Bible Study on The Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle

The Chronicles of Narnia:

The Last Battle

Authorship: The Chronicles of Narnia were written by C.S. Lewis, a Christian English professor at Oxford College in England.  The first volume was published in 1950.  All seven books are stories meant to remind us of the greatest story of all, the Bible.

Setting: This book takes place directly after The Silver Chair.  It has again been a long time in Narnia, but only a short time in our world.

Discussion Points

* The story begins with two characters.  One is an ape named Shift, and the other is a donkey named Puzzle. 

What can you tell me about these two characters?  What are some of the characteristics of Shift?

Manipulative – He lies to and tricks Puzzle

Hypocritical – He acts like he is Puzzle's friend and that he's trying to be nice to him, but he's really just

trying to get Puzzle to do things for him

Selfish – Shift is not concerned about anyone or anything other than himself and what he wants

Have you ever acted like Shift does?  Have you ever lied to or tricked someone to get what you want?  Have you "put on a show" to get others to do what you want?  Have you ever been too concerned with yourself when you should have been concerned about others?

What are some of the characteristics of Puzzle?

Kind – He is always willing to help Shift, he doesn't do anything that's mean

Loyal – Puzzle stays friends with Shift, even when Shift makes him do things that he doesn't want to do

Too Dependent – Puzzle will sometimes object to what Shift says, but ultimately he trusts Shift so much

that he doesn't think for himself.  He depends too much on Shift and not enough on himself.

Do you think Shift could have carried out his plan if Puzzle would have stood his ground? 

King Tirian and his unicorn Jewel, have been hearing rumors that Aslan has finally returned to Narnia.  They are overjoyed.  But then, after they go to investigate who is cutting down the talking trees, they start hearing that Aslan is the one who is giving the orders for all of these bad things to happen.  Tirian and Jewel get confused.  In all the stories about Aslan, he is good.  But now they wonder if Aslan is really bad.  They were tricked into thinking that Aslan caused something bad to happen.  

There are all kinds of things that happen in our lives and in our world.  Some things that happen are good.  Some things are bad.  How do we know what is from God and what is not?  Here's what the Bible says: 

See Psalm 145:17.

God is good.

James 1:16-17 

God is good.  God doesn't change.

Malachi 3:6 

God doesn't change.  God is good.

Psalm 102:25-27 

God doesn't change.

The Bible tells us that God is good and that He doesn't change.  God will always be good.  The problem is that sometimes the things that God causes to happen in our lives seem bad.  That's because we can't tell how God is ultimately going to use it for good.  We can't see all the possibilities and consequences of the things that God causes to happen.  We just to have faith that God is good and that God is working for our ultimate good.  

When King Tirian and Jewel hear about how someone is killing the talking trees, they get very angry.  Then, when they see some Calormens beating a Narnian horse, Tirian and Jewel become so angry that they kill the Calormens.

What do you think about what Tirian and Jewel did?  Should they have gotten angry? 

Yes.  King Tirian and Jewel had every right to become angry, just like we have every right to become angry when we see people treating other people wrongly.  We should be angry when people treat other people wrongly.

Should they have killed the Calormens?

No.  Tirian and Jewel did the right thing by trying to stop the Calormens from murdering and taking advantage of others.  We have a duty to try to stop people from treating other people unfairly.  Killing, however, should always be our last option.

* Shift orders that King Tirian be tied up to a tree.  While he is there, Tirian begins to remember all the ways in which Aslan has helped Narnia in the past.  He also recalls all the times that Aslan brought the children from our world to help Narnia.  Tirian then cries out to Aslan, asking Him to come help or to send the children to help.  What is Tirian doing crying out to Aslan and asking for help?  If Tirian was a person in our world and Aslan was God, what would we call what Tirian is doing?  Tirian is praying.

What does Tirian do when he's in trouble?  He prays. 

Aslan must have heard him because He sends two of the children from our world into Narnia to help him. 

Do you think God hears us when we pray?

See Deuteronomy 4:7

The Bible tells us that God hears us when we pray to Him.  We tend to take that for granted, but to have our God hear us is really an amazing thing.  Think of all the other people in the world who pray to other gods.  Do you think their gods hear them praying? 

See Deuteronomy 32:39

Other gods that people pray to can't hear their prayers.  Those gods aren't real so they can't hear anything, especially not people praying to them.

Does God answer all of our prayers?  Yes, God answers all of our prayers.

What are the different ways that God can answer prayer? God can answer prayer by either granting our request, denying our request, or telling us to wait a little longer before He answers our prayer one way or another.

Why doesn't God grant all of our prayers?  Why does God grant the prayers that He does grant?

See 1 John 5:14-15

God will only grant our prayers if we pray for what is in agreement with His will.  In other words, God isn't going to grant me just anything that I ask for.  He's not a Genie in a bottle.  He's not Santa Claus.  I can't just pray for God to give me a million dollars and expect Him to give it to me if it isn't His will, if it isn't His plan, to give me a million dollars.  Even if I ask for something good, that doesn't guarantee that God will grant my prayer.  For instance, if someone I know gets sick and I pray to God for them to get better, that's a perfectly fine prayer, but if it's not God's will for that person to get will, if He has decided that it is time for that person to die, then He will not grant my prayer.

What should we do when we pray in order to have more of our prayers granted?  If God only grants prayers that are according to His will, when we pray we should ask God what His will is.  Instead of just asking God for things, spend time listening for what He might want to tell you.  God speak to us in our prayer time.  If we listen for what God wants to say to us, He will tell us what His will is and what we should pray for.  The Holy Spirit living inside of us will guide our hearts and our minds to what we should pray for.

See Romans 8:26-27 

Ephesians 6:18

*Why do you think all of the Friends of Narnia were gathered together?  They were talking about their times in Narnia.  Why couldn't they talk to other people about their times in Narnia?  No one else would take them seriously or really understand what they were talking about.  Some people may have made fun of them or thought they were crazy.

Christians have the same problem that the Friends of Narnia did in the story.  Like them, we have experienced something that no one else has.  We believe in God, and we believe that we can have a real relationship with Him.  A lot of people don't believe that.  They think we're silly or mistaken or stupid for believing in God.  In some parts of the world, people kill Christians for believing what we believe.  That's why it is important for us to meet together, like the Friends of Narnia were doing, to talk about our experiences?

After Jesus had been crucified by the Jewish and Roman authorities, the followers of Jesus were afraid that the Jews and the Romans would want to punish them next for believing in Jesus.  Even after Jesus was resurrected and ascended into Heaven, many Jews and Romans did not believe in Him, so those first Christians still had good reason to be afraid of the authorities.  If they had crucified Jesus, they would have no reason not to punish His followers.  We see in Acts that many Christians were persecuted for their beliefs.  One thing that helped keep them stay faithful, though, whether they were being persecuted at the time or not, was being with other Christians.  Here's what Acts tells us they did together:

See Acts 2:42-47 

They listened to teaching together (they learned together).  They broke bread together (communion).  They prayed together.  They sold their possessions and gave to those in need. (Tithing, giving offering, sacrificing your finances to help other people).  They met together.  They ate together (like we eat together for socializing).  We do all the things that they did, for the same reasons.  We know that we need to be together to encourage each other in the Christian faith and in living life as a Christian person. 

                                                                       

Here's what a passage in the Old Testament says about the need for having good companions in life:

See Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

This verse shows us that we need to help each other and that we can be stronger than alone. 

In order for us to be able to help each other, God gives us gifts and talents.  Our talents and gifts individually are different from everyone else's.  This is so that we can all work together, just like the parts of our body all work together.

See 1 Corinthians 12:7-13

Now take a minute and write down two ways that you can help your church family or other Christians that you know in their Christian faith

* Now, we hear more about Tash.  Who or what do you think Tash is?  Before, we didn't know if Tash was a story that the Calormens made up, or if he really was their god.  Now we know that Tash is a demon.  So the Calormens think he is a god.  But we think he is a demon.

Do you think that we have other gods or demons in our world? 

See Deuteronomy 32:16-17

1 Corinthians 10:19-20

Other gods that people worship are demons.  Demons have tricked people into thinking they're gods.

So, what do demons in our world do?  They tempt people.  Does Satan and the demons have power to tempt people on their own authority?  Can they just do whatever they want?  

See Job 1:6-12 and Job 2:1-7

Sometimes, we get this idea that Satan and the demons can just do whatever they want and God doesn't do anything to stop them, but that simply isn't true.  This passage tells us that Satan and his demons must answer to God.  Satan is under God's control.  Satan cannot do anything that God has not first approved of. 

See Matthew 4:1

God wanted Jesus to be tempted.  The Spirit led Him into the desert for that purpose.

See Deuteronomy 8:2

This verse tells us that God led the Israelites through the desert to test them.  Their test was whether or not they allowed themselves to be tempted to sin.  So we see that God wanted them to be tempted as well.  Otherwise, He couldn't have tested them.

See James 1:13

God doesn't tempt anyone.  But the verses we just read said that God did want people to be tempted.  So how does God make it so that people are tempted without Him doing the tempting?  God uses Satan and the demons to tempt/test people.  God created Satan and the demons for this very purpose.

Why would God want people to be tempted?  Why would God use Satan and the demons to do this to us?  We don't know.  All we can know is that God is all-good and all-wise and that He must have a reason for doing what He does.

See 1 Kings 22:19-23 

1 Samuel 16:14-15

*Throughout our story, and really throughout the Chronicles of Narnia, we have heard about people going into battle.  Our characters are brave, but they're also afraid of dying.  It's normal to be afraid of death.  Most people are afraid of dying.  But the Bible, I think, tells us that Christians do not have to be afraid to die.

See Romans 14:7-9

Whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.  We are God's.  We are God's property.  Why do we not need to fear death?  Because it's not our business if we die.  Why should you care if you die?  Your life is not yours, anyway.  It's God's.  God owns you.  It's not your business if you die.  It's God's business.  You're His property.  Don't worry about it.

See Luke 12:4-7

What is Jesus saying in these verses?  He's saying, "Don't fear death.  Fear God.  You dying is not what really matters.  God is what matters.  You die, you're killed?  Don't worry about that.  Worry about God.  He's the one who could really hurt you.  Everything else hurts your body, but God can hurt your soul.  But the great thing about God is that He's not going to do that.  He cares about you.  Here's this God that could just throw you into Hell if He wanted, but instead, He cares so much about you that He even knows how many hairs are on your head and tells us that we are worth more than many sparrows."

Now, if you are God's, and God cares about you, what does God want to do with you?

See John 6:39-40

This is what God wants.  He wants that none of His people will be lost.  He wants that everyone who believes in Jesus to have eternal life and to be brought back to life at the last day.  That's why we don't need to fear death.  We are God's.  God cares about us.  God will give us resurrect us at the last day and give us eternal life.    

Paul, after suffering intense persecution for being a Christian, in which he was always in danger of being killed for his faith, says that he did not let himself fear death too much.

See 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Paul did not lose heart.  He had the hope that whatever troubles he was going through on earth – persecution, being on trial, possibly murdered or executed – those things would seem like nothing compared to the joy he would have in Heaven.  He saw that our troubles are temporary.  Incredible happiness in Heaven is forever.

See Philippians 1:20-26

For the Christian, it is a good thing for us to die.  We know that if we die, we will be with Jesus and with God and that is much better for us than staying here.  Life for us here can be pretty good, but life in Heaven will be incredible joy.  Paul says that the only reason he doesn't want to die now is because he wants to keep helping people.  That's the reason that we should not want to die sooner than God wants us to.  We know that it would be good for us if we died, but the people that we leave behind will be sad to see us go.  Our family and friends will miss us. 

Yet, when the time comes for us to die, because we know that we are God's, because we know that God cares about us, because we know that will bring us back to life and give us eternal life, because we know that it is to our benefit to die, we don't need to fear death.  Instead, when it is our time to go, we can calmly say what Jesus said when He died. 

See Luke 23:46

Jesus was not afraid to die, and we don't have to be either if we trust in God.

* Now, we hear about the end of Narnia.  During that time, Aslan called all of the animals and all of the creatures of Narnia to come and stand before Him.  As some of the animals looked at Him, they became very happy and went through the stable door, which we now know is the door to Aslan's country, or what we call Heaven.  

But when some of the animals and creatures looked at Aslan, they became afraid and even hateful and angry, and they went off to the other side.  They weren't allowed to come into Aslan's country.  What do you think was happening to those other animals and creatures that weren't allowed to go to Aslan's country?  Where were they going?  Hell.  

So, some went to Heaven, and some went to Hell.  And that's exactly what the Bible tells us will happen when our world ends.  God will judge all of us, and we will either go to Heaven or we will go to Hell.  Today, what I want to talk to you about is what we have to do to be one of the people that gets to go to Heaven.

See John 6:39-40

Number one is that we have to believe in Jesus.  We all know that, right?  But let's not forget it.  That is the number one thing.  That is the first step.

Now, let's look at the passage in the Bible where C.S. Lewis got the idea for this part of his book.

See Matthew 25:31-46 

Why did some people get to go to Heaven?  Because they did things for other people. 

 Why did some people have to go to Hell?  Because they did not do things for other people. 

Does this mean that Jesus is telling us that what we do – our good deeds – are what save us?  No.  

Believing in Jesus is what saves us.  But if we really believe in Jesus, then we will do good deeds.  What you believe determines what you will do.  So what you do is evidence of what you believe.  If you say that you're a Christian, but you don't behave like the Bible says a Christian should behave – if you don't do good deeds, then I would start to doubt whether you really are a Christian.  

So, how do we get to Heaven?  We show that we believe in Jesus by doing good things, by living the right way.

See Romans 2:5-11

Revelation 2:8-11 

Jesus is telling us that bad times, hard times, will come to us, but what do we have to do?  We have to be faithful, even to the point of death.  And what will happen if we are faithful?  Jesus will give us the crown of life.  What is the crown of life?  Eternal life.

This is what those who are faithful will hear when they enter Heaven:

See Matthew 25:21

Well done, good and faithful servant!  You have been faithful.  Come and share your master's happiness.  That's what I want to hear when I die.

But Jesus tells us that some people won't hear that.  They will hear something else.

See Matthew 7:21-23 

Jesus says that not everyone who says that they're a Christian, not everyone who calls Jesus Lord, will get into Heaven.  Who will get into Heaven?  Those who do God's will.  Those who obey God.  If we don't obey God, what does Jesus say He will say to us?  "I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!"

See 2 Corinthians 5:10 

* The Chronicles of Narnia ends with everyone going to Aslan's country or Heaven.  That is a very appropriate ending for C.S. Lewis' story because it is the ending of our story, as well.  Our ultimate goal, the end toward which we are moving, is Heaven.  Over the last couple of weeks, we've talked about how Christians don't have to be afraid to die because we know that we'll go to Heaven.  We've talked about how we have to believe in Jesus and live a Christian life if we want to get into Heaven.  Today we're going to talk about what will happen when we go to Heaven and what Heaven will be like.

See Matthew 24:30-31

Who is the Son of Man?  Jesus.  

So, Jesus is telling us that He will come back on the clouds of the sky.  

Why will He come back on the clouds of the sky?  Because after He was resurrected, He was taken up into the sky and went to Heaven.  He's going to come back the way He went.  

And what will He send His angels to do?  To gather His elect.  

Who are the elect?  Christians.  So, Jesus will send His angels to gather all of the Christians to Himself.

See 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Paul talks about those who have fallen asleep.  A lot of times when the New Testament talks about someone dying, it says that they fell asleep.  The reason for saying that they fell asleep instead of that they died, is because Christians know that death is not final.  Death is not forever.  One day, Jesus will bring everyone who has died back to life, and it will be like they're waking up again from a long sleep.  Paul says that when Jesus comes back, He will raise to life all the Christians that have died and they will meet Jesus in the air.  Remember that Jesus is coming back on the clouds.  And then the Christians who have not died yet, who have not fallen asleep yet, will be lifted up to meet Jesus in the sky.

See 1 Corinthians 15:35-58 

Our body in Heaven will not be like our body on earth.  Our body on earth will be changed.  Why is this?  Because our body on earth can get sick and die.  In Heaven, we will need a new body that cannot die.  When Jesus rose from the dead, He took away death's power over us.  We die, but death cannot keep its hold on us forever.  Death eventually has to let us go when Jesus raises us from the dead.  After that, He will give us a new body and we will not die again.

Read Revelation 21:1-4 

These verses tell us that there will be a new heaven and a new earth a new Jerusalem because the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, just like the first Narnia passed away, but there was another, better Narnia that the characters in the story were able to go to.  And in this new place, God will live with people.  This means that we will not have to pray to God.  We will be able to just go up and talk to Him.  We'll be able to see Him.  We'll be able to touch Him.  And in this new place that we call Heaven, there will be no more death and no more being sad and no more crying and no more pain.  God Himself, will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and once God wipes away our tears, they won't come back.  

What does this mean?  This means that in Heaven, everyone will be incredibly happy all the time.

Read Revelation 21:22-27

John tells us here that nothing impure or shameful or deceitful will enter Heaven.  There will be no more sin in Heaven.  Everyone will always do what is right.