Gospel in Life

The beginning of the book of John doesn’t talk to us about the facts of Christmas — it tells us the meaning of Christmas. This passage from John 1 shows us that the meaning of the coming of Christ is tied to an incident in the life of Jacob. According to this text, the message of Christmas is that the heavens have been opened for those who have been humbled.  We will break down the two aspects of this message: First, that the heavens have been opened, and second, that the heavens have been opened for those who are humbled.  This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 20, 2009. Series: Christmas 2009. Scripture: John 1:43-51. 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.

One of the problems with Christmas is we think meaningfulness comes easily. You go to a Christmas service or even a Christmas party, and a couple of people say a couple of words. You come and you sing Christmas carols with sort of dreamy and happy faces. That’s good, because we’re immediately connecting Christmas to family, reunions, gifts, time off from work, and things like that. We settle for too little though, because the meaning of Christmas is inexhaustible. It’s filled with theologically powerful, life-changing truths. Our passage from John 1 today helps us understand the meaning of the events around Christmas. We’re going to simply meditate on three aspects of the most pregnant part of this famous passage, verse 14: 1) Jesus is the Word of God; 2) Jesus is our counselor; and 3) the real becomes ideal.  This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 13, 2009. Series: Christmas 2009. Scripture: John 1:1-14. 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.

The book of Proverbs teaches us about wisdom, and wisdom is critically important to have in our relationships. Family relationships can be especially challenging — mistakes, wrong choices, bad patterns of behavior can be absolutely devastating. We need wisdom to navigate these things in our families.  Whether you have a large family or small family, distant or close, there is something for everybody here. The themes of wisdom that run through familial relationships are kind of universal. Let’s take a look, first of all, at what the book of Proverbs says about the relationship of spouse to spouse and then relationships of parents and children. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on June 12, 2005. Series: Proverbs: True Wisdom for Living. Scripture: Proverbs 2:16-17. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Let’s just say you have something to say to a friend that’s going to be hard for that person to hear but good for them. Should you tell them now or later? Should you only tell them if certain circumstances present themselves? Or should you not tell them at all? Any one of these options is morally allowable. We need wisdom to help us make these kinds of decisions.  We particularly need wisdom for making and maintaining relationships. Relationships are so important in life — vitally important for your health and wellbeing — and you need wisdom for knowing how relationships can break down and how to repair them. A wise person knows 1) the need for relationship repair, 2) the components of relationship repair, and 3) the heart of relationship repair.  This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on June 5, 2005. Series: Proverbs: True Wisdom for Living. Scripture: Proverbs 10:18; 11:12-13; 17:9; 24:17-18, 28-29; 25:7b-10, 21-22; 27:5-6. 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.

In the Bible, wisdom is certainly not less than being moral and good — it’s much more. To be wise means that you are so in touch with reality that you know what the right thing is to do in the vast majority of the situations the moral rules don’t apply to. It means that when you are faced with multiple permissible choices, you will know which one to make.  Proverbs says you’re not going to be a wise person unless you are great at choosing, forging, and keeping terrific friendships. Let’s look more deeply at friendships under these four headings: the uniqueness of friendship; how to discover a friend; how to forge a friend; and lastly, where to get the power for friendship. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 29, 2005. Series: Proverbs: True Wisdom for Living. Scripture: Proverbs 17:17; 18:24; 25:17,20; 26:18,19; 27:5,6,9,14,17; 28:23; 29:5. 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.

Of all the things the book of Proverbs says something about, speech is at the top of the list. It has so much to teach us about how to use our tongues and about language. In short, how you speak will make or break your life. Learning to speak wisely is all-important.  We’re going to look at several different proverbs that shed light on these topics for us. These three headings will guide us: the power of our words, the character of our words, and the healing of our words.  This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 15, 2005. Series: Proverbs: True Wisdom for Living. Scripture: Proverbs 10:18-19. 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.

Today we’re going to look at the subject of wisdom. Wisdom is so much more than just being good and moral and ethical. Wisdom has to do with knowing something about the way the world works so that you can make the right decision when you’re faced with multiple options that are morally permissible. This doesn’t necessarily happen with more education, or by being a world traveler, or by becoming more sophisticated. The secrets of wisdom are locked in your ordinary experiences if you know how to learn from them. According to the book of Proverbs, there are two particularly common experiences, and when you’re in either of these two situations, you are in both a moment of great spiritual danger and a moment of great spiritual opportunity. There are tests, and if you pass the tests, you’ll become wiser about yourself, the world, and about human nature. If you fail, you’ll actually become more of a fool. We’re going to ask these three questions: 1) what are the tests, 2) why do they work, and 3) how we can pass.  This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 23, 2005. Series: Proverbs: True Wisdom for Living. Scripture: Proverbs 3:9-14; 10:16, 25; 24:10-12. 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.

In Proverbs we see that at the heart of what it means to live a wise life is caring for justice. Take a look here at this last verse that was just read to you, “The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern.” This little word caring is way too weak an English word to get across what’s actually being said here. The Hebrew word here is the word yada`, which is the deepest and most intimate and experiential word in the Hebrew language for knowledge. It’s even used in Genesis to describe sexual activity that brings forth children — it’s a very strong word.  What this is saying is, “You’re not wise unless you are living an intensely passionate life, committed to justice.” We’re going to look at this under four headings. Why do we need justice? What is justice? Who does justice? How can we be one of the ones who do justice? This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 16, 2005. Series: Proverbs: True Wisdom for Living. Scripture: Proverbs 3:18-20, 27-32; 11:10-11; 19:17; 29:7. 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 the book of Matthew, the account of the birth of Jesus tells us the “wise men” came to worship him. Who were the wise men? The wise men were the culturati, the cultural experts and the leading thinkers of their society. So why did they come to worship a baby? Their coming illustrates the point that God makes foolish the wisdom of this world — God’s wisdom makes the world’s wisdom bow to God.  In 1 Corinthians 1, Paul asks, “Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” When you grasp who the child born in the manger really is, the things you thought of before as foolish will look wise, and the things you thought of before as wise will look foolish. We’re going to learn more about how this happens by looking at the antonym of wisdom: foolishness. First, what a fool is; secondly, what kinds of fools there are; thirdly, how to be a fool no more. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 26, 2004. Series: Proverbs: True Wisdom for Living. Scripture: Proverbs 1:22, 32-33; 8:27-32; 14:15; 15:5; 16:25; 19:25; 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.

Psalm 113 points us back to the song of Hannah in 1 Samuel 1 and 2, and it looks forward to the song of Mary in Luke 1, where Mary sings because she has been told she’s going to give birth to Jesus. So these three — the song of Hannah, Psalm 113, and the song of Mary — are connected. There’s a theme running through all of these that will shed light on what Christmas is about.  So what is Christmas about? It’s about the infinitely high becoming inconceivably low, the infinitely huge becoming astoundingly small. In other words, there’s a protocol God has when it comes to renewing the world and renewing your life. The protocol is he tends to work through the poor to renew the world, and he tends to work through weakness and suffering to renew you. Let’s take a look at this protocol as God depicts it in Psalm 113 and then as Jesus Christ works it out through his own life.  This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 19, 2004. Series: Proverbs: True Wisdom for Living. Scripture: Psalm 113:1-9. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.