Lesson 8 - Matt. 7:13-21, 24-27 - CHOOSING PATHS
INTRODUCTION: Last week, in Matt. 6:5-19, as Jesus continued His Sermon on the Mount, He taught his disciples about the importance of an effective prayer life. Rather than making their prayers a public spectacle designed to impress others, He commanded them to go into their "inner room" a place completely free of distractions (i.e., a prayer 'closet') and pray to your Father...in secret" (6:6). As a good organizational example, Jesus gave them a model prayer containing six petitions which is familiar to us as 'the Lord's Prayer' (6:7-15); and it still forms an excellent outline for us to use in our daily prayers today. One of the points that Jesus stressed in the lesson was the importance of forgiving others who have sinned against us (6:14-15). The bottom line truth is that God will not hear our prayers unless we show ourselves willing to forgive others. Finally, we learned three important application principles about prayer: (1) Jesus commands us to pray as a spiritual discipline, which requires planning, organization, and commitment. (2) A disciplined prayer life requires believers to organize their time. We need to set aside and allocate specific times to pray every day. Since we need to pray for many things, it's a good idea to develop a written outline. (3) A disciplined prayer life can be combined with daily Bible reading-God speaks to us through Scripture and we speak to Him.
This week, in Matt. 7:13-21, 24-27, we'll cover the last of three chapters known as the Sermon on the Mount. In it, Jesus will command His disciples (that's us) to enter the 'narrow gate' and walk the hard road or path to life. He will warn us about false prophets and teachers whom we can identify by the 'fruits' they produce, which are sick trees that can only produce bad fruit. Jesus concludes with a spiritual metaphor about building your spiritual house on the solid foundation-the teachings of Christ--that can enable you withstand all the storms of life.
Read 7:13-14 - THE NARROW AND WIDE GATES
13 "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14 For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
v. 13: "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it." - Here, Jesus begins to describe a series of choices that His listeners will need to make. The first is between "the narrow gate," which leads to a more difficult path, or to a "wide" gate which opens to a far easier path. In relation to the "narrow gate," it's very obvious that Jesus is pointing to Himself and His teachings. And from a worldly perspective, It opens onto a very challenging road. Most people, however, will choose the wide gate because it's so much easier to go through. It's easy because it accommodates our natural human desires and preferences. The sad fact is that this road ultimately leads only to eternal destruction.
v. 14: "For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it." - By contrast, the narrow gate opens to the more difficult "way" of a disciple who chooses to follow Jesus and live by His teachings. The gate is narrow because there is only one path to salvation, which is in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior (John 3:16-18; Acts 4:12). It's difficult because Jesus' disciples will face opposition and persecution for their faith (John 15:18-25). Yet, it is the way His followers must travel and the only way that leads to eternal life (Matt. 5:10-12). Only a few will find the way to life. Israel's religious leaders were seemingly indifferent towards seeking the Messiah and many of the Jews of that time obviously agreed with them. They were satisfied with the status quo and were opposed to new revelation.
Read Matt. 7:15-19 - A TREE AND ITS FRUIT
15 "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? 17 So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 So then, you will know them by their fruits.
v. 15: "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves." - Here, Jesus issues a warning about "false prophets" that echoes the earlier warnings given by OT prophets (Jer. 6:13-15; Ezek. 22:27; Zeph. 3:4). He doesn't explain in any detail what they teach, only that they would twist and misrepresent divine revelation. They might sound good and look good, but Jesus describes them as "wolves" in "sheep's clothing." In a very real sense, the Pharisees and scribes were proclaiming a 'narrow gate' based on their legalistic interpretation of OT Scripture, but it was one than led to destruction rather than life.
v. 16: "You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?" - Since appearances can be deceiving, Jesus advises his disciples to evaluate these so-called prophets by the 'fruit' they produce. You can't judge self-proclaimed prophets by their outward appearance or how convincing their oratory sounds. But Jesus explained that they could be identified by their "fruits." In the natural world, the type of fruit a plant or tree produces is the best evidence of its true character-either good or inedible. In the case of prophets, fruit represents the way they conduct their personal lives and the impact their teaching has on others.
v. 17: "So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit." - In the same manner as fruit trees, prophets who are true to God's word will teach and produce righteous behavior from their followers, whereas false prophets who disregard and distort God's word will cause their followers to engage in sinful, unrighteous behavior. Jesus' words echo what John the Baptist said earlier to the Pharisees, "Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham for our father"' (Matt. 3:8-9).
v. 18: "A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit." - A poisonous plant will always yield poisonous fruit. The bad fruit may look good, but it's still poisonous, unsafe to eat. It can't do otherwise. By comparison, a good tree, such as an apple tree, always bears nutritious, flavorful fruit. So, Jesus is telling his followers to look past the words of these self-proclaimed prophets, which might sound good, and carefully examine how they live and behave. Even though a false prophet's works can seem appealing on the surface, they always turn out bad. We have seen this happen in our time with the so-called TV-evangelists (e.g., PTL Club), who cheated their followers out of millions of dollars. Jesus is telling us how to discern the true from the false.
v. 19: "Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." - In the real world, trees that cease to produce good fruit are cut down and thrown into a fire. Again, John the Baptist said earlier, "The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire" (Matt. 3:10). In the same way, false prophets who produce bad works, no matter how good they look, will receive a judgment of eternal fire.
v. 20: "So then, you will know them by their fruits." - Here, Jesus gives us the 'acid test' by which we can distinguish true from false prophets and teachers: The fruit (good or bad) will be revealed by a the person's true character in the way they treat others-their openness, their honesty-in-fact, their humility, and their commitment to being as righteous on the inside as they profess to be on the outside; and that this good character is also evident in the lives and attitudes of their own followers.
Read Matt. 7:21 - NOT EVERYONE WILL ENTER THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
21 "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.
v. 21: This verse, unless understood in context, can very challenging and has become a subject of much debate. At the same time, the Bible makes it crystal clear that salvation is entirely by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. Some interpreters have used this verse to argue that salvation requires faith plus works, but a careful analysis of the verse overrules this idea. This is the first time Jesus used the expression "My Father who is in heaven" in this gospel, and by using it, Jesus unconditionally claims to be the authoritative revelation of God, so that "he who does the will of My Father" boils down to believing that Jesus is who He claims to be and responding to His call by confessing Him as your Lord and Savior. Therefore, it isn't enough to simply admire Jesus and think highly of His character and his good deeds; you must believe that He is the Son of God who died on a cross to cover your sins. By saying that everyone who calls Him "Lord, Lord" won't enter the "kingdom of heaven," Christ is warning false followers: people who behave like followers of Jesus but have not taken the ultimate step in faith to completely believe in Him and receive Him as their Savior. They will not "enter the kingdom of heaven." And there are many people sitting in church pews today-counterfeit Christians-who will suffer the same fate. This is why evangelism inside the church is still extremely important-to reach these people who haven't taken the crucial step of faith to believe. Their real condition will only become clear when Jesus judges them.
Read Matt. 7:24-27 - THE TWO FOUNDATIONS
24 "Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. 26 Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell-and great was its fall."
v. 24: "Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock." - Jesus uses the expression, "these words of Mine" to contrast His teachings with those of false prophets and religious leaders who claimed to model obedience to God by engaging in religious practices that could be seen by others. To illustrate His point, Jesus uses a word picture about two houses. To the untrained eye, they both look safe and secure. However, severe testing will reveal the true quality of the builder's work. Although the difference wasn't readily apparent, the "wise man" had built his house on solid "rock."
v. 25: And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock." - This was indicative of the climate of Palestine, which received the bulk of its rain over a four month period in the form of torrential downpours. When the storms came-a metaphor for the trials of life-the house built on solid rock by the wise man stood firm and weathered the Storm. The "rain, floods, and winds" are figures of speech that symbolize the trials of life encountered by everyone. At the end of the storms, the house of the wise man was still standing. By analogy, Christ doesn't promise that there will not be storms in the Christian life, but promises that those who act on and believe his words will survive the storms. And the "house" represents the builder's spiritual strength.
v. 26: "Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand." - In this verse, Jesus illustrates the difference between simply 'hearing' His teachings as opposed to living by them. Those who fail to believe and live by them are compared to "a foolish man who built his house on the sand." Again, the "house" represents the spiritual integrity of the man who built it, in this instance, a fool, a man who simply hears the words but does not take any action to live by them. Israel's religious authorities and many of the people in the crowds that followed around Jesus during his earthly ministry heard His words many times but failed to act on them. They were fools, every single one.
v. 27: The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell-and great was its fall." - This is the inevitable consequence of failure to act on Jesus' words-a person's spiritual house will "fall" and he or she will not enter the kingdom of heaven (v. 21). Christ meant all this imagery to explain that one's spiritual house must be built on something solid, something that could endure all the storms of life all the way into eternity, which is faith alone in Jesus Christ alone (John 14:6).
APPLICATION-The "Way" to Life:
1. The "narrow gate" represents a choice. As we journey through life on this world, we are forced to make personal choices about the paths we take-the narrow, more difficult path of following Jesus as our personal Lord and savior or the wide, easy way that appeals to our natural human desires and preferences. People need to fully realize that the critical difference between these choices is eternal life or death-they need to understand that faith in Christ is the only path to life everlasting.
2. The ability to distinguish false teachers and prophets requires spiritual discernment. Jesus provides us with the 'acid test.' Using His analogy, a prophet or teacher's 'fruit' will reveal the person's true character in two ways: (a) the way they treat others in terms of his or her personal openness, honesty, humility, and evident commitment to personal godliness and (b) that this good character is also obvious in the lives and attitudes of their own followers.
3. Being a saved believer in Christ requires more than a verbal profession of faith. It's not enough to simply admire Jesus and think highly of His character and good deeds. A person must also believe in his or her heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died for their sins on the cross; in short salvation by grace alone by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. Nothing short of this will entitle a person to enter the kingdom of heaven.
4. Believers in Jesus Christ are equipped to withstand the storms of life. The trials of life are inevitable. A person who hears and follows Jesus has built his or her 'spiritual house' on a 'solid rock' foundation will be able to endure and withstand the many trials of life all the way into eternity.
