Matthew 4:25 And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan.

These people comprised the people in attendance at the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter five. How many were in attendance? No one knows. No one took an accounting. The significance of this sermon is great, it begins with the beatitudes.

How many people attended Woodstock? They know how many tickets were sold but perhaps 100,000 more crashed the party. Numbers range from 400,000 to 500,000 but over the years millions claimed to have been there. There is something about these special events that are so significant that the telling and retelling grows so that even those who were not in attendance feel like they were part of the event.

The reputation of Jesus had grown to such a point as to gather a great number in attendance. Jesus had to climb a hillside, a mount, in order to be seen by as many as possible. This was his stage. He had no microphone, no sound system, and if all these people were to hear Him, it would be by a power greater than a human voice.

So often we think about the words delivered. We read them today from the comfort of our homes and libraries but cannot imagine what it must have been like to have been there. Was there a hush over the crowd? Was every voice silenced straining to hear Him speak? If you have ever been to a concert you know how loud a crowd can be at the height of the moment. A silent crowd would be a miracle in itself.

When you read some of these great meaningful passages within the bible, do put yourself in attendance? Do you attend to the Word?

Matthew 7:13a Enter ye in at the strait gate:

There is no gate coming into Jerusalem called the Strait Gate. There is no gate coming into New Jerusalem called the Strait Gate.

I get it. I have entered in and I only get it because I have entered in. Now there are many who do not know and the broad paths lead to destruction. I cannot call out to them from within, they will not hear my voice and even if they did, they would not know the way to the strait gate.

Psalm 19:4 Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,

You will not find the Strait Gate by looking for a long single line waiting to get in, as if it were a concert venue with people waiting to buy tickets. That is not the way nor the line.

The line is those who have already entered in and have come out to share the gospel of Christ, to find and make disciples. We who have entered in cannot call out from within, we must go out into the world and show the lost the way to eternal life.

None know the way except those who have been there.

Mark 1:3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

You cannot call the lost from the safety of the tabernacle, you must go into the wilderness.