By He Reads Truth
In this study of the Parables of Jesus, we are reading many of the stories Jesus used to teach hearers about how to live as His followers. Each day we’ll read parables in their immediate context, focusing on a different category of parables each week. Then we will work through a series of questions to understand the meaning of the text and take to heart the “secrets of the kingdom.”
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Week 2: Parables about Repentance and Grace
Stories about other people often reveal things to us about ourselves. This week’s selection of parables all deal with themes of repentance and grace, and in them we see that Jesus meant for His parables to stir the hearts of His hearers. As you read, let these parables serve as a kind of mirror, and ask what Jesus is showing you that you might not have otherwise seen. Use the questions below to help.
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Questions:
1. In several places in the Gospels, including today’s reading, Jesus says the last will be first and the first will be last. What does this mean?
2. What problem is Jesus’ parable, The Narrow Way, responding to, and what is the parable’s outcome?
3. What is the central point of this parable?
4. What is your response to this parable?
3 thoughts on "The Narrow Gate"
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Nick Doerrig says:
Through my struggles this is a hard passage to hear. There is no partiality with God, and the scripture says those who don’t truly follow him are cast out with the weeping and gnashing of teeth. I also know that by His grace I am not damned for my sins, because I believe that Christ died for my sins. Though I am not perfect like Christ, I can still strive for perfection daily, but all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. He is better than any pleasures in this life, He is better than all of it.
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Kevin says:
Day 11: 1. First will be last. Last will be first. I think making yourself last and putting others first, ultimately will show your heart to the Lord. The lord sees the heart so clearly and this is a way to glorify him.
2. Many will claim the name of the Lord. Few peoples hearts are actually invested and all about him. Not all who claim will enter.
3. Our lives should be dedicated to living out Jesus’ life. We should truly be transformed by the holt spirit with a heart desperate for God. Those will be the ones who enter the kingdom of God.
4. I struggle with this. Sometimes I wish everyone who would go to heaven because I feel like I will miss so many people. But the glory of the lord is only perfected by those who truly have surrendered to him. And that’s not everyone.
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Tim Bowditch says:
It is so sad to think that many of the Jews Jesus spoke to believed that their heavenly inheritance was owed to them strictly because their bloodline. Yet at this point Jesus makes it very clear that people will come from east and west, north and south to share in the banquet of the kingdom of God.
He is the way. And it is a narrow way. It is a difficult path, and few find it. Today’s culture tells us that everyone can have their own truth. However, there is only one truth. His name is Jesus.
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