I just started a new series on Wednesday nights with my RA boys called Superheroes of the Faith, where we are looking at comic superheroes who match up with Biblical examples. Last night we talked about the Fantastic Four. In the comics and the recent movies, the Fantastic Four use their four different abilities to work together to accomplish their set goal - whether its defeating Dr. Doom or stopping the Silver Surfer (thank you Cody for ruining that ending before I saw the movie). They have their mission and they do what it takes to complete it....fantastically (what can I say, I'm corny).In the Bible, we find another fantastic four who had a goal, a mission that they were passionate about, and they did whatever it took to reach it. Check out Mark 2:1-11, here we see four friends who knew their friend had to reach Jesus and they went to extreme measures to get him there.
I don't think these four guys had superpowers. I'm positive no one yelled "flame on!" and flew to Jesus (besides I'm pretty sure the mat they were carrying the paralyzed guy on would have burned up). They weren't comic book characters. These four were just regular people who had a friend with a need that could only be met by Jesus.
They hauled their friend on his mat for however long it took because they heard Jesus was at home. When they got there, the place was packed (it probably took them longer than most because they are carrying a grown man around). It was an overflow crowd out the doors.
At this point, they had a decision to make. They could have said, "You know Steve (let's pretend his name is Steve), we carried you all the way here, but look we can't even get close to Jesus. Sorry, but we really busy right now. We don't have the time. We tried, but it just won't work out. We'll even carry you back home."
But that's not what they did. These were real friends, they somehow carried up on top of the roof, tore a hole in it and lowered their friend down right in front of Jesus while He was teaching. Jesus, never the one to let teaching get in the way of ministering, healed the guy both physically and spiritually because of the faith he saw in the friends.
Don't miss that - the friends' faith is what Jesus based His healing on. He could see their faith through the extreme actions they took to bring their friend to Him.
How about you? Would you be willing to do whatever it took to bring your friends and family to Jesus? What extreme measures would you take to make sure they find the One that meet every need they have?
Be a part of a Fantastic Four, a Dynamic Duo, a Triumphant Trio (thanks Ted!) or whatever is needed to reach people for Jesus, that's how you can be a superhero of the faith.
