Always Winter - Never Christmas Series

Today we begin a 3 week series based on C.S. Lewis’ best selling book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Narnia stories have sold over 85 million copies in 29 languages over last ½ century.

Lewis was accused of trying to find ways to preach Christianity to children, but what he really wanted to do was to tell stories and his faith was so ingrained in his life that it bubbled out. If you’re not familiar with the book, that’s OK - we’ll fill you in enough on the story to make sense out of each message. If you are familiar with the story, or if you are reading it to your children, use this chance to talk about Jesus in Lewis’ books.

Narnia trivia questions

Summary - Siblings, Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter live in World War II England and enter the world of Narnia through a magical wardrobe while playing a game of ’hide-and-seek’ in the rural country home of an elderly professor. There the children discover Narnia, a land inhabited by talking beasts, dwarfs, fauns, centaurs and giants that has become a world cursed to eternal winter by the evil White Witch, Jadis. Under the guidance of a noble and mystical ruler, the lion Aslan, the children fight to overcome the White Witch’s powerful hold over Narnia in a spectacular, climactic battle that will free Narnia from Jadis’ icy spell forever.

Fantasy is a huge part of Christmas -

Songs - Over the river and thru the woods - I’m dreaming of a white Christmas

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire

Memory - Ever try to buy a turkey as big as the one your mom cooked when you were a kid?

Endless cookies supply- food - dessert - presents

Images - lights - trees, all the senses set aflame

Our world is fascinated with other worlds, Harry Potter, Star Trek, always looking always searching for other worlds

We want to know that there is something beyond,

that there is something out there (x files)

We were custom built to appreciate wonder and mystery - the Bible speaks of the mystery

See I Cor. 2:6-10 and Duet. 29:29 "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law."

Some people are very much aware of this other world, and live in holy anticipation

But the world - and all too often, even the church, seems to throw cold water on our hunger for mystery.

I don’t know what’s scarier - to go to church week after week without feeling the presence of God or to stay home week after week without longing for His presence

Mystery

Mat. 1:18 before they came together

Matt. 1:20 angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream

Matt. 2:1 Magi from the east came to Jerusalem

Matt. 2:9 the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was

Matt. 2:12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route

Matt. 2:13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dreamDanger

Matt. 2:1 Jesus was born during the time of King Herod

Matt. 2:3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed and all Jerusalem with him

Matt. 2:13 take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell Herod is going to search for the child to kill him."

Matt. 2:16 Herod was furious and he gave orders to kill all the boys in BethlehemOver and over again, Jesus said that the kingdom of God is at hand. John 10 Jesus talks about himself as the gate/door - the portal to another realm - another Kingdom.

This fascination hints that it may be true, that there is another world

1. We were Created to hunger for another world

The passage from our world into Narnia was a wardrobe. The children were playing hide and seek when Lucy discovers upon the Wardrobe. It wasn’t something Lucy was searching for, she stumbled upon it, and once she got to the other world of Narnia - she wasn’t clear on how to return.

Isn’t that just like our life with Christ? We don’t know how we got here or how to get back - we may not have even been looking for Him. We could never have predicted all that we found.

While Lucy wasn’t looking for another world, she was looking - she was curious

Gift of second sight, the Bible calls it faith - Allow your curiosity to lead you into the mystery

She discovers Narnia is beautiful overflowing with magic and wonder - filled with incredible creatures - and suffering under a spell. It makes Narnia worth saving - not unlike earth