Events
Opening Day Chapel Service, August 25, 2010.
Address by Sharon Mathew Broderick
Good Morning.
I’d like to speak today from Luke chapter 13, beginning with verse 22. The text says:
Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, "Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?"
He said to them, "Make every effort [in some translations the word is “strive”] to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, 'Sir, open the door for us.'
"But he will answer, 'I don't know you or where you come from.'
"Then you will say, 'We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.'
"But he will reply, 'I don't know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!'
"There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last."
Introduction
The question I ask on this first day of the GVCA 2010 school year is, have you entered through the narrow door? Are you a child of God?
This is the most important question I can ask you. And if the answer is yes, then I do not fear for you. For if you have entered the narrow door, by submitting your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, you will work hard, you will do your best in every class you will honor your parents and your teachers. You will be glad when someone brings a word of correction and directs you back to the narrow way. You will repent when you sin. You will seek to bring glory to God in whatever you do. And your obedience will not be burdensome but a delight, filling you with great peace and joy! Not misery and unhappiness. You will hold out to others the glorious gospel message and shine as bright lights in a dark and dreary world. So then it is critical that I not simply encourage you to work hard during this new school year, but that I exhort you to make every effort to enter the narrow door and surrender your lives to Jesus Christ.
Make Every Effort or Strive
What does make every effort to enter the narrow door or strive to enter the narrow door mean?
It means first that you must not simply assume you are a Christian. You should not assume you are a Christian just because you attend a Christian school. You should not assume you are a Christian just because you attend a church or have Christian parents. You should not assume you are a Christian simply because you are person who is from time to time convicted about sin. Did you know that it is possible to go to this school from Kindergarten through Ninth Grade and still not be a Christian? So do not assume your salvation. If you assume this, you will never make any effort to enter through the narrow door of salvation.
“Strive to enter the narrow door” also means that if you are convicted that you are not inside the door, that you are not a Christian, you should not just continue on in your sin thinking that God will save you whenever he saves you and there is nothing for you to do. While salvation is a gift of God and our efforts will never save us, it is wrong to conclude that we then should make no effort at all. Jesus says the opposite in this passage. If you would be saved, you must seek the Lord, you must cry out to him, you must give up all known sin, you must study the Bible. Striving is not easy, there is opposition-- the devil does not want you to succeed. He is happy when you are lazy and complacent and go about always convicted but never doing anything. This laziness will never get you anywhere good-- it only leads to more misery. If you are interested in the salvation of your soul-- you must make every effort to enter that door. You must Strive!
Do Not Linger Near the Door
Many people are near the door, oh so near to that precious entrance into salvation. But they take every precaution not to actually enter in. Those near the door, are Christian in label, but not Christian at heart. They like the idea of a God who offers eternal salvation, but not a God who requires his children to give up sinful lives and submit to his authority. Those lingering near the door keep one eye on the door in case Jesus should come and one eye on the world, perhaps on popularity or on having fun, or perhaps on achieving more and more academically, or on getting a boyfriend/girlfriend, or on some type of self-created fantasy life-- they do not make every effort to enter in because they do not want to focus both eyes on the door and strive!
Ask yourself, is this true of me? For it is often true of people who have an acquaintance with Christianity, who have the special privileges of growing up in a church or in a Christian school. Too often such people stay ever so near the door, but do not enter in.
Jesus said, the first shall be last and the last shall be first. Those who are very near to the door usually they think they are fine, and they plug their ears when they hear God saying the opposite. They plug their ears when they are convicted that their life of disobedience does not match their confession that Jesus is Lord. They quench any movement of the Holy Spirit. And I ask you today, do you use your closeness to the door to silence the voice of God? Are you one of the first who will be last?
Jesus Christ came first to the people of Israel, they were the ones who experienced this climactic privilege-- from them the blessed God-Messiah came. This was greatest privilege, yet they missed him. They refused to believe in Him, while at the same time still calling themselves the people of God. Their priests called themselves the priests of God, yet they missed God entirely!
Think about these people to whom Jesus refers in the text that I read, they knew a lot about Jesus Christ, but they did not know him personally. And he did not know them personally. They ate and drank with him, they heard him teach-- but they did not know him. They did not make the effort to know him, to take him as their personal Savior and Lord-- they did not follow that conviction. They thought they could fool Jesus-- but you cannot fool him-- you can never fool God. He knows those who stand with one eye on the door and one eye on sinful pleasure. Jesus knows those who have surrendered all for his Name’s sake and those who are still clutching the world. He knows those who have crossed the threshold to come inside the door and those who are still lingering outside in the doorway.
What Happens When He Comes
And there are many who are near the door, perhaps thinking they might enter in at some later time. There are many there who were very privileged like Israel, those who were first but in the end shall be last. When the Master comes those near the door are taken by surprise and they begin rushing and groaning and screaming and clawing and blaming each other and gnashing their teeth as they push and shove as one big herd. And in that great crush of people (you can imagine) no one can move and no one can get in the door. They are left on the outside. The door was too narrow and they waited too long.
And finally, if you are among them, you might call out “Open the door!” And you make your claim that you ate and drank together, that you had known the Master the whole time. That you attended a Christian school and maybe even a Christian church and maybe even had Christian parents. That must be worth something, mustn’t it?
And he may answer back: Yes, all those things are true. You had many privileges, but those privileges are not sufficient to get you through the narrow door. The reality is that you never knew me and I don’t know you or where you come from. I saw that you called yourself by the name Christian, but I am not simply in a label. Only those who strive, only those who make every effort, only those who seek me wholeheartedly will find me.
Enter In
Those who make their home near the door do not know what peace is--they are restless, they are tired, they are anxious. They are living a life of deceit, even deceiving themselves. Telling themselves everything is going to be ok, even when they know that the opposite is the truth. In contrast, those inside the door experience peace, joy, fellowship--they are refreshed.
Do you want to enter in? Even today, the gospel call goes out and you can begin this new school year a different way, as one inside the door-- as a true child of God. Do not quench the Holy Spirit-- instead respond to the conviction by making every effort, by striving to enter that narrow door of salvation.
Jesus said, “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.”
Come, humbly before him. Come in true repentance of your sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Submit to him as Savior and Lord. There is no other way.
Fall facedown before him. As you are falling down at the threshold of that narrow door in complete submission and surrender, it is then that the Lord of Heaven and Earth reaches out and brings you inside the door. It is when you give up and give in and realize you are powerless to do anything in your own strength when you are ready to lose your life so that you might find it in him… it is then that he draws you in. Seek him with all your heart, strive and make every effort, for if you do that he will not turn you away, and you can join the throngs of saints, those from the east and the west and the north and the south, who proclaim with great and abounding joy, “We are on the Lord’s side, Savior, we are thine!” Amen.
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