Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life

In chapter 2, John puts the changing of water into wine at the wedding and the cleansing of the temple together. He sticks them together, even though on the surface, they look utterly different.
In the wedding feast, you have Jesus acting quietly, hidden, privately. Here in the cleansing of the temple, you have him public and dramatic. There, he was requested. He was asked in. Here, he goes where no one has asked him to go. He intrudes. He intervenes. At the wedding, he brings joy and laughter. Here, he brings weeping and gnashing of teeth.
If Jesus Christ comes into your life, he will sometimes fill your table with a feast and other times, he will turn your table over and spill everything on the ground. These passages show us the authority of who he is, they show us the purpose of what he does, and then they show us the glory of what he brings.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 24, 1996. Series "The Real Jesus Part 2; His Life". Scripture: John 2:12-25.
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 gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Jesus’ first miracle was not just a miracle, but a miraculous sign. It was an acted-out picture of who Jesus is and everything Christianity is. His inaugural event was not walking on water or raising somebody from the dead. Instead, what you have here is not a very big deal. A party looks like it’s going to go two days instead of three days. Wow. What a shame.
Why did Jesus do this miracle? Why was this the first one? How does this reveal his glory? If you ask that question, there’s so much in it. You have the whole nine yards here: who he came to be, what he came to do, what he has to offer, and how we can receive it.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 17, 1996. Series "The Real Jesus Part 2; His Life". Scripture: John 2:1-11; Isaiah 25:6-8; Revelation 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 gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

True Christianity is a fight. Anyone who offers you a Christianity without tears is not giving you good money; it’s counterfeit. Anybody who says, “If you receive the baptism of the Spirit, your problems are over; if you receive the voice of assurance down on your heart, if you receive the sense God is pleased with you, that’s the end of conflict, strife, temptation,” that person is not offering you the real thing.
There are three things we learn about the fight right here. Who’s the enemy? Where’s the front? What are the weapons?
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 10, 1996. Series "The Real Jesus Part 2; His Life". Scripture: Matthew 3:13-4:11.
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 gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

On Pentecost, the first day of the Christian church, when Saint Peter was preaching the very first Christian sermon, after he got through the introduction, the main text he preached on was Psalm 16. His message was that Jesus Christ is risen. If Psalm 16 was a good enough Easter text for Saint Peter, it ought to be good enough for you.
What does Psalm 16 tell us on Easter day? Essentially it tells us two things. It’s still a psalm of David. David wrote it, and in the beginning you can see he’s crying out for something. He’s crying out for a refuge. He’s crying out for safety, a refuge, which cannot be shaken. What the psalm is going to help us understand is why we need a refuge that cannot be shaken and how we can get a refuge that cannot be shaken.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 5, 2015. Series "Pilgrim Prayer: Psalms for the Journey". Scripture: Psalm 16:1-11.
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 gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Psalm 110 is unbelievably rich, but it’s not all that well known. Did you know that the New Testament writers quote this psalm more than any other passage in the Old Testament? Jesus forcefully used this psalm to explain to people who he was. Furthermore, the first Christian sermon was preached on this psalm.
The psalm talks about some person who combines excellencies, who combines traits that ordinarily would never be combined in a single figure. It’s talking about a king, but specifically a divine and human king, a strong but weak king–and therefore a transforming, beautiful king.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 29, 2015. Series "Pilgrim Prayer: Psalms for the Journey". Scripture: Psalm 110:1-7.
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 gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

We’re going to look at one of the key conundrums in the Bible. And if we understand it, we’re going to be able to understand a lot of the Bible. It’s also a conundrum in human thought, and it’s part of the human condition. You see it in this passage, where it says, “He comes to judge the earth.” Everybody is exalting, clapping their hands, singing together for joy. Why? Because God is coming to judge.
No one is ever happy in a courtroom. So what in the world is going on here? We’re talking about judgment day, the final judgment of the earth, and it’s a time of joy. How does that work? Let’s look at the promise of judgment, the problem of judgment, and God’s provision for judgment that makes judgment a promise and not just a threat.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 22, 2015. Series "Pilgrim Prayer: Psalms for the Journey". Scripture: Psalm 98:1-9.
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 gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

No matter how savvy you are, no matter how much planning you do, no matter how powerful or successful you are, there’s no way to stop times of difficulty from coming into your life. They will come into your life.
So how do you get peace and poise in your heart in the face of a world like this? That’s the question that this psalm is about. It starts off by making a remarkable promise in the first four verses. There’s a claim and there’s a misunderstanding of the claim. And finally, we’ll see how we can take hold of the claim in such a way that we enter into the peace that’s offered.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 15, 2015. Series "Pilgrim Prayer: Psalms for the Journey". Scripture: Psalm 91:1-16.
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 gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Psalms 42 and 43 talk about how to deal with being downcast, how to deal with being despondent, in despair, in darkness. Everybody needs this throughout life. No matter who we are, we all go through these times.
Let’s notice that there’s a condition described, then there are causes diagnosed, and then finally, there’s a cure prescribed. There’s the condition of being downcast. It’s described. Then the psalm actually gives you some idea about the causes of the condition, and then finally gives you three extraordinarily practical cures.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 8, 2015. Series "Pilgrim Prayer: Psalms for the Journey". 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 gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

The way the word “sin” hits modern people’s ears, it either makes us laugh or shudder. We laugh, because, generally speaking, the word sin is usually used in modern public discourse in a lighthearted, ironic way. But we don’t like to talk about sin seriously. When anyone uses the word sin like I am now, people get very nervous.
Yet the Bible says there’s nothing more important for practical living than for you to understand the concept of sin generally, and your sins in particular. Let’s take a look at this psalm, which will teach us three things about the subject of sin: the poisonous reality, the treatment, and the antidote.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 22, 2015. Series "Pilgrim Prayer: Psalms for the Journey". 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 gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

What we try to do during the Easter season is turn our minds toward what Jesus did, why he did it, and the meaning of what he did in Gethsemane, on the hill of Calvary, in the tomb. One of the things, among many, that it means is what we see here in Psalm 51.
Psalm 51 and the story around it tells us that no matter how much you blow up your life, it can be repaired. No matter how far you fall, you can be brought up. No matter how deeply broken, you can be made whole, because of what Jesus did.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 31, 1996. Series "The Faces of Sin". Scripture: Psalm 51.
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 gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

The gospel is only an implicit, untapped power in your life until it’s released in power through repentance. For the changes you want, the changes you seek, the changes you need–the secret is repentance.
This passage is perhaps the classic and the greatest passage in all of the Bible on this wonderful theme: repentance. What is repentance? We don’t know how to do it because we think we know how to do it already. So let’s take a look at it.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 24, 1996. Series "The Faces of Sin". Scripture: Psalm 51:1-10.
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 gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

The Bible says human hearts are sinful, but beyond that we’re slaves to sin. The Bible says sin is not just an action; it’s a power. Every sinful action has a destructive power upon the faculty that put that action forth.
In other words, when you sin with the mind, that sin shrivels the rationality. When you sin with the emotions, that sin shrivels the emotions. When you sin with the will, that sin destroys and dissolves your willpower and your self-control. Sin is the destructive action of the self against itself. Sin destroys freedom. Sin is an enslaving power. It shrivels us up.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 17, 1996. Series "The Faces of Sin". Scripture: Numbers 11:4-6,10-20; Romans 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 gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

In the narrative we’re looking at, Naaman continually seeks to go to kings, but God insists on continually speaking to Naaman only and exclusively through slaves. Naaman is continually going to “somebodies,” and God insists on speaking to him through “nobodies.”
What does that mean? What does that tell us about ourselves? What does that tell us about God?
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 10, 1996. Series "The Faces of Sin". Scripture: 2 Kings 5:5-17.
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 gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

What is the problem with the human race? Why do we have the problems we have? The Bible says the answer is a disorder of the human heart, a dislocation of the soul called sin.
The account we’re looking at is one of the most wonderful illustrations in all of the Bible about what the Bible has to say about the nature of the problem and the cure for it. Let’s look at it under three headings. First, the text tells us what Naaman really needed the cure for, secondly, what the nature of his cure was, and thirdly, how we know he was indeed cured.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 3, 1996. Series "The Faces of Sin". Scripture: Kings 5:5-17.
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 gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

The message of Jonah is about a moral, orthodox, religious man, who in the end is more a slave of sin than the debauched pagans to which he has gone. Unless you understand the essential spirit of sin, and that a very religious or moral person can be more bound by it than an irreligious or skeptical person, it’s going to defeat you.
What does Jonah teach us about sin? First of all, it teaches us God goes to Jonah and shows him two symptoms that reveal there’s something morally disordered, something wrong with his heart. Then he gives him the diagnosis of his sin. And then finally, we’ll see God’s therapy for it.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 25, 1996. Series "The Faces of Sin". Scripture: Jonah 2:7-3:5;3:10-4:11.
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 gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

We’re going to take a look at a passage that tells us about sin, a picture of two trees. This text is about how to deal with your anxiety and worries. Jeremiah is claiming to have the secret.
Jeremiah says, “I’ll tell you about worries and how to deal with worries, but first you have to let me tell you about the nature of sin.” Let’s see what this picture of two trees tells us about sin. It tells us about the root, the fruit, and the cure for sin.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 11, 1996. Series "The Faces of Sin". Scripture: Jeremiah 17:5-13.
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 gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

The biblical teaching about sin is one of the strongest arguments for the truth of Christianity that there is. There have been many thoughtful people who abandoned Christianity, abandoned religion, but were pushed back and embraced the faith because there was nothing else except the religious idea of sin that, when they actually saw human evil up close, could account for human history and human behavior.
And yet, if there is a lack of joy in your life today, if the thought of Jesus dying for you does not revolutionize you, does not transfix you, does not transform you, do you know what the main reason for that is? You have not seen how deep he went to pay for you. You don’t know how far he has brought you. You don’t know the seriousness and the depth of your sin.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 4, 1996. Series "The Faces of Sin". Scripture: Mark 7:25-30; 8:11-17.
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 gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

What’s wrong with us, the human race? The answer of the Bible is all of our sociological and psychological problems are theological problems, and the only answer that possibly gets underneath all of these other semi-answers is the real problem of sin.
We now look at what I’m going to call our capacity for self-deception. What is the capacity for self-deception? It’s the almost infinite ability of the human heart to hide the truth from itself when that truth is too unpleasant or uncomfortable. Self-deception is not the worst thing we do, but it’s the reason we can do the worst things.
There’s no better example of the tragedy of self-deception and the dynamics of it than this tragic story of Saul, the first king of Israel. This text tells us about the fact of self-deception, the structure of self-deception, and a prescription for the healing of it.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 28, 1996. Series "The Faces of Sin". Scripture: 1 Samuel 15:12-23.
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 gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

What’s wrong with us? What’s wrong with the human race? If you don’t ask that question, if that question doesn’t burn in your heart, your head is in the sand. The answer the Bible gives us to this question is that it is, to a great degree, a problem of underestimation.
God says, first of all, that sin hides itself. It crouches. Secondly, that sin is tremendously powerful. It will have you. Thirdly, we’re told about hope. You must master it. It tells us about the hiddenness of sin, about the power of sin, and that there’s a hope for the defeat of sin.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 21, 1996. Series "The Faces of Sin". Scripture: Genesis 4:3-15; Hebrews 12:24.
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 gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

[NOTE: This message was recorded on cassette tape in 1990, therefore the audio quality is subpar in some portions of the recording.]
Paul says that if you want to understand the Bible, you need to realize that everything is about Jesus. He says it’s written not just for them, but it’s written for us, on whom the end of the ages has come.
This passage teaches us three things. The world is a wilderness. God has opened a fountain for people in the wilderness. And this fountain is only available because God himself entered the wilderness and received our punishment.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on June 24, 1990. Series "Growth in Christ, Part 2". Scripture: Exodus 17:1-17; 1 Corinthians 10:2-4.
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 gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.