Entering the Narrow Door

“Entering the Narrow Door”

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There are over 1000 organized religions in America, each one of them has its own belief about God, man, salvation and eternity. Imagine that each one of these religions has its own door, now imagine standing in a hallway that’s lined with these 1000 doors. Door after door after door… Religion after religion after religion; which one is the right door that leads to salvation and heaven?

Which one will you choose to enter?

Some people say it doesn’t matter which door you enter, because they all lead to the same place.

There is no need to worry about your choice of religion because they all teach basically the same thing. Walk through any door you like, and you will still get to heaven. But is that really true? Do all doors lead to heaven? What if only one door leads to heaven? What if all the other doors lead straight to hell? What if I told you there is only one door of salvation, what if I told that the door of salvation is a narrow door, and many people miss it. What if I told you the door of salvation will not stay open forever, but will one day be close forever.

Wouldn’t you want to know which door is the right door? You certainly don’t want to go through the wrong door.

Thankfully you don’t have to guess, or figure it out on your own. Eni Meany mighty Mo…pick a door you never know.

Which door is the door of salvation, the door that leads to heaven?

Jesus tells us there is only one door that leads to eternal life, and that it is a narrow door, and that we need to make sure we enter that door while it is still open.

Notice what is happening:

V;22, Jesus is continuing to travel through the cities and villages teaching and making his way toward Jerusalem. Jesus had his eyes fixed on Jerusalem, and the cross that awaited him there. As Jesus came closer to his death on the cross, he spoke with more fervency to people about make a decision to trust him as their personal Savior and Lord. He had just told the people to know the times, to get ready for his coming, to repent before they perished.

In the course of his preaching someone asked Him a question,

V:23-“Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?

Now this is a good question. This guy recognizes that people need to be saved! To be saved means to be rescued, delivered, and safe.

We need to be rescued from God’s judgment against sinners and kept safe by God’s power.

This guy wants to know if there are going to be a few people saved, are a lot of people saved.

This question was a key question in the Jewish community in Jesus day. The rabbis taught that only the Israelites would be saved. They believed that Gentiles were outside the kingdom of God. This man wants to know what Jesus thoughts were on this key question.

Are only Jews going to be saved?

We wonder ourselves, how many people are going to be saved? How many people are going to be in heaven?

This is an important question because it confronts the pervasive pluralism in our culture.

When asked today, how many people will be saved? Many people think that everyone will be saved, that everyone will get to heaven. Many people think that not only are a lot of people going to be saved and go to heaven, but there are a lot of doors that will get you to heaven.

Over against such pluralism, and universalism, the claim that there is only one way to God is viewed as religious bigotry.

No one wants to be considered a bigot, and as a result, some Christians downplay or even deny the teaching of Jesus. They want to believe that everyone will be saved in the end.

So this man’s question is extremely important: how many people will be saved? And are there a lot of ways to be saved?

Jesus doesn’t answer this man’s question here in Luke but he does in Matthew.

-Read.

Only a few will be saved. Only a few will be saved because the door of salvation is narrow, and you must enter by the one door, and the one door is Jesus Christ. Having told us that he is the door of salvation, and we must enter in through him; Jesus urges us to make the all-important decision, to enter through him, the only door of salvation.

The decision to enter through Jesus the door is:

1. A Personal Decision.

V:22-24.

Jesus made the issue of entering the narrow door, and being saved a personal matter. You cannot make a decision about someone else being saved, or how many people are going to be saved. You have to make a personal decision about whether are not you will be saved!

Rather than trying to figure out what God is going to do with someone else, the question for you is whether you have decided for Jesus. Jesus ignored his question and said,

V:24-“I say unto you…

Jesus said “you” make every effort, be determined to enter the door of salvation.

Don’t get sidetracked, by asking about the people in the darkest jungles of Africa? Or how will Muslim’s who have never heard the gospel be saved?

God is big enough to reveal Himself to them.

The question is have “you” walked through the door of salvation, Jesus Christ? Do you know for sure that you have been saved? How many people get saved, or how few people get saved is not the most important thing for you; the most important thing for you is are you saved!

You cannot make a decision for anyone else; your salvation is a personal decision!

Jesus says in, V:24-“strive to enter through the narrow door”

The word strive means “to agonize” make every effort to enter the narrow door that leads to salvation. What does this mean? We know that we are not saved by our own efforts, the Bible makes it clear that salvation is by grace, not works.

Jesus is saying, if you have not been saved, make it your supreme concern.

If you are not saved, then keep reading the Bible; keep listening to the gospel; keep coming to church, keep praying for God to bring you to the place of repentance and faith.

Don’t put your salvation on the back burner!

Heaven or hell is at stake, engage your mind and heart and strive to make sure you go through the narrow door.

Jesus didn’t say you can choose any door! NO.

Jesus said, it is a narrow door that leads to eternal life, while every other door leads to destruction!

I know it is not popular to say that Jesus is the only door to salvation, the only way to heaven.

People will say, I hope you are not one of those Christians who believe that Jesus is the only way to eternal life. Yes, I am one of them! I believe that because that is what Jesus said.

Jesus said; -“I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.

We believe that Jesus is the only door of salvation because that’s what he said.

We also believe it because we know what God demands. Something has to be done about the great burden of our sin.

God demanded a perfect sacrifice to atone for all the sins that we have committed, a perfect holiness to make us righteous before God. The only place to find that sacrifice is at the cross, and the only person who has that perfect holiness to make us right with God is the Lord Jesus Christ.

The old hymn writer said it this way, “there was no other good enough to pay the price of sin; he only could unlock the gate of heaven, and let of sin”.

It is only through Jesus the door that you can get to heaven, and have eternal life!

Some people still insist on finding their own way to God. They object to the idea that there is only one door, yet isn’t that the way doors generally operate.

Suppose you come to visit my house, and complained that there is only one front door. And you say to me, I don’t want to go through that door, isn’t there another way in? I would say that this is the only front door I have; if you are coming in this house, you have to come through this door!

I really want you to come in, but this is the only way in!

How foolish to stand at the door and complain that I only have one door, and then refused to enter in through the door. There is only one door into the house of salvation, and that one door is Jesus!

The problem is not God, or his door, but the sinner who refuses to use it!

Salvation is of the Lord, and he has every right to make his own door. How gracious he is to open a door for sinners at all, and how gracious Jesus Christ is to be the door!

Someone says, well you are just narrow-minded… no it is the door of salvation that is narrow.

Truth is narrow, the Bible is truth; the Bible is narrow. It would be better for you to say 2+2=5, than to compromise the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and say there is another way to heaven besides Jesus.

John Bunyan in his allegory the Pilgrim’s progress tells about Christian who left the city of destruction to look for eternal life. He meets a man named evangelist who points him to a gate, and told him to go and knock on the gate for further instructions. When Christian reached the gate and knocked he said he became afraid that his sins would keep him out. He wondered, will he that is within, open to sorry me, an undeserving rebel? When someone came to the gate, Christian said, I am a poor sinner, I come from the city of destruction, but I’m going to Mount Zion that I may be delivered from the wrath to come, I have been told that this gate is a way there, I want to know if you are willing to let me in?

If you’re wondering this morning will Jesus let you in; the answer is yes, as Christian discovered. Jesus answers our prayers for mercy and grace and salvation. He not only shows us the door, but by faith he lets us in, so we can live with him forever.

The decision to enter through Jesus the door is:

2. An Urgent Decision.

V:25-27.

The door of salvation is open today, you can come to Jesus and be saved! But the door of salvation will not always be open, one day it will close. One day the door of salvation will be slammed shut by either death, or the Lord’s return.

So the decision to enter the door of salvation is an urgent decision!

The people Jesus is speaking with think the door of salvation will be open for them forever. But Jesus says once the owner of the house closes the door, you will be shut out.

Jesus said that the religious people would be shocked to discover that they would be shut out.

They would be shut out, because they had never come through the door… Jesus.

The Jewish people thought they were in, just because they were Jews, the children of Abraham, and they worshiped at the temple in Jerusalem.

But they were actually out, and by the time they started looking for the narrow door, it was already locked and bolted.

The reason they were shut out is because they did not know Jesus Christ as their savior. They did not have a personal relationship with Jesus, they had never trusted him as their Savior. Yet they were completely surprised because they assumed that he knew them. After all they had been exposed to his earthly ministry, they were in the crowd that witnessed his miracles, and they listen to his preaching. Some of them even ate with him, they knew Jesus socially; they had met him physically. Yet they did not place their faith in Jesus as their Savior and Lord!

They never went through Jesus the narrow door of salvation. And Jesus says to them two times in, V:25,27-“I do not know you…

They said to Jesus we ate and drank with you, we heard you teach in our streets, but Jesus said I do not know you; we do not have a relationship.

Many people today who think they know Jesus are not united to him by faith. These people knew Jesus in the flesh, but had never received him as Savior and Lord.

Today there are people who know all about Jesus, have even served Jesus; yet they do not know Jesus.

-“Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Preaching, casting out devils, doing mighty works of service do not save you! Only entering the door of salvation through faith in Jesus saves you!

You can attend church, take the Lord’s Supper, preach, teach, sing, serve, and yet not truly be saved. The door of salvation stands open this morning, so the decision to enter in through Jesus Christ is an urgent decision; don’t put it off one more day! Time is running out! There is a time limit on the free offer of salvation. Soon the door of God’s mercy will be slammed shut, just as God shut the door of Noah’s Ark before he flooded the world in judgment. -“And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in.

The door of salvation will not stay open forever. Jesus is telling us that entering the door of salvation is an Urgent decision.

Please walk through the open door before it is shut.

The decision to enter through Jesus the door is:

3. An Eternal Decision.

V:28-30.

What terrible suffering there will be for the person who gets shut out of God’s kingdom!

Once the door is shut, those on outside are shut out eternally. They will knock and ask the Lord to open, but the door is shut, it is too late; the decision to come through Jesus the door is an eternal decision.

Jesus says with perfect clarity, V:28-Read.

Jesus is speaking plainly about the horrors of hell. Hell will be a place of anguish and affliction, it will be a place of remorse, as people cry bitter tears of grief for all they have lost. It will be a place of regret, as people mourn the foolishness of their unbelief. It will be a place of rage, as they gnash their teeth in angry defiance of God.

There will be some awareness of what they are missing, Jesus describes them standing outside his kingdom and looking in to see the prophets and patriarchs. They watch the guests arrive to the feast in the house of God, but they are thrust out.

How sad to know that you were once on God’s guest list for heaven; but you decline the free invitation of Jesus Christ.

The people that Jesus was speaking to, had once been close to eternal life, yet now they end up away from God in hell. To have been so close to Jesus on earth, without receiving him and without coming to him for salvation, and now to be shut out of the glorious of heaven, and the company of the saints, while others from different times and cultures have found their way into God’s kingdom.

Hell will be a place of lost opportunity! There is no second chance to repent after death, or to trust in Christ at the final judgment. That day will be a day of judgment! There will be no preaching of the gospel in hell. If you die without Jesus and go to hell, it will be too late to repent, too late to believe, and too late to have eternal life. If you die without Jesus you will be shut out eternally.

But thank God today the door is open!

Not only will the door shut out those who have not been saved. The door of salvation shuts in those who know Jesus for eternity! If you are saved, the door of hell is shut behind you forever; and the door of heaven stands open before you!

Jesus promises in V:29-30, on the other side of the door of salvation will be everlasting joy. Jesus gives us a glimpse of what it will be like in heaven because we have walked through the door of salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ.

He describes the Kingdom of God, where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as well as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and all the rest of the Old Testament prophets will be.

Can you imagine how these Jews felt when they heard that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would be there, and they would not be! But not only will there be Jews there, Jesus said that Gentiles would be there; there will be people from every tribe, kindred and tongue there. People will come from the east, west, north, south and sit down in the kingdom of God with the prophets and saints of the old and New Testament.

God was interested in more than just saving the Jews; he had a plan for the salvation of the whole world.

Those that had been last, least, and lost would find themselves first, welcomed, blessed gathering with the people of God. God is not just the God of the Jews, God is a God of the Gentiles, the God of the world.

The door of salvation is an international door; and the banquet of salvation is an international banquet.

The prophet Isaiah prophesied that people would come to God from the north and south and east and west. ()

The prophet Isaiah also prophesied that:

-“The Lord of hosts will make for all people a feast of rich food…

This banquet is a picture of how wonderful it will be to be at home with God. It is about enjoying the soul-satisfying pleasures of God’s presence. What blessings God has in store for everyone who has entered the door of salvation. What fellowship we will share with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and with believers from all nations!

What feasting we will enjoy as we gather at the table of God in heaven! And what joy we will have in worshiping Jesus, the door of our salvation!

The invitation to the international banquet in heaven is for everyone who enters the door narrow of salvation.

We see in heaven that there will be people from every nation on earth around the throne of God.

This shows how inclusive Christianity is.

It also shows us how exclusive Christianity is.

Jesus Christ is the only door of salvation.

But the door of salvation is open for anyone, from any background, or ethnic group.

Anybody can come through the door of salvation, Jesus Christ!

You don’t have to be from a certain social class, you don’t have to have a certain religious background, and you don’t have to be a college graduate. You don’t have to be smarter, are more religious, or more holy than anyone else. You just have to be a lost sinner, who believes that Jesus died for your sins, rose from the grave, and will save your soul if you ask him.

God loves you, Christ died for you, you have not gone so far that Jesus will not forgive you, and save you, if you will come to him.

There is hope for any person who will come through the door of salvation! You will be eternally saved, and one day you will sit down in the kingdom of God and feast with Abraham Isaac and Jacob.

Have you come through the door of salvation, Jesus Christ? It is:

1. A Personal Decision.

2. An Urgent Decision.

3. And Eternal Decision.

God help us to go out and encourage others to come through the one door of salvation, Jesus Christ!