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KNOCKING ON HEAVEN'S
DOOR #6
LET THE PARTY BEGIN — NOW!
We've all read warnings on cigarette billboards. And
recently on some television programs. But I guess this is maybe the first
time I'd seen one on a Christian book. On the back cover of What's So
Amazing About Grace?, by Philip Yancey, is a parental warning of sorts.
"Reader beware!" A fellow author, Brennan Manning, puts us all
on alert with this announcement:
"If you read the chapter, ‘The Lovesick
Father,' and do not weep for joy, I suggest you check your pulse, get
an electrocardiogram, or make an appointment with your mortician."
Well, so we were forewarned. And I can tell you that
the warning is well-founded. It's essentially a re-telling of the Prodigal
Son story . . . and by the end, you are IN TEARS. You are shaken, stirred,
and knocked right over. That's all there is to it.
A young girl living in Traverse City, Michigan decides she's sick of home
and rules and parents. She runs away to the big city, which in this case
would be Detroit. For a while there are fast times: boyfriends, body-piercing,
drinks and drugs. Then a bout with prostitution, the only way she can
make a living. Then total collapse: homelessness, cold, being lost and
aching and exhausted and totally friendless.
Finally there's a long Greyhound bus ride that takes her toward her hometown
of Traverse City. She's left a message on the answering machine: "Mom,
Dad, I'm coming through town. If you're not there, if you can't forgive
me . . . I guess I'll just stay on the bus and go to Canada."
As the bus pulls into the parking lot at Traverse City, at midnight, she
doesn't know what to expect. Her life is about to change one way or another.
Will she be accepted back, or will she be riding as an orphan up to Toronto?
And as she enters the bus terminal, at midnight, the place is packed with
family. Mom. Dad. Brothers. Sisters. Aunts and uncles and cousins, and
nephews, and great-aunts five times removed. EVERYBODY! All wearing funny
hats and noisemakers. A big sign,"Welcome home!", fills up the
whole place. And she starts to apologize. "Dad, I'm so sorry. I don't
deserve . . ." And he shuts her right up. "Hushhushhushhushhush.
No time for that. Don't be silly. We've got a big party back at the house.
Come on, let's go. We're so glad you're home."
And the party begins.
You know, friend, we spent all of last week here on the radio telling
you some wonderful news. And here it is again: "Jesus is the Door."
If you want to get back home, to your Father, to your eternal mansion
and a brand new life WITH that heavenly Father, Jesus is the Door. He's
the way back Home.
And beginning today, and going on all this week, we just want to tell
you one thing more. Here it is. THE MINUTE YOU WALK THROUGH THAT DOOR
. . . THE PARTY BEGINS.
Our studio engineer, Armando Cordero, has been leaning on us lately to
not mention so many specific dates on the air. Like, "Today, such-and-such
date, President X did such-and-such thing." Which I like doing, because
we can then lead into our sermon concept from that little anniversary.
Armando wants us to stop, because it makes rerun broadcasts so difficult
to fix. But today, Armando, you're just going to have to bear with us.
Because the plain, wonderful, shout-it-from-the-rooftops truth is this:
If you accept Jesus today, February 18, 2002, and walk through that door
today, February 18, 2002 . . . a party begins in heaven today, February
18, 2002. And that's the honest, straight-from-the-Bible truth.
The Word of the Lord on this is so clear. We've already
mentioned John 10:7, where Jesus tells people:
"I am the gate; whoever enters through Me
WILL be saved."
And of course, we must say this: the story of the Prodigal
Son isn't Philip Yancey's story. Zondervan and HarperCollins don't own
it. This is a story told by Jesus Himself . . . although I certainly love
how Philip has given it renewed power for the 21st century. Read it for
yourself in Luke chapter 15 — and by all means, spend the money to read
What's So Amazing About Grace? at the same time.
But here's a sinner who's a long ways from home. He's rejected his own
dad — "dissed" him as people say now. "Gimme my money and
then get outta my way," he snaps at his father. He goes to a far
country and blows the entire wad on drugs, Dodge Vipers, and dopey friends.
He ends up feeding the pigs for a living. And finally he realizes how
stupid he's been. He'd like to go home . . . but how can he possibly?
How can he pay back the money? How can he take back all the idiotic, unretractable
words he said on his way out the door?
So he plans a speech. "Dad, I'll just be a servant. I'll live out
back with the butler and the cook. I'll work 40 hours a week for minimum
wage. I won't even call you Dad anymore — I don't deserve it. I'll just
call you Mr. Jones like the other hired help." And when he gets to
the front mailbox and sees his dad there waiting, he launches into the
speech.
And what does Dad do? The same as the father in that Traverse City, Michigan
bus terminal. "Just shut up," he says. "Don't be silly.
Don't waste your breath with a speech, Son. I'm too busy getting the party
together. Too busy killing the fatted calf. Too busy opening up the Martinelli's.
Too busy hugging you and kissing you and crying for joy. Too busy shouting
from the highest rooftop that my boy is home. Too busy sending out invitations
to every single person I've ever known: My son is home! Let the party
begin! Let the festivities rock the old homestead like it's never been
rocked before!"
And maybe you say: "Come on. These are just metaphors. God is an
infinite, holy . . . being . . . of some kind. He's pure spirit. He doesn't
party." Friend, I would disagree with you as adamantly and as stoutly
as I know how. Go back exactly 13 verses and notice this, coming right
after Jesus' story about a lost coin:
"‘Rejoice with me," [the lady of the
house says.] "I have found my lost coin.' In the same way, I tell
you, there is REJOICING in the presence of the angels of God over ONE
sinner who repents."
Jesus says with His own mouth: "There IS a party
in heaven. Angels attend it. In God's presence they attend it." The
same Jesus who went to a wedding feast at Cana, and turned water into
wine . . . the same Jesus who got criticized over and over for eating
and drinking and partying with sinners . . . the same Jesus says explicitly:
"There is a party in heaven, there is rejoicing in heaven, when ONE
sinner repents. When ONE SINNER walks through that door." Friend,
Jesus Christ, as a real flesh-and-blood Man on this earth, knew how to
party. He knew how to celebrate and laugh and hug and shed tears of joy.
He did it again and again. And He looks around at all of us and says,
"I and My Father are one. He's just like Me. When I party, HE parties.
Anybody I hug, He hugs. When I pop heaven's champagne corks, He's right
there too. And when just one sinner walks through that door, we cut loose.
We throw parties that make Las Vegas' Y2K New Year's Eve bash on the Strip
look like nothing."
There's something else I'd like to share with you as we keep on thinking
about Jesus being the Door. There are some very important parts to a person's
spiritual life BEFORE they get to the Door. And there are some vital things
that go on once you've gone through. It's part of our mission here on
The Voice of Prophecy to nurture people who already ARE born-again believers.
To strengthen you in the faith. To discuss together doctrines and spiritual
disciplines and how we can all reflect more clearly the beautiful character
of Jesus. It's a great mission, and I'm humbly proud and thankful to God
to be involved. I thank God YOU'RE involved WITH us here on this Monday.
So there are important things going on before you GET to the Door, and
equally necessary things on the other side, as we journey to the kingdom.
But friend, the party BEGINS when you step through the Door. The noisemakers
don't come out only when you've walked five or ten or fifty miles BEYOND
the Door and, shall we say, PROVEN yourself to be a wonderful, obedient
Christian. You don't have to QUALIFY for noisemakers. They come out INSTANTLY!
Like that runaway kid from Detroit who stepped off the Greyhound bus:
emaciated, dirty, smelling bad, heroin tracks on her arms, naval pierced,
bad words still in her vocabulary, a thousand painful memories of prostitution
tricks still jabbing her soul. And in the months to come Dad and Mom,
with their arms around their girl, might work together on a bath for the
body and also for the spirit. But the party begins NOW. Midnight. With
all the aunts and uncles and cousins — and angels, and Jesus, and God
— joining in.
Friend, I don't know where you are today regarding that Door. Maybe you
walked through it many, many years ago . . . and the party happened way
back then. Although, considering the size and scope of heaven's celebrations,
they might still be eating leftover cake up there. But if you haven't
ever been through the Door marked "Jesus Christ — enter here for
salvation" . . . you could do it right now. The celebration could
begin right now. I'm sorry, Armando Cordero, but I have it as a Word from
the Lord: February 18, in the year 2002, is the absolutely PERFECT day
for yet another party.
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