Gospel in Life

Guest (Male): You're listening to the Gospel in Life podcast. What does authentic spiritual growth actually look like? Writing to early believers, Peter outlines several qualities of a life that looks more and more like Christ's. Today Tim Keller takes a closer look at how we can develop this in our own lives and how the resurrection of Jesus makes true lasting transformation possible.

Guest (Female): The scripture reading is from 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 1 through 2 and chapter 2 verses 9 through 12. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to God's elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood. Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. This is God's word.

Tim Keller: After Easter, we look at the question of what is the resurrection life? Because Ephesians 2 and Philippians 3 talk about the fact that even though Christians are not yet bodily resurrected and raised from the dead at the end of time, which is what we believe will happen, but right now we still are, according to Ephesians 2, raised with Christ. According to Philippians 3, we know the power of his resurrection. His resurrected power is in our lives now. What does that mean? What does it mean to live that kind of life?

Now what we're doing in the weeks after Easter is we're taking 1st and 2nd Peter and we're looking at it for answers to that question. What kind of life should we live now in light of the resurrection of Jesus? Last week we looked at one very important theme that we get out of 1 Peter, which is the new birth. You can't understand what it means to live the Christian life without the new birth. But now we're going to look at another theme, a very important theme, without which you can't understand how to live the Christian life in this world.

So what I want to do is look at this theme this way. First of all, let's look at the theme itself, how we're supposed to live as Christians. And then the test by which we know whether we're living that way. And the power by which we can live that way. Let's take a look at how this passage tells us we should live as Christians, how we can know the test, and then where do you get the power to do it.

First of all, what is this theme that tells us how to live lives as Christians that we're going to look at this week in the answer? It's the theme of being exiles. Because in verse one, it says, "to God's elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces." He's talking to all the people that he's writing to. In other words, the Christians are the exiles. Interestingly enough, the word "scattered" there in verse one is the word "diaspora," which is the word that's usually used for the Jews, the Jews who were not living in their homeland. Peter applies it to Christians.

He says we're all exiles. And then down in verse 11, which we'll get to in a second, he says, "Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles." So Christians are exiles and we're to live as exiles. Now, the Greek word that's used there, as is often the case, can't be completely conveyed by any one English word. So the word "exile" isn't bad. But the actual Greek word refers to a very particular kind of person. "Exile" could be too general. If somebody is trying to get away from being put in prison in one country, you run to another country, you're an exile. That's probably not the best way to understand it.

The word "parapidēmoi," which is the Greek word here, is best translated "resident alien." It's describing a kind of person that we have, actually some of you probably are resident aliens at a literal level. Here's what a resident alien is. On the one hand, you're not a tourist. You're in another country, a country that you're not a citizen of, but you're not a tourist. You live here. You're here, let's just say, on a resident passport or you have what we call a green card. You're part of the society. You're a functioning part of society. You have a job. You're here.

You know the language. You're not like a tourist who comes and someone is doing all the translation and you're detached and you're looking at all the exotic things. No, you're a resident. You're here, you have a job here, you're part of society. You know the language, you're fluent. You have friends and neighbors who you are in relationships with. So on the one hand, you're a resident, you're not a tourist.

But on the other hand, you're still not a citizen. You're a citizen of your home country. You haven't assimilated. You haven't given up your citizenship. And therefore, even though your neighbors like you and you can speak the language, they still think you're kind of weird because you don't share all their values. You don't share all their customs. You're still different. And it also means that because you're not a citizen, you don't enjoy all the privileges of full citizens. Lastly, you're here on a passport, which means you're not expected to stay forever.

That is the word that Peter uses for Christians. We are resident aliens. We are not tourists. We're engaged. On the other hand, we're not citizens. We're citizens of heaven, and yet we are residents here, and we are engaged to love our neighbors. And that is the balance. Now, what does that mean? What are the implications? I'll give you two implications of this word for how you live the Christian life.

One implication is that we are pilgrims here. This is a related word that we don't talk about enough, I think, certainly in the modern church. We are pilgrims. Exile means we're not home. We're on our way home, but we're not home. This is extraordinarily important for you to know because it's right of us to stress the great things that happen when you become a Christian. The minute you become a Christian, you know that you are wholly pardoned, you're completely accepted and loved, and that's a very transformative realization.

But when you become a Christian, ultimately you haven't arrived. You've just begun. And the Christian life, when we talk about the Christian life being a pilgrimage and we talk about Christians being exiles, what this means is your Christian life will never be all that completely satisfying. You will struggle. Things will never be just right. You'll always feel like I just haven't been able to get on top of this or that. There will be emptiness, there will be struggles all during the Christian life. You know why? Because even though you're a Christian, even though you're loved, you are not home.

Okay, what's home? You can't understand what it means to be an exile unless you understand what is home. That's not an easy thing to define, but let me try. Kathy and I were recently on a trip. We went to Asia and Australia with City to City. Redeemer City to City does church planting in the great cities of the world. We were out there, in places like Hong Kong and Sydney, talking to church planters and pastors, and it was quite exciting.

So for many weeks we were on the road. And they took care of us pretty much. But when you get home and you get into your bed, your bed. There is no bed like your bed. You know why? Because you work very hard, especially the longer you have a home, the more you work to have a bed that's exactly, exactly like you like it. Not too hard, not too soft, not too squishy, not too much this, not too much that. And you know, over the years, you say I hate that bed, I hate that bed, it gives me a backrub, and finally you get your bed just the way you like it.

And it's not just the bed. We stayed in some very nice hotel rooms, but I'm very tall, Kathy's very short, and there were a lot of things in those rooms that weren't where they should be. At home, you painstakingly—the longer you're in a home—the more you painstakingly make it fit you. Fit your height, fit your weight, fit your emotions. Home is where everything fits.

Now, we're not really home. You know why we're not home? We're not in ultimate home because ultimate real home would be a place in which everything fit the deepest longings of your soul. Complete love, complete rest. The Bible is so filled with stories to tell you that you're an exile. Because of course you have the story of Abraham. The people of God begin in exile. Abraham, leave your country. And then the people of God are in exile in Egypt, and then they're in exile in Babylon.

You say, well that's Israel. Yes, but Israel is a microcosm of the human race. Because you know what the Bible is about? Where does it start? In Genesis. What does it tell you at the beginning? We're an exile. We lost paradise. And this world is no longer home. It's filled with death. We're always losing loved ones, we're always losing love. Evil is always on top of good. This is not fit. This doesn't fit us at all. This world's not home.

And you know, if you don't believe in God or the Bible, the irony of that is because you think this world is all there is and this is the only world that ever could be, you don't know why you're so unhappy. You're an exile and you don't know it. If you think this world is the only world that could be and we have evolved to fit this world—isn't that how evolution works, natural selection, adaptation to the environment—well I want to know then why are we so unhappy?

If this is the only world, if this is home, if this is really home, why are we so unhappy? Why can't we handle death? Why isn't death like, oh who cares? I love that person with all my heart, they died, so what? That's the world. And if you were adapted to this world, it wouldn't bother you. But it does. You see that? You're not home. This place doesn't fit you. You're not home.

The Bible says the reason is because we were created for fellowship with God. And if you want to know where true home is, it's in the arms of God, and in the face of God, in the presence of God. That's the reason why Psalm 90 says he is our dwelling place. And Isaac Watts writes a hymn about that, calling God our eternal home. And we're told that someday God is going to, in a sense, return. His presence will cover the earth the way the waters cover the bottom of the sea. And he will get rid of death, and he will get rid of suffering, and he will make this world a home again, and he'll fix everything.

That's home. And until then, everybody, even if you're a Christian, even if you're a great Christian, you aren't home. You're not home and therefore you're always on a pilgrimage. Things will never be what you want them to be. Life doesn't fit. The world doesn't fit. And there'll be some better times and there'll be some worse times, but you're on a pilgrimage homeward bound. You're on your way homeward, but you're an exile. You're a pilgrim, you're on a journey. And you will never really understand your own life until you understand that.

Secondly, the word "exile" also, and this is what I want to explore more now, the word "exile" also tells you something about how you should be relating to the world around you, that is, to the society and the culture around you. The word "exile" is a wonderful word to tell you how do you live in a place like New York City if you're a Christian? How do you do it? And the answer is not withdrawal and not assimilation and accommodation.

We're not identical to our neighbors, and yet we are deeply involved in loving our neighbors. Miroslav Volf at one point talks about the fact that—why is this true? And Miroslav Volf in his book on identity says when you become a Christian, of course suddenly—I would say in non-traditional cultures, your identity is largely grounded in your family and therefore in your race and in your blood. In Western cultures, your identity is probably more grounded in your career. I'm a good lawyer or I make money or I'm an artist. It's grounded in your career.

And the minute you become a Christian now, the source of your value, the source of your security suddenly becomes far more deeply rooted in Christ. It doesn't mean you stop being a lawyer, it doesn't mean you stop being Anglo or Asian or Hispanic or African American or whatever. It doesn't mean you lose the one identity, it just another one comes in that's deeper. And so in a sense you have both, asymmetrical. In other words, if you're Chinese you become a Christian, you don't become a European Christian, you're a Chinese Christian. But you're a Chinese Christian.

And as Volf says it perfectly, I think, he says Christians therefore can never be first Asians or Americans, Russians or Tutsis, and then Christians. Christians take a distance from the idols of their own culture because they give ultimate allegiance to the God of all cultures. So when they respond to the call of the gospel, they plant one foot outside the culture while the other remains firmly planted in it. Resident aliens. Christianity is not flight from one's original culture, but a new way of living within it, because of the new vision of peace and joy in Christ.

And the same thing happens if you're a lawyer or if you're an artist. No longer is your primary identity in being an artist or being a lawyer or being Chinese or being European or being whatever. You've got one foot in, one foot out, but the deepest is your identity in Christ. And that makes you a resident alien. It means you're different and yet you're the same. But you're not one or you're not the other all together. That's what it means to live as exile.

Second, the other thing we learn here is there's a test given to you as to whether you actually are living as exiles. That's how we should live, but how do you know if you are? There's a test. Do you want to see the test? When I was in school, I hated tests. I know the material, I read it, I listened to the lectures, I don't need a test. But they gave me tests anyway. So I'm going to give you a test because misery loves company.

So here it is, verses 11 and 12. Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles to live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. There it is. Now, for a moment I'm going to put aside what does it mean to live a good life? But the point is, if you're an exile and you're living a good life as an exile, two things will happen at once. And notice they're happening at once. Look carefully.

Though they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. It doesn't say if you really live good lives, they'll only glorify God and they're not going to accuse you, or vice versa. Here's what it says. If you're living the lives you ought to live, first of all, you will be accused, you will be misunderstood. You will offend the people around you. They will think you strange, they will think you sometimes dangerous.

On the other hand, they will also see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits. What that really means is some people in every culture, if you're living like you should, is going to be really upset with you, really offended, really angry. And other people are going to see the beauty of God in you and come to Christ. Now, what does it mean then to live a good life? If you're living as you should, if you're living as exiles, if you're living the good life, that means you will be both extraordinarily offensive and incredibly attractive at the same time. And that is your test.

You won't just turn people off, you'll also attract them. You won't just attract people, you'll also turn them off, at the same time. Now, by the way, let's test this out. What does it mean to say "good lives"? And the reason we know something about what this probably means is that Peter is actually quoting Jesus, or at least he's alluding to what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount.

In the Sermon on the Mount, he's just finished talking about persecution. He just says you're going to be persecuted, at the end of the beatitudes. And then he turns and he starts talking about being salt and light. And when he gets to light, he says you are the light of the world, and therefore let your good deeds show forth so—almost the same words—so that the pagans may see your good deeds and glorify God.

And he's actually saying the same thing that Peter's saying, or you might say Peter is saying what Jesus said. And that is that if you are living the life you ought to live—good deeds—you will be both persecuted, at the same time you'll attract people. You'll be offensive and attractive at once. You'll be outrageous and compelling at the same time. You'll be persecuted and yet your church will grow because you'll be winning people to Christ.

What are good deeds? Well, when Jesus said it, it was very clear, Sermon on the Mount. Jesus was explaining what it means to live the Christian life. And he's basically saying if you live like this, you will be both offensive and attractive. What's in the Sermon on the Mount? Well, I can't go through all of it now, but I can tell you this. Let me just do a little history lesson. We know there was at least four things that the early Christians exhibited to their non-Christian neighbors because they lived the Sermon on the Mount that were both offensive and attractive.

Do you know what those four things were? Forgiveness, generosity to the poor of all races, the ability to cheerfully take suffering and death, and sexual chastity, sex only for marriage. In those four ways, Christians were radically different than their neighbors, and in some ways offensive and strange, and other ways compelling. Let me just do a little background here. First of all, forgiveness.

It's a little hard for us today to understand this, but the Greco-Roman world was—those were shame and honor cultures. In shame and honor cultures, it was understood that social stability depended on people fearing and respecting their neighbor as men and women of honor. Now, what did it mean to be a man or a man of honor in an honor and shame culture? It meant that if you wronged him or anyone in his family, he would take vengeance. Because the family's honor is at stake.

So in other words, a man of honor and woman of honor, that if you wronged them, if their family was wronged, then they would come and take vengeance. And that was considered to be the way in which society was held together. You lived the way you should live because everybody around you was—you had a fear and respect. And Christians came along and said turn the other cheek? Forgive seventy times seven? Don't repay evil with evil, but overcome evil with good? Nuts, crazy! Society will fall apart! And yet it's also kind of attractive, all that graciousness and forgiveness.

Secondly, Christians were not just generous to their own poor, but to the poor of other nations, other nationalities. Again, in an honor and shame culture, you basically and in a traditional culture, you basically got your identity from your family and therefore from your tribe and from your blood. And though you did take care of your own people if they got—fell into poverty, you never took care of somebody else's.

And Christians took care of all sorts of people, all the different races. And they—they'd never seen anything like that. Now the reason the Christians did it was Christians believe what the Bible says about the Imago Dei, the image of God. The Bible teaches that all human beings are made in the image of God and therefore every human being, regardless of race, regardless of social class, regardless of capacity or talent, all human beings have a kind of foundational dignity, an inviolable dignity.

Now, that idea had not gotten out into the world yet. Historians will tell you that the very idea of human rights basically comes from this Christian biblical idea of the Imago Dei. Martin Luther King Jr. certainly believed that. He ran with it, was the basis for an awful lot of what he did. But of course back then, this idea of everybody in the image of God was not known. And therefore for Christians to come along and take care not only of their own race, the poor of their own race, but of other races too was crazy.

Thirdly, Christians could face death and suffering with cheerfulness because they believed in the future resurrection, and their neighbors belonged to a culture that did not give them that resource. And fourth, sexual chastity. See, the Greeks believed that the body wasn't all that important. What mattered was the mind and the soul. And therefore sex was just seen as a bodily appetite, no big deal. So they understood it as just a way of getting pleasure.

The Christians come along and said, no, no, sex is a way to make a full life commitment, total life commitment to one other person. So they had this high view of sex, therefore it was only for marriage. And again, all these things were on the one hand rather offensive to a lot of the people around the Christians. This idea of sexual chastity and generosity to anybody, practically anybody, and this approach to suffering and this approach to forgiveness. On the one hand, it was very outrageous and sometimes offensive.

On the other hand, come on, kind of attractive too. Forgiveness, graciousness, loving all the poor, the ability to handle suffering, watching people die with smiles on their faces as they're singing hymns. The pagans couldn't figure it out. Now do you see what's going on? You know what happened historically. The Christians were persecuted, they were killed, and they grew like crazy. They were both offensive and they were attractive to the max.

And this principle that in every culture, every culture, any group of Christians who lives according to the Sermon on the Mount, who lives the way Jesus wants to live, will be both offensive and attractive, but in different ways, is a universal rule. So for example today in the Middle East, they'll look at the way Christians believe about sex and marriage and they'll say that's fine.

But then they'll look at forgiveness, they'll look at how quickly we restore people after they've fallen, when they look at how we treat our enemies, because they are shame and honor cultures, they say that's crazy, that's wrong, that's weak. Here in Manhattan, it's the other way around. In Manhattan, people like the idea of forgiveness, they don't quite know how to do it, but they like the Christian idea of forgiveness. They don't do it, but they sure like the idea.

But what we say about sex and marriage they just consider just crazy, offensive, and maybe dangerous. And you know what that means? It means that if the Bible really is not the product of any one culture but it really has come down from God, then it would have to in every culture offend you somewhere and attract you in other ways. Be offended in different ways, attracted in different ways. But the universal is that if you're a Christian in your culture, you will be offensive and attractive.

Okay, how are you doing with that test? Think about it, would you? How are you doing with it? I would have to say that most Christians are either offensive but not very attractive because they're always talking about their Christianity, they're talking about their Christian faith and they're getting a lot of pushback. They're either offensive and not attractive.

Or in some cases they're attractive but not offensive because they're just keeping a low profile and they kind of go along with what everybody else is saying. Or in most cases, we're neither offensive nor attractive. People who are offensive—listen carefully, this is a little bit of a train of reasoning. People who are offensive and not attractive are a little bit like Jesus in the sense that they are denouncing the money changers in the temple and denouncing the Pharisees.

And people who are attractive but not offensive are a little bit like Jesus in that they're attracting the moral and social outsiders. But you see they're in both cases—if you're offensive and not attractive, attractive and not offensive, you're a little bit like Jesus but not all the way. But if you're neither offensive nor attractive, if nobody's attracted to your Christian faith, if nobody's attracted to your character, and nobody's offended or upset and you never take it on the chin for Jesus, you're not offensive or attractive, you're not like Jesus at all. Think about it.

And let's go further. To be truly offensive takes courage. To be truly attractive takes enormous compassion, gentle with doubters, merciful to your opponents. So to be courageous—I mean to be offensive takes courage, to be attractive takes compassion. But see, courage without any attractiveness is probably not real courage, it's self-righteousness. You like to tell people off.

And attractiveness without courage is not really love or compassion, it's really cowardice. How are you doing with this? Are you offensive and attractive? Or maybe neither? Do people come to you and want to open up and talk about their problems? Okay, that's a good sign. Do they talk to you about your faith? That's a good sign. Do you ever take it on the chin? Do you ever really get in trouble because of what you believe? That's a good sign too. But what if you only have one side, not the other, or neither? Then you're failing the test.

So if it's true that it takes tremendous courage and tremendous compassion in order to live the way we're called to live as exiles, where do we get the power for that? Where do we get that? And the answer is you've got to see two things. There's two things. First of all, you have to see that you're a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession.

That is a classic series of four things, four statements, four ways of talking about the Christian church. If you're a Christian, you're part of a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession. I do not have the time—and some of you are saying, you're not going to go into that now, are you really? We'll be here forever. And you're right. So let me just talk about the beginning and the end.

First of all, you're God's chosen people. An old teacher of mine, Ed Clowney, had a wonderful way of preaching on this. He used to say first of all, notice if you're a Christian, you're not the choice people, you're the chosen people. You know the difference? Choice people means you're spiritual, you're virtuous, you're hardworking, you're diligent, you're choice. But it doesn't say that. It says you're chosen. You're just chosen.

What does that mean? Well, Ed would go to Deuteronomy 7. Deuteronomy 7 says, where God is talking to Israel and he says, "I did not choose you because you were the greatest of nations, in fact you were the puniest of nations. However, because I loved you, I chose you." And Ed said, did you hear that? You know what that is? That's circular reasoning. God is saying, I didn't choose you because you were virtuous, because you were hardworking, because you were spiritual. I didn't choose you and love you because of those things.

I just loved you because I loved you. See, it's circular. I didn't choose you for this, this, this. I chose you because I loved you, which means I don't love you because you're all these things, I just love you because I love you because I love you. Now, we say, well that's kind of circular, isn't it? That's kind of weird. And Ed says yes, it is, and that's the only way real love works.

And he says try it out in your marriage. And this would be his illustration. Your spouse comes to you someday and says, "Honey, do you love me?" And you say, "Of course I love you." And then the spouse comes back and says, "Why?" And when your spouse says that, there's a couple ways you can answer. One is you can say, "Well, you've got all these great virtues. You're very, very physically attractive, you are a terrific tennis player, you make money, you have a good career."

Now I want you to know that the conversation is going downhill fast. If you don't know that, who wants to hear that? Who wants to hear what if I lose my job? What if I put on weight? What if I have surgery and I can't play tennis? Here's what you need to say, here's what you need to say, and I hope you can. You need to say, "Honey, I must admit that you had these various traits that attracted me to you at first, but now I love you just because I love you." That's called unconditional love. And it's the only love that we can possibly live with.

And because we're chosen by grace, because we're chosen by sheer grace, not because we're choice, you can run to the last of these four statements where it says you're God's special possession. That's a term that means you're his treasure. It's a word that really means your most precious possession, like that heirloom, that jewelry that your great-grandmother left you that you have in your jewelry box and you know that actually it's worth as much as everything else in your whole apartment put together and you probably ought to put under lock and key.

That's the sort of thing we're talking about here because actually the first time that this word is used is in Exodus 19 when God speaks to the children of Israel at Mount Sinai and says, "Even though I own the whole world, you are my treasured possession." See, that's like saying, "I got galaxies. You talk about rich people? I got galaxies," says God. "But none of them mean anything to me like you do."

Do you know you're loved like that? Do you know because you're chosen by grace you're loved like that? Have you grasped it? Has it grasped you? Has it really hit you? I'm telling you, until this is an existential reality to you, you will not have real courage. You'll have swagger maybe and self-righteousness and braggadocio. And you won't have real compassion. You'll go out there to serve people so you can feel good about yourself, so you can feel like a good person.

But you'll be using the people you're serving, you won't be actually serving them. Until you know you're this loved, you'll be doing everything in order to feel better about yourself. Not real courage, not real compassion, not real offensive, not real attractive at the same time. You need to know you're this loved. And if you say, gee, I'd love to be that sure, I don't know that I am, how can I be that sure? I know this in principle, I believe I'm loved by God, but how do I actually know that?

And it's the second thing you have to see, of course. And this is what you've got to talk to yourself about. Verse 2. How did you become a Christian? Why can you be a Christian? How can you be loved like this? Because—look verse 2—you were chosen by the Father, just talked about that. You were sanctified by the Spirit, that was last week. But here's the real reason: because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

Which means think about it like this: Jesus was the ultimate exile. He was home. I mean he was in the bosom of the Father. He was home. And yet he left home. He came to earth. And even here on earth, do you ever see a gospel story, do you ever see any gospel account that talks about Jesus being at home? Jesus was at home eating and they came and said—do you ever see that? No.

Why not? He says, "Foxes have holes, birds have nests, the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." He was exiled from his home in heaven and even here on earth he wandered, he wandered. Why? This was what he came to do. And then he was crucified outside the gate, outside the city. He was the ultimate exile. "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" He was homeless, he lost his home, he was exiled. He took the exile we deserved. He got the exile that we human beings deserved so that we could be brought into home.

And only when you see him dying that big death for you will you really have courage. You know how at the end of the Lord of the Rings there's a big battle—it's both in the book and in the movie. And one of the hobbits, Meriadoc, one of the hobbits is in the middle of the battle, and he's utterly, utterly frightened and panicked for his life. He's just really—he's crawling around in the mud, he's even afraid to look up. There's all these huge evil warriors around and he's afraid for his life and he's just running scared.

And then suddenly he looks up and he sees Eowyn standing in front of the biggest of them all, standing ready to die before the biggest of the evil warriors, right? And in the book it says the slow kindled courage of his race awoke. And he looked at her and he said, "She should not die alone." That's how you get courage. And then he got up and he did his great deed.

So look at Jesus next time you're afraid. You're afraid of speaking up, you're afraid of doing something courageous, you're afraid of opening your mouth, you're afraid of identifying with him, you're afraid of doing something that you know you should do but it's—you're going to take it on the chin. The next time you're afraid, look at Jesus and say, "He should not die alone."

He died the big death for you. Why aren't you willing to die a little death? So somebody kills your reputation. He died, he had the great death. Look at him and say, "He should not die alone." Look, when Kathy and I moved here 25 years ago, the parks were filled with homeless people. And what was a shame about that was that parks are wonderful places, but they can't bear the full weight of a person's whole life.

They're not places to go to eat, sleep, bathe, and do the other things that you do at home. In other words, parks are great places, but they're not home. And so they became foul. I'm here to tell you that if there's anything that is more important to you than Jesus Christ and his salvation, if you're relying on anything more than him, if you love anything more than him, if you're trying to get your significance and security out of anything more than you're trying to get it out of Jesus Christ, those things that you're relying on and looking to—whether it's career or family or whatever—is a good thing, but it's not home.

It'll never bear the full weight of your soul. If you do that, you'll always be wandering and never find home. It'll always be winter and never Christmas. Here's what you need to do. You need to say, "Lord Jesus, I want to live for you because you were exiled for me. Bring me home. Father, accept me because of what Jesus has done."

And then bit by bit as the years go by, though you're still a pilgrim, you'll experience in prayer, you'll experience in worship, you'll experience foretastes of home. Foretastes of his love, foretastes of his presence. And you'll slowly find your homesickness slowly but surely cured. And you will know that someday you're going to wake up and you're going to say, "I'm home at last. This is where I belong. This is the land I've been looking for all my life, though I never knew it."

Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you that we can know that if we believe in you and rely on the salvation of Jesus Christ, we're on our way home. And we can have foretastes of home even now. And we can forgive, and we can be generous, and we can be chaste, and we can be able to handle suffering and even death. We can live lives that to some degree will offend our neighbors, but yet we can still pour ourselves out in love them.

And we'll know that we'll be both offensive and attractive, and that's fine because oh my word, Lord, your Son Jesus Christ was so beautiful and he attracted—when he was lifted up on the cross, he drew the world to himself, and yet he was also persecuted and betrayed and forsaken. So Father, we pray that you would teach us how to be pilgrims here, how to live as joyful exiles. We pray that you'd help us to live this resurrected life because in the end, this is what our heart wants the most. Help us, it'll glorify you and it'll satisfy us. Help us be the people that you've called us to be. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Guest (Male): Thanks for listening to today's teaching. It's our prayer that you are encouraged by it and that it helps you apply the gospel to your life and share it with others. For more gospel-centered resources from Tim Keller, visit gospelinlife.com. There you can subscribe to the Life and the Gospel quarterly journal. When you do, you will also receive free articles, sermons, devotionals, and other helpful resources. Again, it's all at gospelinlife.com.

You can also stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and X. Today's sermon was recorded in 2014. 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.