From our Sunday service on September 28, 2025, Luke 13, John 10 and John 15. This is part 7 of our Parables of Christ series. Watch the full message: The Way to New Life – The Parables of Christ #7 on YouTube.
Today is message number seven in our series on the parables of Christ. Seven is the number of completion, so it is appropriate that in this message we talk about how we get new life. Over recent Sundays we looked at the feelings surrounding salvation: how God feels about it, and how we feel about it. We cannot talk about those feelings if we first do not talk about how we get it. God wants you to find new life in Him.
The Narrow Door
Before we get to Luke 13 and the narrow door, I want to go to where this teaching first comes from. In Matthew 7, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches the concept of the two paths. This is not new to Jesus. It goes all the way back to Deuteronomy 30, where God sets before the nation of Israel life and death, blessing and cursing, and tells them to choose life.
Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Matthew 7:13–14
Then, in Luke 13, Jesus is going through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem, when someone asks Him, Lord, are there few that be saved? They knew that a remnant of Israel would be saved. That was not controversial, because it was what the Bible had been teaching. But consider what their teachers were teaching. In the first century many religious leaders taught that everyone in Israel would be saved purely by being born a Jew. Consider also what this man saw around him. Only some of the Jews kept the law. The Romans had taken over their nation, and many Jews had decided to enjoy Roman life instead. There are also a few things he might have thought salvation was. Many expected national deliverance, not the personal salvation we think of when we hear that word. Is it true that only a few are going to make it?
Jesus does not give a simple yes or no. He does not want the man to have a yes-or-no answer he can file away. He says, Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. He draws a picture. A homeowner is hosting a banquet. He has prepared the dinner, his guests are seated, and he has shut the door for the night. People come later and knock, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us. He answers, I know you not whence ye are. They protest that they ate and drank in His presence, and that He taught in their streets. He still says, I know you not. They will see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the prophets in the kingdom, and themselves thrust out, while they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. Jesus’s answer to why so many will miss heaven is that you cannot be saved without a relationship with Jesus Christ. Sitting under biblical teaching is not the same as knowing Him. Eating and drinking in His presence, hearing Him teach in your streets, being born into a religious people, or waiting for national deliverance will not get you through the door. Being near the door is not the same as going through it.
The Good Shepherd
Jesus develops this illustration of the door in John 10, the parable of the good shepherd. To get through the door, you must have the right shepherd.
Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
John 10:7–10
Jesus has already been a good shepherd in an earlier parable, leaving the ninety-nine to rescue the one and celebrating its salvation. That showed how He feels about the lost. Here He wants us to get two truths. First, those who try to enter the sheepfold, the kingdom of heaven, without using the door, which is Christ, are thieves and robbers. Second, He is the door, and He is the good shepherd.
If you asked me my favorite verse, it is probably verse 10: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. A lot of people take that to mean a comfortable, abundant life in this world. Jesus is talking about something better than that. He is the one and only way into the kingdom of heaven. There is no other entrance. In verse 9 He says, by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved. Not might be, not could be, but shall be. And shall go in and out, and find pasture. That is the abundant life: not a life stuffed with things, but a saved life that is shepherded, protected, and fed by Him. In verse 10 there are also going to be thieves who try to take advantage of the sheep. They will teach another gospel, another way to find fulfillment or get to God. Those ways kill and destroy. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. A hireling, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming and flees. Jesus reminds us how much it cost Him to be our shepherd. He also says, I know my sheep, and am known of mine. Once again, that relationship is what saves you: knowing Jesus, surrendering to Jesus, having a real walk with Him, not merely being in the crowd that heard Him teach.
Then Jesus begins revealing His plan for the salvation of the world. He says He has other sheep which are not of this fold, and He must bring them also, and they shall hear His voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. He is going to bring non-Jews into the kingdom, which contradicted what many of His hearers expected. He also reveals how this unity will happen: He will lay down His life so that He can take it again. Here He reveals that He is going to die and be resurrected, and that this is how He will gather one people to Himself.
The True Vine
Before we close, look at the last parable, the true vine in John 15, where Jesus talks about a time for a decision. He said, I am the door. Now He says, I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Husbandman just means farmer. Jesus calls Himself the true vine, the core of the vine from which everything else stems, which supports and directs the branches. Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Sadly, not all will produce fruit and fulfill their purpose. Some branches grow deformed, some get diseased, some wither from the heat and die. Eventually the farmer cuts them away.
So what do I do to stay on the vine? He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. To be saved from destruction, we must rely on the central vine, Jesus Christ alone. A branch cannot extract resources from the soil or the rain on its own. The only way it lives and bears fruit is by staying connected to the vine. If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered, and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. Abiding is not a one-time visit to the vine. It is remaining in Him, hearing His words, and letting His life run through you so that fruit actually appears. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As I was working on this message, I noticed pastors debating discipleship: in your discipleship class, is it good enough to give knowledge, or do you have to see fruit in a person’s life? Jesus has already answered that. Knowledge that never becomes fruit is not abiding. He is looking for branches that stay in Him and actually bear what He produces.
Jesus consistently taught that there is only one way to find new life, and that is through Him. The gate is narrow, the door is singular, and the vine is one. God is calling each of us to respond to His invitation. The door is still open, but it will not be open forever. The good shepherd laid down His life so that you could have life, and have it more abundantly, and through Him you can find the new life that God wants you to have. God wants you to find new life in Him. Will you make sure you have found new life in Him today?
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