JESUS ON THE NARROW DOOR

[0:00] Father, your word has just said things which probably most people in Canada would find very deeply offensive. And Father, some of us, if we were honest with you, we find the words very uncomfortable, maybe even depressing.

[0:20] Father, you know what's going on in our hearts. You know our loves and our fears. We ask, Father, that your Holy Spirit would gently but deeply take the words of Jesus and have them go deep into our heart, the center of who we are, deep into our mind and deep into our wills.

[0:38] That our minds might increasingly have the mind of Jesus and our hearts might have the heart of Jesus. And that Jesus would truly be our Savior and our Lord.

[0:50] And all this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen. Please be seated. Is Christianity exclusive and intolerant?

[1:07] You just heard the gospel text. Is Christianity exclusive and intolerant? Can we, like a lot of Christians, pass off the exclusivity and intolerance as a product of Christendom or as a product of bad churches or bad Christians?

[1:25] Or is the problem actually go right back to Jesus? Is Jesus exclusive and intolerant? That's the big question.

[1:38] And I think maybe if you weren't paying attention, we're going to look at the text because for some of us it would be, it's a bit of a terrifying text. It's a very un-Canadian and very unpalatable to us.

[1:50] So it would be a great help to me if you got your Bibles and open them up to Luke chapter 13 verse 22. And let's look at the text. Let's, in a sense, be gripped by it, by what it says.

[2:03] Hear it and ask the deep questions. Because it asks a question which ever since I was in high school 100 million years ago, a very, very common objection to the Christian faith is the exclusivity of the Christian faith.

[2:18] It's a common objection that I've heard for many, many, many, many decades. And this text directly comes at it. So it's Luke chapter 13 verse 22.

[2:29] If you don't have Bibles with you, there's always Bibles at the front of the church, which you're welcome to take. Keep them afterwards if you'd like as a gift or you could return them afterwards. And here's how the text goes. Luke chapter 13 verse 22.

[2:41] Jesus 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?

[2:55] Lord, will those who are saved be few? That's the big question. It's a big question. So how's Jesus going to answer it?

[3:08] He goes in verse 24. He says this. 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.

[3:22] Many of us cry at that text. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to organize moments like that, actually. There's somebody out there actually waiting to hear this, and then they pinch the kids just to make them cry at the right moment.

[3:39] No, that's not true. That's absolutely not true. I'll say it again. Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. Now, just a couple of things about this text.

[3:52] First of all, we see that the word saved, which many people in our culture think is connected just to a certain branch of Christianity, is actually a Bible word.

[4:02] And at no point in time in the text does Jesus reject the word. He accepts the word, accepts the question, and answers the question, and explains in part the word.

[4:14] But the word saved is a Bible word, not a church party word. But the next two things are actually far more worrisome, especially given what Jesus accepts the word saved.

[4:26] The first is that Jesus says that there is a narrow door, and that there's only a narrow door. And if that's not troublesome enough to many of us in Canada, he goes on to say that people will want to enter that narrow door and won't be allowed to.

[4:45] In other words, for many of us, hoping that Jesus is going to give a pluralistic and tolerant answer, he actually, not only does he worry us with the narrow door, but he seems to actually make it worse.

[4:59] He touches on all of our deep fears of being excluded by saying that some will want to enter and they won't be able to. Well, does Jesus qualify this?

[5:11] He actually, well, we'll read. He actually, at least just to grasp it in the first reading of the text, he actually seems to make it worse.

[5:23] Verse 25. 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.

[5:39] 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.

[5:50] 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.

[6:00] 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 are first who will be last.

[6:13] So this text, in a sense, you know, we think that when you die, you go to a better place.

[6:24] That's the typical Canadian view. And we think that Jesus will promote happiness and peaceful thoughts and calmness. But the text makes clear that not only is there a narrow door, but that at some point in time, the door which is open will be shut.

[6:41] And who is it who shuts the narrow door but Jesus? Jesus is the master of the house who shuts the door. And his shutting of the door means that there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

[6:55] And it's a very shocking text. For many of us, it's not the sort of Bible text we'd want one of our friends to bring to us and ask us to do a study.

[7:10] It's not something we'd want to have discussed by a professor in class or around the coffee break table in the place where you work or at the play group where you brought the kids, where the kids are playing and somebody says, let's talk about passages in the Bible.

[7:27] And if they've read out this text, your hearts would sink. You'd say, why don't we talk about another text? Or at least you'd be thinking that.

[7:39] Well, was Jesus, maybe he was just ignorant. You know, this is going to be hard for younger people to believe. Here's going to be one of my old person moments.

[7:54] I graduated from high school 100 million years ago in Ottawa. And when I graduated from high school, it was, I think, a school that had 1,400 or 1,500 people in it that year.

[8:04] So my graduating class was like eight classes, all with like 25, 30 people in them. But in the entire high school, there were two people who were Chinese.

[8:15] Out of like 1,400, 1,500 students, two who were Chinese, two who were from India, and two that were black. The rest were white. Interestingly enough, the two Chinese were both Christians.

[8:31] And one of the black people was the head student in our graduating year. Just a bit of an aside. But maybe Jesus is just ignorant.

[8:43] Like maybe Jesus just isn't aware of the fact that there's this pluralistic world out there and that there's lots of different gods and there's lots of different paths. Maybe Jesus is just a Galilean peasant.

[8:54] And granted, he has lots of, you know, he likes to rub, you know, rub the politically powerful the wrong way and he loves to, you know, he likes to support the people and all that.

[9:05] But he's sort of a man of his day, a man of his age. And he's just sort of ignorant of the broader social things that are going on. Just not well important. Is that what's going on with Jesus? Well, actually, the very next words show that Jesus, that's not what's going on with Jesus, if we'd continue reading.

[9:19] And actually, in the very first words of verse 31, at the level of the original language, these are connecting words. It's showing that you need to, if you're going to begin with the question, will those who are saved be few?

[9:34] You need to continue reading on past verse 30 into verse 31 and on. It's all part of how Luke and Jesus explain the answer to the question. But it goes on in verse 31.

[9:45] At the very hour, that very hour, some Pharisees came and said to Jesus, get away from here for Herod wants to kill you. And Jesus said to them, go and tell that fox.

[9:58] Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow. And the third day I finish my course. Now, here's the thing about this right off the bat is that Herod isn't Jewish.

[10:15] And everybody, I mean, we might not know it, but everybody in Jesus' day knows that Herod's not Jewish. And so Luke, who's writing this gospel primarily to pagans and skeptics, puts right in there a non-Jewish person, a person who worships other gods, puts it right in there in the text.

[10:36] And in fact, we might not remember it or think about it, but in fact, Jesus grew up in Galilee. He's ministering. He's speaking right now in Galilee. And one of the reasons that Galilee was sort of looked down upon by people in Jerusalem was not just because it was rural, but also because it was multicultural, that it was a mixed area where Jews and non-Jews lived together, where those who worshiped the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob coexisted as neighbors with people who did not worship the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

[11:04] And on top of all of that, every single Jewish person would have been seen regularly unless they lived in a very, very remote village, Roman soldiers, who were over the entire area. And Roman soldiers were all pagans.

[11:15] In fact, Jesus would have been deeply aware of the fact that there were many, many different gods and many different beliefs about the different ways to God. And he probably even knew that the Roman Empire was, in fact, from our point of view, a pluralistic world when it came to religion.

[11:32] It was polytheistic. In fact, Jesus' words so far would have been an offense to the Jewish people who believed that all Jews would one day be saved by the Messiah.

[11:45] And Jesus is implying that they won't. But that in a planet with, I don't know how many, hundreds of millions of people, there were only one tiny little group of people who believed in one God and weren't polytheists, and that's where the Jews.

[11:58] And Jesus would have known that. So Jesus isn't ignorant. And the text reminds us that he's not ignorant by bringing in a non-Jewish reference to help us know that, okay, whatever is going on with the words of Jesus, it can't be that he's not aware of an option.

[12:23] He's very aware of an option of being pluralistic. And he's not afraid of dying. So it's not that he's not going to say this because he's worried about offending people.

[12:37] In fact, he says to Herod, by calling Herod a fox, he's calling Herod a deceptive, deceiving, sort of slimy character.

[12:51] So he's not afraid to offend. And he's not about to be silenced, which might have been a little bit about what the Pharisees were trying to do when Jesus spoke. So what's going on?

[13:04] Well, let's continue just to finish reading. I sort of stopped a bit too early. So verse 33. Nevertheless, remember he says, so go back to 32.

[13:14] Go tell that fox, behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow. And the third day I finish my course. That doesn't mean literal three days. It's just saying he has a course that he's following, that he's going along.

[13:25] Verse 33. Nevertheless, I must go my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem. Just sort of pause there for a second.

[13:38] In the original language, must sort of has a bit of a sense of it, but it's far stronger in the original language. And afterwards, some of you can tell me how I pronounce the word. I've heard it pronounced two different ways, so I'm not sure which is the right way to pronounce it.

[13:50] But the word must in the original language is a telos or telos word. It's the idea that there's this end, a goal, a defining objective that defines the whole purpose of the entire endeavor.

[14:07] It is the end towards which everything moves. And unless you know that the telos, the telos, is that which is being moved towards, you don't understand anything that's going on. And that's the word that Jesus uses about going to Jerusalem to die.

[14:22] That first of all, he offends the Jewish people by saying that the source of danger for me is not the non-Jewish Herod. The danger for me is Jerusalem.

[14:34] That is where I will die. And me going to Jerusalem to die is the defining moment. It's that which explains every single thing about who I am.

[14:49] It is my telos, my telos, my goal, my end, the end for me. And he continues in verse 34 with very, very, all of a sudden, he seems like he's been hard-hearted.

[15:03] And all of a sudden, something deeply emotional breaks out from him in verse 34, which helps us to understand that all the way through, he's not been hard-hearted. That's why the whole text together is so very important.

[15:17] But in verse 34, he says, 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?

[15:31] 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.

[15:44] So what on earth is going on in this text? Is Jesus just one exclusivist butting heads with Jewish exclusivists? Is he sort of almost a bit schizophrenic that on one hand he's hard-hearted, on the other hand he's soft-hearted?

[15:58] Like, is he sort of unaware or ignorant of what he's saying on one hand, and on the other hand, like, what's going on? Well, let's go back to the beginning of the text.

[16:10] We're going to read it through quickly. But let's look through the text, mindful of how the text ended. And let's listen again to verses 22 to 24. Excuse me.

[16:22] And he went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying towards Jerusalem. It reminds us that in the Gospel of Luke, everything that's happened since towards the end of chapter 9 is all about Jesus going to Jerusalem to die.

[16:34] If we'd forgotten it while we're reading it, the text reminds us he's going to Jerusalem to die. He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying towards Jerusalem.

[16:47] And someone said to him, Lord, will those who are saved be few? And he said to them, And strive to enter through the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. Andrew, if you could put up the first point.

[16:59] How wide is the narrow door? It is as wide as the cross on which Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, died.

[17:12] How wide is the narrow door? It is as wide as the cross It is as wide as the cross on which Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, died.

[17:27] That's what we understand when we hear that whole text. That's the narrow door. Jesus' death on the cross. What about all the crying and the rejection?

[17:49] Well, just one thing we have to understand here before we get to that is, you know, in our culture, what we want, one of the things that Jesus is saying is that when we think of the narrow door and tolerance and all of that type of stuff, you know what we think of?

[18:07] We think of theologies, philosophies, ideologies, sociologies, anthropologies, methodologies, techniques, rituals, experience, emotion, and forces.

[18:25] And we think in terms of all of those categories and Jesus doesn't think in any of those categories. He talks in terms of a category that goes right to the heart.

[18:38] The narrow door is not a theology, ideology, methodology, technology, ritual, force, or emotion.

[18:49] It's a person. It's a person. And people touch our heart.

[19:02] We can manipulate ideologies, theologies, philosophies, sociologies, anthropologies, forces, techniques, methodologies, and rituals.

[19:13] We can manipulate them. We can play with them. And on one level, we can try to manipulate and play with people, but a person touches our heart. And we can accept or reject the presence of a person touching our heart.

[19:32] And that helps to explain the weeping. Look at verse 24 again and read the next few verses.

[19:45] 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, you're knocking on Jesus, saying, Lord, open to us, and then he will answer you, I do not know where you come from.

[20:05] Then you will begin to say, we ate and drank in your presence and 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.

[20:17] 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.

[20:28] And behold, some are last who will be first. Some are first who will be last. Excuse me. Here's the thing. I'll put it up and then I'll explain it to you.

[20:40] Next point, Andrew. It's a bit of a long point. And if you, you know, you can always go online as of Monday and the points are always online if you want to write them down. To be saved is to enter through the narrow door.

[20:54] And it's not just a matter of entering through the narrow door. It's not just having one experience of Jesus. That's the imagery there is of being in a kingdom, of having a banquet, of being with other people, of being there with Jesus in this, in this place.

[21:08] And so to be saved is, in a sense, both to enter through the narrow door and live life as a citizen in the kingdom where Jesus is always present as the Savior and the Lord, and where growth means he becomes more present.

[21:23] And I know it's ungrammatical to say to me, but I threw it in even though it's not very grammatically correct. to emphasize that, you know what it is, is we enter through the narrow door, and the door is as wide as Jesus dying on the cross.

[21:38] And we enter, and being saved means that there's this narrow door, Jesus dying on the cross, we enter through him, and then it's not just that we've had an experience, and we can forget about it, and move on with our lives, into lives of ideologies, and technologies, and rituals, and organizations, and institutions, and philosophies, and anthropologies, but we actually enter in to begin to live the life as a citizen in a kingdom where Jesus is the Savior, and he is the Lord, and he's always present.

[22:09] And all of my personal growth into the future, personal growth will now mean Jesus being more present, not absent, more present as Savior, more present as Lord.

[22:24] This week while I was preparing this sermon, I was in a suburban coffee shop, and I overheard a conversation before, between four pleasant suburban grandmothers.

[22:38] I'm guessing they're in their early 70s. I'm so glad you don't know who they are, because if they're in their 60s, I would be so red-faced right now, by guessing that they were in their 70s. But they seem to be, I've been in that suburban coffee shop before, I've seen them there before, they're obviously regulars, they're obviously great friends, and usually wherever they are in the Starbucks, there's lots of laughter.

[23:01] And we probably would love them to be our own mother or grandmother, or love to have them as our neighbors, and I overheard this conversation. I heard one of them say, all of a sudden, I didn't hear what led up to it, but all of a sudden, popped into my ear, one of them saying to another, are you going to go to church this Christmas?

[23:16] And the woman said, yeah, I think I will. And the first woman says to the second woman, well, you never go to church.

[23:27] And she says, well, you know, I like to hedge my bets with the big guy. You know, I like to hedge my bets, you know, so I, you know, I figure if I just sort of go to church every once in a while, you know, Christmas is as good a time as any, I like the music, and you know, it's a good time, and I sort of hedge my bets, you know, and the woman number three immediately says, I don't need any big guy up in the sky telling me what to do, and looking over my life.

[23:54] I don't need a big guy in the sky. And another woman chirped in, I guess trying to diffuse the tension, because she was a bit adamant about it, there was some emotion in it, and she said, I don't go to church, I just try to think good thoughts.

[24:13] And then the woman who started it all off said, well, you know, I'm Jewish, and, and my, my husband likes going to all these religious festival type things at the synagogue, and I like being with my husband, so I tag along with him, just so I can spend some time with my husband.

[24:29] And then the conversation moved on to different things. Here's the thing. Those women might say, I'm not picking on them.

[24:42] They might say, Jesus, I want to get into heaven. And Jesus says, you realize that when you come through this door, you're going to live life as a citizen, where I am the Savior, and I am the Lord, and I'm always present.

[24:56] And the longer you're in there, I will only become more present. And they would say, that is unacceptable to me.

[25:11] But I want to come in. And Jesus would say, you realize the door is my death upon the cross for you because I love you. And once you come through that door, I'll always be present with my nail-scarred hands.

[25:28] And you won't be able to go anywhere where I'm not there with my nail-scarred hands. And I'll always be your Lord. And I'm only going to get closer to you. And they might very well say, that is unacceptable.

[25:42] On Friday, while I was working on my sermon in a different Starbucks, I'm sitting there, and I don't know why this just popped into my head.

[25:52] Maybe it wasn't the first time, but there's this really nice young family there. They're probably in their early 30s. And they had a little girl who looked like she was three and a half or four, and a boy who looked like he was around two.

[26:04] And that and the mom, you could just tell they sit down and go, ah. You know, I don't know where they had lattes, or, you know, Americanos, or something, you know, a pumpkin spice latte, or something.

[26:15] And they had some fancy Starbucks breakfast sandwiches. And the kids each had a glass of ice water and a cookie on a napkin. You could just sort of tell the parents were just ready to have a bit of a relaxed time with their kid.

[26:27] And it seemed within moments of them sitting down, I heard the little boy say, I want to juice. Just a quiet little voice. I want to juice. And then like 40 seconds later, I wanted juice.

[26:44] We bought him, you have ice water. You have a cookie. I wanted juice. And over the next five minutes, it went from just a quiet, I wanted juice, to a louder, I wanted juice, to icy glares and shoves of his sister, to a squawk, to eventually, a full-blown, red-faced, back-arched scream.

[27:15] That not only did everybody in that restaurant here, but probably everybody within 10 blocks heard this little kid scream, I want juice.

[27:26] And he bursts into tears, screaming, with his back arched, his face red, full-throated. Parents try to calm him down.

[27:38] Eventually, they realize the only thing you can do is you pick the kid up under your arm, and you walk out, and you go to the car. I just think, I'm so glad I'm a grandfather, not a parent.

[27:49] And I didn't offer them any parenting advice, because I was probably the same when I was a dad, missing the cues, meltdown approaching. But here's the thing, we all know that that only happens to two-year-olds.

[28:05] We all know that no adult has meltdowns. But no adult says, this is intolerable to me. And inwardly, even if they have such good social skills that they do not stand their back arched, red-faced, screaming at the top of their lungs, inside that's going on.

[28:25] We know that doesn't happen to any adults. See, if you could put up the next point, Andrew, it breaks the heart of Jesus that some will say that the grace to enter such a kingdom is forever intolerable.

[28:44] Some will say, I wanted juice. I want juice. And the weeping and the gnashing of teeth isn't like, you know, those teenage girl movies, you know, where the slightly odd, misfitted girl is who's really the one who's actually smart and eventually takes their glasses off and they're pretty and eventually gets the good-looking guy or even better, gets to say no to the good-looking guy and says yes to the quirky guy and they're just mean and the mean girls make the girl.

[29:23] It's not like that at all. It's not like that. That's not what's going on in this text. It's the two-year-old wanting juice. And if we just read verse 31 to 35, you see, it's when you hear the heart of Jesus that you understand that that's what's going on.

[29:38] And listen again. At that very hour, some Pharisees came and said to Jesus, get away from here for Herod wants to kill you. And Jesus said to them, go and tell that fox, behold, I cast out demons. He's healing people, delivering people, and perform cures.

[29:52] He's healing and delivering people today and tomorrow. And the third day, I finish my course. Nevertheless, I must go, my telos, I must go my way today and tomorrow and the day following.

[30:03] 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.

[30:19] 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. It breaks the heart of Jesus that some will say that the grace to enter such a kingdom is forever intolerable.

[30:37] You see, the image here that we need is not of a hard-hearted Jesus casting people away because they're not smart enough, haven't gone to church enough, haven't made enough money, haven't been a good enough parent, not the right race, not the right nationality.

[30:57] It's not a hard-hearted Jesus saying that. You know what it's like? And maybe you've seen it like I have sometimes. It's like maybe a wife saying to her husband with tears in her eyes, I don't want you to divorce me.

[31:10] I want to be married to you. I think we can work it out. I want to be married to you. And the woman has tears in her eyes and the husband looks away stony-faced.

[31:24] It is a parent to a child or a child to the parent. The parent saying to the child, I want to be, I want, I just want to love you.

[31:34] I just want to be your mother. I just want to be your father. I just, I just want to help you. I'd give anything for you. And the kid stony-eyed looking away wanting to have nothing to do with it.

[31:48] Or the kid saying to their mom or their dad, I just, I just want to help you. I just want to love you. And the parent being stony-eyed on their course. And that's what we see of Jesus.

[32:00] Because in fact, and Andrew, if you could put this next point up, here's the thing. Because some of you might say, does Jesus know who I am? Does he know how bad a parent I've been? Does he know how, does he know the things I've done?

[32:11] Does he know how much of a failure I've been? Does he know how much I've been rejected? He could never possibly want me. But this text is saying that if Jesus dies on the cross out of love for you and that the narrow door is his death upon the cross, that that in fact is the power of God that comes from salvation, that when we put our faith and trust in him, that that saves us.

[32:35] That it's not our looks, our abilities, our accomplishments. It's nothing like that. There is, what is a text? It, I cannot be so broken or so sinful or so excluded or so distant or so hated or so other that Jesus will turn me away when I come to him with humble longing.

[32:57] Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord with repentance and faith in him. No one is so broken or so hated or such a failure.

[33:12] And I don't have a slide from it, but there is no one here who is so young, so successful, so popular, that you don't need Jesus. There's no one here so rich or powerful that you don't need Jesus.

[33:30] That's the heart of Jesus. Jesus knows you. In fact, what we see in this whole thing is if you could put up the final, not the final, the next point, Andrew.

[33:45] See, here's the way this text works on us. And this is why we don't understand the text because we want Jesus to answer an intellectual question, an anthropological, sociological, missiological, ideological, cultural, ritualistic, energetic, technique-driven question.

[34:09] The question was asked of Jesus, will those who are saved be few? the text turns everything around and Jesus asks me, will you enter through the narrow door and be saved?

[34:27] You see, questions of, not that we can't answer questions of philosophy, I'm not trying to say that and there's, you know, other types and this is a huge part of the answer but there's other things that can be said. But Jesus, you see, religion and spirituality will always just go to appearances and methods and techniques and ideas.

[34:47] Jesus always goes to the heart. He goes to the center of who we are in the context of the reality and the truth of the living God. And so we have an abstract question and Jesus turns it around and in a sense when we're opening the Bible, the eyes of Jesus are right there looking back at us and he asks me a question.

[35:11] George, will you enter through the narrow door and be saved? That's the question before every one of us here. Just two very brief things in closing and we'll sort of return to this and we'll pray.

[35:26] There's two other things for Christ followers in this text which are really important things for us. If you could put up the first, Andrew. Jesus is telling us to go to every people group on the planet and tell them about him.

[35:40] Now we can't manage this as one congregation. He's not telling us as an individual we can't go to every people group but he's telling us that it's a constant task upon churches that we pray and do what we can to go, to go, to every people group on the planet.

[35:58] That's what it means about, you know, in the kingdom there's going to be from north and south and east and west we have a planet-wide God, a planet-forming God, who calls a planet-wide people.

[36:13] And you know, while there might not be fruit at first, this whole text tells us that there will be people in every people group. There will be people in every people group who will come to faith in Jesus.

[36:27] There will. That's what Jesus says. And we're to go. And that means we're to go to the farthest corners of the earth, but we're also to pray that every people group in our community will also have people who will go to the Muslim community, to the atheist community, to the intellectual community, to the political community, to the gay community, to the, every community without any exception.

[36:51] Jesus is telling us to go to every people group on the planet and tell them about him. And we're to give to that and pray to that. That's why we support missionaries. That's why, especially if you come to the Tuesday night prayer meeting, which I hope you do sometime, we pray for the missionaries.

[37:06] We pray for missionaries in our staff prayer meeting on a weekly basis. We pray for missionaries. And one other thing, last thing, Andrew, Jesus is telling me to have his heart for this city.

[37:20] Jesus is telling me to have his heart for this city. If I enter into a kingdom where Jesus is present and growth means that he becomes more present to me, and if I enter into a kingdom where Jesus is present and he's present as my Savior and as my Lord, then that means that I'm to try to get the heart of Jesus.

[37:45] And you know, it's so easy for us to look at Ottawa and think there's so many things going on in Ottawa that are far from God, that are completely opposed to God, that are maybe hateful to God, and it can seem as if sometimes the city has no place for Jesus, no place for God, and to take the city's own understanding of itself.

[38:07] And this text is calling us to have Jesus' heart for the city, to weep over it, and to also trust that there are people still unreached within this city who are to be reached with the gospel and who will respond.

[38:25] God, please stand. Remember that the great question of the text is not will those who are saved be few, that the great question of the text is will you enter through the narrow door and be saved?

[38:46] And I just say some of us might have business that we have to make with God right now, that some of us need to say, and I'm not going to give you a prayer to lead you, and I'm just going to say that if the Holy Spirit is pressing upon you, then what you need to just do is just say, in a sense, Andrew, if you could put the fifth point back up, the question is, will those who are saved be few?

[39:08] If you could put that back up, that would be great, very helpful. Maybe for some of us here, the Holy Spirit is impringing on your heart right now, and all you have to do is say, yes, Jesus, I want to enter through the narrow door and be saved.

[39:21] Now, I understand those other things that you said, that George said is in the text. I see it in the text. I understand that it's not just a moment that this is for life, and it's going to mean I'm going to make some changes, you're going to make changes in me, but yes, I feel the Holy Spirit pressing upon me, and yes, I want to enter that narrow door and be saved.

[39:42] And for all of us who are Christ followers, the Holy Spirit is impinging on our hearts. For some of us, it might be that we have to confess before God that we are taking the city's definition of itself, that we're hating the city, or that we're afraid of the city, and that we shouldn't be afraid of the city or hate the city, but ask for the heart of Jesus towards our city.

[40:07] Or maybe he's calling us to go to some people group with prayer to bring Jesus to them. Or maybe it's just that we need to have Jesus be more present to us.

[40:18] But the Holy Spirit is impinging on your heart, and I call you, invite you, exhort you, urge you to listen to that voice of the Holy Spirit in your life and call it to God in prayer today, to do business with God before you leave.

[40:30] Let's bow our heads in prayer. Father, we know that you are touching many hearts here this morning, and Father, I don't know the work that you're doing in hearts.

[40:43] I know the work that you're doing in mine. Father, I give you thanks and praise that you know our hearts, that you know the center of who we are, that you know our deepest needs, that you know what you are pressing on us at this point in time.

[40:56] And Father, we invite, we give you permission, we urge, we call out to you, Father, that you would pour out your Holy Spirit upon us at our point of deepest need, that that pressing upon us by your Holy Spirit, that that would bear much fruit, that for those of us who have never given or entered that narrow door, that we, they would enter that narrow door today and be saved.

[41:19] For all of us, Father, is whether it's the heart for the city or whatever it is, Father, do that work within us all to your glory. Father, make us disciples of Jesus. Make us disciples gripped by the gospel, living for your glory.

[41:33] Father, pour out your Holy Spirit upon us and form us and mold us into a prayerful Bible teaching church with a heart for this city and a heart for the world.

[41:43] And this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.