Making Heaven Rejoice

Making Heaven Rejoice

Good morning Second Missionary. Will you please bow for a word of prayer? Our foundational Scripture will come from Luke chapter fifteen and I will be reading verses seven and ten, which read as follows, “(7) I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance…. (10) Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” The title of my message this morning is “Making Heaven Rejoice.”

This morning you’re going to hear what causes heaven to rejoice and as you listen to the message, I want you to ask yourself this question: “Are you individually and corporately as a Church body causing heaven to rejoice?” This is a question that all Christians should ask themselves every day. You can do a lot of good things for the kingdom of God – preach, teach, be in church leadership, sing in the choir, tithe, give to the needy, and even volunteer your time and resources helping others. But there is only one thing that’s guaranteed to make all the inhabitants of heaven rejoice – a sinner repenting and being saved. As this is the time of year when we make New Year’s resolutions, I am going ask you to consider adding one additional resolution to your list if you already have one.

To set the stage for what you will hear this morning I want to ask you a question. On a beautiful Sunday morning Jesus takes a stroll down a busy city street. On one side of the street, He notices a beautiful building where people are dressed up as they enter to praise His name. He can hear the beautiful praise going up honoring Him. On the other side of the street, He sees all the people that the Church folks pass by as they entered their Church to praise Him. These people were known throughout the city as sinners. Now here is the question: where would Jesus go? Would He enter the Church where they are praising His name, or would He cross the street to engage all those overlooked sinners? Now as you think about your answer, which one are you doing?

The answer to the question I just asked you is found in Luke chapter fifteen, which is well known because of the story of the prodigal son. I know that many of you have heard the story about the prodigal son as several of your ministers and guest speakers have mentioned him in recent months. As you listened to the story of the prodigal son how many of you at one point identified with that son? Would you be surprised to know that the prodigal son cannot describe you unless you meet certain criteria? This is the criteria you must meet to identify with the prodigal son: first you were saved and had a relationship with God through His Son Jesus Christ; second, you abandoned that relationship and returned to the world; and third you came to your senses and returned to the Lord. If you have done this in your lifetime then yes, you can identify with the prodigal son. Being in the world before you were saved doesn’t qualify because you didn’t have a prior relationship with God. The Israelites, however, could identify with that son because they had a long history of turning their backs on God and serving other gods. It is important that we keep Scripture and the stories that Jesus told in context to understand their meaning.

With this in mind you must know that the message from the well-known story about the prodigal son was actually not about the prodigal son? The purpose of the story was about the response of the elder son when his brother returned. This confusion is caused by the subject titles given to sections of Scripture to help the reader understand and place context around what they are about to read. When the Bible was translated into the English language the editors added subject titles, chapter breaks and verses to help the readers understand what they are reading. While this can make it easier for the reader, it sometimes distorts the message Jesus was delivering, as is the case here. It is important that we keep Scripture in context because we cannot build true faith on a misapplication, misinterpretation or outright lie when it comes to what the Bible says.

Let me give you an example of what I am talking about and please understand this is something that I did in my past for years. One of the favorite Scriptures read in Church for taking up tithes and offerings is Luke 6:38 which says, “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” Now I must admit that it sounds wonderful when we are encouraging people to give. Who wouldn’t want to give and then have it given back to them, pressed down, shaken together and running over? When this verse is read by itself, when it is pulled out of context, it makes a compelling case for giving. Now don’t get upset with me when I tell you that this Scripture is not talking about giving money to the Church.