A Royal Faith Series

“A Royal Faith”

Lessons from Prince Caspian

May 11, 2008

Text: Various

Introduction: We are continuing a sermon series based on the classic Narnia story by C. S. Lews, Prince Caspian. Prince Caspian is a new blockbuster movie that will be released, May 16…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 is 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 permissable 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’ve prepared to share the spiritual truths that I have found in the story.

Last week I preached a sermon entitled, “A Royal Identity.” We learned that you can recognize a prince or princess in the Kingdom by their…

• Pedigree – We are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation…

• Primer – We have the primary source, God’s Word, for living in the Kingdom

• Pursuits – We are to seek first the Kingdom of God…

• Power – We are to seek help from God and God alone

Today’s message is entitled, “A Royal Faith.” What does the faith of a prince or princess in the Kingdom of God look like? Before we get into the meat of the message, I would like to give you a little of C. S. Lewis’ background…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, “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 what a prince or princess’ faith would look 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.