Please join me at Matthew 7:13.  This morning we are beginning the end of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  As Jesus is bringing His teaching to a close - in this last section Jesus is focusing on the choices we make in the day to day drama of our lives - the choices we need to make in responding to what Jesus has been teaching.

What Jesus has been teaching here in the Sermon on the Mount is pretty dramatic - pretty in our face - pretty challenging.  As we’ve been thinking through the implications and applications sometimes maybe a tad too challenging.  Right?  Perhaps too close to home.

What Jesus has been teaching demands a response.  A choice needs to be made.  We can walk away from here and just go on doing what we’ve been doing.  That’s a choice.  Or, we can think about what Jesus said - maybe try to make a few changes for a bit - and then go on with life.  That’s a choice.  Or, we can take Jesus up on what He’s been teaching - choose to take up the challenge to live out the blessed life that God has created us for and called us to.

Jesus - in this last part of His teaching is helping us to respond.  Choices of how we can respond - how we can live out what Jesus has been teaching.

Verses 13 to 23 are probably familiar.  So, as we’ve been doing, we’re going to read these out loud together - to get them fresh in our minds - and then we’ll come back and unpack what Jesus is teaching.

Let’s read together:  Enter by the narrow gate.  For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.  For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.  You will recognize them by their fruits.  Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, 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.

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 workers of lawlessness.

Let’s go back and unpack Jesus’ teaching.

In verses 13 and 14 Jesus describes Our Choice of Ways.

Its almost a Monte Hall moment.  Let’s Make A Deal.  Gate number one or gate number two or what Jay has in the box?  That’ll date a few of us.

Gate number one has a wide opening.  How wide is it?  Its so wide you can’t see one side from the other.  It is so wide that unless someone told us that we’d gone through a gate - that we’d gotten on the wide way - unless someone told us we’d never have known that we gone through a gate.

The gate is wide and the living is easy.  The way is inviting - spacious and accommodating - supplying the best - everything - the world has to offer.

There are a ginormous number of people traveling down the great broad way.  They’re going along with all their possessions - all that has meaning to them.  Humanity on parade.  Living life.  Party on.

The end of the line for the wide way - Jesus warns us - the end of the line is destruction.

The word in Greek carries with it some sobering consequences.  Destruction meaning death.  Not just physically dying - but eternally being destroyed - a plunge off the high dive into the Lake of Fire and a hopeless eternal destiny of never ending punishment and torment - living death.

Gate number two is narrow.  Its hard to find.  Meaning one has to be intentional - purposefully - looking for it to find it.

Let’s be clear.  All of us start out on the wide way.  By default when we’re born that’s where we are.  On the wide way.  One enters through the narrow gate by choice.  There are only a few who find the narrow gate.  Only a few who are on the way.  A small number of people.

We’re together?

Jesus tells us the narrow way is hard.  The word in Greek for “hard” describes being compressed - squeezed - into a little tiny space.  Which is how life feels sometimes.

Let’s be careful.  That compression isn’t just enduring the pressures of life.  The compression Jesus is talking about results from our choice to go through the narrow gate.  “Hard” here is oppression - persecution - distress - affliction.  What Jesus meant when He said that to follow Him means being hated by the world - brutally hated - even martyred.

The end of the line for those on the hard way... is life… resurrected life - real life - a beginning - the eternal blessed life with God that is way more desirable than anything we can imagine now.  Infinitely more desirable than eternally dying in the Lake of Fire.

Jesus says, “Enter by the narrow gate.”  Its an imperative.  “Go in the narrow gate.”  Make the choice.

Since He began His teaching - back in chapter 5 - in everything that Jesus has been teaching He’s been showing us where the narrow gate is.  “Enter in” brings us to a choice.

(picture) With respect to the Muppets we’ve come to a fork in the road.

We can stay on the wide way.  That’s a choice.  Or, we can choose the narrow gate.

One way or the other.  Two paths through life.  Two ways to live life - ours or God’s.  There are only two.  We’re going to make a choice.  No choice is a choice.  Either we're choosing the narrow gate or we’re not. 

Are we together on what Jesus is getting at?  We have a Choice of Ways.

In verses 15 to 20 Jesus describes Our Choice of Teachers.

As we go through life who do we listen to?  Who influences the decisions we make?  Who do we pattern our lives after?  How do we choose?  How do we make sure we’re not the blind following the blind over a cliff?

Jesus warns us that things are not what the seem.

Jesus says, “Beware!”  A word - in Greek - that means to wake up and smell the coffee.  You can’t sleep through this.  You can’t let this slide.  Get your mind wrapped around the reality of this.  Pay attention because this is hugely serious - in an eternal consequence sort of way.

The problem is what?  Things are not immediately apparent.  Sometimes its hard for us to see upfront where someone is really coming from.  So many people we come across sound really sincere.  They seem to have all the right vocabulary.  They say they’re talking for God.  Up front they seem to be at least reasonably in the ball park.

Jesus’ point is pretty clear.  Right?  What is good produces good.  What is bad produces bad.  If what’s produced is good then we know that what’s inside is good - healthy - worth following the teaching - a voice worth choosing to listen to.  If its bad, its bad.  Cut down the tree and burn it.  Don’t go there.  We don’t need to listen to that teaching.

People may say one thing - talk a good talk - say they believe all kinds of things.  But ultimately everyone lives by what they actually believe in their hearts.

Jesus teaches that the way to recognize a false prophet - to know if someone is really walking with God on the hard way - the way to know is to is by their fruit - ultimately the way to know is by what they produce.

What’s inside us will come out in what we produce with our lives.  Jesus says, “Follow the fruit.”

Three ways we might more closely evaluate the fruit.

First - Scripture.  Compare what they’re saying to God’s word - to the Bible.  They may have the slickest presentation and the most amazing insights.  Have all kinds of interesting perspectives to share at a Bible study.  But is what they say in the Bible?  Is what they’re teaching in line with what we’ve already been taught and know to be true - to be what God’s word is really teaching. 

Second - Lifestyle.  Are they one kind of person at church and another kind on Facebook?  Are they really good at putting together the image thing here at church and out there they are known as something different? 

Do they mistreat their family?  Are they taking advantage of people?  Stealing money and stuff?  Is their vocabulary consistent?  Is their standard of morality consistent - consistently Godly?

Third - listeners.  Take a look at what happens in the lives of those who follow their teaching.

As a result of following them are others growing spiritually?  Are their followers loving Jesus more deeply - growing closer to Him - leading others to Him?  Are they living lives that glorify God.  Or, are they moving away from God and His word.  Becoming lukewarm in their faith.  Becoming more dependent on their teacher - more reclusive.

Use Scripture.  Evaluate their lifestyle.  Look at where their teaching is leading others.  Beware - pay attention to their fruit.

Paul wrote to the Galatians:  “The works of the flesh are evident:  sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these…  the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…”  (Galatians 5:19-23)

That’s a significant contrast.  Isn’t it?

Its a contrast of what’s produced by someone going down the wide way - living for themselves - following after the philosophies and morals of man.  A contrast with someone who’s died to themselves - died to the passions and desires of our flesh - who’s living by the work of the Holy Spirit within them - living the through the narrow gate hard kind of life Jesus is teaching about.

The ultimate end of the false prophets is what?  Fire.  Cut down tossed in the fire.  The destruction that Jesus warned us about - the dead end of the wide way.  Ultimately a false prophet is speaking for themselves - not God.  Living and espousing a life and philosophy that is self-centered - human focused - contrary to what God has created us for and called us to.  

So, Jesus warns us, “Beware” - choose wisely what voice you will listen to - who’s teaching you will follow through life.

In verses 21 to 24 Jesus describes Our Choice of Belief.  Ultimately, what do we believe?  What have we really committed ourselves to.  Not what we say we believe.  But at the heart level, what do we really believe?

Jesus tells us that some will say to Him, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?” 

These are the words of a servant.  Respectful.  Honoring.  “Lord.”  Words of devotion.  Not just “Lord” but “Lord, Lord.”  Emphasis being you’re the Lord.  I’m the servant. 

There’s a correctness of belief.  Jesus is Lord.  “Lord” being a title that identifies Jesus as the Christ - the Messiah - with all the implications of that - Savior - God.

There’s a commendable record of spiritual service - prophesying - casting out demons - doing might works - all in the name of Jesus.  How many Christians could give a better testimony?

These people are living an admirable life before God.  And yet - Jesus warns us - not everyone who says these words to Jesus will enter the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus says, “On that day” - meaning the coming Day of Judgment - when we stand before the throne of God.  When - as John describes in his Revelation - on that day of judgment two books are opened.  One book records our works - everything about the way we’ve lived our lives is brought out in the open before God - and everyone.

And second the other book - the Lamb’s Book of Life - the book with the list of all those who are trusting in Jesus as their Savior - The Lamb’s Book of Life is opened.

On that day - if we’re standing there before God - standing there hanging on to some belief we’ve affirmed - words we’ve said or things we’ve done - but if our name is only in book one - but not written in book two - the Lamb’s Book of Life - we’re eternally toast.  (Revelation 20:11-15)

“Depart from me” is the complete and total opposite of entering the kingdom of heaven - the place of eternal life with God at the end of the hard way.  “Depart from me” means the destruction at the end of the wide way - getting cut down and burned - eternal punishment.  The unimaginable horror of personally hearing these words spoken by Jesus:  “I never knew you.” 

It is crucially - eternally - important - that we are clear on what Jesus is teaching here.  What is the problem?  How can those who are seemingly believing and saying and doing all the right things be so judged by God?

That word “know” is huge.  Jesus’ isn’t saying that He can’t quite place their face.  Can’t quite connect the name with the face.  That His knowledge of who they are is kinda vague at the moment.

“To know” means relationship - intimate personal acquaintance.   What Jesus is saying is, “I never had a personal relationship with you.”

Jesus said - John 17:3:  “This is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

Chad Walsh - who was a pastor - writer - teacher - a recovering agnostic - in his book “Early Christians of the 21st Century” - Chad Walsh writes:  “Millions of Christians live in a sentimental haze of vague piety, with soft organ music trembling in the lovely light from stained-glass windows.  Their religion is a pleasant thing of emotional quivers, divorced from the will, divorced from the intellect, and demanding little except lip service to a few harmless platitudes.  I suspect that Satan has called off his attempt to convert people to agnosticism.  After all, if a man travels far enough away from Christianity, he is liable to see it in perspective and decide that it is true.  It is much safer, from Satan’s point of view, to vaccinate a man with a mild case of Christianity so as to protect him from the real disease.” (1)

There’s a sobering danger that comes with misplaced belief.  Defining obedience on our terms, not God’s.  Defining what we do for God based on what we say is what God expects. 

Jesus calls that lawlessness.  Being a law unto ourselves.  Our law.  Not what God requires.

The New Testament - from Matthew to Revelation - God - in the New Testament flat out tells us that salvation comes only through God’s grace which we receive by faith.

Ephesians 2:8 - let’s say it together:  “For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing:  it is the gift of God.”

Hebrews 11:6:  “Without faith it is impossible to please Him - God - for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.”

Works are huge.   Significant.  Rewarded.  But the basis of it all is... faith.

Let’s be careful.  Salvation is work by God undertaken by God on behalf of us.  Jesus’ work on the cross on our behalf.  Jesus doing for us what we could never do for ourselves.  That’s the work part.

The gift of salvation - God’s gracious undeserved work on our behalf - that gift is placed by God on the table - whether we choose to receive it or not.  It sits there waiting to be received.  Received by faith.

Faith is not a work.  Faith is a choice we make.

What Jesus is teaching us is that the people who know Him - who’ve been known by Him - who have that personal saving relationship with Him - who’s names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life - those are the people who’ve chosen to receive what God has already done for them - God’s work of salvation on our behalf.

That receiving by faith is not saying some kind of formula prayer.  Its not doing all kinds of service and Christian stuff in the name of Jesus.  Its not even having correct doctrine and theology.  By faith receiving what God has done for us means - at the heart level - making a choice to trust all that we are to what God says that He’s done for us in Jesus.

Choosing to enter through the narrow gate is choosing to believe.  Living the hard way is living out that commitment in the day to day drama of our lives.  A commitment to place ourselves under the authority of God’s Word - His teaching found in His Word.  The commitment of our lives to obediently serving our Lord as He commands.

Are we together?

Palm Sunday is a defining - singular - moment in time.  One of those moments when the threads of time and prophecy - of God’s working in human history - are all coming together in a singular moment.  Palm Sunday is not just a triumphant parade with Jesus coming into Jerusalem.  Palm Sunday is purposeful.  The timing - the significance - the events - have been planned from before the creation of the earth.

Jesus is riding into Jerusalem and God is moving in human history.  Palm Sunday is foremost a fulfillment of prophecy - a declaration - a coronation - of who Jesus really is - God’s Messiah.

It is crucial that we understand what God is doing.

On Palm Sunday, close to 3 million pilgrims from all over the Jewish Diaspora are gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover Festival - commemorating God’s salvation of His people from Pharaoh - from bondage in Egypt.  As Jesus enters Jerusalem the crowd cries out, “Hosanna to the Son of David.  Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.  Hosanna in the highest!” (Matthew 21:9)

The words they shouted come from Psalm 118:25,26.  “Hosanna” meaning “save.”  “Son of David” meaning Jesus’ anticipated role as King.  “Moses saved us from Pharaoh.  Jesus will save us from the Romans.  Save us Jesus.  Be our King.  Restore David’s kingdom.”

Given all that, it’s obvious from reading the Gospels that this crowd - and even the disciples - didn’t get it.  They were so focused on themselves and what they thought Jesus was going to do for them.  Somehow, as they were shouting the words of Psalm 118:25,26 they’d missed the earlier verse of Psalm 118 - verse 22:  “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief corner stone.”

“The stone” - Jesus - is rejected - crucified in our place - offering us salvation from our sins.  Jesus becomes “the chief corner stone” - the beginning of the church - the beginning of what God desires to do in our lives.

But let’s not miss this.  As Jesus enters Jerusalem God is moving in history - but His movement is not focused just on the declaration of who Jesus is.

Let’s be clear.  Often we hear this Palm Sunday message - the Jews welcomed Jesus on Palm Sunday and they crucified Him on Good Friday.  So don’t reject Him like they did.  Have you heard that before?

That’s true.  But, we need to go farther - to get beyond Palm Sunday into the life that Jesus offers us.  The crowd completely missed the point of what was being offered to them - the personal implications for their own lives.

Jesus entering Jerusalem is a fork in the road - a defining moment of history that demands response.  A choice of how we will respond.  And the implications of that choice - the path we will travel though life - ours or God’s - and what those paths will be like for us now and forever.

Chuck Colson - Prison Fellowship - taken home to heaven last April - Chuck Colson tells the story of a young woman in Washington D.C. who shared her account of genuine faith - the “knowing” and “believing” faith that Jesus is teaching about - she shared her account with the church she and her husband attended.  Listen as I read this for us.

Four years ago this week, a young girl sat crying on the floor of a New Jersey apartment, devastated by the news of a lab report.  Unmarried and alone, she had just learned that she was pregnant…

“I considered myself a Christian at the time,” she continued.  “But I had found out about Christ while in the drug scene.  After I learned about Him, I knew I wanted to commit myself to Him, but I couldn’t give up my old friends or my old habits.  So I was drifting between two worlds - in one still smoking dope every day and sleeping with the man who lived in the apartment below mine; in the other, going to church, witnessing to others, and working with the church youth group.

“But being pregnant ripped through the hypocrisy of my double life.  I had been meaning to ‘get right with God’, but I kept slipping back.  Now I couldn’t live a nice, clean Christian life like all those church people.

“I felt the only answer was to wipe the slate clean.  I would get an abortion; no one in the church would ever know.

“The clinic scheduled an abortion date.  I was terrified, but my boyfriend was adamant.  My sister was furious with me for being so stupid as to get pregnant.  Finally, in desperation I wrote my parents.  They were staunch Catholics, and I knew they would support me if I decided to have the baby.  My mother called me:  ‘If you don’t get an abortion, I don’t want to see you while you’re pregnant.  Your life will be ruined and you’ll deserve it..’

“I had always been desperately dependent on other people.  But I knew this was one decision I had to make alone.  I was looking out my bedroom window one night when I thought clearly for the first time in weeks.  I realized I either believed this Christianity or I didn’t believe it.  And if I believed in Christ, then I couldn’t do this.  God is real.  I thought, even if I’ve never lived like He is.

“That decision was a point of no return.  I put my faith in the God of the Bible, not the God I had made up in my head.  I was still everything I never wanted to be - pregnant, alone, deserted by my family, and rejected by the one I loved.  Yet for the first time in my life I was really peaceful, because I knew for the first time I was being obedient.

“When I went to an obstetrician and told him of my decision to have the baby and why I made that choice, he refused to charge me for the pre-natal care and delivery.  I confessed my double life to the church, and through the support of Christians was able to move away from my old friends to an apartment of my own.  I began going to a Christian counseling agency and felt God leading me to give the baby up for adoption.

“I had a beautiful baby girl and named her Sarah.  She was placed with a childless Christian couple, and we all felt God’s hand in the decision.

“And so that’s why I praise God this evening.  I thought in the depths of my despair that my life was ruined, but I knew I had to at least be obedient in taking responsibility for my sin.  But today, because of that very despair and obedience, I have what I never thought I could - a godly husband and now a baby of our own.  But what matters more than anything is that I have what I was searching for so desperately before - peace with God.

“That is what genuine faith produces:  peace with God.” (2)   

The amazing reality for those who enter by the narrow gate - the astounding reality is that the way before us is hard - but it leads to life. 

No one of us - no person - is beyond the grace of God - the power of God - the possibility of God’s redemption.  No matter how messed up we may think we are - or others may think we are - no matter how damaged by sin or bound by its consequences - none of us is ever outside the ability of God to reorientate us and renew us and restore us and rehabilitate us.  To make us into the men and women that He has created and called us to be.

What went on on Palm Sunday isn’t just some historical fulfillment of prophecy.  Some rabbi riding into town on a donkey 2,000 years ago.  Jesus is the great I Am.  Jesus is the Son of God - the Messiah - the King of kings and the Lord of lords - the Almighty Creator - the Savior of mankind.  The One who has the right to be worshiped and served as our Lord.

Jesus Who offers to us salvation from our sins - eternal life - peace with God.  Jesus Who calls us to give our lives to Him that He would produce fruit in us and through us fruit that we can never produce on our own.

To respond to Him is not about saying words - even if they’re right on theologically.  Or praying a formula prayer.  Doing great things for God.  All that is no substitute for genuine faith - entering by the narrow gate.

If we really process Palm Sunday - the implications for our lives - the choice that Jesus is bringing us to in His sermon - Matthew 7 - it means that we need to receive Jesus as our personal Savior - by faith to personally accept His offer and work of salvation for us on the cross.

Then - to live out that commitment - day by day - by faith surrendering everything we are to Him - the good - the bad - and the ugly - and letting Him produce His fruit in us for His glory.

God wants to mold us into Godly parents that produce the fruit of Godly children.  He wants to shape our character to produce in us the fruit of His power and grace and love - that will transform our homes and work places and community.  His desire is to flow through us to produce the most valuable fruit - to eternally impact the lives of men and women - leading them to salvation in Jesus Christ.

Bottom line question:  What choice have you made?

_________________________

1. Chad Walsh, Early Christians of the 21st Century, Harper 1950 - quoted by Gary Vanderet, ”How to Stand in a Storm” - sermon on Matthew 7:21-29

2. Quoted by Gary Vanderet, ”How to Stand in a Storm” - sermon on Matthew 7:21-29