Introduction
Continue to strive through the narrow door. The picture of shutting the door. Jesus is teaching us to self examine to be sure we are in the faith.
There will be a time when the door will be shut.
The reasons given that they should come in:
1 – Pleading with Passion V25
Now when it’s too late they want in. Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of soup. The sorrow of the world produces death.
2 – Pleading Confession v25
They will say Lord! Lord! – they profess Him as Lord but its a false profession. They were trusting in their profession.
3 – Some plead proximity V26
They will say ate and drank in your presence. Claiming close relationship, family. This warns us about trusting in our association.
Matthew 7:21 (NKJV) “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
Verse 27 – I do not know you. I do not know where you are from. He is saying they are foreigners. He does not recognize them as family, kindred. It is very personal. I tell YOU. In spite of all your knowledge, privileges, birthrights.
“They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus *said to them, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham. But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do.”
John 8:39-40 NASB1995
You will be weeping on the one hand and angry on the other.
Romans 9:6-8 (NKJV) 6 But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they [are] not all Israel who [are] of Israel, 7 nor [are they] all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, “In Isaac your seed shall be called.” 8 That is, those who [are] the children of the flesh, these [are] not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.
Luke 24:27, Acts 3:24, Acts 10:43, Acts 24:14,
Strive to enter.
4 – Provoking them to repentance and jealousy V29
The first (referring to the Jews) will be last and last will be first. The Jews had privileges, the law, the Word.
Romans 4:17 (NKJV) (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed–God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;
Strive to enter the narrow door. Do not trust in anything but Him and Him alone.
Luke 13:22-30 (NKJV) 22 And He went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. 23 Then one said to Him, “Lord, are there few who are saved?” And He said to them, 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 “When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’ 26 “then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ 27 “But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’ 28 “There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out. 29 “They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God. 30 “And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last.”