Luke 10:25-37
Have you ever wanted to be a Superhero?
Be honest now!
Maybe you’ve always wanted to be like Superman...or Batman...or Spiderman...or for the ladies, perhaps Wonder Woman!
For most folks, no matter what their age might be, that would be a dream come true!
1.) Fighting the forces of evil!
2.) Saving people from certain doom!
3.) Looking great in Spandex tights!
Wow!
But just as quick as we might think about how cool it would be to be a Superhero, we realize that it will never happen!
...Or can it happen?
Hmmm....
A short while ago, comic-book creator, Stan Lee and company created a 6-week reality-based television series entitled, "Who Wants to be a Superhero?"
As a part of their initial search, they sent out nationwide notices stating that they were looking for folks who have never lost that inner drive to be a Superhero.
These folks arrived in droves to tryout for this show. They arrived decked out as their own custom Superhero...complete with capes, utility belts, and weapons!
This massive field was finally narrowed down to 12 "wanna’ be" Superheroes. It was actually only 11, since one of them was a Traitor!
Hmmm... Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
The 11 remaining were quickly reduced to 10, when the Superhero Levity was eliminated for greedy motives not becoming of a true superhero!
A show with morals, now that’s amazing!
But it was the next challenge that really caught my attention!
Here’s a quick superhero refresher course…
As everyone knows, most superheroes have their everyday normal identity, like mild-mannered Clark Kent! But when Clark sees a dangerous situation, he immediately locates a telephone booth and changes into Superman and then whisks off to save the day!
Remember? Good!
Prior to this 2nd challenge, all of the superheroes on the show were given their own personal communicators and told to dress in their normal street clothes. They were also told to bring their superhero costume with them.
After arriving in a semi-crowded public place, Stan Lee gave them their briefing instructions...He said that when he individually contacts them on their communicators, they were to quickly find a private place to change and then swiftly run to a designated goal area in true superhero style!
Feedback was the first one to get the call...
He quickly changed behind a nearby Port-a-Potty and ran like the wind! But near the end of the public course, the crew had placed a young girl who was crying for her mother and shouting that she was lost.
Feedback raced by her without stopping! Whoosh!
Later…Monkey-Woman, complete with bananas on her utility belt, also raced by her without stopping!
Major Victory, my favorite superhero of the group, stopped and said, "Where is the mother of this child?" After no response, he then asked her to climb into his arms and he carried her in true superhero style to help!
Three other Superheroes stopped to help her, all knowing that this would ruin their chances of a good time on the course.
After the challenge was over, Stan Lee gathered the superheroes back together again for an elimination. He explained to them that the challenge was not about the fastest changer or the runner with the quickest time...it was about the those who had the hearts of true superheroes ...selflessly giving of themselves and risking their own wants and needs! He said that the heart of a true superhero puts his or her own goals aside to show love and compassion to others!
Wow! Without quoting one verse of scripture, Stan Lee gave the heart of Jesus’ message about the Good Samaritan to us this morning!
Major Victory said, “Stan wants us to be super humans! It would easier if he asked me to fly!”
A true superhero for Christ is one with a heart like that…a heart that has been transformed by the love of Christ!
It is a life that has been given supernatural power to be victorious!
But all too often we feel a little like Major Victory, this task of Christian love is way too hard! Like trying to live the kind of love that Paul writes of in 1 Corinthians 13!
In our Christian walks, we are a little bit like a Clark Kent with amnesia! We have forgotten to tap into the marvelous power that God has left at our disposal! God has called us to be Supermen and Superwomen of faith, walking in all of the power and authority that He has freely given to us!
If anyone of the early believers would have seemed to have had all that they needed, it would have been the disciples gathered around Jesus just prior to his ascension on the Mount of Olives…they were true believers! But Jesus knew that they would need more than salvation to be victorious in the mission he had given them!
This is what Jesus said in Luke 24:49 "And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry (wait) you in the city of Jerusalem, until you are endued (clothed) with power from on high."
And later in Act 1:8 Jesus said, "But you shall receive power, after the Holy Spirit has come upon you: and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."
Remember the old Credit card commercial? "Don’t leave home without it?"
Jesus was saying to them, Don’t leave Jerusalem without this power!
John Wesley referred to this Holy Spirit Baptism as the Second Blessing (The 1st being salvation). He also referred to it as "love made perfect"!
Let me tell you what that kind of love does and doesn’t do:
1.) It doesn’t keep walking when it sees a need. It’s a love that that stops and helps in whatever way that is needed!
2.) It is not a flighty sort of earthly love that changes its mind at the drop of a hat! It’s a love that endures by faith through all things!
3.) It’s not a wimpy love that lets people die in their sins, but it’s a love that tells them the Good News of Christ’s love.
4.) It’s not a love that lets evil win by default! [Default like when there’s a baseball game and one team fails to show up for the game. The other team automatically wins!]
It’s a love that clothes itself with the armor of light, putting on the weapons of our warfare, and fighting against the very forces of wickedness in high places!
[2Co 10:4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds;)]
It is the heart of a true spiritual Superhero for Christ!
I’m not going to tell you that you should have this kind of heart and love, because we all know that we should!
I am going to tell you this, If you really want to be a Superhero of faith, then you can be one! God has given you and me everything that we need to be one!
Because of what Jesus accomplished on The Cross of Calvary, His Living Word, and God’s Holy Spirit empowerment, we can be Superheroes of faith and battle the forces of darkness wherever they might show themselves!
So here are our options:
Continue with an anonymous and weakened Clark Kent Christianity?
or
Be transformed by God’s power and might into a Hero of the Faith and have your acts of Christian heroism recorded in the books of heaven?
So what will your choice be?
