Entering God’s Kingdom
Entering God’s Kingdom
Scripture: Luke 13:18-30
The Kingdom of God continues to spread throughout the world. The question before each of us is, “Have I entered that kingdom through the narrow door of Christ?”
[00:00:00] A while back I had a friend, pretty close friend at the time who served as a pastor, and due to a terrible set of choices, he was removed from pastoral ministry. This led eventually to a complete heel turn on his faith in Jesus. Instead of working alongside of the church as an ambassador of God’s Word to the world, he became skeptical of Scripture and he became a critic of the church. During this slow plummet into unbelief, I was talking with him, and there was one particular conversation that we had that startled me. It was a startling statement that he made in this conversation. He said that the church cares far too much about who’s in and who’s out. He was referring to those who are saved and those who aren’t. He said that Jesus didn’t care about these things. That salvation isn’t about being part of some in-group. He felt that the church should stop putting so much emphasis on conversion, because we got that part of the Bible wrong. Perhaps you’ve had a similar conversation with somebody. Something of a popular thing to say today. Maybe even this morning you lean that direction. That’s kind of how you see things as well. And maybe that you feel that the church hasn’t listened closely enough to Jesus on the topic of salvation. Perhaps you feel that the saved and the unsaved categories are creations of the church and not the teachings of Jesus. And if that’s you this morning, I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad you’re going to be able to hear this passage today.
[00:01:45] We’ve been working through The Book of Luke, which is a compilation of eyewitness testimony from the people who knew Jesus. Luke tells us at the beginning of his gospel that he went to the people who were there, who walked with Jesus so that he could put together what he calls an orderly account of the life and teachings of Jesus. So any thoughts that we have about what Jesus cared about or what he emphasized or what he taught about salvation, would have to come from these eyewitness accounts. No one can make a claim to know what Jesus thought, or what he was like, or what he would have us do today or teach today, without carefully considering passages of Scripture like the one that we’re going to look at this morning. And what Jesus shows us today is that he has come to bring the kingdom of God to earth. There’s a spiritual kingdom across the world right now, made up of most of the people groups on earth. There are still that are some unreached. That’s why we’re concentrating on those. We need to reach out to those different languages, different people groups. But there’s a spiritual kingdom right now made up of most of the people groups on earth. And Jesus cares very much about who has entered into this kingdom and who hasn’t. In fact, surveying all that Jesus teaches in the four Gospels, I would go so far as to say that entrance into Jesus’s kingdom is one of Jesus most urgent priorities.
[00:03:24] The Kingdom of God continues to spread throughout the world, and the question before each of us is, have I entered into that kingdom through the narrow door of Christ? That’s a question that all of us have to answer. Let’s go ahead and unpack this, a lot to unpack this morning. If you have your Bible, you can turn to Luke chapter 13. We’re going to begin in verse 18 today. Jesus first describes the kingdom, the spread of his kingdom using a couple of pictures, very brief pictures. And then he’s asked a question about who is in that kingdom. And Jesus answers with a detailed conversation that makes clear that Jesus cares very much about who is in and who is out. So first, let’s look at the spread of Jesus kingdom. He said, therefore, what is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches. And again, he said, to what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour until it was all leavened. So, these two pictures are technically the end of our passage that we looked at last week when Jesus healed the woman.
[00:04:55] When Jesus heals someone, it’s a way of showing a bit of the kingdom of God. So physical healing points to spiritual healing. The physical things that Jesus did on earth were meant to show spiritually what’s going on in the kingdom of God. So Jesus power to undo brokenness and cast out evil shows that this is what is happening in God’s kingdom, and it’s one of the most compelling aspects of the gospel message and of the Christian worldview that in Christ, all things are being made new. That’s a wonderful aspect to this biblical worldview. And that’s what’s happening right now. Right now, God is making things new. God making things new isn’t just something that happens someday when this world comes to an end. It’s happening right now when the Lord transforms people through faith in Jesus Christ. The Kingdom of God is expanding right now spiritually through transformed hearts as people turn from their sins and they are compelled by the Holy Spirit into godly living the kingdom is expanding, and the process of remaking the world through Christ has been happening now for 2000 years. That’s what these two pictures show us. And strangely enough, we can understand these two pictures better than the people who heard Jesus teach on it that day. Because Jesus is teaching about the future, right? He’s giving the people a glimpse of what is going to happen through time. And here we are now through time, and we can look around the world and see that this is, in fact, happening. They just watched him heal this woman. But Jesus says that that’s only the very beginning of the kingdom of God and what it’s going to do across the world. And so the first picture he gives is of a mustard seed. Now, I brought one here this morning so that you can see one. There you go, you just lean in. I’m just kidding. There’s nothing there. I didn’t bring them. Who has mustard seeds? Right? If Jesus needs to talk about something very small, He uses a mustard seed. That’s his go to if he wants to say this is a very small thing, mustard seed. Because they are they’re quite tiny. But when you plant them, they grow to be much larger. Now they don’t become trees. Jesus is using some hyperbole here, but Jesus’s picture of the kingdom of God, that’s what happens. The smallest, tiniest seed that you can possibly imagine grows into a tree so huge that the birds of the air can come nest. They’re going to come find comfort and shelter in it. Jesus is saying that the spiritual kingdom is going to expand so large, it’s going to be so much bigger than anybody would expect. That’s what he’s saying. It’s going to be huge. You can’t see it yet. It’s so small, but it’s going to be huge. The ministry of one rabbi from Nazareth is going to grow to a worldwide movement of people who all find their hope and peace and joy and hope for eternity in him. In Christ. God has planted the seed of his kingdom, and people throughout the world have nestled in its branches. That’s what’s happened. That’s what we can see now. That’s not complete, but we can see that that has happened. And through the mission of the church, proclaiming the gospel, making disciples, strategically focusing on the places where the gospel needs to go, the seed of Christ has become the tree of Christ. Now, you might notice as you look around the world that Christ does not yet reign everywhere and that’s where the second picture comes in. See, Jesus says that the kingdom of God is also like leaven that you put into flour. This woman is going to bake some bread, and so she puts a little bit of leaven into three measures of flour, which is a lot of flour. But if you put a small amount of leavening agent, such as yeast, into the flour, eventually the dough, all of it will be filled with gases and be ready to bake. And so, this picture shows something slightly different than the mustard seed. The point of the mustard seed was the tree. The final tree that becomes the comfort and shelter for the world.
[00:09:24] Here, the point is that Jesus kingdom is going to start small, and it’s going to even seem hidden to some. It’s going to be hidden in the world, but eventually it’s going to be everywhere. Eventually it will be all over the place. Eventually, when the work of the gospel is complete and God’s redeeming work closes at the end of this era, there won’t be anything in all the world that does not glorify Christ. Everything is going to be made new. It’ll be complete. The leaven right now hasn’t fully spread. There’s plenty of work to do, but the kingdom of God is taking ground. It’s transforming hearts. It’s making things new. Jesus gives us these two illustrations because we can’t see the spiritual kingdom, right? We’re just saying hasten the day that my faith will be sight. We’ll see it at the end when it’s complete, but it’s not yet complete. The illustrations help us visualize what the Lord is doing through the spread of the message of salvation that comes in Jesus Christ. We can’t see the Holy Spirit. We can’t see the Holy Spirit at work, but we can see the results of God’s unfolding plan. We can see the gospel work in people, God’s people. What do we do? We establish churches. We make disciples. We evangelize. We’ve seen the gospel go across borders, go to dangerous places, establish underground churches and places like we have in China. The church is the manifestation of the Kingdom of God on earth. And when the believers of a local church gather, we are a visible display of a currently invisible, incomplete kingdom that is spreading across the world. Now, how do you enter it? How do you get into this kingdom, and how do you know that you’re in it, if you are in this kingdom? Jesus has asked a question. He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching, journeying toward Jerusalem. And when someone said to him, Lord, will those who are saved be few? That’s an interesting way of asking that question, don’t you think? That’s a it’s a strange phrasing of the question. It sounds rather pessimistic. If I get home from a long day of work here at church and I walk into my kitchen and my wife greets me with, how little did you get done today? I might take issue with that, actually, because why? Because there’s an assumption there, right? There’s an assumption built into the question, and we have that here to this. This person could have asked, Will lots of people be saved? Lord, how big will the kingdom get? But what has Jesus been saying all along here? Well, lately in Luke 12 and here in 13, he’s been giving a lot of warnings, hasn’t he? Repent, or you will likewise perish. Cut down the unfruitful tree. You don’t have endless time. Settle with God while he’s your accuser before he becomes your judge.
[00:12:44] These are the things that Jesus has been saying, and these warnings give the correct impression that while salvation is spreading across the world, there are a lot of people who are going to miss it. They’re not going to grab hold of it. This question is basically asking how many people are actually going to heed Jesus’s warning and find the salvation that God has provided, because it doesn’t seem like a lot based on these warnings. Now, here is where you would expect Jesus to correct the person asking him this question if in fact Jesus doesn’t care who’s in and who’s out, wouldn’t you? This would be the part where Jesus would say, oh no, you’ve got it all wrong here. Well, let’s see what Jesus says. And he said to them, strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter it, and will not be able. When once the master of the house has risen, and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, Lord, open to us, then he will answer you, I do not know where you come from. Not only is it very clear that Jesus cares very much who is in the kingdom and who isn’t, he’s also sure to say that there’s only one narrow door and one narrow way, and many won’t be able to go through it. Jesus does not directly answer the question that he’s asked by this person, but he affirms the assumption behind the question that there will be far fewer saved than one might think. There’s a command and there’s some warnings here, and we’re going to unpack this. We’re going to go through these. But we are not just doing a literal literature exercise this morning, friends. That is not what we’re doing this morning. God is telling us to take stock of our souls and see whether we have this salvation, whether we have entered into this kingdom. The command is to strive to enter through the narrow door. Now we hear the word strive and we think work. And you could make the mistake that Jesus is saying here that you need to work hard enough to get God’s salvation, that you need to work hard enough to get through that door. But Jesus has already laid out for us how to be saved and to enter into God’s kingdom. He said it above in the warnings two times in chapter 13, verse three and verse five. He says, unless you repent, you will perish. Salvation begins with confessing your sins to the Lord and then turning from those sins, not just simply stating that you’re a sinner, not just saying your sins out loud, but then turning from them. That’s repentance. And here in the passage, the parable tells us to get through the door. We need to be known by the master who opens the door.
[00:15:49] Jesus has to know us. That’s the key to entry. So, in other words, to strive to enter through the narrow door here is to call your sin what it is. To call it rebellion against God. We turn from it then we put our trust in Jesus, the master of the new kingdom that we’re entering into. By his sacrifice on our behalf for our sins, Jesus is the only entrance point from the dying kingdom of this world into the Kingdom of God, into the kingdom of God’s salvation. It’s the only way in. We don’t earn entry into God’s kingdom. We don’t create our own entry, sort of a side door. We don’t make our own way into God’s kingdom. We simply trust that Jesus, as our Savior, opens the way into God’s kingdom. And by trusting in him, he knows you. Why a narrow door? Why is a door narrow? Is God trying to keep people out? Is Jesus hoping people won’t find it? It’ll be hard to see? Not at all. The narrowness of the door here isn’t meant to to keep people away from Jesus. It’s meant to show that Jesus is the only entrance. To show the entry entrance into the kingdom is only through Jesus. The Kingdom of God is as wide as the world and is as narrow as Jesus. It goes to everyone. The gospel is for everybody. Everybody should hear the gospel and hear about Jesus. Through the sharing of God’s grace with them and forgiveness. Everybody’s invited. Everybody’s invited to enter into the kingdom of God. That’s the mission of the church. We want to share that gospel with everyone. But the entrance into the kingdom of salvation is narrowly faith in Jesus Christ alone. It’s the exclusivity of Christ. I know that’s not a very popular message today, but it is clearly the message of the Bible. It is clearly the message of Jesus. Peter preached to the high priest and Jewish officials in acts chapter four, in a very famous sermon. Many of you will know this passage. Peter preached, there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men, by which we must be saved. The exclusivity of Christ. There is no other way to be right with God friends, even if you think there is, I know universalism is a very popular thing right now. I know the spirit of our age says all views of God are equally valid. But you know what Jesus refuses to be placed among the many idols and worldviews and spiritual hunches of our world. He won’t be placed there. He’s not suggesting that he’s one way. His message is to come to him through the door of repentance and faith that he alone opens. There’s a rather upsetting scene here. The door is not open forever. The image is of a group of people standing outside the door of Christ’s kingdom wanting to come in, but because the master of the house has already shut the door, it’s too late for them.
[00:19:25] We know that the shutting of this door is at one of two places. It’s shut for everyone individually at death. That’s what Jesus said explicitly when he was describing the Tower of Siloam that toppled over on those 18 people, or the Galileans who’d been killed by Pilate. At the moment of death, the door is shut. If you don’t trust in Jesus and know him as your master before you die, you cannot be known to him afterward. The other place where the door is shut corporately for everyone is when Jesus returns. And we saw that in the parable of the master who came home from the wedding feast and found his faithful and unfaithful servants in the house. If you’re counting on some sort of a spiritual renewal or forgiveness after you die, you’re counting on a false hope. That is shaky ground. That is a false hope. Now, maybe you think that there will be some bargaining or some sort of conversation with the Lord or some willingness on his part to reason through salvation with you post-mortem after you die. Maybe you think that. Well, again, listen to Jesus on this. Then you will begin to say, Jesus is talking to the people outside the door, right? This is the master talking to those outside the door at this point. He says, you will begin to say, we ate and drank in your presence and you taught in our streets. But he will say, I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil. Now please notice when faced with an argument from those who are left outside of the kingdom, albeit a very weak argument here. When faced with that argument, all Jesus does is repeat his conclusion from before. Do you see that? Word for word he says the same thing. I do not know where you come from. Meaning, you’re a stranger to me. We do not have a relationship. And then he adds, depart from me, all you workers of evil. There’s no bargaining here. There’s not even a conversation. There’s no thoughtful consideration from another point of view. So, the Lord is not interested in what we as individuals think ought to be considered reasonable for entrance into his kingdom. He’s not interested in talking about that with us. He controls the door. We don’t. The handle for this door is only on the inside. And what these guys say outside the door is shockingly close to the sorts of things I hear people say sometimes when they call themselves Christians, but don’t actually know Christ at all. There’s no fruit in their lives at all. These guys argue that the master here, who is clearly Jesus. Okay, Jesus is speaking of himself as the master here. They say that Jesus was present when they were eating and drinking, and Jesus taught in their streets. He came to their town and taught in their streets. In other words, Jesus, you know us. What do you mean you don’t know us? You know us. We were around you. We spent time in the same vicinity. We listened to your teaching. We thought it was pretty good. Kind of liked it. We didn’t refuse to hear you at all. We didn’t refuse to be near you and close to you and in your proximity at all. Of course you know us. That’s the argument. And Jesus says, I don’t know you at all. And whatever connection you think you have with me is no relationship with me. I can’t tell you the number of times that I’ve spoken to people around the church, sort of around the church community, who seem to have some desire for spiritual things. They have some desire to be around Jesus to glean something from the Christian community, but they don’t actually know Christ at all. There’s no heart passion for Jesus. There’s no deep love for him that causes conviction and a deeply repentant life. There’s no joy in his grace at work in them. There is no sacrifice or service out of a deep gratitude for what Jesus has done. Sometimes I hear people say, you know, I go to church because I need to be connected with people. Well, yeah, but that’s not what we’re doing here. That’s not the reason we gather we’re not getting together just because we need other people in our lives. It’s our passion for Christ and the unity that we have as believers in the Holy Spirit that draws us together. It’s not just the need for people in our lives. Sometimes I’ll hear very concerning responses when I ask people, hey, you know, tell me about your your relationship with Jesus. Tell me about your walk with the Lord. And I’ll get hit with a list of things that that person does or does not do. I try to go to church as much as I can. I’m trying to read my Bible more. Why? Why are you trying to do those things? Those are good things. But why are you doing them? You can do spiritual practices without a heart, passion and love and trust in Jesus at all. You can know about Jesus and not know Jesus. There’s an old song that was written back before the turn of the century in 1992. Been hit with that one yet? That’s a hard one to hear. Back in 1992, there was a song that was written. It’s called Cry of My Heart. A lot of churches sang it. You remember that song? There was a lyric that went, it is the cry of my heart to be close to you. Is that how you feel about Jesus? Is it the cry of your heart to want to be near Jesus, to know Jesus, to walk with Jesus? Because that’s the language of relationship. When the Lord knows you, you long for him. Without that relationship with Jesus, all of our effort, even the good that we think we do, amounts to nothing when it comes to entrance into the kingdom of God. Jesus says, if we don’t know him, we’re workers of evil. And I know that seems harsh, but think about it. Just think about it for a moment. If what you do is not done for the glory of God, then why do you do it? To serve some other purpose, right? It has to be that. It has to be to serve some other purpose, to glorify something else. Because every action we do is done for a reason. Everything is for the purpose of serving and praising someone. If what we do is not done for the glory of God, it’s done for the glory of some idol in our hearts. I just recently put a picture on the wall in my office. It says the human heart is a factory of idols. It’s a quote from John Calvin. He means that our hearts are constantly producing, constantly producing things that we will worship other than God. And that’s what Jesus is saying here about evil works. If he is not your master, something else is. Something else is the reason you work and your works serve that false idol.
[00:27:22] Well, Jesus’s parable ends describing who does get through the door. In that place 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, but you yourselves cast out. And the people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first, who will be last. So the place outside the kingdom of God in eternity is a real place. If eternity with Christ is real, eternity without Christ is just as real. If your sins are not paid for by the substitute punishment of Jesus on the cross in your place, then they are paid for by you. God is just, and the judgment of sins is fair, and the time for repentance and trust in Christ comes to an end when the door is closed. And in that place, there was weeping and gnashing of teeth. This is Jesus’s way of describing endless sorrow and endless anger. There is deep regret in hell, but it’s important to note that nowhere in Scripture, this passage, or any other place in Scripture are we told that there is repentance among those who are under God’s judgment. Notice the notice the appeal at the door. Remember the appeal at the door? It’s not sorrow over sin or trusting now in Jesus. It’s only an argument that what they did with Jesus before was enough. Okay, that’s all they’re arguing. And here Jesus says they’re angry, but they’re not angry with themselves. They’re not overwhelmed with guilt over the wrong they’ve done. They’re angry and filled with bitterness because they thought they were part of the in-group. But now they know they aren’t and they’re jealous of the people who are included instead of them. That’s what motivates the anger inside. And there are three groups here. The first group is of the Old Testament saints, the patriarchs and the Jewish crowd that Jesus is talking to would have said, that’s us. Those are our people. Those are our patriarchs. We’re part of them so we should get in too. But it’s not nationality that gets you into the kingdom of God. It’s love for Christ. That’s the difference. There is no affiliation category for salvation. You cannot point to a group of people on earth and say, Because I’m part of that group, God accepts me because I identify with this or that group of people on earth God accepts me. There’s no category for that. God accepts on the basis of your confession of faith in Jesus that results in a transformed heart and life. The second group here is people all over the world. That’s what the directions are. People from every direction, meaning every people group on earth will be included in the Kingdom of God.
[00:30:31] God’s plan of salvation was always bigger than a single nation. God used Israel as a springboard for Christ to the world. And that’s not a new twist on God’s plan. It’s not. When Jesus got here, he decided, hey, let’s throw the doors open. This was always the plan. In Genesis chapter 12, Abraham is told that that’s exactly what would happen. It was God’s purpose for making Abraham into a great nation, that he would bless all the other nations through this one nation. The Kingdom of God is a cross section. It’s a cross section of all faithful followers of Jesus, from every people group in the world, every walk of life, every tribe, every language, every nationality. And the third group in the Kingdom of God is what I will call poignantly, the losers. The losers. They are those who seem in this life to have come in last. They are people with little power, possibly very little money, who are hurting and they’re weak. They’re the ones that are not born into privileges that others have. They’re the ones who made bad decisions in life. Did you know that you can make profoundly bad decisions in life that put you in terrible predicaments and still enter eternity seated with Jesus in the kingdom of God? Did you know you can do that? Just ask the thief that was hanging next to Jesus on the cross that day, on Golgotha, on the hill. I mean, that guy made some missteps in his life, clearly, right? And that guy also entered heaven with Jesus that afternoon. See, it doesn’t matter where you were born or where you’ve been. It doesn’t matter your popularity or your pedigree. To borrow from Martin Luther King, it does not matter the color of your skin or the content of your current character. It doesn’t matter where you’re coming from. The door of God’s kingdom is open for you today, but it will not always be open. When the master of this house chooses to shut, you’ll be on one side of that door or the other. And it’s not coming open again, friends. It’s not coming open again. When will it shut for you? I don’t know. And you don’t know. I saw a man collapse in the doorway right back there at the beginning of my sermon. I saw a man fall down to the ground. I saw ambulances show up and take him. He’s fine, by the way. He’s okay. He’s doing okay. What a vivid illustration of the fragile, unpredictable nature of our broken bodies and our limited time. Don’t foolishly think that Jesus doesn’t care who’s in and who’s out. Jesus described his kingdom using a narrow door. There are only two places you can be with a door. That door right now is open to you. The only way to enter into eternity with Jesus is to love him, to trust him, to know him as your master and be known by him. Let’s pray.
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