Fan or Follower-Two Roads!

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? page 1

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. page 2

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. page 3

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) page 4

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. page 5

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! page 6