Date: 22 March 2020 | Pre­a­cher:
Series: | Bible text: Matthew 7:24–27
Hint: This ser­mon has been machi­ne trans­la­ted. Plea­se note that we can­not accept any respon­si­bi­li­ty for the accu­ra­cy of the content.

Whoe­ver lis­tens to Jesus and acts accor­din­gly is like a man who builds his house on rock. On the other hand, the one who only lis­tens and does not act sinks his life. A disci­ple responds to Jesus» invi­ta­ti­on to fol­low him and now does ever­y­thing he can to share his who­le life with him and beco­me like him. «Disci­ple» is ano­ther name for the per­son who has a rocky foun­da­ti­on. Small groups are the trai­ning cent­re on the way to beco­ming a disciple.


The French Chris­ti­an and evan­ge­list Eri­no Dapoz­zo (1907 – 1974) tells of the time he was impri­so­ned in a Ger­man con­cen­tra­ti­on camp: «At noon, the camp direc­tor sent for me. He sat at a laid table. I was roaring hun­gry. And then he star­ted eating me one cour­se after the other. I had to stand at atten­ti­on and watch. Final­ly, he had cof­fee brought in. Poin­ting to the packet next to it, he said: «Look, your wife sent you this from Paris: Pastries!» I knew how litt­le the­re was to eat and how my wife must have saved to make the­se bis­cuits. And then the camp lea­der star­ted eating them. I asked him: «Give me at least one, I don’t want to eat it, I want to have it as a sou­ve­nir of my wife.» And laug­hing, he ate the last one. That was a moment when you start to hate.» Dapoz­zo con­ti­nues, «At that moment I rea­li­sed what it means: «The love of God is pou­red out in our heart.» I could love the man. I thought, «You poor man! You have no one to love you. Only hat­red sur­rounds you! How good I have it as a child of God.» Then the man jum­ped up – he felt it – and ran out.» After the war, Dapoz­zo visi­ted him. Then the man tur­ned pale: «You want reven­ge!» «Yes,» said Dapoz­zo, «I want to have a cup of cof­fee with you. And in the car I brought a cake. And now we’ll eat and drink tog­e­ther!» It was then that the man was sho­cked to rea­li­se that a per­son who belie­ves in Jesus Christ no lon­ger has to hate. God’s love has been pou­red into his heart (from: Wil­helm Busch, Jesus unser Schick­sal, Neu­kir­chen-Vluyn 2004, p. 152f).

A voice is stir­ring in me that says: «You can’t do that, show him! Jus­ti­ce must be done!«Is the­re a dif­fe­rence bet­ween the emo­ti­ons of my heart and tho­se of Jesus? For he said on the cross in the face of his tor­men­tors: «Father, for­gi­ve the­se peo­p­le, for they know not what they do»(Luke 23:34). This is exact­ly what a disci­ple of Jesus is: he responds to Jesus» invi­ta­ti­on to fol­low him and now sets out to share all of life with him and beco­me like him.

Dapoz­zo has built his life on a rock. His house is immu­ne to even the worst storms of life. On this rock, he is resi­li­ent against inner-soul storms such as infe­rio­ri­ty, self-accu­sa­ti­on or dark thoughts and also against exter­nal influen­ces such as hosti­li­ty, pain or hun­ger. How can we build our house of life on rocks? By living as disci­ples of Jesus! What does that mean?

Build as a fool

Such exple­ti­ves are in the Bible. And in the fol­lo­wing con­text: «But he who lis­tens to me and does not act accor­din­gly is a fool (moros); he is like a man who builds a house on sand»(Matthew 7:26 NL). A per­son who lis­tens to God and does not act accor­din­gly is a fool. Moros can also be used with a short-sigh­ted and super­fi­ci­al atti­tu­de towards divi­ne things can be trans­la­ted. Accor­ding to this defi­ni­ti­on, the­re are quite a few fools among Chris­ti­ans. It’s just the more com­for­ta­ble way. It is quite plea­sant to attend or stream an upbeat church ser­vice or to dis­cuss God and the world in a small group. It is much more time-con­sum­ing and exhaus­ting to do God’s Word.

We asso­cia­te sand with holi­days. Lying on a warm san­dy beach is good for you. Lol­ling and bas­king in it is com­fort­ing. The sand moulds its­elf to our bodies. You hard­ly hurt yours­elf play­ing beach vol­ley, ever­y­thing is soft and mal­leable. Sand is asso­cia­ted with a holi­day atmo­sphe­re. For child­ren, the sand pile is very popu­lar. They can play the­re for hours, buil­ding sculp­tures and rivers. We had a boy in our neigh­bour­hood who just did­n’t want to lea­ve the sand­pit era behind. We smi­led at him under our breath.

Spi­ri­tual­ly, too, we should lea­ve the sand. It is not sui­ta­ble for buil­ding one’s house of life on. We need a bet­ter foun­da­ti­on. Søren Kier­ke­gaard said: «Christ does not want admi­rers, but fol­lo­wers. The admi­rer is the che­a­pest popu­lar edi­ti­on of the fol­lower.«An admi­rer is one who enthu­si­a­sti­cal­ly hangs on the lip of Jesus, ful­ly appro­ves of it all, but does not act on it. A fol­lower is a disci­ple who is pas­sio­na­te about beco­ming like Jesus.

Storms are good checks to find out whe­re we have built on sand. Such a storm is curr­ent­ly swee­ping through the world in the form of the coro­na­vi­rus. What is was­ting away in my life when I have no lei­su­re acti­vi­ties, no work, no social cont­acts, and ins­tead iso­la­ti­on and worries? A good check is also to assu­me that you belong to the risk group and would have clear sym­ptoms. What would that do to you?

Build as a wise man

«He who lis­tens to me and acts on it is wise and acts like a man who builds a house on solid rock»(Matthew 7:24 NL). It’s cra­zy, that litt­le word «not» makes the dif­fe­rence bet­ween me buil­ding on sand or rock. In Greek, the­re are two tiny cha­rac­ters (me). This syllable distin­gu­is­hes bet­ween a fool and an under­stan­ding, wise per­son, bet­ween an admi­rer and a fol­lower or disci­ple. So litt­le and yet so much. Jesus is very con­cer­ned that we build on rocks. Almost pray­er mill-like, he repeats hims­elf and chal­lenges us to be not only hea­rers but also doers of God’s word.

Unli­ke sand, rock is some­ti­mes quite uncom­for­ta­ble. A few years ago, we spent our sum­mer holi­days as a fami­ly in Croa­tia, whe­re the­re is a lot of rock and hard­ly any sand on the bea­ches. It’s quite exhaus­ting. You can’t real­ly sett­le down. You always have to find a new lying posi­ti­on. The rock does not adapt to me, I have to adapt to it.

But: By doing God’s word we build an excee­din­gly sta­ble house of life on a rock. The exam­p­le of Dapoz­zo speaks cle­ar­ly. No storm can dama­ge it, not even the grea­test and last storm in earth­ly life, our dying. The fol­lo­wing pas­sa­ge speaks of this: «Prac­ti­se (Greek: gym­na­zo) doing the will of God!»(1 Timo­thy 4:7 Lut). And fur­ther: «Phy­si­cal trai­ning has a cer­tain value, but spi­ri­tu­al trai­ning is even more important, becau­se it pro­mi­ses gain in this life as well as in the life to come» (4.8 NL). First of all: Yes, buil­ding a house on rocks needs more than lol­ling in the warm sand, it needs spi­ri­tu­al gym­nastics. The gain in this life and in the future is huge and gua­ran­teed. Last week I visi­ted the rail­way muse­um in Ber­gün. On the Albu­la line, all the via­ducts were built with stone. It was said that unli­ke iron bridges, the­se are much more dura­ble. But it cos­ts effort. But do not be afraid: we do not fall from grace when we hear and do. Both are based on God’s Word and His Spi­rit, who does ever­y­thing for us if we want it.

Our small groups are meant to be places for spi­ri­tu­al gym­nastics: places whe­re we put the Word of God into prac­ti­ce. Gyms for disci­ple­ship. Jesus said: «The­r­e­fo­re go to all nati­ons and make disci­ples of them»(Matthew 28:19 NL). We pre­sen­ted the three-thirds pro­cess to the she­p­herds in our groups:

  • Look backIn the first third of the evening we look back at the highs and lows of the past days. We also talk about what we deci­ded to do last time. Ele­ments we com­mu­ni­on and prai­se also belong in this part, if they occur at all.
  • View upwardsIn this part we look at the Bible and the ser­mon from last Sun­day. We talk about it and ask our­sel­ves what God has to say to us.
  • Loo­king aheadBased on the ser­mon, we prac­ti­se lis­tening. Each per­son asks God in per­so­nal pray­er, «What exact­ly do you want me to do? Who should I tell about you in the next two weeks? Whe­re do I need for­gi­ve­ness? Who can I help? Whom should I encourage?

The expe­ri­ence is that the third third likes to fall under the table. It takes disci­pli­ne to get to the point whe­re God’s word is done. But we need to prac­ti­se it. If we hear God’s Word for too long and do not do it, we beco­me more immu­ne to God’s Word. On the way to being a doer of God’s Word, we need each other, lis­tening tog­e­ther, cou­ra­ge­ous­ly tack­ling and honest­ly being accoun­ta­ble to each other.

You auto­ma­ti­cal­ly get older, but not youn­ger. 😉 The start­ing shot falls whe­re a per­son responds to the call of Jesus «Fol­low me». When we walk in the dust of the gre­at Rab­bi cal­led Jesus, we have the exam­p­le and the ener­ge­tic super­na­tu­ral sup­port for buil­ding hou­ses on rocks. This Jesus invi­tes you to fol­low Him and be His disciple!

 

 

 

Possible questions for the small groups

Read the Bible text: Matthew 7:24–27

  1. Give a defi­ni­ti­on for a disciple!
  2. What could be the obs­ta­cles for you to build a house on rocks?
  3. Tell about a storm in your life whe­re your foun­da­ti­on was tested!
  4. Is the extra­or­di­na­ry sta­te we are in also a storm for you? How do you deal with it?
  5. What do you think of the three-thirds pro­cess in the small groups? Could this be hel­pful for doing God’s Word?