OPEN: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQasTtHJQTU
(Start at 0:06 mark and continue through 1:25… stopped before the bloody “S”).
Does anybody know who the actor was who was reading the voice over? (Anthony Hopkins, who played Superman’s father Jor-el in “Superman Returns”). And his dialogue in that points to the Biblical influence on the Superman myth.
Some time back I read an interesting insight from CNN:
They wrote: “Superman's father is "Jor-El" and his name is "Kal-El." Both names contain "El", the name for God in Hebrew….
Steve Skelton, author of a book explaining the parallels between Superman and Jesus said, "It is so on the nose that anyone who has not caught on that Superman is a Christ figure, you think 'Who else could it be referring to?”
(Jesus Christ Superman, June 14, 2006)
As CNN noted, the word “El” is the Hebrew word for God, and that Hebrew word “El” shows up a lot in Scripture as part of people’s names.
For example, can anyone tell me the names of the two angels whose names end in “el?”
(Gabriel and Michael)
GabriEL means “God is my strength”
MichaEL means “Who is like God”
IsraEL (the man who’s 12 sons became the nation of Israel) means “God contended”
SamuEL (the first in a long line of prophets) means “God has heard”
DaniEL - God is my Judge
EzekiEL - God strengthens
Then there are names that begin with “El”
ELisha - My God is salvation
ELijah - My God is YAHWEH
El shows up in many Biblical names… included the name in our text this morning: ImmanuEL – which means “God with us”
Now, Superman’s given name is actually Kal-el.
This was a made up name but it sounds like the Hebrew word for “The voice of God”.
As CNN noted, there’s an obvious overtones of Superman being an image of Christ.
One of the phrases in that clip we played earlier had Superman’s father saying this:
“They can be a great people, Kal-el, if they wish to be. They only lack the light to show them the way. For this reason… I have sent them you, my only son.”
And the newest Superman movie - “The Man of Steel” - Jor-el says:
“You shall be a God to them.”
Essentially - that’s what the angel said to Joseph, over 2000 years ago:
"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son. And they will call him Immanuel" —which means, "God with us." (Matthew 1:23)
God with us (pause)
One of the questions we want to consider this morning is this: was Jesus God?
You see, in the Superman myth, no one ever pretended that Kal-el was a god. He was just a strange visitor from another planet with powers and abilities beyond those of mortal men. He was impressive and he was strong. But he was just a mortal, and one day – he would die.
So Superman was NOT a god.
But was Jesus?
Was Jesus God?
(PAUSE) Well… yeah.
The Apostle John said He was.
“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God” John 1:1
Later in that chapter John tells us WHO that “Word” was.
“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
So there’s no question: The Word Was Jesus… and the Word Was God.
John couldn’t have been more specific.
But, Jehovah Witnesses have never liked this passage… so they changed it. They have a dishonest “New World Translation” which magically transforms John 1:1 to say – NOT “the Word was God – BUT “the Word was A god.”
This perversion of this text is one of the reasons that no honest Greek scholar has ever accepted the Jehovah Witness translation of the Bible as reliable.
John declares in no uncertain terms: Jesus was God.
Was Jesus God?
Thomas said He was.
When Jesus rose from the dead, He appeared to the all the disciples… except Thomas. When the other disciples told Thomas about what they’d seen, he “doubted” (that’s why we call him “doubting Thomas). Thomas said “"Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it." (John 20:25)
When Jesus appeared to him a little later, He challenged Thomas to place his fingers in the wounds of His side and feet, but Thomas never bothered. Instead, he’s in awe. He fell to knees and declared “My Lord and My God” (literally, “the God of me”). John 20:28
Cultists have tried to argue that Thomas was simply mistaken. He was overwhelmed by emotion and just spoken in error. But, if that were true, Thomas’ declaration would have been blasphemous and Jesus should have rebuked him. But Jesus didn’t rebuke Thomas. Instead He praised him.
Why? Because Thomas was dead on. Jesus was the Lord of him and the GOD of him. Jesus was God.
Was Jesus God?
Paul said He was.
“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!” Philippians 2:5-8
Jesus stepped down from heaven. But when He did so, He stripped Himself of His immortality and put on mortality. He set aside His Godhood and took on manhood. And He did all this so that He could die on the cross to forgive us of our sins.
Paul was telling us that Jesus is God.
Was Jesus God?
“Well Jesus said He was.
Jesus said “I and the Father are one” John 10:30
Jesus spoke this to a crowd who had gathered to listen to Him, and they became incensed and picked up stones to stone Him to death. He asked them why they intended to do this, and they responded: “For blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.” John 10:33
The crowd fully understood what Jesus was saying, and they knew Jesus had claimed to be God.
So, John, Thomas, Paul AND Jesus all tell us that Jesus IS God.
Repeatedly throughout the New Testament we’re told again and again – Jesus is God.
Now, there are people who have problems with that.
They reject the idea that Jesus is God.
Why? Because it doesn’t make sense to them.
They can’t wrap their mind around this concept.
And they often point to “inconsistencies” in the Gospel record to justify their rejection
One of those “inconsistencies” takes the form of a question. They’ll say:
“If Jesus was God… what’s this about Him ‘praying’ to His Father? I mean, if He’s God… how could Jesus be ‘praying’ to Himself? “
Now, that is a hard question.
And years ago, I heard a commentator tell of a cardinal rule for lawyers in court:
Never ask a question you don’t know the answer to.
Well, I just did.
I don’t know the answer to that question.
And it doesn’t bother me because there’s a LOT of things about God I’ll never understand.
Why? Because God isn’t like us.
When you try to understand God the same way you understand humans you’re going to get confused and frustrated. It’s like comparing apples and oranges…
In Isaiah 55:8-9 God declares “…my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
You can’t bring God down to YOUR level and expect to understand Him. You’ll always get frustrated.
ILLUS: For example: there was a preacher talking to Jehovah Witness (I realize it sounds like I’m picking on the Jehovah Witnesses, but they’re known for their rejection of Jesus being God). And the JW rejected Jesus being God, and used this argument:
"You say that Jesus Christ is coequal with the eternal Father. But He cannot be, for no son is ever as old as the one who has begotten him."
Well, that makes sense doesn’t it?
If you have a son… your son can’t be as old as his father.
My son is 19 years old. He’ll never be my age… except maybe after I die.
But as long as we’re both alive I’ll always be older than he is.
So the JW’s objection would seem to make sense.
But the minister thought for a moment and then replied,
“You yourself have just called God the ETERNAL Father. Don't you realize that God can only be the eternal Father if He has an eternal Son? Eternal Fatherhood demands eternal Sonship!”
You see, the Jehovah Witness started out from the wrong place.
He tried to understand God from HIS own set of standards.
He reasoned based on HIS own personal experience.
He tried to bring God down to HIS own level.
And that never works.
Many people reject things about God because when they try to bring Him down to their level they can’t understand Him.
ILLUS: An atheist once told Tony Campolo “For me to believe in God, I have to have a God that I can understand."
Campolo smiled and replied "God refuses to be that small!"
Someone else once observed: “If God were small enough to be understood, He would not be big enough to be worshiped.” (Evelyn Underhill)
God isn’t like us.
There are going to be things about Jesus being God that I can’t understand. Things I can’t wrap mind around. But that doesn’t deny the truths of Scripture. It simply points out my own weaknesses and own shortcomings. I don’t need to understand everything out of Scripture. But I do need to understand what the Bible says clearly: Jesus is Immanuel.
Jesus (pause) IS (pause) God… with us.
So, Jesus was God.
But was that all He was?
I mean… that would seem to be enough.
But wasn’t He mortal too?
ILLUS: Now, follow me here for a minute. Let’s go back to the Superman thing.
Where was Superman from? (Krypton)
He’s not FROM earth, and he wasn’t ANYTHING like us.
He was a strange visitor from another planet – with powers and abilities beyond those of mortal men. Superman may have adopted Earth as his home…but he was not really ONE OF US.
But what about Jesus?
Was He “like” us… or was He just pretending to be man?
Did He merely adopt earth as His home but not really become ONE OF US?
Answer: No.
Jesus did NOT ‘pretend” to be mortal.
He WAS mortal.
He DID become ONE OF US.
Hebrews 2:17 says “… he had to be made like his brothers IN EVERY WAY, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.”
And Hebrews 4:15 declares “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are— yet was without sin.”
Jesus was fully God. He was Immanuel
And Jesus was fully a man. He was like us in EVERY WAY, tempted just as we are with one exception: He was without sin.
And that is why Matthew 1:23 declared “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" —which means, "God with us.”
A virgin?
How could a virgin give birth to a child?
A virgin is someone who has never been sexually involved with a man!!
In fact, that’s what she says to the angel who told her about it.
"How can this be, since I do not know a man?" Luke 1:34 NKJV
And the angel replies: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” Luke 1:35
Jesus was born of a mortal woman – so that He would be completely mortal.
And His birth was accomplished by the power of the immortal God – so that He’d be completely immortal.
But why do all that?
Why go to all the bother of making Jesus both man and God?
Two reasons:
1st - The main message of the Bible is that we’ve all sinned and deserve to go to hell.
But the Bible also teaches us that - while God knew that was true, He refused to accept that as our ultimate destination.
So, throughout the Old Testament God gave the people an object lesson. He allowed them to offer up bulls and goats and calves and sheep as sacrifices. And He taught that the blood of those sacrifices would cover their sins and the people could then be acceptable to God.
But there was a problem with these sacrifices.
The bulls, and goats and sheep had done nothing wrong. And these sacrifices had not volunteered for their deaths. Most thinking people realized that the blood of these animals wasn’t really getting the job done.
That’s why Hebrews 10:4 explained “…it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”
And God knew that.
God knew that animal sacrifices would never get the job done.
But He introduced them to His people as object lessons, sp
He had used those Old Testament sacrifices as an illustration, an object lesson that would demonstrate the ultimate sacrifice He intended to give in our behalf…
“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.”
Jesus had been part of the plan from the very beginning.
Jesus was God stepping down out of heaven to offer Himself as our substitute and cover our sin and shame and guilt with His blood.
BUT, there was a problem with that too.
God can’t die.
That’s kind of the definition of a god.
You just can’t kill God.
God had to become mortal, or He could never taste the pain and anguish of death.
That’s what Paul was referring to when he wrote:
“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!” Philippians 2:5-8
God might have sent something or someone else.
I suppose He could have sent a sheep, or a man, or an angel. But that had long ago been rejected by God.
In a passage that talked about a “redeemer” begin sent Isaiah 59:16 tells us “He (God) saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm worked salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him.
God became a man.
He humbled Himself and walked among us.
He shared our frailty and weakness.
And ultimately He shed His blood for our sins.
So, first God went to all this trouble of being both fully God and fully Man so that HIS sacrifice could cover all of our sins.
2ndly – God went to all this trouble so that we could become sons of God.
Or as Terry Fullam wrote: “The Son of God became the Son of man so that the sons of men might become the sons of God.”
You see that was the whole purpose.
God created us in HIS image. But our sins warped that image and made us unfit to spend eternity with Him. So God became man to FIX THAT. The Son of God became the Son of man… God stepped down from heaven and became mortal.
Why? So that you and I (the sons of men) might become the sons of God.
As Galatians 3:26-27 tells us “You are all SONS OF GOD through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”
When you believed and were baptized, you “put on Christ”.
And because you did that, when you stand before the throne of God on the Day of Judgment God will not see your unrighteous deeds. He won’t see your sins or your shame or your guilt. No. What He’ll see instead is the righteousness of Jesus covering you from head to toe.
CLOSE: God allowed Himself to take on our frailty and weakness so that He could show us how much He loved us.
ILLUS: I want to close with this true story of a plastic surgeon named Dr. Maxwell Maltz. He told of a man who’d been injured in a fire while attempting to save his parents from a burning house. The man couldn't get to them. They perished. And in the process of this failed effort, the man’s face was burned and disfigured.
And because he failed to rescue his parents, he came to view his pain as God's punishment. He locked himself in his bedroom and wouldn't let anyone see him—not even his wife.
The wife went to Dr. Maltz for help. He told the woman not to worry, "I can restore his face."
But the wife explained that her husband refused any help. He wouldn’t allow a surgeon to touch him.
Then she said, "That's why I have come to see you. I want you to disfigure my face so I can be like him! If I can share in his pain, then maybe he will let me back into his life."
Dr. Maltz was shocked.
He denied her request, but was so moved by the woman's love that he went to speak with her husband. Knocking on the man's bedroom door, he called loudly,
"I'm a plastic surgeon, and I want you to know that I can restore your face."
No response.
"Please come out."
Again there was no answer.
Still speaking through the door, Dr. Maltz told the man of his wife's proposal. "She wants me to disfigure her face, to make her face like yours in the hope that you will let her back into your life. That's how much she loves you."
There was a brief moment of silence, and then, ever so slowly, the door knob began to turn.
That’s the love God has for you.
He loved you so much He was willing to become disfigured. To endure suffering and pain and ultimately die on a cross for you.
He did all that for you so that your sins would be forgiven.
The question this morning is this: are you willing to open the door and allow Him to come in and heal you of your shame and your guilt?
