Daily Devotional For Sunday, November 17, 2024
Today is the day we all attend church so that we can worship our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ together. We are making our way through the most famous and best sermon ever preached or taught – Jesus’ Sermon On The Mount. You can read this entire sermon in Matthew chapters 5, 6, & 7. We have already been through chapters 5 & 6 and are in the middle of chapter seven with Matthew 7:13-14:
“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. (14) For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it” (NASB).
Many people reading these two verses misread it. Some people tend to read and begin to ask the incorrect question. The question is not: Why is the gate so narrow? The accurate question is: Why do so many people choose not to enter it or why do so many people choose to go through the wide gate? In Matthew 7, Jesus gives us three answers to this question.
- First, we are evil and sinful by nature. We went into detail in yesterday’s devotional with this first point. I won’t rehash it but until we admit this, we cannot grow in our relationship to Jesus Christ. If we do not see what sin is, specifically, what our sin is to God, then we cannot see God. No ifs, ands or buts about it.
- Second, ease is the reason people choose the wide gate. Look at verses 13, 14, where again we read, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” Why go wide? New Testament scholar Douglas sean O’Donnell writes this:
“It’s the same reason why Division 1 college athletes major in general studies rather than astrophysics. It’s easy. And it’s easy to live under the lordship of our own rules, like the made-up legislation in our head that says, “It doesn’t matter what you believe so long as you’re sincere” or “How can it be wrong if it feels so right?” Here’s how I picture what’s going on in verses 13, 14. You are on a journey, and you have some luggage with you—holding all the stuff of earth that you like and want to take with you forever. You have your suitcases packed full of vices and a huge mountain backpack filled with money and all the things money can buy. You come up to this big, wide, and beautiful gate. Behind the gate you see what looks like a lovely and easy road to travel. On the posts of the gate are engraved in gold the words FREEDOM and FUN.
You notice off to the side, however, a little sign stuck in the ground that reads, “This way to find the narrow gate to life.” You think, “Hmm … I wonder what that is.” But a fellow comes along and says, “Oh, you don’t want that gate. Trust me, it is so narrow. You have to give up freedom and fun, and you wouldn’t be able to carry that backpack and those suitcases through. It’s far too narrow. And do you know what is written in blood on its gateposts? On one is written ‘DEATH—death to self’ and on the other ‘SORROW—sorrow over sin.’ You have to die to self, and if you want to go through there, you have to repent of sin.”
“Well,” you say to yourself, “let’s see. Do I choose this narrow gate, which I have to go and find, and which I can’t go through with all this stuff, and which speaks of death and sorrow? Or do I choose this other gate?” Easy decision, isn’t it? You choose ease along with so many others. So many have chosen the highway to Hell where on the back of these golden gateposts, which no one can read until it’s too late, are not the words FREEDOM and FUN but DEATH and SORROW (eternal death, eternal sorrow) – (Source:Douglas Sean O’Donnell, Preach The Word Bible Commentary, “Matthew: All Authority In Heaven And On Earth, p. 197).
Why do people go wide? They are evil and they want ease.
3. They encounter and believe false prophets, teachers, and preachers/pastors. We see this in Matthew 7:15-23. Yet, Christians too have taken up the un-Biblical notion that anytime a Christian leader talks against other so-called “Christian” leaders, churches, or ministries he is being judgmental. But that is the absolute opposite of what Jesus is saying here. He says, “Beware.” Beware of whom? Beware of those new atheists who attack Christianity? No, we can recognize them for who they are. Beware of bizarre cult leaders? No, they are obvious also. Rather, we are to beware of men and women who look like Christians (who come to you in sheep’s clothing but are really spiritual wolves), who talk like Christians (“Lord, Lord”), and who act like super-Christians – charismatic and energetic teaching, preaching or influence.
Therefore, if as your pastor, I tell you some religious leader is a false one – a wolf in sheep’s clothing – I am not being judgmental in the sense of condemnation, but I am warning you just as Jesus warned us to be on alert for such predators. This is why in Matthew 7:16-20, Jesus talks about looking at their fruit to see if it is a biblical and godly fruit. The Apostle Paul warned the young Timothy about this in 1 Timothy 6:3, “Some people may contradict our teaching, but these are the wholesome teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. These teachings promote a godly life” (NLT). Paul gave another warning to Titus in Titus 1:16, “Such people claim they know God, but they deny Him by the way they live. They are detestable and disobedient, worthless for doing anything good” (NLT).
Let’s go back to New Testament scholar Douglas Sean O’Donnell again:
“Thus, to contemporize our Lord’s teaching, it’s as if Jesus says, “I teach self-denial; they teach “look great, feel great”. I teach the dangers of materialism; they teach, live your best life now. I teach that there is only one way to God; they teach love wins—that the wideness of God’s mercy is so wide that everyone is eventually included in his kingdom. I teach humility and dependence upon God; they teach if it’s to be, it’s up to me” (Source: Douglas Sean O’Donnell, Preach The Word Bible Commentary, “Matthew: All Authority In Heaven And On Earth,” p. 198).
When someone says to you, “How in the world can you believe that faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to God?” What is our answer to that? Based on this text, our answer is quite straightforward. We can believe that Jesus is the only way because we take Jesus at His word. In other words, because He says so!
Questions To Consider
- When it comes to your personal walk with Christ, do you take the way of ease or the way of knees? Do you opt for what demands little or do you get down on your knees so to speak and wrestle with and work out your salvation with fear and trembling? Why did you give this answer?
- Jesus makes it clear when it comes to our relationship to Him, it is not about us or me. To grow in your relationship to Christ demands both desire and discipline. Our culture teaches self-fulfillment. Jesus teaches self-denial. What is the proof that you are choosing the narrow-gate of self-denial when it comes to growing in your relationship with Christ?
- Jesus says in Matthew 7:21-23, that human wisdom and human folly will be assessed based on one’s reception or rejection of the Sermon on the Mount! What a staggering claim. In verse 21 Jesus claims that only those who do the will of His Father will enter the kingdom. In verse 24 he claims that everyone who practices His words will stand firm during the storm of the final judgment. Isn’t He in essence saying that whatever He speaks is the will of the Father? Yes He is. The Gospel is exclusive. Why? Because it is exclusive. The narrow gate is the only way. How would you share this with some of your friends if asked?
Scripture To Meditate On: Acts 4:12, “There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved” (NLT).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Jesus, I have to admit that I tend to take and want the easy way of faith. I don’t want to have to struggle with it. I don’t want to have to spend a lot of time in Your Word and on my knees. Please help me to love You with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. I love You Jesus. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside!--Pastor Kelly