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Rethrone Part 3

Week 3

Text: Matthew 7:12–27
Topic(s): Following Jesus, Spiritual Foundations, Spiritual Fruit
Big Idea of the Message: True disciples will bear spiritual fruit as evidence of God in their lives.
Application Point: The believer should consider what their spiritual foundation is and how that shapes and sustains their Christian walk.

Talking Points:

  1. This passage starts with the Golden Rule: we should treat others the way we desire to be treated (v. 12). Then it becomes a cautionary tale to listeners: there is only one way to eternal life—through Jesus. Don’t be deceived by the “wide” gate that leads to destruction, but instead choose the “hard” path that leads to life (vv. 13–14).

  2. Jesus continues his teaching with another warning about false prophets who look like good guys but really are bad news (v. 15). He uses the illustration of a tree to point out how we will know the good from the bad. A good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit (vv. 15–20). Consider having two apple trees in your yard. As spring comes, beautiful, sweet-smelling blossoms bloom on both. When you pick the apples, however, one tree bears sweet, juicy McIntosh apples. They get made into delicious pies, crisps, and applesauce. The other tree produces apples that look just as good, but when you sink your teeth into one, it is sour and bitter. It’s a crab apple tree: worthless except for feeding the birds.

  3. Charles Spurge on writes,“All the talking, thinking, posturing in the world will not save a man. There must be in him such a faith as produces holiness” (C. H. Spurgeon, “The Disowned” [sermon, Metropolitan Tabernacle, London, December 7, 1902], Spurgeon’s Sermons 48, Christian Classics Ethereal
    Library website,     https://ccel.org/ccel/spurgeon/sermons48/sermons48.xlix.html?highlight=2808#hi ghlight). As Jesus continues teaching, he tells us that there will be people who claim to know him, who say they did amazing things in his name, but in fact he never even knew them (vv. 21–23). Ouch! We might work hard to look like a good Christian. We can do all the right things and stay away from all the wrong things. We can follow all the rules and memorize all the Bible verses, but if our faith is just an act and we haven’t actually repented or asked God to be the boss in our life, it is worthless. We can’t earn our salvation or fake our way to heaven. We must believe, confess, repent, and allow Jesus to rule our life. His work in us is what will bear good fruit. We can’t will ourselves into producing good apples when our very DNA is a crab apple tree.

  4. Instead off a king it, we must build our faith or “house” on the foundation of Jesus (vv. 24–27). Shoddily built houses with foundations of celebrity Christianity, the prosperity gospel of “if I’m good, then I’ll get stuff from God,” or your parent’s faith will not make it. Yes, we can be encouraged by the faith of famous believers, our parents, or God’s provision, but the only foundation we can build upon that will sustain the hurricanes the world throws at us is the foundation of Jesus’s love,

death, burial, and resurrection and the Spirit-guided, authentic response to his

call to be brought back into reconciliation to God.
5. Thesepeoplearepayingthepricefortheliteralcrumblingfoundationsoftheir

actual house s: https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/these-homes-are- crumbling-from-their-foundation-790384707513! A specific mineral, pyrrhotite, found in the concrete mix expands over time and wear, causing the foundations to fail. As we consider what it means to be a disciple of Christ, it’s important that the ingredients in our spiritual foundations can withhold the wear and tear of life.

Week 4

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