Origin Story

In comic book terminology, an origin story is an account or back-story revealing how a character or team gained their superpowers and/or the circumstances under which they became superheroes or supervillains.  (Wikipedia)  When it comes to movies it seems like everyone has jumped on the prequel bandwagon.  The earliest example I remember is Star Wars.  The characters probably aren’t considered superheroes but they seemed to start a trend where already existing megahits get a chance to extend their stay in the spotlight.  When I was a kid Star Wars 4, 5, and 6 came out.  It wasn’t until about 25 years later that they came out with episodes 1, 2 and 3.  Then you began to see other movies do the same, Batman, Spiderman, X-Men, to say a few.  Even Dumb and Dumber has a prequel.  But I guess I don’t consider Harry and Lloyd to be superheroes anyway.  Chuck Norris isn’t in any movies that have prequels because he existed for millions of years before prequels came into existence. 

As I was thinking about this idea of “Origin Story” it made me think about my own story.  I began to think about what I was like before Jesus forgave me and gave me His Holy Spirit.  In 2 Corinthians 5:16 Paul said, “ So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.”  When I encountered Christ He changed the way I viewed other people and changed the way I viewed Him.  So, what was my life like before Christ?

Power Source

Welcome! This week we continue our series, “Superheroes through Christ.” This is the third week of this series. John Farmer opened the series two weeks ago by referring to John 14:12, where Jesus says that whoever believes in Him would do the works He was doing and would do even greater things than these. Hard as it is to believe, these are Jesus’ own words. John went on to talk about our mission, how it includes things such as going and making disciples, obeying Christ’s commands, and much more, but how at a basic level it really all comes down to believing God. As it says in Hebrews 11:6, “without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.” The last passage quoted in this message was Mark 9:23, which says, “Everything is possible for one who believes.” Do you truly believe He exists? Do you truly believe that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him?

Last week we first spent some time really exploring the depth of God’s love for us. He made us in His image, and He loves us “just because,” not because of our works. He loved us before we did anything, and He continues to love us even after we fail and reject Him. He doesn’t just love us at a distance, either; He desires to walk with us, to be intimately involved in relationship with us. We are God’s poiema, His masterpiece, His love poem, and He puts us on display for all to see.

Under the Cape

Welcome to Week 2 in our series Superheroes through Christ! Our title today, “Under the Cape,” is a play on words from the phrase “Under the Hood,” referring to how you lift up the hood of a car to look at the engine, to see the part that matters most, the engine. Going with this analogy that we are somehow like superheroes, the question for today is, “What is really in us? What matters most? Who and what are we?”

Now, I happen to really like superhero stories – I guess that isn’t a great surprise given that we have tied this whole series to the superhero ideal. What about these stories do I like? There are probably many things, but I think I especially like to see how a superhero sometimes has to struggle to do the right thing, that it isn’t easy, but yet he still chooses to do what is right. I also like to see that even superheroes aren’t perfect; they aren’t good at everything, and sometimes things just don’t go their way. Yet they continue; yet they go on.

Your Misson

We’re starting a new series today.  I am pretty charged up about this whole series.  I was excited when I found out I would get the opening message for the series.  I’ve been accumulating ideas for weeks and months really.  The topic you already know.  We are going to talk about how we are, how we can be, superheroes through Christ.

I want to introduce you to a new hero of mine.  Here’s his picture:

His name is Zach Zehnder.  He’s a pastor from Florida.  He just set a world record for the longest speech marathon (i.e.-sermon).  His sermon was 53 hours and 18 minutes!  He had 200 pages of notes and 600 power point slides!  The focus of the effort was to raise money for a local drug treatment center.  He taught the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation!

Come!

Revelation 22:7-21

I am blessed to come to the end of Revelation with you today and wrap up this amazing book. I looked back to see that my last message was 3½ months ago in Chapter 8. We have actually been pondering this book together for exactly 5 months now. And it has been a wonderful journey, hasn’t it? We have seen vivid depictions of God’s judgment on evil, exalted visions of heaven, words of hope and words of warning. Last week Carl talked about the glory of the new Jerusalem, the “place prepared for us” that Jesus referred to in John 14. This is exciting stuff: the dazzling city of light, no more tears or pain, dwelling with God forever. What a blessed hope we have! This world is not all there is; death is not the end; one day everything will make sense.

Now His Dwelling is With Men

Revelation 21:1-22:6

Welcome! Today we are in our next-to-last week in our current series on the book of Revelations. Our passage today is the “good stuff” – we are past the terrible stuff; in fact, last week, we saw basically the end of our universe and a throne room in which everyone will be judged. Those whose names are not found in the book of life will be cast into the lake of fire. As we discussed last week, that would be where we all would go if it were not for Christ; for believing Christians, those who have agreed with God about their sin, who have accepted Jesus’ sacrifice of His own life in payment for their sins, who have trusted Jesus going forward with their lives, these are the ones whose names will be found in the book of life. And so this week we will see where these blessed ones will go, we will see what will happen to them (to us).

Now, although I love these verses we will look at today, I feel nervous about expanding on them. Revelations 22 warns people not to “add any words” to the prophecy that is the book of Revelations. Unfortunately, people have done exactly this for the last 2000 years and led many people astray.

The Books Were Opened

Rev. 20:1-15

Welcome! If you have been with us these past several months, you know that we have been making our way through the book of Revelation. At one point John had presented an outline of the book and indicated the final parts of the book with smiley faces; well, we are now up to the smiley faces!

But with the smiley faces, we are also in the part of the book that creates the greatest number of questions with regards to interpretation. I believe my co-pastors and the others who teach here on Sundays probably breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that they would not have to deal with the questions that inevitably arise with today’s passage.

But you know, I actually think it is sad that this passage, Revelations chapter 20, has such negative associations with it. After all, we are in the smiley faces part Revelation! What we will read today is glorious, awe-inspiring, celebration-worthy, fantastic stuff! And so my approach today will be to treat this passage exactly like we have treated every other passage in Revelation; we are going to take it face value, see what it says, look at its connections to other passages, and contemplate on what it really means for us. Then at the end, I will say a few brief things about the interpretation issues and what the interpretative questions are. But I want the focus of our time to be simply on what this wonderful passage says.

And I Saw Heaven Open

Revelation 19:11-21

Hello and Happy New Year!  Welcome to the year of our Lord two thousand and fifteen.

The new year is the time when we set goals.  We even have a special name for those goals at new year’s.  We call them resolutions.  Isn’t that the kind of thing that governments are supposed to do?  Doesn’t the U.N. make resolutions?

I think when we say New Year’s resolution, we mean that we’ve decided to do something.  We’ve resolved in our minds to change a behavior or begin to do something that we haven’t or stop doing something that we shouldn’t. 

What about you?  Do you have a New Year’s resolution for 2015?  Resolutions?

Reflections

As I (Fred) reflect on 2014, many events stand out clearly in my mind as a series of high and low notes.  January 2014 began on a very happy high note: Fiona Bullard was born on January 3, 2014. This day also had a low note because on that same day many of us attended the funeral service for Leanna Terry Turner and her husband Samad Fard Muhammad Turner who were both killed in a car crash on December 31, 2013.  However, it was encouraging that her younger sister Gwyneth gave the graveside eulogy and essentially shared gospel with all who were present. 

Worship God

Revelation 19:10

Welcome! We have been going through the book of Revelation as a church for the last several months. Over the last few weeks we have been informally combining our study of Revelation with various aspects of the accounts of Christ’s birth. This week, we have only one verse to focus on in Revelation, which we will look at near the end of the message. Last week we focused on longing for Christ, an especially appropriate mindset for the Christmas season. I drew out the parallels between the how people longed for the coming of Christ before His birth and how we too should long for His return.

This week I want to talk about marveling at what God has done. This too is an especially appropriate mindset as we reflect on Christ’s birth. We see this again and again in the Luke account. Recall that the angel visits Zechariah and tells him he is to become the father of a great prophet and his to name him John. Because of Zechariah’s unbelief, the angel causes him to become mute. News of Zechariah’s sudden muteness spread throughout the area, but of course, because he was mute, it remained a great mystery. I do think Zechariah wrote to his wife, and so she knew what was going on. So their baby was born, and on the eighth day after his birth, they were going to name him in the circumcision ceremony. Tradition held to name him after Zechariah, but his wife said no, name him John. They asked Zechariah to write the name he wanted, certain that Zechariah would choose his own name. But Zechariah wrote “His name is John.” This was astonishing enough, but then he immediately was able to again speak. Here is what the account says next: