Matthew 7:13-14, Jesus told people before the pressure came, difficult is the way which leads to life, not because God enjoys making life hard, not because every hard circumstance proves someone is faithful, not because Christians should go looking for suffering to validate themselves, because the way of life runs against sin, self-rule, false worship and a world that calls the broad road kindness as long as no one mentions the destination. Acts 14:22, we must through many tribulations enter the Kingdom of God, they did not preach tribulation as the price that buys the Kingdom, they preached endurance as the path of people whose King had already told them the road would be pressed.
First, the gate is tight. Then the road presses and now, you have to deal with the story that many people use to explain both, Jesus is not teaching that sinners save themselves by dropping enough baggage at the door, the gospel is not moral fitness squeezed through a small entrance. The text already has pressure, the text already has a warning, Matthew 5:20, that line would have landed like a stone. The Scribes and Pharisees were not known for being careless about religion, they were serious, visible, disciplined, the kind of people ordinary listeners might assume were closest to the front of the line. So, if the righteousness of the Kingdom must exceed the Scribes and Pharisees, Jesus is not calling for a slightly better public reputation, he is going deeper than performance, he is going after the heart that performs.
Matthew 6:24, no one can serve two masters, that is not a decorative sentence, it is a crisis, no one means no one, not the poor, not the rich, not the religious, not the irreligious, not the person with the best explanations for why their divided heart is more complicated than everyone else’s, a person can admire Jesus and still keep another master hidden under the floorboards. Then the sermon moves toward its final warnings, Matthew 7-21. The people in that verse are not outsiders who cannot pronounce religious words, they say Lord, Lord, they know the vocabulary, they sound close, that is what makes the warning so sobering.
Then Jesus ends with two builders, one hears his sayings and does them, his house stands when the rain descends, the floods come and the winds beat on it, the other hears the same sayings and does not do them, his house falls and Jesus says, great was its fall. Consider the second house before the storm, it may not look foolish yet, it may have walls, a roof, a door and a place at the table, people may pass by and admire it, the foolishness is hidden under the floor, in the foundation no one applauds. Then the weather comes and the secret becomes visible, the storm did not create the foundation, it revealed it.
First, the gate is tight. Then the road presses and now, you have to deal with the story that many people use to explain both, Jesus is not teaching that sinners save themselves by dropping enough baggage at the door, the gospel is not moral fitness squeezed through a small entrance. The text already has pressure, the text already has a warning, Matthew 5:20, that line would have landed like a stone. The Scribes and Pharisees were not known for being careless about religion, they were serious, visible, disciplined, the kind of people ordinary listeners might assume were closest to the front of the line. So, if the righteousness of the Kingdom must exceed the Scribes and Pharisees, Jesus is not calling for a slightly better public reputation, he is going deeper than performance, he is going after the heart that performs.
Matthew 6:24, no one can serve two masters, that is not a decorative sentence, it is a crisis, no one means no one, not the poor, not the rich, not the religious, not the irreligious, not the person with the best explanations for why their divided heart is more complicated than everyone else’s, a person can admire Jesus and still keep another master hidden under the floorboards. Then the sermon moves toward its final warnings, Matthew 7-21. The people in that verse are not outsiders who cannot pronounce religious words, they say Lord, Lord, they know the vocabulary, they sound close, that is what makes the warning so sobering.
Then Jesus ends with two builders, one hears his sayings and does them, his house stands when the rain descends, the floods come and the winds beat on it, the other hears the same sayings and does not do them, his house falls and Jesus says, great was its fall. Consider the second house before the storm, it may not look foolish yet, it may have walls, a roof, a door and a place at the table, people may pass by and admire it, the foolishness is hidden under the floor, in the foundation no one applauds. Then the weather comes and the secret becomes visible, the storm did not create the foundation, it revealed it.