The Gospel According To…
Prince Caspian
Acts 10
December 7, 2008
This week we are going to look at the Gospel According to Prince Caspian, which came out on DVD this week and we was shown on movie night on Friday. How many of you have read the Chronicles of Narnia? I’ve read them three or four times since I was a kid. And to tell you the truth, I didn’t get Prince Caspian. I didn’t get it’s connection to the gospel of the kingdom until recently. This is probably because my idea of the gospel was really too small.
Speaking of missing the point, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are camping. They pitch their tent under the stars and go to sleep. Sometime in the middle of the night, Holmes wakes Watson. "Watson, look up at the stars and tell me what you deduce."
Watson says, "I see millions of stars, and if even a few of those have planets, it’s quite likely there are some planets like Earth, and if there are a few planets like Earth out there, there might also be life."
Holmes replies, "Watson, you idiot, somebody stole our tent!"
Prince Caspian is about a crucial theme of the gospel of God’s kingdom—reconciliation. It is about the reconciliation between High King Peter and Prince Caspian. [view clip] It is the reconciliation that Prince Caspian has with his hatred and anger from his past. But most of all it about the reconciliation between the humans and the myth creatures. It is about finding peace and forgiveness. All are crucial ideas of God’s kingdom.
In the story, Prince Caspian has escaped into the deep forest after his uncle seizes the throne and attempts to have Caspian killed. From there Caspian summons the heroes of the first movie to return to Narnia to set things right. A thousand years has passed in Narnia while it has only been one year in our world. Reminds me of the scripture that says a thousand years is like a day to the Lord and day is like a thousand years.
What we learn is that these humans called Telmarines have taken control of Narnia and have tried to wipe out the myth creatures. Caspian needs the myth creatures with the help of Aslan to set things right and bring reconciliation between the races. Furthermore there is a competition between Peter and Caspian who each have different ideas on how to depose Caspian’s evil uncle. Finally they reconcile learning to sacrifice for one another.
Specifically this narrative is about race reconciliation. It is Christian in that in God’s kingdom there is no Jew or Gentile. They is no male or female. There is no black or white. This story shows us that in God’s kingdom there is no place for discrimination.
In Acts 10, we find the same principles given to us. I’m not going to read the whole chapter, you can do that this week. But let me give you some highlights. A Roman centurion named Cornelius has a dream. He lives in a town called Caesarea. This is a town named after Caesar. Cornelius was probably retired from the military or at least as retired as a centurion could be because you never really retire. Now often men like Cornelius who commanded hundreds would have a pretty loyal following. After all when you serve on the front lines with men and survive for many years and proved yourself, you often earn respect and admiration. So to keep these commanders from marching into Rome and taking command, the Caesar would create towns out on the fringes where these commanders and often their men would “retire.” They would be too far away to revolt and cause trouble but close enough to be valuable resources if needed.
However, we learn that Cornelius follows the one true God. In verse two it says that he was god-fearing. This was defined as someone who prayed regularly and gave to the poor. The Jews even respected him. But he probably wasn’t an actual Jew. First of all, he was a Gentile. But Gentile could go through a complicated process of becoming a Jew although they would never be a full-fledged member. Besides his military commitments probably prevented him from doing even if he wanted to.
Well, Cornelius has a dream. He is told to have a man named Peter brought to him so that Cornelius could hear some important news about what God was doing. Meanwhile Peter has a vision of a all kinds of animal many which are supposed to be unclean and unsuitable to eat under Jewish law. Yet, God instructs Peter to kill and eat them. Peter says, “No way! Never! It is wrong.” Perhaps Peter thought it was a test. But God tells him not to refuse by calling anything impure that God has made clean. Three times this happens and afterwards Peter is perplexed. He doesn’t know what this vision means until the men from Cornelius come. The Spirit tells Peter to go with them.
When Peter arrives and talks to Cornelius he begins to understand his vision. Peter learns from Cornelius what his vision means. Peter says in verse 28, “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean.” The Jewish law has discrimination and this was racial discrimination built into it. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean.
Thus Peter reminds us in 1 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” And then in verses 35 through 35, “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.”
God accepts everyone who does what is right. Aslan accepts everyone who does what is right. Reconciliation of the races! This is where the kernel of the gospel lies.
God’s plan for us is to be one people under God regardless of culture, of language, of skin color, of race, of economic background. We are to be one in Christ.
Revelation 5:9 shares a vision of what this kingdom looks like in its ultimate fulfillment.
And they sang a new song:
"You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
and with your blood you purchased men for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation.
You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,
and they will reign on the earth."
With this in mind, we see that discrimination has no place in God’s kingdom. As Paul puts it we are ministers of reconciliation. We are to seek reconciliation. We are to facilitate reconciliation. We are all in equal need of Christ. There are not some who need Jesus more than others. We are all in equal need of grace, forgiveness, mercy, and reconciliation that comes through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.
Christians have had a tendency to look arrogantly at others. Many missionaries in the last century went to tell people the gospel. What often happened was that the gospel got mixed up in cultural expressions. For example, American Indians were told that they had to cut their hair, learn English, and dress as westerners in order to follow Jesus. Cornelius worshipped regularly and gave to the poor. He was accepted by God and accepted by Peter. Cornelius was even respect by the Jews. He wasn’t circumcised. He wasn’t a Jew.
I have three reminders for us as we think about people who may not know Jesus that we know or maybe know Jesus in the same fashion that we do. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t share the work of God in our lives. We need to remember a few principles from Peter and Cornelius as well as Prince Caspian. They are all based on the idea of reconciliation and that we are all in equal need of Jesus.
Reconciliation—We are all equally in need of Jesus
• We are all seekers.
In recent years, there has been a movement of calling people who are not Christians “seekers.” It was a way to classify people who come into the church looking for God without labeling them offensively as “sinners.” It was a way to try to keep church accessible to anyone and everyone. Has anyone heard the use of this? Churches might call themselves “seeker-sensitive.” Does that sound familiar?
However, I’ve come to believe that the terminology is a little misleading because it implies a mindset that when I decide to follow Jesus then I am no longer a seeker. This was not the intention but it nevertheless has been reality. People are lured into a false sense of security that they have arrived. Some of this mentality goes farther back than this seeker-sensitive movement but nevertheless falls into this strange mentality that after I pray a prayer and maybe even get baptized (both hugely important) then I just have to be a good person and maybe a good citizen and wait for Jesus to come or I die.
However, I see in the bible that everyone is always a seeker. Peter was seeking in Acts 10. He sought to follow God. He was seeking how to serve God next. Cornelius was seeking to honor God further. Therefore he was open to the dream that God showed him.
As we make our journeys through life to the grocery stores and the malls and to work, we need to remember that we are all seekers. Everyone is seeking. Everyone is searching. Some think that they have arrived. Some think that they don’t need to grow or improve. Some think that they can never change. It is what psychologists call denial. And denial afflicts the religious and non-religious. It afflicts the spiritual and atheist. It afflicts the Christian and the non-Christian.
We are all seekers. So as we seek to walk close with Jesus and share what we have learned with others, we remember that we don’t have all the answers. We don’t know it all but we have caught a glimpse of the One who does.
• We are all students.
Peter learns from Cornelius. Cornelius learns from Peter. Peter learns from Cornelius what God was trying to say to him through the vision. Cornelius learns about the fulfillment of the faith that he has been striving to live out. He hears about Jesus and as verse 44 says, “While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.
Then Peter said, “Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.” So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.”
We are all students. We learn from each other. We can even learn from those who do not claim to know God. It is amazing who God often chooses to speak to us when we have the ears to hear and the eyes to see.
• We are all servants.
Many don’t want to serve except to serve themselves. But we all serve something. Some serve the idols of money and materialism. Some serve the idols of addictions. Some serve the idols of entertainment. Some serve gods made in their own image. We are called to remind people that God has created us to serve Him. We are to follow Jesus in serving others by pouring into life rather taking from it.
If we can remember these three things this advent in preparation for Christmas we just might be prepared to hear and see the coming of Christ. He has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
