March 17th, 2024
JESUS: Who He Really Is and Why It Matters
Narrow Door
Jon Fredricks
Today’s Scripture: Luke 13:22-30 NIV
Luke 13:22-30 NIV
Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?” He said to them, “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’ “But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ “Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ “But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’ “There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.”
1) THERE IS SOMETHING ON THE OTHER SIDE
Luke 13:23 NIV
Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?”
Job 14:14a NIV
If someone dies, will they live again?
Genesis 2:7 NIV
Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
John 1:1-3, 14 NIV
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 14:2-3 NIV
My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
2) THAT "SOMETHING" IS LOCKED UP
Luke 13:24-25 NIV
Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’ But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’
Matthew 7:13-14 NIV
Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Hebrews 9:27 NIV
Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment,
Isaiah 59:1-2 NIV
Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.
Romans 3:23 NIV
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
3) THE GOOD NEWS - THERE IS A DOOR!
John 3:16-17 NIV
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
John 10:7-10 NIV
Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
Acts 16:31 NIV
They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”
AFTER THE LIVESTREAM
Pray -
Jesus, I know that I have been separate from you my entire life. I have tried to pretend otherwise, but I realize today that my decisions, choices...my sin has separated me from God. I believe you are the Son of God and my only way forward. Please save me as I surrender the rest of my life into your hands. Thank you that you hear me!
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