The Gospel According to The Lord of the Rings

Well good morning everybody. My name is René, I'm one of the pastors here at Twin Lakes Church and I want to invite you to grab your message notes that look like this today in your bulletins as we continue our series The Gospel According To. We're looking at hints of the gospel in pop culture, in the world all around us.

Now next weekend on Mother's Day we're gonna wrap up this series with a look at the gospel according to Pixar and I'm very excited about that because Pixar is a place where there's actually believers in Jesus who are directing some of their movies who very deliberately put some parables in their movies. We're gonna be looking at that then the next week we start a brand new verse-by-verse series in the book of 1 Thessalonians that's gonna take us deep into the summer. I'm totally stoked about that too but this morning we're gonna look at the gospel according to the Lord of the Rings.

Now I am a Lord of the Rings fan. I love these books, I love these movies and I want to know if I'm among friends today. So show of hands how many of you have ever enjoyed one of the books or the movies of The Lord of the Rings? Can I see a show of hands? A lot of people they're very very popular. Now let's dig just a little bit deeper. How many of you and you got to be honest this is church all right true confessions. How many of you have ever dressed as one of the characters in Lord of the Rings? Let's just be honest show of hands. A couple of people in the balcony that's about it.

Now one more question let's delve just a little bit deeper. How many of you have actually ever learned any Elvish words? Can I see a show of hands? Because that really seriously we have two people here you frighten the rest of us. That's taking it a bit too far I just have to say that. Now it's great to have you guys here. Now since we're doing the Lord of the Rings I just have to answer the question that is on everybody's mind this morning and it's this Frodo Baggins Trent Smith separated at birth. It is just a little bit uncanny.

In 1937 an Oxford professor of ancient languages J.R.R. Tolkien who was also a Christian a devoted Catholic he released his first fiction book The Hobbit which was a huge success and that led to a multi-volume work of much greater depth and complexity the Lord of the Rings trilogy which was first published in 1954 and in the 60s it really caught fire and achieved cult status and rocketed Tolkien into the stratosphere as a pop author himself and that popularity was only heightened with the release of the three movies all three still in the top ten list of international box office blockbusters of all time.

Now I think yeah we do have some fans here today too now why do people love these stories? Here is basically the theme of these stories life is a battle. Say that with me life is a battle. Life is a battle right it's not easy it's tough sometimes but you can battle with nobility and with hope and with bravery and self-sacrifice and all that is very inspiring but I think a lot of people while they pick up on that aspect of Lord of the Rings I think they miss the fact that there are actually deeper Christian symbols and parables hidden within these texts and J.R.R. Tolkien deliberately put them there as he himself said in a letter to a friend watch this the Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Christian work unconsciously so at first in other words as he wrote the stories he didn't even realize he was putting his own beliefs into the stories but then consciously in the revision.

See Tolkien himself absolutely believed what we talked about the first week of this series that there were hints of the true God in ancient myths that can point people to Jesus Christ but he observed modern people are so out of touch with their own cultures myths that they don't make that connection so he thought he'd write sort of a new myth to appeal to people like himself and the college students that he taught to sneak in Christian ideas like what well let's look at four key biblical themes in Lord of the Rings that are also found in the book of Romans which is a book in the Bible that's another bestseller beloved by millions and Romans was written 2,000 years ago by the Apostle Paul to the first Christians in Rome where it could be a tough place to be a Christian life was a battle for them too.

And as we look at the parallels between these two best-selling books my prayer is that your own faith will be inspired and I know it will be but also my prayer is that you'll start to get ideas about how to begin conversations with your friends who may not be kind of regular church goers maybe some of your friends who speak Elvish and they'll be interested in some of the things you learned here but also if you were here today and maybe you came for the first time on Easter it's a couple of weeks later you're just kind of checking out all this Christianity stuff my prayer is that you'll find our faith explained to you through these parables in some fresh ways that will really start to spark your interest.

So get a pencil ready we're gonna zoom through this first theme and this is the one I'm gonna spend most of our time on today is this the problem of temptation the problem of temptation now that is a battle that we all fight quick question for you Lord of the Rings fans what object in these stories do you think represents the lore of tent state temptations shout it out the ring that is correct the one ring of power represents evil and temptation it is a luring but once you possess it it makes you its slave.

Now if you're not a Lord of the Rings fan quick backstory it was first made by the evil Lord Sauron who's sort of a satanic character in order to rule the world but it got lost and then it's discovered centuries later by a little guy named Smeagol watch this breath precious and so the ring represents the problem with temptation watch this it promises what I most crave but it takes what I can't afford right the ring distorts and corrupts and poisons everyone who owns it and the first seven chapters of the book of Romans are all about this problem the problem with temptation it's like this Paul says in Romans 6:16 you know well enough from your own experience that there are some acts of so-called freedom that destroy freedom offer yourselves to sin and it's your last free act because soon there's a battle inside of me and we've all felt this.

The Apostle Paul talks about it in Romans 7:15 he says I don't understand what I do and that is very comforting to me that even the Apostle Paul who wrote most of the New Testament did not always understand what he did he said my new life tells me to do what's right but the old nature that's inside me still loves to sin and that means to go toward that self-oriented self-centered but ultimately self-destructive tendency that it's not inside all of us and in the Lord of the Rings this internal struggle is dramatized in Smeagol the one who first found the ring because he's turned into a little monstrous creature and even when the little hobbit Frodo finds him sees some good in him gives him a second chance he still struggles between his desire for the ring and his desire for good.

Watch this no no yes precious false they will cheat you hurt you lie must is my friend you don't have any friends nobody likes you not listening not listening go away go away I hate you I hate you why would you be without me well I saved us it was me the survived because of me what did you say master looks after us now we don't need you what leave now and never come back no leave now and never come back leave now and never come back! we told him to go away and away he goes precious I think that's just genius because it dramatizes that civil war that all of us have sensed inside of us and it shows another principle about temptation I must choose my own master Paul says this in Romans 6:18 all your lives you've let sin tell you what to do that that self-seeking tendency inside of us but thank God you started listening to a new master and you have to choose and I have to choose every day which voices I will let influence me.

Now that's important but if I'm honest I know that even that alone is not enough I need a power outside myself to break free because I'm powerless over my biggest self-destructive tendencies as Paul says in Romans but I need something more for I know the law but still can't keep it the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions obviously I need help I realize I don't have what it takes I can will it but I can't do it can you relate to that he goes on is there no one who can do anything for me the answer thank God is that Jesus Christ can and does.

And before you flip your page over I want to show you a great example of this in Lord of the Rings in this next scene another person is possessed and oppressed by evil he's literally controlled by an evil sorcerer a mighty king named Theoden and there is nothing he can do to escape this evil within him and then another character the wizard Gandalf appears watch what happens you have no power here Gandalf the grave I will draw you Solomon as poison is drawn from our wound if I go failed and dies did not kill me him Oh oh Oh when I first saw that clip in the movie theater I literally started to cry because I thought that is how Jesus Christ sets us free we become our true selves again.

See I've noticed that a lot of people don't want to give up their controlling habit because they think will I still be me if I give up my short tempered nature or if I stop smoking dope or if I give up whatever it is that my controlling habit is drinking or whatever will I still be me or will will my personality kind of die if I give that up well you'll be even more you because God restores you to your true self to who he created you to be hey he set me free and I know he can set you free too you say well how do this work because I I know Jesus doesn't just show up with his staff and say release him well one way that it works is this you allow yourself to be captivated by the beauty of Christ because if all you're trying to do is resist sin in your own power then you're still focused on sin right you got the ring of power in your palm and you're saying I won't yield to you my precious instead focus on a better beauty the beauty of Jesus Christ and his power he can set you free.

And then here's the cool part Jesus doesn't just leave you to figure out life on your own he puts you in a fellowship to fight the battle and that's the next theme the value of community as I fight those battles of life. Here's what happens next in the plot these characters decide that that ring must be destroyed and there's only one way you can destroy it by hurling it into the volcano where it was forged and Lord of the Rings fans shouted out what is the name of that mountain it is Mordor that is correct and so they put together the fellowship of the ring to accomplish this.

Now look at these characters they're all totally different there's a powerful wizard there's a skilled dwarf there's a swift elf there's a swashbuckling prince and there's four little tiny hobbits with no discernible talent whatsoever right what in the world could they possibly offer but they end up being the key because while the bigger ones distract the enemy the tiny little hobbits sneak in and the littlest hobbit Frodo ends up being the ring bearer and this fellowship is a lot like the group that we call church also in Romans 12 Paul says we all have different gifts according to the grace God has given us we're in the fellowship of the king and you are needed and I am needed.

Jot this down here's three values of community as we fight life's battles first you can share the load you can share the load when somebody else's burden Galatians says carry one another's burden second you can give each other hope the Bible says encourage one another daily and you see both of these points in this next scene remember that littlest hobbit Frodo is the ring bearer because only he is so innocent and naive that the ring can't really corrupt him morally but it does weaken him physically and as he and his friend Sam walk up the slopes of Mordor he feels he cannot go on no veil between me and the way the fire I can see you with my waking eyes that let us be rid of it once and for all come on mr. Frodo I can't carry it for you but I can carry you.

And you know what I guarantee you there is a brother or a sister in Christ around you somewhere and right now they are getting so discouraged that they can't see anything but darkness ask the Lord to open your eyes and he is going to put somebody on your mind is going through maybe a divorce or going through an illness they need some help maybe just they need some help with babysitting you can carry the load for them.

Now you might not be able to carry the very load that they need to carry in their life that's their role but you can carry them in some way and and we we can't all carry everybody else but as we each carry one that's how the job gets done and in community you see the impact of the ordinary right at the end of the whole story everybody who seems on the outside stronger and wiser and more powerful ends up bowing in gratitude to the little hobbits the meek shall inherit the earth right I think one day we're going to see very clearly how the very weakest people in the body of Christ were so crucial to God's mission.

Listen if you feel you know under educated and unqualified and like you don't have the skills needed to fight your battle listen to this the Bible says brothers and sisters think of what you were when you were called not many were wise by human standards not many were influential not many of noble birth but God shows the foolish things of the world to shame the wise God shows the weak things of the world to shame the strong amen that means you have a role to play and then the third theme is this the importance of commitment to victory in life's battles the importance of commitment because once we've been point one set free and then point two put into a fellowship to fight the battle we still individually need to commit to our calling.

And here is the biggest thing that gets in our way let me ask you a question would you agree with this it is so easy to waste our time wishing things were different you ever do that just like the character Frodo in this clip watch this I wish the ring had never come to me I wish none of this had happened so do all who live to see such times but that is not for them to decide all we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.

There are other forces at work in this world for the besides that will leave you that is good good good good good stuff in fact that is so good I'm gonna put that on screen all we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us that is one of the most important lessons that you and I can learn you know instead of wishing you lived in different times instead of wishing you had different responsibilities instead ask what am I going to do with what has been given to me the situation I am in.

You know you may wish your health was different or your marital status was different or your job was different or any number of things we can waste so much time resenting our situation but very often the things we tend to resent are the very things we have little of any control over and I'll get very personal here many of you know during my mom's final years we took care of her then we brought her into our house and then my sister took her in because of Alzheimer's mom got to the point where she couldn't do anything anymore for herself I mean anything we were caring for her in ways that you would care for an infant baby and I have to tell you there were nights when I stood on my back porch just with with fists clenched and and tears coming down my face just raging at God asking why is this happening to her she's such a good person if anybody doesn't deserve this she doesn't deserve this.

But after a while I thought well this isn't changing anything you know and this is not helping in any way the question isn't you know why the question is what am I going to do with the situation that I have been given all those who are in tough situations everybody in a tough situation wishes it was different everybody does but that's not the choice we have the choice we have is what we're going to do with the situation that we've been given you got to commit fully.

Romans 12 the Apostle Paul says therefore I urge you brothers and sisters in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice be fully committed and then in the next chapter and do this understanding the present time the hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber now remember Romans was written to Christians living in Rome in the first century right and he's saying okay you guys are living in very dicey times for Christians people like you know that guy Nero do not like you and he can't change it that's just how it is so wake up and don't waste your time wishing it were different or trying to distract yourself from the situation make the rest of your life the best of your life with a commitment to living for God's purposes this is so important to victory in life's battles.

And then the final theme all through the Lord of the Rings and the book of Romans is the ultimate triumph of good in the battles watch this in the book of Romans after the Apostle Paul talks about all the tough times that we still have to go through on this earth he says but here is the secret and let's read this most famous verse out loud together because I believe somebody here in this room really needs to hear this right now so let's read this together and we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him who have been called according to his purpose.

You know one of the reasons that Tolkien wrote the Lord of the Rings books was that he felt modern literature was so hopeless so cynical so full of despair and he felt like that was dangerous and he showed he wrote Lord of the Rings to show in part how you can you can be in the thick of a battle and you can acknowledge things are very very tough and very dark but you can still have hope just like Sam tries to encourage his little friend Frodo in this scene do this it's all wrong by rights we shouldn't even be here we are it's like in the great stories mr. Frodo the ones that really mattered full of darkness and danger they were and sometimes you didn't want to know the end because how could the end be happy how could the world go back to the way it was with so much bad that happened but in the end it's only a passing thing this shadow even darkness must pass a new day will come and when the Sun shines it'll shine out the clearer.

Those were the stories that stayed with you and man even if you were too small to understand why I think mr. Frodo I do understand I know now folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back when they didn't they kept going because they were holding on to something what are we holding on to Sam there's some good in this world mr. for all and it's worth fighting for.

Listen yes life at times is a battle and maybe you are in the thick of a battle right now maybe you're fighting depression right now or you're fighting an addiction right now or you're fighting anxiety or you're fighting hopelessness or you're fighting the burden of some temptation you can't seem to get past listen you are fighting more than a bad habit you're fighting more than bad moods ultimately make no mistake you are fighting evil because hopelessness and anxiety and despair and and addictions can lead to so much evil so you're in a battle that is worth fighting and you are not alone first there's a power much greater than you Jesus Christ and we serve a risen Savior and that means he is here now to begin the process of setting you free and second you are in a fellowship I mean here we are it's the fellowship of the king you're not alone and third you have a purpose right where God has placed you right now so don't turn back don't give up even if worse goes to worst and you die in your fight even that does not mean that evil triumphs as one of the characters explains on the eve of a great battle to one of the hobbits watch this didn't think it would end this way and the journey doesn't end here death is just another path one that we almost take gray rain curtain in this world rolls back and all turns to silver glass and then you see what white shores to be on the far green country and a swift sunrise.

And I said like Romans 8:18 says I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us now in the stories how does Gandalf know about what comes next well earlier in probably the biggest Christian parallel in the whole story and I'll wrap up with this one the fellowship must cross a bridge to escape the underworld or they will fall into the lake of fire and they're not going to make it and so on the bridge Gandalf fights a devilish creature that's trying to pull them all down with his staff of light so that the others can pass over safely and he defeats the demon but he loses his life in the fight then later he appears to his followers after he's dead in a glorified resurrected body with new powers and some of his followers doubt at first but the rest are amazed and he stays with them for the rest of their journey and gives them reassurance about what awaits something very much like someone else that I've heard of.

See as we've been saying in this series these stories resonate with our souls because they are pointing to something we long for deep in our DNA which is true JRR Tolkien himself said this he said the three most important things I believe are the incarnation of Christ to be in the world the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ to save the world and the Second Coming of Christ to restore the world now watch this he said this story is supreme and it is true there is no tale ever told that men would rather find was true and none other which so many skeptical men have accepted as true and then he says something interesting to reject it leaves either to sadness or to wrath.

See here's the bottom line of the message of the Lord of the Rings and the Bible yes I am in a battle that is absolutely true especially if you're doing something worthwhile but it's a battle that by God's grace I can win and you might say but René my life right now feels so hopeless well in a moment we're gonna take communion that's how Christians have been telling our most important story for 2,000 years we remember how at the cross God turned the ultimate symbol of defeat into the ultimate symbol of hope and that means no matter what your battle is he can give you hope right now.

So will you in these next few moments receive the truth of the story to which all other stories point? Let's pray together Lord we just want to confess to you at least I confess honestly I often feel kind of like one of the hobbits I often feel weak and small but thank you that because of your crucifixion and resurrection and promised return we can have hope and Lord I just pray that if there's anybody here who wants to follow you today that they would pray this simple prayer Lord Jesus I trust in you today I don't understand it all but I trust you now set me free and be with me on my journey and help me to grow into what you created me to be in fellowship with others in Jesus name amen.