Our gracious God and heavenly Father, we come to you this morning as your people seeking to hear your word. And so would you be pleased to come down and meet with us, give us eyes to see and ears to hear, we pray, that we may hear your calling and your voice in your word, which calls us to come and to know you. And you have provided a way for us to come to know you, the only way. that we may come through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. And so we do that now, seeking your wisdom and truth to be transformed by your word, by your spirit as it knits your word in our hearts. We pray all of this in Christ's name. Amen. Please be seated. Our text this morning is Luke chapter 13, and we'll be looking at verses 22 through 35. There's a typo in your order of service. It's 22 through 35, not 25. And that can be found on page 873 in your Pew Bible or page 1,281 if you're a child with us and have your children Bible in your lap. Continuing our studies in Luke, and we are in Luke chapter 13 beginning in verse 22. This is God's word. He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. And someone said to him, Lord, will those who are saved be few? And he said to them, strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door and you begin to stand outside to knock at the door saying, Lord, open to us, and he will answer you. I do not know where you come 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 where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil. In that place, 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, but you yourselves cast out. people will come from east and west and from north and south and recline at table in the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first and some are first who will be last. At that very hour, some Pharisees came and said to him, get away from here for Herod wants to kill you. And he said to them, go and tell that fox, behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow and the third day I finished my course. Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem." Oh, Jerusalem. Jerusalem. The city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it. How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not. Behold, your house is forsaken, and I tell you, you will not see me until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Well, since chapter nine in verse 51 in Luke's gospel, Jesus has been resolutely set out on a journey to Jerusalem. And Jesus' own understanding of his mission and purpose has been a recurring theme throughout the Gospel of Luke. And here in the 22nd verse of Luke, Luke reminds us of that. As you see, he, that is Jesus, went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. And in the course of all this, we find that the crowds were gathering and increasing with each passing day. The crowds had reached such a large number by this point in the gospel that many thousands had gathered to the point of trampling on one another. And a person yells out from the crowd a question to Jesus. Jesus, are only a few people to be saved? But there's an interesting thing in the way in which Jesus goes about answering or perhaps not answering this person's question. He doesn't answer it directly or even speak to the individual directly. Instead, he takes the opportunity to speak to the whole crowd. And we've learned over the past few weeks in our study of Luke 13 that the main underlying melody of Luke 13 is the kingdom of God. All of chapter 13 is about the kingdom. of God. So here Jesus being out to put to a question by an individual takes the opportunity to speak to the crowd in verses 22 through 30. This is followed immediately and we know it's immediately if you look in verse 31 at that very hour. And it's followed by a section where Jesus interacts with some Pharisees. So what can we learn from these two encounters? I want us to see two things this morning. The first thing is this. Notice Jesus' emphasis on the narrowness of entrance into God's kingdom. And you see that in verses 22 through 30. But the second thing to notice is Jesus' emphasis on the wideness of God's mercy. And you see that in verses 31 to 35. Well, first, Jesus' emphasis on the narrowness of entrance into God's kingdom. Now, I don't know what you think of the question posed by one in the crowd, but it was actually a smug, self-satisfying question. because the general understanding among the Jews was that all Jews, except the very worst, would be saved. So when the question rang out from the crowd, the hearers expected Jesus to affirm that all Jews would make it into heaven, unless they had committed especially grievous sins. They also believed all Gentiles, any non-Jews, would be excluded from the kingdom, minus a few exceptions, perhaps like Rahab or Ruth. The question was largely put to Jesus in a presumptive way, a speculative way, a theoretical way. Someone in the crowd knew the answer that Jesus should have given. And yet, look what takes place. You see what Jesus does. He takes a potentially speculative dialogue on the nature of salvation and he turns it into a very pointed challenge that demands personal evaluation. He makes it intensely personal and immensely practical. So what's Jesus' point? First of all, look at verse 24, where he says, strive to enter through the narrow door. And Jesus is clearly using that metaphor of door here as a narrow door to represent the door to salvation. It's not the first time he's done it. He's done it back in the Sermon on the Mount. It's the header verse for your order of service where he talks about this narrow gate. And that door and that gate is to be understood as the way to salvation. And I realize that this is a stumbling block to many today living in an age of pluralism and relativism where every idea is seen to be valid in its own right. where the only moral absolute is that one must be tolerant of others' views and beliefs and practices, that everybody's way is equally as valid as everybody else's way. I understand that this narrowness of the Christian faith is somewhat of a scandal to many. But listen, it makes sense that it would have to be this way. Michael Wilcox, a commentator writing on this passage says this, the footballer that is a soccer player to all of us Americans. cannot score by kicking the ball just anywhere in his opponent's end of the field. He is limited to the space between the goal posts. The pilot cannot land his plane in any field that takes his fancy. He is restricted to the limits of the airfield if he is to make a safe landing. Here the issue is infinitely greater and the restrictions are correspondingly more important. Can you imagine us all on a plane coming into Columbia International Airport And the pilot gets on the intercom and says, well, you know, we have a perfectly good airport here, but I see a field that's just caught my fancy. What do you say we try to land the plane in that? And Jesus steps onto the stage of human history and says, here are the goalposts, here is the runway. So Jesus says, strive to enter through the narrow door. And that word strive is the Greek word agonizomai, and it's where we get the word agonize. Jesus says agonize, strive to enter through the narrow door. I want you to agonize, I want you to wrestle, I want you to struggle, I want you to make every effort to enter in. But I want you to know something that Jesus isn't here saying, earn your salvation, work for your salvation. We know that he's not saying that because Paul's letter to the Ephesians says this, for by grace you have been saved through faith and this not of your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works. We're not saved by good works. But remember what Paul says in Ephesians chapter two in verse 10 and a few verses later that though we're not saved because of our good works, we are saved for good works. So that we know that the foundation of our salvation is what Jesus has done for us on the cross. It's by his grace alone. In fact, Jesus is talking about this door into heaven really as himself. He's not talking about this door that you push up against yourself. He's talking about the door as himself. And he's saying to you, enter through me into heaven. The foundation of our salvation is what Jesus has done for us on the cross. But we know too that the evidence of our salvation is that we make every effort, we strive, we wrestle, we struggle, we agonize along the journey of our lives. It's what Paul says in Philippians chapter two in verse 12, work out your faith with fear and trembling. And notice something else about this passage. And you don't see it actually in the English, so notice what I'm telling you about this passage and trust that I'm telling you the truth. What Jesus says here is actually a present participle that we find in verse 23 of Luke 13. where the person asked the question, will those who are being saved be few? It's the same present participle we find in Acts 2 in verse 47. And the Lord was adding to their number daily those who were being saved. So the message of Jesus to enter through the narrow gate is not only a message for someone five people down on the pew from you, It's not simply a great message for those who don't yet believe, who haven't yet considered the narrow door. But this is a message for you too, Christian, because what he is saying here It's for those who are being saved, present participle, in the process of. And Jesus says, Duff, make sure you are striving to enter through the narrow gate because it is by your continuance that you give evidence of the fact that you are part of my kingdom, that you know me, that the reality of who I am and what I've done penetrates to every inch of your life. Entering through the narrow door is not a past event. Entering through the narrow door is not the day when you first believed in Christ, but a very present reality. So Jesus shows that the door is narrow, but he also wants to show us that the time to walk through that door is now. And let me essentially summarize what Jesus is saying to the group. He says this, whatever the number may be of those who are saved, remember, that was the person's question. What number, Lord, will be saved? How many will be saved? But what Jesus is saying, what you should concern each of you in this group is that you should make certain without delay that you are actually part of that company. Make sure before the door closes, before death snatches you, that you don't allow yourself to be sidelined by speculative decisions while you're ignoring the intensely necessary practical implications of the message of the kingdom. Jesus goes on to tell a little parable about the householder's locked door and people on the outside who want to go get in but show up too late. And you see that playing out in verses 24 and 25, where Jesus says, Actually, Our punctuation in the English doesn't help us very much. Remember that punctuation was added later. Those verses, those numbers were added later. It should probably read something more like this. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able when once the master of the house has risen and shut the door. There's no break there. There's no pause. Now, does it mean that somehow or another that earnest seekers who genuinely want to go to heaven can't go to heaven? that are excluded from the kingdom of God even though in their hearts they long to enter through that narrow door, not for a moment. That is not what Jesus is saying. What Jesus is emphasizing is the inevitability of a time limit on the offer of salvation. One day that master will get up and he will close the door. And the time for entrance into the house will be done. Do you remember the screw tape letters? C.S. Lewis' book, it's this play on demons and an elder demon teaching younger demons how to go out into the world and keep people from coming to Christ. And the three apprentice devils in the screw tape letters go to the older demon. And the older demon says, what are you gonna do out in the world among the people to keep them from coming to Christ? And the first devil apprentice says, I'll just tell them there is no heaven. And the older demon says, that'll never work. They believe that there's a heaven. They know that there's a heaven. So he goes to the second apprentice and he says, what will you do out in the world to keep people from coming to heaven? And the second devil apprentice says, I'll tell them there is no hell. And likewise he says, that'll never work. They know there's a hell. They know there's a place. There's hell. So the third devil apprentice says, I'll just tell everybody there's no hurry. You're just fine. And the senior devil says, go. and wreak havoc. It's why the writer of Hebrews in chapter 3 and verses 13 through 15 says, but exhort one another every day as long as it is called today that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin for we share in Christ if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said, today if you hear his voice, Do not harden your hearts. So the door is narrow and the time is limited. But there's another thing as Jesus emphasizes the narrowness of entrance into the kingdom of God. And that is the result of waiting. The result of falling outside the door and it's tragic. Notice what they say as the door is closed at the end of verse 25, as they stand outside to knock at the door saying, Lord, open to us. Then he will answer you, I do not know where you come 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 where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil. And notice that whatever grounds the latecomers base their appeal to be recognized by the Lord and admitted into his kingdom, they say they've met with him. We ate and drank in your presence. You taught in our streets. And he says, I do not know where you come from. And it's a lesson to any of us. Many in this crowd were trusting on their affiliation and their heritage. Many of them were trusting in their own efforts and their own abilities to follow the rules, to check off the boxes. And it's a warning to us too that you can be around Jesus. You can know lots of information about Jesus, intimate information about him. You can come in contact with the power of Jesus. You can sit and partake of the Lord's supper and communion. You can be in the crowd around Jesus and in his church and yet not be striving. to enter through the narrow door. And you can do all of those things and so much more and not know the master of the house. And ultimately there will only be two classes of people, that is those who are on the inside and those who are on the outside. And ironically, those who claim to be the children of Abraham will be forbidden access to Abraham's family table, not because They've miscalculated their family tree, but because status among those being saved is not an inherited status. They've missed the boat. So those on the outside will weep and wail as an expression of their grief, gnash and grind their teeth as an expression of their anger. And so in verse 28, you have one of the most tragic and descriptive depictions of ultimate frustration and ultimate Disappointment in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when they see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God Their misery will be compounded on two fronts Because they will see those men Abraham Isaac and Jacob their heritage and their heroes combined with all the prophets the prophets to whom they would not listen and the prophets whom they stoned. Do you think then you're going to be able to come to me under some special dispensation or allowance on the basis of status and association, Jesus is saying. And the tragic thing is as they sit there looking from the outside in, they're claiming that these are our people, these are our heroes. And Jesus will say, Many will try, but it will be too late. You won't be able to plead your case, and it won't work. It's as simple as this. There are people on the outside of this room, and the only difference is whether or not they come in through the door. And that's the same picture we have here. We don't enter the kingdom of God automatically. It's not granted to us by church affiliation or attendance. We don't somehow get through the attic. We don't somehow get in a window. We don't somehow come underneath the floorboards. But what Jesus is saying is there's one way to enter into this house, and that's through the door. And the door, I am the door. And we enter by giving ourselves to all we know of Jesus. So the question this morning for you and for me is, are you on the inside or are you on the outside? Have you given yourself to him? Is this the central issue in your life? Do you know what it is to strive to come to him, to have fellowship with him? Do you know what it is to know his grace? Have you experienced his forgiveness and mercy? Do you know what it is to strive against those things which would keep you away? One preacher puts it this way, though the person was asking the question from the crowd, will the saved be few, Jesus asked the question, will the saved be you? And I realize that these are hard sayings. These are the words of eternal life. And yet they need to be balanced by the second paragraph. If in the first paragraph Jesus emphasizes the narrowness of the door, in the second paragraph he emphasizes the wideness of God's mercy and the depth and the breadth and the length of his love. So notice that with me. As soon as he stops speaking in verse 31, some Pharisees come up to him and tell him that Herod wants to kill him, that he should leave this area and go down to the comfort and safety of Jerusalem. Of course, if he were to do that, he'd be under the power of the Jewish authorities, the Sanhedrin, whom we know were already seeking to kill him. The Jewish authorities are already seeking to do away with this Jesus. And the Pharisees come and say, listen, you know, Herod's gonna, he's gonna kill you. You probably need to go on down to the Jerusalem area. And by the way, wink, wink, nudge, nudge, the Sanhedrin are in charge of that area. Still, they were right. Herod did want to kill him. And anyone who knew what had happened to John the Baptist knew how dangerous Herod could be. While Herod and all the king's men made their plans, Jesus said that his life was controlled by an authority infinitely more powerful and infinitely higher and more important than Herod. And Jesus says, I will complete my ministry in God's time. I will do what God purposes, and until then, no one can touch me. And all of this concurs with what Jesus had already told his disciples, that the Son of Man must suffer many things, be rejected by the elders and chief priests, and the rulers of the law. But incidentally, even though the Pharisees are trying to do him in, Jesus still engages with them. Isn't that amazing? that here are some Pharisees along with Herod who have their desires for Him. They want to do certain things with Him. They want to kill Him. And yet Jesus, even though these men are seeking and threatening Him, wanting to kill Him, look at verse 14, chapter 14 and verse 1. One Sabbath when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, he's still willing to enter into one of the prominent Pharisees' house. How would you react? Is that the disposition you would take? Men are trying to kill you. There's a prominent group of people who had sought you harm. Would you do what Jesus is doing here? I doubt it. Doubt I would either, but not Jesus. Just think to yourself, just very quickly, who was it that came to get the body of Jesus after he had been crucified? It was Joseph of Arimathea, wasn't it? And he was a member of the council, which council? Sanhedrin. Jesus is always looking for the Joseph of Arimathea. Jesus understands that although the wholesale rejection of his ministry may be represented in the Pharisees, there are still those whom he is able to reach out and call to himself. And what a wonderful Jesus he is, even in the face of human threat. And he is resolute in his purpose and mission. Nothing will throw him off. And you notice how he responds to Herod. He says, go tell that fox, behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today. and tomorrow and the third day I finish my course. Now for Jesus to call somebody a fox in that day was to refer to them as a person who has base cunning and to designate someone as an insignificant and worthless. This is an expression of utter contempt by Jesus toward Herod. And Herod is the only person whom Jesus has recorded as treating this way. And what he's saying is, get out of my way, Herod. And his disdain showed, too, in that he would continue to do his normal ministry today, and tomorrow he would cast out demons and heal people. And then on the third day, Jesus would finish the course. There's a destination to which he is moving. He knows where he's going, and he knows what he's doing. and none of the rumblings of Herod or anybody else could cause Jesus to shift his purpose or change his goal or change his pace. I'm gonna keep moving, but not because of any threats from Herod, but because I have a mission to accomplish. In other words, I am in complete control, Jesus is saying. Jesus knows and desired to move toward that purpose for which the Father sent him, which was to die on the cross at Calvary. Jesus's trial and death didn't surprise him. It didn't somehow sneak up on heaven. It wasn't as if all hell broke loose and heaven is surprised. Jesus is in complete control of where he's going and he's purposing himself to go there. He's keeping himself on track to accomplish it. And he made sure nobody and nothing kept him from his purpose and goal. Not this fox, or any other fox in the world could keep Jesus or shift his purpose or change his goal or alter his pace. Ironically, of course, Jerusalem at the center of religious affection in that day had become known for killing the prophets. Indeed, it would seem that Jerusalem had a monopoly on killing the prophets. Hence the ironic statement at the end of verse 32, if you look there, and he says, today and tomorrow and the third day, I finished my course. And he goes on to say in verse 33, nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem. He's speaking in tongue and cheek. He's saying that this place, this prominent city from the Old Testament is this place that even in the Old Testament we're told that they would kill the prophets. God would send them a prophet and they would kill him. God would send them another prophet and they would kill him. This place had become known, this city of David was now known for killing the prophets. The city of this great King David. becomes such a place as this. And yet Jesus keeps going, purpose-bound for Jerusalem. But notice what takes place, almost what seems like suddenly in verse 34, where Jesus is overwhelmed by something. He's overwhelmed by the tragedy of their unbelief. The repetition of Jerusalem is akin to the depth of feeling in the heart of Jesus. You have it in the Old Testament when David says, Absalom, Absalom. Jesus says it to Martha when he says, Martha, Martha. And when he speaks to Simon Peter and says, Simon, Simon. Satan would desire to have you. And now he speaks to Jerusalem, oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you kill the prophets and stone those who were sent to you. Look at the hardness of your hearts, Jerusalem. It is surely the hardness, the willful desire of your hearts to reject the initiatives of Christ and it crushes Jesus. Look how he puts it, I just wanted to gather you like a hen does her chicks under her wings. Jesus opens the heart of God to us with stunning and staggering clarity. You know what we see here? We see God's tender, mothering love and his desire to make us secure and safe, to draw us to his heart and to protect us from every fox that would devour us. And Jesus looks to his execution on the cross. He says that this is the salvation. This is what salvation looks like. It looks like God going out to gather us under his wings. But it is you, Jesus says, who resist and who run. God stretches his wings and opens his heart of maternal kindness, but like senseless chicks, we see a worm over here or a seed over there, and we turn away. And this passage is quite astonishing. What possible reason could drive the eternal majesty of the eternal God to send his son to be butchered for us? What moves God to act like a mother and set aside her dignity for her children? And how is that Jesus can lay aside the Father's love and give his life for us? But all that God does is of no use to us if we will not come to him. The reason that people are not saved is not because of any meagerness or meanness or stinginess in God. but because of our own hardness of heart. It's not that we're seeking God and because he's stingy, he set up some kind of narrow and difficult way for us to come in. No, actually the opposite is true. He is seeking us. He says, oh, I would gather you like a hen does her chicks. I would protect you and secure you and surround you with my wings. And yet you are unwilling. You would not come as he says in verse 34. It's not God who is ungracious and unloving. It's we who are unthankful and unresponsive. It's not God who puts up barriers to us coming in. The barrier to our coming in is our will that keeps us from him. It's like what the hymn writer says, I'm prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. And all the while, Jesus is saying, I long to gather you, I long to protect you, I long to provide for you. Come under the shelter of my wings. And some of you are here this morning. And the reason you have yet to come to Christ is that you are flat out unwilling to come. that Jesus says to Columbia, he says to you, oh, that I would stretch out my wings like a mother hen and you as the chicks would come underneath. And the only reason that some of you are not Christians this morning is because you're flat out unwilling to come, unwilling to change your life, unwilling to bow down and enter through that narrow gate, unwilling in your pride and self-righteousness to come to Christ and say, I have nothing to give to God. because of your unwillingness and not his small and narrow way. Why would you flee from a love as deep as this? Are you telling me that you have security in your material possessions? Are you telling me that as a result of your academic achievement, you've discovered the riddle to life and you can sleep at ease at night saying to yourself, all is well in the world, Are you telling me that the ephemeral things of time have been able to secure and fill for you Pascal's God-shaped void within your heart? Are you really telling me that? If you are, you're not telling the truth, even to yourself, because you long for security, you long for reality, you long for that sense of belonging to something far greater than yourself. And what of your heart this morning? Does he find a welcome? Have you welcomed Christ to your home and to your life? If you have and if you do, the joy and the peace and the forgiveness and the delight, security and protection are beyond human telling. It's why Jesus uses this metaphor of a hen and her chicks, to show you what his love is like. What about your security and certainty? Have you unscrambled the riddle of life? Do you know why you exist? Do you know where you're heading? Does it even matter? Have you ever considered the fact that Jesus is calling you? Not tomorrow, not Tuesday, not the following Monday, not when things are right, not when you've cleaned yourself up, but now, right now, have you ever considered the fact that Jesus is calling you? Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling, calling to you and to me. There on the portals, he's waiting and watching, watching for you and for me, and he's saying, he's saying to you, come home, come home. You who are weary, come home. Won't you come home? Aren't you weary? Today, if you hear God's voice, As the writer of Hebrews said, do not harden your heart, and you will find that he is like a hen who gathers the chicks, protecting you, securing you for all of life, in this world and in all of the life to come, where you may sit with him in the master's house and fellowship for all of eternity. But the door is narrow, and it's coming after Jesus Christ, following after him, giving yourself to him, striving to enter the narrow door. Let's pray. Father in heaven, this passage is a searching passage. It opens us up and reveals our very own heart to us. You have searched us and you know us. You know our thoughts better than we know our own thoughts. And Father, you are calling the Christian to strive, to wrestle, to agonize, to follow after Christ, to keep everything away that would keep us from following after him and entering heaven through that narrow door. And you are calling some of the rest of us to put our faith and our trust in you for the first time this morning. We might find the joy of entering into heaven through that narrow door, Jesus Christ. where we find you as our protector, you as the one who secures us, and you as the one who provides for us, not only in this life, but once this life is done, for life eternal, that we may have fellowship with you. Father, what a great calling we find in your word. And what a great God we find in you. That your mercy is wide open, your arms are outstretched, that you might receive your chicks and care for them. May it be so, in Christ's name, amen.