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

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Luke 13:22-35 How Do You Get In?

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That's good. Luke chapter 13, we'll be reading from verse 22 to 35.
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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,
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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,
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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,
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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.
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But he will say, I tell you, I don't know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil.
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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 that you yourselves cast out.
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And people will come from east and west and from north and south and recline at table in the kingdom of God.
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And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.
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May the Lord add his blessings, the reading of his holy word. Well, how do you get in to what you want into?
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Of course, that depends on what it is you want to get in. Maybe the rich man's club.
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How do you get into being wealthy? 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 never make it to being wealthy.
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You could be the hardest working postman in the world, and you're sorry, you're only going to rise as high as the postman's salary.
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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 going to get rich doing that.
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Sorry, Emily, it's not going to happen. Unless you maybe marry someone who's going to get rich, that could probably happen.
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You have to work hard at a job that has great income potential.
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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.
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Now that, I guess, is how you make it into the rich man's club. How do you get in to the
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USA if you're not born a citizen? You know, sometimes it's harder than you might think. You could marry your way in,
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Mary, but even that is hard. First, you've got to find an
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American worth marrying, and then there is still all kinds of paperwork. I went through that.
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As Mary was applying for what they call a green card, there's a permanent residency pass. When we were living in Singapore, she had to be a permanent resident for the
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USA so she could come in to the country. Now, we had 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
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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 whatever.
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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.
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So, I first thought, well, this is going to be easy. It's going to be easy to get her in. Boy, was
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I wrong. You know, after a while, I was frustrated with so much, you know, evidence
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I had to provide and forms I had to fill out and just stuff, you know, I had to give them. I got so frustrated, exasperated at one point at the
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U .S. embassy there that I felt like, you know, I even told the embassy person there, I just,
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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.
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You know, they can't find her, all these people, 300 million people, they're not going to find her. And the U .S. embassy official just said, please don't do that.
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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.
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They say that some kids have had their heads puffed up with how, you're being constantly told how great they are, refuse to even try out for a team.
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It's beneath them. Maybe they'll shrug their shoulders and say, I don't really want to play anyway. But the truth is, they want to play.
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They're just afraid that if they try out and they don't make it, you know, their bubble of greatness will be, will be burst.
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They need to know that if you want to be part of the team, you want in to that team, you have to humble yourself to try out.
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And my first track coach tried to talk me out of joining the track team. He wasn't, how was it like I was recruited?
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He tried to talk me out of it and I'm glad he let me in anyway. Some elite races like the
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Boston Marathon required you to get into, not just anyone could run the Boston Marathon, you understand.
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You have to qualify to get in. And in order to qualify, you have to run a certain time.
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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 10 minutes or faster.
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Got it? In order to be led in their race. Of course, that means you need to run elsewhere.
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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
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Boston Marathon. I know someone in this area, some of you even know him, Adam Jones, who has been struggling to qualify to make it into the
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Boston Marathon. And just last week was his fourth try, fourth marathon he's run in order to try to qualify.
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He ran in Cary, North Carolina right there by Durham. He came up one minute short, three hours 11 minutes.
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He'll try again next week in Raleigh, fifth marathon to try.
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Man, he's committed. Maybe you've tried to get in to a college that you want to get into, a university, esteemed university.
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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,
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I tried to get in to get my PhD, tried to get into some of the elite universities, including the
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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
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Nobel prizes. I was rejected by the University of Chicago, but I got a scholarship to a
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Lutheran seminary that was immediately next to the University of Chicago, and they let me take, because I was part of that seminary,
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Lutheran seminary, I was able to take classes at the University of Chicago. They had an arrangement, and one of those classes got me noticed by a professor who had won a
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Nobel Prize, and he asked me to be his teaching assistant the next year. That meant, ironically, that I was now grading papers and writing tests, issuing grades, even giving lectures.
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I stood there giving lectures to a class full of 50 students, all of whom had made it into an institution.
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I didn't. The last shall be first. So how do you get in?
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People understand that if it's worth, most people understand, 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.
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The one exception to that that I can find, people in our day, the one exception is heaven.
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Today, people commonly think that nearly everybody is going to make it into heaven. It's easy to get in.
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Today, people commonly think, you know, that this is the way it is. God's going to let anybody in who wants in. All they got to do is ask, you know, basically any time.
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And 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.
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It's for, you know, it's for, hell is for Adolf Hitler, maybe a few perverted serial killers.
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That's the people who, that's the only people who go to hell. And the rest of us, you know, as long as we're not that bad, we'll make it.
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And in Jesus's day, it was similar, a little different, but similar. The dominant idea in his day was that every
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Israelite was going to be saved because it was their birthright as Israelites. They inherited it from Abraham.
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He was born with it. They were in a covenant with God, sealed by circumcision. And so because of that promise to Abraham that they inherited as sons and daughters of Abraham, they get in to the kingdom of God.
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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.
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Their parents were students there, so they they'll let their their kids in. Particularly, probably, I bet, if they keep giving it to the endowment fund.
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That's probably a big part of it. But anyway, they'll get in based on their their parents.
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It's just inherited. And it was commonly thought in Jesus's day, here, the people that Jesus is addressing throughout this, commonly thought that everybody is getting in, at least all the people around us, our own neighbors, because he's in Israel, he's talking to Israelite people, to Jewish people, that every descendant of Abraham, at least through Jacob, because that's the
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Israelites, they're all in a covenant with God. They're all going to be let in, except for maybe a few kind of outrageous, out -and -out sinners who just reject the law.
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You know, maybe they get involved in paganism. Those, but but most of us are making it in. Now, John the
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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.
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You think you're going to inherit it because of that? And he tried to tell them, but they really didn't listen to him.
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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.
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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
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Jews, then they can make it. Anyway, but most people, as far as they, as far as they considered people,
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Jews, those are the ones, those are the people they consider to be real people. They would be saved. So in one way, Jesus' 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,
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Jesus in his day and us now, the common belief is that nearly everyone, at least nearly everyone around us is going to heaven.
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For Jesus' time, everyone around them there, all the Jews, while, you know, while a few, a few radicals in Jesus' day, first John the
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Baptist, were saying, no, you have to bear fruit in keeping with repentance. So in that context,
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OK, understand Jesus is asked a question. Notice in verse 22, as we're reminded, he's asked a question, but we're reminded of what's going on in the background of this question.
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He is journeying, it's kind of hard to say, journeying toward Jerusalem. In chapter 9, verse 51, where we kind of started a few weeks ago, he said, he set his face, he determined to go to Jerusalem.
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And from that on, from then on, in that determination, that turning Jerusalem divides the whole book of Luke.
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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 in the background of his journeying to Jerusalem, of his heading to the cross.
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That's the goal of all this. That overshadows everything that we've been listening to the past several weeks, including this.
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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?
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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,
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Jesus? Are you with most of us? That we're almost all going to make it as we inherited? Are you with John the Baptist? No, you got to repent.
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Where do you stand? And to answer that question, we also come across seven other questions that just arise from it.
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First, now the overshadowing question is, is will those who say be few? But first, say from what?
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You know, that's what people ask today. We say, say from what? What do we say from? Save here, maybe from if you're a historical kind of person from the
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Romans. Well, that has to come up in his answers. He's not obviously not talking about political salvation, say from death, maybe.
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Well, he doesn't promise that maybe say through death, but not from it. His answer here is save from being shut out.
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You want in. How are you going to be saved from being shut out of what you want into?
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If you want to be rich, how are you going to be saved from being shut out of riches or save from being shut out of the
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USA or save from being shut out of the college you want to get into or get the degree from?
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And if you think about that, if you want to say you want to be wealthy or you want a degree from that college, you want to get into the country.
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You think about how can I be saved from being shut out? Mike and Nancy spent a lot of time and until last month thinking how they could be saved from being shut out of the country.
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And fortunately, thankfully, they were. And if you want to enter the kingdom of God, you're going to think, how can
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I be saved from being shut out of it? After all, if you're seeking it first, remember
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Jesus's command in this earlier in this context, seek first his kingdom, you're seeking it first.
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You 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.
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Now, how are you going to be safe from being shut out of it? And that's what he's going to Jerusalem for.
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That's why that context is important. He's heading there so we can be safe from being shut out of it.
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Our sins shut us out of God's presence. They make us unfit to be allowed in as we are in our natural condition.
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We we are not allowed in God's kingdom. You can't make it through that door.
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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.
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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.
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That's not how contrary that way of thinking is to this passage here.
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It's that God is holy and just. He has wrath toward sin and we are all sinners.
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And so our sin disqualifies us for entrance into his kingdom.
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But here Jesus is going to Jerusalem to qualify us.
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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.
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He said earlier, you know, on this journey in chapter 12, verse 50. He's eager to do it.
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And you think that's odd, but maybe here the disciples didn't understand what what he's so eager to do.
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He just wants to go to Jerusalem and have the Passover there or whatever. But how we we know where he's going, he's going to the cross.
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And he said he's eager to do it. Oh, I'm in anguish. I'm in distress until I do it, he said to be baptized.
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He used the term to be immersed into the wrath of God at our sins so that he can qualify.
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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.
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And that tells us a lot already, doesn't it? If if being in God's kingdom is worth
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Jesus dying for, it's worth an enormous amount.
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It's very costly to get in, isn't it? It costs that. If God loves his little flock so much, he's willing to send his son to qualify them to be with him.
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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.
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Then did he make a broad road in? Did he make it easy to get in? Well, he accept almost anyone that wants to come in any way they come in, will he?
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And that's the second question. Is the way broad? Is it easy?
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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.
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You know, God loves everyone. He wants us in. So he's going to make it easy to get in at any time. Um, when even the worst sinners and the serial killers, the worst of the worst, when they see
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God's goodness, when they finally see his glory, they'll repent and they'll want to enter.
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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, and this is the common view today, love wins,
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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.
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I told this person online that Jesus directly answered that question. It's not as though he didn't he didn't address it.
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Here he is. He's given. He's asked it right here. And here's the here's the answer.
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Here it is. You strive to enter through the narrow door. Think that word strive.
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Notice that verse 24 to command. Strive means to struggle, to exert yourself.
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It's where we get in the original Greek words to where 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.
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Agony is the agonizing of a student staying up late to study for SATs or LSATs.
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So he or she can make it into the university they want. The agonizing of a runner running, going mile after mile, day after day, trying to qualify for the
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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.
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But that kind of striving into entering the kingdom of God, don't be passive like a person who just thinks he inherits his way in.
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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.
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Jesus is talking to. Notice he consistently, Jesus says, you, you, some of you will be begging.
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That's what they thought. The way in is easy, they thought, just like a lot of people were around today.
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They think the way is easy. You don't need to strive into heaven. It's going to come easy. But you're just born with it.
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Or maybe today people just believe it's as easy as saying you believe with a few, you believe a few claims about Jesus.
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As long as you say you believe it, even if it doesn't change your life, you're going to be let in.
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It doesn't result in, it doesn't result in you sacrificing anything, but you call, you say you believe you're in.
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They'll spend their life striving for all kinds of things, striving for money, for thrills, for whatever, not for being right with God.
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But they think that's OK. And Jesus says that's all wrong. Agonized to enter,
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Jesus says, because the way is narrow. There's only one way into God's kingdom through Jesus himself.
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And having him as your door into God's presence is not cheap.
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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
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USA, decried what he called, called it cheap grace. I mean, quote, cheap grace means grace sold in the market like cheap wares.
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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.
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It means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth. The love of God taught as the Christian conception of God and intellectual ascent.
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I was just agreeing to an eye to to that idea is held to be itself sufficient to secure remission of sins.
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It's unlike a lot what's taught today, isn't it? As long as you say you agree. Cheap grace at the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession.
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Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ living and incarnate.
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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 sake of it.
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A man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It's the pearl of great price for which to buy.
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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.
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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.
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Yes, we're saved by grace alone. The grace that saves is never alone. It makes us strive, agonize to be with the
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Lord. Then Jesus says at the end of verse 24, notice this in verse 24, for many,
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I tell you, remember this is answered to his question. Will only a few be saved? He says, many,
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I tell you, remember, strive to enter now. Strive is present tense at this moment.
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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.
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Now, this sparks a lot of questions. You think about that phrase. I mean, that just blows the mind of many people today.
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The way they think about heaven, this is sparks a lot of questions. And beginning with our third question.
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Why do few make it? Well, then at that time, they believe at least these people
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Jesus is talking to here that many, many Jews will make it. They'll almost all make it because they inherit it.
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They just kind of inherit it from God. It comes from Abraham. Today, people believe that they will enter
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God's kingdom because God, God's kind of indulge it. I'm not too bad. And God is really just kind of squishy.
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Many can't imagine a God that would keep anyone. Anyone who wants in would keep them out.
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You know, even after death, unbelievers will. They think this is the way many people's conception is.
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I'm believers will see God's goodness and they will want to have it. At least the benefits of it.
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And God, you know, being kind of squishy. They think we'll say, oh, shucks.
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I can't say mad, you know, and we'll let them in. They think. But here
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Jesus says that many notice that clearly many.
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Will in the future seek to enter their goal they want in, but they won't be allowed in.
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Now, why? Now, to answer that, he tells a parable, kind of a parable.
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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.
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He's been reclining after meals. Time to go to sleep. What you do? What do you do? You know, maybe you watch
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TV for a while in the evening and you about to go to bed. What do you do? Get up. Probably like most of it. You lock the door.
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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.
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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.
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The house is kind of being a picture of the kingdom of God that he's got. There's a narrow door. You better strive to enter.
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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.
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You might knock and plead. Lord, open to us.
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But Jesus says he will answer. I do not know where you come from. In other words,
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I don't know you. You are not someone I have a relationship with.
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Now, these people that Jesus is speaking directly to here. Now, they could not imagine that God would exclude any of his covenant people.
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Unless it is outrageously, you know, rejected him. But they all have a right to be in, they think.
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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.
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And they can't imagine God saying to such a person, no, I don't know you.
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But he does do that. Why? Because the time is up.
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There is a time, a set time when the door is unlocked. When you can open it, you can walk through.
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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.
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There is a limited time to get into God's kingdom. You know, it's appointed to human beings once to die.
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And after that comes judgment, says Hebrews chapter nine, verse 27.
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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.
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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.
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And then the next question, well, will people want to be in but not be able?
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To come in, will they want in but be denied? Well, yes, clearly.
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Notice the verse 26. These people are shut out. They're begging, they're pleading, they're knocking. We ate and drank and they're saying, you know, we ate and drank in your presence and you taught us in our streets.
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And 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.
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They will be begging in that future time to be let in. And they'll be begging because they say we're acquainted.
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I knew you. We had lunch together. Remember that time in Capernaum? We remember we were your audience.
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I was there. The Sermon on the Mount. Jesus, you're going to leave me out, are you? But they're shut out.
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Now, imagine today people, people are, you know, don't even have that much acquaintance.
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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.
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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.
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So here they are knocking and pleading. They want in. You know, when they see the alternative to the kingdom of God, hell.
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They see the alternative and what the kingdom of God offers. Now they want to be a part.
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Now, now, now it looks good. Didn't look good before, you know, when they thought they could chase skirts or beers or parties or whatever.
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But now it looks great. But time is up now. And so he tells them in verse 27, notice the verse 27.
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I tell you this is a way of emphasizing something. This is absolutely true. Pay attention to this.
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I telling you, Jesus says. I don't know where you come from.
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That's what I don't know you. We may be acquainted. But I don't know you.
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I have no relationship with you. But why wouldn't he let them come in? Why not get to them later?
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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.
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You realize that's the that's the view of probably the vast majority of people today. It's all our will. If we want in, we're in.
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If we don't, we're out. It all depends on our what we choose that God is always willing for everyone we believe.
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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.
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Well, it just isn't so. We see that here, this this parable, he's just portraying it.
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It's not going to be that way. It's sort of like the idea that the people here believe that all
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Jews will make it in or the people around us now believe that every everybody that's just not a horrendously evil serial killer is going to make it in.
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No, it's simply wrong. Why won't he let them in? Because of the obstacle that's in front of the the narrow doorway, we need to clearly understand that our will is not the only obstacle to getting into the kingdom of God.
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God's will is also an obstacle. Really, in the end, is the only obstacle that matters. Because if God's will is to receive us, he can turn our will being holy and just.
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God is rightly angry with us for our sins, and that's the obstacle keeping us out of the kingdom of God.
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Now, if he graciously for no other reason, not because, you know, we were raised in a good family, we learned our
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Bible books in order or whatever. He just out of his pure grace decides,
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I want you to be my friend. I want you to be part of what he calls his little flock, my little flock.
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And he graciously chosen that and he sends Jesus to Jerusalem here to deal with his own anger at our sins.
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And so once Jesus has been baptized or immersed in God's wrath at our sins, then the price is paid for.
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And so God will then, by the Holy Spirit, give us a new heart. So we want to come in.
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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.
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But if someone is not one of the little flock whom is the father's good pleasure to give him or her.
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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.
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What it looks like the difference they see it clearly laid out before them, their two choices, heaven or hell.
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Yeah. Now they're begging to be let in. But now it's too late. They're locked out.
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Time is up. They've missed the deadline. The door is shut. They have nothing covering their sins.
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And so they are seen as they really are. Really, as we all really are.
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In their sense, they're seeing as we are in our sins. But they're seeing because nothing's covering them as workers of and literally the word there instead of evil in the
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SV, it's word unrighteousness. Literally, in verse twenty seven on workers of unrighteousness, workers of unrighteousness means they did things that were not right with God.
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This, by the way, is what we all do. Left to ourselves. But they don't have anything to hide their unrighteousness.
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And that's the difference. That's what shuts them out. Well, then the next question.
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What will it be like for them? What's it gonna be like? Basically, we go all hell.
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Well, the master of the house, Christ himself will say to them. Depart from me, all you workers of unrighteousness.
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Now, first, this is a total shock to them, right? They expected they were acquainted. They're sons of the covenant, sons of Abraham, whatever.
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This is total shock. They're fully expecting to be let in. Like if any of us just assumed
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I'm going to be let into that country club or that college. I'm going to make the team. I'm going to be admitted to the race.
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We just assume it. And then it never occurs to us. Anything, anything other than will be accepted until we get that rejection notice.
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What a shock, complete surprise. And these people thought they were inheritors of a covenant with God that gave them a right to be in.
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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.
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Or maybe they're given insurance of salvation for walking an aisle and saying a prayer, then being immediately baptized.
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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.
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People today think the door will never be locked, that the master of the house will never tell anyone depart from me.
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But they're wrong. And here we see they'll be shocked at how wrong they are.
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Second, after the shock. In verse 28, they will have, Jesus says, they will have weeping.
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That is, they'll have sorrow because they're shut out of where now they want to be.
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And Jesus's phrase, gnashing of teeth. They'll be enraged, you know, just what if we get really angry, start gnashing your teeth, furious.
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They're not in to where they were convinced they had a right to be in. They'll be stewing eternally in their angry, willful belief that they have a right to be in the kingdom that they would not strive to enter while the door was still unlocked.
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Third. They will see. They'll see at least something of the kingdom that they are shut out of.
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This is this is seems to me part of the torture of hell is having a knowledge of what they could have had had they sought to enter the kingdom that they chose instead to be rebels against.
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Here in verse 27, they will see those who are allowed in. They'll see, Jesus says, they'll see
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Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. For these people, Jesus is talking to. They're the ones they thought they had inherited a right from.
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They'll see the prophets whom they said they believed, but they will be cast out.
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People today who say they believe in Jesus, but that belief doesn't set a fire in them to strive to enter his kingdom, to really know him, to they don't have the power of his resurrection in their life and a power that means they're willing now to share his sufferings.
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Those people will see the master of the house, Jesus. While they're thrown out to.
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The people outside will see people, Jesus says, they'll see people from east and west and north and south.
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He's talking to Jews here. And in other words, Jesus saying you're going to see you're going to see Gentiles.
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Remember, they just assume Gentiles can't make it. Jesus say, no, it's totally different. Not only will not many of you be saved, but you'll be going to see
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Gentiles. You'll see them coming in the nations that you had no covenant with God.
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They had no claim on God, no right to be in his kingdom. The people who were the last, who were the least, you're going to see them there.
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They will see people from the east. This is Israel east. That's China. They'll see them coming.
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That's a Chinese reclining, eating, probably with chopsticks, I guess. People from the west, you know, people from Europe, Romans, people that had been pagans, barbarians, people from the north,
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Armenia, Russia, from the south, African people. All there relaxing in the presence of the king of the king, the master of the house, feasting with him forever, part of the kingdom of God.
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Then if that's the case, you know, that's what they'll see. These people who they'll see people who were far off, people who were from all kinds of countries, from all over the world, from all races and nations rejoicing and eating and enjoying the kingdom of God while they thought they could just inherit it.
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And they are thrown out. If that's the case, who gets in? Now, this is who gets in?
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How? That's the last question. Who gets in? Well, the last.
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Notice in verse 30, some are last. Not everybody is last. He's not saying all Gentiles.
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Some are last. Now, notice the are present tense at this time. Some are last.
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They're the foreigners. They're the people you think, you know, the dogs who don't have any right on God, people they never expected to be allowed in, you know, the people who were cut from the team, who were rejected by the college, who were banned.
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They, some are last now, who will be in the future at the judgment first.
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They'll be teaching the students, you know, who got in when they couldn't. They'll be part of the kingdom they had no inheritance in, no right to claim a place in.
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Not only that, some are first. Some are now first. At this time, Jesus is saying they're the ones who've given a preference.
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They have a foot in the door. They have an advantage. They think they have a right. And they will be in the future on the judgment at the end.
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They'll be last. They'll be shut out. Now, these people thought all or nearly all they thought
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Jews were safe. Jesus is clear. He said, no, many will not be able. But foreigners, people like you, who were last will be allowed in.
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Why? Because they, you, didn't think the kingdom of God was theirs by inheritance.
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They didn't think it was easy and cheap. They would strive to get in. They struggled.
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They exerted themselves to enter God's kingdom. So you saying, you might ask me, is it because of what they did?
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You know, you say by your works, but you did. But why did they do it?
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Why do some agonize to enter God's kingdom? And many others just not care less.
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You know, at least they won't care less until they see the difference between heaven and hell laid out before them. But now, why do some strive, work to enter his kingdom?
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And others just, it's not interesting. But why do some think the kingdom of God is worth sacrificing for worth bearing a cross for worth giving up money for worth rejecting some pleasures now for saying no to some compromising relationships?
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Why do some do that now? And many others do not. Well, Jesus answered that seems to me all the way back in chapter 12, verse 32.
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Dear little flock. It's your father's good pleasure to give you, you little flock, the kingdom.
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You strive to enter it. Because he's given it to you.
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The father wants. Think of that first. The father, you know, it's the father's good pleasure to give it to you.
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The father wants his little flock to come into his kingdom. We're not striving because the father's against us.
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He wants his little flock to come in. He'll keep the door open for them for as long as it takes.
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Jesus here eagerly wants to go to Jerusalem so that the little flock can be accepted.
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So that they won't have to be seen as the unrighteous that they really have been.
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But that they can be seen as right so that they can be welcomed in.
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So that they can be given a seat at the table and recline and feast.
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The father's good pleasure is to let us in. Jesus is himself here is agonizing to do the work to let us in.
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He's willing to be baptized in wrath to make that happen. What are you willing to do to make it happen?
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If you've been thinking it's easy, it's cheap. You know, you inherit it kind of like you would inherit an antique clock.
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Or it's like a participation medal. You know, you showed up, you showed up for your team's games and you get it.
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Everybody gets one. Maybe, maybe it costs a little, but it's kind of like a hamburger from a dollar menu. It costs a little, but not much.
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If that's what you've been thinking your salvation is like, and you think, you know, you're almost certainly going to make it.
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And so now because of that, that's squared away. You can spend your time exerting yourself for other things.
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You know, making big bucks, getting rich, being popular, having the romance, the relationship, maybe being the sports star, the big man or the woman looked up to.