This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to chapter 13 of the book of Luke. This is day three of
week three of our look through this awesome book. We've been talking together
about barriers in our relationship with God.

As Jesus is teaching on His way to Jerusalem, He's confronting a lot of people
who are having a hard time getting to know Him. And He honestly addresses those
barriers in our relationship. He talks about the fear of change.

He talks about those who demand miracles, those who are cleaner than others they
think on the outside. Yesterday we looked at the fear of others' opinions, at
the barrier of greed. Today, as we get into chapter 13, we look at the barrier
of comparison, especially spiritual comparison with others.

Listen to verses one to three. Now, there were some present at that time who
told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood, Pilate, had mixed with their
sacrifices. Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse
sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered in this way?

I tell you no. But unless you repent, you too will all perish. " Here's the
barrier of spiritual and moral comparison.

You look at other people in the world and you think, "These people are worse
than I am, so I must be okay. " This is a favorite sport of mankind. It has been
for centuries.

It's a favorite sport of those who go to church. We do this in the news. They
were doing it in that day.

Some Galileans had been killed by Pilate, and he'd mixed their blood with the
sacrifices that they were making. And their opinion was, "Oh, they must be worse
sinners than we are because of look at what happened to them. " They compared
themselves with somebody else and said, "Oh, I'm a lot better than they are.

I must be okay. " We do the same thing today. We often do it through the scandal
newspapers.

We look at some Hollywood star and some goofy thing that they've done and we
say, "Well, at least I'm better than her. I didn't get drunk and do that crazy
thing. At least I'm better than him.

I didn't leave her. I didn't reject that person. I didn't have that kind of a
divorce.

" And in thinking ourselves better than others, through that kind of comparison,
we think, "Maybe I'm okay with God. " And the truth of the matter is, it is a
great barrier to our relationship with God. Jesus's answer is, "We're all worse.

" It's not, "I'm worse than you. You're worse than me. " Jesus says, "We're all
worse.

We're all in need. " And so he says, "Unless you repent, you're all going to
perish. " What does repent mean?

It means turn around. It means turn your heart towards God. It means instead of
depending on yourself, you're depending on him for forgiveness, for life, for
direction.

Unless you repent. This crowd wanted to talk about them, some Galileans in the
news. Jesus wanted to talk about you.

You need to repent. The barrier of comparison is solved by knowing that every
one of us has the opportunity to develop and to delight in our relationship with
God through this single word, repentance. "I turn back to him.

" Maybe you need to do that for the first time. Turn to him for forgiveness.
Turn to him for life.

Maybe you need to return to him. Turn back to him for forgiveness. Turn back to
him for life.

As we continue through this chapter, chapter 13, Jesus then heals another woman
on the Sabbath. And the religious leaders, they continue to grow more and more
angry. Through these chapters, as Jesus is teaching, you see interspersed these
experiences with the religious leaders.

And we see their anger intensifying through these chapters even as Jesus is
intensifying his teaching. We see that we're headed toward a crisis. That crisis
is going to be the cross.

That crisis is going to be them deciding Jesus needs to be put to death. These
leaders wanted to limit God's work to a list of rules. In fact, to their list of
rules.

And then they could compare themselves and say they knew God better than anybody
else. In total opposition to that way of thinking, their list of rules, Jesus
talks about the kingdom. Verses 18 and 19, Jesus says, "What is the kingdom of
God like?

What shall I compare it to? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and
planted in his garden. It grew and it became a tree, and the birds of the air
perched in its branches.

" As Jesus teaches about the kingdom, he's telling us that the kingdom of God is
not God limiting himself to any list of rules, my rules, so I can feel better
about myself. It's God reaching out to all that he loves through Jesus. And that
will often challenge me to the core.

He will reach out to people that I thought he shouldn't reach out to, because I
have a hard time with that person, or I can't forgive that person, or that whole
group of people have done this. But God continues to reach out with the message
of Jesus Christ, the love of Jesus Christ. Because the kingdom is like this
seed, it's very small at first, but it grows to be very big.

Why? Because it's the truth, it's the transforming truth of all eternity, the
kingdom of God. So you don't live for your little list of rules, you live for
the kingdom of God.

That's barrier six, comparison. And now there's barrier seven, the last that
we're going to look at as we walk through this week. The seventh barrier that
Jesus addresses I call the wide gate.

Although he doesn't talk about it particularly here, that's the barrier, the
wide gate, verses 22 to 24. Then Jesus went through the towns and the 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 to enter through the narrow door, because
many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. " In other places
in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus paints the picture of many will try to enter
through the wide gate and will be lost. But those who find the narrow door,
those are the ones who will be found.

Now what's the wide gate? The wide gate is doing what everybody else is doing.
The wide gate is fitting in with everybody around you.

It's wide because it's where everybody's going. And it's one of the greatest
barriers to real life. Now let me be real clear here.

Jesus is not talking about marching to a different drummer in these verses. He's
talking about entering through a narrow gate. Life is not found in following the
crowd, that's the wide gate, but it's also not found in running away from the
crowd.

That's the different drummer. It's found, and we're going to see this even more
strongly in the chapters to come, it's found in following Jesus. That's the
narrow gate.

You don't go the way of the world, the way everybody else is going, the way
that's popular, the way that's accepted. You go the way that Jesus is going. Now
let me just ask you, do you think that the way that Jesus is going is going to
be popular and accepted?

Look at what happened in the book of Luke. Look at what happened in the life of
Jesus. The direction that he took was not popular, it was not accepted.

Oh, the crowds came, but in the end they rejected him because he didn't do what
they wanted him to do. The narrow gate, the wide gate is asking God to do what I
want him to do. He's there to serve me.

The narrow gate is me doing what he wants me to do. It's following him. As we
continue on, this intensity that we talked about of the disagreement between the
Pharisees and Jesus continues.

And so some of the Pharisees come up with an answer in verse 31. At that time
some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, "Leave this place and go somewhere
else. Herod wants to kill you.

" Well, we know clearly that it wasn't just Herod, the king, who wanted to kill
him. It wasn't just the Romans who wanted to kill him. It was also these Jewish
leaders.

It wasn't all Jews who wanted to kill Jesus. The crowd wanted to follow him. The
disciples were willing to give their lives for him.

But these Jewish leaders, these people who had a vested interest in Jesus not
changing things, they wanted to kill him. Some of the Pharisees came and said,
"Jesus, why don't you just get out of town? It'd just make things easier on all
of us.

" That's often the first answer. Before the cross, there comes the compromise.
And so they said, "Jesus, why don't you compromise?

Why don't you just leave town and everything will be okay? " Jesus' answer was
to remind them of why he came in verses 33 to 34. "In any case, I must keep
going today and tomorrow and the next day, for surely no prophet can die outside
Jerusalem.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you,
how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her
chicks under her wings. But you were not willing. " You see the heart of God in
these verses.

Jesus was determined to head towards the cross. No compromise. Satan had offered
him a compromise at the beginning of his ministry, tempted him to avoid the
cross.

And here the Pharisees are offering him a compromise towards the end of his
ministry, avoid the cross. But Jesus did not come to avoid a cross. He came to
die on a cross.

And in the heart of God he says, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often have I longed
to gather you. You've rejected those who came to save you. I want to gather you.

" That's the heart of God towards his people. That's the heart of God towards
you. If anything, if anyone has ever made you feel that the heart of God towards
you is to reject you, Jesus tells us clearly.

He shows us clearly what God's heart is. He values you. He loves you.

He wants to gather you into the life that he has for you. Let's pray together.
Jesus, thank you for your heart towards us.

And when I'm tempted to think that somehow you are rejecting me, or somehow you
are against me, or somehow you are ignoring me, remind me of these verses.
Remind me of the truth. I may not always see it, but every minute of my life you
love me.

Every minute of my life, every second you value me. You have a plan and purpose
that you're working out in my life. Help me to see that in fresh and new ways
today, I pray.

In your name, amen. Tomorrow we're going to see Jesus teaching, teaching that
confronts and confounds the conventional wisdom of that day.