Are You Building Right? | Part 1

INTRODUCTION

We are all in the process of building up something in life – we build our careers, build relationships, build up marriages, build children, build houses, build businesses etc. As we are involved in building things in life I want to ask you today – is your building strong? Will your building stand the test of time?

ILLUSTRATION

Two funny brothers were building a big dog cage. Once the frame was ready both went into the frame; one started nailing the wood from one side and the other nailed from the other side. The one who was nailing from the left would reach into his nail pouch, pull out a nail, look at the nail and either threw the nail or nail it in. Looking at the wasted nails the other brother asked, “Why are you throwing those nails away?” The first explained, “If I pull a nail out of my pouch and it’s pointed toward me, I throw it away ’cause it’s defective. If it’s pointed toward the cage, then I nail it in!” The second brother got completely upset and yelled, “You fool! The nails pointed toward you aren’t defective! Give it to me, they’re for the other side of the cage!”

This morning we are going to have a look at the foundation of our life. We are also going to see that the strength of whatever we do externally in life depends on our foundation. This is a two-part message and next Sunday I will talk to you about building your life once you have laid a solid foundation.

Coming back to today’s word we saw that we are all in the process of building up something in life. The Bible portrays Christian life also like the construction of a building.

Jude 20-21

20 But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

We are responsible for building ourselves up in our Christian faith.

Ephesians 2:21-22

21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

As much as we are responsible to build ourselves up in the Holy Spirit, we as a Christian community, the church are to be built together in the Holy Spirit as a place for God to dwell in. So we build ourselves up and together we build for God to dwell in us.

We really cannot build anything without a solid foundation. In any permanent building whether it is brick, stone, concrete, or timber the vital area is the foundation and the Bible deals specifically with this. We need to have the right foundation because the foundation sets limits to the building that can be built above it both in size and in weight.

ILLUSTRATION

Ravi Zacharias was called for a lecture at the Ohio State University. As he was being driven to the lecture, he passed by the new Wexner Art Center. The driver said, “This is a new art building for the university. It is a fascinating building designed in the post-modernist view of reality.” The building has no pattern. Staircases go nowhere. Pillars support nothing. The architect designed the building to reflect life. It went nowhere and was mindless and senseless. Ravi Zacharias turned to the man describing it and asked, “Did they do the same thing with the foundation?” He laughed. You can do anything with the structure but you cannot play with the foundation.

Remember we cannot play the fool with the foundation, it has to be strong. Yet we find in Christian faith that people do not want to build a solid foundation but they want to build big ministries, they want peace and prosperity and are going after them without proper foundation. Such people are building something big in their life without a solid foundation which will not last. We cannot build more successful Christian life than our foundation will permit.

“Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.” Saint Augustine, Ancient Roman Christian Theologian

WHAT IS YOUR FOUNDATION? HAVE YOU LAID YOUR FOUNDATION RIGHT?

There is only one foundation that is adequate and sufficient and it is a person. The person is Jesus Christ. Paul uses two metaphors

1 Corinthians 3:9-11

9For we are God’s co-workers; you are God’s field, God’s building. 10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

There is only one foundation for Christian life that is Jesus himself. Anything not built on this foundation will not stand the test of time. It is very important to assess what our life is built upon. Are we truly built on the Lord Jesus Christ? Do we have a personal relationship with this foundation?

HOW CAN WE HAVE A FOUNDATION IN JESUS?

Matthew 16:13-18

13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” 14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” 17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of death will not overcome it.

Jesus uses this encounter with Peter to establish how we can lay a solid foundation in Him.

Matthew 16:13

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” Jesus was nearing his death and his days were numbered. By now he has great followers; people are being healed and delivered. Maybe a day or two ago he did the miracle of feeding the 4000 men other than woman and children with 7 loaves of bread and some fish. By now Jesus is hailed as the hero by the common man. But deep within his heart Jesus wanted to know whether the people have got his mission right. So Jesus withdrew from the crowd into a region called Philippi and asked his disciples this question. “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

Let me ask you the same question. How do you understand Jesus? Some of us understand Jesus as the healer, provider, comforter etc. See what the people understood about Jesus.

Matthew 16:14

They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

Even though Jesus taught, lived and did miracles among the people, the Jews got Jesus completely wrong. Their scriptures in the Old Testament pointed out towards Jesus the Messiah but people missed and thought he was either John the Baptist or Elijah or Jeremiah.

Now John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus Christ was a very powerful man of God. The people of Jesus’ generation had seen him and everyone including King Herod Antipas thought he had the power to rise again from death. Some thought Jesus Christ was John the Baptist.

Some other people thought Jesus was Elijah because they thought Elijah was the forerunner of the Messiah. They misinterpreted Malachi 4:5 which says I will send you Elijah before the day of the Lord.

Malachi 4:5

“See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes.

Yet some other people thought Jesus was Jeremiah because according to some other Jewish writings they believed that before the exile Jeremiah took the Ark of the Covenant (which symbolizes the presence of God) out of the temple and hid it in the caves in Mt. Nebo and that before the Messiah would come Jeremiah would come and produce them to the temple so the glory of God would descend upon his people.

Now God’s own people, the Jews had different opinion about Jesus Christ based on their knowledge and experience and truly missed out on who Jesus exactly was. Now we too are God’s people, we experience his power and glory but many times we really miss out on who Jesus is.

When Jesus heard what the crowd said about him he looked deeply at his disciples and asked them who do you say am? Matthew 16:15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

There would have been absolute silence among the disciples. Many thoughts were going on their minds but they were afraid to express their views. Suddenly Peter spoke up.

Matthew 16:16-17

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of death will not overcome it.

Based on this verse some people say Peter is the foundation of the church. It would have been an unstable building if Peter was the foundation. The church is not build on Peter.

Matthew 16:18

And I tell you that you are Peter (Petros), and on this rock (Petra) I will build my church

Petros means a single stone or a boulder. A small stone that people would take to stone someone. Petra means rock which is connected to the bedrock. The mountain or cliff that we see is the top tip of the bedrock and if you go deep down the entire base is called the bedrock.

Bedrock – The solid rock that underlies loose material, such as soil, sand, clay, or gravel.

Now Jesus is telling – Peter you are a stone and on this rock (Jesus Christ) I will build my church. So Peter you need to be attached to me for I am the bedrock but you are just a rock.

1 Corinthians 3:11

For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now Jesus is the bedrock or the foundation. To build a strong Christian life we need to be based on this bedrock.

Now how do we get attached to this bedrock?

We get attached to this bedrock when we go beyond the general recognition that Jesus is the healer, and provider because all that is periphery. I would like to suggest to you three steps through which Peter passed through in this encounter.

1. Confrontation.

Jesus and Peter met face to face. There was no mediator, no priest, no one in between them. It was a direct personal confrontation with Jesus Christ. If we need to have a foundation we need to know Jesus personally. Once you know him you can continue to know him by having a solid prayer life. That is what we have to come to.

2. Revelation.

The confrontation is followed by revelation.

Matthew 16:17

Jesus replied, “Blessed are you Simon, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.

We can study theology, go to a Bible college and even preach on Jesus effectively. But if we do not have personal time with God and receive from him our daily strength our foundation is not strong.

The moment Peter had the revelation he acknowledged and confessed who Jesus was.

Matthew 16:16

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Peter publicly acknowledged and confessed that Jesus was the Messiah.

3. Acknowledge and public confession.

Have you confessed Christ as your Lord and saviour of your life? If not it is time to acknowledge your faith in Christ and start building on this foundation. Many of us make our faith in Jesus Christ public only when we accept him as saviour and Lord and in water baptism in the church, but God expects us to profess Christ as our Lord in every influence of our life.

I am not saying that we carry a loudspeaker and tell everyone that Jesus is Lord, but we can always acknowledge Christ the way we conduct ourselves at our houses, at our workplaces and everywhere. Isn’t it true that many of our influences do not know that we have Jesus Christ as our foundation? It is time to publicly acknowledge like Peter. If you do that I bet you can be a great witness of Christ.

Let me put things in perspective in a nutshell. We are to build our Christian life and the foundation we need to build upon is our relationship with Jesus Christ. We can build a strong foundation by spending time with God receiving from the Lord every day and acknowledging the Lord in every influence of our life.

CONCLUSION

Let me ask you this morning – Are you building right? Is your foundation strong? Do you place Jesus first in your life? Whatever you do in life if you do not have Jesus’ foundation is not strong. If you have a personal intimate relationship with Jesus Christ nothing can shake you in life. Remember everyone in this world will go through storms that you cannot handle but the ones who have their foundation strong in Christ will never fall no matter what storm arises against you. “Have you strongly laid your foundation?”

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