Superman School Series

Heroes vs. Villains

Pt. 2 - Superman School

I. Introduction

He was the sole survivor of a nuclear chain reaction that produces a planet destroying blast. His father in an attempt to save his son places him a StarCraft and sends him to earth. On earth a couple by the name of Jonathan and Martha Kent found the infant inside the vessel and brought him to their farm in Smallville, Kansas. When Clark was eighteen, took him to the field where his StarCraft still lay hidden and explained how he and Martha had found him. Clark resolved to use his powers from then on only for the good of mankind. Clark and his foster parents devised a new costumed secret identity he would adopt when using his abilities in public. He is faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. He is _____________! Lois Lane, his coworker at the Daily Planet Newspaper gives him this new name.

I grew up watching Superman. He would fight daily battles against the likes of Lex Luthor, Brainiac, General Zod, Bizarro, and Doomsday. He did this all while trying to conceal his true identity from those around him.

I can still remember the thinly veiled disguise of the suit, side parted hair and black rimmed glasses that the best superman -Christopher Reeves - would wear around Lois Lane and I was always like come on you mean to tell me you can't see through that? Then when trouble would erupt around him Clark Kent would dash into a nearby phone booth and change into this muscle bound, spandex clad superhero with x-ray vision, enhanced hearing, super speed flying and superhuman strength. As I reflect on one of the all-time great superhero stories, I think there several aspects of Superman's life that are important for us to examine here.

You will remember that I read from Romans last week. Let's go there once again and see if Paul doesn't give us some insight on one of the requirements for us to become the hero, the superman that God intends for us to become. Welcome to Superman School!

Text: Romans 12:1-2 (NIV)

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans 12:3 & 6 (TLB)

As God’s messenger I give each of you God’s warning: Be honest in your estimate of yourselves, measuring your value by how much faith God has given you.

God has given each of us the ability to do certain things well.

Then Paul lists some of those things like preaching, teaching, serving, giving, etc.

In this passage, Paul is literally detailing for us the Clark Kent to Superman transformation that should be taking place in each of us as followers of Christ. He takes us to Superman School and points out some truths that we must grasp in order for the Superman to come out in us.

A phone booth is necessary!

Paul makes it abundantly clear in Superman Academy Lesson One that transformation is required. It doesn't matter how nice or mild mannered you were before Christ; he is teaching us that the step required to become what God wants us to become is transformation. The determining factor is whether or not you will be a hero or a villain is determined by willingness to change. I remind you that Clark Kent became a hero when he was able to change. Clark Kent would steal away into a phone booth and become a man of steel! Too many of us want to act like Superman but never slip into the phone booth and experience the change necessary to be Superman. Perhaps you are struggling to be heroic because you haven't or are unwilling to spend time in the phone booth to allow the Holy Spirit to change you. Without change you remain Clark Kent at best and a villain at worst. Paul tells us that it is impossible to stay the same and be a hero! How many of us encounter Christ but refuse to allow him to change our mindset, our emotions, our desires and in our resistance to change we are never able to let the hero out! To become all that Christ wants and empowers us to become we must slip into the phone booth of His presence, His Word, His body. It is the hidden times in those three things that chip away at our Clark Kent. It those three things that work together to smooth out our rough edges, strengthen us and stir up and fine tune the giftings/power within us. That is why we gather to worship. That is why it is essential to break open the Bible. That is why it is necessary to have godly wise counsel in your life. It produces change! God never changes, but we must! Listen the best version of you without the honing done by the Holy Spirit will never produce a hero. You become a hero when you embrace the change that the Holy Spirit is trying to produce in you! Evaluate your own life, attitude, mind - are you changing, are you open to change, does the Holy Spirit have permission to transform any and all areas of your life? Are you more hero now than you were? You have got to find you a phone booth!