A (21:07)

Are you looking for ways to grow in your faith? This summer or are you hoping to help new believers or kids who grasp the heart of the Christian faith? For many of us, the summer months can provide more time to deepen our faith and our understanding of what it means to follow Christ. A great resource to start using this summer is the New City Catechism Devotional, God's Truth for our hearts and minds. This devotional brings the historic catechisms of the Christian church to life, offering a question to consider for each week of the year. In the introduction, Tim Keller lays out the case for catechesis, the rich and communal practice of learning and memorizing questions and answers that frame the foundational beliefs of the Christian faith. Each week includes a scripture passage, a prayer, and a brief meditation that will challenge and inspire you. The included commentaries are by contemporary pastors such as John Piper, Tim Keller, and Kevin DeYoung, as well as historical figures such as Augustine, John Calvin, and Martin Luther. This month, in addition to the New City Catechism Devotional, we're including a great companion resource, the New City Catechism for Kids, as 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 copies today@gospelandlife.com give that's gospelandlife.com give now here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching.

B (22:30)

Now let me break this down. Let's look at the pattern, the power, and the product of the upside down Kingdom. Number one, the pattern. The pattern of the upside down kingdom is a reversal of values with regard to the world. In other words, Christians are no longer controlled by the things that the world thinks are so critical. We're not controlled by power, success. We're not controlled by comfort or recognition. We're not controlled by them. Now let me point this out to you for a second. If you can't take them, if you run away from them, if you can't stand being around money, if you have no idea what to do with recognition, if you absolutely can't stand being around people with any power at all, if you run from them, you are still controlled by them. You're scared of them. It probably means deep down, deep inside, you're intimidated by them or you still really want them. But a person who's a Christian, who's living in the upside down kingdom isn't controlled by these things. You don't need them, which means you don't want them. They don't drive you. They're not things that control you. And that means you can Take them or you can leave them. And that is the first mark of somebody who's living in the upside down kingdom. That's the pattern of your life. For example, here's a non Christian, here's a Christian standing alongside of each other. But it shouldn't put it that way. Here's a member of the old kingdom, here's a member of the new kingdom. Because you know what? Let's not talk about Christian non Christian for a second. Let's not. Here's a person who's being controlled by the right side up kingdom and a person who's being controlled by the upside down kingdom. And let's say they're both in the same situation in their job, if they tell the truth, they're going to lose their job. When you see a person who's under the influence of the old kingdom of the. Of the right side up kingdom is going to have to lie. They're slaves. They're going to have to lie. Why? Because they can't do without that house in Greenwich. Because they can't do without. Without power and without comfort. They can't do without success. They can't do without. They can't do. But a Christian says, hey, I have to do whatever I have to do because these things don't bother me anymore. Now where does that come from? And the answer is there is a couple of wonderfully paradoxical. There's a number of wonderfully paradoxical statements in the passage that tell you the secret dynamic here. First of all, notice how all the way through Jesus says, blessed are you who weep now. Blessed are you who hunger now. Okay, Blessed are you who weep now. Look at the paradox. You know what that means? First of all, you're weeping. Now you're weeping. Something's going wrong in your life, but you're blessed. And you know the word blessed means deeply satisfied. Jesus says, a Christian is somebody who can weep and still be blessed. A person who lives under the old kingdom. If something you lose your job, you lose a loved one, you lose reputation. And you see, blessedness and laughter go together. Blessedness and weeping can never go together. But in the new kingdom they do. Because there's a blessedness that has not got to do with circumstances. Actually a better place. The other other place that shows the Paradox is verse 23, when he says, rejoice and leap for joy in that day, for great is reward in heaven. Now, boy, Karl Marx used to look at verses like this and he used to say, oh, that's what I hate. Ah, that's What I hate about Christianity, opium of the people. See, great is your reward in heaven. So I'm supposed to trudge through life and not fight injustice and just accept my lot in life because later on I'll have pie in the sky by and by in the future. But there's no future here. There's no future tense. That's not what's going on. Karl Marx. I'm sorry, you can't be here to hear this. What it says is, rejoice in that day. What day? Not the judgment day, in the day that you're excluded. Verse 23 is referring to verse 22, in the day you're excluded. Well, how can you rejoice in that day? Because great is your reward in heaven, not will be. This is what's going on. Colossians, chapter three, Acts, chapter seven. I've never gotten over Acts, chapter seven. Here's Stephen. He's about to be stoned to death. He's about to be executed. I've never gotten over this. How is he going to handle it? With courage. And how is he going to handle it? With love. How will he keep from fear and how will he keep from anger toward the people who are doing this great injustice? Well, he looks to heaven and he suddenly says. He says, I see the glory of God and I see Jesus Christ standing at the right hand of the Father. In other words, he says, I realize that though down here, this kangaroo court is doing injustice to me before God, I'm vindicated. And a Christian is somebody, According to Colossians 3, chapter 1, who says this? I have set my mind not on things below, but. But on things are above. For my life is hid with God in Christ. A Christian is somebody who says, I've lost recognition, but I'm famous with God. See, that's weeping. But blessed. I've been excluded, but I'm welcomed by God. See, that's exclusion. But leaping for joy. And a Christian, because you have that pattern, because you've got that. You, therefore, are not controlled by the world's values. Those things don't control you anymore. You're living a free life. And that's the reversal. Now, here's a couple practical things before we move on. You realize what this means? Karl Marx is utterly wrong. If this world is all there is, and working for injustice will lose my job or lose my reputation or lose my life, then I'm not going to do it. But if I've got a blessedness, if I leap for joy because of my standing in heaven, now I see my Standing in heaven. That means, of course, I can work against injustice, because so what if I lose my reputation? So what if I lose my life? If I see injustice in my neighborhood, I stand up for it. So what if I'm ostracized? Okay? If I see injustice in the company, I blow the whistle. So what if I lose my job? You say, I want to know who lives like that. You've got the resources to live with that kind of integrity. You've got the resources to live with that kind of courage. Absolutely. This is not the upbeam of the people. This is the smelling salts of the people. This will wake you up, you see? And not only if this is true will you live with integrity. But keep this in mind. What's great about this is it really means that you no longer have to have these things or have not to have these things. I already mentioned that. And you won't live a bitter life if somebody takes it from you. Okay, so that's the pattern. The pattern is I have a complete reversal because I'm free from the world's value. But secondly, okay, where do you get the power for this? And somebody says, yeah, where do you get the power for it? I don't completely understand. Well, look, it says where you get the power Right there in verse 19. Him, Jesus Christ's life is an example of the very way in which we're supposed to live. Jesus comes into the world even though he's the king and he's poor now. He even talks about it here. He says, don't be upset if you're excluded. Don't be upset if you are rejected. Don't be upset if you're a failure. Don't be upset if you're weeping. Because this is how the prophets always have been. He says. This is what's always happened to the prophets. He says, have you ever. Have you ever heard of a successful prophet? Have you ever heard of a happy prophet? A happy prophet? Have you ever heard. Have you ever heard of a popular prophet? See what Jesus is saying? And now what is he saying, though? If it's true that the prophets have always lived according to these values, how much more the great prophet, the true prophet, the ultimate prophet, if the representatives of the king live this way, how much the real king, when he finally comes. And when he comes, you see Jesus Christ becoming poor, you see him being totally rejected. And finally when he's on the cross, he's not only rejected by his friends and by the crowd, he's even excluded by his Father. And yet his you see, he gives himself and you say, ah, yes, that's an example. That's where we're supposed to get the power, the example of Christ. No, if Christ only came as an example of the reversal of the world's values, I don't think he'd be of any power to you at all. He would just be a burden. He would just make you feel terrible. He would say, oh, my goodness, I'm supposed to be willing to be generous. Oh, my goodness, I'm supposed to be willing to do all these things. Oh, no, I can never live like Jesus. And he wouldn't be a power at all if it's just an example. But here's what the gospel is. The gospel is not that we look at Jesus reversing his fortunes with people. You see, we don't see him becoming weak to make people strong. We don't see him becoming poor to make people rich. You have to see that everything he did was to reverse fortunes with you. Why can he say, though you are weeping now, you will rejoice because he took the weeping. You deserve the cosmic weeping. He died in the dark. Why can he say, you will be comforted? Because he was utterly disconsolate. He was. He was thrown away. Why can he say, you will be satisfied? Because he was utterly dissatisfied. On the cross, Jesus Christ, God said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken? Why can he say these things? Why can he say, you can know that you have this great standing in heaven because you can live in reversal of values. Because you live by his reversal. He took your place. He put you where he deserves to be, before the throne of God, accepted, beloved. And he put himself where you deserve to be cast out. And because of that, that's where you get the power. That's where you get the power. That's the reason why Jesus Christ can look at his disciples and say, blessed are you who are poor now. Some of them were poor. Look at. See, verse 19 and 20 says, he looked at his disciples and said, blessed are you poor? But now Matthew, for example, is a tax collector. We know he wasn't poor. Why can he look at all of his disciples like this? And the answer is, because basically the only way for you to actually receive this power is to be poor in spirit. Let me give you two ways of looking at God. One way of looking at God is like this. I have nothing of value. God owes me nothing. He would be just to cut me off. But I rely completely on what Jesus Christ has done for me and ask that he accept me. The other approach goes like this. I've lived a fairly good life. I've lived a pretty decent life. God owes me something. He owes me a few things. He owes me some comfort. He shouldn't let bad things happen to me. Now, the first one is being poor in spirit. The second one is being middle class in spirit. Middle class in spirit simply is what. It's the right side up Kingdom. I've worked, I've done my best, I've done my duty. God owes me at least a little bit. He shouldn't let bad things happen to me. If that is, if that's your heart, you don't really. You see Jesus as an example, maybe, but you'll never see him as someone who actually substituted himself for you. You won't have the power that comes from knowing that he reversed his fortunes with you. You, because he reversed his fortunes with you, you can reverse your fortunes with everybody. In other words, a Christian who knows where you're standing in heaven is you live recklessly. You don't get rid of your money and you don't keep all of your money. You live recklessly with your money. You don't. What do we mean by that? Okay, I did that on purpose. What I mean is, if you really are living in this upside down kingdom, it means that you are going to be so generous that you put yourself somewhat at financial risk. It means you're going to be so generous with your money, but you're also. It means you're going to be so generous with your heart that sometimes people will exploit you emotionally. You're going to be so involved in trying to help people work out their differences that sometimes people will get mad at you. Christians don't care because they say, well, my money, it's nice to have it. My privacy, it's nice to have it. My comfort, it's nice to have it. But I'm going to live like Jesus because of who I am before Him. I'm not controlled by these things. So I'm able to move out and in a sense, live in a way that the world will consider reckless because I'm poor in spirit, not middle class in spirit. And if you also live by this power, you will also see when bad things happen to you. People who live in the old kingdom look at what's wrong, you know, troubles and difficulties. And what do they say? They say, I got it. My life is meaningless. But Christians know that when you're poor, when you're weeping, when you're empty, the kingdom of God is Near. See, this is another way in which the upside down kingdom says, strength is weakness and weakness is strength. Let's admit it. When have you really come to know yourself? When have you really come to meet Christ? When have you really come to get connected with God? It's not when you're rich, not when you're happy, not when you're laughing, not when you're included. It's the opposite. And therefore Christians are willing to go out and sacrifice themselves. And when I use the word reckless, I don't mean irresponsible, I mean reckless. As far as the world would understand. The world would say, anybody who gives that kind of money away, you should be saving up for a rainy day. You need to make sure anybody who gives your life like that, of course people are going to kind of exploit you occasionally. But a Christian will have such strength in Christ that by the world's standards, a Christian is going to look reckless and is not afraid of weeping and is not afraid of emptiness and sacrifice. Because I know the kingdom of God makes progress in my life and the lives of other people when it happens. Now, lastly, one last thing, and it's pretty important, the pattern of the upside down kingdom is what? It's a total reversal of your attitude toward the things that the world thinks are so important. Power and comfort and success and recognition. Secondly, the power is to know that Christ reversed places with you. Then, lastly, and very important, why? Why does Jesus Christ say here at the very end, I mean, right here at the very beginning, blessed are the poor. Whereas in Matthew chapter five, he says, blessed are the poor in spirit. People have continually gone back and forth and said, I really don't know which it is. Is Jesus Christ saying that my gospel is really for just the poor in spirit. You don't have to be really literally poor, you just have to be poor in spirit. Or is the gospel really for the literally poor? And the answer is, there's a deliberate duality, there's a deliberate ambiguity. The gospel will take middle class people, the gospel will take Christians and turn them toward their hearts, toward the poor. Whereas the gospel will take the poor and turn their hearts toward the rest of Christians. You see, the poor know salvation has got to be by grace. You never find the poor having a kind of very, very nice ethical religion. The poor tend to say, I believe in the blood of Jesus. I believe in salvation by grace. Why? Because, you see, they don't have the illusion that we're really in control of our lives. That the reason why you're on top of things is because you work so hard. The poor know that everything's a matter of grace. And therefore the poor open them. The poor are more open to the gospel. But the gospel will take a middle class person and say, you are saved by grace alone and turn, turn your heart toward the poor. And so one of the things you see in the Sermon on the Mount is if you really understand the Gospel, who you associate with will be the test. Do you only hang out with people who are of your caliber? Do you only hang out with people who seem to be, you know, have achieved what you've achieved? Or do you recognize that you are what you are by the grace of God alone? Who your friends are, who you hang out with? Very, very much a matter of the lifestyle of a Christian. So here's where we are. The handwriting is on the wall. For the old kingdom, you have to ask yourself some very, very simple questions. Am I living a life in which I'm controlled by what the world says, or am I living a life like Christ? I can only live a life like Christ if I see that he's come into my place and taken his place for me, taken my place for me, so I can stand in his place. I don't want you to be like Belshazzar. I'd much rather you be like Nebuchadnezzar. Because Nebuchadnezzar was the king before Belshazzar in the book of Daniel. And God showed up in a dream and said, I'm going to cut you down. You're like a big tree, but I'm going to cut you down. But you're going to grow back once you realize that all success is an unmerited grace. And Nebuchadnezzar was smitten down. You remember some. If you remember the story, he was a terrible blow. He fell into mental illness. But when he woke up, unlike Belshazzar, he realized that he'd been living his life according to the old way of the kingdom. And he got up and he said, everything is a gift of grace. And he changed the way in which he did everything. Don't be like Belshazzar, be like Nebuchadnezzar. Live in the upside down kingdom, not in the right side up kingdom. Let's pray. Father, we ask that you give us an ability to apply this. In some of our cases, it means being much more generous than we've been. In some of our cases, it means rethinking who we spend time with. It's a sweeping and comprehensive sweeping and comprehensive theme. We Pray Lord, as the weeks go on we can break this down and see what this actually means for us in every single area of our lives. But we pray that you would help us today to be humbled. Not like Belshazzar who just simply continued to party harder, but like Nebuchadnezzar who raised his eyes to heaven. We ask that you would make us people who live according to the upside down kingdom. Show us what that means by your spirit. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

A (41:26)

Thanks for joining us here on the Gospel in Life podcast. We hope that today's teaching encouraged you to go deeper into God's word. You can help others discover this podcast by rating and reviewing it. And to find more great gospel centered content by Tim Keller, visit gospelandlife.com Today's sermon was recorded in 1999 the sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life podcast were recorded between 1989 and 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.