What Does Heaven Celebrate? (Luke 15)
12:30 AM
Who doesn’t love a happy event worth celebrating?
We can all relate to such festive occasions. The decorations, bright colors,
music, and delicious food become part of our most treasured memories.
Throughout the Bible, God encourages His people to have celebrations and often
these celebrations are to honor and remember Him. But did you know that heaven
has grand celebrations too? In fact, if you have accepted Christ as your
Savior, then such a grand celebration took place in heaven in honor of you. And
what God wants us to realize is that every heart, no matter how sin stained it
may be, belongs to Him. Each lost soul that returns to Him is worth
celebrating!
As Christians, our most important task is to
share the love of Christ. We certainly need to love, encourage and support
other Christians but more importantly, we need to share the love of Christ with
those who have yet to reconcile to Him. In Luke 15, the religious leaders
questioned why Jesus was spending time among sinners. He responded with 3 examples
of just how valuable the lost are to God.
1.
The Lost Sheep: “What shepherd, Jesus asks, wouldn’t leave 99 in his flock to
seek after 1 sheep that had gone astray.”(v5) “Just so, I tell you,
there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over
ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” (v7)
2.
The Lost Coin: “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin,
does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds
it?” (v8). “Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one
sinner who repents." (v10)
3.
The Prodigal Son: in this story, the
youngest of 2 sons asks for an early inheritance, leaves home and squanders
what he has been given. Then he comes to his senses and decides to return with
a humble heart to ask to serve in his father’s home. “And he arose and came to
his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt
compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him,
'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to
be called your son.' But the father said to his servants, 'Bring quickly the
best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his
feet. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.'
And they began to celebrate.” (v 20-24)
What beautiful examples we can all relate to
of just how precious each and every sin stained soul is to our Heavenly
Father. We are not supposed to
ostracize ourselves from the lost. We are supposed to have a burden to see the
lost be found. We are supposed to share the same burden for their salvation
that Jesus had. When a lost soul is restored to the Father, heaven has a grand
celebration and so should we. That’s what “this life” is all about.
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