Help Along the (Jesus) Way (Matthew 7:13-14)
Gary McManus, 02/08/2015Part of the Words that Divide, Words that Unite series, preached at a Sunday Morning service
Help Along the (Jesus) Way
The plan this year so far:
--Words that divide and unite
--The Lord said that we can only serve
one Master; one Lord.
--Even love divides.
(It IS hard to love the enemy and Jesus knew it.)
--There is only one pathway to life.
[Today’s Bible verses.]
The path to destruction. . .(same word
in John 3:16)
CLEARLY. . .there are two ways,
two roads, and two gates.
No one can go through both gates.
No one can take both pathways
Each path is EXCLUSIVE.
Too often the church gets confused.
When a believer sees someone on the
broad road, they may conclude that the
person is on that road by choice.
But perhaps that person on the broad road
fell off the narrow road or got lost and is
having trouble getting back to the narrow
road.
Everyone trips and stumbles—maybe even
fall off the narrow road (it IS narrow, after all).
The question is: what do you do?
If we fall off the narrow path are we lost foever,
lost for a day or lost for a season?
Getting off the narrow road and abandoning the
narrow road are two different things.
If someone has decided to quit the Jesus path,
then they are on the path of destruction.
“You’re going to hell.” Is that a condemnation
or a directional sign?
How do we treat people
who seem to be bound for hell?
Jesus offered words of life. . .
Jesus offered a different way. . .
The words “brother” and “child” occur
more in Matthew’s book.
The discipline of the church is for the purpose
of KEEPING the disciple on the NARROW path.
(Matthew 18:15-17)
If someone on the Jesus path slips, trips, falls,
or wanders, Jesus INTENDED .the CHURCH
to HELP that believer get back up, get back on,
get back to the Jesus pathway.
Too often the church is like the “faithful” characters
in Jesus’ Samaritan story—they abandon the fallen.
It was never the church’s heritage. The church’s
heritage and instruction was mercy: Matthew 5:7,
9:13, 18:33, 23:23; Luke 10:37, Romans 9:15,
Romans 12:8, 2 Timothy 1:16, Titus 3:5, James 2:13,
James 3:17.
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