The Dream of the Kingdom

[00:00:03] How can Christians stay faithful to God in a culture that doesn't share our beliefs? The ancient Israelites faced the same question when they were exiles in Babylon. Written during that time, the Old Testament book of Daniel addresses the complexities of living faithfully in a pluralistic society. Today, Timothy Keller explores what it looks like to seek the good of the cities and communities God has placed us in, while remembering that our true home is in His coming kingdom.

[00:00:37] And in the very, very beginning, just to make sure, since I'm not able to print the whole chapter and the whole narrative, I'll make a comment or two just to make sure you understand it. Daniel chapter 2, verses 24 to 35 and 44 to 46. Then Daniel went to Ariok, whom the king had appointed to execute the wise men of Babylon, of which Daniel was one.

[00:01:04] And Daniel said to him, Do not execute the wise men of Babylon, or me. Take me to the king, and I will interpret his dream for him. Another comment here is Nebuchadnezzar was about to slay all the wise men of Babylon because they couldn't interpret this great dream. So Ariok took Daniel to the king at once and said, I have found a man among the exiles from Judah who can tell the king what his dream means.

[00:01:32] The king asked Daniel also, called Belteshazzar, Are you able to tell me what I saw in my dream and interpret it? Daniel replied, No wise man, no enchanter, magician, or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he is asked about. But there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come. Your dream and the visions that pass through your mind as you lay on your bed were these.

[00:02:00] As you were lying there, O king, your mind turned to things to come, and the revealer of mysteries showed you what is going to happen. As for me, the mystery has been revealed to me not because I have greater wisdom than other living men, but so that you, O king, may know the interpretation and that you may understand what went through your mind. You looked, O king, and there before you stood a large statue, an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze,

[00:02:30] its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. Then the iron, the clay, the statue, and the bronze, the silver, and the gold were broken to pieces at the same time and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace,

[00:02:57] but the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth. In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but itself will endure forever. This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, not by human hands. A rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold to pieces.

[00:03:24] The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true, and the interpretation is trustworthy. Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel and paid him honor and ordered that an offering and incense be presented to him. Which means he didn't get it. Oh well, so he didn't get the point. However, we can if we look at this. Now, why are we looking at Daniel?

[00:03:53] For four weeks we're going to look at four narratives out of the book of Daniel, and the reason we do this is because it's traditional in the history of the church, and it's my habit as well. How convenient. That after Easter, after Good Friday, after a time of really spending a great deal of time considering the work of Jesus Christ and the meaning of his life and death and resurrection, that you talk about practical Christian living. What does it mean to live the Christian life? How can we live out the Christian life?

[00:04:22] And when you get to the book of Daniel, the book of Daniel is exilic literature. That means it's one of the books, Daniel, Esther, Ezekiel, parts of Jeremiah, parts of some other prophets. It's one of the books that talks about the time of exile. The Israelites were taken by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, into exile. They were taken away from Israel where the government, the arts, everything was, all the culture believed in the God of the Bible.

[00:04:49] And they were taken into a city, Babylon, and a culture that was, as we're going to see, hostile to the biblical God. And now the question comes up, how can I live a Christian life, or pardon me, how do I live the life of a believer in the biblical God in an unbelieving world? How do I live as a believer in a world, in a society, where all the cultural institutions are hostile to my faith and to the God I believe in?

[00:05:19] That's the question. And Daniel, Esther, and some others are very relevant today, extremely relevant. Because some years ago, we could say that in both Europe and America, basically these countries had cultures, the government, the arts, you know, academia, education, most higher education, was very supportive of the Christian belief. It was either officially or informally supportive, but that's not true anymore. And so we're all like Daniel.

[00:05:49] We're all, as believers, living a life, and we're asking ourselves, how in the world can we live a life of integrity in a pluralistic, polytheistic, unbelieving world? Now when we ask that of Daniel, we're going to get a lot out of it for the four weeks. We're going to look at Daniel and how he did it. First of all, I'd like to tonight look at this narrative and ask three questions about the narrative. There are three very odd things here. In fact, you say, only three? It is an interesting narrative. But the three things are this.

[00:06:19] First of all, we have to ask ourselves about the two names of Daniel. See verse 26? Daniel, and that's a Hebrew name, meaning God is my judge, and Belteshazzar, which is a Babylonian name that means Bel is my God, which is, Bel is one of the Babylonian gods. The question is, what is a believing Israelite, a man who believes in the God of Israel, what's he doing up at the very top of this pagan government structure?

[00:06:48] What's he doing being a wise man, a biblical, I mean, a Babylonian wise man? So the first question is, what's the meaning of the two names? The second question is, what's the meaning of this weird dream? And the third thing is, what is the rock that strikes the statue? You know, the statue doesn't have a foundation, but the rock, you see, the rock strikes the statue. So the three questions are, why the two names? What is the meaning of the two names?

[00:07:17] What is the meaning of the dream? And what is the meaning of the rock? And every time we ask the question, we're going to get out of the answer, a principle for living, a believing life, and an unbelieving world. We have three practical principles. Now let's take a look at the first question and the first principle. What's the meaning of the two names? What is Daniel doing here? And if you want to understand that, you have to get a little background. And to get the background, we've got to talk about

[00:07:46] the background to the Babylonian exile and the background to even Daniel chapter one. We have to do background before this chapter comes along. And that's helpful anyway for the whole series. It's helpful for us to understand all of the stories of Daniel. What is Daniel doing here? Many of you have heard, and many people know, that Nebuchadnezzar, the great king of Babylon, came and defeated Judah militarily and defeated Jerusalem and then carried its people off into exile.

[00:08:15] What most people don't know, and what I certainly didn't know until I started looking recently, was that Nebuchadnezzar came to Babylon twice. I mean, came to Jerusalem twice. Yes, in 587 BC, we know that he basically knocked Jerusalem down, raised it to the ground, and carried off most of its people into Babylon. But what most people don't know is that he came first 10 years before, and he defeated Jerusalem 10 years before that

[00:08:45] great destruction. But when he defeated them the first time, he did not raise them to the ground. He did not cart away everybody. He took 10,000 people back to Babylon with him. Only 10,000 out of the whole nation. But who are those 10,000? They were the 10,000 professionals. The first time he came, he took the professional class of Israel. He took 10,000 of the leaders of the military, the government, the arts, education, scholars, the wise.

[00:09:15] He took the 10,000 professionals and their families back to Babylon to live there. Why? But incredibly cagey of him. Instead of having to destroy the whole country, how do you make a vassal nation subject to the Babylonian will? How do you make it fit into the Babylonian empire? It's very simple. You take the professionals, the leaders of the culture, you bring them to Babylon, and you Babylonize them culturally. Babylonize. I know it sounds like,

[00:09:44] I don't know, dry cleaning. But what it really meant was, Babylon had a polytheistic, pluralistic culture. Israel had a monotheistic culture. And what he was trying to do was destroy the biblical worldview of the whole professional class of Israel. Nebuchadnezzar was going to try to dislodge them. He was going to have them live in Babylon and they were going to develop, they were going to take upon themselves the Babylonian culture. They were going to become intellectually and socially and culturally and spiritually and religiously Babylonian.

[00:10:13] And that was the way to completely, in a sense, subjugate Israel. And so when the professional class got to Babylon, the first thing they did is settle down outside the city. And we know that they settled down near Nippur on the Kebar Canal, some distance from the city. And prophets rose up in that exilic community. And here's what they began to say. If you want to know what they said, you go to Jeremiah chapter 28.

[00:10:43] And the leading prophet was Hananiah. And this is what they said. They said, don't move into the city. We're believers. That is the wicked pagan city. It's the source of the Babylonian culture. Have nothing to do with it. Don't move in there. Don't live in there. Stay out and pray against the city. And we prophets see, we foresee that God will judge this city and we will come back out on top. We'll have the cultural power. God is going to judge this city. He's going to put us back in charge.

[00:11:13] So pray against the city and have nothing to do with the city. And Jeremiah, the true prophet of God, back in Judah still, heard about this and wrote them a letter that revealed will of God for the exiles. And this is what the letter said. And it's amazing. And it became the blueprint for Daniel's life. That's why we're reading it. This is what he says in the letter. Jeremiah chapter 29, verse 4. This is what the Lord says

[00:11:42] to the exiles in 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. Increase in number there. Do not decrease. 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 prospers, you too will prosper. Do not let the prophets among you deceive you.

[00:12:12] Now this must have been absolutely astounding to the people who listened. This seems counterintuitive to what you think God would ever say. And he says three things that must have just been astonishing to them. The first thing was he said, he says, get a bigger picture for what I'm doing. This is a city to which I carried you. Remember that? He says, to the city to which I carried you.

[00:12:41] Now this is what God is saying here. He's saying, it's part of my plan that you lost the cultural power. It's part of my plan that now you as believers have to live in a pagan, wicked city. It's part of my plan. It's part of my plan to renew you and to change you and to grow you. It's part of my plan to change them and to grow them and to renew them. It's part of my plan to get the word out, my word out into the world. Your loss of cultural power,

[00:13:10] you're now needing to live as believers in an unbelieving world is part of my plan. He says, I designed this. That's the first thing. So he says, move in there. Get you in there. Don't stay away. That's the first thing. Big plan. I took away Christendom. I took away the cultural power. I put you now, I disseminated you through the pagan cities of the world, he says. Now that's number one. Number two.

[00:13:40] Second thing he says is, I refuse to believe, I refuse to let you believe that the only choices you've got are assimilation or separation. He says, I deny that those are your only two choices. The prophets are saying, stay out or else you'll get in there and you'll assimilate and you'll lose your identity. So don't assimilate, separate. And God is saying in this letter, that's not the only two choices. On the one hand he says, don't assimilate. Don't lose your identity. He says there, let me read this.

[00:14:10] I just said it. You might remember. He said, increase in number there. Do not decrease. Increase in number. That means don't lose your identity. Don't just melt in. Don't just become Babylonians. Know who you are. Know the number of believers. Stay in a covenant relationship with me. So on the one hand he's saying, keep your identity. Do not assimilate. But on the other hand he says, build houses. Settle down. Plant gardens. Eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters. He says,

[00:14:39] seek the prosperity of the city. And this is what he's saying. He says, I don't want you to assimilate, but on the other hand he says, I want you to move in. I want you to be deeply involved in the life of the city economically. Culturally. I want you to raise your families there and I want them to raise their families there. And I want you to be deeply involved in the life of the city. So what is he saying? He says, I'm not saying assimilate, but I'm not saying, I won't let you separate. I want you to be deeply involved, deeply engaged in the life of the city,

[00:15:07] but living distinctly as my people. Holding on to your monotheistic worldview. Now how in the world can you do that? But that's what he's doing. In fact, what he's doing is he's calling the people to be spiritually bicultural. He says, I want you to move into the wicked city of man, but I want you to stay citizens of the city of God. He says, I don't want you to love me and hate the city or love the city

[00:15:37] and then forget me. I want you to love both. And that leads to the third thing. So the first thing he says is, I want you to see that my disseminating you in amongst the pagans is my plan for both them and for you. It's I'm going to benefit them and me. It's going to help you. It's going to help them. It's going to help me. Secondly, he says, I don't want you to assimilate or separate. I want you to engage deeply, but still live in the city as distinct as my people. And then thirdly, how? How can you do that?

[00:16:07] How in the world can you avoid assimilating and yet avoid separating? He says right here, pray for the city. Seek the peace or the shalom of the city because if it prospers, you too will prosper. And that's the key, your motivation. If you can, see, the word shalom does not just mean peace, hi, bye, as people use shalom as a greeting. But the word shalom, the Hebrew word shalom in the Bible means complete well-being,

[00:16:37] total well-being, multidimensional well-being and blessing and fulfillment. It means spiritual well-being and physical well-being and material well-being and economic well-being. And what he is saying is this, I don't want you to just go in there and build your little churches and grow your churches in the city and just, you know, just cluck, cluck, you know, tut-tut at all the things that are happening. He says, I want you to put your lives on the line to make this a great place. I want you to make it safe. I want you to, I want you to make it prosperous.

[00:17:07] I want you to, I want you to spread the faith but I also want you to help people in need. I want you to do everything you can out of love for the city. I want you to pray for the city. So the false prophets were saying don't pray for the city, pray against it, pray that it will be judged so we'll be back in power. And the true prophet, God himself says no. If you go into the city celebrating it and not seeing how broken it is, you're not really seeking its peace. You're not admitting how much, how needy it is. But if you go in just to despise it, just to shake your finger at it,

[00:17:37] you'll get nothing done either. Love the city. Love the city of man for the sake of the city of God. Live in both. Have two names. Now, that's the first principle. And you know, Christians don't, most Christians don't even know it's there. Most Christians believe you either assimilate or you separate. Daniel was different. This is the blueprint.

[00:18:07] Daniel either was there and heard the letter in Daniel 29, in Jeremiah 29, or else his parents, we're not totally sure how old Daniel was at the time of the exile, but this is the blueprint. Why? Because who is this guy? Now, look carefully. Daniel, we can see that he's a prophet himself. We can see that he believes in God. Look at the things he says. He is completely monotheistic. He is utterly committed to this exclusive sovereign God of the Bible. But, what did he do to get into this job?

[00:18:37] You can read about it in Daniel 1, but I'm not going to go into that right now. What did he do to get into this job? How did he get up here? He's in the civil service. He's in the civil government. The wise men were the people who ran things. And you'll see in Daniel 1 that the way he got there was he went through a very rigorous liberal arts training in Babylonian culture. But let me show you something that's probably going to make some of your skin crawl, and I don't see any way around it. You know that place in verse 27 when he says, no wise man,

[00:19:07] enchanter, magician, or diviner can explain to the king the mystery is asked about. Now, you know what that is saying? That's what Daniel is. These are the people who run this country in Babylon. These are the advisors. These are the members of administration. These are the members of his council. And in order for Daniel to get into his position, he had to study enchanting, magic, divining. He had to study all of Babylonian culture, including all that stuff.

[00:19:38] There are lots of Christians today who would say, we mustn't touch any of that stuff. We mustn't be polluted like that. What are you going to say about this passage of the Bible? Daniel's a believer who mastered that material and yet kept his distinctive Christian, his biblical worldview, and therefore, he was living and working at the highest levels in that pagan structure and that pagan government and that pagan culture and yet doing it distinctively as a believer in the God of the Bible.

[00:20:07] How did he do that? Why can't we do that? Because the blueprint of his life was Jeremiah 29 and the rest of us are locked into either assimilation or separation. Now this isn't easy. Of course this isn't easy. You know, here's one of the reasons why. Let's just take something. Let me take a nice practical problem that people have given me over the years. Let's just say you're a Christian actor and over the years people have asked me this question. What kind of roles

[00:20:37] can I take and not take? As a Christian, are there roles that I shouldn't take? Are there roles that I should be seeking? Are there roles that I can take but not like? Are there roles that I shouldn't take under any circumstances? And what are they? Now, if you just come to New York or L.A. or wherever you're working as an actor and you just never ask that question, you never ask the question, you never say, well, what's distinct about how does the cross, how does the resurrection, how does the gospel,

[00:21:06] how do the themes of my salvation influence how I do my acting? If you never wrestle with that, if you never ask that question, you assimilated, you moved in there, you've decreased. As Jeremiah said, don't do that. You've just lost yourself. But on the other hand, if you say, where's the rules? Okay, well, I say, well, of course there's this book in the Bible that tells you, here's the Christian acting book and it tells you what roles you can take and what you can't. They say, oh, really? I said, April Fool.

[00:21:36] There isn't such a book. There's also not a book for Christian businessmen and women. There's not a book for Christians in arts. There's no books like that. Why? There's very few rules. Oh, there's some basic rules. Here's the Ten Commandments. Don't lie. See? Don't have sex outside of marriage. Be generous with your money. The basic rules. But here's the problem. If you don't ask the question, what roles can I take and roles can I take? Are there any roles I can't take? If you don't ask the question, you're an assimilationist. If you insist there's got to be rules

[00:22:05] or if you despair of the lack of rules, you're a separationist. You don't want the hard work of thinking this stuff out, thinking it out in community. You don't want to do it. And God calls us to be Daniels. I went to, I was a Lutheran growing up and I went to a Lutheran Sunday school. I don't know if other Sunday schools did the same thing, but I used to study Daniel in my Sunday school and there was even a song about Daniel. Have you ever heard it? It's called Dare to be a Daniel.

[00:22:35] You ever heard that? There was a song we used to sing. You know, it's one funny thing is my Sunday school teachers never told me what it meant to be a Daniel. I never had a Sunday school teacher that ever said, oh, by the way, boys and girls, what this is teaching us is that you need to try, that believers need to get into these pagan governmental structures and rise up as high in the pagan culture as you can and master the pagan learning and the non-believing literature and all that and worldview, but do it

[00:23:05] with a distinctive, but still live and work in the city as a distinct Christian. Now, of course they don't say that because most churches are saying exactly what Hananiah says, not what Jeremiah says. Most churches say to Christians, stay away. Pray against those cities. Stay away from those places that are the source of the polytheistic, relativistic, secular culture we have now. Stay away. It's not a good thing to live there. Yet Jeremiah says, no.

[00:23:34] God is calling you to do two things. One is, he says, first of all, he says, I am sending you there for the prosperity of the city. The city needs Christians. The city needs people who will serve and who will minister and who will be salt in the city. But, he also says, I have carried you there. I've taken you out of power for your sake. How would your life change if you no longer had to prove yourself to anyone? We often live as though our value

[00:24:04] depends on our accomplishments, the opinions of others, or whether we're meeting our own expectations, leaving us trapped in a cycle of trying to measure up. In his short book, The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness, based on a sermon from 1 Corinthians 3, Tim Keller explains how the gospel offers a completely different foundation for our identity, one that's free from insecurity and pride and that allows us to rest in God's complete acceptance. This month, as thanks for your gift to help Gospel and Life spread the transforming

[00:24:34] love of Christ with more people, will send you two English copies of The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness and one Spanish copy that you can share with a Spanish speaker in your life. Request your copies today at gospelandlife.com slash give. That's gospelandlife.com slash give. Now here's Dr. Keller with the rest of today's teaching. I want you to know I have needed spiritually this city every bit as much as I think

[00:25:04] maybe this city has needed me. I come to New York City and I hope I put something into New York but I want you to know I've gotten a lot more out of New York than I ever put in and I can really that's not hyperbole. Not hyperbole. For example, it's important to go to a place where Christians are out of power where all your friends are non-Christians. I hope. A lot of them are. If not, you have separated even in the middle of New York. You see, there was a lot of answers I thought.

[00:25:33] I had a lot of pat answers to how Christians should live and when I actually spent time with non-Christians I found a lot of the pat answers were stupid. Or I thought I knew why people didn't believe and I came to find out that people who don't believe have some pretty good reasons why they don't believe. I have found that raising my family in the city has been the best thing for them spiritually. The best thing for my sons I ever did was raise them in a city as opposed to raising them in some Christian enclave someplace. They're the ones who tell me that. I'm not the one that tells them

[00:26:03] that. We need the city. It humbles us. It refines us. We need very often to be taken out of power. Christianity is a religion of the cross and when it gets into power in a country it almost immediately goes to seed. And so every so often the reason that God revives us is the way God revives us is he takes us out of power or Christians always do best and puts us in the city so that we need the city and the city needs us.

[00:26:33] That's the first principle. Love the city be engaged with the city don't assimilate or don't separate. That's the meaning of the two names. What's the second principle? The second principle is the meaning of the dream. Now if you go down to look at the dream itself I have to again Christians over the years have read this dream and they have said oh this will you know this is going to tell us about the future and in a way of course it does tell us about the future

[00:27:02] as Daniel says but the way most Christians read the dream is they say this they say okay there's the head of gold then there's the silver there's the gold kingdom the silver kingdom the bronze kingdom and then there's the iron clay kingdom and the rock smashes the iron clay kingdom and so all we have to do is figure out what that kingdom is and then we'll know when the kingdom of God is coming or then we'll know when Jesus is coming back and so on

[00:27:32] the meaning of the dream is much more obvious than that why do you think Nebuchadnezzar is freaking out why do you think Nebuchadnezzar is trying to kill all the wise men because they can't immediately tell him the meaning of the dream why do you think Nebuchadnezzar is exploding it's because the meaning of the dream is more obvious than you might think Nebuchadnezzar essentially knows what the dream means he can't quite articulate it he knows what the dream means why why is he so upset

[00:28:02] this dazzling figure with feet of clay who's that now next week if you're here when we get to Daniel chapter 3 we're going to see that the reason Nebuchadnezzar is so upset about this dream is is he all his life or at least for a number of years he has wanted to build a huge dazzling statue statue of liberty size monument of himself he's always wanted that

[00:28:31] because he came to Babylon with a dream like most people they go to the big city with a dream it was a dream of the kingdom but it was a dream of his kingdom it was a dream to make himself something great and this figure this dazzling figure is the way he wants the world to see him a towering colossus astride the world looming over it see and and therefore he's always wanted this

[00:29:00] so he has this dream of this great dazzling figure that he's always wanted in a sense he came to Babylon to construct that's why you go to a big city you know with a dream of the kingdom but it's your kingdom and so he's been pretty successful I mean he's the emperor of the world not bad you know he's probably the most powerful man single person in the world he's probably one of the most powerful probably one of the most 20 people who probably attained the most power in the history of the world but the dream comes and says

[00:29:30] you've got feet of clay the dream comes in and says as golden and as great and as valuable as it looks basically you're weak underneath you have feet of clay your foundation is crumbling your foundation is flawed your foundation is weak so weak that even a stone not a big boulder just a stone can come and knock the whole thing down he's scared to death he doesn't quite know what it means but we do because you can read it both individually and cosmically and here's what it is

[00:30:00] if you go to the big city with a dream most of us go like Nebuchadnezzar most of us don't go with quite the same size goal as Nebuchadnezzar unless you're going to Wall Street pretty much same sort of thing you know I want to be a billionaire before I'm 30 that's close but most of us but most of us are coming because we want to be dazzling we want to we want to create a dazzling image of ourselves we want the world to see

[00:30:31] you know we're something special some of us do it with our looks some of us are literally trying to look great I mean you can walk around New York and see some people spend a terrific amount of obviously time in the exercise room and a terrific amount of money obviously on their appearance incredible because that's why they came to New York they came to New York they came to the big city to be dazzling a lot of other people don't do that they don't work on their bodies in the same way but they're still trying

[00:31:00] they've come with a dream they've come with a dream of a kingdom they've come with a dream to you know to build something to show the world something but what God is saying to Nebuchadnezzar he says to all of us he says if you build your greatness if you build your life on anything other than me you're going to be haunted haunted with these kinds of dreams these kinds of fears you're going to be haunted with anxiety because if you build your life on popularity

[00:31:31] you'll be scared by the polls always afraid of what's happening in the polls if you build your life on money be scared by what's happening in the market if you build your life on on your looks you'll be scared by what's happening in the mirror whatever you build your life on he says there's feet of clay and you know it if it's not me it's fragile and he says I'm going to bring it down at some point something's going to come into your life

[00:32:00] to show you what your foundation is you have a dream of the kingdom but it's your kingdom and anyone has a dream of any kingdom but my kingdom is coming down and someday he says my kingdom will come and will smash the systems of the world and it will grow into a kingdom that it's different a kingdom based on not your glory but my glory a kingdom based not on oppression but on justice a kingdom based not on war but on peace and that's the meaning of the dream now

[00:32:30] you see how this is actually a practical thing if you're trying to be a Christian in an unchristian world we said one of the things that bothers us is there's not enough rules huh you know the actors the musicians the artists the businessmen and women the people in law people come and say where are the rules that show me what Christian can do and not do and you know we have trouble finding the rules and everybody says oh my goodness I feel adrift well here's look look at this practical guideline what is this

[00:33:00] we're being told that the main difference between a Christian actor and a non-Christian actor Christian musician non-Christian musician is your foundation why are you doing it this is this is the not the only thing but this is primary why whose kingdom are you building are you constructing a dazzling self that you want the world to see whose glory are you working for what's your foundation why are you doing it

[00:33:31] and you know what you may be a Christian a lot of people are who come to the city and you look like everybody else you just assimilate you move right on because you don't see I'm not breaking any rules but why have you really come what are you really doing here now this is this is very very this is even true of ministers by the way or people that come here to do Christian ministry you come to do Christian ministry why what is one of

[00:34:01] the reasons why you come to New York to do Christian ministry look carefully deep down the side you're saying you know man if I can do it there you know boy I will feel so much more superior to all the Christian workers who are working in less difficult less sexy less exotic less difficult less difficult cities we tend to come to the big city for the wrong reason

[00:34:30] and even those of us who are doctrinally you know in our faith we believe in Christ we believe in the gospel what we're really here to do is to construct a dazzling image of ourselves because we don't know we really don't know our hearts don't really believe that we're already golden before Christ we've got to do this and therefore what's the telltale sign our dreams are haunted we don't sleep well we're always afraid we're always anxious we're always nervous

[00:34:59] there's not a peace so see the second big the second question is what's the meaning of the dream what's the meaning of the dream is everybody's building somebody's kingdom everybody's got a foundation of what they're doing the motivation and the foundation is really what what sets the course and therefore if you want to understand what it means to be a Christian in a non-Christian world look at your foundations don't just look at what rules you're breaking or you're not breaking look at the foundations ask those basic questions

[00:35:29] why are you doing it now thirdly what's the rock see first of all we looked at what's the meaning of the two names and the first principle is love the city don't assimilate or separate but love it engage it work for its peace in every way second is the dream of the kingdom and what we're supposed to be doing is look at your foundations ask yourself why you're doing what you're doing ask yourself what is the

[00:35:59] reason that you're doing what you're doing but the third is what's the meaning of the rock the meaning of the rock is pretty interesting look carefully what do we see about this rock three things the rock of course is the kingdom in the time of his kings the god of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed nor will it be left to another people it will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end but it will itself endure forever and of course up in verse

[00:36:30] 35 it says the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth now the rock which grows into a mountain is the kingdom of god and the image gives us two or three things that we can see about the kingdom of god first of all the rock is not cut out with hands notice that twice it says this is not cut out with hands the image is a work of human metallurgy and human craftsmanship but the

[00:37:00] rock is a supernatural action it's not the product of human ingenuity it's not the product of human thinking it's a supernatural revelation it's a supernatural action so first of all the kingdom of god is a completely supernatural thing that's what it means when it says it's not cut with any human hands secondly the rock is the least valuable substance in the dream you've got gold you've got silver you've got bronze you've got iron and clay but even iron mixed with clay

[00:37:29] would be something that takes processing the rock a simple rock just a rock is the least valuable of all the substances and yet that's the thing that god chooses in the dream to characterize his kingdom why in the eyes of the world the kingdom of god is always poor it's always less valuable it's always weak it's never something the world thinks that highly of but the third thing we learn is the rock grows you notice there's this huge statue

[00:38:00] but it's not a huge mountain that smashes the huge statue it's not the kingdom takes the place of the statue immediately but rather it's a small thing that crushes the world systems and then grows gradually into a mountain that fills the whole world and that tells us the critical thing and the last thing I want to press you have to understand this if you're going to live in this city the kingdom of god is a growing thing it's a gradual thing it has not come in

[00:38:30] one swoop it does not come in and suddenly wipe out everything that's wrong the kingdom of god comes in two stages it came in when jesus christ first came but it comes in weakness and in service and it didn't wipe away all the evil of the world did it then his second coming the kingdom of god will come in total power and fill the whole earth and what that means now is the kingdom of god is already but not yet it's already here in reality but it's not yet here in fullness and that is

[00:38:59] if I had the time and I obviously don't that is so important for a christian to live in a big city so important for christians to live in a secular pluralistic society because it gives you both certainty and flexibility secularism gives you no certainty infinite flexibility religion gives you certainty but no flexibility secularism gives you flexibility without certainty religion gives you certainty without flexibility see the religious person says I

[00:39:29] have the truth that's why I'm saved and you're not I have the truth I am right with god I'm doing everything that I should be doing and religious people have a condemning attitude in the city they have a condemning attitude to people who are different than they are they cannot flex there's one way to do it and there's the right way to do it I'm doing it that's why I know I'm going to heaven on the other hand secular people have infinite flexibility but they have no certainty I just recently read a very interesting article

[00:40:00] about character education in public schools there's a huge movement now to begin to teach about values teach why we should be honest and we should be caring we should be compassionate start teaching that in public schools again but almost all the books all the books that are written for public school teachers they know that there's going to be a big big big big problem coming and the big problems coming when you teach kids education without teaching them anything

[00:40:30] about God or faith is the kids are going to ask the big question and it's in all the books for the teachers get ready for this get ready for this teachers the kids are going to ask the question why why should I be honest why should I be good why should I not ever lie why should I sacrifice for other people why why teacher why and you know what the books say don't you dare answer that and you know why because you see unless there's a God there is no reason

[00:41:00] the communitarians say well because it'll be practical oh teacher does that mean that these things really aren't wrong they're just impractical so why can't I do it if I can get away without hurting anybody really hardly almost well the psychologists say well the reason you ought to do it is because it'll make you feel better about yourself oh teacher well what if it's okay what if I can do these bad things and not feel bad about myself at all teacher why secularism gives you no certainty at all

[00:41:31] the manuals say don't answer that question just say well because we all just know it because you see secularism no certainty nothing we can be sure of religion all certainties no flexibility but the gospel says that I'm on the one hand I'm a total terrible sinner still I'm still sinning that's the not yet but I'm already complete in Jesus the kingdom of God is not here but the kingdom of God is here it's already but it's not yet

[00:42:01] and that gives me on the one hand terrific certainty there is a truth I can work for the truth there is something to die for there are things that I'm going to stick with but a terrific flexibility in other words the kingdom isn't here yet and as a result there's all sorts of there's all sorts of reasons why I shouldn't always let me give you an example of this quick one of the things that you're never going to be able you never survive in a city unless you have the already but not yet view of the church on the one hand

[00:42:31] I've got people who just flit around and they go to church to church to church but they never get deeply involved in the life of any one church you're never going to learn how you're never going to be able to work out how to be distinctively live a Christian life in a city unless you are not just coming to services but deeply immersed in the life of a certain church on the other hand at the other alternative I see people who say I'm in the true church I'm in the right church I'm in the only church all the other churches are bad

[00:43:00] all the other churches are wrong now what's wrong with that picture people who think I have the ultimate church my church is right and everybody else is wrong they've forgotten the not yetness of the kingdom they believe that they've arrived no church has arrived there is no ultimate denomination nobody's got all their their teachings right nobody anybody says we have only we have the biblical teachings they're just refusing to see the not yetness of the kingdom they're into legalistic religion they're not going to survive in this city on the other hand

[00:43:30] the consumerists the people who just sort of flit around and go to the churches that make them feel good when they want to they're forgetting the already that the kingdom of God is a reality and it's in the church and there's incredible things that can happen in the church your life can be changed through the word and the sacraments and the spiritual gifts of the people in the church you're never going to survive in this city if you're not deeply involved in the church but unless you also believe that other Christians and other churches are great as well and that you don't just have

[00:44:00] these narrow-minded blinders on that your church is the only right one to be too committed in other words to your local church or not committed enough means you're forgetting the alreadyness of the kingdom or the not yetness of the kingdom it means you don't have that perfect balance of certainty and flexibility that only the alreadyness or not yetness of the kingdom gives you it's a stone growing into a mountain it's not there yet one more tolerance tolerance

[00:44:30] secular people are not tolerant of anybody who says they have the truth see polytheism looks really really really tolerant on the outside hey everybody's got their own god wow unless you say I've got the only true god and then they get very intolerant religion makes you very intolerant as well because religion a religious person is someone who says my right behavior my right belief are what is going to get me into heaven

[00:45:00] so they are really really big on I have the right belief I have the truth totally the truth religious people then tend to be condemning secular people tend to be condemning but the gospel is you are saved you are really saved there is a truth so there is a certainty there are some things that I can insist on but you are a sinner you are saved just strictly by grace and the people who oppose you can be better people than you there is no reason why just because you are a Christian and not a Christian

[00:45:30] that makes you better than them why would it make you better than them you are a sinner saved by grace that person can be a much better person than you probably is a better person than you the reason that you are saved and they are not has nothing to do with you being a better person see the gospel what the gospel does is it gives you resources for tolerance in this city that neither secular people nor religious people have it gives you resources for community in this city that neither secular people nor religious people have neither assimilationists nor separatists have

[00:45:58] if you want to live the O'Daniel life the life of engagement for the sake of the city but a life of distinctness before God and a life of integrity before God love the city know your own foundations really understand your foundations and understand the overlap of the ages understand that the kingdom of God is here

[00:46:27] but it's not yet here be like Abraham who was looking for the city with foundations whose builder and maker is God look to Jesus Christ he actually is the fulfillment of all three of our points right because for example Jesus had two names God and man he was the real son of God but he came flesh and blood real human being Jesus Christ of course is the ultimate dazzling figure

[00:46:56] he's the only one who's golden from top to bottom he has no feet of clay he's the only one that you really really can bow down and worship and last of all of course Jesus Christ is the rock he is the stone that the builders rejected but he's now become the cornerstone for a whole new world if you understand Jesus in those ways you can live a life like Daniel there to be a Daniel I mean a real Daniel let's bow in prayer

[00:47:25] thank you father for granting us in these books a vision for how you can call us into a wicked pagan city to love it not to see it as inferior to us not to see it as superior to us not to celebrate it not to despise it to love it to learn from it to grow in it we ask Lord that you show us Redeemer and many of the churches in the city

[00:47:54] that are seeking the same vision how we can do that that's what we ask for we ask it in Jesus name Amen thanks for joining us today we hope this message was encouraging to you we'd also like to share that today's sermon is one of the first of Tim Keller's sermons that we've translated into five additional languages through our translation initiative The Global Reach Project you can find and listen to the translated version of this

[00:48:24] and other sermons and learn more about this initiative at theglobalreachproject.com again that's theglobalreachproject.com today's sermon was recorded in 2000 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