Sermon on the Mount: What's Required to Enter God's Kingdom? (Matthew 7:13-29)

Hello, I'm Pastor Creighton, and thank you for tuning into New Sun Churches Podcast.

We're a gospel center church in Port Perry, Ontario, proclaiming the true and life-giving word of Jesus as we love and serve our neighbors.

May God bless you today through his life-giving word.

This is the holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew.

Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it.

How narrow is the gate, and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.

Jesus continues, be on your guard against false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravaging wolves.

You'll recognize them by their fruit.

Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?

In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit.

A good tree can't produce bad fruit, neither can a bad tree produce good fruit.

Every tree that doesn't produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

So you'll recognize them by their fruit.

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

On that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and do many miracles in your name?

Then I will announce to them, I never knew you.

Depart from me, you lawbreakers.

Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

The rains fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded on that house, yet it didn't collapse, because its foundation was on the rock.

But everyone who hears these words of mine and doesn't act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.

The rains fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded that house, and it collapsed.

And it collapsed with a great crash.

When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, because he was teaching them like one who had authority and not like their scribes.

This is the gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Jesus and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, we have little to offer you but our burdens, our anxieties, our sins, our shames, and you have everything that you are so eager to supply us with: your goodness and grace and righteousness and truth.

You are our one foundation.

We are your new creation work, cleansed in the waters of baptism, clinging to your word of promise, fed by your holy food.

So we pray, Lord, feed our hearts.

We are hungry and thirsty, Lord, for righteousness.

Lord, would we find ourselves satisfied as your disciples in you and you alone.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Please be seated.

Well, here we are at the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount.

We've spent uh the fall so far journeying our way through uh what is perhaps the best known of Jesus' teachings, certainly the single uh lengthiest single sermon of Jesus, single kind of teaching, collection of teaching of Jesus.

And we are discovering what it means to live life according to Jesus.

A life that looks uh in many ways unlike the world around us, but a life that is lived for the sake of the world.

And we're discover we've discovered as we've wrestled around with very weighty and often difficult things Jesus has to say, we've discovered that God's kingdom reorders the whole of life.

There is no part of life that is partitioned off, compartmentalized away from who Jesus is or what he claims over us, and we are discovering that when God's kingdom reorders life, it begins in the heart and it works outwards, not the other way around.

As we conclude the Sermon on the Mount, I should say as Jesus concludes his sermon given on the Mount, we are called to nothing less than discipleship.

The fullness of being a disciple.

Being a disciple, discipleship is the process of learning to love and follow Jesus and become like him in all of our attitudes and in all of our actions.

We are called to nothing less than to lay everything down at Jesus' feet, call him our Lord, and live accordingly.

At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, we are discovering that entering into the fullness of God's kingdom, this kingdom to which Jesus has made much reference, this kingdom to which Jesus has pointed us again and again and again, this kingdom that is reordering all of life, entering into this kingdom, God's kingdom, requires discipleship.

It requires us to follow Jesus, to choose Jesus, to commit ourselves to Jesus.

And Jesus portrays this in very vivid word pictures, very vivid illustrations.

This decision to commit ourselves to discipleship, to being Jesus' disciple means that we have to choose correctly between two ways.

We have to choose correctly between two teachers, and we have to choose correctly between two foundations for living.

Two ways, two teachers, two foundations.

It is unavoidable that the life of discipleship is a life of choosing Jesus and living accordingly.

One commentator points out something that you probably noticed in our reading.

In each case, the first category, whether it's two ways, two teachers, two foundations, in each case, the first category refers to those who hear, obey, and are saved, that is, included in God's kingdom.

The second to those who only hear and so are destroyed.

In each case, eternal life and judgment are at stake.

And it strikes me that as Jesus concludes this, the pinnacle of his teaching, Jesus wants us to know exactly what the stakes are of our decision.

So if, like me, you conclude the Lord's sermon here and you feel kind of heavy, you feel kind of intimidated, you feel kind of anxious, I think we're not alone.

I think we are beginning to feel the full weight of God's requirements, his law upon us.

But friends, I hope that if we journey with courage into Jesus' teaching, we will discover, yes, God's law has great weight to it, but his gospel brings great assurance too.

Let's see God's good news at work as well.

Entering into the fullness of God's kingdom requires discipleship.

It requires that we choose correctly between two ways, two teachers, and two foundations.

Open up your Bibles, if you will, to Matthew chapter 7, verse 13, or open up your order of service, and let's follow along together.

Matthew 7:13

Let's understand what it means to be disciples who enter into the kingdom.

Verse 13.

Enter through the narrow gate, Jesus tells us, for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it.

How narrow is the gate, and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.

Enter through the narrow way.

That's Jesus' commandment, his imperative to us.

Enter through the narrow way.

And if we're wondering what that narrow way is, then probably the Sunday school answer is helpful.

Jesus.

Jesus is the narrow way.

He's pointing to himself.

Elsewhere, Peter says in the book of Acts, salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name in heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.

To be a Christian is to have an exclusive claim to Jesus, or perhaps better yet, I can put it this way, to be claimed exclusively by Jesus.

There is no other Lord or Savior for us.

He is the only name under which heaven or earth by which we can enter into the kingdom of God.

He is not one spoke on the wheel that all leads to the center.

He is the whole kit and caboodle.

He is the wheel itself.

He is our entrance into the kingdom.

Enter through the narrow way.

Jesus is pointing us to himself, because narrow is the gate that leads to life, and broad is the way that leads to destruction.

This probably leads us to ask the important question: does that mean only a few people in the end will be saved?

Does that mean 80% of the people I know won't be in heaven?

90%?

I'm not here to give a number, but I am here to suggest that we need to measure Scripture against Scripture for a full picture here.

In the Gospel of Luke, Luke is giving a kind of parallel quotation of Jesus, and it is framed by this question.

The disciples ask him, Lord, will those who are saved be few?

And this is Jesus' answer as recorded by Luke.

I think it can help shed answer here to what Matthew's getting at.

Jesus answers this question this way strive to enter through the narrow door.

Well, that sounds familiar.

And that's very interesting, by the way, will those who save be few?

Jesus once again says, Well, every religion's basically the same.

No, he says, strive through the narrow door.

The business we have to do is with Jesus.

But Jesus goes on to say this: People will come from east and west, from north and south, to 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.

In other words, people come from far and wide into the kingdom.

In other words, the invitation extends to all the ends of the earth.

And the first will be last, and the last first, we might be surprised by who we find feasting in the kingdom of heaven.

That's a hopeful thought, I hope.

I hope it means that we don't get caught up in wondering about the statistics of election or salvation or something like that.

And instead we find great assurance by Christ's words, but we also take heed to the fact that Jesus always points back to himself as the entrance way into the kingdom of God.

If we are going to know God the Father, if we're going to enter into his kingdom, then Jesus is the one that we all have to do business with.

So let's put it this way: Entering God's kingdom requires discipleship, not my own self-determination.

Or let's put it another way, could we say this?

Jesus is the way.

If we are to enter through the narrow gate, the narrow path, Jesus is the way.

John Stott writes, Travelers on this road follow their own inclinations, pardon me, the broad road follow their own inclinations.

That is the desires of the human heart as it and its fallenness.

Superficiality, self-love, hypocrisy, mechanical religion, false ambition, censoriousness.

These things do not have to be learned or cultivated.

Effort is needed to resist them.

No effort is required to practice them.

That is why the broad road is easy.

The broad road is easy because it follows the inclinations of our hearts.

And as Christians, as disciples, the strange thing we have to do is learn a healthy distrust of the inclinations of our hearts.

In other words, the lesson we learned from Disney is not always true.

Following your heart does not always lead to our greatest happiness.

Wow, we resonate, don't we?

Here's one of my favorite scenes from Jane Eyre.

I read Jane Eyre this summer and I loved it.

I highly recommend it.

And, you know, if you haven't read it, well, it's been out for a while, so I'm going to spoil it.

Jane Eyre is uh wrestling with her heart.

She loves Mr.

Rochester, but uh Mr.

Rochester has been exposed uh as as living this double life and having this secret shame and immorality that is preventative for them to being together.

And so Jane Eyre is wrestling around inside herself in a way that I'm sure we can all relate to.

Uh she's talking to herself here, uh narrating her inner wrestling.

While Mr.

Rochester spoke, my very conscience and reason turned traitors against me and charged me with crime in resisting him.

Right?

I mean, how badly does she just want to be with Mr.

Rochester?

Because surely greatest happiness and satisfaction is going to be found with him.

But she says, No, I will keep the law given by God.

I will hold to the principles received by me when I was sane and not mad as I am now.

Do we know that feeling, wrestling around with ourselves and being like, right now, I'm just, my heart is temporarily insane, you know?

Laws and principles, she says, are not for the times when there is no temptation, they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigor.

Stringent are they, inviolate they shall be.

If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth?

In other words, what's the point of being a disciple if we're only a disciple when it's easy?

We have to choose.

We have to choose the narrow way when it's hard, when our hearts incline away from Jesus, and away from what he would ask us to do.

We have to courageously refuse the devices and desires of our heart and repent of them and find our greatest satisfaction and happiness in Jesus.

Disciples have a healthy distrust of following their heart because our heart will lead away from Jesus, who is the way.

So we uh find Jesus leading us by his word as we participate in his family, as we glean wisdom from the scriptures.

The way of Jesus leads through the narrow gate of moral self-denial, while my heart leads down the broad road.

We choose Jesus.

We choose Jesus between one of two ways because Jesus is the way.

We choose Jesus between the choice between two sorts of teachers.

Let's look at verses 15 to 20 here.

Jesus gives us another warning.

Be on your guard against false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravaging wolves.

You'll recognize them by their fruit.

Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?

In the same way every fruit tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit.

A good tree can't produce bad fruit, neither can a bad tree produce good fruit.

Every tree that doesn't produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

So you'll recognize them by their fruit.

What's the warning against?

The warning is against false prophets.

A prophet is someone who speaks the word of God to God's people.

And biblical prophets are doing it in such a way that is authorized by God Himself, inspired, breathed out by God Himself.

They aren't just saying something like God's word.

Biblical prophets are speaking the word of God to God's people.

But just as those who are, just as there are those who are proclaiming the authentic and true word of God, there are those who claim to be speaking God's word to God's people, but who really are in it for themselves.

Here's one definition of what a false prophet is.

There are those who claim to have divine inspiration or speak for God, but they spread lies, false teachings, and they have hidden motives for personal gain.

The appeal to this is: well, we can claim divine authority to speak to itching ears.

A false prophet doesn't have to worry about being unpopular, doesn't have to worry about contradicting the standards of the world, but can tell us exactly what we want to hear.

And we are warned, just as Jesus' disciples are warned, that every generation will every generation will have to be on guard against false prophets.

Paul warns the Ephesian church as he departs from them.

And there's that imagery again.

False prophets are wolves, present themselves as fellow sheep, but really they just want to devour.

They are just in it for themselves.

And these false wolves from among yourselves will arise, and there'll be men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them.

So this suggests that there are false prophets in the early church, there are false prophets in our day as well, and we are called to be on guard, those who claim to speak God's word and yet would lead in the opposite direction.

But it here's the other thing, too.

Underlying all of this is this assumption.

In what Jesus is saying, there's this presupposition that there is such a thing as objective truth, and it is knowable.

We can know the truth, and the truth will set us free.

But how can we tell the difference?

That's what Jesus is dealing with in verses 16 to 18, and he uses another illustration, not just sheep and wolves.

He talks about fruit.

He talks about the outcome of what these prophets or false prophets are up to.

We see the fruit, the outcome bearing out of this prophets or false prophets' character.

Is how they live their lives conform with scripture, or does it contradict and contravene scripture in whatever way that they see fit?

How about their teaching itself?

Does it conform with scripture?

Does it represent Scripture well, or does it exegete one area of Scripture in such a way that it's repugnant to another part of Scripture?

Is their teaching sound and solid?

How about the influence or the outcome of their ministry?

Does it promote a greater gospel assurance, or does it promote a greater fierce and unquestioning sort of loyalty, as if you have no right to question me, something like that?

Jesus reminds us the stakes are high because every tree that doesn't produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

We have to take this warning seriously.

Entering God's kingdom requires the disciple to discern truth from falsehood.

We have to know the truth and choose the truth.

And maybe I can put it this way: if Jesus is the way, perhaps we can say Jesus is the truth.

We know the truth when we come to a greater assurance of the good news of who God is for us in Jesus.

One commentator writes We must be on our guard, pray for discernment, use our critical faculties, and never relax our vigilance.

We must not be dazzled by a person's charm, learning, doctorates, or ecclesiastical honors.

We must look beneath the appearance to the reality, what lives under the fleece, a sheep.

Or a wolf.

We have to know the real thing if we're going to tell it apart from what's false.

So from time to time, I send out these emails asking for gift cards and asking for them very urgently because I'm going into a prayer meeting and I need you to.

And for those who've received those emails and know what I'm talking about, you know how sketchy those emails are.

And you know that if you look at the sender, it'll say something like, I'm the real rector123 at hotmail.com or something like that, right?

We all know what it is to get scam emails, and we spot them because they look fishy.

We spot them because they look suspicious.

And because they're asking us to do something perhaps that's out of the ordinary or against our better judgment, right?

And we can spot these scam emails because we know what it is to receive a real email.

Because if you've received a real email from me, you know that I probably don't sign off with something like salutations, you know, something like that.

If we know what's real, we can spot what's false.

And so, as Christians, if we are immersed, drenched deeply in the truth of God's word and scripture, if we are participating deeply in the shared life of the church together, then we will do well to be on guard against falsehood together.

And we can rely on one another and rely on one another's wisdom and judgment to spot what's true from what's false.

But we have to prioritize God's will over our own.

That's the warning in verses 21 to 23.

And I'll tell you, there are few passages of Scripture that are more unsettling to me than this.

There are many who will say, Lord, Lord, who will enter the kingdom of heaven.

Pardon me, there are many who say, Lord, Lord.

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

In other words, a mere verbal assent to Jesus is not the same thing as the heart's assent to Jesus' Lordship.

And a false prophet can give verbal assent, can say all the right things, and yet their heart is entirely self-serving and self-interested.

We have to pay attention to the fruit.

And that might be a process of patient discernment.

But in all things we prioritize God's will and God's word above everything else.

And we spot the truth.

Jesus is the truth, and the disciple chooses truth, chooses to stick with Jesus against all falsehood, no matter what that might be.

We choose between two ways, we choose between two kinds of teachers, and we choose between two kinds of foundations.

Verses 24, 25.

Therefore, Jesus says, in conclusion, everyone who hears these words of mine, you know, just like you're doing right now, and acts on them will be like the wise man who built his house on the rock.

The rains fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded that house, yet it didn't collapse, because its foundation was on the rock.

In other words, what is the foundation?

What is a disciple's life built upon?

It's built upon hearing Jesus and doing what he says.

That is the most simple and complicated thing ever, isn't it?

Don't just be a hearer of the word, James says.

Be a doer of the world, of the word.

As we perform what Jesus commands, we are building a life on a solid foundation that will withstand every opposition and calamity that this world, that the enemy could throw at us.

Because the foundation is solid.

But we have a choice.

We can build on the solid rock of hearing Jesus and doing what he says, or building on the sand, right?

The Sea of Galilee, as it would kind of retreat, left a very kind of uh a very, very kind of hard and dry surface of sand.

And, you know, just to sort of feel it around, it might feel just as solid as any, you know, rocky foundation that you might find elsewhere.

It might be tempting to think I could have a nice seaside resort if I just built right here.

But we know that the tide's gonna come back in.

And when it does, the hardness of that sand is gonna give way and everything's gonna be swept.

So, regardless of how firm things seem, it's how firm they'll remain when calamity strikes.

So Jesus says, building on the sand is like hearing my words and doing nothing about them.

Notice, still hearing Jesus' words, we can still hear Jesus' words with our ears, and yet they don't penetrate our mind or our heart.

We can hear them and go, that sounds like a good idea.

More people should do that.

There are plenty of YouTubers I see who go, Jesus' words are incredible.

They'll save Western civilization.

And that might be true, and that'd be wonderful.

But you don't ask the question of a disciple, which is, am I willing to do that?

Am I willing to live on that basis?

Other people should.

But am I?

That's the question a disciple asks.

Entering God's kingdom requires the disciple to build on the rock, to build on Jesus, to know that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

He will make the difference between collapse in calamity and a life that lasts.

A life that lasts all opposition.

So one commentator reminds us it is not enough simply to hear Jesus call or even to respond with some temporary flurry of good deeds.

And I love that phrase, flurry of good deeds.

It's like, yeah, I'm really going to try hard this week.

Rather, we must build a solid foundation that combines authentic commitment to Christ with persevering obedience.

There's that word persevering, because there will be opposition to persevere through.

Being a disciple is not the easy choice, but it is the choice that lasts.

Discipleship means a commitment to hear Jesus and to do what he says.

So we can ask ourselves: do I take time to listen to the voice of Jesus?

Do I understand that Jesus' voice has authority?

Because that's how Matthew concludes this teaching, right?

He's teaching them not like the scribes, he's teaching them like one who has authority.

He's not just a derived authority, he doesn't just have doctorates on the wall or something like that, or our big YouTube following.

He's talking like God Himself, thus saith the Lord, and it is so.

Does Jesus have that sort of authority in my life that what Jesus says goes?

Because he's Jesus.

How do I listen to the voice of Jesus?

There's any number of extraordinary means that the Lord can speak to us, and that's wonderful, and it can be in prayer, it can be in fellowship, it can be in all these ways, and you know, that takes discernment too to sort all that out.

But two ways we know that Jesus commits himself to speak to us, to make himself known to us, to reveal himself to us our one in the scriptures that we take so much time to lead, to read, to learn from, to inwardly digest.

Jesus will show himself to us by way of these gospels and the promises that we find in God's word in Scripture.

And he will also speak to us by way of the covenant signs and seals that he gives to us, the baptism that tells us that we belong to Jesus and not to anyone else.

The Lord's Supper that we come to and reminds us that we are fed by Jesus, that his body was broken for you and for me, and his blood was shed for you and for me.

Jesus is speaking to us in those moments, his word of assurance.

We are his, we belong to him.

And having heard Jesus' words, do we do what he says?

Or do we look for convenient reasons as to why this doesn't really apply to me?

Or endeavoring to keep Jesus' words and failing, because we do, do I repent and turn around and ask his forgiveness when I do the things I ought not to do or fail to do the things I ought to do?

Because if we do that, it suggests we understand the gospel.

That yes, the weight of God's law hangs heavy over all of this because Jesus is laying out God's commandments, what God requires, with nothing held back.

And we should read this and think, I am undone.

Because what hope have I to be this sort of disciple who always chooses Jesus' way and not my own, who always chooses the truth of Jesus and not what I'd like to hear, who always builds on the rock and not on the sand that looks so appealing.

Who among us can do that?

Who among us can make the right choice every time and therefore fulfill the call of discipleship?

See, I wonder if the Sermon on the Mount is something like our chemotherapy.

It's our chemotherapy against all self-righteousness because it cannot stand in God's presence.

The Sermon on the Mount will empty us out of any idea that we have what it takes to be his disciples, and it should.

And having been emptied out of this idea that I can perform God's law if I just try a little bit harder this time, we will discover the good news.

The good news that Jesus has come not to abolish the law and the prophets, everything that God commands, but to fulfill them, to fulfill all righteousness.

And we will discover that there's good news for those of us who hunger and thirst after righteousness, because we will be filled, right?

We don't fulfill, we are filled by the one who has fulfilled God's commands on our behalf, the one who has loved us to the cross and back, the one who promises us a share in his resurrection and the glory of his everlasting kingdom.

Friends, do we see the essence of discipleship?

Discipleship is for those who come to Jesus empty, ready to be filled by Him.

Entering into the fullness of God's kingdom requires discipleship.

Discipleship requires Jesus.

So perhaps you're here and you're considering Jesus, and you're just trying to figure out how it is you relate to this guy, and I'm so thankful that you're here.

Consider this.

Jesus' claim is that his kingdom doesn't begin in the world and work its way in, it starts in the heart and works its way out.

So what is Jesus' claim, not over Western civilization, right?

Not over those people.

What's his claim over you and me?

What's his claim over your heart?

Or perhaps you've been in church for a long, long time and you've heard God's word and you, you know, find the coffee tolerable or something like that, but you've never taken up the call to be Jesus' discipleship, to be Jesus' disciple, who lays down our life at his feet and commits ourselves to taking up our cross so that we can share in his glory.

What's Jesus claim on your life?

What does it mean to surrender yourself to his lordship?

What could it look like to say, Jesus, my greatest satisfaction is found in you?

Therefore, I'm willing to lay everything else down and follow you.

Or perhaps you've been a disciple for a long, long time, and you hear all of this, and your heart longs to fulfill it, but the weight of your sin reminds you just how badly you screwed up.

Just how badly you deserve none of this.

And perhaps it even accuses you, you're already forfeit.

Why try?

If you are here desiring to be a disciple, but weighed down by sin and by guilt and by shame, perhaps today what you need to hear is Jesus' word of assurance.

And his assurance is this everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

The rains fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded on that house, right?

Sin accuses, guilt accuses, shame accuses.

And yet it didn't collapse.

Why?

Because its foundation was on the rock.

The strength of your discipleship is not measured by how much you have done for Jesus.

The strength of your discipleship is as solid as the rock on which you build your life on.

Jesus is your sure foundation, and he will not, he will not forsake you.

So, friends, let's endeavor to be Jesus' disciples.

Amen.

We hope that you've been blessed by God's word today.

If you live in the Port Perry area, we hope that you'll come and worship with us in person on Sunday at 10 a.m.

If you'd like to learn more about Newsong Church, we'd love to connect with you.

Please find our contact information at newsongportperry.ca and reach out to us.

Newsong's ministry is entirely funded by the generous giving of those who worship and journey with us.

If you feel called to support our ministry with a financial gift, please go to newsongportperry.ca slash giving to make your contribution.

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.