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

Episode Date: January 29, 2025

When you embrace God by faith two things come into your life: a transforming power and a deep tension. It’s a duality. If you try to resolve the deep tension, you lose the transforming power.  The writer of Hebrews says the great believers in history were resident aliens on earth. In Greco-Roman society, a resident alien was a permanent resident but not a citizen. That is the tension that anyone who wants the transforming power of God must live with. If we want to understand the message, we need to see four things we learn in this passage: 1) there are two cities, 2) each city has a conflict with the other, 3) only one city is for the other, and 4) how to become citizens of the one city that’s for the other. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 1, 2005. Series: Christ: Our Treasury (The Book of Hebrews). Scripture: Hebrews 11:13-16; 13:10-16. 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. This month on the podcast, Tim Keller is preaching through the book of Hebrews to answer this essential question, if God loves us so much, why is life so hard? Tonight's scripture reading comes from Hebrews chapter 11 verses 13 through 16 and Hebrews chapter 13 verses 10 through 16. All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised. They only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers

on Earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had the opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat. The high priest carries the blood of animals into the most holy place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us then go to him outside the camp bearing the disgrace he bore. For here we do not have an enduring city but we are looking for the city that is to come. Through Jesus therefore let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise The fruit of lips that confess his name and do not forget to do good and to share with others for with such sacrifices God is pleased. This is God's word

Hebrews is written to people who are beaten up They've been experiencing a great deal of difficulties, a lot of suffering in their lives, and the question that's on their hearts constantly that the Hebrews writer is addressing is this, if God supposedly loves us so much, why is our life so hard? You've never said that, have you? If God supposedly loves us so much, why is our life so hard?

And one of the most amazing of the answers that the writer gives is in this text here. In this passage, we're told that when you embrace the living God by faith, into your life comes transforming power and a deep tension, a duality, and if you try to resolve it, you lose that transforming power. Now, what do we mean by that?

In this very first verse, it says, talking about the great believers in history, it says, they admitted they were aliens and strangers on the earth. They admitted they were aliens. Now, the word, the Greek word translated aliens there is actually a fairly complicated word and it referred to a very specific status in Greco-Roman society. The best translation would be resident aliens. Resident aliens. On the one hand, these are people who are not visitors. They're not tourists. They're not just passing through. A resident alien was a permanent resident. This is where you live. And yet, though they're residents, they are not citizens of the land or the city where

they reside. They're not tourists, they're residents, but they're not citizens of where they reside, they're aliens. And that is the tension that anyone who wants the transforming power of God in their lives, that is the tension you must live with. In fact, to some degree, much of the power for change comes from the tension. And if you try to resolve the tension in one direction or another, it's a spiritual disaster. That's the message. And if we want to understand the message, we need to break this down and learn four lessons from the passage.

And the four things we learn are, we learn there are two cities, we learn that each city has a conflict with the other, but we learn but only one city is for the other. There are two cities, each has a conflict with the other, but only one city is for the other. There are two cities, each has a conflict with the other, but only one is really for the other. And last of all, we learn how to become citizens of that city, the one that's for the other. Two cities, conflict, one though is for the other, and how to become a citizen of it.

Okay, number one. First point is there are two cities. Craig Kester, Lutheran commentator who wrote the anchor Bible commentary on the book of Hebrews says you can divide the book of Hebrews into three basic parts. Chapters one to four, we are on a journey with Jesus the prophet into the true rest of God. Chapter 5 to 10, we are on a journey with Jesus the true priest into the true presence of God. Chapter 10 to 13, we are with Jesus the King on a journey to the true city of God, to the

rest of God, to the presence of God, and to the city of God. And when we come to this last section, the word city, the term city of God, the city to come, is all through these last chapters. Notice verse 13 says, all these people were still living by faith, they were looking to this city that God was preparing for them. Now who are these people? Well, Noah, Enoch, Abraham, people that are mentioned further up in the chapter. We read in verse 9, Abraham, by faith, made his home as a stranger. That's the same word, as a stranger, a resident alien in a foreign country, for he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose builder

and maker is God." Now, what does it mean to say God is preparing a city? What do we mean? The word city in the ancient times was synonymous with the word society or civilization. In fact, you know, our word civilization actually literally means a civilized person is a city-fied person. Now, the reason that the city and civilization were so closely tied was in ancient times only in the city did you have the safety for a cultural life to grow. Only in the city did you have political life, the rule of law. Only in the city did you have political life, the rule of law. Only in the city did you have economic life and commerce and exchange.

You didn't have it anywhere else. And therefore when we say Abraham, when the Bible says Abraham was seeking a city, that God is building, what it means is that God is preparing a new human society, a new human order, a new set of social arrangements, not based on power and pride, what the Bible calls the lofty city, the earthly city, or the city of man, but a city, a new human order based on justice, based on peace, and based on service, the city of God, the heavenly city. Now, if you want to get a picture of what that final city is like, which is referred to here in

chapter 13 verse 14 where it says we're looking for the city that is to come. This divine city that God is building, God's city, is in the future and at the end of the book of Revelation chapter 21 22, you see it coming down out of heaven. It's God's new human order. And it comes down onto the earth and it cleanses ours. When the city of God gets here, in the city of God, we're told all disease, all death, all poverty, all strife, all racism, all poverty is wiped off the face of the earth, and all tears are wiped off the face of the people. City of God, the city to come. Great, huh? But here's the tension. We already see here that that city is a city of the future. It's a city to come. It's a city in the future.

But in chapter 12 verse 22, and if you were here two weeks ago, we read this, in chapter 12 verse 22, the Hebrew's writer says to his readers, but you have come to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. Now wait a minute, it seems like a direct contradiction. It's in the same book Chapter 12 says you have come to the city of God Chapter 13 verse 14 says the city of God is still to come now, which is it is The city of guys still to come or have we already come to it and the answer is The city of God is already but not yet. It's here, but it's not here. Jesus says to his disciples, you are a city set on a hill,

whose good works are the light of the world. And what he means by that is that when those people who have experienced the grace of God get together and form a community, that community is a imperfect but genuine foretaste of that future city. It's a pilot plant. The new social arrangements, the new way that human heart works, the new way that people get along, the new, a place of service, a place of peace, a place of justice, a counterculture. So there's a certain sense in which the community of people

who have experienced the grace of God are a foretaste of that future city. So in summary, we're in the city but we're not in the city, or put another way, we're citizens of a city but we're residents of another city. That we're citizens of the city to come but we're residents in the city that is. And there's your tension. We're resident aliens. And what the tension means is, let's pull that apart. Let us pull that apart.

We have said, first of all, that these two cities that we have to do with are in conflict because we're aliens. Aliens. What does it mean to say that people who believe in God through Jesus Christ are aliens? And here it says, look at verse 13, it says, let us bear our disgrace for here we have no enduring city. Now let us, I'd like to reflect on that fascinating verse for a moment. Let us bear a disgrace for here we have no enduring city. This is what that means. Christians, any version of human society, any city in any economic system, in any political system. It doesn't matter whether it's socialism or capitalism, something in between.

It doesn't matter whether it's east or west. It doesn't matter whether it's traditional or individualistic. It doesn't matter whether it's highly moral or highly secular. It doesn't matter. We have no enduring city here. Any city that Christians live in, you will sense a deep discord and tension. Painfully, you will be painfully different from your neighbors. You will be in tension and conflict. There will be deep discord between what you believe and what your

city believes, no matter what your city is like. Or, to take the language of the verse No matter where you live the culture in which you live will look at your beliefs your Christian your biblical beliefs and practices and Values and it will like a lot of them will say that's good. That's good That's good But at some point every culture will look at what Christian beliefs are and look at some of the things that we do and believe and say disgrace I Christian beliefs are and look at some of the things that we do and believe and say, disgrace. I am culturally offended by what Christians, I am culturally offended. It's disgraceful those things that the Bible says. It doesn't matter where you live because we have no enduring city. If there's anybody here who thinks, well, Christians would be

very happy in traditional moral, you know, conservative societies, not liberal, pluralistic, secular societies. And if you believe that, you still don't understand the text. And that means I'm just going to have to keep the sermon going. And it's your fault. No, look, we have no enduring city. There is no economic system. There is no political system. There is no culture. There's no century in which Christians are really at home. The culture surrounding Christians will always look at us at some points and say, disgrace. So for example, let's give you many examples. The culture of communist Poland in the 70s and 80s made Christians look liberal. Why? Because Christians stand against the idolization of the state. They stand

against making the state into a god. They stand against statism. They stand against the idea that the state can decide what is right or wrong. And because Christians were against the statism, they worked for freedom and they were the liberals, you see, and they worked for the fall of communism. But in United States culture, United States culture makes Christians look like conservatives. Why? Because Christians, here it's no problem with statism. Here Christians stand against the individualism of our culture. We stand against the idolization of the individual fulfillment or individual consciousness, saying everybody has the right to determine what is right or wrong for him or herself.

Now why is it that Christians are alien in every city, every culture, east, west, traditional, individual, everyone. Well let me give you some examples. You can maybe cluster cultures into two categories. There's collectivistic cultures which are more traditional, hierarchical, and they say the individual is less valuable than the family, less valuable than the tribe, less valuable than the group. And then you have individualistic societies like our own in which individual rights are more important than your obligations to the family or to the tribe or anything else.

All right? Okay, let's just see how Christian, how the Bible fits into any of those cultures. Let's see what the Bible says about sex. Okay? Well, in traditional cultures, hierarchical, family-oriented cultures, there's a prudishness about sex. And when you go into the Bible, if you really know how to read the Bible, you'll see there is no prudishness about what the Bible says about sex at all. You go and read Genesis 1 and 2, the account of creation. And what is the epitome of creation? How does it end?

What is the final episode? What is the finality of the great hymn of creation in Genesis 1 and 2? The sexual union of a male and a female. That's how it ends. That's the top. Go to the Song of Solomon. See the bare faced rejoicing in sexual pleasure. And if you, you know, if you're from a traditional culture, if you're from the prudery, you won't

be able to handle it. On the other hand, what the Bible says about sex does not go down well at all in an individualistic culture. Why? Because what the Bible says about sex is that sex is for building community. You must only have sex with someone who you're married to. You must only have sex with someone who is absolutely, permanently, and exclusively committed to you.

And so what the Bible says about sex offends people in traditional cultures, it offends people in individual cultures, it doesn't fit. Let me give you one other example. What the Bible says about truth. Individualistic cultures don't like to hear that there's absolute truth. The Bible says you must accept it not because it works for you as an individual but because it's true to what is there. On the other hand how do traditional cultures use truth? In traditional moral cultures, hierarch moral cultures,

hierarchical cultures, the people that have the truth bash others with it. It's a way of putting down people, it's a way of marginalizing people, but what is the ultimate truth of the Bible? The ultimate truth of the Bible is that you are a sinner saved by sheer grace. And if anyone uses biblical truth to bash somebody else, it only proves that they have no idea what the biblical truth is. Biblical truth, Christian truth, doesn't fit into traditional culture or individual culture. It doesn't fit into Western culture or Eastern culture. It doesn't fit... And do you see one more thing? Do you see how absolutely narrow it is to say Christians need to get up to date?

That happens a lot, especially in New York. They say, you know, I like a lot of what the Bible says, New Yorkers say, but some of it's regressive. Some of it is just out of date, some of it's primitive. There's certain parts of the Bible that are just socially regressive, and you know, you've got to get up into the modern world. You've got to get up of date. Some of it's primitive. There's certain parts of the Bible that are just socially regressive. And, you know, you've got to get up into the modern world. You've got to get up to date. Do you realize how narrow that is? Think about it. Our culture likes a lot of what's in the Bible, but there's some text of the Bible that is, say, disgrace. Outrageous, scandalous. But if you go to another culture of the world, there's the things that we in our culture don't like, they, there's the things that we in our culture

don't like, they like, and the things that we in our culture hate, they think are fine. Not only that, keep this in mind. Do you know the things in the Bible that right now the average New Yorker thinks of as regressive a hundred years from now? They're going to think of as progressive. When you read, you know what's so hard about reading Augustine's The City of God? And Augustine was a tremendous intellectual. And 1,500 years ago, he was defending Orthodox Christian biblical belief, he was defending Orthodox belief, against the critiques of his culture. Now, you know

why it's so tedious to read The City of God? Because all of the criticisms of his culture are in the dustbin of history. They're laughing stocks. But Augustine's Christianity, Orthodox Christianity, is still something that millions, hundreds of millions, billions of people still embrace and love. And when you read, if you embrace Orthodox Christianity, you can read Augustine's Confessions 1,500 years ago and say brother this is the same faith and you realize that the right now some of you are living in New York City right and you are having trouble accepting Christianity because all the smart people all the cultural elites say Christianity the Bible this text and

that text is so primitive all of the things that are worrying you so much about the Bible because our culture is critiquing and those things are going to be in a dustbin of history too. 100 years from now, 200 years from now, they're going to be laughed at but not biblical Christianity itself. It will never go out of date. We all long for a home, for a place where we can truly flourish and belong. In One with My Lord, a new book by Sam Albury, he shows how the Bible promises that there is a place like that for all of us, but it doesn't have a zip code. Instead, the key to home and the very heartbeat of the Christian faith itself is that we find

ourselves in Christ. For the New Testament writers, this phrase was so important that instead of using the term Christian, they referred to followers of Jesus as those who are in Christ. Jesus is not only our Savior, Lord, Teacher, and Friend. He is also our home and our location. Each chapter of One with My Lord is short enough to be read as a devotional, and in it, Albury examines what being in Christ means, giving us a fresh lens to view the gospel and all that it means for our hope, purpose, and identity.

We believe this new book will help you grow in your relationship with Christ. To request your copy of One with My Lord, visit GospelandLife.com slash give. That's GospelandLife.com slash give. Now, here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. See when you say Christianity has to get up to date, what you're really saying is my culture is the ultimate culture. My time in history is the ultimate moment. And it's not. My time in history is the ultimate moment.

And it's not. If Christians were to actually try to fit into their cities everywhere in the world, there'd be no Christianity left. We have no enduring city here. And the fastest way for Christianity to go out of date is to try to get up to date. Because everything that's up to date is soon laughed at. But according to the book of Hebrews, what the Bible says, if you embrace what the Bible says, you are adopting the values, the practices, and the beliefs of the city of God, which

is to come and will never pass away. And therefore you'll never be out of date. 500 years from now there will be hundreds of millions of people who believe what you believe. But if you criticize the Bible, if you get rid of Christianity in your life because you don't think it's up to date, the things that you have jettisoned the Bible for are a mess of pottage. It'll be out of date faster than you know. So you see Christians are aliens. Every city we're in there's a tension between what

we believe and what Christianity believes. But city we're in, there's a tension between what we believe and what Christianity believes. But secondly, we're resident aliens. We're in conflict with our earthly city, but we're for our earthly city. What does that mean? What does it mean to be a resident alien? Well, a resident alien is not a tourist who's just here for a time, not a visitor who's just here for a time. In fact, not even a temporary person who comes here just to get a degree or just to make some money or just to get something on the resume and then get out.

A resident alien is someone who says, this is where I'm gonna live, permanently. And according to what the Bible says, to be a resident alien means to be not a consumer of the place where you live, but to be committed to its full flourishing. So for example in Jeremiah 29, there we have a perfect example of what it means to be a resident alien.

God speaks through Jeremiah to the children of Israel who have been taken into Babylon, that terrible wicked city, and what does God say to them? He says, settle down. Build houses. Plant vineyards. city and what does God say to them? He says settle down, build houses, plant vineyards, raise your family, but most of all he says pray and work for the shalom, the full flourishing of that city. Love the city in which you're an alien. Now that's what Hebrews 13 is all about. We started looking at it last week. Do you

remember? And it's week. Do you remember? And it's amazing. Verse 1 says, work at Philadelphia, and that means love of your brothers and sisters, the people like you. But verse 2 says, work at Philoxenia, which is the love of strangers, the love of people who are not like you. Verse 3 says, care about prisoners and the oppressed. Now, what's going on here? Something very weird. Verse three says, care about prisoners and the oppressed.

Now what's going on here? Something very weird. Love the city that will never love you back. That's what we're being told. Look at verse 13. Bear the disgrace that you're going to have. Every city you're in, Christians, whatever the city you live in, your city of residence will always consider much of what you think and believe and do

a disgrace, culturally offensive. So how are we supposed to respond? We bear the disgrace, verse 13, verse 15, and therefore we joyfully and gratefully, verse 16, do good and share with others. The verb do good means to care for the people in need and the poor. The verb share with others literally means to share your income. We are supposed to love a city that will never love us back. We're supposed to sacrifice for a city that will misunderstand us, sometimes marginalize us, and certainly reject us. We're supposed to understand that we'll never be understood. We're supposed to expect not to be expected. We're supposed to love a city

that will never thank us and never appreciate what we do and will always consider us outrageous and to some degree sinister and suspicious. That's what you're called to do. You're supposed to be for the city that's against you. Do you know how radical this is? Let me tell you how radical it is. Sociologists for many years have actually taken religious groups and tried to analyze how they relate to culture, the culture around them.

And they've divided them into two basic ways, and this is generalization but largely true. They say religious groups in their relationship to the surrounding culture fall into two groups, sectarianism and chaplaincy. Sectarianism and chaplaincy. Sectarianism, sectarian religious groups look at society as them. Chaplaincy religious groups look at society as us. Sectarian religious groups have very, very high standards saying you can't be part of ours unless you believe all these things and do all these things, otherwise you're out. Chaplaincy religious groups say it doesn't really matter what you believe we include everybody we just love everybody just come. Sectarian religious groups say keep away from the world. We're aliens. On the other hand

chaplaincy religious groups say no get involved. We're residents, but we're just like everybody else What you have here is fundamentalism fundamentalist religious groups mainline religious groups the fundamentalist religious groups are Aliens period the mainline religious groups are residents period Do you see what's going on in most most religious groups, the tension that the Hebrews writers are talking about is resolved. They're not resident aliens. They're either aliens or they're residents. See, it's not enough to say, as many people say, Christians should be in the world but not of the world. That's not good enough. Pharisees are in the world

but not of the world, but they hate the world. They look down on it. And this is what is wrong with both sectarian religious groups and chaplaincy religious groups, fundamentalist and mainline. Both of them are basically about power. They're really part of the earthly city. Mainline groups basically get power by completely agreeing with everything in the culture so the cultural elites can say that's okay. That's good.

Fundamentalist groups get power by vilifying the world and being hostile to the world and that's how they raise money with all that anger and that's also how they get their followers in line. But don't you see when you resolve it so that you're either an alien or a resident but not a resident alien, you lose your power to change lives. Neither of those groups are changing lives. The chaplaincy doesn't change lives at all. It just says, you all come. We accept you as you are. And the fundamentalists, they coerce people. They conform but there's no transformation and there's no transformation of the city because so much of the creative

power for serving in the city comes from the tension of being a church which is against the world for the world. That we know we're aliens but we're resident aliens. We're gonna love a city that will never love us back. We're a counterculture but we're a counterculture for the common good. We're aliens but we're unalienated aliens. We're not Pharisees. We're not the sectarians. We're aliens, but we're unalienated aliens. Do you see how hard that is?

Do you see how weird that is? Do you see how difficult that is? And also, do you see how rare that is? The reason it's rare? I don't, well, let's face it. The sociologists are right. Most religious groups do resolve the tension by being either aliens or resident, but not resident aliens.

So now how are we going to get the power to be citizens of the future city and yet residents of the present city? Or, put it another way, according to the book of Hebrews, here's how you know you're citizens of the city of God. Here it is. Ready? Class. Okay? True citizens of the heavenly city are the very, very, very, very, very best residents of their earthly city. True citizens of the heavenly city are the very, very, very best residents of the earthly city. They love a city that will never love them back, in fact might persecute them, and they're

going to do it anyway. They're a counterculture but an engaged counterculture. They're deeply different but deeply engaged. They're not naively inclusive or harshly exclusive. They love the city. Now how do we get the power to be citizens of the city of God? Resident aliens. How do we get the power? And the answer is in this little text but especially in one little word. The answer is here. Jesus suffered outside the city

gate to make the people holy through his blood. Let us then go to him outside the camp bearing the disgrace he bore for here we do not have an enduring city but we are looking for the city that is to come. It's all there but especially in one little word you know did you see it? Then. How are we going to become not sectarian or chaplaincy? How can Redeemer become neither? How can Redeemer be resident aliens? What the Bible wants us to be. We're never going to get there by just trying real hard. You know that? You know, let me show you why that goes wrong. See, it'd be very easy to say,

okay, okay, I get it. I get it. Resident aliens, which means we need to try harder than the fundamentalist to be biblical and to be, have high standards and have integrity, which means we need to try harder than the fundamentalists to be biblical and to have high standards and have integrity, but we're going to try even harder than the main line to love the city and care about the whole city and be engaged with it for the common good. And so we're just going to just slap all the power and the integrity and the standards of the fundamentalists onto the love and the engagement of the main line and we're going to be the perfect church. We'll be the only really good church in town. You see what's happening? I said the problem with both sectarian religious groups and mainline religious groups

is that they're basically about power. And as soon as you start to say, well, you see, we're going to try real hard and we won't be either like these awful people we won't be like them We won't be like them will be the good ones. We're starting to do the same thing The only way we're ever going to become resident aliens is that the fundamental structures of our heart are changed by an encounter with Jesus Christ now You see whenever the Bible says whenever biblical writers start to try to get you to change your life, they never appeal directly to the will, but they go to your heart. And they never appeal directly to you, but they go to him.

So for example, 2 Corinthians 8, Paul is talking about giving your money, but look how he does it. He doesn't say be generous because that's the Christian thing to do. Oh no, here's what he says. He says, if you're having trouble being generous because you're anxious about money or you're too needing money, it's because you don't know the generosity of Jesus Christ who on the cross, though he was rich, became poor so that through his poverty we might become rich. Paul won't let you get away with saying, oh I know Jesus died for me, but I'm not being generous.

He says, if you're not generous, you don't know Jesus died for you. Jesus is not really your savior, you're still not believing it, you're not being melted by it, not being changed by it, you haven't grasped it in the depths of your being. Money is still your significance, money is still your security. Don't tell me you know Jesus died for you. Don't tell me you know Jesus died for you. Don't tell me you know he's a savior. You don't know it in the depths of your being. It's a lack of rejoicing in the gospel. That's why you're not generous, because if you knew he died for you, you'd be generous.

That's how it always works in the Bible. The biblical writers never say, do this, now get to it. Nor does the Bible say, be like Jesus, now get to it. Never the Bible say be like Jesus now get to it never here's how the Bible goes the Bible says do this and if you're honest you say I can't and the Bible comes back and says yeah but there's one who did for you in your place and to the degree you grasp that and it changes your life you can begin to do it too. Do this. I can't but there's one who did in your place and if

you believe that and grasp that then you can begin to do it too. Alright? Now that's exactly what the Hebrews writer is doing here. Let's try it. The Hebrews writer is saying in the book of Hebrews get out there and love the city that will never love you back. Never thank you. Never appreciate you. Always think that you're sinister and suspicious. Get out there and love a city that will never love you back. And if you're honest you'll say, I can't. But the writer of the Hebrews says, I know, but there's one who did. Jesus loved that city of Jerusalem. You know the place in Luke where he's crying out and he's weeping, he's saying

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, if only you knew the things that pertain to your peace but now they're hidden from your eyes. Jesus loved that city. He healed people in that city. He fed people in that city. But what does it say that happened to him? He loved a city that eventually crucified him outside the gate. Why outside the gate? Because that was the symbol, but it was a powerful symbol. Crime alienates you from human community. Sin alienates you from human community.

If you live for yourself, you destroy human community, so you're sent out of the city, you're sent out of the human community, you experience alienation, which is what you deserve. Jesus Christ loved that city, but he lost that city. But on the cross, he didn't just lose the earthly city, you know what else he lost. He lost the city of God. Because he doesn't say Jerusalem, Jerusalem, why hast thou forsaken me? He doesn't say earthly city, why hast thou forsaken me? He says my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? He doesn't say Earthly City of why is that for sake of me?

He says my God my God why has that forsaken me? What was going on on the cross Jesus Christ was losing the city for you and me He was experiencing the cosmic alienation that sin deserves. He was being sent outside the gate He was being cast out in our place so that God can accept us in spite of our failures or put it this way. Jesus Christ lost the city that was so that we could become citizens of the city to come, making us salt and light in the city that is. He lost the city it was, making you citizens of the city to come, making a salt and light in the city that is why.

Only when I see Jesus Christ loving someone who will not love him back, loving a city who won't love him back, loving me and you who won't love him back ever like we should. When I see that happening, then I'm melted, then I'm empowered, then I'm affirmed, then I'm humbled into being able to do the same thing. And only then, and only then, I've got the real city, so I don't have to be scared of or seduced by New York City. I'll tell you something, without the gospel, unless you know that you know the ultimate mayor and you get into the ultimate parties because you know the Lord of the ultimate

city, the city of God, you're going to come into a place like New York, the big bad New York. There are some, the people are more like New York, the big, bad New York. There are some, the people are more beautiful than you, they're more rich than you, they're smarter than you, they're better than you, everywhere. You're only going to, there's only two possible ways to respond to this city. You either get seduced by it, sucked into it, because you desperately want significant security from the people out there, or else you're intimidated by it, or you're hostile to it. You become a resident or you become an alien. But the gospel makes you a resident alien. It frees you to serve the city instead of use it or fear it or bash it or be seduced by it. Finally, Jesus Christ suffered outside the gate. Let us then therefore because he

did for you and for me, to the degree you grasp what he did, we can bear the same disgrace and still love the city who will never accept us. They'll always look at some of our beliefs and say disgraceful, outrageous, but we don't care. We love them anyway because that's how Jesus loved you. And if you understand the gospel then we really will finally be like the early Christians were described in the letter of Diagnetus. This is a description of the early Christians. They share their table with all but not their bed with all. They pass their days on

earth but they are citizens of heaven. They love all human beings but they're persecuted by everyone. They are poor yet make many rich. They love all human beings but they're persecuted by everyone. They are poor yet make many rich. They lack all things and yet have everything they want. They are insulted and repay the insult with honor. To sum up, what the soul is in the body, that's what Christians are in the city. As the soul is dispersed through all the members of the body, Christians now are scattered through all the cities of the city. As the soul is dispersed through all the members of the body, Christians now are scattered through all the cities of the world. What a challenge, what an invitation, what an adventure. Let us pray. Thank you Father for providing for us this metaphor, this image of being resident aliens, citizens of a city that we don't have yet.

Citizens in one city, residents of another. Alienated, but unalienated. Unalienated aliens, a counterculture for the common good. And we pray Lord that you would turn us into that more and more as we come to grasp more deeply what Jesus Christ did for us. He loved a city who couldn't love him back that killed him outside the gate. And because he did that for us, we can follow him. Make us all that we should be through faith in Jesus. We pray in his name. Amen. Thank you for joining us today. If you were encouraged by today's teaching, please rate and review it so more people can discover this podcast. And to find more great Gospel-centered content by Tim Keller, visit Gospelandlife.com.

Today's sermon was recorded in 2005. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. you