The Upside Down Kingdom
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Welcome to Gospel and Life. This month on the podcast, we're featuring a series on the Sermon on the Mount, a collection of teachings where Jesus outlines what it really means to live the Christian life. In the series, Tim Keller explores a striking idea that Christianity is not just different from the world, it's also radically different from religion. He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples were there.

and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear him and be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by evil spirits were cured, and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all. Looking at his disciples, he said, "'Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.'"

Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you and when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven, for that is how their fathers treated the prophets. But woe to you who are rich."

for you have already received your comfort. And woe to you who are well fed, for you will go hungry. And woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. And woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets. This is God's word. Now, as Tim just said, it's spring, and it's traditional actually for centuries in the church to, at springtime, to turn our thoughts to what does it mean to live the Christian life.

You see, you get to Easter, which is right around the corner, and when you get to Easter and you celebrate the resurrection, it's only natural to start to ask this question. How can we live in newness of life? How do we live the resurrected life? What does it mean to live the Christian life? Now, there's three or four perhaps classic places to go in the Bible to get a tremendous picture of what it means to actually live as a Christian in the world. And one of those places is the Sermon on the Mount.

And we're going to be looking at the Sermon on the Mount from here all the way through to the beginning of summer, just for that reason. Now, we have the Sermon on the Mount. We have two accounts, excuse me, of Jesus delivering the Sermon on the Mount. He did it more than once. This discourse was given more than once.

We have in Luke chapter 6 a somewhat shorter version, or a shorter version. In other words, when he preached, he didn't say as much in Matthew chapter 5 to 7. When that account is given of that delivering of the Sermon on the Mount, it's longer. One thing that's interesting is that they are both associated, the delivery of the sermon is in both cases associated with a mountain.

In, of course, Matthew chapter 5, 1, it says he went up on a mountainside. Here, you see in verse 17, what does it say? It says he came down, but where was he? He was on a mountainside. He'd been up there with his disciples teaching them. Why this association with a mountain? Well, from what we can tell, Jesus preached this sermon in the mountains up above the Sea of Galilee, just north of and above it.

And the mountains north of the Sea of Galilee had the very same function that mountains have had for centuries. If you were a revolutionary, if you wanted to bring in a new kingdom or new administration, you were a hunted man, you were hunted, and so what you would do is you usually, if you were a revolutionary, you would hide out in the mountains.

That's the reason why the revolutionaries would hide out in Wales. In the northern part of Wales, that's where they would hide out. Those who were trying to bring in the Welsh kingdom and break the rule of the English and so forth. In every place, you see, the revolutionaries hide in the mountains. So Jesus Christ goes to the mountains. Why? Because he is bringing a revolution. He is a subversive. He actually says in the very first verse of his sermon, see verse 22,

He says, "I'm coming to bring a new administration. I'm coming to bring a kingdom. A new kingdom to replace the old kingdom." However, when you actually begin to understand what he says this kingdom is, you'll begin to realize that every other revolutionary who ever lived was really only just trying to make small fine tunings to the old kingdom. Just trying to rework, reshuffle the old kingdom. What Jesus Christ brings is a revolutionary that's the most radical.

because the values and the pattern and the power and the product of his kingdom is utterly different. Now, you see, what's a kingdom? I just told you. A kingdom always has three things. It's got a pattern. In other words, any king or any new administration always has got a pattern of values.

If a coach takes over the team, immediately he says, you know, conditioning. I know the last coach wasn't into conditioning, but I'm into conditioning. Any kingdom, any new administration, any management is going to bring in a new set of values. There will be a pattern of values. Secondly, a kingdom has a power to implement the pattern of values. And then thirdly, there's always a product. That means the pattern as it's implemented is going to have an effect.

So what we're going to find out is if the coach gets into power and he puts his program into place, will the team win? Will the players reach their potential? Will the morale go up? What will happen? So there's always, a kingdom always, always has an impact, always has an influence. So you always have a pattern put into power, and it produces a product, results in people's lives. Jesus Christ, in verses 20 to 23...

is showing us the pattern and the power and the product of his kingdom. And in verses 24 to 26, he's showing the kingdom that it replaces, which is a wholly different pattern, a wholly different power, and a wholly different set of results. And what we're going to do here, this is a sort of introduction to everything else he's going to say in the Sermon on the Mount, we're going to look at these two kingdoms as well. There's really only two. And one thing you've got to keep in mind is

is that you're either a citizen of one or the other. Paul says in Colossians 3.1, he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of his dear son. So you're either a citizen of one or you're a citizen of the other. But something else you've got to keep in mind. Even if you are a citizen of Christ's kingdom, we've got a very interesting place in Romans where Paul says, the night is far spent, the day is at hand, live as in the light.

What Paul is saying, and it's very important for us to understand this, Paul is saying that where we are spiritually in the history of the world is dawn. The day is at hand, which means the light is coming, the night is far spent. They're both happening. It's not day, it's not night. If you've ever been around dawn, you realize that it's both. The day is coming, the night is leaving, but they're both there. And Paul says what you have to make sure is you live as in the light.

You better dress, you better put on your makeup as if the light's coming, because it's coming. Don't be fooled by the darkness. And this means that even though you may be a citizen of the kingdom of Jesus Christ, you can still live under the influence of the old kingdom. And really, when it comes, so therefore when it comes down to it, understanding not only the fact that there are two kingdoms, but the patterns of the two kingdoms is absolutely critical in

for living in this world if you want to live as a Christian, if you want to live in newness of life. Now, what are those two kingdoms? We're going to look briefly at the first one, the old kingdom, the kingdom that Christ is replacing, and we're going to look a little more extensively at the new one. And I'm going to call the old one the right-side-up kingdom and the new one the upside-down kingdom.

Okay, here's why. First of all, the right side up kingdom. Now, the reason we're going to... Well, I'll tell you why I call it right side up for a minute. But you see, every kingdom has got certain values up here and other values down here. There's always certain things you put on the top and certain things you put down. Certain things you say, these are good, are priorities. And other things that you say, these aren't very good.

These are things that we avoid. These are things that we eschew. These are things that we stay away from. And in the kingdom that Christ is replacing, which is outlined there in verses 23 to 24 to 26, here's what we have. What's on top? What are the values? Power, comfort, success, recognition.

First of all, power. I know it says the first thing actually says the rich. But of course, riches and poverty is really a matter of power, as we know. Power. Secondly, you who are well fed. Well, it has to do with material comfort. Nice clothes, great restaurants, beautiful home. So you have comfort. Thirdly,

You who laugh. Now, you know, the word for laugh there, this is one of the values of this kingdom. The word for laugh there is a kind of negative word. And the experts in Greek will tell you it really is a word that means more like basically to gloat. It's when you've won the election. It's the party.

I won. They lost. And so it's not just talking so much about fun. It's not just talking about happiness in general. It's talking about success. It's talking about the party you have after you've got the promotion, the party you've got after you've beaten the other candidate, and so on. And then lastly, all men speak well of you. Recognition, acclaim, popularity, celebrity. These are the values of the kingdom Christ is replacing.

And of course you see the opposite. The things that this kingdom puts down, things to avoid, things to stay away from, things we disdain, things we sneer at, are in verses 20 to 23. And what are those things? Basically, weakness, sacrifice, discomfort, grief. Or put it this way, weakness, sacrifice, grief, exclusion. You're excluded. You're weeping, right?

And so the things that this particular kingdom says, go for power and comfort and success and recognition. And what are we going to do with weakness and grieving and sacrifice and exclusion? We do everything we can to avoid those things. Now, the reason we call this the right-side-up kingdom, not from God's point of view, but from our point of view, it's right-side-up because it seems utterly natural to put these things up here.

Totally natural. And the reason is the power of this kingdom is the power of the now. Look carefully in verses 24 to 26 and you'll see it says that wealth and power and success and comfort, these are things now. You're laughing now. If you basically go for success, if that's your goal, if you basically go for power, if you basically go for happiness and to avoid suffering, if you basically go for recognition, for acclaim, these things pay off.

Now. They give you results. And you know, of course, if the now is real, if the now is really the only real, and you know, for most of us, the now, I mean, the past is gone, and the future, who knows what will happen? The now. If the now is all there really is, if this world is all there is, absolutely. This set of values seems absolutely natural. Absolutely natural. It's biologically natural. I mean, have you heard of evolution? Have you heard of the survival of the weak?

The survival of the rejected? The survival of the sacrificing? Forget it. Biologically, it's totally unnatural. It's natural to say power and so on. It's psychologically natural. I found this is an interesting quote by a British psychiatrist and a fairly prominent psychiatrist. He says this, the spirit that so permeates Christianity is, in my opinion, masochism.

A much stronger expression of masochism is to be found, or the strongest expression of masochism is to be found in Christ's teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. This blesses the poor, the meek, the persecuted, to do good to them that hate you and forgive them their trespasses. All this breeds masochism. See, the right-side-up kingdom, I call it right-side-up because when you think about it, it just seems biologically, psychologically, utterly natural that these things would be up. Who would value weakness?

Who would value sacrifice? Who would value grief? Who would value exclusion and rejection? Forget it. But what's the product? Now, Jesus says, when you live according to these values, driven by the power of the now, because of results, he says, it's temporary. You will only laugh now, but later you'll weep. It's temporary. You'll be filled now, but later you'll be empty. And what he's saying is actually common sense.

Because, you see, in other words, if you say the now is all that matters, who knows about eternity? Who knows about other things? The now. If you build your life on the now, you get results in the now. But the plain fact is that these things have to crumble eventually. And if you build your life on your beauty, you know, your claim, your beauty, your beauty is going to fade. If you build your life on people who love you, they are going to die. Right?

If you build your life on achievement and power, your records will be eclipsed. And also, if the now isn't all there is, if there actually is an eternal world, then, of course, a person who builds their life on power and comfort...

and success and recognition here. If you build your life on that, if that's your bottom line, if that's your ultimate value, and this world is not all there is, then of course, he's saying your full stomach is going to actually turn into cosmic emptiness. Your laughter is going to turn into cosmic grief and weeping. Now, somebody says, and this is a good question, how do we know that Jesus is right? You see, when you actually move out into the world...

There is no doubt that the right side up kingdom, the reason I'm calling it right side up, is to value these things seems absolutely right. Any other approach seems like suicide. Why would you value weakness? Who would do that? Why would you value sacrifice? Why would you value tears? Why in the world? You move on out, and therefore it makes no sense. And so what Jesus is saying goes absolutely against everything we believe. So why should we believe him? And here's the answer.

I never forget, for some reason I was reading a commentary, a good commentary on this chapter, and the commentator points out that Jesus came down from the mountain healing, feeding. See, power was going out, the miracles. And the commentator said, the handwriting on the wall, see Daniel 5.

And, you know, sometimes commentaries are just too pithy. I say, the handwriting is on the wall? Jesus comes down the mountain? Daniel 5? What are we talking about? Well, here's what we're talking about. In Daniel chapter 5, if you go back there, you'll find that there was a man, Belshazzar, who was the last king of the Babylonian Empire. And Cyrus the Persian was closing in on the city. And he knew he couldn't possibly win. And he knew his empire was going to be over. And so what he did was he had an enormous party.

And they got drunk, and he brought in his concubines. One of the things I realized when I looked at Daniel's pie was that is utter, that was never done. You didn't bring your concubines in, you know, along with your wives. They were always kind of touchy about your concubines. And in come the concubines, and they brought in, it was a wild party. And suddenly, the handwriting began on the wall. A hand moved on the wall, and it basically said, your days are numbered. When Jesus Christ showed up,

And he began to heal the sick, to raise the dead, to feed the hungry, and to die on a cross. That's the handwriting on the wall for the old kingdom and the old ways. If you are living for yourself, if you are spending all your money on yourself, if you're not living like Jesus Christ lived, and if he really did come, and if he really did those miracles, that means that you're like Belshazzar having this huge party, and your kingdom's about to crumble.

The handwriting's on the wall. I began to realize, it gave me a chill when I began to realize what the commentator was saying. He was saying, you have to ask yourself, was there a Jesus Christ? Did he live the life he did? If he did, that means that the shutters are going to come down on the kingdom of living for myself, rising up to the top, doing everything I can for success, and throwing a few baubles to the poor on the way. And occasionally going to church if things are unhappy, and always sticking around with people of my caliber.

The whole right side up kingdom that seems absolutely to be the only way to go because Jesus Christ lived the life he lived. Touching the lepers. Giving himself to the poor. Dying on the cross. Coming as a poor man. Coming and riding into town on a borrowed donkey. And eating his last meal in a borrowed room. And being buried in a borrowed tomb. And giving up everything. He comes with power and this power.

is the handwriting on the wall for anybody who will not live according to the pattern of his life. So you say, well, I don't know if Jesus ever lived. I don't know if he ever did these miracles. I don't know if he did any of these things. And of course, then you need to look at that. And that's not the sermon. That's not what we're talking about today. We're not talking about how do we know if Jesus lived and died. I'm not going to give you the evidence. I'm not going to take you to the text. But if he did, if he lived a life, anything like what the Bible is saying, your days are numbered, Belshazzar.

unless you are living a life which is upside down from the way the world thinks things should go. Now, let's take a look at the upside-down kingdom. That was the right-side-up kingdom. What is the upside-down kingdom? Well, I mean, you know, I've already said so, but let me give you another quote by one of those commentators that helped me so much for this week. A guy named Michael Wilcock wrote a commentary on Luke, and he says this about this passage. He says it perfectly. In fact, when I read it, I should just end, but I won't.

In the life of God's people, it will be seen, first of all, a remarkable reversal of values. The people of God will prize what the world calls pitiable and suspect what the world thinks desirable. In other words, the mark of what makes you a Christian is a reversal of values. The things that the world puts as pitiable, we prize. Michael Wilcox says we prize. Wait a minute. We prize weakness? Sacrifice?

Grief and exclusion? Are we the masochists that the psychiatrist said we are? And the answer is, prize is not the same thing. Prize is not the same thing as seeking. In fact, if you seek it, I'll show you in a minute, you're just as controlled by the old world's values. But what we're saying is, prizing means that when it comes, we see its value. When it comes, we understand what it's doing in our lives. When it comes, we're not saying, oh my word, our life is over. No. If when these things happen to you,

If when weakness comes, when all these things hit you, you say, oh my life is over, you're under the influence of the old world, the old kingdom, the kingdom that's being replaced, the kingdom on which the handwriting has been written. We prize it when it happens. We know its value and we prize the people who are going through it. We're attracted to them. We get into their lives to try to ameliorate their lives.

Are you looking for ways to grow in your faith this summer? Or are you hoping to help new believers or kids grasp the heart of the Christian faith? For many of us, the summer months can provide more time to deepen our faith and our understanding of what it means to follow Christ. A great resource to start using this summer is the New City Catechism Devotional: God's Truth for Our Hearts and Minds. This devotional brings the historic catechisms of the Christian church to life, offering a question to consider for each week of the year.

In the introduction, Tim Keller lays out the case for catechesis, the rich and communal practice of learning and memorizing questions and answers that frame the foundational beliefs of the Christian faith. Each week includes a scripture passage, a prayer, and a brief meditation that will challenge and inspire you. The included commentaries are by contemporary pastors such as John Piper, Tim Keller, and Kevin de Young, as well as historical figures such as Augustine, John Calvin, and Martin Luther.

This month, in addition to the New City Catechism devotional, we're including a great companion resource, the New City Catechism for Kids, as our thank you for your gift to help Gospel in Life share the hope of Christ's love with people all over the world. So request your copies today at gospelinlife.com slash give. That's gospelinlife.com slash give. Now, here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching.

Now let me break this down. Let's look at the pattern, the power, and the product of the upside-down kingdom. Number one, the pattern. The pattern of the upside-down kingdom is a reversal of values with regard to the world. In other words, Christians are no longer controlled by the things that the world thinks are so critical. We're not controlled by power, success. We're not controlled by comfort or recognition. We're not controlled by them. Now let me point this out to you for a second.

If you can't take them, if you run away from them, if you can't stand being around money, if you have no idea what to do with recognition, if you absolutely can't stand being around people with any power at all, if you run from them, you are still controlled by them. You're scared of them. It probably means down deep inside you're intimidated by them or you still really want them. But a person who's a Christian, who's living in the upside-down kingdom, isn't controlled by these things. You don't need them.

Which means you don't want them, they don't drive you, they're not things that control you, and that means you can take them or you can leave them. And that is the first mark of somebody who's living in an upside-down kingdom. That's the pattern of your life. For example, here's a non-Christian, here's a Christian. Standing alongside of each other, but I shouldn't put it that way. Here's a member of the old kingdom, here's a member of the new kingdom. Because, you know, let's not talk about Christian and non-Christian for a second. Here's a person who's being controlled by the right-side-up kingdom and a person who's being controlled by the upside-down kingdom.

And let's say they're both in the same situation in their job. If they tell the truth, they're going to lose their job. When you see a person who's under the influence of the old kingdom, of the right side up kingdom, is going to have to lie. They're slaves. They're going to have to lie. Why? Because they can't do without that house in Greenwich. Because they can't do without power and without comfort. They can't do without success. They can't do without... They can't do. But a Christian says, hey, I have to do whatever I have to do because these things don't bother me anymore.

Now, where does that come from? And the answer is, there's a couple of wonderfully paradoxical... There's a number of wonderfully paradoxical statements in the passage that tell you the secret dynamic here. First of all, notice how all the way through, Jesus says, Blessed are you who weep now. Blessed are you who hunger now. Okay, blessed are you who weep now. Look at the paradox. You know what that means? First of all, you're weeping now. You're weeping. Something's going wrong in your life. But you're blessed.

And you know, the word blessed means deeply satisfied. Jesus says a Christian is somebody who can weep and still be blessed. A person who lives under the old kingdom, if something, you lose your job, you lose a loved one, you lose reputation, and you see blessedness and laughter go together. Blessedness and weeping can never go together. But in the new kingdom, they do.

Because there's a blessedness that has not got to do with circumstances. Actually, a better place, another place that shows the paradox is verse 23, when he says, Rejoice and leap for joy in that day, for great is your reward in heaven. Now, boy, Karl Marx used to look at verses like this, and he used to say, Oh, that's what I hate. Ah, that's what I hate about Christianity. The opium of the people, see? Great is your reward in heaven.

So I'm supposed to trudge through life and not fight injustice and just accept my lot in life because later on I'll have pie in the sky buying the future. But there's no future here. There's no future tense. That's not what's going on, Karl Marx. I'm sorry you can't be here to hear this. What it says is rejoice in that day. What day? Not the judgment day. In the day that you're excluded. Verse 23 is referring to verse 22. In the day you're excluded. Well, how can you rejoice in that day?

Because great is your reward in heaven, not will be. This is what's going on. Colossians chapter 3, Acts chapter 7. I've never gotten over Acts chapter 7. Here's Stephen. He's about to be stoned to death. He's about to be executed. I've never gotten over this. How is he going to handle it with courage? And how is he going to handle it with love? How will he keep from fear? And how will he keep from anger toward the people who are doing this great injustice? Well, he looks to heaven. And he suddenly says, ah.

He says, "I see the glory of God and I see Jesus Christ standing at the right hand of the Father." In other words, he says, "I realize that though down here this kangaroo court is doing injustice to me, before God I'm vindicated." And a Christian is somebody, according to Colossians 3:1, who says this: "I have set my mind not on things below but on things that are above, for my life is hid with God in Christ."

A Christian is somebody who says, I've lost recognition, but I'm famous with God. See, that's weeping, but blessed. I've been excluded, but I'm welcomed by God. See, that's exclusion, but leaping for joy. And a Christian, because you have that pattern, because you've got that, you therefore are not controlled by the world's values. Those things don't control you anymore. You're living a free life. That's the reversal.

Now, here's a couple practical things before we move on. Do you realize what this means? Karl Marx is utterly wrong. If this world is all there is, and working for injustice will lose my job, or lose my reputation, or lose my life, then I'm not going to do it. But if I've got a blessedness, if I have relief for joy because of my standing in heaven, now I see my standing in heaven, that means, of course, I can work against injustice, because so what if I lose my reputation? So what if I lose my life?

If I see injustice in my neighborhood, I stand up for it. So what if I'm ostracized? Okay. If I see injustice in the company, I blow the whistle. So what if I lose my job? You say, I wonder who lives like that? You've got the resources to live with that kind of integrity. You've got the resources to live with that kind of courage. Absolutely. This is not the opium of the people. This is the smelling salts of the people. This will wake you up. You see? And not only if this is true, will you live with integrity, but keep this in mind.

What's great about this is it really means that you no longer have to have these things or have not to have these things. I already mentioned that. And you won't live a bitter life if somebody takes it from you. Okay, so that's the pattern. The pattern is I have a complete reversal because I'm free from the world's value. But secondly, okay, where do you get the power for this? And somebody says, yeah, where do you get the power for it? I don't completely understand. Well, look, it says where you get the power. Right there in verse 19. Him. Him.

Jesus Christ's life is an example of the very way in which we're supposed to live. Jesus comes into the world, even though he's the king, and he's poor. Now, he even talks about it here. He says, don't be upset if you're excluded. Don't be upset if you are rejected. Don't be upset if you're a failure. Don't be upset if you're weeping, because this is how the prophets always have been. He says, this is what's always happened to the prophets.

He says, have you ever heard of a successful prophet? Have you ever heard of a happy prophet? A happy prophet. Have you ever heard of a popular prophet? See what Jesus is saying? And now, what is he saying, though? If it's true that the prophets have always lived according to these values, how much more the great prophet, the true prophet, the ultimate prophet? If the representatives of the king live this way, how much the real king, when he finally comes? And when he comes, you see Jesus Christ becoming poor. You see him being totally rejected.

And finally, when he's on the cross, he's not only rejected by his friends and by the crowd, he's even excluded by his father. And yet his, you see, he gives himself. And you say, ah, yes, that's an example. And that's where we're supposed to get the power? The example of Christ? No. If Christ only came as an example of the reversal of the world's values...

I don't think he'd be of any power to you at all. He would just be a burden. He would just make you feel terrible. He would say, oh my goodness, I'm supposed to be willing to be generous. Oh my goodness, I'm supposed to be willing to do all these things. Oh no, I can never live like Jesus. And he wouldn't be a power at all if it was just an example. But here's what the gospel is. The gospel is not that we look at Jesus reversing his fortunes with people, you see,

We don't see him becoming weak to make people strong. We don't see him becoming poor to make people rich. You have to see that everything he did was to reverse fortunes with you. Why can he say, "Though you are weeping now, you will rejoice"? Because he took the weeping you deserve, the cosmic weeping. He died in the dark. Why can he say, "You will be comforted"? Because he was utterly disconsolate. He was thrown away.

Why can he say, "You will be satisfied"? Because he was utterly dissatisfied on the cross, Jesus Christ. God said, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Why can he say these things? Why can he say, "You can know that you have this great standing in heaven"? Because you can live in reversal of values because you live by his reversal. He took your place. He put you where he deserves to be, before the throne of God.

accepted, beloved. And he put himself where you deserve to be, cast out. And because of that, that's where you get the power. That's where you get the power. That's the reason why Jesus Christ can look at his disciples and say, blessed are you who are poor. Now, some of them were poor. Look at, see, verse 19 and 20 says he looked at his disciples and said, blessed are you poor. But now Matthew, for example, was a tax collector. We know he wasn't poor. Why can he look at all of his disciples like this? And the answer is because

Basically, the only way for you to actually receive this power is to be poor in spirit. Let me give you two ways of looking at God. One way of looking at God is like this. I have nothing of value. God owes me nothing. He would be just to cut me off.

But I rely completely on what Jesus Christ has done for me and ask that he accept me. The other approach goes like this. I've lived a fairly good life. I've lived a pretty decent life. God owes me something. He owes me a few things. He owes me some comfort. He shouldn't let bad things happen to me. Now, the first one is being poor in spirit. The second one is being middle class in spirit. Middle class in spirit simply is what? It's the right side up kingdom. I've worked...

I've done my best. I've done my duty. God owes me at least a little bit. He shouldn't let bad things happen to me. If that's your heart, you see Jesus as an example maybe, but you'll never see him as someone who actually substituted himself for you. You won't have the power that comes from knowing that he reversed his fortunes with you because he reversed his fortunes with you. You can reverse your fortunes with everybody.

In other words, a Christian who knows where you're standing in heaven is, you live recklessly. You don't get rid of your money and you don't keep all of your money. You live recklessly with your money. You don't, what do we mean by that? Okay, I did that on purpose. What I mean is, if you really are living in this upside down kingdom, it means that you are going to be so generous that you put yourself somewhat at financial risk.

It means you're going to be so generous with your money, but it means you're going to be so generous with your heart that sometimes people will exploit you emotionally. You're going to be so involved in trying to help people work out their differences that sometimes people will get mad at you. Christians don't care because they say, well, my money, it's nice to have it. My privacy, it's nice to have it. My comfort, it's nice to have it. But I'm going to live like Jesus because of who I am before him. I'm not controlled by these things, so I'm able to move out

and in a sense live in a way that the world will consider reckless because I'm poor in spirit, not middle class in spirit. And if you also live by this power, you will also see when bad things happen to you. People who live in the old kingdom look at what's wrong, you know, troubles and difficulties and what do they say? They say, my life is meaningless. But Christians know that when you're poor, when you're weeping, when you're empty, the kingdom of God is near.

See, this is another way in which the upside-down kingdom says strength is weakness and weakness is strength. Let's admit it. When have you really come to know yourself? When have you really come to meet Christ? When have you really come to get connected with God? It's not when you're rich, not when you're happy, not when you're laughing, not when you're included. It's the opposite.

And therefore, Christians are willing to go out and sacrifice themselves. And when I use the word reckless, I don't mean irresponsible. I mean reckless as far as the world would understand. The world would say, anybody who gives that kind of money away, you should be saving up for a rainy day. You need to make sure. Anybody who gives your life like that, of course people are going to kind of exploit you occasionally. But a Christian will have such strength in Christ that by the world's standards, a Christian is going to look reckless and is not afraid of weeping.

and is not afraid of emptiness and sacrifice, because I know the kingdom of God makes progress in my life and the lives of other people when it happens. Now, lastly, one last thing, and it's pretty important. The pattern of the upside-down kingdom is what? It's a total reversal of your attitude toward the things that the world thinks are so important, power and comfort and success and recognition. Secondly, the power is to know that Christ reversed places with you. Then lastly, and very important,

Why does Jesus Christ say here at the very end, right here at the very beginning, "Blessed are the poor," whereas in Matthew 5, he says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." People have continually gone back and forth and said, "I really don't know which it is. Is Jesus Christ saying that my gospel is really for just the poor in spirit? You don't have to be really, literally poor. You just have to be poor in spirit. Or is the gospel really for the literally poor?"

And the answer is there's a deliberate duality, there's a deliberate ambiguity. The gospel will take middle-class people, the gospel will take Christians and turn their hearts toward the poor. Whereas the gospel will take the poor and turn their hearts toward the rest of Christians. You see, the poor know salvation has got to be by grace.

You never find the poor having a kind of very, very nice ethical religion. The poor tend to say, "I believe in the blood of Jesus. I believe in salvation by grace." Why? Because, you see, they don't have the illusion that we're really in control of our lives, that the reason why you're on top of things is because you work so hard. The poor know.

that everything's a matter of grace. And therefore, the poor are more open to the gospel, but the gospel will take a middle-class person and say, you were saved by grace alone and turn your heart toward the poor. And so one of the things you see in the Sermon on the Mount is if you really understand the gospel, who you associate with will be the test. Do you only hang out with people who are of your caliber?

Do you only hang out with people who seem to have achieved what you've achieved? Or do you recognize that you are what you are by the grace of God alone? Who your friends are, who you hang out with, very, very much a matter of the lifestyle of a Christian. So here's where we are. The handwriting is on the wall for the old kingdom. You have to ask yourself some very, very simple questions. Am I living a life in which I'm controlled by what the world says?

Or am I living a life like Christ? I can only live a life like Christ if I see that he's come into my place and taken his place for me. Taken my place for me so I can stand in his place. I don't want you to be like Belshazzar. I'd much rather you be like Nebuchadnezzar. Because Nebuchadnezzar was the king before Belshazzar in the book of Daniel. And God showed up in a dream and said, I'm going to cut you down. You're like a big tree, but I'm going to cut you down, but you're going to grow back once you realize...

that all success is an unmerited grace. And Nebuchadnezzar was smitten down. You remember some of it? If you remember the story, he was a terrible blow. He fell into mental illness. But when he woke up, unlike Belshazzar, he realized that he'd been living his life according to the old way of the kingdom. And he got up and he said, everything is a gift of grace. And he changed the way in which he did everything. Don't be like Belshazzar. Be like Nebuchadnezzar. Live in the upside down kingdom, not in the right side up kingdom. Let's pray.

Father, we ask that you give us an ability to apply this. In some of our cases, it means being much more generous than we've been. In some of our cases, it means rethinking who we spend time with. It's a sweeping and comprehensive theme. We pray, Lord, as the weeks go on, we can break this down and see what this actually means for us in every single area of our lives. But we pray that you would help us today to be humbled today

Not like Belshazzar, who just simply continued to party harder, but like Nebuchadnezzar, who raised his eyes to heaven. We ask that you would make us people who live according to the upside-down kingdom. Show us what that means by your Spirit. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.

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