Which Way Will You Go?

Whether one be a new Christian, a babe in Christ, or a Christian who has sinned and found forgiveness, we must put a comma and not a period at the end of one’s experience. The road of living for Christ still lies ahead. There are difficult hills to climb. Pitfalls await us. Dangers lurk on every hand. There are roaring streams to be crossed. Other crises, temptations, and trials are to be faced. So more than ever we need the Lord’s help.

That is exactly what the Lord is trying to do in the text before us; He is offering help to those who would enter the kingdom of God. His purpose is to help his audience see that the way (road) they take determines the gate they enter. His help is in the form of a command.

“Enter In at the Narrow Gate”

Why is Jesus giving the helpful command? He is giving it because He knows that many people are going the wrong way. He is concerned about it because people have a terrible habit of following the crowd.

Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations 1685 Jump! Jump! In South Africa

From Johannesburg, South Africa, this news: A crowd of over 2,000 people gathered downtown as a young African perched on the 6th floor balcony ready to jump. “Jump, jump,” the crowd yelled. After 2 hours, he jumped to his death. The spectacle provided a real afternoon’s entertainment for the feverish crowd. Officials tried talking him out of jumping, but the crowd kept on screaming for him to get on with it. In the end, he felt he had to jump to appease the crowd.

Following the crowd will land you at the wrong gate.

Jesus said the reason you must enter in at the strait gate is because wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction. He has been teaching on the mountainside, attempting to turn his listeners around from the road of destruction and put them on the right road that leads to life.

They were susceptible to a few roads that could potentially be destructive. Many of the people of Jesus’ day were had chosen the road of trying to get rich. it was generally believed that the more land and money you had, the better you were. Not realizing that riches mean nothing at all in comparison to your soul.

Oh my brothers and sisters, I am sorely afraid that there are many who fall into this category among us today. Who like the Rich young ruler will choose to hold on to riches than to make Jesus their choice. If that is you today, you are not on a lonely road…Jesus said that many are traveling in the same direction.

There were people in the audience that Jesus addressed who were on the road to upward mobility and social status. All that mattered to them was that people knew that they existed. And that really wouldn’t have been all that bad until they allowed envy and jealousy to possess them and began to tear others down to build themselves up. That’s the wrong way!

Sadly, that same mindset is pervasive in these post modern times. It appears that most everyone is highly interested in being known. A spirit of “Grandiosity” is what marks the many. It is like George Benson’s declaration: “I won’t quit til I’m a star on Broadway”. Be careful Beloved, there’s a lot of people on the “Broad Way” and it leads to a wide gate.

May I suggest one more road or way that is not slated to end well? I want to propose that there were people in the time of Jesus who were tremendous influences by the leading groups of their day: (i.e., the Scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, and the Herodians). Though of some of them were political, they still played a role of the spiritual direction of the nation. But the Pharisees above all else were suppose to be the example for the nation and they were so self righteous that they found fault with the Son of God.

I think I need to tell you all that many of us have become modern day Pharisees, feeling like we got it all together because of our status. Because we are not as bad off as others and better than some (we think). We believe we can just give God anything and He should be happy to get it. There is no real dedication, devotion, or duty to Him. We don’t keep His Word but change it to suit what we’ve decided we gonna do and that’s all we gonna do! And it’s not just a few…Jesus says that “there are many”.

The book of Proverbs reminds us that “there is a way that seems right to a man.” Therein lays the problem…Man doesn’t know what is right without God. And so we make the mistake of calling wrong, right; and calling right, wrong! The apostle Paul gives us a glimpse into these strange dynamics when he tells the Corinthians about entertaining what seems to be right: See 2 Cor. 10:5

2 Corinthians 10:5 KJV 1900

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

Your way may seem right; but when you get to the end! Death. That’s the essentially the same message that Jesus uses in Matthew 7:13. But, He uses the word destruction.

Destruction (act) n. — the termination of something by causing so much damage to it that it cannot be repaired or no longer exists.

Let me illustrate:

Definition. A total loss car is generally recognized as a car that would cost more to repair than it is worth. If a car is currently worth $4000, and the cost of repairing the damage is $6000, the car is considered totaled. When a car is totaled, insurance companies refuse to repair the car because it has been destroyed! Here is the point: it is entirely possible to crash your life beyond repair by going your own way.

Jesus has issued a command to his listeners: Enter through the narrow gate. He gave them the two causes for the command: 1) wide is the gate and 2) broad is the way. He then gives the characteristic of the wide gate and the broad way - They lead to destruction. That is followed by the pronouncement that there are many who enter through it.

We see the the same format again as Jesus gives the positive causes for entering through the narrow gate: 1) the gate is small and 2)narrow is the way. These are characterized by the fact that they lead to life and then he pronounces that there a few who find it.

Which way will you choose?

American poet Robert Frost wrote:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim,Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

I feel like Frost today, I came upon two diverging roads in my life; One of them was full of people and bustling with activities. The allure was that they say the neon lights are bright on Broadway and they say there’s always magic in the air. Yet…I heard the voice of Jesus saying follow me …I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no one can come to the Father but by me.

And I have blessed assurance today and I can say like Job (see Job 23:10)

Job 23:10 NASB95

“But He knows the way I take; When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

He knows the way we take because he is ordering them. I don’t know if you can claim this today; but, if you can’t today is a good day to change you direction and get on the narrow road that leads to the narrow gate.

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