The Hope of Glory — Dennis Kinlaw

Sunday night in closing I used an illustration that I had never heard before until recently and our daughter Beth told me about it. It was a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale or children's story about the Snow Queen and two Danish children Kay and Gerda.

The Snow Queen as a Picture of Spiritual Blindness

I want to go back to that this morning and let it set it as the introduction for what I have to say. It's amazing that some of the best theology that has ever been written has been in children's stories.

C .S. Lewis is the classical example for us but it's not only C .S. Lewis it's been true throughout the history of the church. So here is a basic children's story that has profound orthodox Christian theology in it.

As Hans Christian Andersen told a story he said there was a hobgoblin of all hobgoblins who really was the devil himself who built a tremendous mirror that was a mirror in which every person would see himself.

It was so big that the world could see itself within it but the mirror was made so that it distorted everything so that when anybody looked what he saw was not what reality was really like. It turned the good into the evil so that you look in the mirror and what was really good would look to you as evil.

It would turn your friend into your foe and you'd see a person in the mirror and everything in reality should cause you to flee to him and the mirror would make you flee from him. He said that it could actually turn a benign good smile into a leer.

Now Hans Christian Andersen told about how that mirror of that hobgoblin of all hobgoblins corrupted the world so that all the world was perverted and twisted because its way of seeing things was wrong.

The devil had such fun in that that he and his imps decided to see what it would do if he carried it to heaven. So they took it up to heaven to show it to the angels and to show it to God. But when they got closer to God the mirror began to tremble and it shook so that the devil lost control of it and it fell and shattered into a million billion pieces.

The pieces were so small that they could penetrate into a person's eye and a person not even know that they were there and they could penetrate into a person's heart and the person never know that he had been penetrated by a sliver of that mirror and everywhere the mirror slivers went they carried with it the perspective of the mirror so that the hearts that were penetrated by it turned to ice and the eyes that were penetrated by it saw all of reality in terms of the perversions of the hobgoblin's mirror.

Now you can imagine the destruction that that would wreak in the earth and it's a magnificent parable of what happened when we sinned and of the consequences of our sin. The New Testament talks about our being dead in trespasses and sin.

Unable to respond we cannot hear, we cannot see, we cannot act we are dead in trespasses and sin. What little vision we do have is all distorted and there's some classical examples and scripture of that.

Now we told about how Hans Christian Andersen said that there was this little boy and his heart and his eyes were penetrated by this and so he saw his parents as obstacles to him. He looked at everything with a critical eye and whereas he had been a very loving very positive very joyous young person now he became cynical about everything and the Snow Queen came the figure of evil and she kissed him and he was seduced and he followed her to her icy kingdom in the north.

Kay was a boy, Gerda the girl, she was very concerned about him and she went to see him and through her he came to know redemption and was delivered from the curse that was on him. Now what a picture that is of our world and what a picture that is of our society and what a picture it is of us.

One in the perversion that has come to us that makes us numb to things we ought to be sensitive to, that makes us fight things that we ought to be embracing, that makes us shun the very things that are our salvation and that are the salvation of others.

How Religious People Missed Jesus

Now when I read this it immediately brought back to mind something that I've been living with in recent, in the last couple of years, in the last few years in connection with the Gospel of John. Out of all the questions that I have difficulty understanding apart from the reality of original sin with its deadly results is what we did to Jesus.

Because do you know it was people like you and me that crucified Jesus? It's easy for us to say it was the other people, but do you know who crucified Jesus? They were the most ethical people and the highest morality people the world had to offer.

Their ethical moral standards were so high that any good pagan Jew would come and be attracted to the people that crucified Jesus because their standards were so superior to the pagan world. They were religious people, but they not only were religious people, they were knowledgeable people.

Do you know they had the straightest theology of anybody in the world? They understood biblical truth. They understood the nature of God, monotheism, all of this. They had the scriptures. They were the people who believed in inerrancy, believe it or not.

It's amazing the people, these were the people when they came, they're the people who rejected him. Now why did they reject him? Because they saw wrong and their hearts were attached wrong. It's interesting the Gospel of John says that when he came they missed him because he didn't fit the patterns they expected.

They knew how he was supposed to come and he didn't come that way. There are two passages to me that are incredibly significant now in this. One of them is the story of the feeding of the 5 ,000 when he took five loaves and two fish and fed them.

It is a preview of the Lord's Supper theme in the New Testament of him giving his body, his flesh, and his blood for us. But he fed them with the fish and with the loaves and the next day and they said this is great, he's the king, he obviously is the Messiah.

See their conclusion was right. They were orthodox in their opinion of him that evening. They said he's the Christ obviously because he can feed us like this so we will crown him and we will put the crown of the Messiah on his head and he disappeared on them.

And so they chased him down the next day and when they came to him they said why did you flee? We were ready to crown you king. Now you know that's what he came for so people would crown him king, crown him Messiah.

But you see the only thing worse than not having the Messiah is having the wrong Messiah. And he knew that their understanding was dead wrong, their thinking was perverted and twisted. So he said you ate the bread and the fish but you never saw the sign.

You ate the bread and the fish but you never saw the sign. I wonder if that isn't a parable of the church today. It's eating the bread and the fish but doesn't see the sign. When he got through they said these are hard sayings.

And the very people that the day before wanted to crown him left him, forsook him. Said there's no way we can eat his flesh and drink his blood, that's stupid. That's impossible. And so they left him.

They ate the bread and the fish but they never saw the sign. They never understood what he was saying. Now even you remember his disciples didn't know what to do with him. Peter said, Jesus said to him, why will you also go away?

And they said, Peter said, to whom shall we go? He didn't stay because he understood. He didn't stay because he saw. Somewhere or other there had started a falling in his heart even when his eyes were still seeing wrong.

And so that's the power of love. Love will do what understanding won't do. And if you've got the understanding without the love, you're in trouble. If you've got the love without the understanding, there's a possibility.

So Peter in desperation said to him, shall we go? We're hooked to you. Now you have the words of eternal life. And so they stayed with him. And in due time when the Holy Spirit came, they began to see clearly.

But even the disciples who were his own, whom Jesus said, their names were already written down in heaven, they did not see correctly. You can be genuinely born again and be incredibly twisted in your thinking.

Becoming Like the Holy One

Now that's the reason for that. I keep finding myself coming back to the importance of and you know, our language gets so, so corrupted and has so many connotations that oftentimes I wish that God could give us brand new language, but we don't have brand new language.

So we have to use old language. So that's the reason I come back to this concept. He wants us to be like him. He's the one who is reality. He is the one who sees all things right as they are, because he's the one who made them as they are.

And if we were to see them as they are, we got to see them the way he does. And what's his nature? He's the Holy One. That was the supreme thing they said about Jesus. And that's the supreme thing they said about that Yahweh in the Old Testament, God said about himself, he is the Holy One.

And he wants us like him in our heart, and like him in our eyes. Now, the second passage that thunders inside me now, is this passage that I read to you from the Good Shepherd passage in John 10, where Jesus says, I'm the Good Shepherd, I lay down my life for my sheep.

He said, My father loves me because I lay down my life for my sheep. He said, No man takes my life from me, I lay it down of myself. He said, That's what I came for. I came to lay down my life for my sheep.

Now, the interesting thing is that when he got through with that speech, do you know what they said about him? The priests, whom the Old Testament calls the shepherds of Israel, he was saying that to the priests.

That was his audience that day. He was saying it to the clergy. They said, He has a devil in him. Now, it's fascinating to me that we're twisted enough, people like me, we're twisted enough that when God shows up, we think he's the devil.

I wonder if that's where Hans Christian Andersen got his idea from reading the story of Jesus. Now, it's interesting when Kay, when Gerda came and found Kay in the ice palace, and he was blue from cold and numbly going about trying to put his blocks of ice into the word eternity, with the promise that if he could spell eternity, he would be set free, he'd be his own master, and she would, the Snow Queen would give him the world and a pair of skates.

I love that pair of skates. Because that was much more important to Kay than the whole world. And every one of us has his pair of skates. And that's what the devil hooks us on, is the pair of skates. So, she said, You will be your own master.

I will give you the world, and I will give you a pair of skates. And here he is, numbly going about it, dumbly. And Kay comes in and expects him to embrace her and rejoice that she has found him, and he's irritated with her, disturbing him.

And she's so heartbroken that she clasps her arms around him and bursts into tears, and her tears are so copious and so hot that they melt his heart. And then he begins to weep. And when his heart is melted, and you know, that takes me back to Peter, to whom she would go.

His heart is melted, and when his heart is melted, he begins to weep, and his own weeping washes the splinter out of his eye. And he says, Where did you come from? And what am I doing here? And where am I?

And he sees all things clearly. Now, I've wondered, it says that when Kay put her arms around him and began to weep, she began to sing a hymn to him about the child Jesus. And if she sang to him a hymn about the child Jesus, with her tears melting his heart, and his tears now begin to flow, as she sings to him about Jesus, he's set free.

And he can see clearly. Now, I don't know anything that we need more than the melted hearts and the clear vision. And I don't believe they come automatically with conversion. All we've got to do is look around us, usually at each other.

We get a little of the melted hearts. But what about the clarity of vision? Now, why was it that they said, We can't take this. These are hard sayings, and they left him. And why was it that they said, He's got a devil in him.

Do you know the reason was that he was exactly the opposite of what they expected him to be, and what they knew he had to be. The exact reverse. Now, what was the exact reverse? The exact reverse was this.

Jesus as the Self-Giving Feast

Take that scene on the hillside feeding the 5 ,000. Feasts have always been a part of religious life. Church suppers took place in Genesis 4. Now, it doesn't say that, but they've been there since the beginning of time.

All religions have feasts. Doesn't matter whether it's Navajos or Buddhists, there is feeding. Wherever you have gods, you feed the gods. Sacrifice is a universal part of religion, and sacrifice is a feast.

But you see, in all the religions of the world, what happens is you feed the gods. Now, why do you feed the gods? You feed the gods, so they'll feed you. Now, I'm not going to say clearly everything I want to say, because I haven't thought my way through it clearly, and gotten it clear enough that I can say it right.

So, let's ask the Lord to help us think our way through what is the reality behind it. It's not what I say that counts, it's the reality that is in the nature of the way God works, and the nature of the way God wants us to work.

All religions feed their gods. What's the motive in sacrifice? The motive in sacrifice is so he'll feed us. Along comes Jesus and says, I fed you, but the real feast is not the bread and the fish. The real feast is the feast I came to give you, and that's myself.

I want to give you my flesh and my blood, and if you don't eat me, you will miss what I have to offer you. I've come so you could eat me, instead of so you could feed me. Exact reverse of all the rest of the religions of the world.

Now, I want to ask a question. Do you think he did it so they'd... See, we feed the gods so they'll feed us. Do you think he came to feed us so we'd feed him? No, you know, the interesting thing is that in all the religions of the world, all the gods are needy, and all the worshippers are needy.

But do you know that the God who came in Jesus Christ doesn't need a thing? In fact, there's not a thing you can give to him that will add to who he is or what he has. All right, then why does he want to give to us?

Not so we'll give back to him, but because that is where he finds his fulfillment. That's what his nature is. He is the giving God, and the supreme evidence that he is the giving God is that he is the self-giving God.

Now, he gives many gifts, but there comes a time when he says, I want to give you something better than my gifts. He may give us wealth, but oftentimes the wealth is a hindrance to the supreme gift. I think that's the reason usually preachers are poor.

How are they going to learn about the wealth of possessing him if they've got all these earthly goods? I noticed that John Wesley said he didn't want to carry money lest it trap him. That pair of skates business.

And what a pity if you got the skates and missed the freedom. I'm convinced that the same thing is true of health. There are times when God has to touch our health because health is a gift, because he's better.

Spiritual health is better than physical health. How can you ever know that if you've never had a pain? How can you ever know that he is better, spiritual health? He's better than physical well-being if you've never lost your physical well-being.

Now, you can take that and pursue it through all of his gifts. Now, here he is, his chief delight is in giving, but he wants us to know what his supreme gift is because he's never let you know how giving he is until he's given himself.

Now, that's the thing about the Good Shepherd passage when they say he's got a devil in him. Why did they think he had the devil in him? Because he was so twisted, he was so mixed up. There was nobody ever as mixed up as Jesus.

Now, why was he so mixed up? Everybody knows what a shepherd keeps sheep for. Everybody knows what a shepherd keeps sheep for. You keep sheep so you can eat them and so you can wear them. And he comes along and says, I keep sheep so they can eat and wear me.

And they said, that's demonic. It is the absolute reverse of everything that is instinctive to us in our sinful, fallen, corrupted, sinfully conditioned nature. So he said, I keep sheep so they can eat and wear me.

Imputed Righteousness and the Self-Giving Heart

Do you know that hymn which Wesley translated from the German from Gerhardt, Jesus, my blood and righteousness? Anybody here know that? Marion, do you know that? Oh, Marion. Marion will sing so loud you can hear him from Pennsylvania to New Jersey when he reads it.

Mark, do you know this one? Help me with the words of it. I didn't have time to look at it. Jesus, thy blood and righteousness, my beauty are, my glorious dress. Amidst flaming worlds in these arrayed, shall I with joy lift up my head.

Lord, I believe we're sinners more than sands upon the ocean's floor. Thy blood for all sinners. See, I can't do it. You got it? That verse isn't in here. You know, it's one of these with 20 verses and it isn't in here.

But that's all right. Let me go ahead with it. Bo shall I stand in thy great day, for who ought to my charge shall lay. Fully absolved through these I am from sin and fear, from guilt and shame. Friend, when from the dust of death I rise to claim my mansion in the skies, even then this shall be all my plea.

Jesus has lived, has died for me. Jesus, the endless praise to thee whose boundless mercy hath for me, for me a full atonement made, an everlasting ransom paid. Oh, let the dead now hear thy voice, now bid thy banished ones rejoice.

Their beauty this, their glorious dress. Jesus, thy blood and righteousness. Now, he is, you know the words of that? Lord, I believe we're sinners more than sands upon the ocean's shore. Thy blood for all has atonement, for all a full ransom paid.

Anyway, there is enough in the blood of Christ to cover every one of us in perfect righteousness and perfect holiness. But let me tell you what we tend to do. We tend to want that covering, but we don't want the heart to match it.

We tend to want that dress, but he says he can give us a heart to match the dress. Now, what is the heart that matches the dress? It is the heart that is like his heart. And what is that heart? It is the self-giving heart.

Now, let me go back to why Jesus said, I want to give you my flesh and blood. We feed the gods so the gods will feed us. I can document that in a hundred cultures, a hundred cultures. He comes along and says, I feed you.

Now, did he have a subtle desire? If I feed them, then they'll feed me. Do you know we preach the gospel that way sometimes? As if he died so we'd respond to him? He would have died for us whether a single soul ever believed or not.

Did you know that? He's not in the paying, buying business. He doesn't buy people and he doesn't force people. He does what he does because it comes out of his being. Now, let me ask you, how would you like to live with somebody who's like that?

There's not a person in the world who wouldn't like his wife that way. And there's no woman in the world who wouldn't like her husband that way. And ultimately, though they might not like it in the beginning, there's not a kid in the world but that ultimately would want his parents that way.

The Trinity and the Meaning of Personhood

Now, let me see if I can say what I want to say. I've had a fascinating time for about four years living with the speeches of Jesus in the gospel of John. Some of you have heard me say some of this before.

Be patient with me if it sounds repetitive. The relationship of Jesus to his father is the kind of relationship I'm supposed to have to Jesus. It's interesting that our concept of what a person is comes from those speeches.

Did you know that? Did you know if it weren't for those speeches in the gospel of John, the psychologists couldn't talk about a person? Because the English word person comes from the Latin word persona, which came into Western thought when the early church began to say, who is this Jesus?

They said, we worship him. And so their neighbors said, then he's God, isn't he? And the Christians said, yeah, he's God. We worship him. And they said, well, then what happened when he died on the cross?

He didn't really die then. It was just an appearance, wasn't it? It was just a drama, dramatic act, a game. See, the word persona originally meant a mask, which an actor wore. So you know what part he was playing in the drama.

They said, then the crucifixion was not real. Oh, they said, yes, it was real. He died. Then they said, who was in control while he died? And the early Christians said that was his father. And they said, well, then is his father God?

And they said, yeah, he's God. Well, then they said, Jesus wasn't God, was he? And they said, yeah, he was God. And they said, then you have got two gods, haven't you? And they said, no, we don't have two gods.

We've got one God. But he's father and he's son. And they said, how are you going to relate that? How are you going to prove to us there's only one God when you're talking about two persons? And they said, oh, that's it.

We have one God. There's one God in three persons. That's where the word person came from. Did you ever hear a woman who was tired of her husband saying, I have a right to establish my own personhood?

Did you ever hear that line? Did you ever hear a rebellious kid say, I have a right to establish my own personhood? Have you read the literature of the last 25 years in the United States? Establish my own personhood.

Well, I want to talk about a person. See, the original person from which we were designed, the model that was used for designing us was the second person of the Trinity. And do you know, he's the one who said, I don't have a will of my own.

I came to do my father's will. He said, I'm not out to protect my own interests. I came to lay down my life for other people. Now, let me, I'm going to boil a whole stack of stuff. I wish we had two or three hours, three or four or five or six hours, but we don't.

Let me boil it down. Do you know what, it's interesting that the social sciences have no model of a person except a machine or else an animal. All your social sciences, when they want to do experiments, either go to rats, B .F. Skinner goes to pigeons, Pavlov went to dogs.

And if you will take all of the social sciences from sociology to the psychoanalyst, to the psychotherapist, the counselors, the models that are used in all these studies are either mechanical or organic in the sense of what an animal is.

And so you can condition them. There is no element of true personhood in any of the models that the social sciences use. Now, if you have a question about that, if we had time, I think I could document that out of contemporary literature and document it well.

You know what I think a person is if a person is like Jesus? To be a person is to be incomplete. That does violence to all of modern thought. Everybody wants to stand on his own feet and be his own person.

The interesting thing is that the only persons we've ever seen were incomplete. If you had a perfect person, he'd be incomplete. If you had a God person, he'd be incomplete. Because we had one and he said, I can do nothing of myself.

I can do nothing of myself. I can only do what I see my father do. So to be a person is to be incomplete. I'm convinced that to be a person is to receive and to give. Because you've never seen. You know what the texts say, the creeds say about Jesus, the second person of the Trinity?

He is begotten of the Father. He didn't begin himself any more than your child began himself. You began your child. He didn't begin himself any more than you began yourself. There's not a person here who chose to exist.

There never has been a person unless it's the first person of the Blessed Trinity who chose to exist. To be a person is to have existence given to you. To receive. And if he's the model for a person, you didn't create yourself, you didn't give yourself life, it was given to you.

And if he's the model, then the essence of his personhood is in giving. I came to give my life. That's why my father loves me. He gave me life and now he wants me to give it to you. What I've received, now I'm to give.

So that the essence of personhood is receiving and giving. Now I want to ask you if there's a better definition of love than that. Now, we were talking about the sliver in the eye of K so everything is twisted and perverted.

Love Without Resentment or Manipulation

Do you know how much we've perverted that? See, I don't like to receive because then I'm indebted. I'm morally obligated. Do you know the one element that is never found in a social scientist model? It's a moral element.

We don't like the ethical, moral element. We don't want to be obligated. So I don't like to receive from you and if I do receive, I inwardly resent it. I had a man who raised more money for the Salvation Army than anybody in its history say to me, Dennis, don't you know that every beneficiary hates the benefactor who benefited him?

And I looked at him in horror and he said, Dennis, you know it's true. The hardest thing in the world is to maintain a relationship with somebody who gives to you. It's hard to receive. I'm speaking out of my personal experience.

But you know the funny thing is, if giving is the essence of personhood, if I won't receive from you, I've deprived you of your personhood. I've deprived you of your reason for existing and of your fulfillment.

I don't like to give. I don't like to give because I like to keep because of my security. And if I do give, I give with hooks in it. Do you ever notice how we all give with hooks? We expect the person we give to, to perform a certain way when we've given.

Have you ever heard a parent say, after all I did for that brat? And look at the way he's responding now. I can say this in this kind of crowd. You know, I'm convinced that there are many women who give themselves to their husbands sexually with hooks.

There are many husbands who give money to their wives with hooks. Look at all I've done and then. I want to go back to Jesus. He didn't feed us so we'd feed Him. He fed us because that's His nature. What would happen if in our relationships the self-reference were cleaned out and I could receive from you without being demeaned because I know you didn't do it to get a hook in me.

You gave because you want to give. And if I didn't receive, you wouldn't have an opportunity. And what if you receive from me without being demeaned because you know that I need to give. That's where my fulfillment is.

Now, what if I could receive without resentment and what if I could give without hooks? You know, I don't think you'd have to die to go to heaven. But how do you ever get anybody that clean? I want to say, I believe you can get that clean.

I believe you can get that clean. You say, show me some people. That's not the issue. We're talking about possibilities. Now, I don't think I can get there because I'm twisted in my sight, perverted. And I surely can't control my own cold heart.

But do you know that's what I'm convinced the Holy Spirit is for? Do you remember what Paul said about the Holy Spirit? Love shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit. What kind of love is that? That's divine love.

And what is that divine love? It's the love that says, I don't feed you so you can feed me. I feed you because that's where I get my joy. The fruit of the Spirit is, where does it begin? Love. And everything else flows out of that.

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with. Well now, why is it we're still so twisted? And we manipulate people, we use people, we force people. And when you do, you've done violence to their personhood. Now, how can you, is it possible to come to that?

Cleansed Vision Through the Holy Spirit

I'm convinced the first thing is, I have to say, Lord, you teach in your word that we're twisted, perverted, corrupted people. How corrupted am I? How twisted am I? How wrongly do I see? Lord, I'm willing for you to cleanse my eyes so I can see.

That takes humility. And it may be expensive. It may be expensive. We need to say, Lord, I want you to clear my vision so I see the way you do. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. I want to respond to people and to life the way you do.

Free me from the self-interest part. Now, some of our fathers would have talked about the carnal. I don't care what you call it. It's the what's in it for me mentality. That they couldn't find in Jesus, so they said he's demonic.

Bound to be there. They knew it was there, but it was so deep they couldn't see it, so they said he's bound to be the supreme devil. He's a bigger devil than all of us because you can't even see his self-interest in him.

Now, is it possible for us to be cleansed? I think one is we have to say, Lord, your teaching is very clear that we're corrupted. I want you to clean me up. And if it's to be done, you're going to have to do it.

And that's what your Holy Spirit can do. And that's why you went to the cross. You went to the cross so that now, 2 Corinthians 5, so that now I don't have to live for myself. Do you remember that line in 2 Corinthians 5?

I don't have to live for myself. If I don't have to live for myself, I'm free to be like God. That's the supreme freedom. Now, it may be painful because when you begin to live for other people, they're going to hurt you.

They're going to trample you. Now, he's not made us to be doormats. That's not what I'm talking about. Jesus was no man's doormat. He drove them wild with his clear opposition to their sin. We don't have time to deal with that, but I'm not talking about doormats.

He was the strongest person that ever walked this earth. He was the most intractable in one sense. He was the strongest person that ever walked, but he lived his life for others. And when you begin to live your life for others, you're going to find it's going to be painful.

You know what most of us do when other people begin to pain us? We begin to draw away. We begin to draw away because we don't like to be hurt. What if that had happened to Jesus? He came unto his own and his own rejected him.

It's the greatest pain that we ever experience is rejection. What if he had said, I'm going back to heaven? Now, if he ever gives us a pure heart and a clean heart, we're going to have to be exposed enough that we can hurt.

And in the hurt will be the redemption for the world that came to us because of his hurt. Now, I've babbled too long, talked about a world of things. I wish I could have said it more crisply, but I believe that the person who comes to the place where his heart is thawed and his vision is cleared will be an instrument of redemption.

Seeing Jesus Through His People

You see, Gerda sang to him about Jesus, and when she sang to him about Jesus, he wept in his own tears, washed his vision clean. Nobody's ever going to be redeemed until he sees Jesus. And do you know the only way he's ever going to have a chance to see him is in you and me.

That's what Jesus meant when he said, if you get me, you get my father. I'm the only way you can see him. And if you reject me, you miss my father. Now I'm sending you these birds. And if you accept them, you get me.

And when you get me, you get the father. And if you reject them, you miss me and you miss the father. But what a pity when the people who represent him are as twisted as the vision produced by the sliver in the eye.