Jesus Is My Super Hero!
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· 58 viewsIt's no April Fools! Jesus is Alive! Jesus is My SuperHero!
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Intro: Read the Story of Emmaus (or tell in own words) from Luke 24:1-32.
Today, I want to talk about all the scriptures that Jesus used to prove that He was the Messiah.
Jesus was prophesied about all over the Old Testament. There are over 300 prophecies about Jesus, written hundreds and even thousands of years before he came.
We find that Superhero movies are very popular these days (Thor, Captain America, Spiderman, Superman, even Hulk…).
But I believe the Bible tells the greatest Superhero story ever:
A loving Creator who created the world and made man to rule it (love, blessings, friendship with God…)
An evil villain stole the creation and wreaked havoc on the earth (death, sin, curses, condemnation…)
And the Creator made a plan to defeat the villain and rescue the world from eternal damnation.
The Plan foretold:
God wrote out the plan from beginning to end and has told us the plan in bits and pieces throughout the ages through various prophets. We’ve seen most of the plan already unfold.
The plan, of course, was revealed to us by those 300 prophecies. I want to talk about just 10 of these 300 prophecies today. 10 parts of God’s great plan to rescue us and defeat the devil!
The first prophecy that God gave us was in Genesis 3:15, at the fall. God punished the devil and he promised him this:
15 And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.”
I love this. It’s like God was saying, “devil, look… you may have won this little battle, but one day, a child is going to be born who will crush your head!”
From this prophecy, man learned a few things about the plan. First, we learned that a hero would one day come. This hero would be a human child (from the seed of Eve), the devil would strike at him in some way, and he would totally defeat the devil.
The 2nd prophecy I want to look at was given by Balaam around 1407 BC.
17 “I see Him, but not now;
I behold Him, but not near;
A Star shall come out of Jacob;
A Scepter shall rise out of Israel,
And batter the brow of Moab,
And destroy all the sons of tumult.
Now, man knew that our hero would come from the nation of Israel.
2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Though you are little among the thousands of Judah,
Yet out of you shall come forth to Me
The One to be Ruler in Israel,
Whose goings forth are from of old,
From everlasting.”
1 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem,
This prophecy also adds an interesting twist: not only is our hero a human, from the seed of Eve, he is also from old, from everlasting.
725 years before Christ was born, Isaiah 7:14 tells us our hero’s mother would be a virgin (Matthew 1:18-23):
14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.
22 So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”
The twist continues as we’ve just learned that our hero’s name means “God with us.”
The 5th prophecy I want to look at is in Isaiah 9, where God reveals that the Hero would be God himself:
6 For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
So, now man knew that our hero would be man, but also God, would be born of a virgin, born in Israel, and born in Bethlehem.
The 6th part of the great plan is that our hero would suffer many things. Per various Old Testament verses, we learn that, although He is God, and although He would come to rescue us; He would be rejected, betrayed by a friend, mocked, beaten, spit upon, and pierced. (John 1:10-11, Mark 1:10 and 65, Matthew 27:35-41)
3 He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
9 Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted,
Who ate my bread,
Has lifted up his heel against me.
6 I gave My back to those who struck Me,
And My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard;
I did not hide My face from shame and spitting.
7 All those who see Me ridicule Me;
They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
8 “He trusted in the Lord, let Him rescue Him;
Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!”
16 For dogs have surrounded Me;
The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me.
They pierced My hands and My feet;
17 I can count all My bones.
They look and stare at Me.
18 They divide My garments among them,
And for My clothing they cast lots.
10 For You will not leave my soul in Sheol,
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
Most of the plan in this great Superhero story has already come to pass, but there are 3 more prophecies I want to look at today. These 3 parts of the plan have not yet happened:
Jesus, our hero, is coming again!
16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
Jesus is coming again! He’s coming back for us!
Our 9th part of the plan is that Jesus is coming to take us to a new home! And it’s a beautiful home!
2 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. 4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. 12 Also she had a great and high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates, and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:
1 And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2 In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.
I want to close with the 10th part of the plan. In Revelation chapter 22, Jesus tells us that one day, we will all stand outside the gates of this Heavenly City, and there is only one way for us to enter the gates:
14 Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.
This part of the plan is like the last scene of a movie. Have you ever watched a movie and wished that you could change the ending? You loved the movie, but then it was like the ending ruined the whole story and if you were the director you would have ended it so much better?
Well, this is a story where you can control the ending? In fact, you’re the only one who can decide the ending. Jesus says one day you are going to stand in front of this incredible city and the gate is only going to open for you if you wash your robe.
That’s an interesting choice of words – Wash your robe.
Notice: Jesus didn’t say, “Wear a pretty robe.”
When He says ‘wash your robe,’ it’s because He knows you’re going to get it dirty. Some of His last words to the entire world are, “wash your robes,” because He knows the whole world is going to get dirty.
It’s like he’s saying, “Yes I know you’ll go off the path a lot.”
“I know you’ll get filthy and grimy and nasty”
But don’t beat yourself up… Just wash your robe…
Jesus doesn’t say: “you better keep that robe clean!”
“if you come to the gate and you have a dirty robe shame on you!”
Just wash your robe…
I say this because I know how the devil works. The devil will tell you-
Jesus won’t forgive you…
You blew it… You don’t deserve Jesus… After all he did for you and you treated Him like dirt.
The thing is, we all feel like we don’t deserve Heaven. We don’t deserve to have Jesus wash away our sins with His blood. You know what? We don’t deserve it!
None of us deserve it, but praise God He knows that! And you don’t get into Heaven by deserving it! If we could get into Heaven by deserving it then Jesus wouldn’t have had to die!
Jesus knows we will get our robes dirty! That’s why He died; to give us His blood.
He just wants us to come to Him to be washed!
I want to close with three stories. Three different people that felt like they did not deserve to go to Heaven. They had sinned and the devil was trying to convince them they were unworthy.
There was a man who had been a paramedic for many years, and over the years, he had seen many people die. One man, in particular, was 90 years old, and the paramedic was called to take him to the hospital. As soon as they were on their way, the paramedic began to question the elderly man, “have you accepted Jesus?” The elderly man said, “No, I never did.” The paramedic asked if he would like to do that as they rode to the hospital, but the elderly man refused. “I rejected Jesus all my life, it just wouldn’t be right to turn to Him now.” The paramedic tried in vain to change the elderly man’s mind; he explained that Jesus was waiting with outstretched arms to take him, forgive him, but the man just didn’t feel that he deserved Heaven. Finally, the paramedic said, “well, Jesus is a gentleman. He wants you to turn to Him, but He won’t force you and I won’t either.”
As they got closer to the hospital, the elderly man began to cry out, “Oh, it’s hot. My feet are burning up! Won’t somebody help me; now it’s up to my knees! Oh, it’s burning!”
The paramedic shouted, “just call out to Jesus!” But it was too late. The elderly man kept shouting that the fire was up to his back, then his neck, and then he died.
There was a man who came to the Lord at age 65, but he never felt good enough to be forgiven. He would say things like, “I sure hope He’ll forgive me.” No one could convince him, but God did something beautiful for him. One service, he came to the altar for prayer and fell over. For about twenty minutes, he laid on the floor. When he got up, he was crying and shaking. He had a vision that he was walking down a path with Jesus, talking as they went along. At the end of the path they came to a tree that had golden and silver leaves, and they were jingling in the breeze. It was so pretty that he reached out to touch it when Jesus gently said, “Not yet.” This same vision occurred once every two months for the next several years of his life. And those visions finally convinced the man that if Jesus took the time to come and lead him to tree of Life all those times, Jesus was indeed willing to forgive him.
There was a woman who had accepted Jesus as a child. Later, she fell away, and felt that Jesus could never take her back. She felt so unworthy and undeserving. It was a tremendous burden to her for some time. Finally, her mom said, “the devil is lying to you. Jesus has forgiven you, but just so you know it, rededicate your life to Jesus today. Ask Him to wash away your sins today, and write the date in your Bible. From now on, when the devil tells you that you aren’t forgiven you open your Bible and read it; Jesus washed away my sins on such and such date… It worked.”
Jesus didn’t come to condemn you. He came to rescue you! He came to save you! To give you His own blood to wash away your sins! (wash your robe)
Jesus is standing right here, His arms open wide, knocking at your door
Calling your name…
“Let me wash your robe… Let me wash your sins away”
Maybe you never asked Jesus to wash your sins away. Let’s ask Jesus right now to wash away your sins.
Maybe you have, but you’re like that woman, and the devil’s telling you you’re unworthy.
If that’s you, let’s pray, and then you write today’s date in your bible.
Jesus washed away my sins on April 1st, 2018 and that is no April Fools!
Let’s pray.