Because of Jesus... I am Able

I grew up in the midst of a generation who was told at every opportunity: you can grow up to be whatever you want to be. As long as we put our minds to it and as long as we put in the work, we whatever we aspired to be could come true. As I got a little older, I figured out that this wasn’t always true. Even though I was the center on my sixth grade intramural basketball team, I’m not holding my breath waiting for the NBA to call. The point is, there are things that are just not reasonable for us to expect to be able to do.

There are things that we can do and things we can’t. Unfortunately, I have too often seen people giving up because of things they can’t do or often because they have been told continuously that they cannot do something. So often I see young people or new Christians who idealistically believe they can change the world, but as they get older, the crab mentality sets in. Crab mentality refers to crabs in a bucket – individually every one of them could escape from the bucket, but instead they grab at each other and pull the others down. Thus none of them escape and all of them perish.

We are told, “Don’t upset the status quo.”

We are told, “Some things never change.”

We are told, “You can’t really change the world.”

I know I’m not the first one to say something like this – people have been saying this for years – but doesn’t it seem like society just keeps getting worse? Maybe it’s how fast bad news travels and all the varieties of news sources where we can get the bad news, but there are times when it seems like everything is just getting worse and worse, and it can be easy to want to give up. Am I the only one who has ever felt helpless in the face of an increasingly secular society?

Were we a culture without Jesus, this would be true. But we are not that society. Listen to the way John starts his Gospel: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. (John 1:1-5)

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

Jesus is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy: The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. (Isaiah 9:2)

Because of Jesus, there is light in the world. Because of Jesus, we have hope. Because of Jesus, we are found. Because of Jesus, we have freedom. Because of Jesus, we are able!

One Bible story I have always found fascinating happens immediately after the Transfiguration of Jesus. Jesus is up on the mountain with Peter, James, and John, and they see Moses and Elijah, and Jesus’ face shone like the sun and his clothes become dazzling white. It’s an amazing scene where Jesus is again affirmed by God. But when they come down from the mountain, they find a commotion.

Let’s pick up the action in Matthew 17:14-20:  When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.”

 “You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment.

Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”

He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Jesus found his disciples unable to heal a boy, and, instead of telling them, “it’s OK, you just haven’t been adequately trained” he called them an unbelieving and perverse generation and blamed their inability on their lack of faith. In other words, he actually expected them to be able to bring God’s healing and wholeness to the boy.

Francis Chan was speaking at the Right Now Conference and he cracked me up with his take on this scripture. He recalled being a young believer reading this scripture and believing he could move a mountain… and trying it at home. Maybe he didn’t have enough faith to move a mountain, but he certainly could will that pencil across his desk…

We are a culture that is generally skeptical of the supernatural. We want scientific proof. We want medical reasons. But Jesus never limits the supernatural to himself. He says that we can do the supernatural.

In fact, listen to his words in John 14: I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. (John 14:12-14)

Do you have the boldness to approach God’s throne in Jesus’ name to ask for God to do these things through you? Or do you even believe it’s possible?

Please take note that Jesus didn’t say we could approach God boldly and ask whatever we want. He made it conditional: he will do whatever we ask in his name. Because of Jesus, we are able. But we must be acting in Jesus’ will to ask in his name.

Sometimes we ask according to our own will and in our own name. This is kind of like when you were a kid and you went to your mom to ask her for some privilege. She’d make “that” face and tell you to go ask your father. Now, you knew full well that “that” face meant she wasn’t too keen on the idea, but you really wanted to do it, so you went to your dad and said, “Mom said it’s OK if I… as long as you said yes.” Technically that might be kind of true, but it was misleading at best. God is not fooled.

Another reason we do not get what we ask for is that often our goal isn’t for God to be glorified. Our goal is often selfish; we want to avoid pain or difficulty. In junior high, I used to make God all sorts of promises if he’d just help me to win a race. Maybe that’s why he called me into the pulpit – he was just cashing in all the promises I’d made! But I didn’t ask to win in order to bring God glory; I wanted to win for my own glory. It was all about me.  

In Luke 10:19-20, Jesus is telling the disciples he has sent out: “I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.  However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” It’s clear that God has given them supernatural powers. But Jesus’ reason is not for them to glory in the power; that pales in comparison to the supernatural gift that He gives: that their names are written in heaven.

And it’s because of Jesus that we are able to rejoice in this. Jesus explained in Matthew 19 that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”(Matthew 19:25-26)

With God all things are possible, including the impossible: salvation. Because of Jesus, we are able! The baby whose birth we celebrate on Christmas… he makes the impossible possible!

Because of this, we can say along with Paul: I can do everything through him who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:13) Jesus Himself is the one who gives me strength. There are things you think you can’t do, but because of Jesus, you are able!

What would it look like if we actually believed that God, through Jesus Christ, would give us this kind of power? In our modern, American churches, we live as if we are powerless. Think of it this way: I’m not all that great of a basketball player, but imagine that I told you that this year I have something that is going to make me an amazing basketball player. So you challenge me to a game, but I just sit on the bleachers or I come out and I don’t have any more skills than before. I’d lose any credibility I had; you wouldn’t believe that there was anything to my claim that I had some new special skill.

Unfortunately this is what we often do. We say we have the Holy Spirit living within us, but we find ourselves living the same old hum-drum lives. Or we sit around, learning about God and learning about Jesus and learning about the Holy Spirit, but we’re sitting on the sidelines, never living in the power of the Spirit. When I was a teenager, we had a word for someone who said they had certain abilities but didn’t do anything: we called them posers.

In contrast, here’s what the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy: For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. (2 Timothy 1:7) God’s Spirit makes us powerful, loving, and self-disciplined. Because of Jesus, we are able!

For some of you this might come as a somewhat new revelation, that we aren’t powerless little wimps, but that instead we are mighty and powerful. But maybe you already knew this but you need a reminder. Things have been difficult for you, more difficult than you ever imagined they would be. Maybe someone gave you the idea that the Christian life would be easy and you’ve found it harder than you guessed it would be. In John 16:33, Jesus told his followers,  “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” He doesn’t sugarcoat things. His head wasn’t in the sand. He recognizes and acknowledges that in this world his followers will have trouble. There are preachers who teach that once you become a Christian, everything will be fine and as long as you have faith, nothing bad will ever happen to you. Things are tough – to ignore that is to ignore Jesus’ words. But take heart, because Jesus has overcome the world. In him, we have peace. In him we are able!

We have the power of God, living in us. Listen to what Romans 8:37 says: No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. We are not push-overs. We are more than conquerors!

Jesus even makes the bold statement that the very gates of Hell will not prevail against the church. His disciple, Simon Peter, has answered the question about who Jesus is: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”(Matthew 16:16) And Jesus affirms Peter’s identity as the Rock upon whom He would build His church.

“And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” (Matthew 16:18) No matter what Satan throws at us, the Church of Jesus Christ will prevail over it. This is why Christmas is so important, because on Jesus’ birthday, Satan cowers. Jesus is born and nothing will ever be the same.

Some of you need to remind yourselves of this. You might just need to preach yourself a sermon – some of you are preachers, you just haven’t realized it yet. Take these scriptures, write down the references, look them up, copy them down, and repeat them to yourself daily.

John 14:12-14

Matthew 19:26

Philippians 4:13

2 Timothy 1:7

Romans 8:37

Matthew 16:18

Remember that Because of Jesus, you are Able!