Before It's Too Late

Reading this morning is found in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 13, beginning in verse 22.

Luke 13 · chapter mention

I'd encourage you to turn there.

If you are here this morning and uh don't have a Bible with you, the scripture uh there should be a copy of the Bible there in the pew in front of you, and you can find it.

Uh, this scripture passage on page 873.

And if you're here this morning and you don't own a Bible, you don't have a Bible of your own, I want to encourage you at the close of this service to take that pew Bible and take it home with you as our gift to you to read, to study, and to bring back each week to study together as a church.

Luke chapter 20 or 13, beginning in verse 22.

Luke 20 · chapter mention

Jesus 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, Strive to enter through the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.

When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, open to us, then he will answer you, I do not know where you come from.

Then you will begin to say, We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.

But he will say, I tell you, I do not know where you come from.

Depart from me all you workers of evil.

In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves cast out.

And people will come from east and west and from north and south and recline at table in the kingdom of God.

And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.

Jesus is journeying towards Jerusalem.

As we consider during our communion meditation, he was on a mission.

He was born for the purpose of dying.

He was born with a mission.

He was on his way to Jerusalem.

He had been about teaching and preaching.

He had been healing the sick, raising the dead, casting out demons.

He had taught around the region, confronting leadership, challenging the conventional wisdom of the day and the misunderstandings of God's word that had built up over the years through tradition.

And he is on his way, having set his face towards Jerusalem for the purpose for which he came: to give his life on the cross, to pay the penalty for sin, to be a sacrifice for you and for me.

And as Jesus is on his way, once again he's interrupted with a question.

Somebody from the crowd asks him a question.

It's an unsettling question because of the reality of their growing awareness of what Jesus was saying, of what he was teaching.

And so, first of all, here in this text, we see the unsettling question.

They're beginning to understand Jesus' message and his ministry and his mission, just a glimpse of it.

And so they ask him, Lord, will those who are saved be few?

They wanted to know how many people are going to be saved, how many people are going to be rescued?

What was the number?

What was the amount?

And so they asked him a question: How many people will be saved?

Will it be few?

There were implications of Jesus' teaching that as we've been going through the Gospel of Luke, we are seeing, and those who were in the crowds and the multitudes from time to time would uh slowly begin to pick up.

We think back even just a few chapters of the parable of the four soils.

And by implication, there, not all of those who even hear the message are going to genuinely receive, even those who express interest superficially will at least in large part turn away.

Jesus had warned that it would be more tolerable than Tyre and Sidon, than Khorusin, than Beth Seda, than Capernaum, that it would be more tolerable than some of the cities of the Old Testament that were under the judgment of God than the cities that Jesus preached in.

In Luke 11, 29, he said that this generation was an evil generation.

They wanted a sign.

They longed for the supernatural and the spectacular, but they uh Jesus had done that and they had ignored it, and yet they wanted more.

They wanted a miracle worker, they wanted a magician, and yet they didn't believe they were an evil generation.

In Luke 11, 32, Jesus says, the men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it.

Nineveh, who had repented at the preaching of Jonah, Nineveh, who was a wicked, evil, violent, bloodthirsty culture, but they had repented at the preaching of Jonah, and someone greater than Jonah was among them, and they were going to be condemned.

We saw in Luke chapter 11, verses 37 through 54, Jesus condemnation, pronouncement of woes, of lament, and condemnation of the spiritual leaders of Israel.

Luke 11:37–54

Because of their hardness of heart, because of the deadness within them, they were spiritually bankrupt, empty, dead.

They had no spiritual life, no sensitivity to the things of God.

And Jesus pointed that out, pronouncing the reality of their true spiritual state.

We saw in chapter 12 that Jesus, as he was talking to them, he warned them of the judgment that was to come, and all who were unfaithful and unready would be punished.

To the degree that they had sinned, they would suffer the consequences for their choices.

And that judgment was coming.

We saw in the beginning of chapter 13 in verses 1 through 5, this warning that Jesus had.

That there was a limit to God's patience with them, and that they were on the verge of that limit being met.

Jesus compared the kingdom of God to a mustard seed with the implications that it would start small.

The crowds began to understand the implications of Jesus' teaching, and they were shocked and unsettled by it.

Well, what were some of the underlying assumptions of the people of Jesus' day?

Why was this such a shocking reality?

Well, the Jews of Jesus' day assumed that most Israelites, most children of Abraham, were going to have eternal life.

That there may be a few, there may be some who were particularly wicked and evil and malevolent that would not enter into the kingdom, but by and large, almost everyone was going to be saved.

That their understanding of it was that they and others, by virtue of the fact of being Jews, of being Israelites, of being children of Abraham genetically in the bloodline of Abraham, of being Israelites, that they had a lock on the kingdom of God.

That they were the children of Abraham, they were the children of promise.

They were the recipients of the law.

They were God's chosen people.

And as a result, that they had nothing to worry about.

Others, the Gentiles and the pagans, the unbelievers, those outside of Israel, those separated from the promises and the covenant of God, they would not most likely enter.

Maybe a few would.

Maybe Ruth and maybe Rahab and a few others, the Gentiles, we understood, weren't a part of God's chosen people.

But the assumption was by virtue of their position, they had nothing to worry about.

They could rest in the fact of their birthright.

And honestly, as I think about that and reflect on it, the attitude is not much different today in North America.

It's not much different in our day.

In fact, I was reading, I looked up a poll that I had read a few years back.

They took a poll and an ABC news poll, 89% in this ABC news poll believed in heaven, which has been consistent at this point for over 30 years.

And it says, among those who believed in heaven, 85% of the people think they'll personally go there.

So there were 15% who were honest with themselves, 85% who said that they were sure that individually they were going to go to heaven.

Other people might not.

Even 77% of the people who said they were not religious were going to go to heaven.

When they self-assessed themselves, they said, we have no religious affiliation, we're not religious, we're not spiritual, but we still think we're going to heaven.

And what the reality was that Jesus reminded them was that there may be some who aren't going to heaven who think that they are.

And these people thought that some might not be going to heaven, but it isn't me.

And it won't be too many.

And so Jesus here, as they're listening to his teaching, this dawning awareness of what Jesus is saying and the implications of his message are beginning to dawn on them.

They're beginning to recognize what Jesus is saying.

And for many today, I think we are under the same false assumption that the people of Jesus' day had.

We assume, though, in our culture, we're not Muslim, we're not Jewish, we're not atheists, therefore we must be believers, and by virtue of the fact that we're not in a camp that we would assume might not go to heaven, that we have a lock on eternal life.

Since God loves everyone, surely he won't send us to hell, although a few might miss out.

And so that was the mindset of Jesus' day for different reasons than our day, but that same mindset still exists.

And so now we see Jesus' response.

We see a redirected response.

They wanted to know how many.

That was the question that they had.

How many were going to be saved?

Jesus redirects the question.

It's not a matter of how many, it's a matter of who.

Look at what Jesus says in response in verse 24.

The end of 23.

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.

And he says, strive to enter through the narrow door.

Now the word strive here is a word that in the Greek carries the idea, it's the word in the Greek agonizomai.

We get the word agony or agonize from it.

It was a word that was used in athletic events of somebody who was striving or straining towards the goal line.

It meant to contend, to fight, to strive earnestly.

And it had the idea of athletic competitions.

Now, Jesus is not saying here that they should somehow work for their salvation.

That wasn't what Jesus meant here.

That isn't in view, and the Bible very clearly elsewhere tells us it's not by our works that we get into heaven.

It's no part of human effort in the process of salvation.

It is by grace alone and faith alone.

But what Jesus is addressing here with this, he was challenging, it's the idea of exertion and concentration.

Jesus was challenging their apathy and their indifference.

They presumed that they didn't have to even consider things.

They were apathetic and indifferent to their spiritual condition, to their spiritual life, because they presumed upon God that they were already among those who were going to be saved.

And so it never entered their mind to even consider that they might not be.

It never entered their mind.

They were apathetic towards the message of Jesus.

They were indifferent to what Jesus said.

They presumed that they had something that they didn't have, so they weren't even concerned.

They didn't even bother to consider the message of Jesus.

There were many things that they needed to strive against, against the assumption that everyone was going to heaven.

They needed to take into consideration the reality of what Jesus was saying.

If we assume that we're going to heaven, we won't bother even considering the offer of Christ because we think we already have it.

I don't need forgiveness.

I don't need to be rescued.

God isn't angry with me.

It's all good.

The message of the gospel addresses and contradicts those ideas.

That we don't need to worry about things is what the world says.

We don't need to consider the fact that we might be lost because we're all basically good.

The message of the gospel is that we are spiritual paupers.

We are in poverty.

There is nothing that we can do to earn God's favor and forgiveness.

That salvation is like the hand of a beggar reaching up for the gift of a king, as one author said, that there is nothing that we can give, there is nothing that we can offer.

There is nothing that we have that the king doesn't already own.

All we can do is receive what the king is given.

But the message of Christ, the message of the gospel, challenges the assumption that we're all good.

And that most of, if not all of us, are on our way to heaven by virtue of the fact that we're not as bad as others.

Jesus here says the door is narrow.

And some commentators question, is Jesus saying that few there be that enter it?

Jesus does say that elsewhere, but but here in view, the narrow door is Jesus himself.

For remember in John chapter 10, verse 9, Jesus says, I am the door.

John 10:9

If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

Many today assume that there are multiple ways to heaven.

People assume that there's unlimited ways to heaven, that all religions eventually lead to the same place.

And that's the assumption that many have today.

You may choose one way, I may choose another way, but eventually we're all getting to the same place anyway.

So what does it matter?

Why get uptight about these competing ideas about who God is?

Because everyone is going to go eventually to the same place, just different routes.

That's what the world says.

I remember talking to a friend of mine once, and he wanted me to talk to his mother, who uh years ago had uh attended an evangelical church and an evangelical ministry while in college.

And as I began to talk with her, we sat down over dinner and she wanted to know more about the church and about me, and I began to talk to her.

And this is what she said to me.

She said, You know, Dave, you know, I think Jesus is a good way to God.

In fact, I think Jesus is the best way to God.

But I don't believe that Jesus is the only way to God.

But Jesus contradicts that idea.

He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No man comes to the Father but by me.

Peter in the book of Acts declares, And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

And notice what Jesus warns here in Luke 13, of what he says here.

He says, Many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.

Many will seek and not be able to enter.

Why not?

The issue here is because when they finally decide to enter, it's too late.

The time is already up.

And this is what Jesus says: time isn't unlimited.

Look at what he says in 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, I do not know where you come from.

The illustration, the imagery here is of a banquet feast that is being hosted.

And the master of the house has sent out the invitations, and some had not responded.

And now it is time, and the master of the house stands up and begins to close the doors, and as the doors shut, and as the sound of those doors echo and reverberate in the streets, the people who were there suddenly realize the time.

And they rush to the house and they find the doors closed and locked, and they begin to bang and to pound and to yell and to plead let me in.

This can't be happening to me.

Lord, open up.

Let me in.

But it's too late.

A few years back I was flying from San Diego to Ohio and I had to go through O'Hare in Chicago.

And on my tickets, and my uh it said I had about an hour layover.

But the plane in San Diego was delayed.

I was traveling by myself.

This was when uh Jen was pregnant with Grace, and uh we had complications in the pregnancy, so she couldn't go with us.

And so I traveled alone and uh got on the plane, uh, but we were delayed about 40 minutes.

And and as I'm calculating in my mind, um, I realize that I have about 20 minutes uh to get from one terminal to the other, and so I'm trying to figure out um where where it is, and I go up to the uh to the to the uh flight attendant and I let her know my predicament.

I said, I just want to let you know that I only have 20 minutes to make my flight.

Is there any way that I could get off this flight uh quickly uh in the front?

And she said, Yes, we'll work that out so you can get off uh the flight right away.

And so as soon as the plane landed and I did all those things you're not supposed to do, I immediately took out my my seatbelt and began to grab my bags and get ready to rush out the door and and try to make the connecting flight.

Of course, I looked on the little map and the booklet in the back of all the advertisements of O'Hare, and uh it looked like this.

I was over here, my flight was over here.

And so I I made like OJ through the through the airport.

And you have to be over 40 to get that joke.

So I went running and jumping and just I had I'm I'm sprinting through O'Hare Airport, carrying my luggage, calling Jen, letting her know that we'd landed safely.

I'm just I'm running, sprinting through the airport.

And amazingly, I get there.

My flight was supposed to leave at 9.40.

I run around the last corner and I look at my watch.

It's 9.31.

I made it nine minutes before my flight was supposed to take off.

And I run around the corner and there, it's empty.

For the first time in the history of airlines, the plane decided to leave early.

And there were two ladies, just these sad, pathetic looking older ladies standing there at the door.

There's the counter, and there's nobody there.

On the digital screen, it says departure time, 9.40, present time, 9.31.

There's nobody there.

And they're standing on the door, knocking, pleading with them to let them in.

And I come around the corner and I ask them, I said, What's going on?

And they turn and they said, the plane, the pilot decided to leave early.

Almost everyone was here, and they decided to take off.

And we got here just as the door had closed and we began to knock, but the lady said, Once this door is closed, FAA regulation said we cannot open it again.

And there we stood, watching as the plane was being filled, we could still see a few people at the end getting on the plane, and we sat there and we watched the plane fill and the door close and it pulls away, and taxis down the runway, and we were left behind.

Time is not unlimited, and we don't know when the door is going to close.

But beyond that, there's a startling rejection here.

Look at what Jesus says to them.

He says, I don't know where you come from.

He says, I don't know anything about you.

I don't know who you are.

I have no relationship with you.

I have no awareness.

We don't know each other.

And they say to him, We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.

Here's a startling rejection.

They they said, Jesus, we were in proximity to you.

We were close to you.

We ate with you and drank with you in your presence.

You were in our midst.

We heard your teaching.

And a lot of people say that today.

They say, Well, I go to church every week.

I'm a good churchgoer.

I'm spiritual.

But it's not a matter of proximity.

Going to church makes you a Christian, like going to McDonald's makes you a hamburger.

It doesn't happen by virtue of entering into a building and being among God's people.

Jesus again says to them in verse 27, I do not know where you come from.

We have no relationship with one another.

And then he adds, Depart from me, all you workers of evil.

Jesus gives an assessment of the reality of the spiritual condition of these people.

Far be it from being good people who ought to go to heaven.

Jesus says, You have no relationship to me.

Depart from me, you workers of evil.

But Jesus doesn't end there.

He adds a shocking reversal.

Notice what he says there in verse 28.

He says, In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Those who are outside when the doors were closed, and weeping gives the idea of grieving.

They're grieving and mourning the reality of their situation.

And the gnashing of teeth signifies their anger over their state and over what they see in this banquet.

Because Jesus now takes and looks in a future sense and he says, When you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all of the prophets in the kingdom of God, all of the Old Testament saints that you revere and look to for your heritage, all of those prophets who have declared what God is going to do and the unfolding of God's plan.

And when you see them, you are on the outside looking in.

And your position in no way enabled you to participate.

He says, but you yourselves cast out.

And there's a forcefulness to the reality of these words here.

That they were they're expelled from being in the presence of God's people at this table, at this banquet, at this feast.

And there's a shocking reversal because what Jesus says next in the minds of these Jewish people was beyond the Paul.

It was scandalous.

He says, and people will come from the east and the west and the north and the south.

Gentiles.

Those who were ceremonially unclean, those who were outside of the covenant of God.

It shouldn't have been unexpected.

Abraham himself was told that he was going to be a blessing to the world.

That Abraham's seed was going to bless beyond just the borders of the Jewish people.

But the shock here of east and west and north and south gathering a great multitude of people.

And the people who presumed that were going to be on the inside were on the outside.

And those that they never would have imagined being on the inside were there feasting in their place.

And so Jesus ends and says, Behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.

And there's a reminder that God is working in ways that we don't always know and understand.

And God, we can't assume that because of our work and our labor that we have a certain position even in the kingdom.

That in God's in God's economy, we assume that people of prominence and position, people with big churches and expansive ministries and recognizable names, surely must be the ones who are most close to God.

But Jesus reminds us that that's not the case.

There will be many unsung heroes.

Many who were in the background and never saw the spotlight, but in their hearts and in their contribution, they exceeded what most of the prominent saints have done.

And so we need to be careful not to evaluate based on our faulty assumptions of how God is working.

But the call here, the call here for each one of us is to strive, to reject the false ideas and to know that we have a relationship with Christ by faith.

And if we do, then we know that we will be among those who celebrate for all of eternity with God.

And so there's a call to each one of us to respond before it's too late.

Would you join me as I lead us in prayer and as we close in closing song?

Father, as we gather here to hear the challenge of your word, we think of ourselves, we think of uh of those we love and know and realize that uh that life is not unlimited, that there is an end to each one of our lives, and either it will end in our death or when you return and time is up.

Father, we pray that we will recognize that today is the day of salvation, that if we hear your voice to respond and not harden our hearts.

And so, Father, I pray for each one, each one who hears this message, Lord, to stir our hearts, dross yourself, Lord, that we will respond and say, Yes, Lord.

Forgive me for my sins, come into my life, make me new.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.