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.
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.
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.
And all this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.
Please be seated.
Is Christianity exclusive and intolerant?
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?
Or is the problem actually go right back to Jesus?
Is Jesus exclusive and intolerant?
That's the big question.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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 are first who will be last.
So this text, in a sense, you know, we think that when you die, you go to a better place.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In fact, he says to Herod, by calling Herod a fox,
he's calling Herod a deceptive, deceiving, sort of slimy character.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
How wide is the narrow door?
It is as wide as the cross
on which Jesus the Messiah,
the Son of God, died.
How wide is the narrow door?
It is as wide as the cross
on which Jesus the Messiah,
the Son of God, died.
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?
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?
We think of theologies,
philosophies, ideologies,
sociologies,
anthropologies,
methodologies,
techniques,
rituals,
experience,
emotion,
and forces.
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.
The narrow door is not a theology,
ideology,
methodology,
technology,
ritual,
force,
or emotion.
It's a person.
And people touch our heart.
We can manipulate ideologies,
theologies,
philosophies,
sociologies,
anthropologies,
forces,
techniques,
methodologies,
and rituals.
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.
And that helps to explain the weeping.
Look at verse 24 again
and read the next few verses.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
And the woman said,
yeah, I think I will.
And the first woman says to the second woman,
well, you never go to church.
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.
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.
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.
And then the conversation moved on to different things.
Here's the thing.
Those women might say,
I'm not picking on them.
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.
And the longer you're in there,
I will only become more present.
And they would say,
that is unacceptable to me.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
That not only did everybody in that restaurant here,
but probably everybody within 10 blocks
heard this little kid scream,
I want juice.
And he bursts into tears,
screaming,
with his back arched,
his face red,
full-throated.
Parents try to calm him down.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
For it cannot be
that a prophet should perish
away from Jerusalem.
Oh,
Jerusalem,
the city that kills the prophets
and stones those who are sent to it.
How often would I have gathered
your children together
as a hen gathers her brood
under her wings
and you would not.
Behold,
your house is forsaken
and I tell you,
you will not see me
until you say,
blessed is he
who comes in the name of the Lord.
It breaks the heart of Jesus
that some will say
that the grace
to enter such a kingdom
is forever
intolerable.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
And this we ask in the name
of Jesus, your Son and our
Savior.
Amen.