I know if you attend seminary or any school that trains and prepares aspiring Christian believers to enter the ministry, you will have classes that educate you on how to ‘properly’ prepare and deliver sermons (Homiletics). There seems to be one ‘formula’ that many preachers have adapted which includes using ‘3 points’ that you hope the listener takes home with them, not to mention ‘take to heart’. Oftentimes, those three points will all begin with the same letter, to make it easier to remember, I suppose.

I’d be curious to ask any instructor who teaches such a class if they have ever tried to break down the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ that Jesus gave in Matthew 5-7, to see if it could it be nicely packaged in 3 points. I’m sure some have probably tried to do so and could even present how Jesus used this ‘method’. But whether we are analyzing a ‘Ted Talk’, an important political speech, or this famous sermon that Jesus delivered, one thing does seem to be constant, and it is the ‘wrap up’ of that message that seems to focus on tying in and then driving home the most important point they want to make. It seems the last 15 (red-lettered) verses as recorded in Matt. 7:13-27 from Jesus’s sermon do just that, so we will want to begin with those today.

Jesus admonishes the reader/listener to ‘enter the narrow gate’ which includes taking the ‘narrow’ path/way...that leads to ‘everlasting ‘life’. He mentions there that only ‘few will find it’. He also points out how there is another path that is ‘wide’ and the gate is ‘broad’, which ‘many’ will find themselves on, and this path leads to ‘destruction’. His words, not mine. (13-14)

Then He goes right into giving a warning to ‘beware’ of false teachings/teachers that will come, having the outward appearance of ‘sheep’, but inwardly they will be ‘ravenous wolves’ (15). I don’t think He is talking about those ‘four-legged, dog-like animals’ either. (Acts 20:29-31; 2 Cor. 11:3-4,14-15). But they sure will look/sound good, and ‘deceive many’ (Matt. 24:4-5,11,24-25).

If you're concerned though about recognizing such teachers, just know we are assured by Jesus that we will know them by their ‘fruit’; and fruit really seems to matter (Matt.7:16-20).

Next comes those three verses that always make us uncomfortable and usually have some folks scrambling through their ‘doctrinal’ teachings in an attempt to dismiss or explain away why Jesus didn’t really mean what He said there, that part about how “Not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who 'does the will' of the Father in heaven’...they are the ones who will enter through this narrow gate that leads to life. (21-23). Jesus even suggests that ‘many’ will come in that day...thinking they were a ‘shoe-in’ because of all the wonderful works they had done in ‘His name’, only to be told He ‘never knew them’. I just cannot even fathom what that moment will be like for those ‘many’.

Then, the final illustration includes two men who are building homes. One is described as ‘wise’ and the other ‘foolish’ (24,26). This is a good reference to use when studying the Ten Virgins in Matt. 25, of which 5 were wise and 5 were foolish.

We read here how the wise man built his house on a rock and the foolish man built his house on the sand. Both homes were subject to the same fierce and punishing storm and flood; and in the end, only one house was left standing. You just want to underscore the main point here that separates the difference between the wise man and the foolish man. Both ‘heard’ the sayings/words of Jesus, but only one of them actually ‘did’ them, as in put them into practice (Matt. 7:24).

And then, that was it; Jesus ended His message. Nothing there indicates that he had an ‘altar call’ where He invited people to ‘come forward’ or ‘raise a hand’. And I could be wrong, but it does not appear that a collection was taken up either. (and FYI, I am not knocking either of those practices we are familiar with)

So picking up where I left off yesterday, the question arose as to ‘what must a person ‘do’, in order to be ‘saved’. And this is where the waters can get murky and the responses began to vary, depending on whom you ask. I’m thinking the ‘majority’ of sincere believers today will tell you that you simply need to ‘believe’ by ‘putting your trust in Jesus’. They’ll also point to three verses from Acts 16:30-31, Romans 10:9-13, and Eph. 2:9. And let me just state for the record: those are wonderful passages and I couldn't agree more with them. But before we dive further in to what it is that we are being ‘saved’ from, let’s try to find clarity in what it actually means to ‘believe in’ Jesus...and to ‘put one’s trust in Him’. Is simply ‘trusting and believing’...the ‘will of God' that Jesus said we are to do, there in Matt. 7:21? And if so, we better make sure we’re all on the same page when it comes to understanding what that actually looks like, this idea of ‘really believing in your heart’. Because we sure don’t want to be in that group of well-meaning folks who missed out in vs. 22-23.

I’m not sure where this story originated from, but I’ve been told that Billy Graham used it years ago in some of his sermons:

It’s the story about a tightrope walker who strung a cable across a deep canyon and drew quite the crowd. He amazed them all with his ability to traverse back and forth with only that one pole he used for balance. Not stopping there, he then rode a bicycle across that cable, much to the delight of the crowd. Then he grabbed an empty wheelbarrow and scooted it across the canyon and then back. Waiting for the applause to subside, the tightrope walker than asked the crowd:

“Who here ‘believes’...I can transport a person across this cable while they sit inside this wheelbarrow?”

Hands went up everywhere. He then gazed over the crowd and asked: “Who of you here that just raised your hand would be willing to get in?”   Not one person came forward.

When it comes to matters and truths pertaining to the kingdom of God, it seems based on history...that the ‘majority’ of folks get it 'wrong' more often than they did 'right', as we saw at the beginning here today. And all those people who passionately waved their hands expressing a firm belief and trust in what that tightrope walker could do...not one was willing to put their ‘faith into action’.(James 2:14,17)

So...what about you? Are you ‘in’?