Now, while the children are heading to their classes, we can look up in our Bibles, our devices, the book of Matthew.
We've got a couple of readings from Matthew, and then we'll read some more in a few moments.
We're reading from the Sermon on the Mount.
Let me introduce our new sermon series to us.
And we're going to be thinking about parables with purpose.
So some of the stories that Jesus tells in Matthew's Gospel.
So in Matthew, Jesus is presented as the teacher.
And there's five big blocks of his teaching recorded there.
As Matthew invites us to recognize Jesus isn't just a redeemer for us, someone who saves us from sin.
He's also the one who teaches us, teaches us how to live in God's kingdom.
And one of the ways Jesus teaches is by parables.
And they are stories with purpose.
Everyday stories with a deeper spiritual reality.
Revealing truths about Jesus the King.
Life in the kingdom of God.
Stories that are an invitation for us both to reflection and to transformation.
So today, we will think about the parable that comes at the end of the Sermon on the Mount.
Perhaps a very familiar parable of the wise and foolish builders.
It's a chance for us to reflect on, how's my listening?
Am I listening to Jesus well?
What's my life built on deep down?
Am I prepared for the storms that come?
So let's read from chapter 5, verse 1 to 20, and then verse 43 to 48.
And let's hear the word of God.
Now, when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down.
His disciples came to him and he began to teach them.
He said,
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you,
and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.
For in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
You are the salt of the earth.
But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?
It is no longer good for anything,
except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
You are the light of the world.
A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.
Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.
Instead, they put it on its stand,
and it gives light to everyone in the house.
In the same way, let your light shine before others,
that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.
For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear,
not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen,
will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished.
Therefore, anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands
and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.
But whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law,
you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
And then at verse 43,
You have heard that it was said,
and this is teaching from the Pharisees,
Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be children of your Father in heaven.
He causes his son to rise on the evil and the good
and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?
Are not even the tax collectors doing that?
And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others?
Do not even pagans do that?
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Amen.
And we'll return and read some of chapter 6 and 7 in a few moments.
But before we do that, let's once again come before God in prayer.
Lord, as we bow before you, we would acknowledge that you are the great king,
that you are in authority over us as our creator and our sustainer and our judge.
Lord, we thank you for sending Jesus to be that long-promised king.
Lord, we thank you for sending us free from slavery to sin leading to death,
to bring us into eternal life and into the kingdom of God.
Lord, we thank you for sending us free from the kingdom of God.
Lord, we thank you for that call of Jesus,
that invitation to come to him, weary and burdened, and to find rest.
Lord, we pray for those in our church family.
We pray for those in our own families who are weary,
who are experiencing burdens of many kinds.
Lord, we pray that in your mercy you would draw them and us to the Lord Jesus
to find rest and to find hope in his love and in the good news that he brings.
Lord, we pray too for our society,
as we recognize that there are so many burdens and pressures,
there's so many fears that exist right now.
Lord, in all the doubt and fear and confusion,
may you and your providence draw many people to be looking to you
for hope and for help and for healing.
Lord, may you be at work among us.
Lord, we thank you that you don't just call us to yourself,
if you also send us out to be your witnesses.
Lord, we thank you for that privilege of being ambassadors for our King.
Again, we confess how weak we feel,
how often we fail to represent you well,
whether that's in the things that we do or indeed the things that we fail to do.
But Lord, we pray that with your help, by your grace and by your spirit in us,
you would enable us to live for you in such a way
that people without hope and without clarity on what is truth
would be drawn to Jesus, their Savior,
through us, through our lives individually and through our shared life.
We remember that Jesus said
that they will know we are Christians by our love
and we pray that our love would be evident
and it would be attractive and appealing,
that we would be enabled in some small measure
to reflect your amazing love.
Lord, we pray for your church in Scotland today.
We pray for rural places.
We pray for urban places, our towns and cities.
Lord, we thank you for church plants.
We thank you for established churches.
And we pray for those churches that are weak and discouraged.
Lord, we ask that you would build them in their faith
and their hope and their love.
And we thank you for those churches
that are knowing growth and encouragement.
Lord, continue to renew them in your word.
Lord, we pray that for every Christian church in Scotland,
we would know your spirit moving in power.
that we would be growing in maturity,
growing to be more like Jesus,
fed by your words,
dependent on prayer,
and then going out to live as your witnesses.
Lord, we pray for your church in the world today.
We think of nations in the news.
We pray that as France goes to the polls for a new president,
Lord, that you would be reviving that nation
in the Christian faith.
That we recognize a long history in the past of faith
and sending people all over the world on mission.
But Lord, so much of that heritage has been lost.
But we pray that you would draw people
and draw the nation back to yourself.
Lord, we continue to remember Ukraine
and we remember your people in Ukraine today.
For those who perhaps are unable to gather,
for those who gather with a sense of fear and sadness,
Lord, may you be present among them.
May you give them the deep and lasting peace
of knowing Jesus as Lord.
And we pray that you would enable the church
to continue to minister mercy
to those who are in need.
And Lord, we pray for a swift and a lasting peace.
Lord, we also pray for parts of the world
where our brothers and sisters in Christ
are persecuted today.
Where there is the threat of a police action
or a local community intervention
as they would seek to worship their God and Savior.
Lord, we ask that you would help them
to persevere in their faith
and enable them to love and to pray for their enemies.
And Lord, we pray for the many hundreds of millions
of people today who have never heard of Jesus,
who don't know anything of the good news of the gospel,
and who have no lasting hope.
Lord, we pray that by your mercy and by your spirit,
you would raise up people from all nations
to go to all nations,
making disciples of all nations,
as you have commanded.
Lord, that we would be willing to pray
and to give and indeed to go
and to sacrifice if you would lead us
in order to make Jesus known.
Lord, we pray that as we gather here today,
that you would make Jesus known among us.
Not just that we would grow in our information,
but that we would be transformed,
heart, mind and will.
And we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Now, before we turn back to Matthew,
we're going to sing again.
We're going to sing from Psalm 62,
and we'll see again the theme of God as the rock.
So let's stand and let's sing together.
Amen.
My honor and salvation rest
On God my rock and mighty fort,
O people, trust in him always.
To him alone pour out your heart.
The low-born man is but a breath.
The high-born man is but a lie.
Weighed in a balance side by side.
They come to nothing but a sigh.
Do not seek after wealth by force.
Or triumph in ill-gotten gain.
And even though your goods increase.
Set not your heart on what is vain.
My God has spoken.
I have heard that you are strong and loving, Lord.
Each one according to his deeds.
You will assuredly reward.
And now let's continue to hear Jesus' teaching from the Sermon on the Mount.
Here as he teaches about prayer in chapter 6 from verse 5 to 13.
And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites.
For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others.
Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.
But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father who is unseen.
Then your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans.
For they think they will be heard because of their many words.
Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
This then is how you should pray.
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
And then we're going to turn to chapter 7.
And towards the end of the sermon, when Jesus begins to warn.
So he's promised future grace.
He's shown them his commands.
And then he issues final warnings.
Chapter 7, verse 13.
Enter through the narrow gate.
For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction.
And many enter through it.
But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life.
And only a few find it.
Watch out for false prophets.
They come to you in sheep's clothing.
But inwardly they are ferocious wolves.
By their fruit you will recognize them.
Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?
Likewise every good tree bears good fruit.
But a bad tree bears bad fruit.
A good tree cannot bear bad fruit.
And a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.
Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven.
But only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?
And in your name drive out demons?
And in your name perform many miracles?
Then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you.
Away from me, you evildoers.
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.
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.
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.
The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell with a great crash.
When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching.
Because he taught as one who had authority and not as their teachers of the law.
So this is the first of our stories with purpose.
It's the story of the wise and foolish builders.
As we begin, I wonder if any of you have ever been in an earthquake simulator.
Some of us live in extreme weather places and maybe you felt something like that.
But I remember being in an earthquake simulator when they would begin to make the floor move,
make everything on the walls begin to shake.
And in the safety of that science center, they were using that simulator to teach about the impact of earthquakes.
Especially in that case, the focus was on the many earthquakes that hit Japan.
And how then engineers are building, designed to cope with those constant storms that come.
That stress testing, both of the foundation and the structure, was vital to their building projects.
Well, this parable that we're reading today is about building.
And it's about storms and it's about foundation.
And it's the conclusion to the Sermon on the Mount.
Perhaps the most famous of Jesus' sermons, loved through all church history.
And that parable has a message, doesn't it?
A message about building wisely.
And building wisely requires both hearing and doing the words of Jesus the King.
Living all of life under his rule.
So we're going to think about this parable, but we're going to use the building image.
And so we're going to think, first of all, about the importance of following the designer's plan.
And we're going to think about building on the right foundation.
And then we're going to think about the importance of preparing for the stress test.
Preparing for the storm that comes.
So first of all, the importance of following the plan.
Verse 24 tells us this.
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.
So the conclusion to the Sermon on the Mount.
We can think about the Sermon on the Mount as a blueprint.
A design plan for life in God's kingdom.
Because this sermon comes from who?
It comes from Jesus.
And Jesus is the Son of God.
He is the Creator.
He is the Lord.
He is the Great Teacher.
And so when we listen to Jesus' words as our Maker and King,
He's calling us to live by the Maker's design.
Now for any of us who've ever built anything, whether that be Lego or flat pack furniture or even a house,
we know how important it is to follow the plan.
The designer's plan.
Well, the truth of the Bible is that God is the great designer of us.
And the way life works best for us if we live by His design.
And that's what Jesus is laying out in this sermon.
Three things to very briefly say before we get to our parable.
The Sermon on the Mount is a blueprint for life in what John Stott calls the Christian counterculture.
By which he means that Christians are called out from the world to live differently.
Just as was the case with Old Testament Israel.
So perhaps you remember the story in the book of Exodus where God's people were slaves,
but then God by His power called them out.
He had called them to Himself, made a covenant commitment to them.
So He called them to Himself, called them out, called them to meet Him on Mount Sinai,
entered into covenant and gave them His commands.
Now what have we got in the Sermon on the Mount?
Here we have Jesus the Lord, and He calls His disciples up the mountain to meet with Him.
And He speaks to them of grace.
And then He gives them commands.
And He calls them out to be different.
So having given the Beatitudes, He said to them,
You are the salt of the earth.
What's the function of salt in that day?
Largely to preserve, to stop corruption.
The Christian church has that responsibility within society.
Jesus said,
You are the light of the world.
The contrast there with darkness that people live in without God.
We are to be light that reflects the love of God and draws people to the Savior.
This whole sermon from Jesus is a reminder that there are two ways and only two ways to live.
One that accepts Jesus as Lord and one that rejects.
And the church is called to live under the rule of Jesus to be like a colony of heaven.
To live a different life.
To live by a different way.
To live by the ethics of grace in God's kingdom and in the world.
So we can also say that the Sermon on the Mount is a blueprint for a life of obedience to Jesus.
If we want to be obedient to Jesus, we have so much instruction in here.
And much of what we have, especially in chapters 5 and 6,
is Jesus teaching about greater righteousness.
Or about deeper righteousness.
Not just about surface level religion.
But on matters of the heart.
Jesus says some very striking things in chapter 5.
We read in verse 17.
I have not come to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them.
In verse 20, he said,
Unless your righteousness surpasses the Pharisees and the teachers of law,
you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
And at the end of chapter 5, he says,
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
He's calling us to a deeper heart righteousness.
Towards God's law.
Towards how we worship God.
In our attitude towards money, where Jesus is a greater treasure.
Towards other people, where we're slow to judge and we're quick to forgive.
So he's calling us away from the legalism that was around in his day and in our day.
It's all about surface and there's no heart commitment.
He's also warning us against the idea of license.
Well, if I'm saved by grace, I can just do whatever I want.
No.
We are to be careful to obey.
Jesus calls us to live out the Sermon on the Mount because he is both our Savior,
the one who saves us from our sin by dying for us,
and he is our teacher who teaches us and shows us how to live within his kingdom.
But this sermon is also a blueprint for life in the Father's family.
There's a couple of New Testament scholars, Jonathan Pennington and Ulrich Luzz,
who've done some work on this recently,
and they recognize that at the center of the Sermon on the Mount stands the Lord's Prayer.
And in a very real sense, the key to living the Sermon on the Mount is the Lord's Prayer.
So the good news of Christianity is that God is creator,
and we were made in God's image to know God.
The relationship with God is possible,
but because of our sin, because of our turning our back on God,
there is separation.
We stand justly under God's judgment.
But God, in his grace, has sent his son Jesus,
and Jesus has lived a perfect life for us as our representative and substitute,
and then he died on the cross, taking the penalty,
taking the punishment that we deserve,
and then he rose again in victory.
With the result that,
when we trust in Jesus,
our sins are forgiven,
we have eternal life,
and we are adopted into God's family.
We are invited to call God,
our Father in heaven.
And then,
we are called to live out the Father's family values.
So we pray,
your kingdom come,
your will be done.
So we cannot live the Sermon on the Mount without calling God,
our Father in heaven.
And so to read the Sermon on the Mount is to recognize,
here is Jesus' grand design
for how to live in the kingdom of God.
And the parable,
at the end,
reinforces that,
because it calls us,
once again,
to build wisely,
to both listen and do,
the word of God.
And so one thing that certainly reminds us,
as a church,
is that we must always prioritize
a discipleship that involves hearing and doing,
because that's the only kind of discipleship there is.
So let's think about the parable now,
and let's think about the importance of building
on the right foundations secondly.
So chapter 7,
and verse 24 to 27,
we have that parable.
And it's a very simple parable in one sense.
We have two builders,
and we have two construction projects.
One builder is described as wise,
one is described as a fool.
Just to help us get a sense of the kind of project
that Jesus invited his hearers to imagine,
in Jesus' day,
archaeology tells us
that many of the houses were either one or two stories high,
rough masonry on the outside,
and the foundations were cut into the bedrock.
That's important.
Also, when we remember the weather in the region,
for those of us who are interested in weather,
and we have some,
a little bit of weather trivia,
Jerusalem and London,
three different places,
but get around about the same annual rainfall,
22 and a half inches,
give or take.
London gets that over 300 days.
So you get wet days,
you get drizzly days,
you get sort of overnight showers.
Jerusalem gets it in 50 days.
What does that tell us?
When the rain falls,
it falls heavy and it falls hard.
They have a wet season,
which in Jesus' day,
brought storms that were very destructive,
which made it essential
that whenever you built something,
you built it with a foundation.
Everybody knew that.
So why is that a foolish builder?
So in any parable of Jesus,
one of the things to be looking out for,
if we want to understand
what's the point that Jesus is trying to make,
we try and look for the surprising detail.
And the surprising detail
is in verse 26.
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.
Why is that surprising?
Because nobody upon nobody
builds their house with no foundation.
It's just nobody does it.
This is folly.
And nobody would do it.
But regardless,
one storm comes
and there are two different outcomes.
So Jesus is talking about
two ways to live
and those two ways to live
have two different outcomes.
The one house,
the one life stands,
the other falls.
Now during that building process,
if we'd arrived after
the sort of initial construction phase,
perhaps the walls are halfway up,
if you were sort of walking past
each building site,
the foolish person may have seemed
so equally skilled
and equally efficient
as the wise
because the foundation
or the lack of foundation
was unseen
until the storm came
and the storm exposed
that vital lack.
The way we might think about it,
he exposed the fact
that he's a cowboy builder.
He's trying to take shortcuts
and he lacks true wisdom.
So that's the parable
and it's quite easy to understand
but it's important for us
to think about what point
Jesus is making
because it's really important
for us to think about
what foundation is my life,
my life built on.
One thing, one point,
the right foundation
needs right hearing.
So as so often
in Jesus' stories
and his teaching,
he teaches by ways of contrast.
That's how he gets his point across.
And here,
what's the contrast
between the wise and the fool?
The wise man,
we're told in verse 24,
hears the words of Jesus
and puts them into practice
whereas the foolish man
hears but doesn't.
The basic point being
that God's word
is not for information only.
We don't come to church
just to discover some facts.
We don't read our Bible
to grow in head knowledge.
Jesus wants transformation.
Transformation of our heart
and our mind,
our will
and our actions.
So imagine these men today,
both of them
coming to church
on a Sunday,
absolutely.
Both of them
reading their Bibles,
listening to sermons,
perhaps serving
on the same rotas.
But only one
truly obeys.
Only one has a heart
that is fully committed
to Jesus as Lord and King.
The right foundation
involves right listening.
It involves recognizing
that Jesus must both
be my savior from sin
and my teacher
for how to live
in God's world
as a child of God.
That's the only
right foundation
and it involves
that right listening.
This parable also
reminds us
that the right foundation
is a deep foundation.
It won't do
to just build
on the surface.
It takes us
to that imagery
that we've been
singing about
and reading about
at the beginning.
In the Old Testament,
God was described
as the rock,
especially in the book
of Psalms.
Eternal,
immovable,
strength,
salvation.
He's the rock of ages,
the one to shelter in,
the one to build
a life on.
And then Jesus came
in his ministry
and he came calling
people back to God,
calling people to himself,
calling people to his word.
Do we hear the claims
of Jesus?
To build your life
on me and my word
is to stand
in the end.
In a sense,
that claim to God,
to be God.
Jesus came
and he announced
the kingdom of God
is near because the king
had come to establish
his kingdom.
He called the people
to repent,
to turn from sin,
to turn to follow Jesus,
to believe the good news
that he was the promised
king and savior.
He called the people
to find treasure in heaven,
not to live for the stuff
of this life,
but rather to pursue
what is eternal.
And ultimately,
he wanted the people
to find their true joy
in him,
recognizing there's
nothing better
than eternity
in the presence
of the Lord Jesus.
Jesus.
And Jesus also
calls us to trust
him as the one
who lives out
the sermon
that he taught,
that he preached.
I thought about that
in Easter.
Jesus is the one
who practices
what he preaches.
Jesus is the one
who came
as the light
revealing the glory
of God
into this world
filled with the darkness
of sin.
Jesus is the only one
who always sought
the kingdom of his father,
who always pursued
the will of his father.
Jesus is the one
who on the cross
loved and prayed
for his enemies.
He's willing to die
to make enemies friends.
And this parable
is calling us
to build our life
on this Jesus.
Because the only
alternative is that
we're simply building
a life for ourselves.
And what we need to
understand through
the Bible,
and we sang it as well
in Psalm 62,
that all of our work,
all of our achievement,
all the glory that we
might attain
will be swept away
in the end
by death.
those things
that are not Jesus
that we are building
our identity on,
they are in reality
as fragile
as a spider's web.
And they will not stand.
And what we need,
and Jesus calls us to this,
we need solid rock.
We need Jesus
as Savior
and Lord.
And another thing
when it comes to
building on the right
foundations,
think about the words
of Jesus.
Right foundations
means a lifetime
of discipleship.
This hearing
and putting into practice,
this isn't a one-off thing.
This isn't a,
I remember a number
of years ago
I prayed a prayer
and I committed
my life to Jesus.
It's not,
I can look back
and remember
the day of my baptism,
perhaps if we were baptized
when we were older.
It's not a one-off thing.
It's a new way of life.
It's a new king
and a new kingdom
and submitting
to his authority
day upon day upon day.
We can connect that
with the baptisms
that we had today
and families
as spiritual units.
It's a reminder
that our goal
as parents
is both to teach
and model
a life of following Christ.
To hear the words
of Jesus
should remind us
too of our priorities
as a church.
Reminds us of the goal
of our Sunday services.
It's the goal
of all our discipleship groups
through the week.
we want to help
one another
to be wise
towards God
and not to be foolish.
That we would hear
and that we would do
the word of God.
So as we begin
our community groups again,
let me invite you
to encourage you
to commit to one of those
so that together
we might hear
and do together.
This parable
calls us
to commitment
to passionate commitment
to Jesus as Lord.
I read a very striking
it was actually
just a very striking sentence
or a couple of sentences
from a professor of theology
in the States.
He said that as a society
and I think we can include
the church in this
we have become passionate
about the trivial
and apathetic
about the vital.
Think about what excites
our own hearts.
Isn't it sadly the case
that we get more excited
about what's happening
in the world of sport
or the world of television
and entertainment
about our plans
and prospects
than we are
about knowing Jesus
as Lord.
About spending time
in his word.
About spending time
in worship.
I think one of the challenges
coming out of pandemic
is to pray
for that grace
to fight for godliness.
To fight for passion
for Jesus again.
Because it was so easy
for apathy to say.
And it's important
for us to be
passionately committed
to Jesus
to be ready
for the storms.
And let's turn there next.
Final thing
to say
is that
this parable
calls us to prepare
for the stress test.
To prepare
for the storm
that will come.
So going back
to Japanese engineering
the number of
storm seasons
they have
make it apparent
to them
that they need to build
with earthquakes in mind.
They need to build
with foundations
that are able
to withstand storms.
Jesus says
a wise builder
is ready
for the storms
that come.
Ready for the storm
that will come.
Not if it comes
but when.
What storm
did he have in mind?
And why should we all
pay attention
to his wisdom?
So perhaps
in our minds
we hear
storms
and we think
when we talk about it
the storms of life.
Whether that's grief
or unemployment,
illness,
relationship breakdown.
Those storms
are real
and painful
and they do
serve that purpose
often of exposing,
revealing
what our life
is really built on.
But I don't think
that's the storm
that Jesus is talking about.
Most likely
this storm
is pointing us forward
to the day
of judgment.
Now why
say that?
It's because
the context
of the parable
comes with these
final three
warnings
that we read.
So if you've got
your Bible
you can look at
chapter 7
and verses 13
to 14
and Jesus warns
about direction.
He says make sure
you enter through
the narrow gate.
There's one way
it's a hard way
it's the way
of the cross
but it's the way
to life
but there's a broad way
there's a way
of comfort
there's a way
most people choose
but that way
leads to destruction.
That's final
judgment language.
And then in
verses 15
to 20
he warns them
about influence
so he says watch
out for false
prophets.
He says watch
out that you're
not a bad tree
bearing bad
fruit because
what does he
say?
Verse 15
every tree that
does not bear
good fruit is
cut down and
thrown into the
fire.
That's final
judgment language.
And then he
says be careful
that you're not
just saying
you're following
Jesus but you're
actually doing
his will.
He says not
everyone who
says to me
Lord, Lord
will enter the
kingdom of
heaven but
rather
some will
hear I
never knew
you.
Away from
me you
evil doers.
To be away
from Jesus,
to be away
from all that
is good and
light and
love.
That's final
judgment
language.
And so
Jesus is
warning about
the importance
of building on
the right
foundation.
Because he
says in
verse 25
that when the
rain came
down and the
streams rose and
the winds blew
and beat against
the house of
the wise man
it did not
fall because
it had its
foundation on
the rock.
But in
verse 27
when the
storm came
and the
winds blew
and beat
against the
house of
the fool
it fell
with a
great crash.
Jesus'
point is
that the
storm will
come.
We will
stand before
Jesus the
judge one
day.
Are we
ready for
that day?
That stress
test that
will
ultimately
and finally
reveal the
foundation of
our life.
And so
Jesus'
sermon and
Jesus'
story has
that shocking
ending.
Why?
Because we
need this.
We need to
be reminded
to continue
trusting and
loving Jesus.
Or we need
to be woken
up to see
the serious
eternal
significance
of choosing
to reject
Jesus.
Perhaps we
find ourselves
laying foundations
and preparing
for so much.
We make good
financial plans
and plans for
our family's
future.
Perhaps we
plan for our
fitness or
future holidays.
But do we
plan to do
with our
faith?
To do with
our eternal
future?
So often
we can find
ourselves
simply drifting
without ever
thinking.
Drifting
towards death
and drifting
towards that
day of
judgment.
We live in a
society that
by and large
has lost that
sense of God.
Lost the
sense of sin
and judgment.
Lost the
sense of
eternal reality.
And because
of that,
there's a
sense of not
having the
need to be
prepared for
death, to be
prepared for
judgment.
And also
there is no
solid foundation
for hope.
As Christians
we have a
hope that
lasts beyond
death.
And so
Jesus issues
this loving
warning to
be ready
before the
ultimate stress
test comes.
An invitation
to build on
the solid rock
today, to
trust Jesus
as creator
and king, to
follow him and
to follow his
plan, to
build our
life on
Jesus, on
the salvation
that he has
provided,
and the
wisdom from
God that
he taught.
Think about
Jesus in
relation to
this sermon.
He is the
one who
lived the
perfect life
for us.
He is and
will always
be the
one truly
wise man.
The one who
was perfect
like his
father.
The one who
perfectly kept
the whole
law and
who came
to save
sinners.
Who came
to save
foolish people
like us.
Who would
choose by
ourselves to
build a
life far
from God
and his
ways.
Dying for
us in
order to
save us.
Jesus
willingly
facing the
storm of
God's
judgment,
entering the
darkness of
the cross,
feeling the
father's
judgment blow
and beat
on him,
feeling
abandoned by
his father
so that we
never have
to feel
that.
So we
never have
to experience
the judgment
of God
if we
trust in
him.
The Jesus
who rose
for us,
who passed
his great
stress test
and in
his eternal
life there
is for us
the guarantee
of our
eternal life
that just
as he
stands so
we will
stand in
his presence
to enjoy
him forever
if our
faith is in
him.
So this
parable calls
us to
trust him,
trust him
as solid
rock for
now and
for eternity
to follow
his commands
that we
might be
safe and
secure when
the storm
comes.
Let's pray
together
briefly.
Father we
thank you
for this
simple yet
powerful story
that Jesus
told and
Lord as we
consider and
we pray that
you'd help
us to keep
upon reflecting
on it
help us to
reflect on
who Jesus
is and
what he has
provided in
his salvation
and in his
teaching all
that we need
for a life of
faith and a
life of
godliness and
to secure
our eternal
life.
Lord help us
to reflect on
what our own
life is built
on, where our
priorities really
lie, what we
give our time
and attention
and joy to
and Lord help
us to remember
the realities
of death
and judgment
as hard as
they may be
that we would
hear the loving
warning of
Jesus, that
we would be
prepared so
that we might
stand and
so that we
might enjoy
eternity in
the presence of
our loving
king.
And it's in
his name that
we pray.
Amen.
Now let's
close our
time singing
the classic
hymn Rock of
Ages and let's
stand together
to sing.