incarnation) to FULFILL the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 5:17). He also goes one better than the ‘Thus says the LORD’ of the Old Testament prophets, to ‘I say unto you’ (Matthew 5:20, etc).

Furthermore, in our present passage, Jesus owns the title “Lord, Lord”, thereby identifying Himself with the LORD God (Matthew 7:21). And in this context too, He announces Himself as the Judge of all the earth (Matthew 7:23).

To build our lives on anything less than a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ is the very height of madness. The alternative is to be disowned forever (Matthew 7:23).