The Narrow Door

Luke 13:22-35 - Riley Boggs

It does not matter how well you have thought something through, if you forget one important piece, you are subject to failure. One of the greatest examples in history of this is the Titanic, the story of the unsinkable ship. On April 10, 1912, the Titanic ship took off on its maiden voyage. In it’s time, it was the largest and most luxurious ship in the world. The engineers and designers had seemingly thought through everything. The safety features were state-of-the-art. It had a double-bottom hull, remotely activated watertight doors, and many other innovations to make the ship seemingly unsinkable.

Well, as you all know, a few days later, on April 14, the Titanic would find itself on the bottom of the ocean floor. See though the engineers and designers had tried to think through everything, there is one thing that they could not engineer and designer around. Someone has to steer the ship. As the Titanic made its way through the icy waters of the North Atlantic Ocean, Robert Hichen stood at the helm. It’s unknown whether or not it was his mistake alone, or a mistake from those commanding him. But what it known for certain is that because of an error made, a simple miscalculation of distance, the Titanic collided with an iceberg and sank. Everything seemed to be thought through. Everything seemed to be right. Everything, except one thing. And in the end, it was the one thing that mattered most.

The same reality is true in all of life. As humans, you can have all sorts of things right. You can have thought through and “designed” your life to seemingly be all that you could ever want it to be. You can have the house and the car you’ve always wanted. You can have all the notoriety and success that you’ve ever dreamed of. You can have what seems like an unsinkable life. And yet, if you make the one error that really matters, it will have seemingly all have been for nothing.

In life, that one error that can do us in is not a mystery. We don’t have to sit around the table and try to discern what it is that will matter most in the end. No the Bible makes abundantly clear that our eternity, the most important thing of all, is determined by one simple thing: Faith in the Jesus Christ, who died and rose again. Belief in the Gospel. That’s it. You can have your ideal life, all your i’s dotted, and all your t’s crossed. And yet, if you get the Gospel wrong, it will have been all for nothing.

And the issue is that while we can all acknowledge this and believe it, as sinful humans, we are prone to missing it. Our hearts and minds, and the enemy himself, are really good at trying to replace that one important thing. Our hearts and minds do it because we are a very flawed people. We know the truth, but because of our sinfulness, we forget the truth and replace it with lies. And the enemy does it because he knows what matters most. He knows that you can have the whole world and that is fine, but if he can simply convince you to leave the Gospel behind, he’s won.

This morning, in our text, Jesus addresses several ways that this can happen. He lays out multiple things that we are tempted to replace belief in the Gospel with, and in the end, cause ourselves to miss the Kingdom of God. He specifically says that there are 3 things that people might fall prey to and in so doing, will not be welcome into the Kingdom when the Lord returns on that judgement day.

If you remember, last week saw that Jesus compared the Kingdom of God to a mustard seed and to leaven. And I said that the point that Jesus was making is that the Kingdom of God, though it can seem insignificant and small right now, it is far greater than we can imagine. We talked about how King Jesus is powerful and redemptive, and so the Kingdom of God is also powerful and redemptive. And this Kingdom of God, though it is now only a spiritual kingdom, there will come a day where it will take on a physical reality. When Jesus returns as the triumphant King and judges the world finally, the Kingdom of God will be once-and-for-all be established and evil will be done away with.

Now it’s important that we keep this in mind because our text begins by someone asking Jesus a question concerning these things. In verse 22 we read that Jesus is journeying and teaching His way through towns and villages, on His way to Jerusalem. And as He is going, someone asks Him a question. You can see it in verse 23, someone asks, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” Now that’s an interesting question, but it’s a fair one. If Jesus is coming through the towns teaching that salvation is here, it’s not unlikely that many people were wondering how many people could obtain this salvation. Jesus, in typical Jesus fashion, doesn’t answer the question directly. Rather, He takes this opportunity to make a larger point about the nature of the Kingdom of God and the number of those who will have salvation.

You can see His answer starting in verse 24. He says, “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the master of the house has risen and 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 come from.’” Jesus doesn’t explicitly say that the number of people who will be saved will be few, but He does say that there is only one specific way one can be saved. There is one door, a narrow door, that leads into the Kingdom of God. Now He doesn’t say this here, but we know that this way, this door, is of course Himself. The only way into the Kingdom of God, the only way to be saved, is through and by Jesus Christ. Apart from Him there is no salvation.

Now the part I want to emphasis is how Jesus says that there will be some who come to the door, once it has been shut, and ask to get in. That is, once final judgment has come and there is no more opportunity to believe in Jesus, there will be people who try to plead their case for why they ought to be in the Kingdom. But as much as they ask and plead to enter, they cannot. And as I mentioned, I think there are 3 things in this text that Jesus says people are appealing to or have falsely believed, and in so doing, have missed the Kingdom of God. The first one is this...

1.) They have mistaken proximity to Jesus with salvation

Jesus is painting this image of people standing outside of the door of the Kingdom of God, unable to get in, and they are pleading their case, and this is what they say. You can see it in verse 26, “We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.” And then Jesus responds to them and says, verse 27, “I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil.”

These people have made a fatal mistake. They have assumed that because they were near Jesus, they had obtained salvation. They thought that if they were around Him long enough, then surely when they appeared at the gate to the Kingdom, He would recognize them and welcome them in. But obviously, as we see, that isn’t the case. These people have mistaken proximity to Jesus with salvation.

There are a lot of good things about the cultural Christianity that exists in this part of the country. It is good that we pray before sporting events and that there this is the undergirding belief in God that exists in most places. It is good that publicly identifying yourself as a Christian doesn’t really hinder you in any social or professional way. It is good that there is a general understanding of what a family ought to look like and a general sense of morality to go along with that. Now I would argue that these things are fading, but nonetheless they are good. But while these good things exists as a result of a culture heavily saturated with Christianity, there is one very dangerous thing that comes from it, from this cultural Christianity. And that is, there are an incredible amount of people who think they are saved, and they are not.

There are so many people who were baptized at an early age with their siblings, who attend church a few times a year, who pray when times get tough, who do not having a saving faith. There are even people who attend church weekly and participate in all the church things, who do not have saving faith. And truthfully, these people, in all the many situations and circumstances that exists, have all fallen for the same lie. They have thought that by simply being near the faith community and upholding a general morality, they have salvation. The truth is, however, that they will be just like those in this story who stand outside the gate pleading their case. They will say, “But Jesus, I came to church my whole life! I even went to VBS and prayed the prayer that the preacher told me to pray. Yes, I know that I didn’t really have a relationship with you, but I was always around the church and tried to do the right thing!”

This will, without a doubt, be a reality on the day of judgement. There will be many who have mistaken proximity to Jesus with salvation. But proximity is not enough. In order to be saved, one must place their faith and trust in the Risen Lord. They must not just be near the faith community, but they must be brought in as they profess their faith. They must be transformed by the power of the Gospel and be filled with the Holy Spirit. And this is not a work of man, it is a work of God, by the grace of God. But thanks be to God, He will grant salvation to all who call upon His name, so that on that day, you will not have to plead your case, but the Lord will know you, because you are His.

There is a second error that is made by people here that have caused them to miss the Kingdom. You can see it starting in verse 29. Jesus says “…people will come from the east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the Kingdom of God.” That is, people from all over will be welcome in. And then He says this, in verse 30, “And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” In that phrase, I think Jesus is making a point about those who will miss the Kingdom of God. And the point is this…

2.) They think their status earns them favor before God

Baked into this idea that the first will be last is the arrogance of unbelieving Israel. No doubt when Jesus says this, He has this certain group of people in mind. And it’s the same group of people who were around Him at this time. It’s the people who had heard the prophecies concerning Jesus. It’s those who had long awaited the Messiah to come. And yet, as we have seen in previous texts and will see in future texts, it’s the exact people who are rejecting Jesus.

These people had made a critical error. They assumed that because who they are and where they are from, they had earned their spot in the kingdom of God. They had assumed that if anyone is saved at all, surely they would be included. After all, look at who they are. But the terrible reality is that in their rejection of Jesus Christ, they had forfeited all of their so-called privileges and had destined themselves to miss out on the Kingdom of God.

These people thought, “Surely, I’m saved. I mean, of all people in the world, look at me! I’m of God’s chosen people.” My previous pastor, Lee, said, “The sad reality is that this group was most privileged in that they had the prophets, read the Scriptures, and should have recognized Jesus. But they didn’t. And yet many from all parts of the world who aren’t as privileged will believe and be saved.” You can see Jesus make that exact point in verse 29, noting that people from every direction, from all over the world, will be welcome into the Kingdom of God. Not on the basis of where they are from or what their status is, but because of who they are in Christ.

Growing up, having a last name that starts with the letter B afforded me a lot of privileges in school. I was always one of the first ones called on the role, one of the first to go get called to go get my yearbook picture taken, and so on. And as an elementary aged boy, that really mattered to me. I thought I was really something because of the letter B in Boggs. Well this all came to a crashing halt in the 6 grade. See for the whole year, like normal, I was being called on first for everything. That is until the 6th grade graduation. See the teachers had the idea that since those with last names beginning with letters at the end of alphabet always went last, this would be a good time to flip the script and have us graduate in reverse according to our last names. So what that meant, of course, is that I went from first to last.

Now truthfully, it wasn’t that big of a deal, and I didn’t think too much of it. But I do distinctly remembering thinking, “Well that seems unfair”. Because I had been afforded a lot of privileges in the past, because of something I was simply born into, I had just assumed that I would be first. And anything other than that seemed a bit unfair.

As silly as that sounds, there are many who use the same logic when it comes to the Kingdom of God. Israel just assumed that because of who they were, they would be accepted, and anything other than that would be injustice on God’s part. There are many today who have confused their accomplishments and earthly success with salvation, and the idea that God would reject them in the end is inconceivable. There are even more who have done a lot of “good things” so that they might stand before God with a great case to be made, and to think that God would say that that isn’t good enough is hard to even imagine for them.

And yet, as we know, none of these things make us right before God. None of these things earn us a place in the Kingdom of God. The only thing that is sufficient and sure is the atoning work of Jesus Christ accredited to us when we place our faith in Him. There is nothing else. Status does not earn favor before God. Rather it is our standing before God that really matters. And the only way for our standing to be good is to believe in Jesus and have His righteousness accredited to you. And thanks be to God, for all who call on His name, that is the reality.

In the final section of our passage Jesus has another encounter with the Pharisees. The Pharisees tell Jesus that He needs to leave the area He is in because Herod wants to kill Him. Now this is likely true, but the intentions behind the Pharisees saying this are no doubt bad. They aren’t just trying to warn Jesus and protect Him. Rather, I think there are 2 likely reasons why they are saying this to Jesus. The first one is that they want Jesus to leave the area and stop teaching there. They are simply trying to use fear to scare Him out of this region. The second option is that the Pharisees are trying to get Jesus to flee to Judea. And the reason for this is that in Judea the Pharisees would have had more authority and ability to do what they want with Jesus. But no matter the reason, Jesus responds to them not with fear, but with boldness.

You can see it in verse 32. He says, “Go tell that fox, (speaking of Herod, essentially calling him a worthless and sly), ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. 33 Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.’” In other words Jesus is saying that nothing will keep Him fulfilling the purpose for which He came. He will go to Jerusalem and He will be crucified, and as He mentioned, on the third day, He will rise from the dead. Neither Herod’s threats nor the Pharisees intimidations will come between Jesus and His burial and resurrection.

After saying this, Jesus turns continues on, now turning His words towards the people of Jerusalem. He says, in verse 34-35, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 35 Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”

From this, I think we can draw the third error that will cause them to miss the Kingdom of God. It is this…

3.) They have hard hearts towards Jesus

In this statement, Jesus is lamenting Jerusalem. That is, He is showing His grief and His disappointment for what they have done. A city and a people that were marked by the disobedience and rejection of Jesus. They kill prophets and stone those who come bringing messages of deliverance. They will not believe, though the Savior stands before them. And Jesus says that He desired that He would gather them under His wings, like a hen gathers her broods, but they were unwilling. And this unwillingness to even do what is best for them comes as a result of having very hard hearts towards Jesus.

I think a good example that many of us can relate to is when we are too stubborn to admit when we are wrong, even when it is to our detriment. Maybe like me you’ve been the husband trying to do some handiwork around the house to impress your wife, and you are getting more and more frustrated with some simple thing. And eventually your wife sees you fighting for your life with whatever it is and offers a very helpful suggestion that deep down you know would solve all your problems. But instead of listening to your wife like you should, you stubbornly continue to do the same thing over and over again. I know none of you men have ever done that. Simply a hypothetical, I’m sure. But from the outside looking in, you can see how that doesn’t make any sense. Instead of doing what is best, there is an irrational choice to continue down the path you are on. Whether it’s out of pride, frustration, or something else, ultimately it is a decision that is senseless.

What Jesus is saying is that the same thing is true of the unbelieving Israelites. Jesus desires to bring them in, to save them, and to nurture them. And yet, because of their hard hearts towards the Lord, they make the decision to continue down the path that only harms themselves. Though Jesus is willing and able to save them, they refuse Him. And Jesus says that they will continue to refuse Him and linger in their unbelief until He returns. And then, it will be too late.

Listen, there is a tremendous amount of danger in denying Christ, even for a moment. The Lord is gracious and loving, and is willing to forgive anyone and everyone who would turn to Him. That is true. And at the same time, we must acknowledge that the chances to repent are not endless. Of course there is the reality that once we die or the Lord returns, there are no more opportunities to repent. But the Bible also speaks of a continual hardening of heart that comes as a result of denying the Lord over and over again. As someone continues to sin more and more, and as they continue to reject Jesus again and again, their conscience grows incredibly seared. Sin no longer feels like sin at all. And not only that, but their hearts are so incredibly hardened to Jesus and the Gospel, that they dismiss it altogether without any thought.

And so let me just take this opportunity to say that if you do not know the Lord, if you have no trusted Him for salvation, today is the day of salvation. If you hear the call to repentance and you know that you must trust Jesus, but you decide to suppress that and ignore it, know that you are not guaranteed another moment to repent. You are searing your conscience and hardening your heart, and you just might be making repentance a distant reality that will never come. Don’t let that be the case. Today, turn to the Lord, and He will save you.

This morning, so far, we have looked at the 3 different errors that Jesus points out. 3 errors that have caused, and will cause, people to miss out on the Kingdom of God. And while that is good for us to hear, I think there is an important point of application for those here who have trusted Christ for salvation. An important thing that all of us here ought to do so that we might grow in our faith and have confidence in what is to come. The one thing we must do is this…

We must examine ourselves to make sure that we are trusting in Christ alone for salvation

I’m told that when you hit a certain age, you’re supposed to start going to the doctor annually just to get checkup. Last year I was having some odd chest pains and called to schedule an appointment to see a doctor. When I called they asked me when the last time I have had a routine checkup and the answer was like a decade ago. So, they scheduled me a routine checkup so that I could get that out of the way while I was there about the other things. Well after that appointment they asked if I wanted to go ahead and schedule a checkup for the following year? I said yes, and officially cemented myself into annual checkups. I don’t like it, but it is what it is.

But truthfully, I think they are a good thing. It’s a good thing to schedule a time where you just see how you are doing. It’s good to get some blood work done and make sure all things are functioning like they should. You’ll either learn that you are healthy and should continue down the path you are going, or you might learn that there are some problems, or potential problems, that need to be addressed.

Well if that’s true of our temporary physical bodies, and it is, then it is even more eternal souls. It is good for us to routinely stop and check in, to examine ourselves. In 2 Corinthians 13:5 Paul says, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith.” Maybe we’ll find that our soul is in a good place and to be healthy. Maybe we’ll find that our soul is in a good place, but there are things that need to be addressed to maintain health. Or maybe, we find that our souls are not in a good place, and there needs to be life there.

Now you might be wondering, how do you examine a soul? You can’t see it under a microscope, and you can’t send it off to the lab to get results. No the way you examine your soul is by simply thinking on what you really believe to be true. Not what you tell others you believe, but rather asking what, in your heart-of-hearts, believe to be true. Things like this. Do you believe that your standing before God relies not on your works, but entirely on Jesus’ work on your behalf? And you can make this even simpler. Why do you think God loves you? Is it because of what you have done and do for Him, or is it because He loved you first and made your righteous like His son?

There are all sorts of questions like this, soul-examining questions, that are good for us to ask. The people who missed out on the Kingdom of God in our story this morning failed to ask these. They failed to ask them, and as a result they believed lies that proved to be fatal to their soul. Let that not be us. Consider what it is you truly believe about your faith and your hope. Where does it rest? Does it rest on you, your works, your status, or anything like this? Or does it rest on Christ and Christ alone?

This morning we are going to come to the table to remember what is really true and what we must, by the power of the Spirit, strive to believe. That is that Jesus lived and died and rose again so that we might be made right with God. And that now, for those who have truly placed their faith in Him, their salvation is entirely sure. It rests not on their ability or lack of doubts, but rests entirely on the grace and mercy poured out on you, which is endless and new every morning.

So this morning, if you have trusted in Christ for salvation, I welcome you to come to the table to remember and proclaim this.

But if you are here and don’t know Christ, I want to call your attention to verse 28. Jesus says that those who realize that they have missed the Kingdom of God are peering in, weeping and gnashing their teeth. Why? Because they realize that there are no more chances. They have missed the Kingdom. If you are here and don’t know Jesus, don’t let that be you. Don’t come to the table this morning, that will not save you. It will only convince you of something that isn’t true. Right now, what you must do, is turn from your sins and believe in Jesus. He asks nothing of you except that you trust and believe in Him. Do that this very morning and no longer fear what is to come on that judgment day. And if you don’t understand this or want to talk about it more, I would be more than happy to talk to you about it.