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The principle of foundations

It is appropriate that this final principle is that of Foundations. In coming to it Jesus made the point that his teaching as contained in chapters five to seven (which we have divided into fifteen Principles of the Kingdom of God) is to be foundational for our lives. Matthew 7:24-27.

“Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house: and it fell not:  for it was founded upon a rock.

And everyone that heareth these sayings, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house;  and it fell: and great was the fall of it”.

A right foundation

It is not only what you build, but what you build it on that matters. This goes without saying in building practice. It is only common sense that the strongest structure is not good enough unless it is built on an equally strong foundation. Likewise, with our lives we must beware of the temptation to concentrate on those things which make for an outwardly impressive and successful Christian life whilst neglecting the need for building on a right foundation. Without such a foundation our lives will ultimately collapse no matter how good they may appear.

Men do the building

We are speaking here of being coworkers with God, for it is men who do the building and God who supplies the foundations. It is not sufficient for us to ensure that we have God’s foundation as if that is all there is to it. Neither is it acceptable for us to build without having that foundation. We must have the foundation which God provides and we must then build according to God’s plan and directions.

Jesus - God's foundation

Jesus is God’s foundation, not only as our saviour but as all that he embodied and taught. This fact goes beyond the limited traditional evangelical position of Jesus as Saviour being the only one by whom we may be saved. Jesus, however, is more than saviour to his church. God has given him the role of being the Head over all things to the church (Ephesians 1:22). It is, therefore, not simply a matter of “getting saved” and then sitting back and saying “well, Jesus is now the foundation of my life”.

All that Jesus is  all that he embodied and taught, of which his role as saviour is only a part  must be foundational to our lives else we have not made Jesus wholly our foundation. Thus we have this series of fifteen foundational principles from the teachings of Jesus. One of the prophecies concerning Jesus as God’s foundation is found in Isaiah 28:16.

“Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste”.

All that Jesus is (beware of thinking only of the historic Jesus and thus being limited to all that he was) is entirely sufficient as our foundation and, in fact, nothing else is sufficient.  Jesus always sought to impart himself to his disciples.

One of his difficulties was that people were more inclined to want his teaching than himself.  They wanted advice, instruction and directions but Jesus was wanting involvement.  His concern was that all that he embodied  of which his teachings were but an outflow should be imparted to them.

So we must be careful to not reduce our relationship to him to that of extracting some of his, or other, teachings from the scriptures and making these our foundation as a substitute for him. Only out of a true intimacy with Jesus (refer Principle No. 14) can the foundation be laid in our lives. You cannot take those things which Jesus taught as though they were sufficient in themselves.  If all that Jesus is, is imparted to you then you will increasingly become what he is.

The building and the foundation

Both the building and the foundation must be right. Paul makes this very clear in 1 Corinthians 3:915.

“For we are labourers together with God:  ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.

For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire;  and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.

If any man’ work abide which he hath built there upon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss:  but he himself shall be saved;  yet so as by fire”.

As an apostle, Paul had received God’s foundation and upon it he had built a church at Corinth. But he warns strongly against two dangers. Firstly, that having received the right foundation, they can make the mistake of substituting another for it and secondly, that they can have the right foundation and yet construct the wrong building.

To properly understand the point here, we need to look beyond the personal to the corporate. That is, the church. Paul is not speaking about each person’s life as their own little building on their own personal foundation. He is rather speaking about the establishment and building up of a church in this case, the Corinthian church.

As God raises up apostles who are in turn to raise up churches, he will provide the foundation for each apostle to lay. Having laid the foundation the apostle may, after a time, move on as Paul did from Corinth. Others will, therefore, bear at least some of the responsibility for that which is built. It is, however, a mistake to assume that the building is right simply because it is built on the right foundation.

Paul made it quite clear that he had received his apostleship from Jesus and that his teaching was given by revelation from Him. In writing to Timothy, Paul said,

“And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also”. 2 Timothy 2:2.

He was making sure that that which he had received from God would be passed on to succeeding “spiritual generations”. Likewise, Paul’s strong stand against those who preached contrary to his teaching.

“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, I any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed”.  Galatians 1:89.

Building on God’s foundation must be according to God’s direction. There is no “scriptural pattern” for the right building. I have seen school buildings in Canada as well as in rural Nigeria and though they are in both cases well suited to their function in their respective settings, they are very different from each other. There are, of course, many reasons for this and to attempt to make one a pattern for the other would be foolish. So with each work of God. Each building, whilst being right for its particular setting, must be built according to God’s direction and purpose for that situation. A God-given foundation must be laid by apostolic ministry and then, if faithful men do the building unto God, the right structure will be built on that foundation and the only way to know the right structure is to be directed by God and not to try and extract a nonexistent pattern from the Bible. So Paul said that the building will be put to the test by God to see whether or not it was built his way. “Good Biblical teaching” is not good enough and neither are miracles. A church will only be properly built if it is hearing and receiving God’s word to it through faithful ministry.

Paul carried the Corinthian church on his heart for it was born out of his ministry. Some years later he wrote them this letter from Philippi and reminded them of the foundation that was laid and warned them that there had better be no building other than that which was according to God’s will.

The building according to God’s will is “gold, silver, precious stones” and that which is not according to God’s will is “wood, hay, stubble”. No matter how well disguised the wood, hay and stubble are there is a sure way of checking it out. When gold, silver and precious stones are subjected to fire, any impurities in them are burned out and they become even purer. Not so with wood, hay and stubble for fire destroys them.

If the building is not right it cannot possibly stand before God in the final analysis. God does not see as man sees for man all too often, has the approach of “so long as it looks good, it’s got to be good”. How tempting it often is for a man in ministry to erect a goodlooking but wrong building on God’s foundations. Yet no man has a right to do that but rather an obligation to build only God’s building. One of the common pitfalls for pastors, is to grab hold of another’s “success method” and to try and employ it in their own churches. Thus making a pattern of it. There is little, if any chance that such a course of action will eventuate in God’s building even though it may produce the appearance of success. The basis is not, “what worked for someone else”, but “what is God wanting to do here?” Verse 15 makes the point that one who spends his ministry building the wrong structure will himself be saved but that is all. He will be like a man who invested all that he had into erecting one building only to see it destroyed by fire and to be left destitute with nothing to show for a lifetime of labour.

Even the most prominent man of God can end up in such a sorry state, unless he is careful to build right all the way regardless of having started off with the right foundation and with an anointing and a call from God. Remember, the building may look very good in the eyes of men but, “the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire”. (verse 13).

So we see that the foundation is God’s provision and the building must be built in God’s way.

Ultimate success

Every life, every ministry, every venture will only ultimately succeed if they meet both of these requirements. I know beyond doubt that Outreach International was born of God and he provided the foundation yet that of itself is not good enough. My responsibility and that of those who minister under my direction, is to see that it is always built in God’s way. It is a fatal mistake to have the attitude of “so long as it came from God in the first place, we can’t go wrong whatever we build”. It must be done in God’s way all the way.

If we vary the analogy a little, when it comes to building materials, we have the Bible speaking about God’s people as living stones being built together into a holy temple for God. We may have preconceived ideas about which people we may or may not wish to have as members of our church fellowship. But our only business is to see that we are building with the stones which God has selected. It is so tempting to use whatever means are available to us to get people into our churches yet we read that in the early church it was God who “added to the church daily such as should be saved”. He knows the right stones whether or not we think they fit. We must build with right people.

When a church has an advertising campaign in which all and sundry are invited to attend it, those in authority had better be sure the campaign is God-directed otherwise they may end up with a whole pile of “wrong stones” that will not fit together because they are not chosen by God for that church. Getting more people in the pews is not the epitome of a growing church. It may only amount to pews full of problems.

Shaking

An earthquake very effectively proves both structure and foundation. This is the kind of picture portrayed in Hebrews 12:2529.

“See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: Those voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.

And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire”.

Imagine a building construction site in which the foreman, speaking to the men under him points to the building superintendent and says, “See that ye refuse not him that speaketh“. Such a man is the proper authority who knows what is to be built and how and it is the responsibility of the men who build to do their work exactly as he directs.

When God speaks, he does not speak “into the air” neither does he speak for the sake of our theological interest.  He speaks rather, to make plain what he has on his heart. So we had better build according to God’s directions to us as opposed to any of our own thoughts and desires. When God spoke at Mount Sinai, at the time when he gave Moses the Ten Commandments, and his voice shook the earth (verses 25,26) that was scary enough but that was merely when God spoke on earth. Now God is speaking from heaven and that should be even more awesome. But because he speaks through men  his anointed ministries  the tendency in the church is to take what he said less seriously than when he spoke at Sinai. Paul, as an anointed apostle in his day, had such a frustration. Those to whom he preached and wrote, did not always choose to take his words as being from God and therefore, did not always take him as seriously as they ought. It was so easy to say, “Well, of course, that’s Paul and you have to allow for his peculiarities and hangups. You can’t always put too much weight on what he says, he sounds tough in his letters but there isn’t that much to him when you meet him in person”. So Paul is making the point that it is God who is speaking and that it must be received as from God.

We are responsible to receive that which is brought to us by God-appointed ministry as a word from God himself.

In the final analysis it is God’s word (that which he speaks) that will test everything just as an earthquake tests the foundation and structure of a building. Only those buildings which have been built in God’s way and with God’s materials, i.e., according to what God has spoken, can stand.

The shaking is going to come. Everything that man has ever raised up with be shaken by God.  It will be subjected to the test of God’s word.  Was it raised up according to what God said?  To have men do the shaking by their standards would, of course, appear a far more attractive proposition. How easy it is to build something that meets with the specifications and passes the tests of men. If men are impressed it must be good but the shaking will be done by God, it is not men who will ultimately test that which we build  it is God. If it does not stand it is God and not men to whom we must answer.

An immovable kingdom

Verse 28 speaks of our receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved. We may easily be tempted to feel that the thing which God is building is about as flimsy and insecure as they come. Often that which God is doing will appear to be the least wellfounded. The way in which God does things at times, seems anything but strong, firm and secure. It has always been like that. When Israel left Egypt they wandered across the desert and were, to all appearances, a small homeless group of refugees with no roots and no security. They must have seemed to be the least established people on the fact of the earth.

So it has been for the Jews for much of their history up to the present day. Yet they, as a people, are but an earthly example of “spiritual Israel” the Church. Again and again through history, as God has moved through people and raised up movements and churches, they have seemed so weak and vulnerable they appeared anything but immovable. Yet that which God raises up will stand whether in our own lives personally, with a group of people locally, or with the church universal. But it will not usually appear so.

On the other hand, no matter how secure a thing may appear, if it is not built on God’s foundation and in God’s way, it will not ultimately stand. So it was with Jesus, who when he began his ministry must have seemed so much like just another upstart fly-by-night self-appointed preacher. He did not have the “right” credentials, nor the right connections. Sometimes he did not even know for sure whether he would have a bed for the night.  That does not sound very established, does it?  He and his followers must have seemed so much like a passing “fad movement” to those who liked things to be solid and established. Especially in Israel with its thousands of years of religious history and its beautifully constructed temple right there in Jerusalem and with all the scriptures and tradition carefully recorded and systematised. What a Johnny-cum-lately Jesus must have seemed! And yet because Jesus was sent from God and did the work of God, that which he said and did stood while the other which seemed so secure passed away.

That is why Jesus was not impressed when the disciples tried to excite him with the magnificent structure of the temple.  (Matthew 24:12). To the Jews, having a solid, well-built temple, signified the security of their religion but Jesus knew what true security was all about. Jesus knew that that which he was building would stand after the temple was demolished.

It is in hearing and in doing what Jesus says, that we build solidly and securely. (Matthew 7: 24,25). This also is clearly brought out in James 1:22-25.

“But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. but whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed”.

The right building on the right foundation is immovable. Though that which is built may often seem on the brink of being swept away and lost, all we need to know is that it was built on God’s foundation and God’s way, to know that it must stand.

Conclusion

The conclusion of this series of studies is summed up in Matthew 7:28,29.

“And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine;  for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.”

The people were astonished for what he said had the unavoidable ring of authoritative truth about it. A genuine seeker after truth will always recognise it when he hears it. There is far more to speaking truth than basing what is said on scripture. The scribes who never succeeded in saying it like Jesus did, knew their scriptures very well and carefully based all of their teaching on them. Yet it seems that in this Jesus was blatantly careless. The only time he ever actually preached from the scripture was when he read from Isaiah in the synagogue and what he said following that was probably his shortest sermon ever. Apart from that, he was far more inclined to make dogmatic statements and to preach in parables. He had truth and because of that it had more authority than a string of scriptures. The scribes who heavily used the scriptures, still lacked authority and truth. Jesus did not need to tie his every statement to the scripture because he was speaking God’s word which is of itself true and authoritative.

We are now receiving a kingdom. God is revealing the principles of that kingdom. It is founded on Jesus and it is built according to the principles which he teaches us.

About the author

Tony Kostas was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1941, where at the age of seventeen, he committed his life to Jesus at a Billy Graham Crusade. In 1967 he founded the Melbourne Outreach Crusade, a non-denominational evangelistic outreach. This later grew into Outreach International, which is now a worldwide body of believers, who share a God-given calling and are committed to live in love with Him and with one another.

Tony’s life is a true expression of all that God has revealed to him throughout the years, in its purity and focus on loving God. His passion is for God to have the desire of His hears: a people who truly represent Him because they are His and His alone.