Two Roads

Don’t you just love a good, wide road? On June 29, 1956 President Eisenhower signed the Federal Highway Act which created the Interstate Highway System. Over the next 30 years, almost 100 billion dollars were spent on creating a national network of high speed multi-lane superhighways throughout the United States. Today, 42,000 miles later, we’ve got our good wide roads. Every day, the interstates handle 20% of all vehicular traffic in the U.S., although they comprise only about 1% of the total highway mileage. They are faster and they are safer.

A trip down the east coast on US Route 1 used to take the better part of a week. Route 1 was a two lane road that went through every town and community between Maine and Miami, complete with countless stoplights and railroad crossings and intersections.

Now, you can drive from NYC to South Florida in about 23 hours, thanks to Interstate 95 - assuming there’s no construction delays along the way - and that is a dubious assumption!

Only recently, the Interstate system was still under construction. I remember just a few years ago driving along a newly built section of I-75 near Sarasota, Florida. It was eight lanes wide - four in each direction - and there was no traffic on it at all. It was well-paved, well-lit, and well-marked. You could practically go to sleep at the wheel, the driving was so effortless. The only problem was that I-75 didn’t lead anywhere. Before you got to Sarasota, a big sign said Highway Ends - All Traffic Must Exit. You were on one of the best highways in the world, enjoying a smooth ride to nowhere.

According to Jesus in Matthew 7:13-14, that’s where a lot of people find themselves spiritually today: on a smooth road to nowhere. Let’s look at those verses:

Matthew 7:13-14 Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Jesus talks about two gates - a wide gate and a narrow one. He talks about two roads - a broad road and a narrow one. He tells us about two destinations - the destination of destruction and the destination of life. And he tells us about two crowds that travel on these roads - the many and the few.

Let’s look first at the gates. There’s a wide gate and a narrow gate.

Here on Long Island, we have roads and then we have parkways. The parkways were built according to the vision of a man named Robert Moses. He intended that they serve as a convenient and rapid means of automobile transport. (Well that was the theory, anyway!) The parkways were meant only for cars - no trucks or commercial vehicles were allowed. In order to enforce this, the stone overpasses on the parkways were built low - too low to allow trucks to pass under them. They are like gateways to allow cars through and to keep out trucks.

At the entrance to the parkways, you’ll see a warning sign that says No Commercial Vehicles. But quite often, you’ll get a truckdriver from out of state who ignores the signs and ventures on to the parkway in his truck. He makes out quite well until he encounters his first overpass! All I can say is that it’s a good thing Robert Moses made those overpasses out of stone!

But the gateway that leads to the broad road to destruction is a wide gate. It will accommodate you no matter who you are. If you want to bring alot of excess baggage along with you - no problem - you can pass through the wide gate. If you want to bring your self-righteousness along with you - no problem - you can still get through. You want to bring your pet religious theory, or your personal philosophy of life - you’re more than welcome to. The wide gate takes all comers, no questions are asked.

But the gate that leads to the narrow way to life is a narrow gate. Have you ever been to an amusement park where at the entrance, they have turnstiles? But they always have a special entrance gate for people in wheelchairs, or people with strollers and small children, or people who are entering as a group.

The gateway to heaven is like a turnstile where only one person can pass through at a time, and you can’t carry your luggage with you. You go through the gate as an individual. You have to leave all your baggage behind - your pride, your possessions, your philosophy of life. You have to lay it all down and leave it if you want to go through the turnstile. There’s no special gate off to the side.

Some people believe that they’re going to heaven because they belong to the right group. You can’t get into heaven on a group pass. You can’t get into the kingdom of God because you’re born into a Christian family. You can’t go through a special gate just by flashing a pass that says Baptist, or Catholic, or Jew on it.

The gateway to heaven is narrow, and people don’t like that. They want to believe that there are many gateways to heaven, or that the gateway to heaven is wide enough for everyone to enter. Well it’s not. Jesus says that right here. He says it’s narrow. You know why it’s narrow? Because Jesus says that he himself is the gateway to heaven. Jesus is the turnstile. When you come to the gateway to heaven, you’re coming to a person named Jesus.

John 10:9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.

You can never enter heaven by any other gate - there simply is no other way. I didn’t say that; Jesus did.

John 14:6 Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Acts 4:12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.

There’s not going to be Hindus and Buddhists and Muslims in heaven. There’s not going to be native American Indians who worship the sun and the moon and the stars. There’s not going to be New Agers who believe in crystals and reincarnation and channelling. There’s only going to be people who have accepted Jesus Christ.

That’s utterly exclusive, isn’t it? That’s a very narrow and limiting religious concept. People don’t like that. If I were to preach this out on the street, people would throw stones at me. If I went to the Lynbrook/East Rockaway Clergy Association and said it, they wouldn’t invite me back. They’d call me a bigot. But that’s what the Word of God says. If you don’t come to grips with Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you will not get into heaven. Period. Because Jesus is the only gate by which you can enter.

Jesus says that there are two roads - one of them is broad, the other is narrow. They each have a gate. The broad road has a wide gate; the narrow road has a narrow gate. And above each gate there is a sign. The sign says “This is the way to eternal life.” But only one sign is telling the truth. The other sign is a lie.

In December 1944, Adolf Hitler launched a massive counter-attack against the Allied forces that were quickly closing in on Germany. It was his last ditch gamble to avert defeat. The attack was a surprise to the Americans and the British, coming as it did in the dead of winter, just before Christmas. The Germans had secretly assembled their best tank divisions in a quiet, forested section of the Western front, where the Allies were not expecting them to be.

When the Germans launched their attack, one of the things they did was to infiltrate special units of the SS behind the American lines. These German commandos all spoke fluent English with an American accent. They wore American uniforms. They were driving American Jeeps. Their job was to sow confusion and sabotage behind the Allied lines.

One of their specific projects was to change the road signs. That way, the American reinforcements coming up to the battle would become confused, and would go to the wrong place in the front lines. At each intersection, there were road signs, but they were deceptive.

That’s what Satan does with the broad way that leads to destruction. He puts a road sign on it that says “This way to happiness. This way to life. This way to fulfilment. Get on the road. You can believe whatever you want, you can live however you want, and you’ll end up in the right place.” But it’s a lie.

Isn’t it ironic that the most famous street in New York City is called Broadway? It’s appropriately named, because it stands for the broad way by which the man of the world thinks he will reach life and happiness.

Broadway passes by Central Park. There are many people today who believe that we will find the answers to life by getting back to nature - by becoming ecologically aware; by reaching oneness with Mother Earth and the Universe.

Broadway continues south into midtown Manhattan, where it passes the great centers of communication and publishing and information. Many people today believe that knowledge is the key that will unlock the riddle of life. If we can just educate people, put into their hands and their heads more information, we will give them the answers to life.

Broadway continues south, into the theater district, where entertainment and popularity and fame are the ultimate values by which people try to take the measure of life.

Then Broadway passes through Times Square and past 42nd Street, where the sidewalks are littered with the broken lives of people who have given themselves to the pursuit of physical pleasure in the vain hope that that would give them satisfaction.

Broadway continues south into Greenwich Village, where through the arts, through literature, through philosophy and counter-culture, people pursue the elusive answers to life’s basic questions, ever learning but never coming to a knowledge of the truth.

And Broadway ends in Lower Manhattan, among the concrete canyons of the financial district, where people chase wealth and power in the hopes that that will give them security.

Broadway says it all. Through the ages of history, people have tried all these things in an effort to gain true life and happiness. They have traveled the broad way only to find that it leads to destruction. They have looked for spiritual freedom on Broadway, but they have only found slavery.

You know, from the end of Broadway in Lower Manhattan, you can see the Statue of Liberty. But you can’t get there by staying on Broadway.

Small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

There are two roads. And on those roads are two groups of people. On the broad road that leads to destruction, there are many people. Why? Because it is a broad road. You don’t have to obey any traffic rules on that road; it’ll accommodate you however you want to travel. There’s no one on that road to tell you to stay between the lines; no one putting any constraints on you; nothing to hem you in. You can do whatever you want. But you end up in hell.

If you want to get on the narrow road, you have to go through a narrow gate. And the road is narrow. You are under constraints to stay on the road.

When we lived in Denver, I drove my car to the top of Mount Evans - 14,200 ft. - on the highest paved road in North America. As we went up the side of that mountain, the road went through numerous switch backs and hairpin turns. There were no guardrails. The road was very narrow. At times, we weren’t even sure where the road was! Jonathan was just four years old at the time, and he was so scared that he wouldn’t even look out the window.

You didn’t have to convince me that it was important that I stay on the road. Even though the road was narrow, it was worth staying on, when you considered the alternative. So we stayed on the road, and when we reached the top of the mountain, we were rewarded with a view that took your breath away.

Christianity is like a narrow road through dangerous ground. Stay on the road and you’ll be ok. Leave the road and you’ll get hurt.

But some people who become Christians can’t seem to understand that. They want the road to be just as wide as the broad way that leads to destruction. They can’t understand why God puts limits on them; why He expects them to follow His teaching. They don’t understand that the principles of the word of God are like invisible guard-rails designed to keep you from crashing off the road and hurting yourself and those you love.

It can get lonely on the narrow road. It isn’t the most popular route through life. God’s way is not the way of the majority. Christ is going to make demands of us if we would be his disciples. He’s going to put constraints on us. That’s why most people opt out. They don’t want to submit their will to God’s. They want to do their own thing.

In John 6, Jesus was teaching his followers about the demands of discipleship. After he got finished, it says

John 6:66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

There once was a pig and a chicken who were good friends. They even went to church together. One day, their church announced that it was going to launch a special project to help the poor. “I wonder what we can do to help the poor?” said the pig. “I know,” said the chicken, “let’s invite them to a breakfast of bacon and eggs.” The pig thought about that for a moment and then he said “There’s only one thing wrong with inviting people to a breakfast of bacon and eggs. For you, it involves a contribution. For me, it’s total commitment.”

I think we make a mistake when we present Christianity in such a way as to minimize the idea of that it involves a total commitment to Jesus Christ. Perhaps we’ve been guilty of sugar-coating the message of the Gospel by giving people the impression that if they follow Jesus Christ, they’ll have nothing but happiness and fulfilment and answers to all their problems. Maybe that’s why we’ve got so many Christians today who are so uncommitted to living like Christians. They’re only in it for what they can get out of it. We’ve tried to make Christianity appeal to the masses, but according to these verses, true Christianity is never going to appeal to the masses.

Now I believe that becoming a Christian is the best thing that can ever happen to anybody. But I also believe that we’d better tell people up front that if you want to follow Jesus Christ, you’re going to have to completely submit your life to his leadership. Jesus said “If anyone would be my disciple, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

The Christian life is a narrow way, but it is the best way.

In these verses in Matthew chapter 7, Jesus is challenging us to choose which way we’re going to take. It’s like he takes us to a cross roads, where the narrow way goes in one direction, and the broad way goes the other. He says to us “Choose which way you’re going to go.”