WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH JESUS CHRIST

Imagine your surprise when you wake up one day and find yourself standing on a street corner in downtown Detroit. How did I get here in Detroit? What’s going on? According to the street signs you discover that you are on Woodward Avenue standing in Grand Circus Park . To add to your confusion, suddenly all traffic comes to a mysterious halt. All the people in all the stores pour out into the streets and for some uncanny reason everyone is compelled by strange magnetic force to move slowly, at the rate of about one foot per minute southward toward the Detroit River.

You find that you can freely move east or west as fast as you like – but you can't move north – and all the while your body is carried one foot per minute southward.

The streets are now filled with a human flood – thousands and thousands of people. There's a man pinned against the north side of a building. Then, as if sucked by an invisible current, he moves eastward toward the corner of the building and on in the sea of humanity toward the river.

Some people are frightened. Some are laughing to split their sides.

"Hey, what's going on?", shouts a man who had been walking down Woodward, and suddenly realizes that everyone's going the same direction.

He tries to turn around and walk the other way but he a can't. Everybody laughs. He grabs a railing and tries to hold on, but gradually his grip is broken and his body is pulled away.

Then the thought strikes you – if we keep moving southward what will happen when we get to the river?

Will we be able to stop? Or will we drown?

"If we can get to the Ambassador Bridge in time we'll be carried over the Bridge instead of into the water."

"Come on! Let's head westward toward the Bridge!" you shout. "Relax" says a chap in a grey sweater, "This is the best thing that's happened in town in years!"

So you set out walking toward the Bridge alone. Here and there you meet a few people who get the same idea. And together you form a little caravan walking briskly up Bagley and across Michigan Avenue.

As you find yourself slipping toward Porter Street you break into a run, and get to the Bridge plaza just in time.

From the Bridge you behold a sight that you never forget. Down below as far as you can see is a human flood slowly sliding toward the river's edge. Slowly spilling into the water and disappearing.

Fantastic as this story sounds we are all moving in just such a human flood. Of course we can freely move back and forth in any direction we like in space, but not in time. In the dimension of time we are all moving in the same direction and at the same rate of speed. It may seem that we are moving slowly. But we are moving.

There is nothing in this world you can grab hold of to stop your movement through time. Day and night the clock ticks and each time it ticks you are at a different place in time from where you were when it ticked before. And deep within you, you know that you are moving toward a destination. Your life won't go on and on and on forever just as it is now.

You are moving toward another world. Will it be better? Will it be worse? Will it be a dark, death-like river through which we sink into the terror-filled, wailing, weeping, lonely wasteland of Hell?

Or will there be a bridge that meets us and carries us up into the glory-filled Kingdom of Light?

Where are we going? Where are we being carried as the days slip by and the years roll on?

There are those who say, "Relax."

- "Enjoy yourself while you can."

- "Get everything you can out of life while you're able. Make the most of the ride. Never mind where you're going."

If it were true that your journey through time is a relentless machine-like operation of blind fate –

If it were true that the world into which you will ultimately pass – Heaven or Hell – is selected for you by sheer chance as the giant millstones of the universe grind on –

then the best thing for you to do would be to try to blank your mind about the future and try to have as much fun as you can now.

"Let's eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow who knows?"

But Friend, you already know – by a knowledge much more sure than your five senses convey – that the world toward which you are moving is the world you will deserve.

It is not blind fate that decides whether you sink into the abyss of fiery darkness or ascend on the glory arch of that bridge of light. You decide.

There is a choice which sooner or later will come to every one and has already come to you. And with this choice you set your own course toward Heaven or Hell.

The choice is very simple. So simple that a child can make it. So simple the village fool can make it and be responsible for his decision.

The choice is this:

What are you going to do with Jesus Christ?

Are you with Him or against Him? Are you gathering with Him or scattering?

"Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.''

Every creature.

Every man, woman and child of every place, of every time.

“And I, when I am lifted up from the earth will draw all people to myself.”

“Whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved, whoever believes not (rejects mercy) will be condemned.”

Every time Jesus speaks of salvation – He speaks of damnation as well.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved.

Whoever believes on Him is not condemned, but whoever believes not is condemned already, because they rejected the name of the only begotten Son of God." John 3

When Jesus rode that lowly animal into Jerusalem it was the most beautiful scene ever beheld in the holy city. The fulfillment of the most comforting prophecy ever proclaimed over those blood stained streets where the prophets were stoned and countless servants of God met their death.

"Behold thy King cometh unto thee meek and sitting upon an ass."

Comes not to condemn, not to judge, not to destroy, but to redeem.

Here comes the Messiah, the Son of David, to offer salvation to Jerusalem. But with this salvation comes also a possibility Jerusalem never faced before – the possibility of being damned.

By what Jerusalem does with this man she decides her destiny. Will she now become the City, of the Great King? Or will she fall under the judgment of the Holy God and be trodden down by the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles is fulfilled?

"Hosannah to the Son of David!" she says.

But when He gets off the donkey, climbs the steps, and starts clearing the Temple, throwing out the money changers – when He convicts them of their hypoctisy

– when He commands obedience –that’s when eyes narrow and hearts harden.

As long as Jesus stays on the happy track, everyone is pleased.

He cleanses the lepers.

And casts out devils.

And opens the eyes of the blind.

Wonderful!

But when brings out the whip, and proclaims words of judgment,

- no more hosannas,

- no more palm leaves,

- stoney silence.

Before the week is out, Jerusalem decides her fate by what she does with this man.

Whoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken. But on whomever it shall fall, it shall grind him to powder.

Matthew 21:44

And so there was not left one stone upon another in that magnificent city in a few years' time.

There are people who say, "I believe in Jesus Christ."

"I'm on the upward trail."

"I'm going to get to the Bridge."

But when they say, "I believe in Jesus Christ,” it’s just , "Hosannah, Hosannah, Hosannah!"

When Jesus gives orders, demands changes in their lives, calls for disciplines that tie them down day in and day out to the holy will of God

- no more hosannas.

- Nothing!

There are two movements of people in that Palm Sunday episode, one toward destruction and the other toward life. On the one hand we see Jerusalem that shouted, "Hosannah", but was soon ground to powder under the judgment of God.

On the other we see a little band of men and women who simply. walked beside Jesus. Still walked with Him years later. Are still walking with Him now.

The difference between the disciples and the people of Jerusalem can be summed up in a single word: Obedience.

Go into the village over against you and straightway ye shall find an ass tied and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them unto me.

And the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them.

They obeyed!

If a person keep my sayings they shall never see death.

If you love me keep my commandments.

I meet these people who tell me they're saved. They gave their life to Jesus in a flood of tears nine years ago, while the lights were low and the organ was playing. And the next day they picked up their old life exactly where they left it. Beneath a religious veneer, their daily living is as selfish and godless and dishonest as you can get.

Were they saved as they claim nine years ago? They may think they were saved but all they did was shout "hosanna."

There are people reading this today who have never done anything but shout "Hosanna!" Who have never seriously in all their lives tried to obey Jesus Christ.

You know that with every hour that passes you are moving toward your eternal destination. Do you understand that to go with Jesus up the arch of that Bridge of Light it's going to take more than just saying Hosanna.

You'll have to believe on Him not merely with the top layer of your emotions but down in the depths of your heart.

- Down where you make your decisions.

- Down where you make your moral choices.

- Down where you prove yourself obedient or disobedient – to Him.

If you believe in Jesus and He tells you to cleanse the temple of your heart you'd better cleanse it.

If He tells you to bless those who curse you, you'd better do it.

If He tells you to seek first the Kingdom of God and stop worrying about your bankroll, you'd better heed Him.

If you have been shouting hosanna but not doing His will – for your own good repent!

Make up your mind that from this hour you have quit playing around with Jesus Christ and you're going to get up and start doing the things he commands.

This is an invitation to you who have never done so before to start walking with Jesus toward the Bridge.

Each day when your eyes open commit yourself to Jesus afresh.

Listen for the sound of His voice as you read those blessed pages of scripture.

Take those commands you know He's already given you and that you have never really accepted and do them.

He will give you power to do them.

The flood of humanity rolls on through time and every single one of us is being carried with it toward an end --- toward another world. Where we are being carried is not a matter of caprice. You and I and every other human soul will be where we will be as a result of what we do with Jesus Christ.

Behold your King comes to you – He's here right now.

Whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved.

Whoever believes not shall be condemned..

You say you believe – just make sure you mean it!