The Significance of Luke's Gospel
I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 13, as we're continuing in this series through Luke's gospel. As we're making our way through the gospel, I want you to feel the weight and significance of what Luke has documented for us. Luke is not simply giving us a random assortment of stories. This is not a stream of consciousness where something just suddenly occurred to him as opposed to things that he forgot to write down.
But these are recorded under the inspiration of God by Luke, who was a first-hand eyewitness to the life and ministry of Jesus. And Luke is showing us that Jesus knew what his mission was, that he came to earth not simply to be a nice person or a moral example or a superior rabbi, but Jesus came to earth as the Son of the living God who offered salvation to all who would accept it.
As Luke is writing this gospel, he wants his hearers, both in the first century and in our own time, to recognize the importance of Christ. He wants us to be convinced that Jesus is who he says that he is and stake our eternal life on belief in his gospel.
So as Jesus is recorded here in Luke's gospel, Luke is presenting him in different conversations with people, some of whom believed him, many of whom doubted him. And in Luke chapter 13, he's interacting with many people who doubt him. We saw last week that there was a synagogue ruler who doubted Jesus, perhaps because of the Pharisees and the scribes who were influencing him, but he has to take individual responsibility for his doubts because he confronted Jesus and said, "Who are you to heal on the Sabbath day?" revealing the man's unbelief.
And yet Jesus was gracious to work on the Sabbath and to give a daughter of God rest from her suffering. And he provided a miracle healing that liberated her from her bondage. Jesus did just these sorts of things to reveal the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, but he also wanted to show them the difficulty of becoming a true follower of
Jesus as the Only Way
God. Thus, when we begin in verse 22, we will see that Jesus makes it emphatically clear that he is the only way of salvation. So let's begin reading in verse number 22 through 35 today.
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?" And he said to them, "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to do so. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, 'Sir, please open the door for us.' But he will answer, 'I don't know you or where you come from.' Then you will say, 'But we ate and drank with you. And you taught us in our streets.' But he will reply, 'I don't know you or where you have come from. Away from me, all you evildoers.' There will be weeping there and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, 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 of the kingdom of God. Indeed, there are those who are last who will be first, and there are those who are first who will be last."
At that time, some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, "Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you." He replied, "Go tell that fox that I will keep on driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow. And on the third day, I will reach my goal. In any case, I must press on today and tomorrow and the next day, for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you. How often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to be desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.' Amen."
As Jesus is speaking to the audience in this passage, he is reminding them that the way to heaven is defined by God; it's readily available, but it is not accessible to everyone.
Several years ago, on June 29th, 2011, an unknown person stopped at the Pilot Travel Center in Tallapoosa, Georgia, not far from where Craig grew up. Maybe it was Craig. But they purchased a Powerball ticket for a prize that turned out to be $77 million. Surprisingly, no one stepped forward to claim the winning lottery ticket. The State Lottery Commission publicized the news. They hoped that the winner would check their number and claim the money. But no one came forward. After 180 days of trying, the lottery ticket eventually expired, and the $77 million went unclaimed and became the largest missed lottery prize in US history.
Can you imagine the owners' reaction if they finally realized their mistake? Maybe they found the ticket on the 181st day only to discover it was absolutely worthless. Or maybe they threw the ticket away or completely forgot about it and had no idea what they had won. Imagine having a ticket for $77 million without realizing it. That's exactly what may have happened with this ticket. No one knows. The winner with this ticket never identified themselves. They never came forward to claim the money. And as the days ticked by and the lottery officials desperately tried to find the owner, nothing was done. In the end, the ticket went unclaimed and the money went back into the lottery fund for future tickets.
The Worthless Unclaimed Prize
While I'm not endorsing the Georgia lottery, nor am I encouraging you to buy a lottery ticket, this story illustrates an obvious principle that we'll see in our passage this morning. And that is, a winning lottery ticket is worthless unless the winner accepts the prize money.
Likewise, Jesus is showing in this passage, in his response to a questioner, that salvation is worthless unless sinners recognize what is going on and accept God's grace. Salvation only comes through Jesus Christ. It's an offer that he was making in the first century and an offer that he continues to make today.
But we must claim the offer. We must confess our sins, acknowledging that we have broken God's moral law, and we must receive him for the forgiveness of our sins and claim his righteousness, which he freely gives.
Luke in this gospel narrative is documenting Jesus' life and ministry as the Son of God, the only person that can forgive sins. He's already said as much, and the Pharisees reacted viscerally. They knew that a claim to forgive sins was a claim to be God. And that's exactly who Jesus was, the Son of the living God.
And Luke is presenting his various interactions with religious hypocrites who opposed him, and they opposed curious seekers who were drawn to him. Everywhere Jesus went, he offers the only way of salvation through himself. And in this passage, he calls himself the door.
You see, Jesus in this passage is going to help his Jewish audience understand who were actually God's children. And that leads to the first section of our passage that Jesus previews: who will enter heaven.
Who Will Enter Heaven
So my first point this morning is that Jesus previews who will enter heaven. And to the surprise of his audience, it may not be who they thought and it may not be who we think either. As Luke is recording one of the most thorough biographies of Jesus' life, he's showing his readers, including us, that we can be convinced of Christ's claims—that Christ is who he says that he is.
And as Luke is describing this, he also shows that Jesus cared deeply about people. After he had healed the crippled woman in the previous section, he went through the towns and villages teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem, it says in verse 22. Jesus was slowly and methodically moving toward Jerusalem, knowing that that's where he would be crucified and he would give his life as the final sacrifice for our sin.
But before he arrived in the capital city, Jesus preached to sizable crowds and he performed countless miracles in small towns and in little villages. He used his earthly ministry to offer salvation, calling both Jews and Gentiles to confess their sins and accept his righteousness. In one of these towns or villages, we don't know which, probably in the territory of Perea, someone asked Jesus a question. It doesn't even record for us who asked the question. Was it a Pharisee, a scribe, a synagogue leader, or was it an ordinary person? We don't know, but the question gave Jesus an opportunity to show that he was the only way of salvation.
And here's the question in verse number 23: "Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?" Among his Jewish audience, they would have all expected that Israelites would have been saved except for blatant sinners such as tax collectors and out-and-out evildoers. This would be people beyond their Jewish ethnic identity, but people like their Roman oppressors, that they would say, "Of course they're not going to be saved, but surely our people are going to be saved." The question that this person asked must have been because they detected that Jesus' teaching was limiting.
And Jesus responded to the question not with a direct answer, but with an exhortation. He says in verse number 24, "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to." Jesus was telling the person asking the question and everyone who was listening to him that they should make every effort, which means strive, as the ESV translates it, or contend, as older translations say. And this idea is that they would actively move toward Christ and the gospel. That they would work, making every effort to enter through this impossibly narrow door.
And yet it says not everyone will make it. The point is not in the effort of the person making their way to the door, but it's that the door is Christ himself. The only way to gain access to salvation is to enter through the finished work of Jesus Christ. In John's gospel, he says he is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Jesus. That's John 14:6.
The narrow door is a humble door. It is too small for our pride. There's not room for a chip on our shoulders to pass through the small frame. The narrow door is also a limited door. It's too close and too slight to include any of our good works. No matter how many good works you think you may accumulate, imagine putting into a backpack. It simply will not fit with you through this narrow door.
And this door is restricted. It's not available to everyone. It's not a door that if you simply knock, the door will be open. Because the door depends on Christ, who provides the way of salvation. Jesus continued, "There will be many, I tell you, who will try to enter and will not be able to do so." That's why I said the door is restricted.
This did not mean that only a select few could earn their salvation and receive Christ, while there would be an overwhelming majority who are denied access. But rather, what this means is that the owner of the house, who is God the Father, will eventually close the door with people standing outside knocking and pleading and saying, "Sir, please open the door for us. Let us in."
At this moment in time, the Jewish people are not doing that with Jesus. The majority are saying, "Who is this guy? What does he think he's doing? Who does he think that he is speaking for? How on earth is he getting away with this?" They were not standing at the door knocking. Instead, they were ignoring what Jesus was saying. Especially the Jewish leaders, they were looking for ways to undermine Jesus, to silence Jesus, and to ultimately kill Jesus. They thought their position was secure. They assumed because of their ethnic identity as the people of God in Israel that they were safe, that they didn't need to come into the door because they were already in the room. And yet Jesus is going to make it clear that they were in fact outside.
They were the ones who were knocking and pleading and saying, "Sir, please open the door for us." Daryl Bach observes this. The surprise in Jesus' answer is not that access may be limited, but the surprise is who ultimately gains entry.
The Limited Opportunity of Grace
You see, there is no one who can earn salvation with their good works or their noble character or their ethnic identity. But we only have a limited opportunity to receive Christ while the door is made available to us. Our salvation depends on the owner of the house, who is God the Father, inviting us to enter through the narrow door of Christ.
Sadly, however, Jesus says, if anyone is left outside after this door closes, his father will answer their pleas with these terrifying words, verse 25: "I don't know you or where you have come from." Ethnic identity as a Jew or even a Gentile will not matter in this moment. Our country of origin will not make a difference. Our family ties will not change his response. And no amount of religious activities or service will matter in the slightest.
There will be desperate souls pleading with God saying, "But we ate and drank with you and you taught in our streets." These same people will ask for access based on the virtue of their association, having been around Jesus when he preached and performed miracles, perhaps being in his very presence. But the master will respond to them even more strongly in verse 27: "I don't know you or where you've come from. Away from me, all of you evildoers."
Again, Jesus is speaking to Jewish people who knew their identity. They knew that they had come from the patriarchs of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They knew their geography and where Jerusalem was, the epicenter of their religion. And yet Jesus says, "I don't know who you are or where you have come from. Leave my presence, all of you evildoers."
In other words, Jesus was not impressed with their identity. He was not impressed with their activity. And he was not impressed with their plea. Jesus considered them evildoers because they were unforgiven sinners. They were people who were doing it their way rather than submitting to God's way.
Jesus' response clarified that an awareness of God was not the same as belief in him. God the Father required more than information about Jesus or sin for the salvation from sins. The Father requires full-hearted belief in Jesus and His identity as Israel's promised Messiah. Luke also calls him the Lord of creation, the Lord of the Sabbath, the Son of Man who is fully human, and the Son of God, fully God.
Jesus left no room for negotiation, no room for compromises, and absolutely no room for second chances. After it's too late, there will be no amount of begging, pleading, crying, wailing, or bargaining that can change God's mind. Instead, he will send every unforgiven sinner away for eternal punishment in hell. He says, verse 28, "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 will be thrown out."
Somehow, after the evildoers are left outside and cast into torment, they will see Israel's patriarchs. They'll see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob enjoying the presence of God. But that does not mean that every descendant of Abraham will be allowed inside. Some of Israel's descendants, it says, will be thrown out. They will be excluded from salvation.
So in that way, in answer to the question, "Not many from Israel will be saved?" but only a few will be saved. Again, the point is not on metrics. "Well, tell us a number. How many? From what tribe? What family? Who are the people that will be saved?" Jesus is simply saying, while the gospel of Christ is made readily available, not everyone will gladly receive it.
To amplify his point, Jesus continued. He said, people will come from east and west and north and south and they will take their places at the feet or at the feast in the kingdom of God. While not everyone from Israel will accept Christ, God the Father opens the narrow door to Gentiles from all four corners of the earth, including the Romans who oppressed Israel, and includes us who lived centuries after Jesus.
Jesus did not answer the question the way his questioner had expected. Instead, he expanded the original question from a focus on ethnic Israel, where he says, "Lord, are only a few going to be saved?" to offer Gentiles, including us, salvation. And he says in verse 30, "Indeed there are those who are last who will be first and first who will be last."
People from every tribe, tongue, and nation, Jews and Gentiles, will gather in the presence of God around Christ's banquet table, but they'll be there by invitation only. No one gets there because they came to the door and demanded entrance. They only came there because they were invited and Jesus received them.
A few weeks later, Luke reports in Luke chapter 19 that when Jesus was passing through Jericho, there was a reviled tax collector named Zacchaeus who came out to meet Jesus. Most of us learn about Zacchaeus in children's Sunday. And there's a song about Zacchaeus because he was a wee little man who climbed a sycamore tree.
Before Jesus arrived, Zacchaeus had gotten himself up into a tall tree alongside the road so he could look over the crowd to see Jesus and possibly get his attention. When Jesus came and saw Zacchaeus in the tree, he called him to come down and he went into Zacchaeus' home. It scandalized Jesus because the Jewish people thought, why is he going to go into the home of an evildoer like a tax collector, especially Zacchaeus?
But Jesus went, and Zacchaeus was gripped by what he learned, and he entered through the narrow door. Jesus summarized their conversation like this in Luke 19, verses 9 and 10. He said, "Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."
Therefore, Jesus answered the question of verse 23 in our passage in chapter 13, "Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?" He answered with this principle: Respond to Jesus while the door is open. Don't wait for the door to close and beg later.
Little kids are very good at begging. They're very good at not listening, at having selective hearing when a parent gives them clear instructions. And when the consequences come for their ignoring what their parents said or their disobeying what their parents said, it's not uncommon for crocodile tears to suddenly appear out of their eye sockets and gush down their cheeks. It's not uncommon for large and embarrassing wailing to come out of their vocal cords.
And yet, a good parent knows that that child doesn't need you to give in. That child needs you to be consistent, to let your yes be yes and your no be no. And Jesus, the Son of God, is completely consistent with his message, that he offers salvation while it is available to all that would hear. And it is available to us today.
But when it is no longer available, no amount of pleading or bargaining or trying to get God's attention will change the math. All the jokes that we tell about the pearly gates and St. Peter standing there screening who may come in are jokes. That's not how it will really work. Peter is not the guardian of heaven. Peter is not the one who's handing out the applications and taking resumes and giving approval. Peter is simply someone who lives in heaven where we have the opportunity to live too if we submit to Jesus Christ.
We must approach God the Father through his Son, Jesus, while this narrow door remains open and we have time. Jesus does not teach that we can earn our salvation or that we can get it simply because of our family. He exhorts us to repent. And he said in verse number three of chapter 13, "Unless you repent, you will all perish." He only accepts repentance, no self-righteousness, no religious works. Nothing that we can do except admit that we're sinners in need of Christ's righteousness.
Jesus teaches that although many people might know something about God, only a few will end up confessing their sins and accepting his righteousness. When we get to heaven, we might be surprised by who we end up meeting there, and we might be even more surprised by who we cannot find on the streets of gold. People who ignore the gospel or reject Jesus will not inherit the kingdom of God. But sinners who repent will be forgiven and live with God in heaven for all eternity.
Some people who are marginalized now for their sin or social scandals may actually end up being honored to be in the presence of God in heaven. While there are those who are now celebrated or even admired because of the kind of people that they are, they may not have a place in God's kingdom. God does not measure popularity. He doesn't care about your social status. He doesn't look at your net worth. He doesn't look at your heritage and your family of origin. He's not concerned about your accomplishments or your religious activity. He only considers whether we have passed through the narrow door of Jesus Christ.
If you have not accepted Christ as your Savior, whether you're a child, a teenager, an adult, or a senior adult, I would implore you to confess your sin and trust Christ today. Verse number 24 says, "Strive to enter through the narrow door." We can come to Jesus with our doubts, our fears, and our unbelief. He doesn't ask us to change our lives or settle all of our questions before he lets us in the door. No, he simply says, you must be ready because the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect. Chapter 12, verse 40.
The point is: today is the day of salvation. We should receive Christ without delay and with no further excuses, but simply turn to him as the offer of salvation is available to us. The Jewish people listening, some of them believed Jesus and received this message, but many of them rejected it, especially the leaders who wanted Jesus to leave.
Jesus Laments Our Rejection
So Jesus previews who will enter heaven. And he says, we'll be surprised by who's there and who's not. But secondly, we see in this passage that Jesus laments when we reject him. He laments when we reject him.
Beginning in verse 31, we see Jesus continuing his discussion, but this time it's with the Pharisees in particular. We don't have the identity of the person who asked the question, but we do have the identity of the people who responded to Jesus' exhortation. Sadly, Jesus knew that the people hearing his voice, including Pharisees, scribes, and the leaders of the synagogue, would reject him. But for now, they were the ultimate Jewish insiders. They kept people out of their religion. They defined who was right in their religion. And in the name of God, they were opposing Jesus and his message. But in the end, these same leaders would find themselves on the outside, begging to get inside.
So Jesus says, or Luke records for us, excuse me, verse 31, that at that time, some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, "Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you." The Pharisees, remember, were trying to silence and stop Jesus. They told him to leave the region of Perea because Herod and Antipas would kill him. The Pharisees were not nice guys doing Jesus a solid. Instead, they were not trying to spare his life. They were colluding with Herod. And when it served their purposes, they wanted to use Herod to threaten Jesus.
But Jesus knew the Pharisees' hearts. He understood their hidden agendas. And he knew their secret alliances. He knew that they were using Herod and Antipas for their political purposes as leverage. So Jesus boldly called Herod and Antipas what even the Pharisees thought that he was. He called him a fox, which means deceiver. This was not a flattering compliment for Herod. And here in a public setting with political and religious consequences, Jesus boldly told the Pharisees to take his message back to the deceiver, Herod Antipas.
The Pharisees completely miscalculated Jesus' response. They thought that political pressure or government force might finally stop him. But Jesus said he would continue driving out demons and healing people until he reached his goal in Jerusalem. He would not be stopped by the Pharisees' religious objections or by their political double dealings with Herod. He was determined to complete the mission his father sent him for.
When Jesus said "today and tomorrow" or "on the third day," verse 32, he was not giving his travel itinerary. He was not proposing the exact day that he would arrive in Jerusalem three days from then. No, this reference to "today" indicated that Jesus was on a divine schedule and he would continue his ministry on his own timeline. He had other towns to visit, other villages to minister in, and other people to persuade before he made his final entrance into Jerusalem where he would be crucified.
Jesus alludes to his crucifixion here, where he says in verse number 33, "For surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem." Jesus knew that his public ministry would come to a deadly end. In other words, the door would finally close. And he said when he entered Jerusalem, he would be under the ire of Jewish and Roman authorities. And their ire would result in his false trial and in his gory death.
Therefore, Jesus lamented Jerusalem. Notice his tenderness in verse 34 when he says, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem." He understood their hard hearts and he had compassion for them. His compassion was similar to the prophet Jeremiah, who Jonathan read from. And Jeremiah had grieved the disobedience of Israel and his own generation. And now we see Jesus weeping over sinners' unbelief.
When he says, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem," he's not wagging a finger in judgment, but he is shedding tears of compassion. He's reminding the Pharisees that Israel had rejected prophets like Zechariah. Zechariah had boldly confronted Israel for ignoring God's word. And King Joash had this response: He led him outside the city of Jerusalem and stoned him to death in the courtyard of the temple. Joash and Israel rejected God's message and they murdered Zechariah.
Jesus understood the parallel. That's why he's making it here, that he too would be rejected by his own people and die in Jerusalem. But Jesus longed to protect them from harm. Verse 34, as a mother hen gathers her chicks safely under her protective wings. Jesus was showing incredible tenderness for his enemies. He wanted to draw the people around him and offer them safety. But he knew that Israel was not willing to accept him.
But he continued to boldly preach repentance, forgiveness of sins anyway. Most people were listening to the message and rejecting what he said. Today, it's no different. People attend church for years. They hear countless sermons. They attend Bible studies and they still reject Jesus. They may have different excuses, but all of the excuses boil down to this: They do not believe that Jesus offers the only way for their salvation. They may excuse it with their guilt or their shame. They may excuse it with comparative religions, with questions of uncertainty over the existence of God.
They may understand claims of atheism and think that they're sophisticated, but all of it boils down to the fact that they reject Jesus as the only way of salvation. They want more time to consider their options, but they're running out of time. The door is quickly closing.
So Jesus warned everyone in Jerusalem, "Look, your house is left to you desolate." This house likely refers to the city of Jerusalem that would later be destroyed by Roman oppression in AD 70. For now, though, Jerusalem appeared to be the preeminent place. It was the first, not the last, verse 30, but it was destined for destruction.
And at first, Jerusalem rejected Jesus. They killed Jesus on the cross. But there would come a time when Jesus would reject them, and he says, "Your house would be uninhabitable."
Jesus concluded his response to the Pharisees, however, with a word of hope. He didn't simply condemn them as unsavable. He says, "I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord."
Jesus did not mean that the Pharisees would never see him again. In fact, faithful Jewish people would quote this same psalm when Jesus made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. But many people would avoid calling Jesus blessed on this side of eternity.
Jesus meant in this that the Pharisees would never see him as the Messiah until they accepted his full deity. They could either accept Jesus as their savior now, or they would ultimately submit to him as their judge. If they rejected him now, and most of them did, they would call him blessed at his judgment throne as he sent them into their eternal punishment.
At that point, they would be right about Jesus' lordship, but it would be absolutely too late for them to accept him as their savior. The plea deal would be over. He would say, "Away from me, all you evildoers," and he would condemn them to eternal punishment.
Jesus lamented over Jerusalem because his own people, Israel, were rejecting him. Jesus didn't delight in their destruction, and he didn't withhold the gospel from them to make it an insider's religion. No, Jesus begged them to repent and believe. He said in chapter 12, verse 8, "I tell you, whoever acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man will also acknowledge before the angels of God. And likewise, whoever does not acknowledge me before others will be cast away."
The Best Time to Respond
The best time to respond to the gospel is now, without further delay. There are some people who hear the gospel and think, "Let me have a little bit more time to consider that." They think that they have all the time in the world. Perhaps they will enjoy—and I'll put "enjoy" in air quotes—the best the world has to offer, and then maybe on their deathbed, they'll make a deathbed conversion. Or maybe they'll have a priest or a pastor come to them and either read them the last rites or pray for them, and then they will suddenly be saved.
But Jesus is warning that it probably doesn't work that way, that you should respond to the gospel when you hear it and beg God for his mercy. Enter through the door of Jesus Christ. Jesus says we can either accept him as our Lord and Savior now, or we will stand before him as our final judge later.
And the judgment has been rendered. All who sin apart from the forgiving grace of Jesus Christ will be cast into the lake of fire for eternity. In the summer of 2001, when someone did not receive their $77 million lottery windfall, people wondered what had happened. Their winning lottery ticket became worthless because they did not accept the money. Jesus offers us something far more valuable than $77 million.
Accepting Grace Before Too Late
He offers us his righteousness, forgiveness, and the promise of eternal life. But salvation is absolutely worthless unless we accept the grace of God before it's too late.
The Apostle Paul picks up on this in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and says it this way: "Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might have the righteousness of God."
As God's co-workers, we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. For he says, "In the time of my favor, I heard you, and in the day of my salvation, I helped you." I tell you, now is the day of God's favor. Now is the day of salvation.
I would exhort you, like Jesus exhorted his audience, to accept salvation through Christ alone and accept him today while you may enter through the narrow door. Don't delay. Don't make excuses. And don't depend on your own self-righteousness or pride. The door is narrow. There's not enough room for anything but you to pass through the door, which is Christ unto eternal life.
Let's pray. God, I ask that you would help us to receive this message today. Help us to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and be compelled to respond. If there are any here today, God, whether it be a child who's growing up in a Christian family or a teenager who's in high school or middle school, maybe an adult in midlife or an elderly adult who's been around church their entire life, God, I pray that today you would give them ears to hear the beauty of the gospel, that they would have eyes to see the glory of Christ, and that they would respond with saving faith to a message that promises forgiveness and eternal life.
God, I ask that you would help our church to be characterized by people who believe this message, not people who are simply nice people or people who are religious people, but people who are converted people who have acknowledged their sin and confessed it to God unto salvation. And Father, we pray all this in Jesus' glorious name. Amen.