My Walk Through the Book of Matthew by Annette Godtland

Build on the Rock (Matthew 7:24-28)

24"Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.

26"But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall."

28And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, 29for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

Examine the text that lead up to this, Matthew 4:13-25 and Matthew 5:1-2: "Jesus went about all Galilee teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people. Then His fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics, and paralytics; and He healed them. Great multitudes followed Him -- from Galilee, and from Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan. And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. Then He opened His mouth and taught them." And now it says "when Jesus had ended these sayings..." Wow! All the words of Jesus that I've been studying from Matthew 5, 6 and 7, appear to have all been taught at one sitting! I just spent almost a month going through these lessons from Jesus trying to understand them and how they apply to me. I spent a month studying what He taught in one session!

I was trying to figure out who the people were when Matthew said the people were astonished. Was it just the disciples that were with Him when he taught these words? I'm starting to think it was the great multitude. Sure, maybe the disciples came to the front of the crowd, but because Matthew used the words "the people", just as he did when he talked of Him healing sicknesses and diseases among the people, I think he is referring to more than just His disciples. I think the whole multitude was there hearing Jesus' words.

It says the people were astonished. My dictionary says to be astonished means to be filled with sudden wonder or amazement. They were caught by surprise at His teaching. If it had been one of the scribes teaching this, it probably would have been a presentation of what was written. But they were able to recognize that Jesus spoke as one with authority. Imagine: for generations, having text read to you, possibly having arguments about what it meant, no one knowing exactly for sure, then finally hearing someone who spoke with a perspective of knowledge no one had ever heard before, someone who is not just standing up and saying "here is what I think it means", but "here is what it means. And by the way, there is more to it than what it says. Some of what you have been studying are man's laws and some are God's laws. I will tell you which is which. You are to follow God's laws." I could imagine being astonished by these teachings too. Would my astonishment at this departure of what I was expecting prevent me from really hearing what was being taught? Would I accept this unexpected authority? It would be easy to see that Jesus was speaking as one with authority. And it so lovingly seems to fit with what I would hope God's actual intentions to be, that there would be a part of me that would be very anxious to accept these teachings. It is hard to break away from what you had been taught all your life. But Jesus said you will know them by their fruit, that we should look at the fruit if we have doubts about teachings we hear. The fruit of these teachings of Jesus are all good.

Always before when I heard the lesson of the wise man building on rock and the foolish man building on sand, I thought of Jesus' teachings as the rock, and other's teachings as the sand. Jesus is the rock we are to build on. If we build on anything else it cannot stand. But I think what Jesus is emphasizing here is that we don't let His teachings simply be the sand. Unless we who hear his words also do what the words instruct, His words will be as sand. We cannot build anything strong on the sand. Those words will not be able to support us in the floods and winds that want to sweep us away. We have to more than hear His words, we have to follow them.

In Matthew 5:29-30, Jesus warns us, "it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell." In Matthew 23, Jesus tells us, "if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!" Now in Matthew 7:27, Jesus gives the story of the house built on sand, "and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall." Once again, Jesus tells us how great the fall is. Falling from the grace of God is not just a matter of being sent to your room for being bad. It's not an eternal life just a little worse than being in heaven. It is a great darkness! It is a great fall! It would be better for you to even lose one of your members than to be cast into hell. Jesus is warning us that it is not something to take lightly. But it is our choice.

If we do as Jesus instructs us, we will be building on the rock that will withstand the forces that try to pull us off the narrow path. Note, we will be unable stay on that path without this foundation, just as sand cannot hold up a house against wind, rain, and flood. If you feel you are stuck in the sand, follow Jesus' words, and your foundation will turn to rock. You have been given the words. You know what to do with them.