Strive to Enter (1)

Albert N. Martin

Now, will you turn with me in your own Bibles, please, to the Gospel according to Luke? Luke chapter 13, verses 22 through 30.

As Luke continues his narrative of the life and activities of the Lord Jesus, he writes:

And he went on his way through cities and villages, teaching and journeying unto Jerusalem. And one said unto him, ‘Lord, are they few that are saved?’ And he said unto them, ‘Strive to enter in by the narrow door; for many, I say unto you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able. When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut the door, and you begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us’; and he shall answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you whence you are.’

Then shall you begin to say, ‘We did eat and drink in your presence, and you taught in our streets’; and he shall say, ‘I tell you, I do not know whence you are; depart from me, all you workers of iniquity. There shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth, when you shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves cast forth without. And they shall come from the east and the west, and from the north and the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. And behold, there are last who shall be first, and there are first who shall be last.’

The signpost we are to consider most carefully, and I trust most seriously, is one that was written by the very words of Jesus as recorded in Luke chapter 13, verse 24, and the first part of the verse.

I want you to imagine with me that there’s a four-by-four post stuck two feet into the earth, and nailed upon it is a one-by-six piece of pine. Etched in unmistakably clear English are these words: strive to enter in by the narrow door. That is the simple signpost to the celestial city to which we direct our attention tonight: strive. Do your utmost; agonize.; exert all of your faculties; strain every nerve. All of those words are legitimate translations of the one Greek imperative verb agónizomai. “Strive to enter in by the narrow door.”

Notice with me—first of all, as we contemplate this simple signpost to the celestial city—what was the occasion of Jesus making this signpost? Well, if you would look at verse 22, the answer is very clear: “He went on his way through cities and villages, teaching and journeying unto Jerusalem. And one said unto him, ‘Lord, are there few that are saved?’ And he said unto them..”

The occasion of Jesus making this signpost is very clearly described for us by Luke in verses 22 and 23. Jesus was on a general preaching and teaching tour while making His way with steady step and resolute determination to the city of Jerusalem.

Notice, “He was on His way through cities and villages, teaching..” but all the while journeying on to Jerusalem. Now, why was He journeying to Jerusalem? Was He going there to visit relatives? Was He going there simply to celebrate one of the appointed feasts? No, He was going to Jerusalem—this time—for one fundamental and very clearly defined purpose. He was on His way to Jerusalem that at Jerusalem He might be handed over by the Jewish authorities to the Roman government that He might be condemned to death, that He might die as the Savior of sinners.

Back in chapter 9 in verse 51 of the same Gospel record, we read:

And it came to pass when the days were well-nigh come, that He should be received up.

The days were drawing near when His earthly mission would have been accomplished, and as those days were drawing near, note what Jesus did: He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem. He knew that He could not go up into the presence of His Father as a triumphant Savior, having accomplished His work of salvation, until He, first of all, went to Jerusalem.

So, He steadfastly set His face. His heart, His soul were determined that He would go to Jerusalem, that at Jerusalem He might experience the very things described in chapter 18 of the Gospel of Luke, verses 31 through 33:

Then he took unto him the twelve and said unto them, ‘Behold, we go up into Jerusalem, and all the things that are written by the prophets shall be accomplished unto the Son of Man. For he shall be delivered up unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and shamefully entreated, and spit upon; and they shall scourge and kill him; and the third day he shall rise again.’

For our Lord, Jerusalem had fixed and settled activities that lay before Him. He was not going up under any romantic notions that He would be welcomed as an earthly king. He was not going up for sentimental reasons. He was on His way to Jerusalem in order to subject Himself voluntarily to the things we have just read in chapter 18, 31-33. He would be handed over to the Gentiles. He would be mocked; He would be spat upon; He would be killed, and the third day He would rise again from the dead!

In other words, He was on His way to Jerusalem to do for sinners—by His death upon the cross and His subsequent resurrection—what sinners cannot do for themselves.

He was going to Jerusalem in fulfillment of His role and identity as the Lamb of God who would bear away the sin of the world. He would voluntarily subject Himself not merely to the wrath of men, but to the wrath and curse of His Father as He vicariously would bear in Himself the curse of God against a broken Law.

Now, in one of those cities or villages, as our Lord is traveling—or perhaps in the midst of His actually speaking—someone speaks out of the crowd and asks the question recorded in verse 23. Luke 13:23: “And one said unto him, ‘Lord, are they few [literally] that are being saved?’” For some reason, this unnamed individual who spoke from an undescribed motive, speaks out of the crowd and asks a question which has to do with the relative number of those who are being saved, in comparison to those who are not saved.

The question is so broad and indefinite, it could mean that He was asking about that comparative number in his own generation. It could have been one of his followers who had seen the many who had turned away, though they had seen His miracles, though they had eaten the bread multiplied in His own hands, by creative power. They had been fed to the full when they began to hear His spiritual teaching about eating His flesh and eating His blood, and His stating that no man can come to Him, except the Father brought him. They say, “This is a hard saying. Who can bear it?” Many went back and walked no more.

Perhaps, it was someone who had observed that and asked the question: “Lord, are there few that are saved?” Will the number continue to dwindle?

It could have been a self-righteous Jew who, seeing something of the compassion of Jesus periodically manifested to Gentiles, was wondering if indeed the Lord was going to widen the gate of salvation.

We simply don’t know who he was, what his motive was, but we do know what his question was. His question had to do with the relative number of the saved and of the lost: “Lord, are those that are being saved few in comparison those who are not being saved, or who are yet lost?”

Now, it was in that precise setting that Jesus makes the signpost that is the focus of our study today, a setting in which He is on His way to Jerusalem to die for sinners who cannot save themselves! While on His way, a question is asked about the relative number of the saved and of the lost: “‘Lord, are they few that are saved?’ And He said unto them, ‘Strive to enter in by the narrow door; for many, I say unto you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able.’”