Serving the City – Timothy Keller [Sermon]

I hope you were with us on Sunday we began our commitment week but even if you weren't able to be with us you can still participate the rise campaign is a big Vision an exciting vision and it will not require just the participation of some of us but all of us please prayerfully consider how you can be part of [Music] it a reading from Jeremiah 29 veres 1-4 this is the text of the letter that the Prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving Elders among the Exiles and to the priests the prophets and all

the other people Nebuchadnezzar had carried into Exile from Jerusalem to Babylon this was after king jein and the Queen Mother the court officials and the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem the skilled workers and The Artisans had gone into Exile from Jerusalem he entrusted the letter to alasa son of Schaffen and to gemariah son of hilaya whom zedekiah king of Judah sent to King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon it said 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 in number there do not decrease also seek the peace and prosperity of the 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 divers 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 70 years are completed for Babylon I will come to you and fulfill my good 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 on 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 the word of the Lord now you've been around Redeemer for a number of years you certainly know that we talk about this text a lot and yet I did a little research and discovered we actually only ever

preached on it on a Sunday once in the last 27 years uh this passage is is seminal we need to look at it what's Happening Here What's Happening Here is that Babylon was the dominant military uh Power and Israel rebelled and so Babylon Nebuchadnezzar the emperor sent a an army and conquered Israel again but because Israel was so uh because Israel had resisted uh Babylonian rule so much they did something that they uh we know the Babylonians did with particularly unruly and um resistant societies what they did was they didn't just conquer them notice what

it says they brought the professional classes the leaders of the um of Israel to Babylon notice it says they what did they who did they bring they brought the priests the prophets uh the Royals uh the court officials the leaders the skilled workers and The Artisans this in other words they brought the professional classes and the leaders to Babylon only why because they're UND they were trying to do cultural assimilation they understood if they brought the leaders of a particular Nation to Babylon made them live there in a couple of generations they would culturally assimilate

they would lose their distinctive beliefs and cultural identity and they would therefore stop resisting uh the military domination of Babylon and because the Jews knew this was what they were trying to do when they first got to the region of Babylon they did not move in they uh settled outside of Babylon on the kar canal and they uh uh their prophets as you can see down here in verse 8 and N told them oh God won't make you live live in Babylon in fact he is going to to bring you home in a couple years

but God sends a letter kind of interesting God sends a letter to the Exiles in Babylon through the Prophet Jeremiah and he tells them three things that were just absolutely shocking to them and those three things are they are to live and settle there not withdraw or separate number two however they're supposed to respectfully resist there and not assimilate and embibe the values of the culture but then thirdly they're supposed to sacrificially love there and not be either contemptuous or selfish uh or disdainful in any way and if you put those three things together you

actually have a picture of how God wants his Believers and his people to live in any city in the world now let's take a look at those three things the first is this you can see it in verses 5 and six the first part of the letter is this build houses settle down plant Gardens and eat what they produce marry and have sons and daughters let your sons and daughters marry and have sons and daughters increase there do not decrease here's what he's saying make this your home God says look you lived in a place

where everybody believed like you and if you went to work in a morning in Jerusalem and you saw an idol Shrine you could you should tear it down but now I've taken you to another city which is a pluralistic Pagan Earth Urban society and every day you're going to go to work and go buy Idol shrines and I want you to make this your home I don't want you to relate to this as a tourist I want you to live here make it your home now a lot of people say well okay that's God talking

to the Jews about that that doesn't have any application to Christians today uh yes it does in many ways how so well this entire passage is showing how God wants the Jews who for this brief period in the Old Testament were Exiles they weren't living in their believing Nation they were Liv they were Exiles in an urban pluralistic society and for this brief time God is telling them here's how I want you to live as Exiles in the New Testament all Christians are considered Exiles James chapter 1 vers one 1 Peter chapter 1 vers one

Christian teachers address all Christians as Exiles Now American Christians very often forget this but fact of the matter is that all Christians are Exiles what's that mean well the word that Peter and James use is a word that literally means resident aliens resident aliens resident means and what God is saying here is I want you to live there I want you to make that your home I want you to not be tourists who consume and simply move to New York City in order to get a New York City thing on your resume and then you

know hold your nose so you can move somewhere where you can get a lot more house for your money I want you to I want you to become part of the economic and social fabric I don't want you to think of yourself as a fifth columnist who's basically you know biing time so I can find some way to undermine this Society this is your home resident but on the other hand alien which we'll get to it a minute you're still not quite the same in some key ways but resident alien that's what I want you

to be and God actually says that all Christians wherever they live are supposed to be actually having this this mindset but there's another link one of the most intriguing things about this passage and certainly maybe you saw it already is in verse one it says Nebuchadnezzar carried them into Exile right doesn't it say that verse one Nebuchadnezzar carried them into Exile and then verse four God says I carried you into Exile and by the way he mentions again in verse 7 he says I carried you in Exile twice well now which is it did Nebuchadnezzar

carry him in Exile or did God carry them into Exile and here's what God is saying Social forces brought you into a pluralistic Urban Society but I was using those social forces why because I brought you here and he tells you down in verse 10 and 11 I brought you here because I have a purpose for it oh it looks it's terrible it's hard it's difficult and yet I have a purpose I'm going to refine you I'm going to make you something better than you would have been if you didn't come here and I also

have a purpose to bless the city too and so social forces have brought you into the city but they're my social forces and I have a purpose and plan for them you say okay well that was then what about now well let me tell you here's a link cities are exploding everywhere in the world in size Edward Glazer of Harvard University says that across the world now cumulatively across the world uh five million people a month are moving from the countryside into cities 5 million people a month you know there's only there's 6 and a

half million people in Rio de Janeiro so that's like a new Rio de Janeiro popping up every five weeks in the world and I doesn't mean a individual spot it means that suddenly there's a new Rio de Janeiro size number of urban residents every month in China and Africa the cities are growing so fast that actually the countryside is becoming depopulated in uh uh in the western world or in North America we you know that younger people disproportionately want to live into into cities and they're moving into cities and all cities are regenerating so what's

the point here's the point you need churches everywhere there's people but the people of the world are moving into cities faster than the church is willing to move or let me put it this way God is moving the people of the world into cities faster than Christians or the church are willing to follow and that is not right A friend of mine some years ago Roger Greenway wrote this he says it may be helpful to reflect on the fact that urbanization as a present fact of life is excuse me it may be helpful to reflect

on the fact that urbanization as a present fact of life for most of the human Human family is a reality under the providential control of God acts 17 says this God determined the exact places where men should live he did this so they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for him and find him in light of these verses says Roger Greenway City growth across the world is part of God's plan in history God in our time is moving climactically through a variety of social political and economic factors to bring Earth's peoples into closer contact

with one another into greater interaction and interdependence with one another and in the earshot of the Gospel the sign of our time is the city through worldwide migration to the city God may be setting the stage for Christian mission's greatest and perhaps final hour you hear what's going on social forces are moving people to the city well no no of course not it can't just be social forces God is moving the people of the city into in pardon me God is moving the people of the world into the City faster than the church is willing

to go and that's not right I can I can give you numbers so for example the net growth of New York City every year is 50 to 60,000 people we net grow 50 to 60,000 people from 2010 to 2030 that means adding a million people to New York uh during that year uh that's that's the size of Charlotte North Carolina that's the size of Charlotte North Carolina how many churches are there in Charlotte North Carolina I don't know but here's my question do you think we're going to start as many churches in New York City

over the next 20 years as there are in all of Charlotte North Carolina no we're not why because even though we need churches everywhere there's people God is sending the people of the world into cities faster than the church is willing to go and that's not right so when people ask me about this here here's basically what I've been saying for years in New York if you're a Christian and you can live in New York City do it if you say well I was only going to be in New York City for a year fine

make it two I was only going to be in New York City for two years fine make it three or four see there's no Bible verse that says you have to live in a city all we know is that these social forces are bringing the people of the world into cities and climactic way and if Christians aren't willing to go where the people are and live where the people are that's not right so make the city your home point one point two however what's intriguing about this is how he says how God says make this

your home he doesn't use the word home exactly but he says build houses settle down plant Gardens have your children grow up there have your grandchildren grow up there make this your home and then in verse 10 but eventually I will take you home when 70 years are completed for Babylon I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place and if you go on further in the book of uh Jeremiah especially when you get down to Chapters 50 and all that he says if if Babylon doesn't repent

I'm going to judge it now look at this tension it's not easy at all make this city your home really be part of the social fabric really engage it don't just be a tourist really this is your home and yet it's not your ultimate home which it would be much easier to on the one hand just not stay you know come for a while and not stay and then just go home or to come and stay and become like everybody else to say this is my home and assimilate and adopt all the values and all

the mores and all the cultural narratives of the particular City but God says no no I want you you make this home and at the same time realize it's really not your ultimate home now the the best human metaphor I've got for this but it shows you how how much skill and difficulty uh I mean how much skill this takes and how difficult it is the best human metaphor we have is from the Bible and it's called being an ambassador you know the New Testament says you're supposed to be an ambassador for Christ that's that

always you know when I was in Sunday school my Lutheran Church years ago whenever there was Ambassador for Christ I always had you it it had little pictures of you wearing some kind of uniform uh but I realize now do you realize how difficult it is to be an ambassador an ambassador is someone who who lives in country a representing country B now on the one hand a good Ambassador is absolutely bilingual and fluent in the language of country a speaks it hopefully without an accent so the so an ambassador though from country B is

completely fluent and totally coherent to the the people of country a and secondly appreciates country a enormously you're an ambassador your job is to bring people together it's to it's to show commonalities it's to build Bridges right and yet if you're an ambassador you never forget that you're there to represent the values and the interests of a different country that that's what it means to be a Christian that's what it means to live in the city this is your home and at the same time in another way you remember that the values of the kingdom

of God are different why because just as an ambassador fully lives here fully conversant fully fluent fully appreciative and yet at the same time my citizenship he said his or her citizenship is somewhere else so Philippians CH 3:20 says though you live in your Earthly City your citizenship is is in your is in the Heavenly city the city of God that's your true citizenship so you say what does that look like you know Jesus actually said we looked at this a couple weeks ago uh he actually said um you know Christians should be a city

on a hill that means in every Earthly City you're a mini City you're kind of a a miniature version of a Heavenly City operating on the basis of a different set of values you say why are they different well that's a it's a big subject uh let me just use Western Society in fact I can well look put this way in Western Society it's all about Western culture is all about the individual self nonwestern Society is all about the tribe or the family or the clan but the kingdom of God is cross-shaped it's based on

what Jesus Christ did on the cross well what is that all right well let's let's put it like this you don't have to teach a child to say me first have you ever noticed that you know you always say can you say mama can you say dead we never say can you say me first you're not going to have to do that child will just automatically say me first okay it's the default mode of the human heart me in the west it's me the individual first in the in the East other places it's our family

first our clan first our race first but I want you to think about for a minute what that does to relationships if you're in a relationship where everybody or in a community where everybody saying me first the relationships just blow up which by the way is happening in Western culture all institutions are in a crisis or let me give you a perfect example the most intense human relationship is marriage and in marriage if one or both of you you if one or both spouses is saying me first both or even just one spouse saying me

first me first my needs self you know self assertion self-fulfillment self-actualization self-de me first that's the Western way if in a marriage one or both are saying me first that marriage is going to struggle or die but if in that marriage both spouses are saying both you first your needs are more important than mine or you're in for richness now that's it Jesus Christ came to the world saying to to us you first my life for yours my life poured out for you so you have societies that are basically based on either individual or tribal

advancement we're here to promote we're here to advance myself or here to advance my family or something like that you see self-affirmation self-definition and and Christianity the Christian the kingdom of God is based on self-denial self-renunciation self-sacrifice and Justice you know why I put those two things together self-sacrifice and Justice it's because you can't do justice for the downtrodden without making a sacrifice uh if you're not downtrodden you in other words if you're trying to do if you're not downtrodden and you want to seek Justice for the downtrodden that can only happen at your expense

it only happens if the non-d downtrodden share something that they weren't sharing before basically love and Justice is it's the name of it is self-sacrifice not self assertion and so the kingdom of God is a is is it just works on a completely different set of values so for example let's say sex money and power in the Kingdom of this world sex is about what what fulfills me what makes me happy in the kingdom of God sex is about self-giving it's it's it's not you first it's you first it's about self-giving which means giving yourself

away this is the reason why in the kingdom of God you don't have sex with someone unless you're willing to give yourself away which means you're willing to lose all your Independence to that person unselfishly which means you're willing to marry them and if you're not willing to marry them basically it's all about you you're not willing to give yourself away you just want what you can get money in the kingdom of God the money is not yours none of it's yours in the world's Kingdom I guess I really ought to give away something you

know I need to give something but the rest of it it's my money I earned it in the kingdom of God is none of it's yours none of it at all and that's the reason when it comes to sex money and power inside the kingdom of God the values are radically different and out in the rest of the city they're almost the opposite now here's why it is so hard so incredibly hard to live the way God is calling us to live make this place your home but don't ever let it be your ultimate home

don't assimilate to its values the reason why it's crazy is because either it's best just to come here and hold your nose and then just leave you know make it a kind of theme park where you can eat the restaurants in the restaurants and you can get the know New York thing on your resume or whatever it is and then you leave or to come here and basically let your Christian distinctiveness just be absorbed right out of you and I see it all the time I see plenty of people who uh come here they continue

to come to church but they've been gutted superficially they still say oh I'm a Christian and you come to church for inspiration but when it comes to how you're using sex in your life how you're using money in your life how you're using power power in your life you've assimilated now do you see how hard this is how in the world are we going to do it the answer is three the epicenter of the whole passage the most remarkable thing in the whole passage is verse 7even the most stunning thing in the whole passage is

verse 7 because God doesn't just say live there don't withdraw verses five and six and resist respectfully don't assimilate which he says in verses 10 and following but he says in verse 7 seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you in Exile pray to the Lord for it because if it prosper you two will prosper now the listeners must have been totally Thunderstruck let me explain why first of all notice it says seek the peace and prosperity of Babylon now many of you may know that there's only one Hebrew

word there it's the word Shalom uh there is no single English word that can convey the full lexical range of the Hebrew word Shalom the word shalom means full full thriving and flourishing uh to seek the shalom of a city means that you want it to be economically prosperous you want to be the people to be psychologically joyful and hopeful you want uh we want spiritual social economic flourishing and thriving in every way and you're supposed to seek that okay well wow that's amazing you're not supposed to just sort of get on by just survive

here just make sure that you prosper you want the whole city to flourish now somebody says yeah but it's yeah but it's pragmatic because notice it says if you prosper if it prospers you will prosper so ah what what he's really trying to say is look you can you can hold your nose and you can put on a a publicly a kind of nice face but you know basically you're there uh don't make waves that really wouldn't be good for you and your community you need to make money you need to get ahead you need

to thrive and prosper and if you're good to the city then it'll be good to you it's a kind of a tit fortat it's you know it's basically pragmatic no it's because of one word that proves that that's not the right way to read that text and that word is pray this word this says pray for the Shalom of Babylon now the fact of the matter is the Jews knew they were supposed to pray for the Shalom of Jerusalem go read Psalm 122 that's all it's a prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem and it's remarkable

I'll just read you one verse this is from Psalm 122 pray for the Peace of Jerusalem May those who love you be secure you can't pray for the Peace of baby you can't pray for someone Shalom without loving them but these are the people who this these are their enemies they probably the Babylonians probably killed many of their friends as they were Conquering the place and bringing them captive how in the world could you love your enemy enies this is the closest thing in the Old Testament to what Jesus says in the New Testament love

your enemies and pray for those who persecute you Matthew 5:44 there's nothing that turns your heart away from bitterness than to pray for the person that you that have has wronged you and this is what this is saying nothing less this is saying you need to move in to these great Urban societies if you're a Believer you're there in the great Urban societies and you are of course to tell people about your faith but it's your job to love that City and to pray for the people of that City and to care about the people

of that City and to pour yourself out to make that City a great place to live for not only the people who don't believe like you do but even the people who oppose you would and would hurt you if they could and that's the call and you say how in the world can anybody do that let me tell you this Christians shouldn't be surprised by this I understand why Jews in that Century found this astonishing but we shouldn't be surprised though I have to say Christians are surprised today plenty of of Christians that I know

hate the city where if they are here you know they they just stay as long as they absolutely have to and then they get out and lots of Christians today by the way do exactly what what God is telling them not to do you have been hurt you have been brought there the you know you used to be in power and now you're living in a city where they are in power and I don't want you to sit around resenting them I don't want you to walk around feeling like victims you I have plenty of

Christians today in America walk around remembering when they were in power and just feeling like victims and just being very angry at the whole society and God says no no no you mustn't do that he forbids it here's the reason why Christians should not be surprised should not be surprised in the slightest what are we being called to do we're being called to move from very nice quarters into cramp little quarters and incarnate ourselves in big cities and then we're supposed to even though we don't share their values and there many people around we might

get despised we might get persecuted for we're supposed to pour ourselves out for the people around us and make this a great place for people to live and seek the full flourishing of the city in every way even those people who would oppose us if they could the does sound like anybody you know Jesus Christ lived in heaven and he moved into our neighborhood and I have to tell you it was much smaller quarters than he was used to he incarnated he moved into our neighborhood and then of course he was persecuted because he represented

the kingdom of God but he died for his enemies and listen this is not the only way we could Prosper is not if he prospered but if he died it's almost like the father said son if you prosper they will die if you die they will prosper you have to go to the Cross you have to die and what did Jesus say I will now if you just see Jesus Christ dying for enemies out there that makes him an example kind of daunting but if you see him dying for you Romans 5 when we were

yet enemies he died for us when we were indifferent he died for us if you see him doing that that will burn the shape of the Cross into your heart and you'll be able to live this way you'll be able to live the way God is telling the children of Israel to live in Babylon you'll be able to live that way in New York City and only if we live this way will we ever have the kind of influence that safe to have the kind of influence that leads people come and say what do you

believe that makes you able to live like this let's pray thank you Father for your word that shows us how we should live in our day thank you for your son who gives us not just the model but the power to live that way and make us into a movement of Christians and churches and Ministries who do in New York City what you called the children your children to do in Babylon years ago we pray this in Jesus name amen