Matthew 7:13-14, 12:43-45
This may seem like an obvious statement but to me the premier gift that comes to us through the gospels is the fact that it’s there that Jesus speaks directly to us. We have a front row seat to every teaching and every miracle. We’re blessed with the opportunity to go directly to the Savior for directions on how to navigate life.
And that gift shows up best in Matthew’s Gospel. Through Matthew we get pretty much the entire text of the Sermon on the Mount which even scholarly non-believers note may be the greatest demonstration of the spoken word ever made. In the confines of that sermon, you can find Jesus’ guidance on just about any trial or challenge you might face. But this is one of the key traits of Matthew’s Gospel. So much of it is made up of Jesus speaking directly to us and, no big surprise, the perfect truths Jesus shared back in the day have not lost any weight or relevance. In other words, if you’re smart, you’re listening to Jesus. Along those lines, this week I looked at two of my favorite statements made by the Lord and recorded by Matthew.
First up, Matthew 7:13-14.
“You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its wide gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only few ever find it.”
Maybe the biggest thing to take to heart here is that it isn’t Jesus’ choice that the narrow gate to Heaven is only reached by traveling a difficult road. Jesus doesn’t beckon us to Heaven on the one hand and then make us tiptoe through a minefield to prove our worthiness. What makes the gateway to Heaven narrow is man’s choice to constantly take the on ramp to the wide highway that leads to hell. Look at the world we live in today. There’s probably never been a more widespread, worldwide rejection of the gospel at any other time in history.
We, by our own choices make the gateway to Heaven narrow and hard to find because we prioritize giving into temptation and trusting in the ways of world over building an enduring relationship with Jesus. We, repeatedly give into Satan’s quick fixes because we’ve been told that following Jesus is too demanding and too oppressive and judgmental and boring. We’ve twisted the perfect, inerrant truth that is God’s Word into sin tolerant pretzels for the sole purpose of validating our sins.
Jesus says it here loud and clear. You can enter God’s Kingdom. There no conditions attached to that. But to get there, you have to bypass this broad superhighway that may bring pleasure to you for a minute but that – make no mistake – only leads to death.
Let’s look another. How about Matthew 12:43-45.
“When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none. Then it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from.’ So it returns and finds its former home empty, swept, and in order. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before. That will be the experience of this evil generation.”
This verse always hits close to home for me because it reflects exactly what happened to me when I first got sober. When I went into treatment the only thing that mattered to me was saving my marriage. Now, don’t get me wrong, that was a noble aim and thankfully 26 years later my wife and I are still happily together. The problem was that I was pursuing sobriety with not a thought given to Jesus for guidance, wisdom, grace, and mercy.
Because if that approach, in no time I found myself struggling with anger and depression and hopelessness. The demon who had run roughshod over me with alcohol had in fact come back and brought these new emotional challenges. I knew I couldn’t start drinking again so this time I turned to pornography and a whole new level of darkness took over my life. And once again God revealed me in my sin, and it was back to square one. Except…
The next go round I got to the place where I finally surrendered to Jesus. Because nothing else was working. And Jesus was faithful and this time when I swept out my spiritual house, He filled it with His Holy Spirit. These days? Sure, demons don’t give up, Satan is tenacious and insidious. But with Jesus now protecting me, sin is a much more repugnant consideration than it was back in the days when I refused to trust Jesus.
We cannot fight these forces of evil alone, they’re too powerful and we by nature are too weak. But place Jesus in the center of your battle and see the changes that brings about. The Word tells us that when we resist Satan through the righteousness of Jesus Christ, he flees.
And once that happens what you learn is that finding the way to that narrow gate becomes so much easier!