Enter The Narrow Door

Well, good morning, church. Would you please turn your Bibles to Luke chapter 13, and stand with me to read verses 22 -30.

"'Hear ye this afternoon the word of the Lord.' He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem.

And someone said to him, "'Lord, will those who are saved be few?' He said to them, "'Strive to enter through the narrow door, for many,

I tell you, will seek to enter, and will not be able. Once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door saying, "'Lord, open to us,' then he will answer you, "'I do not know where you come from.'

Then you will begin to say, "'We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.'

He will say, "'I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil.'

In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves cast out.

And people will come from east and west and from north and south and recline at table in the kingdom of God.

And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.'"

This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Well, sovereign

Lord, we do come before you again grateful for the arrangement and the grace that you've given us by our mediator,

Jesus Christ, who by His shed blood opened a new and a better way so that we who were once cast out, who were once in utter darkness, can now receive the light and the illumination of the gospel.

Lord, by this word that is preached this morning, may you illuminate the hearts of your people, illuminate the minds of those who are still in disbelief, and we pray,

God, that you would be working that which is pleasing your sight through the proclamation of this word and this gospel.

And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. The world today wants you to think that there are many paths that lead to God.

Why? When you look at the plurality of religions and what is embraced kind of holistically as a worldview in today's society, it can be summed up often in the bumper stickers that you'll see more often in San Francisco that says co -exist, and it's made up of emblems of different religions, such as the

Christian cross, the symbol of the crescent moon of Islam. You see the star of David represented in Judaism and other types of religion.

And the message there is clear. Let's all co -exist because we are all co -equal in our belief system, and every belief system is equally valid before society and God.

Unfortunately, friends, that's not the case. Regardless of what the world teaches, regardless of what the world has embraced, the

Bible makes it clear that there is but one way to God. Now some in the world may think that this is a exclusionary message, that this message excludes a whole lot of people, but they would be wrong to assume so because the message and the gospel that's presented in the

Bible is one of inclusion. At the end of history, St.

John sees a vision of a new humanity that has been purchased by the blood of Jesus, and he sees by his own account in Revelation chapter 7 verse 9, he sees a great multitude of people of every tribe, nation, tongue, and kindred standing before the throne, singing upon that throng the great song, salvation belongs to God and to the

Lamb. That is good news that God has in himself chosen a people of every tribe, nation, tongue, and kindred so that all who are in Adam have a hope to be in Christ because Christ has opened on you in a better way, but that path that leads to eternal life, that path that allows us entrance into that great multitude is indeed narrow.

The Lord Jesus says, or it is said of the Lord Jesus in verse 22 again of Luke chapter 13, that he went on his way through towns and villages teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem.

Please in your notes, make sure you're on the right section, there's going to be a message this afternoon preached on the following verses from verses 31 and 35 later this afternoon so we encourage you to come and stay for that important message as well, as this is kind of like a two -hitter series here, and these verses that are preached this morning are very connected with the verses that will be preached this afternoon for our second service.

But in today's message, Jesus is purposely moving toward what city?

Jerusalem. What's of interest here is that Luke in his narration for the fourth time in this gospel points to Jerusalem as the focal point of where the narrative of Jesus' ministry in life is heading towards.

So essentially what Luke is doing as a commentator, as a historian, is that he's putting this in your mind.

He's like, know where Jesus started and know this where he is heading.

There's this crescendo that is starting to build. There is a focal point. There is a expectation that he is heading towards Jerusalem, and he's heading there, which is pointing toward the fulfillment of his atonement.

It's pointing to his eventual sufferings, his betrayal, and of course, his death on the cross.

Luke is continually reminding the reader, Jerusalem is coming. The cross is coming.

Or as some good Southern Baptists would say, Friday is a coming. It's coming.

That's what's lurking in the shadow of this narrative, is the coming suffering of Christ on the cross.

And so every time you hear Jerusalem, remember, it's the crucible of Christ, it's the suffering of Christ that is being pointed to in this narration, in this historical account by Luke.

And so Jesus is again purposely, he's not aimlessly wandering the deserts. He's not aimlessly wandering

Galilee. He's not aimlessly wandering the tribes of Israel. He is heading towards Jerusalem for a purpose.

And Jesus knew that his purpose would be to suffer, would be to suffer.

No one is leading him there. There's not a legion of Roman cohorts who are pushing him in that direction.

He is willfully heading down the road to Jerusalem, where he knows he will once suffer and die for the sins of God's people.

Again, Christ is not again aimlessly trekking across Israel. He is purposely moving toward the fulfillment of his destiny, namely his suffering and his death on the cross.

What an example, then, Jesus leaves us here to follow him.

Would you do the same? Would you be willingly led or go down a path that God has commissioned and desired for you, though you know at the end of it may be suffering and possibly even death?

Church history is filled with the blood of martyrs, missionaries, church planters, pastors, men and women of God who counted the cost of following Jesus and knew that on the end of that shore of that unknown people group may certainly lie certain death.

And yet, with the joy that was set before them, they went to cross treacherous terrains across the world, seas and oceans, lakes and rivers, boundaries and people groups, so that the name of Christ may be magnified.

Church, are you willing to do even just a little bit of that? Maybe God is not requiring you this morning to go across the sea, go to a foreign land.

Maybe what God is calling you today is just to cross the street. Are you willing to?

Are you willing to put at least that much effort into sharing this grand, beautiful, magnificent good news of the narrow way into life in Jesus Christ?

Certainly Jesus leaves us a model that we should follow and that He is purposely going to Jerusalem.

We should be purposely going to the new Jerusalem, the city of the living

God, where the name of Christ is proclaimed, where we make Jesus known to this world, because this world is not our own.

We are looking forward to new heavens and a new earth. We're looking forward to a heavenly Jerusalem, the hope of glory.

And so in verse 23 in Luke chapter 13, and someone said to Him, Lord, will those who are saved be few?

And He said to them, strive to enter through the narrow door.

For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. Jesus said that salvation was like a what?

Narrow door. I want you to write this in the notes, please. Jesus said that salvation was like a narrow door, not a wide open gate, as is popularized in many fiction tales and cartoons of the big pearly gates of St.

Peter, where the gates are just wide open and even dogs and kittens can go through.

It's so wonderful, and yet that's not what we are confronted with in Scripture. It's not this huge, wide, beautiful gate.

Instead, it is a narrow gate. It is a narrow path, a small path.

It's a door that has to be strived for. I want you to write this in the notes as well. It has to be strived for.

Notice the question, though, that is brought up in this context in verse 23. Someone said to Him, Lord, will those who are saved be few?

What a great theological question. If I was in the presence of Christ, this is probably one of my first questions, is how is one saved?

How many will be saved? How can someone be saved? These are things that I would immediately go to if I had the opportunity to cross -examine

Jesus. And like today, the question was a subject of debate even in Jesus' day and could have been asked of any rabbi.

Opinions on the question as well range from inclusive to exclusive.

Some rabbis taught that, and I quote from a Jewish literature called the Sanhedrin, chapter 10, verse 1, and it says, all

Israelites have a share in the world to come. So some of the views in the time of Jesus by certain rabbis and amongst the

Sanhedrin and others is that all the Israelites had a common share in the world to come, meaning that salvation, at least for the

Jew, at least for the Israelite, was broad and spacious. And then others, for instance, in the extra -biblical book of 4

Ezra, which was a rabbinic book, chapter 8, verse 1, it says this, that the

Most High made the world to come for the sake of a few. So within Judaism in the first century, you had two competing worldviews and theological narratives.

One, that salvation was inclusive, at least again in relation to the Israelite. And then others would debate and said, no, even amongst the people of Israel, salvation or the world to come is only for a few.

So you have this back and forth in the time of Jesus, and Jesus makes

His position clear, that the path that leads to eternal life is not broad and spacious, but rather that it is a narrow door.

That is to say, brothers and sisters, that the vast majority of people will not inherit eternal life.

He makes this even clearer when in the text, notice what He says in Luke chapter 13 and verse 24.

He says, strive to enter through the narrow door.

He tells the people of God that they must strive to enter into this narrow door.

This word strive in the Greek, it's agonizomai, and it literally means to compete, fight, struggle with an emphasis on effort.

This is where we get the English word for agonize, we're agonized.

And Jesus is using this term in the Greek to strive, agonize yourself to get through this narrow door.

You have to fight, you have to compete, you have to struggle. There's an emphasis on effort here.

Now, another definition for this is to make effort, to strive with intensity and with great effort.

It is where, again, we get the English word to agonize. Now, the question that might be arising in your mind, is your contradiction here between the doctrines of grace and these words of Christ?

Because of course, in our doctrine, in our understanding, we believe, as was confessed by a young man this morning, that we are saved by grace through faith.

And yes, amen, hallelujah, that is the truth. We are saved by grace through faith.

It is not of works that no one may boast, but then how do we square that with the words of Jesus when he says, strive, fight, compete, agonize, so that you may get into the door of life?

How can we harmonize these two things where one certainly is all dependent upon God, but then on the other hand, there seems to be a dependency, a work, an agonizing that is on the responsibility of the

Christian? Is your contradiction? I think not, by no means.

Why? Because Jesus is again demonstrating the rigor required of being a disciple of Jesus.

The Christian life is truly an all or nothing endeavor.

St. Augustine put it this way, he said, Jesus Christ be either everything to you or he be nothing to you, but he can't be both.

Jesus is either everything or he's nothing. In today's context, if you've heard some great scholars and people like C .S.

Lewis, he's either Lord, liar, or lunatic. He has to be everything or nothing.

So friends, don't come to this sacred time, this sacred space to play

Christian. That is a dangerous game to play. Don't come here just to be associated with Jesus.

You must come and be in Jesus, be found in him, because when you are in Christ, you have this abandonment of self, this abandonment of your life, you lay your life down.

That's what baptism signifies, and if you've been baptized, you've laid your life down so that you follow

Jesus. The old man died, and if you've been baptized, maybe you need to be reminded of this again.

If you have not been baptized, that's what you have to look forward to. Your old man dies in that water, in that tomb along with Jesus, so that the new man and woman who comes out of those waters is a man or woman who is dedicated to living the life that Jesus has set them apart for.

In that way, we are to agonize, we are to strive, we are to do all that we can for all that he is, amen?

That is the call of a disciple. Jesus doesn't just call us to be sons and daughters who are fat, happy, and wealthy.

He calls us to be sons and daughters who goes into the field of the Father to work the harvest.

That's what he's called us to. So there is no contradiction. Yes, there is a great striving that every

Christian must make, not to attain eternal life, but to be in the eternal life that he has already purchased for you and given you by grace through faith in Christ alone.

So it is, again, an all or nothing endeavor. It is indeed do or die.

It is a life of total surrender to the sovereignty, rule, and reign of Jesus Christ.

Therefore, it is with great agonizing that we follow Christ today as disciples, because let's be real, church, it's hard to follow

Jesus. If anyone tells you it's easy, they're lying or they're deceived. This is not an easy life by any means.

You know how many times we have to say no to things that on the onset may even seem good to us, may make us feel good, and we must forsake earthly pleasures, forsake earthly things and pursue

Christ? Sometimes pursuing Jesus, you don't always see the benefit of it. Sometimes it doesn't even make sense.

Why would I delay this? Why would I not do this so that maybe at the end of my life,

I might go to heaven? Well, surely that's not the Christian hope. Ours is not a hope of maybe or of possibilities or of some hopeful conjecture, but rather ours is a hope that is based upon the certainty of Jesus Christ who died, who bled, who was put in a tomb, and then was raised again on the third day.

Because he lives, we know we will live also, amen? And so the church is to be a people group who agonizingly strives to follow after Jesus.

If there's no pain in your game, you're not following Jesus. It should cost you something.

There should be an agonizing that is associated with the Christian life, because it is indeed agonizing.

So then it is with great agonizing that we choose today to follow Christ as his disciples to the exclusion of eternal agony in hell, because there is an agony that is worse than that of the

Christian life, and that's an agony of a life in this world and in the world to come without the protective grace of God the

Father. And that is eternal separation in hell. So then what is the call of Scripture to us this morning?

Verse 25, actually back in verse 21, 24, sorry. Strive to enter through the narrow door, for many,

I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. So the last part of that second bullet point in our insert,

Jesus said that the salvation was like a narrow door that has to be strived for because many will not enter.

Many will not enter into this life. And it says in verse 25, when once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door saying,

Lord, open to us, and then he will answer you, I do not know where you come from. Then you will begin to say, we ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.

But he would say, I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil.

Frightening and terrifying words. Certainly.

The door is not open indefinitely, brothers and sisters. I want you to write this in the notes.

Therefore, fight to enter in, fight to enter in, lest you hear the master say,

I never knew you. No more terrifying words can there be on that great day, when you stand before him in judgment.

For the scripture says it is appointed for man to die once and then the judgment. And you stand before him and you say, but Lord, I had

Christian parents, Lord, I was catechized, Lord, I was baptized, Lord, I did this, Lord, I did that.

And he says to you, the Lord of history, the maker of heaven and earth, of which he sees all things laid in bare as they truly are.

And he says, I never knew you. Your maker, the one who knows you better than you know yourself, and he will declare to you,

I don't know you. Terrifying are those words.

It should shake every Christian to their core. And yet we are called to strive, we are called to fight, we are called to be at the master's house when he is ready, lest he shut the door.

And you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door saying, Lord, open to us. And then you answer,

I don't know where you come from. Again, no more terrifying words can there be.

And so, beloved, here is the interpretation of this text, because there's a dual fulfillment,

I believe here. In one aspect, what you have to have in mind when you're reading this gospel narrative is what

Luke reminds us of in verse 22, that the focus here is

Jerusalem and the eventual outcome of his death and suffering. And so when

Jesus begins to say this, he has an immediate context to the Jewish people, to the people that he is speaking to.

And of course, it has an application for us today as well, a general application for all of us that will be done at the end of the age.

But I believe that there is a first century fulfillment to this text as well.

Again, and knowing that Jerusalem is the focal point of where Jesus is going and the focal point of his ministry and of his earthly ministry and sufferings, he's reminding the

Jewish people to whom he is speaking to as he's going through the towns and villages on his way to Jerusalem, he's saying, the master is here now and the master is about to shut the door on Jerusalem.

The door is about to be shut upon Israel because what is looming in history here is

Jerusalem's eventual demise by God's judgment by the hands of the

Roman Empire. In the year 70, God executed his righteous judgment against his covenant -breaking people,

Israel. And God exercised his judgment over them where he indeed shut the door to that generation.

And that generation received the words, because notice the context he says in verse 26, and then you, who is he speaking to?

The Jewish people. You will begin to say, we ate and drank in your presence and you taught in our streets

The immediate context here is Christ's coming judgment upon Jerusalem.

And he's already rebuking their rebuttal to him on that day, on that particular day of judgment.

Because on 70 AD when Jerusalem was destroyed, it was the day of the Lord, among many days of the

Lord, as we see in the Old Testament, when the day of the Lord came upon the northern tribes of Israel through the hands of the

Assyrians, when the day of the Lord came upon the city of Jerusalem by the hands of the Babylonians, when the

Babylonians' day of the Lord came, when they were destroyed by the Medo -Persian Empire. There are many days of the

Lord in Scripture. These are days of judgment, days of wrath, such as we see in Zephaniah 1, verse 14, that the great day of the

Lord is a dreadful day, full of gloom and darkness and despair. And yet, another particular day of the

Lord was coming upon the Jewish people, was coming upon Jerusalem. And Jesus is reminding

His hearers, reminding those to whom He is actually speaking to in that primary context, that their end is coming soon, lest they repent.

Now, of course, there's an application for us as well, because there is yet one more final day of the

Lord that is to come. And that day of the Lord shall come, and it shall consume the world, not just one particular nation, but all the nations shall stand before Him.

And so this will be true of us and of this generation and of any generation that the Lord brings judgment upon.

But again, be reminded that there is a primary context that's at play here, and it is surrounding

God's judgment of Jerusalem in the first century, after their rejection of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

Which is again why He could say in verse 26, we ate and drank in Your presence and You taught in our streets, but He would say,

I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from Me, all you workers of evil.

I want you to write this in the notes. Mere acknowledgment, that word acknowledgment, an association with Jesus is not enough to make you a disciple.

You need to know that, because again, notice what the Jewish people in that generation would plead with Christ.

We ate and drank in Your presence and You taught in our streets. That sounds like a lot of modern evangelical churches, where a lot of people say, well,

Lord, we went to church. We had communion. We were baptized. Went to Sunday school.

We did all these things and we thought we were right with You. Again, this should terrify everyone in this room and everyone watching online as well.

Jesus, anticipating again what the worldly and ungodly will say, they're going to say, hey, Jesus, we were there.

We went to church. I prayed a prayer, et cetera, et cetera. The terrifying reality, however, is this, that the vast majority of professing

Christians today, as it was true in the first century in regards to the Jewish people, whose

Christianity consists of periodic church attendance, maybe a couple of activities a year, if that, are likely deceived and lost.

Merely being in church, being around Christians, having Christian parents, and knowing a couple of Bible verses doesn't make you a

Christian. You have to be born again. There's only one way of becoming a

Christian, and that's by repenting of your sin, putting your trust in Jesus and His finished, sacrificial, atoning work, and believing that God on the third day raised

Him from the dead and raised Him to the place of highest priority where He is enthroned now and forevermore as Lord of history.

It is to His name, and it is our knees that will bend at that proclamation of His name, and this is how one becomes a

Christian, acknowledging, but not simply acknowledging, the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

You must be a disciple who is born again. And if this message isn't even slightly convicting to you this morning, you are the one that's most in danger.

If none of this is resonating, if none of this is stirring your soul, you're the one that's most at risk.

So take heed to these words, lest you join those in verse 27 and 28.

It says, but He will say, I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from Me, all you workers of evil, because it says in verse 20, in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see

Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves cast out.

Beware, lest you hear these words. To the wicked,

I want you to write this in the notes, Jesus will say, depart from Me.

Where are they departing to? Well, again, I believe that there's two applications and fulfillments of these texts.

One most certainly is the application as it was given in the first century. Consider the use of the language that's here.

Jesus says that you would depart from Me, you workers of evil. He's referring to the Jewish people who are rejecting His life and ministry and His work.

And He says in verse 20, in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. This is the place of judgment, the eventual place of destruction that they will arrive to after the judgment.

When you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets, this is a Jewish concept here.

This is an Old Testament concept, seeing Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets. Surely when a

Jewish person dies, they want to wake up and they want to see Abraham. They want to be in Abraham's bosom, and yet when they awake after that judgment that came upon Jerusalem in 70

AD, they awoke and they were not in Abraham's bosom. They were not in paradise.

Instead, they were in the place of gnashing of teeth. And there will be a day as well, as the

Scripture points us to, in which every man shall stand before God and the final judgment shall be summoned and given.

And you do not want to be counted among those who the Lord will say, depart from Me, because they shall go to hell.

So write this in a note. So the wicked Jesus will say, depart from Me into hell, the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Again, I've given you the immediate context. Jesus here is speaking of the Jews and after telling them that they have no inherent birthright to eternal life, but instead they must strive to enter the narrow gate.

And those He departs will see the patriarchs that they profess to believe, that they profess to be associated with, and yet they shall see them at the table of God's kingdom while they themselves are cast out.

That's the immediate context of Luke chapter 13 in these verses. But again, there is a greater context that is applicable to us today and primarily at the end of the age as well.

And so Jesus is reminding us of the great call, the great cost of discipleship of the

Christian life. He's telling us that they have, that we must strive. The Jewish people failed to strive towards this inheritance to eternal life because they believe that they had an inherent birthright.

Unfortunately, today in Christendom, there are many Christians who believe and teach a similar false doctrine.

Many within Christianity who hold to a dispensational worldview or dispensational eschatology believe that the

Jewish people today are still God's chosen people, therefore we have no need to evangelize them.

No need to evangelize the Jews. Why then, Jesus, did He waste

His time? Why did He waste His time evangelizing the Jews, calling them to repentance, pointing them to the kingdom of God, if indeed it was their inheritance by birthright that they would inherit eternal life simply because of their lineage and the blood that was rushing through their veins?

Nonsense, heresy. Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation.

And there is salvation in no other name given among men by which we may be saved, but by the name of Jesus, for salvation comes first to the

Jew and then to the Gentile. And the gospel certainly came to the Jew first.

And this is why Jesus is going at great agony Himself, and we're going to see the fulfillment of this later on in the afternoon in the following verses, so please stay for that message as well, because you're going to see how

Jesus, He weeps over Jerusalem. He laments over the city of God because of its coming destruction.

And so Jesus concludes this thought here when He says this, and people will come, verse 29, people will come from east and west, from north and south, talking about the

Gentiles. He's pointing, He's telling the Jews, you think you're so special, but you're going to see this.

While you're outside of the kingdom, you're going to see people from the north, from the south, from the east, and the west, and they will be the ones reclining at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

But then what? You yourselves cast out. And then in verse 30, and behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last, talking about the people of Israel, who they thought they were a favored group, that they were first among the nations, and yet they will be the last because of their rejection of the

Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ. So I want you to finish our thoughts and our conclusion with this in the notes,

Jesus speaks of the nations being included at the table, the first being last, that's the

Jewish people, and the last, the nations, the Gentiles, who were once referred to as even dogs, now being first.

Friends, the door is indeed narrow, but the invitation is wide.

Jesus is speaking of the inclusivity of the gospel going beyond natural

Israel into all the nations. And though the Jews for sure thought of themselves as the first among nations due to the patriarchs and the promises and the covenants and the law, the gospel would instead be received in mass, not by the

Jewish people, but by the Gentiles, so that those who were last shall become first.

Jesus Christ has purchased for himself a new people. Do you count yourselves among them today?

Do you recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed you fail the test?

Our hope today is that your hope would be in Jesus Christ, because Jesus Christ is indeed a good, kind, merciful, benevolent

Savior. His hands are extended to you today, and he beckons you with this message and with the proclamation of the gospel, come while the door is still open.

Yes, the door, narrow as it may be, is still open for you today.

But be sure of this, death comes for every man. And because of Adam's sin and transgression, we shall all taste death unless the

Lord comes before. But certainly, it is appointed for man to die once and then the judgment.

You will stand before this Jesus. You will stand before the Savior of the world, and you will have to give an account for the things done in the body, whether good or evil.

And you shall stand on that day, either in your own strength, your own merit, your own works, and you shall certainly hear on that day, depart from me, you workers of evil, because all of your works are like filthy rags, all of your works are evil towards God.

Even the things that you think are done in good and kindness and in charity are actually done as a spite against your

Creator, should they be done outside of Christ. Because Christ is the only means and merit that gains us eternal life.

May you cling to Christ today. Cling to this message.

Cling to the breast of Jesus Christ today. Find your solace, find your peace, find your life hidden in Jesus, so that when

Christ, who is your life, is revealed from heaven, so you shall be revealed with him.

And Jesus will have for himself a people from every tribe, nation, and tongue, an inclusive people by an exclusive door,

Jesus Christ being that narrow door. May you find him, may you know him, may you walk through that narrow door today.

Let's pray. Indeed, Lord, we thank you for the narrow door, that it is a complete, miraculous act of grace that the door even be open in the first place.

How in your kindness, in your mercy, in your grace, you have extended that door of mercy in Jesus Christ to all people, to all tribes, to all languages, so that you may have a possession from all the tribes of the earth as your own.

Lord Jesus, may we marvel at your mercy, that though the door be narrow, that there be a door in the first place, that because of your love for humanity, your love for your elect, your promise and your covenant to your elect people, you have allowed us entrance into that great door, the great door of faith in Jesus Christ.

Lord, for those who have tarried, for those who are heavy laden and burdened by the stresses and anxieties of this world, by those who strive to enter by any other means,

Lord, may you beckon them even now, come to Christ. Come to Jesus, who is a fountain of mercy and grace, who is a mountain of stability for our times.

Lord Jesus, make your way in the hearts of your people and those whom you have elected from the foundation of the world, may they know your peace and confess the grandeur and the goodness and the greatness of your name, that you are indeed