Who's Ready for a Party?

C.S. Lewis wrote, “My hope is that when I die, all of hell rejoices that I am out of the fight.” I love the mental image here of Satan letting out a sigh of relief when saints like C.S. Lewis, Tim Keller, or Billy Graham drew their last breath. Relief because there is one less person to thwart his plans of pain and destruction in this world.

I admit my mind is a little quirky, because this quote started me thinking about the various reasons why we celebrate. It seems that here on earth we look for any excuse to throw a party. That is probably the reason why every day of the week is “National ‘Something’ Day”. Whether its ice cream, pizza or your dog, that’s reason enough for us to celebrate.

Once I was on this track, I decided to ‘google’ why people have this tendency and AI gave me this explanation: “The benefits of celebrating go beyond mere enjoyment. Celebrations also nurture our souls and strengthen our bonds.” I also read that, “The coming together of friends, family, colleagues or even strangers to celebrate an occasion brings a sense of belonging and community spirit.”

That last statement made me think of being at a sporting event and our willingness to “high five” total strangers when our team scores. The game has created an atmosphere of community among the people sitting around you.  

It seems to me that a desire to celebrate is common to us all, and if that is true, we can only conclude that God created us this way. His design though was that his creation was to only worship and celebrate him:

“You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God….” (Exodus 20:2-5)

Satan though, who is trying his best to keep us out of the fight, knows the Ten Commandments better than we do. He knows that God said we are to have no other gods before him; therefore, what does he do? He dupes us into thinking that church is dull and religion a bore. He fools us into believing that excitement is only where the bright lights are, which is why so many of us are guilty of not being as excited to be at church on Sunday as we were at the game on Friday night.

Now I’m not knocking sports. They are a great pastime, but like so many other things, they can easily become an idol if you are not careful. We need to guard our hearts and minds so that God is the reason for our joy and not our favorite team, or streaming series, or whatever it is that has captivated our attention.

But I know what you are thinking though… church can be a little dull and stale. Believe me, I understand because I have been there myself. You go because you know you are supposed to, but you are only going through the motions. Or worse yet, you go thinking you are a little above it all, and you find yourself wishing the person next to you, whose hands are raised in praise with tears streaming down their face, would control themselves.

Sadly, there can be a little ‘pharisee’ lurking in all of us, but the truth of the matter is that we are called to worship. To praise. To celebrate our risen Savior. Thus, it would behoove us to figure out how to do this better.

If you want to look at how to praise God, there is no better place to start then the Book of Psalms. It is filled with songs of praise where we are told to shout for joy to the Lord and enter his gates with thanksgiving (Psalm 100:1,4). Powerful words which are meant to draw us to worship, and as I was flipping through them, I thought about Jesus singing these same songs as he was growing up. I then decided to look and see what he had to say about celebrations.

I know Jesus didn’t shy away from a party because his first miracle was a wedding feast (John 2:1-11). He also willingly joined in the party at Matthew’s house (Matthew 9:9-13), and dined with Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10). Jesus was definitely not afraid to join in festivities, and then I thought of my three favorite parables: The lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son (Luke 15).

Luke begins this section by saying, “The tax-collectors and sinners were all coming near to Jesus to hear him, and the Pharisees and scribes were murmuring, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” (Luke 15:1) The Pharisees were absolutely confounded that Jesus would associate with people from the ‘wrong side of the tracks’, as we used to say in North Texas. I read that the Pharisees had a name for people who did not strictly keep the law as they did. They called them ‘People of the Land’, and according to Williams Barclay’s commentary on the Gospel of Luke, it was not a term of endearment:

When a man is one of the People of the Land, entrust no money to him, take no testimony from him, thrust him with no secrets, do not appoint him guardian of orphans, do not make him the custodian of charitable funds, do not accompany him on a journey.

It was their goal to avoid any contact with these ‘people’, but then here was Jesus. They could not understand why he would befriend sinners and tax-collectors. They assumed God thought the way they did, and there would only be joy in heaven when a ‘sinner’ got what he deserved.

Thus, it was time for Jesus to teach them a lesson about God’s kingdom, and he told the listening crowd how a shepherd, a woman, and a father all rejoiced when what was lost was found.  He explained how they called their friends and neighbors together and said, “Rejoice with me; I have found what was lost. Come and celebrate with me!” But not only that, Jesus said, “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15:10)

No pharisee had ever dreamed of a God like that. They might have agreed that those who came crawling back to God in humiliation could possibly find pity, but they would never have conceived of a God who went out in search of a sinner or angels rejoicing when one of those people repented.

Yet that is our God. He desires reconciliation with his lost children. He is ready to throw the biggest party ever when they are found, and the logical conclusion that Jesus wanted the crowd, as well as us, to come to is if all of heaven is celebrating, so should we! We are to be about our Father’s business, and nothing in this world should bring us greater joy. On this point, John Wesley wrote, “The church has nothing to do but to save souls. Therefore, spend and be spent in this work.”

As I sat with this thought, I had to be honest with myself: Am I ‘spent’ in my Father’s work? Do I wake up every morning eager to go talk to someone about Jesus? Do I get as excited over someone coming to Christ as I am thinking about my upcoming vacation?

Once again, very sobering thoughts because I know what the Great Commission says (Matthew 28:18-20). The early church won multitudes to Christ because they tapped into the power of the Holy Spirit, and here’s the thing - that same power is available to us as well. The Spirit will give us the words we need to go and make disciples, but we cannot forget to celebrate along the way. We need to rejoice with other believers and praise God for all that he has done. We also need to spend time with the ‘tax collectors and sinners’ whom we know and share with them the story of a God who loves them so much, he leaves the ninety-nine to go in search of them.  

Friends, this is what pushes back the darkness, and as I think about it, a smile crosses my face. The more time that I spend celebrating the lost being found, the more Satan will be counting the days until I, too, am out of the fight.

For the glory of God!  Lisa

Discussion Questions

What do you like to celebrate?

How does it make you feel that all of heaven rejoiced when you accepted Christ as your Savior? How can you use that understanding to help share the gospel with someone?

Are there people who you have categorized as ‘Land People’? If so, what do you need to do today to begin to change that attitude?