The Lion King (Jn 14:1-21)

Shelley and I were invited to take the service for St James Presbyterian at Tinwald, Ashburton on Sunday and although I had a written message the Spirit had other plans and we preached directly from a prepared clip of The Lion King where the wise man Rafiki meets the maturing runaway Simba. I recount the themes brought from the clip that may well have been inspired by John's Gospel Ch 14:

Youtube: Simba meets Rafiki
Youtube: Simba sees his father
  1. There was a place prepared for Simba as the heir to the kingdom of his father Mufasa. Jesus said I go to prepare a place for you that where I am you shall also be. This does not necessarily mean when you pass on into heaven but in going to the cross Jesus prepared a place for his disciples, by his shed blood instead of ours, in His kingdom of the Holy Spirit who would come fifty days later if they stayed as instructed in the prepared place in Jerusalem. When the Holy Spirit came Jesus who was in the Father and the Father in Him would be with them in the Spirit of the Father and the Son and they in them.
  2. Like Simba was many Christians in church are confused about who they are. They have been faithful to their church for many years but perhaps felt powerless waiting for "heaven" after they pass away rather than kingdom at hand now. The words of Mufasa from the cloud to Simba were to "Remember who you are!" and it turned Simba from his dead state of confusion to life in connection and direction with his father in heaven. This then is the theme Jesus taught that truth sets us free. Knowing the truth of what it means to be sons and daughters of the Most Hight King is empowering. Those who are born of the Spirit of God are ambassadors (small kings, princes and princesses) of the Kingdom of this great King. Simba was powerless as he ran away from his guilt of believing he was responsible for his fathers death. Knowing the kingdom of power and authority of this place around us enlivens faith (activates life).
  3. The Spirit challenged the congregation about how this kingdom in and around us operates, how sitting next to another passenger on a plane can lead to God working in their lives as we express our love for the stranger by simply our sharing love in us, Christ, the kingdom presence and power (even if we don't feel it) which we carry around. Others can sense it and it opens the doors that were once closed. Here I gave several testimonies of this in action and at a level of preaching I have never ascended before.
  4. Finally I emplored them to "Remember who they are!" ran another video clip we made of the day fading to night over Akaroa Harbour and anchored sailing ships to the Dire Straits heartbeat of "Private Investigations" overlaid with a poetic verse of a promised journey we will all make to the judge and either heaven or hell. 
  5. We prayed with them that the Lord would help them in this journey to find the place Jesus has gone to prepared which in fact is theirs to seek in their own prayer life - a private investigation. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Inner Strength (Isaiah 64:1-9)

I have been reading Bear Grylls autobiography. Its powerful stuff about what it is to be a man able to go beyond his limitations; about a man who God helped reach where eagles dare.  Some of you don’t have a clue who I’m talking about but he has climbed Everest, he is seen on Television each week surviving some of the world’s harshest places, he’s been made the Chief Scout as role model for hundreds of thousands of children, he eats marrow from old bones, crunches live grubs and drinks from camels stomachs. Bear Grylls is SAS trained tough on Prime TV’s Man vs Wild and comes from a line of commandos; his granddad and dad.  Bear, as his much older sister called him, had to find his own individual place in the grueling world of the British SAS and at the young age of 20 years old. He’s a man who has done the impossible and he attributes his success to a simple faith in Jesus Christ and fronts the Alpha advertisements nowadays. Bear Grylls says that in the endurance section of SAS selec
Read more

Lamps Aflame (Matt 25:1-13)

As I look out on this congregation I see only lamps rather than people this morning.  I am looking at us as God might look upon us in the Gospel parable.  We are to be children of light, of which the Gospel is that light.  We are to be as attendants of Christ Jesus  professing not only to believe and look for but  to love and long for the appearing of Christ,  not only enlightened by it ourselves but must shine as lights. I am looking this morning through the eyes of Jesus’ parable of the Ten Virgins.  I am seeing two different characters, with proof and evidence of it.  I see lamps with oil for that is what God has told me He has done. B ut do I see lamps with fire; that is the question today.  Do I see extra virgin oil in reserve for the late coming Bridegroom.  There is no doubt the Bridegroom is our Lord Jesus Christ.  There is no doubt we live in a darkened world awaiting His return.  We need to figure out exactly what we are waiting for in Jesus return. When he saw the Pharis
Read more

A Tree of Life (Jer 17:5-10)

Wisdom seems to be the theme given us for this season in the church. God is looking for fruit from us. A farmer produces fruit as crops, like barley and wheat, meat and wool. But God is looking for spiritual fruit from us. The fruit that He desires is of the Spirit of God in us rather than that of other spirits. God is looking for the sweet easily plucked fruit rather than sour and prickly fruits hard to consume such as love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal 5). This reading is helping us with a choice we must make of how we can achieve the best outcome for ourselves by using the parable of a suitably positioned planting of fruiting tree. Jesus similarly referred to himself in John 15:1-7 as the vine desirable to be grafted onto, a vine in origin from the rootstock of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The two locations mentioned in the reading relate to surviving testing times through the availability of water to nourish the roots of the
Read more