The final "therefore" and response - Matthew 7:24-29

 

A rock along the East Shore Trail up to Shadow Mountain Fire Tower.  Someone took the time to place a little encouragement along this 1500 elevation gain trail.  The sun was out and the trees were brilliant, especially against the green of the pines.  We were hot and tired when we got back to the car but it was a wonderful way to spend the morning and having our lunch with a view.

Jesus has given His disciples the final "therefore" of the Sermon on the Mount.  He winds up the 2s with 2 foundation, 2 houses, 2 men, and 2 outcomes.  There really is only one foundation as we read the passage.  Nothing the world has to offer is a foundation to build your life upon.  As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:11, "For no one can lay another foundation than that which was laid, which is Jesus Christ."

Jesus completes His formal teaching of what it means to be a disciple of His.  He has laid out a picture for His disciples to compare Himself to the religious leaders of the day.  His teachings and He Himself is what we are to build our life upon.  All other solutions lead to utter destruction on the broad road, fire as we follow the false teachers, not being known by God because we say but not do, and a great fall because the hear Jesus' saying and not do them.  

The great invitation is given to come to Him.  The crowds were astonished and follow for awhile but we will see in the future than many abandon Him.  Their emotions only take them so far and that is so true today.  Our faith can't be based on our emotions but rather on fact.  What fact?  That Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.  That God actually did John 3:16.  Emotions are great and God given but they are not the basis on which we endure the winds, rains, and floods of life.

We move on to the healing Jesus.  Later we will look at the preaching Jesus as Matthew unfolds the life of Christ.  Let me end with this observation from the passage this Sunday.  Jesus' definition of wisdom is someone who hears His sayings and puts them into action.  Jesus' definition of being foolish is someone who hears His sayings and doesn't put them into action.  Pretty simple definitions that keeps the focus on not just hearing but applying Jesus to our actual lives.



Adam

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CVWqiYcIq0&t=3386s

A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 38th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Galatians #15 - Galatians 6:11-18 - "On The Road Again..."

Image
  Another week closer and it involves some more travel for the Wolfgangs.  I feel like the Willy Nelson song, " On the road again... "  I don't know if I agree with the next line though. " ...I can't wait to get on the road again. " One of the members of the church in Wisconsin calculated that I will travel well over 10,000 miles to make this transition.  Traveling mercies prayers please. Last Sunday we will look at Paul's final words to the churches in Galatia.  He brought them the gospel (good news) message of Jesus and what resulted were churches forming throughout the region.  The letter is to defend that message that our salvation comes from and is in Christ alone.  Christ's sacrifice on the cross was sufficient for the forgiveness of our sins.  The summary statement of the letter is found in  Galatians 6:15 (LSB) .  " For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. "  Translated another way earlier in  Ga
Read more

God gave us a good weather window to travel...yeah God!!!

Image
  Berthoud Pass Here we are at the top of Berthoud Pass.  It was a whirlwind week to conduct a " hand off " service in Wisconsin on 3/17 and then preach a Palm Sunday sermon in Colorado on 3/24.  We give God all the glory for this happening.  So there are two video links at the bottom of this blog.  One is for the Wisconsin service and the other is for the Colorado service.  I racked up over 12,000 in the last 7 weeks.   I love to take these pictures sitting from the front row of chairs and listening to the one God has provided for the church I had been serving for 20 months.  I now have 3 and I am so thankful for the opportunity God gave us to serve Him in this type of ministry over the last 5 years.  It has been great to add to our daily prayer list Zach in Maine, Chris in Ohio and now Stephen in Wisconsin. This was our set up for the 2000+ mile trip.  No " hiccups " except for the strong eastern winds in Kansas.  Of course everything was quite a bit dirtier when
Read more

Resurrection Sunday in a new space...Matthew 27.62-28.20

Image
  Resurrection Sunday has come and gone but it was a sweet day to be with the gathered saints of the Stillwater Community Chapel .  We are venturing through the Gospel of Matthew and this Sunday will take us back to Matthew 1.1 but last Sunday we were in Matthew 27.62-28.20.  It was a lot to cover so the white board was truly a help to keep me on track.  This year in my Resurrection Sunday message, I focused on the contrast of the cover-up story of the disciples stealing the body of Jesus fueled by a bride and the commission of speaking of a risen Lord fueled by boldness . After the service upstairs, we ventured downstairs to the lower level and had a great meal together.  The conversations around the tables allowed us to continue to talk about the passage of Scripture we covered upstairs.  Maybe this is a very informal picture of what happens at the  Waushara Community Church called the " Going Deeper " classes of the Come For More hour following the Sunday morning worshi
Read more