Hi, Pastor Mark here in Bethlehem,
in the Church of the Nativity, where it is held that Jesus
was actually born in this place,
and so we felt it was appropriate to read for you
some of his teaching from Luke 13,
beginning in verse 22.
"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
"'and 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!"
"'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.
"'And 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 who are first will be last.'"
The kingdom of God, it's like a narrow door.
[music]
Imagine that a story has been told to you,
a story that has been passed on in your family from
one generation to the next for so many years that no one
is exactly certain how old the story is,
but it concerns a distant grandfather of yours.
And the story is told that your grandfather lived
in the very presence of God, that your grandfather
experienced the grace, goodness, and generosity of God
in his glorious kingdom,
that your distant grandfather was exceedingly foolish.
And rather than remaining humble, he became proud.
And rather than obedience, he chose a tragic path
of disobedience.
And rather than life, he chose death.
And rather than honoring God, he wanted to himself
be honored as a god.
And so your distant grandfather declared war on God,
led an insurrection against God, disregarded,
disowned, disobeyed God.
And he fled from the presence of God.
He ultimately came to the edge of God's kingdom and there
he found a small, narrow door.
And he passed through that door and that door
slammed shut behind him.
And he went from a world of light to a world of darkness,
from a world of life to a world of death.
And that every generation of your family has been born on
that side of that door and that the story has been passed on
to you that somewhere there is a long, dark tunnel.
And in that tunnel there is a small,
narrow door that is cracked open so that light may proceed
from it, and that that door is the entry point
back to the King and his kingdom.
No one is certain where it is until you,
on a day of providence, are going for a walk,
out hiking perhaps in the woods, and you see this
long, narrow tunnel.
And you wonder, "Could that be the tunnel that is the legend,
"the story, perhaps the true story that has been passed
on to my family?"
And with a bit of hope, you enter into that tunnel.
And in fact, you find a small, narrow door that is cracked open
with light peering from it into the dark cave, this long tunnel.
But, in addition, there are thousands of other doors,
each one representing another religion, philosophy, ideology,
each guaranteeing some great gift of eternal life
on the other side, each inviting you
to put your hand on the knob, to open the door,
and by faith to venture into whatever world
is to be had on the other side of that threshold.
And there you are with a decision to make.
Which door will you choose?
Which fate will you endure?
Which world will you enter into?
That is essentially the story that Jesus tells
in Luke 13.
We read, first of all, that salvation is one narrow door,
the words of Jesus in Luke 13:22-24.
We are told that, "He," Jesus, "went on his way through
"the 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.'"
Jesus says that there is in fact a door.
A door exists to divide, to separate,
to demarcate those who are in, those who are out,
those who are family, those who are foe,
those who are welcome, those who are unwelcome.
Just as your home has a door, so the kingdom home of God
has a door.
And Jesus says that God dwells on one side and we on the other.
Holiness on one side, unholiness on the other.
Life on one side, death on the other.
And that there is a door of division, separation,
demarcation between us and God.
It is a narrow door.
It is a small door.
Jesus says it is a door that few find
and fewer still pass through by faith.
They come to him and they ask this question:
"Jesus, will many be saved?"
And Jesus asks the question, "What about you?"
Some of you have spent far too much time speculating about
all of the religions and philosophies and ideologies.
"How many will be saved?
What about those who have never heard?"
Perhaps some of those questions are, in fact, appropriate,
but you have neglected the first
and most important question of all.
What about you?
Will you be saved?
Will you die to taste life or death, heaven or hell,
blessing or judgment?
Jesus says that it ultimately comes down to whether or not
you are on this side or that side of the narrow door.
The atheists are wrong.
There is a God and there is a world beyond this world,
and there is a life after this life.
The atheists have lied.
In addition, the pluralists have lied.
There are not many doors that lead to eternal life.
Not all religions go to the same place.
All religions but one lead to hell.
Jesus himself declares in John 14:6,
"I am the way, the truth, the life.
No one," that includes you,
"comes to the Father but through me."
And the universalists are wrong and they lie.
Not everyone will die and go to be in a better place.
We say these sort of foolish things at funerals of people who
die because we're uncomfortable and we want hope
and we don't want to lie.
But we need not be foolish and say,
"Well, it's a good thing they died.
They've gone to a better place."
Friends, most have not, will not, go to a better place.
The door is narrow.
If they did not pass through it, they do not inherit eternal life
simply by virtue of dying.
It's the decision they make in this life that ultimately
determines where they go when this life ends.
No one likes to speak of these things.
Preachers don't preach of these things.
Some Christians even renounce these things.
And these are the things which Jesus himself has said.
And let me ask you this: whom else will you trust?
Whom else will you trust?
Do you have a teacher, a religious leader,
a philosopher who would give you some teaching that is contrary
to the teaching of Jesus?
Would you find them to be more humble, more credible?
Would you choose to follow their instruction or would you trust
in his instruction?
You and I are in a position today that we have a very
important decision to make.
Which door will we pass through?
I want you to think of this every time you pass through
a threshold, you enter through a door,
you place your hand upon a knob.
Remember, remember, remember the words of Jesus.
Of all the doors you will pass through, leaving this place,
entering your own vehicle,
returning--if you are still alive--
to the home that God has gifted you,
every time you pass through a doorway,
every time you place your hand upon a knob,
remember the words of Jesus.
There is one door that is the most important door.
It is a narrow door.
It is a door of faith.
It is a door that separates us from God, life from death,
hell from heaven.
Some of you will say, "This is my problem with Christianity.
It is so exclusive and narrow minded."
Friends, we are as narrow as Jesus.
He speaks of the path to salvation,
forgiveness of sin, and eternal life as a narrow path that is
to be traversed to a narrow door.
And this door is open from God to us and it is an invitation
for the enemies of God, not just the undeserving,
but the ill-deserving to be welcomed into the kingdom of God
and the presence of a holy, righteous, and good God.
And before you judge God, let me first point out to you
your own hypocrisy.
None of you do this for your enemies.
Those who have harmed you, abused you, abandoned you,
betrayed you, maligned you, tonight you will not leave
the front door to your home open.
You will not leave a light on inviting them to come.
You will not welcome them into your home that you might
bless them and love them and lavish goodness upon them
and sit down at your table and feast with them.
We're all hypocrites.
God is better than us all.
God owes us nothing and he's opened a door.
To be sure, it's a narrow door.
And in this regard-- I will not lie to you--
Christianity is an exclusive religion.
There is no salvation apart from Jesus.
There is no forgiveness of sin apart from Jesus.
There is no eternal life apart from Jesus.
The path to salvation, the door of salvation,
it is, in fact, narrow.
In that regard, it is exclusive.
There is no hope for sinners other than Jesus Christ.
But Christianity is also the most inclusive.
All are welcome to pass through the narrow door.
You see, in some religions you need to be of a particular race,
ethnicity, or people group.
All nations are welcome to pass through the narrow door.
You need to learn Hebrew or Arabic.
All languages are welcome to pass through the narrow door.
You must be of a particular nationality, tribe,
ethnicity, or culture.
All tribes, tongues, languages, nations,
and people are welcome to pass through the narrow door.
For some, you must be very smart and very studious.
And even those who are simple are likewise welcome
to pass through the narrow door.
In some religions, it is preferable that you be affluent
and wealthy so that you can buy your seat
for the holy days in synagogue.
Or in religions, if I might use that word exceedingly loosely,
like Scientology, there are religions that are built
for the rich and famous, where they have to pay large amounts
of money to go through layers of teaching,
training, and cleansing.
And the rich and the poor, and the black and the white,
and the young and the old, the simple and the wise
are welcome to pass through the narrow door.
And those who are the most reprehensible among us.
See, many religions would teach that you need to be
a good person who lives a good life,
that you could stand before God, that your deeds of goodness
would outweigh your deeds of badness.
Christianity says, "No!
"The most wicked, vile, and reprehensible among us,
"if they come to repentance of sin, sincere faith in Jesus,
"even in their dying breath, they too can pass by faith
through the narrow door."
Friends, there is one door.
That door is narrow.
It is exclusive.
You must pass through it.
But it is inclusive.
All are welcome to pass through the one narrow door.
Jesus continues, saying that the narrow door is closing.
Luke 13:25-27, "When once the master of the house has risen
"and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside
"and 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!'"
Now, were you and I to examine the life of these people,
we would be hard pressed to declare them as evil.
We would see these as moral people,
good citizens, decent neighbors.
And you might ask, "What evil have they done?"
The evil they have done is this: lived a life apart from God.
Sin is not just your deeds and misdeeds.
It is whether or not you live in loving relationship
with the God who made you.
Any life, all of life, any of life that is lived apart from
God is sinful, whether moral or immoral.
These people were living apart from God.
They were living apart from faith in Jesus.
They had gazed upon the narrow door,
but they had not passed through it.
And Jesus here is saying that God is open to you.
Friend, he has opened a door, a narrow door of opportunity,
of invitation, of salvation.
But that door will, in fact, close.
There is no reincarnation.
It's a lie.
There is no second chance for salvation after death.
It's a lie.
There is no purgatory.
It, too, is a lie.
Hebrews 9:27 says, "It is appointed once for you to die,
then judgment."
You live, you die, you're judged.
That's the truth. That's the truth.
When you die, the door of opportunity
slams shut behind you.
As long as there is breath in your lungs,
there is hope for your soul.
Once you die, and we know not when we will die--some of you
are young and you presume upon God's grace and you anticipate
that you have decades left
to sort out your spiritual condition.
You do not know.
You do not know the day of your death.
It could come at a moment.
Some of you may not live long.
Some of you are presuming upon God's grace.
Some of you are already living on borrowed time.
You will die.
The question is when.
When you die, the door slams shut behind you,
and you stand before God to give an account.
And you will be judged eternally.
Are you ready?
These people were not.
He says that there are many, perhaps even some of you,
that when they die and the door of opportunity slams shut,
which means that every minute of every day that door is
slowly closing on us as we near our end,
they were astonished that they died on this side of that door.
That's not what they were anticipating.
They were religious people and moral people
and decent people and pious people.
And they said, "Jesus, we knew about you and we had meals
"with you and we were familiar with your teaching.
How in the world could we die on this side of the door?"
Jesus says, "Because you knew about me,
"but you didn't know me.
"You were so familiar with me that you overlooked me.
"You had spent so many years looking at the door,
you neglected to pass through it by faith."
Friends, that is the case for some of you,
perhaps many of you.
Your parents were Christians.
Your family is Christian.
Your friends are Christian.
Perhaps the school you attend is Christian.
You attend Mars Hill. You're in a community group.
You've read some of the Bible.
You raised your hand at a camp as a child.
And you would stand before Jesus in the end and say,
"I belong to you," and he would say, "No, you don't.
"It's one narrow door.
"The line is single file.
"You knew many who passed through,
but you were not among them."
Do you know Jesus? Do you love Jesus?
Have you turned to Jesus? Are you trusting in Jesus?
Do you worship Jesus as Lord, God, Savior, Christ, and King?
Not your friends, not your family, not your school,
not your community, not your group, not your relatives,
not your history.
You.
Where are you at with Jesus?
Have you passed through that narrow door of salvation?
Have you received that kind invitation?
Some of you would say, "I was baptized as a child."
But did you pass through the narrow door?
Your parents cannot carry you as an infant
through the narrow door.
You must yourself, of your own volition and will,
you must choose to pass through the narrow door.
Jesus then tells us why this door is the most important door
in all of history, because this narrow door is, in fact,
the door that divides heaven and hell.
In Luke 13:28-30, he says it this way.
"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.
"And people will come from the 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."
Jesus says that this door, this narrow door,
this narrow door divides heaven and hell.
Friends, there is a heaven.
Jesus says it will be filled with feasting
and laughing and blessing.
It's like an enormous party without sin,
where, in resurrection bodies, sickness is conquered,
disease is destroyed, God is glorified.
The nations come together and we live forever
under the grace of a good king.
The world as we know it is not the world as God finished it.
In Genesis 1:31 it says, "When God completed his work,
"he looked at all that he had made and he declared it
to be very good."
And the sin and the suffering and the sickness that we endure
today is the result of our rebellion.
We've passed through that door and we have created this world
to be an absolute place of horror for us,
but it is our doing, not God's.
And Jesus says that there is a kingdom and that he, in fact,
is a king.
And for those who pass through this narrow door,
returning back to their king, there is a heavenly kingdom.
Additionally, there is an eternal hell.
There is an eternal hell.
This is not a point for philosophical speculation.
This is a fact.
There is a real hell that will be full.
Many will not pass through the narrow door.
They will die on this side of that door and they will stand
before God to be judged for their deeds and misdeeds.
Some of you will say, "I don't believe in that."
Dear friend, come to Jesus or you will experience it.
And if I'm wrong, I have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
If you are wrong, you have nothing to gain
and everything to lose.
Jesus explains hell in the most painful of terms.
Jesus speaks of hell more than anyone else in the Bible.
Jesus likens hell to a place of conscious torment
that is eternal and unending.
Jesus says that it will be a place where people will be
weeping profusely and that they will be gnashing, or grinding,
their teeth in agony.
Friends, have you seen someone in so much pain that their lips
are quivering, their jaw is shaking, their eyes are weeping?
Forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever.
And don't believe the cartoons and don't be a fool.
Satan does not rule hell.
Jesus does.
Jesus is Lord of all.
It says in Revelation 14 that Satan, demons,
and those who do not pass through the narrow door will be,
quote, "tormented forever in the presence of Jesus Christ,
the Lamb of God, and his holy angels."
Jesus rules heaven.
Jesus rules hell.
Jesus says in John 5 that he is the one who will judge you.
Some of you have said to family and friends,
"You can't judge me!"
The truth is Jesus will.
And when you die, there is no opportunity for salvation.
The door slams shut behind you and you will stand before Jesus
and he will sentence you to a punishment in hell that
absolutely fits the degree of wickedness that was present
in your life.
That means that some of you will suffer more than others,
but all who fail to pass through the narrow door will suffer
and they will suffer forever.
Many preachers are cowards.
They don't tell you this.
My job is to love you well and tell you the truth.
The Bible says that teachers will be judged
more strictly and harshly.
That means I need to stand before Jesus and give an account
for even these words.
I'm not going to lie to you.
I'm not going to sell you.
I'm not going to soften the blow.
I will treat you as adults,
and I want you to make your own decision.
But I also want my hands to be clean of your blood, and I want
you to make the decision, fully aware of the consequences
of this opportunity that God sets before you.
Some of you are going to hell.
And he says, "There you will see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,"
not that they are in the place of torment,
but somehow you will be able to gaze upon the place of blessing.
And you will see the love and the grace and the mercy of God.
And you will see the joy and the gratitude of the people of God.
And for all of your days, you will regret your own folly
and the opportunity that you allowed to pass you by.
You will have no one to blame but yourself.
And Jesus says that some who are last will be first and some
who are first will be last.
Amazingly, there are many who are last that are becoming first
and they are passing through this narrow door.
Just a bit over a year ago, an earthquake hit Haiti,
and in some 37 seconds the poorest nation
in the western hemisphere was literally rocked to its core.
And the great city of Port-au-Prince saw upwards
of half the buildings fall to the ground.
By the grace of God and the work of Pastor James MacDonald from
the Harvest Bible Chapel, we had entrance into the country just
days after this tragedy and it was a miracle of God
that we got in.
And we were privileged to bring some of the film crew there
to see the devastation and to investigate
in a documentary style what was happening with the churches.
Came back and preached that to you and showed that footage to
you and other churches did as well and I want to thank you.
You gave $750,000 to help that effort.
And Churches Helping Churches, a small organization,
was born with a minimal staff and a lot of volunteers
and other churches, including Pastor James',
took offerings as well
and an additional $2 million was raised.
Over $2.7 million in total.
So on the 1-year anniversary of the quake,
I had the honor of returning to see what God was doing.
The capital building is still collapsed.
All they've done is move the rubble and bodies out of
the street, but there are no construction projects underway.
Everything is as it was.
There are upwards of 1 million people,
they will call them displaced, they're homeless.
Their homes fell to the ground.
They're living under tarps and they're living in tents
at the parks.
One park has over 50,000 people living in it
in the heart of the city.
No electricity, no running water, no bathrooms.
There's no functioning government.
There's no military and there's a very minimal police force.
And the church is exploding.
Churches are filled with people who are running
through the narrow door.
I'll show you a photo of the event that we had.
We had a service, a church service.
The radio station, it was on radio and television,
reported 50,000 people came on the 1-year anniversary
of the quake.
Where we were preaching from, there were actually five roads
that came together and people lined two of them,
so this is half the crowd.
Actually less.
There was a whole other street and then they spilled over
into another area surrounding.
These people came without water, without food.
There was no shade or shelter and there were only
a few portable bathrooms for 50,000 people.
They stood in 90-some-degree weather for 5 or 6 hours.
The president was going to do some sort of memorial event that
night and so he allowed us to use his staging
and his sound system for a mere $3,000.
It was wonderful.
Franklin Graham's crusade a bit prior had its literature show up
late, so Franklin Graham was gracious and gave us
all kinds of follow-up material for new Christians.
People were very generous, very gracious.
There are a lot of great organizations,
including Christian ones, doing some wonderful things.
And it's amazing that these people who are last--
the average person has a third-grade education.
The average person we met is living under a tarp in a park
and has been for a year.
Seemingly every family has someone who's missing a limb
because when the buildings fell upon people,
the hospital also was destroyed, there's not medical care to tend
to them, and so they just amputated their limbs.
People everywhere without arms and legs.
I want to thank you.
We're able to build buildings at a seminary and rebuild
50 church buildings and fly in $1.7 million in medical aid
and help train thousands of pastors and also support those
who are local, Creole- and French-speaking
Haitian nationals who love Jesus, and host this event.
I'll share one story with you of a man on the right
who's a pastor.
He was my translator for my brief sermon.
We let the Haitians do the vast majority
of the teaching and singing.
Last thing we need is Americans getting in the way
of what God is doing.
We just wanted to thank them.
The man on the right is a pastor.
His home fell to the ground.
He's living amidst the rubble a year later.
His church fell to the ground as well.
His people are displaced, homeless,
living in the park in tents and under tarps,
and so he decided to plant a church in the park.
His church is now running 3,000 people, 3,000 homeless people,
in the park because Haitians are just running
through the narrow door.
They are coming to Jesus in revival numbers.
There was a non-Christian organization that asked to hire
that pastor saying, "You're a man of integrity and we
would like to employ you to help our organization."
He said, "I must work for free.
"You don't love Jesus, but I love what you're doing,
"but I can't compromise my integrity so I cannot take
a salary," said the homeless pastor with a church
of homeless people in the park.
The tarp or tent they were meeting under was destroyed
in a great storm and so our leadership there under
Thomas Kim approached him and said, "We'd like to
replace that temporary shelter."
He said, "No, our people need to learn to give generously.
"They're homeless, but we can figure out how
we're going to meet."
And they did.
On the left is his worship leader,
a 12-year-old boy who sings like a Spirit-filled Michael Jackson.
If we get the audio and the video set up,
I'd love to have you hear him.
He led worship for us for 50,000 people who were
absolutely stunned and I was among them.
Blown away.
Unbelievable control, voice, passion,
and spiritual authority in a 12-year-old boy.
He speaks Creole, I speak English.
It was hard to figure out.
I think he may be an orphan.
He's definitely living at the park homeless and displaced.
He leads worship at a megachurch of 3,000 people.
Of course we're going to support him.
I'm in touch with the pastor.
We're going to do good by this young man.
The way he was found is at night in the parks they have nothing
to do, so people just come together and they sing to Jesus.
They've learned that life on the other side of that narrow door
is really the life that counts the most.
And so the whole city is quiet and there's no electricity
in most areas.
Yet, if you go for a walk, what you will hear are the voices
of Christians worshiping Jesus, homeless, poor,
amputated, in the parks.
And there was a missionary couple that has been there for
35 years and they were passing through the park and they heard
the voice of this young boy leading worship.
And so they found him and they invited him to our event
and we just put him on the stage in front
of 50,000 people and he was mesmerizing,
by the grace of God.
Mesmerizing.
And as I looked out, I was overcome with emotion.
I saw people who had literally one leg with crutches of
two different sizes hobbling to worship in 90-degree heat.
I saw children with one leg and one arm balancing on crutches
so they could raise their one hand in worship to Jesus,
singing for six hours.
The last will be what? The last will be what?
First.
This narrow door is open. It is exclusive:
there's one door. It is inclusive:
all are welcome.
And people with one leg and a third-grade education
sleeping in a tent are running through that door.
Additionally, Jesus says that the first will be what?
Last.
Mars Hill, what are you?
First.
If you've called other nations, you know that you have to enter
a country code before you dial a number.
If you're calling back to the States,
you have enter our country code.
What's our country code?
Number one.
We are first.
We are the first nation in the world.
We are the most preeminent, prominent nation in the world.
The first shall be what?
Last.
My exhortation, my invitation to you is this.
Do not be too smart.
Do not be too smug.
Do not be too affluent.
Do not be too busy.
Do not be too critical.
Do not be too moral.
Do not be self-righteous and fail to run through that door.
For some who are last, this life is as close to hell
as they will ever get.
And for some who fail to pass through the door,
this is their heaven.
Hell awaits them and this is as close--this is as close
to the kingdom of God as you will ever be.
And Jesus closes with these final words that, in fact,
he is that narrow door.
The narrow door is Jesus Christ.
Luke 13:31-51, "At that very hour some Pharisees,"
religious leaders, "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,'"
which is a very negative title and a criticism,
"'"Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures
"'today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish 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."'
"'O 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,'" or her chicks, "'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!"'"
God has opened a door from us to him.
God has opened one narrow door from us to him.
That door is Jesus Christ.
Jesus says in John 10:9, "I am the door.
He who passes through me shall inherit eternal life."
Jesus says, "I am the door!"
The door of salvation!
The door of invitation!
The door from God to man!
The door from heaven to hell!
The door that is available to you in this very moment
is Jesus Christ!
God became a man.
He lived without sin and here he is on his way to Jerusalem
and Jesus is focused, committed, devoted,
and resolved to getting to Jerusalem.
And the religious leaders come to him and they say,
"Jesus, be careful.
"Stop preaching.
You will be put to death."
And Jesus says, "I know, that's why I must get to Jerusalem."
The great city of God where the presence of the Holy Spirit
dwelt in the Holy of Holies, where the priests
and the sacrificial system and the worship of God around
the temple, all foreshadowing the coming of Jesus Christ
were absolutely anticipating the fulfillment of all that
was promised and longed for.
And Jesus had to get to Jerusalem.
And he had to suffer and die in our place for our sins as our
savior to pay our debt to God and to take the door that
had been slammed shut by our great-great-great-grandfather
Adam through his rebellion, folly, and sin,
and as the new Adam, the last Adam, to open that door,
that the light of the kingdom of God might shine into
the darkness of this world and that you and I would be invited
to pass through that narrow door.
Jesus Christ is the door of salvation and provision.
He died in your place for your sins
as your substitute and savior.
And he knows exactly what his mission is and here he is
absolutely committed to seeing it through to the end.
He who has no sin became sin for us.
God became a man to open a door of opportunity for men and women
to come to God.
Jesus is that door.
Dear friend, let me implore you, let me beg you,
don't complain about the door.
Don't go searching for another door.
Don't try one of the other thousands of doors that religion
and ideology and philosophy would give you.
Don't criticize the door.
Don't critique the door.
Don't just stare at the door.
Don't walk away from the door and don't place your hand
on the wrong knob.
Don't walk through the wrong belief system.
It's all a trap. It's all a lie.
Instead, run, run to Jesus!
Run through the narrow door!
He used the word earlier, "strive."
That's language of an athlete who is running and passionate
and compelled and zealous.
There's a sense of urgency.
Run!
Some of you are presuming on the grace of God.
Some of you are living in the path of the wrath of God.
Run through the door that God has opened!
Run through the door that God has offered!
Run by faith from your sin through Jesus to eternal life.
This is your decision.
I have done all I can do.
Jesus has done everything that can be done.
And now it is your decision what you will do.
And what is the heart of Jesus?
Some of you would say, "What a cruel God.
"What a mean God.
What a capricious God to send people to hell."
What is Jesus doing here in the text, dear friends?
What is he doing?
Is he laughing? Is he scoffing?
Is he dancing?
He is weeping. He is weeping.
His heart is broken.
Yes, Jesus has risen from death.
Yes, Jesus has ascended into heaven.
Yes, Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead.
But the heart of Jesus today is the heart of Jesus
as it was in that day.
He is on the other side of this door, this narrow door,
and he is weeping.
His arms are stretched out.
His eyes are filled with tears.
He knows when you will die.
He knows where you will go.
He knows how you will suffer and that is what justice requires.
And he is weeping, inviting you to run by faith through the door
of salvation that he has suffered, died,
and risen to open for you.
This is the love of God.
This is the love of God for you, dear friend.
I believe Jesus is right now weeping for us
as he was weeping for them.
And it is my prayer that you would run.
But that is something, dear friend, that you must decide.
The narrow door is open and the decision is yours.
Father God, we thank you that though we deserve nothing but
hell and judgment because of our sin and folly and rebellion,
you in love devised a plan to open a door of salvation
from your world to ours, from your holiness to our sinfulness,
from our death to your life.
Lord Jesus, we thank you that as God you humbled yourself
and became a man, that you lived the life we have not lived,
the life without sin, that you died the death we should have
died, the death for sin, that you rose to conquer sin
and death and to open a narrow door of opportunity
between your kingdom and the nations of this earth.
Jesus, I pray for my friends a sober heart,
a sense of urgency,
that there is a door and it is open
and on the other side you stand with tears in your eyes,
scarred hands stretched out,
willing to embrace any who by faith
would run through that narrow door.
Jesus, I pray for my friends, that they would run to you
and that you would embrace them.
Amen.