Luke 13:22-30 The Narrow Door
At eighteen years old I graduated high school and went to Bible college. I was a card-carrying Jesus freak and I wanted to be a pastor—spend my life telling people about God’s salvation.
One way I did this was by writing songs and playing concerts. I started having some local success in music and I thought, “Man, I could tell a lot of people about Jesus if I became a rockstar!” God had used music in a big way to change my life, I wanted to do that for other people.
In 1987 we moved to Houston in the hopes of working with a music production company that some of my friends were part of. It didn’t happen overnight but eventually my band was signed to a division of Warner Brothers Music, we made an album, people liked it, we toured all over, had videos on MTV, music was played on all the rock radio stations, interviews in all the magazines. It was pretty awesome—all my dreams coming true, all my hard work and perseverance had paid off. Opened up doors for all kinds of conversations about Jesus.
And then it all came crashing down.
Long story short, the president of the division of Warner Brothers who signed us got fired. All of his artists were dropped—including us. We were on tour when we found out. It was devastating. I came home wondering “what am I going to do now?”
One afternoon I get a call. A young woman says, “Is this Frank Hart? I’m calling from Irving Azoff’s office, are you available to talk?”
Irving Azoff was the president of Giant Records. The manager of the Eagles, Van Halen, Journey, a bunch more. Yes, I was available to talk.
He told me he really liked the Atomic Opera record and thought it was a shame we got dropped in all that political powerplay nonsense. He said he would like to sign my band and make more records—how did that sound to me?
How did that sound to me! I was about to explode. “Yes! Of course. That sounds amazing.”
“But there’s a catch.” He explained I was going to have to get out of my contract with the production company I moved to Texas to work with.
I was going to have to cut out the person who helped make it happen. That would be a cold move. Irving Azoff wouldn’t be calling me if it wasn’t for the guy he wanted me to dump. I didn’t know what to say.
“Mr Azoff, that seems like a pretty big betrayal—he’s the one who got us in the door.”
He said, “I can understand why you would feel this way but that’s the only way I’m interested. What’s your answer going to be?”
I said, “I don’t see how I can do that to him.”
He said, “Well, I’m sorry to hear that. Good luck with your band.”
And he hung up. I was stunned. The whole conversation was probably 5 minutes.
I thought, “No, that can’t be the end. I should tell him “yes,” make another record or two and then try to bring my producer friend back in later.”
So, I called him back. The same young woman answered the phone, “I’m sorry Mr Azoff has left for the day.” I gave her my number—which she already had. I tried several more times. It was a very limited time offer.
I still feel that one.
I hate limited time offers! It’s too much pressure. No matter what the offer is, I’m always ready to say no. That instinct didn’t serve me very well with Mr Azoff, did it? It’s not going to work out great for a lot of people with Jesus, either.
Today we’re continuing in Luke. Jesus is going to explain that the Gospel is kind of like that second chance record deal. It’s a limited time offer.
Luke 13:22-30
He 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?”
Luke 13:22-23
Luke gives us a reminder that Jesus is on the road traveling to Jerusalem. Everyone reading this knows what happens in Jerusalem, just like we do—Luke wants us to remember that everything Jesus says or does is leading to the cross and the resurrection. The people in the story don’t get it but we, the readers, we do.
These are the same towns and villages Jesus had sent His followers ahead of time to stir things up before He got there. They knew Jesus was coming and they were waiting for Him—probably with a bunch of questions.
So Jesus shows up in one of those little towns, He’s teaching, and someone asks Him something we’ve all wondered too, “Who’s going to be saved? Are you only going to save a few people?”
We ask that same question in so many different ways. Is God really only going to save the Christians? That doesn’t seem fair. What about people in all the other religions? In the parts of the world where teaching about Jesus can get you in trouble. What about people who’ve never heard of Jesus? Or people who are mad at Him? “Lord, are you really only going to save a few?” He kind of changes the question with His answer. Verse 24…
And he said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door. Luke 13:24
“Strive” is a sports word. It’s the same word Paul uses to say “Every athlete exercises self-control in their training.” It’s also the same word he uses when he says “fight the good fight of faith.” “Finish the race!” If you watched the Super Bowl last week, Patrick Mahomes was a perfect picture of what this looks like. He entered the game with a sprained ankle and before halftime he was tackled and injured it again—limping off the field in obvious pain. But then he came back and finished the second half of the game, pushing through the pain, even ran two 8-yard carries. That’s what “strive” looks like.
Strive to enter through the narrow door. Second half of verse 24…
For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. Luke 13:24
What does that mean? Why will many seek to enter but not be able to? Remember, He’s answering a question about who He’s going to save. So, how can this be? Many people will want to be saved but He’s not going to save them? I thought anyone who came to Jesus would be saved? What’s going on here? Verse 25…
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.’ Luke 13:25
When—this is a timing thing. The narrow door isn’t narrow like an entryway too small for a fat person—like me trying to get in my car when someone parks too close. It’s more like when we say an offer has a narrow window. The Gospel is a limited time offer. The door is closing.
Jesus is the master of the house. Notice the word “risen”—it’s definitely a resurrection foreshadowing. He’s talking to Jews. For the Jews, the resurrection is going to be when their exclusive offer expires and Jesus is going to open it up to the rest of the world. Think of it like a presale offer to those who are already members of the fanclub—Swifties get early access to concert tickets.
But it gets a lot heavier than that. He’s going to shut the door—then no one else is getting in.
A few years ago we visited the Ark Encounter in Kentucky. It’s a big, kinda goofy replica and museum of Noah’s ark. One of my favorite pictures is all of us pretending to look horrified standing at the door of the ark because it was closed and we were all going to drown.
Remember the story? God told Noah to build a giant boat. He spent about 50 years building it and warning people that a flood was coming. No one listened. On the day when the rain started, Noah and his family entered the ark then God shut and locked the door.
So this is just like that. Jesus is saying, “right now I’m inviting everyone to come on in but the day is coming when I shut the door—and I’m not going to open it again.”
People are going to bang on the door saying, “Hey Jesus! It’s me, Hi. I’m the problem, it's me! Let me in!”
Knock knock.
Who’s there?
Irish.
Irish who?
Irish I would’ve come in when the door was open.
‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ This is saying they’re a stranger, like He doesn't know their last name. They didn’t really have last names like we do, they used the town they were from. Like, Jesus is “Jesus of Nazareth.”
“Go away, I don’t know you.” That’s not what you want to hear.
But He figures they’ll argue with Him. Try to change His mind. Verse 26…
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!’ Luke 13:26-27
They’ll be like: Come on man! I went to some of your dinner parties. Ate your bread, drank your wine. Why you doing me like this Jesus? I knew you were there. Passed by a bunch of Your churches every Sunday when I went to brunch. Sunday was Funday. Don’t be like this. What about that Bible verse that says I don’t have to go to church to go to heaven—or was that a meme?
Jesus will answer through a little door, like the speakeasies used to have, “Sorry man, your name isn’t on the guest list. I sent you an invitation. You threw it away.”
More to the point: the people outside didn’t believe in Jesus. They didn’t have faith in Him. He wasn’t a priority in their life. They didn’t build the rest of their life around what He taught. They ignored His wisdom and did whatever they thought was right. He was not important to them when the door was open.
Notice they didn’t say, “I listened to Your teaching! You taught me—I learned so much!” Just, “You taught in our streets.” They weren’t interested in what He had to say until the door was closed.
Strive to enter means strive to listen. When you hear the Gospel—what God does for you through Jesus that you can’t do for yourself—pay attention. Believe it. Hear God’s Word and repent. Turn away from all the stupid distractions in your life, turn away from selfishness, sin, pride, stubbornness—and turn toward Jesus. Someone tells you about Jesus and points to the narrow door—you should walk in. Jesus is the only way of salvation. He’s the only door. He is the way, the truth, and the life. No one gets into the kingdom of heaven any other way.
The people who ignore the invitation and are left standing outside are called “workers of evil.” This is because they rejected the righteousness that was offered to them by faith in Jesus. They rejected the Gospel. Salvation was a gift, a limited time offer, they didn’t want it until it was too late. Like children, they didn’t want it until they couldn’t have it.
The command to “struggle” to enter the narrow door has nothing to do with moral effort, trying to be good so you can go to heaven. To struggle is to repent. Hear the Gospel and fight every impulse to ignore it. Turn away from all the distractions of the world and enter the narrow door—believe in the salvation offered in Christ alone.
So, what happens to the people who don’t believe, the people left out in the street? Verse 28…
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. Luke 13:28
People say they like Jesus but they don’t want to hear any of that “turn or burn” preaching. Jesus is the hellfire and brimstone preacher of the Bible. He knows what’s at stake—what He came to do. He takes His job seriously. He’s on His way to Jerusalem to die for anyone who wants to be saved. You would think that would be everyone but it seems most people aren’t interested—at least not while the offer is on the table. While the window of opportunity is open. While the narrow door is not closed.
And when the door closes, it’s going to get the attention of everyone outside. They’re going to see how much nicer it is inside. Somehow they’ll see who’s in there having a nice time. The ones who got in before the offer expired. Some of the people outside are Jews who put their hope in being a Jew—a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, instead of believing in Jesus—they’re going to see their faithful forefathers in there. They’ll see the prophets who were always so serious and gloomy, laughing and having a great time.
Oh, but it’s so much worse than that. They see all of us, too. Verse 29…
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 13:29-30
This is the real kicker. Jesus is going to open the invitation to all the outsiders. The people who hated them. Their enemies. Pagans. Gentiles. Romans, Greeks, Africans, Indians, Asians, Americans, even Texans.
The first will be last and the last will be first. It will be the same for people of our day—Important people who thought they had God all figured out and in a neat little box will be outside and people who barely know the words of “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so” will be sitting in there drinking wine and eating lamb shawarma—being served by Jesus Himself.
These are the people who are being saved by the Gospel. They responded to the invitation while the narrow door was still open. They took Jesus up on His offer while the offer was still good. Which is to say, while they were alive on the earth—before Jesus comes back and shuts the door.
Someone came up to Jesus and asked if only a few would be saved. Jesus redirected the question. Instead of answering an intellectual, theological curiosity—Jesus made it personal. Instead of answering a question about how many people will or won’t be saved, He created a new question, “Are you putting off repentance and in danger of missing out on salvation yourself?”
And the answer to that question is, “if you aren’t actively walking through the door—yes! You’re in danger of being left out in the street.”
This is not a question to jack around with. You need to make it personal. You need to make sure you’re going to be saved by walking through the narrow door—and you need to drag the people you know and love in with you. Strive. Repent and believe.
You can’t push the door open by being good, it doesn’t work that way. The door is only open right now because Jesus opened it. He’s calling you to come on in—bring a friend. Bring all your friends. But it’s a limited time offer. It expires when you expire. Or when He comes back down here—whichever comes first.
You shouldn’t let anything get in your way. Don’t put it off.
It’s a very narrow entrance. Only through Jesus. Only if you're dressed in the pure white garment of righteousness He bought for you. Only if He put your name on the guestlist. It’s by invitation only. You are invited but this is a very exclusive party.
Only if you are willing to repent and believe.
Only if you are willing to cut ties and break the contract with your old boss—you have to dump that guy. Jesus is offering a way out of that deal your soul has with the devil.
You want to know what happened after I refused to betray my friend, the producer/manager who I was so faithful to? He dissolved his company and canceled my contract. Told me good luck in my future endeavors. Then my band members all walked away one at a time and I was left with nothing.
I definitely should have walked through that door while it was still open.
You should too. Repent and believe in the offer Jesus has for you—forgiveness of sins, eternal life, joy, hope and peace—way better than a record deal. All you have to do is listen to His voice, His Word, stop lollygagging and hanging around just outside—and strive to go through that narrow door. No more apathy. Indifference. Repent and believe. True belief and true repentance.
Because you know how it is—once that door is shut, all of a sudden you’ll be all about wanting to get in. Fear of missing out will drive you crazy. FOMO and weeping and gnashing. Sometimes people think it’s not fair that Jesus would ever shut the door. But they’re the ones who aren’t being fair. They didn’t want to come to the party He invited them to, so God gives them what they want—eternal separation from Him.” When the narrow door closes there’s only two possible places to be: inside with Jesus which is the kingdom of heaven, or outside with the devil which among other things is called Hell.
The doors open. Don’t let your stubbornness or apathy get in the way of taking Jesus up on His offer.
It seems to me Jesus made sure we knew this story because He wants us to have a sense of urgency about salvation. Time is short. Your time is short and so is the time of everyone you know. We need to strive to enter the narrow door while it’s open—and most of us are here because that’s exactly what we’re trying to do. Respond to God’s mercy, repent and believe.
But some of us are still treating this like a timeshare presentation. Some of us are skeptical. And high pressure limited time offers operators are standing by sales pitches don’t help. I get it.
It’s not going to make sense until you experience God’s love.
You need to experience God’s love, His mercy, the freedom from shame His forgiveness offers you. Nothing in this world has prepared you for the kindness and love of God. He loves you perfectly. He’s calling you right now to turn toward Him, believe, and trust Him. You are invited. The offer is on the table. Come on in. Let’s do this.
But it’s not just for you. It’s also for all the people who aren’t here yet. The people who drive by our signs and don’t think it has anything to do with them. The people we’ll see at lunch today who had no intention of worshiping God this morning or any other morning. That family member you invited to church once or twice but they didn’t come so that was that.
In another version of this story, Jesus looks around the banquet and sees a bunch of empty seats—kind of like in here this morning—and He tells them to go out, invite everyone in the streets no matter who they are, fill this place up with the outsiders, the poor, the disabled, the lame, the blind—anyone they can find. He said, “I want my Father’s house to be full!”
We started NewChurch to be a place where people can find out about the salvation Jesus is offering them—or where they can rediscover who He really is —discover God’s love—because some other bunch of nincompoops messed it up for them.
Help me fill this place up. You know all kinds of people I can’t reach. Will only a few of them be reached? Probably. But help me invite everyone we know—over and over until there’s a few more who might be saved.
This is a sobering story. Jesus isn’t messing around. I hope you’re listening.
I’ll end with a quote from Luther, ““For even though you know that He is God’s Son, that He died and rose again, and that He sits at the right hand of the Father, you have not yet learned to know Christ aright … [until you also] believe that He did all this for your sake, in order to help you.” All the promises of God’s mercy and salvation are offered to you right here, right now, because of Jesus. AMEN
Prayer: As we pray today, I want us to have an opportunity to repent of apathy. To pray for urgency. Urgency to take Jesus at His word and go through the narrow door—believing His promise of salvation. And urgency to invite the people who aren’t here inside with Jesus to join us—to repent and believe. Pray for them by name. They must come to believe in Jesus, there is no other way. Seek the Lord while He may be found. Please pray—in your own words, right where you are.