Gospel According To Superman Series

The Gospel According to Superman

The New King James Version. 1996, c1982 Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

It has been a good week here at FOB Speicher. I went to Talafar this week and took Eagle Express back and forth. It is amazing to me how 6th BN can turn an hour and a half flight into four hours.

On the flight home, I thought about Superman flying and thought about how cool it would be to fly—without rotors or wings. Then, of course, I remembered how I hated to fly.

A couple of weeks ago, I was flying over to Talafar and I also was thinking about comic books.

I was, of course, thinking that within the next four weeks or so I will be buried in a stack of Superman comic books. I will be getting every Superman book that has been written since midtour and I’m going to begin my pull list—soon after I get back. It is a very big deal.

It was on that trip that I got the courage to preach this sermon; A sermon about the Gospel according to Superman.

One of my biggest hobbies is reading comic books. Some would say that I collect them, and the only truth to that is that I don’t throw them away—that’s why I collect them. I enjoy reading comic books and following their storylines.

The greatest superhero that has ever graced the cover of any comic book is “the man of tomorrow”, “the man of steel”, “the last son of the planet krypton” ...Superman.

Now, I know this all sounds crazy—you are probably asking...what does Superman have to do with the gospel? Plenty.

What we do in life needs to point to Christ. It really doesn’t matter what we do—we just need to take the opportunity to use it for God’s glory.

In the Bible we see this, to the disciples; Jesus said “I’ll make you fishers of men.” To the Samaritan woman he said “I’ll give you living water”. To the hungry he said that he was “the Bread of life.”

So it is not a stretch for us to turn our hobbies, into a presentation of the gospel.

Given that, you must understand that Superman is my favorite comic book hero—he is faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and is able to jump tall buildings in a single bond.

But more than anything, he is the one superhero whose entire essence is set by his character.

We know him by truth, justice, and the American way.

We first recognize his truth.

1. Truth.

Truth is a basic value, we see it in the Ten Commandments and we see in as a piece of advice in every area of life. We are to be truthful.

Superman seeks to do everything with truthfulness and integrity. So much so that the other superheroes call him “The Blue Boy scout”. Superman represents truth, in the way he fights the bad guys and in the way in rescues kittens out of the trees. I always wondered why the little kids who get there cat returned just run into the house like nothing happened. We, as well, need to be truthful and full of integrity.

When Jesus prayed for the disciples, he prayed;

15I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. 18 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth. (Jn 17:15-18, NKJV).

We need to be people of truth.

Jesus prayed for the disciples, not to be taken out of the world but to be sanctified by truth. Sanctify means “to render holy”. Jesus prayed that the disciples would, and that we would be rendered holy by the truth.

How do we do that? We must first receive the truth—accept the truth that God loves us and sent his Son and accept His son as the payment for our sin. Then, we take the truth and apply it to our lives and let it fill our lives and render us holy.

The truth comes from the word of God—the Bible. If you are seeking to live a truthful life, you must begin with truth. The Bible is truth. There is no, “what is true for me may not be true for you.” The Bible is true, and every bit of it applies to your life.

But in order for us to understand the gospel, we must start with the truth of the gospel.

We must understand that the Bible not only contains the truth but is the truth. And it is from the Bible that we base our faith. We believe in Christ, but even our understanding is drawn from the scriptures.