Sermons about Matthew 77 714 (2024)

FAQs

What does Matthew 7:7-14 mean? ›

Matthew 7:7–14 describes God as a generous Father eager to give good gifts to His praying children. Jesus commands His followers to continually ask and seek, with confidence that they will receive and find. Christ summarizes the intent of God's commands in the Old Testament: doing for others what we want done for us.

Being "wide" also implies that the gate leading to destruction accepts many different approaches. Scripture is clear that there is only one way to salvation, which is Christ (John 3:36; 14:6). Those who prefer to go "their own way" are simply going to their own doom.

Another view is that the proper way is so narrow that it is difficult to find, and requires effort and searching to find. The metaphor in this verse implies that the path of sin is an easy one to follow, and that one will do so without conscious effort not to.

Jesus' call for followers to be "salt of the earth" carries those uses, symbolically, into our spiritual lives. As salt preserves meat from rotting, believers in Jesus, distributed around the world, help to preserve humanity from falling into godlessness, immorality, chaos, and the resulting judgment.

Isaiah 7:14 is a verse in the seventh chapter of the Book of Isaiah in which the prophet Isaiah, addressing king Ahaz of Judah, promises that God will destroy the king's enemies before a child born to an almah is weaned.

“Don't bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This isn't a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we're in.

Matthew 7:13-14 New International Version (NIV)

“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.

The Wide Road

We grab for status and power. We crave what is safe, comfortable, and easy. This life promises us everything, but leaves us with anxiety, despair, addiction, loneliness, longing, and regret. It is the wide road that leads to destruction and many people are walking it. Enter through the narrow gate.

“The narrow gate” is a fairly straightforward concept. A narrow gate is harder to pass through than one that is wide, and only a few people can go through a narrow gate at once. Jesus was describing the pathway to life—true, eternal life—as something requiring effort and focus to enter.

When Jesus answers by talking about a narrow door, he is saying that this narrow door is precisely how anyone must come to God. To walk through a narrow door, we must strip off every pretension we have. All the things that clutter our lives, all the things that we are often loath to lose—we must give up.

What does the narrow path mean? ›

The New Testament is filled with information on what it means to be a Christ follower, with Jesus beautifully detailing and describing “the narrow path.” This path can be summarized as: embracing Jesus' sacrifice for mankind, believing he died for our sins and living life for him.

The Savior taught this principle when he said, “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.” (Matt. 7:13–14.)

In many religious practices and cultures, salt signifies preservation and the binding of a spiritual covenant. The use of salt in rituals, like sprinkling during ceremonies or forming protective barriers, showcases its significance in warding off negative energies and evil spirits.

Lot's wife, biblical character, a disobedient woman who was turned into a pillar of salt for looking back to see the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah as she and her family were fleeing. Her story is seen as an example of what happens to those who choose a worldly life over salvation.

The Beatitudes are a set of eight statements attributed to Jesus Christ in Christian Scripture. Each of these statements contains a blessing for a particular group of people. The eight Beatitudes appear in the Gospel of Matthew verses 5:3 to 5:10. Four of the Beatitudes are also listed in the Gospel of Luke verse 6:22.

In this view asking, seeking, and knocking are all metaphors for the act of prayer. In the original language the terms ask, seek, and knock are/were intended to mean a continuous act versus a one-time act: Ask (and keep asking), and it will be given you. Seek (and keep seeking), and you will find.

Jesus tells His followers to exercise whatever wise shrewdness they can to avoid conflict and danger without losing the dove-like innocence that will allow them to continue to proclaim the truth without fear. It will be a hard balance to keep, but it will be necessary for the mission to be successful.

This verse was Jesus' supernatural guarantee that when they went to preach, they would have divine protection against serpents, scorpions, and anything else the enemy might try to use to stop or hurt them. This is why Jesus concluded by saying, “… nothing shall by any means hurt you.”

35-38- Finally, Jesus spoke of the new situation. Formerly, when the Disciples had gone out, on mission, they had not lacked anything. Now they would need a purse, a bag and even a sword. The saying is heavily ironical, for Jesus knew that now He would have to face universal opposition and be put to death.