The Narrow Gate Is Supposed to Be Hard
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The Narrow Gate Is Supposed to Be Hard
It is impossible to find without a guide and once you do have it in your sights it is very difficult to enter. For a God who wants to spend eternity with us it seems an impossible task. What are we to do?
Sermon Notes
I would like you to draw a picture in your mind based on Matthew 7:13. When you read about the Narrow Gate what picture do you see in your mind’s eye?
Matthew 7:13 13 Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.
Compare your picture with mine. I see a huge wall, miles high and stretching from east to west. There is no way over it or around it. On the other side is eternal life, on this side is a physical life that ends in death and the only way to live past this life is to get through to the other side. There is a door but no one can find it without first being shown where it is. The only way to the other side is through that door. What’s more, when you have an invitation to see the door you see it appears way too small to enter with what you have with you. Like the camel trying to get through the hole in the needle how do you get through this door? It seems impossible and according to scripture we cannot get through it simply on our own. Can you see this vast wall separating you from eternal life and only a little door that no one is able to find except we are led there by the Spirit of God? How many could fit through such a door? How many enter in is the debate of the ages. Some would put the number higher and others quite small. So why is it so hard to find, and greater still, why is it so hard to enter once you are led to it? These are two questions I would like to answer with the message today.
The title of the sermon today is
The narrow way is supposed to be hard
It is impossible to find without a guide and once you do have it in your sights it is very difficult to enter. For a God who wants to spend eternity with us it seems an impossible task. What are we to do? When you look at the whole of Matthew 7 the task seems to get all the more difficult.
Matthew 7 starts out with Jesus talking about judgment and He tells us that how we deal with others will determine how God deals with us. How we judge, love, get along with, serve, and have mercy will determine the relationship we have with the Almighty.
Yet, Jesus encourages them and tells them to keep asking God for what we need and that God gives good gifts to those He loves. He finishes that section with the Golden Rule:
Matthew 7:12 12 Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
It is here where He tells them to enter through the narrow gate. Those things that Jesus had just finished telling them were hard to do. Many who felt they were keeping the law perfectly had missed the point often times. And what Jesus tells them is that this way of life was harder than they imagined. In chapter 5, Jesus gives the Beatitudes on the type of thinking that God wants. These attitudes are present in the world but not very common.
He follows that with admonition that we should be the Salt of the earth. The Salt of the earth would contain those special attitudes. Then He magnifies the Law to show they must strive to keep the spirit of the law and not merely the letter. You could be guilty of murder even if you don’t kill someone. Same goes for the other commandments that what you think is every bit as important as what you do. Paul later says in Gal 2:20 this way of life is to mirror the struggles that Jesus went through.
Galatians 2:20 20 "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
This new life that Jesus taught was much harder than people realized. If Jesus came as a savior to mankind, then the first question I would like to ask is - why is the Narrow Gate impossible to find?
1.Why is the narrow gate impossible to find on your own?
John 6:44 tells us that no one can come to Christ without first being invited and called by the Father. So why doesn’t the Father invite everyone right now? The answer is the same reason that Jesus spoke in Parables. Matthew 13 says because of dull hearts Jesus would not open their eyes to see because they would repent but then they would not be ready to stay the course and He does not anyone called before they are ready to accept the journey.
Before God gives the choice to choose His Kingdom over this life He gives time for everyone to learn that this life in the flesh will never measure up to what we could have. That education takes this wonderful plan that God is working out through the Holy Days that start in just a short number of weeks. Will we have a heart to re-commit ourselves to the calling we have? If we do have a heart to forsake this world then the work ahead is great. Consider these two Scriptures together. Isaiah 55:8-9 and Psalm 103:12.
First lets look at Isaiah 55:8
Isaiah 55:8-9 8 " For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD. 9 "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.
Remember that picture of that wall that stands between us and eternity. How high is that wall? As high as the heavens are from the earth. And how wide is it? As far as East is from the West.
Lets look at the second scripture, turn over to Psalm 103:12
In Psalm 103:12 we see a hopeful message to Israel who had rejected God.
Psalm 103:12 12 As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
No matter how high or wide that wall, God has given us a way through.
When we repent and turn from our lives then we start a new life infused with His Spirit and we start to live by the spirit of the law. Its understandable that God removed the Tree of Life from the garden after they sinned because you did not want sin to inhabit eternity.
If the way of eternal life was easy to find then I would suspect that many or even most would attempt to enter in. They would not be ready for what comes next and like those with dull hearts, they would fail.
2 Peter 3:9 9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
Our Father and Elder Brother are taking this elaborate journey with us so that we have the best possible chance of succeeding. This is why the door is not open for people to find on their own. His plan gives the best option for bringing many sons and daughters into the Kingdom. After the Millennium, when Satan is released we read that
Revelation 20:7-9 7 Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea.
Even after a thousand years of living God’s way Satan will be able to deceive once again. This is free will. Some will always choose self. No matter the pain and suffering that is caused, self rules.
So until the end of days when everyone will have all the information they need to choose life, we have a door that is only visible to those who have an invitation.
So that is the difficult truth why it must be impossible to find on our own.
The second question we want to know is:
2.Why must the road be so difficult once we are invited?
So we don’t want a world filled with self-centered beings but once God has called us to this new life, why must the road be so difficult? The answer to this question explains the statement in Matthew 20:16 where is says “Many are called, but few chosen.”
There is another purpose for the narrow way that will ensure that the Kingdom of God will not be a small town.
Isaiah 9:7 7 Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.
That other purpose for the Narrow Way is to teach us how to have a heart to follow.
On top of that, God called the weak of the world to confound the mighty so it must be possible for everyone to succeed. That is why we are here. But knowing the truth, and remaining in the church, does not get us there. In fact, the rich and powerful really don’t stand much of a chance unless the weak show them how it’s done.
Lets read a familiar passage and consider it’s meaning.
Matthew 19:23-25 23 Then Jesus said to His disciples, "Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 "And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." 25 When His disciples heard it, they were greatly astonished, saying, "Who then can be saved?"
Now, the obvious meaning here is it is very difficult for those with wealth, power, and position, to enter into the Kingdom. But there was a legend as far back as the 6th century that there was a gate in Jerusalem that was known as the needle. There is, of course, no real proof that this is true but it gives us something to ponder. None of us want the vision of a full sized camel being dissected and put piece by piece through a sewing needle. But consider the metaphor of a small gate that a person could get through but a camel would not easily fit, especially with anything on its back. What if this were true? Then a camel must shed everything it has to be able to fit into the gate? Consider this definition with verse 19 of this same story:
Matthew 19:21 21 Jesus said to him, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."
In a way, if you have nothing, then you have less to get rid of to accept this new way of life. We cannot take it with us. The only riches that survive this life treasure we have in Heaven. Holy righteous character also survives death. So we must forsake all we have to follow Christ. This is difficult. We must put to death first of all our pride.
Pride kills. Pride is the heart of self-righteousness. We would like to believe that every time we are mad it is righteous anger. But the truth is, if we are truly humble we won’t get angry very often. When we see the beam in our own eye it is impossible to see the speck in someone else’s eye.
Ephesians 4:1-7 NKJ I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, 3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. 7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.
It is not easy to live will all lowliness and gentleness unless humility becomes the most important attribute that we work on. When we cast off everything it is much easier to submit to God.
How do you know if you are winning this battle?
When we lose our cool, we are losing….
When we try to get even and give someone a piece of our minds, we are losing….
When we seek God’s will and not our own, we are winning
When we use a soft answer to turn away wrath, we are winning.
And when the words of James 1:2-5 are true to us, then we are winning.
James 1:2-6 2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.
When we can rejoice in our trials then we share in God’s anticipation of the person we are becoming. Someone that will pass through that Gate into eternal life with Him and His Son.