OPEN: (We showed a picture on the screen of George Reeves as Superman with a flowing cape)
Who is this? (Superman)
Of course it’s Superman.
This was THE superman.
He was the strange visitor from another planet with powers and abilities beyond those of Superman. This was the hero that I watched as each week I watched for another exciting episode of Superman.
All those other guys that played Superman were pretenders.
They were just actors.
(Turning my back on the audience and facing the picture of Reeves on the screen, I put my fists on my hips - Superman style)
THIS was Superman.
(Pause) Oh, alright. He was just an actor too.
But for 5 years back in the 50’s he reigned as the superhero on TV.
George Reeves was one of original actors who portrayed Superman on TV. Back in 1953, Reeves’ was making an appearance as Superman at a department store when a young fan pulled out his father’s loaded .45 caliber Army Colt and pointed it directly at Reeves’ chest.
Now, why would that young man do that?
Why would he want to shoot Superman?
Because the boy thought that “Superman” couldn’t die.
He’d watched Reeves on TV as bullets bounced off his chest, and he just wanted to see it in real life. But, of course Reeves was only an actor. The bullet WASN’T going to bounce off his chest… and IF he couldn’t think of a way to talking the boy out of shooting that gun, he was going to die.
Moments away from death Reeves coolly told the boy that while the bullet wouldn’t hurt HIM "when bullets bounce off my chest, they might hurt you and others around here."
Superman couldn’t die.
George Reeves did die in 1959, but he REALLY wasn’t Superman.
Superman… couldn’t die!!!
But he did!
20 years ago in 1993 Superman died.
The comics killed him off.
Most people thought it was a gimmick to raise comic book sales.
And it did.
One Comic Book store that usually ordered 50 Superman comics per issue… sold 2200 of this Comic that year. People lined up for blocks outside of stores and waited for hours just to get a copy. And they did this every day for the better part of a month.
The Death of Superman remains the best-selling graphic novel of all time.
The storyline was fairly simple.
There’s a Super Villain named Doomsday (We showed a picture “Doomsday”) and he’d been imprisoned in an abyss far below the surface of the Earth for a long, long time. But one day he got loose and he threatened to annihilate the entire earth.
Now you could tell he was the bad guy because he’s really ugly, and he was really destructive, and he had to be stopped before he destroyed everything on earth. And of course ONLY person who could stop him… and that person was Superman.
But there were several superheroes attempting to defeat this villain. One of them described Doomsday described him as “hate, death and bloodlust personified”. A mother in the comic tells her son that Doomsday is “the devil incarnate ushering in the end of the world!”
(Scott Bayles, “Jesus Is My SuperHero!” sermoncentral.com)
Ultimately, Superman came to save the day.
And he did. He defeated Doomsday.
But in the process… he died.
Superman Died To Save The World.
But that’s just a comic book story.
Hebrews says that Jesus actually did die to save the world
It says: “…we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” Hebrews 2:9
A few verses later we’re told: “Since the children have flesh and blood, (Jesus) too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death— that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. Hebrews 2:14-15
Jesus came to die… for us.
As I mentioned last week - there’s so much imagery about Jesus in the Superman myth that it’s kind of hard to miss. Even non-Christians see and understand that.
A movie a few years ago had Jor-el (Superman’s Krytonian father) say
“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.”
So, Superman is supposed to be a reflection of who Jesus was.
But that’s not entirely true.
In the Superman myth, Superman didn’t come to die for us.
In order to fulfill his mission, Superman had to stay alive.
His entire mission to earth depended on him NOT dying so he could continue to fight for truth, justice and the American way.
But Jesus came to die.
If Jesus hadn’t died on the cross His mission would have been a failure.
Isaiah 53 is one of THE most important prophecies about the Messiah (Jesus) and it makes no bones about the fact that the Messiah would come to suffer and die.
“…he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5
“… he was led like a lamb to the slaughter…” Isaiah 53:7
“… he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death…” Isaiah 53:8-9
“… he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. Isaiah 53:12
And, when Jesus came to walk on this earth, he repeatedly told His disciples:
"The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life." And the disciples were filled with grief.” Matthew 17:22-23
Paul wrote that this truth that Jesus had come to die for our sins, and was buried and rose on the third day was at the core of the Gospel message:
“I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.” I Corinthians 15:3-6
In fact, the point in which we accept Jesus – our Baptism – proclaims that very truth.
“… don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Romans 6:3-4
Jesus came to die for us, to be buried and to rise from the dead.
If you don’t believe that you cannot become a Christian.
Now there are people who have problems with that.
I visited an internet site where I found several just regular guys sharing their belief that Jesus was just a mere man. No death, no burial, no resurrection for them. They commented:
• Jesus was just a man with a message and a great marketing strategy.
• (He was) a wandering preacher with a decent message.
• (He was) a cool guy who happened to be really great at parties. (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=52841)
For these folks, the story about Jesus was like a comic book about Superman. It was just a pleasant diversion with no basis in reality.
Now those were just common ordinary guys, but if you go a little farther up the food chain and you run into Ph.D.s who reject Jesus. Rudolf Bultmann, regarded by some to an “influential New Testament scholar” stated:
“We now know that bodies do not rise from the dead, and it is high time Christians stopped making such claims.”
Now, why would people want to reject the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus?
Why would they desire to make Jesus just a “mere man”?
Well, because - as long as you can keep Jesus a “mere man”, or a good teacher, or even a miraculous healer, or the founder a great world religion.
Then… you can ignore Him.
As long as you can keep Him in a box where He’s where a mere mortal, the founder of a religion that is no different from the founder of other world religions like Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, and all those other isms. As long as you can keep him that way then he’s no different that we are.
To keep Him contained a mere mortal means that His ideas and teachings were no different or better than any others. He’s just like us. So He really has no right to tell me what to do with my life.
BUT… if the Bible is right (and it is)
And God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son for us. (And He did)
AND Jesus deliberately choose to go and die on the cross
AND was buried in a grave
AND rose from the dead and appeared to over 500 witnesses.
Well… now those folks have got a problem.
Because, once you accept the idea that Jesus came to die for you, you have to accept the fact that you were never good enough on your own. The Bible teaches us that Jesus died because you and I are sinners and we need to change. In order to have any hope for eternity, we needed God to reach down into your life and fix what was broken.
The people who reject Jesus as having deliberately died for them want to believe they can fix it all themselves. If they can just have a little more time they can do enough good to outweigh the bad in their lives.
ILLUS: Back in the 1980s a woman in California fell asleep at the wheel. Her car plunged through a guardrail and dangled in midair by one of its rear wheels. It took about 25 firefighters, policemen and bystanders almost 2 ½ hours to pull her to safety. And every time they moved her car she would scream in pain because of the injuries she’d sustained.
But all through the rescue, the woman kept repeating a phrase over and over to rescuers. “She kept saying: ‘I’ll do it myself.’”
And that’s exactly what people who reject Jesus’ are saying to God.
They’re saying “Hey, I don’t need your help. I can do this all by myself.”
That makes just as much sense for them to say that to God as it did for that woman to say it to her rescuers.
If that woman had had her way, she’d have hung in space until she fell to her death.
And if those who reject Jesus have their way they’ll hang in judgment and face an eternity without God.
One last thought here.
Superman’s nemesis was named Doomsday.
And that’s really interesting… because:
“The word ‘doomsday’ which is an old Anglo-Saxon term, was originally synonymous with Judgment Day.”
(Scott Bayles, “Jesus Is My SuperHero!” sermoncentral.com)
Judgment day?
That’s right, our nemesis was “judgment day.”
That’s why Hebrews 2 tells us that Jesus died for to “deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” Hebrews 2:15
Why would people fear death?
Because it’s kind of final. Death seems scary on this side of the grave.
And there’s this fear that we’re not going like what’s on the “other side of the grave.”
Doomsday represents that “other side of the grave.”
Doomsday is God’s wrath and judgment against humanity.
The Bible repeatedly tells us that that there will be a day of judgment:
Ecclesiastes 12:14 “God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.”
Paul wrote in Romans that “…God will judge men’s secrets through Jesus Christ... Romans 2:16
And in II Corinthians we’re told “… we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” 2 Corinthians 5:10
And lastly, II Peter 3:9-12 tells us “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat.”
Now some people fear death simply because of its finality.
And there are others who fear death because they realize they’ve messed up really badly and they know they’re not going to do real well standing before God’s judgment seat.
They’re honest enough to realize that the good they’ve done could never cancel out the bad they’ve done.
And they all fear Doomsday.
They all fear death’s knock at their door.
(Pause)
But – you know - they don’t have to.
Jesus died so that Doomsday would be defeated. So that our fears could be wiped out. So that we would have hope for what lies beyond the grave.
And that’s the message Jesus gave us when we were saved.
You remember my mentioning that when we were baptized we died with Jesus?
It also says in our baptism that “we rise with Him.”
In that simple action, God has promised that the grave will NOT hold us.
When Jesus comes again, our baptism promises that we will rise from the dead.
We don’t have to fear the grave, it’s already been conquered.
I Corinthians 15:55-57 declares:
“O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (KJV)
ILLUS: Years ago a friend asked me to try something. He asked me to close my eyes and imagine that I was in an all-white room. Everything in the room was pure white – the sofas, chairs, tables, even the pictures on the wall.
After I’d close my eyes he asked me if I could imagine myself being in that room.
“Yes,” I replied.
“Now, tell me how being in that room would make you feel.”
“Is there a door?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Then I want to see what’s on the other side of the door.”
“That’s interesting,” he said. “Psychiatrists supposedly use that kind of imaging to discover how people visualize death. Most people who take part in that test say they are afraid.”
There’s a lot of truth to that.
Those who have no hope see death as a final waiting room from which there is no escape. And they’re afraid.
But for those of us who believe in Jesus, the cemetery is just a passageway to a better life and an eternity of joy. There’s a backdoor to the grave for us.
CLOSE: But there are some who believe they’d never be forgiven for the things they’ve done. They have trouble believing the promise of salvation from Jesus.
If that’s been true of you, let me tell this true story of a Tent Revival that was held years ago. A large crowd had gathered and the preacher was fiery and powerful in the pulpit.
Everyone agreed it was a great night of Revival.
Eventually everyone went home… except one woman who’d been sitting in the back. She made her way to the preacher and he could tell she’d been crying. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she told him that she wanted to become a Christian but she believed she’d sinned so much that God would NEVER forgive her.
The preacher had never encountered anything like this before, so he played for time. He asked her “do you know any Bible verses?”
She said “Yes, I remember one.” And she closed her eyes as she struggled to remember it.
“For God so loved the world that He gave us… His only FORGOTTEN son.’”
The preacher was shocked. That wasn’t how the verse went. John 3:16 said that God so loved us that He gave His only “begotten” son, not His only “forgotten” son. But somewhere along the line she’d scrambled the message in her mind.
But then, it suddenly occurred to the preacher that she hadn’t gotten that verse all that wrong. He smiled and asked her “Do you know what was done, when God forgot His son?”
“No,” she answered.
“He forgot Him… so He could remember you.”
INVITATION
