[The Return Of The King Audio Book Free Download
Betty Neyhart
This is not the first time in history that such a crisis of faith has loomed. There was a similar period around 100 years ago. As the twentieth century opened, the world held great hope and enthusiasm for the future. Science was supplying astounding breakthroughs at every turn and the world seemed to be rushing toward a modern period when mankind, through its own self-generated progress and technology, might finally be able to solve the ancient problems of our world.
On average, there were roughly 6,000 men killed every day of the war. Twenty-five percent of the young men in France died in the war. In the face of such overwhelming tragedy, Christianity seemed irrelevant to many Europeans and Americans.
To many of those living at that time, the cosmos seemed to be indifferent and uncaring. Many of the old celebrated values such as honor, sacrifice, and patriotism seemed hollow. The realities of the new type of war were staggering. The horror of seeing men blown apart and then seeing and smelling their corpses rot for weeks in the cold mud of the trenches tried the faith that had sent men to fight for king, for country, and for God.
What might we learn from these men as we also face a time when faith is ebbing from the world? Following the war, Lewis and Tolkien went on to become university professors. They taught a generation of students struggling to make sense of the world at a time when faith was openly questioned. These two men, who by that time had become fast friends, had an answer. Having come through this period with their own faith intact, they had a message for the next generation. The horrors of war had not manifested to them that faith in God had failed but rather that faith must be viewed in its proper setting. That proper setting was the fallen world in which those who have the precious gift of faith must fight for good against the combined forces of an enemy bent on their destruction.
When my wife and I were raising our four children, we loved to read The Chronicles of Narnia to them. Perhaps you are familiar with the fantastical world of Narnia, where animals can talk and witches turn their enemies to stone. Narnia is discovered by four human children who find their way into it through a magical wardrobe. However, the power in these books derives not from flights of fantasy but from the compelling Christian symbolism that permeates them. Lewis conveys his own absolute belief in the reality of Jesus Christ through his creation of Aslan, the lion who serves as a redeemer for the world of Narnia. For Lewis, Christ was the most beautiful and important reality in our world.
Communism was particularly alluring to the postwar generations. But whatever gains were made by the forced socialization of countries in the name of communism came at a terrible cost in human lives and human dignity. Millions died in purges and famine. In truth, more people died at the hands of communist dictators than died in both world wars.6
Perhaps the greatest number of those disillusioned with the death of the old world order turned to science. Even though some thoughtful observers pointed out that it was science that had provided the efficient killing tools that made the two world wars so deadly, science still seemed to be an attractive solution. At least by applying the scientific method, many supposed, one could know truth with certainty.
Into a world swirling with such alternatives to a seemingly discredited Christianity, C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien sent their tales of heroic quests. Both works surprised critics with their popularity. It was as if they had splashed cold water on the faces of their readers, reminding the downhearted that the world had always been a place where good and evil fought for dominance in the human heart.
But when Aragorn arose all that beheld him gazed in silence, for it seemed to them that he was revealed to them now for the first time. Tall as the sea-kings of old, he stood above all that were near; ancient of days he seemed and yet in the flower of manhood; and wisdom sat upon his brow, and strength and healing were in his hands, and a light was about him. And then Faramir cried:
We can sometimes forget exactly what the great hope of Christianity is. It is not that Jesus Christ will fulfill all of our own natural aspirations for happiness. It is hope in a triumphant future that only God can and will provide.
Lewis and Tolkien rejected both a faithless view of life and an egocentric one. Their heroes understood that pain and loss would occur in this life but that ultimate victory would be theirs. In their stories, many are the defeats and great is the suffering that the truest servants endure while fighting for good in this world. In both Narnia and Middle Earth, hope was in the ultimate return of the king. You too find yourself in a world of conflict between good and evil. You too must decide what part you will play.
And now the year of my redeemed is come; and they shall mention the loving kindness of their Lord, and all that he has bestowed upon them according to his goodness, and according to his loving kindness, forever and ever.21
I bear my testimony to you that He is the True King of this world. Jesus first came as the Christ child, a meek and lowly lamb who offered Himself for our sins. He is going to return in glory to receive the acknowledgment of every tongue and the homage of every knee.22 May we prepare for the return of our King is my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
In our study of the Word of God this morning, we return to the 19th chapter of Luke's gospel and one of the most familiar and richest of our Lord's parables, Luke chapter 19. We'll be looking at verses 11 through verse 27. And while you're turning to that place in your Bible, just a brief reminder that Jesus' parables were always designed to capture people in the realm of the familiar and then move them to the realm of the unfamiliar. Jesus, desiring to convey spiritual truth which was new, and unfamiliar, chose analogies and illustrations and stories that were familiar from which to begin His teaching. In fact, He drew His stories from everyday life, from customs, traditions, social enterprises, from farming, even from history and events that were familiar to the people, both current and past. And it is so in this amazing story.
Jesus builds this story on a historical incident very familiar to the people of Judea and particularly familiar as well to the people of Jericho, that important city in Judea. Let me read the story starting in verse 11.
A fascinating story that Jesus invents. Just as a footnote, this is very familiar to us because it sounds like the parable in Matthew 25 of the talents. It is a different occasion, a different location, and a different story with a different application even though there are some similarities. This story in Luke 19, Jesus tells on the road from Jericho to Jerusalem. The story in Matthew 25 He tells in the middle of the Passion Week up in Jerusalem some days later after this story. There's no value in mixing stories. Since they are stories, they are self-contained and we don't mingle them. So we'll stay with the Luke 19 account. This is the only place where this story is recorded.
Now I said that Jesus starts with something that is familiar. Did you catch the story? A nobleman is going away to receive a kingdom. In other words, he is going away to have somebody who is a higher authority than he give him a kingdom. The kingdom is going to be the very country he leaves, so he's going away to get a kingdom and that kingdom is his own country and he will come back and rule over that country. That's basically the story. While he's gone, he gives his servants a certain amount of money and expects that they will do his business while he's gone and earn a respectable profit with their efforts and that's how they can demonstrate their love and respect and concern for him and their own trustworthiness as his servants. When he comes back, he will evaluate what everyone has done.
However, when he goes to receive the kingdom, the citizens of his country don't want him to be their king. And so, they protest. Verse 14 says they hate him, and they do not want him to reign over them, so they send a delegation following him as he goes to a higher monarch to receive the right to be the king over his own country. They send a delegation to the citizens of that country pleading with that superior king not to make him their king. That's the story. So you have essentially the nobleman who becomes the king, who comes back. You have three groups of people, those who did what they were supposed to while he was gone, those who didn't do what they were supposed to while he was gone, and those who hate him. Those who did what they were supposed to were rewarded. Those who did not do what they were supposed to were rejected. Those who hated him were destroyed.
What is compelling about this story is this: You're in it, every single one of you somewhere. There are only three possibilities. You are either a true servant of the nobleman. You are a false servant of the nobleman. Or you are his enemy. There are no other categories. It is again one of those amazing illustrations that Jesus invents that is comprehensive and embraces all of humanity.
Now you said this was familiar stuff to them. In what sense is this familiar? Well kings are familiar, sure. Servants or slaves are familiar, absolutely. Kings having authority, rendering judgment, deciding who to reward and who to punish, that would be familiar. But there's something even more specifically familiar about this because this is exactly what had happened in their own country and in their own experience. Let me give you the background.
Rome ruled that part of the world. The Great Roman Empire went east of the land of Israel into the Middle East deeper and so it covered the land of Israel. Israel was an occupied country under Caesar's power and authority and taxation and occupied by Roman troops securing Roman presence there. The ultimate king then was Caesar. He is the ultimate king of the whole Empire. Therefore he is the ultimate king in Israel. But under Roman authority and the Romans were very wise about this, they knew they were extending their kingdom over people who had their own culture and were used to their own ways and their own traditions and their course of action and their own society and their own leaders. And so Rome allowed kings under Caesar, a kind of subordinate kings to rule in these various lands which Rome had conquered. Under Roman authority then, Israel like other places could have subordinate kings, but Rome had to give them the right to rule. Rome had to affirm them as king. This is exactly how it was in Israel. And the kings that ruled in Israel were neither Romans or Jews. They were Idumaeans and they were of a family called the Herods; the most notable and the first of them called Herod the Great, a name he gave himself, not being a very modest fellow.
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