Message from the Mount (28)

Choose Carefully

Matthew 7:13–14 ESV

“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.

Most people are good people and good people go to Heaven. This is a common belief of many, if not most, in our society. Even those who have a general understanding of the work of Christ and of the Gospel can be guilty of slipping into this way of thinking. Talk of judgment and exclusivity can be uncomfortable, which leads many people to simply believe that only the worst of the worst will be judged after death.

While this way of thinking is popular, it’s not consistent with the teaching of Christ. In Matthew 7:13-14 Jesus teaches that there are in fact two paths with two different destinations – one leading to eternal life and the other to eternal judgment. But contrary to popular belief, Jesus says that the path to destruction is wide, easy and well-travelled while the path to life is narrow, hard and less travelled.

A Four-Part Conclusion

Throughout the Sermon on the Mount Jesus has been teaching us what it looks like to live as citizens of the Kingdom of God, but as He brings the sermon to a close, He shifts His focus slightly. He ends His sermon with a four-part conclusion about entrance into the Kingdom of God.

His conclusion is made up of four parts – and each part reveals a contrast.  First, He speaks of two different paths (7:13-14) and then two different kinds of fruit (7:15-20). Third, He addresses two different professions of faith (7:21-23) followed by two different kinds of builders who build on different foundations (7:24-27).

While each of these contrasts emphasizes something slightly different, they all tell us something about entrance into the Kingdom of God, who will be welcomed and who will be excluded.

The Call: Enter by the narrow gate (7:13a)

In this small paragraph Jesus emphasizes that there are two paths and only two paths. Every person will either take the path toward destruction or the path toward life. Jesus begins this important discussion with this call: Enter by the narrow gate. This is a call from Jesus to enter the gate and follow the path that leads to life.

The First Path – Entering by the wide gate (7:13)

A wide gate – The first path is entered by a wide gate. This is an entrance that everyone sees and that most people choose.

An easy way – This wide gate leads to an easy path. That’s not to say that life is always easy, but it’s a path that doesn’t require repentance, self-denial, sacrifice or suffering in the way the other path does.

Psalm 73:1-14 – Consider the story Asaph and his struggle with those on the easy way.

Psalm 73:1–14 ESV

Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek. They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind. Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment. Their eyes swell out through fatness; their hearts overflow with follies. They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression. They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth. Therefore his people turn back to them, and find no fault in them. And they say, “How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?” Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches. All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning.

A well-travelled way – Jesus says that many (most) enter the through the wide gate and travel the easy way. This is the path we are all born on and most never leave.

Leads to destruction – This is where we recognize the weight of this teaching from Jesus. This is the path that most are following, and yet it’s a path that leads to eternal destruction. While we may not like to think about this kind of judgment, the Bible is clear – there is eternal judgment for all who die apart from Christ (Matthew 25:31-41; Revelation 14:11; Ephesians 2:1-3).

Psalm 73:13-20 – Consider the story Asaph and how his perspective changed when he remembered the fate of the wicked.

Psalm 73:13–20 ESV

All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning. If I had said, “I will speak thus,” I would have betrayed the generation of your children. But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end. Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin. How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors! Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.

The Second Path – Entering by the narrow gate (7:14)

A narrow gate – What we learn from Scripture is that the narrow gate is Christ Himself. It is only through Christ and His work on the cross that we can be forgiven and welcomed onto the path toward life (John 14:6; Acts 4:10-12).

A hard way – The path toward life is a way of repentance, self-denial, sacrifice (Luke 18:18-30; Mt. 16:24-26) and suffering (John 15:20-21).

A less-travelled way – Because the narrow way is hard, there are few who will find and follow this path. Most will not choose to humbly repent and submit to following Christ (Matthew 22:14; Luke 13:22-30).

Leads to life – While the way is narrow and hard, the end of this path is eternal life (John 3:16). This reality should motivate us to follow Christ and compel us to tell others about their need to trust Him.

Psalm 73:23-28 – Consider the story Asaph and how he found hope in the truth about eternity and life in the presence of God.

Psalm 73:23–28 ESV

Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.

I’ll close with a story shared by Charles Spurgeon.

Seeking rest and health last week, I seated myself for a little while near a very rustic church that stands enclosed in a wood, and as I sat there I moralized on the various paths that led up to the church porch. Each trackway through the grass came from a different quarter, but they all led to one point. As I stood there, this reflection crossed me: Even in this way men come to Christ from all quarters of the compass, but if indeed saved, they all come to him. There is a path over there that rises from a little valley. The little church stands on the hillside, there is a brook at the bottom, and worshipers who come from the public road must cross the rustic bridge and then ascend the hill. Such comers rise at every step they take. Many burdened ones come to Christ from the deep places of self-abasement; they know their sinfulness and feel it; their self-consciousness has almost driven them to despair. They are down very low, and every step they take to Christ is a step upward. They have a little hope as they look to him, and then a little more, until it comes to a humble trust. Then from a feeble, trembling trust it rises to a simple faith, and so they advance until when they stand near to Jesus they even reach to the full assurance of faith. Thus from soul distress and self-despair they come to the Lord Jesus, and he receives them graciously. Through the churchyard there was another path, and it ran uphill from where I stood, and therefore everyone who came that way descended to the church door. These may represent the people who think much of themselves. They have been brought up in morality and lived in respectability in the town of Legality; they have never turned aside to the grosser vices, but are among the models of behavior. Every step these good people take toward Christ is downward. They think less of themselves and still less; regret leads to repentance, repentance to bitter grief, and grief leads to self-abhorrence, until they come down to the level where Jesus meets with sinners, by owning that they are nothing and that Christ is all. The two paths that I have mentioned were supplemented by a third, which led through a thick and tangled wood. A narrow way wound between the oak trees and the dense underwood, and I noticed that it led over a boggy place, through which stepping stones had been carefully placed for the traveler so that he might not sink in the mire. Many a seeker has found his way to Jesus by a similar path. Dark with ignorance, and briary with evil questionings, the path winds and twists about, and leads through the Slough of Despond, in which a man needs to pick his steps very carefully, or he may sink in despair. Those whom grace leads arrive at rest in Christ, but it is through the wood and through the slough. Once more, I noted another path, which came in from the farmer’s fields, through lands where the plow and the sickle are busy, each in its season. Those who come from that quarter to worship come across the place of toil and may fitly represent those who are full of earnestness and effort, but have as much need of Jesus as any. They do not know yet the way of salvation, but they follow after righteousness by the law, and strive to enter in at the narrow gate in their own strength. But if they ever come to Christ they will have to leave those fields and the plow and sickle of their own strength, and submit to receive Jesus as their all.

Charles Spurgeon, 300 Sermon Illustrations from Charles Spurgeon, ed. Elliot Ritzema and Lynnea Smoyer (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2017).