Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life

What we’re looking at is not the moral behavior Christianity requires, and which to a great degree other religions require, but what we’re looking at is the supernaturally changed heart–the traits or characteristics of a new heart that only the gospel in its peculiar way of relating us to God can produce.
The trait we now come to is what the world calls tolerance. And we have to confront a very, very urgent question. The question is how should you relate, how can you relate to someone whose views and values and practices offend you, distress you? How can we relate to people with whom we deeply differ?
The world says we need to be tolerant, but I want to show you here that Paul says the mark of a supernaturally changed heart is to go way beyond tolerance. There’s something greater than tolerance, something I’m going to call gospel-receptivity–a loving, peaceful receptivity toward people with whom we deeply differ, which is different than tolerance. It’s better than it. It’s greater than it.
What is this receptivity, this receptive grace? Let’s figure out what it’s not, what it is, and how do we develop it.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 10, 2002. Series "Practical Grace; How the Gospel Transforms Character". Scripture: 1 Corinthians 8:4-11; Romans 15:1-7.
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’ve been talking about the fact that there’s a difference between a supernaturally changed heart and a morally restrained heart. The marks of a supernaturally changed heart are sometimes called the fruit of the Spirit. They’re listed a number of places in the New Testament. We now come to another trait or quality of a supernaturally changed heart: peace. In almost all the lists of these traits, it’s joy or peace.
I want to spend more of my time than I have the last couple of weeks on how to cultivate the trait, because the three disciplines of cultivation here don’t just work for peace. They really work for all of the character qualities we’re looking at. What I want to do is I want to look at what this supernatural peace is that’s available to us, and then secondly, how we can cultivate it.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 3, 2002. Series "Practical Grace; How the Gospel Transforms Character". Scripture: Colossians 3:1-15.
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 gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 27, 2002. Series "Practical Grace; How the Gospel Transforms Character". Scripture: Ephesians 4:29-5:2; John 15:12-15.
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 gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

In traditional moral training, how do we teach people to be honest? How do we encourage them not to lie? It goes something like this. We say, “Don’t lie, or you’ll get caught.” “Don’t lie, or society won’t work.” The more religious approach is, “Don’t lie, or God will punish you.”
Therefore, in traditional moral training, you’ve only restrained the heart, not fundamentally changed the heart. You haven’t changed its character. Instead of dealing with the roots of dishonesty, you’ve just jury-rigged it so it makes people honest. But it’s artificial and temporary. Only for a heart that feels absolutely loved is a lie unnecessary and therefore unnatural.
Therefore, it’s only an experience of grace of God through Jesus Christ that changes the heart rather than restrains the heart.
We’re looking at the marks of a supernaturally changed heart and how each one is cultivated in Christ. Paul makes a list of these marks of a supernaturally changed heart, and we now come to patience. So–why do we need patience? What is it? How do we get it?
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 20, 2002. Series "Practical Grace; How the Gospel Transforms Character". Scripture: Matthew 18:21-35; 1 Corinthians 13:4,6.
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 gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

In the first sermon of this series, we’re going to look at 1 Corinthians 13:1-8 and ask these questions: What is heart character? What is inner love and joy? What is the inner supernatural change in character that God can bring?
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 13, 2002. Series "Practical Grace; How the Gospel Transforms Character". Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13:1-8.
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 gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

The kingdom of God is the power of God to readminister your life, rearrange your life in all sorts of ways. We’ve been looking at some of them, and now we look at one last way.
He doesn’t just have you live upside-down and inside-out, but also forward-back. What does that mean? Let’s take a look and see what he teaches us about the power of the kingdom; the practices of the kingdom, and last of all, the provision of the kingdom.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 18, 2003. Series "The Meaning of Jesus Part 4; The Kingdom of God". Scripture: Luke 12:32-46.
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 continuing to look at the various themes of the gospel of Luke. We’ve been looking at how the gospel completely changes the way in which we live.
In this parable, Jesus introduces us to a universal problem, the problem of righteousness. He gives us two guys, each of which represents a particular solution to the problem–one solution which does not work, one which does. Problem; a solution that doesn’t work, the outside-in approach; and a solution that does work, the inside-out approach.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 11, 2003. Series "The Meaning of Jesus Part 4; The Kingdom of God". Scripture: Luke 18:9-14.
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 gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

We’ve been looking at the gospel of Luke, but we really can’t leave it unless we look at this theme that is all through the gospel of Luke and all through Jesus’ teaching … the kingdom of God. We really can’t leave until we understand better what that is, and it’s not easy to get that across. Many of you have heard the term kingdom of God for a long time, but can you put in a nutshell what it is? It’s not that easy.
One philosopher says a kingdom is the range of your effective will. If tonight somebody gets into your purse and takes something out or somebody gets into your backpack and takes something out, you’ll be outraged. Why? Because there has been an intrusion on your kingdom, on a place where the way you want things to be ought to reign supreme. There has been a violation of the range of your effective will.
What does it mean, then, to put yourself within the range of God’s effective will? What does it mean to put yourself under his effective will? That’s what we’re going to be looking at, and this particular parable tells us it means at least four things. To live in the kingdom of God is to get a lasting identity that goes on for eternity and is marked by astounding liberality. Finally, we have to ask, “How do we get that?”
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 4, 2003. Series "The Meaning of Jesus Part 4; The Kingdom of God". Scripture: Luke 16:19-31.
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I believe it’s in the crucifixion account that Luke comes to us and says, “I’ve given you all of this information, but how will you respond to it? I’ve given you this information, but how do you take it in?” When Jesus says, “Father, forgive them; they don’t know what they’re doing,” what he’s saying is, “Father, they’re looking right at me, and they don’t get it. They’re looking at what we’re doing, they’re looking at your salvation, they’re looking at the greatest thing that has ever happened in the history of the world, and they don’t get it.”
Here’s what Luke is asking. Do you get it? Luke is saying, “You have information, but is it real to you? Do you get it?” Everything you need to respond to Jesus in a life-transforming way is right here.
We see all of the people rejecting him, the whole sweep of humanity. We see both the leaders and the common people rejecting him. We see both the Jews and the Gentiles rejecting him. Everybody. Peppered through all this rejection are four parties who respond differently, and if we look at how they respond, we’ll learn how we should. Let’s notice three things: who gets Jesus, how they get Jesus, and why they (and, therefore, we) can get Jesus.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 27, 2003. Series "The Meaning of Jesus Part 4; The Kingdom of God". Scripture: Luke 23:33-56.
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 9 of Luke, Peter comes to realize, with the help of the Holy Spirit, that Jesus is not one more in a row of prophets and teachers and sages. He says, “You are the Christ of God. You are the Messiah. You are the one who is bringing the kingdom of God, the ruling, healing, power of God, come back into the world.”
What’s interesting is the minute his identity is revealed, he immediately begins to say, “Follow me.” Chapters 1 to 8 are all about, “Who is Jesus?” but we’re going to find chapters 9 through 18 are all about, “If he is this, what does it mean to follow him? If he is who he says he is, what does that make us? If he is that, what does it mean to follow him?” The word follow is the key word for the next nine chapters, and this chapter lays out the basics of it.
This chapter tells us what it means to be a disciple, in the most basic way. That’s what the whole passage is about, and there are three sections we’ve taken out of this chapter, three basic principles that will help us understand what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. It means setting a new priority, it means finding a new identity, and it means living a new mercy. All three are critical, and they all fit together.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 9, 2003. Series "The Meaning of Jesus Part 1; Understanding Him". Scripture: Luke 9:20-25; 51-62.
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If you read Matthew, Mark, and Luke, you’ll always find at the climactic, pivotal place in the narratives of each of those gospels, the transfiguration is the final answer to a question that is continually posed in each of their early chapters. That question is … Who is this? “Who is this, that the wind and seas obey him? Who is this who forgives sins?”
The transfiguration is the climactic answer in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. So to look at the transfiguration is one of the key ways you’re going to know who Jesus is, what he came to do, and how to connect to him.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 2, 2003. Series "The Meaning of Jesus Part 1; Understanding Him". Scripture: Luke 9:28-36.
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Jesus comes and heals what’s wrong within us and what’s wrong between us. We’ve talked about that previously. But now we ask, “What’s the ticket for that healing? How does that healing come into our lives?” The answer, of course, is a well-known answer. It’s faith, but what is faith? How does it come? How does it work?
This whole chapter is about that. The two people he mentions are at the extreme ends of the social spectrum in that time and place. You have a woman of the street. You have a Roman centurion. And yet, the bottom line of the very first story is great faith. And the bottom line of the second story in verse 50 is: “Your faith has saved you …”
In the strongest possible ways, Luke is saying, “No matter who you are, no matter what your condition, no matter what, faith is the key.” These stories, these accounts, have been given to us to teach us something about that faith. Here’s what we can learn. We can learn how it comes, what it is, and where it takes us.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 26, 2003. Series "The Meaning of Jesus Part 1; Understanding Him". Scripture: Luke 7:1-10, 36-50.
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In the first part of today's passage, Luke 6:12-36, Jesus tells us about the promise of a true human community. In the middle part of the passage, he tells us about the components of this true community. At the very end, he shows us where we get the power for it.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 19, 2003. Series "The Meaning of Jesus Part 1; Understanding Him". Scripture: Luke 6:12-36.
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 you get all the way through the first four chapters of Luke is that there’s a Savior coming, but he’s going to bring a salvation infinitely wider and deeper, more magnificent, and more multidimensional than anything anybody expected. Starting here in chapter 5, we have Luke spelling out what that is. These three incidents will show us how all-comprehensive and how multidimensional and full the salvation of Jesus is.
In the first incident we see Jesus’ salvation transforms our relationship to ourselves. In the second incident it shows us Jesus’ salvation transforms our relationships with others. Lastly, the third incident shows Jesus’ salvation transforms our relationship with God. It completely transforms us psychologically, sociologically, spiritually.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 5, 2003. Series "The Meaning of Jesus Part 1; Understanding Him". Scripture: Luke 5:4-26.
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Life is a fight. Life is a struggle. How are we going to survive, let alone triumph over that?
The answer is in this very famous passage from the Gospel of Luke on Jesus’ temptation. Let’s ask three questions that will help us handle the fights of life. When is the fight? Where is the front? What’s our hope?
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 22, 2012. Series "The Meaning of Jesus Part 1; Understanding Him". Scripture: Luke 2:34-35; 4:1-13.
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 spiritual challenge of studying the incarnation is to hear the life-shattering, life-changing, enormous truths through the familiar texts and phrases read at Christmastime.
But I would propose to you that you can still hear it. You can hear the claims of the doctrine of the incarnation, that God became in carne, in the flesh. God became human. The claim of that first gets in your face intellectually, then it gets in your heart transformationally. What do I mean by that? Let’s look.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 15, 2012. Series "The Meaning of Jesus Part 1; Understanding Him". Scripture: Luke 1:26-45.
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We’re looking at the life of Jesus in the book of Luke. We’ve said Luke claimed the things he was writing were true; they happened. That’s the first reason why anything is recorded in the gospel of Luke, because it actually happened. But there’s a second reason why he records these things. The second reason is that he wants us to have a relationship with God through Jesus.
Though Luke doesn’t record everything, everything he does record is there to teach us something about how to encounter Jesus, how to meet Jesus. These two incidents we’re reading, which are early in the life of Jesus and early in the gospel of Luke, have a common thread, and that is the sonship of Jesus.
We’re going to learn three things from these two incidents: the account of Jesus as a 12-year-old boy in the temple, and the account of the baptism of Jesus 18 years later, when he turns 30. We’re going to learn about the amazing sonship of the boy Jesus, the amazing sonship of the man Jesus, and the amazing sonship of the followers of Jesus.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 8, 2012. Series "The Meaning of Jesus Part 1; Understanding Him". Scripture: Luke 2:41-52; 3:22-23.
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Right from the start, Luke immediately deals with what the average educated person wonders about. If someone comes along and says, “I’m going to tell you the story of Jesus,” the first question that comes up is, “Where did you get your information? How do we know it’s reliable?”
If you begin to explore Christianity, the premise immediately comes up: the accounts of Jesus’ life in the Bible and in the Gospels are not reliable. They’re basically legends, and therefore, we can’t really know who Jesus is. It’s said that we can’t really know what Jesus said or what he claimed or what he did or who he was, at all.
But Luke immediately answers the question, immediately confronts it, in a remarkable way, and basically says here, “I’m going to tell you the true story of Jesus.” In that are our three points. The gospel is about Jesus. The gospel is true. The gospel is a story.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 1, 2012. Series "The Meaning of Jesus Part 1; Understanding Him". Scripture: Luke 1:1-4; 24:18-27.
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When you see the word guidance, most of the time in the Hebrew Bible it comes from a word for rope. It’s derived from the word for rope because ropes were the method of navigation for sailors in those days. You would use ropes to lower the sails when the wind was in your favor or to move the sails when the wind changed or to raise the sails and tie them up when a storm came up. Otherwise, you would be blown totally off course, so ropes were ways of navigating.
The question is … How do you get God’s guidance? How do you get God’s navigation, so when you have all these choices, you know the right course to take? How does that happen? We’ll find out by looking at these proverbs and understanding, first of all, the guidance God does; secondly, the guidance God gives; and thirdly, the guidance God purchases for us.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 12, 2004. Series "Proverbs: True Wisdom for Living". Scripture: Proverbs 11:3; 12:5,15; 15:22; 16:1-4,9,25,33; 21:5; 27:1.
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We all at certain times have a lot of trouble understanding and dealing with the very deep, conflicting, confusing, powerful, sometimes warring dynamic impulses and feelings that just roll through our hearts. Sometimes we don’t feel we have any power over it. We feel helpless, and we don’t know how we got to feeling like that. We know there’s something deeply wrong with it. We don’t know what to do about it.
We’re taking a look at what the book of Proverbs says about the complex realities of the inner being, the inner life, the psychological life. I’d like to look at the passage under four headings. Let’s see what we learn from these collected proverbs. You’re not going to be wise unless you understand the priority of the inner life, the complexity of the inner life, the solitude of the inner life, and the healing of the inner life.
This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 5, 2004. Series "Proverbs: True Wisdom for Living". Scripture: Proverbs 12:25; 13:12; 14:10,13,30; 15:4,13-14; 16:2; 18:14; 28:1.
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.