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Tim Keller

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The Hero of Heroes

April 19, 2021
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Our passage comes from Acts chapter 5 where things begin to look dim for the followers of Christ. Beginning around this time and spanning to around AD 300, the history of the early church is filled with persecution and suffering. Christians were systematically imprisoned, plundered, tortured, and killed. In this particular incident in Acts, we see Christians facing danger and the possibility of death with heroic courage.

Where did they get that heroic courage? We’re going to focus on the reply of the apostles in just four verses, 29-32. There are three questions to guide our time together: 1) What was that heroic courage? 2) Where did it come from? 3) How can we get it?

This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 3, 2013. Series "Acts: The Gospel in the City". Scripture: Acts 5:27-42.

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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Past Episodes

Acts is about the origins of Christianity. Whenever you go to the origins, you learn something about what genuine Christianity is — authentic, original, real Christianity. That is important because many people base, to some degree, their non-belief on what it was like to be a “Christian” earlier in life or on what other “Christians” are like.  If you ask yourself every day the question, “Am I a real Christian?,” it will drive you nuts. On the other hand, if you never ask that question, that’s not healthy either. Let’s ask the question on the basis of this text by looking at four marks of a real Christian: 1) you serve God consistently, especially in suffering, 2) you are getting to know God deliberately 3) you experience God periodically, and 4) you exhibit God generously. This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 20, 2013. Series "Acts: The Gospel in the City". Scripture: Acts 4:23-37. 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.
April 16, 2021
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Our passage today is on the first miracle the apostles perform after the resurrection of Jesus, which is at the very beginning of the Christian church. If you want to learn about the topic of suffering, you go to the book of Job or a lot of other places in the Bible that seem to deal with it more directly. But this passage is actually a lot about suffering.  This miracle, in many ways, is typical of so many of the other miracles of the New Testament done by Jesus or by apostles. If you understand this one, in some ways you’ll be able to understand all of the miracles in the New Testament. We’re going to see that it points 1) upward, 2) forward, 3) inward, and 4) downward. This is the grid for us to learn about suffering and to see the meaning of New Testament miracles. This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 6, 2013. Series "Acts: The Gospel in the City". Scripture: Acts 3:2-8; 13-23. 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.
April 14, 2021
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Our passage from Acts 2 is about the birth of the Christian church. We’re going to look at how the birth of the church is intimately related to the birth of Christ: Christmas. In many ways, what happened at Christmas explains what happens in the early church; and what happens in the early church explains what Christmas is about. When the early Christians began to understand the reality of Christmas, they began to practice Christmas. They brought ideals into the world that no one had ever thought of, because it was based on their new idea of ultimate reality.  First of all, we’re going to see what made the earliest Christian community so different from the culture surrounding them and secondly, what the source of that difference was. This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 9, 2012. Series "Acts: The Gospel in the City". Scripture: Acts 2:40-47. 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.
April 12, 2021
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Our passage is the first Christian sermon given by Peter on the day of Pentecost. It’s important that we consider the entire sermon for the context, but we’re going to focus our time on the last four verses (36–39) and what it means to be a Christian.  How do you become a Christian? In a sense, when you get to the end of the sermon, you have a little compendium on how to do this, but there are four things that come into play. In verse 36 we learn about mind and grace, in verse 37 about heart, and in verses 38–39 we’ll learn about life. This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 12, 2012. Series "Acts: The Gospel in the City". Scripture: Acts 2:12-39. 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.
April 9, 2021
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We’re going to look at a very famous episode in the book of Acts today, the day of Pentecost. What makes this unique is the descent of the Holy Spirit. There’s a sense in which the Old Testament people of God became the New Testament people of God because the Holy Spirit came down with a transforming power that had never been known heretofore. In a certain sense, the people of God are getting rebooted, relaunched — it’s the fullness of the Spirit. We need to ask the same question the crowd asked: “What does this mean?” It will take several sermons to answer this question, but today we’re going to cover four things that being filled with the Spirit means: outside power, inner wonder, a universal message, and a new man on the mountain. This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 25, 2012. Series "Acts: The Gospel in the City". Scripture: Acts 2:1-13. 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.
April 7, 2021
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The book of Acts is about how the earliest church was essentially launched into a cosmopolitan and urban setting just like ours today. Our church has never been here just for convinced, believing Christians, but it’s also here for New Yorkers who aren’t sure what they believe (or who don’t believe in Christianity). Acts is one of a few books in the New Testament that is pretty specifically written for skeptical people. There are images the Bible gives us to get across a fundamental change in our relationship with God that has come because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ — they are irreplaceable and nonnegotiable images. Here’s what they are. We are told that when Jesus Christ ascended, he didn’t just go up, but he ascended to the throne — the throne of the universe, and that means three things: 1) relational intimacy, 2)  historical strategy, and 3) transforming advocacy. This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 18, 2012. Series "Acts: The Gospel in the City". Scripture: Acts 1:1-11. 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.
April 5, 2021
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Today’s passage comes from the Passion narrative found in the book of Matthew. Matthew is not just a reporter; he’s a teacher. He doesn’t just tell us that Jesus died, but he always builds the narratives around certain statements and sayings that interpret why Jesus died. It’s very typical today for people to say, “Well, the cross might mean something for you. You interpret it your way. I interpret it my way.” But the gospel writers don’t leave that as an option; they are very clear to let Jesus interpret the events that are happening.  In the last moment of Jesus’ life, there are three cries in the dark, and each tells us something about the meaning of the cross (vv.46, 50, 54). The first cry solves our modern dilemma; the second solves a human dilemma;  and the third solves a personal dilemma. This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 16, 2000. Series "St. Matthew's Passion; The World's Last Night". Scripture: Matthew 27:45-56. 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.
April 2, 2021
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We’ve been going through the book of Matthew looking at the big blocks of teaching Jesus gives his disciples for how he wants his followers to live. While the Sermon on the Mount was mainly about how Christian disciples would relate to each other, starting with this passage, Jesus turns around and says, “But now here’s how I want my disciples to relate to the world.”  This passage was Jesus teaching on how to move into a new town or a new neighborhood or a new city as Christian disciples and begin to do mission, begin to do Christian ministry. The whole passage is about, first of all, how we are to share the compassion of Jesus (verses 5–15); secondly, how we are to share the offense of Jesus (verses 16–23); and thirdly, where we are to get the power to do that (verses 24 and 25). This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on July 1, 2012. Series "Savior and Teacher - A Study of Matthew ". Scripture: Matthew 10:5-25. 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.
March 31, 2021
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We’ve come to the end of the Sermon on the Mount. It would be very profitable if we went through and took each of these metaphors Jesus ends the sermon with. You notice there are always two. There are two gates. There are two roads. There are two trees. There are two homes built on two different foundations. How many ways are there to live? Are there two ways to live, two paths, two trees, two gates? Yes and no. This is one of the most hard-hitting parts of the Bible. It is pretty astonishing. In fact, let’s get right to it. There’s a call to discernment, a call to narrow spaciousness, and a call to action, to decision. This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on June 24, 2012. Series "Savior and Teacher - A Study of Matthew ". Scripture: Matthew 7:13-27. 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.
March 29, 2021
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When you get to Matthew 7, which is the last chapter in the Sermon on the Mount, the most famous sermon in history, there is a lot of intriguing stuff. There are ludicrous things in there. There are strange things in here. This isn’t so much inspiring as it is a convicting and brilliant piece of teaching. Verses 1–6 are talking about relationships, the kinds of relationships Jesus Christ wants us to have in the Christian community. Let’s look at the first six verses and see the kind of relationships Jesus Christ wants us to have, the kind of heart you need in order to conduct those relationships, and where to get that heart. This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on June 17, 2012. Series "Savior and Teacher - A Study of Matthew ". Scripture: Matthew 7:1-11. 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.
March 26, 2021
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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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