Gospel in Life

Guest (Female): You're listening to the Gospel in Life podcast. What does authentic spiritual growth actually look like? Writing to early believers, Peter outlines several qualities of a life that looks more and more like Christ's. Today, Tim Keller takes a closer look at how we can develop this in our own lives and how the resurrection of Jesus makes true lasting transformation possible.

Guest (Female): The scripture reading is taken from Mark chapter 14 verses 27 to 31. And John chapter 21 verses 15 to 19. "You will all fall away," Jesus told them. "For it is written, 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered. But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.'"

Peter declared, "Even if all fall away, I will not." "Truly I tell you," Jesus answered, "Today, yes, tonight, before the rooster crows twice, you yourself will disown me three times." But Peter insisted emphatically, "Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you." And all the others said the same.

When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" "Yes, Lord," he said, "You know that I love you." Jesus said, "Feed my lambs." Again Jesus said, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep."

The third time he said to him, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you." Jesus said, "Feed my sheep. Very truly I tell you, when you were younger, you dressed yourself and went where you wanted. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go." Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, "Follow me." The word of the Lord.

Tim Keller: Now, at Easter, Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus that changed history. But the resurrection isn't supposed to just change history. It's supposed to change us, supposed to change you and me. Paul, years after the resurrection, met the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, and it revolutionized his life. And though we are not to expect a visible and audible phenomenon around this, the New Testament everywhere says that we should also expect to encounter the risen Christ. That's how your life is changed.

Now, how does that happen? How does that work? What does that mean? Peter is a kind of paradigm case study for us as we consider that question. Because Peter, we have this story here about what happened to Peter right before the death and resurrection of Jesus and how the resurrected Christ sat down with him at a fire by the Sea of Galilee, and after his life had fallen apart, how the risen Christ put it back together.

The first part of the story is, you just heard read to you, Jesus said, "You all will fall away." Peter says, "Even if all the rest of them fall away, I will not." Jesus then comes back and says basically, "Do you really want to say this, Peter? I mean, really, Peter, you will fall away." And Peter then says, "Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you."

At the end of chapter 14 of Mark, which we didn't read, you know how this played out. Jesus is arrested, he's taken to trial, when he's up in the trial, being tried for his life, Peter has followed along, tried to see what's happening. And this is what we read at the very end of chapter 14 of Mark. While Peter was below in the courtyard, warming himself by the fire, one servant girl of the high priest came by, "You were with that Nazarene, Jesus," she said.

He denied it and went out into the entryway. She said again to those standing around, "This fellow is one of them." Again he denied it. And after a little while, those standing near said to Peter, "Surely, you are one of them, for you are a Galilean." And he began to call down curses and he swore to them, "I don't know this man you're talking about." And immediately a rooster crowed and he broke down and wept.

Now, how do we meet and encounter the risen Christ the way Peter eventually did at the Sea of Galilee? Of course, again, Peter meets the risen Christ visibly and audibly. Paul meets the risen Christ visibly and audibly. We don't, and yet there's principles here that we can learn. And here's the four principles that we'll learn here. If you want to encounter the risen Christ, you have to believe in the resurrection's reality, you have to understand its achievement, you have to submit to its pattern, and you have to live its life.

In other words, you have to believe the resurrection's reality, you have to understand its achievement, you have to submit to its pattern, and you have to live the resurrection life. Let's briefly, unfortunately, it's almost comic that I'm going to try to cover all those principles, but in so briefly, but let's look at each one of those at least briefly. Number one, you have to believe in the resurrection. It's real, that it really happened. You see, many people say, "Oh, these resurrection stories are wonderful. You but you shouldn't read them literally, you should just take them symbolically." They point to things like hope.

The resurrection of Jesus basically points to the idea that no matter how dark things get, there's always hope. But if you want the resurrection to be a life-transforming power and not just a feel-good factor, see, for example, if you every time you watch The Princess Bride, you feel good. It's a feel-good factor. Don't you feel good? Just feel better? If the stories about Jesus' resurrection are just a feel-good factor, think of them as symbolic. But if you want it to be a life-transforming power, you've got to believe that Jesus' resurrection really happened.

Think about it for a second. Just think about it. Here's two people. They're both dying of cancer. One of them thinks that the resurrection stories are symbolic. The other one believes that Jesus really was raised from the dead and that through belief in him, we are really going to be raised from the dead. Which of those two has got far greater resources to face death with poise?

Think of the resources that believe in the resurrection gives you if you're not maybe facing death, but anyway, just a life of suffering. Joni Eareckson Tada, who's a pretty well-known Christian author who is a quadriplegic, this is what she says about the resurrection. She says, "I, with shriveled bent fingers, atrophied muscles, gnarled knees, and no feeling from the shoulders down, will one day have a new body, light, bright, enclosed in righteousness, powerful and dazzling."

Can you imagine the hope this gives someone spinal cord injured like me, or someone who's cerebral has cerebral palsy, or brain whose brain injured, or who has multiple sclerosis? Imagine the hope this gives someone who's manic depressive. No other religion, no other philosophy promises new bodies, hearts and minds. And see, imagine two people, both working against injustice in life. And of course, you never make that big a dent in it.

But imagine one person believes that when you die, you rot, and eventually the sun is going to die and everything is nothing's really going to make a difference in the long run, versus a person who believes in the resurrection and believes there's going to be a new heavens and a new earth. And therefore, every effort against suffering, and injustice, and death will eventually be completely successful and fulfilled.

You see, there is no Vinoth Ramachandra, a Sri Lankan Christian says, "Christian salvation lies not in an escape from this world, but in the transformation of the world. Everything good and true and beautiful in history will not be lost forever, but will be restored. You will not find hope for this material world in any other religious system or philosophy of humankind. The biblical vision is unique. That is why when some ask, 'Aren't there religion isn't there religion in other faiths?' I always say, 'What salvation are you talking about?' Not this salvation. Not salvation that gives you a new spinal cord."

There's no other religion, no other philosophy that promises that that ordinary life is going to be restored. Remember how Jesus if you were here last week, how Jesus ate a fish? Here's the risen Christ appearing to his disciples. Everybody's shocked, and he says, "Do you have anything edible? Give me a fish." And he eats it. Why? What in the what's that about? He's trying to say, "I'm talking about a salvation that no one else claims. No one else promises a salvation that gives you a new spinal cord back. That means that we're going to dance, not just float, we're going to dance on the earth again."

That we're going to have that that is astonishing resource. An unparalleled resource for facing life with poise. In other words, if you want to have the resurrection change your life, you've got to believe it happened. Now, you say, "How does that work?" Well, that's a long process, of course. I mean, listen, no one comes to settled or assured belief in an answer to any of the big questions.

Who are we and what are we here for and what's life about? Those are the big questions. Nobody comes to an assured and settled belief about answers to those big questions without a process. And to come to believe in the in the resurrection of Jesus Christ that really happened in history, it's a process. And I can't we can't go through the whole process now. I actually believe that all Christians, especially in the Western world, cannot just say, "Well, I was raised believing that."

If you really want to have a life-transforming belief in it, you're going to have to do the hard work. Because it's questioned. People are going to question it everywhere. You need to do the hard work of looking at the internal and external evidence, the objective and subjective material. But we can't do that now, but I can give you a start. Because this very story that we're reading here is an extremely good place to start. Why?

You can't believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ unless you believe that the accounts about the resurrection, the accounts, the Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the gospel accounts, you can't believe in if you think they're legendary, or you think that these things really never happened. But if they're eyewitness accounts, if they're eyewitness history about things that really happened, that's a great place to start.

This story is is strong evidence that the gospels are eyewitness accounts. How so? Well, look at the story. First of all, it's a remarkable story. This is Peter gives us one of the most one of the I don't know of any story of a more spectacular failure than this. Do you? Now, look, first of all, Peter says, "I will never forsake you." Jesus says, "Okay, Peter, calm down."

He says, "You don't really want to make an oath here. You really don't want to do it." And here's what he says. He says, "He says, 'Even if all the rest of who falls away?" He's in the middle of a bunch of disciples. And he says, "You see all these other people? They don't love you like I do." If they all fall away, not me. And he he he twice he says it. He says, "Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you." That he's he's taking a public oath that he would never forsake or deny Jesus Christ, even if it meant death.

From what I can tell, within hours, he is doing the very thing he promised and swore he would never do. Not only that, he does it three times. You know, one of the things about, if you'd only done it once, if you'd only done it once, you know, you can always say, "Oh, I don't know what got into me. That wasn't the real me." I mean, "I was upset or I got caught off guard. I mean, it wasn't the real me." But if you do it three times in a row, it's the real you. It's the real you. That's who you are.

You are, as Martin Luther says, "Homo incurvatus in se." You are a man curved in on himself, radically self-centered. You talk about no nobility, you think you're noble, you think you're compassionate, you think you're a person of integrity. When it comes right down to it, you're for yourself. The deepest part of your heart just says, "Me, me, me, me, what's good for me?" And he's revealed to himself. But here's maybe the worst thing that he does is this.

Remember what I read you this it's not in the part that was read to you. But at the end of chapter 14, it says, you know, they they say, "Weren't you one of these guys with with this guy who's being tried for his life?" "No." "Yeah, surely you were." "No." And the third time it says, "Surely you were one of those people that came here with him." And it says, "He began to call down curses and swore to him swore to them, 'I didn't I don't know this man you were talking about.'"

Now, that's pretty remarkable. He called down curses. Let me just tell you a couple of things about the Greek words that are used here. First of all, when he says, he called down curses, the reason they're translating it that way is the word for curse here is a transitive verb. In which means, it doesn't just say he cursed, it means he cursed someone or something. It's a transitive verb. There's an object to it. He cursed someone or something. Okay? Who? Himself? No, because it's not a reflexive verb. If it was a if he was calling down curses on himself, it would have been a reflexive verb. So, who is he calling down curses on?

He's trying to deflect suspicion, right? He's trying to show he knows nothing about this person. I have no idea who this guy is. So what it looks like he did was, he cursed Jesus Christ in public as a way of saying, "No disciple could curse his master in public. I don't know this guy." Now, this is one of the most horrendous, egregious betrayals of loyalty that's ever been written. And the minute the rooster crows, and Jesus had told Peter he would betray him and deny him before the rooster crowed.

The magnitude, the immensity of what he's done, you know, breaks in on him, and he just completely breaks down and weeps. Well, compelling story, isn't it? However, it's more than just that. Because Richard Bauckham, who's a very prominent professor of of history and Bible at St. Andrew's College in in Scotland, very well-respected scholar says that this story is extraordinarily strong evidence that this really happened, that this is not a legend.

Why? Number one, one of the things we're going to have to realize is, and this is hard for us to understand, we live in a very relativistic and individualistic culture, where people are constantly saying, "I blew it, I blew it." They're going on TV shows and saying, "I blew it." And they they weep and everybody says, "Oh, well, you know." This is not like that. Then everything's okay, right? Sure, sort of, not really, we don't really trust them. But they they have no problem with it.

This is a shame and honor culture. This is an ancient culture. Some of you have come from shame and honor cultures and you know that to dishonor your people. To break an oath. To put yourself over the needs of your your your family or your leaders or or your master here is it is a violation, egregious thing, a shame that can never be remedied. In this shame and honor cultures, that can never be remedied.

And Richard Bauckham points out that if you're making this up, if if you believe the stories that you often hear that the, "Oh, yeah, the gospels. They were they were written by the winners." Have you heard that? The gospels, "Yeah, they were put together by the leaders of the early Christian church who were trying to create a movement and they were trying to get authenticity for themselves and for their authority and plausibility for their movement. So they put these things together. They compiled some legends. You know, it didn't really happen. It was really a promotional material for the Christian movement." They would never have put this in.

If that was the case, this would not be in there. You would never say that what you're the most significant leader of the early Christian movement did something like this. A complete betrayer, a total coward, no honor at all, no integrity at all. And by the way, this is the this is our leader. He's our CEO. Is that what you put in your promotional materials, that in your annual report?

See, Richard Bauckham says, "If if this was made up, this would never have been put in. It would have completely discredited the movement in the eyes of the average person reading it. And therefore, it was not made up. This really happened. This is eyewitness testimony. Ah, but here's the other thing. Whose eyewitness testimony must it be?" And this is what Richard Bauckham says in his book about that. He says, "No one in the early church other than Peter himself would have dared to highlight the weakness and failure of the most revered and significant leader in the Christian movement with the candor Mark's narrative does."

Did you hear that? Richard Bauckham says, "This must have come from Peter himself or it would not be in there. Nobody would have made it up. It happened." But even if it happened, it would not be in there unless this was Peter's eyewitness account. And Bauckham goes back through the Gospel of Mark and says, "You'll never see anything that happens in the Gospel of Mark in which Peter's not present." In other words, this is an eyewitness account from someone who was right there. And it's Peter who is deliberately letting himself look this bad.

You can argue that he looks worse in the Gospel of Mark than in any of the four gospels. It is pretty remarkable. Very remarkable. But it just shows something. This stuff happened. This isn't legendary. This stuff happened. So, first of all, you have to believe the resurrection really happened. Number one. Number two, more than that, you've got to understand the achievement of the resurrection. It's not enough just to believe that the resurrection happened like some great big magic trick. That's not going to change your life.

You have to understand what the resurrection accomplished and particularly how it relates to the cross. Now, in order to do that, you have to almost stand back from the Gospel of Mark. Because Mark tells us the meaning of the resurrection mainly by showing us a through his literary artistry. Many commentators have pointed out the literary artistry. Mark chapter 14 shows us two men, both being interrogated, both being in a sense on trial, both in danger of losing their lives.

You see, Jesus Christ is being tried, he's being questioned. He's being asked questions, and his life is in danger, but so is Peter. Peter's being tried, Peter's being questioned, informally of course, and Peter's life is in danger. Do you see the the artistry there? They're both both being it's happening at once. But that's where the similarities end. Because Jesus is being questioned by all the powers of that society. And Peter is just being questioned by a female domestic at a fire privately.

And Jesus Christ, in the face of all this, tells the truth courageously and dies for it. And Peter, in the face of all this, tells lie after lie after lie to save his own skin.

Guest (Female): 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's 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: There's the contrast. And you know what that means? If Jesus Christ came to earth as an example, if that's his primary reason to come. If he came to say, "I'm going to show you how you need to tell the truth, and you need to be true to the truth, and you need to be courageous, and you need to tell the truth no matter what, even if it means dying." If Jesus Christ came as a moral exemplar so that we could summons up all our willpower and live like him. If that's what he came to do, he's a failure.

In fact, he's he's he's worse than a failure. He makes our failure look worse because his standard is so high, we can't reach it. It's it crushes us. And it failed Peter. Why? Peter did everything he could. He summons up, listen, if you really want to use all your possible willpower, take an oath in front of a bunch of people. "I'm not going to smoke anymore. I'm not going to drink anymore. I'm not going to do this anymore."

"I promise. I swear." You get a bunch of people together. "I promise." I mean, that's a lot of accountability. And you know what, it does help the willpower, doesn't it? It kind of it does gives you some backbone, surely. If you've done that, you're much, you know, if you promise, promise in front of a bunch of people, you're much less to to not do something. You probably won't do it. But in the end, in the end, Peter couldn't do it. He promised with all of his might and he couldn't do it.

If Jesus Christ came as our example, primarily as an example, he was a failure. But he didn't. He came as our savior. He came as a substitute. He didn't come to sacrifice his life courageously just as an example. He came to do it as a substitute. He came to live a life we should have lived and die a death we should have died. The reason why he was saying to Peter, who said, "I will never forsake you." And Jesus was saying, "Don't you understand? Everybody's going to forsake me. Even my father's going to forsake me."

On the cross, Jesus cried, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Why? It was the plan. The plan was for Jesus Christ to live a life we should have lived, die the death we should have died, take our penalty upon himself. So that we can be saved by sheer grace, not by living up to an example. And that's the reason, I said this last week, but I'm going to say it again because I never get tired of saying it.

That's the reason why Paul says in the book of Romans, "Jesus Christ was raised for our justification. Raised for our salvation." How so? Well, the resurrection proves that the cross worked. If the penalty for breaking law X is two years in jail, you break law X, you go to jail for two years. When you completely fulfilled and satisfied the penalty of the law, you get out. Why are you out? You're out because the law has no more claim on you because it's been paid. Right?

And if Jesus Christ dies because the wages of sin is death, the wages of our sin against God and our neighbor is death. But then he's sprung. He's let out. It means he completely paid for everything that you and I owe. And that's the reason why the cross is like a receipt. If you go to a Costco or you go to a big lot store, you go to one of these great stores and you buy all this stuff, and then you head for the for the door, they won't let you out unless they look at your receipt. Why? You've got to prove that it was all paid for.

The resurrection is your proof that it was all paid for. And that's the reason why written into the foundation documents of the Christian church is that it's not strong people who are saved. Not strong people who summons up all of their strength and live like Jesus. And then you know that you're a good person, then you know God will bless you. That is not how Christianity works at all. That's how all the other religions work. Something like that.

Right in the very foundational documents of of the Christian church, we've got the number one leader being the biggest failure. You're saved through grace alone. And until you understand that's how the the resurrection functions and the cross functions. Saving us through grace, through substitution. The resurrection will not change your life. But that's not all. Thirdly, now if you want to work this salvation into your life to have the resurrection really change you, you've got to submit to the pattern.

What do I mean by submit to the pattern? Death and resurrection is now the way you grow. If the Holy you believe in Jesus Christ, you believe he died for your sins, you ask God to accept you for Jesus' sake. Then the Holy Spirit comes into your life, and for the rest of your life, there is now a death resurrection pattern to how you grow. There's the seeming death. It feels like a death to repent, to admit, to uh uh to to to declare bankruptcy.

To say, "I got nothing." And then to be filled with the forgiveness. It it feels like a death to repent. It feels like a death to admit that what you've done is wrong, that you're so needy, that you It feels like a death not to shift the blame, but to say, "Yes, I'm a failure. I was wrong." And then to have the grace of Jesus Christ come in. And what that does is it bit by bit by bit, it reorders your heart.

Now what I'm when I say reorders your heart, I'm thinking about St. Augustine, which we often allude to here. St. Augustine believed that what was wrong with your heart and my heart is that we our loves are disordered. Now what that means is we love things, but our loves are out of order. So, for example, what if you love your career and your reputation first, and then you love your family and friends second, and you love God third?

Your heart is your heart's disordered because God should be first. And if it and and actually your family and friends relationships should be should be more important than than power, and status, and money. If your loves are rightly ordered, oh, then you live a life. If your life life the life you ought to live. If your loves are out of order, that's the reason why you have all the problems you've got. If God and his love is number one in your life and you get criticized, strongly criticized, it hurts.

But if your reputation is the number one love, and you get criticized, it devastates. If God is number you're number one love, and you have a career reversal, it hurts. But if your career is number one, and you have a career reversal, you're devastated. And therefore, your bitterness, and your anger, and your out of control emotions, and your anxiety, all come from the fact that God is not your primary love.

But through the death and resurrection, through the the pattern of the death of admitting you've done wrong, and the resurrection of forgiveness and grace, bit by bit by bit, you see the more the more wonder of his grace, and bit by bit by bit, his love becomes more real, his love becomes more real, and your heart is being reordered. And that's how it works.

Now, there's no greater and more famous example of that than what Jesus does on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, meeting Peter to begin to heal him. Peter has ruined his life. And yet Jesus starts to restore him. How? Well, take a look at the last part here. First of all, it says, "When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter." Now wait. You know why they were eating? They were eating because when when Peter comes in and sees Jesus, Jesus has made a fire and he is cooking fish so they can sit down and eat.

Okay, let's see what Jesus now does. First of all, he makes Peter sit down at a fire. Do you remember the last time Peter was at a fire? He was he was denying Jesus. You think it was deliberate? Sure it was deliberate. Jesus says, "Okay, Peter's Peter's imagine Peter's seeing the the Lord that he denied and betrayed that he so egregiously betrayed."

So he's coming to see Jesus and Jesus, "Hey, let's sit down by the fire." Peter says, "A fire? You're trying to rub my nose in it?" Last time I was at a fire, my life was falling apart. But that's where Jesus takes him to a fire. And then he says, "Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?" Now, what's the more than these? He's going back to the place where Peter said, "Yes, even if all fall away."

See, originally, what Peter was saying was, "Lord, you know all these other disciples around. I, they don't love you like I love you." Jesus comes and says, "So, Simon Peter, do you love me more than all the rest of them?" Peter won't go there. He doesn't say, "Oh, yeah, Lord, I love them more than all the rest of them." He knows better now. He knows better now. All he says is, "Lord, I love you."

Okay. And then again Peter says Jesus said, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" A third time he said to him, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" And Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time. What's going on? First of all, he takes him back to a fire. Secondly, he reminds him how you said, you know, his bragadoccio saying, "Hey, you remember how you said you loved me more than all the rest of them, do you?" And then thirdly, he asks him over and over again, "Do you really love me?"

Why, three times? Because he denied him three times. He's making Peter relive all of that agony. Now, you might say he's rubbing his nose in it. You might say he's taking him by the scruff of the neck and saying, "Look at what you've done." But actually, he's letting Jesus, he's letting Peter experience a death. The death of his illusions of self-sufficiency, the death of the illusions and denial and blame shifting. He's not making any excuses, he's just saying, every single time, basically, Jesus is asking him, "Do you love me?"

Peter has to say essentially, "Lord, I am a moral failure. Lord, I am a moral failure. Lord, I am a complete and total absolute failure." He's experiencing a death, but but every time Peter says, "Lord, I am a total moral failure," which is when he's when he says, "I love you." He's basically saying, "Look, I agree. I blew it. I did it. I'm a failure." Every time he says, "I'm a failure." Jesus says, "Feed my lambs. Take care of my sheep. Feed my sheep."

Now, the word he uses there for feed or take care of is a Greek word called, it's the Greek word, "poimenas." And it's a word that means shepherd. And what's so intriguing about shepherds is shepherds were on the one hand, extraordinarily tender and patient with the little sheep and the little lambs. But they were also absolutely in charge. A sheep herd is not a democracy. The shepherd says, "Let's let's go." I mean, the shepherd the shepherd is extremely directive and therefore, every time he says, "I want you to be the shepherd of my sheep." He's saying, "I want you to be tender, and I want you to be humble, and I want you to be strong, and I want you to be powerful."

Tender and strong, humble and bold, but I want you to be the leader. Because of course, the word shepherd also means pastor. It's the same Greek word as the word pastor. So I want you to be the leader of my flock. I want you to be the leader of my flock. You know what Jesus is saying? Nothing makes you more effective in the lives of other people, and nothing equips you more for the right kind of leadership than your failure plunged into a sea of my grace.

There's nothing else that gives you the kind of self-knowledge, there's nothing else that gives you the humility, there's nothing else that gives you the tenderness, but there's nothing else that gives you the boldness because now who cares what anybody thinks? Who cares about your reputation? I love you. And nobody can tell you anything you don't already know about yourself. You you know the worst about yourself. You don't You're not under any illusions. Finally you can be a leader. The right kind of leader.

The kind so, in other words, when Jesus is saying is, "You are going to be the main leader of my church, not in spite of the fact that you were the biggest failure, but because you were the biggest failure." How do you like that? And nothing, nothing like the death and resurrection of repentance and forgiveness. Your failure is plunged in to the grace of Jesus Christ makes you more effective in people's lives. Nothing, nothing makes you more effective than that.

Now, if you submit to that pattern and you see it operating in your life, you will develop resurrection life. And what's resurrection life? Well, that's actually a big subject too. But from the text, here's the two things we get, tenderness and strength. That's what he that's in that word "poimenas." Feed my lambs, take care of my sheep, feed my sheep. I want you to be the pastor of my flock, which means to be the pastor, tender and strong.

Let's look at those two things. There's nothing like the resurrection life that will make you more tender and humble than you were, and more strong and bold than you were. Let's just let me go let me just tell you a couple of stories. One is, years ago, I was listening to a recording of a sermon by a British preacher on John 21. On the restoration of Peter and the feeding of my lambs, and you know, take care of my lambs. And it was by Dick Lucas. Dick Lucas for many years was a was the rector of St. Helen's Church, Bishop's Gate in the center of London.

And Dick told a story, and Dick's like, I think he's in his 90s now, and Dick told the story of something that must have happened 40 years ago. And here's what he's here's what he said. He said, 40 years ago or so, he said, he was invited to Stony Brook School, which is a Christian boarding school out on Long Island, to come for a week and to speak for three or four days every day in chapel. So he went.

And after he spoke the first time, to his absolute horror, the headmaster got up and said, "Now, Reverend Lucas will be here all week speaking in chapel all week. And if any of you would like pastoral counseling or spiritual direction from Reverend Lucas during the day, you can get out of class and go see him. You have permission to get out of class and go see him." Well, he shuddered for two reasons. First of all, that was an enormous encouragement for for students to go see him. But secondly, and here's you have to know Dick Lucas, don't forget, he's a man in his 90s. He was a Dick Lucas was a lifelong bachelor.

A true Oxbridge English gentleman. For whom children were, to put it mildly, a trial. He did not know what to do with them at all. And the idea that they were going to come talking to him just filled him with dread. But come to them he did. And he said he said, he said, "I especially had a kind of a a kind of a a stream of girls aged, you know, 12 to 15 coming in and unburdening their heart with this great problem." It went like this. "And he doesn't even know I exist."

And Dick says, over and over and over again, he had to just, you know, stifle the desire to blurt out, crying out loud. You're 14 years old, and six months you won't even remember the twit's name. Stop your blubbering. You know, suck it up. Woman. And he said, he said, he said, "I'm I'm an Englishman. I'm a I'm a bachelor. What? Somebody take me to a pub. Somebody somebody take me to New York City to see the latest play."

"You know, who will deliver me from this body of death?" But he said, "In the morning, one morning during the week, he was doing his devotional reading and he came to John chapter 21." And he said he read the place where Jesus says to Peter, "Feed my lambs." And he said, "It knocked me flat." Because he realized Jesus was not saying, "Feed my cats or my dogs," because actually you get something from cats and dogs. You know, they cuddle you or they nuzzle you or they say, "Can I get your slippers?"

He says, "You get nothing from lambs." And he realized he said, he said, "He he realized what Jesus was doing." He realized, "Unless I admit that I am a moral failure that is completely saved by grace, I won't have the desire, I won't have the compassion, I won't have the patience, and I won't have the eagerness to listen to people and to care for people. Little lambs, as it were, from whom I'm getting no psychological, emotional, or cultural, or relational payoff."

He said, "If I really believe that I was a sinner saved by grace, if I really, really had gone through the death of repentance, realized that I could only be saved by grace. If I was really reveling in what Jesus Christ has done for me, I'd be able to handle these little lambs." And so will you. If you have trouble having compassion on people that are hard to love, go here. That's your fault. Go here.

So there's tenderness. The other part of resurrection life, I already mentioned, was courage. Because see, the other side of having yourself completely remade through the death and resurrection pattern of repentance and and and grace. So that more and more and more all that matters is what God has done for you. And all more and more and more all that matters is his love. At a certain point, you don't care what happens to you or what people say about you, it doesn't matter.

You become more and more courageous. And if you want to see an interesting example of that, Peter's Jesus says to Peter at the very end, "Truly, truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you dressed yourself and went where you wanted." Okay, in other words, when you were younger, you were in charge of your own life. "But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go." What is that?

Well, you have to know that to stretch out your hands in Greek was an idiom for crucifixion. It was a metaphor for crucifixion. Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death which Peter would by which Peter would glorify God. And you know, it's a little bit ironic in a way, isn't it? Because to have your arms stretched out is actually a it's a posture of love, of vulnerability, of embrace, of openness, isn't it? It's also how you get crucified.

And Jesus said, "Peter, someday you are going to love your sheep so much that you're going to die for them too, just like I died for mine." And this is what we know. History says this is this is what happened. And Tertullian tells us that under the Neronian persecution in the 60s of that century, Peter was taken and executed through crucifixion. And what he said was, according to Tertullian, he he said Peter said, "I don't mind dying. That's all right."

See the courage? "But," he said, "Please crucify me upside down." Have you heard that? Crucify me upside down. You know why he said? This is what Tertullian said, "Because I'm not worthy to be crucified the way my savior was crucified for me." And that's the secret of courage. Why? Here's the secret of courage. Nothing I can be called to do is anything like what Jesus Christ was called to do for me.

Don't you want this kind of humility and tenderness, compassion? Don't you want this kind of courage and boldness? All right. Let Jesus take you to your fires and sit down with you. You know what I'm talking about. You've got some fires that you need to go to with Jesus. Let him sit down and heal you. Let us pray.

Our Father, may the resurrection power that Paul talks about your servant Paul says that even though the physical resurrection is often the future, he says, "I want to know the power of his resurrection now." And we want to know the power of Jesus Christ's resurrection now. We know how it can happen. We have to be converted, but then we have to continually die more and more into sin and live more and more into righteousness through repentance and faith and grace, reordering our hearts, uh loves so that we can feed lambs. So that we can both lead and we can uh also follow. So that we can be tender and we can be incredibly tough. Give us this resurrection life through Jesus. It's in his name that we pray. Amen.

Guest (Female): Thanks for listening to Tim Keller on the Gospel in Life podcast. If you'd like to see more people encouraged by the gospel-centered teaching and resources of this ministry, we invite you to consider becoming a Gospel in Life monthly partner. Your partnership connects people all over the world with the life-giving power of Christ's love. To learn more, just visit gospelinlife.com/partner. That website again is gospelinlife.com/partner. 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.