The Narrow Gate
Transcript
Well, good morning. As Christians, we celebrate two major holidays. We celebrate Christmas, which is where we remember that Jesus Christ was born, that he became a human, that he was God who was infinite and glorious and has existed for all time and that he became a tiny little useless infant. And then we celebrate Easter, which is that he grew up, that he lived perfectly, that he loved the way he was supposed to, that he cared about humans the way he was supposed to, that he worshipped God the way he was supposed to, and that he then ultimately was crushed for our sins, that he was crucified, that he was murdered, that he breathed his last breath, that his heart stopped beating, and that he was wrapped up, laid in a tomb, and left.
And that three days later, he rose again from the dead, fulfilling all the promises he had made, fulfilling all the promises Scripture had made, that the Bible says that all of God's promises find their yes in Jesus, that he is the ultimate fulfillment of everything God promised to do. And that's what we celebrate at Easter, that ultimately Jesus has accomplished for us what we could never accomplish on our own. He has fulfilled the law for us. He has been moral enough and good enough for us, and that by faith in him, we can have life. We can be forgiven of our sins through his grace, and we can have eternal life through Jesus.
That's what we believe. That's what we're celebrating. And we've been walking together as a church family through the Sermon on the Mount, which is one of Jesus' first long sections of Scripture that he teaches through. And we're going to pick right back up there today. We're going to be in Matthew chapter 7. If you have one of the white Bibles on the road, we'll be on page 474 in Matthew chapter 7.
And here's what we're doing. It may not feel Easter-y at first, because we're walking, continually walking through just what Jesus has been teaching. But the crucifixion, the burial, the resurrection didn't come out of nowhere. Jesus had been telling us all along about what he was here to do, what he was here to accomplish. He's been teaching us from the very beginning what he was going to do. And I think it's very helpful for us as we continue to walk through the Sermon on the Mount to see how clearly what he says today is a call to us as we remember and celebrate Easter that Jesus Christ rose from the grave, that this is a call to us about the vast importance of why he had to do that and how we ought to respond.
See, what we want to see today as we look at what Jesus is saying here in the Sermon on the Mount is why he had to go to the cross and how we ought to respond. I'm going to pray and we'll begin kind of walking through this this morning. Lord, we pray that's the power of your Holy Spirit. We would be changed. That we would see some spiritual reality clearly today, that you would grab our hearts and make us yours. And that for those in the room who are seeking, who aren't sure if you're real, aren't sure that you love, aren't sure that you exist, aren't sure that this is true.
We pray that you'd give them clarity, that you would show them your love and give us all wisdom as we try to follow you and learn a little more this morning. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen. I like adventure stories, like really well told, good adventure stories. They do.
They just kind of captivate me. They draw me in in a way that other things don't. And I recently, about a year ago, year and a half ago, decided that I should probably start reading books. Um, I would read like leadership books or whatever, but I started like, no, I need to start reading some fiction. And so I started doing that. Um, and I read, uh, the Hobbit and I read the Lord of the Rings.
And can I just say something? Some of you right now, I just said, I wanted to start reading books. And some of you are book people. And immediately you were like in your little soul. You were like, yes, books books. And some of you were like, that sounds terrible.
Why would you read a book? That's what my wife is like. The other day I was laying in bed. I had my little, a little clip light on a book and she started telling me I look like I was at summer camp. I don't even know what that means. I've never been to summer camp, but I could tell it was derogatory and I should have felt shame.
But, but book people, can I help you out? Um, if you're talking to someone and you say, I really liked the Lord of the Rings and their response is movie or book. Is that a movie person or a book person? That's a book person. Yeah. Uh, and you'll say, oh, movie.
And they'll go, oh, okay. Can I, nobody wants to join your team. Stop. That doesn't help books. Like being smug about books isn't helping books. So book people just, just tone it down a notch.
You like books, but don't, don't be rude to other people who, who, and also watching all three of those movies is about as long as it takes to read a book. Those movies are long. But anyway, in, in, as I read through the Hobbit and, and through the Lord of the Rings, I just got kind of sucked in and I, I like action movies. I like adventure movies, but the problem with them is it's, it's a really passive experience and they're over so quickly. Unless it's like Braveheart and that was four and a half hours long or whatever. Most of them kind of, they go, they end, you're done reading this book.
Cause I'm kind of a slow reader and I'm trying to learn this thing, uh, took a really long time. And so it was like, I was in this adventure for, for a long time, especially since it's three books and each of them's like 300 and something pages. Like I really, I got into it and here's what they do though. Good adventure stories call you into, uh, remembering that you want to be a part of something that matters. You want to be a part of something real. It's like, as I was reading through the Lord of the Rings, it was like, I want to be a part of something that, that actually has weight to it.
That actually like, I want my life story to have a little more gravity to it. And I think that's what a good adventure story does. But I also, one of the things that was kind of captivating to me about the Lord on the Lord of the Rings is that the main characters are hobbits. Now, if you're not familiar with hobbits, they are very small. I'll describe them to you. They're, they're made up.
So don't go looking for them. They're small. Um, they're about like the half of the size of a human. They live in a place called the Shire, which is beautiful. It's got like rolling green grass and all they do. They sit around all day long with good tobacco, good drink, good food, good friends, having a good time.
And as I read the beginning of these books, I was like, I want to be a hobbit. Like I do. When I do hobbity things now, like eat supper twice, my wife fusses at me. I want this to be celebrated at my house. And there was something about it that, and, and there's, there's a beginning of both of the books where this, this wizard Gandalf shows up and yeah, I'm completely nerding out. Some of y'all excited.
The other of you just track with me. Keep going. Uh, there's a wizard. He shows up and he basically calls the hobbits. He says, do you want to go on adventure? At the beginning of one of the books, the hobbit responds, uh, adventures are nasty, uncomfortable things that make you late for dinner.
But he basically shows up and calls them into something more. And I will be honest with you. We would not know about these books if they turned that down. If the rest of the book was how their conversations went, what type of tea they drank, uh, which barrel of wine they opened, how gardening was going, we would have stopped. See, what's good about them is that this is common, small creature that gets called into something so magnificent, something more, more powerful, bigger than themselves. And in the Lord of the Rings, what happens is, basically Gandalf says to Frodo, and Frodo's the little hobbit guy, he says, you don't know this because it hasn't reached your hometown yet, but the rest of the world is growing dark and destruction is headed towards your door.
You don't know this, but eventually you can't just sit here without this coming to your very doorstep. And what he says is to not act is to act because eventually it's going to reach here. And he says, you've got to get up and do something. Now you've got to join this. Now you've got to move now into something that's hard and uncomfortable and difficult, but it's really your only good choice.
Because if you don't, even though it's comfortable now, destruction shows up. And here's what's interesting. As we get to this section in the Sermon on the Mount, I believe that Jesus has said the exact same thing. That in so many ways, Jesus has walked to us and as he's taught through the Sermon on the Mount, he's coming to a close. He's kind of beginning his ending here. We're going to finish the Sermon on the Mount next week.
And he's coming to an end and he basically is saying the same thing. You have to act. Because not to act is to already make a decision. That destruction is on its way and we have to respond. And so what we're going to see as we go through this is why Jesus had to go to the cross and how we ought to respond. So pick up in verse 13.
We're going to look at two verses today. And then we'll look at a few other places in scripture that'll be on the screen to help us kind of understand this a little more clearly. But we're just going to read two verses in the Sermon on the Mount. Now in the Sermon on the Mount, he's coming to an end. And what we've heard so far in the Sermon on the Mount, this is where Jesus starts off with the Beatitudes, where he says things like, Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. This is where some of Jesus's most famous sayings. He goes from there into teaching us how to act and how we ought to respond to our anger, how we ought to love one another, how we ought to act in marriage and relationships and act towards lust. Then he starts telling us to be generous and to trust him, that God is our father and he'll care for us. This is where we get turn the other cheek and love your enemies. This is where Jesus teaches us the golden rule that we should treat others the way we want to be treated.
This is where so much of what Jesus teaches that we've heard over and over again in life is explained. And then he kind of comes to the end of this after he's explained that the church is salt and light and that they're going to be sent out into the world and what they're supposed to look like and what kind of people he's making. He comes to the end of this and he says, okay, it's decision time. He starts making a few things really clearly as he closes out and we're picking up in verse 13. He starts off with a command. Enter by the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction and those who enter by it are few.
I'm going to read that one more time. Enter by the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life and those who find it are few. This is Jesus talking. He's speaking out of love and he's calling us to respond. Now, immediately when he says this to them, they would have pictured a city because all of their cities had gates and most of their cities had different gates.
So you would have the main gate or you might have a couple of main gates if maybe a big road ran through it. And then you would have smaller gates that people used for specific purposes, but you kind of had to have a reason to go to the main gate. Now, we don't have cities like that. I've never like ridden up to a city. It's not like you're going to Charlotte and you show up and there's gates around Charlotte. Like that doesn't really happen.
So the only thing I was thinking of like maybe theme parks would help you picture this or the fair. I think it's a fair example. My bad guys. It's not on purpose. I don't know whether to be proud or ashamed of myself. But here's what happens at the fair.
You drive your car. You pay for parking or you don't pay for parking because you're willing to risk it. You're like, I can park here. We'll see if my vehicle is still here when I get back. And you get out. And then what do you do?
You look. If you've never been before, you see where everyone else is walking. You think that person's going to the fair and you just walk with them. Eventually, the crowd grows and grows. And then you're all just, you're not even having to think. You're just walking with everybody else.
And eventually you show up and there are the gates and you go in. That's how it works. And that's what he's saying. There's a wide gate that everyone's going into. There's a wide gate that as you get closer to the city, you begin to see more people. And eventually you're just in a nice, easy path.
It's the main gate. It's paved. It's smooth. It's nice. And everybody's going in through that gate. And then he says, but there's another gate that's narrow.
The path to it is narrow. It's a hard path. It's difficult. And this is one of the things I think is very interesting in this text. When he's talking about the wide gate, he says those who enter by it are many. And when he's talking about the narrow gate, he says those who find it.
It's easy to just walk into the wide gate. He says there's actually some work that has to be done to find the narrow gate. And then once you find it, it's hard. But he says at the beginning of this, enter by the narrow gate. That's his call to us. Now, this should scare us a little bit.
Because what he just said was, there's a really wide gate with a really smooth path. Those who enter by it are many. And it leads to destruction. I can tell you something very clearly. The many that are entering by it don't know it leads to destruction. Because they wouldn't enter by it.
Like if they knew, if we knew that gate entered into destruction. Like if you could see, as soon as people walked through, like a monster ate them. We wouldn't go. You wouldn't be able to talk us into it. You wouldn't be like, hey, let's go there. And I'd be like, hey, let's go there.
And you'd be like, no, there's a monster. And I'd be like, yeah, I know there's a monster. Look how big the doors are. You'd be like, what does that have to do? Well, it just seems like you wouldn't even have to duck when you go in. There's a monster.
Yeah, but it's so smooth. We could squirt some dawn on this. Throw a little water and just slide right in there, bad boy. You wouldn't go. But he says many enter by this.
And it leads to destruction. That's scary. And what Jesus is saying is that this is life. That every person in this room, if you believe what Jesus is saying, if you think he's trustworthy, every person in this room is headed towards the wide gate or the narrow gate. And I think it's fair to say that if you have not made an active, intentional search, you can just assume you're walking with the many. Because he says those who find it, that there's taken effort, that it's difficult, that it's hard to find the narrow gate.
And for everybody else, they're just walking together towards the destruction. That's scary. If it's just been an easy process, if there hasn't been much work, if he hadn't thought about it, if it wasn't an anguished over decision, he's saying there's a really good chance. You don't know it. But you're walking towards the destruction.
And this actually makes sense with what much of the Bible teaches. See, the Bible makes really clear in Genesis that there's a good God who's existed for eternity. We find out as we read the Bible that he existed for eternity in relationship, that it's a Trinitarian God, that there's Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And that forever they have loved one another and cherished one another and celebrated one another. And it was out of that love and out of that goodness that it overflowed into creation. That God didn't make people because he was bored or needy.
He made people because he was relational and loving and good. And that God created everything good and set at the top of his creation humans. And we know that. We know that implicitly. Like when a lion eats a zebra, we just film it, watch it, teach kids about it. Nobody arrests the lion.
Why? Because they're animals. But when a human is harmed, murdered, or hurt, we automatically know this is on a different level. This is, we're above creation in a way. That God made us good and that God designed humanity to love him and to love each other. That we were designed to exist in a relationship with God the same way that children are supposed to exist in a relationship with their parents.
That that's what's best for them. That we know that. That for a child to have parents is the best route. That's why every Disney movie starts off with the parents dying. Because that automatically throws a wrench in the gears. That's why it automatically messes things up.
We know now there's going to be some drama, some difficulty. And what happened was humanity rebelled. You see, one of the gifts that God had given them and us is ourselves. Themselves. Have you ever thought about that? That you're a gift to you from God.
Your intelligence, your looks, your abilities. Everything you have, every breath you've taken in, every breath you've exhaled was a gift to you. That all of you that you've enjoyed was a gift. And see, when God gave humanity themselves, what happened was they chose to honor themselves, to love themselves, to pursue themselves more than God. We swapped God out. That's why Christians will often refer to the world as broken.
Or refer to humans as broken. It's because something's broken when it doesn't accomplish its intended purpose. We were supposed to love God supremely, to see Him as beautiful and good, and to love each other out of that. But we don't. We don't hold God up as supreme. So, for some of you, maybe you don't believe this.
Or maybe one of the things you've had the hardest time with with Christianity. And I've talked with people with this. My cousin's kind of like this. Where basically it's like, okay, I'm really, who is God that He would make people and then give a bunch of rules and then say, you failed the rules and then punish us? What is that? But see, the Bible says the biggest issue with us relating to God is not that we broke His rules.
But that we've completely distorted the way the world was supposed to work. That God, who is God, which makes Him the most lovely, the most holy, the most worthy, the most good, the highest of all, we've placed something else there. We've taken something else and we've said, this is worthy, this is beautiful, this is high and holy. The Bible calls that blasphemy or idolatry, where we've looked at something else and said, I love you more. I believe in you more. You're more worth serving and chasing and spending my life for.
In the book of Romans, Paul says it this way, it's going to be on screen. He says, For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him. But they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. And then in Romans 1.25, he kind of sums it up this way. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie.
And worshipped, that means believed, was most holy, most worthy. And served, that means spent their life for. Their energy, their time for. They worshipped, they said, you matter the most and I will spend my time for you. The creature, that means anything that's not God. Rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever.
Amen. And this is where I think Jesus' illustration of a wide gate makes so much sense to me. Because I feel like in life, I kind of am tempted to do what I do when I'm going to the fair. Which is get out, see where everybody else is headed, and go with them. That's what we've done, right? We've gotten out, we've started to grow up and we've said, okay, what matters the most?
Money? Money's really nice. That's a good one. And so we've begun to put that as highest and said, this is what's most worth serving. So that our time, our energy, our effort goes to that.
Some of us said, no, no, no, no. It's not money, it's relationships. Or it's sex. Most worth serving. Some of us said, no, it's actually to have people like us. It's to have some status, some power, some love from other people.
Some of us said, no, no, it's actually comfort. It's being able to rest. It's living life like a hobbit. That's the most valuable thing I could ever spend my time doing. But in all of that, we've taken God, we've set him to the side, we've said, this is more beautiful, more lovely, more worth worshiping, and more worth serving than you are.
And what Jesus says is, that's normal, that's natural, and it leads to destruction. That one day, as humans, we will stand before God, having swapped him out for something else. And that's going to be a terrible day for us. That this leads to purposelessness. That we spend our lives bored. Lacking.
Longing. Empty. Because the thing we were designed to do, we're not doing. The one thing that was going to set us right, worshiping God and relating to him, we've swapped it out for something else. And we spend our life feeling like this isn't correct. You ever tried to do a job and you don't have the right tools?
So that you're using the back of a screwdriver like a hammer? If that's all you ever did with your screwdriver, and if your screwdriver was sentient, it would think, this doesn't feel right. It seems to me like something is missing. That this is not what I was designed to do. And the reason we feel that somewhere deep as an undercurrent in our souls, that what we're chasing is always going to turn up empty. That even at our highest, it's so fleeting.
It's as if it was at the tips of our fingers and then it just disappeared. It's because we're broken. The thing that was going to set us right has been removed and we place something else there that will never satisfy. But Jesus says, there's another way. Now I want you to hear his sales pitch.
I used to be in sales. I want you to hear his sales pitch. Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction. And those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life. And those who find it are few.
If you're just looking at the gates and the paths, the narrow one sounds worse. So we don't know what's at the end of these gates. Like we said earlier, they don't understand the many that are walking into destruction don't understand that they're headed to destruction. Let's say we're walking along and all of a sudden there's a guy standing on the end of the path. And accidentally we make eye contact and he's like... But now we're like locked in, we feel rude, so we just kind of come over there and he goes, hey.
You want to go down a different path? Um, probably not. Wait, wait, wait, you didn't let me finish. You know how you like steep hills? No? Well, you see this path, how easy and nice it is?
Yes? I've got one that's way worse. It's got rocks. What? You know how fun it is to be chased by a bear? Like, we would not take this path.
Hey, you see all that stuff you've got with you? Yeah, you've got to put it down. Leave it right here. It won't fit. But if you come this way, it's going to be hard.
It's going to be difficult. It's going to be narrow. You're going to have to leave everyone else with you. If they won't come, you've got to come and leave them. It's a single file path. The only way we're taking that path is if we trust them enough to believe what's at the end of it.
You see, Jesus says there's destruction at the end of this one. But there's a narrow way that leads to life. It's narrow and it's hard, but it leads to life. And the wide and easy one leads to destruction. So the question put before us is, do we trust Jesus?
Do we trust him? Do we believe that what he's saying is true? See, he's called you to act. He says enter by the narrow gate. The question is, do you trust him? Do you trust him?
Do you trust him? Jesus goes to the cross because he believed this was true. You see, Jesus goes to the cross to open up the narrow way for us because he is the narrow way. I heard one time when a pastor was teaching this section, he said that we can follow the narrow way because there's one that goes before us. And I actually think that we've got to realize that the only way the narrow way was opened for us is that Jesus went to destruction for us. That he went to a cross for us.
That he paid the penalty for us. That what was going to be owed us when we walked through that gate and stood before God and said, measure me, judge me based off of my work. That the condemnation and the destruction that was going to be owed us. Jesus walked before God. When we read earlier where it says that the sky was dark, that the world was dark for three hours and then Jesus says, God, why have you forsaken me? You see, every time Jesus prays in the gospels, he says, Father, except for there.
There he says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? You see, Jesus walked before God and said, judge me, measure me, condemn me based off of their work, not mine. So that we can walk before God and say, judge me, measure me, condemn me based off of his work, not mine. See, Jesus in John 10, 9 says this. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved.
That means that you get to walk through Jesus, that you get to go through Jesus. The Bible says he's clothed us in his righteousness. That we get to enter by Jesus. We get to go stand and say, it is only by Christ that I'm able to stand before you. And my hope and my faith is only in him. Because he went to the cross and he died for my sin and he rose from the grave and he conquered it for me.
And I can come to you because my sin was laid in the grave with him and it didn't walk out of the tomb when he did. Jesus says it this way in John 14, 6. Jesus said to them, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Jesus is the narrow way that we can be saved. He's narrow.
It's just Jesus. Just through the name of Jesus. There is no other name under heaven or on earth or anywhere by which we may be saved. There is no other name. It is only through Jesus that we can be saved. He is the way, the truth, and the life.
And no one is going to get to the Father but by him. He's our hope. He is the resurrection. He has died for our sins and risen to give us a living hope. You are more sinful than you could possibly imagine. But we are more loved than we would ever understand.
That Jesus Christ has died in our place for our sin to give us life. And what Jesus says is there are two paths. There is a wide one that leads to destruction. And many are going to enter by it because it's easy and it's wide and they don't understand where it leads. But there is a narrow path.
And those who find it are few. And that way is hard. You have to give things up. You have to leave people behind. You have to accept a call into a life that does not make sense here. But if you find it, it leads to life.
I think we're like Frodo. I'm going to be honest with you. America is pretty nice. We get to watch on video and on our newsreels. Bombings. Chaos.
Destruction. We get to read about it in our feeds. We get to put our iPhone, Android in our pocket. And then go eat frozen yogurt. And forget all about it. We get to eat dinner twice.
But Jesus has walked to our door. And he says, if you aren't careful. You will ease your way to destruction. You will slide your way to destruction. Or you'll sit on your couch and destruction will come to you. And you won't even know it happened.
Get up. Start searching. There's a more difficult path. It's a lot harder to walk. But at the end of it, there's life.
And Jesus Christ is that for us. That he walked first this difficult path. That he went to the cross. That he took the destruction we deserve. And that in him there is hope and life for eternity. Don't hesitate.
Don't hesitate. Don't delay. Don't wait. Don't sit and ease your way to destruction. And Christians in the room. Who believe with everything that you have.
That you have found Christ. And that you will enter by him. And that you will be on the narrow way to kingdom. And joy. And hope. And life.
And glory. Do not be content with the many that sit near you. At your offices. That sleep near you. In your neighborhoods. In your apartments.
That are easing their way to what Jesus Christ says is destruction. We have a risen king. We will one day have all pleasures forevermore. All the goodness. Everything good on earth right now. Is only good because it reminds us of him.
And points to that place. Take the hard path. Give some things up. Spend some time for something that matters. Accept the adventure. And follow Jesus into life.
Pray with me if you will. Pray with me if you will. Father we ask. That you would help us not be okay. With simple and small and comfortable. But that we would join you in the everyday mission.
That you have called us into. God we pray that you would help us to clearly see. That wide and easy. Is the path that leads to destruction. And narrow and hard leads to life. Awaken our hearts.
Let people who have never placed their faith in you do so today. In Jesus name. Amen. The band is going to come back up. We are about to get to celebrate baptism. Baptism is the celebration for Christians.
Where when someone has placed their faith in Christ. We get to gather. We get to gather. We get to openly and publicly profess. Jesus is good. I'm not.
He is holy. I'm not. He is moral. I'm not. And I needed a savior. That we get to celebrate.
And re-embody. The death. Burial. And resurrection of Jesus. That's what baptism is. And in just a second.
There will be a young lady who is going to get in these waters. Is going to be baptized. And we are going to celebrate. As another child. Has entered the kingdom. Belongs to Jesus.
And has publicly declared. I'm going to spend my life on a narrow and difficult path. Because I believe that Jesus is good. That he's better than ultimately anything I can find anywhere else. And I'm going to follow him to life.