The Heartbeat of Heaven

The Heartbeat of Heaven

Luke 15:1-10 (KJV)

Theme

God's heart has always been to seek and save the lost.

Proposition

When God's people understand the heartbeat of heaven, they will develop a burden for reaching those who have never heard the gospel.

Introduction

This morning we begin a month-long series I have entitled Partners in the Gospel.

If we are going to partner with missionaries across America and around the world, we need to understand what that partnership really means.

No one enters a business partnership without first understanding the purpose of the business.

Yet many Christians support missions without ever considering what God says that partnership should look like.

To understand that, we need to understand the very heartbeat of heaven.

Turn with me to Luke 15.

If someone asked you, "What moves the heart of God?" how would you answer?

Some would say worship.

Others would say holiness.

Others would say prayer.

All of those are important.

But in Luke 15 Jesus reveals something deeply personal about the Father's heart.

The Pharisees criticized Him because … He “receiveth sinners, and eateth with them."

Instead of defending Himself, Jesus told three parables—the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son.

Each one teaches the same great truth:

God delights in recovering what is lost.

If we are going to become true partners in the Gospel, then God's heartbeat must become our heartbeat.

So lets look at Luke 15:1-10 and see the heartbeat of God.

The first thing we see about the heartbeat of God is…

I. The Worth of One Soul

(vv. 3-7)

The Pharisees could not understand why Jesus spent so much time with sinners.

To them, sinners were people to avoid.

To Jesus, they were people to rescue.

So instead of arguing with them, Jesus told a simple story that every person listening could understand.

A shepherd that has one hundred sheep.

Ninety-nine are safe.

Only one is missing.

From a business perspective, losing one sheep out of a hundred doesn't seem catastrophic.

A hired shepherd could have easily said, "Ninety-nine percent isn't bad."

But this was not a hierling, this shepherd was the owner of the sheep and Jesus says the shepherd refuses to accept the loss of even one.

Why?

Because to the shepherd, every sheep has value.

Likewise, to our Great Shepherd every soul has Infinite Value

A. The Infinite Value of One Soul

The emphasis of this parable is not on the ninety-nine.

It is on the one.

Throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus continually demonstrated this truth.

He stopped for blind Bartimaeus while surrounded by crowds.

He crossed the Sea of Galilee for one demon-possessed man.

He took time to speak with one Samaritan woman at Jacob's well.

He invited Himself into the home of one despised tax collector named Zacchaeus.

The crowds never distracted Jesus from individuals.

Because every person was created in the image of God, (God=Trinity Man=Triune Being i.e Body Soul Spirit)

Every person has an eternal soul.

Every person will spend eternity somewhere.

That means there are no insignificant people.

To the world, you may simply be another face in the crowd.

But To God, you are a soul worth pursuing.

Illustration:

Imagine your child going missing, god forbid.

You wouldn’t neglect finding them just because you have the rest of your family.

You would pursue after them because their value is beyond measure.

That is how the Great Shepherd sees the value of every soul.

The shepherd leaves the ninety-nine.

Why would a shepherd risk the lives of the 99 just for one disobedient sheep?

Because the sheep were safely in the sheep fold.

Jesus is not teaching negligence.

He is teaching priority.

The shepherd understands that the one who is lost is in immediate danger.

A sheep cannot find its own way home.

It is vulnerable to predators.

It is helpless without the shepherd.

So he willingly leaves comfort to rescue the one.

Doesn't that remind you of our Great Shepherd?

Jesus left the glory of Heaven.

He clothed Himself in humanity.

He endured rejection, suffering, nails, and a cross.

Why?

Because one soul is worth everything.

Calvary is the greatest demonstration of the value God places on sinners.

Paul wrote, “Who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)

Notice the personal language.

Not merely the world.

But Me!!

A. The Infinite Value of One Soul

B. The Individuality of One Soul

When we think about missions, we often think in terms of countries.

Africa.

Asia.

South America.

The Middle East.

We hear statistics about billions who have never heard the Gospel.

Those numbers are staggering.

But God doesn't simply see statistics.

He sees fathers.

Mothers.

Children.

Teenagers.

Grandparents.

Every nation is simply a collection of people whom Christ bled and died for.

Missionaries are not merely trying to reach countries.

They are reaching one soul at a time.

Illustration:

Ask Brother Bateman how many people live in Utah.

It's hard to picture that number.

But imagine one little girl sitting on the front row of a church for the first time hearing that Jesus Christ died for her.

Suddenly missions isn't about millions.

It's about one.

And that one matters to God.

Application

Before we talk about giving to missions...

Before we talk about praying for missionaries...

Before we talk about going to the nations...

We must first see people the way God sees them.

A mother working three jobs to support her children

A dad pushing through every obsticule to provide for his family

A teen, facing constant pressure to be something they are not

A child moving from foster care to foster care

The unreached tribesman across the ocean.

Every one of them possesses an eternal soul of immeasurable value.

If we ever lose sight of the value of one soul, missions becomes just another thing in the church.

But when we see people through the eyes of the Good Shepherd, missions becomes the very heartbeat of God working and beating in His people.

II. The Pursuit of One Soul

(vv. 4, 8)

One of the most beautiful truths in these parables is that the lost sheep never starts looking for the shepherd.

and the lost coin doesn't cry out for help.

both of these accounts, they are found because someone came looking for them.

Everything in these stories points to one reality:

God always makes the first move.

Left to ourselves, we would never seek Him.

The pursuit begins with God.

That is the heartbeat of missions.

This has been true from the very beginning of Scripture.

When Adam and Eve sinned, they hid among the trees.

God came walking in the garden asking, “Where art thou?" (Genesis 3:9)

God wasn't seeking information.

He was seeking sinners.

Israel wandered.

God sent prophets.

and then one day over two thousand years ago He sent His own Son.

Jesus Himself declared, “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." (Luke 19:10)

Romans 5:8 reminds us, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

Many of us heard the gospel numerous times before we were saved.

God continued sending witnesses.

He continued convicting our hearts.

He continued drawing us to Himself.

because Before we ever desired Him...

He desired us.

Before we ever loved Him...

He loved us.

Before we ever called upon Him...

He was already pursuing us.

Application

The church did not invent the mission.

The church joins in the mission.

That changes the way we think about missions.

We are not asking God to bless our plans.

We are joining His eternal purpose.

When we pray for missionaries, we are participating in God's pursuit.

When we give, we are investing in God's pursuit.

When we witness to a coworker or neighbor, we are participating in God's pursuit.

When we send missionaries to the ends of the earth, we are extending the search of the Good Shepherd.

If we truly possess the heartbeat of God, we cannot remain indifferent to people who have never heard the name of Jesus.

For the Shepherd is still seeking.

And He is inviting His church to join Him in the search.

And For that lost soul here this morning, He is still in pursuit of you!

III. The Joy Over One Soul

(vv. 6-10)

Jesus ends both parables in exactly the same way.

The shepherd calls his friends.

The woman gathers her neighbors.

Both invite others to rejoice.

Then Jesus lifts the curtain on Heaven itself.

"Likewise, joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth..." (Luke 15:7)

"There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." (Luke 15:10)

The search ends in celebration.

The sorrow of the lost becomes the joy of the found.

A. Salvation brings joy to Heaven

Notice what Jesus emphasizes.

He doesn't simply say that Heaven knows when someone is saved.

He says Heaven rejoices.

That tells us something about the heart of God.

Every time a sinner repents, all of Heaven celebrates the victory of God's grace.

The angels rejoice because another soul has been rescued from darkness.

Another captive has been set free.

Another name has been found to be written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

To us, it may seem like one person walking an aisle or bowing their head in prayer.

To Heaven, it is an event worthy of rejoicing in

Illustration

Think about the excitement when a missing child is finally found.

For hours there has been fear, uncertainty, and desperate searching.

Then the announcement comes: “We've found them!"

Tears turn to laughter.

Fear gives way to relief.

Family members embrace one another with overwhelming joy.

That is the picture Jesus paints.

Heaven rejoices because what was lost has been found.

But the angles should not be the only ones rejoicing,

A. Salvation brings joy to Heaven

B. Saints Can Share in That Joy

Not everyone is called to go across the world.

But every believer is called to participate in the mission.

Some go.

Some send.

Some pray.

Some give.

Some encourage.

Yet every one of us can have a part in the harvest.

Paul repeatedly thanked churches for their partnership in the Gospel.

The believers at Philippi were hundreds of miles away from Paul's ministry, yet they shared in the fruit because they supported the work.

One day in Heaven, we may meet people we've never known on earth.

Someone from another country may say,

"I heard the Gospel because your church helped send a missionary."

"You prayed for someone you never met, and God answered that prayer."

"You gave faithfully, and because of that I heard about Jesus."

What a day that will be.

Christ Connection

Both parables end with rejoicing because both point forward to the Gospel.

The Shepherd carried the sheep home upon his shoulders.

Jesus carried our sins upon His own body on the tree.

The woman carefully searched until she found the coin.

Jesus came into a dark world to save those who could never save themselves.

The cross made redemption possible.

The resurrection guaranteed redemption's victory.

One day, when the redeemed from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation stand before the throne, the joy that began in Luke 15 will reach its glorious fulfillment.

Conclusion

The heartbeat of God has never changed.

From Genesis to Revelation, God is seeking the lost.

The question is not whether God has a heart for missions.

The question is whether His people do.

If our hearts beat with His heart, then:

We will pray for the lost.

We will witness where God has placed us.

We will faithfully support those who go where we cannot.

We will rejoice whenever anyone comes to Christ, whether across the street or across the world.

The heartbeat of God is still beating.

May it become the heartbeat of this church.

Luke 15 leaves us with a simple but searching truth.

The Shepherd is still seeking.

The Gospel is still saving.

Heaven is still rejoicing.

The only question is this:

Will we join the Shepherd in His pursuit, so that others may experience the joy of redemption?

Invitation

Ask three simple questions:

Have you experienced the Shepherd's pursuit?

If you have never trusted Christ, today is the day to come to Him.

Are you participating in God's search?

Who is one person God has placed in your life that needs the gospel?

Are you investing in what God values?

Commit during Missions Month to pray faithfully, give sacrificially, and encourage the missionaries we support