Matthew 7: 24-29

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 149
• Hymn — Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (#457)
• Prayer of Invocation
• Responsive Reading — Psalm 16
• Hymn — Psalm 16 (#692)
• Pastoral Prayer
• Sermon
• Hymn — A Mighty Fortress Is Our God (#92)
• Benediction

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Sermon Title: Building on the Rock

Scripture: Matthew 7:24-29

I. The Sweat of the Rock — True Disciples Are Doers, Not Merely Hearers

A. A wise builder digs down to bedrock, not building on the deceptively hard surface of sand

1. First-century builders on the Sea of Galilee had to dig up to ten feet below the surface to find solid bedrock before winter floods came
2. Jesus, likely drawing on his experience as a carpenter, knows what solid building requires

B. It is not enough to nod in agreement with Christ's teaching — we must actively apply it

1. Matthew 7:21 — Not everyone who says "Lord, Lord" will enter the kingdom; only those who do the will of the Father
2. In Scripture, to truly "hear" a command is to obey it — a child who does not clean the room has not really heard

C. Bunyan's character Talkative in Pilgrim's Progress illustrates self-deception: saying and doing are different things

1. Christian warns Faithful that Talkative's lofty spiritual speech is not matched by his life
2. Jerome: "Be ever active and engaged, so that when the devil calls he might find you occupied"

II. The Source of the Rock — Christ as Confessed in Redemptive History

A. Jesus does not contrast general rockiness with general sandiness — there is one definite Rock, not just any bedrock

1. This parallels Matthew 7:13-14 — the narrow gate is one specific way, while the wide gate has many doors

B. The Rock is Christ, as confessed in Peter's declaration in Matthew 16

1. Jesus asks who the disciples say he is; Peter confesses: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God"
2. Jesus calls Peter a rock because of his confession — the church is built on that confession of Christ

C. Proper confession is not vague but rooted in the full canon of Scripture and redemptive history

1. Peter's confession is a Jew identifying Jesus as Israel's Messiah — the fulfillment of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and David
2. Sermons in Acts demonstrate this: Peter's Pentecost sermon (Acts 2) and Stephen's sermon (Acts 7) retell Israel's whole story culminating in Christ
3. To confess Christ is to enter into his story, not to invite Christ into ours
4. 1 Timothy 3:16 — "Great indeed is the mystery of godliness" — the confession of Christ is the foundation of godliness

D. Corporate liturgy and reciting the Psalms are practices that orient hearts away from self and into the story of God centered on Christ

III. The Supremacy of the Rock — Christ Teaches with Divine Authority

A. The scribes customarily quoted earlier scribes; Jesus broke with this tradition by saying "But I say to you" — claiming divine authority directly

1. He does not appeal to Isaiah or Joel but speaks on his own authority

B. Matthew says the crowds were astonished — a word used in the New Testament almost exclusively for encounters with the majesty of God

1. Mark 6:51 — disciples astonished after Jesus walks on water
2. Luke 9:43 — all astonished at the majesty of God after the healing of the boy with an unclean spirit

C. The crowds are astonished not by a miracle but by Christ's teaching alone

1. Romans 1:16 — the gospel is the power of God unto salvation; the proclaimed word itself manifests the majesty of God
2. This is why the Reformers placed the preached and read Word at the center of worship

D. Luke 24:32 — on the Emmaus Road, the disciples' hearts burned within them as Christ opened the Scriptures and showed how all of it points to him

1. Christocentric preaching — the Spirit opening Scripture to reveal Christ — is what causes hearts to burn
2. Sitting regularly under the Word, with prepared hearts, is what keeps us standing on the Rock that cannot be shaken