Super Heroes—Optimus Prime —God Calls You To Be A Transformer
7/16/2017 Isaiah 42:1-9 Ephesians 4:17-32
We are in our series Super Heroes. So far we have looked at a Superman and found his story in the story of Moses. We looked at Wonder Woman and found her story was in the story of Deborah the Judge. Today we look at Optimus Prime. Optimus is from the show, Transformers- More than meets the eye. Let Me introduce you to him in a short clip.
Movie Clip
Optimus Prime comes from another world called Cybertron. He is the leader of a group of robots who transform into various vehicles and they are called auto-bots. Optimus Prime is the largest of the auto-bots, and he is their undisputed leader. A great war has taken place on his home world, and Optimus and their enemies have come to the earth. The auto-bots are in constant battle with their enemies from their home world, known as the Decepticons led by Megatron who has no problem with destroying the human race.
Optimus Prime stands about two and a half stories tall. He has a very strong moral character, excellent leadership skills, brilliant military tactics and is the strongest among the auto-bots. He has a strong sense of honor and justice. He is greatly respected by his followers and he is willing to lay down his life for his friends and even for the humans. He fights for the protection of life and liberty for all intelligent species
. In his battle with Megatron, Megatron said, “Humans don’t deserve to live”. Optimus responded, “they deserve to choose for themselves.” To which Megatron responded, “then you will die with them.”
Optimus desires to help the human beings with their battles. He tries to be around in disguise by transforming into a semi-truck so that he can be among the people. His auto-bots do the same thing by appearing as taxis, jeeps, sport cars and motorcycles. But in their attempts to help, they will be misunderstood by the humans.
Optimus Prime will be rejected by the humans for trying to set up his own kingdom, he and his auto-bots will be betrayed by the humans, and some will even be destroyed by the humans. It is only when the humans recognize there is a power stronger than themselves whom they cannot defeat, that they want Optimus Prime and the Auto-bots to come to their aid again.
As much as Optimus Prime wants to help others and transform them, he can’t change their hearts. Even with all his power, he cannot win over his own kind the Decepticons who have given themselves over to evil. He cannot win over the human race because he cannot change their hearts. They only want Optimus’ advice so long as Optimus is seen as their servant and they are in control. When he and the auto-bots stand in the way of human pride and ambition, they are declared enemies of the planet earth .
Any serious bible student will immediately recognize that the story of the transformers comes out of the Bible. There is the battle on the home planet and both sides ending up on the earth. Sounds to me like the war that raged in the heavens and Satan and his demons were cast out of heaven and landed upon the earth. There is the leader of the Decepticons, Megatron, who once stood at the side of Optimus Prime, but now Megatron is bent on destroying the people on earth.
Sounds to me like the biblical story in which there was an angel in heaven by the name of Lucifier, who once worked for God, but became proud and arrogant and was cast out committed to destroying humanity. He later became known as Satan, the father of all lies the great deceiver. Revelations 12:9
There is Optimus Prime with his small band of students whom he teaches to work for justice and righteousness. He lives in front of them, the life he wants them to live. They know he would willingly give up his life for them. They are rejected and betrayed by the people they try to help.
Sounds to me like another transformer by the name of Jesus, with a small band or disciples whom he demonstrated what the kingdom of God was like by living it before them. He willingly gave up his life for his followers after being rejected by those he came to save. Some of his followers were killed by the people they were trying to help.
Optimus Prime knew the best way to help humans was to find a way to live among them in disguise. Sounds to me like a story in the bible, in which God wanted to help us humans to live above the hatred, the suffering, the pain and the evil that we were practicing, and God transformed himself into the form of a human being so that He could be among us in disguise.
In other words, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God and the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
God came up with the idea of being a transformer. The God of this universe transformed in such a way that he became a human being in order to reach us with us love, his mercy, his compassion and his truth. There are several parallels between Jesus and Optimus Prime. But I want you to know, even in his most glorious moments, Optimus is no Jesus Christ.
You see whereas all Optimus can do is point the direction to go, Jesus Christ has the power to transform human lives. Optimus could never understand nor deal with the evil in the human heart. Jesus saw what was in the human heart, and was willing transform that heart into something else. You see when you’re into Jesus, the true transformer, the Scriptures tells us,
. 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here
If you walk with me through the pages of Scripture you will discover, that Jesus while in disguise Jesus went about Transforming lives. I want you to know there this was guy who lived in the cemetery. Folks would say, watch out if you go down by the cemetery. He would cry out by day and night because he was full of demons.
These demons had him addicted to all kinds of things. They had such a powerful grip on his life that they made him powerful.
The local people were scared of this man, so they tried tying him up with ropes and chains. Somehow they managed to put chains on his hands and feet. But it didn’t do any good. You talk about another super hero, the bible tells us this guy snapped the chains and broke the irons. He was considered a mad man by the people.
But one day Jesus came walking by the cemetery. The man came running toward Jesus. I suppose if some of you had been there, and you knew the man and saw him coming, you might have grabbed Jesus’ hand and tried to get him to run with you. But transformers don’t run. They stand their ground.
The man ran right up to Jesus and fell at his feet. You see even though Jesus was in disguise, this man knew who he was. He said, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me.” Jesus knew instantly what the guy’s problem was. He said, “Come out of this man, you impure spirit.”
I want you to notice, Jesus saw beyond this man’s demon possession, he saw beyond his addiction, and he saw a man that was in need of a transformation. Jesus sees what’s inside of you. He sees what it is that needs to come out. He’s ready to order it out of you, if you’re really willing to let it go. By the time this story was over, Jesus had kicked every demon out of this man and sent them into a herd of pigs. The pigs rushed into the lake and drowned rather than be possessed.
The first thing that happened when the demons left the man was that he was transformed into a follower of Jesus Christ and begged Jesus to take him on as one of his disciples. But Jesus told him, “No. I need for you to go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” This guy was transformed from a mad man addict , to an evangelist telling the world about the goodness of the Lord.
There was another occasion in which Jesus was walking down the road and came upon a well. Now you could find yourself getting into trouble down at this well because there was a woman there who had a reputation. But Jesus the transformer wanted to fit in so he showed up like any man would. He found a woman there at the well.
There are two things about this woman being at the well. First of all there was another well closer to the city in which she lived. Second, women usually came in the later part of the day, but it was noon. This woman was a different race than Jesus was, as a matter of fact this woman and Jesus should not have even been talking to each other based on what the rules in society were.
But Jesus the transformer always puts people ahead of the rules of society and instead follows the rules of God. One thing we have been learning in the book of Jonah is that God loves everybody whether they want him to or not.
This woman engages Jesus in a talk about racism, about getting water out of a well, and about a special kind of living water. Then Jesus says to her, “Go get your husband, and come back and I will let you know more about this living water. This woman doesn’t know that Jesus knows who she is and what her needs are. All she sees is a man finally trying to find out what his chances are in hooking up in a relationship. I can imagine a shift in the tone of her voice and the look on her face when she says, “I have no husband.” Behind that answer was a trail of broken relationships, failures, abuse and low self esteem.
It was no accident that Jesus arrived at this particular well, at this particular hour. Jesus came there in transformation mode to reach this woman, and he does it in a strange way. He says to the woman, John 4:18. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.
His words cause her to see a real need for God in her life and she started asking, “Just where am I suppose to go to worship God, because I see you are a prophet.” The interesting thing about Jesus, is he does not go back to the woman’s sin, but he’s interested in talking about her future relationship with God. Before this conversation was over, this woman was transformed from a woman with a bad reputation to one of the earliest evangelist in the gospel of John.
She got nearly a whole city of Samaritans to come out to hear a Jew speak to them for two days. God will call the least likely of candidates to do a major work for him. Her past was actually what she preached on to her people. Come see a man who told me everything I ever did—Could this be the messiah. She became a transformer herself, and transformed the city of Sychar.
Jesus the Transformer, says to us today, “I have come that you might have life, and have it more abundantly.. Unfortunately, that’s not where most of us are choosing to live. We want to be transformed by Jesus, but not completely. Too many of us want to believe that Jesus died for our sins and that God raised him from the dead and that the next sentence reads we are now all going to heaven.
No there was a reason Jesus died for our sin. It’s because our sin is what is killing us. Remember Megatron telling Optimus, “Humans don’t deserve to live.” But Optimus responded “they deserve to choose for themselves.” We have to agree, based on our sin and rebellion, we don’t deserve to live. But God agrees with Optimus on this point, “they deserve to choose for themselves. Do you remember, the option in John 3:16 found in verse 18. John 3:18 That says after all God has done in loving us and trying to save us, whoever believes is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already.
My friend to follow Jesus is to live a transformed life. It means taking off a set of behaviors and allowing God to dress you all over again. You see Optimus wasn’t the only Transformer with power to transform. There was Megatron whose parallel in Scriptures is Satan himself.
Just like Megatron, Satan does not believe humans should live. He kills them by offering them the things they want to do which he knows will alienate them from God. It’s Satan job to transform you from what you could become in God, into a person that’s missing out on God’s blessings for your life simply because you want to enjoy the moment.
Colossians tells us Colossians 3:5-10 (NIV)
5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. It’s a lie to believe what the world teaches about sex, about drugs, about having to always have the latest and the best. It does not matter how wonderful your friends are, how happy others seem to be, how good the high leaves you feeling, or rather your greed keeps you from tithing. God’s wrath is still coming.
Colossians 3:7-10 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
How do we know Jesus has started the transformation process in our lives. We find ourselves really wanting to be more like Jesus. We know we are being transformed when we start seeing Colossians 3:12-14 (NIV)
12 Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
My friend, Jesus is the ultimate Transformer. It’s not a matter of will be transformed, the only question really is who is going to be in charge of the transformation process.
