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Matthew 11:12 “The kingdom of heaven suffers violence.” Jesus told Paul in 1 Corinthians 11, to instruct the church to “… do this in remembrance of me!” Jesus also said, “For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” Jesus said to do this in remembrance of Him. Why? Would we forget Him? Would this great experience ever start to fade in my memory? Why? Jesus knew that the human heart has an almost limitless capacity for distraction and remembering is a central aspect of biblical faith. Things can be easy to forget, things can slip our minds and often times we allow all sorts of other things to cloud our remembrance. We centre on remembering things that are not helpful to our spiritual walk and forget those things that are a help to our spiritual lives. Deuteronomy 4: 9 – 10 God says to His people, “Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. Remember the day you stood before the LORD your God.” Watch yourselves closely!! Above all guard your heart! Do not forget but remember. “Do this in remembrance of me!” says Jesus! When we remember Jesus, we are refreshed in his grace. When we remember Jesus, we know, once again, that nothing in all creation can separate us from God's love. The old Hymn comes to mind, “Count your blessings and name them one by one.” Communion is the celebration of the greatest miracle in Heaven and on earth; the salvation of our souls. The greatest act of God’s mercy and grace is when one person is born again by the Spirit of God. The most powerful and amazing release of God’s power takes place when a man or women is redeemed and transformed by God’s grace and favour! Salvation is the miracle of all miracles. This great salvation is the amazing grace of God in action and nothing comes close in comparison! When a man or women turns their hearts and minds to believe on Jesus Christ – all of Heaven’s power moves dramatically and unstoppably to see them born again by the power of God through Jesus Christ. The purpose of communion is for us to keep fresh our understanding of our salvation! To live in the power of our confession! To live in the wonder and live in the mystery of our great salvation! Live each day with the tangible, real and palpable knowledge that we have been saved, born again transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God son Jesus Christ. How could we not live like this? How could we take for granted such a powerful and great salvation? And yet many do. 1 Peter 1: 10 – 12, “Concerning this salvation … even the Angels long to look into these things.” Angels long to look – the Greek language implies that the angels stand on tippy toes to look! The angels of Heaven are so eager to understand God’s grace that they bend down from the battlements of heaven to marvel at the unfolding plan of salvation. Why would the angels marvel at our salvation? The answer is clear. There are no “saved” angels because salvation is not for them, but for us. Jesus died to redeem fallen men and women, not the angels. There are elect and non-­‐elect angels; there are good angels and bad angels; there are obedient and disobedient angels, but there are no “saved” angels. 1 Only humans can be saved. Only humans can be redeemed. We alone of all the creatures in the universe can experience the wonders of God’s saving grace. This fascinates the angels, and causes them to study and ponder the mysteries of a salvation they do not share. In the book of Luke 15:10 says, “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” One sinner repenting causes a great party in Heaven! How could we not stand amazed by the beauty of God’s gracious salvation for men and women? How could we not live in wonder? Here is Peter’s message made plain: God loves you so much, the angels are amazed. They long to look into these things. They know nothing about grace and mercy and forgiveness. They’ve never experienced new life, the new birth, regeneration, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, or the wonder of deliverance from sin. They’ve never known the power of forgiveness! That which we have experienced in Jesus Christ, the angels never knew and will never know. Hebrews 2: 1 – 4 says, “We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation?” This great salvation – announced not by Angels but proclaimed by Jesus Christ! This great salvation – confirmed by us through those who have heard it – because we saw the transformation – we saw the power of the miracle – we saw the change – we saw the glory of God as people heard, believed and received God’s love and grace. We witnessed the forgiveness and grace released. This great salvation – God Himself testified to it by signs and wonders and various miracles and by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The writer encourages us to not ignore this great salvation – to not take it for granted – to remain passionate living in the reality of our great salvation! The word neglect means to -­‐ regard carelessly, to disrespect, to be inattentive to, and to show a lack of care. Instead we are encouraged to live in the reality of such a great salvation – that this magnificent salvation becomes our energy, our purpose our motivation. This great salvation leads to a life of passion, a life of enthusiasm and a life of great energy. This great salvation becomes the vitality of our lives. When we live in the truth of this amazing grace our lives light up, we become flavour for a tasteless and bitter world. We become the beacon of light that shows the way to others. Paul declares in Romans 1:16 that for him, “… I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.” So what happens when we neglect or forget so great a salvation? As a pastor I see the consequence of neglect regularly! 1. People begin to lose their passion for God and the things of God. 2. People begin to disconnect from God, from church, from other godly leaders and friend. 3. People no longer share their faith with others, they forfeit open opportunities to share Jesus. 4. People begin to become negative, touchy and often times critical – their heart is no longer being guarded and out of it the issues of life flow – cynicism, bitterness, hurt, offence, anger. They are longer generous with affirmation or love. 2 5. People become so distracted that they neglect the nurturing of their relationship with God – soon they lose the wonder of their salvation and regard it as common. One day they realise they have become a backslider. I think Jesus is aware of our almost limitless capacity for distraction because in Revelation 2:4 He speaks to the church in Ephesus and says, “I hold this against you: you have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.” He says, I actually hold you to account! I’m doing this in a letter that will be read 2,000 years from now! You have forsaken, abandoned and ditched your love for me. I feel jilted by you. Someone else or something else has taken your affection and love. You used to love me but you have forsaken me for something else. You’ve become distracted. You’ve taken a deadly detour. Your heart is no longer in the right place. You’ve lost the passion! So here is the remedy… Jesus says 3 things 1. Consider how far you have fallen – spend some time in self-­‐examination – we all need time for reflection, time to ponder on our lives. 2. Change your course – the bible word is repent – and it involves action – Jesus says 3. Do the things you did at first. Do them passionately! Passion speaks of intensity. Passion is desire – its fervour, enthusiasm, zeal and emotion. Passion speaks of excited action. Passion is a bit crazy. In Matthew 11:12 we read the words of Jesus, “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence and violent people have been raiding it. These words describe the eager rush of the crowds to apprehend the reality of the kingdom of Heaven! Jesus is speaking here of the results of a passionate heart! It like an army violently seeking to take a city, to attacked it on all sides. This scripture speaks of a desire in the human heart so intense that they would forcefully advance to take possession of it. The violent take it by force; “men who are violent or use force” take this kingdom. The “violent” are men and women who are eager, who are relentless, they are filled with impetuous zeal and they are willing to grasp the kingdom of heaven. In short they are passionate! Their passion is for the truth of that kingdom -­‐ its peace, and pardon, its hope and blessedness, its grace and favour. They relentlessly grasp with as much eagerness as men would snatch and carry off as their own the spoil of a conquered city. In the Jubilee Bible it says, “From the days of John the Baptist until now, life is given unto the kingdom of the heavens, and the valiant take hold of it.” In the Amplified Bible it says, “…the kingdom of heaven has endured violent assault, and violent men seize it by force [as a precious prize—a share in the heavenly kingdom is sought with most ardent zeal and intense exertion].” Suffers violence; or "comes with force", and power upon the souls of men. Men are forcefully advancing upon the kingdom and the message of eternal salvation. There is a relentless moving forward – men and women are fighting – this urgency is also found in the heart of Jesus Christ who is willing to tear through the veil of darkness, fight for the furthest heart – break every chain and set men free from the slavery of sin. 3 As a church we live for this truth! As a relentless church we are committed to a passionate love for Jesus and to preaching this good news to all creation. As a church as a people we are motivated by the very cause of Christ to seek and save those who are lost. As a people we will fight for the furthest heart. A passion for the lost best reflects our passion for Jesus. It’s our fight for the furthest heart. I love the quote from DL Moody “I look upon this world as a wrecked vessel. God has given me a life boat and said Moody save all you can!” John Wesley once said, “You have one business on earth – to save souls.” He also said, ““Untold millions are still untold.” He also famously said, “Catch on fire with enthusiasm and people will come for miles to watch you burn.” He is also said to have said, ““Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin, and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergymen or laymen; such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on Earth.” We need to stay passionate about the good news of Jesus Christ because if the gospel is old news to you, it will be dull news to everyone else. We need to burn not with fury, anger or judgement but burn with a passionate desire to see people connecting with the grace, mercy, and power of this salvation. Let us not burn with offence towards one another but burn with a desire to see the lost found, the broken made whole and forgiven. As we stay passionate about our own salvation we will be like those who are forcefully advancing violently apprehending the kingdom of God. As we continually stir our own hearts, fleeing from the deceitful comforts of this world and remain white hot in our passion for Jesus we will see a revival break out in our city. As we reject the easy ways and seek the Lord with a whole heart we will see Him breaking through in our city and we will witness hundreds coming to faith in Jesus. The church I see is a church that is passionate about seeing others connect with Jesus Christ. The church I see is a church motivated by the cause of Christ to seek and save those who are lost. The church I see is a people who gather together Sunday after Sunday and serve in such a way as to welcome the furthest heart home. I don’t care so much for protocol but I care a lot about the altar call. I don’t care so much for being politically correct but I care a lot about passionate connections with Jesus. I care little for pomp and circumstance or merely polite conversation but I’ll give my life to see the passionate conversion of one to Jesus Christ. I care about the bold proclamation of the good news about Jesus. I care about a gospel that is confirmed with signs, wonders and various miracles. 4