Please turn in your copy of God¡¯s word to Luke 13 and follow with me as I read verses 25-30.
When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are: 26Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. 27But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. 28There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. 29And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. 30And, behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last.
Sunday morning I intended to preach through these verses, but it seemed enough to dwell on the great question, ¡°Are there few that be saved?¡± This hotly debated theological topic dominates many tea house conversations in Jesus¡¯ day. Our Lord agrees that few are saved, yet goes beyond a simple affirmative answer. Like so many responses, Jesus turns the attention to the ones asking the question and puts the spotlight on them. ¡°Strive,¡± he says, ¡°to enter at the narrow gate.¡±
When visiting people I usually hear theological questions that are really smokescreens. That is, they don¡¯t care about yielding control of their lives to Jesus, so they concoct a theological objection: ¡°Where did Cain¡¯s wife come from?¡± or ¡°Was there really a flood?¡± and so on. Usually, when challenged, I change the subject and ask about their prayer life, their quiet time, or their involvement at church. In every case I remember they fall silent. People like to argue. It makes them feel justified. It only sounds like they are arguing with you. In reality they are arguing with themselves and their own guilty conscience.
Jesus addresses them in second person: ¡°you.¡± This makes it personal, specific, not general. He gets in their face. He tells them to ¡°strive¡±, which is the Greek word (¦Á¦Ã¦Ø¦Í¦É¦Æ¦Ï¦Ì¦Á¦É) from which we derive the English word ¡°agonize.¡± To agonize in your service to God, agonize in your effort to love others as yourself, agonize to expand the Kingdom of God is central to your identity as a follower of Jesus Christ. And now to drive home his point, Jesus offers a parable in verses 25-27.
Three elements make up this parable: the house, the master, and the people. The house represents God¡¯s kingdom. The house is open right now. Anyone alive can become a citizen of God¡¯s kingdom, move in to God¡¯s house, by receiving Jesus Christ as Lord, as Savior. One of the last verses in the Bible testifies to this in Revelation 22:17, ¡°and the Spirit and the bride [which is the Church] say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.¡± But the day approaches when the house closes, and none enter.
Next we have the Master, who represents God. The house belongs to God. As a child I often argued with my older sister, Kristi, especially on long road trips when a small back seat confine us for hours on end. We drew lines down the middle, claiming each side as our own. But you know how that ends. Borders were meant to be broken, anyway. She trespassed on my side, taking some valuable space. A fight quickly broke out, preempted with my righteous scream, ¡°Dad, Kristi is on my side.¡± ¡°My¡± side. It never occurred to me that it was not my car. It was dad¡¯s car. I never made a single payment on that care, yet felt some kind of righteous ownership of ¡°my¡± side. That is what we do too often with God¡¯s kingdom. We slice it up and make claims for what belongs to us. But it is the Master¡¯s house, not ours.
Notice what the Master does: he rises. He was sitting, or resting, or eating, or doing whatever Masters do. Suddenly, he rises. This refers to the second coming of Jesus. For over two thousand years he waited, though far from inactive. Abruptly, he rises. Turn with me to I Thessalonians 4:16-17 to see what the Bible says it looks like when the Master rises.
¡°For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.¡±
He comes with a shout. Don¡¯t you know how alarming that will be for everyone, but especially those who don¡¯t believe, those who are not watching? There will be a shout, and a trumpet blown by and angel or perhaps by God himself. We can scarcely imagine the glory that will explode on the earth, when the Master rises.
After the Mater rises, he shuts the door. Shutting the door represents the sealing of the Kingdom; it was open, for whosoever will, but now, closed. The opportunity to repent and be saved vanishes. The story of the flood in Genesis 7:16 presents a vivid picture of God closing the door. ¡°And they went in, went in make and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the Lord shut him in.¡± You wanted to be shut in! The rain had begun falling, and no ordinary rain. ¡°¡the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.¡± (Genesis 7:11b-12) Imagine something with me. Imagine God shuts you in the ark with Noah, his family, and all those animals. Remember, the Old Testament contained many shadows of things to come, such as the flood. The judgment of the great flood was a picture, a shadow, and a warning of a far greater judgment to come. Imagine you are on that ship. It has never rained before in the history of the earth. Creation was relatively new. Rain begins to fall. People panic ¨C ¡°What is this?¡± In the same way people will panic when the new kinds of judgment listed in Revelation begin to happen. For example, the Apocalypse tells us that stars will fall from heaven destroying vast populations. Wars and natural disasters will spring unexpectedly upon us. Recently one of these late night comedians asked, ¡°With all the disasters going on around us, the fires in California, hurricanes in the Gulf, and earthquakes in Asia, is this really the best time to take God out of the pledge of allegiance?¡± It was funny, but oh, how serious, too.
Noah, his family, the animals go in to the ark. The ark Noah built before the judgment began. The ark Noah ¡°strived¡± and ¡°agonized¡± to build. They go in and the Lord shuts him in. Who? God. Noah did not do it, God shut him in. Do you see the parallel with the Master of the house who rises and shuts the door? Then something may or may not have happened. I think it did, though we can¡¯t be sure and Scripture is silent in Genesis. But it does happen in our text in Luke. People begin to bang on the door. Noah is shut inside. The water rises. People, scared and desperate, clinging to children, scream and cry and beg for Noah to open the door. But even if he wants to open it, he can¡¯t, because the judgment has begun and God has shut him in.
Jesus, who is eternal, sees this happen to Noah. At the same time he sees forward to the great final judgment. D¨¦j¨¤ vu. It was meant to be d¨¦j¨¤ vu! God does not want you to perish. That is why he layers the Word with warning and pleading that you repent, or you will likewise perish.
Seeing forward to the great judgment he gives this parable. What catches my eye is they begin to knock on the door in desperation, saying, ¡°Lord, Lord¡± (two times for emphasis) ¡°open unto us.¡± That word ¡°open¡± is in the imperative tense ¨C they are not simply asking, but begging. It is too late.
The Bible tells us that Jesus is the door through which we must enter to be saved. John records Jesus¡¯ words in John 10:9, ¡°I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved¡¡± That sounds like a promise to me. Do you trust him.?
The last player in this parable is ¡°you.¡± Again, he speaks in second person to make sure they understand he speaks about them, not about people in general. That stings. ¡°You!¡± Jesus is plowing close to the corn. When I say it, I mean it just like Jesus meant it: ¡°you¡± means people who have not been born again. John 3:3 ¡°Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.¡± In the last judgment, Jesus says you will do two things. First you will begin to knock. Again, you will use the imperative tense, begging to be let in. But it will be too late then. You waited too long.
Let me pause here and say that this is a consistent theme of Jesus¡¯ parables. Just in case someone hearing me thinks, ¡°Oh, the preacher is just trying to scare me. God would never do that.¡± The parable of the ten virgins brings the same warning. Five were foolish, five were wise. The foolish ones waited too long and they were not admitted. More parables warn of the danger of delay , but time does not allow us to visit them this morning.
Second, you begin to explain. Read verse 26 with me: ¡°Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets.¡±
¡°Oh,¡± you say, with great sigh of relief, ¡°he doesn¡¯t remember us.¡± (v. 26) ¡°No problem, we will just explain who we are, where we are from, and he will surely let us in.¡± You argue the case for familiarity. I¡¯ve been to church. I grew up in a Christian home. My nation is a Christian nation. I celebrate Christmas and Easter. I¡¯ve been confirmed. But though all this is true, you were never born again. You did things, but you never made a conscious decision to give your heart and life to Jesus, and then yield to him, allowing him to live through you.
The Master responds in verse 27, ¡°¡I don¡¯t know you; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.¡± A startling assumption dominates this statement: if the Master does not know you, or even where you come from ,then you are a ¡°worker of iniquity.¡± ¡°Hold on,¡± I can hear this argument, ¡°You don¡¯t even know me. You said so yourself. If you don¡¯t know me, how can you judge me so quickly and call me a sinner?¡± This alarmed me when I read it. There is no court case, no appeal ¨C just a rapid judgment based on an assumption: if you are outside the Master¡¯s house, then you must be a worker of iniquity. Let me explain why.
The bible says all of us are ¡°workers of iniquity¡± in Romans 3:23, ¡°For all have sinned and some short of the glory of God.¡± That makes judging easy, since all of us fail. But now continue and finish Paul¡¯s thought in Romans 3:24-25: ¡°being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation [that is, a covering] through faith in his blood¡¡± Don¡¯t miss this because your salvation hangs on what I am about to say. Clothing distinguishes those inside the Master¡¯s house from those outside the Master¡¯s house. That¡¯s it. Clothes. Those who are clothed, or ¡°covered¡± (the fancy theological word is ¡°propitiation¡±) by their faith in the blood of Jesus Christ gain admission to the Master¡¯s house, the kingdom of God. Those without the clothing, those without the covering of faith in the atoning blood of Jesus don¡¯t enter.
Let¡¯s back up and observe this truth from a different angle. Turn in your Bible to Matthew 22:11-14:
And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen.
What is the wedding garment? Faith in the blood of Jesus, believing he died for you.
Familiarity with God does not save you. Being in church or a Christian nation. While working at Dell I had a particularly vulgar man who always wanted to sit near me. He told our whole team that if the rapture comes he was going to grab my legs and hang on. The sad thing is that he meant it. I can say I have faith in a chair, but unless I sit in the chair, I never really act on the faith.
What about you? When that trumpet sounds for the final judgment, will you be left behind, outside the Master¡¯s house? I invite you right now to give your life to Jesus Christ, to live for him, that he may know you and you him. That you may be clothed with his atoning blood by faith that is real.
