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“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.”—Isaiah 61:1 (NIV)

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.”—Luke 4:18 (NIV)

Look in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s Superman! Have you ever heard that phrase before?

Who is your favorite superhero? What is your superhero’s mission? What power does your superhero have that others don’t? If you had a super power, what would it be?

Some well-known superheroes include Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, The Thing, Thor, and Wonder Woman. All these superheroes are characters who have super powers. Their mission is to save the world from evil and protect innocent people. Some superheroes are super strong, others can fly, and others use certain tools and weapons to fight evil.

But let’s be honest . . . superheroes are characters. They’re not real, they were invented. For example, Spider-Man was bitten by a radioactive spider, Hulk only got super strong because of the gamma bomb, and Iron Man could only do powerful things because he placed a power supply in his chest.

There’s only one REAL superhero, and that is Jesus! He was a real person like us and was chosen by God to save us from evil, sin, and bring us closer to God. Yes, our true hero is Jesus, and His mission is written in the Bible: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free” (Luke 4:18 NIV).

But why do we need a superhero? Well, sin is anything that doesn’t please God. The Bible says that ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That means you and I have sinned. When we do bad things, or make bad choices, we are sinning against God. When we sin, we are moving away from God. But God loves us so much He sent His son to us so that even when we sin, we are forgiven. That’s why we need a superhero, to save us and bring us close to God—and that superhero is Jesus!

Jesus can do anything. He is all powerful. He has power over nature, power over evil, power of sickness, and power over death. He is perfect. He will never die. He can never be in danger. Nothing is impossible with Him!

LET THE LIGHT IN

Today, we learned that our superhero, Jesus, came into the world to rescue us from sin. Pretending that you are a superhero, what can you do today to help someone? Maybe you can pick up items dropped by others, or hold the door open for others, or write a happy note to encourage someone.