The Narrow Gate

“Enter by the narrow gate.  For the gate is wide, and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.  For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” Matthew 7:12-14 (ESV).

In Luke’s account of the “narrow door” we read:  “He (Jesus) went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem.  And someone said to him, ‘Lord, will those who are saved be few?’  And He said to them, ‘Strive to enter through the narrow door.  For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.  When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then He will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’  Then you will begin to say. ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and You taught in our streets.  But He will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from.  Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’  In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves cast out.  And people will come from east and west and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God.  And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” (Luke 13:22-30).

“Do you want to go to heaven when you die?”  It would seem that any who have heard of heaven and its glory would answer yes to that question.  But Jesus taught that “the gate is narrow…the way is hard” that leads to (eternal) life and ‘those who find it are few.”  Jesus also taught, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no man comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:8).  Our modern day of errant teaching has not been the only time when people sought a different way to heaven than through faith in the one and only way, Jesus Christ.  We have only to consider how many religious systems have been and are taught and practiced to see why Jesus would give this teaching on the narrow gate.  The way to eternal life is narrow in that it is through Jesus Christ and Jesus alone.  Peter in his powerful sermon on the day of Pentecost stated: “”This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which became the cornerstone.  And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 11:11-12). 

How do we find the “narrow” gate to life abundant here and life everlasting after death?  We find the way by turning to God, turning away from our sin (an action which we call repentance, genuine sorrow for our sin), believing and trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ as the revelation of God and the only way to personal salvation.  Following this deliberate choice on our part, we have then entered through what Jesus called the “narrow gate,”  the way to God and His forgiveness and His restoration of us to His favor.  We are then ready to launch upon the way of growth in godliness and holiness. We will want to take on the characteristics of Jesus and walk in this life as He taught us to do.  We do not create salvation by our actions, nor do good works save us.  But our actions and way of life reflect the change that has come in our life because we know and love Jesus and want to follow Him.  We might say that salvation is past, present and future.  The Christian has been saved from the penalty of sin (death and separation from God), is being saved from the power of sin (by living a victorious Christ-led life in the present), and we will be saved (completed, glorified) when God calls us to be forever with Him.  This is God’s plan of salvation, and it is available for anyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ, the Way.

Believers First Called Christians at Antioch

“And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.  The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch.  When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.  And a great many people were added to the Lord.  So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch.  For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people.  And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.” –Acts 11:21-26 (ESV.  Read Acts 11:19-30).

Upon the death of Stephen, a major persecution of the church in Jerusalem occurred.  Believers scattered to many places and as they went they told people of the Way.  Antioch of Syria was the third largest city of the known world at that time, with Rome the largest and Alexandria in Egypt the second largest.  It is estimated that the population of Antioch was half a million or more.  Many Hellenistic (Greek-speaking) Jews lived there.  It was also the capital of the Roman province of Syria.  A commercial port city located on the Orontes River and inland fifteen miles from the Mediterranean Sea, it was a rich and powerful city.  Worship of Daphne, Antioch’s patron goddess, was widely practiced, with immoral practices and festivals held in her honor.  Legend holds that Daphne was a mortal.  The pagan god Apollo fell in love with her and as he pursued her, she was turned into a laurel bush.  The laurel groves throughout Antioch held shrines to her honor, and every year the chase was reenacted.  To such a city, the message of Christ was preached and taught with zeal.  If the gospel could be heard and accepted in such a den of iniquity as the city of Antioch, then it can be spread anywhere.  Three distinct milestones are noted in the spread of the gospel to the Gentiles.  Philip, one of the first deacons, preached in Samaria.  But the Samaritans were a mixed race—Jewish and Gentile.  Peter then preached to Cornelius and many in Caesarea; but the invitation had come from a non-Jew, Cornelius himself.  Third, those who were scattered abroad went preaching in Phoenecia, Cyprus and Antioch.  The church grew, and soon the Jerusalem Church sent one of their finest, Barnabas, to check on the church at Antioch.  When he arrived, he liked what he observed.  But he needed help.  He remembered Saul and that he had returned to his hometown of Tarsus about ten years previously.  Barnabas went looking for him, and when he found him invited Saul to Antioch.  Together they ministered in the city for about a year.  The church kept growing.

 

And then a remarkable thing happened.  The believers got a name:  “And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.”  The suffix –iani—added to a word makes it mean “belonging to the party of.”  The word was a nickname at first, and uttered in a teasing, mocking way:  “These Christ-folks.”  The word may have originated in the court of the Roman ruler in Antioch, or on the street among yet-unbelieving Gentiles.  But the name stuck, and came to have a deep connotation, one of meaning “like Christ.”  By living their lives in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, with courage and faith and emulating Christ’s teachings and His deeds, the name has spread to all the world.  The courage exemplified in the face of cruel treatment, and the sacrificial lifestyle all spoke of being “like Christ.”  Agabus, a prophet, spoke to the Antioch church and told them a famine was coming and would especially affect the church at Jerusalem.  This was about the year 44 A. D.  A famine did occur in 45 A. D. under the rule of the Roman Emperor Claudius.  It especially hit in Judea and Greece.  The Antioch Church took up an offering to aid the suffering believers at Jerusalem.  Barnabas and Saul were selected to deliver it.  The focus of Christian outreach moved from Jerusalem to Antioch, from mainly Jewish to Gentile believers. The loving concern for those in hardship became a theme of sharing the love of Christ.  So may we continue!

Peter Testifies of Gentiles’ Salvation Before Christians in Jerusalem

“Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God.  So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, ‘You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.’  But Peter began and explained it to them in order…And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’  If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way? When they heard these they fell silent.  And they glorified God saying, ‘Then to the Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life’”-Acts 11:1-4; 16-18 (ESV. Read Acts 11:1-18).

News travels fast at times.  And what should have been very good news was considered with disdain by the Christians in Jerusalem.  In the thinking of many, especially those of the ‘circumcision party,’  the sect that held that all believers should go through the rite of circumcision—that Christianity was for the Jews only—were angry that Peter, a good Jew, had defiled himself by eating with Gentiles.  Peter strongly defended his action and explained “in order” his own experience and why he went to Cornelius’ house.  Dr. William Barclay, Bible scholar, notes that Dr. Luke gives much attention to writing again the vision Peter had on the housetop in Joppa, of seeing the sheet descend and the many kinds of animals on it, and the voice authoritatively saying the man is not to call unclean what God has created.  With a bulky papyrus roll to write on, Luke, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, felt this was very important to the story of the early church and how those who were Christian Jews gradually overcame their prejudices to accept non-Jews into the fellowship of believers.  Dr. Barclay states:  “Luke gives us this incident in full twice over because he sees it as a notable milestone on the road along which the Church was groping its way to the conception of a world for Christ.” (William Barclay, The Daily Study Bible. Acts.  Philadelphia:  Westminster, 1953, p. 90)

The Jewish Christians were having difficulty understanding the relationship between law and grace.  Having been brought up under strict legalism of Jewish law, they could not yet understand fully that persons did not first have to practice the law the Jews lived under before grace could enter in and they could be converted to the Way provided by the Lord Jesus Christ.  Peter told his story from beginning to end:  the vision, the visitors, the invitation, the salvation of Cornelius and others.  Yes, he had entered among and fellowshipped with Gentiles.  But the wonderful results were that they had come to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. “Who was I that I could stand in God’s way?”  In asking his fellow church members this rhetorical question, of course the answer was obvious.  Peter had no right to reject going to preach to the Gentiles, because the gospel is for anyone who will hear and believe.  For that time, at least, Peter’s accusers saw the power of Jesus to save and the inclusion of non-Jews in the master plan to spread the good news to all people.  But prejudices die hard.  Later on the question of circumcision or not will raise its head and Paul will have to make a defense before a Church Council in Jerusalem, as Peter did.

Since the time when I was a very young child, I have been fascinated with stories and reports given by returning missionaries of their work among people “not like us,” and of how Jesus loves all people of the world and wants them to come to him.  I remember hearing Miss Pearl Todd, a missionary to China, speak in my church at Choestoe when I was six or seven.  She asked me, probably wide-eyed and wondering, to come up front.  She put a Chinese garment on me to show that they did not dress as we do.  But inside they have hearts yearning for Jesus, and He clothes all children (and adults) everywhere with His grace. That was the important lesson the Jerusalem church learned.  This is the lesson we learn as we have a passion to reach out to others with the message of grace and truth. After hearing Miss Pearl Todd and her enthusiasm for telling others about Jesus, I wanted to go with her back to China!  I could tell others about Jesus, too. But  some must also stay.  In God’s plan for my life, I have been mainly one who remained in churches here, and as has been said of mission-lovers and promoters, “held the rope for others to go.”  Someone has wisely said, “The gospel came to us on its way to someone else.”  May we be faithful in keeping that line open and the good news spreading!  There are still many who need to hear about “repentance that leads to life” (v. 18).

Believers Called Christians first at Antioch

“So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.” –Acts 11:25-26 (NEV). [Paul asked:] “’King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe.’ And Agrippa said to Paul, ‘In a short time would you persuade me to be a Christian?’ And Paul said, ‘Whether short or long, I would to God that not only you but also all who hear me this day might become such as I am—except for these chains.’”-Acts 26:27-29 (ESV). “Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.”-I Peter 4:16 (ESV).

The three places the word Christian is used in the New Testament are in the verses cited here.

We know that Christian means an adherent of Christ, a believer in and follower of Christ, one committed to Christ. Let us briefly examine the context prior to Acts 11:25-26. Peter had gone to Joppa, preached at Cornelius’ house, and many had come to faith in the Lord Jesus. Persecution from the Jews arose following the stoning of Stephen. Believers went from Jerusalem to Phoenicia, Cyprus, Antioch and Cyrene preaching the Word. Many converts were made. The church at Jerusalem sent Barnabas to Antioch of Syria to investigate the preaching there and no doubt to examine the faith of the new converts. Barnabas was described as a good man, full of the Holy Spirit. He had heard of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus on the Road to Damascus. Barnabas found Paul in Tarsus, invited him to go to Antioch with him, and the two Christian leaders spent a whole year there preaching and teaching “a great many people.” Because the followers of Christ were increasing, they got the name, “Christians”—those committed to Christ. Prior to this time, followers had been called ‘the church,’ ‘the Way,’ or the ‘sect of the Nazarine.’ Bestowing the name Christians upon believers in Christ indicated that it was more than a new Jewish sect. Both Jews and Gentiles were in the group called “Christians.” Although believers were called Christians (probably by non-Christians, even Romans), the name became an acknowledgement that Jesus was indeed the Christ, the long-expected Messiah.

Later, Paul the Apostle was arrested by the Jews for preaching the gospel. On the basis of his Roman citizenship, he appealed to the Emperor of Rome, and was on his way there to be tried when he was heard before King Agrippa (Herod Agrippa II, one of the Roman rulers of Palestine) in Caesarea of Philippi. Before Agrippa, Paul gave his own defense, his personal testimony of how, in the midst of being a persecutor of the followers of Christ, he had been converted and became a spokesman for Christ, taking the message “throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles” (Acts 26:20). Following Paul’s testimony, King Agrippa said, ‘in a short time, would you persuade me to be a Christian?’ (ESV) We are more familiar with the King James Version rendering of Agrippa’s response: “Amost thou persuadest me to be a Christian” (Acts 26:28). Song writer Phillip Paul Bliss heard evangelist Rev. Brundage preaching a sermon on the text in 1871. The preacher ended with this haunting thought: “He who is almost persuaded is almost saved; and to be almost saved is to be eternally lost.” With that thought clearly in his mind, the gospel song writer penned the words of “Almost Persuaded” and also wrote the music for his words. Perhaps you recall the words:

“Almost persuaded” now to believe,
“Almost persuaded” Christ to receive.
Seems now some soul will say,
“Go, Spirit, go Thy way;
Some more convenient day
On Thee I’ll call.

Paul the Apostle answered King Agrippa’s response by an invitation, saying that he wished King Agrippa and all who heard the apostle that day would be as he—a Christian.

The third use of the word Christian was by Peter in his general letter to the churches. Persecution was rampant in the period of the early church. Peter strongly urged that any who must suffer for the gospel count it as to the glory of God. In many periods of history from then until now, Christians have suffered for their faith. Whatever comes of hardship and suffering, we are to endure with the full assurance that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. We bear His name. We are Christians.