Endgame

Intro

Avengers: Endgame is one of the biggest cinematic projects ever ventured. It broke the following records:

Highest-grossing film

Highest-grossing superhero film

Fastest to $500 million

Fastest to $1 billion

Fastest to $1.5 billion

Fastest to $2 billion

Fastest to $2.5 billion

Highest opening weekend gross

Highest IMAX opening weekend gross

Highest IMAX second weekend gross

Highest 3D opening weekend gross

Highest initial release gross

And more records in different countries and territories, but these were the main records that the film broke WORLDWIDE. And that made sense considering it was budgeted around 400 million, making it one of the most expensive movies ever made.

Me

But when it comes to good story lines and plots, I absolutely love the Marvel movies that Disney has done here over the past like 13 years or so. Some of the movies were a little shaky, some really weren’t my cup of tea (namely like the first Captain America movie). I really enjoy movies and stuff like that, Megan a majority of the time doesn’t want 1.5-2.5 hours stolen from her day by a movie.

And to be really honest with you, it was really cool to see what the Marvel movies did. They were movies, but they tied into one another so well, that it was almost like a TV series at the same time. You know how TV shows will end on a cliffhanger to keep you engaged (not only for the episode but for the start of the next) as you have this excitement to see how that issue that the last episode ended on plays out. The Marvel movies did a really good job of playing off one another, especially early on, as you have all of these individual movies that culminate into the first Avengers movie. Originally, you had two Iron Man movies that showed Iron Man and Black Widow, and you had a Captain America movie and a Hulk movie and a Thor movie that all played into Avengers where all these heroes met and teamed up. But through end credit scenes, they did the cliffhanger tv show stuff, where something big was revealed for the next movie in a two minute scene. But it was so detailed and intricate, that it worked.

I just enjoy seeing stories played out. I like a good plot, I like seeing resolutions (even though I have seen some very bad endings to things). That is always disappointing isn’t it? Not so much that a great thing ended, but a great thing ended the way that it did.

We

But I think to a degree, we all want to see happy endings. We all want to see the story conclude the way that we think it should. Everyone lives happily ever after.

Wouldn’t that be nice? Wouldn’t it be nice if every story had a happy ending? Wouldn’t it be nice if the build up and the 1.5-2.5 hours of the movie had an ending that was worth it. Everything building up to the big moment, and everything that happens in the big moment and after determines if the movie was worth watching or not.

God

And recently I have been studying the Gospel of John, and it is a very interesting Gospel. If you know about the Gospels, you probably have heard of Synoptic Gospels. Well, Synoptic comes from the Greek sunoptikos, which if ‘syn’ means similar and ‘optik’ means view, you can see how we get the definition of ‘same view, seeing together, etc.’ With that being said, we now get into what John is in the Gospels … NOT SYNOPTIC. So, of the four Gospels, three of them are referred to and grouped together as the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) because they share a lot of similar material, similar accounts of that material. John is a little out there. Where the other Gospels start there accounts in pretty obvious places concerning Jesus (Matthew with his Jewish genealogy and then into His birth, Mark just starts with Jesus’ ministry, Luke records the whole birth narrative and the stuff about John the Baptist and all of that) … John starts with Jesus’ deity and creation. John is a very symbolic writer and thinker, very philosophical, and those things are dashed into his account of the Gospels (7 different titles Jesus is referred to in the 1st chapter, things like that).

But there is an extremely big event that takes place right in the middle of John’s gospel, and it is a culmination (and the biggest sign) that Jesus does. All the other signs have showed his power over things, but this one is going to be the granddaddy of all the signs.

John 11 which is right in the middle of John’s Gospel is a culmination of all the miracle (John calls them ‘signs’) because they have been building up and showing Jesus’ power over all these things and confirming His identity along the way. So the first thing we are going to look at, is what happens after: The Death of Lazarus.

John 11:45–57 ESV

Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. So from that day on they made plans to put him to death. Jesus therefore no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there to the region near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim, and there he stayed with the disciples. Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think? That he will not come to the feast at all?” Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should let them know, so that they might arrest him.

Now, a little bit of some extra back story for this passage, is that Jesus had just fled the Jews in Jerusalem for saying “I and the Father are One.” To us, pretty cool little moment right there for Jesus. To the Jews, not a cool moment at all. To them, Jesus is blaspheming and that is a very serious offense. So serious, that before Rome took over and made the Jews put people on trial, that many times when blasphemy occurred, Jews would start to pick up rocks to stone someone, sometimes before a trial (just to show someone how serious the offense was).

So, Jesus escapes from this group of ravenous pharisees ready to kill him. Then, He gets word that His dear friend, Lazarus, is very sick. So, now Jesus has a decision that He must make: go to His friend, or to stay away. He knows what it will cost if He goes.

If you thumb through the rest of John’s Gospel, it is at this point that the ball begins to roll towards Jesus’ crucifixion. All down to this one decision to return back to raise Lazarus. Because it is abrupt, looking at John’s Gospel, we see that after this point, there’s the triumphal entry and then Jesus is washing His disciples feet and having the the Last Supper with them and then the Crucifixion. All down to coming to Lazarus. His greatest and most powerful sign, because as all the other signs have shown His power, this shows His power over death and that He was not afraid of death.

The Raising of Lazarus pointed to the Endgame.

Then, we skip down a few more chapters, we get to the cross. Now, the fact that Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead already shows that Jesus has power over death. That is very important for the Resurrection, right? If you think about that, Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead was only the first step in showing that He had power over death. Jesus was about to show that He had power over death again, with the Resurrection.

John 20:1–10 ESV

Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes.

Now, Jesus’ death and resurrection is something that a lot of people take and say “well Christian, there it is. The ‘endgame’ that you have been talking about this whole time! Wrap it up and let’s go to lunch!” But what if I told you that the cross wasn’t the endgame. It was part of the endgame, but not THE ENDGAME. The Cross and Resurrection pointed to the Endgame.

Revelation 21:1–8 ESV

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

You see, The Raising of Lazarus pointed to Jesus’ power over death, which was exhibited through the Cross and Resurrection which was done so that we could be free from Sin and that we could be restored to a place with God forever in Heaven. That is the endgame. That was the plan that was in motion ever since the fall and the first sin.

From the Fall in Gen. 3, there was always a plan for God to be reunited with His people. The Old Testament points to Jesus. The New Testament points to Jesus, who points us to Heaven. Endgame.

Now, it is so cool to look back in some of the prophecies of Scripture and see the small details that happen throughout Jesus’ life and ministry, it’s sad to see how far Israel falls away when they forget God, but all of those things pointed to Jesus and why we needed Jesus. Just like the little details throughout the Marvel movies that took place over like 13 years of films that already had the last movie in mind, all of the things that happen in Scripture had Jesus, and the Cross in mind. And Jesus had Heaven in mind on the cross.

You

So what does all of this have to do with you? It’s great that God had a plan and endgame in mind, but so what?

Well, there’s a couple things that I want us to take away from this message:

Can we praise God that He had the solution before the problem?

Can we praise God that He did the work and paid a price for us at Christ’s expense?

When we read Scripture, do we think about how or why this points to Jesus or to the plan of God reuniting with His people?

The other thing that subject entails is the endgame for both sides. There’s the good side, where God is reunited with His people, but then there’s another side mentioned in that passage we looked at in Revelation:

Revelation 21:8 ESV

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Those are the two choices. Those are the two “endgames.”

Which will you choose?

We

I hope that you choose the promise of Life eternally with our Creator. A life where He will wipe away all of the tears we have had in this life, a life where death will be no more, a life where there is no reason to cry or mourn or have pain anymore, because we are with Him and He is the Great Comforter.

That is the promise we have to look forward to.

Outro

All because of Jesus and His death on the cross. God had the plan for this endgame that we read about to come about. He had the plan. He had everything under control. As it looked like the plot lines were spiraling out of control, there was no hope for a solution, God said, “Don’t worry. My Son has it all under control.” When it looked like sin had won in the garden, God said no. When it looked like sin had overcome the Israelites, God said no. When it looked like there was no hope for the Israelites to be delivered, God said there is hope. When it looked like death had beaten Jesus, God said no.

Are you living with the endgame in mind?

Let’s pray.