Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life

What we have here is the story of Jesus’ triumphal entry. We’re going to see three things in this passage about the kingship of Christ. First of all, we learn here the confrontational nature of the kingship of Christ; secondly, the paradoxical nature; and thirdly, the transformational nature. Confrontational: “… your king …” Paradoxical: “… your king comes, gentle …” Transformational: “But he is coming. He is on the way.”
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 2, 1997. Series "The Real Jesus Part 3; The King". Scripture: Matthew 21:1-17; Acts 19:13-16; Revelation 3:15-16.
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.

In this passage, the religious leaders want Jesus dead, but in order to make this happen, they have to take him to the political leaders. So they come and they say, “This man is a political leader. He threatens your political power. So we have a question.” The question is put directly to Jesus by Pilate. And that question is this: What are your politics, Jesus?
For years, I was always frustrated with Jesus’ answer, because it is a very ambiguous one. I always found it maddeningly ambiguous, but today I can come before you and say it is beautifully, wisely, profoundly ambiguous. As a result, we have some work to do. We have to do some reflection.
When Jesus gives a deliberately, wisely ambiguous answer, he would only ever do that because any other answer would be far more confusing, far more pathological, and far more deadly. Jesus is not just playing hard to get; he is trying to bring us to the truth. So let’s take a look first of all at what this tremendously ambiguous answer is.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 23, 1997. Series "The Real Jesus Part 2; His Life". Scripture: Luke 23:1-25.
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.

This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 16, 1997. Series "The Real Jesus Part 2; His Life". Scripture: Mark 7:1-23.
Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

 
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 9, 1997. Series "The Real Jesus Part 2; His Life". Scripture: Luke 10:38-11:13.
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.

What we’ve been trying to do is find who the real Jesus is. And most of us, when we read these passages about Jesus casting out demons, say, “Ah, yes. The gospel writers and Jesus were men of their time. They didn’t understand what we understand now–viruses, the bases for diseases, mental illnesses. That’s why they attributed these things to devils and demons.”
But both the gospel writers and Jesus understood there was paralysis, madness, and ailments of a kind that had a demonical base and a kind that did not. Jesus Christ did not believe in demon possession out of ignorance, but out of conviction. If you screen these things out, you won’t understand who the real Jesus is and you’ll miss very important, profound insights these passages give you for living your life. This passage teaches us at least three things about evil–the power of evil, the pattern of evil and the pattern of healing.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 2, 1997. Series "The Real Jesus Part 2; His Life". Scripture: Mark 5:1-20.
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.

Between the events in the very beginning of Jesus’ life and the events at the very end of his life, you mainly have a series of personal encounters. In this passage, Jesus encounters a man and a woman who are both serious spiritual seekers. But we see at the end that Jesus Christ rebukes him, but welcomes her.
In the very beginning of the passage, we see they respond to Jesus in two different ways. In the middle, we see through Jesus’ parable that the two responses to Jesus derive from two different understandings of Jesus. Then at the very end we see the two different understandings of Jesus result in two different responses from him.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 26, 1997. Series "The Real Jesus Part 2; His Life". Scripture: Luke 7:36-50.
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.

There is absolutely no better place anywhere in the Bible that depicts Jesus as Immanuel, as God with us, as God truly with us in our condition as this passage. We’re going to see who Jesus is and what he came to do.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 8, 1996. Series "The Real Jesus Part 2; His Life". Scripture: John 11:32-44.
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.

Though there may have been other occasions, the only time we know of that Jesus ever left his country, ever left the boundaries of Israel is here in Mark 7.
He did so for a purpose, and he did so to teach us something. There are two stories: the healing of the little daughter and the healing of the deaf-mute. Let’s look at them and see what they teach us.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 1, 1996. Series "The Real Jesus Part 2; His Life". Scripture: Mark 7:24-37.
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 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.
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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.