Series: Solid Rock Choices
Who Are You?
Matthew 16:13-19, 7:24-25, 1 Corinthians 15:3-8
On the edge of the Outer Banks in North Carolina is a place called Hatteras Island where a lighthouse built in the late 1800s now sits 2,870 feet farther away than where it was originally built. The original position was eventually eroded away until the sea was next to the light house continuing to tear away at the foundation of the building. In 1999 a crew of engineers moved the entire structure in an impressive effort because if the foundation of the lighthouse was disrupted too much the rest of the structure would never stand. Slowly it was moved inches at a time until brought to rest on a firm spot farther inland at Cape Hatteras.
The Cape Hatteras lighthouse is the tallest in the United States – since tropical storms are common along the coasts of North Carolina, something that high must be firmly planted on solid ground otherwise the entire task of moving it was in vain. As beautiful and historic as the lighthouse is, the storms do not care about any of that or choose not to blow so hard on the weak spots. As long as the foundation stays put the whole building has a chance of standing or sustaining easily fixable damage.
This is a simple principle that we probably learned as a child but have to seemingly re-learn many times over as we go through life – you can’t build something really tall and strong if you put all of the important and heavy stuff on top. The base of any block tower or Barbie cheerleader pyramid must have a solid foundation or else the entire structure will fall. Finding solid ground in a world that routinely shakes and changes – in the financial world it means a place where you can be sure your money will be there. Finding solid ground when it comes to marriage means a spot of agreement where man and woman can be united.
What is interesting about foundations is that you do not really think about them much unless they start to become a problem. And whether we know it or not our life is defined by the things we place our ultimate trust in. Jesus being the savior of our soul is a foundational truth that life is to be built upon – Ephesians 2:20-22 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. The important part of the foundation rests upon who he is – and who he is defines who we are. That is one thing that gets lost in most of what people do each day. All goodness and hope comes from Christ being the son of God, without that not one thing has any real purpose – many of them think they can go ahead and build a solid life without him not realizing their foundation is setting them up for 100% failure.
I. Find the Unyielding Foundation
A. In the Christian world we see the church as something which has been built over a long time.
1. Churches have been in existence and Christ has been preached for over 2000 years. In our perspective that is a long time and much of what accept as common or true is not that clear to those outside of the influence of the teachings of the Bible.
2. Biblical events we read about are a great many years in the past – language and culture seemed to have changes so much but according to archeological evidence and historical record the Bible hasn’t changed.
3. Much of what we do as a church and practices were established long ago, and a group of core principles have endured. The foundations of the church are not of brick and stone but of something harder and longer lasting – something immovable and invisible.
* No other collection of writings has been more scrutinized and challenged than the Bible – and no other historical document has the amount of evidence showing its consistent teaching over the nearly 6,000 years of is beginning in earthly recordings. Seeing a Bible is common in our country – they abound in number most of them set aside and intended to be read but left sitting there like a fire extinguisher only to be opened in case of emergency. Because of the modern skepticism it has been argued that who Jesus was and what he did is more legend than history. Today’s smart people reject him as just another figure in a evolving picture of humanity whose role was once valued but now not so necessary. They believe we have moved beyond our need for religion relegates him and God’s Bible to optional status. What they really want is the foundation of a solid society provided by principles in the Bible without the God to hold them to the requirements. The main focus of the Bible is God’s love through a savior – from Genesis the messiah is promised to Revelation where He is now reigning in heaven until the final moments earth is allowed to continue. From beginning to end the Bible is about who Jesus really is and from this foundational truth the rest of it builds both forwards and backwards.
B. What has happen in history is that countries and styles have continued to change.
1. Which seems to be the nature of this world – things change. In our modern world the concept of change for the sake of change is kind of a past-time, as many in the younger generations cast aside what their parents and grandparents did simply because they equate it with old and useless stuff.
* That has kind of happened with the music in our worship services, the old hymns are looked at by the younger people as out of date and pointless and nothing close to the kind of music they listen to during the week. And I would agree to a certain extent the style of the old songs are out of style, but there are deeper words in those old songs which are worth looking into, and I really like how some of the modern artist take the old songs and redo them with a new style because it is the kind of bridge between the two kinds of music and preserve what I think is the most important part – the words being sung to God’s glory.
2. What hasn’t changed is the supremacy of Jesus Christ and his truth. Styles, languages, technology, activities, all have changed – some have even tried to change the message of who Jesus but he won’t be remade, the truth of him remains when the other stuff crumbles. At the core of us is the singular truth of Christ and him crucified.
Paul took pains to make that clear to the Corinthian church over and over again. 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
3. The message wasn’t the exclusive property of the Apostles, it belonged to all people who would come, this foundation was placed by God – and it did and will continue to be upon the foundation of who Jesus Christ is.
That point is made so directly in a conversation recorded from the gospel of Matthew. And since this is the beginning of a New Year it is fitting that each of us to does a little foundational check of our own about our personal pursuits and as a church. It came in….
II. Response to a Direct Question.
A. Jesus made a clear claim to being the foundation of the church.
Matthew 16:13-18 13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” 14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
1. From this is where our friends in the Roman Catholic church formed a theology: Peter is the rock – considered the first pope and the establishment of Christ’s kingdom is through that holy church.
*And why you will hear Roman Catholics say they are the original church which every other church emerged from, and since they have Peter’s station in the pope being the head then all real Christians belong to the “rock” foundation placed upon him. Without getting to bogged down in the history of it what really happened was a some powerful people decided to step into the role of being in charge of the church and because of the sinful desires of man to control each other, created a system of beliefs which takes this verse and says, see someone on earth is to be in charge of everything because that is how Jesus wanted it, the church is built upon Peter. The problems is that Jesus is the head of the church and never surrendered being in charge of the church Colossians 1:18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.
2. What he was really talking about as the foundation was the truth that Peter had spoken, “You are the Christ the Son of the Living God,” on that is what the church would be built on. What is kind of lost in the translation in this verse is a word play Jesus says – Peter in the greek language of the Bible is “Petros” and later in the sentence he says the word for rock - petra.
*if you know a little about languages then you understand that in languages like Spanish and French there are masculine and feminine words, the same was true of the Greek language the Bible was written in.
So the verse says “And I tell you that you are Petros, and on this petra I will build my church…” why the different words? Because even though Simon Peter will be an important part of building the church, the rock of the church would be Christ Jesus and the truth of him being sent by the Father as his son to redeem the world. So what Jesus seems to be doing here is having a little word game – your nick name is rock but on the rock solid truth of being God son my church will be built.
B. And it fits perfectly with something Jesus said to the woman at the well in John 4.
1. He tells here that connection with God is not going to be based on location or bricks and mortar or a physical possession,
John 4:21-24 21 Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”
2. The big truth there is Jesus Christ son of God, and the church is where the people gather to worship in that truth and with their spirit.
3. This was an innovative revelation to people who counted the Temple or some sacrificial altar as a holy place that you had to go to in order to have a relationship with God.
4. And it also fits with what Jesus said in Matthew 28:19-20 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a]the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” They weren’t required to bring everybody back to Jerusalem to be real Christians, they were to worship and establish their group in the area they were called.
*We get this – in the age of connectivity and internet instant access to information from across the world, there are companies where employees who work together are rarely in the same room and businesses that take money and deliver product without ever seeing or hearing their customer. We do not need location to get things accomplished, but that concept would have been revolutionary for them. The reliance upon holy places and representative clergy to help you contact with God would no longer be necessary on the personal level – Jesus himself was their foundation and they could be confident of being saved because they would know who he is.
III. Simple Reasons for Rock Solid.
A. As life is a process of building upon knowledge and experience.
*At the end of his sermon on the Mount Jesus said this in Matthew 7:24-25 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
1. When I was a kid there was one of those cartoons that played between the cartoon shows – from the School House Rock family which was an effort to make us eat healthier food the put it in slogan, “You are what you eat from your head down to your feet,” Jesus Christ went even more basic and talked about the difference between sand and rock comparing your philosophy of life.
2. What was the basic reason for building on the rock? Because there is going to be stuff you have to endure and there may seem to be things that are solid but only one thing really is.
B. And we must also understand that the church will change not in foundation but in method and manner.
*Like a house that is remodel to be improved or repair or expanded, so is the modern church to be when it comes to methods of ministry and styles of worship. This is possible due to the unchanging agreement on the truth of Jesus Christ and who he is. We may know this in theory, but when those changes to the way a worship service is done or the way in which a church building is used or some methods of outreach are ended and some are started, the foundational truths are to remain. Methods are many, principles are few, methods always change but principles never do. As a group there is something we need to remember about Forest Dale and be prepared when they happen.
1. New people are going to be added. They are going to be different than you, they are going to have strengths you don’t have and weaknesses that you are here to help with. What has to remain is who we are, we are Christ’s people. The church is going to be built because Jesus is going to build it, and we are either on the construction crew or we are in demolition. We want to be on the construction crew.
2. Old people are going pass away. I am not talking about age, I am talking about those we are with for a period of time. We have to stop pretending that we have plenty of time or that people we know are going to always be there. We have to stop acting like they will always pick up the slack or they will always be doing that work. The church is built on people leaving resources and inspiration for those who follow behind. We live true to Christ in order to not sabotage his church by our own failings.
3. And we are building a church that sees Different needs for different times. You see this structure cannot define Forest Dale – our church because we are to define the building, shape the structure to the work of Christ. And if the physical structured determines what we can do then we have stopped building the church and are just erecting a building.
*On November 25, 1895, a cornerstone of ice was laid in Leadville, Colorado -- the beginning of the largest ice palace ever built in America. In an effort to bolster the town’s sagging economy, the citizens staged a winter carnival. On New Year’s Day of 1896, the town turned out for the grand opening. The immense palace measured 450 x 320 feet. The towers that flanked the entrance were 90 feet high. Inside was a 16,000-square-foot skating rink. But by the end of March the palace was melting away, along with the hopes of Leadville. The thousands of visitors had spent very little. (Dan Cormie, sermoncentral.com) This building is a wonderful place but it is a tool of ministry and we are going to meet the needs of our community with it because that is what the body of Christ does. We aren’t going to be defined by bricks and electronics, those things will pass away, we are more than this we are eternal people walking through this life asking people to join us on the bigger journey.
So who are you? That depends on who Jesus is. If he is God come to save and give purpose to even this life then you are something vital to the eternal work of his kingdom. If Jesus isn’t God’s son then your life is pointless – and so is every struggle you have. You will live and die with each day; a good day is a good life, a bad day is a bad life.
If though you do believe in Christ and he is your foundation there is more to live for. But don’t just stay it because it is the church answer, don’t just mouth it here because if you claim Christ then you become like that lighthouse, a help to the world and a warning to the danger. And know this, A lighthouse needs to be near the storms because that is the best place to complete its task. Jesus Christ is a solid foundation because life is hard. But the lighthouse is finds the greatest joy when a boat makes it through the storm without crashing.
