Christ’s mission that Christians made impossible: Part 2
Below are excerpts of a sermon preached by Emmanuel Makandiwa on Sunday 12 February 2017, Morning Service.
EVEN though the Bible encourages us to love our enemies, you have to understand that love is not the same. There is a love that you love an enemy with and love that you love God with. If you love God with the same love that you love your enemy with, how does God know that you really love Him if the love is the same? The love you love God with is different from the one you love your enemy with. The only time when God can be sure that you really love Him is if He sees a different kind of love channelled towards Him and another different kind channelled towards your enemy.
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John
15:13). Imagine Jesus is calling us friends. That is where we have disappointed the Man who laid down His life for His friends. Jesus did it for friends who do not value and understand the importance of life. How do you feel when you sacrifice and lay down your life and then the person you die for does not place value on life?
There is no greater disappointment than that. Christians have failed to understand the value and importance of life and yet we have a man who came and laid down His own life so that we can have it. Amongst Christians, no one is willing to come and pick up the life that was laid down by His friend and make it his own.
It is still down there, laid down for us and yet no one is ready to pick it up. We continue living our own lives which are miserable and we wonder why after being born again we still live like we were never washed by the blood of Jesus. There was never a point in our lives during our time when somebody decided to pick up the life that was laid down by a friend.
The life of Jesus is still on the floor and no one wants to pick it up. That is the let-down I am talking about because God is not happy with Christians. You have not made life your emphasis and your focus. You have made health, money, relationships and every other thing your focus but you have not made life your focus.
As for us, we have been ministering about life for a very long time now because if we keep on talking and reading about life something happens to us. I am trying to bring your attention to something which is very important; life.
Have you ever wondered what exactly it is that wakes you up every morning? When you go to bed and sleep, you will be far away from your physical body. You will no longer be in control of your mind. But the question is, when you are that far from your physical body, what then brings you back into your physical body and you wake up?
Maybe you have not thought about it because you do not really value life. You have to continuously think about what wakes you up every morning. Is it your decision or somebody decides on your behalf? It is not even the alarm that wakes you up. Find out what it is that brings you back to life every morning. Even if you do not know what it is but at least know that there is something that wakes you up every morning. You do not have a name for it but there is something that does that.
Another question is, what if that thing decides not to come? What brings it back every time? That is the thing that we do not even thank God for and yet it wakes us up every morning. No one comes to testify before people that there is something that falls upon him every morning and wakes him up
It is not a testimony that many people are not willing to share because they do not appreciate life. Jesus laid down His own life so that somebody comes, picks it up and begin to live the life of Jesus. Jesus when He came in the flesh there was a life He had and He kept it so perfect; He used the same life to perform miracles, signs and wonders.
When He died that is the life He laid down so that somebody can pick it up and continue doing the same works He was doing. When you pick up the life of Jesus your life becomes a continuation of His life. You will think, talk and walk like Him. You will do miracles, signs and wonders like Him and you will advise people the same way He would have advised people if He was around because it is no longer you that lives but Him.
Make up your mind to pick up that life and live it to its maximum. There are truths that I have to keep on presenting to you until your minds get soaked. Until then your life cannot change. It is believed everywhere you go and every preacher tells you that Jesus died for you; that is what the Bible tells us.
Jesus did not die for Himself but for you and the question is, “Why then should you die for yourself?” That is the reason why the gospel of immortality has been criticised by some of the most spiritual preachers. Immortality means deathless, it means you live forever and you cannot die.
The gospel of immortality we have found ways of avoiding it in case we eventually die. We look at those who came before us and wrote scriptures and have since died. We then make doctrines based on what we see happening, not based on what is written in the word of God.
The truth is, after being born again no one was supposed to die. What is now killing us is not because life has not been made available, it is the faith that is required for that life to be attained that we do not have. If Jesus came on earth and died for you and me, it means there is somebody who took my place and your place inasfar as death is concerned.