Powerless to Help Ourselves
Powerless to Help Ourselves
We need a powerful rescuer.
I am powerless, but he is a powerful savior.
Welcome to the Light of Christ weekly podcast. Light of Christ Anglican Church is located in Georgetown, Texas at MLK and University Avenue. We are a modern expression of the ancient faith. You can learn more about us at lightofchristgeorgetown.org.
Our sermon soundbite today comes from the Gospel of John 3:3,13. "Jesus answered him, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. No one has ascended into heaven except he who has descended from heaven, the son of man'"
”Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves.” Who are you apart from God? You are powerless to help yourself apart from God. I am powerless apart from God, to help myself. I remember when I was a child, we went to the Ozarks in the State of Missouri. The Lake of the Ozarks is a beautiful park there. It was gorgeous. We went to a cave that was there, the cave of the Ozarks. They take you down into this cave and each of you have a light, and then the tour guide says turn off the light. You turn off the lights and it is completely black night, not a single photon. You can't see anything. Then you realize, "Wow, without this lamp, I don't think I could find my way out of here. I would be powerless to find my way out."
I think of the story of the 12 soccer players in the very north of Thailand, who are in a junior soccer league, with their assistant coach went down into a cave. It was monsoon season, so this was not smart. The rains came and the waters rose and so the path that they took down, they could not take back up. They're stuck there for a week, no one knew where they were until divers finally found them two and a half miles inside that cave in Thailand. Through their heroic effort of over 10,000 people combined working on this, they were able to bring each and every one to safety. But not without a cost, it cost two people their lives. They were helpless, powerless to save themselves.
I think about the story of Nicodemus. He comes to Jesus. He's a religious leader of their day. He comes to Jesus by night. I think this is important imagery. We, born in Adam, are in night. We are in that cave stuck and powerless to help ourselves. He comes to Jesus and Jesus tells him, "Truly, truly. Amen amen." We end our prayers with amen, Jesus starts speaking with amen. He says, "Amen, amen. Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again", and that word again also means from above. Unless one is born from above, has this new birth from above, "He cannot see the Kingdom of God." He cannot enter the Kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is what God is doing on this earth.
Apart from this rescue, from above, this new birth, we are powerless. Ironically, Nicodemus can't see and understand what Jesus is saying, and Jesus clarifies, "That which is born of flesh, is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Our problem is that we've been disconnected from the Spirit of God, from God's life. Sin has done that to us. So we are like in this dark cave. We've wandered down the pathway of lust with our father Adam. Sin, remember we talked about self-gratification, self-glorification and greed. We thought we could remain in control, but what happened? It took control of us. We went down into that cave thinking it was great fun and then the waters rose and now we're trapped.
Who am I apart from God? I am powerless. Yeah, we're able to do nice things, but we're not able to rescue ourselves from this situation that we're in. A classic example of this, and we'll talk a little bit more about this, is we have pride. The moment you think that you are humble, that pride is still lurking there. That's why you can't write the book, How I Overcame Pride. It's always there, always there. Jesus is saying they need a new life, we need a rescuer from above who can come down and pull us to safety. I am powerless, but he is a powerful savior.
Jesus is the one that gives us this birth from above. Notice what he says "No one has ascended to heaven except he who has descended from heaven, who is the son of man." Notice that? When we think of our relationship before God, we often think of it as a ladder that we ascend by doing good works, but we can't do that, as we've already shown. But what did God do? He descended that ladder to us. He came down in Jesus Christ to reconnect us with God. Like those Thai divers who went down into the cave, into the water to reconnect those kids with food and with water and with what they needed. Jesus came down to give us the life of God and to reconnect us with heaven.
Thank you for listening to the Light of Christ weekly podcast. Let us end our time together with a prayer from the Book of Common Prayer. You can find this Collect for the Second Sunday in Lent on page 605.
Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities that may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts that may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
