EPISODE EPISODE 218 GOSPEL OF MATTHEW CHAPTER 7 Part 3 "Only Two Alternatives"

Welcome to Share the Word. In episode 218, we come to the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount. Today, we are taking a look at the choice each of us will need to make in this lifetime, and that choice will affect where we spend eternity. So listen closely as Pastor Paul Nitz provides great insight towards that decision. Matthew chapter 7, part 3: Only two alternatives. I hope it hasn't bothered you that we have slowed down and devoted several episodes to the Sermon on the Mount.

It has so many big ideas, and it's the best place in the Bible to listen to Jesus Himself teach to find out what He really said when He was here. This will be our final installment, though, on the Sermon on the Mount, and then we'll get back to our more normal approach chapter by chapter. We all love choices, don't we? How many ways can you get coffee at Starbucks? How many kinds of donuts can you choose from Dunkin'? I don't know about you, but I can't stand going to fancy pants restaurants where the waiters are in tuxedos trying to pretend they're French or something.

Then through some kind of phony accent, they recite four or five entree choices, none of which sound any good, and honestly, I don't even know what they mean most of the time. Forget that. I like going to Cracker Barrel, where the menu is 16-inch tall trifold, and there's stuff on all six sides, and you have choices like chicken and dumplings and country fried steak. Or another favorite place of ours is this huge Chinese buffet where you can eat a little bit of at least 75 different offerings. I realize that too many options can create problems too, though. For some, they just look at the menu and they look and they look and they look as your stomach is growling, and they keep saying, I just can't make up my mind.

With my kids, I learned to not give them too many options. You can have choice A or you can have choice B. Which one will it be? As Jesus came to the close of his Sermon on the Mount, he challenged his listeners to make a decision about all he had just presented them with, about him really. And that's what it came down to. After listening to his whole inaugural address, he was very clear that when it comes down to the biggest choice his listeners would have to make, that includes us because we've just listened to it, there are only two alternatives.

I've always loved Matthew's observation at the end of this chapter. At the close of Jesus' sermon, he observed, When Jesus had finished, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, not as their scribes. You know, the usual sermonettes they got at synagogue, he meant. Jesus spoke with authority because he knew exactly who he was and he knew he had the truth. Jesus believed there was little to no value in people just listening to lofty ideas and having them say, Wow, wasn't that interesting? or, Hmm, so inspirational.

He knew that for someone to hear the truth he taught, be convicted by it, and then to return to life as usual would only harden their hearts and dull their ears to God's voice. That's why he was so keen to see those he was preaching to that day on the mountain make a choice when he was done speaking with them. Respond. Decide. When he reached the close of his sermon and the illustration we're going to focus on today, he challenged his audience to make a life-altering decision. He was telling the truth, an eternity-altering decision.

And he was clear with them that there were only two alternatives. Listen. He said, Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction. There are many who enter through it, but the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. That's how Matthew remembers Jesus saying, translated in the very literal New American Standard Bible. A more contemporary version, the New Living Translation, puts it like this: You can enter God's kingdom only through the narrow gate.

The highway to hell is broad and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way, but the gateway to life is narrow, and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it. What is immediately striking about those challenging words at the end of Jesus' sermon is the stark choice he sets before his listeners. There are really only two alternatives, he said. There are only two roads. There are only two gates. There are only two destinations.

Think about Jesus' words carefully with me for a couple of minutes. Roads first. He said, The road to God's kingdom is narrow and not many find it. Years ago, I was taking a group of international students who were here at the shore working for the summer to Washington, D.C. for a day trip. They wanted to see the White House, the monuments, the museums, you know, the sights. We chartered a bus, but not everyone who wanted to go could fit in it, so I drove my van too.

I had bought one of the students who were with us that day a laptop online from a guy in a suburb north of the city. There were other chaperones along, so my plan was, while the group was seeing the sights, I would drive up and grab this laptop. This was before I had GPS navigation in my van. The seller's name was Jun Wong, and he emailed me an address in Gaithersburg, Maryland. But I'm not familiar with that area at all, so I asked him to send me detailed driving directions. I had limited time and I didn't want to get lost.

I wanted to get back to see the kids and do a couple activities with them. He was very slow about getting back to me, and when he did, he was pretty vague, like, Just drive up the highway from D.C. to Gaithersburg and ask around where that address is. It's not that hard to find. I emailed back, I need more specific directions, please. I don't want to drive around asking directions from random people on the street. I waited and waited, but didn't get any clarification.

The longer I waited, I started to get the distinct impression Mr. Wong had, in fact, scammed me. I wasn't going to just head north and ask around Gaithersburg hoping I'd find him. The address he gave me probably wasn't even real, and I never did get what I paid for and was promised. I was wonged. Yet isn't that pretty much the message given out by the great religious leaders and philosophical types of our day?

Just head toward God best you can. Pick what over road suits you. Follow your heart. All religions are ultimately going to lead you to God and to heaven if you're sincere. We're all just taking our own route. Wow, what an incredibly foolish message.

Jesus said precisely the opposite. The broad way, the easy way, leads to destruction. The road to life, to God's kingdom, in contrast, is narrow. It's the way of the cross. I am the way, Jesus said. It's in receiving and following me.

No one will come to my Father's house any other way. Gates. Enter through the narrow gate. Jesus also calls the gate or doorway to God's heaven narrow, and then again small. What does that suggest to you? To me it suggests we can only enter one at a time.

It's an individual thing. In ancient times, large cities were walled. They had a main gate. If it was a really large city, several main gates. These could be swung open to accommodate large crowds of people and animals passing through. But next to them were small, narrow gates that only allowed one person to pass through at a time.

So at night or in times of danger, the large gates would be closed with iron bars securing them, and the only way for someone to enter the city was through the narrow wicket gate, they were called, one person at a time. Becoming a true follower of Jesus Christ is an individual thing, personal choice. In a teaching later on, Jesus said, I am the gate. Those who come through me will be saved. Since the gate is small and narrow, we must each come to Christ individually. You don't come in with a group.

You don't come in because your mom and dad brought you along with them, or come in with a church that you belong to. You must enter into God's kingdom, if you do, through the narrow gate by yourself. It's a personal decision to believe in and follow Christ. Realize that when you enter through the small, narrow gate, you'll have to leave some stuff behind, like— Pride, like self-righteousness, like your love of sin. Remember how Jesus began his sermon: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. We must acknowledge that we are spiritually bankrupt before God on our own.

And blessed are those who mourn. Remember that? We must understand the gravity of our sin in God's eyes, how sorry we should be for how it offends Him. To get through the small, narrow gate, we must humble ourselves and cry out to Christ to save us. And we must be ready to turn away from sin and do things God's way going forward. If the message we hear from the smiling philosophical gurus and reassuring liberal theologians and preachers is true, that is, there are plenty of ways to get to God; we all climb the mountain from a different side, then how unusual is it that they would have more insight on that topic than Jesus?

Has anyone but Him ever come down out of heaven? He claimed that He's the only one that came down out of heaven and that He did to tell us the truth. And according to Him, the truth is there are only two roads, one broad and one narrow. Most people are on the easier, broad, wider road. There's a gate at the end of each road, one wide, the other small and narrow. And when they open at the end of our life's journey, it will either be to eternal life or to ultimate destruction, because there are only two destinations.

Destinations. I watched a movie recently because history fascinates me. This one was about the early years of World War II and was set in Poland. I think it was a German production, actually, which fascinated me because for all of my life, Germans have strongly preferred not to talk about World War II, that whole era, what happened then. Much less make movies about it. One of the striking scenes in this particular movie was how Jewish people and others the Nazi government labeled undesirables were coaxed from their towns and homes and businesses, being told it was for their own safety.

They were loaded onto train cars with as much of their personal belongings as they could carry with them. The trains were really taking them to work camps and/or death camps. When they arrived, though, they were told, take a number with which they could redeem their belongings later. But at first they needed to get showers and get medically examined for any diseases. They were assured they would get all their stuff back and that ahead of them was a good life, an honest life, plenty of food, good work, and so on. And they went along.

Of course, you realize, as the movie progresses, they were not getting their stuff back. Those who were weak or diseased were not taken to showers but were gassed. Others were taken to camps where they were cruelly worked until they died. It made me angry watching the deception and sick inside seeing people led so easily to their own destruction. We are all on a journey. Are you sure about your destination?

So many are on the broad road, just going through life as most people do, hoping for the best. Do you ever think seriously about your destination at the end of that road? Do you have any concerns or fears about what might happen then when you pass through death's gateway? Maybe you've been quieting any fears you have, reasoning, Hey, I'm better than most people, or at least as good as most people. But according to Jesus, the truth about life's biggest issue isn't decided by majority opinions. In fact, it's the many, the majority, who are deceived and on the wrong road, he said, headed for destruction.

Think about it. If the majority was right, if conventional wisdom was right, if people are really okay with God, believing and doing as they choose, and all roads lead to heaven, then why did Jesus find it necessary to leave glory, come down into our messed up world and go through what he went through? He said he came to seek and save those who are lost, that he came into our world on a rescue mission. He said he came to give his life as a ransom for us. He said he was the way and the truth and the life. I'm the gate, he said, and if anyone enters through me, they will be saved.

And he also said, If you will not believe into me, you will die in your sins. The apostle John remembered Jesus saying these kinds of things repeatedly and more too. Chapter 3 of his gospel, he summarized it just this starkly: If you have the Son, that is Jesus, you'll have life. But if you do not have the Son of God, you do not have life. You still have the wrath of God hanging over you. Matthew, John, Peter, all of Jesus' apostles were preaching in Jerusalem just weeks after his resurrection.

There is salvation nowhere else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. There is salvation in no one else. There is salvation in no one else. Man, I hope if you are just going along to Broadway, one among the crowd, and have not personally, seriously embraced Christ as your Savior and Leader, you'll feel right now, understand right now, that the wrath of God is still hanging over you, and that the gateway at the end of the broad road you are traveling with everybody else will finally lead to destruction. Wake up. It's the gateway to hell.

Hell is too awful to almost think about. That's why we don't think about it. Yet if we believe Jesus, it's a very real destination. He warned of it many times. Here in the Sermon on the Mount, he grimly characterized it as destruction. It's a place where everything good will be destroyed: hope, love, beauty, peace.

None of these things will be found in hell. That's why he urged, Enter in at the narrow gate. Take decisive action. Emerging you now in the same way, take decisive action. Make the right choice. Turn to Jesus as your Savior and your life toward following him as your leader.

If we do not follow his directions, what are the chances we're going to end up at the right destination? So come to Jesus. Believe into Jesus. Follow Jesus. The narrow road is more confining, yes. Following him and his ways more exacting, yes.

But at the end of that road, there are wonderful things that eyes have never seen, ears have never heard, our wildest imaginations could never dream up, things that God has prepared for those who belong to him. In the kingdom of heaven, God will wipe away all the tears from our eyes. There'll be no more death. There'll be no more sorrow, no more crying or pain. All those old things will be gone forever. Your mind may argue against all this reasoning that God is too loving to send anybody to hell.

But Jesus does not encourage that kind of optimism. He said that fear of going to hell was something that should drive us to the safety we can find in him. Fear based in reality is a good motivator. God has graciously provided a way for us to be saved from sin's consequences, judgment, and hell. That's why Jesus came. That's why he died for our sins.

But without him and his atonement applied to us, destruction is ahead. If you're listening to me today and you're not a Christian yet, realize God is giving you this opportunity. Scripture asks elsewhere, How would we escape if we neglect such a great plan of salvation? If you're not sure of your destination, if you realize you need the Savior God sent, if you're ready to follow him, then come to Jesus. Believe into Jesus. Turn your life toward following Jesus.

As he brought his sermon that day on the mountainside to conclusion, he wanted to bring every one of his listeners to the point of decision, and he wanted them to realize how urgent and momentous that decision was. There are only two roads, and each of us is on one of them. There are only two gates to pass through at the end of our life's journey, and there are only two possible destinations: eternal life or destruction, the kingdom of heaven or the darkness of hell. Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Whether you've been listening to Share the Word for a long time or whether you just stumbled on this episode today, if what I've been saying, which is no more than reiterating exactly what Jesus taught when he was here, what I've been saying strikes you as truth, if it strikes you as something you need to respond to, then I urge you to make the decision for Christ and the gospel now. You only need to turn to God in sincere faith and pray something like this. Father in heaven, I know I need the Savior you sent for me. I know I need your forgiveness. I need your grace. I want to be yours, and I want to follow your ways from today forward.

So right now, I am claiming Jesus as my personal Savior and leader. I believe he is the way. Thank you for loving me and making eternal life with you possible through him. Amen.