Bible Materials

ENTER THROUGH THE NARROW GATE

by   07/16/2010   Matthew 7:13~23

Message


In the last lesson Jesus taught his disciples persistent prayer, saying, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be given to you.” And then he said, “…in everything do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” With this summation Jesus could have ended his teaching of the Sermon on the Mount. Now Jesus urges all the listeners to make a decision. Just hearing the beautiful Sermon on the Mount is not enough. Without their own decision, the beautiful words cannot have any impact on them. In today’s passage, Jesus tells them to enter through the narrow gate. First, enter through the narrow gate (13-14). Look at verses 13,14. “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” It is interesting to see that in Matthew’s gospel Jesus stresses certain things through repetition or contrast: salt and light, sun and rain, birds of the field and lilies of the field in the method of repetition, storing up treasures on earth or heaven, good eyes and bad eyes, God and Money in the method of contrast. Now here Jesus sets two gates and two roads before them, narrow or small gate and wide gate, and narrow road and broad road. According to Jesus life is travelling. It is not standing-still in a certain place. Everyone is going somewhere whether they want to or not. In traveling, which road we take is important. According to the road we take our destination becomes different. A road leads to a destination regardless of who the traveler is. Once we take a road, we can just go through the road. So which road we take is really substantial. And according to Jesus there are only two destinations. One is destruction; the other is life. Let’s first think about the wide gate and the broad road. A gate and its road cannot be separated. The wide gate and the broad road are connected. The wide gate does not match the narrow road; nor does the small gate match the broad road. The wide gate fits the broad road. A gate is the entrance and, from there, the road begins. The wide gate seems impressive. It seems to be also effective. Many can enter through it. Then comes the broad road. I’ve heard of streets named “Broad road.” It sounds like a nice name. When we think about traffic jams, a broad high way with many lanes is necessary and convenient. Many cars can go through. Also, when we walk on a broad road, we feel more free and broadened. Yet in the spiritual world the wide gate and broad road lead to destruction all who go through it. There are also the narrow gate and narrow road. I think that most people don’t like narrow gates and narrow roads. Many cannot go through the narrow and small gate at the same time. And narrow roads can even be dangerous to walk or drive on, especially on a hill or mountain. But spiritually speaking, the narrow gate and narrow road lead to life. And according to Jesus only a few find it. Jesus said, “Enter through the narrow gate.” What is the narrow gate and narrow road? According to the flow of the context, it is Jesus’ teaching of the Sermon on the Mount. Right after saying, “…this sums up the Law and Prophets” as a concluding remark of his SM, Jesus said, “Enter through the narrow gate.” Jesus’ teachings on the Sermon on the Mount are great. But it is not welcome and popular, for it is not easy to accept and follow. However, it leads to life. Jesus said in John 10:9, “I am the gate,” and in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” So we can say that Jesus is the narrow gate and his teaching is the narrow road. Largely speaking, the narrow road can be all the teachings of the Bible. They are life-giving, for all Scripture is God-breathed (2 Ti 3:16). There are so many teachings in the world. All teachings seem to be good and important in some aspects. All seem to be same, being good and helpful to people. But the words of the Bible are different. No teaching is as judging and at the same time as graceful as the Bible: “Whoever believes…will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned” (Mk 16:16). No teaching is as exclusive and at the same time as inclusive as the Bible. No teaching speaks about us as terribly and at the same time as wonderfully as the Bible. No teaching is as extreme and at the same time as wholesome as the Bible. Most importantly, the Bible is very clearly about life and death. Even in this part, Jesus clearly says that one road leads to destruction (that is death) and another road, to life. Those who have found the distinctive and truthful and life-saving word of God take the narrow road that leads to life. They will not compromise with the worldly ways. No one can enter through the narrow gate and narrow road unless he or she finds it. At the same time anyone can take the road of life by accepting and keeping one teaching of Jesus absolutely. Nowadays people talk a lot about health and wellness. In the past health was simply viewed as the absence of sickness. And then people began to think of health as hygiene. Now in our times people think of health as not only related to physical health but also to psychological health, which include mental health, emotional health, social health and spiritual health. This concept of health is extensive and good. Also the concept of spiritual health is very large, and they think of spirituality with any religion or even without religion. But as for us we cannot think of spiritual health without the word of God in the Bible. There is no compromise in this. After his teaching on the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus unambiguously said, “Enter through the narrow gate…small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life” At the time of Noah, people’s corruption reached the climax. The people of the whole world entered through the wide gate and the broad road. But Noah was different. He went through the narrow gate. He walked with God hearing God’s word and obeying it. The broad road led people to destruction. Whether majority or minority, it did not matter. All people on the earth perished except Noah and his family members who obeyed God and entered the ark. This event is written in Genesis and Jesus confirmed the truthfulness of this event in Matthew 24. Abraham and Lot began their life in God at the same time. But Abraham entered through the narrow gate living by God’s word of promise; Lot entered through the wide gate and broad road by living according to his smart calculation and his compromising skill. At that time their lives in the world looked the same. However in the end Abraham bore the fruit of life. God gave him the promised son Isaac at his age of 100. And through his descendants Jesus Christ was born. Lot bore only shameful fruit. His wife became a pillar of salt. Jesus recognized this event and said, “Remember Lot’s wife” (Lk 17:32). And the descendants of his two daughters became the enemies of God’s people. At Jesus’ time so many people followed Jesus and heard his teaching. However, one crucial time almost all of them left him, grumbling in their hearts, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” In fact they left because Jesus did not give them physical bread any more. But Peter confessed, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Peter found the words of eternal life in Jesus’ teaching and took the narrow road to the end of his life. At any situation we must not compromise, knowing that having Jesus’ words are taking the narrow road that leads to life. These days many babies are born with disabilities. One of the diseases they contract is “Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.” It is a range of disabilities resulting from prenatal alcohol exposure. The disabilities include brain damage causing shortage of attention, memory, reasoning and judgment. In the past it was thought that FASD was due to gene problem. But recently it was found that FASD was solely due to a mother’s drinking alcohol while pregnancy. FASD cannot be cured. The child born with FASD should live with it in the entire life. A mother’s carefulness and considerate thought of her baby’s future would have prevented her from drinking and thus her baby from FASD. Soon in September freshmen are coming to U OF T campus. Two roads are set before them. As we studied, one road leads to destruction; the other, to life. According to Jesus, one who enters through wide gate and broad road will end in destruction. And there is no exception for this, even if the person becomes humanly great. On the other hand, one who enters through the narrow gate and takes the narrow road is assured of life. May God help us to think of the future of coming freshmen and be able to invite them to Bible study so that they can enter through the narrow gate and the narrow road that leads to life. Second, watch out for false prophets (15-20). Look at verse 15. “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” In a disciples’ life one important thing is to watch out for false prophets and false teaching. After teaching all of his words in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told his disciples to watch out for false prophets. Later on when Jesus talked about the signs of the end of the age at his second coming, he mentioned false prophets’ rising and deceiving many people (Mt 24:5,11,24). Apostle Paul, in his farewell to the Ephesian Elders, also spoke about false prophets’ arising and distorting the truth in order to draw away disciples after them (Ac 20:30). Apostle Peter also spokeabout the presence of false prophets and false teachers who mouth empty, boastful words, and by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, entice people (2 Pe 2:18). According to Jude they are clouds with rain (Jude 12). In our times many people treat the Bible and Jesus’ teaching relatively. Relativistic thinking is very deceptive and seems to be appealing. But whoever they are and whatever they say, if they deny that there are two roads and one leads to life and the other, to destruction, and Jesus is the way and the life, they are false prophets and false teachers. We ourselves should not make any compromise on this in our hearts. Look at verses 16-20. “By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.” In these verses why does Jesus speak repeatedly about fruit-bearing? Jesus wants us to have discernment to recognize false prophets through their fruit. On top of that Jesus wants us to know who he is. The truthfulness of his words is backed up by his beautiful good fruit-bearing life on earth. His words are matchless, but also his life is matchless with serving life, unchanging and sacrificial love, and his atoning death and glorious resurrection. It reveals what kind of tree he is. Through him, his words and life, we can discern good trees and bad trees. Third, do the will of the Father (21-24). Look at verses 21-24. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name, drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” This part teaches us the importance of knowing Jesus personally and doing the will of the Father in heaven while we live in this world. Knowing Jesus is keeping a personal relationship with him and it is ongoing process. And we must know that there is God’s will. Generally speaking, God’s will is world mission for the saving of people of all nations. But there is also God’s will for each individual and for each of his churches. There are many people who do their own will in the name of Jesus. We should watch out for this and watch out for our self-centreness and our own desire for people’s praise and human recognition and honour and glory time and again. Jesus said in Matthew 12:50, “For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” And 1 John 2:17 says, “The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.” Thank God for Jesus’ crystal clear teaching about the road leading to destruction and the road to life. Many will enter through the one and a few will find the other. May God help us to enter through the narrow gate and take the narrow road and be able to guide campus students to the gate and road of life.



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