Built Upon the Rock
Product Summary

Main Characters:

Jesus, Gideon, the father of Sahara and Thomas, Josiah, a lawyer who has left his practice to follow Jesus 

Scriptural References:

Luke 12:13-21, Matthew 7:24-27

Overall Theme:

Jesus teaches that in order to have a firm foundation in Christ, you must not only believe, but act upon your faith.

Summary:

Built Upon the Rock is a story of two brothers and how an inheritance teaches them about their own foundation and eternal life. In the beginning of the video, Gideon is dying and has asked that his two sons, Thomas and Sahara work together overseeing his vineyards after he is gone. When Gideon dies, Sahara takes control of the vineyards and begins to sell grapes that are not yet ripe to loyal customers. Thomas is greatly disturbed and seeks out a lawyer named Josiah to help him regain his part of his inheritance.

Josiah has left law practice to follow Jesus. He encourages Thomas to listen to the words of Jesus to find the answers to his problems. Jesus is giving his sermon on the mount and shares the beatitudes, or the actions, attitudes and blessings true believers should experience. He tells the people they need to go beyond just believing and act upon their faith.  Jesus uses the parable of the wise man who built his house upon a rock. This man took his time and built a strong foundation for his house. When the rains came down, the man and his family remained safe. The foolish man was in a hurry and built his house upon the sand. When the rains came down, his house washed away.

As Thomas listens to the words of Jesus, Josiah urges him to build his life on love, patience, and forgiveness, and all will be well. Thomas returns to ask forgiveness for speaking out in anger against his brother. When Thomas talks with Sahara about running the vineyards as his father would have wished, Sahara attacks him and throws him off the land. Thomas begins to doubt that Jesus’ way of loving your enemies is right for him. Josiah reminds Thomas that Jesus never promised his enemies would love him in return.

Thomas returns to Jesus to ask him to help him resolve the inheritance problem with his brother. Jesus warns Thomas about greed and envy. He tells him the value of a man’s life has little to do with the things he owns on earth. To teach this lesson, Jesus tells another parable of the rich man who had an abundant harvest. This man had a choice in giving his extra crop to the poor or to build bigger barns to hold his extra wealth. The man decides to build bigger barns so he will have plenty of money for years to come. God visited the man that very night and told him he had been foolish and his life was over. The things he had gained on earth were worth nothing to his soul.

A bit confused, Thomas thinks about what Jesus is trying to teach him. After talking with Josiah, he realizes he has been foolish like the rich man.  Thomas visits Sarah again to tell him he no longer wants his inheritance.  Sahara begins to gloat over his wealth.  As he raises a glass to his lips, he has a heart attack and dies. The video ends with Thomas sitting at the feet of Jesus building salvation upon a rock. 

Background:

After Jesus’ baptism by John, he was led out into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. When Jesus proclaimed, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve him only”, his ministry had begun. He had several disciples who began to follow him. While he was in Galilee he preached to the people and healed them.
 

Trustworthy:

You can feel confident that the NEST Bible DVDs are of the highest quality and worth of your trust. NEST is proud to have an independent Advisory Board of respected theologians review all key elements of the NEST Bible DVDs from the original script to the finished product. Each DVD stays true to Scripture.