Gospel in Life

Guest (Female): Welcome to Gospel in Life. Is there a hope strong enough to face our biggest fears? Luke's Gospel presents the resurrection of Jesus as a historical fact that has the power to transform our lives. In today's sermon, Tim Keller invites us to consider how the resurrection reframes the entire story of the Bible and offers a hope that's greater than our deepest fears and longings.

Guest (Male): The reading is taken from Luke 24, verses 36 through 49. While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself. Touch me and see. A ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have."

When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, "Do you have anything here to eat?" They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence. He said to them, "This is what I told you while I was still with you. Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms."

Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, "This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high." The word of the Lord.

Tim Keller: Now, Easter's too marvelous for words, but we're going to have to take a crack at it. Luke chapter 24 is one of the four accounts of the resurrection of Jesus in the four Gospels in the New Testament. Luke 24 covers the entire day. The first verses talk about what happened in the morning when the empty tomb was being discovered.

The middle of the chapter talks about Jesus appearing after his resurrection to two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and that happened in the middle of the day. But the last part of the chapter, the part that you just had read to you, talks about what happened that evening when Jesus appeared to his disciples. In that meeting, he said a number of things, and let's draw them out. Here are three things we can learn about the resurrection of Jesus Christ from what happened that night.

First of all, we learn here that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a paradigm-shattering historical event. It is a paradigm-shattering historical event. Now, it's very common today to say, "Well, the stories of Jesus' resurrection are wonderful stories, but they didn't really happen. They didn't literally happen. We shouldn't try to read these passages literally. They were written to symbolize the kind of life we should live."

"They were written to symbolize that even though as dark as things get, there's always a dawn. As bad as things get, we must always live in hope." So there's one minister who, when he preaches at Easter, he entitled it "Emmaus Never Happened, Emmaus Always Happens." See that? What he's saying is the resurrection on the road to Emmaus and these stories didn't actually happen, but they symbolize a way to live that we can live now, we can live with hope.

Okay, so let's take that theory and say, what was Luke trying to tell us about how to live by this incident? Jesus said, "Do you have anything here to eat?" And they gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence. Okay, so what are we supposed to learn about how to live from that? Avoid fatty foods? What could that possibly symbolize? What lesson in how to live life could that possibly symbolize?

The answer is it doesn't symbolize anything. It couldn't symbolize anything like that. Why did Luke write it? It's evidence. It's evidence. Jesus wasn't hungry. Verse 41: "And they didn't believe." He appeared to them and they didn't believe, which makes perfect sense. If this happened, of course he appears, they don't believe. And he says, "All right, do you have anything here to eat?"

They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and he ate it in their presence. You know what he's trying to do? You know why Luke is telling us this part of what happened? And you know what Jesus is trying to do? He's trying to say, "I am not a symbol. I am not a phantom. I have flesh and bone. Look at me, I'm eating. This is really happening, people." That's what he's saying. It's a historical event.

Now, we don't have the time to show you all the reasons why you cannot read these accounts as symbolic representations of principles of living, but rather you have to take them as they are, which are historical accounts in full cry claiming that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead in time and space and history. There's a whole lot of things about the passages that tell you they were not written as legends. They can't be taken as legends.

The one we often mention, which I think is fair to mention, is if you notice that if you read every single one of the accounts in the Gospels, women are the first eyewitnesses. We know that the ancient readers would have been very prejudiced against women as first eyewitnesses because they had such low status. Therefore, there's no plausible reason why these accounts would have women as the witnesses unless they were. There's no plausible reason why they would have been included if you were making them up.

And there's many, many other examples of why you have to take these things as historical records, historical accounts, not as symbols. What does that mean? Just this: This is a paradigm-shattering historical event. Why? Because historical events, facts, are always paradigm-shattering. We want to believe this and we want to believe this, but here's the fact. It's very inconvenient. We wish it wasn't there, but there it is, and it shatters our paradigms.

What do I mean? Well, for example, is your paradigm that this life is all there is? When you die, that's it, so you better just live your life the best you can, but when you die, that's it. This shatters that paradigm. It says, "No, that's not true." Or is your paradigm, "Well, I don't know if there is a God or not, but if there is a God, he or it is remote and I don't have to deal with him"? No, if Jesus was raised from the dead, that shatters that paradigm. He's come to you and he wants you to deal with him.

Or if your paradigm is, "Well, all religions are basically alike. They're all alike. They basically all teach that you should live a good life and love people." But this shatters that paradigm. It says no, if Jesus Christ is the resurrected Son of God, then salvation comes through him. So people are always saying to me, "Well, there's parts of the Bible I just don't accept. There's parts of the Bible I just struggle with. I feel like they're regressive and I just can't be a Christian because there's many things in the Bible I don't like."

Well, if Jesus was raised from the dead, then your feelings about those parts of the Bible are not relevant. Historical facts are often inconvenient, but you can't dismiss them. And so, if Jesus was raised from the dead, then you're just going to have to deal with the things the Bible says that you don't like. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is not a symbol. It is a paradigm-shattering historical fact.

Point one. Second thing we learn, and we learn that from the very beginning where he's eating the fish and he's saying a spirit doesn't have flesh and bones. Second thing though he does is he shows us that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the key to understand the message of the entire Bible. See, in the middle, he says the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms are all about me. And then it says, "Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures." Verse 45.

What do you mean, "Then he opened their mind to understand the Scriptures"? He'd been with them for years. Why didn't he teach them this before? And the answer is not until they saw him risen from the dead could they understand the message of the whole Bible. You say, why is that? Well, let me show you, and let me give you a case study: the Apostle Paul. Now, Paul, before he became named Paul, was Saul.

He was a Jewish theologian. He was a religious leader. He knew what we would call today the Old Testament. He knew the Hebrew Scriptures inside and out. He knew the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms inside and out. And when he heard the claim that Jesus was the Messiah, he thought it was crazy. And most Jews thought it was crazy. Why? Well, it's understandable.

The Hebrew Scriptures are all about a Messiah coming, but the word Messiah means "anointed one," means "chosen and loved by God." So whoever the Messiah was, that Messiah would be blessed by God. God would support him. God would be with him. But this Jesus Christ was crucified. He was hung on a tree. Wasn't he hung on a tree? The Romans and the Jews both said that only the lowest of the low were hung on a tree.

The book of Deuteronomy, the Old Testament, says "Cursed is he who is hung on a tree." And when Jesus was dying, didn't he cry out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Didn't he cry out that God had abandoned him? How could he be the Messiah? God would not abandon the Messiah. God wouldn't curse the Messiah. God would bless the Messiah. He'd be with the Messiah. So what kind of fools do you take us for? The Jews said, "The idea that Jesus Christ could be the Messiah, he couldn't be the Messiah. He was cursed, he was abandoned. What kind of salvation could he bring?"

And then on the road to Damascus, Paul met the risen Christ. The divine glory flashed around him. He heard the great voice and he said, "Who are you, Lord?" And to his absolute astonishment, his eternal astonishment, the voice said, "I am Jesus." And he was struck blind, if you remember the story. And he ended up spending several days in Damascus just thinking about what had happened until he was healed and he became a great preacher of the Gospel.

He began to immediately preach that all of the Law of Moses and the Prophets and Psalms all pointed to Jesus Christ. Which means when he was blind and he had that time to think, he was thinking. And you know what he was thinking? This is a little speculative, but it must have been something like what I'm about to tell you because we know it because of the way in which he preaches for the rest of the New Testament. He's sitting there saying, "Wait a minute. Jesus is risen from the dead. I saw him."

"So God vindicated Jesus. He blessed Jesus. God was with Jesus. He is the Messiah. But wait a minute, then what was he doing dying on the cross? And what was he doing being cursed and abandoned on the cross? He couldn't have been being cursed and abandoned for his sins. He must have been for someone else's sins." And then suddenly, probably, Paul started thinking through everything else in the Bible that he knew.

Look at the book of Isaiah. The book of Isaiah is all about the Messiah, but the first half of Isaiah is about a strong, kingly Messiah, but the second half of Isaiah is about this suffering servant figure who suffers for the sins of his people. "Wait a minute, how could they both be the same person? Oh, wait a minute, in Jesus, who was a suffering servant, died for the sins of his people and then resurrected Lord."

"And what about all the Old Testament sacrificial system, the tabernacle and the temple and all the sacrifices? How could the blood of bulls and goats and animals and lambs atone for sin? Well, they really couldn't unless they were pointing to something. Oh, to this! And what about Jeremiah and Ezekiel? They prophesied for a new covenant, that someday God would make a new covenant with his people, and the Spirit of God would be put right into us, and we would know him personally."

"We wouldn't seem to need high priests anymore or sacrifices or temples anymore. How could that be? Oh, Jesus! And then what about the promise to Abraham in the Old Testament, where God comes and says, 'Abraham, I'm not just going to bless you and give you descendants, but through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed'? How could that be? Through Jesus." Paul expected a strong Messiah for the strong.

He expected a Messiah to come and get it together, an army, and to break skulls and do things, and the strong who followed him and were faithful and were good and virtuous, they would be rewarded with salvation. He expected a strong Messiah for the strong. But when he saw that Jesus was risen from the dead and from the vantage point of the resurrection rethought everything else in the Bible, the whole Bible started to hang together and make sense.

It was a weak Messiah who was going to come in weakness and go to the cross and die as our substitute, die in our place, take our sins upon him and die in our place, so that the weak, those who admit they're weak, those who admit they're sinners, that they need to be saved by sheer grace can receive that salvation.

Guest (Male): What is my purpose in life? What is a good life? And why does the world feel so broken? In the Gospels, Jesus meets people who are asking these very questions. And when Jesus responds, their lives are changed in unexpected ways. In his book, *Encounters with Jesus*, Tim Keller explores several of these conversations, looking at Jesus' interactions with everyone from a skeptical student to a religious insider to a social outcast.

Dr. Keller shows how these encounters with Jesus can uniquely address the big questions and doubts we still face today. *Encounters with Jesus* is our thank-you for your gift this month to help Gospel in Life share the hope of the gospel with more people. Request your copy today when you make a gift at gospelinlife.com/give. That's gospelinlife.com/give. Now, here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching.

Tim Keller: Only when you understand the resurrection does all of that make sense. That's the reason why he says, "Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures." That's when he taught them. Do you understand this? Have you learned this? Do you see that the resurrection is the key to understanding all of the Scripture, all of it?

Okay, last. See, the resurrection is a paradigm-shattering historical event and it's the key to understanding all the Scriptures, but lastly, it's the strongest message of hope possible. It's the strongest message of hope for the world possible. Because the last part of the passage, we see Jesus saying, "Now I'm going to send you into the world." With what? Here's the message: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day. Repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, and you are witnesses, and I'm sending you out.

This is the great message that he's sending people out with, and it's a message of hope. Now, why do I call it a message of hope? Let me show you. First of all, hope has to do with the future, right? That's what hope's about, the future. And here's why this is the strongest possible message of hope. First of all, Jesus' resurrection shows us that the future is there, that it's personal, that it's certain, and that it's unimaginably wonderful.

First of all, that the future is there. What do I mean? Well, even back in those days, there was one of the great Greek philosophers named Epicurus who said, "When you die, that's it. There's no future beyond this life." And of course today, many people say that, that when you die, it's over. It's like clicking off the on switch, off switch, you're just not there. Nothing to be afraid of, there's no pain, it's just gone. There's nothing. In other words, there's no future beyond this dark, difficult life.

You know, our life is nasty, brutish, and short. Is there any future beyond the darkness, the fragility of this life? And Epicurus and many people today say, "No, there's no future, there's no future." But if you believe the eyewitnesses to the resurrection, if you believe that Jesus Christ was risen from the dead, then you know that you are not just dust in the wind, and you know you're not just a stone that's fallen to the bottom, never to be seen again.

The future is there. That's the first thing. Ah, but not all. The second part of this message is not just that the future is there, the resurrection doesn't just tell you the future is there, but secondly, that the future is personal. See, back in those days and today, there are many people who say, "Well, when you die, you continue. Of course you continue, but you live on in the earth or you live on in the all-soul."

I mean, one version of saying, "Well, you do continue," is *Lion King*. Don't you remember *Lion King*? It says, "Well, yes, you die, but then you become part of the circle of life because you become part of the soil, which fertilizes the soil so that the plants can grow, and then the animals eat the plants, and then we eat the animals, and we die and we become part of this circle of life." So when you die, you continue, you're part of the circle of life.

Eastern religions put a little differently: "When you die, you become part of the all-soul." Other people say you're stardust, we're just part of the dust, you know, and we're stardust, that's what we're all made of. All right. Generally, when people say, "Oh, you continue, you become part of the great circle of life, there's nothing to be afraid of." Really? Let's be honest. The deepest desire of your heart is not just to continue. It's to love and to be loved.

The deepest desire of your heart is to love and be loved, and that can only happen if you're a person. Persons can love. Only persons can love. And therefore to say, "Well, when you die, that's it," or, "When you die, you become part of things but you're not personal," when you die you become part of the circle of life. You think that's any kind of solace? Listen, if that's true, if there is no future or there is no personal future for you, then here's what death is doing.

Death is taking, if you live long enough, almost every person that you care about, every loved one, away from you, and then when you die, it strips you of your ability to love and be loved. In other words, death has the ability to strip you of everything that matters to you. And we're not supposed to be afraid of it? There's no solace in saying, "Well, we continue," or, "When you die, that's it, there's really nothing to be afraid of, you don't feel anything."

Nothing to be afraid of? There's no solace in that. Unless Jesus Christ was risen from the dead, and he was. Because notice what he says: He says, "It is I myself." See that in verse 39? "It is me. I'm not just part of the life force. I still have my personal identity. It's still me, the one that you knew before, and now I know you now." The one thing you want more than anything, the thing your heart wants more than anything, is to love and be loved and to know that you're going to love and be loved in the future forever.

And the thing that you most want will never be taken away from you. That's the deepest need of your heart, and unless you believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that need goes unfulfilled. Well, we're not done. It's one thing to say the future is certain, the future is there and the future is personal, but the resurrection also tells me this future is certain.

See, there are religions that say, "Well, yes, you can live in heaven personally, but you've got to be good. You've got to be virtuous. You better live a good life." And see that? And we go, oh my goodness, who's living a good enough life? But the resurrection is proof that when Jesus Christ died to pay for our penalty, pay the penalty for our sin, that he did it. He did it. If you break this law, you must go to prison for five years.

When you're done with the five years, they let you out. Why? Because you've paid it. And when Jesus Christ went into death and then he was raised, what does that mean? He'd paid it! It's like a receipt. Kathy and I love to go to Costco in Queens on the East River in Queens, sort of where Long Island City and Astoria come together. I'm not sure which it is. Just a great little place and it's a great spot.

And we go to Costco. Now, when you go toward the door with the merchandise, there are a couple staff people who say, "Stop." And then you have to say, "Here's my receipt. Let me through." And then they look at the receipt, they say, "All right, you may go through." Now, actually, in reality, it's more cordial than that, really. But here's the point: They want proof that you've paid it all.

And of course what the resurrection is, is a gigantic receipt. That there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, that it's all been paid, and the future is not just there and it's not just personal, but it's certain. And lastly, it's unimaginably wonderful. See, this is where the resurrection of Jesus Christ, like I said, it's the greatest possible message of hope.

It's not just saying that there is a future, and not just saying that the future is personal, we don't just continue, and not just even to say that it's certain, but it's not just a spiritual future, actually. See, other religions will say, "Well, you go and you live in heaven forever and you have this bliss, and this bliss is a consolation for all the suffering you've had and a consolation for the life that you've lost."

But the resurrection is about bodies. Jesus says, "It's really me. I've got flesh and blood. Look, give me a fish, I can eat." And that's the future. See, the future that Christianity offers, the end result of Jesus' salvation, is a new heavens and a new earth, a renewed material creation. And what this means is the resurrection means not just that you get some kind of spiritual consolation for the life that you've lost, but you get the restoration of the life you've lost.

In fact, you get the restoration of the life you never even had but wanted. Jesus didn't just get his old body back, he got a new body, he got a body. You don't just get your old body back in the resurrection, you get the body you always wanted and you get the life you always wanted. Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven" is about this raven that keeps just saying over and over again, "Nevermore." And you know, people debate about what it means, but it's a dark poem, obviously, it's Edgar Allan Poe.

But the idea behind "Nevermore" is that in a nutshell, the tragedy of life. There's a kind of death in the midst of life that you experience more and more as time goes on, and that is when you lose something in this life, it seems irretrievably lost. The irretrievability of life is a kind of death in the midst of life. And as the years go by, it just crushes you. Things that you've lost will never come back.

You have opportunities that you missed, you'll never get them again. You lose your youth, it'll never come back to you. You lose a relationship, it'll never come back to you. Kathy knows that probably the time in her life in which she was happiest was two weeks a year she went with her family to a little cottage on the shores of Lake Erie. And all through her childhood and into adolescence and beyond that, the two weeks of the year in which she was the happiest, the happiest times of her life were at that cottage.

And not some years ago, Kathy and I went by to see the site. And not only are the cottages gone, but the beach is gone, that part of the beach is eroded, and there's this sense of irretrievability. But listen, not if the resurrection is true. The resurrection means not just a consolation, but the restoration. And not just the restoration of what you had, but the life you always wanted but never did have.

Listen, some of you are saying things like this: "Well, I always wished I were married, but now I'm not going to be married or I've never was, I'm never going to have the happiness and the bliss that other people I've seen had, so it's gone, it's over, it's never going to happen to me." If the resurrection of Jesus Christ is true and you believe in him, you're not going to miss out on anything. Because the future is unimaginably wonderful.

Do you believe Jesus Christ was raised from the dead? If you don't, and yet you see, I hope right now, there's no greater hope possible. The human heart wants this, and there is nothing that can answer the deepest needs of the human heart other than the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And even if you don't believe that Jesus was raised from the dead, you should wish he were raised from the dead. You should want that he was raised from the dead.

And if you don't want it, I don't think you are in touch with your own heart. This is the hope that your heart needs and wants, and the hope will not disappoint you because Jesus Christ is risen indeed. Alleluia. Let us pray. Our Father, thank you for giving us this wonderful hope, the hope of the resurrection of Jesus. Make us able to bask in it today, to soak in it today. Let it sink down into our hearts so that we have a poise and a joy that just doesn't go out. Change us with the hope, that's the purpose of it, until we experience it in its fullness and we see you face to face. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Guest (Male): Thanks for listening to today's teaching. It's our prayer that you are encouraged by it and that it helps you apply the gospel to your life and share it with others. For more gospel-centered resources from Tim Keller, visit gospelinlife.com. There you can subscribe to the Life in the Gospel quarterly journal. When you do, you will also receive free articles, sermons, devotionals, and other helpful resources. Again, it's all at gospelinlife.com. You can also stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and X. Today's sermon was recorded in 2014. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life podcast were recorded between 1989 and 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. Over the coming weeks, we will continue to explore the life-changing power of the resurrection. We hope you'll join us. Goodbye for now.