Are there only few who are saved?

Study of John 10:42; Luke 13:22-30

And He went away again beyond the Jordan to the place where John was first baptizing, and He was staying there. Many came to Him and were saying, “While John performed no sign, yet everything John said about this man was true.” Many believed in Him there.

— John 10:40-42

And He was passing through from one city and village to another, teaching, and proceeding on His way to Jerusalem. And someone said to Him, “Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?” And He said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, ‘Lord, open up to us!’ then He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets’; and He will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from; depart from Me, all you evildoers.’ In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being thrown out. And they will come from east and west and from north and south, and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first and some are first who will be last.”

— Luke 13:22-30

After miraculously escaping the Jews' attempt to stone Him at Judea, Jesus now proceeded beyond the Jordan river to Perea. This is the place where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and started His ministry. Coming from hostile territory in Judea, He is now on relatively friendlier county (even though He is in Herod's territory who also wanted to kill him) where the hearts of the people have been prepared already by John the Baptist. The people commented that although John was not a miracle worker, he was a faithful witness of Christ as all he told them about Jesus is the truth. 

John baptized them with a baptism of repentance and told them there is One greater who is to come, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the One who baptizes with fire and the Holy Spirit.  Although John is already dead, his ministry is still bearing fruit as many in this region believed in Jesus, whom John preached.

As Jesus ministered through the surrounding cities and villages in Perea, someone asked Him if there are only a few people who are saved. Perhaps baffled by the widespread rejection of Jesus by the Galileans and Judeans that this person asked. Jesus immediately made the inquiry personal. Not to waste such an important question to merely satisfy curiosity, Jesus pressed the matter to the questioner and the hearers closer to home as He commanded them to 'Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.'

Jesus didn't answer by a simple yes or no but He stressed the urgency of entering the door of salvation because many will not be able to. To state it another way Jesus is saying 'what does it matter to you if there are few who are saved, the question is are you among the saved?' 

Jesus stressed the urgency even further by saying that the door to salvation will not be forever open. There comes a time when the door is shut and it's already too late and those outside will spend forever weeping and gnashing their teeth in hell when they see the heroes of their faith, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets inside the kingdom of God while they are outside.

Many Jews think they are automatically saved by virtue of their ethnicity. They thought that because they are descendants of Abraham they don't need saving as they are sons of the kingdom. They believe it will be the unclean gentiles who will be cast out of God's kingdom forever. But Jesus said about the gentiles they will 'come from east and west and from north and south, and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God.'

How many people today think they are saved because they are a good person? or because they are part of a certain church? or because they are in a christian family? or even think everybody will be saved in the end anyway?

What a terrifying thought to live a whole life believing you know Jesus only to be disowned by Jesus and hear the chilling words ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from; depart from Me, all you evildoers.’ Many will be in hell suffering forever while knowing their christian families and friends, whose warning and pleading they ignored on earth, are full of joy in God's kingdom. They will endlessly regret all the lost opportunities to enter the narrow door while they are still alive until the door is forever shut behind their faces when they die.

They will spend eternity with all the people who believed they are first but has become last. The great reversal of those who are high and lifted up and comfortable in this world, the rich, smart, famous, strong, socially righteous, will find themselves in a place where the complete opposite is their lot.

Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked,

— Revelation 3:17

Let us end with this quote from J.C. Ryle

There is a time coming when many will repent too late, and believe too late--sorrow for sin too late, and begin to pray too late--be anxious about salvation too late, and long for heaven too late. Myriads shall wake up in another world, and be convinced of truths which on earth they refused to believe. Earth is the only place in God's creation where there is any infidelity. Hell itself is nothing but truth known too late. 

The recollection of this passage should help us to set a right estimate on things around us. Money, and pleasure, and rank, and greatness, occupy the first place now in the world. Praying, and believing, and holy living, and acquaintance with Christ, are despised, and ridiculed, and held very cheap. But there is a change coming one day! The last shall be first, and the first last. For that change let us be prepared. 

And now let us ask ourselves whether we are among the many or among the few? Do we know anything of striving and warring against sin, the world, and the devil? Are we ready for the Master's coming to shut the door? The man who can answer these questions satisfactorily is a true Christian.