Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life

Jonah believes in love in general. But he doesn’t understand how God’s love actually operates.

If it’s possible that you stand where Jonah stood, then chapter 4 is critical because God gives Jonah an answer. And his answer shows that God’s love, like God, is a fire. The strange thing about fire is that, on the one hand, it’s life-giving and warming, but on the other hand, it’s dangerous, consuming, and purifying.

This text shows us two things: 1) God’s love is refining fire, and 2) God’s love is a seeking fire.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 16, 1990. Series: Jonah. Scripture: Jonah 4:1-10.

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 https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

How can we explain Jonah’s mood swings, his tremendous emotional instability, how he’s able to praise God and just a few days later say he’s angry enough to die? The answer is a divided heart.

To put it another way, Jonah believed in and served the true God, but he also believed and served a rival god. As a result, his heart was divided. And divided hearts create the kind of misery and drive we see in Jonah. So we must ask, is it possible that our own instabilities are due to a divided heart?

Let’s ask two questions of this text: 1) what is a divided heart? and 2) how do we solve it?

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 2, 1990. Series: Jonah. Scripture: Jonah 4:1-10.

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 https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Do artists get exceedingly angry when their art is chosen for display at the Met? No! So why would Jonah get exceedingly angry when, in response to his preaching, the Ninevites actually turn away from violence and turn to the living God? 

The answer has to do with the love of God. The incredible collapse of Jonah is because he misunderstands God’s love. And the collapses in our lives may very well have the same roots. So let’s look now at how God’s love is a patient love. 

Let’s ask two questions: 1) why is God’s patient love not more operative and powerful in our lives? and 2) how can God’s patient love be more operative and powerful in our lives?

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 2, 1990. Series: Jonah. Scripture: Jonah 4:1-10.

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 https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Nineveh was the greatest city the world had seen at its time. And yet, God decides to besiege it and sack it with an army of one. How did he do it? He did it by turning one person, Jonah, into a world-changer.

Are you an army of one? You have people all around you who need you, people all around you who are dying, and you see it. How could you become a world-changer like Jonah?

There are four things God brought to bear on Jonah that made him into a world-changer: 1) God’s persistent grace, 2) God’s calling, 3) God’s strategy, and 4) God’s power.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on August 26, 1990. Series: Jonah. Scripture: Jonah 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.

How did Jonah, who was in utter despair, fear, and rebellion, come to be in a position of triumphant faith by the end of his prayer?

Faith is not a talent. Faith is being controlled by the promises of God instead of your own impressions. If we look at the phenomenon of Jonah’s prayer itself, we will find how we too can respond to any situation in faith and come up through the waves and breakers onto dry land.

Jonah exercised his faith in three stages: 1) he calls, 2) he remembers, and 3) he commits or sacrifices.  

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on August 19, 1990. Series: Jonah. Scripture: Jonah 2:1-10.

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 https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

If it’s true that Jonah, a person who got direct revelation from God, can be blind to grace to the point where it distorts his very life, it’s even more likely that all of us, to one degree or another, are also blind to it. 

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on August 12, 1990. Series: Jonah. Scripture: Jonah 2:1-10.

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 https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

There’s a subplot in the book Jonah: it’s Jonah’s impact on the sailors and their impact on him.

Do you see the exquisite irony here? Jonah runs away because he hates the dirty pagan Ninevites. He doesn’t think they can change and he doesn’t care enough to want them to change. But then, Jonah ends up sacrificing himself for dirty pagan sailors. The very truth missing from Jonah’s mind and heart is imparted even as God seeks him.

Let’s see what this shows us about how we should regard the world. Here is what the sailors teach us: 1) every human being has a deep, spiritual longing, but 2) in our natural state our deep, spiritual longings are distorted by fear.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on August 5, 1990. Series: Jonah. Scripture: Jonah 1:4-16.

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 https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Until you admit that you run from God, you can’t know him or find him. You’re not just a troubled person. You’re not just a hurting person. You’re not a self-sufficient person. Primarily, you’re running. 

Every one of us has unique, habitual ways of hiding and running away from God. Until you know what yours are, until you see them, you can’t really grow as a Christian. And that’s what the book of Jonah is about: it’s about Jonah running and God chasing.

Let’s look at 1) the storm God sent and 2) Jonah’s response to the storm.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on July 29, 1990. Series: Jonah. Scripture: Jonah 1:1-17.

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 https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

We all run away from God. It’s in our nature. And the book of Jonah is all about Jonah running and God pursuing.

Most of us are familiar with the words sin and grace, but what they mean is another thing. And here it is: essentially sin is running away from God, and grace is God’s effort to pursue and intercept self-destructive behavior. That’s it. Running and chasing. And the first step in any relationship with God is to admit you’ve run and that even now, to some degree, you’re running.

So let’s look now at how 1) Jonah is called to do something, 2) Jonah runs away from it, and 3) God pursues him.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on July 22, 1990. Series: Jonah. Scripture: Jonah 1:1-10.

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 https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

The point of Galatians is that Christians need the gospel, continually. So let’s bring the gospel to a subject that’s very relevant for us: self-image and self-esteem.

Christianity brings you a way of understanding yourself that is so different than what anything else brings you. And it’s a paradox. In Galatians 6, Paul says we’re nothing, and then, in the next verse, he says we should take pride in ourselves. What’s going on here?

Let’s take a look at the two sides: 1) we’re nothing, and 2) we should have pride.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 10, 1998. Series: Galatians: New Freedom, New Family. Scripture: Galatians 5:26-6:5.

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.