Luke 13:22-30, How Do You Get In?

Luke 13:22-30 and the Question of Who Will Be Saved

Luke chapter 13, we'll be reading from verse 22 to 35, hear 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?

And he said to them, strive to enter through the narrow door. For I tell you, for many I tell you will seek to enter and will not be able. 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.

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 will say I tell you I don't 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. May the Lord add his blessings the reading of his Holy Word.

Why People Assume Getting In Is Easy

Well how do you get in to what you want in to. Of course that depends on what it is you want to get in. Maybe maybe the rich man's club. You how do you get into being wealthy. We work hard they say sure that's part of it.

But you know you could work as hard as you possibly could at some professions and and never make it to being wealthy. You could be the hardest working postman in the world. And you sorry you're only gonna rise as high as the postman salary.

A teacher might work very hard might be named teacher of the year and be loved by students and principals and but she's not gonna get rich doing that. Sorry Emily it's not gonna happen unless you maybe marry someone who's gonna get.

You have to. You have to work hard at a job that has great income potential. Then you still have to invest what you earned. You have to sacrifice in the short term enjoying your profits. And instead use that money to expand your business so that you can work even harder to make even more now that I guess is how you make it into the rich man's club.

How do you get in to the USA if you're not born a citizen. You know sometimes it's harder than you might think. You could marry your way in Mary but even that is hard. First you've got to find an American worth marrying.

Okay. And and then there is still all kinds of paperwork. I I went through that as Mary was applying for what they call a green card as a permanent residency pass when we were living in Singapore permanent be a permanent resident for the USA so she could come in to the country.

Now we have been married by that time for five years so it's not as like you could say this is because people actually do contract these sham marriages so they can get into the u .s. There's actually a little business of that of saying actually we'll get married legally and then just to get in the country.

But you know we've been married five years by that time so you can't possibly say that. That's what was going on with us and I for so I first thought that well this is gonna be easy it's gonna easy to get her in.

Boy was I wrong. You know after a while I was frustrated with so much you know evidence I had to provide and forms I had to fill out and just stuff you know I had to give them. I've got so frustrated exasperated at one point at the US Embassy there that I felt like you know I'd even told the embassy person there just I feel like forgetting about it the whole thing.

Just bring her in as a tourist and her visa will expire and sure she'll be here illegally. But they'll never find her. You know they can't find her. All these people 300 million people they're not gonna find her.

And the US Embassy official just said please don't do that. I didn't. Now maybe you've wanted to get in a team to qualify to play for your school or for some other team to play your sport. They say that some kids we've had their heads puffed up with how you're being constantly told how great they are refuse to even try out for a team.

It's beneath them. Maybe they'll shrug their shoulders. They I don't really want to play anyway. But the truth is they want to play. They're just afraid that if they try out and they don't make it you know their their bubble of greatness will be will be burst.

They need to know that if you want to be a part of the team you want in to that team. You have to humble yourself to try out. And my first track coach tried to talk me out of joining the track team. He wasn't.

I wasn't like I was recruited. He tried to talk me out of it and I'm glad he let me in. Anyway some elite races like the Boston Marathon required you to get into. Not just anyone could join run the Boston Marathon.

You understand you have to qualify to get to get in and in order to qualify you have to run a certain time. Depends on your age. You have to run a certain time or better I believe. For if you're if you're like in your late 30s you have to run three hours and ten minutes or faster in order to be led in their race.

Of course that means you need to run elsewhere. You have to and that means other races serve as qualifiers. So you so you have to successfully run in one of the qualifiers qualifying race to be allowed in the Boston Marathon.

I know someone in this area and some of you even know him Alan Adam Jones who has been struggling to qualify to make it into the Boston Marathon. And just last week was his fourth try. Fourth marathon.

He's run in order to try to qualify. He ran and carry carry North Carolina right there by Durham. He came up one minute short three hours 11 minutes. He'll try again next week in Raleigh. Fifth marathon to try.

Man he's committed. Maybe you've tried to get in to a college that you want to get into a university esteemed University. Did you all get into the college you wanted to get into. Or did some of you get rejection letters.

When it came to my own doctoral work I tried to get in to get my PhD. Tried to get into some of the elite universities including the University of Chicago which is considered by some of the finest University in the world based on the fact they have the most faculty who won Nobel Prizes.

I was rejected by the University of Chicago. But I got a scholarship to a Lutheran seminary that was immediately next to the University of Chicago and they let me take. Because I was part of that seminary Lutheran seminary I was able to take classes at the University of Chicago.

They had a arrangement and one of those classes got me noticed by a professor who had won a Nobel Prize and he asked me to be his teaching assistant the next year. And that meant ironically that I was now grading papers and writing tests issuing grades even giving lectures.

And I stood there giving lectures to a class full of 50 students all of whom had made it into an institution I didn't the last she'll be first. So how do you get in. People understand that if it's worth most people and say if it's worth getting into you know whatever it is an elite country club a good basketball team one of the finest universities the world's most popular marathon whatever it will require a lot from you.

The one exception to that that I can find people in our day the one exception is heaven. Today people commonly think that nearly everybody is gonna make it into heaven. It's easy to get in today people commonly think you know that this is the way it is God's gonna let anybody in who wants in.

All they gotta do is ask. Yeah basically anytime even for those who believe in hell they may some who believe in hell but you know hell is kind of reserved for sort of like death row. You know it's for the worst of the worst.

So the few radically bad sinners it's for you know it's for hell is for Adolf Hitler maybe a few perverted serial killers that's that's that's the people who that's the only people to go to hell. And the rest of us you know as long as we're not that bad we'll make it.

And in Jesus's day it was similar a little different but similar. The dominant idea in his day was that every Israelite was going to be saved because it was their birthright as Israelites they inherited it from Abraham is born with it they were in a covenant with God sealed by circumcision and so because of that promise to Abraham that they inherited his sons and daughters of Abraham they they get in to the kingdom of God.

It's sort of like some universities even some elite ones letting in call them legacy students students who are admitted because of their parents their parents were students there. So they they'll let their their kids in particular probably a bet if they if they keep giving it to the endowment fund that's probably a big part of it.

But anyway they'll they'll get in based on their their parents it's just inherited. And it was commonly thought in Jesus's day here that people that Jesus is addressing throughout this commonly thought that everybody is getting in almost at least all the people around us our own neighbors because this is he's in Israel.

He's talking to Israelite people to Jewish people that every descendant of Abraham at least through Jacob because as the Israelites they're all in a covenant with God they're all gonna be let in except for maybe a few kind of outrageous out-and-out sinners who just reject the law you know they maybe they get they get involved in paganism those but but most of us are making it in now.

John the Baptist had tried to warn them that that wasn't so that God could make. You know he told them God can make sons out of Abraham out of these stones you think you're gonna inherit it because of that.

And and he tried to tell him but they really didn't listen to him. And the Gentiles of course now they're out that's a different thing. They don't get in but you know they're over the horizon they don't see them much but they're not getting in because they don't inherit it now they can't make it unless of course the one exception if they convert to becoming Jews then they can make it anyway.

But most people as far as they as far as they considered people Jews those are the one those are the people they consider to be real people they would be saved. So in one way Jesus is controversy here when he's asked this question is a lot like what we experience today sort of in our day because for both of us Jesus in his day and us now the common belief is that nearly everyone at least nearly everyone around us is going to heaven for Jesus the time everyone around him there all the Jews well you know while a few a few radicals and Jesus today first John the Baptist we're saying no you have to bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

So in that context okay understand Jesus is asked a question notice in verse 22 as we're reminded he's asked a question but we're reminded of some what's going on in the background of this question he is journeying.

It's kind of hard say journeying toward Jerusalem. In chapter 9 verse 51 where we kind of started a few weeks ago he said it said he set his face and we see determined to go to Jerusalem. And from that on from then on in that determination that turning Jerusalem is divides the whole book of Luke.

So from that moment on and from everything that we've been looking at in the past several weeks as we've been in Luke including this story is a bit is is in the background of his journeying to Jerusalem of his heading to the cross.

That's the goal of all this that overshadows everything that we've been listening to the past several weeks including this he said he's on his way to the cross and on his way there he's asked will those who are saved be few.

That's sort of the controversy. John the Baptist I think it's John the Baptist probably sparked that because he said only you got to repent. And where do you stand Jesus are you with most of us they were almost all gonna make it as we inherited.

Are you with John the Baptist didn't know you got to repent. Where do you stand. And to answer that question we also come across seven other questions that just arise from it first now the overshadowing question is is will those who say be few but first say from what you know that's what people ask today we say from what what do we say from save here maybe from if you're a historical kind of person from the Romans well that doesn't come up in his answers he's not obviously not talking about political salvation.

Say from death maybe well he doesn't promise that maybe say through death but not from it his answer here is say from being shut out you want in how are you going to be say from being shut out of what you want in to you know if you want to be rich are you gonna be saved from being shut out of riches or say from being shut out of the USA or say from being shut out of the college you want to get into or get the degree from and if you know you think about that if you want this thing you want to be wealthy or you want a degree from that college you you want to get into the country you think about how can I be safe from being shut out my can answer.

She spent a lot of time until last month thinking how they could be saved from being shut out of the country. And fortunately, thankfully, they were. And if you want to enter the kingdom of God, you're going to think, how can I be saved from being shut out of it?

After all, if you're seeking it first, remember Jesus' command in this earlier, in this context, seek first his kingdom, you're seeking it first. You'll want to know, how can I be saved from being shut out of what I'm seeking first?

And even if you don't think you want into the kingdom of God now, as we'll see here, you will want in one day. Now how are you going to be saved from being shut out of it? That's what he's going to Jerusalem for, that's why that context is important.

He's heading there so we can be saved from being shut out of it. Our sins shut us out of God's presence. They make us unfit to be allowed in, as we are in our natural condition. We are not allowed in God's kingdom.

You can't make it through that door, no way. It's not like somebody believed today that God just desperately wants everybody in and that he's doing his best, you know, kind of convince and conjole and beg people to come in and he'll take anyone who wants in.

It's not like that. And that the only reason some people think, you know, the only reason people don't make it in is because they decide to shut themselves out. That's not, you notice how contrary that way of thinking is to this passage.

Here it's that God is holy and just. He has wrath towards sin and we are all sinners and so our sin disqualifies us for entrance into his kingdom. But here Jesus is going to Jerusalem to qualify us. He is going to be that you could call it.

He's the heaven qualifier. Once he qualifies us, we're then allowed into his kingdom. He said earlier, you know, on this journey in chapter 12, verse 50, that he's eager to.

Do it.

And you think that's odd, but maybe here the disciples didn't understand what what he's so eager to do. I mean, he just wants to go to Jerusalem to have the Passover there or whatever. But how we we know where he's going, he's going to the cross and he said he's eager to do it.

All that I'm in anguish, I'm in distress until I do it, he said, to be baptized, to use the term to be immersed into the wrath of God at our sins so that he can qualify. His what he calls his little flock, what he called his his friends, the people he's chosen to be his friends, his little flock, he's he's taking this trek, this journey to save us from being shut out of God's presence.

And that tells us a lot already, doesn't it? If if being in God's kingdom is worth Jesus dying for, it's worth an enormous amount. It's very costly to get in, isn't it? Because that. If God loves his little flock so much, he's willing to send his son to qualify them to be with him.

Well, then he loves us a great deal, doesn't he? If that's the case, then. You know, if he wants us in that much that he sent his son to pay, pay our way in to provide for us, if he wants us in that much.

Then did he make a broad road in? Did he make it easy to get in? Will he accept almost anyone that wants to come in any way they come in?

Really?

And that's the second question.

Is the way broad?

Is it easy? A few weeks ago, I encountered someone online and kind of got a reason this way, who insisted that almost everyone or nearly nearly everyone will be saved. You know, God loves everyone as he wants us in.

So he's going to make it easy to get in at any time when even the worst sinners and the serial killers, the worst of the worst, when they see God's goodness, when they finally see his glory, they'll repent and they'll want to enter.

And of course, they assume that God will let anyone in who ask. Any time in the end, in the words of one popular teacher, this is the common view today, love.

Wins.

God's love will win everyone or at least nearly everyone. And that's a view that fits in with sort of the mood of our time. I told this person online that Jesus directly answered that question. It's not as though he didn't he didn't address it.

Here he is. He's given. He's asked it right here. And here's the answer.

Here's the answer.

Here it is.

You strive to enter through the narrow door. Think of that word, strive, you know, notice that verse 24, to command, strive, it means to struggle, to exert yourself, it's where we get in the original Greek words, the word we get, where we get our word for agonize from.

It means a wholehearted action and exertion that will bring you pain in the process, agony. It's the agonizing of a student staying up late to study for SATs or LSATs so he or she can make it into the university they want.

The agonizing of a runner running, you know, going mile after mile, day after day, trying to qualify, you know, for the Boston Marathon. The agonizing of the businessman getting up early, staying up late, working 16 hours a day or longer, and then taking his hard-earned money and instead of just splurging it on a vacation, buying a boat, whatever, invested in business so he can make even more and work even harder.

But that kind of striving into entering the kingdom of God. Don't be passive. You know, like a person who just thinks he inherits his way in, he's in the covenant with God from being a baby and he doesn't have to do anything from here on out.

That's what some of these people that he's addressing here, Jesus is talking to, notice he consistently, Jesus says, you, you, some of you will be begging. That's what they thought. The way in is easy, they thought, just like a lot of people were around today.

They think the way is easy. You don't need to strive to enter heaven, it's going to come easy. But you're just born with it. Or maybe today people just believe it's as easy as saying you believe a few claims about Jesus.

As long as you say you believe it, even if it doesn't change your life, you're going.

To be let in.

It doesn't result in you sacrificing anything, but you call, you say you believe, you're.

In.

They'll spend their life striving for all kinds of things, striving for money, for thrills,.

For whatever.

Not for being right with God, but they think that's okay. And Jesus says that's all wrong. Agonized to enter, Jesus says, because the way is narrow. There's only one way into God's kingdom through Jesus himself.

And having him as your door into God's presence is not cheap. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German Lutheran pastor who felt it was his duty to return to his home in Germany during World War II, rather than stay in the safety of the USA, decried what he called, called it cheap grace.

And we quote, cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheap wares. The sacraments, the forgiveness of sins, the consolation of religion are thrown away at cut prices. Cheap grace means grace is a doctrine, a principle, a system.

It means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth. The love of God taught as the Christian conception of God and intellectual assent, or disagreeing to that idea, is held to be itself sufficient to secure remission of sins.

Sounds like a lot.

What's taught today, isn't it? As long as you say you agree. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ living and incarnate.

And in contrast to the cheap grace we have so much of today, Bonhoeffer said that there was a costly grace. Costly grace, he said, is the treasure hidden in the field for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has.

It's the pearl of great price for which to buy the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble. It's the call of Jesus Christ for which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.

And we could add now in light of this passage, it's the narrow door which those who want to enter to be with Jesus will strive to go through. Yes, we're saved by grace alone. The grace that saves is never alone.

It makes us strive, agonize to be with the Lord. Then Jesus says at the end of verse 24, notice this in verse 24, for many, I tell you, remember this is answered to his question. Will only a few be saved?

He says, many, I tell you, remember, strive to enter now. Strive is present tense at this moment. Right now, you better strive, exert yourself. Because later at the end, many will, future tense, will seek at this time, strive to enter.

Because at that coming time, many will want to enter, he says, but will not be able. Now this sparks a lot of questions. You think about that phrase. I mean, that just blows the mind of many people today with the way they think about heaven.

Why Many Are Shut Out and What the Locked Door Means

This sparks a lot of questions. And beginning with our third question, why do few make it? Well, then, at that time, they believe, at least these people Jesus is talking to here, that many Jews will make it.

They'll almost all make it because they inherit it. They just kind of inherit it from God. It comes from Abraham. Today, people believe that they will enter God's kingdom because God's kind of indulgent, you know.

I'm not too bad, and God is really just kind of squishy. Many can't imagine a God that would keep anyone who wants in, would keep them out. You know, even after death, unbelievers will, they think, this is the way many people's conception is, unbelievers will see God's goodness, and they will want to have it, at least the benefits of it.

And God, you know, being kind of squishy, they think, will say, oh, shucks, I can't stay mad, you know, and we'll let them in, they think. But here, Jesus says that many, notice that clearly, many will, in the future, seek to enter.

That's their goal, they want in, but they won't be allowed in.

Now, why?

Now, to answer that, he tells a parable, kind of a parable. I'll call it the master of the house. Starting in verse 25, the master of the house, he gets up before going to bed. He's been reclining after meals, time to go to sleep.

What's he do? What do you do? Maybe, you know, maybe you watch TV for a while in the evening, and you're about to go to bed.

What do you do?

Get up, probably, like most of you, you lock the door. We probably all do this. One of us, you know, have a nightly routine. Someone's got to have the responsibility to lock the doors. And here, Jesus is addressing to these crowds who are flocking to him, and he's telling them that the time is coming when the master of the house, the house kind of being a picture of the kingdom of God, that he's got, there's a narrow door, you better strive to enter, but the time is coming when it's going to be shut and locked.

If you're not in by the time the door is locked, you might knock and plead, Lord, open to us. But Jesus says he will answer, I do not know where you come from. In other words, I don't know you. You are not someone I have a relationship with.

Now, these people that Jesus is speaking directly to here, now, they could not imagine that God would exclude any of his, quote, covenant people, unless they just outrageously rejected him. But they all have a right to be in, they think.

Now, today in our culture, many people can't imagine someone being, someone asking, someone seeking, someone begging to be led into the kingdom of God. And they can't imagine God saying to such a person, no, I don't know you.

But he does do that.

Why?

Because the time is up. You know, there is a time, a set time when the door is unlocked. When you can open it, you can walk through. And then that time is up. And the door is shut, the door is locked.

And if you're not into his kingdom, then, before the door is locked, you're shut out. There is a limited time to get into God's kingdom. You know, it's appointed to human beings once to die, and after that comes judgment, says Hebrews chapter 9, verse 27.

The Bible says today is the day of salvation, meaning this time right now that we're in, in this body, on this earth, this is the time of salvation. After this time, there's no more salvation. That's the implication.

Anyway, after this, the door is locked. And we're either permanently in, or we're permanently out. And then the next question, well, will people want to be in, but not be able to come in? Will they want in, but be denied?

Well, yes, clearly.

Notice in verse 26, these people are shut out, they're begging, they're pleading, they're knocking. They're saying, you know, we ate and drank in your presence, and you taught us in our streets. He's speaking literally to these people, these crowds around him.

He's saying that literally many of these same people he's talking to here, that they will come on Judgment Day, they will be begging in their future time to be let in. And they'll be begging because they say, we're acquainted.

I knew you. We had lunch together. Remember that time in Capernaum? We were your audience. I was there at the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus, you're not going to leave me out, are you? But they are shut out.

Now imagine today, people don't even have that much acquaintance. People today are just acquainted with his name. They barely know anything of what he taught. And they expect to be let in because, well, they've kind of vaguely heard about him.

They have a superficial knowledge of who he is. They think that's enough. Here they are, though, people acquainted with Jesus, but people who didn't go through him, through faith in what he did to the kingdom of God.

So here they are, knocking and pleading. They want in. You know, when they see the alternative to the kingdom of God, hell. When they see the alternative and what the kingdom of God offers, now they want to be a part.

Now it looks good. It didn't look good before, you know, when they thought they could chase skirts or beers or parties or whatever. But now it looks great. But time is up now. And so he tells them in verse 27, notice in verse 27, I tell you, this is a way of emphasizing something.

This is absolutely true. Pay attention to this. I telling you, Jesus says, I don't know where you come from. That's what I don't know you. We may be acquainted. But I don't know you. I have no relationship with you.

But why won't he let them come in? Why not get to them later? People today are convinced that God will let everyone in who ask that the only obstacle to getting into the kingdom of God is our will. You realize that's the view of probably the vast majority of people today.

It's all our will. If we want in, we're in. If we don't, we're out. It all depends on what we choose. God is always willing for everyone we believe. And so even after death, at the last judgment, God will be willing to receive anyone who chooses to be in and wants to be in at that time.

Well, it just isn't so.

We see that here, this parable. He's just portraying it. It's not going to be that way. It's sort of like the idea that the people here believe that all Jews will make it in or the people around us now believe that everybody that's just not a horrendously evil serial killer is going to make it in.

No, it's simply wrong. Why won't he let them in? Because of the obstacle that's in front of the narrow doorway. We need to clearly understand that our will is not the only obstacle to getting into the kingdom of God.

God's will is also an obstacle. And really, in the end, it's the only obstacle that matters. Because if God's will is to receive us, he can turn our will. Being holy and just, God is rightly angry with us for our sins.

And that's the obstacle keeping us out of the kingdom of God. Now, if he graciously, for no other reason, not because, you know, we were raised in a good family, we learned our Bible books in order, you know, whatever.

He just, out of his pure grace, decides, I want you to be my friend. I want you to be part of what he calls his little flock, my little flock. And he graciously chosen that, and he sends Jesus to Jerusalem here to deal with his own anger at our sins.

And so once Jesus has been baptized or immersed in God's wrath at our sins, then the price is paid for. And so God will then, by the Holy Spirit, give us a new heart. So we want to come in now. And the Father graciously gives us the kingdom.

As it is, as Jesus says, it's his good pleasure to do that for his little flock. But if someone is not one of the little flock, whom it's the Father's good pleasure to give him or her, then they don't get the kingdom.

They don't even want to strive to enter through the narrow door. When they finally see how, now, when they finally see how, what it looks like, the difference, they see it clearly laid out before them.

There are two choices, heaven or hell. Yeah, now they're begging to be let in, but now it's too late. They're locked out. Time is up. They've missed the deadline. The door is shut. They have nothing covering their sins, and so they are seen as they really are, really as we all really are, in their sins.

They're seen as we are in our sins. But they're seen, because nothing's covering them, as workers of, and literally the word there, instead of evil in the ESV, it's the word unrighteousness. Literally in verse 27, workers of unrighteousness.

Workers of unrighteousness means they did things that were not right with God. This, by the way, is what we all do, left to ourselves. But they don't have anything to hide their unrighteousness, and that's the difference.

That's what shuts them out. Well, then the next question, what will it be like for them? What's it going to be like, basically, when we go to all hell? Well, the master of the house, Christ himself, will say to them, depart from me, all you workers of unrighteousness.

Now, first, this is a total shock to them, right? They expect it. They were acquainted. They're sons of the covenant, sons of Abraham, whatever. This is a total shock. They're fully expecting to be let in, like if any of us just assumed, I'm going to be let in to that country club or that college.

I'm going to make the team. I'm going to be admitted to the race. We just assume it. And then it never occurs to us that anything other than will be accepted until we get that rejection notice.

What? Shock.

Complete surprise. And these people thought they were inheritors of a covenant with God that gave them a right to be in. Maybe now they thought because of something that was done to them as a little baby, the family they were born into, they also have a right to be in.

Or maybe they're given insurance of salvation for walking an aisle and saying a prayer, then being immediately baptized. Of course, never disciplined, even when they drop out of church. But they just think they have a right.

They've been told that. Never doubt it. People today think the door will never be locked, that the master of the house will never tell anyone, depart from me. But they're wrong. And here we see they'll be shocked at how wrong they are.

Second, after the shock, in verse 28, they will have, Jesus says, they will have weeping. That is, they'll have sorrow because they're shut out of where now they want to be. And, Jesus' phrase, gnashing of teeth.

They'll be enraged.

You know, you just...

What happens when you get really angry, you start gnashing your teeth.

Furious.