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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Marriage as Commitment and Priority
September 08, 2023 10:00 - 44 minutes - 35.6 MBThe purpose of marriage is friendship, companionship. Your spouse has to be your best friend, or you don’t have a marriage. I know that’s not traditional, but it’s biblical. We’re in a series looking at marriage: at its power, its definition, its priority, its purpose, its structure, and its mystery. So far, we’ve looked at the power of marriage and the definition of marriage. Now we’ll look more into the definition of marriage and then at the priority marriage. We’ll look now at 1) three...
Overview: Marriage as Commitment
September 06, 2023 10:00 - 48 minutes - 38.9 MBEphesians 5 is the most detailed and famous of New Testament passages about marriage. It shows us the power, the definition, the priority, the purpose, the structure, and the mystery of marriage. In this series, we’ve already looked at the power of marriage, though we’ll talk a little more about it now. Then the next aspect to discuss is the definition of marriage: that marriage is a covenant. We’ll look at 1) what it means that marriage is a covenant and 2) the amazing and practical ramif...
Marriage as Ministry Power
September 04, 2023 10:00 - 35 minutes - 28.6 MBWhether you’re single, married, widowed, or divorced, you can immediately apply Scripture’s teachings about marriage to your life. According to the Scripture, marriage is a divine invention. It stands apart from other human institutions because it didn’t evolve out of human thinking. And the basic principles for marriage that are laid out in Ephesians 5 are critical to our understanding of what God says marriage is. We’ll look now at the first of these basic principles: Self-centeredness i...
Sexuality and Christian Hope
September 01, 2023 10:00 - 43 minutes - 34.8 MBThere are obvious ways Christian hope affects us, like in the way we face death and troubles. But I’d like to show you that Christian hope affects everything, every area of our lives. The biblical understanding of hope is a life-shaping, joyous certainty that your future is the eternal love and glory of God and a new heavens and new earth. And this Christian hope even determines and revolutionizes our whole attitude toward sex, romance, singleness, and marriage. This passage in 1 Corinth...
My Problem with Religion: An Open Forum
August 30, 2023 10:00 - 36 minutes - 29.7 MBThere are two problems people have with God today: the problem of evil and suffering, and the problem with the exclusiveness of religion. We’re all in the same boat here. Whether you believe in God or you don’t believe in God, you still have these two problems. Because they get at something that really is a problem. But the real question is, are they insurmountable? Can we find a way through them? I’d like to give you something to consider as a possible way through: it’s important to see ...
Loving Your Enemies
August 28, 2023 10:00 - 45 minutes - 36.6 MBMost of the great world religions share a tremendous amount of ethical common ground. But suddenly, Jesus breaks through all the conventional principles of morality—he soars into the stratosphere and puts forth the most radical love ethic anyone has ever seriously presented. On the one hand, when we hear it, we feel we’re in the presence of something sublime. But there’s another side to us that has difficulty with it, because it sure looks like Jesus is saying, “Let people walk all over yo...
Let Your Yes Be Yes
August 25, 2023 10:00 - 44 minutes - 36 MBAs we look at the hard sayings of Jesus, we see in this passage that Jesus gives us a radical principle of truthfulness. The whole Bible is built on covenants, public promises, observed words. So what does Jesus mean when he says to let your “yes” be “yes”? He can’t mean you can’t take oaths. What he does mean is actually something almost the opposite, that if you think you can separate and create levels of truthfulness, you’re wrong. Everything is observed. Every yes and every no is an oa...
Power To Change
August 23, 2023 10:00 - 38 minutes - 30.6 MBWe’re looking at the most strange, enigmatic, perplexing things Jesus ever said. This is one of them. People always blink a bit when they read it. But here, Jesus is actually teaching us about power to change. He’s telling us something extremely practical. Even though it’s an enigmatic passage, Jesus is basically saying three things: 1) There are many ways to change, 2) if you use any way but Jesus, you’ll be worse off than before, and 3) Jesus is the only one who can give you the power ...
Interview: Rebecca McLaughlin
August 22, 2023 10:00 - 21 minutes - 17.2 MBIn this interview from November 2019, Rebecca McLaughlin talks about some of the inspiration for writing her book Confronting Christianity and some of the insight she's gained in her life that led her to address the hardest questions that Christians face today. As she talks about her experiences, you will learn how and why she believes that Christianity is objectively the best hope for the modern world. Interview hosted by Chuck Armstrong. Today's podcast episode is brought to you by Gospel...
Shameless Prayer
August 21, 2023 10:00 - 43 minutes - 34.8 MBWhen Jesus is asked by his disciples, “Lord, teach us to pray,” he tells them a story and puts forth an approach that runs against common sense and against what other religions say about prayer. In the story, a man who’s in bed at midnight gives bread to another man who’s knocking and asking. Jesus says the man gives the bread not because the other man is his friend but because of the man’s boldness. Other ways to translate the word Jesus uses include shamelessness, rudeness, discourtesy, i...
Tim Keller Memorial Service
August 19, 2023 10:00 - 1 hour - 66.7 MBToday on Gospel in Life we're sharing a special worship service of praise to God for Tim Keller’s life and ministry. The memorial took place on August 15, 2023 at Saint Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. To access the service program or view a video recording of the full service made available thanks to Redeemer City to City, visit gospelinlife.com/memorial. Order of Service and Timestamps: Opening — Rev. Michael Keller [01:01] Welcome — Cardinal Dolan [01:19] Introduction — Rev. Michael...
Let the Dead Bury Their Dead
August 18, 2023 10:00 - 40 minutes - 32.8 MBIf Jesus was a pastor, I don’t think his church would’ve grown very fast. Any leader of a movement wants to make it easy for people to enter. But Jesus acts in a completely different way. People come and say, “I want to join up,” and Jesus says, “Get back. Think.” In Luke 9, Jesus does this because the three men clearly don’t understand what they are asking for. Therefore, if we take a look at how Jesus answers them, we’re going to learn a great deal about what it means to follow Jesus. ...
I Came to Set the Earth on Fire
August 16, 2023 13:19 - 43 minutes - 35.2 MBSometimes when you read Jesus’ teachings, you feel like you’ve gotten on a horse that’s much too big and much too fast for you. When you read what Jesus says in Luke 12, you have nothing but lightning and blood, but in the center of this teaching is the most wonderful thing a human heart can hear. In this text, we learn two things: we learn about the divisiveness of Jesus caused by his self-centered teaching, and we learn about the agony of Jesus caused by his self-denying love. It may be s...
The Violent Bear It Away
August 14, 2023 10:00 - 33 minutes - 26.7 MBIn Matthew 11, Jesus talks about the kingdom of God, and he uses the word “violence.” That’s what the Greek word means. There’s no way around it. The context is Jesus telling us about John the Baptist, who realized the kingdom of heaven is real. Then Jesus says the kingdom of heaven comes with violence. This bothers us. Isn’t this Jesus? Isn’t this the one who said, “turn the other cheek?” Yes. That’s the reason why Jesus uses this term. Jesus is a communicator. He knows by saying this you...
Camels, Needles, and Riches
August 11, 2023 10:06 - 48 minutes - 39.2 MBJesus said an awful lot of hard things. And in the story of the rich young ruler, Jesus says two hard things: he says our understanding of riches and our understanding of moral goodness are wrong. The rich young ruler is not only rich, but he’s also a man of exquisite moral character. Yet, Jesus sends him away. Jesus turns our common notions about wealth and goodness on top of their heads and he gives us new ones—ones that are explosively in contradiction with what the world thinks, but one...
Four Things Christians Must Reclaim
August 09, 2023 10:00 - 30 minutes - 24.6 MBIn this cultural moment, when our non-Christian friends look at the Christian faith, they often see a history of racism, an anti-intellectual mindset, homophobia, and the denigration of women. It's tempting to think that the best thing Christians can do is batten down the hatches and cling on for dear life, while the waves of secularization wash over us. But if that's what we think, I believe we've got it all wrong. When we look more closely at each of these devastating roadblocks, they be...
How Do We Share Our Faith Now? Practices
August 07, 2023 10:00 - 23 minutes - 18.7 MBFor a person to go from no faith to faith it takes at least four things. There has to be 1) sustained attention, 2) some attraction, 3) a demonstration, and 4) an explanation. I’m going to give a couple ideas on three of these four things. This talk was given by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 14, 2019. Series: Missional Living. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Ke...
How Do We Share Our Faith Now? Principles (with Q&A)
August 04, 2023 10:00 - 40 minutes - 32.2 MBThe first 30 years of my ministry life, I spent most of my time saying, “You’ve got to care about the poor. You’ve got to do justice. You can’t just do word—you’ve got to do deed.” The last 10 years of my ministry life in New York City, everybody wants to do justice—and that’s great. However, now I’ve got to say, “But you’ve got to open your mouth and tell people in whose name you’re doing it.” Jesus was mighty in word and deed. And just like Jesus, Christians have got to be mighty in both ...
The Sin-Bearer
August 02, 2023 10:00 - 34 minutes - 27.4 MBIf you’re reading through the book of Isaiah, you get to this passage and you’re shocked. Up until now, Isaiah indicates that God’s going to send a great king to put things right in the world. Then Isaiah starts talking about a servant. But then, here in chapter 52 and 53, he says this person has no majesty. He has no majesty? Well, who is this? It’s surprising and it’s shocking. It subverts every human category of thought about salvation. Let’s look at three ways in which it’s so surpri...
Hope in the Face of Death
July 31, 2023 10:00 - 43 minutes - 34.7 MBThe great enemy of the human race is death. And we all have to face it. No matter how young you are, no matter how your life’s been going up to now, I can say, without fear of contradiction, that there is a lot of death in your future. And therefore, you severely need what this text talks about. It talks about hope in the face of death. Let’s ask the text three questions: 1) Why do we need hope in the face of death? 2) How can we get hope in the face of death? and 3) If we have it, how d...
Bought Out of Slavery
July 28, 2023 10:00 - 41 minutes - 33.4 MBWe’re looking at the passage that Martin Luther thinks is the greatest single place in the Bible that explains the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he might be right, because it’s talking about three great gospel words. The three great gospel words are redemption, propitiation, and justification. What do we need? Redemption. What does God do about it? Propitiation. And what do we get as a result? Justification. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on F...
Reconciled and at Peace
July 26, 2023 10:00 - 42 minutes - 34.3 MBThe gospel brings great goods into our lives. This text tells us a lot about one of them: reconciliation. We’re reconciled to God. What does that mean? One of the ways to understand this passage is to start at the end and work back. It’s actually a pretty simple argument, but its message is deeper than the whole universe. By working backward, let’s see 1) a more visible but lesser problem, 2) a less visible but greater problem, and 3) the solution to it all. This sermon was preached by D...
Home From Exile
July 24, 2023 10:00 - 41 minutes - 33 MBHome is where you fit. Home is where you can be yourself. But Genesis 3 tells us what’s wrong with the human race: we’re homeless. To see the great goods the gospel brings to us, we need to first see what’s fundamentally wrong with the human race. What we’re told here is that the condition of the human race is homelessness and exile, writ large. In this passage we see 1) that all human beings are exiles, 2) why we’re all exiles, and 3) how we can be brought home. This sermon was preached ...
The Garden – City of God
July 21, 2023 10:00 - 28 minutes - 22.8 MBWe’re wrapping up a series tonight, where we’ve been tracing the single story of the Bible. The Bible is not a set of individual stories that tell you how you should live in order to find God. The Bible is a single story about how God came to earth to find you. The beginning of that story is in Genesis, where we learn what’s wrong with us. The middle of that story is in Romans, where we learn what God did through Jesus Christ to put things right. We’re now looking at the book of Revelation...
Announcement: Gospel in Life has moved to Redeemer City to City
July 20, 2023 10:00 - 7 minutes - 6.25 MBA special announcement from Kathy Keller and Steve Shackelford, CEO of Redeemer City to City. To learn more about Redeemer City to City, watch this video or visit redeemercitytocity.com.
The New Heaven and New Earth
July 19, 2023 10:00 - 29 minutes - 24 MBWhen Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, he was called the first fruits for the dead. The first fruits are the beginning of a harvest. As great as the resurrection of Jesus Christ is—and it means everything—it’s only the first installment on something to come. On what? The new heavens and the new earth. John was not writing this for us to sit around in an abstract academic way trying to work out the symbols. He wrote it for a group of people facing terrible things, in order to give them ...
The Wedding Feast of the Lamb
July 17, 2023 10:00 - 31 minutes - 25.7 MBWe’re tracing the single story of the Bible. We look now to the very end of the book of Revelation because all well-told stories tie up all the plot lines. And in the book of Revelation, all the plot lines of the history of the human race and all the plot lines of your life find a happy ending in Jesus. They’re all resolved with him. First, we have this remarkable and yet strange vision of the marriage supper of the Lamb. There are three figures or characters: a prostitute, a Lamb, and a b...
Boasting and Faith
July 14, 2023 10:00 - 42 minutes - 33.8 MBIn Romans 3 and 4 the Bible tells us exactly what God has done to put things right in Jesus Christ. You can put it in a phrase: we’re justified by faith through the blood of Christ. We look now at one of those terms: faith. What is this saving faith that connects us to God? Notice that Paul twice contrasts faith with boasting. He tries to throw into relief what saving faith is by contrasting it with this idea of boasting. Let’s look at this passage under three headings: 1) the spiritual ...
By the Blood of Jesus Christ
July 12, 2023 10:00 - 43 minutes - 34.9 MBIn Romans 3, we have the heart of Paul’s message about what God has done to put the world right in Jesus Christ. Christianity alone says that God prepares a perfect righteous record through Jesus Christ and gives it freely to you. So you’re saved not by performance—you’re saved by faith. And that faith is not just faith in general—it’s faith in the blood of Christ. But what does that mean? There are three words that help us grasp the meaning of the blood of Christ. We’re told here 1) wha...
Justified by Faith
July 10, 2023 10:00 - 39 minutes - 31.8 MBIn Romans 1 through 4, Paul summarizes the story of the Bible. And here, in the last half of chapter 3 and into chapter 4, we have Paul’s most essential summary of what God has done to put the world right. Three phrases are repeated and brought into relationship with each other throughout these few verses: that we are justified freely, all by faith, and through the blood of Christ. I want to be clear and practical about what these three things are and how to relate to them. We’re going to...
No One Seeks God
July 07, 2023 10:00 - 36 minutes - 29.7 MBRomans 1 through 4 gives Paul’s version of the entire biblical story, also called the gospel. In this passage, we come to the end of Paul’s analysis of what’s wrong with the human race. When I was a new believer, this was a tough passage for me. It bothered me, and I wrestled with it. But eventually it revolutionized my way of thinking about life and myself and the world. This is perhaps the most radical of all the statements the Bible gives us about what’s wrong with the human heart. We...
The Failure of Religion
July 05, 2023 10:00 - 39 minutes - 31.5 MBWe’re tracing the storyline of the entire Bible. We started in Genesis, where we learn what’s wrong with the human race, and we’ve come to Romans, where we learn what God has done about it through Jesus Christ. Here at the beginning of Romans 2, Paul does a turnaround. It’s so surprising and shocking I don’t have much to introduce. I’ll start to explain it, and it’ll draw us right in. This chapter tells us three things: 1) the failure of religion, because of 2) the terrible beauty of the...
The Heart of Darkness
July 03, 2023 10:00 - 41 minutes - 33.3 MBWe’re in a series tracing the storyline of the Bible: what’s wrong with the human race, what God has done about it, and how it’s all going to turn out. We’ve begun to look at Romans 1 through 4, where Paul gives us perhaps the single most comprehensive explanation of what God has done about our problem through Jesus Christ. We turn now to this passage in Romans where Paul actually reflects back on Genesis and what it says is wrong with the human heart. If you look in every human heart, P...
The Power of the Gospel
June 30, 2023 10:00 - 38 minutes - 30.6 MBWe’re tracing the storyline of the Bible, and we looked first at what it says went wrong with the human race. Now we look at Romans 1 through 4, at perhaps the single most comprehensive place where we learn what God has done to make things right. Scholars of Romans believe verses 16 and 17 are Paul’s way of putting the gospel in a nutshell. Martin Luther, the founder of Protestantism, said these two verses brought about his own breakthrough, where he was completely transformed by pondering ...
A Tale of Two Cities
June 28, 2023 10:00 - 40 minutes - 32.7 MBWe’re in a series tracing the single storyline of the Bible—the single story that tells us what’s wrong with the human race, what God has done about it, and how history is going to turn out in the end. We’ve started by looking at the beginning of the biblical story, at what’s wrong with us. We’re at the end of this section of Genesis, at a particular passage that’s not often preached on. We learn three extremely important things in this passage. We learn about 1) the ruin of Cain, 2) the ...
The History of the World in a Nutshell
June 26, 2023 10:00 - 34 minutes - 28.1 MBThe Bible’s simple answer to the question “What’s wrong with the human race?” is sin. Contemporary people cringe when we use the word sin because we don’t like it. Then what vocabulary will you use to talk about war atrocities, massive corruption, slavery, or violence? Will you use the language of technology or sociology or psychology? The language in those disciplines isn’t profound enough to deal with the realities of what’s really going on in the world. We learn more about what the Bi...
Paradise Lost
June 23, 2023 10:00 - 37 minutes - 30.2 MBThe Bible is a single story telling us what is wrong with the human race, what God is going to do about it, and how it’s all going to turn out. Genesis 3 and 4 give us answers to what’s wrong with the human race and why the human race is so prone to selfishness, violence, wars, atrocity, and corruption all the time. Let’s look at what the Bible has to say about sin. We learn four things: 1) the heart of sin, 2) the breadth of sin, 3) the depth of sin, and 4) the end of sin. This sermon ...
Paradise in Crisis
June 21, 2023 13:03 - 38 minutes - 31.1 MBThe Bible is not a series of disconnected stories, each one with a little moral for how to live, but it’s actually primarily a single story about what went wrong with the human race and what will put it right. Figuring out what went wrong with the human race is really important. In her 1925 diary, Beatrice Webb, one of the architects of the modern British welfare system, says there’s something wrong with us that leads to selfishness and violence, corruption in business and government, war ...
The First Wedding Day
June 19, 2023 10:00 - 37 minutes - 29.9 MBYou can’t understand the central storyline of the Bible unless you understand something about marriage. The Bible begins with a marriage in Genesis 2, and at the end, in Revelation, it ends with a marriage and the wedding supper of the Lamb. In some ways, you can understand what the whole Bible is about and what the gospel is about in terms of marriage. In Genesis 2, we have the first wedding. Let’s ask the text a question: how can we be successful in seeking out marriage and in actually be...
The Garden of God
June 16, 2023 10:00 - 32 minutes - 26.4 MBIf you stand back a little bit from Genesis 1 and 2, you’ll see that perhaps the main thing the first two chapters of the Bible are about is work, job and vocation. We’re told in Genesis 2 that God sends the human race into the world to work. He put them in the garden to work it and take care of it. With regard to the idea of work and vocation, there is 1) an assumption, 2) a direction, 3) a burden, and 4) a provision made. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Pre...
In the Image of God
June 14, 2023 13:53 - 40 minutes - 32.2 MBWe’re in a series tracing the single storyline of the whole Bible. So we’re actually looking at the history of the universe. Today we get to this passage about how God made us in his image and likeness. This immediately brings up a huge and crucial issue or theme of the whole Bible: what it means to be in the image and likeness of God. We’re going to look at 1) the importance of the image of God, 2) the meaning of the image of God, and 3) the renovation and repair of the image of God in ...
The First Word
June 12, 2023 10:00 - 42 minutes - 33.9 MBThe Bible is about how the world was made and ruined, how it was rescued through Jesus Christ, and how someday it’s going to be remade into a new heavens and new earth. In order to trace out that storyline, we’re first taking a look at Genesis. In Genesis 1, we have the doctrine, the teaching on creation. It’s a very big subject. Let’s look at what the Bible teaches about creation under three headings: 1) understanding the doctrine of creation, 2) practicing the doctrine of creation, but...
Before the Beginning
June 09, 2023 10:00 - 36 minutes - 29.1 MBThe Bible is not a compendium of varied stories like Aesop’s Fables, each with directions and examples on how to live. If that’s all it was, then basically the Bible would be about you and what you must do. Read rightly, the Bible is not about you—it’s about him and what he has done. A single storyline moves from creation to the fall to what he has done to rescue you and renew the world through grace. We start, obviously, at Genesis 1. This tells us the beginning of the story of the world....
Rejoicing in Tribulation
June 07, 2023 10:00 - 37 minutes - 30.1 MBWhen do you ordinarily say that God is good? When the circumstances of your life are going well for you. But Habakkuk says it’s possible to face disaster and still have a life of sustained joy in the midst of it. Habakkuk has learned that the great Babylonian Empire is going to crush his country. It’s an absolute social disaster. What does it mean, then, to rejoice in your suffering? Not for your suffering, but in your suffering? We’re going to learn four things about rejoicing in sufferi...
Generosity in Scarcity
June 05, 2023 10:00 - 33 minutes - 27.3 MBHow do you face economic scarcity? The little book of Habakkuk talks about how to handle evil times, and in particular, it describes an economic disaster. Habakkuk’s answer for dealing with economic scarcity is fuller than you might think because he alludes to the Old Testament principle of the firstfruits, where you were supposed to give the firstfruits of your harvest to God. But here, Habakkuk brings up the possibility of having no harvest at all. We’re going to learn three things abou...
The Culture of Pride
June 02, 2023 10:00 - 32 minutes - 26.3 MBThe little book of Habakkuk tells us how to handle evil times, especially evil times in a culture. In this passage, God is saying to Habakkuk something about the evil Babylonian Empire that is rising up and wreaking havoc everywhere. God shows the rottenness at the heart of the culture and shows what is wrong in that culture. As God deconstructs what’s wrong with the Babylonian culture, he actually gives us two principles for facing evil times wherever we are: 1) with your head, you need ...
Continuing to Share the Gospel
June 01, 2023 10:00 - 4 minutes - 6.01 MBTim Keller always encouraged Christians to share the hope and beauty of the gospel with the people God puts in their lives. The ministry of Gospel in Life is most effective in spreading the gospel when you are prayerfully and thoughtfully sharing our sermons, books and articles with your family, friends and coworkers who don’t yet have a personal faith in Christ. As an encouragement to you and to remind all of us about the beauty of the gospel, you’ll hear a short message from Redeemer Cit...
Waiting and Living by Faith
May 31, 2023 10:00 - 39 minutes - 32 MBIt’s almost cliché to hear someone say you should “wait on the Lord.” But here in Habakkuk, we have a book that’s all about how to face evil times. And one of the main ways in which we’re able to handle evil times is what the Bible calls “waiting on the Lord.” Habakkuk has started by voicing a great complaint, has heard God’s first response, and has called out to God again. In this passage, Habakkuk waits to hear God’s second answer. Habakkuk waits. There is a rich meaning to this, which ...
Why Does God Do Nothing?
May 29, 2023 10:00 - 37 minutes - 30.5 MBIt would be possible to go to church for many decades and never hear a sermon on Habakkuk. It’s a short book in the Old Testament, and we know almost nothing about Habakkuk himself. But this book is very contemporary in its application. This little book talks about how to handle evil times, whether those are society-wide evil times or just your own personal evil times. Let’s see why this is so relevant to us. Let’s notice 1) what Habakkuk saw, 2) what he did, 3) what he heard from God, a...
Mary’s Song
May 26, 2023 10:00 - 28 minutes - 23.4 MBWe’re looking at people who have had close encounters with God. Of course, Mary’s experience is often read at Christmastime. In Luke 1, Mary sings the very first Christmas carol. It’s the first Christmas song, and I’d say it’s the best. Let’s look at 1) what leads her to sing, 2) what she sings a little about, and 3) what she sings a lot about. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 8, 1996. Series: Daring to Draw Near. Scripture: Luke...