JESUS OPENS THE DOOR
INTRODUCTION
The question seems simple, *“Lord, are those who are being saved few?”*(v.23)
*.* And in the local, immediate sense, the answer is simple: ‘Yes, those
who are being saved are few*.’* But in the big, eternal picture, the
number is huge, A Multitude from the East and the West*.* In fact, the
number is 100% – all of God’s chosen will be saved*.* Jesus will lose none
of those whom the Father has given Him*.* So, when the question is posed,
He doesn’t give a yes-no answer but instead He gives a sobering example
that should cause everyone to think – especially those who consider
themselves Christian*!* Because theoretical questions, framed in the third
person, put off repentance and do not lead to belief, Jesus will not let a
questioner examine others without examining himself*.* Some people are
going to be rejected from the Kingdom of God just as they have rejected the
King*.* To those whom God has chosen, it is a joyful, blessed assurance of
eternal life*.* The obvious question should then be, “Which category am I
– and how can I be assured it is the *“saved”* not the *“I don’t know
you”*category
*.* First, notice that Jesus is teaching Jews of the Church-Israel, not
the world*.* This automatically limits the numbers, for the world outside
has no idea what’s going on in the Church – although Jesus does draw all of
us sinners from the world*.*
Second, Jesus pictures salvation as a small, or *narrow doorway*, leading
to a huge banquet *table**.* The *door* is not easy to enter, contrary to
the popular opinions of the world*.* No one wants to consider the
possibility of perishing*.* Almost everyone considers that they are “good
enough” to merit living eternally – with absolutely no idea what that might
mean – after all, we are the masters of our own destiny, aren’t we? This
is why true Christianity is no more popular today than when the world
Crucified Jesus 2000 years ago, or Cain murdered Abel over worship practice*
.* St. Matthew also quotes Jesus, *“The gate is wide and the way is easy
that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. The gate is
narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are
few” *(Matt 7:13-14)*.* Salvation is found only through the *narrow
door*of God-given faith in Christ
*.* Time is limited and there are serious, eternal consequences for those
who reject the gift*.* This is not what people want to hear, so they make
up their own version of salvation, manipulating Jesus into what they want
to believe*.*
I.
Only Jesus Himself opens the *narrow door* for you*.* *“**26Then they will
begin to say, 'We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our
wide streets'* (v.26)*.* Well, that is true, *Jesus has taught in all the
wide streets of the world*, through the apostles and pastors of His Church,
and some people even *ate and drank in His presence* at the Lord’s Supper –
including Judas*.* The message of Universal Justification, God’s
forgiveness of sins, must be heard by all people, because *“the time is
coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and shall see
My glory.”* (Isa 66:18)*.* On the Last Day there will be no excuses, like,
‘I never heard – or I never saw*.*’
A. Universal Justification, though, is not to be confused with universalism
*.* The world believes that God shows himself in many ways and that all
religious beliefs are essentially the same*.* If you are just “faithful”
to your belief, to your god, you’ll be . . . OK*.* Your god will “save”
you – whatever that means in the realm of world religions*.*
1. But Jesus is not ecumenical*.* He did not come to make
peace with the false gods of the world, who have been trying to lead God’s
people astray since the beginning of time*.* Jesus will not share the
glory which He bought for you, with His blood on the Cross, with anyone
else, human or imagined – even if they are called gods*.* One True God is
not the same as all gods are true*.* False gods cannot save, or you
wouldn’t need Jesus*.*
2. The problem of unbelief is that people may even be eating *in
Jesus presence*, while they are saying, ‘we don’t believe this is Your body
and blood given and shed for the forgiveness of our sins’*.* These people
are not eating *with* Jesus*.* They are eating *against* Jesus who will
pronounce Judgment, *“**27saying, 'I do not know you – where you come
from. Depart from Me, all you workers of unrighteousness.'”* (v.27)*.*
3. So, are all those calling themselves Christians really
saved, especially since so many of them reject the Means of Grace? True
belief is a *struggle**.* With all the rich and powerful people, and their
false religions denying the words of Jesus, one should not casually assume
what they hear is true*.* Fortunately, God has given us His Word, and the
Book of Concord to check out the truth – not to debate over the doctrines
of the Church*.*
B. Universal Justification is also not to be confused with the notion of
universal salvation*.* All are forgiven is not the same as all are saved*.*
Even Satanists and atheists want to believe hell or the grave won’t be a
place of torment, where *“**28There will be weeping and gnashing of
teeth”*(v.28)
*.* But while *we* can choose the *wide* road of the world, God doesn’t
allow us to pick and choose our way to eternal life*.* Those who think
they can must ask themselves, ‘If I can’t control the timing or the
certainty of death now, in this life, how will I control what happens after
death?’
1. The question, from someone in Jesus’ audience, *“Lord, are
those who are* *being saved few?”* is meant to cause the hearer to pause
and consider his own standing in relation to the Kingdom of God, ‘Am I one
of the many or one of the few?’ Am I among those who *“**29 will come from
east and west and from north and south and recline at table in the Kingdom
of God?”* (v. 29)*.*
2. People will always try and find back doors and side windows
into heaven, or at least out of hell*.* The *wide streets* of the world
will always be works righteousness – trying to enter the Kingdom by our own
efforts*.* Every religion of the world says it is by your works that you
earn grace*.* They all set standards for their people to find and please
their god(s)*.* Whether it’s a journey to Mecca to run around a black
stone, emotional meditation, social revolution, philosophy, penance,
mission trips*.* Its all an effort to find and please the True God,
through a *g*od of their own making*.* To all those trying to find God
through their own means, Jesus says *“I don’t know you . . . Depart from
Me, all you workers of unrighteousness”* (v.27)*.* For it is only God,
working through His Church, who has promised you that *“**20 they shall
bring all your brothers from all the nations as an offering to YHWH . . .
to My holy mountain Jerusalem, says YHWH”* (Isa 66:20)*.*
3. We, though, are not to judge a person’s salvation, for only
God can see into someone’s heart and know if true belief exists*.* Our
job, as His Church, is to give people the tools of Word and Sacrament with
which God will build saving belief, and watch ourselves, *“for faith comes
through hearing the words of Christ”* (Rom 10:17).
II.
*“And Jesus said to them, **24"Struggle to enter in through the narrow
door, because many, I say to you, will seek to enter in and they will not
be able”* (v.24)*.* Sanctification is a continual struggle, so that you
who *are last may eat at table in the Kingdom of God**.* It is the Holy
Spirit, working by the Means of Word and Sacrament, who cleanses you so you
will be ready to be presented to God on your last day*.* And *“****7 God
is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not
discipline? **8** If you are left without discipline, in which all have
participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.” *(Heb 12:7)*
.* *Struggle* does not mean that moral effort is necessary on our part,
nor that entrance is gained by exercising ‘human responsibility*.’* Rather,
the *struggle* through which one enters is repentance, which is a work of
God in the human heart*.* The *struggle* is produced when the Word of God
– which is the teaching of Jesus in Word and Sacrament – calls us to repent
and believe in Christ*.* But the sinful human nature wars against God’s
Word*.* The *struggle* is only resolved as God puts the old Adam to death
by the Law, and the person of faith is raised to new life with Christ by
the power of the Gospel*.* This is the life-time *struggle* of all who are
Baptized into Christ*.*
A. The patriarch Jacob is a “type of Christ*.*” God changes his name
to *“Israel,
because he has struggled with God and with men and has prevailed”* (Gen
32:28)*.* God is patient with Jacob and leads him until he finally stops *
struggling* to dictate a deal with God*.* God also protects him in his *
struggles* with his brother Esau and his uncle Laban*.* Jacob finally
prevails as he stops struggling with God and believes in YHWH’s Salvation*.*
1. Jesus *struggles* with God’s plan to go to the Cross, and
with Pharisees, Romans, and every human heart that nails Him up there*.* He
prevails in Resurrection as the True Israel of those whose doubts about God
and their fears about the actions of men have been overcome and who now
prevail in Christ through belief and Baptism*.*
2. Through this *narrow Door* Jesus brings His Church, *struggling
*with the world, to His *Table* now and to His Wedding Feast of the Lamb in
eternity*.* *“I, I AM, the door of the sheep . . . if anyone enters by Me
he will be saved . . . so there will be one flock, one Shepherd”* (Jn
10:7,9,16)*.*
3. The *Door* to the Banquet is open now*.* When the time of
grace has ended, Jesus will *“**arise and lock the door”* (v.25)*.* Then
He will come in Judgment inviting the faithful to the Wedding Banquet*.* It
will be too late, though, for those who have not heeded the invitation when
Jesus offered it*.* The time of grace will be at an end*.*
B. So, we dare not put off the *struggle,* for Jesus has only given two
options – *recline at table in the Kingdom*, or, *thrown outside*. *“**28There
will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you will see Abraham and Isaac
and Jacob and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God, but you yourselves
being thrown outside”* (v.28)*.* *“**11**For the moment all discipline
seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit
of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”* (Heb 12:11)*.* And
it sure beats the alternative*.*
1. But children of the old Adam think their good work is
the *narrow
door*, so they gather them in great sacks and hang them around themselves
which won’t fit through the *narrow door *of belief in Jesus’ work*.* Belief
is the key that makes a person small, not puffed up, so that he will
despair of his own works and cling only to God’s Grace*.*
2. The visible church is the gift of God’s Grace in the *now *time
frame to nurture those who are being saved with God’s Word and His
Sacraments*.* When St. Paul says that *“faith comes from hearing, and
hearing from the words of Christ,”* there must be a place where people can
hear*.* When Jesus says *“you must be reborn from above of water and the
Spirit,”* it is the visible church that Baptizes in all nations*.* When
Jesus says, *“unless you eat the flesh of the son of Man and drink His
blood you have no life in you,”* we must have some place to receive this
great Sacrament of Life*.*
3. Since the man’s question is about the end time, Jesus’ setting
for His teaching is the eschatological, or end time, table fellowship of
those reconciled in the presence of our Creator – where *“the saints of all
time will come from east and west, and from north and south and will
recline at table in the Kingdom of God”* (v.29)*.*
CONCLUSION
*30 And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who
will be last."* (v.30)*.* Only God the Creator knows who will be first or
last, we have no right to ask, and anyway, it doesn’t matter whether you
are first or last, just that you are there*.* Jesus makes it very clear
here that those *seeking to enter into (the Kingdom on their own) will not
be able**.* But for you whom He is saving, He says, *“**22"as the new
heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before Me, says YHWH, so
shall your offspring and your name remain.”* (Isa 66:22)*.* God is
preparing you now for His Eternal *K**ingdom that cannot be shaken, *by
bringing you to His table, where you recline on your knees, and receive
Jesus’ True body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins*.*
--
Rev. Ronald Roland
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