"A Rejoicing Heart"

Dear Friends in Christ,         

   Over the years Marilyn and I have played a little game with one another that basically amounts to just one single question.  That question is this: What brings you the greatest feeling of joy and fulfillment in life?  It’s a tough question simply because there are so many things that can bring us that kind of a feeling.  I know one answer I’ve given to that question over the years is the completion of a major project.  And the major project that I usually have in mind is the completion of Lent and Holy Week with all their special services – the mid-week Lenten services, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and finally the 2 services on Easter morning.  Let me tell you something, when you’ve finished up with all those special worship events and all the planning and effort you put into them to make them as meaningful as possible for those attending, it really is a very satisfying and gratifying feeling, especially if they went well or even better than what you’d hoped for.  And you can’t help but thank the Lord profusely and profoundly for helping you through them and giving you the strength and energy to complete them.

   Or how about that feeling of joy and fulfillment that comes from a victory?  That’s why they call it the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.  Though it wasn’t an athletic competition that we were engaged in a few years ago , when Marilyn and I finally made it to the top of Pike’s Peak after 12½ miles and 8½ hours of uphill hiking, we felt like we’d just won an incredible victory.  And I guess in a sense we had, for it was a victory over our aching bodies, the thin air, the overwhelming exhaustion, and all the other challenges we faced along the way.  And it was such a feeling of elation that we were both reduced to tears, but they were definitely tears of joy.

   Then there’s graduation from high school or college, the start of a new job, the start of a new life with your brand new spouse, the birth of a baby, even a good meal – all of these can give us intense feelings of joy and fulfillment.

   But when my wife and I have played this game, we’ve pretty well concluded that nothing brings a greater feeling of joy and, I might add, relief than when you lose something important, but then you find it back.  We had an interesting example of this happen in our family a year or so ago, but the story actually begins about 4 or 5 years ago when my mom and dad went with us down to Campbell Hill to celebrate Thanksgiving with Marilyn’s side of the family.  We gathered in the basement of the church where Marilyn’s family has always attended and had a wonderful time, but when we were driving home, my mom noticed that her wedding ring was missing.  So we called Marilyn’s sister and she searched through all the trash and turned that basement upside down, but all to no avail.  She even put an article in their bulletin about it, but the ring never turned up.  So we pretty well gave up on ever finding it.  Then about a year ago, my granddaughter Maliyah was looking for little sister’s pacifier under the driver’s seat of Marilyn’s car and guess what she found!  She found more than a pacifier there.  She found my mom’s wedding ring.  It had apparently slipped off her finger on that Thanksgiving morning and then ridden around in the car for about 3½ years.  I’m just thankful I didn’t trade in that car because then we would have never found it.  But the feeling of joy and relief that we felt when Maliyah found that ring was inexpressible.

   Now why all this talk about finding something that’s been lost?  Well, in the 15^th chapter of Luke’s Gospel from which our text for today is taken, Jesus tells 3 stories dealing with things or people that were lost.  There’s the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son.  And in each situation, whenever the lost item was found, there was great rejoicing.  There was joyful jubilation.  There was a big party held to celebrate that that which was lost had been found.

   The point of those 3 stories is clear.  Heaven is happiest when the lost are found.  And here I’m not talking about a literal lost lamb or a literal lost coin, but about a literal human being who has been lost in his sins and through the Lord’s efforts is brought into the fold of the great Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ.  Like our text says: “There is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

   Now why do you suppose that is?  I mean, as far as I can tell, heaven throws no party over any of our other achievements.  When we graduate from high school or college, when we open a new business, when we have a new baby, as far as we know the heavenly champagne stays in the fridge.  But when a soul is saved, or when a straying sinner returns to the fold, the heavenly bubbly is uncorked and the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, all the angels, all the saints, and all of heaven explode into a grand and glorious celebration.

   So why is that?  Well, could it be that they know something we don’t know, that they see something we can’t see?  I believe that has a whole lot to do with it!  Since they are already there, they know what heaven holds in store for a repentant and believing sinner.  They’ve walked those streets of gold.  They’ve seen those precious gates of pearl.  They’ve heard the indescribably beautiful music of the angels.  They’ve beheld the spectacular glory of God which is so brilliant and so piercing that John tells us in Revelation there is no need for sun or moon or stars in heaven because God’s glory radiates, illuminates, and permeates everything.

   And they know something else that we also know, though we sometimes forget it or fail to think about it, and that is what John tells us in his 1^st Epistle, the 3^rd chapter, the 2^nd verse, when he says: “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”  I love that phrase “we shall be like him.”

   For much of this year I have been preaching a series of sermons focusing upon the heart.  The goal of these sermons has been to look at and develop in us a heart like Jesus had.  And I don’t know about you, but there have been times during this series, as we’ve heard about a forgiving heart, a forgiven heart, a listening heart, a God-filled heart, a worship hungry heart, a focused heart, an honest heart, a hope-filled heart, an encouraged heart, and an enduring heart, there have been times when I’ve felt like a failure, when I’ve felt as though I’ll never be able to have the kind of pure and perfect heart that Jesus had.  And you know what?  I’m right – at least partly right.  In this world, it’s true, none of us will ever be able to perfectly attain the different kinds of hearts we’ve looked at in this series, not that we shouldn’t try to do so with God’s help, but understanding all the while that there will be times when we stumble and fall.  There will be times when we falter and fail.

   But listen, my friends.  In heaven, all that we’ve been talking about in our sermons this year will be ours perfectly, for then we shall be just like Jesus.  Imagine that!  We will love with perfect love.  We will worship with perfect praise and adoration.  We will hear with perfect understanding.  We will radiate and experience perfect peace, perfect joy, perfect health, perfect obedience.  Yes, heaven will be populated – and I know this is almost impossible for us to imagine or envision – but heaven will be populated with perfect people who will never argue again, who will never envy again, who will never lie again, lust again, hate again, or sin again.

   So is it any wonder why the angels in heaven rejoice over one sinner who repents and finds himself, by the grace of God, on the road to heaven?  Those angels know better than anyone what we have been saved for and all that is in store for us there.  But they know something else which leads us to a second reason why they rejoice when we repent and come to saving faith in Christ and that is because they also know what we have been saved from.  And what we have been saved from is nothing less than the eternal horrors of hell, which is a lot because I suppose if we were to look for one phrase that summarizes better than any other what hell is like, that one phrase would have to be: “God isn’t there.”

   Think for a moment about what this world would be like if God wasn’t here, if his presence was not present to curb evil and to right many of the wrongs and injustices that we see taking place all around us.  If you think people can be cruel now, imagine a whole world of people without the conscience that God has so lovingly instilled in every human being.  If you think people can be brutal now, imagine a whole world of people without the restraining power of the Holy Spirit.  If you think there is loneliness and despair and depression in our world now, imagine life without the healing touch of Jesus.  Imagine a world with no forgiveness.  No hope.  No acts of kindness.  No good deeds done in the name of Christ.

   If God removed all of that and much, much more that his presence brings to our world right now, what would the world be like?  Actually, that’s a pretty easy question to answer.  In one word, it would be hell.  For that’s what hell is according to Scripture.  It is the complete absence of God.  For remember the great Judgment Day scene that Jesus depicts for us in Matthew 25 where he separates all of humanity into the 2 camps: the sheep on his right and the goats on his left?  Well, remember what he says to the goats?  He says: “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”  Understand, my friends, that the 3 worst words that will ever be heard by human ears are those 3 words: “DEPART FROM ME.”  That means, “Leave my presence forever.”  Never again will those in hell experience the love of God, the grace of God, the blessings of God, the presence of God.  According to Jesus, there will be only one sound heard coming from the caverns of hell.  Do you know what it is?  “Weeping and gnashing of teeth” – a woeful, soulful, never-ending moaning and groaning, weeping and wailing, crying and sighing that will emanate from hell’s inhabitants as they realize the opportunity they missed when they turned their backs on the Savior who died that they might live forever with him.  Oh what they would give, what they would pay, what they would do for just one more chance.  But that chance will never be given to them again.

   Can you see then why the angels rejoice over one sinner who repents?  They know exactly what that sinner has been saved for in heaven and they know exactly what that sinner has been saved from in hell.  And just to impress upon you even more the stark differences that exist between heaven and hell, I’ve included an insert in the bulletin this morning entitled “A Biblical Contrast of Heaven and Hell.”  This is a Bible study that I put together some years ago that revealed something quite astounding to me as I worked on it.  And that is that heaven is the complete opposite of everything that hell is and hell is the complete opposite of everything that heaven is.  I encourage you this week to take some time out of your busy schedule, get out your Bible, and look up the many different passages that I have listed here so that you can see for yourself the tremendous contrasts that exist between these two eternal dwelling places of mankind.  And I might also add that on the last Sunday of this month, July 31, I’m going to be starting a brand new sermon series on heaven that I’m going to call “Homeward Bound.”  It’s one that you will not want to miss.

   So as we draw this sermon series on the heart to a close, let me ask you a few questions.  What kind of shape is your heart in these days?  Has it been washed clean in the blood of the Lamb?  Has it been renewed, refreshed, and refurbished by the life-changing and transforming power of the Holy Spirit?  Has it been securely fastened and anchored to Jesus who is our one and only Savior, our one and only hope and source of salvation?  If it has been, then boy do I ever have good news for you!  Your name is now recorded in what the Book of Revelation calls the Lamb’s Book of Life and you are already a “homeward bound” human being.  My prayer for all of us here today is that we might never leave that narrow path that leads to life, and that if we have, this might be the day that we come home and give the angels in heaven one more glorious reason to rejoice.

   Amen.