Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life
697 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 8 hours 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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The Hero of Heroes
April 19, 2021 10:30 - 36 minutes - 25.1 MBOur passage comes from Acts chapter 5 where things begin to look dim for the followers of Christ. Beginning around this time and spanning to around AD 300, the history of the early church is filled with persecution and suffering. Christians were systematically imprisoned, plundered, tortured, and killed. In this particular incident in Acts, we see Christians facing danger and the possibility of death with heroic courage. Where did they get that heroic courage? We’re going to focus on the re...
The Word and the Spirit
April 16, 2021 10:30 - 41 minutes - 28.4 MBActs is about the origins of Christianity. Whenever you go to the origins, you learn something about what genuine Christianity is — authentic, original, real Christianity. That is important because many people base, to some degree, their non-belief on what it was like to be a “Christian” earlier in life or on what other “Christians” are like. If you ask yourself every day the question, “Am I a real Christian?,” it will drive you nuts. On the other hand, if you never ask that question, that...
The First Miracle
April 14, 2021 10:30 - 37 minutes - 25.5 MBOur passage today is on the first miracle the apostles perform after the resurrection of Jesus, which is at the very beginning of the Christian church. If you want to learn about the topic of suffering, you go to the book of Job or a lot of other places in the Bible that seem to deal with it more directly. But this passage is actually a lot about suffering. This miracle, in many ways, is typical of so many of the other miracles of the New Testament done by Jesus or by apostles. If you unde...
The First Church
April 12, 2021 19:11 - 21 minutes - 14.5 MBOur passage from Acts 2 is about the birth of the Christian church. We’re going to look at how the birth of the church is intimately related to the birth of Christ: Christmas. In many ways, what happened at Christmas explains what happens in the early church; and what happens in the early church explains what Christmas is about. When the early Christians began to understand the reality of Christmas, they began to practice Christmas. They brought ideals into the world that no one had ever tho...
The First Sermon
April 09, 2021 10:00 - 33 minutes - 23.4 MBOur passage is the first Christian sermon given by Peter on the day of Pentecost. It’s important that we consider the entire sermon for the context, but we’re going to focus our time on the last four verses (36–39) and what it means to be a Christian. How do you become a Christian? In a sense, when you get to the end of the sermon, you have a little compendium on how to do this, but there are four things that come into play. In verse 36 we learn about mind and grace, in verse 37 about hear...
The Descent of the Spirit
April 07, 2021 10:00 - 40 minutes - 27.8 MBWe’re going to look at a very famous episode in the book of Acts today, the day of Pentecost. What makes this unique is the descent of the Holy Spirit. There’s a sense in which the Old Testament people of God became the New Testament people of God because the Holy Spirit came down with a transforming power that had never been known heretofore. In a certain sense, the people of God are getting rebooted, relaunched — it’s the fullness of the Spirit. We need to ask the same question the crowd ...
The Ascension of Jesus
April 05, 2021 10:00 - 38 minutes - 26.5 MBThe book of Acts is about how the earliest church was essentially launched into a cosmopolitan and urban setting just like ours today. Our church has never been here just for convinced, believing Christians, but it’s also here for New Yorkers who aren’t sure what they believe (or who don’t believe in Christianity). Acts is one of a few books in the New Testament that is pretty specifically written for skeptical people. There are images the Bible gives us to get across a fundamental change i...
The Final Hour
April 02, 2021 22:30 - 40 minutes - 27.7 MBToday’s passage comes from the Passion narrative found in the book of Matthew. Matthew is not just a reporter; he’s a teacher. He doesn’t just tell us that Jesus died, but he always builds the narratives around certain statements and sayings that interpret why Jesus died. It’s very typical today for people to say, “Well, the cross might mean something for you. You interpret it your way. I interpret it my way.” But the gospel writers don’t leave that as an option; they are very clear to let J...
The World Will Hate You
March 31, 2021 10:30 - 41 minutes - 28.5 MBWe’ve been going through the book of Matthew looking at the big blocks of teaching Jesus gives his disciples for how he wants his followers to live. While the Sermon on the Mount was mainly about how Christian disciples would relate to each other, starting with this passage, Jesus turns around and says, “But now here’s how I want my disciples to relate to the world.” This passage was Jesus teaching on how to move into a new town or a new neighborhood or a new city as Christian disciples an...
Three Ways to Live
March 29, 2021 10:30 - 39 minutes - 27.4 MBWe’ve come to the end of the Sermon on the Mount. It would be very profitable if we went through and took each of these metaphors Jesus ends the sermon with. You notice there are always two. There are two gates. There are two roads. There are two trees. There are two homes built on two different foundations. How many ways are there to live? Are there two ways to live, two paths, two trees, two gates? Yes and no. This is one of the most hard-hitting parts of the Bible. It is pretty astonishi...
Rules for Relationships
March 26, 2021 10:30 - 37 minutes - 25.8 MBWhen you get to Matthew 7, which is the last chapter in the Sermon on the Mount, the most famous sermon in history, there is a lot of intriguing stuff. There are ludicrous things in there. There are strange things in here. This isn’t so much inspiring as it is a convicting and brilliant piece of teaching. Verses 1–6 are talking about relationships, the kinds of relationships Jesus Christ wants us to have in the Christian community. Let’s look at the first six verses and see the kind of rela...
Treasures
March 24, 2021 10:30 - 35 minutes - 24.7 MBWe continue to look at the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’ outline of what he wants his people to live like in the world. Put another way, Jesus says here that if we take the essential message of the Christian faith, the gospel, and actually live it out, it will not only make us different individuals, radically different people, but it’ll turn us into a counterculture. It’ll turn us into a completely new kind of human society. He’s now talking about money. Let’s notice three things about money ...
Prayer and the Poor
March 22, 2021 10:30 - 39 minutes - 27.2 MBWe’re going through the Sermon on the Mount each week, and now we come to the most famous part of the most famous sermon in history, which is the Lord’s Prayer. The thing we have working against us with the Lord’s Prayer is the familiarity. We know it too well. Let’s see what Jesus tells us here about the foundation for prayer, the substance of prayer, and then the key to having a rightly founded, substantial, effective prayer life. The foundation for it, the substance of it, and the key t...
Integrity
March 19, 2021 15:30 - 34 minutes - 23.9 MBWe’re going through the Sermon on the Mount and we have Jesus Christ telling us how he wants us to live. He has dealt with the commandment on murder and adultery, and now he’s dealing with the commandment on lying. He’s going to talk to us about integrity, truth, and honesty. We have as big a problem in our culture with this. Therefore, let’s take a look and see what Jesus says about integrity. He gives us the principle behind integrity and tells us something about the practice of integrity...
Love and Lust
March 17, 2021 21:30 - 36 minutes - 24.8 MBJesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, is telling us how he wants us to live in every area of life. Love and sex is one of those areas of life, and so he gets to that here. When you first read it, it would be natural to have a negative response, because on the surface it looks like Jesus is saying, “If you have sexual desire, you’re going to hell.” It would be very natural for somebody to say, “Aha! See? That’s that negative view of sex everybody says Christians have.” But that’s a great misund...
Law and Love
March 15, 2021 21:30 - 35 minutes - 24.7 MBIn the Sermon on the Mount, whenever Jesus talks about how we should live, he always also talks about how we get the power to live that way. Jesus is never just concerned about behavior. He’s also concerned about the heart. Here we have such a nice, small, compact text that gives us the whole picture. In these six verses, Jesus tells you three things. He says, “Here is what you must do.” Secondly, he says, “You’ll never do it.” Thirdly, he says, “But in and through me, you can.” I believe t...
The Witness of the Kingdom
March 12, 2021 11:02 - 38 minutes - 26.7 MBThe Beatitudes make up the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, and it defines what it means to be a Christian. A Christian is someone who has a radically new relationship with God through belief in the gospel. The Beatitudes is essentially a list of the characteristics of someone with this new relationship with God. Today’s passage shifts to focus on the Christian’s relationship to the world. In other words, if you have a relationship with God (described in vv. 1–10), then that will mean ...
The Norms of the Kingdom
March 10, 2021 14:30 - 37 minutes - 25.6 MBWe read in the New Testament about the life of Jesus and how he brings us new life. Now it’s natural to ask if we’ve been given this new life, then how should we live? Our passage today in Matthew, which is part of the Sermon on the Mount, is one of the best places to get Jesus’ main teaching on how to live. This is one of the most famous pieces of literature in the history of the human race. Because it is so rich, we need to pay close attention to every part, every verse and word. But toda...
The Resurrection
March 08, 2021 22:30 - 34 minutes - 23.8 MBMatthew gives us one of the four direct descriptions of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. There are two important questions for us as we read an account like this: Did it really happen? And what does it mean? Our culture is so dubious of miracles and the idea of resurrection already so the first question is very important to consider with that in mind. But it’s not just for those who are skeptical, it’s for all readers — we all have to come to grips with this question. Secondly, if the resu...
The Crucifixion
March 05, 2021 19:44 - 28 minutes - 19.6 MBThe passage today is on the crucifixion, which is one of the most important events in Jesus’ life. We’re going to zoom in on verse 46: “… Jesus cried out in a loud voice … ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” How do we understand Jesus’ cry? And what does it mean for us today? Let’s look more closely at the cry, the word why, the word my, and Jesus’ question taken as a whole. The cry points to the fact of Jesus’ death. The word why points to the reason for his death. The word my poi...
The Last Temptation
March 03, 2021 22:30 - 38 minutes - 26.7 MBOur passage today takes place the night before Jesus is going to die. He has just had his last supper, and he goes out into the garden of Gethsemane with three of his disciples. Jesus’ career began with a temptation in the wilderness, and now it essentially ends with a great temptation in a garden. Jesus goes to the garden to pray and he is described as “sorrowful and troubled” (Luke uses “agony”). This is an important clue to understand why Jesus died and how his death affects our lives to...
Into Jerusalem
March 01, 2021 22:30 - 34 minutes - 23.7 MBThe Gospels give us all kinds of events that help paint a biographical picture of Jesus. Today we’re going to look at one very famous episode: the triumphal entry to Jerusalem. This is also called Palm Sunday because the crowd used palm branches to welcome Jesus to the city (John 12:13). There are important details in this passage that are deeply symbolic. They show us something about who Jesus is and what he came to do. It teaches us three things about his kingship: he is a confrontational...
A New Church for the City
February 24, 2021 22:30 - 35 minutes - 24.2 MBWhat does it mean to take the gospel out of your private life, out of the church, and into the world? It means sharing the gospel with your friends. It means letting the gospel affect your work. It also means that we’ll go into the world caring about mercy and justice. Paul was sent as a missionary to Macedonia where he planted a church in Philippi — a large city. Our passage today is about the conversion stories of three people in that church: Lydia, the slave girl, and a jailor. We’re go...
The Testimony of Justice
February 22, 2021 22:30 - 39 minutes - 27.5 MBThe gospel is intensely personal because it entails a commitment of the whole person to Jesus. And if the whole person is committed to Jesus, that includes one’s private and public life. If this is true, then what happens when we take the gospel out of our private lives and out of the church and out into the world? One of the things that happens is that the gospel creates a passion for doing justice in the world. Deuteronomy teaches us many things about justice. We’re going to look at thes...
A Vision for Culture-Making
February 19, 2021 22:30 - 43 minutes - 29.7 MBWhat happens when you take the gospel, the basic message of Jesus Christ, out of the church into the world? It has many consequences for our lives, but one of the things that happens is it affects your work and your job. It gives us a different perspective on what work is for, how we should do our work, and it gives our work meaning and significance. The book of Genesis may be one of the best places to learn about the meaning of our work. 1) It gives us a vision for work; 2) it gives us gua...
The Gospel and the Outsider
February 17, 2021 22:30 - 34 minutes - 23.5 MBOur passage today is really about evangelism. The gospel writer shows Jesus evangelizing a woman, and then, when she figures out who he is, she runs off and evangelizes her friends. This is a wonderful picture of how evangelism works. Christians talk about their faith with others and then they invite others to embrace the faith for themselves. Many modern people can be skeptical of this idea of evangelism. In a pluralistic society like ours, encouraging others to adopt your beliefs and conv...
The Gospel and the Insider
February 15, 2021 22:30 - 40 minutes - 27.7 MBWhat is the gospel’s effect when it’s brought out of the church and into the world? It does many things, but one of them is that it leads to conversions. It has the power to convert individuals from death to life, from darkness to light. In today’s passage we see that Jesus describes the gospel message as the “new birth,” which is to be converted or born again. We’re going to look at five points that provide a complete guide to what it means to be born again: 1) who it’s for, 2) where it’s...
A Community of Justice: Part 2
February 12, 2021 22:30 - 46 minutes - 31.7 MBIn the book of James, we read about how belief in the gospel affects the way we actually live day to day. This is the theme that is found throughout the book. It’s filled with very practical guidelines for what a Christian’s life should look like. In today’s passage, James rebukes a particular thing that his readers are doing. He contrasts God’s wisdom with the world’s wisdom — what the Bible calls foolishness. There’s a particular kind of foolishness James condemns and warns us against. ...
A Counter-Culture of Grace
February 10, 2021 22:30 - 47 minutes - 33 MBThe book of James is a very practical guide for living the Christian life. If you really believe the basic message of Jesus, then what kind of life will you live? What will your life look like practically? These are the questions that James helps us answer. James not only helps us understand things about our own lives, but it also teaches us about the kind of community that the gospel fosters. Our passage today shows us 1) the importance of community between believing Christians, 2) what t...
A Community of Peace-Making
February 08, 2021 22:30 - 33 minutes - 23.3 MBThe book of James is a practical book that gives us instruction for obeying God’s law. It says if you believe the gospel, this is what your life should look like. In today’s passage, we consider how the gospel will affect your speech, your words, and your tongue. Have you ever noticed that when you go to the doctor for a check-up, the doctor will look at your tongue to tell what’s going on deep inside? This is essentially what our passage is about. The tongue acts as an indicator for somet...
A Community of Justice
February 05, 2021 14:30 - 37 minutes - 25.5 MBJames, unlike Paul, doesn’t so much break the gospel apart to show you what it is; James assumes the gospel and shows you what your life will look like if you believe it. The book helps us understand the consequences that the gospel has for how we live our lives. And particularly, we see what those consequences are for our lives in community. James gives us three things to consider: 1) what kind of community we ought to be; 2) why we ought to be it; and 3) how we can become that kind of com...
A Community of Justice: Part 1
February 05, 2021 14:30 - 37 minutes - 25.5 MBJames, unlike Paul, doesn’t so much break the gospel apart to show you what it is; James assumes the gospel and shows you what your life will look like if you believe it. The book helps us understand the consequences that the gospel has for how we live our lives. And particularly, we see what those consequences are for our lives in community. James gives us three things to consider: 1) what kind of community we ought to be; 2) why we ought to be it; and 3) how we can become that kind of com...
A People Under the Word
February 03, 2021 22:30 - 42 minutes - 29.3 MBThe book of James is a very practical book that gives us clear direction on how to live the Christian life. It asks these questions, “If you have had an encounter with God through belief in Christ, what will your life look like on the ground? How does belief in Christ make a difference in real life?” That’s what the book of James is about. This particular text tells us something very important. If you have a new and living relationship with God, then you will have a new and living relations...
A Society of Suffering
February 01, 2021 22:30 - 37 minutes - 25.9 MBThe book of James is called Wisdom Literature in the New Testament, which means that the book is very practical. It has a high view of God’s law and an ethical focus that runs throughout each chapter. We’re considering the question, “What’s the vision of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York?” Let’s look at three things we learn from this passage in James about the topic of suffering: what we face, how we can face it, and who we face it with. This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Ke...
The Gospel and Idols
January 29, 2021 22:30 - 40 minutes - 27.9 MBToday both Christians and skeptics of Christianity can struggle to figure out what is real Christianity. Skeptics struggle with certain aspects of what has become known as Christianity, but also, Christians sometimes struggle with those very same things. You have to know what real Christianity is if you’re going to reject it rightly, and you certainly have to know what it is if you’re going to embrace it rightly. The book of Acts shows us real and authentic Christianity. Chapter 19 is one o...
The Gospel to the Philosophers
January 27, 2021 22:30 - 41 minutes - 28.8 MBEven after the rise of Rome, Athens was still the intellectual capital of the Greco-Roman world in the first century. For those of us who are English speakers, Athens was like all of the Ivy League schools, plus Oxford and Cambridge, all rolled into one. The passage today is Paul’s address to the philosophers of the Areopagus, which is on Mars Hill. It’s a rich place in the Bible for analysis, because Paul’s argument is extraordinarily well-crafted and structured. To really get into it, you...
How the Gospel Changes Lives: Part 2
January 25, 2021 22:30 - 42 minutes - 29 MBIn Acts 16 there are three case studies that show how Jesus and the gospel can really change your life: Lydia, the slave girl, and the Philippian jailer. All of these show the incredible accessibility of the gospel for many types of people. We’re going to highlight three things that we learn from these case studies. First, the gospel is for everybody. Everyone needs it. Because it’s true, it’s for everybody. Secondly, the gospel is the single most unifying power on the face of the earth. W...
How the Gospel Changes Lives: Part 1
January 22, 2021 19:30 - 45 minutes - 31.6 MBThe heart of Acts chapter 16 are three wonderful case studies of how God changes three very different people. There’s a woman, there’s a girl, and there’s a man. They are three marvelous examples of how God can work in such remarkably different ways and yet at the same time bring people to the same Christ through the same gospel. This gospel is rich enough and flexible enough for anybody — it can change anybody. We’re going to look at the first two case studies and then draw a few lessons:...
Claryfying the Gospel
January 20, 2021 22:30 - 38 minutes - 26.5 MBActs 15 is not a chapter that is commonly used for sermons. It usually is not something we spend time on because it’s a long theological debate. But this debate teaches us at least four incredibly important things about the gospel itself. Truth matters because truth has consequences for how we live. Secondly, no other religion offers freedom from burdens like Christianity because Christ took on our burdens for us. Next, God uses community to reveal things to us and to teach us about him. Fin...
The Gospel for the Pagan
January 18, 2021 22:30 - 35 minutes - 24.4 MBThere’s no doubt if you’re looking to understand what real Christianity is, the book of Acts is the place you should start. Nothing shows us what authentic Christianity is more than the earliest years of the church’s history in the book of Acts. The first church was in Jerusalem and the first Christians were Jewish. When the gospel began to spread in the first 13 chapters of Acts, we see a lot of evangelism being done between Jews and God-fearers who already believed the Bible. But in this...
But God Raised Him
January 15, 2021 22:30 - 27 minutes - 18.7 MBThe first recorded sermon by Saint Paul is found in Acts 13. It’s dominated by the subject of Christ’s resurrection. Elsewhere Paul says that without the resurrection of Christ, “our preaching is useless and so is your faith” (1 Cor. 15:14). Over and over again in Acts 13, Paul mentions the resurrection. If the resurrection was preached and believed in the earliest church, then we should too. We see here it was preached and believed in two ways: as a fact and as fulfillment. Verse 31 says ...
The Gospel Church
January 13, 2021 22:30 - 34 minutes - 23.5 MBThe church of Antioch was one of the most important churches in early Christianity. It teaches us many things about Christian outreach, cultural diversity, prayer, discipleship, and caring for people in need. But we’re going to look at one of the less prominent themes in Acts 11 and 13. It’s one of the keys to gospel ministry that Barnabas shows us in these passages: the ministry of encouragement. It’s a ministry that speaks the truth, but does so in love. It’s an intense, personal, and yet...
The Gospel to the Pharisee
January 08, 2021 22:30 - 43 minutes - 29.7 MBWe come to perhaps the most famous conversion story in the history of the world: the conversion of Saul (who becomes Paul). This is the man who sought to do the most harm to the earliest Christians, but then God saves him and he becomes the writer of about a quarter of the New Testament. Jesus uses no uncertain terms regarding conversion; in Matthew 18:3 he says unless you’re converted, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. Conversion means that we turn and trust. Conversion stories can var...
The Gospel to the African
January 06, 2021 14:30 - 38 minutes - 26.8 MBThe book of Acts is all about the earliest Christianity. It shows us something about the character of the earliest Christianity, especially about where the church got its power. The book of Acts, but also the Bible in general, is bound to surprise you. No matter what your culture or what your class, no matter what conceptions and categories you come to the Bible with, it will smash some of them. This story in Acts about Philip and the Ethiopian is the same way. It will show us the inclusiv...
The Gospel to the City
January 04, 2021 22:30 - 37 minutes - 26.1 MBThe book of Acts is about the history of the early church. For the first seven chapters, we only see the gospel in Jerusalem and Judea, but because of the execution of Stephen and then the persecution that ensued, the great body of Christians in Jerusalem were scattered. As they went out the church became a church on mission. The word mission today is almost everywhere. Everybody has a mission statement. People create personal missions of their own. The word mission comes from the Latin wor...
The Gospel in a Pluralist Society
January 01, 2021 22:30 - 39 minutes - 27.2 MBWhat we see in the book of Acts is that the church was born in a pluralistic society — a society with many different beliefs in various gods. Christians made absolute truth claims about the one true God. Not surprisingly, this was not well-received at times (it got the first apostles thrown into jail). There was real opposition in a pluralistic society to these absolute truth claims. Christians today are increasingly told we need to get with the times in our modern pluralistic society. We’...
Mary's Son
December 23, 2020 22:30 - 30 minutes - 21.3 MBThis sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 15, 1997. 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/...
With A Religious Crowd
December 18, 2020 22:30 - 41 minutes - 28.3 MBThis sermon was preached by Rev. 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/g...
Who is the Real Jesus?
December 01, 2020 14:30 - 38 minutes - 26.4 MBIn this passage from the book of Matthew, John the Baptist is struggling with who Jesus is. Why would John, this great religious figure, be dealing with such difficulty? We learn two things from his struggle: 1) if you’re going to find out whether Jesus is the One, first of all, you have to make sure you do not try to understand yourself before you understand him, and 2) you also had better realize that if you reject him you’ll never be able to stop searching for him. As a response, Jesus g...
Praying the Gospel
November 30, 2020 20:05 - 41 minutes - 28.6 MBThe book of Psalms is the preeminent place to learn how to deal with your emotions and the conditions of the heart. Psalms, in a certain sense, is God’s counseling case book. Not his counseling textbook, but his case book. Not a place where you have lots of principles laid out, but lots of actual cases of people struggling with all of the many kinds of conditions of the human heart. Psalm 103 is a general psalm about how to handle life. In it, David gives you the key approach to handle all ...