13th Sunday after Pentecost 8/22/10 Text: Luke 13:22-30 & Hebrews 12:1-24
13th Sunday after Pentecost
8/22/10
Text: Luke 13:22-30 and Hebrews 12:1-24
Title: Jesus Has Opened Up The Narrow Door.
This morning I would like to talk to you about the Gospel reading for this morning where we hear Jesus after being asked by someone, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” say “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.”
Now, we have all heard that Jesus is the door, or, as he is sometimes called “the gate.” He is the only way to salvation and as important as that is that is not the only meaning of this reading. For in this reading Jesus is telling us that the doorway to salvation is narrow. No amount of hemming and hawing is going to change that. Truth is we don’t like narrow things. Narrow is difficult. Narrow means there is not much room on either side. Narrow can be scary. Most of us don’t like closed in places. We want wiggle room; we want room to move or turn around and leave if we want. Narrow means that we can’t go through the door with all the baggage we carry.
We really don’t like doors or rooms that are narrow. We especially don’t like the narrowness of God’s Law. It is too hard and too frightening. Unless you are like the man who I talked to this past week said keeping God’s Law was easy. Unlike him I am sure that as soon as the Ten Commandments were given people started looking for wiggle room. But there are no exceptions. The Ten Commandments are just what they are. There is simply no wiggle room.
In our Lord’s narrow explanation of God’s perfect will we can’t do, we can’t speak, we can’t even think, without breaking God’s Commandments. There is simply no wiggle room, for the door is narrow. The good thing about the narrow door, is that it not closed, but open. It has been opened by Jesus’ blood. It is open to eternal life, for Jesus is the way, the truth, the life.
In fact how we recognize that the narrow door is the true door is precisely because it is narrow. A wide door or many doors just by being what they are allow all sorts of wiggle room, none of which you can stake your life on.
The narrow door doesn’t compromise God’s Word. The narrow door shows that our salvation through faith is in Jesus and His saving work alone. The narrow door can be trusted because it offers no other way.
No, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ the narrow door, as narrow minded, as that might sound or as uncomfortable as it might make you is the only door to God. That is just the way it is. Jesus is serious about this, for he tells us in verse 26 of Luke that there will be those who say, “We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.” In other words they were saying, “We worshiped in your house. We heard your words.” They might as well have added, “but we did not trust you to be our Savior.” For Jesus told them, “I tell you, I do not know where you came from. Depart from me you workers of evil.”
The door of salvation is narrow and it is a continuing work to go through it. Paul mentions several times that it is like training for a race. You must be fit and the only way to stay fit is to stay in the Word of God. It is hard to stay in the Word, for there all sorts of attractions that pull us away.
We need to be encouraged in our lives. That is why God had written down for us the letter to the Hebrews. For the past two weeks we have learned important words of encouragement from the stories of people who lived and died believing in God’s promises. They all believed in the promises of God that they never saw. Eve believed in God’s promise of a Messiah and only saw murder and heartache. Noah believed in the promise of the Lord and he and his family were saved from the flood. Abraham and his family believing in God’s promise only passed through the Promised Land. Moses believing in the promise of God traveled 40 years with God’s chosen people bringing them to the Promised Land, but never entered. Others lived in the Promised Land, but never saw the fulfillment of the promise. Still others through years lived in captivity and slavery, some even enduring terrible deaths, died believing in the promise they never got to see.
Countless people have lived their lives through the centuries believing in the promises of God, not getting to see the fulfillment of the promise. Christians, at the time the letter to the Hebrews was written to them, were under great stress. Government persecution was starting because of their narrow belief that Jesus was the only way to receive forgiveness and salvation. They were generally looked down on, as belonging to some kind of weird cult.
And, if that was not bad enough, there were those in their congregations that were trying to take them back to Judaism. They were telling them that they must do things the old way following the Jewish Laws and customs. They had to keep the Sabbath and other Jewish holy days. To do otherwise would mean that they would not truly be Christians.
As I read Hebrews this past week, it became apparent to me that this letter could be written to Christian congregations today. For we too are beset by those outside and inside of Christian faith who are telling us there are other ways to please God or to be saved from God’s wrath. Our government is beginning to be less and less friendly to Christianity, as they try to silence us while applauding other religions. And it is going to get worse. At times it seems hopeless. We might even begin to doubt God’s Word when it tells us that Jesus is the only way to God.
God knows how we, even the strongest of us, struggle with our faith, so he has given us some wonderful words to encourage us. They are found in Hebrews chapter 21. Listen, for God is speaking to each one of you. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
I love that passage. It gives me hope when times are tough, for God in his wisdom has given us many examples of people who lived and died in faith. They are proof that we will not be overcome or weighted down by economic problems, family disagreements, or attacks on our faith from those both outside and inside of Christianity. We will overcome all these attacks on our faith, and our well being, not by our own power and intelligence, but, as the writer to the Hebrew Congregations wrote, “Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
My dear brothers and sisters in the faith Jesus is your salvation, the Narrow Door, as you live your life both here on this earth and eternity. In these times of stress you are not alone, for he is here with you in his Word and Sacraments. He is your salvation, your hope, your life, your strength, enabling you to get through whatever you’re sinful self, the world, and Satan throws at you.
Continuing in verse 22 of the Epistle reading you are told to “come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, (Greek grammar shows us that we are there even if we are not physically there yet. It is an ongoing action started in the past and continuing into the future.) and to the innumerable angels in festal (joyous) gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn (They are God’s chosen people who believing in the promise before Jesus’ death reached the heavenly Promise Land) who are enrolled in heaven, (Those are the people according to Revelation that have their names, just as you have your name, written in the Book of Life.) and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits (souls) of the righteous made perfect, (notice the righteous are made perfect not by their own work, but by Jesus’ death) and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”
Abel’s blood was spilled on the ground when Cain murdered him; the first murder. We are told in Genesis that his blood cried out to God for justice or as some commentators say “vengeance.” Jesus’ blood on the other hand, as it spilled on the ground cried out for forgiveness, for Jesus’ blood was the final pure sacrifice for your sins.
Jesus died for all people, the Bible is very clear on that, but as much as God wants that to happen salvation is not forced on everyone. It is left up to each person to accept that forgiveness. For some it will be hard, for they will be unwilling to humble themselves before God admitting their sinfulness. For others the thought of needing forgiveness will not even enter their mind, for they consider themselves worthy on their own to stand before God. For others Jesus is only one of many ways to receive forgiveness and acceptance by God. I have never understood that way of thinking, for you cannot go to just any airport, get on just any plane, and expect to arrive at your destination. You have to know which airport and which plane will take you to your destination.
Jesus way is the narrow way, the only way, for he died that you might live, truly live, now and in eternity. Amen.
8/22/10
Text: Luke 13:22-30 and Hebrews 12:1-24
Title: Jesus Has Opened Up The Narrow Door.
This morning I would like to talk to you about the Gospel reading for this morning where we hear Jesus after being asked by someone, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” say “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.”
Now, we have all heard that Jesus is the door, or, as he is sometimes called “the gate.” He is the only way to salvation and as important as that is that is not the only meaning of this reading. For in this reading Jesus is telling us that the doorway to salvation is narrow. No amount of hemming and hawing is going to change that. Truth is we don’t like narrow things. Narrow is difficult. Narrow means there is not much room on either side. Narrow can be scary. Most of us don’t like closed in places. We want wiggle room; we want room to move or turn around and leave if we want. Narrow means that we can’t go through the door with all the baggage we carry.
We really don’t like doors or rooms that are narrow. We especially don’t like the narrowness of God’s Law. It is too hard and too frightening. Unless you are like the man who I talked to this past week said keeping God’s Law was easy. Unlike him I am sure that as soon as the Ten Commandments were given people started looking for wiggle room. But there are no exceptions. The Ten Commandments are just what they are. There is simply no wiggle room.
In our Lord’s narrow explanation of God’s perfect will we can’t do, we can’t speak, we can’t even think, without breaking God’s Commandments. There is simply no wiggle room, for the door is narrow. The good thing about the narrow door, is that it not closed, but open. It has been opened by Jesus’ blood. It is open to eternal life, for Jesus is the way, the truth, the life.
In fact how we recognize that the narrow door is the true door is precisely because it is narrow. A wide door or many doors just by being what they are allow all sorts of wiggle room, none of which you can stake your life on.
The narrow door doesn’t compromise God’s Word. The narrow door shows that our salvation through faith is in Jesus and His saving work alone. The narrow door can be trusted because it offers no other way.
No, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ the narrow door, as narrow minded, as that might sound or as uncomfortable as it might make you is the only door to God. That is just the way it is. Jesus is serious about this, for he tells us in verse 26 of Luke that there will be those who say, “We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.” In other words they were saying, “We worshiped in your house. We heard your words.” They might as well have added, “but we did not trust you to be our Savior.” For Jesus told them, “I tell you, I do not know where you came from. Depart from me you workers of evil.”
The door of salvation is narrow and it is a continuing work to go through it. Paul mentions several times that it is like training for a race. You must be fit and the only way to stay fit is to stay in the Word of God. It is hard to stay in the Word, for there all sorts of attractions that pull us away.
We need to be encouraged in our lives. That is why God had written down for us the letter to the Hebrews. For the past two weeks we have learned important words of encouragement from the stories of people who lived and died believing in God’s promises. They all believed in the promises of God that they never saw. Eve believed in God’s promise of a Messiah and only saw murder and heartache. Noah believed in the promise of the Lord and he and his family were saved from the flood. Abraham and his family believing in God’s promise only passed through the Promised Land. Moses believing in the promise of God traveled 40 years with God’s chosen people bringing them to the Promised Land, but never entered. Others lived in the Promised Land, but never saw the fulfillment of the promise. Still others through years lived in captivity and slavery, some even enduring terrible deaths, died believing in the promise they never got to see.
Countless people have lived their lives through the centuries believing in the promises of God, not getting to see the fulfillment of the promise. Christians, at the time the letter to the Hebrews was written to them, were under great stress. Government persecution was starting because of their narrow belief that Jesus was the only way to receive forgiveness and salvation. They were generally looked down on, as belonging to some kind of weird cult.
And, if that was not bad enough, there were those in their congregations that were trying to take them back to Judaism. They were telling them that they must do things the old way following the Jewish Laws and customs. They had to keep the Sabbath and other Jewish holy days. To do otherwise would mean that they would not truly be Christians.
As I read Hebrews this past week, it became apparent to me that this letter could be written to Christian congregations today. For we too are beset by those outside and inside of Christian faith who are telling us there are other ways to please God or to be saved from God’s wrath. Our government is beginning to be less and less friendly to Christianity, as they try to silence us while applauding other religions. And it is going to get worse. At times it seems hopeless. We might even begin to doubt God’s Word when it tells us that Jesus is the only way to God.
God knows how we, even the strongest of us, struggle with our faith, so he has given us some wonderful words to encourage us. They are found in Hebrews chapter 21. Listen, for God is speaking to each one of you. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
I love that passage. It gives me hope when times are tough, for God in his wisdom has given us many examples of people who lived and died in faith. They are proof that we will not be overcome or weighted down by economic problems, family disagreements, or attacks on our faith from those both outside and inside of Christianity. We will overcome all these attacks on our faith, and our well being, not by our own power and intelligence, but, as the writer to the Hebrew Congregations wrote, “Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
My dear brothers and sisters in the faith Jesus is your salvation, the Narrow Door, as you live your life both here on this earth and eternity. In these times of stress you are not alone, for he is here with you in his Word and Sacraments. He is your salvation, your hope, your life, your strength, enabling you to get through whatever you’re sinful self, the world, and Satan throws at you.
Continuing in verse 22 of the Epistle reading you are told to “come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, (Greek grammar shows us that we are there even if we are not physically there yet. It is an ongoing action started in the past and continuing into the future.) and to the innumerable angels in festal (joyous) gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn (They are God’s chosen people who believing in the promise before Jesus’ death reached the heavenly Promise Land) who are enrolled in heaven, (Those are the people according to Revelation that have their names, just as you have your name, written in the Book of Life.) and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits (souls) of the righteous made perfect, (notice the righteous are made perfect not by their own work, but by Jesus’ death) and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”
Abel’s blood was spilled on the ground when Cain murdered him; the first murder. We are told in Genesis that his blood cried out to God for justice or as some commentators say “vengeance.” Jesus’ blood on the other hand, as it spilled on the ground cried out for forgiveness, for Jesus’ blood was the final pure sacrifice for your sins.
Jesus died for all people, the Bible is very clear on that, but as much as God wants that to happen salvation is not forced on everyone. It is left up to each person to accept that forgiveness. For some it will be hard, for they will be unwilling to humble themselves before God admitting their sinfulness. For others the thought of needing forgiveness will not even enter their mind, for they consider themselves worthy on their own to stand before God. For others Jesus is only one of many ways to receive forgiveness and acceptance by God. I have never understood that way of thinking, for you cannot go to just any airport, get on just any plane, and expect to arrive at your destination. You have to know which airport and which plane will take you to your destination.
Jesus way is the narrow way, the only way, for he died that you might live, truly live, now and in eternity. Amen.
posted by Pastor Rhoads | 1:20 PM
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