Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life

Christian hope is unique. The certainty of a material future, the new heavens and new earth, and the certainty that in Christ, that’s coming to you, makes Christianity a distinct, life-shaping force. It distinctly shapes the way in which we live in every area of life.
We’re looking now at an area of life that has been a matter of enormous concern to us as a whole world, especially as a society. How do people of different races, cultures, and religions live together in peace?
The Christian hope gives us an enormous resource to use on this problem. In Romans 14, Paul shows us 1) the problem, 2) a false solution, 3) the true solution, and 4) the power to do it.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 25, 2004. Series: Living in Hope. Scripture: Romans 14:1-3, 14:14-15:7.
Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

We underestimate the degree to which our present behavior and our present living are determined by what we believe our ultimate future to be.
Christian hope affects everything, every area of our lives. That means Christian hope, our understanding of the future, revolutionizes our whole attitude toward sex, romance, singleness, and marriage.
This passage in 1 Corinthians 6 is outrageous in all sorts of ways. It shows us 1) Christianity gave the world a revolutionary view of sex, 2) Christianity gave the world a revolutionary view of singleness and marriage, and 3) how Christian hope radically reshapes our view, our actions, and our attitudes in this area.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 18, 2004. Series: Living in Hope. Scripture: 1 Corinthians 6:13-20; 7:27-31.
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.

Historical and sociological scholarship shows the early Christians were remarkably different than their neighbors. Why were the Christians so much more compassionate to the sick? Why were they so much more forgiving to their persecutors? Why were they so much more ethnically inclusive than anyone had ever seen? Were they just ahead of their time? Were they just nicer people? No, it all depended on what they believed their future to be.
You might say, “That sounds very good, but how could anybody be certain about the future?” That was what was different. The answer and, therefore, the key to this whole dynamic of Christian hope is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
When the early Christians looked at the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the resurrection 1) gave them certainty of God’s future and 2) described the shape of God’s future.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 11, 2004. Series: Living in Hope. Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:1-10; 47-58.
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 short special episode, Tim and Kathy Keller have a conversation about the resurrection of Jesus as the historically verifiable event on which the Christian faith stands.

I think I can say without fear of contradiction that no matter who you are, there’s a lot of death in your future.
If you look around, you look at your loved ones, you look at your family, you look at your friends. Either you will face death yourself because you will be dying younger than is our want, or you will live a long time and face the death of the other people around you. Christian hope gives you something to deal with that, gives you something remarkable.
Let’s look at 1) what Christianity gives us so we can handle death, and 2) how we get it.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 4, 2004. Series: Living in Hope. Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11.
Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

You might say that even though you believe in most of what the Bible says about the ultimate future, it hasn’t changed your life. You really don’t handle suffering or death or other things any differently than other people. Why would that be?
The answer is because it’s not simply the doctrine of Christian hope, it’s not just the cognitive belief that changes us. It’s the experience of hope.
Let’s look at 1) the promise of this experience, 2) the sources of this experience, and 3) how we get it.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 28, 2004. Series: Living in Hope. Scripture: Ephesians 3:14-21, 1 John 3:1-3.
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.

Nobody has ever asked me to preach on hope, except my wife, who asked me to do this whole series. The reason people don’t ask me to preach on hope is we underestimate tremendously what really is the engine of our lives. How you live now is completely determined by your believed-in future.
We’re going to look at what Christian hope is and how it is the great life-changing dynamic in the Christian life.
Let’s notice what Ephesians 1 tells us about 1) the importance of hope, 2) the content of hope, and 3) how to get it.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 21, 2004. Series: Living in Hope. Scripture: Ephesians 1:13-23.
Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

All four of the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) tell us that the women followers of Jesus on Easter Sunday morning found the tomb empty and heard a message from the angel.
Of those four accounts, Mark’s is the shortest. In two wonderful verses, we have the entirety of the life-changing message of the resurrection, of Easter.
There are three aspects to this message: 1) there is a word of challenge to change your mind, 2) there is a word of grace to change your heart, and 3) there is a word of mission to change the whole course and shape of your life in the world.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 8, 2007. Series: King's Cross: The Gospel of Mark, Part 2: The Journey to the Cross. Scripture: Mark 16:1-8.
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 the burial of Jesus, we see three classes of people who are brought together by the death of Jesus.
There is the Roman centurion, who is a pagan. There are the women who stay with Jesus all through this time. And there’s Joseph of Arimathea, who is a member of the Sanhedrin, a Pharisee, a member of the ruling party. Women, pagans, Pharisees—three groups of people who don’t usually hang out together. Yet something has brought them together. These are three groups all making positive responses to the death of Jesus.
What we learn here is 1) the world we all want, 2) the change we need, and 3) how we can get it.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 1, 2007. Series: King's Cross: The Gospel of Mark, Part 2: The Journey to the Cross. Scripture: Mark 15:39-47.
Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

At the actual moment of Jesus’ death, an inexplicable, mysterious darkness comes down. From noon to 3:00 PM, it was absolutely dark.
This is an inexplicable darkness. A solar eclipse does not create absolute darkness for more than a few minutes. Besides that, a solar eclipse can’t happen during a full moon, and it was Passover, which is a time of a full moon. Beyond that, it was the wet season, so you can’t attribute it to a desert wind storm. This is a supernatural darkness, and therefore it means something.
But what? What does it signify? I think we’ll see that it signifies 1) the darkness we have, 2) the darkness Jesus received, and 3) how Jesus’ darkness can dispel our darkness.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 25, 2007. Series: King's Cross: The Gospel of Mark, Part 2: The Journey to the Cross. Scripture: Mark 15:33-39.
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 first half of the crucifixion account, there’s a theme. That theme is the fact that Jesus is mocked, insulted, jeered at, laughed at, humiliated, and shamed.
The soldiers are jeering at him, spitting on him. He is stripped naked and crucified naked. The passersby are insulting him. The religious leaders are mocking him. And at the very end, even the thieves on the crosses beside him are making fun of him, insulting him.
Jesus didn’t only get killed on the cross—he also got shamed and humiliated. This is important because it teaches us three things: 1) the mocking tells us about our own hearts, 2) the mocking reveals Jesus’ heart, and 3) if we let it, the mocking can change our hearts so ours become like his. 
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 18, 2007. Series: King's Cross: The Gospel of Mark, Part 2: The Journey to the Cross. Scripture: Mark 15:16-32.
Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

For the first time, in Mark 15, we have Jesus in front of the political establishment, the Roman state. So we have to ask the question, “What is the relationship of Jesus to politics, of Christianity to the government?”
Pilate asks three questions. He asks Jesus, “Are you king of the Jews?” and, “Why aren’t you fighting back?” Then he asks the crowd, “What shall we do with the king?” The answers to these three questions are a lens by which to explore the relationship of Christianity to politics.
These three answers are 1) the ambiguity answer, 2) the revolutionary answer, and 3) the substitutionary answer. 
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 11, 2007. Series: King's Cross: The Gospel of Mark, Part 2: The Journey to the Cross. Scripture: Mark 15:1-15.
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.

The story of Peter’s denial and the story of Jesus’ arrest and trial are intertwined in Mark 14. We’re meant to compare these two stories. Peter is on trial, just like Jesus. Peter is being questioned, just like Jesus.
The question is being put in front of us: do you have what it takes to be a person of truth, of integrity, who does the right thing, who stands up for justice, who tells the truth in general and the truth about Jesus in particular, regardless of what it costs you? According to this passage, no, you don’t have what it takes—but you can get it.
We learn here 1) how Peter failed to be a true witness, 2) how Peter was healed and succeeded in being a true witness, and 3) how that happened.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 4, 2007. Series: King's Cross: The Gospel of Mark, Part 2: The Journey to the Cross. Scripture: Mark 14:29-31, 53-54, 66-72.
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 final days of Jesus’ life on earth. And in Mark 14, Jesus is on trial.
There’s nothing more dramatic than to be on trial for your life. And there’s no more dramatic moment in a trial than when the defendant is called to testify on the witness stand. And there perhaps has never been a more dramatic and shocking testimony given on a witness stand than the one Jesus Christ gives.
In this passage, we see 1) that Jesus is the judge, 2) that Jesus is the judge who was judged, and 3) if we understand those two things together, it’ll change our lives.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 25, 2007. Series: King's Cross: The Gospel of Mark, Part 2: The Journey to the Cross. Scripture: Mark 14:53-65.
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.

As we look at the last part of Jesus’ life, we come to this scene: his arrest. In it, Jesus makes a big deal about them coming for him with swords and clubs.
What we have here is a clash between two kingdoms, two administrations of reality, two sets of priorities and values. We have the right-side-up kingdom of this world and the upside-down kingdom of Jesus and of God.
In this passage in Mark 14 we see, 1) Judas shows us the kingdom of this world, 2) Peter shows us the difficulty of living in the kingdom of Jesus, and 3) the mysterious young man gives us insights into how we get the power to live in Jesus’ kingdom.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 18, 2007. Series: King's Cross: The Gospel of Mark, Part 2: The Journey to the Cross. Scripture: Mark 14:43-52.
Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

If you read the rest of the life of Jesus, he’s totally unflappable, but in the garden of Gethsemane, as he faces his imminent death, it says he’s astonished and overcome with horror. The fact that Jesus struggles with his death is not only unique in ancient history, it’s actually almost unique in church history itself.
This passage in Mark 14 helps us 1) see that it all really happened, 2) understand we have a culture, 3) come to grips with the wrath of God, 4) discover a way to deal with trouble and suffering, and 5) get the power to use that method.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 11, 2007. Series: King's Cross: The Gospel of Mark, Part 2: The Journey to the Cross. Scripture: Mark 14:32-42.
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 special episode, Susan Nacorda Stang interviews Tim about his book, Hope in Times of Fear. 
The interview was recorded prior to the book's release in March 2021.

Confucius, Muhammad, Buddha, Moses—they all died in old age, in comfort and blessedness, triumphant over their opponents. Of all the founders of major religions, Jesus alone died alone, young, stripped naked, stared at, mocked, while he died by inches in agony, crying out to God who had forsaken him.
Who, hearing that story, would say, “That’s the spiritual leader I want”? And yet, the suffering and death of Jesus Christ transformed lives at a depth and on a scale that completely changed the ancient world. People’s lives were changed if they grasped the understanding of Jesus’ death that he gave at the Last Supper. So what did Jesus say?
There are three things we see here: 1) the importance of his death, 2) the meaning of his death, and 3) how it can be a transforming power in your life.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 4, 2007. Series: King's Cross: The Gospel of Mark, Part 2: The Journey to the Cross. Scripture: Mark 14:22-31.
Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

In Mark 14, Jesus predicts his betrayal by one disciple, and he predicts the defection and the failure of all the disciples. So what are we supposed to learn from this?
Even though it will be relevant to everybody, this passage is particularly meant for people who think they are Jesus’ friends, people who think they’re pretty close to him, people who feel they’re really following him, people who even would consider themselves the leaders of the Christian movement.
This passage teaches us about 1) the breadth of sin, 2) the depth of sin, and 3) how to overcome it.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 28, 2007. Series: King's Cross: The Gospel of Mark, Part 2: The Journey to the Cross. Scripture: Mark 14:12-21, 27-28.
Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

It’s very clear what Jesus Christ came to do. He came to die. That sets him apart from the founders of every other major religion. They came to live and be an example. He came to die.
Most of the people in the world fall into one of two categories with regard to the cross of Jesus. Many people struggle too much with the cross, because they find it offensive and nonsensical. Many other people struggle too little with the cross. They think they believe it, but it’s not changing their life at all.
Mark 10 speaks to both groups. There are two things it shows us: 1) why Jesus came to die, and 2) how that should change us from the inside out.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 14, 2007. Series: King's Cross: The Gospel of Mark, Part 2: The Journey to the Cross. Scripture: Mark 10:32-45.
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.