OPEN: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzvlRVLkCR0
The title of this old George Reeves Superman is “Superman On Earth”
When playing, start fading about the 1:05 mark)
(after the video was played, I assumed the “Superman” pose – with my hands on my hips)
“So do you see the resemblance?” (They laughed at me!)
“Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot.” (At this point I took off my glasses and resumed the pose… and they laughed at me again).
I always enjoyed that old TV series about Superman. And the opening sentences of each episode were thrilling to a young boy like me. “Superman… fighting a never-ending battle for Truth, Justice, and the American Way.”
Is that cool, or what?
In that summation of Superman’s mission on earth, we’re told 3 things about this hero.
• He stands for truth.
o More than that, Superman defends truth.
o In fact – he is someone who will TELL you nothing but the truth.
o He will NOT allow falsehood or betrayal to exist around him.
• He stands for justice.
o He has a sense of what is just and right.
o He’s always stopping the “bad” guys.
o He knows WHO he needs to fight… and WHO he needs to defend.
o He embraces righteousness with everything that’s within him.
• And he stands for the American Way
Now, in our culture, that’s not something many people seems to want to say anymore. The idea of “the American Way” being a high ideal is an embarrassment to the “intellectual” and influential of our society. Those in the media and in Hollywood mock and laugh at that as old fashioned and out of date.
But back in 1973, Gordon Sinclair, a Canadian TV commentator got angry about that thinking. This is just a portion of his comments that were in the Congressional Record at that time:
"This Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous and possibly the least appreciated people on all the earth.
As long as 60 years ago, when I first started to read newspapers, I read of floods on the Yellow River and the Yangtze. Who rushed in with men and money to help? The Americans did, that’s who.
They have helped control floods on the Nile, the Amazon, the Ganges and the Niger. Today, the rich bottom land of the Mississippi is under water and no foreign land has sent a dollar to help.
Germany, Japan - and to a lesser extent - Britain and Italy were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts. None of these countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the US.
When the franc was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up, and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris. I was there. I saw it.
When distant cities are hit by earthquakes, it is the United States that hurries in to help. So far this spring, 59 American communities have been flattened by tornadoes. Nobody has helped.
The Marshall Plan, the Truman Policy, all pumped billions upon billions of dollars into discouraged countries. Now, newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent war-mongering Americans….”
And Gordan Sinclair went on for another few paragraphs and ended with these words:
“I can name you 5000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble. Can you name me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans in trouble? … I'm one Canadian who is tired of hearing them get kicked around. They will come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do, they are entitled to thumb their nose at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles. I hope Canada is not one of those."
Stand proud, America!”
Now, I don’t want to give you the impression that I believe America is a perfect nation. It isn’t perfect, and there are many things that our nation should be embarrassed about.
But, Gordan Sinclair pointed to a characteristic of our nation that sets it apart from all other nations on earth. It was the difference that summed up the idea of “the American Way” that Superman so proudly stood for.
That difference? That America has almost always felt driven to show compassion and mercy to those who are defenseless and hurting. Compassion and mercy. Traits that distinguished a fundamental principle of who we are as Americans. And these were traits that America has always tried to show because our nation was built on Christian principles.
(Break)
This sermon series is inspired by the newest Superman movie –entitled “The Man of Steel”. That new movie is unique from all the others because Paramount (the company that filed it) deliberately marketed this movie to the churches. They tried very hard to identify this Superman with the Jesus of the Bible (more about that later).
But that hasn’t always been true.
The last superman movie out of Hollywood was called “Superman Returns”… and it flopped badly. In that movie, Superman was NOT anything like Jesus. Part of the reason it flopped was that that superman was neither Super, nor much of a hero. He didn’t stand so much for truth, justice, purity, or righteousness. He was just a man struggling with his own flaws.
The story line of that 2006 flop was this: Years before, Superman had an affair with Lois Lane and unbeknownst to him she gave birth to his illegitimate child. Shortly after their affair, he had left on an extended trip into space to find the remnants of the planet Krypton, only to return 5 years later to find that Lois is now living with another man, her boyfriend.
That movie was a major disappointment. But this new movie goes out of its way to portray Caped Crusader as being more like… Jesus.
• His biological father (Jor-el) declares: “He’ll be a God to them.”
• His biological mother prophecies: “He will be an outcast… they will kill him”
• When his spacecraft makes it to earth… it’s kept in the stable (manger)
• Superman seeks advice from a priest… in the background is a picture of Christ so that you can see Superman and Jesus side by side.
• Jor-el tells his son: “You can save them…”
• And Superman is more than willing to sacrifice himself to save the people of earth.
• At one point in climatic battle scene, Superman jumps from the villain’s ship and hovers in the sky with his arms out-stretched… as if he were on a cross.
Paramount took great pains to make this a movie that would appeal to Christians. And for that reason alone, I think “Man of Steel” is worth watching.
But this morning, I want to go beyond the Messianic images of Superman in that movie, and focus on the true Messiah of the Scripture. I want to look at how Jesus applied that phrase: “Truth, Justice, and the American Way”.
TRUTH.
In John 14:6 Jesus said “I am… the truth…”
Several times in His ministry, He declared: “I tell you the truth…” John 14:12
And on the day He was crucified, He told Pilate: “Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” John 18:37
Jesus not only “stands for the truth”, and “tells you the truth.” JESUS IS the truth.
ILLUS: Now, truth is very important to us.
We rely on the truth so much that it is woven in the very fabric of our lives.
If we buy a car, or a refrigerator, if we look up something on the internet, if we invest money in a broker or a bank, we rely on those companies/individuals to say TRUE things to us. We’re trusting them to tell us the truth about their products.
And we do business with people because we trust them to be truthful to us.
Have you ever been to a pharmacist?
When you get your prescription filled at the pharmacy, you realize (don’t you) that you could be literally placing your life in their hands? So you want to be able to trust them. You rely on them to tell the TRUTH. Your life could depend upon their truthfulness.
Have you ever had surgery?
When you go in for surgery you place your life in the hands of that surgeon. You trust him to have told you the TRUTH about what he is going to do. Your life depends upon him doing what he says he can do.
ILLUS: My brother Jack is a very healthy, athletic man. One day, he doubled over with intense pain in his abdomen. The pain was excruciating, but after a couple of hours the pain went away and he didn’t think anything more about it.
About six months later it happened again - but after a while, the pain went away again.
It happened a 3rd time while our sister Barbranne was visiting with him and she insisted he see a Doctor. Like most men, my brother resisted her advice. But finally (just to make her quit) he reluctantly agreed to see the Doctor.
He went to the doctor’s office. The Dr. examined him and promptly told him he had acute appendicitis and that he needed emergency surgery ---- immediately!!!
Feeling he was being railroaded, Jack said he intended to get a 2nd opinion.
The doctor looked him dead in the eye and said
“You’re welcome to get a 2nd opinion. But by the time you get it… you’ll be dead.”
Jack got the surgery.
During the operation, the surgeon discovered that Jack’s appendix had burst twice before but because he was so healthy it healed over both times. This time, however, his appendix was on the verge of bursting again, threatening him peritonitis… and ultimate death.
So why did Jack get agree to emergency surgery?
Because here was something in the Doctor’s voice that told him:
“You need to believe that I’m telling you the truth.
Your life depends upon it.”
And Jack BELIEVED.
And it saved his life.
Jesus said: you NEED to believe that I am the truth.
There’s no way to get to the Father except by Me.
Your eternal LIFE depends upon believing that I am the Christ, the Son of living God.
Now, this points to the fact that the TRUTH Jesus tells us… also speaks of His JUSTICE.
Jesus said: No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6
There are people who have serious problems with that statement.
They condemn Christianity as being bigoted and self-righteous.
How DARE Jesus and His followers say there is no other way to heaven than Jesus.
But that’s what the Bible says.
When Jesus says “I am the Truth” He’s essentially saying that every other approach to God is false.
Later Peter tells the Sanhedrin
“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12
But, how dare Jesus and Christianity pass judgment on other religions!!
How could Jesus pretend to be “just” and “righteous” and then stand for that kind of imperious judgmentalism?
Well, Jesus did…
Because He can.
Because He’s right.
All other world religions are based on the concept of Karma.
Every other religion teaches that if you do enough good you can outweigh the bad you’ve done in your life. And thus…based on your own SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS … you can get into heaven!
And God can’t even stop you.
You can walk right up to the pearly gates and walk right on through, because your passport is marked “My own righteousness!”
But Jesus tells us the truth: you can’t be good enough to be good enough to get into heaven. Your own self-righteousness will always fall short.
If we all got true JUSTICE - if we all got what we deserved - we’d all go to hell. For all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
So we’re faced with Jesus’ TRUTH – we’ve all sinned.
And that truth tells us of God’s JUSTICE – we all stand condemned and unworthy
And if that were all that Jesus offered us, we would be without hope and without a future. But it’s the third of Jesus’ traits that makes all the difference for us.
It’s Truth, Justice… and the American Way?
Earlier in this sermon we discovered that that “American Way” was our nation’s desire to show mercy and compassion to those who could not help themselves.
You see, the only way you and I will ever get into heaven is because Jesus shows us mercy. He has compassion on us
Titus 3:3-6 tells us “At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior.”
That’s the long version of the simple verse: “For God so loved the World that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever should believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
God did for us, what we could not do for ourselves. We were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by our own passions. BUT the Father sent His son to die in our place.
God had compassion upon us… and showed us mercy through the blood of His son. Jesus did what only a Super Man would be willing to do… He gave His life for us.
CLOSE: But there is an odd twist to all of this.
Jesus came to die by our hands.
In the Old Testament sinful man had to offer up the sacrifice. By law the sinner was required to bring a perfect sacrifice from their flocks or herds and bring it to the gate of the Temple… and it was by their own hand that the sacrifice died. It was by the hands of the sinner that the blood of an innocent sacrifice was shed.
That’s what the movie “The Man of Steel” was hinting at when it had Kal-el’s biological mother prophesy: “He will be an outcast… they will kill him”
This truth was driven home to a preacher named Steve Higginbotham when he listened to a devotional at the Hillbrook Christian Camp one night. He said the speaker made reference to Jesus being betrayed, arrested, hanged, and ultimately dying on the cross.
Just as the speaker was about to move on from that point, he was interrupted by a little boy in the audience. His sweet little voice had a worried, shocked tone as he asked:
"Someone killed God?"
Yes, someone killed God… YOU AND I DID!
Our sins placed Jesus on the cross and it was by our hands that Jesus was sacrificed.
By my sins… and by yours.
As Peter told the crowd at Pentecost: “God has made this Jesus, WHOM YOU CRUCIFIED, both Lord and Christ." Acts 2:36
This made such an impact on those in the crowd that they interrupted Peter’s sermon and asked “What Shall We Do!!!”
To which Peter replied: "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Acts 2:38
That’s God promise to you today.
Jesus tells you the truth that you need to hear – that you and I deserve eternal punishment. We can never be good enough to be good enough to earn heaven. But the greater truth is that Jesus can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. By His mercy and compassion we can receive the gift of eternal life and a place in heaven.
What is your decision this morning?
