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THE ELEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST August 24, 2025 Pastor Tom Steers Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church, Toronto Our Opening Hymn is: “The Day is Surely Drawing Near” Lutheran Service Book 508 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJcXREt1nwM&list=RDcJcXREt1nwM&start_radio=1 Our Bible Readings: Old Testament – Isaiah 66:18-23 Psalm 50:1-15 Epistle – Hebrews 12:4-29 Gospel – Luke 13:22-30 Our Hymn of the Day is: “You Are the Way; Through You Alone” Lutheran Service Book 526 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1XpzfljSkc&list=RDI1XpzfljSkc&start_radio=1 The Sermon— How hard is it to be saved? And perhaps even more to the point, are we? If the way to heaven is hard and the door narrow, what makes it narrow, what makes it difficult? Someone asks Jesus a question in our Gospel reading this morning that appears ‘theoretical’: “Will the number of people who will be saved be few?” But Jesus won’t let a questioner examine or inquire about others -- without first taking a look at him or herself. So, our Lord speaks directly to the person asking the question with both instruction and a warning. And it’s important that we get our Saviour’s guidance and warning right. Because if not, and I’ve heard this passage of the Bible preached incorrectly, the message can be terrifying instead of reassuring for the Christian. If read incorrectly, Christ’s Words can lead us to do exactly what He is telling us not to do. We live in a world today that often believes all religions and spiritual practices can be a path to heaven. The only problem is that Jesus doesn’t say that at all. He teaches clearly in John 14:6 -- "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." So in today's Gospel, we have the parable of the door -- a parable about the Kingdom of God. And it makes two basic points. The first is that there is a real Heaven and a real Hell. The second point is that the way to Heaven is through the forgiveness of sins that Christ alone earned for us with His suffering and death on the cross. The idea that the essence of a person continues on after death is fairly common in our world. Most people believe in some kind of an afterlife, and believe there’s a time of judgment after death - a moment when we ‘meet our maker.’ The differences between various beliefs start to show up in the details of that judgment, as well as the resulting penalties and rewards. Some believe that if you don't get it right in your first lifetime, you keep coming back for lifetime after lifetime until you do. But we know that’s wrong. The Bible says in Hebrews Chapter 9, verse 27, “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.” Some say that good people go to a sort of paradise and bad people go to some kind of punishment. Others, who can't stand the idea of eternal punishment, say everyone gets into heaven. But when Jesus taught about life after death, He made it very clear that there were two, and only two destinations after death. He described one as a great heavenly party. He compared this destination to a wedding reception -- the celebration of the coronation of a king -- a great banquet. He described the other destination as a place of eternal torment. He talked of fires that never go out -- worms that never die -- great darkness. In today's Gospe,l Jesus spoke of those who recline at table in the kingdom of God and those who enter the kingdom of darkness, where they’ll be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So the next question is very important: How can I be sure that I will be in the Kingdom of God and not locked out? How can I be sure that I’ll spend eternity with Christ? And so Jesus replies, "Strive to enter through the narrow door." The door is narrow because there is only one way to God. The world tries to tell us there are many paths to heaven, but Jesus tells us clearly that He is the only way. He offers Himself as the door into the Kingdom of God. The saddest part of the parable in today's gospel is that there are many who wait outside the door, and even ignore it. They follow the example of the people in Noah's day. As the door of the ark closed and the water started collecting around their feet, they suddenly realized, to their terror, that they needed to be inside -- but it was too late. And it’s the same for the people waiting at the door to the kingdom in our parable. They watch the door close, and suddenly realize they need to be inside. And in terror, they pound on the door, but the Master won’t let them in. The sad tragedy is that these people were warned. The great Lutheran Theologian Arthur Just explained that the struggle Christ is calling us to here is a recognition that we are sinners, and repentance and trust in God – and faith that His only Son will save us if we believe in Him. The ‘conflict’ for us comes when the Word of God, the teachings of Christ, calls us to repent and accept our absolute need for a Saviour, but the sinful human nature says, ‘I am or can be good enough to get into heaven by myself.’ I don’t need anyone else. And one sign that someone is in this kind of spiritual peril is when they focus on and confess the sins of others instead of their own. If we begin to believe that our own righteousness, and merits, can earn us God’s acceptance into paradise, we’ve taken the first step on the road to stand with those who will face a closed door. This was the case of the Pharisees and the Scribes in Jesus’ time. In the Bible passage shortly before our Gospel reading today, we read in Luke Chapter 13, verses 10-17, that Jesus is strongly criticized for healing woman on a Sabbath. The religious authorities were after Christ again. The Scribes & Pharisees felt that what would save them was absolute and strict adherence to the law. While Jesus was making the point through a miraculous healing that the source of all healing and salvation is Him, and not us. The reason that some won’t enter heaven is not because they aren’t “good enough.” And it’s not because they’ve sinned or are sinners. The reason the door will be shut is because of their self-righteousness that excludes a need for Christ, and faith in Him alone as Saviour. And that’s what the illustrator who created the graphic on today’s church bulletin was trying to say. The point is not that we have to be moral contortionists to get into heaven, but that we only enter through the cross of Jesus and faith that Christ’s payment for sin on that cross was sufficient for us, and for all. And so, the answer to the question put to Jesus, “Will the number who will be saved be few?” unfortunately is yes. Few indeed, overall. Not by Christ’s choice or desire to keep them out, but by their lack of faith and need for Him as the one way to heaven. And so, when we see the Words of Jesus in today’s Gospel correctly, they needn’t drive us to despair or terror, but as Christians, to comfort and reassurance. But if people fail to call Christ their Saviour and recognize who and what He is, one day Christ will, in turn, say: “I don’t know you.” Those believing Christians who see and meet Christ where He said He would be, in His church, His body of Believers, those He will know. Because He’s here in His Word and in His sacrament of Communion. And the Apostle Paul makes the importance and significance of the Lord’s Supper very clear, and that it is a sacrament and a matter of faith. He wrote in 1st Corinthians 11: 27-29: “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. Paul is saying that if you don’t believe Jesus when He said: this is my body and this is my Blood,” you’re bringing judgment on Yourself because that person is saying to Christ: ‘I don’t believe you.’ Again, the issue is faith in, and recognition of, Christ as Saviour as the only path to paradise. Some of the people who’ll be in heaven will be a surprise. Jesus said, "And behold, some are last who will be first…" There will be the thief on the cross who knew nothing about the Gospel until he came to his earthly end, and God in the flesh was hanging on the cross next to him. There will be Paul, who persecuted the Church until Christ met him on the road to Damascus. There will be that teenage delinquent who was nothing but trouble when he was a kid, but who Christ met when a believer brought the Gospel to him. Unfortunately, there will be tragedies as well. And they’ll include the people who heard Moses and the prophets from the day they were born until the day they died, who met Jesus in the flesh, but who rejected him as Messiah. They will include Judas -- but they’ll also include those who are self-righteous in this day, and who don’t love others, and who feel they’ve earned the kingdom on their own. "Strive to enter through the narrow door." But it is open. Christ was opening it from the manger when He, the God of the universe, was born as a fragile infant. Christ was opening it as He set His face to go to Jerusalem and as He taught about His kingdom. Christ was opening it from the cross as He traded His perfect life for the death of our sin. And Christ was opening it on that Sunday morning when He declared victory over Sin, Death, and the devil and rose from the dead. The door is open. We cannot strive to enter it on our own power, but the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, will work in us through God's Word and Sacraments. Remember all the people Jesus healed during His ministry here on earth. None of them had the strength to heal themselves, but through the power of Christ’s Word, they were restored. The same Word that raised the dead and even spoke ‘into being’ the whole universe, can speak into your heart and say, "Strive to enter through the narrow door." And then you too, by the power of God’s Spirit, will strive empowered by knowing that the blood of the lamb has washed your sins away. -- And so, thanks be to God the Father who gives us the kingdom. -- Thanks be to Jesus Christ who strove for us on the cross, and opened the door by which we enter. -- And thanks be to the Holy Spirit who enlightens and sanctifies us in the truth that we are forgiven and welcome in heaven. Amen. Our Closing Hymn is: “Lord of Glory, You Have Bought Us” Lutheran Service Book 851 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQW6b_eygNY&list=RDDQW6b_eygNY&start_radio=1