Three Warnings – Matthew 7:13-27
Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus consistently challenges the status quo, inviting His apprentices to live out his Kingdom. The final section of Jesus’ sermon offers three warnings that iterate a similar idea– put Jesus’ teachings into practice.
“When Jesus saw his ministry drawing huge crowds, he climbed a hillside. Those who were apprenticed to him, the committed, climbed with him. Arriving at a quiet place, he sat down and taught his climbing companions. This is what he said…” – Matthew 5:1-2
Jesus is the new Moses, leading a new exodus, teaching a new Torah to a new Israel and a new kingdom.
“When Jesus concluded his address, the crowd burst into applause. They had never heard teaching like this. It was apparent that he was living everything he was saying.” – Matthew 7:28-29
The whole sermon is Christ describing what life in the kingdom and allegiance to him looks like.
The Sermon on the Mount is not an isolated speech.
Obedience to the Sermon on the Mount is a practice in imagination
Niel Postman’s Information Action Ratio: information becomes important because of its potential to create action.
Because the tie between information and action has been severed, we are preconditioned to do nothing with the information given to us.
We must be people of information AND action.
Three Warnings
The broad way (vv. 13-14)
The false prophet (vv. 15-23)
The shaky foundation (vv. 24-27)
13 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. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” –Matthew 7:13-14
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.” –John 14:6
Jesus is the narrow gate.
“Don’t look for shortcuts to God. The market is flooded with surefire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time. Don’t fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires total attention. – Matthew 7:13-14, The Message
26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?[a] 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you. –Matthew 6: 26-30
7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! – Matthew 7:7-11
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” – Matthew 11:29-30
We aren’t promised that the road will be easy but Jesus does promise to walk with us.
“Many from the east and west will come into the kingdom.” – Matthew 8:11
Matthew 20:18 we learn that Jesus’ death liberates many from captivity.
Therefore, Jesus is not limiting the number that can be saved. Rather, he is calling us to introspection, to ask the question, am I part of the few, to examine moments when we have chosen the broadway and not the narrow.
Three tests to discern between true and false prophet
The Life Test
The Teaching Test
The Relationship Test
False Prophet= false preacher, pastor, teacher, writer, or podcaster
“16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit”. – Matthew 7:16-17
“Be wary of false preachers who smile a lot, dripping with practiced sincerity. Chances are they are out to rip you off some way or other. Don’t be impressed with charisma; look for character. Who preachers are is the main thing, not what they say. A genuine leader will never exploit your emotions or your pocketbook. – Matthew 7:15-20, The Message
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” – Matthew 7:21
“Will of my father” = the Word or teachings of Jesus
“Watch your life and doctrine [teachings] closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” – 1 Timothy 4:16
“Paul and Silas finish teaching the Berean people and it says they “received the word [Paul’s teaching] with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” – Acts 17:10-11
“22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” – Matthew 7:22-23
When confronted with this passage as a pastor, my first inclination should be to “turn the text into a mirror,” to ask myself, “Am I the false prophet of this text? Do I have a public life that is admirable and a private life that does not follow what Jesus has taught in this Sermon?” –Scott McKnight
In being watchful, we not only love and protect ourselves and Christ’s community, but we protect the pastors, the teachers, and the preachers. We help our pastors catch the warning signs before they deviate from the narrow way.
24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” – Matthew 7:24-27
“These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on.” – Matthew 7:24-25, The Message
All three warnings concern what happens when we hear something but we do not put it into practice.
Spiritual Practice
Review all of the sermons we have heard since September in this sermon series. Identify one moment when you felt the prompting of the Holy Spirit to act in response to the information you were given and you did not. Now, implement that one action this week.
