Do They Party In Heaven

Do they party in heaven?

Luke 15:1 1Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him. 2But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

3Then Jesus told them this parable: 4“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

8“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins£ and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? 9And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ 10In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Many people wonder what it’s going to be like in heaven. It’s the biggest mystery that we have. Although the Bible gives us glimpses of what it’s going to be like we can never truly know exactly until we get there. But as I was reading the text for today I noticed something special about heaven and that is the fact that they rejoice and that they party.

And this is done whenever a lost person comes to Christ. When ever a lost soul finds the truth and repents even the angels rejoice. With this in mind it became apparent to me that the body of Christ should not only rejoice when a someone comes to repentance but that we should all be doing are part in making sure that the lost are found.

Trouble in the text Run the Story

What we see about this story is that the sinners and tax collectors who were basically hated by the Jews were we all gathered around to Jesus to hear him. And the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were gathered around muttering to one another’s about how not only does Jesus welcomes them but He eats with them. Because of their self-righteousness and their hate for their fellow man they couldn’t understand how Jesus could do this.

1. All their lives they lived under a system that said if you dealt with these people you would be infected if you will by them and you yourself wouldn’t be accepted by God.

2. They believed that they were the ones God loved and cared for and that He was against sinners. They couldn’t see how God hates sin but not the sinner.

3. So they would sit in judgment on them, they ultimately would do things that actually would turn these people from God.

4. Instead of doing what they could to lead them to God, they would push them away. Understand no one likes being judged. Especially by people who are going to judge you inappropriately. They would put restrictions in them that they themselves weren’t willing to keep.

Window: do you know someone like that…someone who says do as I say not as I do.

Trouble in the world

1. There are many Christians who are doing the same thing

a. We are suppose to be bringing the lost into the fold but at times we make it so uncomfortable for them we judge them

b. My sister to my family

c. Condemnation

d. When we tell someone to be free from sin before we even love them or lead them to Christ, we miss the point.

e. We Say stop doing this and stop doing that. We try to mandate morality rather then giving them the life changing message.

f. We say things like he’s a druggy, an adulterer, a thief, but we never see them as God sees them and dearly loved children who are lost.

Example (The abortion movement) I did a little research for a video

1. We have people in the abortion movement who are radically challenging this picketing with anger and malice and wrath.

2. Thinking that since they are protesting this horrible thing they are O.k. not realizing that their anger and rage and lack of love just might be turning everyone away from Jesus.

3. They are putting restrictions on them they aren’t willing to uphold.

a. Although they aren’t getting an abortion themselves

4. They are saying you listen here, you shall not kill, but even though the bible tells me to love my neighbor and flee from all anger and rage I can ignore that, you just do as I say not as I do.