WHAT IF THERE WERE NO CHRISTMAS
Christmas Comes to Narnia
Luke 1:26-33
This message is the third of a three part series on Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The slides below are power point slides used during the message. The picture slides were copied from web sites or scanned from an illustrated book on Chronicles of Narnia.
We ended last week with Aslan giving his life for Edmund. The story doesn’t end there.
PICTURE SLIDE – BROKEN STONE TABLE
Aslan comes to the stone table, the place where justice is extracted. The witch and all her army have gathered. Aslan is bound, his mane shaved, as the witch plunges a knife into his heart, killing him.
If this were the end, all of us would be in big trouble. But something happens that changes everything. There is an earthquake, and Aslan is gone. Then, what seems to be the impossible happens. Lucy and Susan are overwhelmed. Is this a ghost?
PICTURE SLIDE – ASLAN ARISES
Aslan explains that there is a deeper magic – rules written before the stone table that the witch doesn’t know. Aslan has shattered the table and conquered death.
The children, dwarfs, and small animas, riding on the backs of lions, centaurs, unicorns, horses, giants, and eagles left the witch’s castle in a hurry, over the countryside, at last coming to a winding, narrow valley.
PICTURE SLIDE - BATTLE
In the valley Lucy heard noises, sounds of shouts and shrieks and the clashing of metal against metal.
Peter and Edmund stood with the rest of Aslan’s army fighting desperately against the crowd of horrible creatures that the girls had seen the night before at the stone table.
PICTURE SLIDE – BATTLE PETER
There were statues dotting the battlefield, where the witch had been using her wand to make them into stone. The witch was fighting Peter.
Aslan,
PICTURE SLIDE – ASLAN ROAR
with a roar that shook all Narnia, flung himself upon the White Witch. All the creatures that Aslan led from the witch’s house rushed madly on the enemy lines. The battle was over within minutes. Once the evil creatures saw that the witch was dead, they either gave themselves up or ran away.
The next day they marched toward a great river, eventually coming to mouth of the river and the castle of Cair Paravel.
PICTURE SLIDE – CAIR PARAVEL
Before them were the sands, rocks, pools of salt water and seaweed, and miles of waves breaking on the beach. `
After a day of playing on the beach, getting their shoes and stockings off and felling the sand between their toes, all gathered in the Great Hall of Cair Paravel. In the presence of their friends and to the sound of trumpets,
PICTURE SLIDE – CORONATION ROOM
Aslan solemnly crowned them and led them to the four thrones amid the shouts of “Long Live King Peter! Long Live Queen Susan! Long Live King Edmund! Long Live Queen Lucy!”
PICTURE SLIDE - THRONES
The children sat on their thrones and they gave rewards and honors to all their friends.
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In Narnia, Aslan arises to defeat the White Witch. His reign is restored.
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At Christmas, Jesus is born to REIGN.
…You are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, his kingdom will never end.” Luke 1:31-33
Word study: Son of the Most High
David told that his offspring would come eon whose kingdom would be forever. God would be his father, and he will be my son. (2 Samuel 7:12-14)
In Luke’s account, introducing Jesus. The first description is Jesus as King!
Most of us, had we designed the plan, would have made great pomp and circumstance out of the arrival of the king. Yet he was born of a humble country maiden.
A unique start
Shows God can use any of us
Shows that God is making his king accessible to us.
Today we want to talk about what it means to have Jesus rule our lives. Jesus was born to be King. What does that mean for us? The first three points are review from the previous three weeks.
SLIDE
When Jesus rules in our lives…
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1. We live in Jesus’ LIGHT.
The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. John 1:5
The world is in darkness because of sin. Jesus came to bring life.
Some of us may deny sin. Things aren’t that bad. We are created in God’s image. We are completely affected by sin.
Light gives us direction.
In Narnia, Aslan turns winter into spring.
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2. We have LIFE.
In him was life, and that life was the light of men. John 1:4
Life – eternal life, now and forever. We asked, “How long is eternity?”
The result of sin is death. Jesus came to bring life
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3. We receive FREEDOM from sin.
“She (Mary) will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21
Sin no longer has power over us.
Turkish Delight – the addictive power of sin.
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4. We develop a HEART for God.
I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 11:19
ILLUSTRATION: Our lives are like a cup of water. Every time we sin it is like pouring a little bit of cement in the cup. Eventually we become hard. The first thing Jesus wants to do is breathe life on us.
Instead of a hard heart, God wants to develop within us a heart for him. God wants to give us a soft heart.
What does it mean to be hard-hearted? Hard toward the things of God.
You and I know what this is. We see it in those around us who scoff, ridicule, live apart from God and his ways.
Maybe you recognize in yourself that you are hard-hearted, callous toward the things of God. Maybe you don’t respond to others with God’s love. Even as you consider Christmas, maybe the wonder and excitement of Jesus, God’s Son coming to earth has lost its appeal. There is a callousness and hardness that has crept into your life. You have lost your first love of God, and have fallen into a cold, hardened existence.
How is this broken? It is only through the breath of God. God can breathe new life into you. When Jesus rules in your heart he will give you his spirit that will break through the hardness and help you to desire God and his ways. His Spirit will help you love others and become all that God wants you to be in Christ.
If you have seen the Narnia movie, you know exactly where I am going with the next analogy.
(Excerpts from 167-168, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe)
After Aslan comes back to live, Susan and Lucy climbed onto the warm, golden back of Aslan,
PICTURE SLIDE – RIDING ASLAN
holding tight to his mane, and shot off on a journey. Riding on the back of Aslan, on the soft roughness of golden fur, going twice as fast as the fastest racehorse, threading between trees, jumping over bush, across Narnia in spring, along ridges, down a wild valley, into acres of blue flowers.
They found themselves at the witch’s home.
PICTURE SLIDE – WITCH’S CASTLE
As they looked out it looked like a museum with stone animals and creatures.
PICTURE SLIDE – STONE MR TUMNUS
Without hesitation Aslan whisked round and breathed on a stone dwarf, a stone lion. He turned rapidly to deal with a stone rabbit on his right, and rushed on to two stone centaurs to breath on them as well. As Lucy and Susan looked at the stone lion, at first nothing seemed to happen. Then a tiny streak of gold began to run along its white marble back, then it spread until the lion shook his mane and all the heavy, stone folds rippled into living hair.
Everywhere the statues were coming to life. The courtyard looked no longer like a museum; it looked more like a zoo. Creatures were running around Aslan, dancing round him until he was almost hidden in the crowd.
Aslan breathed life onto the stone creatures. These were creatures that had gone to the witch’s castle, who had betrayed Aslan.
Maybe you see this in yourself. You are hardened from what you used to be. You see it reflected in your ways, maybe even in your lack of Christmas spirit.
Jesus needs to breathe his Spirit into your life to give you a soft heart toward God.
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5. We experience HEALING out of brokenness
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Luke 4:18-19
When Jesus reigns and his kingdom is realized, Jesus brings healing. We see this in the gospels. Jesus heals the sick and the lame. Jesus’ kingdom has been inaugurated in his coming. Jesus can bring healing today. In fact, the Bible tells us in Revelation that when his kingdom is fully realized that there will be no more sickness, crying or pain. We today live in this in between time awaiting Jesus’ return and the complete healing.
Holidays are difficult times for many of us.
Reminded of loss of loved ones – sadness, painful memories
Faced with the reality of broken families, divorce, figuring out how to divide time between families.
Military families, loved ones overseas, hardship of long-distance relationships.
How do we handle these things? When Jesus rules in our lives he can bring not only physical healing, but emotional and relational healing as well. When Jesus rules in our lives his supernatural power is present and able to bring physical as well as emotional and relational healing to our lives.
We see this in the Narnia story as well. At the end of the story, after the battle, Edmund is critically wounded in the battle, but is healed from his wounds. Afterwards, Lucy comes back to Edmund and finds him standing on his feet and not only healed of his wounds but looking better than she had seen him look – oh, for ages; in fact ever since his first term at that horrid school which was where he had begun to go wrong. He had become his real old self again and could look you in the face.
Edmund had changed from a deceitful, lying, irritating brother to his real old self again. He could look you in the face.
Edmund has been changed. Not only physical healing has occurred, but his relationships with his family, particularly Lucy, have been restored. He is his “real old self again”.
We need that kind of healing in our lives.
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6. We WORSHIP God as his chosen people
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. 1 Peter 2:9
A key word here is belonging. We are a chosen people, a royal priestood. We belong to God and are free to worship him and live in his light.
Think of Edmund again. He was once a betrayer, a traitor to Aslan and his family, alone, destined for death. When Edmund follows the way of Aslan he no longer is a betrayer. He now belongs. He is royalty, freed up to serve Aslan, reflect his glory as a Prince and King of Narnia.
In the same way, when Jesus rules in our lives, we are royalty, free to serve Jesus the King, set apart to reflect his glory.
CONCLUSION
Jesus doesn’t thrust his rule upon us. It is a choice. Will we allow Jesus to rule in our lives? The alternatives are clear.
We can either live in darkness, or walk in Jesus’ light.
We can experience eternal death, apart from God, or enjoy eternal life with Jesus.
We can remain in bondage to sin, or free from sin.
Instead of having a hard heart toward God and the things of God, Jesus can breathe his Spirit upon us and give us a soft heart toward him.
Instead of brokenness, physical, emotional, and relational suffering, Jesus rule offers us healing.
And instead of betrayal, aloneness, apart from God and his glory, we can belong to God as his chosen people, free to serve him and worship him in his glory and power.
THE QUESTION IS, “WHO IS ON THE THRONE OF YOUR LIFE?” Will you receive Jesus into your life as your king?
