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

Episode Date: July 21, 2023

We’re wrapping up a series tonight, where we’ve been tracing the single story of the Bible. The Bible is not a set of individual stories that tell you how you should live in order to find God. The Bible is a single story about how God came to earth to find you.  The beginning of that story is in Genesis, where we learn what’s wrong with us. The middle of that story is in Romans, where we learn what God did through Jesus Christ to put things right. We’re now looking at the book of Revelation, where it tells us how all things work out in the end.  Here, in the last chapter of the last book of the Bible, we have the final vision of God’s future and what he is preparing for us. Let’s ask three questions: 1) What is it? 2) How does it arrive? and 3) How can you be sure that you belong to it? This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 26, 2009. Series: Bible: The Whole Story - Redemption and Restoration. Scripture: Revelation 22:1-11. 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. People around the world understand the word gospel to mean good news, but it's much more than a message of salvation. The gospel is also a comprehensive worldview that can shape how we understand ourselves, others, and the world around us. Today Tim Keller is delving into the underlying implications of the gospel and how it truly changes everything. After you listen, we invite you to go online

to gospelandlife.com and sign up for our email updates. When you sign up, you'll receive our quarterly newsletter with articles from Dr. Keller as well as other valuable gospel-centered resources. Subscribe today at gospelandlife.com. Scripts reading tonight comes from the book of Revelation, chapter 22 verses 1 through 9. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life

as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great city, street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing 12 crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse.

The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and His servants will serve Him. They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light, and they will reign forever and ever. The angel said to me, these words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God of the Spirits of the prophets, sent his angel to show his servants the things that must soon take place. Behold, I am coming soon.

Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy in this book. I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me. But he said to me, do not do it. I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers, the prophets, and of all who keep the words of this book,

worship God. This is God's word. We're wrapping up a series tonight. A series that started years ago, I think, on the story of the Bible. And we've said the Bible is not a set of individual stories that tell you how you should live in order to find God. The Bible is a single story about how God came to Earth

to find you. And we said the beginning of that story is in Genesis where we learn what's wrong with us. And the middle of that story is in Romans where we saw what God did through Jesus Christ to put things right. And now just for the last few weeks and now tonight, finally, we're looking at the very end of the book of Revelation, where it tells us how all things work out in the end.

And here in the last chapter of the last book of the Bible, we have a, the final vision of God's future, what He is preparing for us. And let's ask these three questions, what is it? How does it arrive? And how can you be sure to belong to it? What is it? How does it arrive? And how can you be sure to belong to it? What is it? How does it arrive? And how you can be sure that you belong to it, that you'll be in it.

First of all, what is it? Well, in chapter 21 and in chapter 22, we've got a great picture of what the world looks like when God gets it exactly the way he wants it. When Jesus Christ redempts to work as complete and when God has the world exactly the way he wants it, it's a city. It's a city. See that?

Look at verse two, there's a great street, you know what that is? It's a boulevard, the main street. It's a great street, you know what that is? It's a boulevard, the main street. It's a city. And so if you want to understand the narrative arc of the whole Bible, what you actually have is that the Bible begins, you know, history begins in a garden but it ends in a city. And when God has the world, the way He wants it,

it's urban. Now this is interesting. Notice it's a garden city. And here that brings up something. And when I Notice it's a garden city. And here that brings up something. And when I say it's a garden city, it's a city. The word city means dense population, lots, lots of people. But this city is filled with rivers and water and trees, and that's something important to look at.

Here's why. Years ago, a friend of mine gave me a little way of understanding cities that I have never forgotten and I use all the time and therefore, if you've been around, you may have heard it before, and he said this. He said, the city is where there's more people than plants, and the country is where there's more plants than people. And since God certainly loves people more than plants, He must love the city more than the country.

And we laugh. Ha-ha, it was funny, that's why I told you. But now that we're done laughing and laughing that we left, we're left with an uncomfortable theological truth. How do you understand beauty? For you see, I have a tendency to say, we all have a tendency to say, I got to get out of New York, I gotta get out of the city, I wanna get out to see some beauty.

When we think of beauty, we mean trees and grass and water. But can a tree or a river compete with the image of God? Human beings are made in the image of God. A human being has a beauty and a depth about him or her that a tree can't match. And you know what main hat is? There's more image of God per square inch in main hat than anywhere in North America. Because there's 60,000 people per square mile that live here. Know that? And the next most densely populated city is something like 12,000 people per square mile.

There's more image of God out there, and therefore, I wasn't kidding when I said, how do you define beauty? Because when God looks at the world, He has to love cities. Do you love cities? Because there's more beauty there, real beauty there than anywhere else. But not only does this city have the glorious density of humanity, it's also got natural

beauty because, you know, it's got trees and leaves and an incredible river as clear as crystal. And leaves, and probably these trees have got leaves more beautiful, more fragrant than anyone has ever seen, because they heal, not just individuals, but the nations. They heal societies. We have leaves on trees that create medicine, where our fragrant and they're very refreshing.

But we're talking about trees, we're talking about a river of life, clear as crystal. So this is a city that not only has incredible density of humanity, but also incredible natural beauty as well. And therefore, when God gets things the way He wants them, He has a human city with all of the advantages of human cities and none of the disadvantages. And because in our fallen world, there's great things about cities,

and there's awful things about cities. And in the future, all the awful things will be gone. All the great things will be there. And therefore, when God has the world the way He wants it, it's a city. Now, I've had people say to me, well, it's just a symbol though of the future. Isn't wants it, it's a city. Now I've had people say to me, well, it's just a symbol though of the future, isn't it?

This is just a symbol. It doesn't say there's, you know, the answer is yeah, of course. Anything that God says in the Bible about heaven or hell is symbolic to a degree because there's the reality, it can't be conveyed, you know, it's more than we dare imagine or able to conceive of. But never say any symbol is just a symbol if it's in the Bible.

Because if God's a Father, and we're in the family of God, that's a symbol, right? But it also tells us that families are important, doesn't it? It tells us that there's something about families that reflects the nature of God and that human families are necessary for you and I, the flourish, and even though families are broken because of sin, we ought to work to strengthen them. Well, we also now find out that God's a city builder,

and that we're in the city of God. And is that just a symbol? No. What it means is that God loves cities. And then even other broken because of sin they need to be strengthened because you can't have flourishing societies if the cities are going to hell in a hand basket. And therefore just like we ought to be working very, very hard to strengthen families, we ought to be working very hard to strengthen cities. And so when the children of Israel went, were exiled to Babylon, they hated their city.

And God said, you should love that city, even though it's filled with wicked pagans. He's a seat, the peace of it, the prospering of it, seek the shalom of it. Make it a great place to live. Pray for it. Babylon, Babylon.

And when Jonah wanted nothing to do with that wicked pagan city of Ninevite, all those awful pagans in it, God says to Jonah, there's 120,000 people there that don't know they're right him from their left. How could I not be moved with compassion for them? It says God to Jonah. So if you've learned to look at life and look at the world the way God does, you love cities. And you'd also see that it is extremely important to love them, to live in them, to work for their good. Now, you say, well, what does that really mean? Well, we'll get to more in a second here, but there's two things that in chapter 21 of Revelation

and chapter 22 of Revelation, we can do. But first, let's move on right now here. But first, let's move on to the second point. The first point is the future that God is preparing for us as urban. And the second point I'd like to make is, how does that arrive? What is that future? And now secondly, how does that future arrive?

And the answer is in stages. And here's why. Jesus says in the Cermon on the Mount, you are a city on a hill. He sings to his disciples, you're a city. You are a city, present hill. He sings to his disciples, you're a city. You are a city, present tense. And Philippians 3, verse 20, Paul says, your citizenship is in heaven, is present tense.

And yet here, we have God saying, there will be a city, you will be citizens of that city. Well, now which is it? there will be a city, you will be citizens of that city. Well now which is it? And the answer is both. Because it means that partially, people who believe in Jesus Christ, now constitute a city. Now are citizens of that coming city.

Now function to some degree as citizens in that city. And yet, it won't be fully realized until the end of time. Now you say, what does that mean? How can we be a city now? In other words, we're supposed to act like an alternate city in this city. Christians in New York City are an alternate city in this city. Christians in New York City are an alternate city where a fort taste of the future city, living now in this city.

And actually, citizens of the future city should be the very best citizens of their present cities. You say, how? Well, I'm going to give you two hints from Revelation 21 and 22. First of all, we should resist the oppression of the human city. And secondly, we should wipe away the tears of the human city. And we resist the exhaustion and oppression of the human city.

And when we wipe away the tears of the human city, we're living as citizens of the future city in our present cities. Here's what I mean. First of all, we should resist the exhaustion and oppression of the human city. Notice in verse 5, it says, that the citizens of the city of God

have God's name on them. Now, your name is your identity. And that means that if you're a citizen of the city of God, you know who you are, your God's, your child of the king, your his, you belong to him, you know your love, you're accepted in him, and therefore you know who you are. Now, this verse 5 of chapter 22 is a direct contrast to Genesis 11. In Genesis 11, we have the first example of human beings, sinful human beings, coming

together to build a city. It's in Genesis 11 that they build the tower or the skyscraper of Babel. And they're trying to build a city that's been called Babelong. And Babelong and Babel represent human society without God. And in Genesis 11 verse 4, we're told that they got together and they said, let's build this great tower, let's build this city to make a name for ourselves. Now, I would submit to you, that's the difference. That's a big difference between the city of man, which is what it's called, and the city of God.

Most Christians, even pastors, struggle to talk about their faith in a way that applies the power of the gospel to change lives, especially in our skeptical culture. Tim Keller's book, Preaching, Communicating Faith in an Age of Skepticism, is a guide for anyone who wants to become more effective in communicating about their faith. Pastors and lay people alike. Drawing on his years of experience, Dr. Keller will help you share your faith in a more engaging, passionate, and compassionate way from the pulpit or in the coffee shop. Preaching is our thank you for your gift to help Gospel and Life share the hope of Christ's love with people all over the world. So request your copy today at gospel and life share the hope of Christ's love with people all over the world. So request your copy today at gospelunlife.com slash give that's gospelunlife.com slash give. Now here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching.

Citizens in the city of God know who they are. They belong to God and they're living for God and they're accepted by God and they know their love they know their value But citizens in the city of man are trying to make a name for themselves They're not sure who they are. They're trying to achieve a sense of significance and value through their work through their art You know through their through their looks and they come to the city to be looked at They come to the city to achieve they come to the city to make money They come to the city to be looked at. They come to the city to achieve. They come to the city to make money. They come to the city to be part of the sophisticated city. They're coming to the city to make a name for themselves.

And that's exhausting. And people who come to the city to make a name for themselves, and that's most people, are exhausted. And they're oppressed. Because if you do business to make a name for yourself, or you do art to make a name for yourself, you're trampling, everybody's trampling on everybody else. That's sprint, frantic. And if you come to the city to make a name for yourself,

essentially your work is your God, and you will sacrifice your family and your integrity, and even your health on its altar. And the first thing, the first way that Christians can be an alternate city in New York City is by resisting the exhaustion and the oppression, resisting the workaholism, resisting the idols of their city, and living in a very, very different way. I want you to know that two people in the same field, one of whom knows who they are in Christ, another who is desperately trying very hard

to get a sense of worth and value. They're going to date and marry differently. They're going to produce products differently. They're going to do art differently. They're going to do every, they're two different enterprises. They're two different cities, two different cities, two different societies, two different ways of being human. And there's a poise, there's a peace,

there's a contentment. So first of all, we're a different city when we know who we are and we don't live to make a name for ourselves in the city, but in order to honor the name of the one to whom we belong. But then secondly, it's in chapter 21, and we read it a couple of weeks ago. You know, in chapter 21 it says, the holy city comes out of heaven, it's the same as the city, it's the same city.

And it says, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. In this coming city, God has wiped away all tears, all suffering, all pain. The pain of death, the pain of suffering, the pain of disease, the pain of hunger, the pain of loneliness, the pain of not knowing God and just being empty and not knowing what to live for. And if we want to be citizens of the future city in this city, that means that we go out into the neighborhoods to wipe away tears. See, everybody else is too busy making a name for themselves.

Christians ought to be different. They ought to be wiping away people's tears. And if we are wiping away people's tears, people are going to listen to our message. This week, I heard a man named Ajith Fernando speaking and Ajith is a Sri Lankan pastor and he says in 2004 150 Sri Lankan Christian churches were salted or burned. But then not long after that came the tsunami.

And when the tsunami hit all kinds of people were killed and far more people were homeless, and the Christian Sri Lankans went to the coast and they did an enormous amount of relief work. And Ajith says that one of his workers, one of his friends, was helping a family who had participated in the burning down of churches the year before. And the man looked at a friend and said, you know, last year we were assaulting you people, but we didn't know what you were really like.

See because they were out there wiping away the tears of the city, the people of the city begin to listen to what we have to say. And therefore, how important is this, that the city of God, even though it's in the future, comes in stages. To some degree, we can be the city of God now. To some degree, in the way in which we are attitude to ourselves, we know who we are, our attitude toward others, we're wiping away tears. And if we, it was that so different, every so many people come to a big city like New York,

they're all about what, they're all about themselves, they're all, they're here to make a name for themselves. And they may be a little charity work because that's, that's cool. But we're talking about the people who are citizens of the city to come are the very best citizens of the city that is. And you know, what's great about this is if you put your hope in the city that is to come,

do you see what an incredible balance between optimism and pessimism? There is See if you believe that that someday God is going to take this material world and Wipe away all suffering and destroy all injustice and all death What that means is on the one hand you've got an optimism? You're more optimistic than anybody, if you believe that. But at the same time, you know that there's very limited, it's very limited how good things are going to be until the last day.

See people, without a belief in the city of God, either are too optimistic or too pessimistic. They either put all their hopes in political programs, this is going to win every, this is going to really change things, it never does. This administration is going to do so much better than the last administration, maybe, maybe not. But I'll tell you one thing, is no political platform, no scientific technology, nothing, it's going to really, really make the world incredibly better. So in other words, Christianity is in a sense more pessimistic than everybody else, but the same time, more optimistic.

Actually, somebody put it like this. There were two men, and this actually happened a few years ago, two high-profile men Christopher Reeve and Charles Croshammer, who were both in wheelchairs. And they had a hard profile kind of debate through their writing back in 1999. And Christopher E. said, if I didn't believe that someday I might get out of this chair, I would, you know, I think I'd end it all

because after all, he said, you know, you have to have hope that someday you're gonna walk where you can't go on. And Charles Croshammer said, if you put all your hope and walking someday, then you're going to walk, or you can't go on. And Charles Crodhammer said, if you put all your hope in walking someday, then you're not really going to get on with your life. So he says, Christopher Reeva is saying, you know, your problem is you're too pessimistic,

and you've got to have hope. And Charles Crodhammer says, you're too idealistic, and you need to see the things as they are. But what if you bring the gospel in? See, the gospel is more pessimistic than the most pessimistic person and more optimistic than the most optimistic person? Because what if you say, oh, my body is broken, I'll never walk again. Well, the gospel comes and says, well, it's worse than that. Your soul's broken, you're going to hell. And what if you say,

I just know I'm going to walk, I just know I'm going to walk, but the gospel does a better job than that. The gospel comes, says, if you believe in Jesus Christ not only eventually you walk, you're going to fly from planet to planet by yourself. Do you see the optimism because the city of God is coming? At the same time a lack of utopianism because you say, look until that happens, things are only going to get so good. There's a balance about the way in which we live, because the city of God comes in stages, not only in stages.

So first of all, we see what this future is, the city. And secondly, we see how it arrives in stages. And lastly, how can you be sure you belong to it? How can you be sure that you are a citizen now? Here's how. Look at all the things in the city of God. There's a tree of life in the city of God. There's a river of the water of life in the city of God.

There's no curse in the city of God. There's no more knight in the city of God. And their name of God is on the foreheads of everyone in the city of God, there's no more knight in the city of God, and their name of God is on the foreheads of everyone in the city of God. Do you know how that happened? Why can we have the tree of life? Because Jesus Christ climbed the cross, the tree of death. And because Jesus climbed the tree of death, you can have the tree of life.

Because He took the punishment you deserve, you can have the tree of life because he took the punishment you deserve, you can have the tree of life. There's a river of life in the city of God. How can we have the river of the water of life? Because Jesus Christ on the cross said, high thirst. On the cross, He got the cosmic thirst. He was separated from God. He experienced what is a kind of cosmic dehydration, a cosmic death by thirst, where you lose everything,

you lose love, you lose God, you lose joy, you lose everything, he experienced the cosmic thirst that we deserve on the cross, so that you and I can have the river of life. And why is there no curse in the city of God? Because Galatians 3 says Jesus Christ became a curse for us. And why is there no night? Because at midday, in the middle of the day,

when Jesus Christ was being crucified on Calvary, down came utter darkness. It was the darkness of separation from God. And why, in other words, he took our darkness so we could have a light. He took our curse so we could have blessing. He climbed the tree of death so we could have a tree of life. He took the cosmic thirst so we could have the water of life.

And what is this thing about the farhead? You know who had the name of God on the farhead? It was only the high priest who had the name of Yahweh on his forehead on Yom Gippur when he went back into the holy of holies with the sacrifice, the blood sacrifice for sin. Only he was allowed to go back there, but you know what this is saying? That in the city of God we're all high priests. We will all know the very presence of God, the very glory of God. We'll see him as he is. We'll have the very thing that used to be fatal on contact.

You know why? Because Jesus is the final sacrifice, the final blood sacrifice. And what that means is, do you understand the substitutionary sacrifice in love of Jesus Christ? Jesus took our curse for us. Jesus took our darkness for us. Jesus took our darkness for us. Jesus took the climb the tree of death for us. Jesus took our thirst for us.

God has written, substitutionary love into all of the world from the smallest of the greatest. I heard somebody this week say, when you get infection, the only reason you don't die is because you got these little white corpuscles that go after your infection. And when the pus comes out of your body, those are the corpses of the corpuscles

who have died that you might live. And therefore, you have the substitutionary love in your very bones, in your very bloodstream, because God has written it not only into the smallest, but into the greatest. And here's the greatest God Himself has come to earth to die for us. Does that move you?

Will you say, Father, accept me not because of my good works, because of what Jesus has done? Will you base your relationship with God on the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus? And then, once you do that, will you base your life on it? Will you start to love the poor of the city? Will you start to love the needy of the city? Will you start to love the lost of the city?

The way God Christ did by pouring himself out, then you will be citizens of the city of God. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank You with that. You've given us this future. It is our future. And if we know it's coming, it changes us now. At the same time, it gets us ready for disappointment. We're not utopian in our thinking about what

can happen now, but we're never ever hopeless either. We're neither cynical nor naive. We're neither too pessimistic or too optimistic. Or rather, we're extremely pessimistic and extremely optimistic at once. How different we will be if we live as citizens of your future city in our present city let us do so we ask for it through Jesus and His name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening to today's teaching we pray that it challenged you and encouraged you. You can find more resources from Tim Keller at GospelInLife.com. Just subscribe to the Gospel In Life newsletter to receive free articles, sermons, devotionals,

and other resources. Again, it's all at GospelInLife.com. You can also stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. This month, sermons were recorded in 2009 and 2016. 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.