Living for Jesus: Matthew 7:13-14: Choosing the Road That Goes Where You Want to Go

Life is a journey, and the most important choice we ever make—and we make it over and over again—is the road we take through life.

MATTHEW 7:13-14: CHOOSING THE ROAD THAT GOES WHERE YOU WANT TO GO

INTRODUCTION

Did you know that Christianity is not a New Testament word?
The earliest Christians called their Faith “the way.”
The word they used was "hodos," which means “way,” “road,” or “journey.”
This new “Way” that the believers followed was a new way of thinking,
a new way of feeling,
a new way of behaving.

When Jesus called his disciples, he said, “Follow me.”
They walked the roads of Galilee with him. They listened to him. They watched him. They shared his life.

The believers of the next generation called themselves “disciples,” or “followers of Jesus.”
They knew the way Jesus traveled included a Cross. They budgeted for that, and some of them gave their lives because of their faithfulness.
They remembered that Jesus told people: “If any of you want to come after me, you have to deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9.23).

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus issued this invitation (Matthew 7.13-14):

“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.”

I. Let’s look first at the road that the wide gate leads to.

A. The road is easy. It’s just the natural way to go—the obvious choice.
The Greek word here means “spacious,” or “roomy.”
There’s a lot of company on this road.
There’s plenty of room for a variety of opinions and lifestyles.
You can choose whatever philosophy or beliefs you feel comfortable with.
You can be religious or irreligious. You can live and let live.
You don’t have to make any decisions because we are all just naturally on this road.

B. But there’s a big problem with the easy road: it leads to destruction.
The idea of a road that leads to destruction isn’t a very popular part of Jesus’ teaching. People don’t like the idea that our choices on earth have eternal consequences.

II. But Jesus urges us to enter by the narrow gate and take the hard road.

A. The road the narrow gate leads to is narrow, like its gate.
The word for the road is translated either “narrow” or “hard.” The Greek word means both. It is literally, “pressed together,” “restricted,” or “afflicted.”

Jesus says the hard road isn’t popular, but it leads to life.
We read in Acts 14.21-22 of how Paul and Barnabas exhorted the new believers “to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”

An old minister came to die. His friends were gathered around his bedside listening to his last words.
“Would to God I were back in my pulpit but for one Sunday,” he said.
“What would you do?” asked a brother minister at his bedside.
“I would preach to the people the difficulty of salvation,” he answered.
Sometimes Christians are surprised when the road of salvation becomes far more difficult than anyone told them it would be.

We who lived long know about the hard road.
We have become more and more aware of our limitations. Sometimes we feel useless.
It is hard to be spiritual when you are feeling crummy.
It is hard to keep faith bright when you are separated from your Christian friends.

A famous saint from long ago—St. Bernard of Clairvaux—said this true saying: “The road winds uphill all the way—yea, to the very end.”

B. But this narrow way, this hard road, this way of affliction is glorious because it leads to life.

It is our hope of glory that gives us cause to rejoice in the Lord.

Paul wrote to the Romans (5:3-5): “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering producer endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.”

It’s a hard road, but it is glorious because we know that it leads to the New Jerusalem, the Holy City—our Eternal Home.

CONCLUSION

Some of you have heard of the classic book written on the Christian journey called The Pilgrim’s Progress.
It was a book that every child in a Christian family would have read in our grandparents’ time.
I read somewhere that in the log cabin in which Abraham Lincoln grew up, there were three books: The Bible, Aesop’s Fables, and Pilgrim’s Progress.

The Pilgrim’s Progress has been translated into more than 160 languages, and more copies have been printed than any book written in English.

Once when I was young a preacher visited our church and gave a week messages for children based on this book. He had an old-fashioned magic lantern and projected pictures of the story on the wall.

The Pilgrim’s Progress is a commentary on the road to the Celestial City, or what we call “Heaven,” told as a dream.

The story starts out with a man, named Christian, clothed in rags, with his face turned from his house, a Book in his hand, and a great bundle on his back.
He opened the book and read from it. He began to weep and then broke out in a lamentable cry, “What shall I do?
He went to bed hoping for sleep but the night was as troublesome to him as the day. He spent the night in sighs and tears.
When he awoke they asked him how he did and he told them: “Worse and worse.”
Each day he felt worse and worse.
As he walked one day in the field reading his Book, he cried out: “What shall I do to be saved?”
This part of the story represents conviction of sin.

Then he met a man named Evangelist, to whom he told his tale of woe.
Evangelist pointed into the distance: “Do you see yonder wicket-gate?” (A wicket gate is a little door cut into a big door.)
Christian said, “No.”
And Evangelist said, “Do you see yonder shining light?”
And Christian said, “I think I do.”
Then said Evangelist, “Keep that light in your eye, and go up directly to it. Knock at the door.”
So Christian made his way to the wicket-gate and knocked.
The gate was opened by a grave man named Good Will.”
Good Will had to pull him inside because, just at that time, Beelzebub began to shoot his flaming arrows at him.
The wicket gate represents the narrow gate that leads to life.

Still carrying his great burden Christian went on until he came to a hill on which was a Cross, and a little below the Cross a sepulcher, or open grave.
As Christian came to the Cross and looked upon it, his burden loosed from his shoulders and came off his back and tumbled into the sepulcher.
Three shining ones came to him and said, “Peace be to you,” stripped him of his rags, and clothed him with new clothes.
Then Christian gave three leaps and went on singing,
“Blest Cross! Blest Sepulcher! Blest rather be
The Man that there was put to shame for me.”
This scene represents forgiveness and being clothed with the righteousness of Christ who died for us.

Christian went on his way singing with joy but his troubles were far from over.
He came to the Hill Difficulty.
He had to pass roaring lions beside the path.
But finally he came to the Palace Beautiful and met four lovely ladies: Discretion, Prudence, Piety, and Charity.
The ladies listened to his story and conducted him to a large chamber whose window opened towards the Sun rising, and the name of the Chamber was Peace, and there Christian slept until the break of day.
The next day they instructed him in the way he should go and outfitted him with a suit of armor for the battles ahead.
They gave him the Helmet of Salvation, the Breastplate of Righteousness, the Shield of Faith, and the Sword of the Spirit.
This part of the story represents church fellowship.

Christian went on alone and came to the Valley of Humiliation, where he fought a desperate battle with Apollyon—the Destroyer—who represents Satan.
At the end of this valley poor Christian had to go meet an even worse test in the Valley of the Shadow of Death. He was almost to despair when he heard a voice saying, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me”

So Christian went on. But soon he met another kind of temptation in the town of Vanity, where they were having a fair, Vanity Fair. There people tried to sell him the merchandise of the town and to tempt him with many pleasures to deter him from his journey.
And when he spurned their wares, they arrested him and he barely escaped with his life.
The Valley of Humiliation, the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and Vanity Fair represent the temptations we Christians face in our journey.

In Vanity Fair Christian almost lost his life, but he found a companion, Hopeful, who continued with him until they blundered into By-Path-Meadow and were captured by Giant Despair and locked up in a dungeon in Doubting Castle.
But they found the key called “Promise” which could open the door of the dungeon, and so they escaped.
This part of the story represents the doubts Christians sometimes have about their salvation.

Finally Christian and Hopeful came to the river that represents death, within sight of the Celestial City, shining with pure gold and sparkling jewels.

As they entered the river Christian began to be afraid, but Hopeful said, “Be of good cheer, Brother, for I feel the bottom, and it is good.”
And they heard the Lord’s voice saying, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through rivers, they shall not overflow.”

So they came out of the river and were met by two shining ones who led them to the gate of the city.

And so they came to Mount Zion, the Heavenly Jerusalem with the innumerable company of angels and the people of God who had gone on before.
There they were clothed in white robes.
There they were met by trumpeters and the bells began to ringing to welcome them.
And a voice said to them, “Enter into the joy of your Lord.”

And so the story ends. And so ends my message for you today.