The Narrow Way

The

Narrow Way

Matthew 7:13-14

The Sermon on the Mount Series

            Imagine you are in downtown NYC a little after 8:00 AM Tuesday September 11^th, 2001. You are casually walking down the street when you see thousands of people running in the opposite direction. You don’t know why they are running. You just know they’re running. What do you do? Do you keep on walking because their running doesn’t really affect you and you haven’t been invited to join them? Or do you turn around and join them running and screaming even though you don’t know why you’re running or screaming?

            Or how about this? Have you ever seen a disaster movie where they show an aerial view of the highway? It is packed bumper to bumper going one direction but there is always one car going the opposite direction. What would you do if you were in the car heading into town? Would you turn around, assuming everyone else knows what’s going on, and you better follow along? Or would you keep going to your destination?

            Most of us would turn and join the crowd. Why do we do that? Is there really any safety in numbers? A few years ago some rowdy fans threw beer bottles onto the field at Cleveland Browns Stadium. Eventually more and more people began throwing the bottles assuming they couldn’t catch everybody. Well they probably didn’t catch everybody but they did catch a lot of people. There were a lot of photographs and videos being taken of the game. The Browns put their pictures up on websites, had people identified, and banned from the stadium. Even though almost everyone else was doing it, they still got caught and busted.

            Is there safety in numbers? If you are walking down the street and a mob of people are screaming and running in the opposite direction, I would turn around and run, and then find out what’s going on later. If you are driving into town and everyone else is driving out of town, I would turn around, turn off my Brittney Spears CD and turn on the local news.

            That’s my advice for the physical world. What about the spiritual? If everyone believes that there is no absolute right and wrong, and your religious views are just as valid as my religious views, should you join in that crowd? If you graduated from school and got a job in Dubai and everyone there was Muslim should you become Muslim, too?

            No. When God established the world and put everything in order, He didn’t ask for our opinions, nor did He take a Facebook poll to see what was the most popular view point. He simply said, “This is right. This is wrong. If you want to play my game, you have to play by my rules.”

            The sad truth is that if you look around most of the people we come into contact with, see at the stores, and go to school with, will go to hell. If you are a Bible believing, sold out for Jesus Christian you will not only stand out in a crowd, you will feel the heat of persecution. The persecution we experience here in America is nothing compared to what others are experiencing but it still is not any fun to be made fun of, laughed at, singled out, or picked on. But that is what’s going to happen. In other words everyone else will be going one direction; you and a few others will be going the other. Will you have the courage to keep going the direction you know is right or will you give in to temptation and follow the crowd down the road of least resistance?

            Jesus said in Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. ¹⁴ Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” The road to hell is easy, and wide for all of the people who are travelling on it. The road to heaven is narrow, difficult, and hard to find. The road to hell is easy because it doesn’t ask you to do anything except ignore that feeling you get when you know you’re doing something wrong. It doesn’t ask you to stop checking out pornography, drinking, doing drugs, or sleeping around. The road to heaven is hard because God asks you to put aside all of those worldly things that separate you from Him. He will ask you to stand up for what you believe in even if it will cost you everything. He will ask you to love your enemies and forgive those who have done the unthinkable to you. The road to heaven is narrow for a reason—not many people will travel it.

            If you have been travelling down that broad road that leads to destruction and you want to turn from it, what are you waiting for? If you’re waiting for Christianity to become popular, it’s not going to happen. If you’re waiting for a friend to get saved first, maybe they’re waiting on you. You need to take a stand for what you believe in and change the path you’re on once and for all.