Tim Keller Sermons | The COST of IGNORING TRUTH | Audio Bible

0:00 John chapter 17 verses 13- 19. I am coming to you now, says Jesus to his father, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world anymore than I am of the world. My prayer is not that

0:46 you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them, I sanctify myself that they too may be truly sanctified. This is God's word. Uh [clears throat] ministers, you know, people aren't very often not candid with ministers. Have you ever noticed that? And after ministers therefore after a while have to learn to read people between the lines. Uh they have to read people the way the Russians always read Pravda. You know between the lines what do they

1:32 really mean? Uh and most people won't come right out and say this but I can sense it if whenever I say to a New Yorker well we're having our first annual missions conference this coming week this next weekend. the New Yorker thinks or feels, why why would you do that? You see, from what I can tell, the attitude goes like this. Well, I know Christianity entails missionaries, but why let people know about it? Why advertise? Why let anyone know? Because you see, missionaries get terrible, terrible press today. Uh whenever there's a whenever they're depicted in literature or movies, uh they're always depicted in the most negative possible light. that the this latest movie at play in the fields of

2:17 the Lord is just just the latest in a long string. Missionaries are always depicted as shallow imperialists, as uh uh destroyers of culture. Now, is that fair? Is that true? In verse 18, you have there the real story about what Christian mission is all about. That's the text. That's the classic text there. It's all in there. Well, you say, "I don't see the word mission in there." That's not true. It's in there twice. The word mission is the Latin is from the Latin word missia, which means to send. You know how remember the old English word missive, a letter, a mission, to be in mission means to be sent. And Jesus right there tells us

3:03 that not only is he a person in mission, but that anyone who comes into contact with him also become people in mission. This particular passage gives us two perspectives on mission, two ways of understanding it. Right off the bat, first of all, a mission or a missionary is someone who is sent to show something. We have missions all around the city. Did you know that? And they've got very, very nice buildings. There's the mission of Venezuela, the mission of Spain, the mission of Zambia, the mission of Sagal. Have you seen those missions? And what are in there? ambassadors because you see an ambassador and a missionary are the same thing. Jesus was sent to show verse six he says I have revealed thy

3:49 name. He is sent to show God. Ambassadors come to to to dispel stereotypes to let people know what their country is really like to let them know what their interests really are to represent their people and their government and their nation in a truthful and accurate way. A missionary and an ambassador is the same thing. They're sent to show. But let's go one step further. Jesus was not only a missionary because he was sent to show God. But secondly, he didn't just come to bring truth. He came to bring truth for a reason. What was that reason? Secondly, Jesus is sent as a missionary. He sent to save because he says, "I sanctified myself that they may be truly sanctified." He came to make broken people whole. He

4:37 came to make sinful people holy. And that's the second reason that he's a missionary. And that's the second idea or understanding of mission. A missionary is not just sent to serve, sent to show, but also sent to save. Well, someone says, "That's one of my problems with this thing, this whole idea." Many people say, you know, Christianity is a great religion if it wasn't for this mission stuff. It's a great religion. It's got a lot of good teachings and fine truths and it's it's good for the world by and large. But I hate this part of it that Christians feel like they got to convert people and turn people's uh and convert people and get them to think your way. It's so narrow to say if you don't believe my way, then you're lost. Narrow

5:23 nonsense. Listen, imagine somebody you love and you see in them symptoms of a sickness that you once had and you know it's life-threatening and you know what you had to do in order to get treated and to be saved and you see that person will not listen to the to to reason because you can tell that they don't think they're sick. They're writing it off. They're denying it. So what do you do? What happens to you? You start to make your case, don't you? You start to persuade. You start to tell them about your own experience. You're in mission. You have to be in mission because you see, you have a combination, a dynamic combination in your life of

6:10 both love for that person and truth. You see, if you know what that person needs in order for that person to be saved from apparel and you love them, you have to go into mission. If you love them, but you don't know any truth that will save them, there's no mission. If you know the truth that will save you, but you don't care, there's no mission. But when love and truth together are turnurning around in your stomach, you have to go into mission. That is that narrow? You tell me that's narrow. It's narrow in this sense. It's intense. you know, put a bunch of put a put a a you know, a body of water like this and and push it through a very a really narrow little uh space and it becomes very intense. Love is always intense,

6:56 especially when you see someone threatened. When you say, see, you have to be in mission if you have love and truth. And when somebody says, "Oh, I think it's narrow to convert people." Well, what you're really saying is that if you love somebody and you see that they're in peril, you're what you're saying is, "Well, I don't think your beliefs will help them. I think it would be better if they went to politics. It would be better if they turned to counseling or something like that." All right, that's fine. Okay. But don't you see that you can't say it's not good to convert them. It's not good to be in mission. You're in mission, too. We both agree that you have to do mission and evangelism. We're just disagreeing on what kind. We have to turn people to save them to turn them where they're where help is. But we just disagree on what kind. You mustn't mustn't say that it's wrong to be in mission. You're in

7:41 mission, too. In fact, when you tell me it is very very wrong to impose your religious views on other people. What are you trying to do but persuade me of your relativistic religious views? You're trying to convert me. You're doing the very thing you forbid. With love and with truth, you can't avoid being in mission. And that's where Christians are. See, a Christian listens to Jesus say, "Come to me and drink. Anyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. But I will give you the water that is such that if you drink of it, you'll never thirst again. In fact, my spirit will become a well in you, springing up to eternal life." We heard Jesus not only say, "I'll give you the water." Jesus says, "I'll give you

8:26 the well itself." And we found that to be true. And then what happens to you once that happens to you? Once you've tasted of that, you never ever ever ever again can say religion's a private thing. How do you know that you have really drank from this well? How do you know you've really experienced Christ? You no longer can say, "I think religion is a private thing." Jesus says, "I am a person in mission." He refuses to keep himself in the privacy. I'm out there to show people the truth. I'm out there to save people. And anyone who comes to me will also become a person like me. As I was sent into the world, so I send them into the world. As you sent me, Father, I send them. How do you know you've met

9:14 Jesus? You never ever again can say religion is a private thing. I mustn't tell anybody else about it. Never. Now let's take a look and see what the features are of this mission. The same features of Jesus mission would be features of our mission. As so as I so they and these features are important for us all to understand today because if you're not sure whether you're a believer or not, I want you to realize that you can't even reject Christ intelligently unless you understand what Jesus mission is. Isn't that right? And if you're a believer, you have to ask yourself just what how strong just how strong is my connection to Jesus? Because it's clear

10:02 that if your connection is strong, you'll be like him and there won't be a complacency about you and there won't be actually a a a self-consciousness and a timidity about your dealing with other people. Okay, let's look at the three features of mission. And those three features are first of all the result of mission and secondly the power for mission and thirdly the requirement of mission. Let me just show you these are three things that the text teaches. First of all the text teaches that the result of mission is always joy. The way you know you're in mission is there's a joy. Look Jesus has been sent to earth. We know that. In fact, all of John 17 is about his

10:49 mission. The first verse I read today, Jesus says, "Father, I say these things that they might hear and have joy." Now, when he talks about these things, he's talking about everything he's been talking about in John 17. And if you look carefully, you'll see that all the things that Jesus is talking about is his mission. Verse four, you've given me I've I've completed the work you gave me to do. Verse six, I've revealed your name. Verse 13, I'm coming to you. I'm about to die. Everything Jesus is talking about in John 17 is his mission. His mission was this. Because we had substituted ourselves for God by living as if we were God, calling our own shots

11:34 in life, deciding what was right and wrong in life, living for our own glory and importance and fulfillment. Because we put ourselves in God's place, God has put himself in our place. Because we substitute ourselves for him, he substitutes himself for us. Because he because we took upon oursel the things that only God deserves. He has taken upon himself the things that we deserve. Jesus came to die to take our punishment. Now, one of the most I already shared this to you in the very beginning of the service. One of the most fascinating verses I know of is Hebrews verse chapter 12:3. We're told that the father told the son about this great mission. The father

12:21 comes and says, "Will you go? Will you take this punishment into your own heart? Will you let all of the punishment and torture fall into your own heart and there explode and tear you to pieces?" And how did how did Jesus react to it? It says in Hebrews 12:3, "For the sake of the joy, for the sake of the joy that was set before him, for the sake of the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising its shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God." Jesus Christ, as soon as he addressed the prospects of this mission, was filled with joy. Jesus Christ here in verse verse 13 says to the father I say these things what are these things his mission I'm telling my

13:09 my brethren about this mission that they might have the same joy that I've got do you see what this is saying the lack of joy in your life is due to a lack of mission beings need mission you're built for mission there is a relationship there There's a link, a tight link between joy and scentness. Father, I want them to have this mission. I want to send them on mission so that they might have the fullness of my joy. Children know this. Every child loves stories about heroic quests, about adventures, about saving the world, world saving missions. That's

13:55 what all the great stories are about. That's what the fairy tales are about. That's what the movies and the and the books are about that most excite you. And before we destroy children's uh love and belief [snorts] in world-saving mission before they get cynical and become like us, they even think about their future vocation in terms of mission. Don't you see that? They never just say, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Ask one. They say, "Well, I'm I'm probably just going to work in an office somewhere." You ever heard that? Huh? I'll be working on a computer and and I'll be and I'll be pushing paper around. You ever hear seven-year-olds say that? No. Even when they say, "I'm going to be this or I'm going to be that because I'm going to make a difference. I'm going to help people. I'm going to change things." Haven't you heard of that? They

14:42 always see their future in terms of mission. There's a joy there because because there is a link between joy and scentness. And I happen to be part of and a lot of you are too. If you're in your late 30s or early 40s, you were part of a college generation that did its utmost to hold on to that belief in world saving missions almost into adulthood. We tried so hard. Remember those days, right? You know, teenage years, right into your early 20s, practically we held on. We we we sang If I Had a Hammer. We went on peace marches and civil rights marches. And we all promised ourselves we'd never go into business.

15:28 Instead, we'd be teachers. We would be diplomats. We would be social workers. We'd be forest rangers. Or if we did go into politics, we'd really serve people. Or at least we'd go off and we just plant trees somewhere. But we would change the world. We'd bring in love and peace. We'd hammer out justice. We'd hammer out warning and love and peace everywhere. Right? What's happened to us? Let me tell you what happened to us. Let me tell you what happened. There's no mission left and there's no joy left. They came and went together. And here's why. At the very same time that our culture had a group of young people that felt like they had a mission. They were going to make a difference. We also bought into a view of truth.

16:15 See, I told you there's no mission. Ambassadors come to show truth, to save people with truth. you're ready to turn your friend back to the doctor. You're in mission because of the truth. You see, at the same time we were all getting into our peace marches and our civil rights marches, we also bought a particular worldview that said all truth is relative. You remember our parents said there's things you do because you're a man. There's certain things you do because you're a woman. There's certain things you do because you're a child. There's certain things you do because you're a citizen. And you do it just because you're supposed to do it. And what they meant is there are some causes that are higher than your personal needs and your personal comfort. There's family, there's patriotism, there's morality, there's God. And those things are more important than your own individual needs. But we bought into a philosophy

17:01 that said nothing is more important than personal individual fulfillment. and therefore wedding vows, therefore promises to the church, therefore citizenship, those things, you see, if they get in the way of my personal fulfillment, my ful my needs are more important. And we began to realize what eventually happened was there was nothing higher, there was no higher cause than my individual happiness. And that destroys mission because if there's no higher cause than my happiness, there is nothing to deny my happiness for. If there's no higher cause than my joy, there's nothing for me to die for. There's nothing for me to live for. And there's nothing for me to have a mission

17:49 for. And therefore, you spend the rest of your you go you go through your life, has didn't it happen to you all? It's happened to many, many of you. You start to realize that what I've really begun to live for is my own comfort, my own happiness, and as a result, I'm not making a difference in the world anymore. How can I make a difference in the world? I have nothing to live for or die for except me. And therefore, I've got nothing. I got no mission. Here's the irony. By exaggerating my significance, I've lost my significance. I no longer count. I no longer make a dent. I no longer make an impact. by raising my knees to their highest level, more important than any other covenant or commitment or cause or transcendent and eternal truth.

18:36 I no longer have anything to sacrifice for. I've no longer got anything that any cause that I'm part of. I no longer have anything that I'm that I'm willing to sacrifice for in order to move across. And so there was the end. You see, when we bought into my needs first, we gained our freedom. remember how liberating it was. And we lost our joy because we lost our mission. Because ultimately, you know, when we said, "Hey, all that's important is my personal needs." We were still marching for racial equality and justice. But after a while, you begin to wonder maybe that's relative, too. Unless you're a Christian. Because you know something, at least and I I'm sure this is this is an overgeneralization, but I'm speaking

19:23 personally. I don't know anybody of my generation who's still a radical except Christians. They're the ones we're the ones who when we listen to the song, if I had a hammer, I can change the world. I can bring peace and love and joy. We know that it's still possible. Not only that, we know that it's inevitable. We The only people I know that are still radicals who are willing to give up careers and to give up status and positions and to do crazy things in order to change the world are Christians. Christians in mission. And you know why? Because Christians are the only ones with an intellectual paradigm that enables them to sing a song like if I had a hammer with integrity. Because we know that the ideal has become real. That God himself, Jesus Christ, has opened a cleft in the pitiles walls of

20:09 the world. And he has said, "I'm bringing down the life of heaven into this world to change it. And I want you to be part of the army. I want you to be part of my work. I want you to be my co-partners. And you work with me. And you will see people's lives changed from the ground up. That's a mission, a transcendent reality, a transcendent thing, something to die for because you know that it's going to triumph and you're going to be part of it whether you die at the age of 20 or you die at the age of 80. That's a mission. You see, mission is mission is necessary for joy. It's a psychological need. It's a it's a it's a natural thing. Many of you have lost it because you've been living for

20:56 yourself because you have no higher commitment than yourself. And what's so ironic, when you seek to find yourself, you lose yourself. And when you seek to find Christ, you find yourself, too. Are you going to be like those people about to die on the barricades in lay miz, you know, and they're singing, "Is your life just one more life?" You know, even they they had a mission. Though they weren't sure about eternal realities, they realized that were they going to die and rot. In that case, their life is just one more life. But if you're a Christian, you know, you're a man or a woman in mission. And there's a joy that's set before you. And it's so great that it will enable you to endure the cross and despise any shame that comes your way.

21:41 Now secondly, the second thing we learn here, the first is the result of mission is joy. The second thing we learn is that the power for mission is an encounter with God. Jesus Christ says what? As you sent me, so I send them. What made Jesus a man in mission? the father. What makes you a man or a woman in mission, the son, anybody who's actually met Jesus, met God for and and seen who they really are is completely changed. If you think your religion is the private matter, you haven't met him. God never pulls you in to bless you without sending you out. Let me give you two examples. The first one is Isaiah.

22:27 Isaiah comes to comes into worship on the Sabbath like any of you. He comes up to the temple to worship on the Sabbath that we're told in Isaiah 6. And he is shocked and he is traumatized because like most of you, the last person he expected to meet on the day he went to worship was God. There was God and he saw God high and lifted up and he saw him majestic and he saw his holiness in a way never seen before. beautiful beyond bearing. And he was instantly changed because you see, first of all, he saw when you get near God, all of your insecurities come out. And he says, "Behold, I am unclean. I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips." And what does God do? One of the angels takes a coal

23:13 off of the altar. You see, God's made us made a sacrifice for our sin. He's dealt with it in Jesus. So the the uh the the angel takes the coal off the altar and puts it on the unclean lips of Isaiah and he is healed and he is forgiven. And when that happens instantly instantly immediately as soon as all his self-hatred and his self-loathing and his self-pity all go away God says I've got a job for somebody. I need somebody to go and preach to a group of people who will never ever ever ever ever listen to him. What does Isaiah say? I'd like a couple days to think about it. He says, "I'm ready." What happened to him?

24:01 Not only on the inside was he healed, but he immediately becomes a man in mission. Why? What was different? He saw God. You can't see God. You can't really see him without being sent. as you sent me, so I send them. Well, let's take a look at Abraham in Genesis 12. God comes to Abraham and says,"Abraham, I will make you great and I will bless you." Now, a lot of us are saying, "Now that's there." Now, there's a religion, you know, that's great. I want God to come to me and say, "I will bless you and make you great." That that's service. That's what we want. But before the sentence is over, before the sentence is over, he says,"Abraham, I will make you great and I will bless you that you will

24:46 be a blessing. I will bless you that you may be a blessing." And then immediately he says, "Get out." Now for Abraham that meant get out of his country. But I want you to see the principle there. God says, "I will bless you." But he never blesses you except to make you be a blessing to somebody else. And the only way to be a blessing is to get out. Get out. You see, for Abraham, he was told, "You have to get out. Leave your familiar land. Leave your family and go to a place that I will show you." What he's really getting out of is not so much his country, but his security. God has said, "I want to you I want you

25:32 to move out. In order to in order to be a blessing, you're going to have to get out of the familiar. You're going to have to become vulnerable." There is no way that God will ever bless you. He'll never call you in to bless you without sending you out to be a blessing. And the only way to be a blessing is to get out. Not only that, the only way to be a blessing is to get out. It's not only the only way to be a blessing to to get out is not only the only way to be a blessing, but it's also the only way to be like Jesus because Jesus Christ was sitting in heaven perfectly secure and he got out and he emptied himself and he made himself vulnerable and he was killed. Unless you know today that you are making yourself vulnerable in order to be a blessing to other people, you have

26:18 not been sent. You have you're not a man or woman in mission and you have probably not really grasped the greatness and glory of Jesus Christ yet. You know what I mean to be vulnerable? Are you so much involved in other people's lives to help them that it's scaring you how much money it's taking of yours? It's scaring you how vulnerable you are. It's scaring you how it your reputation is on the line. It's frightening you. Well, you're in good shape then because you see, God never calls you in to bless you without making you to be a blessing. And there's no way to be a blessing unless you get out. Get out. God is a spiritual tornado. That's the power. That's the power for mission. He

27:05 will never pull you in except to send you out. He He will never bless you except to make you to be a blessing. that happening to you. Now thirdly and lastly I I need to keep you keep in mind we've just said that the result of mission is joy as the power of mission and the power for mission is an encounter with Jesus Christ. But now thirdly I want to talk just for a second just in in conclusion really uh on the the requirements for mission. Next week I'm going to preach on mission again. I'm going to go back to the text and draw a few more principles out. But here's what I'll I I can't spend as much time on next uh this week as next week. When Jesus Christ says, "As the father

27:50 sent me, so send I you." That word as is is our control. We are supposed to go into the world the same way Jesus went. How did he go? Luke 24:19 says he was mighty in word and deed. That means Christians not only start churches that convert a lot of people, but they also put their lives and they put their wealth on the line to deal with the miseries of the human condition. And the problems that uh communities have and the problems that people have are dealt with in in massive and generous ways by the Christian by the Christian uh community. And therefore, I know that as much as everybody walks around saying, "Boy, there aren't a whole lot of Christians in New York compared to other places, I know well

28:37 that [clears throat] that the the racial tension and the poverty and the crime and the problems that are strangling New York right now that if Christian men and women were in mission, those things would be under control." Doesn't take that many. So, the question is, why? Why are we not more effective in mission? What are the requirements for effectiveness in mission? And I would just like to say, well, there's a couple, but there's only one that I've got time for. According to the the the requirement for effective mission and all this great stuff we've been talking about, according to this text, is your personal holiness. One thing I never noticed in all the years of of knowing this text and even

29:23 preaching on it 10 years ago, I preached on through it. I never noticed something. Verse 17, 18, and 19, how they are in relationship to each other. Verse 17 says, Jesus says to the father, "Sanctify them in the truth. Thy word is truth." And verse 19 says, I'm all out to make them holy. Verse 18 says, "And I send them into the world in mission." Now, why in the world would Jesus Christ put a a verse on mission sandwich in between two verses on how much he is committed to our holiness? The answer is they're not two different ideas. And that means this. You're supposed to be Christian friends. You are supposed to be holy. You're supposed to be like Jesus, right?

30:10 You're supposed to in character have his courage and at the same time his sweetness, his integrity, and at the same time his boldness, his humility, and at the same time his u his his compassion. You're supposed to have all of these things. Why? Why are you supposed to grow in personal holiness? Someone says, "For Jesus' sake." Yeah, but here it also says, "For the world's sake." Get yourself together. Pull yourself together. Why? Because God, Jesus Christ says, "It's your personal wholeness and holiness that is necessary if the world is to be helped for the world's sake. I want you to be holy." You know, when Jesus sent those first 12 people out into the world to change the world, that's mission, right? What did he send them with?

30:57 Did he send them with training manuals on evangelism? Did he send them with manuals on how to do on how to do a good TV spot? Did he send them out there with with marketing and advertising knowledge? Did he? No. Did he send Did he teach them how to do a mass mailing, how to do telemarketing? Did he teach them even how to give a good sermon? Did he get tell them how to get up there and speak publicly in a in a good way and how to divide your text up and how to use proper illustrations? No. He sent them out with one thing. He sent them out with holiness and the whole world was changed. What have we got? We're a lot more than 12. Why isn't the whole world being changed? Maybe because we've got the manuals, but we don't have the holiness.

31:45 You see, that's how the Christian gospel has ever spread. You can see it in Acts. You can see it in the early church. One holy life on another holy life. Look, just some of you in this room have have never found Christianity compelling. You're not even sure why you're here today. Somebody brought you, but you've never really been all that compelled by Christianity. You got a lot of intellectual doubts about it. You don't see it as a cogent thing. You know why? I'll tell you why. You have never been friends with a holy person. Benjamin Franklin never bought Christianity all the way through. But he was dear friends with George Whitfield, the great pastor and evangelist of the 18th century. He loved Whitfield. He wrote Whitfield. He gave Whitfield all

32:32 kinds of money for his orphanage. And it was because of Whitfield that though he says, "I can never quite buy this Christianity, but I have tremendous respect for it. I think we ought to have churches everywhere." That's what Ben Franklin said. Why? Because you see, he didn't believe it. But you, a person may not believe Christianity, but you can never dismiss it unless you've never met a holy person. and Christian friends. Some of you look around at people all around you and you're so concerned about them. You're so worried about them. Why haven't you seen more fruit? Why haven't you seen more impact? It's probably because of the flaws and inconsistency in your own holiness. Why else would he say, "I want you out into the world and I want you sanctified."

33:20 Some of you say, "Ah, if I could just get them to come to church to listen to a good sermon." People aren't interested in preachers anymore. You know what? If they even do come, let me tell you why. They're not interested in sermons. They're interested in life and living. They're interested in in holiness. They are. Even if they come and they hear a good sermon, I can feel the inspection right away. What they really want to know is, does this guy live it? They're not interested in TV spots. They're not interested in good books. They're not interested in articulate, eloquent uh defenses of the faith. They're not interested in good sermons. And why should they be? Even here it says they're not going to be. They're interested in life. They want to know you're a Christian. Are you kinder than other people? Does it help you think better? Are you less snobbish than other people? Can you handle the pressure? Can

34:07 you face death? Is there a poise? Is there an equinimity about you? Is there a gentleness that I can't see anywhere else? I'm not interested in sermons. I'm interested in living. Everybody is. And people's lives will be changed by your wholeness. Their brokenness will be healed by your wholeness. Therefore, look at yourself, Christian friends, and ask yourself, maybe the best thing I can possibly do for the misery of New York City is to go back and sit down and say, where am I failing to live a godly and consistent life? I've got to start there or I go nowhere else. The great requirement of missions is holiness.

34:52 Okay, conclusion. Listen, some of you friends, let me just let me just conclude by applying this. Some of you are wondering why your life is so tasteless and joyless. You know why it's tasteless and joyless? Because you have got no mission left because you've been living for yourself for years. That's why. Because you've got no higher mission than to get a nicer apartment or to wait for Mr. or Mrs. Right? And when that happens, you'll find that you've got no you are smothering under your small ambitions. Your your heart and your spirit were made for nobler things than that. You were made for a worldchanging mission. There's no way to get it unless you finally see the God who has broken into the world and has

35:38 brought his truth and is changing things and it says, "Come along. Touch you first, then through you, I'm going to touch other people. Christian friends, a lot of you can really ask yourself, how strong is my link to Jesus Christ? And if you've got no sense of mission right now, if you're a consumer Christian, you wonder why you don't have the joy. In the next couple of weeks, we're going to be trying to say, here's ways of getting involved in mission. I mean, goodness, tomorrow night, a group of Christians are going to meet to to see if they can't reach out and just find ways of lovingly touching AIDS patients. Next week we're going to have tons and tons of opportunities just to see how people are doing word and deed missions everywhere. There is no excuse for your joylessness.

36:26 But in the end, you can't be a blessing unless you're blessed. You can't be sent unless the hot love of Jesus Christ is on your lips like on Isaiah's lips. come in and get so you can go out and give. Let's pray. Our father, we thank you that you have made it possible for us to know that your son has set himself apart to make us whole that we can be set apart to make others whole. Father, some of us realize that the lack of uh joy in our lives is simply because of an unwillingness to put uh is unwillingness

37:13 to sacrifice our comfort to to make ourselves vulnerable. Forgive us. Make us men and women in mission. But Lord, if there's people here, and I'm sure there are, that first need the touch of your hot love on their lips, the coal from this from the the altar, uh the knowledge that Jesus Christ has died for them and all of their sins are forgiven. I pray father that even as we listen to the music during the offeratory, even as we sing this final hymn, that you might actually take and put that coal on their lips as they ask you to be their savior and lord and become men and women in mission. And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. >> For more of this series and other resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church, please visit www.gosspelinife.com.

38:19 The scripture passage is found on page 8 of your bulletin. We'll be reading Acts 10 verses 27-47. Talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people. He said to them, "You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection. May I ask why you sent for me?" Cornelius answered, "Four days ago, I was in my house praying at this hour at 3:00 in the afternoon. Suddenly, a man in shining clothes stood before me and said, "Cornelius, God has heard your

39:06 prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor. Send to Japa for Simon, who is called Peter. He is a guest in the house of Simon the tanner, who lives by the sea." So I sent for you immediately, and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us. Then Peter began to speak. I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right. You know the message God sent to the people of Israel telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ who is Lord of all. You know what has happened through Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John

39:53 preached, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil because God was with him. We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen, by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the God to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him, that

40:40 everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out, even on the Gentiles, for they heard him heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Then Peter said, [music] "Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit [music] just as we have. This is the word of the Lord. >> The book of Acts tells us that uh when Christianity was at its most vital and it's its most uh potent. It grew

41:29 through conversion. In other words, Christianity was not originally a set of doctrines or a set of practices that one took up. Instead, it was a converting power. It is a converting power that takes you up. Now, Jesus in Matthew 18 says, "Unless you're converted, you cannot see the kingdom of heaven." And the word he uses for converted is a pretty simple word. It's a word that simply means to turn completely around and face in a whole new direction. And that is a perfect metaphor. It's a perfect image of what Christian conversion really is. On the one hand, Christian conversion is a radical inner transformation. On the other hand, it's not so much a

42:15 replacing of what you are, but a refacing of what you are. It's not as much it does, in other words, your temperament doesn't go away. Your your culture doesn't go away. It's not that you are re it's not so much a replacing of what you are, but a refacing. That is everything you are is now lived on a whole new basis. Everything you do is done for a different reason, different motivation toward a different goal. Your entire life is changed. Now, in in the book of Acts, and this is the last week we're going to do this, we've been looking at how the uh uh how conversions happen and what conversions are. And we're looking always at the core common things that all conversions have in common so that we can be informed so we can know

43:01 whether we are converted or uh how to be converted or how to help somebody become converted or how to live deeply converted lives. That's why we're looking at these. Now uh this chapter 10 case study of Cornelius the centurion uh gives us four very important teaches four very important facts about Christian conversion. The first one is conversion comes through God's initiative. Conversion real conversion always comes through God's initiative. Look at verse 29. In 29 Peter says may I ask why you sent for me? Now what's the answer? Now Cornelius's answer is well an angel came and he he he spoke to me and he

43:47 said Cornelius uh I've been we we see your prayers. We see your virtue. We see your care for the poor. Now send for Peter who's uh staying at in Japa with Simon the Tanner. Send for him and listen to what he has to say. In other words, the answer to Peter's question, why did you send for me is this. I sent for you, Peter, because God first sent for me. Cornelius would never have sent for Peter. Cornelius wasn't searching. He wasn't seeking. He was happy with himself. We'll get to that in a second. But it was God who comes in and intervenes and says, "Send for Peter." So when Peter says, "Why did you send for me?" The answer is I sent for you only because God had already been sent has sent for me. Now we said we have to

44:32 look at the commonality. Here's the principle. The principle is not that if you're going to be converted, you have a vision. In fact, if we've been looking through all of these conversion stories in in the book of Acts, we see that usually there's nothing like that. Usually, you don't have a great vision. It didn't happen to the Ethiopian finance minister. Didn't happen to Lydia and that sort of thing. But what we do see in all uh conversions in all places and times is while there might not be a you know something spectacular like that something like a vision or something like that always the conversion the conver the convert person realizes that their search for God was a result and the product of God's first searching for them

45:17 always. You might not see it right away. you may not see till later. But eventually every person who has experienced conversion looks back and says, "I thought I was searching, but when I look back, I realize I was searching because he was first searching for me." So for example, everybody who really has gone through Christian conversion says something like what what CS Lewis says in his spiritual autobiography. He puts it like this. Quote, "Amiable agnostics will talk cheerfully about quote man's search for God." To me, they might as well have talked about the mouse's search for the cat. The mouse doesn't search for the cat is his implication. The cat searches for the mouse. He said, he looks back and he was I on a search for God. We don't search for God unless God first comes

46:04 and does something in our heart and and pulls us toward him. There's a hymn from the from the reformation era that says it perfectly. And this is the language of a heart of anybody who's really been converted. And the one one of the uh stans of the hymn goes like this. It is not that I did choose thee for Lord that could not be. This heart would still refuse thee had thou not chosen me. My heart owns none before thee. For thy rich grace I thirst. this knowing if I love thee, thou must have loved me first. And anyone who's ever experienced real conversion in one way or another knows that that's true. Now, what does that mean? It's

46:49 that it's good news, by the way. It's very good news. Here's what the good news is. It means that if you're really on a search, if you're really trying to find God, trying to know God, if you really want him, don't search with anxiety. Search with confidence. Why? Because if somebody comes to me and says, "Oh, I'm afraid I'm not going to find him. I'm trying to find him. I'm not sure I'm going to find him." The only reason you're discouraged is because you're giving yourself too much credit. You're not capable of missing God. You're not capable of aching for God. You're not capable of longing for God unless he was already helping you. Or put it another way, a sense of his absence is the sign of his presence

47:36 because you're not capable of feeling his absence. You're not capable of missing him. A sense of his absence is a sign of his presence. That's good news. So the first thing we learn here is that real conversion, the first mark of real Christian conversion, real life change, real real spiritual transformation is God comes uh conversion comes through God's initiative. Secondly, second thing we learn here is that conversion comes through the challenge to religion. The challenge to religion. Now what do I mean by that? Well, let's keep on going with the story. Cornelius says, "Four days ago, I was in my house praying. An angel came and the angel says, "Cornelius, God has heard your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor. Therefore, what?" Now, let's let's stop

48:23 for a minute. Let me just show you how striking and how odd and how actually stunning, how what a nonsequittor the angel statement really is. Realize what he's saying. The angel says, "Cornelius, we've been up in heaven and we we've been looking over the human race and you are one of the best ones there are. You you you pray, you know, you're very powerful and you're wealthy, but you haven't let it go to your head. You haven't let it corrupt you like so many other people. Care for the poor. You pray. You're a man of virtue. Therefore, what does he say? Does he say, "And because you're so good, we just wanted you to know that if you just if you just keep on the way you're going and we're sure you're going to make it to heaven, we're just sure you can do it." That's not what he says. In fact, it's stunning to the world's

49:08 way of thinking. It's a nonsequitary. says, "You are really one of the good ones. You are a really great person. Therefore, you need to be converted. You need to send for Peter. You need to hear the message. You need to be converted." That's stunning. It's the same thing though that happened with uh Nicodemus in John chapter 3. Jesus talks to Nicodemus. Nicodemus is a lot like Cornelius. Nicodemus sits down and he says, "Master, Rabbi, we know you're sent from God." Now, Nicodemus is like Cornelius, uh, a an accomplished man, a man of wealth, a powerful man. Secondly, a man of impeccable credentials. Thirdly, not a proud, self-righteous man. Nicodemus says he's he doesn't have

49:53 the attitude to Jesus that the other religious leaders do. Nicodemus says, "Rabbi, we know you're sent from God." So, what does Jesus say? H does Jesus say, "Well, now Nicodemus, you're a great person. You're, you know, you know the Bible. You're moral. You're spiritual. you're religious, you just need a couple of things just to kind of complete the the picture, you know, you just need a little bit of touching up. You Is that what he says? No. What does he say? He says, Nicodemus, you must be born again. Boom. You must be born again. It's an image for conversion. But what an image. What is he saying? He's not saying, well, you know, Cornelius, you know, Nicodemus, you know, you're really pretty good. You just need to you need to top it off a little bit. You just need some finishing. No. Born again means you need to start from scratch.

50:39 You need to be radically converted. Now, this is not the way we think. What we think of when we think born again, born again. Well, I can understand born again conversion for people whose lives are erect. They're in skid row. Their lives are falling apart. Maybe they need some kind of cathotic experience. But I'm all pulled together. Nicodemus, Cornelius, they're as pulled together as you could be. They're as good as you could ask for people to be. And what does the what does the angel say? What does Jesus say? You must be converted. You must be absolutely born again. Now, here's what that means. Here's the second principle. Until this penny drops, you're not going to be converted. You aren't converted. You're not having that life transformation that that God wants for you. The average person hears the call

51:27 to the to be born again or to be converted. The average person says, "When you hear someone say, "You must be born again." What do you think that is? The average person thinks that's a call to become moral and religious. It's a call to traditional values. It's a call to traditional moral values. But that can't be what it is. Why? Because look at our conver look at Cornelius. Look at Nicodemus. Look at Paul last week. Look at look at Lydia. They had traditional moral values out the wazoo. and they still were being called to be converted. In other words, the Christian call to conversion is not a call to morality and religion. It's a challenge to morality and religion. Do you know that

52:12 the call to radical conversion is a challenge to religion and morality, not a call to religion and morality. It's especially a call to people who are already incredibly moral and religious. Now why why would that be? Here's the answer. The Bible says that the problem with the human race, don't we need to know this, friends? And the problem with the world is that human beings put themselves in the place of God. Human beings put themselves in the place of God. Now, actually, that makes a lot of sense. It's almost common sense, even though it's from the Bible. Um, if you if you went out on the streets, which we aren't very far. We're only about 10 ft from the street. If you went out on the street and you actually did a survey and said, "What do you think of this statement that the problem with the human race is that we are uh

53:00 that the human beings put themselves in the place of God?" I'll bet you get an awful lot of people out on the street saying, "Yeah, that makes sense to me." I think there'd be widespread consensus that that makes a lot of sense. But do you know there's two ways to make yourself God? There's two ways to put yourself in the place of God. There's two very different ways to make yourself your own savior and lord. One way is to break all the moral rules and the other way is to keep all the moral rules. One way is to say, "I'm going to live the way I want to live and trample on people and be dishonest and violent." And the other way is to be absolutely moral and say, "Because I am so good, I have earned my salvation." One makes you a criminal. The other makes you either a self-righteous, stuckup Pharisee or a person who's

53:46 always feeling guilty because you never feel good enough. And don't you realize either approach, as different as they look, are both ways of being your own savior and lord. They both make the world miserable. And they both are ways of soul distorting self-centeredness and pride. And that's but but look at this way. Therefore, the person who's a mess, the person who is breaking all the rules, of course they need to be converted. Of course, they need to be born again. But so do the most religious, the most moral. In fact, in some ways, they got a bigger problem because they don't see the nature of their self-centerness. They don't see the nature of their spiritual brokenness. They don't see how they have

54:31 made themselves their own savior and lord. They see how the criminal has. In other words, here's a test. You go up to somebody and say, "You need to be converted." And if they say, "Me need to be converted. I'm a pulled together person. I'm as good as I know. I mean, I'm better than most of the people around me. There's a person whose need for spiritual transformation is the most acute. In other words, the ones who think I'm spiritually okay are not. If the gospel is true that you're saved not by your works, but by God's grace, then the ones who think they're okay are not. And the ones who think they're not okay are on their way. Huh?

55:16 So first of all, we see conversion happens only through God's initiative. Secondly, conversion only happens when you begin to realize that conversion is a challenge to religion and morality. Now, nobody has ever put this better than CS Lewis in the book Great Divorce. The Great Divorce is a fictional piece. It's a parable about a busload of people from hell who are ghosts. and they come to the outskirts of heaven and the bright people come down out of heaven to try to get the ghost to come to heaven. Now, this is not this is a parable, friends. This is fiction and CS Lewis does not believe, he's not trying to tell you that he thinks this is what the afterlife is really like. It's a parable for how we find God or how we fail to find God. But at one place in the parable, one place in the little book, Great Divorce, a ghost meets from

56:05 hell on the bus meets a person who's come down from heaven that he recognizes from life. So you have the ghost and the bright man from heaven. And the ghost recognizes the bright man. And here's the interesting conversation. The ghost says, "Look at me now," says the ghost, slapping its chest. But the slap made no sound. "I've gone straight all my life. I don't say I had no faults. Far from it. But I done my best all my life. See, I done my best by everyone. That's the sort of chap I was. I never asked for anything that wasn't mine by rights. If I wanted a drink, I paid for it. See? And if I took my wages, I done my job. See, that's the sort I was. It would be much better, says the bright man, if you wouldn't talk like that.

56:51 You're never going to get there like that. What are you talking about? says the ghost. I'm not going on. I'm not arguing. I'm just asking for nothing but my rights. I just want to have my rights. Same as you. See. Oh no, said the bright man. It's not as bad as that. I never got my rights. And you won't get your rights either. You'll get something so much better. That's just what I mean, says the ghost. I haven't got my rights. I always done my best, and I never done anything wrong. And here's the thing. Well, if you don't mind my saying so, here's the thing I wonder about. Why should I be put down there below a bloody murderer like you? What's a murderer doing up there? And what a sort like me doing down there? Well, the bright man says, I don't know

57:36 where you'll be put. Just be happy and come. What do you keep on arguing for? Says the ghost. I only want my rights. I'm not asking for anybody's bleeding charity. Oh, then do said the bright man. at once. Ask for the bleeding charity. Everything is here for the asking and absolutely nothing can be bought. That may be all right for you, said the ghost. If they choose to let a bloody murder in just because he makes a poor mouth at the end at the last minute. That's their lookout. I don't want charity, though. I'm a decent man, and if I had my rights, I'd have been there long ago, and you can tell him I said so. The ghost was almost happy now that it could, in a sense, threaten. That's what I'll do. I'll go home. I didn't come here to be treated like a dog. I'll

58:23 go home. Damn blast the whole pack of you. And still grumbling but whimpering a little bit as it picked its way over the sharp grasses it left. If the gospel is true, then your conversion doesn't even begin till you realize the difference between what it means to be born again and what it means to be good, what it means to be moral, what it means to be religious. If the gospel is true, the ones who think they're spiritually okay are not. They're in the most trouble. And the ones who say, "I'm not spiritually okay," are on their way. So, conversion happens through God's initiative. Secondly, conversion happens through the challenge to religion. Thirdly, conversion happens through the transformation of the Holy Spirit. Look

59:09 at verse 44 to 46. Jesus says to Nicodemus, "You have to be born again by the spirit." Paul says in Titus chapter 3, you have to be reborn by the spirit. And Luke tells us this is what makes conversion. Conversion is not a matter of your will. You're turning over a new leaf. You know, some program, conversion is spiritual transformation by the spirit. Verse 44, while Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. And the believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. Four. And here's the two marks that they were converted. They heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. There are the two marks of spiritual transformation. Now, some of you are saying, "Boy, I can't wait to hear what a Presbyterian minister has to

59:55 say about verse 46." Fine. Go ahead. Let's watch. Let's watch what the Presbyterian minister says. Speaking in tongues and praising God are the two marks of spiritual conversion. Praising God is a mark of the psychological transformation the spirit brings. And speaking in tongues is a mark of the sociological transformation that the spirit brings. First of all, let's do the let's do the easier one. Let's do the psychological transformation. How did they know they were transformed by the spirit? They heard them praising God. Now you say, what's the big deal about that? Let me tell you what's the big deal about that. in the Bible that worship is defined as ascribing ultimate value to something.

1:00:41 Ultimate value. That's what worship is. Not just you like it, but you subscribe ultimate ascribe ultimate value to it. You cherish it. You adore it. Now, the Bible says that even the most unreligious people, everybody on the face of the earth is doing that with something. Everybody on the face of the earth looks to something as the ultimate source of your meaning and your happiness. Every heart in your heart of hearts cherishes something as the ultimate thing you adore and value. Even if it's your own independence and whatever it is that you value the most, whatever it is you adore the most, it's your spiritual oxygen. It's your it's your emotional oxygen. Without it,

1:01:27 life is unbearable. So if you live for people's approval, if that's the main thing that your heart cherishes and looks for and says, "If I have that, then I'll have happiness and joy." You're controlled by what people think of you. If the main thing is power, not people's approval, then you're controlled by status and money, your own or somebody else's. But you do not control yourself. You're controlled by what you worship. You're controlled by what your heart most values, what it most adores, what it most praises. And you cannot change unless you change what you worship. You can do all the willpower stuff, all the programs, no matter what. All changes in your life is superficial. None of it amounts to absolute spiritual transformation and conversion. Unless you change what you worship, you haven't really changed truly, lastingly,

1:02:13 profoundly. Let me give you an example. I remember some years ago I when I was in college I was in a campus Christian fellowship and a man a young college student college student came to the fellowship one night and we were struck we were stunned this fellow was sexually active on the other hand that's just way too weak a word I just couldn't think of a better one um this man was sexually ravenous very sexually active and everybody knew it and he shows up that night and he says I've given my life to God and I want to start living right and I want to start coming to your fellowship. And so we were amazed and we were glad and so we welcomed him in. But we we found something interesting. Yes, he did morally made all the changes. He was abstinent. You know, he followed all the

1:02:58 moral rules, but there were problems in every single situation he got involved with. He needed to be in charge. He needed to be the leader. He needed to be the one. And in every small group Bible study, he had his his opinion had to prevail. He was so doineering and there were lots of clashes. It was very difficult and eventually he dropped out and I never quite say what happened there. Some years later I was studying Alfred Adler's individual psychology was in a a book and Adler said he felt that everybody had to have some bottom line something that they looked to without which their life was unbearable and everybody had a different one and he suggested at least four different what he called motivational drives. Power, approval, comfort and control. Now, I'm

1:03:44 not saying that there's only four, but I'll tell you, when I was reading that book, it suddenly dawned on me and I realized what had happened with this man. In his sexual phase, it wasn't about sex. It was about power because and everybody knew it really because he as soon as he got the girl to sleep with him, he lost interest in her. It really wasn't about sex. It really wasn't about the girl. It was about power, the need for power. So when he was in his sexual phase very lentious and you know sexual it was really not about sex it was about power but then he had his religious phase but in his religious phase it wasn't about God it was still about power in every he was in a religious venue he was still trying to be in charge he was still trying to exercise power that was the real thing his heart was after that was the real

1:04:31 fundamental praise of his life that was the real fundamental value of his life and it hadn't changed think about it superficially. It looks like a conversion, but it wasn't. He went from moral, immorality to morality. He went from irreligion to religion. It looked like he changed completely, but he hadn't changed at all. Why? He wasn't praising God yet until your heart's most fundamental worship has changed. You haven't changed. You can have your programs. You can turn over new leaves. You can have accountability groups. You can do everything you want, but you cannot spiritually change. You're not convert. wasn't converted. That man wasn't converted. What do you mean he wasn't converted? Didn't he give his life to Christ? He said so. Didn't he try to to go on the straight and narrow? He said

1:05:16 so. Yeah, I think he was trying, but he wasn't converted. When the Holy Spirit changes you psychologically, it changes you because it changes what you worship. And until God's love is the praise of your life, you haven't really changed. Till the Holy Spirit makes the the God's love that real to you, you haven't really changed. So, first of all, Holy Spirit changed you psychologically. But secondly, it changes you sociologically. They knew that they had changed not just because they were praising God, but because they were speaking in tongues. Now, what does that mean? When Peter saw it, it dawned on him because in chapter 11, he recapitulates this entire incident to some friends in chapter 11. And he says about what happened to

1:06:03 Cornelius. He says, "The Holy Spirit came on them just as he came on us at the beginning." Wait a minute. What is he thinking of? Pentecost. Now, here's what what does speaking in tongues mean here? What does it mean here? here. I'm not talking about what it means across the street

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