Open-Minded To A Narrow Way? - Matthew 7:13-14 Series

Matthew 7:13-14 Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Introduction

Pluralism

Whatever you think about President Obama politically, I think it is fair to say that he is an excellent spokesman for the most dominant religious belief system in our culture. In a 2004 interview he said this: “I am a Christian. … So I draw from the Christian faith. On the other hand… I believe that there are many paths to the same place…” He went on to say that “All people of faith—Christians, Jews, Muslims, animists, everyone knows the same God.” Then he said this: “There's the belief, certainly in some quarters, that people have not embraced Jesus Christ as their personal savior that they're going to hell. … I find it hard to believe that my God would consign four-fifths of the world to hell. I can't imagine that my God would allow some little Hindu kid in India who never interacts with the Christian faith to somehow burn for all eternity.” That is a view known as religious pluralism, and it is probably the most dominant religious doctrine in our culture. On October 7, 2007 President Bush said the same thing: "I believe that all the world, whether they be Muslim, Christian, or any other religion, prays to the same God.” The reason I give you these quotations is not to stir up any political strife. My purpose is to show you how incredibly dominant this religious viewpoint really is. Anytime you get George Bush and Barak Obama saying the same thing about an issue, you know you are dealing with a very dominant, very widespread cultural consensus. This is the religion of our culture – pluralism. All faiths are essentially the same, we are all praying to the same God, hell probably does not exist. And if it does exist, the only person there is Adolf Hitler. For some reason in our day Hitler is the only one who is actually responsible for his sin. But the great majority of us will not go to hell.

And it is not just politicians who preach this religion. The Roman Catholic Church has moved in this direction, and so has much of evangelicalism. Even Billy Graham has said he believes there will be Hindus and Muslims and non-believers who will end up in heaven even though they have never heard the name of Jesus.

Religious pluralism is the biggest religious consensus in our culture. And preaching it is a sure ticket to popularity. People write about the Christian view of heaven and hell all the time, and none of them ever become bestsellers. But Rob Bell, who is part of the Emergent Church movement, wrote a book titled “Love Wins” arguing that God would not send anyone to hell, and everyone gets a second chance after they die – his book immediately became the #1 bestseller of all religious books on Amazon. Joel Osteen preaches this message and he had to move his church to a football stadium because 44,000 people crowd in every Sunday because of how much they love this message. It is the religion of Presidents Obama and Bush, it is the religion of the pastors of some of the biggest churches in the country, it is the religion of the modern Roman Catholic Church, it is the religion of Oprah, the religious of Hollywood, and it is the one and only religion teachers are allowed to push in public schools. It is truly the sacred cow of our age. If you speak out against this religion, in our culture, you will be hated and despised and in some cases you might even face legal repercussions.

And it is not hard to figure out why it is so popular. If there is only one way to God, then only a small minority of human beings will be saved. And that is hard to swallow. Everyone making it to heaven is so much more pleasant.

This is not a new controversy. It existed back in Jesus’ day. In Luke 13 the people heard Jesus preaching and started to think, “Man, this sounds so exclusive. If I’m understanding Him right it sounds like he’s saying hardly anyone will go to heaven.” And so finally someone asked Him:

Luke 13:23 Someone asked him, "Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?" He said to them…

Context

Actually – before I read you Jesus’ answer to that question, let me fill you in on where we are in our study. We have been studying Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount for the past year and a half or so, and we come this morning to the closing section. Jesus wraps up this sermon by giving four warnings. He warns us about the broad road, wolves in sheep’s clothing, calling Jesus Lord but not knowing him, and building our lives on a foundation of sand. The first one is in verses 13-14, and it is very straightforward – a command followed by some reasons to obey the command. Jesus says Enter through the narrow gate for… and then goes on to give four contrasts between the two gates. And those contrasts are the reason Jesus gives us for the command, so let’s look at those first. Jesus contrasts the narrow and wide gates by showing that they are different in four areas. The first of those four is popularity.