Aslan’s Roar/Aslan’s Purr
Selected Texts
HOT TOPICS: NARNIA
December 18, 2005
Don’t hesitate to contact me at lacenterchurch@yahoo.com
Disney just released a movie they have bet $100 million on becoming a great hit.
“Narnia” is based on C.S. Lewis’ children’s tale, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
(Show promo picture of movie)
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is really all about the lion.
Here you meet a lion named Aslan that both roars and purrs.
(show picture of roaring lion)
Written in 1950-- 86 million copies --still sells more than 1 million each year
It is about four children who find their way into the fairy tale land of “Narnia.”
(show picture of wintry Narnia,)
In Narnia animals talk, but fear also a wicked witch.
(show sinister picture of witch)
She always keeps Narnia in winter, but Christmas never comes.
Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy are children who discover Narnia.
(show picture of the children)
Lucy discovers Narnia first; then Edmund.
The witch uses candy and a promise of a kingdom to entrap Edmund. He secretly aligns with the witch against his brother and sisters.
(Show picture of Mr. Beaver)
Mr. Beaver is an affable hero who introduces the most important character, a lion named, “Aslan.” Aslan has an amazing effect on everyone.
Let me read you a portion of the story. Mr. Beaver says,
“They say Aslan is on the move--perhaps has already landed."
And now a very courious thing happened. None of the children knew who Aslan was any more than you do, but the moment the Beaver had spoken these words everyone felt quite different. Perhaps it has sometimes happened to you in a dream that someone says something which you don’t understand but in the dream it feels as if it had some enormous meaning--either a terrifying one which turns the whole drream into a nightmare or else a lovely meaning; too lovely to put into words, which makes the dream so beautiful that you remember it all your life and are always wishing you could get into that drream again. It was like that now. At the name of Aslan each one of the children felt something jump in its inside. Edmund felt a sensation of mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music had just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning and realize that it is the beginning of holidays or the beginning of summer.” Pg. 74
Aslan is obviously the center of the story. No figure is as central. Without knowing Aslan you miss the whole story.
Pg. 86 “Aslan a man!” said Mr. Beaver sternly. "Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-beyond-the-Sea. Don’t you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion--The Lion, the great Lion."
"Ooh!" said Susan. "I’d thought he was a man." Is he---quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion."
That you will, dearie, and make no mistake." said Mrs. Beaver, "if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly."
"Then he isn’t safe?" said Lucy.
"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver; "don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe?" ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
Edmund sneaks off to find the witch. She treats him poorly. --furious - he failed to bring his brother and sisters. --In a foul mood because Aslan has returned it’s beginning to thaw.
(Show picture with all at the stone table)
The story climaxes with all meeting at the Stone Table.
Aslan’s triumphal roar is deafening and all seems ready to end, but the witch demands an ancient law be upheld, -- that all traitors belong to her, specifically Edmund.
Aslan brokers a deal. No one seems to catch the terms.
Edmond learned that even if you do not choose Aslan as a friend, Aslan chooses you.
Optimism is high even in the witch as she leaves without Edmund. A celebration happens and stories are shared but Aslan quietly slips away.
Lucy and Susan notice and follow. Aslan allows but it’s a solemn march.
There is no roar from the lion just a sorrowful purr.
To the girl’s horror the brokered agreement involved a trade far too incredible to believe. It was Aslan’s life for Edmund’s freedom!!!!
In a dramatic scene, the witch has Aslan tied and shaved, the great Aslan is humiliated and he does not roar!
Then she succeeds in putting Aslan to death on the Stone Table.
The children are in despair. All hope is gone. How could this happen? There is neither purr nor roar, Aslan is silent.
How could one so powerful have something so awful happen? The witch and her ghouls simply won.
Just before dawn, they sneak back to the now-deserted Stone Table and find Aslan’s dead shaven body. He is mangled and mutilated. The scene is despair.
As they grieve the incredible happenings, the Stone Table spits and Aslan is gone! Soon Aslan returns as a now triumphant lion.
Aslan explains how ancient law dictates that all traitors belong to the Witch. But an even more ancient law dictates that if a willing innocent victim is killed in the traitor’s place death works backward and life is restored.
Now Aslan ROARS a roar too deafening to imagine. The gentle one is now fearsome. “It’s a roar that shook all Narnia from the Western Lamppost to the shores of the Eastern Sea.”
Aslan deals with the wicked witch, and throws a huge party for all of Narnia.
No one is as joyful as Edmund, his guilty life was saved by the innocent lion.
Why is he story of Narnia so compelling? Because it’s a story is too good to believe yet it retells a true historical story. It’s a story that has really happened.
The Bible says Rom. 3:6-8
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would even dare to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
God does things in ways that are strange and mysterious to us.
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and how inscrutable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" Rom 11:33-34
The most famous verse of all times says:
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. John 3:16-17
Narnia is also the story of C.S. Lewis’ life.
-mother died when he was 7 -- childhood in boarding sch
Brilliant
One protégé said he and Lewis used to play a game in which he selected a book at random from Lewis’s thousands and began reading to Lewis at any point of the book. Without seeing the book or the section of the library from which it was taken Lewis could almost always site the book, page and continue quoting after a few sentences were read.
Until age 30, Lewis was an atheist. In a letter written to a friend in October, 1916 he said,
“I believe in no religion. There is absolutely no proof for any of them, and from a philosophical standpoint Christianity is not even the best. All religions, that is, all mythologies to give them their proper name, are merely man’s own invention.” C.S. Lewis
While an Oxford professor; Lewis became friends with 2 Christian professors, Hugh Dyson, and
J.R.R. Tolkien, -- Lord of the Rings.
Through their examples, he became persuaded that their faith was real. In 1929, he became convinced that Jesus Christ really was an historic figure, that he really did die on the cross as a substitute for our sins. So Lewis bowed and invited Christ into his life.
“I came into Christianity “kicking and screaming”. You must picture me alone in that room, night after night, feeling, … the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. … I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed; perhaps, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England” (Surprised by Joy, p. 228-9)
Hebrews 11 gives a long list of heroes of the faith who all died before Christ. It says;
These all died in faith, .. having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. Heb. 11:13-14
Lewis said, “I realized that all my life I was like that. I was looking for a country of my own; in Christ, I found a better country.
C.S. Lewis knew what it meant to have someone die in his place. Christ changed his life.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is so powerful because Narnia is in fact our world. This story is your story. It’s my story. It’s the story of a scary Lion that purrs with love for indifferent and even rebellious people long before they join his side.
Will you like Lewis and like Edmond respond in faith to the unrelenting love of the Lion of Judah?
Lewis was convinced that there must be a heaven when he fully faced the sense in his heart that there is more to this world than just this world.
He responded to the tug inside of him for something more. Will you?
Some of you know what I’m talking about this morning, some don’t.
If that tug is going on inside of you it is the one you so desperately don’t want to meet unrelentingly heading your way.
It matters not to him that you have betrayed him, that you have succumbed to the witch’s enticements or even that you arrogantly think you don’t need Him.
He still has such a huge heart of love for you that he kept moving to the Great Stone Table to lay down His life for you because he chooses his friends whether they choose him or not.
He will one day roar with a deafening roar but today is his day to purr. He is gently showing his love for you.
There is a gift available to you this morning. It’s God’s gift of love. – A love that was poured for you by The Lion. Today He gently purrs behind you, beside you and in front of you. Won’t you receive my gift of love?
“I want to fix your troubled past.”
To all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God… Jn 1:12
When I was a little guy my parents took me to church. I learned about Jesus that He was the Son of God, who died for the sins of the world.
I learned all sorts of things about Christianity, and I believed most of them. I believed.
What was missing for me was the “received” part. I believed but I needed to receive Christ into my life in order to become a child of God.
From the day I received Him I have been part of His forever family. I am part of a whole new country.
Have you believed and received? Have you recognized that you are as Edmund was; in the rightful clutches of the enemy and helpless to act on your own behalf?
There is one who worked the Deeper Magic and provided your release. The innocent victim who stood in your place. He broke the Table of Stone, crushed your captor’s power and now offers you life in His Celestial Kingdom.
Would you like to respond today? You can.
In just a minute, I am going to lead you in a prayer. It’s the prayer that I prayed to receive Christ, it’s the prayer that C.S. Lewis prayed. It’s a prayer that millions have prayed, to unite to the Lion.
One of the good indicators that God is reaching out to you right now is that your heart is pounding, you are racing inside because there is a real spiritual battle going on insiude of you right now. The witch and her forces do not want to let go of you to the Lion’s kingdom. She doesn’t like you atr all she just wants you because of she hates God. Leave her for God’s loving call. He’ll bring a big change in your life.
So, bow your heads please, and close your eyes, so that everyone can have a moment of privacy. Has God been pursuing you? Have you heard more than His roar but also his Purr of love for you? Are you ready to respond to Him? If so look at me right now. Keep looking because you are the only ones I am really speaking to right now. The rest of you pray.
You need to both believe and receive God’s love and forgiveness.
In this moment, please listen to the following prayer. I will repeat it again so you can quietly pray it under your breath or in your mind as I pray it aloud.
Pray this:
“Lord Jesus, I too have messed up and not done all you want. I agree with you that this is sin. I need your forgiveness. Thank you for willingly dying for me and my sin. I reject my independence from you and now fully trust you. I believe in you and I now receive you as my only answer for the problems I have created. Come into my life and make me your child. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Let me read it again and if it is what you mean I invite you to pray this prayer quietly under your breath or in your mind as I say it out loud.
For those of you who prayed that prayer, I want to tell you two things. One is that right now, all of heaven is rejoicing with you. Jesus said, “I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Luke 15:10
The second is that we would like to rejoice with you as well, and help you live now as a follower of Christ. So, at the end of the service come up here and speak to me. Bring your blue communication card with you. I want to meet you and help get you started right in the new family you have just joined.
Others would like to congratulate you as well, so if you’d tell someone else I am so sure they would be excited to hear your news.
Slide #1
(Show promo picture of movie)
Slide # 2
(show picture of calm lion)
Slide #3
(show picture of wintry Narnia,)
Slide #4
(show sinister picture of witch)
Slide #5
(show picture of the children)
Slide #6
(Show picture of Mr. Beaver)
Slide #7
“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver. Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
Slide #8
(show picture of all at the stone table)
Slide #9
Edmond learned that even if you do not choose Aslan as a friend, Aslan chooses you.
Slide #10
Aslan’s life for Edmund’s freedom!!!!
Slide #11
How could one so powerful have something so awful happen to him?
Slide #12 (You may insert a picture of the roaring Aslan instead of this quote)
A roar that shook all Narnia from the Western Lamppost to the shores of the Eastern Sea.
Slide #13
Rom. 3:6-8
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would even dare to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Slide #14
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and how inscrutable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" Rom 11:33-34
Slide #15
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. John 3:16-17
Slide #16
“I believe in no religion. There is absolutely no proof for any of them, and from a philosophical standpoint Christianity is not even the best. All religions, that is, all mythologies to give them their proper name, are merely man’s own invention.” C.S. Lewis
Slide #17
“I came into Christianity “kicking and screaming”. You must picture me alone in that room, night after night, feeling, … the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. … I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed; perhaps, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England” (Surprised by Joy, p. 228-9)
Slide #18
These all died in faith, .. having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. Heb. 11:13-14
Slide #19
Lewis said, “I realized that all my life I was like that. I was looking for a country of my own; in Christ, I found a better country.
Slide #20
He will one day roar with a deafening roar but today is his day to purr.
There is a gift available to you this morning. It’s God’s gift of love.
Slide #21
To all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God… Jn 1:12
