Gospel in Life

Tim Keller

The True Older Brother

September 14, 2022

At the beginning of Luke 15, Jesus is speaking to religious leaders who look at him fraternizing with “sinners.” They basically ask Jesus: “Why are you hanging out with all these lost people?" In response, Jesus gives three parables about lostness, ending with the parable of the lost son. Jesus is trying to get across a new idea of what it means to be spiritually lost. In the parable of the lost son, then, Jesus gives us a new understanding and a new category for spiritual lostness.

In this sermon, we'll see what that category is, how you can judge whether you’re in the category yourself (what the signs are of that condition), what do you do with it if that’s you, and lastly, what are some of the implications for the church.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 9, 2008. Series: The Fellowship of Grace. Scripture: Luke 15:17-32.

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.

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The Life of Jesus and Your Life
 In Tim Keller’s book Jesus the King you’ll discover how the story of Jesus from the Gospel of Mark helps you make sense of your own life. Jesus the King is our thanks for your gift to help share the transformative power of Christ’s love with people all over the world.

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The famous parable of the prodigal son shows us not just how the grace of God changes our individual lives but also how it changes our relationships with each other, how it forms a new kind of human community, a unique human society. Jesus brilliantly ties this story in with one of the main themes of the entire Bible: exile and homecoming. Philosophers have taught that the human condition is one of profound alienation—feeling that we’re not really home in this world. Why would that be? What are we going to do about that? Those profound questions are all addressed and actually answered by this parable. We’re going to learn here about the human condition, the divine solution for it, and the new Communion that is the result. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 2, 2008. Series: The Fellowship of Grace. Scripture: Luke 15:17-32. 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.
September 12, 2022
The parable of the prodigal son gives us incredible insights about how the grace of God creates a unique kind of Christian community. The one thing everybody knows when you read the parable of the prodigal son is that it's about forgiveness. What does this story teach us about forgiveness? What kind of community would we be if we took its teaching about forgiveness seriously? In this sermon, we'll see that forgiveness is assertive, it’s sacrificial, it’s powered from inside, and it leads to a resurrection. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 26, 2008. Series: The Fellowship of Grace. Scripture: Luke Luke 15:11-24. 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.
September 9, 2022
The parable of the prodigal son shows us how the grace of God affects our relationships with each other and how it creates a unique community. In the story, when the younger brother comes back to try to make restitution and reconciliation, he says “I am not worthy to be called your son" two times. What did sonship mean in ancient culture? What does sonship mean in the Bible? We have to understand sonship if we are going to understand the great gift that God has given to us through Jesus. This sermon will explore the character of sonship, the practice of sonship, the community that results from sonship, and the accomplishment of sonship. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 19, 2008. Series: The Fellowship of Grace. Scripture: Luke 15:21-24. 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.
September 7, 2022
In the story of the prodigal son, we see a story about the meltdown of community and the restoration of it. The key theme we’re going to look at in this sermon, which is crucial for the restoration or the renewal of community, is the theme of repentance. Even though the word is not in this passage, what we have when the younger son decides to go back to his father is an example of repentance. This sermon will look at the importance of repentance, the anatomy of it, the key to doing it, and the kind of community that results from it.  This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 12, 2008. Series: The Fellowship of Grace. Scripture: Luke 15:11-20. 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.
September 5, 2022
The parable of the prodigal son shows us, among many things, how the gospel creates a new and different kind of community. The parable shows us a family that is unraveling and falling apart—it is experiencing assaults on its integrity and cohesion. In this sermon, we will see that the story of the prodigal son gives us a picture of an assault on community, because of idolatry which is only overcome by agony. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 5, 2008. Series: The Fellowship of Grace. Scripture: Luke 15:11-14. 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.
September 2, 2022
We’re looking at the parables Jesus tells in Luke 15: the parable of the lost sheep, the parable of the lost coin, and the parable of the lost son. These famous parables not only show us how God’s grace changes us individually, but how God’s grace forms us into a unique kind of human community.  The gospel creates a completely unique and distinct kind of community — a community the world has never seen. Let’s take a look at the sheep, the search itself, and the shepherd, and see what each one of those teaches us about how God’s grace creates community. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 28, 2008. Series: The Fellowship of Grace. Scripture: Luke 15:1-10. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.
August 31, 2022
The doctrine of the Trinity is that God is one being who eternally exists in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In this passage of Jesus’s “high priestly prayer”—his prayer for his disciples the night before he died—Jesus gives us insights into the inner life of the Trinity. In this sermon, we will see how the doctrine of the Trinity helps us understand true glory. There are three things about God that we learn from the passage: 1) The ancient love; 2) The ultimate hour; 3) The welcoming glory. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on June 19, 2011. Series: To Know the Living God – The Adequacy of God. Scripture: John 17:1-6, 20-26. 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.
August 29, 2022
The Trinity is one of the most unique and startling of all Christian teachings. One of the most important things to know about the New Testament is that the Trinity— that God is one God containing three persons— is assumed everywhere, and so it’s in the background of every text. How can we talk about and think about the idea of the Trinity? This sermon will cover: 1) The difficulty of the thought of the Trinity; 2) The power of the thought; 3) The proof of the thought. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on June 12, 2011. Series: To Know the Living God – The Adequacy of God. Scripture: Matthew 28:16-20. 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.
August 26, 2022
The fact that God can be our Father is possibly one of the most important things that the Bible tells us. Jesus came and lived and died, so that we could have a family relationship with God — so that we can call God “Father.” This should be a source of wonder for us, something that electrifies us, and should never be commonplace. If God is our Father, then, what does that mean? 1) To live in covenant; 2) To live in grace; 3) To live in confidence when bad things are happening; 4) To live in intimacy; 5) To live in gratitude.  This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on June 5, 2011. Series: To Know the Living God – The Adequacy of God. Scripture: Psalm 103:1-18. 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.
August 24, 2022
In some cultures or social locations, God isn’t seen as compassionate enough, because he allows terrible things to happen. In other cultures, he is seen as too compassionate and forgiving to people who have done terrible things. To fully understand the compassion of God, we have to look at what the Bible says about it. At the end of this famous story of Jonah, the word “compassion” shows up three times — what does it tell us about the compassion of God? This sermon will look at the compassion of God under three headings: 1) What is the compassion of God? 2) What is the compassion of Jesus? 3) What is the compassion of you and me? This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 29, 2011. Series: To Know the Living God – The Adequacy of God. Scripture: Jonah 4:1-11. 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.
August 22, 2022
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Featured Offer

The Life of Jesus and Your Life
 In Tim Keller’s book Jesus the King you’ll discover how the story of Jesus from the Gospel of Mark helps you make sense of your own life. Jesus the King is our thanks for your gift to help share the transformative power of Christ’s love with people all over the world.

About Gospel in Life

Gospel In Life is a ministry that features sermons, books, articles, and resources from Timothy Keller, Redeemer Presbyterian Church, and Redeemer City to City. The name reflects our conviction that the gospel changes everything in life. In 1989 Dr. Timothy J. Keller, his wife and three young sons moved to New York City to begin Redeemer Presbyterian Church. He has since become a bestselling author, an influential thinker, and an advocate for ministry in cities and to secular people.

About Tim Keller

Timothy Keller is the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, which he started in 1989 with his wife, Kathy, and three young sons.  For 28 years he led a diverse congregation of young professionals that grew to a weekly attendance of over 5,000.

He is also the Chairman & Co-Founder of Redeemer City to City (CTC), which starts new churches in New York and other global cities, and publishes books and resources for ministry in an urban environment. In 2017 Dr. Keller transitioned to CTC full time to teach and mentor church planters and seminary students through a joint venture with Reformed Theological Seminary's (RTS), the City Ministry Program. He also works with CTC's global affiliates to launch church planting movements.

Dr. Keller’s books, including the New York Times bestselling The Reason for God and The Prodigal God, have sold over 2 million copies and been translated into 25 languages.

Christianity Today has said, “Fifty years from now, if evangelical Christians are widely known for their love of cities, their commitment to mercy and justice, and their love of their neighbors, Tim Keller will be remembered as a pioneer of the new urban Christians.”

Dr. Keller was born and raised in Pennsylvania, and educated at Bucknell University, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and Westminster Theological Seminary. He previously served as the pastor of West Hopewell Presbyterian Church in Hopewell, Virginia, Associate Professor of Practical Theology at Westminster Theological Seminary, and Director of Mercy Ministries for the Presbyterian Church in America.

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