Encouragement

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A Series of Short Truths
Jesus is Not a Whimp!
Written By: Jordan Thurston

Intro

Picture Superman speeding through the air toward a nuclear weapon launched by his arch nemesis Lex Luthor. He intercepts the missile and carries it into outer space where he can safely destroy it with his laser vision. Maybe you’re more into Spiderman, weaving between skyscrapers to save the city from the Green Goblin or Doctor Octopus. You could easily fill up the pages of a book with the names of the heroes we idolize. Their unique super powers hypnotized us as we watched them defeat their many adversaries. They depicted strength and authority over every evil that threatens mankind. As a child I would run through my house or neighborhood with friends pretending to be these various characters. We wanted to have big biceps and abs of steel just like the heroes that we looked up to. We wanted to win the heart of a gorgeous woman by saving her from some supernatural terror. Although I did achieve the big biceps and gorgeous woman (one of which is a true statement), my idea of a hero has changed over the years.
I want to look at the traits of a real hero that actually lived here on this earth. If you haven’t figured it out from the subtle hint in the title, I’m talking about Jesus Christ. You see characters like Superman and Spiderman are just that, characters. They had fictional powers to battle against fictional super villains. We don’t need someone to protect us from the Joker or the Green Goblin. We need to put our hope in someone that will fight the everyday evils that we encounter in the real world. Not to say that Jesus couldn’t protect us from those super villains. He has more power and authority over the universe than any of those other wimps combined.
Often it seems that we only think of Christ as this meek and mild person sent to teach us how to turn the other cheek. We can’t get the images of him breaking bread or washing feet out of our minds. These were awesome events that we should never forget but we can’t let them skew our image of our Lord. I believe it is so important to learn the importance of being an obedient servant. There is nothing more admirable than someone who serves others unselfishly. However, this is only half of the story of Christ’s character. Unfortunately this is the most recognized half yet doesn’t happen to be the half that gets our adrenaline pumping.

What if we thought of Jesus as an awesome warrior in the battle of good and evil? What if we looked to him to pass down all the tools needed to defeat our opponents?

In the following scenes I want to jog our memories in the area of Christ’s sovereign power and amazing sacrifice. He displayed a life that we should all aspire to model. If we can continue to follow after him, our lives will save more people from evil than any comic book hero could. We are going to examine the events and attributes that make Jesus Christ the ultimate action hero. I hope you get fired up about seeking a relationship with the only one who is worth idolizing. Let’s take a look at some of the awesome miracles that our Lord accomplished while he lived here on this earth…

Healing

If you read the Bible you’ll find tons of cool stories in the Gospels of Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John. Jesus heals everything from fever to death over the course of these accounts. Let’s look at a piece of text from Mathew.

Mathew 8:1-3

When he came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said. “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cured of his leprosy.

On this occasion Jesus has healed a man with leprosy. This is a terrible disease that actually plagues a multitude of people to this day. Our society probably doesn't connect with this story though, because they can’t relate to leprosy. They view this disease as an almost fairy tale condition from thousands of years ago. The fact is that millions of believers have been healed of sickness and disease as result of their faith in Jesus Christ. In reality, no disease or illness is too much for our Lord to handle. More often than not, his power needs to be activated by our faith. God has given us a wonderful gift of free will. We have the opportunity to live our lives under our own power or under his. When we rely on our own power or the abilities of other human beings, we are most often left disappointed. This is where our faith comes in. Christ doesn’t need to come down here to earth to beg everyone to be his friend and sit by him at the lunch table. This is the King of the Universe we’re talking about. It’s a gift and
a privilege that we can choose to follow him. The key to finding healing is to ask for it and to believe with all of your heart that it will come. Here’s a passage that kind of sums the whole idea up for us.

Mathew 9:28-30

When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”
“Yes Lord,” they replied. Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith will it be done to you”; and their sight was restored.

The blind men had to believe that Jesus could heal them in order for it to be done. He let their faith determine their fate. If they had doubted him, would they have been healed? I believe this is partly because he desires a relationship with us that goes much deeper than just performing miracles whenever we need them. Jesus wanted to see if the men believed he was the Son of God. He was asking if they genuinely had faith in him and trusted him. Think about people that you trust and have faith in. Maybe your list consists of your closest friends and family members like mine. Well that’s exactly the kind of relationship that we can have with our Lord. He wants to be our friend and our father as well as our king. As we’ll see in the next section he also desires to be our protector.

Authority over the Elements

It seems like so many Christians these days are caught up believing in a tradition. I see so many people claiming to be Christians yet showing no evidence of having a relationship with Christ. To them, God is this figure that they know exists but is so far out of their reach. They are neglecting to realize the whole purpose of the cross. They believe in a God that they can’t touch or speak to. That they won’t touch or speak to…

When Jesus was sent to this earth, it was to bring us (his children) back into a relationship with him. He set all things right so that we could come directly to our father and have him present in our lives again. He wants to be real to us every day. He longs to protect us and direct our lives but we have to want it back.

Mathew 8:23-26

Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”
He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.

Lets translate this story into modern day terminology to make it a little easier.

Then Jesus and his boys got into the boat. All of a sudden a nasty storm came up onto the lake, tossing the boat all over the place. While all the disciples are freaking out, Jesus is napping. So they all start yelling at him to wake up cause they’re gonna die. And he’s like, “Dude, calm down I’m right here!”

It almost seems like Jesus is annoyed with them at this point. Can’t we just hang out on the boat for one night without you guys doubting me? Don’t you remember that I’m the son of God? That’s what it seems like to me anyway. It’s pretty bad when you’re in the same boat as one of the members of the Holy Trinity and you’re still scared of a little thunder. That’s what we do even as Christians though. We get all bent out of shape over the things in our lives when we’ve got our creator by our side waiting to be acknowledged. He gave us the awesome gift of free will and the smartest thing we could ever do is give it right back to him. Ask him to make his will ours. The sooner and more frequently we entrust our lives to him, the closer we are to finding peace and happiness. The closer we are to getting something right.

Feeding the Hungry

The third miracle that we’re going to review is when Jesus fed nearly five thousand people from only a very small amount of food. At this point he had performed many divine miracles. He had healed many sick and had spoken in front of large crowds. All these things he did caused his following to grow larger and larger. At this time approximately five thousand people had come to where Jesus was to see what he would do next. This was also near the time of the traditional Jewish Passover Feast (John 6:4). This is the evidence the scriptures gives of what happened that day.

John 6:9-11

“Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down, about five thousand of them. Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.

Think about the amount of food that was initially used here. Five small barley loaves and two small fish. That portion of food would barely feed my immediate family at dinner. Jesus was able to divinely multiply this food so that every person was fed generously until they were full. This event is kind of a precursor to a more important idea that is explained later on in the book of John. When the five thousand are fed they are done so with literal bread that you consume and digest. Christ later in John chapter six tells us that he is the bread of life. He presents that there is a kind of spiritual appetite that can only be satisfied through him. Redemption from our sin and death can only be had by a relationship with him.

John 6:26-27

Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”

John 6:34-35

“Sir,” they said, “from now on give us this bread.”
Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”

Just like we need “bread” to sustain our human bodies, we need food for our spiritual lives to sustain us. Jesus is explaining here that he is the only way that we can receive the spiritual fulfillment that we need to truly live the way God intended. He is the only way to make it to heaven and live with our God for eternity in complete peace and happiness. He is
also eluding in this chapter to the sacrifice he is going to soon make to allow all of these things to happen. The reason he is the ‘bread of life” is because he is about to pay the price for all of the worlds wrongdoings to set everything right between mankind and God.

Spiritual Authority over Evil

The next miracle is one of the coolest things that Jesus did in my opinion. Casting out demons from people whose bodies they have inhabited is a very manly thing to do. This is the kind of thing that every male Christian secretly gets excited about. The thought of doing spiritual battle with the forces of evil takes us back to those days of pretending to be superheroes.

Mark 1: 23-26

Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are-the Holy One of god!”
“Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly, “Come out of him!” The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.

The best part about this passage is the authority that Jesus displays here. He doesn’t have to use a knife or a sword to defeat the demons. He didn’t even need to lift a finger. All he has to do is speak a few words to them and they obey his commands. The demons knew who Jesus was and they knew that they better do what he says. In a separate story, Jesus speaks only the word “Go!” to a demon to make him flee (Mathew 8:32). That is a pretty awesome example of strength and power if you ask me.

Raising of the Dead

What’s the most unbelievable thing you could imagine seeing. Someone being raised from the dead has to make the list. Jesus didn’t give this whole miracle thing a half effort. He went all out, no holds barred. He didn’t do these things to show off however. In this case and most others he performed these acts out of compassion and mercy. He also did these things to reveal himself as the Son of God.

Luke 7:14-15

Then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.

Keep in mind that this was no ordinary revival. Jesus didn’t pull this guy out of rough waters and perform mouth to mouth on him until he coughed up a mouthful of water. This man had been dead long enough to be getting hoisted away in a coffin. As you can imagine this was a pretty shocking event for everyone who witnessed it.

Super Faith

As Christians our biggest struggle sometimes is having faith. This is what our whole belief system is based on. We weren’t there when Jesus walked the earth so we have to believe in our hearts and know that he exists through our relationship with him. We don’t have the face to face access to him like the disciples did. This makes our trust in him one of the most challenging things we face. The Bible tells us that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, then nothing will be impossible to us (Mathew 17:20-21). By that measure the size of Jesus’ faith was incomparable. He was able to do all of these miraculous things by knowing that his father in heaven would give him the ability to do them. This passage shows what Christ says about having faith.

Mathew 21:18-22

Early in the morning, as he was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered.
When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” they asked.
Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

Divine Love

The last event we’re going to look at is the greatest act of love in the history of the universe. You see God is perfectly holy and just. He can’t tolerate sin by any means. It’s his very nature to hate evil and punish sin. The punishment for this sin is death and an eternity spent in Hell (Romans 6:23). But this is the hope that we have…

John 3:16-17

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
So what does it mean when Jesus said “he gave his one and only Son”? It means that he sent him into the world to pay the price for all of our sins. He sent his Son who is perfect and flawless without any sin to pay the price for all of humankind. God loves all of us so much that he would let his perfect Son suffer brutally so that we could spend eternity with them. He doesn’t want us to spend eternity away from him, so he provided a way to settle the score. However, the price for all of this wasn’t small. Here are a couple of verses to remind us of what Jesus Christ went through so that we didn’t have to.

Mark 15:17-20

They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. And they began to call out to him, “Hail, king of the Jews!” Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.

John 21:33-34

But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.

Conclusion

I hope what you’ve read has made you think differently about the character of our Lord and Savior. Jesus Christ is not a wimpy frail little man but a strong powerful King over the entire universe. He has power and authority that we cannot even imagine. The greatest attribute that he possesses may be his tremendous love. The same love that would make an Almighty God send a sacrifice for an unworthy human race.

Prayer for Salvation

Dear Lord,
I realize that you came to rescue me from the sin that I was bound by. I understand that you took my place and received the punishment that was for me. I know that I don’t deserve the gift that you have offered me but I choose to accept this gift. I pray that from now on you would live in my heart and make me more like you. I want to experience the joy and peace that can only come through a relationship with you. Transform my life into a life that glorifies your name and teach me to do your will. In the name of Jesus Christ I pray, Amen



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