The Narrow Way

INTRODUCTION:

What do Billie Eilish, Spider-Man, and The Matrix all have in common?

They have all borrowed from scripture.

Have you ever had to choose between something easy and something right?

Ex. Eating candy for breakfast vs. Eating healthy; Cheating on a test vs. Working hard

Our lives are made up of choices—both good and bad.

In this text Jesus has called us to make a choice.

We’ve been studying the Sermon on the Mount this week, where Jesus calls His listeners to His new Kingdom.

This is a kingdom where how we live our lives matters (5:17-48).

This is a kingdom where God is the main priority…

In religion (6:1-18).

In regards to our material possessions (6:19-34).

And our relationships (7:1-12).

Jesus is wrapping up His sermon and He is essentially offering the invitation by presenting two choices to His audience:

The Narrow Path.

The Broad Path.

We could summarize the choice this way: to take part in God’s kingdom, or not—either/or.

This text is a really uncomfortable text.

We live in a world that values seeing things from multiple different angles—very nuanced.

I do believe scripture is nuanced—we can list scriptures where God exercises His authority over all things to make exceptions for people and extend mercy (isn’t that the Gospel? Rom. 5:8).

This is not a text where Jesus shows a lot of nuance—it’s pretty black and white without any gray; and truthfully, I don’t see how there can be much gray.

In this text, Jesus is calling us to make the uncomfortable decision to choose Him and His Kingdom.

DISCUSSION:

I. The Contrast (Wide vs. Narrow; Destruction vs. Life).

Jesus presents us with these two roads, and it’s pretty obvious that one road leads to heaven and the other road leads to hell—it doesn’t take a preacher or a youth minister to tell you that.

What makes this uncomfortable is that these are the only two roads that Jesus presents—the road that leads to life and the road that leads to destruction.

As I said before, we live in a culture that doesn’t like black and white thinking—the idea that there is right and wrong and often there’s no in between.

The idea of “two ways” is not foreign to scripture and it’s something Jesus’ audience would’ve immediately recognized.

Let’s break down these two roads that we have before us:

The Wide Gate and the Broad/Easy Road.

It’s an easy path.

Notice the language used to describe the road - “broad/spacious.”

It’s popular.

We’re told in v.13 that many will find it.

It’s destination is destruction.

The wide road can feel like the right road.

Matthew 7:21-23

The Narrow Gate and the Hard Road.

You have to look for it.

“A narrow gate must be sought out: it is not as easily perceived as is a broad one.”

The narrow road can feel like the wrong road.

The second word for “narrow” is different than the first.

It implies a pressing—you’re not just on a narrow path, but the walls around you are squeezing you as you walk down the path.

“The road isn’t hard because God makes it so, but because the world opposes it.”

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II. The Command (“enter”).

Keep in mind that we’ve been studying a sermon from Jesus, and these are the first words of His conclusion.

He doesn’t really ease you into what He’s about to say.

He just lays it out—enter through the narrow gate.

Jesus begins His conclusion by telling us what He wants us to do—“enter the narrow gate.”

What does this tell us about Jesus? It is His desire to walk down the road of His Kingdom with you.

Trust that, as Christians, Jesus is with you.

Notice how Jesus will refer to Himself later in His ministry.

John 10:9 “9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.”

Jesus is the gate to this narrow road, and He walks beside us every step of the way—all the trials, all the heart ache, every single thing.

Ultimately though, Jesus tells us what He’d like for us to do, but it’s still our choice.

We have the choice to change our circumstances, to come to the conscious decision to give your life to the Lord, to pledge our full allegiance—our faith in Him and to His Kingdom.

Or we can stay down the path that ultimately all people will go.

What other choice is there other than Jesus? He’s only given us two choices.

Notice what Jesus says in John 14:6 “6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

If it’s not Jesus, what is the path? It’s the path that all men go down—Romans 3:23 “23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

We can either choose to pursue Jesus down the narrow road, or we can allow ourselves to be engulfed by the wave of people heading down the broad road.

And there’s no “I’m just not going to pick” Jesus is calling us to an Kingdom that is not passive and to avoid choosing is to actively choose the broad road.

III. The Consequence (“few find it,” “many enter through it).

This is such a sobering thought.

We’re told that tons of people are going to find the wide road, but he then tells us that only a few are going to find the narrow road.

This isn’t meant to be something that scares you—if we are in Christ, if we are baptized into Christ, then we have nothing to fear.

CONCLUSION:

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The Command (“enter”)

The Contrast (wide vs narrow, destruction vs life)

The Consequence (few find it, many are lost)

The Gospel according to Matthew

τεθλιμμένη. The verb occurs only here in Matthew (10 times in the New Testament). It conveys the basic idea of pressing (which can lead to the thought of affliction); here it is that of compression and thus narrowness. The perfect points to a continuing state. It is not the obvious opposite to “broad,” and perhaps we should detect an allusion to the persecutions that are part and parcel of the Christian life. The cognate noun is used in conjunction with references to persecution in 13:21 (cf. also 24:9, 21, 29), and it occurs in

The Gospel according to Matthew 10. True and False Discipleship, 7:13–27

Jesus is picturing a scene where the broad road leading to a splendid gate is obvious and easy to be seen, whereas the path that brings the traveler to the unpretentious gate is inconspicuous and is perceived only by those who look for it carefully.