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Have you ever been watching a movie or tv show where they are driving in the car. It is amazing how long they can talk for and nobody is looking out the front windscreen.
(Have a pretend conversation).
Now, if you did that it real life you would be dead wouldn’t you.
But the reality is that there are lots of people like that. People who are taking the journey of life and they are not really looking where they are going.
All they think about is the moment they are having in the car.
Or maybe they look out the side window ... look there is a tree, a house, a playground.
As they get older then they start to look into the rear vision mirror ... do you remember how everything was in the good-old days?
We can be like that can’t we ... actually forgetting that life is a journey which is going somewhere. Now, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has something to say about this sort of approach to life.
Matthew 7:13-29
What is Jesus saying here? Well He is saying that life is going somewhere and we have to make a choice. Let’s have a look and see what that choice involves.
Two Gates and Paths
There is no such thing as a road that goes no-where.
Nor is it possible to go on a journey without reaching some sort of destination.
Imagine you’re a parent and you say to your kids, “We are going to Dreamworld”. They get all excited and talk about it for weeks. Then on the day everyone is up early and you make your way down there and arrive at 10:00am. And you’re sitting in the car in the carpark and you say to your kids, “Ok, we have been to Dreamworld now we are going home”. What sort of parent would you be? Actually it would be kind of funny – wouldn’t it. But the point of driving to Dreamworld ... the point of the journey ... is to get out of the car, go and enjoy the rides, eat too much food, and watch all the shows.
Every journey has a destination – and there are two destinations on offer. To get there you need to go through a gate. The purpose of a gate is to give you an entry point. Here are some pictures of a few gates:-
• Prison.
• Cattle Yard.
• Kirribilli House.
The style of the gate gives you a hint at what lies beyond. Jesus is making the same point.
There is a wide gate
Wide gates are inviting and easy to get through. With wide gate you don’t need to offload any baggage and you can bring a whole heap of stuff through them. The wide gate can accommodate all, without anyone having to make any real sacrifices.
You don’t have to change.
You can do live your way.
You can make the rules.
It has no restrictions.
It tolerates many.
And it is very, very attractive.
Especially because beyond the wide gate there is a broad road. There is room for everyone on the broad road; and there are no boundaries. So going down this road is fun and everyone is on it and they all seem to be having a great time. Since it is the popular road we can do all sorts of crazy things because everyone else is doing it as well. It is the easy road.
In contrast you have the narrow gate and the narrow road.
In German there is a cave which is called the Woolve Run Spring Cave. The cave entrance is a narrow opening, mostly under water … and the first 1,000m of cave passage is more or less water filled. Diving equipment is necessary to enter this cave. The first part of the cave is also narrow and dangerous with floods. However, once you get past the entrance the cave goes on for a total of 6,497m. The most impressive part of the cave is a huge chamber called Wubadrom which is one of the biggest cave chambers in the world.
If you want to get into this cave it is going to take a lot of effort, planning, as well as a willingness to become fit. You’re going to have to deny yourself many things.
Basically that is what the narrow gate is all about.
There is no room for chasing after the world and its pleasure, no room for unforgiving spirits, and there is no room for the self-righteous.
It is only as we submit to the demands of the Son of God that we know what it means to enter. The gate is narrow because many will not chose to enter through it.
If you are going to enter in the narrow gate, Jesus must be first in your life.
Entering through the narrow gate means entering into a life of commitment.
Wide or narrow ... you need to choose don’t you.
Which brings us to the next contrast.
Two Trees and Fruits
To see the choice Jesus is putting before us we need to understand what Jesus means when He uses the description “good” and “bad”.
Our first inclination is to think in terms of perfect verses rotten. On one of our holidays we visited the Barlow Apple Packing Factory. In that Factory apples were graded into categories.
• Top grade apples were exported.
• Second grade apples went to mainland Australia.
• Third grade apples went to Tasmania.
• Fourth grade apples were used by pig farmers.
• Beyond that they were rotten and thrown away.
Each grade was still edible and in most cases still tasted pretty good unless it was rotten. This is not what Jesus has in mind when He talks about “good” and “bad”.
I don’t know if anyone has ever eaten a cashew-fruit. A cashew nut grows on the end of the fruit. The fruit itself is rubbery and very tart; it is just bad. Even if you were to have an top grade cashew fruit it would still taste bad. Fourth grade apples are better than export quality cashew fruit.
The trees can be healthy.
The fruit can be ripe.
But in the end cashew fruit is bad, and apples are good.
That is what Jesus has in mind when He says every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
The big issue here is, “Which tree do you belong to?”
There was a man who was a good sailor.
He was always the first to get up and never had to be woken for his watch.
He was skilled at sailing and knowledgeable about the weather and the stars.
He was nice and friendly and all the crew liked him very much.
When you had a close look at him he was a good sailor. But, if you stepped back a little and had a look at the whole ship, you would see a problem.
He was sailing under the flag of the skull and crossbone.
He was a good sailor but he was not serving his king and country – he was a rebel sailing under the wrong flag.
We live in a world where there are a lot of nice people.
They are kind to their families and their neighbours.
They volunteer to help at the school and are members of the P&C Association.
When charities knock on their door they are generous.
When things go wrong or people hurt them they are still patient and caring.
They don’t smoke, or drink, or gamble.
They are good citizens.
But they are sailing under the wrong flag because Jesus is not their king.
Good or bad ... you need to choose don’t you.
Now we come to the next contrast.
Two Builders and the Results
I want you to picture these two buildings. Both seem attractive and clean, freshly painted perhaps. Both are made from the same material – mud bricks for the walls, thatched grass for the roof. Indeed they could even be the same size and shape. But there is one significant difference between them.
One house has been built by a fool. He started in summertime when the ground was hard and dry. The foolish man saw the bright and sunny days and thought they would never end. So he didn’t worry about a foundation, he just smoothed out a place on the sand and started building. The foolish builder constructs the house as though he is pitching a tent.
The other house has been built by a wise man. He knows the sunny days will not always be there. He takes into consideration the storm and wind and rising waters. He digs through the sand until he reaches rock. His house takes a bit longer to complete then the man next door. Sometimes, while he was working on his house, he thought he could hear the fool laughing about his careful preparations. But the wise man continued until his house was also finished.
For all intends and purposes the houses look the same ... but there is one big difference.
One gives the illusion of being sturdy.
One is actually sturdy.
You find out which one it is when the difficulties come.
You can just imagine the foolish man in his house can’t you, as the rains begin to fall. He’s sitting at the table reading the paper. Soon he hears a little trickling noise as water starts coming under the bricks. Then the roof starts leaking. Soon everything is covered in water. His wife is running around in the house yelling, “Do something, do something”. But what can he do? The few pots and pans catching the water are useless. Within minutes he is standing in the rain. The place where his house once stood has been washed clean, like a wave on the beach which demolishes every sand castle in its path.
His house was nothing but an illusion. And our lives can be like that. We can come with all sorts of rhetoric about our walk with the Lord.
• “Lord I come to church”.
• “Lord I read the Bible”.
• “Lord I can say all the right things”.
But does it change you? Does it drive you to want to stand out and be different and have your goals driven by God rather than being driven by self. As we listen to this parable we can see that Jesus is laying down the gauntlet. Either we do things His way and live. Or we do things our way – and suffer the consequences.
A sturdy foundation or an illusion ... you need to choose don’t you.
Through three different contrasts Jesus is reinforcing the same point.
Are you looking ahead and thinking about where your journey is going?
Some of you might know of Bob Geldof. He is an Irish singer who, in 1985, organised a huge fund raising event called “Live Aid”. He has done many amazing things in his life. In 1987 he published an autobiography called “Is That It?”
Many people ask that question don’t they? Is that it?
Eating. Drinking. Sitting. Possessing. Shopping. Working. Living. Spending. Is that it?
For 20, 30, 40, 80, 100 years. Is that it?
We just play with our little toys and then death. Is that it?
Jesus says “no”.
The broad road ... leads to destruction ... the narrow road leads to life.
(Matthew 7:13-14)
Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
(Matthew 7:19)
Not everyone who says to Me “Lord, Lord”, will enter the kingdom of heaven.
(Matthew 7:21)
Everyone who hears these words of mind … and puts them into practice is wise. (But if they don’t) they are foolish.
(Matthew 7:24, 26)
The reason Jesus wants us to think about the broad and narrow road, and the good and bad fruit, and the sturdy and crumbled house is because what we are experiencing now is not it. Every single one of us is on a journey to a destination.
One destination is a place of destruction, where we are not part of God’s family because we have been foolish.
It’s where those who thought they could shake their fist at God and get away with it go.
It’s a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth as we regret the fact that we thought we were in control.
It’s where Satan and all the evil angels will also be after God deals with them.
The Bible calls it the lake of fire, the second death and separation from God.
The other destination is a place of life, where we are part of God’s family because we have been wise.
Here there are no more tears, sorrow or death.
Here you see God as you have never seen Him before.
Here is a place of inclusion and fulfilment.
Even the Bible finds it hard to describe sometimes. It’s called heaven, being with God always. It is the place where you are what you were meant to be. It is a place called home.
You’re on the journey right now.
Are you just cruising along?
Are you just chatting in the car?
Are you looking out the side?
Do you keep looking back?
Or are you looking ahead to the destination? And if you are ... are you on the right road?
Prayer
