Our Rock of Faith

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Pastor Scott L. Harris

Grace Bible Church, NY

March 27, 2005

Our Rock of Faith

Selected Scriptures

I want to start this morning by thanking our Choir for their presentation of "Rock of Faith" arranged by Mosie Lister. The choral presentation begins and ends with the fact that Jesus Christ is the heavenly king. He is the lamb upon the throne that is crowned with many crowns and whose heavenly anthem drowns all music but its own. All the songs in the middle explained why Jesus, He that is One with the Father, is the Lord of Heaven by recounting His death on the cross and His resurrection. This morning I want to briefly expand on that theme and then explain further what its means that Jesus is the Solid Rock, and the Rock of our faith.

Most of our society calls today "Easter," and perhaps it is a good name for what society is celebrating today, the coming of Spring, but it is not a great name for what Christians are celebrating today. The name "Easter" arises from the name of the Teutonic goddess of Spring to whom sacrifices were offered in April. How then did this name get attached to our celebration of the Lord's Resurrection? Two factors made the change. The first factor was a decision by the Council of Nicea in 325 to set the celebration of the Resurrection of Christ on the first Sunday after the first full moon of Spring. This broke its chronological tie with Passover, (and that is why this year "Easter" is 27 days before Passover - April 23). The second factor is that the translators of the King James Version translated the Greek term, J@ B"FP" / to pascha, which means, "the Passover," correctly 27 times, yet for some unknown reason they translated it as "Easter" in Acts 12:4. Since the resurrection of Jesus Christ occurred the third day after Passover, it did not take long for the term "Easter" to encompass it as well. Tragically, the name "Easter" then entered into English church vocabulary as the designation for the time when the celebration of the resurrection would take place, which was now tied to the coming of Spring instead of Passover, and the two became mixed.

Now while I am very glad for the coming of Spring and praise God for it, I am not celebrating that today. I am, and I hope you are as well, celebrating the glorious resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Society can have their Easter Eggs, bunnies and chicks, but I want the resurrected Christ, who is the King and Lord of Heaven and Earth forever. How did Jesus attain that position? Turn to Philippians 2.

We studied this passage last year, so I will not go into depth about it, but simply use it to point out who Jesus is and what He did. Paul is pointing out to the Philippian believers the humble attitude they are to have in dealing with one another and he uses Jesus as the supreme example. Starting in verse 5 our text says this: 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, [and] being made in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus is God in human flesh and He willingly set aside the glories of heaven that belong to Him in order to become a man, but not just a man, but a bond servant. He was born of a humble Jewish family in a stable and grew up as a carpenter's son. But at the right time, He began His public ministry of declaring the Father's message to His people. The Messiah, the promised anointed One had come to save them from their sins. What the people did not understand, including His disciples at the time, was that this would require Him to be the innocent sacrifice made on their behalf. They were looking for a Messiah who would throw off the yoke of Rome and re-establish the nation of Israel to the glories it had when David and Solomon were on the throne. They failed to take note of the prophet Isaiah's words in chapter 53 that Messiah would come as a suffering servant, that he would be "despised and forsake of men," that He would "pierced through for our transgressions" and "crushed for our iniquities." The Lord would cause "the iniquity of us all to fall on Him" for He would "render Himself as a guilt offering," and by that would "justify the many." That is what Jesus accomplished when He willingly died on the cross as the sin offering for you and me.

The choir sang about this fact, and how well did the hymn writers summarize these great truths. "It was for me He cried, for me He died, For me He shed His blood upon a tree." "And the Old rugged cross made the difference." It made the difference between having to bear my own sin and being condemned to eternal Hell or being forgiven and set free from my sin because He paid the death price for me. But if the story ended at Jesus death, then as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 15:17-20, we Christians would be "of all me most to be pitied," for our faith would be worthless and we would still be in our sins if Jesus remained dead. Why? Because then Jesus' promises would be a lie. If He could not fulfill His promise to rise again from the dead, then there would be no basis to believe that He could bring about the resurrection of anyone else.

"But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep" (1 Cor. 15:20), and that fact has been verified by among other things; His physical appearance to Cephas (Peter), the twelve, James, more than 500 at one time and finally to the apostle Paul (1 Cor. 15: 6-8). Jesus' resurrection assures us that His promises of being forgiven of our sins, escaping judgement and passing from death to eternal life is true (Mark 2:10; John 3:16, 5:24). We can also believe His promise that He will come again for us to take us to be with Him forever (John 14:1-3). No wonder the choir sang of celebrating because Jesus lives!

The love of God is proven in Jesus' death, burial and resurrection. God's love to us is proven in Jesus dying for us while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8). His love for His Son and through Him to us was proven in the resurrection. Another joyous truth to praise God for and sing about.

But there is one other thing that the choir sang about that I want to point out and expand upon this morning, and that is the concept that Jesus is the "Solid Rock" and the "Rock of our faith." I want to expand on this for two reasons. First, that kind of language is not used much anymore, so it is important that we understand what is meant by those phrases. Second, we need to know that our faith is in something that is not only unchanging itself, but cannot be changed. We need to be assured that our faith in Jesus Christ will not turn out to be in vain.

One of the hymns the Choir sang was "The Solid Rock." People very seldom use that kind of language anymore, but in previous generations it was very common metaphor for something strong and unmoving that could be counted on. That is why in the Civil War era Confederate General Thomas Jackson gained the moniker "Stonewall" because his troops held their ground while other troops were retreating, and Union General George Thomas gained the title, "Rock of Chickamauga" for withstanding the strong Confederate attacks. The Old Testament if full of similar metaphorical use of the terms for "rock" to communicate the idea of strength and reliability.

For example, in Psalm 61 David says, "Hear my cry, O God; Give heed to my prayer. From the end of the earth I call to Thee, when my heart is faint; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For Thou hast been a refuge for me, A tower of strength against the enemy." David uses the term "rock" to speak of the person that is greater than he is and whose strength and reliability can provide him security much like a mountain fortress would provide refuge for an army. It is this idea of security that is brought out by the phrase "my Rock" or "our rock" 15 times in the Old Testament. The idea is strengthened further when used in conjunction phrases such as "my fortress" (Psalm 31:3; 71:3); "my stronghold" (2 Sam. 22:3; Psalm 18:2; Psalm 62:2,6; 94:22); "my refuge" (2 Sam. 22:3; Psalm 18:2; 62:7; 94:22; 144:2);"my shield" (2 Samuel 22:3; Psalm 18:2; 28:7; 144:2); "my deliver" (2 Samuel 2:22; Psalm 18:2); "my redeemer" (Psalm 19:14); and "my salvation / savior" (2 Sam. 22:3; 47; Psalm 18:2; 46; 27:1,9; 62:1,2,6,7; 89:26). God is our "rock" because He is strong and reliable so that we can trust Him to protect and deliver us from our enemies.

The term "rock" was often used as a synonym for God such as in Deuteronomy 32:4, "The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He" and Habakkuk 1:12, "Art Thou not from everlasting, O Lord, my God, my Holy One? We will not die. Thou, O Lord, hast appointed them to judge; And Thou, O Rock, hast established them to correct." The term was also used of the pagan deities, in fact the two are contrasted Deuteronomy 32:31 and 1 Samuel 2:2, "Indeed their Rock is not like our Rock, Even our enemies themselves judge this," and "There is no one holy like the Lord, Indeed, there is no one besides Thee, Nor is there any Rock like our God."

It is because of the Lord's strength and faithfulness that the hymn proclaims that "On Christ, the Solid Rock, I stand; All other ground is sinking sand." The scriptures declare our God to not only be powerful enough to carry out His will against all opposition, but also trustworthy to do so, and for that reason He is our rock.

It is that same metaphor that allows us to speak of the rock of our faith. Faith has become very confused by the false teachers of our times. They have spread the idea that faith is its own entity so that faith in faith is enough to claim that something must happen. The truth is that faith cannot exist as an independent entity. Faith must always have an object. The question is what is that object and is that object something that is worthy and dependable to put your faith in.

The phrase "people of faith" is often used by the media in an attempt to describe people who are religious, but all people are people of faith, for all people have faith, for faith encompasses the concepts of belief and trust. If you believe something and put your trust in it, then you have faith in it, and all people have faith in something even if it is just in themselves. It is the ability and reliability of the object of faith that determines if it is a faith that is worthwhile or not, and not the belief of the individual themselves.

A negative example first. An employer hires a new employee that recently graduated near the top in their class. The ability of the new employee has been demonstrated by their college record. It would be reasonable for the employer to place faith in the new employee to handle the job. However, the new employee is now away from home for the first time with a spendable income. He does not handle the freedom well and quickly develops some bad habits that result in him often coming to work late or even missing the day. No matter how much faith the employer claims to have in the new employee, that faith is not worthwhile because the employee is unreliable. The same would be true if the new employee never missed work and was always on time but did not have the ability to do the job. The object of faith must have ability and reliability to make the faith worthwhile.

Another example: A dad picks up his young child and begins to play with him by tossing him in the air and catching him. It is the dad's ability and reliability which determine if this is a safe activity or not. The child may have very little faith in the dad to begin with, but as he is safely caught each time, his faith in dad increases and the activity becomes more enjoyable. Often we are like that child when it comes to our faith in God. We might even say we have faith, but our trust wavers when new situations develop that are frightening to us. Our faith in God increases as we see how He takes us through each experience to accomplish His will in our life. It is not the strength of our faith that determines its credibility, but the ability and reliability of the object of that faith.

That is the reason we can say that Jesus is the Rock of our Faith. Our belief and trust may be weak, but Jesus can and will carry out all His promises toward us, and it is His resurrection that proves this. Consider how weak in faith the disciples were on the night Jesus was arrested. Though they had been with Him for three years and heard Him teach on all sorts of subjects including what was going to happen over the next few days including both His suffering and resurrection, yet when the persecution began and Jesus was arrested, they ran away. On the evening of the day that Jesus rose from the dead, we find the disciples in a room with the doors shut for fear of the Jews (John 20:19). They had already heard of Jesus' resurrection from Mary Magdalene and others, but they were still afraid until Jesus suddenly came into the room and showed them His hands and side. It was only then that they rejoiced and became changed men. They who had previously fled in fear went on to boldly tell the Sanhedrin, "We must obey God rather than men" and then to clearly placed the responsibility for Jesus' death upon them (Acts 5:29-32). It no longer mattered if they would be flogged, which they were, or even killed, which all but John eventually were. These men who had been so afraid ended up turning the world upside down (Acts 17:6).

Perhaps your faith is weak much like the disciples had been. You may have fears and doubts much like they did. If so, take comfort that regardless of the level of your faith, the object of your faith is able and reliable, and therefore Jesus is the Rock of our Faith. His resurrection demonstrated that His sacrifice was accepted so that our sins can be forgiven, and that He also has the power to fulfill His promise to grant eternal life for all who believe in Him. As you walk with Him, your understanding and belief in Him will broaden and increase even as your trust in Him will deepen. The fears and doubts will diminish and with firm confidence you can rest in His love no matter what happens, for along with Paul you can proclaim that to live is Christ and to die is gain, for your present and eternity are secure in Him, the Rock of our faith.

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