Jesus is the Rock

Exodus 17:1-7

The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. So, they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?” But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?” Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.” The Lord answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Water is essential for life. In the desert, water is limited and if you are going to travel in the desert, you have to know where the water is.

The people of Israel are in the desert and they are out of water. They began to grumble against Moses and against God.

God tells Moses to take his staff and go and strike the rock at Horeb. God will make water come out of the rock when Moses strikes it.

Moses did as God commanded him and water came of the rock when Moses struck it.

In Matthew 16 Jesus takes His disciples to Caesarea Philippi. He asks them who the people say that He, Jesus, is. They tell Jesus what the people are saying about Him. Then Jesus asks them who they say He is. Peter says, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus then says, “And I tell you that you are Peter and, on this rock, I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”

Jesus is saying that the confession that Peter makes, that He, Jesus, is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, is the rock on which He will build the church.

In Matthew 7 Jesus tells a parable about two men who build houses. One built his house on sand and the other built his house on a rock. When a storm came, the house build on sand was destroyed and the house built on the rock stood through the storm.

In Romans 9:33, Paul identities Jesus as the rock of offense; that if we believe in Him, we will not be put to shame.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing Jesus as our Rock.

When we experience Jesus as our Rock, we will experience:

Protection and Deliverance and Salvation – Psalm 18:2

Redemption – Psalm 19:14

Guidance – Psalm 31:3

Security – Psalm 40:2

Stability – Psalm 62:6

God’s Glory and Might – Psalm 62:7

Righteousness – Psalm 92:15

The Equipping of the Lord – Psalm 144:1

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is letting Jesus as our Rock enable us to follow and be used by Him.

In John 4 Jesus encounters a Samaritan woman at the well at Sychar. Jesus asked the woman for a drink of water. The woman was amazed that Jesus, a Jewish male, would ask her, a Samaritan woman, for a drink.

In John 4:10 Jesus says, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.”

The woman is confused about where Jesus could possibly get any water, let alone living water.

In John 4:13-14 Jesus says, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is receiving living water.

Not only will we receive living water but living water will well up inside us.

1 Corinthians 10:1-4

For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.

Jesus is the Rock.

The living water that comes from the Rock is our salvation.

God instructed Moses to strike the rock and out came water to save the Israelites.

Jesus was struck and out came blood and that blood brought salvation to all people.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experience Jesus as our Savior and receiving salvation from Him.

Just as the rock that Moses struck which produced water is through grace, so Jesus’ death for sin that produced our salvation is through grace.

With the Rock, Raising the Roof and Removing Walls,

Joe