Good Friday: A Strange Way To Save The World!

GOOD FRIDAY: A STRANGE WAY TO SAVE THE WORLD!

JOHN 3:16-17

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR

1. A 6th grade S.S. class discussed how old Isaac was when he was sacrificed.

2. One boy confidently affirmed that he couldn’t have been more than 12 years old.

3. The teacher said, “What in the world or the Bible would give you an idea like that?”

4. The boy replied, “I have a brother and a sister who are both teenagers. If Isaac had been older than 12, it wouldn’t have been much of a sacrifice for Abraham!”

B. IF WE WERE GOING TO SAVE THE WORLD…

1. When the world needs to be saved, who do you call on? You call on a superhero. Superheroes are in the business of saving the world.

2. When we think of superheroes we think those characters that are larger than life. They leap tall buildings in a single bound.

3. They can be invisible. They can fly. Criminals are terrorized by their presence. They seem to be indestructible.

4. When we think of superheroes, words like humble, gentle, and loving don’t come to mind. We want someone who is powerful and dynamic.

5. But God didn’t choose to work that way. Rather than sending a powerful hero into the world, he sent a defenseless baby. A baby that would grow up and be the atoning sacrifice for all the sins in the world.

6. Jesus Christ was God’s plan for saving the world. The title of this morning’s message is “Good Friday: A Strange Way to Save the World.”

I. Superheroes are larger than life…JESUS IS HUMBLE

A. BEING IMPRESSIVE IS REQUIRED?

1. When we think of a superhero we think of someone who is larger than life. They fill the room with their presence.

2. When Batman shows up, you know he’s there. The cool suit, the Bat-mobile roaring down the street, windows breaking, bad guys getting tossed all over the place, and then there’s the Bat Signal; let’s face it, Batman is larger than life. You can’t miss him.

3. You’d think that when the world needed saving, God would’ve sent someone who was larger than life, who couldn’t be ignored.

B. BUT GOD CHOOSES HUMILITY

1. But when God wanted to save the world, He sent a baby. And not only a baby, but a baby so poor his parents couldn’t even get a room in a local motel for the baby to be born as Luke writes, “She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn” Luke 2:7.

2. God’s way of saving the world didn’t involve pride or power, it involved humility and surrender! Jesus was humble in nature. Jesus entered the world through humble circumstances and he lived his life in humility.

3. Jesus said, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” Mt. 11:29. Jesus was humble.

4. Paul said, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!” Phip. 2:3-8.

5. Jesus was God, yet He was willing to become human and submit himself to Father God and die a humiliating death by crucifixion so that we might be made right with God.

6. The world needed saving from sin and only the death of God’s innocent Son could get the job done. That’s a strange way to save the world!

7. God’s method for saving the world was strange in another way…

II. Superheroes are overpowering…Jesus is GENTLE

A. WHAT SUPERHEROES DO

1. If you shoot at Superman the bullets just bounce off. Then he takes the gun and wads it up like a little piece of

paper.

2. Superman can bend the rails of a railroad track to save the train or to detain the bad guys.

3. Superman has the power to weld steel with his eyes or to see through the side of a building. Let’s be honest; Superman is overpowering.

4. So, You’d think that when God decided to save the world he’d send a hero who was overpowering.

5. Why?

a. Because Sin is a powerful thing. It has destroyed so many lives. We’re powerless against sin.

b. We don’t have the power it takes to defeat sin, so you’d think that God would send a hero that was overpowering.

B. WHAT GOD CHOSE TO DO:

But God chose to send a hero who was is humble and gentle.