Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life

Matthew chapter 11 begins with John the Baptist sending a message that reveals John is struggling with who Jesus is. All of Matthew 11 is a response to John the Baptist’s question. Jesus doesn’t say something like, “John, you’ve misunderstood me.” No, instead, he says “John, the things I claim and the things I am are much more outrageous than you have even heard. Let me show you just how outrageous and how offensive I really can be.”
Jesus makes some of the most outrageous and the most offensive statements that have ever been made in verse 27. He says that he is the only way. This claim that made the people of Jesus’ day struggle is also the thing that makes us struggle. Let’s look at what this deeper claim is, why you should believe it, and how you should use it.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 6, 1996. Series "The Real Jesus Part 1; His Teaching". Scripture: Matthew 11:25-27.
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.

In Matthew chapter 11 John the Baptist is struggling with the identity of Jesus. He sends a message and he says, “Are you really who you claim to be?” The rest of the chapter is Jesus’ answer to that question. The contemporary relevance of a chapter like this is so amazing and so obvious, because Western civilization is filled with people just like John the Baptist. People who are filled with doubts and questions about Jesus.
Jesus gives us two important things to do in his response. First of all, he says, “Use the magnitude of my claims, the greatness of who I claim to be, to knock yourself out of the deadly middle.” And secondly, “Turn it on yourself and use it to make yourself a little child spiritually.” Let’s look more closely at what the deadly middle is and then how to do this.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 29, 1996. Series "The Real Jesus Part 1; His Teaching". Scripture: Matthew 11:18-27.
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.

This passage is part of Jesus’ response to John the Baptist who was struggling with doubts about the identity of Jesus. It is so relevant for today because many of us may have similar questions or doubts about Jesus. We may be in a similar situation as John the Baptist. In Jesus’ response, we find answers to that unbelief.
Let’s look at three wonderful things about unbelief that Jesus teaches us in this passage: the power of unbelief, the character of unbelief, and the solution for unbelief.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 22, 1996. Series "The Real Jesus Part 1; His Teaching". Scripture: Matthew 11:16-24.
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.

Matthew 11 has incredible relevance to us today. In the last 1500 years in the West, there has always been indifference to Jesus; but never have there been so many people who are offended at Jesus. John the Baptist is in the same place. When in prison, he sends Jesus a message, and he says, “I don’t know that you’re the One. Are you the Messiah? How do I know?”
In Jesus’ response, we see three groups of people that don’t take offense at Jesus: the poor, the violent, and the least. Each one tells you something about what you have to be and what you have to do if you’re even going to be open to Jesus’ claims. These three are a model for us to be open to who Jesus is.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 15, 1996. Series "The Real Jesus Part 1; His Teaching". Scripture: Matthew 11:4-15.
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 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 gives John a straight answer. We learn two more things from Jesus. He says, “You will not know I’m the One until 1) you feel my offensiveness and 2) you see how I welcome the weak. Let’s look a little deeper into this interchange and its  burning contemporary relevance for our world today.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 8, 1996. Series "The Real Jesus Part 1; His Teaching". Scripture: Matthew 11:2-6.
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 during Giving Tuesday, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/tuesday and making a one-time or recurring donation. Thanks to a generous donor, all gifts on Giving Tuesday will be matched up to $40,000.

The 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 of life’s circumstances. David is saying, “The main thing I need to do, the main thing you need to do, the main way to handle life is to not forget.” The main problem we have is that we forget what God has done. David is calling for something far deeper than mental recall, and he’s dealing with something far more transforming than just counting your blessings. We’re going to learn here why we need to remember, where we need to remember, what we need to remember, and how we need to remember. This is the key to handling life.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 19, 2000. Series "Psalms - The Songs of Jesus". Scripture: Psalm 103:1-22.
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 during Giving Tuesday, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/tuesday and making a one-time or recurring donation. Thanks to a generous donor, all gifts on Giving Tuesday will be matched up to $40,000.

Psalms give us a unique gospel way to deal with our emotions and feelings — it’s different from secular and religious approaches. Psalms tell us we’re supposed to pray our feelings. Not just pray about our feelings, but to actually take them before God and pour them out in a pre-reflective way and process them in the presence of God, in the light of who he is and who we are, in the light of the realities that come to us, that bear down on us, as we’re in his presence.
Today we look at guilt and shame — those feelings that come over you when your heart is broken under a sense of failure and unworthiness. We see guilt and shame likened to a hole, to something we’ve sunk down in (verses 1-2). We’re also shown a rope you throw a person — that’s available for a person who’s in that hole of guilt and shame (verses 3-4). Then we see a little bit about the process of how you climb out with that rope (verses 5-6).
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 12, 2000. Series "Psalms - The Songs of Jesus". Scripture: Psalm 130:1-8.
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.

In this passage, we see that David has something very serious to be afraid of. He has literal armies after him. He has people trying to attack and kill him. Right in the middle of the chapter, what does he say? “I will not fear. I sleep in the midst of all these armies.” He has discovered a way of praying his fear and he is able to handle it.
In this psalm, we see that there are two levels down into fear and that there are four steps out. The first level is a healthy kind of fear, and then there’s a deeper, unhealthy, and debilitating kind of fear. The four steps out of the pit are all there in verses 3–8: follow your thread, relocate your glory, see the substitute, and remember the people. Let’s look closer to learn more about fear and how to handle it.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 5, 2000. Series "Psalms - The Songs of Jesus". Scripture: Psalm 3:1-8; Genesis 15:1,8.
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.

The book of Psalms gives us a gospel third way with your feelings. It’s a third way between what religiosity and what secularity ordinarily tell you. Religiosity tends to deny feelings. Why? Because if you are trying to warrant God’s blessing through a good record, you are psychologically unable to admit dark, intense, turbulent feelings. On the other hand, the secular approach is just the opposite, it tends to hold to the sovereignty of feelings. The discovery and expression of your feelings is a good in itself.
Psalms suggests neither. The Psalms does not say deny or vent, but pray your feelings. Pray your deepest feelings. Bring them before God and process them.  In this text we’re looking at pain, sorrow, and tears. What do you do with these feelings? What do you do with tears? We learn three things. Expect tears, invest tears, and pray your tears.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 27, 2000. Series "Psalms - The Songs of Jesus". Scripture: Psalm 39:12-13; 126:1-6.
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.

Psalms are not about so much lofty, high doctrine as they are about how the human heart works, particularly human feelings. The anger, fear, hostility, rawness, and white heat of emotions expressed in the psalms really just disturb people today. We will see that psalms are neither mere rational discussions of feelings or just expressions of feelings. The psalms do not deny feelings, and they don’t vent feelings. The Psalms show us how to pray our feelings.
In Psalm 73, we’re going to look at a person struggling with doubt. We see a person filled with many types of doubts — someone struggling with doubts about God and about faith. Doubt is a condition of the soul and the heart. Let’s look at what the condition is, what the cause is, and what the cure is.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 20, 2000. Series "Psalms - The Songs of Jesus". Scripture: Psalm 73:1-3; 12-26.
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 all have troubles in life. How do we face troubles with peace, with rest, with equilibrium? I’ve come to realize it’s not mainly through petitionary prayer. Of course the Bible is filled with petition, where you go to God, and you make your needs known, and you ask for things. You should do that, but the ultimate and main way to handle the troubles of life with peace is through worship.
Psalm 95 is the classic text in the Bible about worship. Through the centuries, the Christian church has looked to this maybe more than any other single place in the Bible to inform our worship. This text tells us almost everything we need to know. Let’s look at the questions: what is worship; why should we worship; and how can we worship?
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on July 7, 2002. Series "Psalms; Disciplines of Grace". Scripture: Psalm 95:1-11.
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.

In the book of Psalms, we’re shown various spiritual disciplines, which are practical skills we have to engage if we’re going to grow into the people God designed us to be.
Here in Psalm 27, we learn about adoration — personal individual adoration, contemplative adoration. We will look at Psalm 95 at a later date in which we’ll learn about corporate adoration. You cannot grow without both of them. They have to both be there. They’re both absolutely necessary.
We’re going to focus specifically on verse 4 which talks about the “one thing I ask, one thing I seek.” What is that one thing? We learn three things from this psalm about it: why it’s so important, what it is, and how to do it.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on June 2, 2002. Series "Psalms; Disciplines of Grace". Scripture: Psalm 27:1-14.
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.

Spiritual disciplines are the practical skills you have to be able to exercise in order to grow into the person God wants you to be. Psalm 81 shows us how to use various disciplines to handle the wilderness times of your life: the times of suffering, the times of pain, the times of difficulty.
Let’s look at four things that we can learn in this particular psalm: 1) life is a wilderness, 2) there’s a rock in the wilderness, 3) there’s honey in the rock, and 4) God has sent his son Jesus to pass the test in the wilderness (v.7) on our behalf. You yourself will become sweet, joyful, and beautiful through the work of Jesus Christ, who was tested in the wilderness and passed that test perfectly.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 19, 2002. Series "Psalms; Disciplines of Grace". Scripture: Psalm 81.
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 studying spiritual disciplines in the book of Psalms. Today, we’re looking at another practical spiritual competency you must engage in if you’re going to grow into the person God wants you to be: confession. 
When you know you’ve messed up, when you know you’ve failed, when you know it’s your fault, how do you get up again after you’ve fallen in such a way that you have more joy and power than before? How do you get up not broken but get up in better shape than you were before? Let’s look in psalm to see our need for confession, the way of confession, and the secret basis of confession.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 12, 2002. Series "Psalms; Disciplines of Grace". Scripture: Psalm 32:1-11.
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.

We’re looking at spiritual disciplines that the psalms teach us, disciplines by which we grow into the people God wants us to be. These disciplines help us face forces that could spiritually derail us. One of the things that’s going to happen in life is serious mistreatment, where you become the object of mistreatment from other people and things in this world. What are you going to do with that mistreatment and the anger that comes from that?
This passage is going to tell us some very important things about how to handle mistreatment and how to deal with your anger over mistreatment. We’ll first look at three things the psalmist does with his anger: he owns his anger, he prays his anger, and he limits his anger. Then we’ll look at three practical things that we can do with our anger on this side of the cross.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 28, 2002. Series "Psalms; Disciplines of Grace". Scripture: Psalm 137:1-9.
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.

When it comes to physical growth and health, you have two kinds of practices or disciplines. You have trainers and you have doctors. Through nutrition and exercise, trainers help you get further than you were. They help you make progress physically. But when you get sick or maybe injure yourself, you need a doctor to get you back on track. You need trainers to get you forward from where you were; you need doctors to get you back to where you were physically.
We need the same things spiritually. There are spiritual disciplines that are more like training – disciplines by which you grow into the person God has meant you to be, such as meditation and prayer. But there are other spiritual disciplines that are more defensive. That is, they’re ways of treating problems and difficulties. This is what we find in Psalm 42-43. We learn about a specific condition to which we are susceptible and then we’re given a set of cures for this condition. Becoming skilled at dealing with this condition is absolutely critical if you’re going to make spiritual progress.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 21, 2002. Series "Psalms; Disciplines of Grace". Scripture: Psalm 42:1-43:5.
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.

In Philippians 2:12 Saint Paul says, “Work out your salvation in awe and wonder.” Notice he didn’t say, “Work for your salvation.” He said, “Work out your salvation.” You can only work out something you already have. Whatever salvation is, the spiritual gift of grace is not something you just clutch or hold on to, but it’s something you have to work out into every part of your life. You have to work it out into your identity, into your psychology, your sociology, your relationships, your approach to the world, into everything. That’s how we change. That’s how we become new. 
This change is done through disciplines of grace. The discipline that we’re looking at today in Psalm 119 is scriptural application: how Scripture leads us into obeying God’s word. We don’t get changed and we won’t obey God, unless we’re willing to come in under the authority of God. Let’s look at these two things in this psalm: 1) what’s wrong with trying to be your own ultimate spiritual authority and 2) how you can put yourself under God’s authority in a way that’s transforming and not stifling.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 14, 2002. Series "Psalms; Disciplines of Grace". Scripture: Psalm 119:32-49.
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.

We’re going to look at the processes by which a supernaturally changed heart comes about – the disciplines of grace. Now what are the ways that this happens? Over the centuries, Christians have looked to the Psalms maybe more than any other place in the Bible to learn about these disciplines of grace and today, we’re starting with the first psalm.
So let’s ask ourselves what we learn from this passage about meditation, which is one of the disciplines of grace – it’s one of the ways in which we work out our salvation into every nook and cranny of our lives in awe and wonder (Phil 2:12). There are four things we’re going to learn about meditation from the passage: the promise of meditation, the principle, the practice, and the puzzle.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 7, 2002. Series "Psalms; Disciplines of Grace". Scripture: Psalm 1:1-6.
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.

When Christianity is ever covered in the newspaper or on TV, Christianity is typically discussed and seen as a cultural or intellectual position. So people tend to talk about Christianity something like this: “Well, you know, there are various positions, there are various points of view on the nature of God and the nature of the soul, morality and ethics and the meaning and purpose of life. There are these various positions, and the Christian position is one of them.” They try it on the way somebody tries on a dress, looking to see whether it brings out your best parts and hides your worst parts. 
It is possible to adopt Christianity only in word. That means to say, “I accept the position. I accept the point of view. I accept the ideals. I accept the beliefs.” You can do this and yet not have received it as it really is as a power. The kingdom of God is not in word, but in power (1 Corinthians 4:20). 
Now see, Jesus, without using the word, is saying the same thing here in this parable. He is saying Christianity is a ruling power. It’s not just a set of ideals, such as forgiveness or God’s love. It’s much more than that – it’s a power. Let’s consider two things about this power: Christianity is the power of new life and it is the power of growth.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on August 21, 1994. Series "The Parables of Jesus (1994)". Scripture: Luke 13:18-21.
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.

We’re looking at the subject of hell, one of the most unpopular classic doctrines of orthodox Christianity. I’m asking you to consider it today for two reasons: 1) I submit to you that unless you understand, unless you can reflect on, unless you can agree with the Christian doctrine of hell, you have no idea of how much love God has shown us; and 2) Jesus, the one who teaches us the most about God’s love, is the one who teaches us this doctrine of hell. Jesus, the Lord of Love, the one who knew the most about love, teaches us the most about hell. 
Jesus intertwined the love of God and hell so much that you really can’t reject just one and accept the other. They have to be taken together. Let’s take a look at what Jesus teaches in this story of two men. If we want to understand hell, we have to see what he says about 1) the two men in this life and 2) the two men in the next life and 3) the two men in our life.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on July 17, 1994. Series "The Parables of Jesus (1994)". Scripture: Luke 16:19-31.
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.