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Sunnyside Baptist Church
That can't be with us tonight because of COVID or COVID precautions, et cetera. We're gonna be in Luke chapter 13, Luke chapter 13, and I'll be reading beginning in verse 22. So Luke chapter 13, begin reading in verse 22.
Let's begin with a word of prayer. Father, I thank you so much for gathering us together tonight. I thank you for the blessing of the meal. We thank you for the blessing of Nate's birthday. I pray that she would continue to bless this young man and continue to direct his life, to fear you and to love others, to rejoice in Christ.
And Lord, we pray tonight that as we read your word together, that you would give us understanding of the text, that you would bless us by your Holy Spirit to give us a warm amen from the heart to the meaning of the word, and that we would not only be hearers, but also doers.
And we ask these things for the sake of Jesus Christ, the one with whom you are well-pleased, amen. Luke 13, beginning in verse 22. And he went through the cities and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem.
Then one said to him, Lord, are there few who are saved? And he said to them, strive to enter through the narrow gate. For many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open for us.
And he will answer and say to you, I do not know you, where you are from. Then you will begin to say, we ate and drank in your presence, and you talked in our streets. But he will say, I tell you, I do not know you, where you are from.
Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity. 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 and yourselves thrust out. It will come from the East and the West, from the North and the South and sit down in the kingdom of God.
And indeed there are last who will be first. And there are first who will be last. On that very day, some Pharisees came saying to him, get out and depart from here for Herod wants to kill you. And he said to them, go tell that fox.
Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow and the third day I shall be perfected. Nevertheless, I must journey today, tomorrow and the day following for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem.
Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing.
See, your house has left you desolate and assuredly I say to you, you shall not see me until the time comes when you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. So we are reminded in verse 22 that Jesus is in route to Jerusalem.
Luke gives an account of Christ's movement toward Jerusalem in a very plodding fashion. Ever since chapter nine, he's been heading toward Jerusalem, teaching and spending time with folks and healing some, delivering others and event after event occurs.
And verse 22 reminds us that he is going to the cities, he's going to the villages, he is modeling the very type of ministry he wants his disciples to do. And he's been teaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, but he's heading toward Jerusalem.
He knows what's going to happen there. He even mentions it in this text. He makes this rather snide comment. It cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem, for Jerusalem is the epicenter for the killing of prophets, for the rejection of God's word.
So he's heading towards Jerusalem. And then as is typical in Luke on this journey, somebody interrupts, somebody says something and then he deals with it. Then one said to him, Lord, are there few who are saved?
Lord, are there few who are saved? Let's take a survey. What say you? What say you? Somebody asks you this question, let's say somebody says, do you think there's just a few who are saved? There are a few who are saved.
So what would you say? A lot? A few, a lot, a few. Don't you hate these yes or no questions? It's gotta be either or, there's. So why would we say few? What biblical warrant do we have to say few? Many are called, few are chosen, okay.
What biblical warrant would we say to have to say a lot? Yeah, how many descendants does Abraham have? As many as the stars are in the sky, as many as the sands on the seashore, like the dust of the earth.
The crowd around the throne in Revelation 7 is the same described in Revelation 5, that by the blood of the lamb, he is purchased for God. People from every tribe, tongue, and nation, a multitude which no man can count.
So why does Jesus say there are, many are called, few are chosen, why does Jesus say, narrow is the gate, or difficult is the way, narrow is the gate, and few are those who find it? The testimony of the scripture is that the preaching of the prophets in the Old Testament, did they have large crowds turn out and get converted?
How many converts did Jeremiah have? Was Ezekiel really popular? He's not popular today, I mean, like who wants to read that? It's difficult, hard plowing. What about Jesus, how many people did we end up with in the upper room, 120?
And yet, the promise of the scripture is, we don't really have any reason to complain when we read stuff like many are called and few are chosen, because when we get to the end, the few are somehow a multitude which no man can count.
So we understand the stories of, we could count the five loaves and the two fishes, but at the end of it, there were 12 baskets full left over. Right, God promised Abraham, you're gonna have a son, you're gonna get one son, it's not Ishmael, it's Isaac, there's one son, but this ends up being, this ends beyond measure, beyond count.
This is the way that God works. It is all at once, it grabs our attention, it humbles us, it reminds us it's all of grace, and especially the numbers that we cannot count reminds us that it is of grace.
But when somebody asks this question, Lord, are there few who are saved? I want you to see that when he answers, he answers in such a way, I mean, it's a long, it's longer than this, but basically he says, well, you're gonna be surprised.
Or he's gonna say, a lot of people are gonna be surprised is how he answers that question. It was a common question in the day, one of those rabbinical debates, right? One of those debates was, can I divorce my wife for any reason at all, or does it have to be kind of serious?
Right, that was one of their debates that they were having. And Jesus was like, no, and that's how he answered. He was like, no, your whole debate is wrong. And this one, are there many who are gonna be saved or few who are gonna be saved?
And that was the debate among the rabbis, how is this gonna work out? Is it everybody or just a remnant? You can see how that debate develops out of the Old Testament. And Jesus is like, well, you're gonna be pretty surprised.
So how does he handle this? He said to them, strive, agonizai in the Greek, agonize, make it an important matter to your own soul to enter through the narrow gate, the narrow gate. In fact, here, the Greek word is door, like just the door of the house.
Matthew uses the word for gate, like in a courtyard. Strive to enter through the narrow gate. For many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. Now, we're gonna have to ask the question, why?
Why will many want to enter, but then not be able? And we're gonna answer that question by looking at the rest of the text. Is not someone who has come to the awareness by the grace of God through the clear witness of the scriptures and the conviction of the Holy Spirit that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the son of the living God, and that he died on the cross for my sins, was raised at the...
Father, he's returning again. And, oh, I really want to enter in, but no, I can't. No, that's not what he's talking about. That's not what he's talking about. Many will seek to enter, will not be able.
Now, he begins to explain this, verse 25. When once the master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, right, the word in verse 24 for the narrow gates, it's a door, and he goes on to talk about a door.
Why can't, why are they not able to enter in? Because they waited till the door was shut. It's done, right? And this is the same scenario of, you know, you've instructed, you've given instructions, parents to children, teachers to students.
The instructions have been given. You need to get such and such done by a certain date or a certain time of the day. You get past that point. And all of a sudden, when the child or the student realizes, oh, and then they say, okay, I'll do it now.
You're past that point, the door is shut. Of course, they're willing. Of course, they're desirous now that they consider the consequences, but the opportunity has been passed. Opportunity has been passed.
And this is very similar to what Jesus has already been teaching about the Galileans who were killed by Pilate and the Tower of Siloam that fell upon the men of Jerusalem. And he said, unless you repent, you will likewise perish, meaning what?
You will perish unprepared. And of course, you would be desirous to avoid judgment. You'd be desirous to enter into the favor of the Lord, but the door is now shut. He says, you begin to stand outside and knock at the door saying, Lord, Lord, open for us.
And he will answer and say to you, I do not know you. I do not know you, where you are from. See, it seems that the narrow gate then, the agonizing question, the great concern is what? Does Christ know you?
That's the critical question. They go on to say what? He says, I don't know you, but then how do they respond? Verse 26, then you will begin to say, we ate and drank in your presence. You taught in our streets.
What's their response? We knew you, right? We knew you. We could point you out in a crowd. We could distinguish your voice from other people's voices. We were around you all the time. We were familiar with you.
We knew you. And Jesus says that the agonizing issue of entering through that narrow gate while there's opportunity comes down to this one issue, whether or not he knows you, not the other way around.
A lot of people know about Jesus. A lot of people have familiarity with Jesus. A lot of people could pick him out in a crowd. A lot of people could recognize his stories in the midst of a bunch of other stories.
That doesn't qualify anybody for the kingdom. The question is, does he know you? For the good shepherd knows his sheep and he lays down his life for them. And he identifies them and he loves them. The agonizing question is whether or not Christ knows you.
And it makes all the difference in the world. Verse 27, but he will say, I tell you, I do not know you where you're from. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
So those who are wanting to enter in, but are not able, are those who know of Christ, are familiar with him, and yet notice that this does not affect them. This does not change them. This has made no impact on them, right?
To put it a different way, and this is for the young men in the crowd. It's one thing for me to say, I know Chuck Norris, right? I can pick him out of a crowd. I can tell him different from others. Whole different thing if he says, Chuck Norris knows me, right?
Whole different thing. But when somebody says, I know Christ or I know Jesus, I'm familiar with him, look at all these things. And his generation knew him. His generation knew him. He was in their streets.
He was healing people. He was in the middle of massive crowds that were trampling one another, as the previous chapter said. So they were very familiar with Jesus, but look, they are still workers of iniquity, meaning that this is what they are constructing.
This is what they're investing in. This is their lifestyle. This is what captivates them. And so even though they know Jesus, it has not made a difference in their lives whatsoever. Paul Washer has an illustration about this.
He says that he came to a youth conference and he said, you know, if I came in here 45 minutes late and everybody's wondering why I've missed my time slot, and I get up here and I say, well, I'm so sorry.
There was pretty bad traffic on the highway and I had a flat tire and I had to pull over and I got out and I was trying to change my flat tire and the semi truck came by and ran me over. And that's why I was late.
But I'm here now. Everybody would kind of look at you kind of weird if you said something like that, because shouldn't you look a little different if a semi truck hits you? And he said, you know, God's a lot bigger than a semi truck.
What do you mean that you know God and nothing has changed in your life? The question is, does God know you? Has his grace come into your life? And if he has impacted you, things are going to look different.
They're gonna look different. So here's the surprise. When you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and yourselves thrust out. So this is where the weeping and gnashing of teeth, the great sorrow and despair, the if only I had kind of moment.
Do you see that the narrow gate is whether or not Christ knows you? The narrow gate is not your ethnicity. Didn't the majority of the crowd around him, weren't they descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob?
Yeah, most of them were descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Does that get them in through the door? It does not get them in through the door. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are in because of, well, God knew them.
And by his grace, they were living lives of faith. But the prophets are in the kingdom of God. But they're not in because of the traditions. So you have an ethnic connection, that doesn't get you in. You have a traditional connection, you know the traditions, that doesn't get you in.
Look who gets, here's the surprise. So the question is, are there few who are saved? And Jesus says, well, you're gonna be surprised. And here's the surprise. Verse 29, they will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south and sit down in the kingdom of God.
Who will? Who's gonna come from the east and the west, from the north and the south and sit down in the kingdom of God? Well, it's all through Isaiah. People from all over the place. People from the coastlands, people from the islands.
People who weren't really a people at all, and yet they're all being gathered into the kingdom. And he says, indeed, there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last. In other words, you're gonna be really surprised.
Are there few who are being saved? Well, it's gonna be a surprise to you. It's surprising. It's gonna be surprising. On that very day, and Luke finds this connection. On that very day, some Pharisees came saying to him, get out and depart from here for Herod wants to kill you.
By the way, the narrow gate, you don't get in because of your ethnicity. You don't get in because of your tradition. You don't get in because you have a familiarity with Christ, and you don't get in through politics.
Salvation is not political, meaning that salvation does not come through the states. That's a big surprise, but the salvation does not come through the state. In this world in which Jesus lived, Roman emperors regularly sent out their euangelizo, their gospels.
Good news, as your emperor and being semi-divine, I have all these solutions for you, and here's how your life is going to be saved this year, economically, medically, et cetera. Euangelizo for the year.
They believed in salvation through the state. But he says, so Herod wants to kill you. He says, but he said to them, go tell that fox. Go tell that fox. Now, he's not complimenting Herod's style or his hair.
He's saying something about a cunning, deceiving, crafty, praying, thieving kind of person. Go tell that fox, behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected, meaning I'm going to finish up the third day, meaning that's when he's going to end up at Jerusalem.
Nevertheless, I must journey today, tomorrow, and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem. So the Pharisees are the ones saying, get out of here. The state wants to kill you.
The state doesn't like you. The state wants to muzzle you. The state wants to end you. And he says, well, tell you what, go give Herod my schedule, my itinerary, so he'll know what I'm up to, right? Go tell him what I'm up to.
This is what I'm going to go do. And then if he wants to do something about it, go ahead. But this is what I'm up to. Go tell that fox, here's my schedule. And then he has something to say to the Pharisees, doesn't he, when he says that it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem.
And he has, as we see in other passages, he lays the blood guilt of the deaths of all the prophets from Abel to Zechariah upon this generation. So he knows he's going to Jerusalem to die and he's headed there.
So he, you know, why is he headed to Jerusalem to die? He is doing what the father has instructed him to do. He is out of his love for his father, he is obeying his father. Jesus exhibits the fear of the Lord perfectly.
Why fear man, why fear death? He fears the Lord. And then as we've been studying on Sunday nights, we've seen this passage before, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her.
How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing. See, your house is left to you desolate and assuredly. I say to you, you shall not see me until the time comes when you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
And so Jesus laments over Jerusalem. He knows the judgment that's coming upon Jerusalem within that generation. He says their house is gonna be left to them desolate. The temple will be left abandoned and desolate.
But there is still some degree of hope. Lord, are there few who are saved? Well, about a third of the Jews get saved. The rest suffer greatly. So that may be one out of three, is that few? But the promise is that many, many will come from the east and the west and the north and the south and sit down in the kingdom of God.
And it's not gonna be centered on Jerusalem. It's not gonna be centered on the desolate house. It's gonna be centered upon Christ. It's gonna be centered on him and those gathering around him saying, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
That's where it's gonna be centered. So there's caution there. There's instruction there. There is a call to agonize and to make certain about entering that narrow gate to really put the question hard.
But there is also a great hope. All right, any questions or comments before we turn our attention to our prayer list tonight? Yes, I think so. I think they're trying to find anything to just make him stop talking, to diminish his impact.
I mean, today's translation might be, get out and depart from here. The Canadian Mounties are coming to your rescue. Yes. Well, remember the parable that Jesus tells about Lazarus and the rich man and Lazarus giving the prime place with Abraham and the rich man seeing this and making comment about it.
The weeping and gnashing of teeth, let's be clear, is not repentance. Okay, this isn't repentance. This is further sin. That's part of the horrors of hell that it's only progressively forever continuing to sin in the response.
But the point is that those who are judged, are judged, God shows his righteousness and their injustice very clearly to them is the point. And Jesus is taking it to teach them in the here and now while the door was still open, before the door gets shut.
He's bringing this to their attention. Again, the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, the rich man who died and went to hell wants Lazarus to be raised from the dead to go back and warn his brothers so they don't end up in his same position.
And the answer is if they don't believe Moses, they're not gonna believe one come back from the dead. Which again is commentary on the generation Jesus is preaching to because he keeps on telling them, have you never read in Moses?
Moses testifies of me. And when he's raised from the dead and comes back, the same people that were the experts in Moses yet failed to believe in the Christ when Jesus rose from the dead and someone who was raised from the dead and he comes back to declare the gospel, they come up with a wonderful little story of, oh, the disciples overpowered the guards and removed his body, that's what happened.
You know, bald-faced obvious lies are nothing new, folks. Okay, well, let's turn our attention to some prayer requests tonight. Who can we pray for? Geraldine Forrest also has COVID. Yes. My sister. Pray for Buton as she struggles with cancer in her lungs and traveling mercies.
Her and her son.
She still feels good. Good, okay. Yes, Aaron. Matthew, pray for Matthew.
Brian, praise the Lord for Renee and Grayson. How do you spell Renee's name, by the way? Praise the Lord for Renee and Grayson, third year, three year anniversary. Yes, some of you know who Don Demeter is, he passed away, need to pray for his family.
How do we spell that? D-E-M-I-T-E. That's right. We'll pray for Becca as she gets closer to term. I think that's what mom was raising her hand about, yeah. Just pray for Becca and her. She will be able to rest and be able to take the baby closer to term.
Yes. Can you spell J-O-D-Y? Pray for Jody. Yes.