THE WAY Matthew 7:13-14

The Sermon on the Mount and the Call to Hear and Obey

Well, go ahead and open up your copy of God's Word to Matthew chapter 7. Y 'all are familiar with hearing those words, aren't you? Matthew chapter 7. Today we're going to be looking at verses 13 and 14.

And I looked this week to see our preaching schedule over this past year and then looking into the future, and I realized that today is week 39 in these three chapters in the Sermon on the Mount here in Matthew.

And we've got, I believe, we realized we have five more weeks. Isn't that correct? Four more weeks maybe? But we've spent some time in this section of the Sermon on the Mount, haven't we? Has it been a blessing to those of you that have been here during this time?

Because I know it has been for me. We're getting near the end here, so let's read our passage there in chapter 7, starting in verse 13.

Jesus says,.

These are hard words from our Savior, aren't they? Let's pray. Let's ask that He will illuminate our hearts and minds to this truth. Heavenly Father, we come to You once again and we ask that You work in us, that You reveal Your true meaning from the clarity of the text, from Your great Word that You have blessed us with.

I pray that You would guard me from error. I pray that I would not speak untruths about You, Father. But that You would be honored in our looking at Your words today and that we would not be just hearers of the Word, but that we would be doers of the Word.

In Christ's name, Amen. Well, we've seen many great truths, if you've been with us throughout this sermon, taught by Jesus as He's standing there on the mountainside to all of these people. And we've seen this counter-cultural worldview portrait of a true follower of Christ right at the beginning of the Beatitudes, right?

When we see Him coming in, blessed are the poor, blessed are the meek, blessed are those who are persecuted. And it just kind of flips everything upside down and that begins the trajectory of the whole sermon.

And then we saw then, after that, we saw that we are called to be a preservative in the midst of a culture of death. That we are called to be salt and that we are left here for that very purpose. And then as soon as He says that we're salt, He says then that we're light, that we are a conduit of His light within a dark world.

But then after that, we see, as we've gone through this study, Jesus didn't come to do away with the Law and the Prophets. He didn't come to do away with the Old Testament and say, Hey, I'm throwing the old out and I'm bringing the new in.

He came to fulfill it. He came to fulfill the Old Testament, the Law and the Prophets. And then we saw how we, who are the blessed, those from the Beatitudes, how we should live in light of that Law. And He does this through six antithesis.

He does this with six examples where we hear over and over again Jesus saying, You have heard it said, but I say to you. And what is He doing during that time as He's going through that section of the sermon?

He's exposing the fact that the Law is not merely something to be followed outwardly, but that it is an inward obedience and an inward love from the heart for God's Law. And that's the only way to fulfill God's Law.

As soon as He's done with those six antithesis, He then immediately goes into another six antithesis of practical living as a Christian. And He shows us the contrast between the way the religious leaders of the world would perceive the Law and the way the reality of what God has actually called His people to.

And what does He do? He's showing us how we should live and how we are to carry out the Christian life. And He gives us, again, these six examples. He talks about how we should give. He talks about how we should pray.

He talks about how we should fast. He talks about what we should invest in. The things of this world or the things of eternity. He talks about trusting in God without having anxiety because we know who the Father is and He cares for us.

He talks about judging others properly. And then coming right out of that, we saw our position as children and the source of our obedience. When He talks about the fact that we knock, we go to our Father, we come to Him and we ask for something.

And our Father gives it to us and how we have great position in Him. And then last week we came to what? Do you all remember what we talked about last week? The Golden Rule. We come to the Golden Rule where we saw that the Law and the Prophets are pointing us to honoring God by honoring His image bearers.

That that is the Law and the Prophets. And the point was that all of these previous things that we just recapped point to and show how we are to treat others and how we are to see God. And those are directly correlated together if we are honoring God in it.

And we now have the power to live a righteous life in this way. But now we get to this section, verses 13 and 14, and Jesus begins to switch gears again. And you all can see the progression as we go from section to section in Jesus' sermon.

It's kind of broken up. And if you notice, I do a brief recap at the beginning of every one of these sections. And I'm hoping the purpose of that is to keep us in the flow. We don't want to look at this sermon and take Jesus' words and try and fit them into something else.

I want us to continue to go down that path. So thank you for bearing with me as I do recaps periodically. As soon as we jump into a new section, that's what I'm doing. But we're coming to the very last section here.

And Jesus has spent the entirety of this sermon to this point for the purpose of exhortation. What does that mean? Giving them information. He's giving us information, this entire sermon. Information.

Here's the information. This is what it says. You've heard it said, but I say to you. And he's telling us this is what it is.

This is exhortation.

And now he has essentially given them the information that he deems necessary. And so like any good preacher, which he's the ultimate preacher and we learn from him, but any good communicator now prepares to wrap up this sermon.

And that's exactly what he is doing. He's wrapping up this sermon with an emphatic call to action. And this whole section, in order to do this, he uses a common Hebrew practice, a juxtaposition. They refer to it as two-way language, essentially.

So what do I mean by that? Essentially two things being seen or placed closely together with contrasting effects. He's given us two examples. This was a common way for the Israelites to communicate in all of their writing.

What I mean by this is you'll understand as we begin to jump into the text, but he uses this pattern all through his closing. As a matter of fact, if you kind of just look at your Bible and see how it's kind of broken up near the end, you'll see these little categories.

In these verses, 13 and 14, he uses two ways in this juxtaposition. We see two ways compared to each other. And then in verses 15 and 20, we see two trees compared to each other. And then in verses 21 and 23, we see two claims contrasted with each other.

And then finally, as he gets near the end, verses 24 on, we see two builders in contrast to each other. So you can see what Jesus is doing here. He's using two things. Jesus is using this juxtaposition language as a call to action.

Because we see there, just as in our day, Jesus had people there listening to him preach. These people are standing there. They're listening to him. Many of them heard these exhortations from Jesus. They've been listening to the entirety of this sermon.

And many of them probably were saying, Amen. I don't know what they said back then, but that's what we would do, right? People in the audience are like, Amen. They're like nodding their heads. They're like, I like what that guy has to say.

I agree with what Jesus is saying here, and I'm on board. I really like this. And they hear this only to turn around and live their lives with essentially no change. We experience that today, don't we?

I would say a vast majority of the American church is full of this type of person that listens to the pastor and says, I'm with you on that. I like that, but there's no change. But see, Jesus has laid out throughout this sermon an unbelievably radical picture of what it means to follow him, hasn't he?

If you've been with us during this series, you're thinking, I don't know how anybody in their right mind would nod their head and say, Amen. This is a pretty extreme thing for Jesus to be laying out for the Christian life.

But many will praise these words as truth, however, never truly understand them. Very few are going to understand them. To them, these words are just some kind of a feel-good, these feel-good platitudes that they can intellectually affirm without having to endure any real discomfort or change in their lives.

It's kind of like our modern-day YouTube celebrity pastors. We like those little five-minute clips where we have one little phrase from them and we like to run with it. We like those. We like those little phrases, but do they really affect our lives?

Do we really believe them? Do we understand them in full? This is essentially what's happening, I believe, during this sermon probably because that's human nature and Jesus knows that. What are these people?

What would we refer to as these people? They're merely hearers. They're hearers. They're really good at hearing. You hear me all the time praying here, Lord, don't let us here at 12 .5 be just hearers only, quoting James, but be doers of the word that would affect us.

But many are merely hearers. They're really good at it. As a matter of fact, a lot of hearers are probably even really good at taking notes. They're taking notes. They're jotting everything down. They may even display these beautiful, detailed notes, and it's almost like a shrine to them in their Bible.

They've got their Bible all laid out, and they're saying, hey, look at my beautiful notes I took of Jesus' words. I've been listening to Jesus, and I took notes of these. I've even color charted them with my highlighters.

They're so beautiful.

I went to even every speaking event that Jesus had.

I went to all the conferences.

I was at every mountaintop experience. Look at what a good listener I am. And we see that today with that human nature. They're catching on to little bits and pieces that they think that Jesus is saying without understanding them, taking their preconceived idea of what Jesus is saying and running with it, and they pride themselves in being a hearer and being a listener.

And I think that Jesus would say something like this.

Great.

I'm so glad you listened. It's good that you listened. I'm glad you take notes. It's great that you take notes. Now let's see if you actually heard. And I think that's what he's doing as he wraps up this sermon.

Let's see if you've actually heard. Because now that you've listened to all of my exhortations, what are you going to do about it? Because again, that's what James says, right, in chapter 122. But be doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

Because it's not enough to just listen. And Jesus is making that obvious as he begins to wind down this sermon. And as a matter of fact, he starts off this new section with an emphatic imperative. Look at the verse, verse 13.

He starts it off right away. He comes out of this new section, and what does he say? He says, enter by the narrow gate. Notice that he doesn't say, hey, listen, you might want to enter by the narrow gate.

He doesn't say, hey, you know what, you should enter by the narrow gate. And he for sure isn't saying, hey, guess what, all of you have entered by the narrow gate. That's not what Jesus is doing here, is it?

No, he phrases it as a command. Enter. Do it now. This is a call to action. Enter it. Enter the narrow gate now. There's an emphatic command going on. You can listen to sermons all day long. You can listen to Jesus himself speak all day long.

You can read all the books that you could possibly imagine, even the good theological ones that are accurate. You can do all of this. You can intellectually and emotionally affirm all of these truths, can't you?

But unless you are brought to that gate by those truths and actively, voluntarily enter that gate, you have understood nothing. Jesus knows these people have been listening to him. Can you imagine sitting and hearing our Savior himself in person speaking these great words from this sermon we've been studying?

Man, that incites worship in my heart. Like, man, it would be amazing to be able to sit there and listen to him. But am I fooling myself? Am I not fully, truly understanding him? Am I taking these beautiful words of his and distorting them slightly just to misinterpret him?

And I'm not actually a doer of that word. I'm just a hearer. I listen to them, and it makes me excited, and I want to worship the Lord. Oh, man, this is exciting. And then I just turn around from that moment as Jesus moves to the next town, and I go back to my job, and I pretend like nothing ever changed in my life.

Is that the way it works? Is that what's happened? Because what's on the other side of that gate is the only logical route to those truths. That's what Jesus is getting at. You only understood those great truths if you've crossed through the gate.

And Jesus is warning us of that with this imperative. If you have affirmed all of these previous exhortations, then enter by the narrow gate. Do it. Here is your call to action. But knowing how dense we are, Jesus goes on to explain to us what the narrow gate is by using what I mentioned a moment ago, that juxtaposition, that two-way language.

And Jesus has essentially four of them in these two verses. In verses 13 and 14, I want us to see four of this two-way language, these juxtapositions. First we're going to see the two gates. Then we're going to see the two ways.

Then the two crowds. And two destinations. As he compares these two back and forth. So let's look at the first one, two gates. When he introduces the gates here obviously in this imperative, when he says enter by the narrow gate, he enters the only logical gate in the equation.

Right up front it says enter it. Act now. And then explains them. So we have a wide gate. We have a gate there in verse 13 that is a wide gate. And then in verse 14 we have a narrow gate. Two contrasting gates.

What do you think of when you hear the word gate? What do you think of in your mind? What do you picture? An entrance, right? Now the word that Jesus uses here for gate, the Greek word that's in the text, was a word that was often used when referring to the gate of a city.

You can imagine they have these impenetrable walls. We don't think of gates in cities anymore. Jonesboro lets you come and go freely, right?

Thankfully.

But back then you wanted to live in a city. Well the city had walls. These massive walls that you couldn't easily climb. You were not able to just break through them. And they were all the way around a city.

And then these small fortified gates. And they were designed specifically to control who comes and goes, right? In particular, who comes. And that's the language that Jesus is using. Now Jesus uses a very similar analogy over in Luke.

Actually, turn over there. Luke 13 with me. Luke chapter 13 is Jesus uses a similar analogy. We're going to look at starting in verse 23. And once you get there, keep your finger there as we go back and forth because I think we're going to reference this passage a little bit later.

But Luke chapter 13, starting in verse 23. We see a very similar language going on with Jesus here in a different context. It says, and someone said to him, Lord, will those who are saved be few? And he said to them, strive.

There's an imperative here, right? Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. So you can see Jesus is using a slightly different analogy here.

Instead of a gate, what is he referring to it as? A door, right? So he's essentially saying the same thing. Why a different picture? Some people get confused about this. Couldn't he have just stuck with the door analogy in both accounts?

I mean, after all, it's the same phrase that he used in John 10, 9 when he referred to himself, which is kind of where we're going to be getting at as to what the gate is essentially. But Jesus says over in John 10, 9, I am the door.

So we have this same analogy going, but two different examples. So in light of that, Luke 13 makes sense, right? If Jesus says he's the door, well now all of a sudden Luke 13, if he refers to himself come through the door, well what's he referring to?

Coming through himself, to come through him. So adding the gate just makes it a little confusing, doesn't it? But think of the context in which Jesus is saying these things. In the Sermon on the Mount, he has been pointing to what the here and now Christian life looks like, hasn't he?

We just did a brief recap of that. This is what the Christian life looks like here and now. And now he's giving this mass of people in this sermon a contrasting call to action. Bear with me here. But in the account in Luke 13 where he uses the phrase door, he isn't giving an exposition of the Christian life.

In Luke 13, he's simply talking about the contrast between damnation and salvation. So we have two differing contexts in which Jesus is referring to, which leads us to the second thing I want us to see.

I'll tie that in here in just a moment. But the second thing that we see in this text in Matthew is the two ways. These two are connected. The two ways and the two gates are heavily connected. Look back at our passage in Matthew 7.

So we see there in verse 13, for the gate is wide and the way. And then in verse 14, for the gate is narrow and the way. So we have these two contrasting ways, right? Now, this goes back to why Jesus uses the gate instead of the door.

We're going to explain this. Some scholars have a difficult time affirming what I just said with the door in Luke 13 and the gate here being essentially the same thing. They don't want these two things to be the same thing.

To our reference to the gate here in Matthew, they don't want this to mean the same thing as the door in Luke 13. And the reason is they're not sure which comes first, the gate or the way. Some of them interpret the gate as the gate of heaven, right?

The pearly gates. They want to say, well, the gate is the gate to heaven. So we have these two contrasting gates. We have a gate to hell and we have a gate to heaven. That's essentially what they're coming to.

And they're saying, so how can we have the way after the gate? So this must mean that the way comes before the gate. Because the way is, in their minds, what Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life, right?

So the way is the Christian life or the way is a godless life and the gate is either the gate to hell or the gate to heaven. And that's how they want to see Matthew 13 and what Jesus is referring to. I'm not so sure that that fits.

I don't believe we can derive that from the way it's written, much less the context. I believe that the way that we see, these contrasting ways, is a direct trajectory set by that juxtaposition, that on-ramp, which is the gate.

I see some confused faces. I'm going to repeat that. I'm going to read it to make sure I repeat it well. I believe that the way, these two ways that we see that are contrasting each other, either one is a direct trajectory set by one of the two gates.

You go through the gate, you're on a trajectory. Think of the gate as more of an on-ramp to the interstate. The on-ramp is your gate, right? Once you go through that gate, what happens? I do that all the time when we're traveling and the GPS messes up and it takes me somewhere or you're in a city and you don't know which one of the ramps to take because there's like 14 in one little spot and you can't see.

So you take the wrong one and it's so frustrating because you're like, well now I'm in this highway for the next 10 miles until there's an exit because you're going that trajectory, right? So we think of the gate as the on-ramp and now we are going that direction.

And what does Jesus say about these two ways? Look at the passage. For he said, the gate is wide and the way is easy. Then in verse 14 he says about the narrow gate, the way is hard. What does Jesus mean by easy?

Is Jesus saying that nothing bad will ever happen to anyone that's on this route and that nothing but bad will happen to everyone on the other? Is that what Jesus is getting at? He's saying if you go on the wide gate, life's going to be grand, everything's going to be easy, and if you go on the narrow gate, everything's going to be hard.

It seems like that's the way it reads, right? But of course Jesus isn't saying that. Jesus is referring to the ease of flow here. He's referring to the ease of flow. You see, man has a natural default.

You guys all know that, right? We have a natural default and that first gate that he's speaking of is the entrance that every single one of us entered into at conception. It's what David says. He says, In sin did my mother conceive me.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Is David referring to the sin of his mother? Is he saying my mother did not have an appropriate relationship and she conceived me?

Is that what he's saying? No, that's not what David is saying. David is saying that the sin he entered in in the world was the trajectory that he was on. That's the automatic default of all humanity. That is why that gate is wide.

Jesus says it's a wide gate. It's a wide gate because all of us entered into it. We've all entered into that gate. So staying on it is the easy thing to do. And that's what Jesus is getting at here. It's easy to live according to your nature.

That's your default nature. You can live a life of hedonistic debauchery or rigid self-righteous penance and everything in between while on that path. You can be the hardest worker or the laziest bum.

You can be the most ardent atheist or the most religious zealot. Yet you're still on that path. That's why it's wide. It's got room for everyone, doesn't it? See, everyone's on this path including every religion.

Every single way imaginable is on this path. So you see the two contrasting paths. The first one is wide and everyone is on it by default. You don't have to actively go through the first gate. The first gate has already been entered the very moment your parents conceived you.

It's pretty sobering, isn't it? So how do we get off of it? We're already on that highway. We're already on the wide path. How do we get off of it? I think Jesus is telling us here by finding the narrow gate and walking through it.

Jesus said in John 14 6. I referenced this a moment ago. He says, I am the way and the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except through me. Very similar to the John 10 passage that I mentioned a moment ago when he says, I am the door.

If anyone enters by me, what? He will be saved. I believe that Jesus is saying that the only way off the other path, being the narrow gate, is through him.

Right?

He's the gate. Jesus is the narrow gate. Just as he is the narrow door. But just as he has been saying throughout this whole sermon, that way through him. That's why it's narrow, by the way. It's just him.

The wide gate? Automatic default. Everyone lands on that. The narrow is only one way. The other way, you can be an atheist. You can be a religious zealot. You can be everything in between. You can be whatever you want to be.

Whatever you believe. Whatever you think. Whatever religion you want to follow. Every other religion in the entire world that's ever been created. Every one of them is in the wide gate. It's easy.

It's accessible.

It's where everyone goes, but there is a narrow gate. And this narrow gate, being Jesus himself, is a way of hardship. It's a way of tribulation. It's a way of trouble. Jesus would have most certainly failed a modern day evangelism class, wouldn't he?

Today's easy-believism wants to hide all of this persecution stuff. They want to give you the idea that, hey, just come to Jesus and all your problems are going to go away. You want to be happy all the time?

Are you sad now? Aw, you're sad because you don't have Jesus. Have Jesus and you're just going to be happy all the time. It's going to be wonderful and your life's going to be great and he's going to solve all your problems.

You don't have to worry about your bills anymore. You don't have to do any of that stuff. That's modern day evangelism, right?

And it's easy.

It's like all you have to do is just say this prayer. There's no gate being entered. All they're saying is, hey, repeat this prayer after me. Now, never doubt it. You're always on that path. Even if that path is super easy.

All the while, the vast majority of those people that say that sinner's prayer are still on the wide gate, aren't they? They're still on the wide path because that's easy. That falls under the category just like the rest of the world.

Jesus goes about evangelism very differently. He says this path is narrow. He says this path is hard. Just like the Beatitudes. Blessed are the persecuted. Blessed are the meek.

Blessed are the poor.

Blessed are those who mourn. Those are the ones that go through the narrow gate. And this is where Jesus gives us that third category. The two crowds. Look back at our passage here. He talks about the first gate in verse 13.

The gate is wide and the way is easy. It leads to destruction. And those who enter by it are many. And then in verse 14, he says about the narrow gate at the end. He says, and those who find it are few.

This truth can be sobering and disturbing, can't it? The vast majority will reject the narrow gate. This can be overwhelming. You can jot this passage down in your notes or you may want to turn to it.

Actually, look back at it. I told you to keep your fingers there, didn't I? Luke 13.

Good.

Luke 13, verse 18. He said, therefore, what is the kingdom of God like? What's the kingdom of God, guys? How do you enter the kingdom of God? The narrow gate. What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it?

Jesus says it is like a grain of mustard seed. What does he mean by that? A grain of mustard seed. Well, it's not the smallest seed in the world. We now know there are smaller seeds than a mustard seed.

But during that time, you can imagine just these seeds are so, they're almost invisible. They're the tiniest seeds that they would be commonly using at that time. And so Jesus uses an example. He says it's like a grain, a single grain.

What is the kingdom like? What is the grand kingdom of God? Those that are on the narrow gate, what does that look like? Well, it's like a mustard seed. And a man took and sowed in his garden and it grew.

Siri's trying to preach for me here, guys. Sorry. A man took and sowed in his garden and it grew. And it became a tree. That single small mustard seed became a tree. So much so that it says the birds of the air made nests in its branches.

It doesn't say the birds just flew in and sat on the edges of this tiny little tree. No, he says no, it's big enough. They come in and they abide in it. They live in it. In verse 20 he says, and again he said, To what shall I compare the kingdom of God?

It is like leaven. This small insignificant amount of leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour until it was all leavened. So what Jesus is saying is the kingdom of God, yes, it looks insignificant at the beginning.

But this seed, this small insignificant seed grows to a tree. This small insignificant amount of leaven now turns the entire loaf of bread into a fully leavened loaf of bread. This is what Jesus is getting at.

So even though it can be discouraging to be thinking about this narrow gate and so few that find it, think about the ultimate end of all of that. How many of those few are coming? That encourages me to see that the kingdom of God ultimately wins out.

But then lastly, let's look at our two destinations. Back in our passage in Matthew, it says,. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction. And in verse 14, the way that is narrow leads to life.

Now our natural default leads us down to this wide and easy way. And where does that lead?

Destruction.

All the way to eternal destruction. And I wanted to spend a significant amount of time on that today, but I don't think we're going to have time. So I'm going to skip through that a little bit. I'll simply say this.

Destruction is not annihilation. We've talked about this this week. That's an important distinction. Destruction is not annihilation. Those people on that wide path will not merely be destroyed and be no more.

There's a movement that wants to say that. They want to say, well, those that are on the narrow gate, they have eternal life with Jesus. They can't deny that. They say, okay, eternal life with Jesus.

That's beautiful.

But those that are on the wide gate, God would never eternally punish them. They're just going to cease to exist. They'll just simply be destroyed. And if you want to have that conversation afterwards with me or Pastor Jeremiah, I can have that talk with you, or maybe one day we'll preach on that fact.

But this destination is referring to eternal punishment and eternal judgment. We see this reference back in that passage in Luke 13. If you were to look at verse 28, he says, and that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Weeping, there will be pain. There will be torture. There will be heartache, brokenness. And that gnashing of teeth, the phrase that's used there is referring to human fury. These people that are on the wide gate, they're angry.

They hate God, and they would not even for a moment be pulled out of hell if it meant that they had to be in the presence of the holiness of God. And look at the story that Jesus referred to with Lazarus and the rich man, right?

The rich man is there in hell, and he doesn't ask to be taken out. He simply asked for a drop of water in his tongue, and he asked that his brothers be warned about it. But he doesn't want out. Why does he not want out?

Because he hated God in life, and he hates God even more in death. And his anger grows, and gnashing of teeth, human fury of a pure hatred of the Creator, and wanting nothing to do with holiness. There is not one soul in hell that will be there for 40 billion years that if the angels went down and said, God will let you out of here, but you have to go into his presence and his holiness, not one would choose it.

They would rather stay in torment than have to stand before a holy and just God, because they hate that holy and just God even more than they did on that wide path in this earth. This is not destruction and annihilation.

Jesus is speaking of eternal judgment. Why such a severe destruction? Why is it so severe? Think of what Paul said in Romans 3 .23,. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Sin against an eternal holy God demands eternal holy punishment.

You sin against an eternal being? What's the punishment? Eternal punishment. There is no, you're here for a thousand years and then you get let out. No, this is cosmic treason as R .C. Sproul would call it.

It demands eternal judgment. Just as Paul says in Romans 6 .23,. For the wages of sin is what?

Death.

That death separated from the goodness and grace of God. And mind you, hell is not, I keep going back to it, I told you we were going to talk about it. Hell is not the absence of God. Don't let anyone ever tell you that.

Hell is the absence of the goodness and grace and mercy of God. Hell is pure God. He is wrath and His judgment and His perfect holiness in the fact that He's pouring that judgment out in hell for eternity is there.