Matthew 7:24-29
Introduction
As we come to the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, it made me think about how often we have strong opinions ABOUT “conclusions.” If you want to get a real fan going (and going and going), ask them how they liked the conclusion of the last Star Wars trilogy, the conclusion of the Harry Potter books, or the conclusion of the NFL season. We all have these desired outcomes that we come to hope for while we are watching something, reading, or even just living.
We often see this in weddings. The bride and the groom have this image in their mind of what the perfect day will look like. The perfect outfits, the perfect cake, perfect venue, perfect decorations, even the guests that will come in the bride’s preferred color palette and which will make all the pictures look just perfect. And unless you are Jeff Bezos and can rent entire cities, we all often must compromise somewhat on those plans and the conclusion we end up with. Especially at weddings!
And we all have feelings about the “conclusion” we find ourselves in. These feelings can range from minorly bothered to annoyed to very frustrated. I think part of why we care about conclusions so much is we are always writing the story in our minds as we go. We are aware of our day, our life, a book, or a movie, and we begin to be invested (rightly so if it’s your life!) and we begin to play out what the ending would look like to each moment. We are at our kid’s sporting event (let’s pretend this imaginary kid’s name is Jack who plays baseball), and we are writing in our minds the narrative. “How cool would it be if they made it all the way to the championship round, and little Jack hits a grand-slam?!” Depending on your experiences, your desires, your goals, you write the ending to the book, the ending of the movie, or even the ending of your own life events as things are unfolding along the way, and you HOPE that you will see the conclusion YOU most want. Some of us are okay with the surprise, the twist, the inevitable changes that come along in any journey. That is the reason some people read mysteries. But MOST of us feel some pang of disappointment when things don’t end the way we were hoping.
God knows this desire we have to know the ending and have it be a good ending. Even in Genesis when our problem of sin becomes apparent, God already begins to tell us the ending. We know the conclusion to the story through his Scripture. Through faith we are brought back into relationship with God again and we get to inherit and inhabit a new earth with a city and a place built for each of us. We get to walk face-to-face with God again, like Adam and Eve, but this time, we won’t have any desire or even capacity to sin. We will live and walk perfectly with our God again and have a chance to make things, create, interact with one another—frankly, do a lot of what we do here today but do it perfectly and WITH God.
This is part of the hope of the gospel—we know the conclusion and love it! And if you know the ending and you like it—much like our ending in Jesus Christ—it makes for an incredibly joyful experience and a compelling reason to continue on through the story. That is why you and I need to remember the ending to our story more often—it can help motivate us to continue on. That is because conclusions, endings, matter.
Sermon on the Mount Conclusion
As we come to the end of the Sermon on the Mount today, we have to go where Jesus goes. We have to go with his conclusion, whether that is the conclusion you would write or not. That is the interesting thing about preaching or even reading through Scripture and following the path each author takes. If we are going through a letter, like one of Paul’s letters, we end where he ends and try to be faithful to his conclusion. If we are in a history book like 2 Chronicles we end where they end and try to understand why that was the last story. It is the same for each type of Scripture we might be studying through—we trust that God’s Holy Spirit has written the conclusion he has written for a reason.
Jesus began to conclude the Sermon on the Mount beck in Matthew 7:13:
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.
Matthew 7:13–14, ESV
When I originally preached through that section I mentioned I was not going to say too much so I could come back to it at the very end. I also didn’t say much because the next four sections all say something very similar, and I didn’t want to steal the thunder of the guys preaching next.
Here, in the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives us four different images and examples that are trying to drive home the same larger point:
Choose to Walk With Me [Jesus]
This is Jesus encouraging us again that he loves us, that he has died for us, and he wants us to come back into relationship with him. And yet, he is doing something else that we are quite reticent to do in our own conversations. He is saying a second statement in all these concluding sections:
Choose to Walk With Me [Jesus]
Don’t Choose Hell
That may not be the conclusion you were hoping for at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. We undoubtably agree it is a fair statement, that it is true, and that it may be an understandable idea to bring up. But I think many people would much rather that Jesus simply continue to talk about the beauty of his love, what he has done for us, his desire to have us walk back in relationship with him again, instead of reminding us of the alternative. Instead of talking about hell.
I remember hearing an interview with a pastor of a very large mega-church that was on TV often back in the 80s and 90s when I was growing up. This pastor and the others in the interview began talking about Scripture and passages that mentioned sin, how we are to remind people they are sinners, and then passages talking about hell, and this pastor said this:
“I hope you don’t preach that. It will hurt a lot of beautiful people.”
Robert Schueller
That is often our feeling when a passage talks about something hard—let alone hell. Yet Jesus doesn’t shy away from this topic, in fact, he uses the imagery of hell in each of these four concluding images. This morning, we are going to let the Sermon on the Mount end where Jesus ends it—with a call to:
Choose to Walk With Me [Jesus]
Don’t Choose Hell
We want to look and see what Jesus is saying here and then ponder “why?” Why would Jesus end here and why is it so important to give us this dichotomy of choices? And I think we are going to see that Jesus is loving us, even Christians, by reminding us of this choice because it is a reality for every person, and it is the temptation we still face today as Christians. Even for those who love Christ and who know him well, it is a temptation for us to think that the other path, the other way, and the other choices would have a conclusion much better for us. It is our temptation EVEN AS believers, and it is a temptation that those considering Christ are faced with as well. We need to be certain for our own sake and our own walk with Jesus that we are on the right path that leads to the beautiful conclusion of being with God in the new heavens and the new earth one day, AND, we need to be convinced it is the right path if we are to rightly share the beauty of this gospel with anyone else.
It matters that we see and know our answer to this dichotomy, and can explain it to others as well:
Choose to Walk With Me [Jesus]
Don’t Choose Hell
The Choices
Let’s go back then to where this conclusion started and look at how Jesus presents the choices. As we said, Jesus started this concluding section in Matthew 7:13:
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.
Matthew 7:13–14, ESV
There is clearly a dichotomy here—two choices:
Matthew 7:13
Narrow Gate Wide Gate
Hard Path Easy Path
Leads to Life Leads to Destruction
Few Enter Many Enter
We have a narrow gate and a wide gate. We are told the narrow gate leads to a hard path that few will choose to enter and go down, but it leads us to life. On the other hand, there is a wide gate that has an easy path that we are told many will enter, but it leads to destruction.
This probably seems self-evident to many of you. This is fairly core to the gospel, so you have probably thought about this reality before. Even more so, the reality of these two paths and especially how hard following Christ is usually becomes apparent after following Jesus for even just a little while. We find that we repeatedly have to walk this path of trusting God, fighting your sin, repenting, confessing, and willingly choosing to walk through this life with other sinners (like all of us in this room) who are trying to do the same things. That is HARD! It can be very hard! Yet in faith we truly believe this will lead us to life. In faith we trust that God has called us to thi.
Well, some of the time we believe that. It can become tempting to think that this—the Christian life we are all living—maybe could be easier. That is why Jesus makes his next statement in Matthew 7:15–21:
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.
Matthew 7:15–20, ESV
We are prone to be tempted by anyone who comes and preaches (or prophesies here) a message that would make it seem like the path could possibly be easier. That maybe we don’t REALLY have to experience such a difficult time. We see this in the prosperity gospel preaching, the name-it-and-claim-it preachings, and many others. And again, Jesus exposes for us the true dichotomy:
Matthew 7:15–20
True Prophets (Implication) False Prophets
Appear as Sheep Appear as Sheep
Sheep Inside (Implication) Wolves Inside
Jesus tells us there WILL BE false prophets. Not maybe, but surely. He says beware of them—they exist. And he tells us these people will appear as sheep (here that clearly means as though they will look like Christ followers), but inside they are wolves. They have nothing but their own desires and hungers that drives them. They do not follow a good shepherd but rather live for their own satisfaction.
I think you and I can easily imagine why this might be a temptation for many of us—we want to find an easier path. And we can see why we should worry and want to identify who these false prophets are and who are right prophets. And Jesus gives us a key to help us do just that:
True Prophets False Prophets
Healthy Tree Unhealthy/Diseased Tree
Bears Good Fruit Bears Bad Fruit
Remain/Stand (Implication) Cut Down
He tells us that prophets (perhaps something we could liken to preachers in many ways) are like trees. Good prophets are like a healthy tree. They bear good fruit and, by implication at the end of the analogy, they will continue to stand. On the contrary, false prophets are like unhealthy and diseased trees. They only bear bad fruit, and they are destined to be cut down and destroyed.
Again, this is a real temptation for all of us. We get weary of doing the hard work and it can sometimes be easy to hear a message that makes us think it can truly be easier for us if we just believe something a little different from the gospel and path of life that Jesus has given us. And again, Jesus reminds us of the implications of believing those lies. In Matthew 7:21–23 he tells us:
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 will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Matthew 7:21–23, ESV
Again, note the dichotomies:
Matthew 7:21–23
Lord, Lord Lord, Lord
Does the Will of God Doesn’t do the Will of God
Prophecy/Cast Out/Works Prophecy/Cast Out/Works
Brought In Sent Away
Known by God Not Known by God
Jack shared a similar list with us last week. In the last days there will be two groups of people. Both groups say the exact same thing to Jesus (Lord, Lord), and they both seemingly will have many of the same works—prophecy, casting out of demons, doing good works. Yet we are told one group is actually doing the will of God, the other is not. One group is known by God, the other is not. Therefore the group that is known by God and is then doing what he has asked because it is HIS will, not their own desires, they are brought into the Kingdom. The other group is not. They are cast out of the Kingdom.
And that brings us to Jesus’s last statement, and his last analogy, in today’s passage:
Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.
Matthew 7:24–27, ESV
This is a very familiar image to many of you, and I’m sure some of you who grew up in the church likely even have a song you could sing about this (“The wise man built his house upon the rock. The wise man built his house upon the rock. The was man built his house upon the, and the rain came a tumbling down…”). Again, Jesus presents us with a dichotomy in this analogy:
Matthew 7:24–27
Hears the Words of Jesus Hears the words of Jesus
Does Them Doesn’t Do Them
Wise Man Foolish Man
Like House on Rock Like House on Sand
Rain Comes Rain Comes
Wind Blows Wind Blows
House Stands House Falls (a Great Fall)
This analogy or image is taking things a step further down the road of the progression of images here in Jesus’s conclusion.
Jesus started in his first analogy by talking about how all people who need to make a choice—believers and unbelievers. He then helps believers realize that even we will be tempted to leave the narrow and hard path and go with false prophets who want to entice us away to what looks like an easier path. He helps us by reminding us of the fate of those false prophets. He then comes back and again reminds believers that our faith is first and foremost about having a relationship with God—it isn’t about only doing the things of God.
And yet, in this last analogy he brings back the tension between faith and works. We can’t JUST know God intellectually. To know God means we will LIVE as his kingdom people. We will live out the ways of God as he continues to sanctify us more and more through his Holy Spirit in this lifetime. Jesus is warning us not to get the order backwards, but he isn’t telling us works don’t matter. We cannot start with works that would seem pleasing to God and think that it will lead us into relationship with God. We must start with our faith in our God who has done it all.
Like this last analogy, we want to be considered wise. We can make a shipwreck of our faith if we don’t build rightly on the words of Jesus. To ignore his commands is to live in ways that are not Kingdom ways. That is not wisdom, it is foolishness. And it will eventually result in a great fall when things get hard. The implication here would seem to be that those who do not DO the words of Jesus are not truly building their life on him, and like the people of the third parable that cry out “Lord, Lord,” they may find they fall greater than they imagined.
Rather, we are to start where the Sermon the Mount starts:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:3, ESV
We start by acknowledging that we are sinners and have walked away from God. We go down the path we talked about often in the Sermon on the Mount of recognizing this poverty, mourning our state and status as sinners, and being willing to be meek and acknowledge that truth before God and others. And we find when we do that that we begin to desire the righteousness of God, found only in faith through Jesus Christ. We then see the mercy of God for us in Jesus’s death on the cross and his offer of life through faith. And knowing that mercy should raise in us a desire to be merciful to others. We see the purity of Christ and the purity he has given to us and desire to see God himself. We treasure the peace Jesus has made with us, so we strive to see peace in our relationship with others.
In these four different analogies and stories, Jesus is taking us back down the path of the entire Sermon on the Mount again and our need to choose to follow him by faith and to walk out a life commensurate with the life of his kingdom people. The King’s people walk and act like the King. Jesus came and he has shown us what that type of life looks like. We will never be able to live the same as Jesus did—not yet in our sinful state. Yet we are learning and growing in what it looks like to be kingdom people, children of the most-high King himself.
And yet, this time around in showing us this same progression, Jesus joins the idea of his love and life found in faith with its opposite. He joins his love and grace and the path of life with him to the opposite—hell. Note that each of these four analogies all have images of hell in them:
For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.
Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven… then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me,
And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.
Hell. Where we are not with Jesus. Where the fall is deemed to be great. Where destruction and fire abound. These are all common images of hell that we see in other places in Scripture like Rev 20:14–15; Matthew 10:28, 13:42; Mark 9:43_48; Revelation 21:8, Psalm 9:17, 2 Thessalonians 1:9. We must ask, “Why is Jesus ending the Sermon on the Mount by comparing life with him against life on the path to hell? Why add this image in this time?”
Why Hell?
Stop and think about this image with me for a moment:
In the areas where we are healthy—where we have rightly shed our sin and our self-centeredness—we are aware that all joy and delight is found only in Christ. We see the simple truth of the narrowness of life found in Christ and happily shed whatever is needed to be found only in our relationship with Jesus. That undoubtedly happened for each Christian here this morning as you came to faith in Jesus Christ. Something wonderful occurred as the Spirit opened our eyes and we saw and believed in Jesus in this way, in that moment. We saw Jesus as the only hope for our problem of separation with God. We latched onto him as THE gate and THE path to everlasting life and THE hope for living in the new earth and life with God.
Every Christian here has had that moment at the very least at the beginning of our faith journey with Jesus. And we have likely had many more of them as we continue to walk with Jesus. Moments where we realize Jesus offers everything we need and that through him we can have TRUE life. In those moments, where we see Jesus as our only hope and our only desire, paradoxically the whole world opened up before us! We are not limited by trusting Jesus alone, rather we truly LIVE by trusting Jesus alone. Everything is now possible for us in Jesus Christ. As image-bearers of the most-high God, we have a high purpose and endless ways to glorify our God as we walk in his Kingdom values. We have the opportunity now in Jesus to make real choices about our jobs, our past-times, our friendships, and find that as long as we are looking first to Jesus to be everything to us, each and every aspect of our life can bring God glory as we pursue to be God’s kingdom people in every area.
From that perspective, we see our life as a funnel opening up before us. We are meant to see all the ways that life is opening up before us through our faith and all the ways we can chose to live before God that will now be pleasing to him BECAUSE of our relationship with him through Jesus and his Holy Spirit. The works that we do now—kingdom works—are pleasing to God and expand out from our life in Jesus Christ alone.
And yet, that isn’t the only way we experience Jesus. Each of us is still a sinner, and we are all often the product of the Christian cultures that we were saved in. Because of our sin, because of our own desire to justify ourselves, because of the ways our culture often tries to win us to Christ, we often times experience our walk with Jesus like this:
For many of us, this starts when someone tries to evangelize us. Many Christians want to make Christ so appealing that they fail to tell us much about his ways, his kingdom, and the call he will make on our life. They want to act like the gate IS wide, not narrow. They want us to think the path is easy, not hard. As one scholar has said: “In much contemporary evangelism, there is little concern for whether or not God will accept us, and much concern for whether or not we will accept him.”
Many Christians want to make sure people will choose God but forget to tell them what it takes for God to accept them. They forget to mention that the only hope we have is to be found in Jesus, which means we MUST let go of everything else. We can’t bring all that we want to the person of Christ. In fact, we must let go of SO much: all of our own ideas about God, our own works, and our own prerogatives. A real problem happens when we don’t realize the funnel is narrowing and we won’t change or let go of previously held desires/beliefs about the nature of God. (No Slide)
As a result, when a person comes to Christ, he comes stripped of all pretense of self-righteousness, all claims to personal moral merit. I am not saying that a person is worthless. Far from it—each person is made in the image of God and therefore possesses immense significance, not the least of which is his eternal destiny. But before God no one possesses any meritorious moral worth that would earn him forgiveness, salvation, and entrance to the Kingdom of God.
Carson, D. A.. Jesus's Sermon on the Mount and His Confrontation with the World: A Study of Matthew 5-10 (p. 158). (Function). Kindle Edition.
Some Christians, and many would-be Christians, pull out of the process of entering the kingdom through the narrow gate of Jesus because they don’t like that it is stripping them of the works of value that we all think we are bringing to the equation. Jesus won’t let us justify ourselves. He won’t let us cling to even the best of our works, because before HIS holy requirements only the perfect works of Jesus are enough. Jesus wants to force us through this funnel of sanctification that we might let go of everything that is not him. And he does the same thing with our incomplete and sinful thoughts, our sinful emotions, and every other aspect of our life. They all must be brought through Christ and sanctified in his holiness.
We see Jesus do this often in Scripture. He does it with the rich young ruler who is in love with his wealth and needs to get rid of it (Luke 18:18), so Jesus points that out to him. That ruler walks away sad that Jesus would make him thing of leaving his wealth. Jesus does it with the Samaritan woman who wants to talk about religion, but Jesus brings up her adulterous relationships instead (John 4:70). Jesus does this when he warns his disciples that they need to count the cost of following him (Luke 14:25).
Friends, the feeling that you have when you feel the painful reality that Jesus is stripping you of your value outside of him and his works is a FEATURE and a GIFT from our king, not a problem. This is God helping us to love conformity to his ways as he points out all the aspects of our life that cannot be brought through this funnel and through central point of salvation by faith in Jesus alone.
And now we see why Jesus brings up hell. There really are only two options: we go through the narrow gate of Jesus or we don’t. Jesus has been telling us much about the true path, life walking with him in the Sermon on the Mount, but to ignore the other option we sometimes desire to take would be disingenuous and unloving to us. So, Jesus makes sure we think about hell in his conclusion to his sermon. The only other option there is: to be away from God.
When we look at the world around us it seems like there are thousands of paths. So many job opportunities, so many friendship, so many options, and so many choices we can make. But if we take any of those options not as a result of our identity in Jesus, they become things we need to let go of as we learn to trust in Jesus alone for everything.
Imagine for a minute standing at the center-point of those funnels for a moment:
Looking back to the left on our life, we can be tempted to be frustrated with what we need to let go of. We can lament that we don’t do it well enough, that we don’t bring something of value, or that we don’t contribute to our own salvation. But we MUST let go…that is the path of following our God and HIS plan for our salvation. There really are no two ways about it. “Jesus’s way demands repentance, trust, and obedience.” And therefore any refusal that stems from an “unrepentant arrogance, unbelief, and/or disobedience—in short, self-centeredness instead of God-centeredness—can only be construed as rebellion.”
And that rebellion is the road to hell. This is why Jesus shows us again and again in this conclusion the dichotomy of our choice. Our life is not a choose-your-own adventure,—there are only two choices. Follow HIS way, or rebel.
Jesus IS trying to scare us with the dichotomy here, but not JUST scare. The reality of our choice IS scary. Jesus wants us to see clearly the choice we are making and its very real consequences. He wants us to see the funnel must narrow and kick out all other preconceived notions if we are to come to Jesus alone. Anything else is choosing the wide path to destruction. Again, let’s to go back to Don Carson who is so helpful in this section of the Sermon on the Mount:
You may not believe that a hell exists. In that case, you may dismiss Jesus as a liar or a fool. Alternatively, you may be so attached to your sin that even the threat of final and catastrophic judgment may not induce you to leave it. But you will be foolish indeed if you simply accuse Jesus of frightening you into the kingdom. The real issue is the truth behind Jesus’s words, the truth which prompts Jesus’s warning. Either there is a hell to be shunned, or there is not. If there is not, then Jesus’s entire credibility is shattered, for he himself speaks twice as often of hell as of heaven. The pages of the Bible strain metaphor and exhaust the resources of language in describing the holy delights of the new heaven and the new earth, still to come; but they scarcely do less in outlining the horrors and terrors of hell. It is variously described as the place of outer darkness, the place where the worm will not die, the place of exclusion and rejection, the place of burning and torment, the place where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.
Carson, D. A.. Jesus's Sermon on the Mount and His Confrontation with the World: A Study of Matthew 5-10 (pp. 176-177). (Function). Kindle Edition.
God’s comments about hell are not always as easy to understand as we would like. Much like Genesis and Revelation and their somewhat opaque discussions about the beginning of time and the end of time, God doesn’t describe hell in as clear a picture as we would often want. But he does describe a very real reality. A reality of not choosing Jesus. The reality that these images in the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount show is that hell will include being apart from God, being cut down, a fall greater than we can imagine, and a place of fire or consuming. It is valuable to remember hell and the tragedy of ending up in hell as much as remembering the joy of being known by God in faith in Jesus. It is the only other option people can actually choose.
This is a way of thinking that our current culture doesn’t often encourage. We have lost the necessity of reminding people of the narrow path, the choice that is before them, and the consequences of that choice. We live in a time when we want to act like all choices and all paths are equal, and we should leave “each to his own.” Even in Christianity. But it was way more common in previous generations to acknowledge these two choices.
Back in the 1700s and 1800s even John Wesley, who was very concerned with evangelism and connecting people with Jesus’s love, didn’t neglect the truth of hell. In fact, Wesley was known for going into towns, beginning to preach by sharing the gospel of Jesus and the love of God. Yet he immediately would pivot after those initial sermons to sharing about the law and the requirements of God’s kingdom people. He would teach them about the consequences of not following God and the path to hell. “This he kept up until a large proportion of his hearers found themselves under deep conviction of sin, beginning even to despair of the possibility of forgiveness from this holy God. Then, and only then, did he introduce the good news of Jesus Christ. Wesley explained the saving significance of Christ’s person, ministry, death, and resurrection, and the wonderful truth that salvation is solely by God’s grace, through faith. Unless his audiences sensed that they were guilty, and quite helpless to save themselves, the wonder and availability of God’s grace would leave them unmoved.” Wesley in fact said that he was doing this:
[T]o underline the truth that genuine believers hunger for experiential righteousness, and continue to acknowledge poverty of spirit, recognizing constantly that their acceptance with God.
Sounds a lot like what we have been seeing Jesus do in the Sermon on the Mount, and a good example to follow. Jesus brings up hell, much like Wesley tried to model, to make sure we remember our true poverty of spirit and where our acceptance before God comes from. It comes through Jesus Christ alone.
Perhaps there is a good reason why pastors and even Christians sharing with their family, friends, and others should not be afraid to mention hell. We are not loving people if we don’t let them know that the path to Jesus is hard, the gate is small, and that God as our good and gracious King has a call on the life of his Kingdom people. HE alone gets to determine how we come to salvation, and he has determined it is through Jesus and HIS works alone on our behalf. We are also not loving them if we don’t let them know what they are choosing if they don’t choose that path. They are choosing the wide path, the soft ground, the easy way—yet that way leads them to hell.
When we think of it this way, we see that it is incredible grace and mercy to bring up hell. It was kind of Jesus to connect his loving ministry with the consequences of hell. Jesus is acknowledging the true reality of our life. We MUST make a choice, and there are only two outcomes—it is a dichotomy. We will find eternal life and joy in Jesus, or eternal separation. When we see his conclusion to the Sermon on the Mount through this necessity, we can join in the reaction of Jesus’s hearers who say:
And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.
Matthew 7:28–29, ESV
We should hear all of the Sermon on the Mount and especially his conclusion and be amazed at Jesus. Jesus has put his finger on our lives and identified our real struggle. He knows the sore spot. We desperate want the path to be the wide path. We want it to be soft sand at the beach. We don’t want to think critically all the time and we definitely don’t want to have to listen to hard words. We want the funnel wide and accepting of any way that I want to come into the kingdom of God. But that is not how faith in Jesus works, and God wants to bring us back to his sovereign grace—even through some fear in the alternative—if necessary.
Friends, it is so kind of Jesus to be honest with us this way. It is what makes standing at the mid-point of that funnel and looking the other way, looking forward to the future we have in Jesus, so AMAZING. When we stand at the point of accepting our path back to relationship with God comes only through faith in Jesus, we see every vista and expanse of our life open up before us as we see now that every command of God will bringing us life and joy as we move forward and live in HIS strength, HIS righteousness, and HIS ways. Seeing and acknowledging hell in that light is meant to be joy for us, not fear.
Conclusion
Friends, do not neglect the reality of hell but always frame it in the beauty of gospel of Jesus Christ. This is what Jesus wants us to see in his conclusion.
Choose to Walk With Me [Jesus]
Don’t Choose Hell
Everyone will have a conclusion in their life. Heaven and hell are the conclusion to the dichotomy of the choice we are making here on this earth. By acknowledging that there is a real choice and real consequences to that choice, we have a chance to see the beauty of our God and what he has done of us in Jesus more and more each time we think about this dichotomy.
And it should be joy for us to similarly describe the reality of life and this grand choice in this way to others as well. Jesus saw it as loving, and we should see it as loving as well. We do not serve our friends, our family, and our neighbors well if we act as though our God simply wants them to choose him yet cling desperately to their works. We do not love them if we act like the path is wide when it is narrow. We do not love them if we don’t let them know they will have to let go of everything besides their faith and trust in Jesus to find their relationship and their TRUE life as image bearers of God and become his beloved children again. We do not love them if we don’t show them the dichotomy of their choice and beg them to choose life with God instead of hell.
Response
I want to invite the worship team up here, and as they come up I want to ask you one question:
“Have you considered the choice you must make?”
That question is valid for the Christian and the non-Christian alike. Christian, have you realized that you only come to heaven through Jesus, and that his path that is stripping you of your dependence on anything other than him is a sweet grace to you? Do you remember often the consequence and the reality of the only other option before you—hell and separation from God? Do you then joyfully speak of this choice with others and encourage the to join you on the narrow path, the firm rock, that they might hear their Lord and Savior welcome them into the Kingdom one day?
If you are here this morning and you don’t yet put your faith in Jesus, you are putting your faith in something—yourself. And you know as well as I do that you are not good enough. You break your own rules let alone the ways of God. You are currently on an easier path but one that ends in destruction, separation, and fire. But there is good news—great news—a “gospel” message of Jesus. He knows that you are a sinner, he knows you are broken, and he has died for those sins. Come to him this morning and surrender to him as your Lord and Savior. As the one who has done it all for you and the only point where you can come to and find hope.
Find in entering into relationship with God through Jesus that your whole life opens up before you. As Jesus preaches in the Sermon on the Mount, you are now drawn near to God as his beloved son or daughter, and he wants to help you walk in his ways that you may find his blessings and give him glory.
I want to encourage everyone this morning to stop for a minute and consider this dichotomy presented by Jesus in his conclusion to the Sermon on the Mount:
Matthew 7:13
Narrow Gate Wide Gate
Hard Path Easy Path
Leads to Life Leads to Destruction
Few Enter Many Enter
True Prophets False Prophets
Healthy Tree Unhealthy/Diseased Tree
Bears Good Fruit Bears Bad Fruit
Remain/Stand (Implication) Cut Down
Matthew 7:21–23
Lord, Lord Lord, Lord
Does the Will of God Doesn’t do the Will of God
Prophecy/Cast Out/Works Prophecy/Cast Out/Works
Brought In Sent Away
Known by God Not Known by God
Matthew 7:24–27
Hears the Words of Jesus Hears the words of Jesus
Does Them Doesn’t Do Them
Wise Man Foolish Man
Like House on Rock Like House on Sand
Rain Comes Rain Comes
Wind Blows Wind Blows
House Stands House Falls (a Great Fall)
Do you treasure the path you have been offered in Jesus? Will you continue on the hard path knowing the other path leads to destruction? Will you remind one another often and those who don’t yet know Jesus the reality of their choice? We you joyfully call them to true life in their Savior?
Communion
Prayer
Benediction
“The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”
Choose to Walk With Me [Jesus]
Don’t Choose Hell
