Enter by the Narrow Gate

Encountering Jesus

Allen Snapp

Grace Community Church 

August 16, 2026

Enter by the Narrow Gate

If you have your Bibles turn to Matt.7. By way of reminder Jesus is teaching a large crowd of people on a hill in Galilee about the kingdom of God. As he begins to bring his sermon to a close he says,

¹³ “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. ¹⁴ For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. Matt 7:13-14

Jesus says there are only two gates and only two ways. There is no third option or third way. There are only two gates. The narrow gate leads to life. The wide gate leads to destruction. Every human being who has ever lived either goes through the narrow gate that leads to life or through the wide gate that leads to destruction. Sadly Jesus says that few go through the narrow gate and many go through the wide gate.

So what is the narrow gate? What is the wide gate? What does Jesus mean when he says that the wide gate is easy and the narrow gate is hard?

The Greek word for narrow is stenos, and it means confined or restricted. We can’t carry whatever we want through the narrow gate. We can’t believe whatever we want and enter the narrow gate. We have to lose the extra baggage if we are going to enter the narrow gate.

In the book Shadow Divers, two men, John Chatterton and Richie Kohler, spent six years trying to identify a sunken German submarine resting 250 feet below the surface off the New Jersey Shoreline. There was no record of a German U-Boat being sunk there and after carefully searching every room they had found nothing to reveal the identity of the ship. There was only one room they hadn’t searched – the engine room – and the entrance to that room was blocked off by a massive fuel tank. The passage was too narrow to enter with their air tanks on. They were finally able to enter the room by unstrapping their air tanks and holding them in front of them as they swam through the narrow gap. John Chatteron finally entered the narrow passageway by unstrapping his air tank from his back and carrying it ahead of him as he swam into the engine room. That narrow passageway led to the discovery of an identification tag on a spare parts box that helped them solve the mystery.

Jesus says the entrance that leads to life is narrow. We can’t bring a lot of extra baggage through it. We can’t bring whatever we want to believe through it. We can’t bring our good works through it. We can’t bring our politics through it. We need to unstrap every other hope and leave it behind if we are to enter the narrow gate.

The narrow gate isn’t something we enter when we die. The narrow gate isn’t a thing at all. It’s a Person. Jesus is the narrow gate.

⁷…Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸ All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. ⁹ I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. John 10:7-9 (NIV)

Jesus is the only way to life. There is no other way. Jesus said “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” There is NO other way to life, no other way to salvation, no other way to relationship with God except through Jesus. We can’t enter the gate from any direction we want. We need to align our lives with the narrow gate rather than try to make the gate align with our lives.

A lot of people say, “that’s too exclusive! Too narrow! I believe there are many ways to God. I feel like people should be able to believe whatever they want to believe, live the way they want to live, do whatever they want to do. Believing in Jesus is fine but saying he is the only way is far to restrictive.” There’s a gate for that! It’s called the wide gate. The wide gate is an expansive gate. You can enter it from any direction, carry any baggage you want. You can believe in any god you want, or no god at all. You can believe any ideology you want…or no ideology. You can identify as a Christian, or a Jew, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Satanist, an atheist or anything you want! It’s a wide and expansive gate. There are absolutely no restrictions. You don’t have to align your life in any way to enter the gate – it will align itself to you.

Jesus says the two gates lead to two “ways”. Two roads. The gate isn’t the end of the journey, it’s the beginning. Jesus says the wide gate leads to an easy path. The word “easy” doesn’t mean that it’s pleasant. It means it’s spacious and roomy. Anything goes! You can follow your basic instincts and desires and do whatever seems right to you. One of the constant refrains in the book of Judges is that everyone did what was right in their own eyes. It didn’t lead to a pleasant life. It led to corruption, scandal, murder, and evil. The easy road isn’t easy in the sense of life going smoothly or enjoyably. It means easy in the sense that you won’t be challenged or called to change. The wide gate leads to a roomy place where you’re free to do you.

But being free to do what we want leads to destruction and that’s not just talking about the final destination although that is the ultimate meaning. Getting everything we want doesn’t lead to happiness or richness of life. Often it leads to just the opposite. Often the more we get our way the more it leads to confusion, to anxiety attacks, and to broken relationships. The easy road isn’t an easy road.

Too many people I know who once professed faith in Christ have walked away from Christ and I watch as many of them are seeing their lives are fall apart. Their marriages are falling apart. Their emotional health is declining. They battle with anxiety, fear, hopelessness. The easy way is actually the hardest way.

In the same passage in John where Jesus tells us he is the gate for the sheep and that those who enter through him will be saved and have abundant life, he warns that the devil comes only to rob, kill, and destroy. That’s the only other gate available: giving your life to the one who only comes to rob and kill and destroy. The easy way leads to destruction, both in this life and on Judgement Day.

The Bible tells us that God is the only source of peace and joy and love and the broad way leads away from God so the easy way is soul-crushingly hard on our souls.

Jesus says the narrow gate leads to a “way”. The gate is the beginning of a way of life. Jesus says “come to me” and then he says “follow me.” Jesus is upfront about the cost – following him is “hard”. The Greek word for hard means to be pressed. It is difficult.

We’ve seen in the sermon on the mount how following the way of the kingdom will press against our natural fleshly responses and against the values of the world. Jesus says the way of the kingdom presses us to:

• Be poor in spirit
• Show mercy
• Love your enemies
• Pray for those who persecute you
• Forgive those who hurt you
• Don’t retaliate
• Don’t lust
• Don’t love money
• Don’t worry
• Don’t judge people hypocritically
• Treat others as you would want to be treated

These things actually lead to a good life, but not necessarily an easy life. When our flesh wants to hate, the kingdom presses on us to let go of that hatred and forgive. When our flesh wants to find its security in money, the kingdom presses us to trust our heavenly Father to provide.

When we follow Jesus, our life is not our own. We were bought with a price and we belong to Jesus. Just a few verses later Jesus will cast away those who practiced lawlessness. It speaks of the ungoverned. As Christians our lives are governed by God, our lives are submitted to the authority of the word of God.

Conclusion

Jesus says “enter”. It’s both a command and an invitation. He’s calling each and every one of us to make the most important choice we will ever make. When Jesus says “enter by the narrow gate” he’s saying “come to me!” Come to me all you who thirst! Come to me all you who hunger! Come to me all you who are being crushed by a heavy burden. My hard way is easy and my burden is light and you will find rest for your souls.

He’s not talking about religion. He condemns false Christian leaders and false prophets in the following verses. Being religious can’t save you. There are plenty of religious people walking on the spaciously wide and roomy path. He’s talking about laying down all the baggage – good and bad – and trusting Christ alone. And following him in a life that presses against our natural desires and the loud voices of the world.

Here’s the thing that should sober us: many find the road to destruction and few find the road to life. What the majority believe doesn’t determine what’s true or what’s false. The majority doesn’t determine what the right direction is. The question isn’t “what’s everyone else doing?” Or “what’s popular?” The question is, “what is the right road?”

God wants to save you. The Bible says He’s not willing that any should perish. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. His invitation is free and given with open arms!

But Jesus calls us to make a choice between two roads. There is no third. Every human that has ever lived has entered either the narrow gate or the broad gate. Every human who has ever lived has either taken the path to life or the path to destruction.

Jesus says to each of us, “enter by the narrow gate.”