Bible Passage: Luke 13:22-30
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: August 24, 2025

Bulletin – August 24, 2025

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

It was on Maundy Thursday evening as he was gathered with his friends that Jesus spoke those beloved words to his disciples:  In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you.  I am going there to prepare a place for you. (John 14:2)  Jesus’ words evoke images of a huge, magnificent mansion.  We may think of mansions we have seen this side of heaven.  Places like the Palace of Versailles in France or the Biltmore in North Carolina.

Jesus’ words today call upon us to think smaller.  Today Jesus doesn’t want us to concentrate on the entire mansion, he wants us to focus only on the door.  That access point into the splendor of the mansion.  Today Jesus wants to talk to us about the door into the mansion, the kingdom of heaven.  He wants us to see The Kingdom’s Narrow Door.

Jesus’ comments about the door are occasioned by a question from a man who is in the crowd as Jesus teaches in one of the villages on his way to Jerusalem for the final time.  The unidentified man asks, Lord, are only a few people going to be saved? (v. 23)  It’s an honest question.  This is not one of the “gothcha!” questions the Pharisees sometimes asked Jesus.

Let’s dissect this man’s question.  First of all, his question assumes people need saving!  It assumes that people by nature are in a desperate situation.  They need to be helped.  They need to be rescued.  They need to be “saved.”  And the man is correct!  Sin has placed us all in a desperate situation.  We need saving!  His question also assumes that there IS  a salvation.  There IS a rescue for people.  And here again, the man is correct!  There is a salvation for sinful people.

Jesus answers, Make every effort to enter through the narrow door. (v. 24)  Here is the first thing to note:  there IS a door!  There is an exit out of our “unsaved” predicament and an “entrance” into God’s blessed Kingdom.  God has provided a way.  God has provided a “door.”  This is an amazing show of God’s grace!  When Adam and Eve sinned against God and brought sin into the world, God could have shut off all access to himself and his blessings forever.  He could have hung a sign in the window of heaven, “Closed!”  But he didn’t.  He provided a door in!  And just so there will be no way for us to miss the point, Jesus says in John 10:9:  I am the door.

Jesus is the way into the Kingdom of God!  He is the rescue line God has let down from heaven.  Jesus is the one who pulls us out of the flood waters of sin, guilt, death, and damnation.  It is clinging to this lifeline that we are SAVED.  For Jesus defeated sin, guilt, death and damnation by his death and resurrection.  THROUGH Jesus we enter into God’s Kingdom of grace now with its forgiveness and peace and joy and hope and fellowship.  THROUGH Jesus we will one day enter the mansion of heaven, the Kingdom of glory, and enjoy the glory of the resurrection and neverending life in the presence of God!  That all comes THROUGH Jesus.

Why does Jesus emphasize that this is a narrow door?  Perhaps it is to emphasize that entrance into the Kingdom is an individual, personal thing.  There is not a big swinging gate like the kind they swing open to let cattle into a pen.   You’ve seen the kind.  It swings open and a whole bunch of cattle all crowd and push their way in.  There is not a cattle gate into heaven.  You don’t just enter as part of the “herd.”  You are saved because you as an individual trust in Jesus Christ as your own Savior.   Each individual must pass through that narrow door.

This is what Jesus emphasizes in our text.  Did you notice that after the man asks his very theoretical, impersonal question about salvation, Jesus begins to use the pronoun “you”?  He tells his little story about the owner of a house who closes his door.  And then Jesus says to his hearers, YOU will stand outside knocking and pleading, “Sir, open the door for us.”  But he will say, “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 of where YOU come from.  Away from me, all YOU evildoers!” (v. 25-27)  Jesus’ point shouldn’t be missed!  He’s saying, “I’m talking to you people!”  His hearers had the door to heaven standing open right in front of them, and many couldn’t care less!

The desperate people in Jesus’ little story plead, We ate and drank with you. (v. 26)  Jesus actually said it in a very subtle way.  It’s not the same as when we are told Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners.  The people in Jesus’ story here literally say, “We ate and drank IN YOUR PRESENCE.”  That is not really “eating with” someone.  I could tell you, “I once ate with Bart Starr.”  And you say, “Really?”  And then I would have to admit it was at a banquet and he was at a table way over there.  I didn’t really eat “with” him.  I ate “in his presence.”  These people in Jesus’ story also say, You taught in our streets. (v. 26)  That is very different than saying, “We sat at your feet and learned from you!”  These were people who were “near” Jesus.  Being “near” the door is not the same as going “through” the door.

We should take Jesus’ words to heart.  There is always the danger for us simply to be “near” the things of God.  To be “near” Word and Sacrament, but not devoted to it.  To be “near” the cross of Jesus, but not consumed by the love Jesus displayed on it.  To be “near” Jesus, but not wed to him.  That is why Jesus speaks as he does in our text:  Make every effort to enter through the narrow door. (v. 24).  Literally he says, “Agonize to enter..”  Don’t misunderstand.  You do not by your own thinking or choosing believe in Jesus Christ or come to him.  God the Holy Spirit works that in you.  But now in the Kingdom, an agonizing struggle begins.  Each day we must mortify our flesh, and resist the devil, and flee the world, all of whom hate that you have entered God’s Kingdom!  But those who remain faithful will one day enter that glorious, promised mansion in heaven, through the front Door, Jesus Christ!

Amen.