Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life

What we’re going to do is look at the question–who is Jesus Christ?

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is both intellectually credible and existentially satisfying. I’ve come to see over the years that those are the two tests of any valid worldview, philosophy or religion. It has to be both rational, coherent, and it has to be true. It has to meet my needs. It has to connect with my experience.

Don’t come to Christianity because it’s relevant–though, it certainly is. Don’t come to Christianity because it’s exciting–though, absolutely, it is. Don’t come to Christianity because it’ll meet your needs–though, it certainly will. Come because it’s true. And because it’s true, it’ll meet your needs, it’s exciting, and it’s relevant.

This talk was given by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 1, 1994 as part of the Redeemer Open Forum series. Open Forums were specifically designed for skeptics or those wrestling with the claims of Christianity.

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.

Miguel de Cervantes, Albert Camus, Aldous Huxley, Tolstoy, Voltaire, Shakespeare, Jesus Christ–they all know the average person is so busy in both work and play that you go years and years without asking yourself, “What is my reason for doing all this? What is my reason for life? What’s my whole life about?” Put another way: “When all is said and done, what will I have really accomplished?”

Do you want freedom? The great thinkers will say that if you want absolute freedom to live your life the way you want, you have to admit the utter meaninglessness of life. If you want complete freedom, you must face utter meaninglessness. That’s the first point.

The second point is nobody can live that way. To really believe life is meaningless gets you into convolutions that are emotional, psychological, logical, philosophical. You can’t even live that way, because life does have meaning. Let me argue that both freedom and meaning are found in Jesus Christ.

This talk was given by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 27, 1994 as part of the Redeemer Open Forum series. Open Forums were specifically designed for skeptics or those wrestling with the claims of Christianity.

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.

Every week, we’re taking one of the things that in our culture troubles people the most about Christianity. We’re now going to look at the Christian teaching that God is a judge and a judge who consigns people to hell.

Someone says, “How can you possibly reconcile the concept of judgment and hell with the idea of a loving God? They just don’t go together.” What do we say about that? I’d like to argue that understanding what the Bible says about hell is crucial for understanding your own heart, for living in peace in the world, and for knowing the love of God.

This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 22, 2006. Series "The Trouble with Christianity: Why it's so Hard to Believe it". Scripture: Luke 16:19-31; Romans 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 https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

We’re in a series taking the things that people in our culture (especially in New York City) are troubled by with regard to Christianity. This time, the objection could be put like this. The Christian church has a long history of oppression, and people acting in the name of Jesus Christ have engaged in systemic, economic, and cultural oppression of various races and classes. Therefore, the beliefs of Christianity are not credible and we shouldn’t believe them.

What do we say to this? Here’s three things we can learn from the book of James that address the problem. First, the passage will teach us the biblical God actually chooses the poor and the oppressed. Secondly, anyone with a true spiritual connection to that God inevitably does the same. Thirdly, we will learn how we can make that connection.

This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 15, 2006. Series "The Trouble with Christianity: Why it's so Hard to Believe it". Scripture: James 2:1-17.

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’re looking at the things that trouble people the most about Christianity. Now, we come to one that could be put like this: “Christians believe they have absolute truth. They have some things everyone should believe and everyone should do. But people who have absolute truth,” the objection goes, “undermine freedom. They tend to oppress people who are different than they are and impose their views on others. Everyone should be free to determine their own truth and what is right or wrong for them.”

What do we say to that? There are three things to say. Truth is a lot more important than you would think, freedom is a lot more complex than you would think, and Jesus is a lot more liberating than you think. Those principles are found in this passage. Let’s look at them.

This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 8, 2006. Series "The Trouble with Christianity: Why it's so Hard to Believe it". Scripture: Galatians 2:4-16.

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.

“The end is near. Therefore, be clear minded, sober, love one another, serve.” Let’s look at what this verse teaches in both its form and its content, because it’s very striking and very practical.

This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 24, 1994. Series "Splendor in the Furnace; 1 Peter, Part 2". Scripture: 1 Peter 4:7-11.

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.

To the world, the ways in which Christians behave will not just look different; it will look crazy. Peter says that you will be looked upon as extremely strange, going against nature even, in many ways. As a result, you’re going to have lots of abuse heaped on you.

Inside the Christian faith, you can often see how obvious it is that we should live in certain ways. But outside of the Christian faith, the world has a whole different plausibility structure and set of assumptions. Therefore, the way Christians act looks absolutely berserk, absolutely bizarre, strange, and crazy.

But Peter says, “You live according to the will of God.” And the question immediately arises–how do you do that? How can you live a life like that in the face of not just a kind of abuse, but really, a war of plausibility structures?

This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 17, 1994. Series "Splendor in the Furnace; 1 Peter, Part 2". Scripture: 1 Peter 4:1-6.

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

1 Peter is about how we can live in such a way that the trouble and pain and suffering that inevitably comes into our lives will not crush us or make us weaker things, but instead make us stronger–refine our character, turn us into great people. How does that happen? How can the sufferings of life actually become tools that hone you and polish you and refine you?

What we need is right here in verse 16: “Be ye holy; for I am holy.” That’s the heart of this passage. First of all, it teaches us God is holy. Secondly, it teaches us we can be holy. Thirdly, we can be holy because God is holy. No hope otherwise.

This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 17, 1993. Series "Splendor in the Furnace; 1 Peter, Part 1". Scripture: 1 Peter 1:13-21.

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

The theme of the whole book of 1 Peter is about how a Christian can face troubles and suffering in such a way that it turns us into something splendid, instead of crushing us.

In the Christian life, suffering and glory are inextricably bound up together, because our great forerunner, our great pioneer and savior Jesus Christ, came to glory through suffering. As a result, that is the pattern for all of us. Suffering and glory are bound together.

This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 26, 1993. Series "Splendor in the Furnace; 1 Peter, Part 1". Scripture: 1 Peter 1:6-9.

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

We’ve seen that Job is a devout believer in God, a pillar of his community, and suddenly and inexplicably everything is taken away from him–his wealth, health, family–and he’s plunged into darkness. In this middle part of the book, there are these long speeches by Job, and true to reality, most of the time he’s basically expressing confusion and anger.

Then in this passage, Job wrestles through to a couple of high points of remarkable faith and insight. What we see here is Job coming to grips with three resources that everywhere in the Bible we are told Christians have in order to face suffering. Everywhere from the Old Testament to the New Testament, we’re told Christians have these three resources in order to face suffering: to know the comfort of the presence, to know the challenge of the glory, and the joy of the resurrection.

This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 20, 2008. Series "Job - A Path Through Suffering". Scripture: Job 13:20-24; 14:7-17.

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.