Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - The Meaning of the City

Episode Date: April 10, 2024

When the Jewish exiles got to Babylon, they found a huge city—hostile, big, brutal—and it was filled with other exiles, with different people groups and radically different views. Our culture is not so different. Liberals feel our country is so conservative that they’re pulling their hair out, and conservatives feel our country is so liberal that they’re pulling their hair out. Both groups feel like exiles. Millions of ethnic minorities feel like exiles. So how do you respond to a city that’s hostile to your views? How do you live in a fragmented society?  God’s answer to the Jewish exiles is astounding. In it, we see three things: 1) wrong ways to relate to the city, 2) God’s way to relate to the city, and 3) how to get the power to do it. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 5, 2003. Series: The Necessity of Belief. Scripture: Jeremiah 29:4-14. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel in Life. We live in a culture today where there are competing worldviews about what the purpose of life is, what truth is, and how we can determine what's right and what's wrong. In such an environment, it can be challenging to decide what and whom to believe. Join us today as Tim Keller teaches on how the Bible can help us navigate the complexities of our cultural moment. Thank you for joining us. This scripture tonight is from Jeremiah chapter 29 verses 4 through 14. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase the number there. Do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of this city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper. Yes, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says. Do

not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them, declares the Lord. This is what the Lord says. When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord,

plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you, declares the Lord, and will bring you back to the place

from which I carried you into exile. This is God's word. We're looking at the book of Jeremiah because Jeremiah's times were quite a bit like ours. For example, of course, the background for this passage that we just read is the fact that the Babylonian, great Babylonian power had come to Israel, had invaded, had sacked Jerusalem, had taken the children of Israel captive exiles to Babylon. And when the Jewish exiles got to Babylon, what did they find? They found a huge city, hostile, big, huge, brutal, and it was filled with other exiles. Now, the reasons for that we'll get to in a second. It was filled with all these different people groups, with radically different visions of

religion, of morality, of the very nature of the world. How do you respond to a fragmented society? How do you respond to a hostile city? How do you respond? Now, the reason I mention that there's parallels. We live in a society in which it's getting so that most people also in our society feel like exiles. For example, and here's something that's very curious but true, liberals feel that this country is just so conservative they're just pulling their hair out.

And conservatives equally feel that this country has gotten so liberal they're just pulling their hair out. And you know that's true. It's a simple fact. How could that be? How could liberals feel like exiles in the same country that the conservatives feel like exiles in? And then of course we have all the millions of ethnic minorities that come in here and they look around and they feel like exiles and say this isn't exactly our town either. How did that happen? The answer is because we live in a fragmented society where there's no consensus about what is right and what is wrong and what society should be like. We live in a fragmented society very much like the way the Jewish exiles came into a fragmented big hostile city.

Now here's the question. How do you respond to a hostile city? How do you respond to a city hostile to your values? How do you respond, how do you live in a fragmented society? How do you do that? And the answer of God to the Jewish exiles through Jeremiah is astounding. Let's look at it. And by the way, if you've been around Redeemer for a number of years, of God to the Jewish exiles through Jeremiah is astounding. Let's look at it. And by the way, if you've been around Redeemer for a number of years, you may say, oh, I've heard him preach on Jeremiah 29 before. No, you haven't.

I have never in my life preached on Jeremiah 29, but I'm always referring to it because it's one of the most important texts in Redeemer's history. This is one of the most formative passages of the Bible. Without it, Redeemer wouldn't exist or it wouldn't be in the shape that it's in. So anyway, there's three things we see here. Wrong ways to relate to the city, God's way to relate to the city, and how to get the power to do it.

Wrong ways, God's way, and how to get the power to do it. The wrong way is God's way and how to get the power to do it. Now, the wrong ways. God refers in this letter, this is a letter to the exiles. This is what the Lord Almighty, God of Israel says, to those that carried into exile to Babylon. And he alludes to two wrong agendas. You know, there was two groups of people that had their own agendas for how the Jewish exiles should respond to the great

city of Babylon. And God in this letter rejects both of them. The first agenda was the agenda of the Babylonians themselves. Babylon had brought the Jewish exiles and they had an agenda for how they wanted it to relate. How they wanted the Jewish exiles to relate to Babylon. What was it? Well, you see the Babylonians had learned they were experts, they were geniuses at how to deal with unruly nations. How did you deal with unruly nations? Well postmodern theorists today say that there are three ways you can oppress or exclude a group of people. Three ways,

oppress or exclude. And the Babylonians were very smart about which was the best one. Here's the three ways. The first way is you can expel them, drive them out. Well, the Babylonians found that if you drove out an unruly nation, they tended to come back madder than before. They got mad and they would come back. So expulsion, that's one way to exclude and oppress people, but it wasn't the most effective way. The second way to exclude and oppress people is subjugation. You don't drive them out, you push them down. You enslave them. You chain them up. You make them do menial labor and that sort of thing. You whip them. But there's a problem with that approach too.

With expulsion, you drive them out, but they come back mad that approach too. With expulsion you drive them out but they come back madder than ever. With subjugation you push them down but they keep doing these uprisings madder than ever. Insurrections, you know, terrible things, very bloody and they keep getting madder and madder. The more you push them down the more they come back up. But the postmodern theorists say there's expulsion, there's subjugation, but the third way to exclude and oppress people is assimilation. See with assimilation, you say, oh, you can live with us and you can have all the best jobs as long as you become just like us. And that's why the Babylonians,

when they took an unruly nation, instead of expelling them or enslaving them, they brought them to Babylon. And they gave them the education. Remember, if any of you ever read the book of Daniel, which we studied a few years ago, Daniel was given a pagan name, Belteshazzar, which means God, my God is Bel,

one of the pagan gods of Babylon. And Daniel and his colleagues were given the best education in all of Babylon. But you see what the goal is. You see the strategy. Assimilation. You assimilate the people group intellectually, socially, culturally, spiritually, so that that community loses its ability to have its own distinctive understanding and interpretation of the world. And within a couple of generations, they're gone. They want the jobs, they want the money, they want the power. In order to get it, you have to become culturally and spiritually and intellectually and socially,

just like the Babylonians. In a couple of generations. They're gone That's the best way to exclude in the press a group of people not expulsion not subjugation assimilation And see God actually refers to this in verse 6 when he says increase there do not decrease See that's what the Babylonians wanted. They wanted to decrease They wanted to be assimilated. That was one agenda. God says, no, not that. But there's a second agenda. Not assimilationism, tribalism. The Jewish prophets, besides Jeremiah, had an agenda as well. They were making prophecies and they were telling the exiles what to do. In verse 8 we see that God says don't listen to the other prophets. They're

telling you things that I didn't tell them to tell you. Well what did they say? If you go back into chapter 28 which we didn't you know don't have the room to print here. In chapter 28 here's what the prophets were saying like Hananiah. One of the prophets said, Thus saith the Lord, in two years God will break the yoke of Babylon and you will come back. In other words, he predicted an invasion or an earthquake or something. God was going to destroy the city. The city would be destroyed and judged and it's our job to do what? Don't move in, said the prophets. Don't get in there. Stay out here on the Kbar Canal where we have settled in a little ethnic enclave away from

the city. And let's deal with the city as long as we can make money and deal with it to the degree necessary to exploit Babylon, to make money, to increase our own tribe, to increase our own money and our own power. But here's what we do in tribalism. See assimilation means I go into the city and I engage it for my own individual power and wealth. And so I just fit right in and I assimilate. But tribalism is on the outside I smile, but on the inside I disdain. I despise the

society. I despise it. And I only deal with it to the degree I need to in order to make my family in order to make my tribe in order to make my little group more powerful That's what the that's what the prophet said don't move into the city Exploit the city use the city disdain the city and what Babylonian said no come on in take all the jobs and Love the city in the sense of just coming on in and assimilating and taking all the values, and God doesn't do either. God says no, neither. What's God's way?

God tells the Jewish exiles not to do assimilationism, not to do tribalism. Instead, it tells them something that must have been utterly astounding for any of the exiles to hear. It's in verse five, six 6 and 7. He says, build homes. Move in. Go right into that city and settle down and say there are a long time and raise your families and plant gardens. Increase in number. Do not decrease but seek the peace and prosperity of Babylon. That wicked city, that terrible city, the city, the leaders, their hands were dripping

with the blood of their kindred. The city was filled with idols, filled with false gods, and God has the audacity to say, seek the peace and prosperity of the city, pray to the Lord for it, for if it prospers, you prosper. Now the only way to make sense of this thing, it must have been utterly astounding. For God to say to his, I want you, my children,

to move into that city, and I want you not just to engage the city enough so that your little tribe increases, I want you to seek the prosperity and peace of the whole city. I want you to pray for the city, love it, root for it, not root against it. This is astounding. How could this be?

And it only makes sense if you put it in the context of everything the Bible says about cities. You see, if you read the Bible, and for example, St. Augustine, or I'm getting this, is St. Augustine's great book, The City of God, which he read the Bible and he said, the Bible tells us that the history of the world

is basically a tale of two cities. The whole history of the world can be summed up as a tale of two cities. And we see them, especially in the Book of Isaiah, in the Book of Psalms, contrasted. The city of man, the city of God. In, for example, you go to Isaiah 26, and there it talks about the city of God. And for example, you go to Isaiah 26, and there it talks about the city of man,

the earthly city, the lofty city it's called. And the city of man is characterized by pride, and it operates on this basis, the basis of human pride. People go into the human city to make a name for themselves, to get recognition, to get a self, to find recognition and to find power and achievement, then I'll know I'm somebody. That's the basis for the earthly city. And because that's the basis for the earthly city,

it's a place of exhaustion and oppression. First is a place of exhaustion, because people are so tired, they're working so hard to prove themselves and because they go to the city needing to get, needing to get money, needing to get power, needing to get recognition, needing to get a resume, needing to get love, needing to get whatever you come to the city for, needing to get so I can feel good about myself. So they're exhausted because of all the work. It's a place of not only exhaustion but oppression. It's a place of not only exhaustion, but oppression. It's a place of oppression because we're working so hard

to get up the ladder, we're very happy to step on other people because you see, this is what we need to do, is we need to get up the ladder. It's a place of exhaustion and oppression. It's the earthly city. In contrast, the Bible keeps talking in Isaiah and the book of Psalms about the heavenly city, the city of God. And the city of God does not work on the principle of pride, but peace. Not on the basis of human effort, but God's grace. And because of that,

it is not a place of exhaustion, but of joy. It's not a place of exhaustion, of joy. Why? The people in the city of God have God's grace, which means they know who they are. You don't come into the city of God, you don't come into that city looking to get but looking to give because you already know who you are by God's grace. You're already loved. You already have a self. So it's not a place of exhaustion, it's a place of joy.

And it's not a place of oppression, it's a place of justice. Because you see, now that since you don't need to feel good about yourself by feeling superior to other people. So the city of God is a place of joy and justice, or put it another way. The city of man works on this principle. Your life to benefit me. I go into the city to get. But the city of God works on the principle, my life to serve you. I come to give. I already know who I am. Now all through the Bible you have these two cities. Very often they're called Jerusalem and Babylon. But clearly they are the earthly city and the heavenly city. And up until Jeremiah's time, you read the Bible and you get the impression

that we live now in the human city, right? We feel its exhaustion. Tomorrow's Monday. We feel its oppression. And someday God will come to earth and destroy the earthly city, right? There's a lot of places in the Bible that says God will destroy the earthly city. He'll bring down the lofty city and he'll set up God's city, the place of joy and justice. And up until the time of Jeremiah, that's what everybody thought was going to happen. That the city of God was in the future, the city of man was in the present, someday God would bring it back. This, all of a sudden, God says, move into Babylon and seek its peace.

And that makes no sense. I thought God was going to destroy the earthly city. I thought he was going to bring judgment on the earthly city. What's going on? Jesus explains it. Because in chapter five of Matthew, in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ says to his disciples, You are a city on a hill. Let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. Hear that?

He says to his disciples, he says to to Christians, You are a city on a hill. You are a city on a hill. Let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father. You know what good deeds mean in this context? Not just good living, not just ethical behavior. Deeds of service. Here's what Jesus is saying. The city of God is not just future and it's not a geographic place. Every human city has both the earthly city and the city of God. Every city is two cities. The city of God is a mini city in every city. The city of God are the people of God who form an alternate city in every city. You are a city on a hill, Jesus said to his disciples.

And what's that city look like? Well, actually the Sermon on the Mount tells you. Christians are to be an alternate city in every city in which they take sex, money, and power instead of having them use the way it's used in the earthly city on the basis of exploitation and pride. Sex, money, and power is a way to make a name for myself. Sex, money and power is a way to feel good about myself. Therefore it becomes exploitative and destructive. Instead, the alternate city in every city

is a place where sex, money and power are used in life-giving ways. And Jesus says therefore, here's what you're supposed to be doing. The way you bear witness in the earthly city to God's heavenly city is you go in and you don't engage the city. You don't work in the city for your sake or for your tribe's sake. If you go into the city to work for your sake, you'll assimilate.

If you go into the city and work for your tribe's sake, you're disdaining them. Jesus says, don't work in the city for your sake. Don't work in the city, he says to his disciples, for your tribe's sake. Work in the city for the city's sake. How can we understand the meaning of life's milestones through the lens of the gospel?

In the How to Find God series, Tim Keller offers three short books on birth, marriage, and death that will help you understand the meaning of these milestones within God's vision of life with biblical insight for how the scripture teaches us to face each one. These books of pastoral care are designed

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That's gospelinlife.com slash give. Your gift helps us share the message of Christ's love all over the world. So thank you for partnering with us because the gospel truly changes everything. St. Augustine says the minute you're born again you get dual citizenship. You become a citizen of the city of God and a citizen of your earthly city and here is the mark of the citizens of the city of God. You want to know who the citizens

of the city of God are? They are the very best citizens in the earthly city. Because they don't move in to the city to assimilate, which is basically to just use the city to make themselves individually more successful, nor do they move in the city to tribalize, just using the city, exploiting it to make their little family or their little group stronger, they move into the city and engage the city for the city's sake. When Jeremiah says, seek the shalom of the city, I want you to think about this for a second. This word shalom, translated peace, is an incredibly rich Hebrew word. It does not mean

just what the English word peace means. When you think of the English word peace, all you're thinking of is cessation of hostility, right? Or maybe kind of inner calm. That's not what the Hebrew word shalom means. The Hebrew word shalom means total flourishing in every dimension. Socially, economically, physically, and spiritually. Now here's what this means and don't forget this is God talking to

to his children. If you believe that you are connected to God, if you believe you're a child of God, this has got to be your attitude toward the earthly city in which you reside. God says I want you to seek and pray for, root for that city and pray for its shalom. Now this means, for example, number one, it means at least you have to be working for the social piece of your city. Social piece means that it's your job to try to help the different racial groups get along and live in harmony. Secondly, you're supposed to be working for the economic shalom of your city, which is to say you don't have a career here if you're a Christian,

just to feather your nest or just even to bring up your ethnic group or just to bring up your, even the Christian church, just your people. Your job is to work in the city to bring everyone in the city up. Your job is to seek the shalom of the whole city, everybody in it. To seek the prosperity of everyone in it. Do you feel that way about New York City? If you don't, you're not thinking out the ramifications of what it means to be a Christian. You're not thinking it out. This is not assimilationism, this is not tribalism, this is, I don't know what it is, I don't even have a word for it, I kept looking for one.

It almost doesn't exist. In other words, God is saying, don't lose your difference in the city. And God is also saying, don't guard jealously your difference in the city. What God is saying is, use your difference to serve the city. What is different about you? You believe in one God. You believe in the true God. You believe that God redeems the world. You believe all that? Then out of that, serve them. This is radical and I want you to know that even though, yes, you say, I don't know many churches like that, yes, I don't live like that, yes, I don't know many people like that, you're right, but the early Christians lived like that.

Rodney Stark wrote a book called The Rise of Christianity in which he described the cities of the Greek or Roman Empire in the first couple centuries when these plagues went through. Plagues would go through, horrible plagues. And here's a description of one eyewitness of what the cities were like. Listen to this.

This is even worse than the 70s in New York. The doctors were quite incapable of treating the disease. People became afraid to visit anyone and as a result, thousands of people died with no one to look after them. Indeed, there were many houses in which all the inhabitants perished through lack of any attention. The bodies of the dying were heaped one on top of the other and half-dead creatures could be seen staggering about in the streets.

The catastrophe was so overwhelming that people became indifferent to every rule of morality. Many pushed sufferers away, even their own dearest, often throwing them into the roads before they were dead hoping to avert contagion. That does sound even worse than the 70s, doesn't it? Now, if you lived in a city assimilationist mode, that is you're there in order to be, you know, to, you know, you're there to get your own wealth, status and power. If you live in a city for yourself, you get out when that starts to happen. I don't want to die. Or if you live in a city for the tribe, to get from your

tribe, you get out. You don't want to die. But the Christians didn't do either. Oh, no, they didn't. It's a historic fact. What did they do? Most Christians during the plague showed unbounded love and loyalty. This is an eyewitness account, by the way. never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another. Heedless of danger they took charge of the sick attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ and many departed their life serenely happy for they were infected by their neighbors and they cheerfully accepted their pains. They lost their lives in this manner and many elders and ministers did as well.

And here's what's interesting. Rodney Stark is a historian and a sociologist and he's trying to figure out why. This is a simple fact. There were many, many religions. There were many, many ethnic groups. There were many different competing philosophies in the Roman Empire. Very much like Babylon. It was a fragmented society.

But among all of them Christianity became so incredibly popular, even though it started very small, that eventually it just overwhelmed and transformed the empire. Historians want to know why that happened. And here's what Rodney Stark said, when the cities were falling apart, Christians stayed there and took care of people even at the cost of their own lives. In fact, Rodney Stark actually points out that if you take care of somebody who's sick, just give them blankets, just give them food and water. They're five times more likely to survive. So most of the people who survived the plagues only survived the plagues because

Christians took care of both Christians and pagans. And Rodney Stark being a scholar, you know how scholars have to talk in understated terms? At the end of his chapter he says, in comic scholarly understatement, he says the consequences of all this was that pagan survivors faced greatly increased odds of conversion after they recovered because of their greatly increased attachments to Christians. You know what this means. When they got better, they looked at the Christians and they said, wait a minute, what are you here for? You don't seem to be here for money. You don't even seem to be here for physical safety. What are you here for? Assimilationists are here for themselves and tribalists are there for the tribe. What

are you here for? And Christians say we're not here for anything. We're not afraid of death. We don't need to be rich. We don't need to get ahead. We don't even need to live. We're here for you. We're here for this peace of the city. We're here for the prosperity of the city. We're here for others. We're operating not on the principle, your life to benefit me, but my life for you. And as a result, the Christian gospel captured the imagination of the cities.

By 300 AD, most of the cities of the Roman Empire had become Christian, even though the countryside was pagan. But you know, whatever captures the imagination of the city captures the society, right? But notice, Christianity did not capture the imagination of the Greek or Roman Empire, didn't capture the imagination of the cities by trying to take over, by trying to take power,

by trying to elect their people into office. They got power by not trying to get power. They got power, they got influence through absolute service. The mark of the citizens of the city of God are they are the very best citizens of the earthly city, the best ones of all. Now how could that be? How could that be? I'll tell you how that can be. Centuries later, Jesus Christ, at the end of his life, comes in not to Babylon, but to Jerusalem. Now remember I told you that Babylon, in the prophecies of the Bible, usually symbolized the earthly city. but Jerusalem usually symbolized the heavenly city. So here comes Jesus Christ into the city of God. And what happens to him in there?

He's executed and thrown out. You see, you never executed somebody inside the holy city. You executed them on a hill outside. He went to Calvary. He went outside. Well, why did you execute criminals outside? Well, it was symbolic. It was symbolic of the banishment and the exile that sin deserves. The consequences of selfishness and sin is exile. You lose the safety. You lose the community. you lose the community,

and you're thrown out. Jesus Christ went into the city of God and he was killed and thrown out. But it wasn't a symbol with Jesus, it was a reality. Hebrews chapter 13, 12 and 14. Now Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his blood. And here we too do not have any enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to

come. Jesus suffered outside the gate. What does that mean? On the cross, Jesus was forsaken. Jesus was cosmically thrown out. God forsook him. He lost the Father. He experienced hell as it were in the cross. Or put it this way, Jesus Christ was thrown out of the city of God so you and I could be brought in. Why? He got the punishment. He got the banishment. He got the exile. Sin deserves to be thrown out of the city, but Jesus Christ took it for us.

So when you believe in Jesus, you are automatically enrolled in the city of God. You become a citizen of the city of God. Listen carefully. Jesus lost the city that was, so that we could become citizens of the city which is to come. And that makes us salt and light in the city which is.

Why? If you know who you are, if you've got a self, if you've got the love of God, then you move out into the earthly city, not needing anymore, but ready to give. In other words, and this is really why you came tonight to hear, Frank Sinatra was wrong. What do I mean by that?

Well, Frank Sinatra said there's one city that if you make it there, you can make it anywhere. If you make the, if in New York, the critics love you. If in New York, you make the headlines. If in New York, you have a ticker tape parade. If in New York, you critics love you. If in New York, you make the headlines. If in New York, you have a ticker tape parade. If in New York, you get applause and acclaim. If in New York, you have a mansion, then you know you've made it.

But Jesus gives you something better. There is a mansion in the really greatest city in the universe waiting for you if you believe in him, there's applause, there's acclaim, there's a ticker tape parade. It's all there for you. And if I know that, let me tell you something, if you make it there, then you can make it anywhere.

Don't you understand? If you say, who cares what the city thinks? I can move out with poise, I'm not worried about it, I'm not upset about it. I'm not upset about it. I can move out. I finally like those early Christians. I figured out what the gospel's about. Michael Foucault, the postmodern theorist,

pointed out a problem that we have in the world. He says, ordinarily, the way we form an identity is this. We find an identity factor that makes us feel good about ourselves and we get a sense of self worth by despising the people who don't have it. In other words, to use Foucault's language, we create and bolster a self through exclusion of the other, capital O. It works like this. If I really feel good about myself because I'm a hard worker,

I have to despise people who are lazy. Or if I say, I feel good about myself because I am moral and religious, I have to despise people who I perceive as being immoral and irreligious. Or if I say, I feel good about myself because I am a liberal person who accepts everyone, then I have to despise the people who I consider bigots.

In other words, as Foucault would say, here's how everybody gets an identity. I look at what I'm good at and I say, I'm okay because I'm not like them or them. But what if your identity is in Christ? Not in being a Christian, a good little Christian who goes to church and reads the Bible, but in Christ. What if I can say to myself, I am loved not because I'm moral, not because I'm open-minded, not because I'm this, not because I'm that, but because because Jesus Christ when I was not believing the right thing when I was not practicing the right thing when I was doing things in my life that must have offended his holy and loving soul when I was doing all the wrong things Jesus died for me

now if that's the basis for my whole my whole, then how do I look out at the city, filled with people who are believing the wrong things and doing the wrong things? Not assimilation, not tribe. I love them. Because Jesus on the cross, when Jesus Christ died on the cross, he was dying for me even though I deeply differed with him. That empowers me to go out into the city and serve and love people who I deeply differ with. Here in New York City, there's a tendency to say, get rid of your idea that there's one true religion.

Get rid of the idea that anybody has the truth. Accept the idea that truth is relative to the individual. And if you believe that, then I will accept you as an enlightened human being. And if not, I will consider you an intolerant, dangerous bigot. In other words, in New York City, I will accept you if you come into my epistemology, if you come into my worldview, if you adopt my worldview. But Jesus Christ gives Christians a resource for loving people who do not believe what you believe.

Because Jesus died for me when I didn't believe what he believed. And Jesus died for me when I was practicing things that I found were offensive. And so Christianity finally gives you a resource for moving out into a pluralistic, fragmented city and loving people who are utterly different than you. When New York City says, oh, I'll accept you. I believe in all the religions.

As long as you accept it, nobody's got the truth. That's cultural assimilation. That's cultural imperialism. That's saying, oh, I'll accept you as long as you're just like us. Christianity gives you a basis for accepting people who are not like you, loving people who are not like you. Because Jesus Christ, when he died for me on the cross, was telling me I was a sinner, but he radically loved me. Do you see this?

Do you understand it? Jesus lost the city that was, so that you and I could be citizens of the city that is to come, and that makes us salt and light in the city that is Let me just close this way number one. I want to tell you two things two practical application number one live in the city when Paul the Apostle Wanted to reach a region he went into the biggest city in that region planted a church and left the region didn't go anywhere else Why because he knew that if you planted a church and left the region, didn't go anywhere else. Why? Because he knew that if you capture a city, you capture

the region. The way to capture the imagination of United States society is you go to the cities of the United States and you live the gospel out and you show the world what the gospel is in a place where if you capture the imagination of the city, it changes the society. Paul knew it. The early Christians practiced it. Be in the city, stay in the city. Listen, the Bible says history begins in a garden, but it will end in a city. If you go to the very end of time and you see where the world is going, where the universe is going, it's in Genesis 21, what do you see coming out of heaven? The suburb of God? I see the great suburb of God coming out of heaven. I see

parking lots. I see shopping malls. No. There are no parking lots in the city of God. There's no room. It's a city coming down. It's a diverse, artistic, energetic city. If you utterly hate New York City, I don't know what you're going to do in the New Jerusalem. I mean, of course it gets rid of all the city problems, but it's going to be a city. Friends listen. If you live here, you may have a lot of Christian friends who live in the rest of the country. When we all get to New Jerusalem, you're going to have to show them how to use the subways. So application number one, live in the city. Application number two, don't live in the city the way we are. Don't live selfishly.

If you are so driven by your own ego, or you're so driven by family expectations, that you are working so hard in your career that you're not doing a thing for the poor, you either are a Christian, but you're not thinking out what the gospel is all about, or you're not a Christian, and I invite you to come get the resources you need. Are you living for the city?

Do you have the attitude toward New York that God said that the children of Israel should have toward Babylon? Are you seeking its peace? Are you praying for it? Are you rooting for it? Are you just using it? If you're just using it, you haven't come to grips with what your identity is in Christ. You haven't come to grips with the tale of two cities. You haven't come to grips with what your identity is in Christ. You haven't come to grips with the tale of two cities.

You haven't come to grips with any of this. Don't live selfishly and don't live disdainfully. New Yorkers very often say, if you come into my epistemology and you become a relativist like me, then I'll treat you as an enlightened person. Then I'll embrace you. Then I'll be kind and care. But the gospel gives you the ability and the resources to love people who won't come into your world view. Think of how God won you over, not by taking power, by coming and losing power and serving

you. How did God win you? Not with a sword in his hand, but with nails in his hands. Not coming to bring judgment, but to bear judgment. And that's why that hymn goes like this, not with swords loud clashing nor roll of stirring drums, with deeds of love and mercy, the heavenly kingdom comes. Let's pray. Thank you for giving us the gospel. Thank you for helping us see that it changes the way everything operates in our lives. And we ask that you

would show us how to be a community of people who are dual citizens, citizens of the city of God that makes us the very, very, very, very best citizens of the city of New York. Let us witness to and show the earthly city the nature of the gospel by being an alternate city right here in the middle of this great New York city. We pray that you would help us to love and seek and pray for the shalom of this great city. And we ask that you would change us with the gospel in all the ways because we ask it in Jesus name. Amen. Thanks for listening to Tim Keller on the Gospel in Life podcast. If you found today's teaching helpful and something you feel more people should hear,

we invite you to consider becoming a Gospel in Life monthly partner. Your partnership helps more people discover the truth of God's Word and the hope and joy of the gospel. Just visit gospelinlife.com slash partner to learn more. This month's sermons were recorded in 2003. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.