The Narrow Gate

Pastor Mark Coleman loves to hike, and he passed on that love to his son, Peter. When Peter was only 5 years old, Coleman planned an easy hike on the northern part of the Appalachian Trail. Coleman would lead them around a mountain to a lake in Vermont where they would spend the night. He made thorough preparation for the trip, including coaching his son. Over and over he told him that it would be tough, and it was okay to be tired, but they had to keep on walking. They had to keep on walking.

Unfortunately, the walking was longer and tougher than expected because Coleman… led them over the mountain, not around it. The trail was steep and broken. Little Peter stumbled time after time on loose rocks, but they kept on walking. The hike was a burden, not a joy, but they kept on walking. Peter fell so many times that he ripped the knees of his jeans, but he kept on walking. Finally, after one fall too many, he sat and cried.

As Mark approached him and began to speak, Peter cut him off: "I know, Dad. It's okay to cry, as long as I keep on walking."

It has been a rough 8 months that this congregation has had to endure. We have had sickness, heartache, financial difficulties, lost of homes, and the lost of three very close friends in this congregation, Terrona, Janice and now Charles. And because we are a church family, we have felt each and every difficulty and we have had to cry, but what I am proud of is this congregation has not stopped walking the narrow path.

I close each service for God to light the narrow path for us. Why? Cause as we are in the darkest of times, we must rely on His light to show us the way.

It is only fitting I close this series with the narrow gate.

Today we will seek to understand more why Christ spoke of the two gates and the two paths, and why one is wide and why one is narrow. It is my prayer that we see that the path we have chosen is the right one. It may not be the easy one but it is the one that will bring us to the mountaintop.

Matthew 7:13–14 CSB

“Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it. How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.

I want you to think of all the decisions you had to make just to get here to church this morning. What time to get up? Shower or bath or nothing? What to wear? What to eat? Which car do we drive? Do we come this morning? What do the kids need to wear? Which parking spot will I take? Should I go take 190 or take Hwy 13?

Each day we are confronted with choices. Some of the choices that we make on a daily basis have very little impact on our lives such as what and where to eat? Other choices can significantly change the course of our lives, such as “Do we have children?” Do we get married? What career do I chose?

OF all the choices we make, the most critical of all is our decision about Jesus Christ and His kingdom. That is the ultimate choice that determines our eternal destiny. All the other important decisions in life hinge on that choice. It is that decision that Jesus here calls men to make.”

We will be standing at the crossroads where there are two signs, one pointing to Jesus and eternal life and the other pointing toward a path of destruction. Each of us will have to make our own choice.

As we stand at the crossroads, which path will you take?

Our passage today is only three sentences long, but it holds three decisions we must chose from.

The Gate

The Path

The Destination

Christians today will sometimes say I choose the narrow gate, but when the path gets narrow and rough, they fall back to the wide road. Some will never really chose the narrow gate cause the road they have been on has been too narrow already fro their liking. I will stand here and tell you this with all certainty, your decision of which gate and which path will make the choice for you of where your destination will be.

The Gate

When we stand at the crossroads, we are confronted by two gates, the narrow and the wide gate. Let us look at the wide gate first.

The gate is wide and is easy to enter. Many people can go through it at the same time. When we go somewhere we would naturally choose to go through a wide passage verses a narrow one.

The gate is wide because more people will choose to enter in through it.

The nice thing about the wide gate for many people is the fact that because the gate is wide, they are able to take anything they want with them on the journey once they enter in through this wide gate.

When Alex and Kristin had the sewer back up in their home, we had to go and move all of their furniture and appliances. Ask anyone that was there, moving big things out of the house was not an easy task. Why? the doors were only so big. You had to flip couches and chairs on their side just to get them through, but the worst thing was that fridge. It took five men to remove doors off of it, get the pieces in place not to lose anything and then move it out the widest door they had. A wide gate or door would have made things so much easier.

On our journey through life many will want to take as much baggage with them as they can, the wide gates allows for that.

The narrow gate does not have room for anything but you. You must leave all the baggage behind. Jesus tells us to take up our cross and follow Him daily. This implies that our agenda is the one that Jesus has. The gate only has room for us to take our cross with us!

There is no room for chasing after the world and its pleasure, no room for unforgiving spirits, and there is no room for our self-righteousness.

The narrow gate will not be as easy for us to walk through. All the things that Jesus has told us up to this point has been to prepare to be able to walk through the narrow gate.

Luke 13:24 CSB

“Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because I tell you, many will try to enter and won’t be able

Jesus tells us that we must strive, or put out a great effort to enter through the narrow gate.

The gate is narrow because not many will chose to enter through it. It isn’t a big rotating gate that your truck can go through.

If you are going to enter in the narrow gate, Jesus MUST be first in your life.

The key word here is decision. God allows you to choose for yourself. Some will think well I just won’t choose either gate. Some make the choice by just doing nothing. When we choose not to decide, we have already chosen to enter the wide gate by default.

The Path

Past each gate there are contrasting paths. Let’s look at the wide first.

The wide path is the one most traveled. It is the easy path. As I said before, you do not have to do anything to walk this path.

The path is wide because there are many ways that lead to destruction. Some will travel down carrying substance abuse issues, gossiping issues, foul language issues, pride issues, materialistic issues, sexual sin issues, every bag and hang up can be carried down the wide path.

The wide paths have many ways that you can take and stay on the path.

Proverbs 14:12 CSB

There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way to death.

The wide path is the one that most of the people will be on. It is the path that most of the people will encourage you to walk down. As you stand at the fork in the road peering down the paths, are you going to be swayed by what “everyone else” is doing?

Proverbs 12:15 CSB

A fool’s way is right in his own eyes, but whoever listens to counsel is wise.

The majority of people will take this path because they do not want to “give up” anything. They want to trust in their own judgment and goodness.

2 Corinthians 4:4 CSB

In their case, the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Will you choose the wide path?

The path behind the narrow gate is the narrow path.

The way is narrow or restricted. Remember that Luke 13:24 tells us to make every effort to enter.

The word for narrow means, difficult to be entered. Access is not denied to people, they keep themselves out.

It is difficult to walk this path because it takes discipline and desire.

Jesus has been telling us what is required of us.

It requires us to allow Jesus to change our life, which in turn will cause us to change our behavior.

Many people will not choose this path because it is not easy.

There is only ONE way to God. There is only ONE path to God. The is only ONE truth that leads to God. That way, path and truth is Jesus!

John 14:6 CSB

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

The thing we get from this passage is that Jesus is the WAY or the PATH to heaven!

The Key words for the path is DESIRE and DISCIPLINE.

If we are going to walk on the narrow path we must have the discipline not to be drawn off the path by the majority who are not on it. How many times have people tried to drag you off the path so that you could participate in things you KNOW are not pleasing to God?

The Destination

The wide path ends in destruction. Many people do not think this will happen.

Philippians 3:18–19 CSB

For I have often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction; their god is their stomach; their glory is in their shame; and they are focused on earthly things,

Some people, who believe in the passages in the Bible about heaven, utterly reject the references to hell.

We do not like to talk about hell, but it is as real as heaven. It is a reality. Do you want to trust the Bible, or do you want to trust what other people who are on the wrong path say?

A loving God will not make people go to heaven if they did not want to go there when they were on earth.

Jesus tells us that the narrow road leads to life. Where is the path that you are following going to lead you? Where is it taking you now?