The Welcoming Committee

It was a rainy night in Memphis, and I had just dropped my family off at the door of a local restaurant while I went to park the car. As I walked through the darkness of that parking lot in the pouring rain, I couldn't wait to get inside and join my loved ones. The door opened, and a figure of a man stood there as I passed from one sphere to another, from darkness to light, but the man threw his arms around me, and in a deep booming voice he said, Ernesto.

It was Adrian Rogers. He always called me Ernesto. As Dr. Rogers hugged me, I felt as if I had entered heaven, and Jesus was embracing me.

Adrian Rogers always made me think of Jesus because he was so Christ-like. Now, I relate that story to you, friends, because it is a backdrop to my message today. My message is entitled, The Welcoming Committee, and my text can be found in the book of Hebrews, in chapter 12.

You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We will be in Hebrews 12.1, which states, Wherefore, seeing we are all so compassed about, with so great a cloud of witnesses, let me pause here, friends, to say Hebrews 12.1 comes off the heels of one of the greatest passages in Scripture, chapter 11, which lists the great hall of faith of men and women who were worthies for God, but not worthy of this world. This is the reference to that great cloud of witnesses.

Let us continue with our text. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. When I was a younger man, I visited the ancient ruins in Olympia, Greece, the very site of the first Olympic Games, and myself and a couple of other men took off running as we reenacted the race in that Greek stadium.

Now I say all this in my little introduction to set the stage for my message today. I want you to contemplate on that scene of an arena with the bleachers full of spectators watching with great expectation the race transpiring before them. Some scholars hold that this great cloud of witnesses makes reference to the preceding chapter of that great hall of faith, those saints who have gone before us, and it is their example in Christ that should encourage us in our walk with God.

Other scholars say that this is a fantastic scene of a great arena where those saints are seated as they watch the activity below as we live our life for Christ. There they are cheering us on as spectators to us as we run the race. I believe that, friends, I believe that when we die as believers in Christ Jesus and enter the joyful bliss of heaven, that a welcoming committee will be there to greet us.

This welcoming committee will have Christ as the head, and around him will be standing our loved ones and friends who preceded us to glory. There they will be with big smiles on their faces because they know how wonderful heaven is, and they want us to enjoy it as well. I believe a profitable exercise is to get out a pen and paper and begin to write down the names of those departed loved ones and friends who will be there to greet us.

I recently did this myself, thinking about those I know who've preceded me to heaven, thinking about how I will enjoy their company up there. Take the time now, friend, to reflect upon your own life and the people in it who influenced you for Christ, those dear ones who are in heaven awaiting your arrival, your own welcoming committee with Christ at the head. What a time of unending bliss heaven will be.

Let us each live for eternity. Amen.