Tonight we're looking at Matthew chapter 7 verses 13 through 20.
I think it'll be up, it may be up on the screen, but it is on page 812 if you're looking in one of the pew Bibles.
We're looking at Jesus' Sermon on the Mount this summer.
We are wrapping it up over the next couple weeks. It's starting to come to its conclusion.
And this is really the beginning of the conclusion of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.
What we're looking at tonight.
And then next week we'll look at the rest of the conclusion.
And then the following week we'll finish by looking at the reaction of the crowds.
So, Luke, sorry, Matthew. Matthew chapter 7, starting at verse 13.
These are Jesus' words to his disciples and to the crowds.
Enter by the narrow gate.
For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction.
And those who enter by it are many.
For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life.
And those who find it are few.
Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing.
But inwardly are ravenous wolves.
You will recognize them by their fruits.
Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?
So, every healthy tree bears good fruit.
But the diseased tree bears bad fruit.
A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit.
Nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.
Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Thus, you will recognize them by their fruits.
A long time ago, the poet wrote,
Two roads diverged here in a wood.
I took the one less traveled by.
And it has made all the difference.
Many times in life, you come to a crossroads.
And there are only two ways to go.
You can propose.
Or you can break up.
You can take the job offer.
Or you can reject it.
You can sign on the dotted line and buy the car.
Or you can pass on the offer.
You can choose to pack up and move.
Or you can choose to stay here in New Haven.
And you can't do both.
You can only do one or the other.
Now, many of us do all that we can to avoid these kinds of either-or decisions.
My generation, some people call us the millennials, whatever you want to call us,
were notorious for postponing commitment.
Wanting to keep all our options perpetually open.
At least wanting to keep the door open to future course corrections
if we decide we want to change and move a different way.
Not get locked into something that we can't get out of.
Now, in some areas of life, there can be good reasons for this.
And the technology available to us today allows us to consider some options
that were just simply not possible 50 or 100 years ago.
Like chatting on Skype or calling into work from halfway across the country.
But in the passage we're looking at tonight,
Jesus challenges our avoidance of commitment.
He says, spiritually speaking, no one is truly neutral.
No one is just uncommitted.
You can't have it both ways at once.
Jesus says there are ultimately two ways to live.
You can live in the kingdom of Jesus,
as he's described it in the Sermon on the Mount.
Or you can live in the kingdoms of this fallen world.
And you can't be loyal to both kingdoms at the same time.
You know, in the ancient world, there was no such thing as dual citizenship.
Because if you were loyal to one kingdom,
that meant you could not be
completely loyal to another kingdom at the same time.
And if you wanted to become a citizen of a new kingdom,
you had to leave behind your old citizenship.
Jesus gives several contrasts in this passage.
The narrow gate that few people enter versus the wide gate that many enter.
The easy way that leads to destruction versus the hard way that leads to life.
The healthy tree that bears good fruit versus the diseased or sick tree that bears bad fruit.
The false prophet, a wolf in sheep's clothing versus the true prophet,
a sheep who follows the good shepherd.
And all of these are either or contrasts.
Now, as we've seen this summer, if you've been coming here,
the Sermon on the Mount is a description of life in Jesus' kingdom of grace.
Jesus came into this world to call out a people,
to belong to God,
and to form them into a kingdom
unlike anything that this world has ever seen or known.
And the Sermon on the Mount describes what life looks like
when Jesus has called us and brought us into God's kingdom
by his grace,
by his mercy,
by his love that has drawn us in.
And the Sermon on the Mount describes
the life that we're meant to live.
It's a life characterized by humility.
Jesus starts by saying,
blessed are the poor in spirit.
It's the first thing he says.
The people who recognize that we have nothing before God,
that we're desperately needy,
and that only God in his mercy
can save us and rescue us.
It's a life characterized by humility.
It's a life characterized by being different from the world,
being salt and light
in the midst of a decaying and corrupt world.
And Jesus says,
probably the world will misunderstand you
and dislike you
and maybe even persecute you.
But Jesus says,
even when that happens,
you are called to love your enemies
and do good to those who hate you.
Because that's the kind of behavior
that reflects my kingdom.
So it's a life characterized by humility,
by distinctiveness from the world,
by intimate trust in God the Father.
We see this especially in chapter 6 of Matthew,
the middle of the Sermon on the Mount.
And it's, as we saw last week,
a life characterized by careful discernment,
but not self-righteous judgment.
Now, many people have responded
to the Sermon on the Mount
by admiring the ethical ideal
that is presented here.
You know, many people,
even people throughout the world,
not simply Christians,
but many other people have said,
the Sermon on the Mount
is the most beautiful piece
of ethical teaching ever.
Gandhi greatly admired it
and was deeply moved by it.
But Jesus said,
you know,
the response I'm looking for
is not just to admire
my teaching from a distance,
sort of like looking
at a beautiful sunset.
You say,
wow, isn't that nice?
And you sort of sit
and bask in it
and enjoy it for a little while.
And then you go on with your life
and you feel a little more peaceful.
Right?
But Jesus says,
no,
I'm not calling you
to admire it from a distance.
I'm calling you to enter in
and to become a citizen of my kingdom
and leave behind your former loyalties
and become loyal to me
above everything else.
And in the conclusion
of the Sermon on the Mount,
which we're starting to look at tonight,
Jesus presses the point home.
He insists on a decision,
a response.
He says,
I'm not just giving this to you
to be like a beautiful sunset
that you can look at
and walk away
and feel a little more peaceful
and then sort of goes away
after a couple days.
But I'm calling you
to a whole new life,
a whole new kingdom.
So he says two things tonight.
First, he says,
enter by the narrow gate.
Verse 13 and 14.
If you go to New York City
and you want to ride in the subway,
you have to enter through a turnstile
at almost every station.
And only one person at a time can fit.
Right?
And I don't know if you've ever tried to,
once I was in New York
and I was coming back
from flying somewhere else
and I had a big suitcase.
And I was trying to get this suitcase
through the turnstile
of the New York City subway
and it got caught.
It was trouble.
I had to figure out
how to maneuver it around.
But the point is,
you can only go one at a time
through the gate
into the subway.
It's the same thing
if you go to a Yankees game.
I'm even using a Yankees example.
I'm a Red Sox fan,
but I'll give you
the Yankees example, okay?
Even if you go to Yankee Stadium,
you can't just blend into the crowd
and sort of slide in.
You have to hand in your ticket
to the guard,
the ticket person, right?
Whatever you call them.
I don't know what you call them.
Anyway, it's the same thing
you go on a plane, right?
You've got to go through security.
And there's lots of things
that they will not let you bring
through security.
Jesus says,
the way to enter the kingdom of God
is through a narrow gate.
You can't enter anonymously.
You can't just slide in
as part of the crowd
and have nobody see you.
You can't just sort of slip in
and be hidden
and just make it in
somehow like that.
Jesus says,
you don't get in automatically.
You don't get in by walking
into a church building.
You don't get in by being born
into a Christian family.
You enter through personally
trusting in Jesus.
Jesus is the gatekeeper.
He's the gate, actually.
You enter by going through Him.
It's the only way in.
You enter by realizing that one day
every one of us will face God's judgment.
And what we need more than anything else
is to be right with God.
And the way that that can happen
is by trusting Jesus
and by accepting what He's done.
And when you enter the kingdom of God
by trusting Jesus,
you must leave some other things behind.
They won't fit with you
into the kingdom of God.
They don't belong in the kingdom of God.
Jesus talks about some of these things.
He says,
entering the narrow gate
means leaving behind
other people's opinions
and our attachments
to what other people think of us.
It means leaving behind
our attachment to worldly possessions.
Jesus talked to a rich young man
later in the Gospels.
And Jesus said,
there's one thing that you're missing.
Sell what you have
and follow me.
And the man walked away very sad.
And we never hear of him again.
Because he was more attached
to his possessions
than to Jesus.
This week I was talking with someone
from Eritrea,
which is a country in eastern Africa.
And he's someone who's considering
becoming a follower of Jesus Christ
and identifying himself as a Christian.
And he said,
I know Christians
back in my country
who were physically tortured.
They were put in metal storage containers
in the middle of the desert
when it was 100 degrees.
He knows that becoming a Christian
is a very serious matter,
even a dangerous matter.
He knows that it's not something
to be taken lightly,
to identify himself
as a follower of Christ.
You know, sometimes I think
in the United States
or in parts of the world
where Christians aren't going through
intense physical persecution,
we can forget this.
But Jesus reminds us
his way is a hard way.
Whether that means
facing physical persecution
from an oppressive government,
or whether it means
living in the midst
of worldly wealth and privilege
and not becoming entangled
and drawn into it,
or living as salt and light
in a nominally Christian culture
where lots of people
are talking the talk,
but not many people
are walking the walk.
Jesus said,
whatever situation
you find yourself in,
following me
is a hard way.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
put it this way,
referring to other things
Jesus has taught
in the Sermon on the Mount.
He says,
to testify to the truth
as it is in Jesus,
and at the same time
to love the enemies
of that truth
with the infinite love
of Jesus Christ
is indeed a narrow way.
To believe the promise
of Jesus
that his followers
will inherit the earth
and at the same time
preferring to be wronged
than to do wrong ourselves
is indeed a narrow way.
Or to see the weakness
and the wrong
in other people
and at the same time
to refrain
from judging them
and writing them off
is indeed a narrow way.
The way is unutterably hard
and at every moment
we are in danger
of straying from it.
As we've studied
the Sermon on the Mount
this summer,
I've been struck
by how challenging
Jesus' demands are.
It's hard
what he calls us to.
It's extremely hard.
And Jesus doesn't
try to hide that fact.
You know,
sometimes my tendency
is to sort of downplay that
and to emphasize
encouraging,
kind,
nice,
soft things.
And Jesus says,
no, actually,
it's important
that you know
that the way
I am calling you
to walk
is a hard way.
But he also says
it's a way
that is worth it.
He says
it's a way
that leads
to life.
To eternal life.
And he says
the other way
it leads
to destruction.
So Dietrich Bonhoeffer
goes on to say this.
He says
if we
walking the narrow way,
if we behold
Jesus Christ,
if we look
to Jesus Christ
going on before us
step by step,
we will not
go astray.
He says
if we worry
about all the dangers
that beset us,
if we gaze
at the road
instead of
at him
who goes before,
we are already
straying from the path.
For Jesus
is himself
the way.
He and he alone
is our journey's end.
And when we know that,
we are able
to proceed
along the narrow way,
through the gate
of the cross
and on to eternal life.
He's saying
the way is hard.
But Jesus Christ
has gone before us.
And Jesus has walked
this hard way.
And he walked it
all the way
to the cross.
He lived a life
of faithful trust
and obedience to God
all the way
to the end.
He walked a harder way.
He blazed
the trail
where there was
no trail before.
And all that we do
is walk behind him.
And Bonhoeffer says
just look to him.
Because he's the way.
And he's
eternal life.
He's the destination
that we're going for.
And the one
that makes it all worth it.
So that's the first thing
Jesus says.
Enter by the narrow gate.
Second thing,
he says beware
of false prophets.
Verse 15 through 20.
Now the basic problem
with false prophets
false teachers
or false leaders
is that they don't
tell you about
the narrow gate
and they don't walk
in the hard way.
Jesus says
they come in sheep's clothing.
In other words,
they appear
and claim to be
Christian teachers
following Jesus,
the good shepherd.
But in reality,
he says,
on the inside,
they're ravenous wolves.
They're not serving Christ
and advancing his kingdom,
but ultimately,
they're serving
their own interests
and building
a different kingdom.
And Jesus says,
be careful.
False prophets
are dangerous
because they're deceptive.
So he says,
first,
they don't tell you
about the narrow gate.
The Old Testament
talks quite a bit
about false prophets,
especially if you read
the book of Jeremiah.
Jeremiah was dealing
with a lot of false prophets
in his day.
And in his day,
the people of Jerusalem
had walked away from God.
They were committed to idols.
They were perpetuating injustice
in their society.
They were disobeying God's commands.
And the false prophets
in that day basically said,
everything's just going
to be all right.
Don't worry.
Peace, peace.
Nothing bad will happen to you.
God will protect you.
And Jeremiah said,
that's a false comfort.
The false prophets
are saying,
peace, peace.
But there isn't any peace.
They're trying to sweep reality
under the rug.
He says, look,
you're following idols.
You're mistreating each other.
You're oppressing the poor.
You're disobeying God's commands.
You're ignoring his word.
It's not okay.
Everything's not going to be okay for you.
And all those nice sounding words
won't help you
when God's judgment
comes to visit you one day.
And they'll disappear really fast.
And it happened.
People were taken away
into exile in Babylon.
Their city was conquered
and destroyed.
And then after they were taken
to Babylon,
there were some more false prophets.
And those other false prophets said,
oh, you know what?
This isn't going to last very long.
God's going to bring you home soon.
He's going to fix it all
and life will be easy for you again
and you can go home.
And Jeremiah said,
oh no,
that's not what God's doing here.
You're going to be here for 70 years.
It's going to be a long time.
It's going to be a long road
because God has a lot to teach you.
But God also has good plans for you
even while you're in exile.
You see,
the problem with false prophets
is not just that they sometimes
tell things that are outright lies.
It's that they don't tell the whole truth.
A false prophet might only talk about
God's love
and never about God's holiness
or God's righteous judgment.
Or they might be always comforting
and reassuring.
But always vague
and never clear about anything.
But by never mentioning
some parts of God's truth,
they distort the whole picture.
They give false comforts
and false hopes
that aren't rooted in God's character
and God's will.
And the New Testament
is also full of warnings
against false prophets.
Paul said in Acts 20,
he said,
after I leave,
there will be fierce wolves
who will come in among you,
not sparing the flock.
People will arise
speaking twisted things
to draw away the disciples after them.
He says,
therefore,
be alert.
Beware.
Don't be deceived.
False prophets
don't tell you
about the narrow gate.
They say,
you can go on
doing whatever you want to do
and everything will be all right.
And Jesus says,
beware
because that teaching
will only harm you
in the end.
Second,
Jesus says,
these false prophets
don't walk the hard way.
He says twice,
verse 16 and verse 20,
he says,
you'll recognize them
by their fruits.
You might say,
what does that mean?
What are the fruits
that we should look for?
Well,
there are three,
at least.
First,
character.
Galatians chapter 5
talks about
the fruit of the Spirit.
Love,
joy,
peace,
patience,
kindness,
goodness,
faithfulness,
gentleness,
self-control.
That's the character
of Jesus Christ himself.
And it's the mark
of a true believer
and a faithful
Christian teacher.
Jesus says,
false prophets
might look good
on the outside,
but on the inside,
they're divisive,
they're angry
and bitter,
they're selfish.
They might show
favoritism,
they might abuse
the message of forgiveness
into license.
They might
make themselves
the center
instead of making
Jesus the center.
So,
their character
is the first aspect.
Second,
their words.
Jesus says,
every healthy tree
bears good fruit,
every,
the diseased tree
bears bad fruit.
And later on
in Matthew chapter 12,
Jesus uses the same image
of a tree and its fruit
to talk about our heart
and our words.
He said,
out of the abundance
of the heart,
the mouth speaks.
And so,
a part of how we
can tell,
a part of how we can
beware
of false prophets
is by listening
carefully
to people's words.
Looking at their character,
listening to their words.
Do their words
line up with what
Jesus says
or not?
One of the marks
of a faithful teacher
is their words
align with the words
of Jesus.
So,
character,
words,
and third influence.
Paul said in
2 Timothy,
he says,
false teaching
eats its way
like gangrene,
like an infection.
He says,
it promotes ungodliness,
it causes bitter divisions,
and upsets people's faith.
But true doctrine
is healthy teaching.
It produces godliness,
it promotes unity,
and it strengthens
the faith of God's people.
In Acts,
it says,
many times
the word of the Lord
grew and multiplied.
It spread out,
and it went deep
and bore fruit
for God's glory.
So,
character,
teaching,
influence.
Those are three fruits
that we can look at,
three aspects
of the fruit
that Jesus is talking
about here.
So,
let me
conclude by saying,
how do we apply
this teaching?
First,
Jesus is saying,
be discerning.
There are some
preachers and teachers
on TV,
on the internet,
in churches,
writing popular books,
who don't measure
up to these standards
in their character,
in their words,
and in their influence.
And Jesus says,
be careful.
They can be deceptive
because they have
good appearances.
They might be
a wonderful public speaker.
They might
have an attractive
personality.
They might be
handsome or beautiful.
But Jesus says,
look at their character,
look at their words,
look at their influence,
be discerning.
Don't immediately
attach yourself
to someone
who claims
to be
a Christian teacher
without
looking carefully
at those things.
Jesus says,
don't be naive.
You can't assume
that just because
somebody says,
I'm a Christian
and I love Jesus,
that they're
a true follower
of Christ.
He says,
be careful.
Second,
be patient.
The danger
here,
for some of us
at least,
is that you may
be tempted
to respond
to this passage
by becoming
extremely suspicious
and excessively
critical
of everyone,
probably everyone
except yourself.
And you're
always looking
for a reason
to decide
that someone
is a false teacher
or a fake Christian
and write them off.
Do you
find
a question
O Snoop
with
her
help
her
and
she
will
get
her