Gospel in Life

Matthew chapter 11 begins with John the Baptist sending a message that reveals John is struggling with who Jesus is. All of Matthew 11 is a response to John the Baptist’s question. Jesus doesn’t say something like, “John, you’ve misunderstood me.” No, instead, he says “John, the things I claim and the things I am are much more outrageous than you have even heard. Let me show you just how outrageous and how offensive I really can be.”  Jesus makes some of the most outrageous and the most offensive statements that have ever been made in verse 27. He says that he is the only way. This claim that made the people of Jesus’ day struggle is also the thing that makes us struggle. Let’s look at what this deeper claim is, why you should believe it, and how you should use it. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 6, 1996. Series: The Real Jesus, Part 1: His Teaching. Scripture: Matthew 11:25-27. 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.

In Matthew chapter 11 John the Baptist is struggling with the identity of Jesus. He sends a message and he says, “Are you really who you claim to be?” The rest of the chapter is Jesus’ answer to that question. The contemporary relevance of a chapter like this is so amazing and so obvious, because Western civilization is filled with people just like John the Baptist. People who are filled with doubts and questions about Jesus.  Jesus gives us two important things to do in his response. First of all, he says, “Use the magnitude of my claims, the greatness of who I claim to be, to knock yourself out of the deadly middle.” And secondly, “Turn it on yourself and use it to make yourself a little child spiritually.” Let’s look more closely at what the deadly middle is and then how to do this. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 29, 1996. Series: The Real Jesus, Part 1: His Teaching. Scripture: Matthew 11:18-27. 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.

This passage is part of Jesus’ response to John the Baptist who was struggling with doubts about the identity of Jesus. It is so relevant for today because many of us may have similar questions or doubts about Jesus. We may be in a similar situation as John the Baptist. In Jesus’ response, we find answers to that unbelief.  Let’s look at three wonderful things about unbelief that Jesus teaches us in this passage: the power of unbelief, the character of unbelief, and the solution for unbelief. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 22, 1996. Series: The Real Jesus, Part 1: His Teaching. Scripture: Matthew 11:16-24. 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.

Matthew 11 has incredible relevance to us today. In the last 1500 years in the West, there has always been indifference to Jesus; but never have there been so many people who are offended at Jesus. John the Baptist is in the same place. When in prison, he sends Jesus a message, and he says, “I don’t know that you’re the One. Are you the Messiah? How do I know?”  In Jesus’ response, we see three groups of people that don’t take offense at Jesus: the poor, the violent, and the least. Each one tells you something about what you have to be and what you have to do if you’re even going to be open to Jesus’ claims. These three are a model for us to be open to who Jesus is. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 15, 1996. Series: The Real Jesus, Part 1: His Teaching. Scripture: Matthew 11:4-15. 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 https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

In this passage from the book of Matthew, John the Baptist is struggling with who Jesus is. Why would John, this great religious figure, be dealing with such difficulty? We learn two things from his struggle: 1) you have to make sure you do not try to understand yourself before you understand Jesus, and 2) you also had better realize that if you reject him you’ll never be able to stop searching for him. As a response, Jesus gives John a straight answer. We learn two more things from Jesus. He says, “You will not know I’m the One until 1) you feel my offensiveness and 2) you see how I welcome the weak. Let’s look a little deeper into this interchange and its  burning contemporary relevance for our world today. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 8, 1996. Series: The Real Jesus, Part 1: His Teaching. Scripture: Matthew 11:2-6. 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.

The theme of forgiveness is something that’s in so much of opera, theater, and literature—because it’s a very important issue in human living. So our theme comes in the form of a question: should we always forgive? Forgiveness is always easy when you’re asking someone else to give it. And it’s always hard when someone’s asking you to give it. A lot of people have problems with forgiveness. They say forgiveness seems to make light of what was done wrong, or they say they can’t forgive unless the other person asks for forgiveness. But if you look at the whole story arch of the operas, you know that whenever people fail to forgive, bad things happen. This Open Forum, with a talk and open mic Q&A, is specifically designed for skeptics or those wrestling with the claims of Christianity. We’re going to discuss 1) whether we should forgive, 2) what it means to forgive, and 3) where we might get the resources for it. This talk was given by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 1, 2013. Series: Redeemer Open Forums.  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.

Why is it that we celebrate Christmas with gift giving? We don’t do that at Easter. We don’t do that at Thanksgiving or the Fourth of July. At anniversaries and birthdays, we give one person gifts, but at Christmas everybody gives everybody gifts. Why? I’m not actually looking for a literal answer. I’m asking as a rhetorical question, “Why is it that everybody gives gifts to everybody else at Christmas?”  I’m here to say it’s profoundly appropriate, because it gets at the theological heart of Christmas: that Jesus Christ is the only human being who wasn’t just born but was given.  Everyone who knows something about the Bible will say that 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 is the longest, most involved, and explicit passage in all of the Bible on the subject of generosity. We’re being told 1) there’s a problem with regard to giving and generosity, 2) what will happen if we don’t solve that problem, and 3) how we can solve it. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 13, 2015. Series: What We Are Giving: The Dynamic of Grace. Scripture: 2 Corinthians 8:8-15; 9:6-12. 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 been looking at Christian practices, or spiritual disciplines, by which our character changes. Now, instead of looking at one practice, we’ll look at how a number of practices come together to create one particular character quality: self-control.  A self-control problem is when you’re doing something you desperately want to stop, but can’t. There are the classic addictions like drinking and drugs, spending and gambling, overeating and undereating. But we shouldn’t think of self-control just in those terms. We also have trouble controlling our tongues, our thoughts, our time, and our emotions. Because all of us have some problems with self-control, we had better figure out what to do about it. Otherwise, our problems with self-control will strip us of our careers, of our relationships, or even of our physical lives.  These two passages from 1 Corinthians 9 and 10 are Paul’s insight into what the Bible says about self-control. We’ll start to make progress if we grasp three things: 1) the centrality of the heart, 2) the power of the gospel, and 3) the endurance of Jesus. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on June 15, 2008. Series: Practicing The Christian Life. Scripture: 1 Corinthians 9:23-27; 10:11-13. 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 https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

We’re in a series on Christian practices. We believe certain things, but those beliefs don’t necessarily change our lives unless we instill those beliefs into our hearts through Christian practices, through spiritual disciplines.  Let’s look at a Christian practice, a spiritual discipline, that you probably don’t think of as a spiritual discipline. It’s the practice of hospitality. All through the Scripture, hospitality is extremely important. It’s a sign of spiritual maturity. If you put the word “hospitality” into a search engine right now, almost all the first things that come up will be vacation resorts or Martha Stewart entertaining where everything is perfect. But actually, that’s almost the opposite of what the Bible means by it. In Hebrews 13, we’re going to look at 1) the principle behind Christian hospitality, 2) the promise of Christian hospitality, and 3) the impetus for Christian hospitality. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on June 8, 2008. Series: Practicing The Christian Life. Scripture: Hebrews 13:1-14. 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 https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

In this series, we’ve been saying beliefs don’t automatically change your life. They have to be instilled into your heart through spiritual disciplines, through Christian practices. I’d like to talk now about a Christian practice you probably don’t think of as a practice—the practice of friendship, especially friendship between believers.  Friendship only happens to the degree you work at it. The ancients considered it the most virtuous of all the loves—because it was the most deliberate. The Bible understood, like all ancient people, how important friendship was. The practice of friendship was something Christians were to extend to everybody in their Christian community.  That didn’t mean there weren’t levels of intensity. Jesus said to his twelve disciples, “You’re all my friends,” and yet, John was his best friend, and Peter, James, and John were close friends. With some people you practice more intensely, but the Bible says all other believers in your Christian community must be friends. You must practice the disciplines of friendship.  There are two great features of friendship. In Galatians 5 and 6, let’s look at 1) the constancy of friendship, 2) the intimacy of friendship, and 3) the power to fulfill them.  This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on June 1, 2008. Series: Practicing The Christian Life. 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.