The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew): The Wonderful Narrowness of Jesus

Well, good morning.

Our text is Matthew 7, 12 through 23.

We're going to work our way through it, passage by passage, verse by verse, and see what we can make sense of this.

It progresses through a few different thoughts.

So Matthew 7, verse 12 says, So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them.

Matthew 7:12

For this is the law and the prophets.

Big L law, which should be referring to Old Testament rules and regulations, specifically more Moses' law.

We can think old, you know, the old Ten Commandments, everything you should be and you should do.

And Jesus says, I'll summarize it for you.

Love other people.

And then Paul in the New Testament is always helping us make sense of Jesus.

And so Paul says this about any sort of spirituality by law or trying to live up to a performance or obey enough and then you'll be accepted by God.

Here's what Paul says about that kind of path Colatians 3, 23 and 24.

Now, before faith came, so before Jesus, before faith in Christ, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.

So then the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.

So here's how all this shakes out.

The law is good and holy.

The problem is not the law, the problem is me.

The problem's you.

The problem is that we don't live up to the holy and good law.

We don't live up to what we should be, right?

You know that when you read the Bible, you read something, you go, well, like that's really great.

That's what I should do or should be, but I'm not always that.

We don't always live up to it.

And this is also why, in your own heart, in your own Christian experience, when all you hear is law without grace, as an overriding message, and maybe that takes form as sort of like a constant Christian to-do list.

It could also be disguised as faith challenges.

We like to do that in the Christian world.

Just keep giving you more and more faith challenges.

Law always leads to exhaustion and condemnation.

Not because there's a problem with the law, but because we are not perfect unto it.

So for the law, whether moral or religious or even worldly law, like what you should be in the world, there's lots of shoulds in the world, right?

Of what you should be.

Law, always.

Even the most current expression of Christian faith, the hypest, newest Christian experience possible.

Law always accuses and kills in whatever form it arrives.

And so if you're ever feeling exhaustion and condemnation, the first question you should ask is: where am I living by law?

Where am I under law?

Where am I under all the shoulds?

And I'm outside of the grace of Jesus.

If you remember the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount series, we started with Matthew 5, 17.

Jesus saying, Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets.

Well, he wouldn't say that because the law is good and holy, right?

No, no.

I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.

So what that means is Christ fulfills the very thing he asks you to be.

He loves perfectly, even while our calling is to love.

He's the one who loves perfectly, even while we love him perfectly.

So our growth in grace, our movement toward godliness is not for acceptance.

It's not even under, if I do enough, God will finally smile toward me.

Our growth in grace, our movement toward godliness, our desire to love other people is because we're already accepted as his children, because of grace and because of Jesus.

And now that makes a lot of sense heading into verses 13 and 14 about a narrow way, because that's really narrow, right?

It really weeded us out in all of our performance and everything we try to add on.

But it just narrowed it straight into faith in Christ alone.

Verses 13 and 14 enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide, and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter it 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.

So point number one is this Jesus is narrow as Jesus is God's lavish grace, ending performance-based living.

Now, performance-based living, we can pick up that quickly in religious life, moral life in the world, and even escapism and licentiousness is a reaction to the fact that you just know you can't even be on, begin to do that.

And so you react to that.

That's a wide way.

It means broad or roomy.

It's a way without boundaries or morality.

It's all subjective.

It would be easy just to say, oh, that's for all the non-religious people.

Like those really worldly, horrible, you know, those people, right?

Like them, right?

But Jesus reserves his most harsh criticisms constantly for religious people.

Because merit-based living, that's a wide way.

It gives you plenty of room to keep control, keep all your self-righteousness, all your pride, to be your own savior.

Call your own shots.

Years ago, my sister and brother-in-law, they went on a free weekend to a condo complex at the beach.

I mean, can you believe it?

They got a phone call that they got a free weekend at the beach, right?

Have you ever gotten that?

You got the mailing or the phone call.

I walked by a guy at Cabela's a few weeks ago and he offered me a free fishing trip.

I walked right by him.

I just went straight by.

Didn't even look at him.

Like, nope, not even gonna look at you.

Free fishing trip.

I want to pay.

I want to pay in full, not looking at you.

My sister, she wins this.

They win this free weekend.

Can you believe it?

A free weekend at the beach.

What are the chances?

All they had to do was attend a one-hour seminar.

That's all they had to do.

They were newly married and they were poor, so they're like, hey, we'll do, we'll attend, we'll go to that.

Like that sounds like a good deal.

So they get there and everything was free, and the condo was great, and the beach was great, they're riding on the beach, and they weren't bothered by anybody, just welcomed, just accepted, lavish.

Then came the simple arm.

One hour became two hours, you know, the more resistant they were.

And then the pressure turned up, like that really nice, loving, welcoming, accepting guy, all of a sudden the pressure turned up, right?

And the guilt kicked in.

Like you took this free beach trip and you won't even consider this.

You're gonna live in regret the rest of your life.

You're like, you're gonna get to 50 or 60, you're gonna look back and realize how many beach trips you could have had for such a good deal.

You're gonna have such regret on this deal that I have for you, right?

And they felt all that, but they're resisting it, and they're resisting it.

So the sales guy he he switches his tactics.

And my sister comes home with an overly paid for set of pots and pans out of the beach trip.

That's what she ended up with.

Now here's the lesson: don't overly pay for pots and pans at a free beach trip.

That's number one.

And here's the second one.

They were fully welcomed, accepted in grace.

And then the switch happened.

Maybe you've been in church, maybe you've been at like a retreat and you're seeing about God's lavish love for you, and I mean this unbelievable grace, and he is so faithful, and you're secure in him, and then you're like this.

Ah, I love this faith, right?

And preacher guy gets up and he's good and he can preach and he's smooth.

And he loves Jesus.

He loves Jesus.

And then it happens, and it was so smooth, you you barely notice it, but you feel it.

You feel it.

And he lays the shame on you.

Look what, look what Jesus did for you.

Can't you even?

You're gonna stand before God in heaven.

You're gonna have so much regret.

Well, that's not even possible.

Heaven's void of tears, void of fear.

Either Jesus is absolutely sufficient for all sin, or he's not.

And in that place of judgment in front of God, it'll be like, oh, the judgment.

Yeah, I got the judgment handled.

Like you handled it for me.

There's no regret.

It's just wrong.

It's a return to law, it's a motivation for godliness by guilt.

It's the use of the law.

It's a refusal to say that Jesus did fulfill the law.

And all that grace and that love and that faithfulness that you were singing about, right?

And maybe you felt it because you were in that environment, you've been singing about it, singing about it, singing about it, right?

It's functionally gone.

And what is left is an undercurrent of performance Christianity that has questions like, well, how secure really is my heart with him?

How much do I really need to add to Christ's work for me?

Like how much?

Like a little bit?

Like a little bit every day?

Or like, you know, like or a lot?

You know?

What do I need to do today to cause God to accept and delight in me again?

It's hidden all over religious life.

It's hidden all over Christian experience.

It is as much the wide way as licentiousness.

It is lawless.

Because it's just up to your subjectivity of how good you think you are, how much you can be your own savior.

The law demands obedience to be accepted.

I'm accepted by God because I obey.

But the gospel empowers obedience because you're already accepted.

And the sentence switches around I obey because I'm already accepted.

French theologian Theodore Biza said this hundreds of years ago during the Protestant Reformation.

Ignorance of this distinction between law and gospel is one of the principal sources of the abuses which corrupted and still corrupts Christianity.

C.F.W.

Walther, he helps us clarify that even more.

The gospel does not require anything good that man must furnish.

Not a good heart, not a good disposition, no improvement of his condition, no godliness, no love either of God or men.

It issues no order, but changes a man.

It plants love into his heart and makes him capable of all good works.

It demands nothing, but it gives all.

Should this fact not make us leap for joy?

See, this second way, the narrow way, is incredibly narrow.

Right?

I mean, you gotta let go of all that escapism, that lawlessness, licentiousness, trying to justify your life by enough pleasure, and you gotta let go of all that moralism and legalism and life by law, if only I'm good enough.

You gotta let go of both.

I mean, that's really narrow.

It becomes more narrow, doesn't it?

You get squeezed into faith that he is enough, Jesus is enough.

I don't have to add any work to his work.

The text says that he is the gate and the way is narrow.

So it's a narrowing of ourselves, meaning we're squeezed to death to find greater life.

Point number two is this narrowness is dying to self as to find life in Christ.

That's narrowness.

Tim Keller describes it this way as he talks about Matthew 7.

The narrowness leads to spaciousness.

See, it's not narrowness, and then it's like, ah, lesser life, lesser life, you know, but bored Christian life.

No, no, no.

The narrowness opens up a greater freedom where your heart is being healed.

You get to move toward godliness, move toward loving people.

Another great theologian, the Dixie chicks, they say she needs wide open spaces.

Room to make her big mistakes.

Right?

I know you're singing that.

You know, you're like, you know, Christ is so good.

But that's what it does.

That's what the narrow way serves us a spaciousness, a wide open space in him.

Because we're imperfect.

And Jesus is saying, be narrowed now, be crushed now, and God's grace be done, be narrowed in Jesus.

All right, a few more verses.

Verse 15 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.

So Jesus is teaching, not all good teachers are good teachers.

And he gives us two images to think about this: to filter, to be wise.

Number one is wolves.

He says, a false teacher can be like a wolf.

Just want to devour the hearts of people.

And then in order to say, well, how would you recognize a wolf?

They're disguised.

He said, Well, let's talk about a tree.

That's the second image.

To test a teacher, we can think about a healthy tree.

In time, a healthy tree bears fruits.

It shows its fruit.

So the question, which of course makes me very uncomfortable as the teacher in this setting, right?

Here's the question.

Over time, does the teacher's life reveal faithfulness, Christ-centeredness, and Christ-likeness?

Do we see Christ's meekness and gentleness in the teacher?

Some measure of it.

Or do we see ambition?

Manipulation.

Jealousy, impurity, hypocrisy?

There's the filter for us.

Last section.

Verse 21, Matthew 7, 21.

Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

On that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?

And cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name, and then I will declare to them, I never knew you.

Depart from me, you're workers of lawlessness.

So that word destruction in verse 13, that's a strong word.

It means to be damned or wasted.

So Jesus is saying, take a moment.

Take a moment.

Reflect in what you really rest in.

Where your faith is really placed.

Where do you find faith?

Where are you placing it?

Where are you expecting to find?

How are you expecting to find eternal life?

Is my faith in him alone for forgiveness of sin, for right standing, for justification as a person, for eternal standing, for my righteousness, or is it in me?

Am I working that out in the world?

Or am I working that out in religion?

Or is it by grace through faith in Jesus?

This summer I had a day to myself in Grand Teton National Park.

And so coming off the valley floor there in Grand Teton, there are all these canyons that cut into the Teton Range.

And each of these canyons has a different hike, and you can hike up these canyons, and slowly those heights work you up higher and higher into the range, and eventually you get up high, and you get up kind of past the initial range, and you're back in it, and this opens up in these beautiful, beautiful basins.

So one morning I wake up early.

This is a morning I had to myself.

I was by myself, and I start in on a hike called Death Canyon.

So here's the height called Death Canyon.

You hike around this lake and you hike up through this really tight canyon, and it works its way high up in there and back behind all those peaks.

So I'm by myself on a hike named Death Canyon.

Nobody in the world really knows where I'm at at the time.

So sure enough, right away on that height's name, Death Canyon, 100 yards into the hike, there's a bear off to my left, 20 yards, and you know I love a bear, right?

Like we celebrate that bear week in our church, and we we got a lot of bear stuff going on.

But I like a bear at about like a quarter of a mile.

Like that's that's where I like a bear.

I don't like a bear.

I'm geared up.

I got the pack on, I got my trekking poles, you know, and I got hat, camelback, bear spray, like on the I'm not bear spray here, bear spray's here.

That look, I saw one guy doing it, and I was like, that's so much tougher.

Like, I'm sure that's how I came to that conclusion to put it there.

I was down here for a while, and I was, and then I saw him, I was like, oh, that looks that looks cool.

So I wear it there.

So I'm geared up, but 20 yards is a lot, you know.

That's it, uh, you know, so but Death Canyon.

I do think it's perfectly named.

I'm not sure why it's named that.

Maybe the Tight Canyon walls.

I think that's why.

Because as you hike, the canyon tightens in on you.

You're you're you're squeezed, you're tightened.

And then as you hike up this creek and the canyon tightens in on you, you you eventually get up and you clear and you get up into this high basin.

It's just beautiful, opens up.

After you're squeezed, it opens up.

Here's a picture of where I had lunch that day.

I sat down and had lunch right along the creek.

And I sat there, there's hundreds of butterflies everywhere.

I mean, there were so many butterflies at one point.

I looked at my brownie and was wondering like if I had something, somebody put something in the brownie.

Because there were so many butterflies.

I was like, this a lot.

And I was by myself, you know, so it was like not like 50 butterflies, I mean it was a lot of butterflies.

If you hike up further, if you just keep hiking, here's the last picture.

This is even further up.

It's even further up, it gets even more spacious and open.

It's just such a beautiful image for us of the narrow way.

Being squeezed to death as to be welcomed into a beautiful spaciousness.

Where finally you can just say, like, I'm I'm done.

Like I'm done trying to earn forgiveness, I'm done being motivated by guilt.

I'm done trying to pay for my sin by my work.

I'm done trying to justify my existence with my production or how I look or people's approval.

I'm done, I'm crushed, I'm I'm narrowed into Jesus.

And it's then we find this spaciousness inside of him, a freedom.

That we have identity that's secure as God's children.

And we don't have to be motivated by guilt.

I mean, we're not gonna be perfect.

I mean, we'll feel guilty and we confess it, we fall back, you know, we confess.

But we're motivated out of a secure belovedness that we have.

And none of it's about like a righteousness report that we're gonna give to God.

The whole report is gonna be, yeah, I I knew him.

I know him.

And he said he fulfills the law.

And all of my life has been motivated by the grace that is enough to pray for me.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you that the way in which we are motivated is not by more guilt.

But you fulfilled the law.

And the law held us captive, and the law guides us, and it is holy and good, but oh, how we need to fall into you, the one who is sufficient unto the law.

And we are relieved from performance.

And we are relieved into a life of grace, where we are saved by grace, and we are empowered by your gospel that teaches us to say no to ungodliness and teaches us what it means to love people.

Help our hearts continue to heal in you and continue to grow to be the people that you call us to be, as your beloved children.

Secure in Jesus' sake.

Amen.