If you want to listen to this sermon, here is the audio file.
The Sermon for Sunday, March 16th, 2025, the Second Sunday in Lent
The Lessons: Genesis 15:1-18; Psalm 27:8-16; Philippians 3:17 – 4:1; Luke 13:22-35
The Text: Luke 13:23-30
The Topic: Choose the Narrow Way of the Lord Jesus Christ
INTRODUCTION
A Sunday school teacher wanted to explain to the six-year-olds in his class what someone had to do to go to heaven. To find out what kids believed about the subject, he asked a few questions. “If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale, and gave all my money to the church, would that get me to heaven?” he asked.
“No!” the children answered. The teacher was encouraged.
“If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the yard, and kept everything neat and tidy, would that get me to heaven?”
Again the answer was, “No!”
“If I was kind to animals and gave candy to all the children and loved my wife, would that get me into heaven?”
Again they all shouted, “No!”
“Well then, how can I get to heaven?”
A boy in the back row stood up and shouted, “You gotta be dead!”[1]
– Andy Stanley, How Good Is Good Enough? (Multnomah, 2003)
So the popular belief that death is the universal gateway to eternal life and the kingdom of heaven. Admittedly, good works do not purchase our eternal salvation, but only repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Jewish doctrine of the two ways, the way of life and the way of death, was well known to the Jews in the first century A.D. Examples of passages which illustrate the doctrine of the two ways are Deuteronomy 27 & 28, as well as Psalm 1.
In today’s Gospel lesson, in answer to someone’s question whether only a few will be saved, our Lord gives us important teaching on the narrow gate that leads to life:
Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.
(Luke 13:24, KJV)
The “strait gate” is the narrow gate. This saying implies that many will not be able to enter the way of life in God’s kingdom. This does imply that in comparison to all the people of the world, only a few will be saved. The Lord Jesus affirms this in the parallel sayings recorded by St. Matthew in his Gospel account:
Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
(Matthew 7:13-14, KJV)
Most people, then, choose the wide gate and the broad road leading to destruction, or hell, whereas only a few, comparatively speaking, succeed in entering by the narrow gate. Why is this so? The narrow gate shows us the difficulty of entering God’s kingdom. Discipleship of the Lord Jesus Christ comes at a high cost. Our Lord gives plenty of examples of this in his teaching: the person who seeks to save his life (that is, the one who tries to ensure the wealthiest and most secure future for himself on earth) will lose it, whereas the one who loses his life for the Gospel’s sake, will preserve it (Luke 17:33); no-one can serve two masters (Luke 16:13); the disciple must bear his cross and follow Jesus (Luke 14:27); and he must forsake everything he has to be a disciple (Luke 14:33). The deceit of riches, the cares of the world, and desires for other things can choke the word of God from growing in our lives (Mark 4:19).
Even simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 10:43) is difficult enough, but there is more to salvation and eternal life than simple faith, but repentance from sin also, and Baptism (Acts 2:38). Therefore the Lord’s reply to the question whether few will be saved begins with “Strive to enter in at the strait gate” (Luke 13:24). “Strive” does not imply an automatic process of entering into God’s kingdom, for the word “strive” translates a Greek word meaning “fight” or “struggle.” Entering into God’s kingdom is not on our own terms, or on any preacher’s own terms. The Lord Jesus paid the price of entry by his death on the cross, but each one who wants to enter God’s kingdom must fight spiritually to do so. He must continually repent, day by day, deny himself daily, take up his cross daily, and seek the kingdom of God and its righteousness daily. The same Greek clause that is translated “and shall not be able” (verse 24, KJV) could be translated “and shall not be strong enough.” Beginning and continuing the Christian way of life is a spiritual battle.
One cannot indefinitely postpone or delay this battle for repentance and faithfulness in following Jesus. The verses following verse 24 warn us of this. There comes a time when God closes the door to his kingdom, and people are left standing outside, knocking on the door, and pleading, “Lord, open the door!” But the Lord replies, “I don’t know where you are from.” Some people speculate that the closing of the door to God’s kingdom is thousands, perhaps millions of years in the future, and we don’t have to worry about it. But the closed door to God’s kingdom can represent people finding the door closed when they have died. People may try to remind the Lord Jesus Christ that they listened to his sermons and that he taught in their streets, that they ate and drank in his presence. Surely, these experiences will be enough to gain them entrance into God’s kingdom. But once again the Lord gives them the answer that he does not know where they have come from, and adds that they are workers of iniquity and must depart from him (Luke 13:27). The immediate warning came to the Jewish crowds that ignored Jesus’ call to repentance, faith, and righteousness, but it comes now to all who stubbornly resist the Lord’s call. “Weeping and gnashing of teeth” indicates the torment suffered by those in everlasting hell. They will see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in God’s kingdom, but themselves thrown out (Luke 13:28). Many from all the corners of the world will be seated in God’s kingdom, but some who rank lowest in this world will be highest in God’s kingdom and vice versa (Luke 13:30).
Our Lord’s teaching here is a stark reminder even to us all today that we might have grown up in the Church, listened to many sermons, been taught the Christian faith, attended services, and done all sorts of good things, but find we are at last outside God’s kingdom, because we always thought that we could get away with ignoring Christ’s call to a complete surrender of ourselves to him, a complete commitment to his being the Lord of our lives. We must not take that risk. St. Paul warns us to be reconciled to God, and not to receive the grace of God in vain (2 Corinthians 5:20), since now is “the accepted time, behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2b, KJV).
CONCLUSION
The “narrow gate” represents the cost of discipleship to ourselves, all the closely clinging impediments to living the Christian life faithfully and effectively. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews commands Christians to lay these closely clinging sins aside:
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
(Hebrews 12:1-2, KJV)
What sins and burdens do you need to cast off in striving to enter by the narrow gate and the narrow way of Christ, the way of life?
[1] p.166, Craig Brian Larson & Phyllis Ten Elshof (General Editors): 1001 Illustrations that Connect. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, Christianity Today International, 2008.