Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life
692 episodes - English - Latest episode: 1 day ago - ★★★★★ - 13.4K ratingsSermons by Tim Keller, founder of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NYC and NY Times best-selling author of ”The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism.” For more sermons and resources, visit www.gospelinlife.com.
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Episodes
Converted by the Resurrection
April 26, 2024 10:00 - 43 minutes - 39.5 MBChristianity was originally never understood as a set of teachings that one took on. Christianity was a power that took you up. It completely turned you inside out, transformed you from the inside. The classic example is the conversion of Paul. Paul was an abusive, violent zealot. He went from someone who was deeply unhappy and restless to someone who was utterly unflappable, absolutely content. How? A radical, deep conversion. We all need to know how to live deeply converted lives. And ...
Converted by the Cross
April 24, 2024 10:00 - 41 minutes - 38 MBConversion 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 K...
A Woman, a Slave and a Gentile
April 22, 2024 10:00 - 44 minutes - 40.4 MBChristianity 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) L...
Stay With the Ship
April 19, 2024 10:00 - 42 minutes - 39.3 MBThe 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 ...
No Other Name
April 17, 2024 10:00 - 42 minutes - 39 MBChristianity 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 f...
To an Unknown God
April 15, 2024 10:00 - 45 minutes - 41.4 MBThe 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 ...
Many Convincing Proofs
April 12, 2024 10:00 - 42 minutes - 38.5 MBIt’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...
The Meaning of the City
April 10, 2024 10:00 - 41 minutes - 37.6 MBWhen 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...
The Longing for Home
April 08, 2024 10:00 - 40 minutes - 36.6 MBWe’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 ...
The Freedom of True Love
April 05, 2024 10:00 - 47 minutes - 43.3 MBIn 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 yo...
The Sickness Unto Death
April 03, 2024 10:00 - 43 minutes - 39.8 MBIn 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 Jeremia...
The Necessity of Belief
April 01, 2024 10:00 - 44 minutes - 40.5 MBWe 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. ...
Gifts of the Risen Lord (Easter)
March 29, 2024 10:00 - 38 minutes - 35.2 MBJesus 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 t...
Doubt, Joy and Power (Easter)
March 27, 2024 10:00 - 35 minutes - 32.8 MBWe’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 ...
The Hour of Darkness
March 25, 2024 10:00 - 45 minutes - 42 MBThe 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 soluti...
The Upper Room
March 22, 2024 10:00 - 45 minutes - 41.5 MBOne 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 fo...
The Robbers’ House
March 20, 2024 10:00 - 43 minutes - 40.1 MBThe 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 ...
Good News to the Poor
March 18, 2024 10:00 - 35 minutes - 32.1 MBIf 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 Ch...
To Revive the Spirit of the Lowly
March 15, 2024 10:00 - 35 minutes - 32.2 MBThis 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 t...
An Everlasting Name
March 13, 2024 10:00 - 41 minutes - 37.7 MBFor 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 ...
The Maker Is Your Husband
March 11, 2024 10:00 - 40 minutes - 36.9 MBThere 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 lif...
Pierced For Our Transgressions
March 08, 2024 11:00 - 38 minutes - 35.5 MBIsaiah 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 o...
The Mocking and the Spitting
March 06, 2024 11:00 - 35 minutes - 32.7 MBWhat 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. ...
Can a Mother Forget?
March 04, 2024 14:41 - 38 minutes - 35.1 MBIsaiah 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 respo...
A Bruised Reed He Will Not Break
March 01, 2024 11:00 - 42 minutes - 38.6 MBIsaiah 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 i...
The Sword and All
February 28, 2024 11:00 - 31 minutes - 28.8 MBIf 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 takin...
The Helmet of Salvation
February 26, 2024 11:00 - 33 minutes - 30.4 MBIn 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 s...
The Shield of Faith (Part 2)
February 23, 2024 11:00 - 38 minutes - 35.4 MBFiery 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 sh...
The Shield of Faith
February 21, 2024 11:00 - 33 minutes - 30.7 MBIf 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 o...
The Sandals of Peace (Part 3)
February 19, 2024 11:00 - 36 minutes - 33.1 MBPaul 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 Redeem...
The Sandals of Peace (Part 2)
February 16, 2024 11:00 - 42 minutes - 38.6 MBWhen 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 athl...
The Sandals of Peace (Part 1)
February 14, 2024 11:00 - 49 minutes - 45 MBSome 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 Rom...
The Breastplate of Righteousness (Part 2)
February 12, 2024 11:00 - 40 minutes - 37.1 MBWhen 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 ...
The Breastplate of Righteousness (Part 1)
February 09, 2024 11:00 - 43 minutes - 39.5 MBIf 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 ou...
The Belt of Truth (Part 2)
February 07, 2024 11:00 - 47 minutes - 43.3 MBWhen 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 und...
The Belt of Truth (Part 1)
February 05, 2024 14:38 - 46 minutes - 43 MBThe 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 Churc...
The Whole Armor of God
February 02, 2024 11:00 - 34 minutes - 31.8 MBWhat 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 Kell...
Your Plans, God’s Plans
January 31, 2024 11:00 - 44 minutes - 40.7 MBYou 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 prover...
The Wounded Spirit
January 29, 2024 11:00 - 43 minutes - 39.8 MBWe 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...
A Broken Wall
January 26, 2024 15:20 - 41 minutes - 37.8 MBWe’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...
Sluggardliness
January 24, 2024 14:09 - 41 minutes - 37.7 MBAnybody 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 Kel...
Haughty Eyes
January 22, 2024 11:00 - 43 minutes - 40.2 MBAmericans 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...
The Evil of Envy
January 19, 2024 11:00 - 41 minutes - 37.6 MBVery 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...
Scattering Gathers; Gathering Scatters
January 17, 2024 11:00 - 42 minutes - 38.7 MBYou 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,...
The Temptation of Beauty
January 15, 2024 11:00 - 42 minutes - 39 MBIn 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...
The Healing of Anger
January 12, 2024 11:00 - 42 minutes - 38.8 MBIf 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 s...
Knowing God
January 10, 2024 16:40 - 42 minutes - 39.1 MBOne 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 passag...
Strangeness and the Order of God
January 08, 2024 11:00 - 42 minutes - 39.2 MBThe 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 ...
The Wellspring of Wisdom
January 05, 2024 11:00 - 41 minutes - 38.2 MBMost 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 develop...
Training in Wisdom
January 03, 2024 11:00 - 42 minutes - 38.9 MBIt’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 a...