Discovering the Light of Christmas Love
Discovering the Light of Christmas Love
Discover the light of Christmas love by…
L ooking to Christ
Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
John 3:14-15 NIV
O pening your heart to Christ
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16 NIV
- Satan’s biggest lie: God doesn’t love you.
- God’s greatest truth: God deeply loves you.
This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
1 John 4:10 NLT
V oluntarily turning to Christ
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16 NIV
- God’s part: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…
- Our part: that whoever believes in him…
E xperiening Christ’s love
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16 NIV
We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us-they help us learn to be patient. And patience develops strength of character in us and helps us trust God more each time we use it until finally our hope and faith are strong and steady. Then, when that happens, we are able to hold our heads high no matter what happens and know that all is well, for we know how dearly God loves us, and we feel this warm love everywhere within us because God has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.
Rom 5:3-5 TLB
Point to ponder: Life is about learning to love.
Verse to remember: This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
1 John 4:10 NLT
Question to consider: With which part of LOVE are you struggling? What are you going to do about it?
· Show portion of trailer
What a wonderful love story.
Elaborate…
The parallel is unmistakable.
As Thomas Williams writes…
“During an endless winter, his name brought hope.
His roar terrified a cruel witch.
His love led him to a cold stone to save a foolish boy.
He is the great Lion, Aslan.
And his story is more real than you can imagine.
What you would like from God is what Aslan offers the Narnians - real concern, tender care, unconditional love, and deep joy.”
* Excerpt from Knowing Aslan Thomas Williams
Beneath the surface of the LWW is the greatest love story of all.
The story of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is so powerful because it is the story of mankind.
It’s the story of Christmas.
It’s your story.
It’s my story.
It’s the story of a God who so loved the world, that He came, on Christmas, to pave the way for a personal love relationship with Him.
This Christmas we need to be reminded of this greatest of love stories…and discover (or rediscover) the light of Christmas love.
For some of us today…we have never embraced this story.
For some of us today…we have embraced the story…but our love has grown cold.
It feels like it is always winter and never Christmas.
Today I want to encourage you to consider the greatest love story again…and discover or rediscover the love that is missing for your life.
How can we Discover the light of Christmas love?
The word LOVE shows us how.
First of all we…Discover the light of Christmas love by…
L ooking to Christ
There has been a lot of attention this Christmas on the trend of many people and businesses shying away from saying Merry Christmas and instead saying Happy Holidays.
Have you heard about this debate?
JOE SCARBOROUGH, HOST,” of SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY’: said on His show last week:
“Is there a war against Christmas?
The ACLU and a lot of other people have been trying to take Christ out of Christmas for years.
At this time of year, many people will believe that that's a real concern.
Friday night, in Newport News, Va., 8,000 people are expected to show up for the town's Christmas celebration, except they are not calling it that.
They're calling it Hollydazzle.
And instead of lighting the 40-foot Christmas tree, Newport News officials are going to be lighting, get this, the tree of illumination.”
“Hollydazzle” and “ the tree of illumination”…Give me a break!
Ridiculous as this may seem…it is one more example of our cultures attempt to take Christ out of Christmas….to take the focus off of Christ.
Hollydazzle is a feeble and absurd attempt to satisfy less than 20% of Americans who want to take the focus off of Christ this Christmas.
Hollydazzle just doesn’t capture the true meaning of Christmas.
In Charlie Brown's annual Christmas special he asks an important question, "Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?"
"Sure, I can," says his friend Linus, who proceeds to recite the story of the birth of Jesus from the book of Luke in the King James Version of the Bible.
And says,
"And that's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown."
Christmas is all about Christ.
In the Bible there was a man named Nicodemus…who was also having a hard time making the connection to Christ.
I want you to notice what Jesus said to him…as we pick up the story in John 3:14.
In John 3:14 and 15 we see these words:
Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
John 3:14-15 NIV
Jesus used the example of the Israelites who were wandering in the desert.
God sent a plague of snakes to punish the people for their rebellious attitudes.
Those condemned to die from snakebite could be healed by obeying God’s command to look up at the elevated bronze snake and by believing that God would heal them if they did (see Numbers 21:8-9).
Likewise, we need to Jesus, believing he will save us.
God has provided this way for us to be healed of sin’s deadly bite.
We must look to him for healing and hope.
The focus this Christmas should be Christ…He is the one who came to this world to die for our sins.
He is the only one who brings forgiveness, love and eternal life.
Just as the Pevensie children needed to focus on Aslan…we need to focus on Christ.
We need to look to Christ.
How can we Discover the light of Christmas love?
The word LOVE shows us how.
First of all we
Discover the light of Christmas love by…
L ooking to Christ
And secondly, the O in LOVE stands for open.
You can discover the light of Christmas love by…
O pening your heart to Christ
Until he was 30 years old, C.S Lewis, the author of LWW, was an avowed 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
Interestingly, Lewis did not believe there was a God, but he said that he resented God for not existing.
No doubt the death of his mother when he was only 10 had a devastating effect on him.
As a young boy he had prayed his mother would be healed of cancer…and when she wasn’t…he slowly but surely closed his heart off to God.
You’ve known people like that haven’t you?
Closed off to God because of painful experiences in their life.
Maybe it was the death of a loved one…or a painful event in their life…maybe a parent hurt them or somebody else…maybe it was a divorce.
Maybe you are closed off to God because of painful experiences in your life.
The tendency when we are hurt is to never ever let anyone close again…not even God.
I want to think about these words.
Jesus said…
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16 NIV
Here we find some great reasons to open up your heart to God.
Here we find the greatest lover: For God so loved
Here we find the greatest act: He gave
Here we find the greatest gift: his one and only Son
Here we find the greatest opportunity: that whoever believes in him
Here we find the greatest promise:
shall not perish
Here we find the greatest possession: but have eternal life
Now I know many of you, like C.S. Lewis, have some good reasons to close yourself off from God and others…we have all encountered some tragic and painful experiences.
If you live long enough…life has a way of doing that.
But let me encourage you to look to Christ this morning and open up your heart to Him…He loves and will never let you down.
He demonstrated His love for you once and for all…by coming to this earth and dying for your sins.
We have often bought into the lies of our enemy.
Like Edmund in the LWW we have been deceived by the evil one…in Edmunds case the White Witch…in our case Satan.
· Satan’s biggest lie is this: God doesn’t love you.
And he uses the painful and most difficult experiences in our lives as exhibit A.
Over and over again…he questions us “if God really loved you then why did this happen to you?”
Have you ever bought into that lie?
We all have.
God demolishes that lie with His truth.
We see it very clearly in 1 John 4:10,
1 John 4:10
This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
1 John 4:10 NLT
From this verse we can dtect, reject and correct Satan’s lie with God’s truth.
· God’s greatest truth is this: I am deeply loved By God
Just as Aslan would die in place of Edmund…Christ took our place to satisfy God’s holy demand for sin.
This type of love is derived from the word “agape” in the Greek language.
“Agape” love is selfless, compassionate, and sacrificial.
This type of love loves irregardless of whether its object of love is inherently lovable.
This is how God loves you and me.
This type of love is hard to argue with.
Despite all the difficulty and pain you have experienced in life…it is hard to argue with this kind of love.
Jesus died for you!
Will you Open up your heart to Him today?
Let me share with you a third truth about discovering the light of Christmas
We Discover the light of Christmas love by…
V oluntarily turning to Christ
C.S. Lewis was an atheist until the age of 30, but a change began to take place in Lewis while he was a professor at Oxford.
Lewis became friends with 2 other professors, who happened to be real Christians.
One was Hugh Dyson, the other was J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of the Lord of the Rings.
As Lewis got to know these two, he became persuaded that their faith was real.
And in summer of 1929, he became convinced that Jesus Christ really was an historic figure, that he really did die on the Cross as a substitute for sins of the world.
So Lewis bowed his head and invited Christ into his life.
C.S.Lewis did what some of us need to do this morning V oluntarily turn to Christ.
In John 3:16 we see God’s part and our part:
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16 NIV
· God’s part: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…
· Our part: that whoever believes in him…
“Whoever” means you and me.
The word “believe” in v.16 …is more than intellectual assent…
It is more than intellectual agreement that Jesus is God.
James tells us the demons believe the facts about God and even shudder. (James 2:19)
To “believe” means putting our trust and confidence in Christ that he alone can save us….that He died on the Cross for our sins.
It is to put Christ in charge of our present plans and eternal destiny.
Believing is both trusting his words as reliable and relying on him for the power to forgive us and change us.
There is no need for anyone to perish.
A way has been provided by which all might be saved, but a person must acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as personal Savior.
When he does this, he has eternal life as a present possession.
To believe is personal and voluntarily.
God doesn’t force His love on us…He didn’t make us robots…He gave us a free will.
We can turn to Him or away from Him.
We can believe or choose not to believe.
We can accept his forgiveness or reject it.
Someone has said…
If our greatest need was education, God would have sent a teacher.
If our greatest need was health, he would have sent a doctor.
If our greatest need was financial, he would have sent an economist.
But our greatest need is forgiveness, so God sent a Savior.
It doesn’t matter what wrong you’ve done, Jesus paid for it on the cross.
Accept his forgiveness….by
V oluntarily turning to Christ today.
Will you Voluntarily turn to Christ today?
Let me share with you a fourth truth about discovering the light of Christmas
We Discover the light of Christmas love by…
E xperiening Christ’s love
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16 NIV
When we turn to Christ we get eternal life as a present possession.
Eternal life refers not only to eternal quantity but divine quality of life.
This divine quality of life is experienced by believers even now.
We don’t have to wait for it.
Jesus said he came that we might have abundant life.
When we begin to embrace this God of Love and experience His love… something happens to us.
Rom 5:3-5 describes it:
3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us-they help us learn to be patient. 4 And patience develops strength of character in us and helps us trust God more each time we use it until finally our hope and faith are strong and steady.
5 Then, when that happens, we are able to hold our heads high no matter what happens and know that all is well, for we know how dearly God loves us, and we feel this warm love everywhere within us because God has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.
Rom 5:3-5 TLB
God uses problems and pain to help us grow in God’s love and to know God’s love and to overflow with God’s love.
You see, Life is all about learning to love.
Life is about embracing and experiencing God‘s love.
When we do His love will change us!
When C.S. Lewis decided to follow Jesus, he encountered the love of Christ, a love that changed him forever.
He began reading the Bible, attending church, and helping the poor.
For the rest of his life, he donated 2/3s of all his book royalties to widows whose husbands had died in WW II.
In his late 50’s, he became friends with an American author named Joy Davidman.
C.S. Lewis agreed to a civil marriage with Joy, an American citizen, in order to help her and her sons stay in London.
Even though he had deep feelings for her, at this time he was afraid to fully commit to her.
C.S. Lewis was afraid to fully commit to Joy…because his mother had died when he was young…he didn’t want to be hurt again…he was afraid to commit.
After Joy was diagnosed with cancer, Lewis’s heart began to thaw and he married her.
He slowly opens his heart to this woman, and their romance shatters the walls of his cloistered world…and once gain begins to experience love
Watch how it happens…
[Middle of Ch.14 –ch 15]
C.S. Lewis entered into a marriage of love….and didn’t settle for a marriage based on law.
C.S. Lewis learned how to love again…to Love God and to love others.
Have you?
I don’t know what you’ve been through.
But I do know like C.S. Lewis, you can learn to love again…you can discover the light of love this Christmas.
God loves you!
He wants a personal relationship with you.
Will you Look to Christ today?
Will you open your heart to Him today?
Will you turn to Him today?
Will you experience His love today?
Concl:
If Jesus is your Savior…
Your sins are forgiven
Your guilt is atoned for.
Your future is secured
You have peace in your heart
You have purpose to your step
You have a song on your lips
You are saved from hell
You are right with God
You are going to heaven
Is Jesus your Savior?
If Jesus is not your Savior…you are missing out on the greatest love story of all time…
Don’t miss it.
The first chapter can begin today…
Point to ponder: Life is about learning to love.
Verse to remember: This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
1 John 4:10 NLT
Question to consider: With which part of LOVE are you struggling? What are you going to do about it?
Prayer:
Jesus loves you so much that He died for you, and He longs for a relationship with you.
But you still have a free will, and He will not force himself upon you.
Until you willingly come to Him and accept his sacrifice and forgiveness, He cannot free you from the fatal doom that sin has imposed on you.
He yearns for you to take that next step, but you must do it willingly.
He knocks at the door of your heart.
If you are ready to open yourself to Him, I invite you to pray this prayer with me:
Dear Lord Jesus, thank you so much for loving me.
Thank you for dying in my place.
Thank you for offering me a life of peace, free from guilt, and filled with love and joy.
I open my heart for you to come in.
Forgive me of my sins and be my Savior and Lord.
In your name I pray,Amen.
At Christmas time, a family was driving around looking at manger scenes erected by various churches in their town.
When they drove by the manger scene at one church, the precocious lilt one wanted to know who the figures represented.
Dad pointed out Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
They drove on to another church that had a nativity scene set up and the same inquisitive one, upon seeing three figures with crowns on their heads, wanted to know who they were.
Mom did the duties this time, explaining that the figures were the three Wise Men looking for baby Jesus.
“Well, they won’t find him there,” the child said.
“He’s down at the other church.”
The love of God that came down in Jesus Christ at Christmas time is not confined to church, tradition, or denomination.
God’s love at Bethlehem is so great that it cannot be contained…Jesus love is for everyone.
During an endless winter, his name brought hope.
His roar terrified a cruel witch.
His love led him to a cold stone to save a foolish boy.
He is the great Lion, Aslan.
And his story is more real than you can imagine.
What you would like from God is what Aslan offers the Narnians - real concern, tender care, unconditional love, and deep joy.
* Excerpt from Knowing Aslan Thomas Williams.
Introduction
Aslan, the great Lion of Narnia is dead. He has sacrificed his own life to save Edmund. The sun peeps over the horizon, the Stone Table gives a mighty crack, and Aslan is miraculously, joyfully alive! But how is this possible? What happened to the power of Deep Magic? Deeper Magic trumped Deep Magic. Deeper Magic is love.
Why does God love you? Answer this question, and then read the following verses: Titus 3:4-5, 1 John 4:8-10, Romans 5:8.
This type of love is derived from the word “agape” in the Greek language. “Agape” love is selfless, compassionate, and often sacrificial. This type of love loves irregardless of whether its object of love is inherently lovable. This is how God loves you and me. Looking to God as our model of love, who do you love with agape love?
Most likely, in the question above, you mentioned your family and friends. In these cases it is likely that there is something you find inherently lovable about these people. Agape love is even more difficult and broad. Who is that person in your life now, or in the past, or someone you only know of (a certain criminal for example) that you find utterly repulsive? Agape love calls you to love that person.
3. It’s time to receive forgiveness! Next the angel said, “Today a Savior has been born for you; He is Christ the Lord!” If our greatest need was education, God would have sent a teacher. If our greatest need was health, he would have sent a doctor. If our greatest need was financial, he would have sent an economist. But our greatest need is forgiveness, so God sent a Savior. It doesn’t matter what wrong you’ve done, Jesus paid for it on the cross. Accept his forgiveness.
Why is the story so compelling? Why have so many read the book, and why will so many more see the movie?
Because it’s a story rooted in history. It’s a story that really happened. It’s the Christmas story.
It’s also the story of C.S. Lewis’ life. In the movie, Edmund Encounters the Power. In real life, C.S. Lewis Encountered the Power.
This past spring, I did a study of Lewis’ life. (show picture of Lewis)
C.S. Lewis was an amazing man. Some would call him the greatest author of the 20th century. He published over 40 books while he was alive. 20 more were published after his death.
Lewis was a quiet professor at Oxford University, in England. During World War II, the British Broadcasting Company asked him to do a series of lectures on the radio. People were so enamored with those broadcasts that Lewis became the second more famous person in all of England. Second only to Winston Churchill, who offered Lewis a special medal of recognition following WW II.
Those lectures that Lewis gave for the BBC were later published in a book that is titled, “Mere Christianity.” Some would say that it is the most powerful explanation of Christianity outside of the Bible itself.
In Hebrews 11 in the New Testament, the Bible gives a long list of heroes of the faith who all died before the birth of Christ. It says
All these people were still living by faith when they died…. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. Hebrews 11:13-14
After Lewis became a Christian he said, “I realized that all my life I was like that. I was looking for a country of my own.”
The rest of the passage says,
If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
Hebrews 11:15-16
Lewis said that in Christ, he had found a “better country.”
See, C.S. Lewis wrote The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe out of personal experience of what it meant to have someone die in his place.
His encounter with the [love] power of Christ not only changed his life, it changed his eternity. It opened a better country for him, the country of heaven.
The story of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is so powerful because it is the story of mankind. It’s the story of Christmas. It’s your story. It’s my story. It’s the story of a God who so loved the world, that He came, on Christmas, to open a better country for us.
Don’t you just long sometimes for a better country?
One of the things that convinced C.S. Lewis that there must be a heaven was the sense in his heart that there is more to this world than just this world.
There was a tug inside of him for something more.
Some of you know what I’m talking about this morning, don’t you? Because that tug is going on inside of you. When you think about it, you just know that there is something more in this universe than what you’ve experienced so far.
Well, the Bible says that there is a power in the universe that is available to you. It describes it as “…[God’s] incomparably great power for us who believe. It says, That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead…” Ephesians 1:19-20
Some of us… most of us… feel very powerless to change the circumstances of our lives. We lack the power to end the war. We lack the power to bring our military home. We lack the power to give our children the kind of world we want them to have. We lack the power to give them everything they want for Christmas.
How many of you feel like you have less power in your life than you’d like to have? (raise hands)
We have very little power.
This verse says that God wants to make His power available to us. And it an amazing type of power, because it’s a power to change us. To make us into better people, like it did C.S. Lewis. To change our future country, from an eternity without Christ to an eternity in heaven.
30-some years ago, I experienced this power in my life, when I invited the Christ of Christmas to come into my life.
On the day I invited Him in, I experienced peace for the very first time. For the first time in my life, I was at peace with the universe, because I felt the forgiveness of God for the things I had done wrong.
I felt hope. I felt like my life was meant for something, like I had a purpose.
I remember walking up the next day and feeling like I had a brand new life.
Do you know what I’m talking about here?
There is a gift available to you this morning. It’s God’s gift of power. – A power that will enter your life and give you peace, and enable you to experience real, true, deep forgiveness for the things that have troubled you from your past.
Friends, this morning, you can experience the power of God in your life. How many of you want that?
Let me show you a few verses from the Bible to explain this.
The first is John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:16-17
God sent his son at Christmas, because He so loved you. Jesus came not to condemn you, but to save you.
The second is 1 Peter 3:18
For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. 1 Peter 3:18
If you can find this verse on your message notes this morning, cross out the word, “you,” and write in the word, “me.”
“For Christ died for sins, once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring ME to God.”
You can come to God today.
The third is John 1:12,
To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God… John 1:12
If you can find this verse, circle two words: “received,” and “believed.”
See, here is something that it took me years to learn.
When I was a little guy growing up, my parents took me to church. So I learned about Jesus coming to Bethlehem on Christmas. I learned that He was the Son of God, who later died for the sins of the world on Good Friday and rose from the dead on Easter.
I learned all sorts of things about Christianity, and I believed most of them. I believed.
What was missing for me was the first verb in the sentence, the “received” verb. No one ever explained to me that I needed to receive Christ into my life in order to become a child of God.
But on January 20, 1971, I did this with the help of a friend.
I believed and received. And from that day until this I have not only encountered the power of God in my life, I have experienced the power of God in my life.
Would you like to experience power today? Would you like to experience power to say no to the things that are troubling you? Would you like to experience power to forgive people for the things they’ve done to hurt you? Would you like to experience the power of being forgiven?
You can. You can experience the power of God right now. Because 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, with time-tested results.
So, bow your heads please, and close your eyes, so that everyone can have a moment of privacy...
In this moment, if you’d like to receive Christ, would you just raise your hand so I can see it and pray with you?
(acknowledge hands)
For those of you who raised your hands, I invite you to pray this prayer just quietly under your breath or in your mind as I pray it out loud.
Pray this:
“Lord Jesus, I want your power in my life today. So I invite You into my life today. Jesus, I have done some things that need Your forgiveness, and I have some challenges in my life that need Your leadership. So I ask You now to forgive my sins and become the leader of my life. From this moment forward, I will be Your follower. I believe in You and I receive You now, in Jesus’ name, Amen.”
Friends, 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 back of the auditorium is a spiritual growth table. When the service is over, if you will go back there, the folks at the table will give you a Bible and some material to help you grow, and a few suggestions of what you’ll want to do now that you’re a Christian.
And I’d like to congratulate you as well, so if you’d come find me up here in the front after you visit the spiritual growth table, I’d like to rejoice with you in person.
Just now, we are going to receive our offering for the morning. So I invite all of you to bow as we pray one more time…
But I know of another, far greater "Lion of Judah." It is the One written of by John the Revelator. In Meredith’s "Book of Bible Lists," it is stated that there are 39 names attributed to Jesus, found in the New Testament. One of these is "Lion of the Tribe of Judah" (Rev 5:5).
The central figure in C.S. Lewis’ "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" is Aslan the lion. He is the true ruler of the mystical land called Narnia. Who can doubt that Lewis has Christ in mind? Aslan fights the White Witch (Satan) and saves Narnia from perpetual darkness. He sacrifices his life for the people of Narnia, hence becoming, in a sense, a Lamb who takes away the curse and defeats Narnia’s ancient foe--not unlike John’s description in Revelation 5:6. In some reards, it almost appears as though Lewis sat with the New Testament open, especially the book of Revelation, as he penned this story.
Aslan, was just this wonderful, magical lion, the epitome of goodness--full of love (a type of Christ). When Susan meets Aslan, that’s when she really believes in Narnia and kind of gets a grip that things are going to be okay. Aslan really serves as a symbol of hope--especailly when he rises from the dead!
Of all the images presented in the Bible for Christ, the lion is the most magnificent. The title, "Lion of Judah" goes back to Jacob’s final blessing of his sons before his death. In that blessing he calls Judah "a lion’s whelp" (Genesis 49:9). If Judah himself is a lion’s whelp, it is fitting to call the greatest member of the tribe of of Judah "The Lion of Judah."
See, C.S. Lewis wrote The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe out of personal experience of what it meant to have someone die in his place.
His encounter with the Christ of Christmas not only changed his life, it changed his eternity. It opened a better country for him, the country of heaven.
The story of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is so powerful because it is the story of mankind. It’s the story of Christmas. And because it’s your story. And my story.
It’s the story of a God who so loved the world, that He came, on Christmas.
Don’t you just long for it to be Christmas in your life, every day of the year?
Some of you know what I’m talking about this morning, don’t you? Because there is a tug going on inside of you. When you think about it, you just know that there is something more in this universe than what you’ve experienced so far.
Well, the Bible says that the wonder of Christmas is available to you.
It says that, …those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun! 2 Corinthians 5:17
[Speaker, explain how Christ transformed your life. Then, list the benefits you have experienced from being in relationship with the Christ of Christmas.]
Some of you need this this morning.
And the good news is, Christmas is available to you.
In just a minute, I’m going to pray a prayer that will enable you to receive the Christ of Christmas and His great gifts of freedom and purpose and joy and forgiveness into your life.
Before we do that, let me ask you: Would you like the joy of Christmas in your life today, and forever? Would you like God’s free gift of forgiveness for the things that you’ve done wrong, things that may be troubling you, even today? Would you like to know for sure that you are going to heaven?
Look up here at the screen for just a minute. I want to show you something:
John 3:16 says,
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:16-17
This is your verse! You live in the world. God sent His son at Christmas, because He so loved you. Jesus came not to condemn you, but to save you.
Here’s a second verse you should know about, 1 Peter 3:18
For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. 1 Peter 3:18
This is talking about you. “For Christ died for sins, once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring YOU to God.”
Here’s the one more verse I want to show you, John 1:12,
To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God… John 1:12
See, the two key words in this verse are “believe,” and “receive.”
If you would like to believe and receive this morning, would you just raise your hand and look up here at me so I can pray with you?
(Acknowledge hands)
Let’s all bow our heads, so we can pray. For those of you who raised your hands, I invite you to pray this prayer just quietly under your breath or in your mind as I pray it out loud.
Pray this:
“Lord Jesus, I want Christmas to come to me today. I want You in my life today. So I invite You in, right now. Jesus, I have done some things that need Your forgiveness, and I have some challenges in my life that need Your leadership. So I ask You now to forgive my sins and become the leader of my life. From this moment forward, I will be Your follower. I believe in You and I receive You now, in Jesus’ name, Amen.”
Friends, 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 back of the auditorium is a spiritual growth table. When the service is over, if you will go back there, the folks at the table will give you a Bible and some material to help you grow, and a few suggestions of what you’ll want to do now that you’re a Christian.
And I’d like to congratulate you as well, so if you’d come find me up here in the front after you visit the spiritual growth table, I’d like to rejoice with you in person.
Just now, we are going to receive our offering for the morning. So I invite all of you to bow as we pray one more time…
For further research:
1. C.S. Lewis: Surprised by Joy.
2. The Shadowlands
3. Walter Hooper: C.S. Lewis: A Companion and Guide, New York: HarperCollins, 1966.
4. David Downing: The Most Reluctant Convert, Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 2002.
5. Websites: http://www.comnett.net/~rex/cslewis.htm
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/c/c_s_lewis.html
http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/C._S._Lewis/
Why is the story so compelling? Why have 85,000,000 read the book, and why will so many more see the movie?
Because it’s a story rooted in history. It’s a story that really happened. It’s the Christmas story.
Aslan brought Christmas. When he comes into the land, the snow melts, the sun shines, and the world is delivered from the White Witch. Narnia almost missed Christmas.
It’s also the author, story of C.S. Lewis’ life. Lewis wrote the story because in real life, he almost missed Christmas.
In one of his books, Lewis said he came into Christianity “kicking and screaming” . He said ’You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, 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. 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 England” (C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy, p. 228-229)
Before he entered Oxford, he served in the British Army during World War I, where he was wounded three times in battle.
Until he was 30 years old, Lewis was an avowed 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
Interestingly, Lewis did not believe there was a God, but he said that he resented God for not existing.
But a change began to take place in Lewis while he was a professor at Oxford. Lewis became friends with 2 other professors, who happened to be real Christians. One was Hugh Dyson, the other was J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of the Lord of the Rings.
As Lewis got to know these two, he became persuaded that their faith was real. And in summer of 1929, he became convinced that Jesus Christ really was an historic figure, that he really did die on the Cross as a substitute for sins of the world. So Lewis bowed his head and invited Christ into his life.
In one of his books, Lewis said he came into Christianity “kicking and screaming” . He said ’You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, 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. 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 England” (C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy, p. 228-229)
When Lewis decided to follow Jesus, when he encountered the [love] power of Christ, that [love] power changed him forever.
He began reading the Bible, attending church, and helping the poor. For the rest of his life, he donated 2/3s of all his book royalties to widows whose husbands had died in WW II.
In his late 50’s, he became friends with an American author named Joy Davidman. Joy had two young sons. After Joy was diagnosed with cancer, Lewis married her so that her sons could continue on in English schools. [He slowly opens his heart to this woman, and therir romance shatteres the walls of his cloistered world.] If you’ve seen the movie Shadowlands, you’ve seen the story.
Commentary…
BBC 3:14 The Lord Jesus was now about to unfold heavenly truth to Nicodemus. How can the new birth take place? The penalty of man’s sins must be met. People cannot go to heaven in their sins. Just as Moses lifted up the serpent of brass on a pole in the wilderness when all the children of Israel had been bitten by snakes, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. (Read Numbers 21:4–9.) As they wandered through the wilderness to the promised land, the children of Israel became discouraged and impatient. They complained against the Lord. To punish them, the Lord sent fiery serpents among them, and many people died. When the survivors cried to the Lord in repentance, the Lord told Moses to make a serpent of brass and put it on a pole. The bitten Israelite who looked to the serpent was miraculously healed.
Jesus quoted this OT incident to illustrate how the new birth takes place. Men and women have been bitten by the viper of sin and are condemned to eternal death. The serpent of brass was a type or picture of the Lord Jesus. Brass, in the Bible, speaks of judgment. The Lord Jesus was sinless and should never have been punished, but He took our place and bore the judgment which we deserved. The pole speaks of the cross of Calvary on which the Lord Jesus was lifted up. We are saved by looking to Him in faith.
We find out about the greatest love story as we turn to God’s Word and look at the greatest verses in all of the Bible…John 3:16.
Let’s say it together…
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16 NIV