Counter-Culture for the Common Good – Timothy Keller [Sermon]

in 1989 when my wife Kathy and I first moved to New York City less than 1% of the population of Center City New York was attending a gospel centered church today by God's grace that number has grown to 5% now God has given us a pretty audacious vision to work with churches across the city to try to triple that figure to 15% in the next decade because the gospel changes everything if there were thousands of change lives this could be a vision that brings about radical philanthropy profound racial reconciliation and real social justice if this

vision is realized we might see a humane city with ripple effects which could extend to other cities across the country and around the globe we're launching this vision with the rise campaign why am I telling you this because we need your prayers please visit rise redeemer comm slash rise and pray to learn more a reading from the book of Matthew chapter 5 verses 11 through 16 blessed are you when people insult you persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in

heaven for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you you are the salt of the earth but if the salt loses its saltiness how can it be made salty again it is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot you are the light of the world a town built on a hill cannot be hidden neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl instead they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house in the same way let your

light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven the word of the Lord so each week we're taking a look at one part of Redeemers core values vision the animating principles that stem from the gospel that have shaped our ministry in the city for all the years in the past and we pray for all the years in the future that vision is actually on our website this is it as the Church of Jesus Christ Redeemer exists to help build a great city for all people through a movement

of the gospel that brings personal conversion community formation social justice and cultural renewal to New York City and through it the world and the one piece we're picking out tonight is that term that is read community community formation that we believe that the gospel actually doesn't work in your life and it doesn't present itself to the world without a community we believe the church should be can be a counterculture for the common good put another way the gospel creates a community a city as we're going to see that evokes both animosity and attraction and yet

is blessed the gospel creates a community which evokes both animosity and attraction and yet is blessed that's what our text tells us famous passage here from the Sermon on the Mount let's take a look at first of all down in verse 14 and 15 Jesus is talking to his disciples and says you are the light of the world and then seems like he mixes metaphors or shifts metaphors and says a town built on a hill cannot be hidden now by the way it's the Greek word polis there it's the word that you probably recognize the

Greek word for city this is the only translation I've ever seen in my entire life that translates polis town it's always usually City so Jesus is saying you in the light of the world you're a city on a hill now that looks like two different metaphors to realize he's actually got one coherent picture in his mind in ancient times at night if a city was on a hill or even on a little bit of a rise its torches and its lamps and its fires could be seen for miles and miles and miles out in the

dark the light of the city penetrated the darkness for miles so when the Bible talks about light it's usually talking about truth light exposes things for what they are and when the Bible talks about the light of the world it's talking about God showing the world the truth of who he is now the supreme light of the world as he himself has said is Jesus Christ Jesus himself is the supreme way that God shows the world the truth of who he is but the other main way that God shows the world is who he is

the other main light of the world is not individual Christians but Christians as a city Christians as a community Christians as an alternate society as an alternate city in every city in which they live it's only as a community that we are actually the light of the world not court it is not actually as individuals do you say well why would that be what's so big about being a community you know that 80% of Americans say you can be a very good Christian without going to church at all that's not what this text says at

all you can't be alive the world because you can't be a city by yourself you can only actually bring light into the world as part of a community why well here's why what is the gospel about at bottom it's about healing relationships first it's healing the relationship with God of course but then because a relationship with God is healed then all other relationships can be healed you say how does that work well like this you know a solar system only is a system because all the planets agree as it were on one center where all

the planets are orbiting around the same Center they all agree that the that the the Sun is the center of the solar system because of that the orbits are all in harmony writing but if every single planet as it were we're insisting that it be the center of the system that everything revolve around them if every planet was saying no you have to revolve around me you wouldn't have a system anymore it would just be a disaster would be a car crash it would be collision now let me shift metaphors myself I hate cancer cancer

has taken away a number of friends and family members of mine but there's a relational cancer there's a spiritual cancer and that is the deep default mode of the human heart deep default mode of the human heart instinctive to say me first so for example if you go into a marriage the marriage in of some ways is the most intense kind of human community right in a marriage if both people are saying to the other you first you first I'm putting your needs out of mind if both people are saying you first you're going to

have a great love relationship but if either one or both hear that if either one or both say me first it's like a cancer eating at the marriage it might not survive now the me first impulse is absolutely natural if any of you have ever raised children you know that you don't have to teach children to say me first me first it's like they're born saying it practically or at least they're born feeling it until they have the words to say it and what we have all learned from our parents those of us who said

me first me first our parent what we've all learned from our parents is what to hide it did I say it and I guess our parents even maybe are saying we shouldn't even feel that way but of course the fact is all we've learned to do as we get older as we hide it little children just let it all hang out we can't get rid of it unless something radical happens to us and this is the reason why the gospel starts with repentance and faith you you become a Christian only through repentance and faith why

repentance is admitting that your whole life is permeated with self-centeredness you see repentance is not just oh I've done some bad things everybody says that that doesn't that doesn't change your life that doesn't connect you to God saving repentance connects you to God it's not just saying well I've done bad things everybody knows they've done bad things it's not say that's not repent repentance is saying that self-centeredness self-absorption self-righteousness me first has it permeates everything not only by bad deeds with my good deeds you have begun to become a Christian when you realize even my

good deeds I've been doing to try to control God and control people and even my good deeds are done in self-righteousness and self regard so repentance is that and Christianity starts with saying I realize that my big problem is me first and then repentance and faith the other slip side is faith because repentance you admit you need salvation but faith is saying I see that Jesus Christ the Son of God gave himself for me and loves me and gave himself for me so he can love me forever and it's repentance and faith together that not

only makes you ashamed of being self-centered but it makes it unnecessary because you're humble yet you're affirmed you're loved and it's repentance and faith that actually in a sense puts your spiritual relational cancer into remission now I think that I you know I think that like I said I hate cancer and therefore I've even feel a little weird about you the extending this metaphor but the fact is that when your cancer is in remission you're still not all there and you you know you're getting better and the same way when you become a Christian something

has happened that the transforming grace of God has gone into your heart and it has actually given a deathblow to me first but the Bible says old self new self we still have plenty of me firstness in us we can go back and forth between old self and new self but the fact is that there has been a death blow to that and the Christians are people who have all experienced that death blow to the me first and that enables you even though we're still quite imperfect and quite capable of doing me first nevertheless Christians

now have got the ability to create a kind of deep human community that nobody else can a kind of human community that gets up it makes us one across the kind of barriers that divide other people across the racial barriers across the national barriers across the cultural barriers across the the class barriers and not only that somebody says well what kind of community is it well it tells you here it's a city see everybody uses the word community now everybody use the word community and so for example I did see a reference to the stamp

collecting community so if you're a stamp collector you get together other stamp collectors and your call a stamp collector community but the reality is it's probably better to call that the stamp collector Club in fact in old days that those things were called clubs because what it meant was you had one thing in common but not necessarily anything else stamp collector does not transform your whole life you see when you're part of a city when you're living in this city changes everything change the way you eat changes the way you dress changes the way you

relate to people living in a city we're living in a culture changes everything and when it says Christians are a city an alternate city what it means is what john stott said when he wrote his commentary years ago on the Sermon on the Mount the subtitle of it the title was it the Sermon on the Mount that was the name of the book okay but the subtitle was the Christian counterculture because he says the gospel actually changes everything so for example because it's come in and done a deathblow to me first it changes your psychology

it changes the way you relate to people it makes you more able to forgive by the way more able to reconcile you can do a certain amount of self renunciation without killing yourself esteem it also changes the way you look at sex money and power according to John Stott why well you see once you get rid of the me first thing sex becomes not a ways individual fulfillment but a way of self giving and the creation of community money's the same powers the same way those are radically different than the way they operate in the

world and therefore what happens is the gospel creates a community it's a radically different community it's based on everybody having this experience that's encounter with God that that chain that actually does a death blow to your ego in a particular way and that changes the way in which you look at everything the way you do business the way you relate to the poor the way you the way you do your work the way you relate to people of other you know from other cultural backgrounds it changes everything and it's only as you are part of

a community like that and only as those communities are created that God says I can show the world who I am you are the light of the world in fact I'll press you a little just one one further if you want God's truth and light to come into your life and change you or if you want God's truth and light to go out into the world and and you know light in light in a darkened world you got to be part of a community you know who you are see if you're American or even kind

of Americanized if you're an American or even if you've been here a long time so you kind of Americanized you you might believe what the culture says which is that you're mainly the product of your own personal choices that's just not true to a great degree user prot you're the product in fact to the greatest degree your product of community how you're treated the first three or four years by your family has a massive impact on who you are the language you grew up speaking as the main language you speak and thinking at which you

by the way didn't shoes has a massive impact on how you look at life sociologists anthropologists tell you about that your relationship to your parents your relation to your siblings your relation your birth order your your ethnic background your where you went to school who your friends are these things are all community thing and they have shaped you tremendously in fact almost all of your individual choices have actually been just responses to those things so now how would you want God to change your life you so I want God's power to come into my life

I want his light to come into my life I want him to make me better I want him to change me fine how would he do that he would do it through community why because we were irreducibly social beings and you tend to become like the people you hang out with the most and for you to think that somehow you be the result of a community and then you want God to change you without being part of his community well that just won't work will it you cannot show the world who he is and you

cannot even yourself see who he is you can't have his life shine into your life and into the world unless we create communities and that does not just mean by the way coming two or three times a month it's a church because you like the music and you like the sermon that's not being part of a community that's not being part of a city that's not being part of an alternate human society where we really are committed to each other where we're accountable to each other where we're trying to work out what does it mean

to be what is the gospel implications what other gospel equations on art and and for business the gospel implications for how I relate to my neighborhood are you part of a city I mean that is to say are you part of God's City are you citizen of his City are you part of a community are you cemented in are you a participant so the gospel creates community which is the main point of this passage but there's two other points that are very important the second thing is that this community if it's a real gospel community

if it really represents Jesus Christ will evoke both animosity and at the same time attraction it'll be both off-putting in compel it's one of the main teachings of this passage of course but throughout the New Testament how so well first of all we already saw that we're light of the world and of course light is attractive is it not and what does it mean to be the light of the world we'll look at verse 16 in the same way let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father

in heaven I'll get back to that word good deeds in a second that doesn't mean just niceness good deeds actually are what we would call we talked about this two or three weeks ago the deeds of justice and mercy this is sacrificial service this is this is this is showing a commitment to the good of your neighborhood or your city it means generosity it means involving yourself in lives of people with greater needs than you have that's light and that's attractive is it not but by the way there's another side to light and that is

light exposes you light shows your warts light is attractive at the same time it can be pretty off-putting sometimes we'd rather be in a dark place on the other hand let's look at the other metaphor assault you are the salt of the earth now the term salt is again positive I today the word salt means seasoning and back then was a seasoning salt made things savory thought men made things tasty that's very positive but on the other hand salt in ancient times more than today was a preservative they go back in that day there wasn't

you didn't have refrigeration and so how did you preserve your meat you rub salt into it which actually kill the little organisms or at least it slow down the growth of the organisms that make meat decay now what does it mean to be salt of the earth well I kind of here's the hint and think about this everybody and this by the way is I have never ever been more convicted about how I should be living in this world than when I thought about this thought out this metaphor that Jesus Christ gives us that we're

supposed to be salt salsa preservative and here's what this means do you not ever notice that human relays will I mean we already talked about this human relationships are always blowing up family relationships friendships were people at work not I'm not just talking about nations and races and things like that I mean those relationships are always blowing up and going into violence and conflict but I'm just saying normal human relationships are always blowing up people always getting upset always getting I'm not getting mine or you you've misunderstood me or they you have wronged me and

people are always getting angry and bitter in for Christians to be salt means we don't do that we go into the workplace we go into friendships in our family we're the ones are not turf conscious we're the ones who are will overlook a slight we are the ones who are not irritable we're the ones who are never feel like well I'm not getting mine we're salt we're preservative we're the thing that keeps the relationships going we're not always getting upset and getting huffy and getting angry and shooting off angry emails and then having to apologize

we're supposed to ones that don't do that aren't you convicted misery loves company that's what I'm trying to want would you to be as miserable as I am but it's also true of course it's not just true there were supposed to be salt in relations would be salt in society we're supposed to be doing justice and mercy we're supposed to be making our neighborhoods in our city vastly better places than they would be if we weren't out there why well the word good deeds really does mean to pour yourself out now look carefully salt and

light solve also stings you put in a wound you know one of the reasons why in ancient times putting salt on a wound and still done sometimes especially you're out in a wilderness or something like that it kills the same bacteria just the same stuff that actually keeps meat from decaying faster can also kill a certain amount of bacteria in your wound and therefore it you know it helps but it stings it's good but it's off-putting light is beautiful but it's exposing and look what Jesus gives us here at the bottom he says let your

light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father that is to say that if we're living the way we ought to live in this city and I'm not saying we are but if we're living is generous if we're living is lovingly if if if we really are salt in relationships and salt and light in the city then some people are going to be very attracted they're going to say this is great this how I want to know I want to know about your father that's 4:16 and then verse 11

blessed are you when people insult you persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me rejoice and be glad now let me show you three things here number one it doesn't say blessed are you if people insult you you know sorry to dash your hopes it says blessed are you when people insult you if you are living as light and salt you will be hurt if you're living as light and salt sometimes you will be hurt you will be hurt you will sometimes get insulted okay that's the first thing it's

going to happen secondly you got to make sure that people are if they do insult you and say false things about you it's because of me Jesus says first Peter 4:15 Peter says make sure you suffer for Jesus sake and not because you're a meddler and what that means is I do know Christians and surely you do too and maybe you are one of them who love to tell people how they ought to live their life you shouldn't do this you shouldn't do that no that's wrong you shouldn't that's wrong and then you find people

shunning you you say oh I'm being shunned for Jesus no you're being shunned Peter says because you're obnoxious and that's the bee attitude doesn't work for obnoxiousness you know blessed are you when people speak we you know our insult you because of me not because of you yes I is so the yeah the point is it's inevitable but it has to be it has to be for his sake but here's what's really fascinating he says and by the way this is significant in a place like New York where everything so many things happen relationally if

some if a couple people start saying oh my gosh heat or sea goes to a church like that and they believe these sorts of things that can really hurt you it can keep you from getting gigs it can keep you from getting jobs it can keep you from from getting you know working on projects it can really hurt you so the fact is that blessed are you when people insult you and then he says rejoice don't feel self-pity don't get embattled don't get angry don't say I'm not being treated properly you know what that's that's

the me first thing some years ago a minister friend of mine gave this sermon illustration it turned out originally this is a true story he was walking along in some Park area and he saw a little animal with its head stuck in a Coco can and it was just panicking because it couldn't get its head out and the minister thought ah sermon illustration that's how some people like that's how we live our lives sermon illustration he says ah this is how human beings are things that they think will satisfy them actually just you know imprison

them well by the way I don't think that works and he didn't use it that way because here's what happened as he leaned over to try to help the poor little woodland creature he noticed it was a skunk and he realized it's possible just possible that this little woodland creature might not be completely grateful and overjoyed and and may not recognize his you know his help and he realized they said I have a I gotta I have a decision to make and as he said well as a you know and actually being ministers were always

thinking well this is like a sermon illustration and he actually operate like a sermon illustration he said I can't be cowardly I've got to know that if I help this person I might get zapped but there's no reason why I shouldn't stand downwind so what he did was of course was he said yeah you know help it but help from that in not that not you know make sure that the the end that can zap you is in a different direction so be judicious but here's the point if you're going to be salt and light

you're going to get hurt you shouldn't whine about it you should not be feeling filth full of self-pity there's going to be people who you're trying to help who are just bigger than as a peer they will not be there like the little woodland creature who is not particularly grateful I don't actually know what happened by the way in the illustration now here's the question the vision here is wonderful if the fish in here is just wonderful it says we're soaking a counterculture for the common good that means on the one hand we're supposed to

be willing to identify as Christians and not get all bent out of shape when people may insult us or say bad things about us because you see if we get our if we if we get all upset and get self-righteous and and become embattled and all that then we were a counterculture but we really won't be there for the common good we'll just be condemning people all the time on the other hand if you're so cowardly that if you've put your light under a bowl so that you never get animosity nobody ever ever ever knocks

you for your faith that means you've been a coward you might be for the common good but you're not a counterculture so how do you get the Wow how do you get the inner poise how do you get the the inner I guess poise is the best way to on the one hand not be afraid of speaking up identifying yourself as a Christian so here you know that sometimes you're going to you're going to get hurt but at the same time willing to be salt and light not just embattled not just always standing on your

dignity not just always denouncing the culture where do we get this inner poise well here's the answer you've got to be blessed now the last be attitude is this one the first 10 verses of chapter 5 are very famous they're called the Beatitudes where Jesus says blessed are the poor there's the kingdom of heaven blessed are those who mourn they will be comforted blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth blessed are those who are hungry and thirsty for they shall be filled okay and then the last one here is blessed are you

when people insult you persecute you'd falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me these are called the Beatitudes and it's the word blessed you will be blessed if you do this bless if you do this now Bible scholars will tell us that it's this is a more problematic passage than you might think it's they're famous and when you see the word blessed in English you immediately say yeah that that's just an older archaic way of saying happy happy are those happier the poor for they happier those who mourn happier than meek not

that's actually not exactly it's partly right but the word blessed means a lot more than that and Old Testament and New Testament scholars who know how this word is used both the old New Testament say probably I know this is going to sound a little weird probably a better translation of this word is successful people who are called blessed were considered successful accomplished people who had lived so well that they that they were envied and emulated they were role models they were heroes and so frankly anybody who understands how this word functions that the word

blessed actually means successful and accomplished reads the Beatitudes and says huh look it makes sense to say blessed are the strong for they will inherit the earth the meek don't inherit the earth it makes sense to say blessed are the popular for they shall get rewarded but the persecuted don't get a reward it's one thing to say blessed are the rich you know because they inherit the kingdom generally but not the poor don't inherit the kingdom what's going on here and there's only one answer someone came into this world Jesus Christ who completely redefined what

it means to be successful it accomplished because the beatitudes before they point to you and me how we should live they point to him did you know that listen let me ask you a question I'm asking this to Christians in here Christian brothers and sisters why is it that you and I eventually will be according to the Bible riches Kings because he became poor why will you and I be comforted because he wept grieved and died in the dark why are you and I gonna inherit the earth because he was meek because he was a

lamb because he was like a lambs taken to the you know to the slaughter why are we going to be filled because he on the cross said I thirst starting to see what's going on here see if Jesus Christ had come rich laughing hmm strong popular he would have been successful why what did he come to do he came to save us he took our curse he took the things we deserve for all of our me firstness he took he took the penalty we deserved for the mess we've made the world he went to the

cross and took our punishment so that he took the curse so that we could be blessed he became poor so we could become rich he became empty so we could become full filled and here's what that means when I see Jesus Christ being persecuted saving me by being persecuted without any self pity than I can do that too when I see Jesus Christ pouring himself out he's salt he's light pouring himself out for other people people who don't care even people who are his enemies pouring himself out I can do that now why because I

mean a the knowledge of what he did for me it's a blow to my me first heart there it is before but look at him giving all that away and then you can give it away look at look at him being persecuted without self-pity that you will be able to do it to be the city that God wants us to be in this city by looking to him let's pray thank you Father for all all the ways which you have told us we can be the family we can be the city the mini city we

can be the community here in the middle of New York City that our hearts really longed for we want to be part of a family we want to be part of a church when we part of a community like that and we pray now that you would just with the impetus of the Spirit and with the guidance of your word that you would make us more people more men and women who can comprise a community like that that truly is the light of the world we ask for through Jesus in his name we pray amen

thank you for listening to this week's sermon please join us in praying for gospel renewal both where you live