Introduction. Because of the way Jesus concluded His Sermon on the Mount, we dare not ignore anything that was revealed in it! In few places in God’s word does a portion of Scripture end with such a powerful warning. The wise will take these words to heart and build their lives upon them.
This is not just a warning; it is a wonderful promise. Within “these words” Jesus has summed up the most important things that are necessary to build our hopes and dreams of eternal life upon. These sayings begin in chapter 5:1-2 when He goes up upon the mountain and ends in chapter 8:1 when He comes down. As genuine disciples begin their walk with God, they should spend time looking at, pondering and assessing the things in this sermon to be certain we are both hearing and remembering and growing to do what is contained in this sermon.
One of the warnings Jesus gave centers on the gate through which each disciple entered into the path leading to life. What is important about this passage is that He is not referring to those in the world. Only those disciples who have decided to walk with Jesus are under consideration. Among all the disciples in the world today, there is a very narrow gate that leads to life and only a few of those disciples have entered it. There is a second gate, a wide gate, that disciples can enter but that gate only leads to their own destruction. What is startling and terrifying to each disciple is His warning that many who believe they are disciples will enter this wide gate. Thus for each disciple the chances of entering into that narrow gate are far less than of entering into the broad gate.
- “whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock ... and it did not fall for it was founded on the rock” (Mt. 7:24-25)
- “everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand ... and it fell. And great was its fall." (Mt. 7:26-27)
This is not just a warning; it is a wonderful promise. Within “these words” Jesus has summed up the most important things that are necessary to build our hopes and dreams of eternal life upon. These sayings begin in chapter 5:1-2 when He goes up upon the mountain and ends in chapter 8:1 when He comes down. As genuine disciples begin their walk with God, they should spend time looking at, pondering and assessing the things in this sermon to be certain we are both hearing and remembering and growing to do what is contained in this sermon.
One of the warnings Jesus gave centers on the gate through which each disciple entered into the path leading to life. What is important about this passage is that He is not referring to those in the world. Only those disciples who have decided to walk with Jesus are under consideration. Among all the disciples in the world today, there is a very narrow gate that leads to life and only a few of those disciples have entered it. There is a second gate, a wide gate, that disciples can enter but that gate only leads to their own destruction. What is startling and terrifying to each disciple is His warning that many who believe they are disciples will enter this wide gate. Thus for each disciple the chances of entering into that narrow gate are far less than of entering into the broad gate.
- "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. (Mt. 7:13-14)