Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2003 : September 7, 2003
Enter Heaven through the Narrow Door
Pentecost 13
You are either a Do-It-Yourselfer, or you're not. Do-It-Yourselfers will try to fix anything that goes wrong in their house themselves. If any of you has seen the sit-com Tool Time, you will recognize right away that Tim "the Tool Man" Taylor is the epitome of the Do-It-Yourselfer. If he's not trying to fix the garbage disposal for his wife Jill, he's trying to rig up the toaster so it toasts a whole loaf of bread at one time instead of only two or four pieces. The problem is that he usually ends up blowing up half the kitchen in the process. That's why his wife Jill wishes that Tim were not a Do-It-Yourselfer. She'd much rather trust someone else to come in and do the job for her -- as long as that other person is not her husband Tim "the Tool Man" Taylor.
When it comes to eternal life, interestingly enough, there are the same two kinds of people. There are the Do-It-Yourselfers and the ones who let somebody else take care of it for them. Jesus tells us this morning that there is only one way to Enter Heaven -- through the Narrow Door: any Do-It-Yourself approach fails; only the Do-It-By-Jesus approach prevails.
As I look out at everyone today sitting here, I can see all kinds of different people -- some with brown hair, others with blonde or red or black; some tall, some short; some awake and some sleeping (hopefully not many of the latter). But there's something each of you has in common. It's called the great leveler. Do you know what the great leveler is? It's death. Unless we are alive when the end of the world comes, each and every one of us will die. It might come after you've accomplished everything you wanted to accomplish in life and you're ready to die, more or less. It might come before you've had a chance to do much of anything, like the teenager from Cottage Grove, Dane Rogers. He was the captain of the high school soccer team, an all-conference goalie, member of the National and French Honor Societies, and would have been a freshman in college this year. But a very unusual thing happened last year on a hot day in July. He and some friends hopped the fence of a golf course and jumped into a small pond to cool off. Two days later Dane Rogers was dead, some think from toxin released by algae in the pond. He would be the first person to die that way in U.S. history. Expected or unexpected, it will happen -- you and all your loved ones will die. That's just not a very encouraging thought because then you have to ask, "What will happen when I die?" Some have thought about it, but others haven't too much. The Bible tells us there are only two places you can go when you die -- to heaven or to hell -- both very real places. Jesus described hell in our text as a place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The Bible also tells us that the vast majority of people will go through the very wide door to hell, but only a few will walk through the very narrow door to heaven.
So the next logical question must be: "How do I enter the narrow door to heaven?" Everyone has the same problem of getting through the door to eternal life. That is the picture Jesus is painting for us this morning. Eternal life is pictured as a house with only one tiny, narrow door. So our life here on earth is like being on the outside of that house, and our whole existence is spent trying to get into that house through that door.
It doesn't seem like it should be such a problem for you to go through the door, does it? But there is a problem -- sin. Our sins are like a huge knapsack full of the selfish, self-gratifying, self-centered things you and I have ever done or said or even thought. In fact, only one sin in that knapsack makes us too big to get through the narrow door. And we know we've committed more than just one sin -- thousands, millions is more accurate.
So Jesus says in our text, "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to." Jesus said this because someone had asked him if only a few people are going to be saved. Jesus said yes, only a few will be saved. But apparently the one asking the question wouldn't be one of them. He was a typical Jew at Jesus' time, confident in how good a life he was living, certain that he was going to heaven because he was a good Jew and followed the Old Testament law very well, maybe even to the letter. But Jesus wanted to wake him up from his delusion. So he described himself as the owner of the house that represents heaven. Jesus said,
Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, "Sir, open the door for us." But he will answer, "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 or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!"
Why would this good person and many others be shut out of heaven? Because they were Do-It-Yourselfers. The Apostle Paul tells us why a Do-It-Yourselfer can't get through the narrow door to heaven. He said in Romans 3:10, "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." That includes you and me. And because of our sins he says that "every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God." Saying we did this and that good thing in our lives won't help us as we stand before God. We might think we're good folks, decent citizens, good and helpful neighbors. But God says, "You can't get through this narrow door unless you are perfect." And that describes no one who has ever lived -- except one: Jesus Christ. Any Do-It-Yourself approach to entering heaven will fail. Only the Do-It-By-Jesus approach prevails.
The do-it-yourself method might work when you are fixing a leaky faucet, but it won't work at all for trying to enter the door to eternal life. Every single religion in the world is a Do-It-Yourself religion, and they will all fail. One religion is different. Christianity. Christianity alone says that there is nothing you can do to yourself to make you worthy of eternal life. Christianity alone relies on someone else to open the door of heaven for us. And that is Jesus. In fact, Jesus himself is the Door to heaven.
If it weren't for Jesus, the only door that would await us at the end of our lives would be the door of death. But Jesus changed that door of death into the door of life. He did that by suffering and dying for us for our sins so we wouldn't have to. Why would Jesus love a world full of sinners? Why wouldn't he just send us all away forever where we deserve to go? Love. In spite of all the horrible things you and I have done, Jesus still loved us. So much so that he gave his life for us. One a smaller scale, that kind of self-sacrificing love was shown by Princess Alice of England. Her daughter was critically ill with diphtheria. The disease was so deadly and contagious that the little girl's doctor told the Princess that even though she wanted to kiss her daughter to show her how much she loved her, that she couldn't because she would almost surely contract the disease herself. But one day the little girl was in the throws of delirium to such an extent that it broke her mother's heart, but all she could do was hold her daughter in her arms. When the girl's reason finally came back, she looked wearily into her mother's eyes and cried, "Mama, kiss me." It was too much for Princess Alice. Without thinking, she leaned over and kissed her suffering daughter. But it was the kiss of death. Strangely enough, the daughter soon recovered, and was well enough to go to her mother's funeral when she died just a few days later. With Christ, though, it wasn't a thoughtless act that brought him to live and die for us. He knew the cost, and knowing full well what was in store for him, he came to suffer and die for sins he had never committed, to set us free from sin and give us life.
Paul, in the book of Romans, tells us the result of Jesus' perfect sacrifice: "But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe." We can't enter the door to eternal life because of our sins, so God sent his Son to suffer and die for each and every one of those sins. Every one of your terrible sins was taken off of you when Jesus died for them and the sins of every person on earth. Your sins are taken as far away from you as the east is from the west. And in its place we have Jesus' holiness. Paul tells us that holiness, that righteousness, comes from God through faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the narrow door to heaven. We will enter heaven one day simply through Jesus, simply by believing in him as our Savior. Any other attempt to get to heaven will fail.
Will that change what you do in this life before you get to heaven? You better believe it! If someone saves you from a burning building, you'd want to thank them. If someone saved your from drowning, you'd want to do anything and everything you could for them. How much more if someone gives you eternal life as a gift will your whole life will be lived for that person! That person is Jesus. His gift to you is heaven. It came at a terrible price to him -- he suffered our punishment. But because he paid the price for our sins, he offers salvation to all people at no cost. "People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God." When Jesus broke out of the tomb Easter morning, he opened the door of heaven to you, assuring you that simply by believing in him as your Savior you will walk through that door when you die to live forever in heaven. So going to church once in a while to hear that message won't be enough for you. You'll want to hear that message of your forgiveness in Jesus every Sunday and every day in your homes. You won't let a day go by that you don't marvel at the heaven that awaits you when will die. And as you marvel at it, you will tell others about the Narrow Door, the only door to heaven, Jesus Christ.
I believe it was Benjamin Franklin who said there are two sure things in this life -- death and taxes. We might hate taxes, but they are a fact of life. We also might hate and fear death, but it will certainly come to each of us, maybe tomorrow, maybe in 100 years. But just as sure is the other thing that is sure in life -- salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Enter heaven through the Narrow Door. Enter heaven through Jesus. Amen.
