Matthew 7:24-29
Building your house above the floodplain
Manuscript
Earlier this year Queensland experienced something big. A big natural disaster. What was it? Floods. They were everywhere. We had them in Gympie. They had them out bush – some towns cut off for weeks. And even our capital our biggest city – the big smoke - somewhere we thought immune to these big disasters - Bisbane experienced the floods. Brisbane was flooded. Well – is that quite true that Brisbane was flooded? Well, not all Brisbane was flooded. Actually – only bits of it were flooded, but those bits were flooded pretty bad. And one thing we learnt from those floods is that where you build your house really matters. Those flood charts the council puts out aren’t just a bureaucratic exercise - they mean something! Before the floods earlier this year Brisbane had its large major flood when? 1974. That was quite a while ago. For the few years after 74 people were careful where they built, but then as the years went by they forgot. Yes – there were those council flood maps, but really, was it going to flood again, especially now there was Wivenhoe Dam. And when you looked at the land on lower ground it looked exactly like the land on higher ground. In fact sometimes it looked better because the lower land sometimes had river views. And the Brisbane City Council began to allow people to build on the lower land. So we thought - it must be alright, so people built. Developers built whole estates, and for many years it looked like a wise decision, making the best use of land. Until the beginning of this year, when what happened? The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew, and those low lying houses were flooded. But – the houses on higher ground were not flooded.
A few days after the Brisbane floods we were down in Brisbane. We visited my sister in Yeronga – one of the badly hit suburbs, and then drove through flood ravaged Graceville and Chelmer on the way to my parents place in Indooroopilly. Well – actually, parts of these suburbs were badly hit. And that’s the thing, you could be driving down one street, and all the houses were fine, no problems, they hadn’t been affected by the floods at all. And then you turned the corner, and there was mud everywhere - mud on the roads, mud on the walls of the houses, piles of ruined furniture and whitegoods on the footpath. It was a mess. The difference? A few feet in elevation – that’s all. And all of sudden it occurred to us that those decisions to build those houses on lower land weren’t such wise decisions after all. Because before the flood, the land looked the same. It made sense to build there. Who cared what some chart some council bureaucrat made up said. The land looked good! But then come January 2011 we find out that those decisions weren’t that great after all.
Now 2000 years ago it wasn’t that much different in the land of Israel. Some parts of that part of that part of the world are lush, but other parts are drier. In those parts it doesn’t rain very often, and criss-crossing the landscape are things called “wadis.” Who knows what a wadi is? A wadi is what we would call a dry river bed. That is – it’s a creek or stream that is pefectly dry most of the time. And sometimes these wadis can be quite wide. The land looks fine – if a bit sandy. A great place to build a house, and it’s certainly easier to build a house on the sandy soil which is easier to work with, than on the rocky ground which is higher up. So, someone new to the area might do that. Someone who’s never seen the wadi in flood before. They look at this great land – nice soft land for building on, no rocks or stones to clear off the site, and they build. But the wiser man who knows the area a bit better, he builds a bit higher up on the rocky ground. It might be a bit harder to build there, but he knows there’s a good reason to build up there. Why? Well, most of the time the wadi is dry. In fact in some places the wadi might be dry for years. For all those years the house on the rocky ground and the house on the sandy ground of the wadi will both do quite fine, just like the houses in Brissy – the low lying ones and the higher up ones - who would know the difference? Until one day it starts to rain, and it rains and rains and rains and rains, so much so the wadis turn into creeks which turn into rivers. The rivers rise, and the wind blows and howls, and what happens? The house build on the sand in the wadi falls with a great fall, while the house build higher up on the rocky ground stands strong. Why? Because it has been founded on the hard, rocky ground.
In today’s passage, Jesus closes off the Sermon on the Mount with this illustration. He says:
Matthew 724 “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.”
So, Jesus has spent the last three chapters – 5-7, giving one long teaching session. He’s covered a lot of ground in that teaching and we’ve spent 16 sermons going through Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. We get to the end of it and now Jesus gives us to options we can take. And He compares those options to a wise builder and a foolish builder. Are we building our life in the wadi – or on the higher, rocky ground? Are we building our life below the flood line, or do we take care to check the council flood predictions and then build above them? And what’s the difference between this wise and foolish builder, according to Jesus? Notice that Jesus mentions two things here that the wise builder does. Firstly – he hears Jesus’ words, and then – he does them. Now which one of these two – hearing and doing – does the foolish builder neglect to do? Notice in verse 26, that the foolish builder actually hears Jesus’ words. He listens to them! But – the difference between the wise and foolish builder is not whether they listen to Jesus or not, but it’s whether they actually do what Jesus says!
Now – listening is important. Last week Jesus warned us against listening to false prophets - that is, what we hear is very important. The world out there is full of people who don’t want to hear what Jesus says. And, sad to say, the church is also full of people who only want to hear some of the words of Jesus. Many Christians only want to hear the nice bits about Jesus helping us through life, about Jesus dying for our sins and about eternal security in Jesus. All these things are true, but a lot of Christians only want to hear the bits about us us reigning with Christ, but don’t want to hear the bits of the Bible that talk about us also suffering with Christ. Last week we heard that we need to be hearers of everything that Jesus tells us, not just the bits we like.
But in our passage today Jesus is talking about two types of people who do hear His word. Both the wise and the foolish builder hear the easy stuff as well as the hard stuff. They both hear the genuine words of Jesus. And the only difference between them is that little word “does.” The wise man does the words of Jesus and the foolish man doesn’t do them. We need to ask – are we doing these words of Jesus? You know, as evangelical Christians we really need to look at ourselves on this one. As evangelical Christians we stress salvation by faith in Christ, that we are not saved by works, and rightly so. But sometimes in our zeal to do that we have underplayed how important works are. Sure – works don’t save us, but obeying Jesus our Lord in the practical areas of life are the sure result of someone who is truly saved. And as we looked at last week - whether we do the will of God or not is how Jesus will recognise whether He knows us or not on that last judgement day. He’ll recognise us by whether we have done the will of God or not.
So works are important. But what works? Well as Jesus says in verse 24 the wise man is the one who hears these words of mine and does them. These words of mine. Now what words are they? Well, in one sense it is any words of Jesus, so all of Jesus’ teaching in the Bible. But specifically – this is right at the end of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, so Jesus is talking about His words in the Sermon on the Mount. Now I’ve actually compiled a list of all the things that Jesus talked about in the Sermon on the Mount. And I’ve had a copy run off for everyone, and it will now be handed out along with some pencils. As you can see there’s a lot of things on that list. Now soon I’m going to ask you to have a look through that list. You can follow it along in your Bibles too – which would be great – I’ve put all the verse numbers for everything on the list. There’s a lot on that list, and one of the things we tend to do as Christians is to just pick the ones we like and ignore the rest. But Jesus wants us to do all of His words.
But sometimes as evangelical Christians we tend to concentrate more on the negative commands than the positive commands. That is, we think we are living a good Christian life provided we are keeping good personal morals, and not engaging in the sinful practices of this world - such as not committing adultery, not lying, not hating other people. In other words, that living the Christian life means not doing bad things. And that’s important – that we don’t engage in the sinful practices of this world. But what is equally important is that as well as not doing bad things, that we do good things. Being a Christian is not just about not doing bad things, important as that is. But being a Christian is also about doing good things – being proactive. Doing the positive things that Jesus tells us to do. Things that we have seen in the Sermon the Mount like. Being peacemakers, taking the positive step in reconciling with others. Things like being salt and light in this world and being willing to suffer persecution for it. Things like greeting those we aren’t naturally close to, and loving our enemies. Things like praying not just for our own needs but for God’s kingdom to come. For people to come into a relationship with God through Jesus. And not just praying for it, but being actively involved in seeing that happen. Things like thinking about where we put our money, time and energy.
Does God get the leftovers – when we’ve done everything else we want to, or think we need to do with our money, time and effort? Does God come first? At the Night Service last Sunday night Warren preached and he used the example of trying to fill up a jar with all sorts of stuff. If we fill in the jar with all the other things of this life first - even good things like family, work, study, and then try and put the things of God in – kingdom business - then God often doesn’t fit. Friends – we need to put kingdom things into our life first. Yep – even before these other good things. Now,there’s no hard and fast rule about those things, and of course a lot of them work together – we have responsibilities to our family, to work etc. But God needs to come first and only then should we build those things around that.
In fact, last week we talked about the will of God, and how God has already given us His will in the Bible. Now here’s a challenge: when you make the big decisions of life - who to marry, what job to do, where to live, what business to go into - are you thinking of the kingdom? When you are looking for a marriage partner, are you looking for someone who’d you work well together in kingdom business? When you think about the job you will train for or apply for, do you think of one that will give you good opportunities to share the Gospel? When you think of where to live, do you think of how that will help you and not limit you in doing kingdom business? Even our basic needs - our heavenly Father knows we need food and clothing - but He told us to seek His kingdom first, His righteousness first. And as we do that, then God will take care of the rest. You see Christianity is not just about not doing bad things, but it’s also about doing good things. As it says in James 4:7:
James 417 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
One glance at the world around us will tell us that things are not right with this world. There are wars in Afghanistan and Africa, uprisings in Syria and Yemen, famines in Somalia and Ethiopia, and there are people in Turkey, Turkmenistan, Pakistan and many other places who are lost in the lie of Islam because they’ve never heard the Gospel. Closer to home, there are kids growing up without good parents, there is domestic violence and divorce, there is rampant secularism, our politicians, our big businesses and our unions are riddled with lies and corruption. There is plenty of good to be done to feed the hungry, to be salt and light in our own community, and most of all to be getting the word out to everyone on this planet - especially to those who’ve never heard about Jesus. That Jesus Christ came 2000 years ago with a message of repentance and forgiveness of sins, and that one day Jesus is coming back and that there will be a judgement, and that sin – and the sinners who commit that sin – will be thrown into the lake of fire. But the good news is that Jesus came and died on the cross for our sins to pay the penalty for them – to absorb the wrath of God that was due to us. But for our sins to be paid for, Jesus calls us to repent and to turn around and to start living His way - the way He tells us to live in the Sermon on the Mount and in His other teaching in the Bible.
Because you see, Jesus tells us that one day there will be a judgement. Like those people who built their houses in the sand of the wadi, or on the floodplains in Brisbane. And who for many years everything seemed okay, but one day the rain came, the rivers rose, the wind blew and their houses were ruined. Friends, it’s the same with us. You know, until Jesus comes back, we can build our lives on the sand. We can listen to the word of God, we can read it, we can listen to sermon after sermon after sermon and study it till the cows come home, but if we don’t do it, then we are building our spiritual house - that is, our relationship with God - on nothing but sand. We might get away with that in this life, but when Jesus returns and the rain falls and the rivers rise and the wind blows and God’s judgement comes, will your faith stand? Or will it be like the house built on sand that collapses? Have we built our relationship, our obedience to Christ, on sand – or on rock? That’s a good question we should all ask ourselves, and we should ask ourselves because it has eternal consequences.
Today we finish the Sermon on the Mount. Verse 28 says:
Matthew 728 And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching,
Yep, Jesus has finished His sermon, and next week we’ll start on our five week series on Exodus, and after Exodus we’ll come back to Matthew. And when we come back to Matthew we’ll be looking at Matthew 8 and some nice easy miracles, perhaps a sigh of relief after the heavy and difficult teaching of the Sermon on the Mount. Now a question to ask you, what has your reaction been to Jesus’ teaching on the Sermon on the Mount? Verse 28 says that the crowd’s reaction was one of amazement. Amazement. Why? Verse 29 says:
Matthew 729 for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.
They were amazed because Jesus taught as one who had authority, unlike their scribes. You see, their scribes, who were teachers of the Law, could only repeat what was already in the Old Testament Scriptures. A bit like me really. I get up here Sunday after Sunday and I do not have any authority in myself. I don’t have authority to tell you what to do or what God wants. All I’m doing is explaining what God has already told us in the Bible. If I go beyond that – well then, stop listening to me. But Jesus didn’t just repeat what was in the Law and the Prophets – the Old Testament. He went beyond it. He fulfilled it. He said stuff that was new, completely new. If I say stuff that is completely new, I’m a heretic. But if Jesus says stuff that is new, He’s not a heretic. Why? Because He is the Son of God – God Himself, and therefore – He writes the rules. Friends we are finishing the Sermon on the Mount. I’m tempted to say, “Phew, I can leave that difficult teaching behind me now for a while.” but we dare not do that. Why? Because it wasn’t just anyone who gave us the Sermon on the Mount. It was Jesus the Son of God. God Himself. This is His teaching, and He tells us that if we are wise, we will build our lives on not just listening to, but doing His words. If we don’t – then we are foolish.
We are going to do something a bit different today. By now you all have a the summary sheet I made up of the different teachings in the Sermon on the Mount, and you have a pencil. We are going to spend 5 minutes – please mark where you think you stand on each of those areas. This is not an exercise in self-condemnation, but an exercise in seeing how we are practically going in each area Jesus told us to work on. Mark the sheet – there’s no space for your name, it is completely anonymous and it’s just for you – we’re defnately not taking them up! Mark it, and then after you’ve done that, look back over it and mark those areas you need to work on, and then resolve to do what I’ve put there on the bottom of page 2:
a) Repent of not following Jesus’ way and ask Him to forgive you, then
b) Pray that with the help of the Holy Spirit you can work to improve those things, then
c) Work with God on improving those things in your life.
As well as that, on the third page, there’s some space to list some practical steps to take, to think about how you can prioritise doing kingdom work - that is – not doing it when it fits in with everything else, but making it a priority in your life. There’s some suggestions there that I could think of but of course there’s lots of other things that you could put down as well.
[5 minutes to do this]
Now I’m going to give you some homework. I don’t usually give out homework – so the one time I do please do it! Go over that form at home. Read the Sermon on the Mount again, and really notice those areas you need to work on, and then do work on them, so that on that final day your house will not fall, but will stand on the sold rock of doing Jesus’ words.
