STRIVE TO ENTER THE NARROW GATE

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on March 3, 2021 under AM Bible Study |

AM Bible Study Group: March 3, 2021 from Luke 13:22-30

Theme: We should strive now—while we can—to enter into salvation through faith in Jesus.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

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This morning in our study of Luke’s Gospel, we come to a question that someone asked Jesus. It was a very important question. And the response that the Lord gave to it doesn’t seem—at first glance—to be a direct answer. But it turns out to be the most important answer that we could ever hear. In fact, our eternal destiny depends upon what we do with the response our Lord gave to this question.

We find the story of this question—and of our Lord’s response to it—in Luke 13:22-30;

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 taught 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. They 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” (Luke 13:22-30).

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Now; let’s begin by looking at what surrounds this question and answer. First, let’s look ahead to what will come after it.

We’re told in verse 22 that our Lord was teaching and journeying while on His way to Jerusalem. The story of His arrival will be told to us in Luke 19; and that’s where we find the story of His ‘triumphant entry’ into the city. He rode into the city to present Himself to the Jewish people as their long-awaited Messiah—the promised Son of David—the King of the Jews. This trip to Jerusalem was one that was begun all the way back in Luke 9:51; where we’re told that, at a certain point of His ministry, “He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem”. It would be then that, instead of being received by His people as He should have been, He would be rejected by them; and then betrayed, and arrested, and tried, and condemned, and crucified. Jesus knew all of this in advance; and yet He went willingly. He went to be our crucified Savior.

So; that’s what was ahead of Him—that He would be rejected as the King of the Jews. But second, let’s look back to what had happened a little while before this story was told. We’re told in verses 6-9 about a parable that Jesus spoke to the Jewish people who were about to reject Him.

He also spoke this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down’” (vv. 6-9).

This was a parable that He spoke regarding the Jewish people of that generation. The kingdom of God had come to them in the person of the King Himself. But they kept rejecting Him and refusing to receive Him for who He presented Himself to be. He waited and waited for the fruit of obedient faith to be found in His people; but they exhibited none. And now, the opportunity was about to be taken from them. The opportunity would instead be offered to the Gentile people who would receive Him and believe on Him.

Let’s be careful to understand that this is not teaching us that God has now—once and for all—rejected the Jewish people. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Bible teaches us that, one day, the Jewish people would indeed repent and receive their King; and then—as it says in Romans 11:26—“all Israel will be saved”. But until then, the official offer of a welcome into the kingdom has been taken from those who should have welcomed it, and is made instead to those who were not looking for it—that is, to the Gentile people of the world.

But let’s also understand that there is an immediate and personal application of this passage—one that is true for all people, Jew and Gentile. And that is that we are being warned by the Lord Jesus to strive now—while we can—to enter into the kingdom of God through ‘the narrow gate’—because the time will come when that gate will be closed, and the door locked, and the personal opportunity lost. Jesus Himself is that “gate”—and as this passage teaches us, we should strive now, while we can, to enter into salvation through personal faith in Him.

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Now; notice first …

1. THE QUESTION (vv. 22-23).

Verse 22 tells us, “And He went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem.” He was on His way to the city to be rejected, and then to experience the cross. But even though He had set His face to go there, He wasn’t apparently in so much of a great hurry that He couldn’t teach in the cities and villages along the way. We should be eternally grateful for this; because along the way, He taught us lessons about the kingdom that help us to enter it. And along the way, in verse 23, we’re told, “Then one said to Him, ‘Lord, are there few who are saved?’”

Who was it that asked this question? It may have been one of the disciples. It may have been someone from that crowd that followed along. But whoever it was, it was a very fascinating question to have asked. It may be that this person asked it because he or she saw that so many were hearing and seeing Jesus—but were also opposing Him and rejecting Him. Whoever asked it was following close enough to Jesus, and was in a sufficiently committed relationship to Him, to have been able to have asked it. They began to see that not as many from among the Jewish people and the Jewish leaders were receiving Him as their king as might have been expected. Shouldn’t the whole Jewish nation receive Him? Wouldn’t all the Jewish people be saved? And so this astute person asked if—contrary to expectation—only a few would be saved.

We might be wondering the same kind of thing in our own day.

And then, notice …

2. THE LORD’S ANSWER (vv. 24-30).

If you’ll look carefully, it doesn’t seem to be a direct answer. The person asked a quantitative question: “Are there few who are saved?” Our Lord could have been answered with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’; and have even given a quantity—’many’ or ‘few’. But instead, Jesus issued a warning to take action.

And if you’re even more careful still, you may also notice that He didn’t just answer the person who asked. We’re not told that He spoke in response to ‘him’ or ‘her’ in the singular; but rather that He spoke—as it is in the original language—to “them” in the plural. It’s as if He spoke to the many who followed Him and wanted them all to heed the warning. It was as if the question of ‘how many are saved’ isn’t as immediately important a concern as what someone does personally with the offer ‘now’! That’s important to remember. Questions about other people’s salvation are all very interesting—such as who are the ‘elect’, and how many are they. But the more immediately relevant question to ask is, What are you and I doing personally—right now—to make sure we are in that number?

So; taking our Lord’s response piece by piece, we find first that a warning is given to ‘strive’ to enter the narrow gate to salvation now. We’re told in verse 24 that He said to the group that was following Him, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate …” The entry into the kingdom of God—that is, the entry into salvation—is described as a “gate” or a “door”; and it’s also described as narrow. It’s not easy to enter. And what’s more, in order to enter into it, one must exert energy and effort. One must “strive”—which is the word in the original language from which we get the English word “agonize”.

This is like the thing that our Lord said in the Sermon on The Mount:

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).

The idea that the way to salvation is easy and popular; and that you don’t have to do anything to experience it—that you can just relax and receive it along with the rest of the crowd—is here destroyed by our Lord. If we want to enter salvation, then we should know that the way is narrow; and that if we want to enter it, we must strive diligently to do so.

Then Jesus warns that there will be many who will be frustrated when they find that it’s too late. He went on to say in verse 24, “for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” The time of striving is now. The time of making an effort to enter is in the present. This is because there will come a time when many who didn’t think much about it when they should have will then want to enter. But they will not be able to.

We should take Jesus’ words to heart. There will come a day when many today—who currently mock and ridicule the idea of faith in Jesus or who laugh at the idea of heaven—will later long to be allowed to enter. But the opportunity to do so will have come and gone. They will not be able. Jesus said another thing like this in the Sermon on The Mount:

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” (Matthew 7:21-23).

How horrible it would be to be among those who will regret their neglect of Him and who will later long to enter—but who cannot!

Jesus told them in that parable that they were not permitted in because He did not “know” them. And this leads us to another point that our Lord makes in His response to the question that was put to Him about entry into God’s kingdom; and that is that the only way in is to know the Master of the house. Jesus said, in 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, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from’ …” This will be like when the door to the ark was closed; and all the people wanted to get in because of the rain—but it was too late. On that future day, all the appeals—all the knocking—will do no good; because the thing that was needed was a relationship with the Master of the house. Jesus told us that He alone is “the way”; and to “know” Him, or to “be known by” Him speaks of personal relationship. Now is the time to have that personal relationship.

And as we read on—in verses 26-27—we discover that just having been ‘near’ Him will not be enough. He went on to say, “then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’” Just being ‘near’ Jesus in some way—having grown up in a Christian family, having gone to church, having been baptized, having heard the teaching of Jesus, having given an offering, having been ‘spiritual’ … none of these things will substitute for having been in a personal relationship with Jesus by faith. Many will think that it was enough that they were ‘near’ Him in some way—but will be horrifyingly shocked to discover that they cannot enter. They did not “know” Him and He did not “know” them.

And Jesus warned that there will be great anguish at not being let in. In verse 28, He said, “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.” To the Jewish person, the glory of heaven is identified with being in the presence of God among such great Old Testament saints. But because they did not “know” Jesus—and because He did not “know” them—they will be outside looking in. And yet, others will be allowed entry instead. In verses 29-30, Jesus went on to say, “They 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.” Those who are coming from the four corners of the earth are the Gentile people who believe on Jesus and who know Him by faith (see Matthew 8:10-12). They will be allowed in. Even though they were considered ‘last’ by the Jewish people, they will become ‘first’.

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Now; these words were fundamentally meant for the Jewish people who were listening to Jesus. Right then was the time to receive their King. The time would soon come when it would be too late. But this is also meant to be a warning for you and me. It’s an invitation to enter into salvation by faith in Jesus now—while we have time. We must strive to enter the narrow gate—while we can.

In the Tenth Chapter of John’s Gospel, we’re told that Jesus said this:

“Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture” (John 10:7-9).

And later he said,

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand” (vv. 27-29).

If you are hearing these words right now, the invitation is being extended to you. Don’t waste the opportunity. Place your faith in Jesus and enter into a personal relationship with Him as Savior and Lord. Strive to enter the narrow gate. Do it today. Make sure of it.

Because if you don’t, the day will come when you will wish you had … but will not be able to.

EA