Posted on by rschut1945

The Wide and Narrow Gate (Matt 7:13-14)

How then do we enter into God’s kingdom?  We must enter through the narrow gate and difficult path. It is a narrow gate in the sense that we must accept the teaching that not all religions will get you there.  Even the Pharisees who practiced Judaism and the Law of Moses will not automatically be accepted into God’s kingdom.  This doesn’t mean that we must be perfect in order to enter.  Rather, it means that not everyone will be allowed in simply because they perform the correct rituals, say the correct prayers, or be sanctioned by some religious authority.  This goes against many pastors and theologians today who want us to believe that the gate is wide and inclusive of everyone regardless of their beliefs and conduct.  It is true that Jesus speaks about a wide gate and broad path of inclusion, but he tells us that those who travel on that road will end in destruction.  The narrow gate and path are the only ones that lead to life and few will find it. 

2 Peter 3:9 (KJV)
9  The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

Scripture tells us that Jesus wants to include as many as possible, but they must enter through the narrow path into the narrow gate.  These are not those who are already righteous, but those who truly want to be righteous and recognize that true righteousness is in him (Christ) alone. 

In these verses Jesus is teaching us that there are many who will fall into error.  There are many false religions that may sound great, but are deceiving many.  There are even many pastors who have extracted some Biblical truths only to mix them with human psychology or philosophy in order to create a deceptive form of Christianity that has drawn many people into to their churches.

The narrow gate also refers to the idea that we must enter God’s kingdom as an individual and not as a group.  This gate only has enough room for one person to pass through at a time.  We don’t enter into God’s kingdom because we are members of the correct church or denomination.  Each of us will stand before Christ as an individual, naked, and stripped of all religious identity. We cannot assume that just because we are with the crowd or the majority that we are on the correct path.  Jesus actually teaches that the opposite is true.

The term “narrow path” is actually translated from a Greek word that means narrow in the sense of being very difficult to pass through.  This narrow path implies that life will be a struggle for believers as we live in this world.  The world will resist us because it resists true holiness. It is a difficult path because our family and our friends may reject us.  We may lose are jobs and some may lose everything that they have including their lives on account of God’s kingdom.  But although it is a path of struggle, it is the only one that will eventually lead us into God’s eternal kingdom of peace and holiness. 

In this sermon Jesus certainly didn’t bend his truth in order to recruit followers. In fact, he made it very clear that those who were willing to follow him better prepare themselves for this difficult path. This path hasn’t changed simply because we now live in the 21st century. If anything, it is getting more difficult to live such a life since Jesus’ teachings are becoming more obscured by a Hallmark imitation of his truth.

Posted on by rschut1945

Judgment (Matt 7:1-6, 7:15-20)

I would be the first to say that we are not here to be judges against sinners, but rather to bring salvation to them and bring them into the freedom from sin that Jesus offers.  We are to be what he was, which is an example of holiness and righteousness rather than judges of their sin. .

When it comes to sin we would be much better off looking within ourselves in order to purge ourselves of all sin before we go out looking at the sin of others.  Jesus taught this directly by his parabolic example of those more concerned with taking out the splinter (mote) from their brother’s eye rather than removing the log (beam) from their own.  However, we must take this advice in the greater context which includes his attitude towards the hypocrite and false prophet.  Although he does warn us against judgmentalism he also warns us not to bring his holy word to those who are so depraved of truth that they will turn on us to destroy us as found in verse 6.  So in order to determine just who these people are who are depraved of truth we must make a judgement.  So Jesus is not only permitting us to judge such people, he is commanding us to do so for our own safety.

The problem I see here is that many people tend to stop reading after verse 4 where Jesus warns against judgmentalism and they never get to verse 15 where Jesus tells us to beware of false prophets. When he tells us to beware and judge their fruits he is telling us that we must make a judgement as to their truthfulness, sincerity, and holiness. In verse 17 he even refers to them as corrupt.  Determining if someone is truthful, sincere, holy or corrupt is a judgment—is it not?

So to summarize Jesus’ teachings on judgement we have to say that, first of all, we are not here to be judgmental of others simply because they don’t agree with us. Neither are we here to judge the sins of the world—for that would be a never-ending job that would take us away from our true mission of bringing salvation—besides true conversion can only come when they feel the judgment of God not ours.

We are here to judge what is holy and righteous from what is evil and sinful mostly for our protection and the protection of our faith. Our judgment is to be made against those who say they believe, but continue to live in sin.  Their rejection of all judgment of sin challenges the existence of sin itself for by denying sin they justify their own practice of it while still claiming to be Christians. Such people fall in the category of being false prophets and hypocrites and must be called out for being such. 

We cannot become absorbed in the sins of others for then we become distracted from our true mission to the world of sinners which is to be models and examples of holiness for the purpose of bringing them to the Lord.

Our judgment must not be based upon our desire to make ourselves look righteous for this is self-righteousness, but must be to preserve the holiness and righteousness of Christ as he manifests these through the believers of the church.

Posted on by rschut1945

Adultery and Offense of the Eye (Matt 5:27-30)

Adultery is a crime of selfishness and lust.  It involves a betrayal of fidelity. According to the Old Testament adultery was punishable by death, but in his sermon Jesus gives us a deeper understanding of adultery.  Jesus contradicts the common idea that the act of adultery takes place at the moment of intercourse.  According to Jesus the sin begins with selfishness and lust within the heart of men that finally consummates in intercourse. 

It begins with the lust of the eye when it looks upon a woman with desire.  At this point the fidelity of marriage is already broken.  This is the spiritual sin that takes place prior to the physical one. Many cannot believe that Jesus really means what he says here.  The claim is that no one can go through life without lusting after another person—at least not in our society where advertising is based upon the very idea of lust.

Jesus makes it very clear that this is not some exaggeration that is supposed to somehow scare us into holiness or is aimed only at monks, priest, and saints.  In the very next verse he tells us that if our eye or hand offends us we must cut it off and throw it away for it is better to enter heaven with one eye or one hand then enter hell with two.

This is not an exaggeration.  It is an example of how serious we must take the commission of sin.   When war vets enter into war against our enemies they know that they might lose an eye, a hand, leg, or even their lives. They are given metals for bravery when such things happen and looked up to by society as heroes.  But when Jesus asks this same dedication of us towards our enemy of sin we turn away and want to believe that he is exaggerating.  Why would we be willing to offer more for our country than for our Lord and God?

So the main point to take away from this commandment is the seriousness and pervasiveness of sin in the human heart.  This is where evil begins. The only remedy for such a sin is faith as we shall see later.