Fan or Follower-Two Roads!

Luke 19:35-42

April 9, 2017

Palm Sunday

#7 of series

(Credit Kyle Idleman, not a fan, chapter 7)

Life is all about two roads!

Life is all about choices.

As long as you and I are traveling in this life we will always have

the choice of two roads.

There is a famous poem written by Robert Frost titled,

"The Road Not Taken."

I want to share with you the first and last stanzas from this

poem:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood

and sorry I could not travel both

And being one traveler, long I stood

and looked down one as far as I could

to where it bent in the undergrowth;

Somewhere ages and ages hence;

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I ---

I took the one less traveled by,

and that has made all the difference.

If you were to read the entire poem you find that the traveler

wrestled which road to take. Both looked inviting. The traveler

realized that he couldn't travel them both...a choice had to be

made at the crossroads. He chose the less traveled. He took the

one less crowded. And for that traveler, as he reflected back on

his choice, it made all the difference in his life.

Today we find ourselves at a place where we are faced with a

choice as to which road we will travel. Two roads are before us:

fan or follower?

 

We begin a week that changed the world...we call it Holy Week.

It is a week that begins today with Palm Sunday and will conclude

a week from today with Resurrection Sunday.

This is a week that changed the world...depending on which road

the people chose to take.

This is a week that will change your life...depending on which

road you choose to take in your life.

The road you choose will make a difference in your life.

There are two roads we discover as we journey through this Holy

Week. The Palm Sunday road started out like a parade. It was

as if the disciples and Jesus had just won the road to the final

four March Madness basketball tournament. They were home

town heroes. Everyone was coming out to welcome them. The

people were pumped! The streets were lined with the cheers of

victory.

Jesus' entry into a city was never more misinterpreted than it was

that day.

The road that Jesus and his team of disciples walked was not a

super highway. From Jericho to Jerusalem they experienced an

elevation change of over 3000 feet in just a few miles. It was an

uphill challenge on a rocky dusty and dangerous road.

The people were cheering because they believed Jesus was

coming to conquer the oppressive government with an invasion

and victory. Life was going to be different.

Life was going to be different but not in the way they thought it

would be for them.

We need to take a closer look at the road Jesus chose to travel.

When Jesus reached the peak of the mountain road that gave him

a view of Jerusalem do you remember what reaction he had at

the view? It was not a reaction of awe like you get when you pull

over the side of a mountain highway to take in the view.

 

While all the people were shouting cheers of victory what did

Jesus do? He wept. His heart broke with such compassion and

sorrow for the people.

Why?

They chose the wrong road...they didn't recognize who he was for

them. He saw where the road they were heading down would

lead them...to destruction not only of the city but also of their

faith.

We know, but are easy to forget, that the road Jesus traveled that

day led not just into the city of Jerusalem, but through its streets

where he would be mocked and jeered. The road Jesus chose did

not stop in the city with a victory parade party. It continued

through the city gates, up a hill called Golgotha, Calvary, the

Place of the Skull.

It was on this road that Jesus would pick up a cross after being

mocked, beaten and humiliated. It is on this road that Jesus no

longer heard the celebratory cries of, "Hosanna!" He would now

hear, "Crucify him!"

Jesus knew the choice of the roads before him. He denied his

own desires and stayed obedient and faithful to the desire of His

Heavenly Father, he chose the road to Calvary. He denied himself

and took up the cross and followed the will of God the Father. He

took the road less traveled and that choice made all the

difference!

Because the road to Jerusalem was not the Highway of Hosannas

but the road to the cross, Jesus walked it. The disciples fled from

it out of fear.

Jesus had DTR'ed, Defined The Relationship, of the two roads

with his disciples at the end of his famous sermon. He told them

that in life there were two roads. He told them that the choice of

which road they followed would make all the difference in their

lives.

 

Listen to Jesus in his own words how he simply described the

choice of two roads in our lives:

"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." Matthew 7:13-14NIV

Jesus wasn't saying that it is really tough to be a follower of his.

He was simply describing that not many want to make that choice

of the road he chose. People want the shortcuts to salvation.

They want the E pass, the express lane to heaven! They want

some easy formula to the success in life of following Jesus. Jesus

made it clear that the road to choose to follow him is one that is

vigorous and requires total commitment.

In fact, it is the same choice he made:

deny yourself

take up the cross

and follow him.

(Luke 9:23)

Two roads: narrow and wide!

Did you notice there is no middle of the road choice?

It is a choice of narrow or wide.

The narrow road is a road of invitation and not

invasion...challenge not comfort...struggle not simplicity...a

cross...not palm branches...crucifixion not celebration...ridicule

not rejoicing.

The choice of the narrow road is not mere biblical belief.

The narrow road is not a simple confession of what we say.

It is not simply a confession of our mouths. The narrow road is a

confession of our lives.

Jesus' brother, James, knew that this narrow road was one of

faith in action and not mere words. (James 2:14-17). The writer

of the book of Hebrews recognized that people who chose the

narrow road had faces and stories of reality. (Hebrews 11:1-16)

 

That narrow road runs through our lives today.

We are people who have a choice of two roads: wide or narrow?

Fan or follower?

How many of you have a map guidance app on your phone? My

wife discovered an app called "Waze." We use it when we head

out on a road trip. It is interesting that it always asks us if we

want to start from where we are currently located.

It knows where we are and will guide us to our desired location.

It will also route us around delays or major traffic jams.

One day the disciples needed to know how to get to where Jesus

was talking about.

Jesus was talking to the disciples about preparing a place for

them to come to. Thomas, a directionally challenged disciple,

asked Jesus how to get there.

Jesus told his disciples that he was the Way, not the Waze app,

but he was the way, the road! (John 14:6).

Jesus told them he was the only way to God. As the way or road,

Jesus is our road to God. Some people may argue that Jesus is

the way is too narrow-minded. So many of them choose the wide

road that believes what you want and how you want.

The road, Jesus, is wide enough for anyone to choose. As

followers we shout our hosannas of praises that He provided a

way to salvation. He has shown us the road to choose in life...the

narrow road of a follower.

Have you been walking that same old road you have been on for

miles and miles?

Has the choice you made not brought you hope and life?

Today you come to a place in life where there are two roads?

Fan or follower...wide or narrow...the world or Jesus?

The choice you make will make all the difference in your life.

 

People of faith take the step down the road less traveled...the

narrow path.

Followers of Jesus, daily face the choice of life...two

roads...narrow and wide.

The choice of the narrow way, Jesus, guides us on the road of life

we travel.

It is a road that calls us to deny our self desires or ways, take up

the cross and daily follow Jesus down the road less traveled.

Daily step out in faith on that narrow road that will make the

difference, the eternal difference in your life.

Today marks the 62nd anniversary of the day when Dietrich

Bonhoeffer was hanged in a German prison because of his

courageous faithfulness in calling the church to oppose Hitler. He

chose the road of a follower of Jesus.

As Bonhoeffer was being led from his cell, he said to another

prisoner,

"This is the end. For me, the beginning of life."

Jesus chose the road to the cross.

His choice of the road less traveled was not the end but only the

beginning for each of us who follow him.

Choose this day the narrow way.

Choose this day the road of a follower.

It will make all the difference in your life now.

On the championship floor of the NCAA final four basketball

championship there was a statement that read, "The road ends

here."

There is a sign along the narrow way that doesn't read, "road

ends here." But rather the sign reads, "The beginning of life

starts here...right where you are in life."

And two roads appear before you and me each day we get up and

going. The wide way of a fan and the narrow way of a follower.

Which road will you choose? It will make all the difference!

have  a  blessed day,   Gary
yfc77jesus@aol.com