2025-08-10 Sermon Notes1

• Exodus 17.4 Moses cried to Yahweh, saying, "What shall I do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me."

• He defeated Egypt with 10 frightful plagues
• He provided them sweet water to drink in the wilderness.

• How similar we are to the Israelites. How often we forget God's generous abundant provision for us, His people.
  • This reflects what is in the human heart and therefore what is in our heart.

• The seed of the woman was foretold to strike the head of the serpent
• The Passover lamb who was slaughtered and spared the firstborn child of each household.
• Through all these illustrations of Christ, God was foretelling Jesus.
  • Our text today is another one of these illustrations of Christ.

1 Corinthians 10.4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.

John 4.10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."

Jesus also fulfills the prophesies in the psalms

• Psalm 118.22 The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
• Matthew 21.42 Jesus said to them, "Did you never read in the Scriptures, 'The stone which the builders rejected was made the head of the corner. This was from the Lord. It is marvelous in our eyes'?

Jesus is the stone of stumbling

• Isaiah 28.16 Therefore the Lord Yahweh says, "Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. He who believes shall not act hastily.
• Romans 9.33 even as it is written, "Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense; and no one who believes in him will be disappointed."
• 1 Peter 2:6-8 Because it is contained in Scripture, "Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, chosen and precious: He who believes in him will not be disappointed." For you who believe therefore is the honor, but for those who are disobedient, "The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone," and, "a stumbling stone and a rock of offense." For they stumble at the word, being disobedient, to which also they were appointed.

In all of these illustrations Jesus is set before us

• Matthew 16.18 I also tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my assembly, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.
  • Jesus was not pointing to Peter as the foundation of the church. Jesus was pointing to Himself as the rock, the stone of stumbling of the church.

We also learn here of the smitten rock, the rock that was stuck and beaten:

• Exodus 17:5-6 Yahweh said to Moses, "Walk on before the people, and take the elders of Israel with you, and take the rod in your hand with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb. You shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink." Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.
• Christ suffered for His ministry: Jesus said "ought not the Christ to be smitten"
• John 18.11 Jesus therefore said to Peter, "Put the sword into its sheath. The cup [of wrath] which the Father has given me, shall I not surely drink it?"
• Jesus was willing to be smitten and struck, just like the rock, so that the people would be given living water.

the Lord is pictured in three ways:

• 1. Jesus is the rock
• 2. The rock is stricken
• 3. water gushes from the rock
  • Moses was not allowed to enter the promised land because he struck the rock twice when he was commanded to do so only once
    • Christ's sacrifice is a once only offering for sin.
    • The Roman Catholics teach that Christ is sacrificed over and over at every Lord's Supper.
      • The Lord's Supper is not a sacrifice.
  • John 4:10
  • John 4:13-14 Jesus answered her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."
  • John 7:37-38 Now on the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink! He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, from within him will flow rivers of living water."
  • Jesus is not like Moses who gave the water begrudgingly. Jesus gives abundantly and generously despite the ungratefulness of the people.
    • Even while Jesus was being struck, Jesus prayed "Father forgive them for they know not what they do".

The scriptures teach of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

• You might say that the rock is smitten from the foundation of the world.
• It was vital that God should be made man, so He could be smitten, even to death upon the cross.
• If this rock was not smitten, the people would not have water in the wilderness.
  • If Jesus Christ was not smitten, we would not receive the benefits of salvation.

Yes Jesus Christ was smitten, and yet He still lives.

• He died, He laid down His life, and He took it again.

The foundation of the Christian faith is Jesus, in His life, death and resurrection.

• This is what is unique about the Christian faith. This is what no other religion has.
• The curse of sin was that in the day we sin we shall die.
• But in Christ, the curse of sin is removed and defeated.
• The smitten rock is our salvation.
  • Based not on our emotions, deeds, or anything in ourselves.
  • It is based only on what Jesus has done.

2. When the rock was smitten, waters came out of it.

• The Lord speaks of this river in Revelation, and Isaiah and the Book of John.
• This is how the woman at the well was given waters of life: Jesus showed her her sin, her death, so that He could bring her life.
• He's not a dead savior, He is a living savior.
  • John 14.19 Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more; but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also.