Within the last two weeks, I have had the privilege of helping to lead two young people into saving relationship with Jesus. Without hesitation I can say that this is one of the most incredibly joyful and profoundly moving experiences a Christian can have. Each time I am privileged enough to be part of God bringing someone back into relationship with him, I am humbled and awed beyond words.
More than anything else, God's desire is to be in deep, personal relationship with every single human being. This is the gospel in a nutshell. And the Bible makes clear how much this matters to God:
Luke 15:7, "I
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."
And verse 10, "I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."
Literally all of heaven rejoices when even one sinful human (which is every human!) repents and gets back into right relationship with God. Think about that...all of the heavens, and all of God's angels rejoice and worship because someone recognized their brokenness and their need for Jesus. Amazing!
Yet what I find is that Christians often respond with far less enthusiasm. I remember a few years ago I had spoken at a youth conference where about 100 kids were gathered at a camp in Wisconsin. Over the course of the weekend, forty of them...forty!...gave their lives to Jesus. So, the following weekend, when I got back home to the church I was pastoring at the time, I told them all about it. It was met with what seemed like apathy. In reality, they applauded, but more in a sense of "Oh, that's kind of neat" way than in a "Let's rejoice with all of the heavens over all of these young people that have come to Jesus!" way.
This makes me sad. Because such a reaction is not specific to that church, or to just certain misguided Christians. Many, many people fall into this lackadaisical response than I ever expected.
Perhaps this feeds our reticence to share our faith. Perhaps this is fed by our reticence to share our faith. But, in many ways, I feel that it breaks God's heart. Because God is overwhelmingly joyful when a sinner repents. Yet we too often respond with, at worst, ambivalence or, at best, lukewarm approval.
We should be so excited when even one person comes to Jesus that we shout it from the rooftops and raise our voices in worship and in praise! We should join God's angels in all the heavens in rejoicing that one more has been added to the number of God's kingdom! We should also be so overwhelmed by the work and message of the gospel that we want the entire world to join us in God's kingdom. We should want everyone we know to have the same joy that we (should) have over the fact that we were lost and now we are found.
