Gates, Fruit, and Foundations
Matthew 7:13-27
There was no denying he had changed. When I was 20 years old I watched a transformation take place before my eyes. I had become a Christian 3 years prior, and I had tried on many occasions to witness to my parents. But I was not successful at helping them to see that my relationship with Christ was based upon acceptance of His forgiveness and grace, and that it was entirely different from the religious works attitude I had as a child and teenager. They just didn’t get it.
And then one day my dad shared with me that He had knelt before the TV while watching a Billy Graham Crusade, and that He had given His life to Christ. I was excited, but skeptical. My dad was always a very religious man, but his religion was more about rituals.
But then I began to observe the changes in my dad. First, he seemed more peaceful and more joyful than he had ever been. He started to read his bible faithfully every day, and he always spent a good deal of time in prayer. Whenever I went out with my dad, I would observe how he always brought the name of Jesus into every conversation he had with strangers. He witnessed in his own way with just about everyone he met. My dad seemed to have a new purpose to life.
There were changes in the way he interacted with my mother also. He started to treat her gently. He was kind and more considerate than he had ever been before. He showed my mother love by his words and actions, and as a result my mother became less angry. She grew in tenderness towards my dad.
For the first time I was actually able to talk with my father about spiritual things. A new openness and trust grew between us. The changes in my dad were small, but significant. My dad demonstrated by his life that he was a true believer in Christ, and not just a religious man.
Change is inevitable and critical when we follow Christ. If we are not changing daily to become more like Jesus, than we either do not know Christ personally as our Savior, or we have willfully walked away from Him and have grieved the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is in every believer and He produces this change. It is what is meant by being born again, a new creation in Christ.
In the Sermon on Mount, Jesus spoke repeatedly about this change. Believers move from religion to relationship, and from head knowledge towards heart change. Using three separate illustrations Jesus drives home this point:
From beginning to end real Christianity produces change
Our first illustration comes from Matthew 7:13-14
"You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose the easy way. But the gateway to life is small, and the road is narrow, and only a few ever find it.”
1. The hard way versus the easy way.
Jesus begins with an illustration of journey on roads and through gates to contrast the way of salvation with the way of destruction. The imagery would have made sense immediately to the people of Palestine.
There were several different ways to go up to Jerusalem, the city of God. There were wide and well traveled roads that were relatively smooth in ancient times. These roads had been created over centuries and under Roman rule had become even easier to travel on because the Romans would use them to transport their troops and their chariots.
Then there were other paths that were not so easy to travel upon. Some of the roads were very rocky and covered wilderness and dangerous terrain over hills and valleys. There would be the constant danger of wild animals or marauding bands of thieves waiting to attack you like the man helped by the Good Samaritan. These roads would be long and winding with long stretches of loneliness and isolation.
When the travelers arrived at the city, there would be several gates to choose to enter the city. Some of these gates were wide and were used by merchants carrying their wares, or by the soldiers on horseback. Other gates were small and narrow and rarely used by people.
It was with this imagery that Jesus began to teach that the way to God and to eternal life is full of difficulties and challenges. There are not many roads that you can take, there is only one way. Jesus would declare later that “He was the way, the truth and the Life. No one could come to the Father apart from Him.”
Jesus emphasized that all of us are on a journey, but only those who travel the right path and use the right gate will find entrance into the city of God. There aren’t multiple paths. There is only one. Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, and Church-goers – though all well meaning and sincere - are doomed to destruction if they do not take the correct path. There are many gates, but only one gate will gain you entrance, and it is a narrow gate. Only one person at a time can fit through it. You can’t get in on the coattails of anyone else. Each person must enter themselves, alone.
This is the teaching of Jesus and in many ways we have turned out backs on this teaching. We have accepted the lie that it doesn’t matter which religion you follow, as long as you are sincere. We have accepted the lie that all people are going to heaven, the gate is wide open, and everyone eventually gets in. We have rejected the truth that the vast majority of people are on a pathway of destruction and hell.
As a result of our rejection of Christ’s teaching we have lost our zeal for witnessing. We have stopped seeing people as doomed and desperately in need of a savior, and we have let those around us struggle on the pathway of destruction.
Another lie we have bought into is that Christianity is easy. It is true that we are saved by grace through faith, and not by works. It is true that salvation is a gift and that we can’t do anything to earn it, we just receive it by faith. Inviting Christ into your heart is easy. But the Christian Life is anything but easy.
Because we’ve bought into this lie we have a whole community of Christians in this country who get upset when ever anything bad happens and they begin to immediately doubt that God loves them. We see Christians looking for the easy way, hoping from place to place, in an effort to avoid any kind of hard work. Rather than work through problems and conflicts we see Christians avoiding and running away. And as a result we have millions and millions of people in this country who identify themselves as born-again Christians, but their lifestyle choices are no different than people outside of the church.
This is not what Jesus taught. Jesus taught that to be a follower of God and to enter into the kingdom of God, you must seek it with all your heart. You must persevere through many trials and tribulations. You must grow and change through a process of being refined like gold in a fiery furnace.
The way is narrow. There are many rocky places, and dark caverns. There are steep climbs and scary drops along the road. And at the end of the road, there is only one narrow gate that you must enter through.
Jesus said:
"I assure you, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber! For a shepherd enters through the gate. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. (John 10:1-3)
APP: We must put forth effort in our pursuit of Christ. We must seek Him and follow hard after Him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. We must follow only Him.
Assignment: Read this summer John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim Progress!”
The second illustration Jesus gives is this:
2. The healthy tree versus the sick tree.
Matthew 7:15-23
"Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep, but are really wolves that will tear you apart. You can detect them by the way they act, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit. You don’t pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles. A healthy tree produces good fruit, and an unhealthy tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, the way to identify a tree or a person is by the kind of fruit that is produced.
"Not all people who sound religious are really godly. They may refer to me as ’Lord,’ but they still won’t enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The decisive issue is whether they obey my Father in heaven. On judgment day many will tell me, ’Lord, Lord, we prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ’I never knew you. Go away; the things you did were unauthorized.’
Palestine had many different kinds of fruit. There were fig trees and grape vines all around. But there was one thing that was always true, all the time, in all situations – 100% guaranteed.
Fig trees only produced figs, and grape vines only produces grapes. Now sometimes those fig trees didn’t have any fruit on them. Jesus in fact saw a fig tree like that on the way to Jerusalem before His crucifixion and He cursed it and it died. That fig tree represented the people of Israel who should have produced good fruit and been a witness to the nations, but who had turned their backs on God.
Sometime the figs would be rotten, or the grapes would be small and bitter. That indicated that there was something wrong at the root system of this tree or vine. It was sick, not healthy.
Using very clear language Jesus taught His disciples how to be discerning as to whether or not a teacher was from God, or whether or not a person was truly a believer or not. Only God knows the heart. We cannot judge whether or not a person is sincerely following after Christ or not by their words alone. We must look at the results. What kind of fruit is in their lives?
Someone may be very religious. They talk a really good talk. They even do great things in the name of God. They may have a healing ministry or a ministry that dazzles people as miraculous. They may preach the Word of God with boldness and do lots of good works.
But Jesus says if they do these things, and don’t really have a relationship with me – then they are doing them in their own strength for themselves and I have no part with them. They aren’t welcome in my kingdom.
So how do we know if someone is truly a believer? How do we know if a teacher or leader has come from God? How do we know if we really are saved?
Look at the fruit. Have you ever bought a piece of fruit at the grocery and it looked absolutely beautiful. It had been washed and sprayed with preservatives and sometimes even with color to make it sparkle. But when you got it home it was rotten and had worms inside, or it was nowhere near ripe.
People are like that. We can look good on the outside, and be dead on the inside. We can appear to be genuine, and really be a fake. We can say that Jesus is everything, and in reality He is little or nothing to us.
What kind of fruit is being produced?
Paul wrote that the fruit of the Spirit is love.
Is this person, or are you growing in love – not just for your friends but for those who tick you off and who mistreat you?
Joy
Is there evidence of a joyful spirit that is not bound to circumstance? The real test is not when everything is going well, but when life stinks. Is this person still able to smile, and to rejoice in God?
Peace
Is there a calmness and quietness about this person? Are they able to remain calm when the world is topsy-turvy? Is their a quiet inner strength about them?
Patience
Does this person have a long-fuse? Are they able to put up with difficult circumstances and difficult people for a time that goes beyond their natural ability?
Kindness / Gentleness
Does this person speak and act in a way that exhibits the character of Christ? Are they tender towards people, especially those individuals who are having a hard time? Do kind words come out of their mouths or is their bitterness and rage in their speech?
Faithfulness
Does this person stick at it long after everyone else is ready to call it quits? Does this person keep doing the right thing even though they get little or no recognition for it?
Goodness
Would you say this person is genuinely pursuing holiness? Do they try to do the right thing? Are they just and merciful? Do they love the ways of the Lord?
Self-Control
Does this person have an ability to wait upon the Lord for justice and for righteousness? Are they able to let God deal with those who have hurt them or wronged them, or do they seek their own revenge? Do they hold onto anger, or are they able to forgive?
Jesus said: “They will know you are my disciples by your love for one another”. Is this person a lover of people?
App: These are the kind of fruit that the Spirit of God produces in believers. No believer is perfect. All believers are growing. But if change is not occurring, and if we are not seeing more and more of Jesus and less and less of ourselves – then we need to take a long-hard look at our hearts. Are we truly seeking after Christ?
Assign: Take some time to meditate on the fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22-23. Ask yourself: Where have I changed? What areas are in need of change in my life? And pray and invite the Holy Spirit to produce these changes in your life.
The final illustration is found in Matthew 7:24-27
3. The stable foundation versus the shaky foundation.
"Anyone who listens to my teaching and obeys me is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse, because it is built on rock. But anyone who hears my teaching and ignores it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will fall with a mighty crash."
Again, Jesus uses an illustration that would be easy for all to comprehend. Homes in Palestine were built with mud, straw, and rock. They were not the most stable structures in the world and would easily fall if the wrong foundation had been laid.
There were many dry seasons in Palestine, but as in all desert areas, when it rains – it pours. Flash floods could occur at any time during the rainy season and any structure that did not have a strong foundation could easily give way.
Jesus describes two types of individuals in this illustration. Both hear the words of Jesus. It is important to hear the words of Jesus, because Paul writes that “faith comes from hearing the word of God.”
The problem isn’t with exposure to the Gospel of Christ. The problem is with application of the Word. One man hears the word and applies it to his life. His obedience to the Word lays a solid foundation for his future. The other man hears the word, and perhaps even receives it enthusiastically, but it goes in one ear and out the other and he builds his life upon things other than Christ.
Based upon this illustration we can make a few statements:
- Hearing the word is important! We must have regular exposure to the Words of Christ either through church, bible study, personal study, or whatever.
- Once we have heard what we do next will determine how strong a foundation we are laying for our lives. Obedience to the Word of God lays a good solid foundation. Casualness towards the word produces a shaky foundation.
- Everyone is going to encounter tests in their lives. Storms will come. You can’t avoid them.
- It is in the storms of life that the real foundation of our lives is revealed.
APP: What foundation are you laying today? What evidence do you have that you are laying the foundation of Christ and obedience to His Word? Has this been tested in you?
Assign: How can you continue to build upon this solid foundation? What changes can you make to prepare for the next storm?
Here’s what I suggest:
- Buy a copy of “Pilgrim’s Progress” and read it this summer
- Read Galatians 5:22-23 and take an inventory of the condition of the fruit in your life?
- Purchase a “Daily Walk” Bible and begin a regular reading schedule of God’s Word
From beginning to end real Christianity produces change
- There is only one way. It is narrow and difficult
- Only born-again trees produce the fruit of the Spirit
- Hearers and Doers of the Word are laying a solid foundation capable of weathering any storm in life
Pray
