True discipleship (Matthew 7:13-23)
Matthew - Junior Youth • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
Opening Prayer
Opening Prayer
Scripture Reading
Scripture Reading
“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. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
Introduction
Introduction
While preparing today’s message, the Lord it upon my heart to speak about discipleship.
Did you know that its Jesus desire for you to be his disciple? Not only that its his desire for you to make disciples.
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
So far we’ve been looking at a sermon preached by Jesus to His disciples.
In the sermon He made his expectations of His disciples clear.
In Matthew 5:3-12 we looked at the beatitudes, where Jesus describes the character of his disciples.
In Matthew 5:13-16, we saw that as disciples of Jesus we are expected to be the salt and light of the world.
In Matthew 5:17-20, we looked at how Jesus came to fulfill the Law.
In Matthew 5:21-48, we looked at important Old Testament laws, and how Jesus not only expects his disciples to obey them but to guard our hearts from sin before Him.
In Matthew 6, we looked:
Giving, praying, fasting
Our treasures as disciples and trusting in God’s provision.
We also looked at judgement, how as disciples we are not to judge hypocritically but rather righteously.
And this week we will be looking at the narrow path, true and false prophets, and most importantly - true and false disciples.
The Narrow Way
The Narrow Way
“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. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Did you know there is only one way that leads to Heaven?
That there is only one way in which you can be saved?
In the world, you will find different religions and paths of life.
But listen to the words of Jesus:
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
Jesus makes it clear:
There is only one way that leads to Heaven.
There is only one source of truth.
There is only one source of life.
There is only one way to God, and that is through Him.
The disciples of Jesus understood this.
After the resurrection Jesus, Peter, while facing the Sanhedrin of his day made it clear.
There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.”
Jesus is the narrow gate that leads to life.
But in order to obtain that eternal life, we need to confess Him as Lord.
The Bible tells us that in:
that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
But what happens after we’ve made this confession? Does it just end there? Not at all.
The sincerty of our confession of faith in Christ can be evaluated in light of our behavior.
As diciples of Jesus we enter the narrow gate, and receive eternal life.
But once we’ve entered through the narrow gate, we follow Jesus down a narrow path.
A very spesific path that He has set out for us, and one that can only be successfully navigated under His leadership.
Very few choose to follow Him down that path because of how incredibly difficult it can be.
The people of the world make the easy choice, they do what everyone else around them is doing, and march full speed down the broad path filled with sin, and all the pleasures the world has to offer them.
But little do they know they’ve been deceived by the Satan himself, and that their end will soon be death and destruction.
There is a way that seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death.
So why do so many people choose the narrow path?
Because its hard. And Jesus was honest about this.
In verse 14, he says difficult is the way that leads to life - and few find it.
So what makes following Jesus difficult, you may ask?
Let’s hear what Jesus has to say about the cost involved in following Him.
Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
Following Jesus means you have a cross carry.
The cross is a symbol of death.
As a disciple of Jesus we give up our lives for Him, in order that we might find life in Him.
We give up what we want, and seek His Will above our own.
We give our lives to Jesus, we obey Him and He transforms our desires into His.
That is what it means to confess Jesus as Lord - we become His servants.
For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose.
Another challenge of being a disciple of Jesus is trails and persecution.
Being a disciple of Jesus can often lead to rejection and hatered from others.
“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.”
But in the midst of all those trails and persecutions, we can have peace.
Because Jesus is on our side, He faced the exact same struggles.
And in the midst of all our struggles, He is in the midst of it all - fighting for us and giving us the strength needed to overcome.
These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
God in His wisdom will sometimes allow suffering in our lives, because there is something far greater he wants to accomplish in us and the world around us.
And in those difficult circumstances we are to trust Him, even when we don’t understand it.
He will work all things out to our good.
And in the midst of our suffering - He wants to comfort us, and use it to our benefit and the benefit of others.
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
True and False Prophets
True and False Prophets
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
A couple of weeks ago we learned in Matthew 7:1-6, that we ought not to judge hypocritically.
But here we see the need for disciples of Jesus to exercise healthy discernment.
The Bible makes very clear that in the world you will find false prophets, false teachers and even false disciples.
False teachers disguise themselves to be sheperds of God’s people but inwardly they are ravenous wolves seeking their own well being by exploiting members of the church.
A classic example of this would be the Word of Faith Movement, or the Prosperity movement , where false teachers manipulate and deceive people in order to get money out of them.
The Bible, thankfully, provides guidelines on how to identify false teachers.
We are to be on the look out for these bad fruits in their lives and ministries.
Fruit number 1: Controversies.
The Bible tells us in 1 Timothy 1:3, that if someone is teaching something that does not align with the sound doctrine set out in the Bible - you’re dealing with a false teacher.
Fruit number 2: Divisions.
If what the person is teaching is constantly causing disputes and arguments among the congregation - you might be dealing with a false teacher.
Why would their teaching cause divisions? Because if people are in studying the Word of God for themselves and they see what is being taught from the pulpit is not aligning with the Bible they are bound to get frustrated and have the errors corrected.
People are bound to either side with the truth, or with the teacher.
Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them.
Fruit number 3: Greed
If you are dealing with someone, like these prosperity preachers, who twist the word of God as a means of financial gain, you are probably dealing with a false teacher.
There is a lot of this in the church today, so you need to be on guard.
As soon as you hear someone asking you to sow a seed into their ministry, in exchange for the promise of health, wealth, and prosperity - note them and avoid them.
If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself.
Fruit 4: Destruction of the faith
One of the marks of a false teacher, is that they destroy the faith of others.
Often times, they could even have been “Christians” in the past and after they turn their backs on Jesus, out of resentment they try to lead as many people away from Him.
Just like the devil.
He was once an angel, who rebelled against God, who now strives to lead as many people away from Jesus as possible.
2 Timothy 2:18 (NLT)
They have left the path of truth, claiming that the resurrection of the dead has already occurred; in this way, they have turned some people away from the faith.
Fruit 5: Self-destuction by heresy.
But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.
One of the clearest ways to identify a false teacher would be through their teaching of heresy.
This would mean that the person is teaching something that blatantly goes against the foundational beliefs of the Christian faith.
To the point where they destroy both themselves and their followers.
Examples of this would be:
Denying that Jesus is God.
Any type of works based salvation.
Denying the trinity.
You will find this in cults such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormonism, Seventh-Day Adventism and Catholicism.
The Bible, therefore, calls us to exercise healthy discernment because of all of the falsehood found in the world.
Especially in the last days that we are in, where its possible for even Christians to become deceived.
For false christs and false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.
Disciples of Jesus we need to be on guard, to protect both ourselves and the body of Christ from these wolves in sheeps clothing.
And how to we do that? By knowing our Bibles and weighing everything being taught in light of God’s Word.
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
True and False Disciples
True and False Disciples
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
Just as Satan masquares himself as an angel of light (2 Cor 11.14), and wolves masquare themselves as sheperds, the Bible speaks of goats who masquare themselves as sheep.
In the Church we find both true disciples and false disciples.
Did you know that is possible to prophesy in the name of God, yet not belong to Him?
We have a clear example of this in the Old Testament, where Balaam prophesied over the nation of Israel, and even spoke of Jesus - but He didn’t belong to God.
Did you know its also possible to cast out demons in the name of Jesus, and not belong to Jesus?
We have an example of this in Acts 19:13-16
Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.” Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so.
And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?”
Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
More scary than this, its even possible to perform signs and wonders, not belong to God? In fact the Jesus tells us to expect this in the last days.
“Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘Look, He is there!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. But take heed; see, I have told you all things beforehand.
Jesus makes it clear that there is one distinctive mark of a true disciciple: obedience.
Why? Because if you truly loved Jesus and belonged to Him you would have a desire to obey Him.
“But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?
“If you love Me, keep My commandments.
He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
The Bible makes it clear, that we are to be doers of the Word.
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
Being a true disciple of Jesus means that we depart from sin and iniquity, by His strength and power.
Conclusions
Conclusions
So as we come to a close today, we looked at three things:
Firstly, we looked at the narrow path, the road of a disciple of Jesus.
Secondly, we looked at some of the difficult realities of following Jesus.
Thirdly, we looked at dangers facing us on the narrow path, false teachers and how to identify them.
And lastly, we looked at what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus.
And I’d like to close this one question, and ask you to pray about it: Are you following Jesus on the narrow path? Are you a true disciple of Jesus, that has counted the cost of following Him?
Its not an easy road, but I’d like to encourage you today that its the best decision you will ever make because He will be walking with you and helping you along the way.
Closing Prayer
Closing Prayer
