"Strive To Enter"
Luke 13:22-14:6 ·February 4, 2024· Joel Passmore
Part of: Luke
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I heard of others who didn't have tickets for a show, but they camped out to buy tour merchandise. Now, I've never done that, but I admit it's been close. I've wanted concert tickets before real bad, and I've had several people be on their computers right when it goes live so they can get on Ticketmaster and get some tickets. I've showed up early. I've waited in long lines. I've gone to great lengths to get concert tickets, to get good seats at a concert or some kind of venue, or to get something else that I really wanted.
Well, here in this passage, God is saying to us, what about me? What about my kingdom? What lengths are you willing to go to to have me in your life, to be a part of my kingdom? That's the question that confronts us, that Jesus himself confronts us with in this passage. So go with me, please. Let's go to Luke. God's inerrant, infallible word through which the Spirit works to change us, to draw us to him. Let's go expectantly and humbly to the word of God.
This is Luke 13, starting in verse 22. It's in your bulletin. It's also up behind me. This is the word of the Lord. 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 on 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. Where 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, from north and south, and recline at the table in the kingdom of God.
And behold, some who are last will be first and some who are first will be last. At that very hour, some Pharisees 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. 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.
Oh, Jerusalem. Jerusalem. The city that kills the prophets and stones those who were sent to it. How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings and you were not willing. 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. One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully.
Behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees saying, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not? But they remained silent.
Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. And he said to them, which of you having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day will not immediately pull him out? And they could not reply to these things. Pray with me. Lord, we claim your promises today that you will be with your word going forth. That it goes forth with power. Lord, I am a clay vessel. The power is yours. By your spirit, work in our hearts. Convict us, but show us how beautiful you are, Jesus.
How worthy you are of our undivided attention and devotion. Jesus, do this work in and among us today. We pray this in your name. Strive to enter. That's what Jesus said here. The distinctive mark of God's people is that they zealously pursue him now.
Now, you could just tell by reading that passage that it is a confrontational passage. It's confronting all of us right now. This passage challenges us to examine ourselves. But, it also pushes us to examine Christ, the Savior. So, I want to encourage you and me and everyone here today to look at ourselves honestly, but to look at Jesus. Do both. Don't do just one or the other. Do both today. By the Spirit, examine yourself and then go to Christ and look to him.
That's our way forward today. Let's start with the first. The self-examination part. Jesus gives the call to zealously pursue him. On his journey to Jerusalem, Jesus has been teaching about the kingdom and how we should respond. If you've been with us in this sermon series, you know that he's been calling people to be ready for his return. He's been calling people to repent. He's been saying, here I am. I'm right here among you. Receive me. Respond to me.
And now someone asks him a question. Lord, will those who are saved be few? It's impossible to know exactly what is going on in this person's heart that motivated this question. But to me, this seems like a question of mere curiosity. This is like theological speculation. And I think, the reason I think that is because Jesus doesn't answer the question. Did you notice that? He doesn't answer the question. Instead, he answers a different question.
The question that he should have asked. Jesus does that a lot. When he answers a question the person didn't ask, you know that he perceived something about that question and was like, no, no. That's not the right question. Jesus says, here's the question you should have asked me. How can I be among those who are saved? Who cares about if it's many or few? Ask how I can be among them.
And here's how he answers. He skips ahead to the future. He describes a scene where some people will find themselves outside the master's house locked out. The door had been open but now it's shut. It's too late. The people knock and they say, open up, open up. Now we want to come in but the master says, I don't know where you come from.
Jesus is being real direct here, isn't he? He could have used the third person. He could have said, they will knock and Jesus, and then the master says, I don't know where those people come from but he phrases it in the second person. You will knock. He's putting them on notice.
I'm talking to you. You'll be trying to get in and the door will be shut. He says that the people in this situation will protest. We ate and drank in your presence. You taught in our streets. In other words, we were near you, Jesus. We were near you. We were at the potluck with you. Don't you remember we brought the green bean casserole? We heard you teach. We were in the synagogue. We were in church over and over and over. We were there. Don't you remember, Jesus?
Back in the thick of the pandemic, there were all these rules. Remember? Oh, I'm so glad we don't have those anymore. There were all these rules. If you were within six feet of someone, so they say, six feet of someone for more than 15 minutes and someone who had COVID, you were exposed. That was it. You were exposed. You had to wear a sign or something. I've been exposed. For all you knew, you had COVID because you had been close to someone that had COVID.
That is not how it works with the kingdom of God. That's not how it works. Jesus is real clear right here. Proximity to Jesus is not enough. Exposure to his teaching. You can't catch it like you do COVID.
This passage says there will be some that are shocked because they were right there when all this Jesus stuff was happening. But the master says, I don't know you.
Just because you were near me doesn't mean we're friends. We all know that intuitively, right? Just because you live next door to someone doesn't mean that you're friends with them. If they knocked on your door, if they had been a stranger to you for 20 years and they knocked on your door, hey friend, I'd like to come in and hang out with you. You'd be like, okay, come in, but friend, we've been a stranger for 20 years. Just because you're near doesn't make you a friend.
Well, if being around him and listening to him isn't enough, then what is, Jesus? What is? How can I be among those who are saved? That's the question Jesus answers and he says it this way. Strive to enter through the narrow door.
To strive is to struggle, to fight, to work hard. The Greek word is agonizomai. This is where we get the English word agonize. Do you hear it in there? Agonizomai. Agonize. To strive is to go after something with all your might because you want it. You've got to have it.
Everybody strives for something. Everybody. Over the course of our lives, multiple things. I mentioned concert tickets, but that's just the start. That's just scratching the surface. Many people strive for a promotion at work. If you really want that promotion, you work late. You take on extra assignments for all, for no more pay. You try to get in the good graces with your boss. You attend meetings that you weren't asked to be at. You do things that you weren't asked to do.
You try to build up new skills. You're doing all these things hoping that you're going to finally get that promotion that you want. You're striving. Some may strive for admission to their top choice of schools, writing and rewriting essays, preparing portfolios.
Others may strive for a beautiful house, a stunning property. You may strive to be married, to have kids. You may strive to retire comfortably. We all know what striving is because we all do it.
Now, a lot of those things we strive for, they're not wrong to strive for, but the question is, do we go after God and His kingdom as much and more do we do those things?
Now is the time to consider that because the door is open and it will not stay open forever. Strive to enter the narrow door. Now you might be wondering, wait, pastor, I thought the gospel was all about grace. I came to this church because you preach grace. This sounds like workspace salvation. I don't know about that. I'm about ready to get up and walk out and I would if it wouldn't embarrass myself. Well, listen. Salvation is by grace through faith in Christ, period.
Full stop, period. We do not and we cannot earn forgiveness from God. It is an undeserved gift from God. Even our faith is a gift. But just like a living tree has signs of life, leaves and flowers and fruit if it's a fruit tree, a living faith will show signs of life.
Faith alone saves but faith that saves is never alone. Let me say that again. Faith alone saves but faith that saves is never alone. God said this to the prophet Ezekiel. He said this. This is a promise. Listen. I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove your heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
This is a wonderful promise but it occurs to me it's also a useful self-examination isn't it? Am I seeing this in my life? Do I have a new heart that loves God? Do I have new obedience in my life? Do I walk in his statutes? Am I careful to obey him?
John Piper writes this in one of his books. The longer I live the more troubling it is that so many people identify as Christians but give so little evidence of truly being Christian. People for whom Christ is at the margin of their thoughts and affections not at the transforming center.
Now this is exactly what Jesus is warning us about. If you haven't asked yourself these questions before you've got to ask them of yourself now. You've got to listen to Jesus.
Is God at the margin of your life or is he at the transforming center? And do you want that to change? This is what Jesus is warning us about. If he didn't want us to know he wouldn't have said it. He wants us to listen because what you strive for reveals what you value.
Jesus told a parable one time in the book of Matthew that was one sentence long. Well actually not one sentence one verse long. Here's what it said listen. The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Now this is a great picture of what striving looks like. This man goes to great lengths to buy that field right? Think of it. He doesn't have the money.
He can't keep everything he owns and buy the field he can't afford it. The only way he's going to get that field and the treasure is if he sells everything he has. Can you imagine selling everything you own? Everything. To buy something huge? Now this isn't like a yard sale. You ever done a yard sale where you're just like I'm just trying to get rid a nickel for that you're like all right. That's not this man. He's trying to earn enough to buy something.
Every single item he is selling he's agonizing over. Trying to find a buyer for it. Trying to get top dollar for it. He's standing firm in negotiations. When someone tries to lowball him on it he's like no I can't accept that. Think of that. Everything in his life. He's working. I mean did it take him weeks? Months? To finally earn up enough? Now that's striving. He didn't just walk away from his house and say I'm going to go buy that field now. He had to do all this so that he could have the money to go buy the field.
That is striving my friends. And yet look at the verse he's doing it joyfully. In his joy he goes and buys the field. In his joy he goes and sells all that he has. Every transaction he's a little bit happier. Oh I'm getting closer. I'm getting closer. I can finally buy it.
Why? Because the treasure is in the field. He values it so much. All this stuff in his life he's like I don't care about that all I care about is getting that treasure.
When Jesus says strive to enter through the narrow door he's saying value me value me and my kingdom so much that you go all out to get it. Nothing will stop you. That's what it means to be my disciple.
But since we only strive for what we love let's look at Jesus okay. The second section I've only got two sections we're going to look at him together and see how wonderful he is because I want all of us to leave here treasuring and valuing Jesus more than when we walked The last part of this passage might give you deja vu. If you were here last Sunday you know that we just saw Jesus confront Jewish leaders about the Sabbath. They had it completely backwards.
Healing was work they thought and so you couldn't heal on the Sabbath. But Jesus healed anyway and he told them that that was exactly what the Sabbath was for resting in God's power.
Same situation. I mean it couldn't be more similar. The same situation happens again. He's with the Pharisees on the Sabbath. Someone in need of healing is nearby and they're watching him and he brings up the same topic. Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not? Now this is a gimme. This is a layup. This is a slow pitch right down the center of the school when someone answers a question wrong and the teacher corrects them and gives the right answer and then asks the exact same question again.
Everyone should know the answer right? Everyone should know the answer. Why does Jesus do this? Why does he repeat himself and invite the same situation he was in before? Because he's merciful friends he's merciful he's given them another chance another chance to respond to the truth and to him he's doing it again he's given them another chance to respond and to embrace him they remain silent they miss the opportunity but don't overlook the mercy of Jesus friends look at how merciful he is that he would give them another chance to respond how kind and how patient he is even now we have the opportunity to respond to him to strive to enter through the narrow door even now here's the second thing about Jesus I want to point out to you that he is compassionate he's compassionate in the middle of this passage Jesus brings up Jerusalem his journey to this city and really his whole ministry it has been full of resistance not from disease not from demons not from nature those things submitted easily to him the resistance came from people he's been scorned he's been laughed at he's been doubted he's been rejected people have misunderstood him they have mocked him when they did understand they walked away or they ran him out of town members of his own family have disowned him people tried to throw him off a cliff and stone him what a what a difficult ministry he had and the worst of it all came from the people that should have celebrated him first the religious leaders who guided so much
of Jewish practice in the temple and the synagogues those men knew the scriptures they knew the prophecies they knew the promises of God but they had it all backwards they were looking at it through man centered point of view and they did not like being told that they were wrong they saw Jesus as a threat so the people that should have celebrated him first stalked him tried to trap him plotted against him and eventually arranged to have him killed and yet look at our savior in this passage as he starts talking about Jerusalem with all this on his mind he doesn't say woe is me my road is so hard everyone is against me he laments he grieves the hard heartedness in Jerusalem he saddened that it's going to intensify when he goes there he pours out his heart for the wayward people he walks among how often he says would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood and under her wings and you were not willing the tender heart of Jesus my friends oh the compassion that he has even now he wants them to repent to turn to him to lay down their striving against him and instead to strive towards him this is the savior who calls us right now saying come and follow me take shelter under my wings I long to gather you under my wings and to provide shelter from the storm will you come that's the compassionate savior that we worship and the last thing is he is faithful his relationship with Jerusalem well let's just say that it's complicated he says I must go on my way his eyes
are he goes to finish his course because he's faithful he says Jerusalem the city that kills the prophets and stones those who were sent to it this had been the place where God's prophets had been killed by their own people their own people and so he goes to his death but you know that he is not an ordinary prophet he is the Lord's capital M messenger the great prophet and his death is no ordinary death because it covers over the sins of people that trust in him it's not an ordinary death he goes to finish his course whatever striving and work you do to come into the kingdom of God know this Jesus has done the greater work he laid down his life for you he did the greater work isn't that a savior that you can trust in that you can follow that you can go after with everything you've got that he's merciful and compassionate and faithful that he finishes the job and he does it for wayward sinful people like us he's done done the work we just have to receive it rest in it and go after him because we love him friends come to him have your hearts renewed with greater love for God greater valuing of him for his kingdom zealously pursue him now that door is open let's pray Jesus what hope do we have apart from you you are the only one who can save the only one and that door is open now Lord your mercy continues your compassion is extended to us wayward people Lord I pray that we would be willing that we would submit to your spirit as you convict us of ways in which we are holding back
we are not striving I pray that we would strive in grace because of a transformed heart that we would want you more than anything and we would be willing to lay down everything to have more of you in our life Jesus increase in and we love you Jesus we trust you and we pray this in your name