Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life

Conversion is a radical change of life. And in its early days, Christianity grew through conversions. It spread so rapidly that it changed a hostile society completely. What does it mean to become a Christian? By looking at the conversions in Acts, we can see what Christianity really is.  In this passage, the conversion of an Ethiopian, we learn three things: 1) who converts, 2) the context of conversion, and 3) the key instrument conversion uses. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 16, 2003. Series: The Necessity of Belief. Scripture: Acts 8:26-40. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Christianity was born into a culture that was every bit as resistant and unsympathetic to its claims as ours is. So how did its message come into the lives of people and actually change them?  In Acts, we have more case studies of conversion than anywhere else in the Bible. And in this passage, Luke chooses three to show us both how incredibly different and yet how incredibly similar Christian conversions can be.  What does it mean to be a Christian, and how do you become a Christian? 1) Lydia is a case of the gospel for the religious, 2) the slave girl is a case of the gospel for the oppressed, and 3) the jailer is a case of the gospel for the secular. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 9, 2003. Series: The Necessity of Belief. Scripture: Acts 16:13-34. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

The biggest problem people have in believing in God is probably the problem of evil and suffering.  In the Greek imagination, the voyage was a metaphor for your life’s journey, and a storm was a metaphor for the evil and suffering and tragedies that come upon us. In this passage in Acts, Luke is in a boat, and he includes this account to teach us about the problems of evil and suffering. Let’s take a look at what he teaches under three headings: 1) the paradox of the storm, 2) the product of the storm, and 3) the presence in the storm. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 2, 2003. Series: The Necessity of Belief. Scripture: Acts 27:15-32. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Christianity was born into a society hostile to its claims. And the claim that was most revolting to that society is also what our society sees as the most repugnant: the shocking claim that salvation is found in no one else. It’s critical to realize this claim was as implausible in the Greco-Roman world as it is in ours. The Roman Empire was every bit as religiously pluralistic as our society, if not more. If they were as revolted as we were, why did so many believe it?  Acts 4 shows us four important things: 1) the claim was an implication, not arrogation, 2) the claim is no more exclusive than the claim of religious relativism, 3) this exclusive claim led to a transformation of identity, and 4) this exclusive claim led to the most inclusive human community the world had ever seen. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 26, 2003. Series: The Necessity of Belief. Scripture: Acts 4:8-14, 31-37. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

The culture in which Christianity was born was every bit as skeptical of the claims of Christianity as ours is. But the case for Christianity was made so strongly that skeptical people believed in numbers so great that it changed the entire Roman culture.  There’s no better place to see the case that changed the whole Roman Empire than the book of Acts. Within it, there are a number of spots where Paul or Peter make the case, including this famous spot where Paul speaks to the intellectual elites on Mars Hill in the Areopagus.  This text shows three aspects to the persuasive power of gospel: 1) the cultural, 2) the intellectual, and 3) the personal. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 19, 2003. Series: The Necessity of Belief. Scripture: Acts 17:16-34. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

It’s a simple fact that in the Greco-Roman world, the claims of Christianity were found every bit as implausible, if not more, than people find them now. So why did so many people believe?  Fortunately, we have a case study in Theophilus. How does a cultured, intellectually sophisticated person living in a culture that’s hostile to the basic claims of Christianity come to believe Christianity is true? The answer in a nutshell: the resurrection.  Whether we already believe or aren’t sure we believe, because of the resurrection we can know three things: 1) the truth is out there, 2) the truth is up there, and 3) the truth is in there.  This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 12, 2003. Series: The Necessity of Belief. Scripture: Acts 1:1-11. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

When the Jewish exiles got to Babylon, they found a huge city—hostile, big, brutal—and it was filled with other exiles, with different people groups and radically different views. Our culture is not so different. Liberals feel our country is so conservative that they’re pulling their hair out, and conservatives feel our country is so liberal that they’re pulling their hair out. Both groups feel like exiles. Millions of ethnic minorities feel like exiles. So how do you respond to a city that’s hostile to your views? How do you live in a fragmented society?  God’s answer to the Jewish exiles is astounding. In it, we see three things: 1) wrong ways to relate to the city, 2) God’s way to relate to the city, and 3) how to get the power to do it. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 5, 2003. Series: The Necessity of Belief. Scripture: Jeremiah 29:4-14. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

We’re not at home. We live in a world that doesn’t sustain or support the deepest needs of our hearts. Martin Heidegger (a fascist sympathizer) and Karl Marx (the father of Communism) were very different, prominent thinkers; yet, they both agreed that we can’t understand the human condition without the concept of alienation. Of course, that immediately raises the question, why wouldn’t we feel at home here?  The prophet Jeremiah gives us a lot of insight: 1) why we long for a home, 2) how we can get home, and 3) what life there will be like. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 28, 2003. Series: The Necessity of Belief. Scripture: Jeremiah 31:10-17; 31-34. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

In a culture where people really don’t know who they are and what life’s about—in a fragmented culture like ours—the fastest way to still feel good about ourselves is romance. It’s the ultimate philosophical narcotic.  “I don’t know what life is about, but when I’m with her or him, I feel somehow life is significant.” Do you see? It’s an end run. That’s the reason why in all fragmented cultures, romance and sex and marriage can either be the ultimate fatal detour or a clue to how to find your way home.  Jeremiah tells us about 1) an incredible offer: the ultimate lover; 2) the problem with the offer: that we’re faithless lovers; and 3) the resolution: a redeemed love relationship. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 21, 2003. Series: The Necessity of Belief. Scripture: Jeremiah 2:31-36; 3:12-16. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

In a fragmented culture like ours, identity formation is a challenge. We decide our own goals and standards, and we get our sense of worth from whether we can achieve them. Jeremiah shows us that there’s something profoundly disordered and sick about the way in which we form our identities. In a traditional culture, where identities and roles are assigned, it might be hard to recognize this. But in our culture, where we’re actively aware of identity formation, we can better see what Jeremiah means. Jeremiah shows us 1) how identities are formed, 2) why our identities are sick, 3) a glimpse of a cured identity, and 4) the medicine that can cure it. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 14, 2003. Series: The Necessity of Belief. Scripture: Jeremiah 9:21-26. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

We live in a fragmented culture. There’s no consensus about the big questions of what’s right and wrong and true. Jeremiah is a prophet in this same situation—he lived and wrote in a fragmented culture.  One of the challenges of a fragmented culture is living in the cafeteria of different worldviews, religions, and systems of thought. It’s typical to respond by saying, “I don’t think anybody has the answer.” But Jeremiah shows us that this very statement is ignorant of how the heart works. Jeremiah shows us that we need to see three things about the human heart: 1) the radical faith of every heart, 2) the radical flaw in every heart, and 3) the radical cure for every heart. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 7, 2003. Series: The Necessity of Belief. Scripture: Jeremiah 17:5-17. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Jesus Christ says not just “I was resurrected,” but “I am the resurrection.” Present tense. He comes after his resurrection with his arms full of newness.  I don’t know why we get into gift-giving at Christmas—I think we ought to be getting into it at Easter. Because as soon as Jesus Christ shows up risen from the dead, he is giving out all kinds of gifts of newness.  Let’s look at these gifts and divide them into two parts: 1) there is the gift of faith, and 2) there are all the rest of the gifts that come out of that. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 15, 1990. Scripture: John 20:10-29. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

We’ve been looking at the life of Jesus and we come now to the risen Jesus. At the end of the gospel of Luke, the risen Jesus does four things that change the lives of his disciples forever. And because he’s the risen Jesus, he can do the very same things for us right now.  Jesus 1) answers the doubts of their minds by arguing with them, 2) satisfies the needs of their hearts by eating with them, 3) reforges the direction of their lives by sending them, and 4) shows them his hands and his feet. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 20, 2003. Series: The Meaning of Jesus Part 3; Seeing Him. Scripture: Luke 24:36-49. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

The night Jesus was betrayed has a theme: darkness, night. Right in the middle of the passage, Jesus makes an odd statement: “But this is your hour—when darkness reigns.” What that must mean is the physical darkness is a representation of something deeper.  There’s a darkness that blinds the eyes, and then there’s a darkness that blinds the heart and the mind and the soul. It’s a spiritual darkness. This is the thing Jesus came to deal with. Because he came to deal with it, there’s a solution for it.  There are three incidents that happened in the physical dark. The first two tell us about our condition, and the third tells us what Jesus has come to do about it. The incidents: 1) the soldiers reject Jesus, 2) the disciples reject him, and 3) even his Father rejects him. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 13, 2003. Series: The Meaning of Jesus Part 3; Seeing Him. Scripture: Luke 22:39-64. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

One of the great questions of history is, “Why in the world did the early Christians adopt the cross as their main symbol?”  All the other founders of the great religions died old and successful. In absolute contrast, you have Jesus, who dies at age 33, ignominiously, in agony, abandoned by everyone. But on the night before he died, Jesus gave his disciples the interpretation, the meaning of his death on the cross, and when it was all over, it changed them and the world.  Jesus tells us four life-changing principles about his death: 1) Jesus’ death is the center of history, 2) Jesus’ death is the foundation for a radically new, profoundly different community, 3) Jesus’ death is the solution to the great mystery, and 4) Jesus’ death is appropriated personally. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 6, 2003. Series: The Meaning of Jesus Part 3; Seeing Him. Scripture: Luke 22:14-34. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

The last week of Jesus’ life addresses not just our minds or our wills, but our hearts. We are to see Jesus, to meet Jesus.  As Luke shows us the last days of Jesus’ life, all the doctrines and themes will be narratively depicted in the most vivid way. They’re driven home so we can really see Jesus and have an existential encounter with him.  Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem shows us who he is, what he can do for us, why he can do it, and how he can do it. In other words, it shows us 1) he’s the actual king, 2) he’s the transformational king, 3) he’s the paradoxical king, and 4) he’s the confrontational king. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 30, 2003. Series: The Meaning of Jesus Part 3; Seeing Him. Scripture: Luke 19:28-40; 45-48. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

If you ask the question, “Why should a believer in the gospel of Jesus Christ be passionately involved with the poor?” this text gives you the answers.  Isaiah 61 is the last of the Servant songs, a prophecy about the Servant of the Lord. And Jesus Christ preached from this in his first sermon. When Jesus reads this, he’s saying, “This is the essence of my mission. I have come to bring good news for the poor.” What does that mean?  The three reasons why a believer in the gospel of Jesus Christ should be deeply involved with the life of the poor are 1) because of the future, 2) because of the present, and 3) because of the past.  This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 28, 2010. Series: The Songs of the Servant (from Isaiah). Scripture: Isaiah 58:6-10. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

This is a text of realism. There are many promises in the Bible about the great blessings Jesus’ salvation brings. In Isaiah 57, we have a reminder that we still live in a world filled with tragedy, difficulty, and suffering.  The salvation we get from Jesus is by no means an exemption from the same brokenness that everyone else in the world is experiencing. Rather, the salvation is wonderful because it gives us the resources to face the brokenness in a way we never could without it.  In this chapter, let’s look at 1) what we face in life as Christians, 2) how we should try to face it, and 3) why we can be assured that we’ll be able to. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 21, 2010. Series: The Songs of the Servant (from Isaiah). Scripture: Isaiah 57:12-21. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

For some, when they hear that salvation is absolutely free, their first response is to say, “If I really believed that, then I wouldn’t have any incentive to live a good life.”  To that, I would say, “If, when you lose all fear of being smacked by God, you lose all incentive to live a good life, then the only incentive you ever had was fear. You need a better incentive.” See, if you realize the implications of the costly love of Jesus, it’s going to change your whole life. Isaiah 56 shows that when we receive salvation 1) it creates a new concern for living justly in the world, 2) it creates a new kind of community of believers who are absolutely equal before God and radically accepting of differences, and 3) we get an everlasting name that will never be cut off.  This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 14, 2010. Series: The Songs of the Servant (from Isaiah). Scripture: Isaiah 56:1-8. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

There are two pictures of two different women in Isaiah 54. And they teach us something miraculous. These last chapters of Isaiah are about a figure called the Servant of the Lord who is going to bring God’s salvation to the world. The New Testament writers identify Jesus Christ as the Servant of the Lord. And Isaiah 54 talks about the salvation he brings. From the two pictures in this passage, we learn about 1) miraculous births, 2) a miraculous marriage, and 3) the kind of miraculous life that flows from them. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 28, 2010. Series: The Songs of the Servant (from Isaiah). Scripture: Isaiah 54:1-10. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Isaiah 52 is the best chapter in the whole Bible to explain what happened on the cross. We know that because the New Testament writers were constantly referring back to it. It was the basis for their understanding of what happened on the cross.  As I stand as a preacher before this text, I not only see too much in it to tell you, I feel too much about it to express to you. Therefore, I want to give you a due sense of the solemnity of this text. I want you to exercise the mental equivalent of taking your shoes off, because this is a holy place. Looking at each of the five stanzas, it teaches us to 1) understand the mixture, 2) accept the ordinariness, 3) realize the magnitude of the love, 4) commit to justice, 5) live out of and live off of the principle. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 21, 2010. Series: The Songs of the Servant (from Isaiah). Scripture: Isaiah 52:13-53:12. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

What did Jesus come into the world to do?  In the final chapters of Isaiah, a mysterious figure called the Servant of the Lord is prophesied. This figure is going to come into the world and bring God’s salvation. And the New Testament writers identify this prophesied Servant of the Lord as Jesus.  Isaiah 50 is the third of the Servant songs, and it 1) tells us about the life we ought to live, 2) shows us where to get the power to live that life, and then 3) explains why that power works. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 14, 2010. Series: The Songs of the Servant (from Isaiah). Scripture: Isaiah 50:4-11. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Isaiah 49 gives a sweeping, panoramic view of God’s salvation. But immediately following that promise, there’s a fascinating skeptical response. This is the second of the Servant songs, a prophecy about the Servant of the Lord, who the New Testament writers identify as Jesus. In it, it shows that there’s a salvation soon… and then eventually… and then ultimately. But to this view, Israel skeptically says, “There are all these promises of loving action, but I don’t feel loved.” And God responds. Let’s look at these verses to see 1) a painful question, 2) an answer to the question, 3) a cure for the pain. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 7, 2010. Series: The Songs of the Servant (from Isaiah). Scripture: Isaiah 49:1-16. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Isaiah prophesies about a mysterious figure called the Servant of the Lord. In the New Testament, the writers identify the Servant of the Lord with Jesus Christ.  These prophecies tell us some things about Jesus, about his work, about what he brings, and about ourselves that we learn nowhere else. Many of the prophecies are called songs, the servant songs. Let’s introduce ourselves to this servant, and therefore, to what this tells us about Jesus Christ. The first of the servant songs is in Isaiah 42. We see depicted here 1) a servant king, 2) a healing king, and 3) a suffering king. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 31, 2010. Series: The Songs of the Servant (from Isaiah). Scripture: Isaiah 42:1-9. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

If you thought when you became a Christian you were leaving the fight to get into peace and tranquility, Paul says you were wrong. The Christian life is a fight. But now you have divine resources.  We come now to the last piece of the armor of God: “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” At the beginning and at the end of talking about how to live a victorious Christian life, Paul talks about the Bible. It shows that everything we do in putting on the armor is a matter of taking Scripture and digesting it, applying it, working it out.  Let’s look at how 1) the truth is in the beginning of the armor, 2) the truth is at the end of the armor, and 3) how to take it up. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 12, 1992. Series: Spiritual Warfare – The Armor of God. Scripture: Ephesians 6:14-18. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

In the Bible, salvation is a broader term than what we usually use in the Christian church. We’re looking at the armor of God, and we turn now to another piece: the helmet of salvation. A lot of churches use the word salvation in the past tense: “I’ve been saved,” or “When were you saved?” If you’re accustomed to this, you might get confused when you see that often in the Bible, the word salvation for Christians is used in the present or future tense.  Let’s look at: 1) the past tense of salvation, 3) the present tense of salvation, 3) the future tense of salvation, and 4) how to put it on. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 5, 1992. Series: Spiritual Warfare – The Armor of God. Scripture: Ephesians 6:14-18. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Fiery arrows do not come all throughout the battle. When do they come? Right when you’ve decided to storm the stronghold of the enemy.  We’re looking at the armor of God—it’s an illustration Paul uses as a way of saying we have everything we need to meet the battles of life, but we must make use of those resources. And in looking at the shield of faith, we see that the more we decide to get our lives together, the more likely we are to find fiery arrows coming at us. This passage on the shield of faith teaches us: 1) God lets Satan send us fiery trials, 2) we should expect fiery trials, and 3) faith is not a passive thing. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 29, 1992. Series: Spiritual Warfare – The Armor of God. Scripture: Ephesians 6:14-18. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

If you’re trying to do anything more important than to just get ahead in life, you’ll know the shield of faith is extremely important. Because let’s face it: the enemy attacks at the front line.  Your front line is the place where you go out on a limb to do something because you know it’ll make a difference—perhaps in this neighborhood, this city. When you go to the front line, there are all sorts of flying missiles with your name on them. That’s the reason we’re talking about this piece of armor: the shield of faith. Let’s look at 1) what it is, 2) when you need it, and 3) how to put it on. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 22, 1992. Series: Spiritual Warfare – The Armor of God. Scripture: Ephesians 6:10-20. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Paul says a Christian should be characterized by readiness, a spiritual buoyancy that comes from the use of the gospel of peace.  We’re looking at the armor of God and we’re in the third part of our examination of the shoes and this one little phrase about the gospel of peace. There are three basic parts this phrase teaches us: 1) there is a joy through the gospel, 2) that brings peace with God, and 3) that brings peace with people. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 8, 1992. Series: Spiritual Warfare – The Armor of God. Scripture: Ephesians 6:14-18. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

When Paul talks about shoes, he’s talking about a kind of spiritual athleticism.  The idea behind the armor of God is that God has given us all sorts of things we aren’t using. The shoes were part of the armor, and the shoes of the Roman soldier had to be gripping, tough, and light. The only kind of shoes in our culture that need these qualities are athletic shoes.  We’re going to continue our look at the shoes of the readiness of the gospel of peace by looking at 1) what is spiritual athleticism, 2) what you have to have for spiritual athleticism, and 3) how to develop spiritual athleticism. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 1, 1992. Series: Spiritual Warfare – The Armor of God. Scripture: Ephesians 6:14-18. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Some of you may be surprised that when Paul thinks about armor, he lists the shoes.  Paul goes through the pieces of equipment that a Roman soldier would wear. It’s an illustration on how to live the Christian life, and it gets at a balance that is critical to understand: the balance of how much of the Christian life is your exertion and how much is God’s working in you. To understand this particular piece of armor, we have to ask ourselves a couple of questions about the footwear of a Roman soldier: 1) what role did shoes have? 2) what do the shoes represent? and 3) what’s the gospel of peace? This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 23, 1992. Series: Spiritual Warfare – The Armor of God. Scripture: Ephesians 6:10-20. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

When you fail, when people accuse you, when people reject you, how do you defend yourself? How do you look yourself in the mirror?  We all have a problem of feeling unpresentable, of deeply seeking to be examined and approved. In Ephesians 6, Paul talks about the breastplate, about the fact that we all have to have a righteousness to cover our hearts. We have to have some way of defending ourselves against accusation.  In continuing our look at the breastplate of righteousness, let’s look at 1) the false solution that is the secular way, 2) the false solution that is the religious way, and 3) how to put on the real remedy. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 16, 1992. Series: Spiritual Warfare – The Armor of God. Scripture: Ephesians 6:10-20. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

If you’re on your back and you’re a Christian, it’s because there are resources in your faith that you’re not using. Paul exhorts Christians to take the benefits and resources in the gospel, and to not just believe in them but to use them—so that in day-to-day challenges you’re able to stand. Each piece of the armor of God is one of those benefits, and we’re looking now at the breastplate of righteousness. In this series, we’ve talked about what this righteousness is not. Let’s continue our inquiry now and ask two questions: 1) what is this righteousness? and 2) how do you put it on as a breastplate?  This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 9, 1992. Series: Spiritual Warfare – The Armor of God. Scripture: Ephesians 6:10-20. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

When you become a Christian, there’s a sense in which you receive all of the blessings and all of the privileges and power and benefits instantly. But there’s another sense in which you don’t.  You’ve received the armor when you became a Christian, but then the process of growing in grace is actually a process of sticking each piece on, piece by piece. We’re continuing our look at the armor of God by looking at 1) what it means to put on the belt of truth, and then, 2) what it means to understand the breastplate of righteousness. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 2, 1992. Series: Spiritual Warfare – The Armor of God. Scripture: Ephesians 6:10-20. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

The armor of God is the benefits, the privileges, and the freedoms you have in the gospel.  To put on the armor of God means to get a new mindset. It’s to look at yourself and look at the world in a new way—through those truths and through those freedoms.  Let’s continue our look at 1) what the armor of God is. Then we’ll turn to the first item of armor, the belt of truth: 2) what it is, and 3) how to put it on. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 26, 1992. Series: Spiritual Warfare – The Armor of God. Scripture: Ephesians 6:10-18. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

What are we supposed to do so we don’t lead defeated lives? Ephesians 6 tells us about spiritual warfare, about the problems that get thrown at us. And it also tells us about our arsenal, the full armor of God. We’re now going to look not so much at what is being thrown at us, but at what we can do to respond to it, how we can defend ourselves.  We’re beginning a series on the full armor of God, looking at 1) what is is and 2) how to put it on. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 19, 1992. Series: Spiritual Warfare – The Armor of God. Scripture: Ephesians 6:10-18. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

You make or break your life on the basis of your choices. In Hebrew Scriptures, the word for guidance is usually derived from the word for rope because the ropes were the method of navigation for sailors. They used ropes to lower or move or raise the sails. Without them, they’d be blown totally off course. So the question is how do you get God’s guidance? How do you get God’s navigation, so that when you have all these choices, you know the right course to take?  By looking at these proverbs we can see 1) the guidance God does, 2) the guidance God gives, and 3) the guidance God purchases for us. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 12, 2004. Series: Proverbs: True Wisdom for Living. Scripture: Proverbs 11:3; 12:5, 15; 15:22; 16:1-4, 9, 25, 33; 21:5; 27:1. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

We all at certain times have a lot of trouble dealing with the deep, conflicting, confusing, powerful, sometimes warring dynamic impulses and feelings that just roll through our hearts.  Sometimes we don’t feel we have any power over it. We don’t know how we got to feeling like that. We don’t know what to do about it. We need wisdom with regard to the complex realities of the inner being, the inner life, or what we would today call the psychological life. Proverbs shows us that we won’t be wise unless we understand 1) the priority of the inner life, 2) the complexity of the inner life, 3) the solitude of the inner life, and 4) the healing of the inner life. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 5, 2004. Series: Proverbs: True Wisdom for Living. Scripture: Proverbs 12:25; 13:12; 14:10, 13, 30; 15:4,13-14; 16:2; 18:14; 28:1. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

We’re looking at qualities you must have in order to live a wise life. Today, we come to self-control.  A man or woman without self-control is not going to live a wise life, is not going to make wise choices. They’re going to mess up their lives, and they’re going to mess up the lives of people around them.  We learn three things from Proverbs about self-control: we learn 1) the problem of self-control, 2) the principle of self-control, and 3) the practice of self-control. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 28, 2004. Series: Proverbs: True Wisdom for Living. Scripture: Proverbs 18:10; 23:19-21; 25:28; Titus 2:11-14. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Anybody who reads the book of Proverbs will see how often the book talks about the subject of work.  It talks positively about work under the heading of “diligence.” It talks negatively about work under the heading of “sluggard” or “sluggardliness.”  Proverbs says if you want to have a fulfilled human life, you have to do four things regarding work: you have to 1) do your work, 2) love your work, 3) re-narrate your work, and 4) redeem your work. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 21, 2004. Series: Proverbs: True Wisdom for Living. Scripture: Proverbs 8:1-4; 10:4-5; 12:10-11; 15:19; 22:29; 27:18. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Americans are how-to oriented. We want a technique. But Proverbs doesn’t give methods for wise decisions. Instead, it says, “Here’s the kind of person you have to become to make wise decisions.”  And here is the one character quality that’s most crucial for becoming a wise person. Over and over, the Bible says, “If you think you’re wise, you’re a fool; but if you’re aware of your foolishness, you’re on your way to becoming wise.” This is about pride and humility. We’re going to learn three things from these texts: 1) the diagnosis of pride (what it is), 2) the destructiveness of pride (what it does), and 3) the antidote for pride. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 14, 2004. Series: Proverbs: True Wisdom for Living. Scripture: Proverbs 11:2, 12; 13:10; 15:25, 33; 16:18-19; 21:4; 28:26. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Very basic to the development of wisdom is the ability to understand and channel the deep currents of our hearts. The book of Proverbs looks at the subject of wisdom. And in these passages, we come to a theme the Bible says is very important to understand: envy.  Let’s look at three things: 1) how to understand envy, 2) why to deal with envy, and 3) where to take your envy. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 7, 2004. Series: Proverbs: True Wisdom for Living. Scripture: Proverbs 23:17-18; Psalm 73:1-3, 20-26. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

You will have a mess of a life if you only follow the rules and don’t have actual wisdom in the area of money. Wisdom is not less than being moral and good; it’s much more. It’s knowing the right choice in the majority of life situations that moral rules don’t address. People who only look to the rules in the area of money are going to be destructively unwise in their lives. Proverbs shows three things you need to know to be wise in the area of money and possessions: 1) the power of money, 2) the reasons for the power of money, and 3) how to break the power of money and use it in your life. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 31, 2004. Series: Proverbs: True Wisdom for Living. Scripture: Proverbs 10:15-16; 11:1, 4, 24, 26; 13:21, 23; 30:8-9. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

In order to be wise, we have to learn how to understand and manage the power of sexuality.  Wisdom is not less than being moral and good, but it’s quite a bit more. It’s knowing the right decision to make in the vast majority of life situations that the moral rules don’t address. If we’re going to be wise with regard to sex, we have to know three things: 1) why and how we tend to undervalue sex, 2) why and how we tend, at the same time, to overvalue sex, and 3) how we can solve that. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 24, 2004. Series: Proverbs: True Wisdom for Living. Scripture: Proverbs 5:15-19; 11:16, 22; 30:18-20. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

If you’re going to live a wise life and have a discerning heart, you need to understand anger.  Wisdom is knowing the right decision in the vast majority of life situations that the moral rules don’t address. And in order to be wise, you need to be able to understand and handle anger—not only in yourself, but in other people as well.  There are four things we need to learn about anger: 1) its dangerous power, 2) its basic goodness, 3) why it goes wrong, and 4) how it can be healed. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 17, 2004. Series: Proverbs: True Wisdom for Living. Scripture: Proverbs 14:29-30; 15:1, 18; 16:32; 19:11, 19; 24:28-29; 25:21-22. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

One of the main themes of the Bible is that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. But what does that mean?  There’s a place in Job where God shows how important this term is when he says, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is none like him in all the earth; a man who fears God and shuns evil.” It’s obvious the term “fear of the Lord” is something that summarizes everything we’re supposed to do and be. So why is it important and what in the world is it?  From these passages from Proverbs, I’m going to show you that I think the fear of the Lord is 1) beginning with God, 2) knowing God, 3) trusting God, and 4) discovering the grace of God.  This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 10, 2004. Series: Proverbs: True Wisdom for Living. Scripture: Proverbs 3:5-6; 9:10; 16:6; 19:23; 20:9; 23:17-18; 28:14. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

The appeal of legalism—of multiplying more and more rules—is so we don’t have to think. We want a rule to cover every situation. We don’t want to have to actually think out the implications.  But you know what? No matter how much you multiply rules, you’ll never cover all of the situations. It just doesn’t work. You need wisdom. Wisdom is being in touch with and understanding reality. What does it mean to be in touch with reality?  In these passages in Proverbs and Revelation we’re taught 1) the persistence of reality, 2) the problems with reality, and 3) how it gets healed. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 3, 2004. Series: Proverbs: True Wisdom for Living. Scripture: Proverbs 5:16-23; Revelation 21:1-5. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Most of the situations you face in life aren’t covered by moral rules: “Do I say something, or do I wait? Do I act, or should I be more passive?” The rules don’t cover those things. And yet, you will sink, and the people around you will sink, unless you get wisdom.  Wisdom is not having a technique for making choices. Wisdom is having the character of mind and heart that enables you to make the right choices. How do you get that character?  Proverbs 4 shows us 1) how this character develops, 2), where this character comes from, and 3) how character can be transformed. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 26, 2004. Series: Proverbs: True Wisdom for Living. Scripture: Proverbs 4:11-27. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

It’s not good enough to be a person of vision, a person of high principle, a person of high moral values. Not if you’re not a person of wisdom.  Wisdom is knowing the right thing to do in the 80 percent of life situations to which the moral rules don’t apply. For most of our decisions, there are four or five different options, and they’re all moral. Which is the right one? We have decisions to make, and if we don’t make them wisely, we’re going to blow up our lives and the lives of people around us.  How do we get wisdom? Proverbs 3 shows us 1) the path of wisdom, 2) the process of wisdom, and 3) the man off the mountain. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 19, 2004. Series: Proverbs: True Wisdom for Living. Scripture: Proverbs 3:1-12; 30:1-4. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Ancient societies usually had more consensus about morality. Partly because of that, I think they saw something we have a harder time seeing: that moral standards, as important as they are, don’t actually address most of the situations we face.  If you’re going to avoid making an absolute mess of your life, you need something we hardly talk about today. It’s not identical to knowledge, and it’s not identical even to moral goodness. It’s wisdom.  For wisdom, there’s no better place than to go to the book of Proverbs. And this passage shows us 1) the importance of wisdom, 2) the definition of wisdom, 3) the problem of wisdom, and 4) a clue to its solution. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 12, 2004. Series: Proverbs: True Wisdom for Living. Scripture: Proverbs 8:10-16; 22-31. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Jesus addresses our worry about money.  We are in the grips of anxiety about money, about what we will eat, about what we will drink, where we will live, whether we can make the rent. We are in deep anxiety. Jesus comes to us and says, “Stop it!” But he’s a surgeon, not a sergeant. He goes underneath and says, “Let me show you why. Let me help you out.”  Jesus teaches us 1) that money makes us deeply anxious, 2) why money makes us deeply anxious, and then 3) how to break the power of money. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 23, 1997. Series: Stewardship, Generosity and Money. Scripture: Luke 12:22-34. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Jesus addresses a crowd with some things he wants them to hear, but he also gives them some things he wants them to overhear. Jesus wants the crowd to overhear him talking to his disciples about their money. And I’ve begun to realize that one of the main ways you will come to know and understand who Jesus is and what he’s done is if you see him talking to his disciples about their money.  If you’re not sure what you believe, Jesus is not asking for your money. But if you want to understand him, you need to hear what he says to his disciples. This passage shows us three r’s: 1) a request, 2) a refusal, and 3) a rebuke.  This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 16, 1997. Series: Stewardship, Generosity and Money. Scripture: Luke 12:13-21. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Christmas shows why Christianity is unique. In all other religions, a prophet arrives and teaches how we can find eternal life. In Christianity, God himself comes to us and gives himself as the way to eternal life. Christmas shows that salvation is by grace, that we can have true intimacy with God, that love really matters, and that there exists an unceasing river of joy beneath all the sorrows of this world. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 18, 2011. Series: Christmas 2011. Scripture: 1 John 1:1-4. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

In public these days, Christmas is seen as meaning that if we work hard, if we hold hands and breathe in unison, if we get together, we can make the world a better place. It’s like the song in the Live Aid concert in 1985, “We Are the World.” That’s what most people think the meaning of Christmas is.  But after that 1985 concert, Bob Dylan said to the press that he was uncomfortable singing a song like that. They asked him why. He said, “Because man cannot save himself.” So we look today unto Bob Dylan for the true meaning of Christmas—because he got it right.  The Bible says Jesus Christ came because we cannot save ourselves. Colossians 1 shows us 1) the need for reconciliation, 2) the way of reconciliation, and 3) the radical, thorough results of reconciliation. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 24, 1995. Series: Advent: God and Sinners Reconciled. Scripture: Colossians 1:19-23. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

If the baby in the manger was God—not just a guru, not just a supernatural being, not just the first created thing, not just a hologram, but God himself—it should make a difference in our lives. Christmas is about the incarnation: God becoming human. And Colossians 1 is a roller coaster ride through the doctrine of the incarnation. There are hairpin turns: Jesus was God, and though he was God, he was dead. But let’s look at what this means to us.  If that baby was God, it should make three differences in our lives: it should lead to 1) a reordering, 2) a relinquishment, and 3) a rejoicing. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 17, 1995. Series: Advent: God and Sinners Reconciled. Scripture: Colossians 1:15-20. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

No place gives us a loftier and more penetrating view of who Jesus is than Colossians 1, which tells us that Jesus is a king.  This passage tells us Jesus is the king of all kings. One paragraph tells us about the kingship of Christ that is. The other paragraph tells us about the kingship of Christ that can be. He is king of the cosmos, but he needs to be, and he can be, king of your personal life.  Let’s take a look at both these aspects: 1) that Christ is cosmic king, and 2) that Christ must be your personal king. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 10, 1995. Series: Matthew 9. Scripture: Colossians 1:9-17. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

It’s one thing to have the gospel presented to you. It’s another thing to have it come to you.  According to this passage, it is very easy to miss the gospel. How do you know if the gospel has come to you?  This passage tells us four tests so you can know if the gospel has come to you or not: 1) the gospel is joy, 2) the gospel is a power, 3) the gospel is grace, and 4) the gospel is Christ himself. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 3, 1995. Series: Matthew 9. Scripture: Colossians 1:1-8, 28-29. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

If you want an idea of who Jesus is, he says he’s more like the bridegroom than anything else. If you want an idea of what it means to be a Christian, he says it’s more like going to a wedding feast than anything else. When Jesus says he’s the bridegroom, he’s telling us something about himself, he’s telling us what it means to be a Christian, and he’s telling us about our relationship to him.  When Jesus says he’s the bridegroom, he tells us that Christianity is 1) a bond that consists both of duty and love, 2) a bond of completing love, 3) a bond of absolutely permanent love, 4) a bond of utter exclusiveness, and 5) a bond of ravishing love. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 24, 1995. Series: Matthew 9. Scripture: Matthew 9:9-17. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Jesus tells us that to become a Christian, there has to be a smashing. Christianity is new wine: it ferments, it swells, it’s organically and chemically active, and it will smash the old, inflexible wineskins.  Jesus teaches that there’s an old way that everybody, religious or not, operates under. You will not be a Christian until all your old foundations, your whole approach to yourself and God, are utterly smashed. You must be called away from mere religion. What’s the difference between religion and Christianity? In Matthew 9, we see 1) what religion is, 2) how Jesus smashes it, and 3) a few tests by which we can judge whether we’ve moved away from religion. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 17, 1995. Series: Matthew 9. Scripture: Matthew 9:9-17. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Here’s my thesis: The reason most people who profess belief in Christianity still don’t live big lives is because they don’t actually understand Christianity. Most people think Christianity is basically like other religions. But Jesus says his message is absolutely different. Everyone who really becomes a Christian has a sense of being awakened. Something radical has to happen. A real Christian is someone who has been called. A real Christian is someone who has had an experience like Matthew. The calling of Matthew shows us that to be called means 1) you sense a power coming in from outside taking charge, 2) you are confronted with a person, not a lot of intellectual ideas, and 3) you rise and follow him. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 10, 1995. Series: Matthew 9. Scripture: Matthew 9:9-13. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

At the end of Jesus’ life, the religious leaders want him executed. But the Romans have all the political power. So they bring Jesus to the Roman politicians, saying he’s a threat, and the question is put directly to Jesus by Pilate: What are your politics, Jesus?  I always found Jesus’ answer maddeningly ambiguous, but today I can say it is beautifully, profoundly, deliberately ambiguous. Jesus is not just playing hard to get; he is trying to bring us to the truth.  So let’s look at 1) what this tremendously ambiguous answer is, 2) how Jesus is not political, and 3) how Jesus is political. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 23, 1997. Series: The Real Jesus Part 2: His Life. Scripture: Luke 23:1-25. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Jesus debated. Jesus fought. Jesus argued with the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Herodians, the teachers of the law, people we would call religious and civil elites today. But Jesus never picked a fight unnecessarily.  In Mark 7 Jesus argues about the clean and unclean laws, the ceremonial washings, the ablutions the Jews observed. We might think it’s an antiquated point, but Jesus never debated something that wasn’t a universal, profound principle.  We see three basic things here: 1) that we all have a problem with a sense of spiritual uncleanness, 2) that we all find a particular way to try to clean ourselves, and 3) why our ways of cleaning ourselves will never work, and what will. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 16, 1997. Series: The Real Jesus Part 2: His Life. Scripture: Mark 7:1-23. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

It’s not the whale events in your life that make you who you are. It’s all the guppies. Every morning you wake up and millions of them come at you. You have to eat. You have to sleep. You have appointments. The mundane, the hum-drum, the hustle and bustle.  The difference between Martha and Mary is that Martha is swept along by the mundane, but Mary has put her feet at the bottom of the stream. The stream is going one way, but Mary walks the direction she wants to walk. Mary sits at Jesus’ feet in spite of distractions, in spite of opposition.  Because we’re more like Martha than Mary, we’re sinking in a sea of mediocrity. So we ask, what does it mean to sit at Jesus’ feet? Let’s look at: 1) who Martha is, 2) what Martha needs, 3) what Mary does, and 4) why we should do like Mary. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 9, 1997. Series: The Real Jesus Part 2: His Life. Scripture: Luke 10:38-11:13. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

The real Jesus believed in demons. The real Jesus believed in the devil. Most of us say, “They didn’t understand then what we understand now about diseases and mental illnesses. They attributed them to demons.” But in Matthew 4:24, you see something that explodes that whole idea.  In Matthew 4:24, it says they brought all manner of sick people to him, and then they have a list: they say there were demon-possessed people, paralyzed people, and people with madness. Both the gospel writers and Jesus understood there were illnesses that had a demonical base and illnesses that did not. In other words, Jesus did not believe in demon possession out of ignorance, but out of conviction. If you screen that out, you’ll miss important insights for living your life.  Mark 5 teaches us at least three things about evil: 1) the power of evil, 2) the patterns of evil, and 3) the pattern for the healing. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 2, 1997. Series: The Real Jesus Part 2; His Life. Scripture: Mark 5:1-20. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

The gospel changes the way we look at our money and possessions. If we understand the gospel, we should have a radically different relationship with money than what our culture says is normal. To look at what the Bible says about this, let’s look at this very famous passage: Jesus’ encounter with the rich young ruler. From the rich young ruler, we can learn 1) that money has great spiritual danger attached to it, 2) how money is spiritually dangerous, 3) why money is spiritually dangerous, and 4) how to escape it. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 6, 2015. Series: What We Are Giving: The Dynamic of Grace. Scripture: Luke 18:18-30. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to make a gift to Gospel in Life this Giving Tuesday, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/tuesday.

In Luke 7, we see a personal encounter Jesus has with two people. They’re both seeking him, but he responds very differently to each of them.  We first see Simon, a member of the religious and cultural elite. He invites Jesus to dinner, which meant inviting someone into relationship. Then we see the women, who’s a sinner and prostitute. She approaches Jesus and anoints his feet with perfume and tears. They’re both serious seekers. But Jesus Christ rejects him and welcomes her. Why is there a difference?  We can see the difference in 3 waves: 1) in the beginning, we see they respond to Jesus in two different ways, 2) in the middle, we see these two responses derive from two different understandings of Jesus, and 3) at the end, we see that these two different understandings of Jesus result in two different responses from Jesus. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 26, 1997. Series: The Real Jesus Part 2; His Life. Scripture: Luke 7:36-50. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

If you want to get the gist of who Jesus is, you have to look at encounters Jesus had with individuals. The gospels are filled with encounters Jesus has with all sorts of people.  In Luke 19, we get to a guy named Zacchaeus, and we’re told two things about him: that he’s a chief tax collector and that he’s wealthy.  This teaches us two different and important things: 1) anyone can approach Jesus, but 2) money is always an issue when coming to Jesus. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 19, 1997. Series: The Real Jesus Part 2; His Life. Scripture: Luke 19:1-10. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Some people dwell on Christ’s power and authority and majesty, and other people dwell on Christ’s vulnerability and tenderness and grace. But it’s critical not to screen out one side of Jesus as if it’s incompatible. The power of Christ is caring power, and the care of Christ is powerful caring. Jesus Christ, the little, tender, meek and mild baby, is the Lord of the storm. Mark 4 tells us four things about the power of Christ: 1) the reality of Christ’s power, 2) the magnitude of Christ’s power, 3) the divinity of Christ’s power, and 4) the compatibility of the caring power of Jesus with storms. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 5, 1997. Series: The Real Jesus Part 2; His Life. Scripture: Mark 4:35-41. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Because Jesus claims that he’s the final word, that salvation is completely by grace through him, the Pharisees and the Herodians band together to kill him. This teaches us not only how radical Jesus’ way of salvation is, but that if you really hear it, it will create all sorts of division in your own heart. Whenever the real Jesus is revealed, there’s a juxtaposition of both attraction and revulsion. They both happen together.  This passage shows us 1) that Christ is offensive, 2) to whom he is offensive, and 3) why he is offensive. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 5, 1997. Series: The Real Jesus Part 2; His Life. Scripture: Mark 2:23-3:6. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Of all the passages that are read at Christmas, Luke 2 is perhaps the most famous. And in this most famous passage, the most famous word is peace. What is Christmas all about? Peace on earth.  When Jesus Christ was born as a baby, he was born to bring this peace. But what is this peace on earth? We’ll look at 1) what it is not, 2) what it is, and 3) how you receive it and live it out. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 22, 1996. Series: The Real Jesus Part 2; His Life. Scripture: Luke 2:10-14. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

The message of Christmas is the message of the gospel. It’s the essential message of Christianity. And in Luke 1, we have one person’s response to that message. At Christmastime you’ll be hearing this message. The question is, “How should you respond to it?”  The message is that the Most High has become the most low. God has become human. Let’s look at three things that this means: 1) God is far greater than we thought, 2) we are more sinful than we thought, and 3) God is more loving than we think. Then we’ll look at one person, Mary’s, three-stage response to this message. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 15, 1996. Series: The Real Jesus Part 2; His Life. Scripture: Luke 1:26-38. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

There is absolutely no better place anywhere in the Bible that depicts Jesus as Immanuel, as God with us, as God truly with us in our condition as this passage. We’re going to see who Jesus is and what he came to do. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 8, 1996. Series: The Real Jesus Part 2; His Life. Scripture: John 11:32-44. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Though there may have been other occasions, the only time we know of that Jesus ever left his country, ever left the boundaries of Israel is here in Mark 7. He did so for a purpose, and he did so to teach us something. There are two stories: the healing of the little daughter and the healing of the deaf-mute. Let’s look at them and see what they teach us. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 1, 1996. Series: The Real Jesus Part 2; His Life. Scripture: Mark 7:24-37. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

In John 2, John puts the changing of water into wine at the wedding and the cleansing of the temple together. He sticks them together, even though on the surface, they look utterly different.  In the wedding feast, you have Jesus acting quietly, hidden, privately. Here in the cleansing of the temple, you have him public and dramatic. There, he was requested. He was asked in. Here, he goes where no one has asked him to go. He intrudes. He intervenes. At the wedding, he brings joy and laughter. Here, he brings weeping and gnashing of teeth.  If Jesus Christ comes into your life, he will sometimes fill your table with a feast and other times, he will turn your table over and spill everything on the ground. These passages show us the authority of who he is, they show us the purpose of what he does, and then they show us the glory of what he brings.  This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 24, 1996. Series: The Real Jesus Part 2; His Life. Scripture: John 2:12-25. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visitinghttps://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Jesus’ first miracle was not just a miracle, but a miraculous sign. It was an acted-out picture of who Jesus is and everything Christianity is. His inaugural event was not walking on water or raising somebody from the dead. Instead, what you have here is not a very big deal. A party looks like it’s going to go two days instead of three days. Wow. What a shame.  Why did Jesus do this miracle? Why was this the first one? How does this reveal his glory? If you ask that question, there’s so much in it. You have the whole nine yards here: who he came to be, what he came to do, what he has to offer, and how we can receive it.  This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 17, 1996. Series: The Real Jesus Part 2; His Life. Scripture: John 2:1-11. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visitinghttps://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

True Christianity is a fight. Anyone who offers you a Christianity without tears is not giving you good money; it’s counterfeit. Anybody who says, “If you receive the baptism of the Spirit, your problems are over; if you receive the voice of assurance down on your heart, if you receive the sense God is pleased with you, that’s the end of conflict, strife, temptation,” that person is not offering you the real thing. There are three things we learn about the fight right here. Who’s the enemy? Where’s the front? What are the weapons? This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 10, 1996. Series: The Real Jesus Part 2; His Life. Scripture: Matthew 3:13-4:11. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

We’re looking at the life of Jesus. Not at his words and teachings, but at his deeds and his life—the things that happened to him and the things he did.  The birth of Christ has one wonderfully big word attached to it: the word “incarnation.” The birth of Jesus is the incarnation of God. Incarnate means God comes in. He comes in our flesh. He comes into our humanity, into our vulnerability, into our history, into our reality. God comes in.  We’ll look at the incarnation in this way: 1) what it is, 2) what it means, and 3) how we can connect to it. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 3, 1996. Series: The Real Jesus Part 2; His Life. Scripture: Matthew 1:17-25. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

We all want peace, contentment, groundedness. And Jesus says, he will give us his peace. But he doesn’t just zap us with it. He says it comes through learning who he is. John 16 is the end of the training course Jesus gives his disciples. It’s just before he dies, and verse 28 summarizes everything he’s been saying: he explains who he is, how he came, why he came, and what he accomplished. But the key to this whole thing is in verse 33 where he says, “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”  Jesus has been teaching about himself. And he says this doctrine leads to peace, but only if you do two things. So let’s look at this under two headings: 1) what is this doctrine that you need in order to have peace? and 2) what are you supposed to do with it? This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 9, 2017. Series: Jesus, Mission, and Glory: New Power. Scripture: John 16:28-33. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

There’s a whole field now called happiness studies—whole departments in academia are dedicated to happiness studies. And of all the things I’ve read, none of them are as nuanced as what Jesus says. Jesus says one of the main resources his disciples need in life is joy. And he says joy is something he gives. In John 15:11, he says, “I give you my joy that your joy may be complete,” but he doesn’t elaborate on it. In John 16, he gives us more information.  What does John 16 tell us about the joy that Jesus gives? Five things: that this joy 1) is inevitable, 2) is not circumstantial, 3) is thoughtful, 4) is prayerful, and 5) is based on wonder. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 2, 2017. Series: Jesus, Mission, and Glory: New Power. Scripture: John 16:16-27. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

When you’re about to die, you don’t make small talk. You talk about the most crucial, important things. And on the night before Jesus is about to die, he’s talking about the Holy Spirit.  Why is Jesus so constantly talking about the Holy Spirit? I think we see at least two reasons. One is a hard reason, at least it’s hard to hear. And one is a wonderful reason.  I think the two reasons that Jesus thinks the Holy Spirit is so important to talk about, so crucial to understand, so important to have, is because 1) without the Holy Spirit there’s no remedy for our spiritual blindness and cluelessness, but 2) with the Holy Spirit, we can be taken into realms of experience and transformation that we can’t imagine. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 26, 2017. Series: Jesus, Mission, and Glory: New Power. Scripture: John 16:5-11. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

There’s no more important issue, spiritually, for people than the question of innocent suffering. We don’t struggle much with the suffering that comes to people who’ve brought it on themselves. The real problem is innocent suffering.  We’re looking at Old Testament narratives because in them, profound truths are depicted concretely. In the New Testament, authors explain these truths with rational propositions. But in the Old Testament, they’re depicted. And there’s probably no place anywhere, beyond the book of Job, where you have the problem of innocent suffering so profoundly depicted.  We learn three things about suffering from the story of Job: 1) from Satan, we get an understanding of suffering, 2) from the early Job, we learn how to face suffering, and 3) from the later Job, we learn how to overcome suffering. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 9, 1997. Series: Pointers to Christ – Directional Signs in History. Scripture: Job 1:8-22. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Exodus 33-34 remarkably depicts, in the most concrete way, how to find God. And not only how to find God, but how to find him when you’ve lost him.  The Bible often talks about our relationship with God as if it’s fire. It comes down into our lives. But the second you stop tending a fire, it burns down. See, if you’ve never found God, or if you have but it’s been a long time, for both, this passage tells you the path. Because basically the path of “new-al” and the path of renewal are the same.  How do you find God the first time? How do you find him again and again? We learn here 1) that we desperately need renewal, and 2) how we get renewal. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 2, 1997. Series: Pointers to Christ – Directional Signs in History. Scripture: Exodus 33:4-9, 15; 34:1-7. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

When we hear the word “sin,” we think we know what it means. But we don’t—not really.  If we don’t understand sin, then Christianity makes no sense. But even more so, if we don’t understand sin, then the knowledge of God’s love and grace won’t really transform or heal us. So how do we find out what the Bible means by sin? By looking at Jonah, who’s said to be very religious, and seeing how he falls into terrible sin, we can then get a good idea of what sin is.  In the story of Jonah, we see him doing four things. And each one of them tells us something about the real nature of sin. We see Jonah 1) running, 2) sleeping, 3) sinking, and 4) rising. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 26, 1997. Series: Pointers to Christ – Directional Signs in History. Scripture: Jonah 1:1-5, 2:1-10. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

It takes tremendous courage to leave the land you’ve always lived in and permanently move to another land. People don’t usually do it unless they expect a better life. In the book of Ruth, we have the story of two immigrant women—Naomi and Ruth—who forge an amazing interracial sisterhood. But these women immigrate expecting to have not a better, but a worse life. Naomi’s an old widow without hope, because in that society, she’s bereft of everything that could give her meaning. So Ruth goes with her to Israel, despite knowing that because she’s a Moabite, she’ll be hated. And yet, at the end of chapter 4, there’s joy. Why? Naomi has been redeemed.  If you look carefully, there’s an ambiguity in the text that points us to the secret of the story and the secret of our lives. To see this, let’s look at three redeemers in this story: 1) a formal redeemer, 2) a surprise, hidden redeemer, and then 3) a real redeemer. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 19, 1997. Series: Pointers to Christ – Directional Signs in History. Scripture: Ruth 4:13-17. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Forget the heroes. These days, we want authenticity. We want personal vision. We’ve done away with hero worship.  In the story of Samson, we see that the Bible doesn’t give us hero worship, but it also doesn’t give us hero hatred or deconstruction. Some people have called Samson an old-fashioned hero, like Superman—but he’s not. I’ve been waiting for people to call him the anti-hero—he even makes jokes when he’s killing people. Samson is physically quite strong and morally quite weak. But in spite of this, God actually judges Israel with him. What does it all mean? In the story of Samson we see that 1) hero worship does not help, 2) but hero deconstruction doesn’t help either, and 3) we need something else. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 12, 1997. Series: Pointers to Christ – Directional Signs in History. Scripture: Judges 15:9-20. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

If you don’t yet, you will soon sense an acute need for wisdom. You’ll take a job you never should’ve taken, hire somebody you never should’ve hired, date somebody you never should’ve dated. Often, the older you get, the more you worry. Because the older you get, the more you see how important wisdom is, how difficult it is to gain, and how your life absolutely blows up when you make choices without it. Many centuries ago, Solomon became king of Israel at the age of 20. When he did, he got wisdom, and he exercised wisdom in a way that can teach us a great deal about how we can get it ourselves.  If we take a look at this narrative, we’ll see 1) the need for wisdom, 2) the anatomy of wisdom, and 3) the essential principle of wisdom that runs all the way through it—the heart of wisdom. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 5, 1997. Series: Pointers to Christ – Directional Signs in History. Scripture: 1 Kings 3:16-28. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

The story of Joseph tells us something awfully basic, and yet probably all of us will recognize that the problems in our lives are due to a lack of orientation to this thing that’s so basic. This story tells us God is a God both of truth and of love—equally, together. And what does he want for us? He wants us to forgive the way he forgave us. To see this, we need to look at the very end of a very long story that goes from Genesis 37 all the way to Genesis 50. This is the end of the story, and in many ways it looks back and recaps the rest of the story.  We’re going to ask two questions about the narrative: 1) Why did Joseph weep? 2) What did Joseph say? This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 28, 1997. Series: Pointers to Christ – Directional Signs in History. Scripture: Genesis 50:15-21. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

How do we find God? We’re looking now to, I think, probably the strangest of all narrative accounts in the Bible of a human being encountering God. It’s a long story. All of Jacob’s life, he’s been wrestling with his twin brother, Esau. He’s been away, but he decides to come back and finally have it out. He sends a bunch of gifts ahead of him, he divides his own family up, and he gets ready to meet Esau alone. And there in the dark when Jacob is alone, a mysterious man—not Esau—attacks him, and he wrestles him all night. Finally, as the day is about to break, Jacob realizes this is the Lord himself—that he’s wrestling with God. Jacob meets God, and the encounter tells us how we can meet God and how we can check our own hearts to find out if we’ve met God. Four things: 1) an encounter with God is personal, 2) an encounter with God is personal wrestling, 3) an encounter with God is always losing, but 4) an encounter with God is winning through losing. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 21, 1997. Series: Pointers to Christ – Directional Signs in History. Scripture: Genesis 32:22-32. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

We’re looking at laughter and bitterness by looking at a particular experience, and that is a woman laughing because her only child has been born. It’s an incredibly old woman we have here: a woman who’s 90 years old. We’re told in the Bible that this laughter is a clue to who God is and what he has done and how you find him.  This passage is actually the key, because all of Abraham and Sarah’s lives and all of their fascinating incidents can be understood in terms of the name of their son. The name “Isaac” means laughter. You can understand all of their lives, and actually I think eventually you’ll be able to understand all of your life, through the word “laughter.”  There’ve been three kinds of laughter in the story of Abraham and Sarah. They had to go through the first two to get to the third. Let’s look at these three kinds of laughter: 1) the laughter of scoffing, 2) the wild laughter of addiction and fixation, and 3) the laughter of grace. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 14, 1997. Series: Pointers to Christ – Directional Signs in History. Scripture: Genesis 21:1-7. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

A lot of people say Ecclesiastes is the greatest book of the Bible. But I can almost guarantee none of them felt that way the first time they read it. Because when you first read Ecclesiastes, what you’re struck with is a professor in absolute despair.  Some will think this seems to contradict the rest of the Bible. Others will say, “Who needs this pessimism?” It can be a confusing book because people don’t realize its instructional approach of andragogy, which means adult instruction by goading and asking questions. And it can also be confusing because people don’t notice that the teacher is looking at life in two different ways, and that he keeps going back and forth between them. Let’s look at both of the ways he looks at life. Let me show you: 1) how he looks, 2) what he sees, and 3) why he sees it. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 7, 1997. Series: Pointers to Christ – Directional Signs in History. Scripture: Ecclesiastes 2:17-26. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

We're at a cultural moment in which most people recognize that marriage is struggling. And what does the Christian vision of marriage have to say for that? We believe that understanding the biblical vision for marriage will help you no matter your own situation. We’re applying it to the culture. We're applying it to unmarried people. We're applying it to married people. Kathy and I will each talk about different aspects of this. We’ll look at 1) marriage and our culture, and 2) the biblical contours of marriage: the power, the essence, the purpose, and the three major means of marriage. This talk was given by Dr. Timothy Keller and Kathy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 30, 2012 for the conference "Marriage, Sex & Singleness Conference". Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

This is the least appetizing of titles, but I want to talk to you about a theology of singleness.  I’d like to share with you the basic theological principle in the New Testament about singleness. There is a Christian biblical theology of being a single adult, which means to be an adult without a spouse or children of your own. I’d like to discuss 1) that there is a theology, 2) the uniqueness of this theology, 3) what it means when Paul says singleness is a gift, and 4) the practical implications. This talk was given by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 1, 2014 for the conference "S1NGLE: God’s Gifts — Our Plans". Today's podcast episode is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

There’s a wide spectrum of how individuals experience singleness: some would describe it as suffering, others might just call it sadness, and still others say it’s a sense of freedom. It’s important to recognize though that the experience of suffering and unhappiness are a part of life for everyone—whether you are a single Christian, whether you are happily married, or whether you are unhappily married. Our core challenge is to live a godly and holy life in whatever condition we are in. Every situation will have its particularities, but the similarities are greater than the differences. I’d like to talk about how to live godly lives in Christ under any of our circumstances. This talk was given by Kathy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 1, 2014 for the conference "S1NGLE: God’s Gifts — Our Plans". Today's podcast episode is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

We look now at the peak verse of the most famous biblical passage on marriage. It’s Ephesians 5:32, where Paul says, “This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.” He says everything he’s said about marriage has also been about Christ and the church.  This verse teaches there are some things we would never know about marriage if we didn’t know about how we relate to Christ by faith. Conversely, there are things we would never know about our relationship with Christ if we didn’t know about marriage. You can’t completely understand one without understanding the other.  I’d like to look at this under these two headings: 1) what does marriage teach us about our relationship with Jesus? and 2) what does our relationship with Jesus teach us about marriage? This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 13, 1991. Series: Marriage. Scripture: Ephesians 5:22-33. Today's podcast episode is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

We’re looking at a subject that’s controversial. I’m going to try to speak as personally out of my own experience as I possibly can. Yet it’s still an area to think carefully. In our series on marriage, we look for the second time at Ephesians 5:22: “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church.” What does this mean? It means a whole lot.  Let’s look at what this passage teaches about the head: 1) head means the husband and the wife complete one another, and 2) head means there is an authority structure inside marriage. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 6, 1991. Series: Marriage. Scripture: Ephesians 5:22-33. Today's podcast episode is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Depending on the culture it’s sitting in, Christianity can either be considered radically liberal or horribly conservative. But Christianity isn’t to the left or to the right. In fact, if it’s true that Christianity doesn’t arise from the human spectrum of thought, but that it comes from above, then it’s natural that it doesn’t fit any particular ideology—and that every ideology is going to be suspicious of it.  In a series on marriage, we come now to the question of whether there’s any differentiation between the roles and obligations of a husband and wife in marriage. And the basic thesis in Ephesians 5 is that being male and being female are overlapping but distinguishable ways of being human.  I’d like to show that Ephesians 5 teaches us 3 things about gender roles: 1) there are roles, 2) why there are roles, and 3) what those roles are. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 29, 1991. Series: Marriage. Scripture: Ephesians 5:22-33. Today's podcast episode is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

We’re in a series on marriage, and we’ve said the purpose of marriage is friendship and a unique oneness. And we’ve also said there’s a structure in marriage.  Ephesians 5 teaches that there’s a mutuality between husband and wife, and yet the commands are not the same to both. They’re equal, but they’re not equivalent. We’ll look now at 1) the concept that in marriage you become one flesh, 2) how this oneness happens, and 3) how this oneness bridges into the subject of role relationships between men and women in marriage. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 22, 1991. Series: Marriage. Scripture: Ephesians 5:22-33. Today's podcast episode is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Marriage is a cosmic friendship, a spiritual friendship, a friendship with eternal dimensions. Marriage is not romance garnished with friendship. Rather, biblically, marriage is friendship garnished with romance.  If you’re going to marry somebody, you should marry someone who is now or has the potential to be your very best friend. But friendship is not just a feeling of affection. Friendship is a particular form of love, and it has a structure.  The structure of friendship is a deep oneness that comes from two people journeying together toward a common horizon. Let’s look now at 1) the common horizon, 2) how you get to that horizon, and 3) the implications of journeying together toward that horizon. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 15, 1991. Series: Marriage. Scripture: Ephesians 5:22-33. Today's podcast episode is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

I’m tired of listening to sentimental, slurpy talks on marriage during weddings and in Sunday school and in sermons. They have about as much depth and reality to them as a Hallmark card. The fact is, marriage is many things—in fact, it’s everything except slurpy and sentimental.  Marriage is glorious: it’s a burning strength and joy. Marriage is hard: it’s blood, and it’s sweat, and it’s tears. It’s defeats, and it’s victories. It’s almost everything except sweet.  We’re in a series on the Bible’s view of marriage. We’ve already looked at the power, the definition, and the priority of marriage. We look now at 1) the great purpose of marriage, and 2) what this purpose means in practicality. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 8, 1991. Series: Marriage. Scripture: Ephesians 5:22-33. Today's podcast episode is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.