Luke 13:22-30
Let’s give our attention now
to the reading of God’s Holy Word, Luke chapter 13, verses
22 through 30. Speaking of the Lord Jesus, it
says, he went on his way through towns and villages. He was teaching
and journeying toward Jerusalem. And someone said to him, Lord,
will those who are saved be few? And he said to them, strive to
enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek
to enter and will not be able when once the master of the house
has risen and has shut the door and you begin to stand outside
and to knock at the door saying, Lord, open to us, then he will
answer you. I do not know where you have
come from and you will begin to say we ate and drink in your
presence and you taught in our streets. But he will say, I tell
you, I do not know where you have come from. Depart from me,
all you workers of evil. In that place, there will be
weeping and gnashing of teeth. When you see Abraham and Isaac
and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you
yourselves cast out. And people will come from the
east and from the west and from the north and from the south.
And they will recline at table in the kingdom of God and behold,
some who are last will be first. And some who are first will be
last. Let’s look to God in prayer.
Lord, please give us your grace to hear from your word today.
We come hungry, so fill us with your bread from heaven. We come
thirsty, fill us with the water of eternal life. For we need
strength to be your servants in this world yet another week
until Christ comes. So hear us, help us, and bless
us. We do pray in Jesus’ name, amen. If you were privileged to ask
Jesus one question, just one question, what would that question
be? Well, I’ve done a little thinking
about it. My question would be, Jesus, why do you love me? Why
do you love sinful me? That would be it. Our passage
has a questioner of Jesus, and his question is this. Jesus, will those who are saved
be few? Apparently this man has walked
with Jesus along the way. We don’t know a whole lot about
who this person is, if anything, but we can speculate he’s walked
with Jesus from village to village, town to town, and he’s seen the
response to Jesus. You would think, you would think
that if Jesus walked through the village, walked through the
town and healed people and preached the gospel of repentance and
touched people and made them whole, that the crowds would
be massive. But as it is, by the time Jesus
is raised from the dead, there are, well, about 120 who are
hiding in Galilee, about 500 or so who gather at Pentecost.
And so while the kingdom may call everyone, it seems to this
man, at least, that there are but a few who are actually saved. Now, what does Jesus do in his
usual fashion? He answers the question that
should have been asked. This man should have asked the
question, am I saved? And that should be the question
that you ask yourself today over and over. Am I saved? Of course, you sit here in church.
Maybe some of you are lifelong church attenders. I’ve been to
morning service. You’ve been to evening service.
You put your gift in the plate. You’ve been to Sunday school.
You’ve learned the catechisms. You have your Bible on the nightstand
or next to your easy chair and on and on it may go. But Jesus
is pressing us today as he did this man who asked him the question
in our passage. He’s asking a very serious question. Are you saved? Don’t worry about
this crowd or that crowd. Don’t worry about the rest of
the congregation. Are you saved? And so this passage teaches us
the urgency, the urgency that we all need to have to strive
to enter the narrow door. And that’s the first thing we
want to consider from our passage today. In verse 24, Jesus tells
this questioner, he no doubt tells the crowd, he tells you
and I who sit here today under the ministry of the word, strive
to enter the narrow door. I think it was last year I was
doing some work up in the attic on our house and we have on the
front of the house, a room that extends off the front. And the
way you get into the attic over that part is you squeeze through
the rafters. Now, y’all sized me up. I’m like
Pooh Bear who’s eaten too much honey and probably needed somebody
to give me a push through there. And so I trimmed a few boards
in order to make it into that part of the attic to repair one
of the gable vents that needed a screen. I didn’t want critters
and creepy things coming in. So I was up there doing that
work and entering through the narrow door was a little difficult. You know, I think studs are 16
inches on center, so you take away about half the stud. I’m
trying to squeeze through about 14 inches, which, no jokes, a
little difficult. Jesus is saying here, the door
to get into the kingdom is very narrow. It is it is very difficult
to get into the to the kingdom of God. We have made it so easy,
though, in America. Last night I was watching a Netflix
special. I made it through about halfway
through. I think some of you have seen it. You’ve mentioned
it is called American Gospel. And it’s a survey of how Americans
have distorted the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they’ve
distorted it in many different ways. There’s the health and
wealth gospel. God wants you to be happy, healthy
and wealthy. And if you give whatever TV preacher
it is enough money, you sow that seed, you’ll no doubt be happy,
healthy, and wealthy. That’s one of the gospels that’s
out there. And then there’s the one we often
make mention of moralistic therapeutic deism. Be good. feel good. And there is a God who exists.
And if you need him, he’s not as sovereign as the Bible says,
but he’s there. And maybe like Santa Claus, you
can go sit in his lap or like a slot machine. You can pull
the thing. And when you need a little something, he’ll be
there for you. And there are other gospels.
We’re seeing liberation theology has entered the church through
through feminism and other various things throughout the last hundred
years. We’re seeing all sorts of theologies of gospel enter
the church. We also have to think about the
history of evangelism or evangelicalism in the United States, for it
has produced an easy gospel as well. So many people loved in
our history, the great awakenings where Jonathan Edwards and others
of his ilk in the 1700s would go preach and thousands upon
thousands, cities upon cities would come to faith. They would
mourn over their sins and trust Jesus alone for their salvation. And we would see all sorts of
Wonderful spiritual things happened. But over the years, over the
last 150 years or so, we’ve seen the narrow way in the gospel
widened. We’ve moved from awakenings where
people like Jonathan Edwards preached pretty scary sermons. I remember in high school having
to read Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. It was terrifying
then. And in recent years, I’ve listened to the Max McLean recording
of it. What a terrifying sermon. It
was not a wide gospel sermon, but it was quite a narrow way. But it’s given way to revivalism.
It gave way through the Crusades of the 1900s, and it’s given
way to what we might call a thin church or a shallow church. You’ve
heard me say from time to time, we’ve reduced evangelism to this.
We have our buddy sitting across from us and we say, buddy, you
don’t want to go to hell, do you? And of course, what does
our buddy say? No. And so what do we say? You just pray this prayer and
you’ll be going to heaven. And so we’ve simplified, we have
widened the gospel way. We’ve taken away the need for
people to see their sin. We’ve taken away the need for
people to see that there is a holy God. We’ve taken away the need
to speak of the wrath of God, which is to come. We’ve taken
away the need for an atonement, for a way of salvation through
Jesus Christ alone. We’ve taken away preaching. And
so what do we expect from the American church with all these
false gospels, but in particular with this widened way, but Jesus
says it’s narrow. And I wonder, I wonder if we
in the church ever think about striving to enter through the
narrow door. Well, I do think we think about
it in this congregation. I think we can be proud to say
that the gospel here is not reduced. We speak of sin. We speak of
God’s holiness. We speak of the wrath of God,
which is to come. We speak of the way of salvation
through faith in Jesus. We do it week by week through
the word, through the songs we sing. We do it through our confession
and our assurance, and we do it through our other ministries
of God’s word. as you participate in the life
of the church. We have not reduced the gospel,
nor have we reduced gospel living. We pray week by week. We strive
week by week to say, when you go from this place, live a holy
life. You should live such a other
and holy life that by God’s grace, people will say, who are you
and where have you come from? And you can say, I’m a citizen
of heaven. I live by the will of God. As you pray God’s will
be done on earth as it is in heaven, you hope that it’s true
in your life so that others will see and be given the chance to
hear the witness of the gospel of Jesus. Strive to enter through
the narrow door. Faith in Jesus, wholly living
by the word and the spirit. Struggling day by day to live
life. Now this striving to enter the
narrow door is not human works. We understand, don’t we, God’s
sovereignty, man’s responsibility. God is sovereign. He is the Lord
of heaven and earth, but he calls us to respond to his gospel. He calls us to repent. He calls
us to believe. He calls us to love him and endeavor
to live a new life in him. He calls us to live a life of
repentance. And so, dear brothers and sisters,
Jesus is reminding us in this passage that we must strive to
enter the narrow door. The gospel way is not wide. It
is a narrow and straight path. And we enter the kingdom through
a narrow door. This passage also teaches us
To strive to enter if you are able. And verse 24 speaks of
this yet again. How do we interpret this? Strive to enter the narrow door
if you are able. Jesus says some who will try,
but they are unable to do so. What’s the best way to interpret
a troubling passage like this? Well, we interpret scripture
with scripture. And the first place to look to interpret this
piece of scripture is in the book of Luke itself. And you
remember, we studied some time ago, the parable of the soils.
And Jesus said, a sower went out to sow some of the seed,
which he sowed. The seed is the word of God.
Remember, he sowed it on the path. Others fell among the rock.
Some fell among the thorns and other of it fell on good soil.
The seed which fell upon the path was trampled underfoot or
eaten by the birds. And that represents Satan coming
and snatching away the seed which was sown. And so that person
on whom the seed of the word of God and salvation was sown
never had the opportunity to come to faith and repent of their
sins and come to Jesus because the devil had snatched up that
seed. And the seed which fell upon the rock, it grew quickly,
but because it had no moisture, it withered. And it’s much like
Jesus says, the person who receives the word of God with joy, but
because it falls on the rock, there is no moisture. It does
not take root. And when it is tested, when the
sun rises and scorches it with its heat or other difficulties
in life, it falls away. Then there’s the thorns. The
thorns receive the seed, but they choke it. And that’s like
the person who hears the word of God and the cares of the world
overcome them. And they, instead of seeking
first God’s kingdom, seek first continually their own kingdom
and the kingdoms of this world. But then there’s the good soil.
The seed falls on the good soil and it grows and it yields a
hundred percent. And Jesus says, this is like
the person who hears the word of God, holds fast to it, and
it bears fruit. It bears fruit in their lives. So strive to enter through the
narrow door. Strive to enter if you are able.
I was speaking with a person this week who’s come to faith
in recent years, like very recently. And I asked them about how they
came to know the Lord Jesus. And they said they sat and they
read their Bible. And they sat and they read their
Bible and they begged God to save them. That’s an interesting
salvation story, isn’t it? I mean, a lot of us just grew
up in a Christian home. We don’t know anything different other
than Jesus and church. And at a point in time, we came
to faith in him. And life has been pretty good
because of that rich spiritual heritage. Others of us heard
the gospel preached and we came to faith in Jesus. But here is
a person who was striving to enter. This young person I was
speaking to said they sat for days and days and days with a
Bible on their desk, their hands tightly gripped, begging God,
I’m reading your word. Save me. Save me from my sin. And it took some time. But this
person was striving to enter the kingdom. And Jesus says,
if you are able, how do we reconcile that with our minds, our hearts? We preach
the word. We proclaim the word. We’re good
evangelists. We do the work we’re supposed
to do in our Christian homes. But we know ultimately the Holy
Spirit must give the new birth. The Holy Spirit must open eyes
and unstop ears and give soft hearts and remove that heart
of stone and give a heart of flesh, but we can only be faithful
in presenting the gospel. We can only continue to be faithful
in reading and preaching and proclaiming the good news of
the Lord Jesus Christ. There might be a one of you today
who is not yet in Christ. You want to be. And Jesus is
calling you to strive to enter through the narrow gate. And
we pray with all our hearts with you that God will perhaps give
you that great salvation. And so as Jesus is commanding
us to strive to enter through the narrow door, strive to enter
through the narrow door if we are able, there’s a third thing
for us to see. And maybe this is the most important. We’re to strive to enter before
it’s too late. Notice what Jesus says in verse
25. He says, when once the master
of the house has risen and he has shut the door and you begin
to stand outside and to knock at the door saying, Lord, open
to us, then he will answer you. I do not know where you have
come from. Probably like many of you, we
have the shutting down the house ritual at night. Our cars are
not in the garage, so we make sure they’re locked. People go
through the neighborhood looking for loose change, so we lock
the cars. We put the dog out one last time,
and we come back in and turn the alarm on. We make sure all
the lights we want on are on. We’ve taken the trash out. We’ve
done all our evening rituals. And if someone were to knock
on our door in the night, Would you answer it? I wouldn’t. We’re
not expecting guests at night. In fact, if someone knocks on
your door in the night, it’s usually suspicious, right? We
panic, we freeze, we think about our emergency plan. Where’s the
shotgun? Where’s the baseball bat? Where’s
the floodlights? We flip them on. It would be
unexpected, but if they knocked persistently, we might maybe
go to a side window where they can’t see us, but we might peek
out and see. We might call the police or we might speak through
the door. And that’s the idea Jesus is
speaking of here. The house is locked up. The doorway
of salvation is closed. Night has come when no one can
do work. Salvation And its free offer
has ended on earth. And Jesus speaks through the
door to those who come late to the party and knock. Entrance
to the kingdom, brothers and sisters, will be closed at a
point. We must preach and proclaim the
gospel. We must speak of Christ as often as we can, for there
will come a time when Jesus returns. And if it’s before he returns
that death comes your way, salvation will no longer be offered. This
is a deal. This is a special offer of Jesus,
the free offer of the gospel that must be laid hold of before
it is too late. Entrance to the kingdom will
be shut. The master of the house will close the door. He’ll lock
it tight for the night, for everlasting eternity. And this is a principle
I think we mentioned in the previous week or so as we’ve studied Luke.
This is the same principle of the days of Noah. Noah spent
about 100 years building a big, long boat because God told him
that floods will come and your family needs to be in this ark
of salvation. And can you imagine as Noah and his family hammered
and nailed and sawed and harvested wood and built this big, giant
boat in the middle of a dry desert that he proclaimed the coming
judgment? And he told people of the ark
of salvation. He told people of the way to
have life, but also the way to find death. You remember what
Jesus, or what the word of God says about God in the story of
Noah, when all the animals had gone in and Noah and his family
entered the ark, it says, God shut the door. And I want you
to understand from this passage today, we alluded to it when
we read Psalm 6, there are words of finality in our passage today. Jesus says the master will come
and shut the door. There will be no more salvation
offered. The ark was shut and now the
way of salvation will be shut. And if you come knocking on the
door in the night when it’s too late, Jesus will not open and
he will say, I never knew you depart from me. He’s speaking
here of everlasting judgment. And so we must strive to enter
before it is too late. We must enter the kingdom with
urgency, with striving, with agony. Do you understand, brothers
and sisters, do you understand everyone seated in this room
today, the urgency with which we must examine ourselves, especially
before we come to the Lord’s table today? Do I believe what
God says about me, that I am a sinner? Do I believe what God
says about salvation, that it is freely offered through Jesus
Christ, that you can come to him by faith and believing that
he has died for your sins and you can receive him and rest
in him alone for your salvation? Do you understand that today?
There’s a great urgency. We do not know if the Lord will
tarry another 2000 years or he might come As the scripture says,
like a thief in the night and it will be too late. There will
be no knocking on the door in the middle of the night saying,
look, Lord, I ate with you. I drank with you. You taught
in our streets. I was in church. I even put things
in the collection plate. I did this and I did that for
you. Jesus is saying there is great
urgency. And so, dear brothers and sisters,
we are to strive to enter through the narrow door. We are to to
to strive to enter that door if we are able by the help and
grace of God, we’re to strive to enter before it’s too late.
And so let me. Let me impress upon you now strive
to enter today, for Jesus will say when you come knocking later,
I did not know you. Jesus will say, when you come
knocking later, depart from me, all you workers of unrighteousness
outside the feast of the kingdom, outside the bliss of heaven.
There will be weeping. There will be gnashing of teeth.
There will be anger. But inside this great banquet hall, there
will be Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the children of faith
reclining at the table with him. I said, your brothers and sisters,
there’s outside the door. You don’t wanna be there. There’s
inside the door. That’s where you wanna be with
Jesus forever. Let’s pray. Our Lord and God,
we thank you for this message of salvation that we so need
to hear. We who have loved you for a long time need to remember
yet again how good and gracious it is of you to open the door
of salvation to us. Lord, there are some today who
have delayed and they’re coming to you. They’ve put off their
coming into the kingdom or they have thought that in their own
works, in their own labors, they have sufficient means to enter. But Lord, grant us faith this
day to receive Jesus and to continue to the end of our lives, to rest
in him alone for our salvation. Hear us and help us as we pray
in Jesus name. Amen.