Lessons from Prince Caspian

 

Today I’d like to preach on a modern day phenomenon: the Chronicles of Narnia movie: Prince Caspian. I know many of you will be seeing this movie over the holiday. I would think that it would be a great show for the entire family. As a matter of fact, our small group is going together this afternoon. It is based on the classic stories by C. S. Lewis. It is the follow-up story to Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. In the first story, four children, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy go to the land of Narnia and discover the great lion, Aslan…Narnia represents the Kingdom of God and Aslan represents Jesus. Edmund sins and is condemned to die…the only way he can be saved is for Alsan to volunteer to die in his place. Aslan is killed, resurrected and brings new life to Edmund and to all those who believe. The heart of the gospel: the death and resurrection of Jesus are alluded to in the first story. The message was very clear.

In Prince Caspian, the same four children return—it’s one year later for them, but it’s 1300 years later for Narnia. They discover their castle, Cair Paravel, in ruins and learn that the current king, King Miraz and is not the rightful king of Narnia. The old stories of Aslan are shunned, so it is no longer permissible to talk about the old stories about Aslan and the things of Alsan. It is up to the children and Prince Caspian to learn the old stories and return Narnia to its former glory. Since many here today will see this movie without having read the book, I’d like to share some of the spiritual truths found in the story.

Today’s message is entitled, "A Royal Faith." We are going to be talking about the faith it takes to be a follower of Aslan, for us Jesus Christ. Before we get into the meat of the message, I would like to give you a little of C. S. Lewis’ background…C.S. Lewis began as an atheist, but his spiritual journey took him from atheism to pantheism to theism and ultimately to Christianity.

"In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all of England...The Prodigal Son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance to escape?" "Surprised by Joy", he described this as his conversion to theism—his belief in God.

On September 28, 1931, at the age of 32 he was riding to the zoo with his brother and he writes this, ‘When we set out I did not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and when we reached the zoo I did.’ According to 1 John 5: 1 and 5, all those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God are ‘born of God.’ Lewis wrote a friend on October 1, 1931, SLIDE # 5 "I have passed from believing in God to definitely believing in Christ-in Christianity." He described his conversion in his autobiography, "Surprised by Joy." Lewis began a faith journey that started in atheism and led him surprisingly to faith in Christ. Faith and belief are major themes is Lewis’ books.

This morning we are going to look at the faith needed to be a follower of Jesus—or to put it in Narnia language: what a prince or princess’ faith should be like…

1. A Royal faith is seeing.

Scripture defines and illustrates faith…in our world we often feel this tension between believing and proving…between faith and reason. Some say that they will only believe what they can taste, see, touch, or smell. In Missouri we say, "Show Me!" It was doubting Thomas who said, so the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it." Thomas wasn’t going to believe unless he saw for himself. Well Thomas actually makes a good point…that is why Jesus appeared to His disciples and to as many as 500 hundred at one time…to verify that He truly had resurrected. We have a faith that is reasonable and rooted in historical fact. The reasonableness of our faith is what brought C. S. Lewis kicking and fighting to his new found faith.

We do have a reasonable faith, but we are told that we are to focus not on what we can see and touch, but by faith. What does this mean? In 2 Corinthians 5: 7, "We live by faith, not by sight." (Like the song we sang this morning.) In Prince Caspian, Lucy is the first one to see Aslan…in fact when He appears to Lucy, the other kids can’t see him. Aslan is trying to lead them to go another direction and Lucy pleads with them to follow Him…yet none of the other kids can see Him…they are bent on going their own direction…we often trust our senses, but Lucy learned to have faith. Lucy could see Aslan because she had faith.

You’ve heard the old adage, "seeing is believing." Peter Shackel suggests that Caspian reverses that idea… "believing is seeing." A royal faith has Kingdom eyes that are focused on Kingdom things…even when others can’t see them. A royal faith has Kingdom vision. It takes faith to see the things that God wants to reveal to you. 2 Corinthians 4: 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

A Royal faith is trusting.

Proverbs 3: 5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Aslan does appear to Lucy first, but the group goes with Peter’s gut feelings about which direction to go…Peter is the oldest so they listen to him instead of Lucy, the youngest. They get lost and obviously Peter has made a mistake. Aslan eventually uses Lucy to get them back on the right path.

It is so easy to get lost in this life…we think we know best, or we get impatient waiting on God…when I take charge I usually take the wrong road. But if I acknowledge God and lean not on my own understanding…he makes my paths straight, even when I don’t listen very well. Peter later encounters Aslan and says, "I’ve been leading them wrong." Of course he finds forgiveness, but is a great example to us, to make sure we aren’t leading others to follow our plans, but to follow God’s plan for their lives. How tough this is for us parents—not to want our children to follow our plans for them rather than God’s plans for them, right?

A Royal faith is following.

In our world it is so easy to get lost! We have many voices, and we often want to go our own way or are impatient in trying to hear God’s voice. John 10: 3-5 "The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them," "and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice."

In Prince Caspian, the children are lost early on and only Lucy (the youngest) has seen Aslan. Aslan appears to her again at night and says, "If you go back to the others now, and wake them up; and tell them you have seen me again; and that you must all get up at once and follow me—what will happen? There is only one way of finding out." "Do you what you want me to do?" gasped Lucy. "Yes, little one," said Aslan. "Will the others see you too?" asked Lucy. "Certainly not at first," said Aslan, "Later on, it depends." "But they won’t believe me!" said Lucy. "It doesn’t matter," said Aslan.

How much does it matter to you if your family or friends don’t believe you? Do other’s opinions matter to you? For most of us they do. But Aslan explains to young Lucy the problem when we allow what others think to matter too much:

"Now, child," said Aslan, when they had left the trees behind them, "I will wait here. Go and wake the others and tell them to follow. If they will not, then you at least must follow me alone." Wow. Often following Jesus is a lonely proposition…we have to follow the Lord’s will regardless who comes with us. That’s what Aslan taught Lucy…and that is what I believe Jesus wants to remind us today. Remember the hymn, "I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back. Though none go with me, still I will follow. No turning back, no turning back."

4. A Royal faith is growing.

When Lucy finally comes face to face with Aslan we have this conversation: "Aslan, Aslan. Dear Aslan," sobbed Lucy. "At last." The great beast rolled over on his side so that Lucy fell, half sitting and half lying between his front paws. He bent forward and just touched her nose with his tongue. His warm breath came all around her. She gazed up into the large wise face. "Welcome, child," he said. "Aslan," said Lucy, "you’re bigger." "That is because you are older, little one," answered he. "Not because you are?" "I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger."

This is actually one of my favorite exchanges in all the Narnia books. Lucy is a year older and Aslan appears bigger…In reality Aslan has not changed at all, but Lucy’s understanding of Aslan has grown. She has a growing faith! This is so true in my experience…the older I get, the more I grow, the bigger God becomes! And of course, God doesn’t change at all, but my understanding of Him grows. That is a growing faith! It is so awesome to be around men and women who have walked with the Lord for a long time. They model for us that our faith grows and gets sweeter each year. Is God getting bigger for you?

2 Thessalonians 1: 3 We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing.

Is your faith growing? Is the Jesus you see bigger than he was last year? Bigger than he was when you were a child? Bigger than he was when you first joined Simpson church? Bigger than he was when you first joined your small group? Or is your Jesus getting smaller? Is he getting smaller because you have some great odds working against you in your life? Is he getting smaller because you’ve allowed some things to get you down and you’ve not yet let god help you back up on that "bicycle" again? Is your Jesus smaller because you have lost faith in your church? Your Christian friends? Your pastor? Even yourself? Most of all is your faith smaller because you have allowed Jesus to become tamed-a tamed Jesus is a weak Jesus, a boring Jesus, a going nowhere Jesus. My good friend Orville Martin once told me that if my vision of the church isn’t too big for me to accomplish on my own then it isn’t big enough—if you can do it without God then why bother doing it at all? It isn’t big enough!

You are royalty, princes and princesses—you and I are called to have a faith that is seeing, trusting, following, and most of all--growing. So how do we please God? We live by faith—faith not in ourselves and not even in each other but faith in God.

Hebrews 11: 1-6 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead. By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

It is impossible to please God without demonstrating faith in Him. A prince or princess in the Kingdom of God, must demonstrate a Royal Faith…which is: • Seeing • Trusting • Following • Growing