In the last couple weeks, we have talked about judging people, we’ve talked about prayer, we’ve talked about doing good for others. And so, let’s see where Jesus is going now in our verses for today.
Read Matthew 7:13-23
So, in Jesus’ first statements there in our passage today, He begins describing these gates and where they lead. He talks about a narrow gate and a wide gate, He says the path beyond the wide gate is broad, it sounds like it might be an easy road to travel, but the path beyond the narrow gate, He says is difficult. And even though He tells us the narrow gate path is difficult, He says go through the narrow gate, because the wide gate and its path, lead to destruction, but the narrow gate and its path lead to life.
This is a coming to the crossroads moment that everyone has to deal with. Will we go through the wide gate or through the narrow gate? There are no guards at the gates, there’s nobody stopping us from entering either one, we actually already know where both gates lead, but what are we going to do about it? Everyone has to make a decision at this crossroads, so let’s talk about it.
The gates that Jesus is describing here are the gates of, believing in Jesus, and truly following in His ways, which would be the narrow gate, or not believing in Jesus, and just going the way of the rest of the world, which would be the wide gate. And again, nobody is stopping you from walking through either one of these gates. We know from scripture that we can freely walk through that narrow gate; we can turn away from our self-centered life of sin, which would be called repentance, and then believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ to save us from that sin and fix our relationship with God. Sin messed up the relationship, sin will keep us away from Him forever, but Jesus can fix it, and the Bible tells us in Ephesians 2 that it’s a completely free gift. Which means, we can repent, we can believe in Him, and we can freely walk through the gate. There’s no Kingdomland Security that’s going to stop us from entering the narrow gate, if we’re really following Him through it.
But don’t miss the fact, that Jesus has no problem making it known, that the path after the narrow gate is difficult, it’s harder than just the broad easy path that is after the wide gate. But again, notice that these two paths, have very different destinations. It reminds me of some of the passages that I mentioned last week.
Proverbs 14:12
12 There is a way that seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death.
John 14:6
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
Proverbs 14:12 describes the wide gate perfectly. It’s just do whatever you think is right in your own eyes, whatever you feel like doing, whatever seems right to you, and that’s a really wide or broad path, and you can do whatever you want on the way down that path. But Proverbs 14 and Jesus in Matthew 7 speak of the unfortunate end of that path. Proverbs says death, Jesus says destruction, and that’s a terrible place to end up. I don’t want to end up there and I hope that you don’t either. But on the flipside of things, there is this other narrow gate, the gate taken by Jesus’ followers. The gate that leads to life, but we have to consider Jesus’ serious words about this, we should consider passages like Luke 9. I want to go there together.
Read Luke 9:23-27
In verse 23 there, Jesus makes the call to anyone that would desire to follow after Him, to first deny ourselves, to take up our cross daily, and to follow Him. Jesus said in Matthew 7 that the path after the narrow gate was difficult, and this call in Luke 9 is like a very boiled down version of what that path is supposed to look like. It’s denying ourselves, because He is Lord, not us anymore, it’s also denying ourselves in terms of giving things up and being more focused on helping others, it’s taking up a cross, and knowing that it wasn’t all, easy times, for Jesus, and it likely won’t be for us as well, but are we serious enough about this, that we would follow Him anyways? Wherever He would take us. Jesus’ path took Him all the way to death on the cross to save us. Would we be willing to walk a hard path like that, if that’s what He called us to?
If we shared His mindset, if we would be willing to follow Him, follow Him even to death if need be. It would shift our hope, and our focus, from the here and now, and put our hope where it should be, in the power of His resurrection and in the treasures of heaven. That if this isn’t all, going to go well right now, in this physical life on earth, then at least I have hope in His resurrection power for all that comes after this. There are people that have lived and died with this very confidence, and we still have brothers and sisters all over the world, where this is a very real, every day, reality for them. To put it as the Apostle Paul put it, “to live is Christ, but to die is gain”. Because death means standing in His presence, and that’s worth more, than anything we could ever get here.
So, we have to recognize that Jesus’ call isn’t some feel-good, fluffy, everything is going to be easy call. It’s a serious call, it’s deny yourself, it’s focus on Him, and on others, it’s knowing that His way might cost us everything, it took Him to the cross. But He lays this stuff out for us and then still says, FOLLOW ME.
He says that if we want to hold so tightly onto this life that we have, and we want to live it just for ourselves, then eventually we’re going to lose it, because we’re all going to die someday. Jesus says, what good it is to gain this entire world and then be destroyed at the end of it all. Isn’t that exactly where He told us, that the wide path, was going to lead?
And listen please, this isn’t some doom and gloom of what it means to follow Jesus, but we have to speak about it in the serious way that Jesus chooses to speak about it. I will tell you from personal experience that following Jesus is absolutely wonderful, but I will also tell you from personal experience, that it definitely isn’t always easy. And we have to understand both sides of that, we have to understand what it really means to follow Him. Because there are plenty of people that teach, and plenty of people that believe, something completely different. And Jesus begins to warn us about some of this in the next verses.
Read Matthew 7:15-19
There are wolves in sheep’s clothing out there. That’s not just from the cartoons that we watched as a kid, there are really people out there with a false message, pretending to have the truth, but what they are teaching, and leading, doesn’t in any way line up with what Jesus is talking about. Jesus wants us to understand the whole picture, because understanding the whole picture, will help us when people start spreading these things that are not of Him.
There’s an entire side of the “church”, but not really the church, that is being led by people that claim, that God, really only exists, to bless you, and to give you the things that you want in this life. That if you just believe hard enough, and maybe do this, or do that, that every material thing you could ever want will come to you. And if you aren’t getting those material things, or maybe if you aren’t being healed from that sickness, then that just means that you aren’t believing hard enough for it. They are teaching that everything should be easy, everything should be great, you should get everything that you want, that your happiness is the only end game. That believing in Jesus will equal health and wealth and prosperity. But please be clear, that even though there are thousands of people teaching this message, there are millions of people following it, that these are wolves, in sheep’s clothing, leading people to something other, than what it actually means, to follow Jesus. They are leading people straight through the wide gate, onto the broad path, that leads to destruction.
But it sounds good, doesn’t it? Most of us, in our flesh, would probably gravitate towards that message. It sounds easy, I’ll get everything that I want, I’ll just live for me. But it is so short sighted. Yes, the path of the follower of Jesus may be more difficult, but in the end, it leads to life, it leads to God’s presence, it leads to the treasures of heaven, and it leads to living in the city of the Living God for the rest of eternity. This other message leads to, some stuff, right now, but then it leads to destruction in a little while. That’s a lot to give up for a little bit right now.
Jesus told us in verse 15 to beware of these people. It’s the same message that Paul was teaching Timothy in 1 Timothy 6. Let’s look at that one together.
Read 1 Timothy 6:3-10
Paul told Timothy that if anyone, at all, is teaching anything other than what Jesus taught, he should get away from these people. He’s like there are people out there with corrupt minds, there are people out there trying to leverage the name of Jesus, trying to leverage godliness, as a means to gain for themselves. Get away from these people. And notice what He talks about immediately afterwards, because Paul knows the exact line that most of these issues will come down. Most of these issues, and most, not all, but most of these issues are going to center around money or prosperity, or what has often been called now the health and wealth gospel.
Paul told Timothy that we carried nothing into this world, and we will carry nothing out. And with some food and some clothes and with the Lord that we should be content in this life. But he says that many people are going to get caught up, many people are going to get trapped, many as verse 9 says will fall into foolish and harmful lusts, which will what? Drown them in destruction. That sounds like the wide path, once again, doesn’t it?
Back in Matthew 7, Jesus is warning us about following people down these other paths. The gate they are talking about is wide, there’s all types of people pointing to it, the road looks pretty easy behind the gate, but it ends up in a terrible place. And so, Jesus says, to check and see, where these people are actually at, who are saying these things, by looking at the fruit of their lives.
And when looking at a teacher or a Pastor, look at how they live, does their life show righteousness, humility, faithfulness, godliness? Or does it actually look like something else entirely? Look at the content of their teaching. Does it line up with God’s Word and what He teaches us? Or is it just man-centered and opinions? Look at the effect of their teaching and leading. Is their teaching and leadership helping people follow Jesus more effectively, or is it just information only, or is just entertainment, or whatever else.
Just like you should put anyone else, you have to put me up to that standard too. I need to be seeking to lead that way. I’m not perfect and I might fall short of it at times, but I pray that I will be living up to the main points of that. And if God ever leads you away from here, not that we would want you to go, but this church is all about follow God wherever He would take you. And if you end up having to evaluate a church or leader or teacher or maybe even just someone that you are listening to online, then look at these things, check the fruit, and find out if those fruit lead towards really following Jesus. Jesus told us that we will know them when we see that fruit. That’s what Jesus says in verse 20.
Read Matthew 7:20
Not everyone wants to hear about the narrow gate, not everyone wants to hear about the harder way of following Jesus. A lot of people are happy to lead people elsewhere and line their pockets by doing so. Jesus told us to watch out for these things. And if we take that back to His words about not judging people, then even in the fruit evaluation, recognize that people aren’t perfect, don’t start from an immediately negative place, or just based on hearsay from people talking about them. Again, I know I’m not perfect and I know people have said stuff about us that isn’t actually true, and I know plenty of other leaders that have had things said about them. So, we need to look at the fruit and not just hear the stories. We definitely aren’t seeking to tear down or judge people, we’re looking to see if this person is worth listening to, if they’re living right, if they line up with the Bible, and if they will help us on our path of following Jesus. That’s the goal, so that’s what we’re looking for, and Jesus is just giving us a way, to help determine that.
But as we get to the end of our passage for today, there is a serious warning in the last few verses. Let’s read this.
Read Matthew 7:21-23
Jesus is very clear here. That not everyone that says His name, or even calls Him Lord, will enter His Kingdom. There’s an old saying that says “talk is cheap”. It’s really easy for someone to run their mouth and not mean or do anything that they are claiming. I think we see examples of this all of the time. Jesus, over and over again, in some of these teachings, has consistently called people hypocrites, for saying one thing and doing another, and if you remember that hypocrite was the Greek word for “actor”, then this becomes a lot clearer.
There’s a lot of people acting. Acting like they love Jesus. Acting like they are doing things for Him. Acting by going to church. Acting on social media. Again, there’s a lot of people acting, and Jesus says for these people, that when it comes time to meet Him, at the end of their lives, that they are going to get an answer that they don’t expect. Jesus will tell these people “I never knew you, depart from me”. He talks about them saying like “oh, but I did, and I said all of these things”. But Jesus isn’t fooled by the act. Maybe we can fool each other, maybe we can fool a lot of people, maybe we can fool everyone on this earth, but we can’t fool Him. He’s God and He gets the final say. A warning like this is an opportunity for self-evaluation. Jesus gave us this analogy a few minutes ago about bearing fruit and He said in verse 19 that “every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire”. That’s talking about ending up at the end of that wide road that we started with, that’s ending up at destruction.
So, for us today, as we consider these things. Are we bearing good fruit in our lives? Are we growing in our relationship with the Lord? Are we as we talked about last week, proactively looking to do good for others? Are we actively following Jesus? Have we even entered through the narrow gate yet and have a relationship with Jesus? And then a serious question, are we acting, maybe acting for our own benefit? Or do we know really Jesus, do we really understand His call, have we believed in Him to save us, do we love Him, have we submitted our lives to Him, do we love others, and do want to see God glorified? If it’s all an act, Jesus is going to turn us away when the day comes, but if this is all real for us, then we can look forward to Him welcoming us into His Kingdom.
Today wasn’t some scary passage, but we had to take it seriously. This passage was really Jesus caring enough about us to warn us about these things. Today we need to listen to the warning. We need to be careful who was listen to. We need to make sure it’s of Him. We need to go through that narrow gate and follow Him, wherever He leads, and we need to make sure that we are in the right place with Him, that this is all for real and we aren’t acting, because He knows, we might not always, but He definitely does. And I will say, because I love you, that I don’t want, any of you, to meet Him, face to face, and hear “I never knew you”.