Introduction:
John 3:36 - whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
Ephesians 2:3 – were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Enter By the Narrow Gate (Matthew 7:13-14)
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It's Hard to FIND. (Matt 7:14)
John 14:6 – Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Luke 14:33 – So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
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It's Hard to WALK. (Matt 7:14)
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It's Hard to DISMISS. (Matt 7:14)
Matthew 11:12 – From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 7:13-14
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
How would (specifically) you answer this question: How do I know which gate I entered?
We are saved by grace. But are things like repentance, counting the cost, and entering the kingdom violently considered “works”? Why or why not?
Breakout
Pray for one another.
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I'd like you to just bow your heads for a moment,
and I'm going to ask that you would please pray for me
to be faithful to communicate God's word accurately as I should.
And I will pray for you to be ready to receive
whatever it is the Lord wants to teach you today.
Alright? Let's pray.
Father in heaven, you are greatly glorified
as transformed people by the power of your Holy Spirit.
Our obedient to what you've revealed in your Word.
That's all I'm asking for today, Father,
for your glory to be on display as we respond
to what you've told us in your Word.
Manifest your grace and your goodness here today, Father.
We ask in Jesus' name, amen.
If you haven't already opened up your Bibles to Matthew chapter 7,
we're just going to be looking at two verses today.
For some of you, these could be the most
two important verses you ever hear.
When I was a kid growing up in Shakura,
we attended the Little Methodist Church.
And when you're - I don't know if it's still the case in the Methodist Church,
but at that time, when you're 12,
you go through confirmation classes.
You go to the Methodist Church, and then they teach you
about doctrine and John Wesley and the books of the Bible.
But one part of this confirmation class,
it took place over several days,
but one part was the pastor would take you into the auditorium,
just you and him.
And I'm assuming that his conversation with the others went as it did with me.
I remember the pastor took me to the auditorium and he said,
"Jeff, you don't want to go to hell, do you?"
And I'm like, "You mean today?
Because mom's expecting me home for dinner."
He's like, "You don't want to go to hell, do you?"
And I was just like, "No."
He goes, "Well, then you want to accept Jesus Christ
as your Lord and Savior, right?"
And I'm like, "Okay."
"Great."
And he sent me back with the other kids.
And then every time this pastor saw me after that,
he would say, "I remember the day you gave your life to Jesus."
"Oh, Jeff, I remember the day you gave your life to Jesus."
And I was like, "Yeah, that was awesome."
Is that what it means to follow Jesus?
You see, since February we've been going through the Sermon on the Mount,
the greatest sermon ever preached.
And over the next four weeks, we're looking at how Jesus closes
the greatest sermon ever preached.
All of the content leads to this.
Over the past several months, we've looked at the heart of the disciple
and the beatitudes.
This is what a Jesus follower looks like.
We talked about the heart of the law.
Jesus didn't come to get rid of the Old Testament.
He said, "I came to fulfill it."
We talked about the heart of religion.
Look, it's not about doing things for show
to get a pat on the back from people.
We talked about the heart towards the world.
How should we interact in this world with money and stuff and people?
And now we get to the close of Jesus' sermon, and here he's saying,
"Now what are you going to do about it?"
Now that you know what I call you to,
is your heart ready for judgment?
Look at verses 13 and 14.
Jesus says, "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."
Everybody's heading to eternity.
I don't need to sell anyone on that, do I?
Everyone's heading for eternity,
and Jesus said there are two gates.
There's exactly two options,
and here Jesus is calling for an urgent choice.
He commands, that's the first sentence in verse 13,
"Enter by the narrow gate."
That's a choice literally between heaven and hell.
Jesus says, "Make your choice."
Who would choose hell?
I mean, really.
Who would choose hell?
I mean, yeah, I've shared the Gospel with a lot of people over the years,
and I've met the guy, probably you have to.
It's like, "Well, I'm going to hell,
and I know I'm going to hell, and I don't really care,
because all my buddies will be there."
But I'm like, "You are clueless."
You meet that joker.
But who would really, honestly, seriously choose hell?
Why wouldn't you choose heaven?
I mean, really.
See, my friends, that's the thing.
That's why this message is so urgent,
because no one thinks they are choosing hell.
Everyone thinks that they are going to end up in heaven.
Somehow, some way, I'm going to end up in heaven.
Everyone thinks that.
Everyone is, according to Jesus.
In fact, it's even worse than we think it is.
As we saw in the video, we have this mindset that most of us are good,
and we're going to heaven, and there's a few really bad people that are going to hell.
Jesus didn't say that.
Notice Jesus said the exact opposite.
He said many are going to hell, to destruction,
and he said few are going to heaven.
Few find life.
So do you know what you have to do to go to hell?
Do you know?
Nothing.
You don't have to do a thing.
And that's where you'll end up.
John 3.36 says,
"Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life."
Look at this.
"But the wrath of God remains on him."
How do you get the wrath of God?
He's already on you.
Paul says the same thing in Ephesians 2-3.
He says, "We were by nature children of wrath,
like the rest of mankind."
That was our default mode.
And I want you to notice in these two verses,
Jesus didn't say, "Choose which gate."
He didn't say that.
You already did choose a gate.
There's no language here that says,
"Well, tell me, how do I go through the wide gate?"
You already did.
Notice with the narrow gate, look at the very last phrase in verse 14.
Jesus said, "Those who find it are few."
The wide gate is something that has to be found.
The wide gate, Jesus never said you had to find the wide gate.
It's wide.
It's easy.
And you're already on it.
Heading to destruction.
So what we have here in these verses is a command.
It's a command to enter the narrow gate.
Look at verse 13 again.
Enter by the narrow gate.
It's a command. It's a call to action.
Meaning it doesn't happen by accident.
It's worth noting that Jesus,
we're going to see this in these upcoming messages as well,
there are people that are going to be shocked
that they're going to hell.
But you know, the Bible never says that there are people
that are shocked that they end up in heaven.
That guy doesn't exist.
That guy doesn't exist where Jesus says,
"Come on in to glory."
Like, wow, I didn't know I was coming here.
Wow.
That guy doesn't exist.
The gospel is a command.
Listen, it's a command.
It's not just an invitation.
It's not just a suggestion.
You really ought to think about maybe turning to Jesus.
It is a command.
Look at the words that are used to describe coming to Christ.
They're all commands.
Words like "repent."
You're commanded to repent.
Believe.
Receive.
Believe.
Here, the command is "enter."
This is the big takeaway from the Sermon on the Mount
according to Jesus.
Because of everything that He said,
going back to the Beatitudes,
leading to this point,
Jesus commands us to choose narrow.
It's not enough to listen to sermons about the narrow gate.
It's not enough to study the narrow gate.
It's not enough to even kind of like the narrow gate.
Jesus said, "You have to make the choice to enter the narrow gate."
Have you made that choice?
I want you to jot some things down
on your outline.
This is the command, "Enter by the narrow gate."
What does our Lord say about it?
First of all, number one, write this down.
It's hard to find.
It's hard to find.
Again, in verse 14, Jesus says,
"For the gate is narrow, and the way is hard that leads to life.
And those who find it are few."
It's hard to find.
It's narrow.
What exactly do you mean it's narrow?
Well, one thing that it means, that it's being narrow,
is that it's the only way to be saved.
Jesus made that claim.
The Bible makes that claim over and over and over.
In John 14.6, Jesus said,
"I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me."
The gate is narrow because it's the only way to be saved.
Not every road leads to heaven.
That doesn't even work in the physical world, does it?
If you came to me after service and you're like,
"Pastor Jeff, I really want to go to Cleveland.
How do I get there?"
First of all, I'm not sure you really do want to go there.
But if you have to listen, you know how to get to Cleveland?
Just pick a road. It doesn't matter.
Get in your car and just pick a road.
As long as you believe in your heart's that that road will take you to Cleveland,
then you will get to Cleveland.
Would that work?
People are like, "I think I'll ask Pastor Taylor."
Right?
I mean, that's foolishness.
So why do we think that any road is going to get us to heaven?
Not every road will take you there.
Because your problem is sin before a holy God,
and the only way that that sin can be forgiven
is through Jesus Christ, because He's the only one
who paid the penalty to take away your sin.
It's narrow because it's the only way to be saved.
It's narrow also because you're called to leave some things behind.
You get a picture of this narrow gate almost like a turnstile,
like walking into Kennywood.
If you're going through that turnstile, you've got to leave some stuff behind.
Like leave what behind?
Your sin?
Your self-centeredness?
Your rights?
Your pride?
You've got to leave your old self behind,
because listen, you're both not going to fit through the turnstile.
You both won't fit through the narrow gate.
Jesus said it costs to enter this gate.
We don't have time today, but just write down Matthew 10, Luke 14.
Jesus said there's a cost to entering the gate.
Leave stuff behind.
Like, well, what's the cost?
Jesus said you have to love Him more than you love your own family.
Jesus said you have to deny yourself.
Jesus said you have to consider yourself a slave to Him.
Oh, and you have to consider yourself a slave to everyone else.
Jesus said things like you have to take up your cross.
You have to be willing to lay down your life for Him.
Listen, if you're unwilling to do any of that,
then you're not going to get through the gate at all.
To sum it up, Luke 14.33, look what Jesus says.
Not the most secret, sensitive way to address a crowd.
Jesus said, "So therefore any one of you who does not renounce all that He has
cannot be my disciple."
You willing to do that?
You're like, "I don't know."
Okay, then you're not going through the narrow gate.
Back when I was in college, I had several jobs.
Here's where two of them overlapped.
I was pastoring a little country church,
and I was also a magazine vendor for two Walmarts and two K-Marts.
Is K-Marts still a thing?
It was back then.
But I would go in third shift to these stores,
and I would stock the magazines.
And at the one K-Mart, I got to be friends with some of the employees there.
There were a couple cashiers that I invited to church.
I'll never forget this.
The one cashier, her name was Gina.
And she came to church for probably three or four weeks,
and then stopped.
Well, the next time I saw her at K-Mart,
I said, "Hey, I haven't seen you in church."
I'll never forget what she said.
She said, "I can't go to church
and live the kind of life that I want to live."
It's sad.
She got it.
She got the fact that the gate is narrow.
She got the fact that she can't come into the kingdom of heaven
while carrying all her sin in with her.
I don't want to talk about Gina though. I want to talk about you.
What have you left behind to follow Jesus?
Would you say that there's been a tremendous cost to you
in deciding to follow Jesus?
And if your answer is, "Well, you know,
I haven't really given up that much to follow Jesus,
really now that I think about it,
I really haven't given up very much."
Well, then you haven't found the narrow gate.
It's hard to find.
Secondly, write this down.
Not only is it hard to find,
it's hard to walk.
It's hard to walk.
The gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life.
The way is hard that leads to life.
You see what Jesus is saying?
If you find it, and even when it's truly found,
it's hard to enter.
And when you enter it, it's hard to walk.
And right now somebody's like, "Hard? Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,
hang on, hang on, hang on."
I thought coming to Jesus was just belief.
Just believe in Jesus.
What are you talking about? Hard.
It's just believe, right?
Well, I would ask you,
what do you mean by believe?
Do you know how Jesus described what it means to believe?
The Sermon on the Mount.
This is how Jesus described what it means to believe.
He described it with the beatitudes.
When you're broken over your sin and you're meek
and you desire righteousness and purity more than anything,
you're a peacemaker.
And then, if you're really living it, people hate you.
That's what it means to believe.
Jesus said believing is being salt and light.
That means you're different than the world.
You stand out because of what you believe.
Is that what you mean by believe?
Jesus said believing is turning from anger, turning from lust.
Jesus said believing is a person who always keeps their word.
Jesus said believing is never retaliating.
Jesus said believing is when you love your enemies.
Jesus said believing is when you choose to give
and to pray and to fast privately.
So only God knows.
Jesus says believing is giving to God
so that you lay up treasure in heaven.
Jesus said believing is never worrying.
Not being anxious for anything.
Jesus said believing is not being critical of others
but doing to others what you wish they would do to you.
Now, you tell me what's easy about any of that.
It's hard to walk.
If you've been with us in any part of this journey
through the Sermon on the Mount,
has there been any of these sections that you've pointed at
and went, "Oh, that's easy. I got that nailed down."
Or have you been more like me every week
taken to the woodshed?
Tour up?
Or have you been more like me
every week taken to the woodshed?
Or have you been more like me?
Difficult is the standard.
We're told on the front end,
when you live different than the world,
you're going to have people after you.
You're going to suffer.
It's hard to walk.
That's why a lot of people bail, by the way.
They weren't expecting it to be hard.
They were believing in gospel that Jesus never taught.
Because believing in the gospel,
despite the lame way we want to package it
in American churches,
believing in the gospel is more than just acknowledging facts.
And it's even way more than just agreeing with the facts.
Believing in the gospel is having a faith in Jesus Christ
that makes your decisions for you.
Your life should be marked by this.
Constantly saying, "You know what?
I do this because of what Jesus said.
This is why I do that."
Your life should be marked by things you say,
"You know what? I never do this
because God said I should never do that.
My life makes my decisions for me."
That's what it means to believe.
In churches, dishonor the gospel
and do a disservice to people
when we make it easy to follow Jesus.
Shame on us.
We make it so easy for the people
that walk in the door and say,
"Look, I just want to attend.
I just want to come in on Sunday,
in late, out early.
I just want to attend.
I don't want to get involved.
I don't want to help out with the kids ministry.
I don't want to be on the worship team.
I don't want to give to the church.
I don't want to do any of that.
Look, just make it easy."
Where did Jesus say the easy way leads?
I want to talk about you again.
You find it easy to follow Jesus?
Maybe at 9 a.m. on Sunday.
I want to ask about your Monday through Saturday.
Is it easy for you to follow Jesus?
And if your answer is, you know what?
I don't know what he's talking about,
but I haven't really found it to be that hard
being a Christian.
Then you haven't found the narrow gate.
Because Jesus said it's hard.
Enter by the narrow gate.
It's hard to find.
It's hard to walk.
Number three, it's hard to dismiss.
It's hard to dismiss.
The gate is narrow.
And the way is hard that leads to life.
Man, this sounds like being a Christian is hard.
Yeah, it is.
So why would I enter the narrow gate at all then?
Because of where it leads.
And whoever doesn't think about
where the path they are on is taking them is a fool.
Throughout this section, throughout these verses,
we looked at today Jesus said there's only two.
There's two gates.
There's two ways. There's two crowds.
And there's two destinations.
You're going to want to...
Destruction and it's life.
What's destruction?
We've talked about that. That's hell.
Yes, destruction here and now in this life,
I've yet to meet the guy that has really benefited from their sin.
But instead has experienced destruction in this life,
ultimately it's destruction in hell.
Why is hell referred to as destruction?
Because it's eternally being destroyed,
but never actually being destroyed.
It's burning without being consumed.
That's what hell is.
And that's where the easy way leads.
So if following Jesus sounds too hard for you,
you have the option of having it a little easier
in this life for 15 minutes,
and spending eternity suffering.
Not my opinion, Jesus' words.
The other destination is life.
Life, eternal, glorious life in heaven.
Yes, of course, but also life here and now.
Eternal life for the Christian isn't something that you get someday.
It's something you experience now,
and you take with you into eternity.
This hard way is the way that Jesus took.
And if we choose to follow in His footsteps,
we will not only get heaven,
but we will experience life
as it was meant to be lived here and now.
And that's hard to dismiss,
just because it's difficult.
It's over and over in the Gospels.
Jesus challenged potential followers to count the cost.
You have to count the cost of entering the narrow gate
because there is a cost.
But you also have to count the cost of not entering the narrow gate.
You could leave here today and say,
"I choose to stay on the wide gateway."
What have you gained?
What have you gained by staying on the wide gateway?
An easier life here for however long that lasts.
But what have you lost?
You've lost eternity.
So right now you need to ask yourself,
"What way am I on?"
Listen, you can't answer that
based on something that happened in the past.
That's what I mean for some people.
It's like, are you a follower of Jesus?
Well, I got baptized 30 years ago.
That's not the test.
The test is, how are we living right now?
Are you seeking Jesus now?
Are you turning from sin now?
Are you denying yourself now?
Your life right now proves what way you are on.
I'd like to invite the worship team to come back up.
We're going to have some folks join us up here.
I'd like to invite them up too.
We're going to have some people up here to pray,
some elders, some members from our prayer team.
I'd like you folks to make your way up here as well.
In just a moment, the worship team is going to sing a song over you.
But before we do that, I want us to consider one more verse.
It's Matthew 11 and verse 12.
Another staggering statement from our Lord.
Jesus said, "From the days of John the Baptist until now,
the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence."
Look at his last phrase.
He says, "And the violence, take it by force."
Listen, because the gate is narrow,
and because the way is hard,
salvation is something that you have to go after violently.
It's not, well, just put a check mark on this card and you're saved.
Just bow your head and raise your hand and you're saved.
Just repeat this prayer after me and you're saved.
That's not it.
It's something that you have to go after violently.
Like why violently?
Because the gospel calls you to forsake yourself.
You have to go after that violently.
Jesus calls you to give up your sin.
It's not for weaklings.
I'm going to give you a chance.
I'm going to give you a chance to prove that you're not a weakling.
I'm going to give you a chance today to do something violent.
I'd like you to bow your heads, please,
because what we're going to do
is have a good old-fashioned, much-needed altar call.
Bow your heads.
Today needs to enter the narrow gate.
Maybe there's somebody that walked in here today
that said, "I know I'm not following Jesus,
and I've been meaning to get around to it.
Today's the day that you're going to go after this violently."
Or maybe there's somebody here that's like,
"Well, I don't really know if I follow Jesus."
Then that means you don't.
Because you can't have a relationship with the God of the universe
and not know it.
Because it's something you have to go after violently.
Or maybe there's somebody here that says,
"You know, I made a decision once upon a time,
but whether I'm backslidden,
or whether I was deceived or confused,
I'm not really sure where I stand right now
because I'm so stuck in sin."
You need to go after this violently.
As an act of faith, as the worship team sings over you,
we want to invite you to come up and pray.
There is still someone here, someone else here,
that wants to do business with God.
I strongly encourage you not to leave until you do.
You shrink back now.
It's going to be way easier to shrink back the next time
that you feel called to follow Jesus.
Father in heaven,
we're not here to put on a show for anybody but you.
We want to be sincere.
We don't want to settle for some watered-down,
sugar-coated version of the Gospel
that so many in our culture have made it.
Father, let us go after you violently
with the urgency that your Son has called us to.
We do need to count the costs.
I'm asking Father that you would give us the faith that we need.
All glory and honor and praise and power be unto your name.
We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.