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The Secret Siege of Nineveh

October 14, 2022
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Nineveh, which is the capital of Assyria, was the greatest city the world had yet seen. Nobody in their right mind would even think of besieging the city, let alone trying to capture the city, because you couldn’t even get an army around it. Who had an army that could stretch around the circumference of this city? But the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men, and God decides, not just to besiege the city, but to sack it with an army of one.

God did it by taking one man and turning that one man into a city-changer, into a world-changer. Then, by doing so, he was able to sack the greatest city in the history of the world up to that time. How did God make Jonah an army of one? First, God’s persistent grace makes you an army of one. Second, God’s calling makes you an army of one. Thrid, God’s strategy. And finally, God’s power.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on August 26, 1990. Series: Jonah. Scripture: Jonah 3.

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

We’ve seen that when Jonah was called to preach in the great city of Nineveh, he refused and fled from God. God sent a storm to reclaim him, and he was thrown over the side of the boat into the ocean. There, he was swallowed by a great fish. Then in the belly of the deep, Jonah prays a prayer of faith, and he grasps the grace of God. We’re going to look, not so much at the subject or topic of the prayer, but the phenomenon of the prayer itself. How did Jonah, who was in this condition of utter despair, of cowering fear, and of rebellion… How did he come from that position to a posture of triumphant faith by the end of the prayer? The answer is that faith rose up, and it brought with it Jonah’s heart. We’ll see his faith that he exercised was done in three stages. First, he calls, then he remembers, and finally he commits. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on August 19, 1990. Series: Jonah. Scripture: Jonah 2:1-10. 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.
October 12, 2022
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The plot line of Jonah goes like this. Chapter 1: God says to Jonah, “Go and preach to Nineveh, the greatest city in the world.” Chapter 2: Jonah refuses and flees on a boat. Chapter 3: God sends a great storm on the ocean to reclaim Jonah. Chapter 4: Jonah is thrown into the sea and swallowed by a fish. The point of all of this is in this chapter, almost exactly in the very center of the book. The point is about God’s grace. This book says a religious professional, a preacher, and even more than that, a prophet who received direct revelation from God can be deeply and profoundly in the dark about God’s grace. Jonah’s deepest fears, his racial prejudice, and his lack of endurance are all tied to his blindness to the reality of grace.  Let’s look at three questions that this passage answers for us: 1) What is the grace of God? 2) How do you receive the grace of God? 3) How do you know you have received the grace of God in your life? This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on August 12, 1990. Series: Jonah. Scripture: Jonah 2:1-10. 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.
October 10, 2022
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Jonah is called by God to go to Nineveh, the greatest city in the world, to warn the city about impending disaster and preach there. Jonah refuses, heads in the other direction, and gets on a boat. God sends a storm to hunt him down, endangering the lives of everyone on the ship. Jonah, recognizing this, offers to be thrown into the ocean so the lives of the other sailors will not be forfeit. We’re going to pause and look at the sub-plot here: Jonah’s impact on the sailors and their impact on him. God uses the sailors to teach Jonah something about himself and the world. In doing so, let’s take a look and see how God will teach us something about ourselves and how we are supposed to regard the world. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on August 5, 1990. Series: Jonah. Scripture: Jonah 1:4-16. 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.
October 7, 2022
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We’re looking at the Book of Jonah, and we’ve seen that one subject in the book is sin and grace. Even though there are many places in the Bible that talk about those topics very theologically, the great thing about the book of Jonah is it presents these concretely. Sin is running away from God, and grace is God chasing us down, hunting us down in love, and intercepting our self-destructive behavior.  We’ve learned that Jonah ran from God – he literally decided to get as far away from God as he possibly could. Then God sent a storm, and so the plot thickens. This chapter is about the storm God sent and about Jonah’s response to the storm.  Until you see you are not competent to run your life, you are not competent to run your life. This is an intervention of God. Let’s look to see how God intervenes and uses the storm as a way of teaching Jonah about himself and about sin and grace.  This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on July 29, 1990. Series: Jonah. Scripture: Jonah 1:1-17. 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.
October 5, 2022
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The book of Jonah is a very simple story. It’s a book about a man running away from God and about God pursuing him, and as a result of that, this book is one of the most concrete ways to learn what the Bible means by sin and grace.  Almost everybody is familiar with the words sin and grace, but what they actually mean is another thing. Essentially (as concretely as you can put it), sin is running away from God and grace is God’s effort to pursue and to intercept self-destructive behavior. That’s it. Sin and grace. Running and chasing.  In this passage, we’re going to see, first of all, Jonah is called to do something. Second, Jonah runs away from it. And third, we’ll see how God pursues him.  This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on July 22, 1990. Series: Jonah. Scripture: Jonah 1:1-10. 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.
October 3, 2022
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In these short parables, we see sacrifices made in the context of such tremendous riches that the sacrifice is made with incredible joy. In other words, the characters sacrificed in the joy and knowledge of what was on the way. This story shows us several principles of the kingdom of God: 1) Give up your small ambitions; 2) Christianity is a change of dimension and of essence; 3) To make that change, Christianity requires you to sell everything; 4) What Jesus gives in response to unconditional surrender is unimaginable splendor.  This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on August 28, 1994. Series: The Parables of Jesus (1994). Scripture: Matthew 13:44-46. 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 30, 2022
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In this parable, we see Jesus teaching about how he wants his followers to live. The main theme of this story is that a Christian is no longer his or her own, but a Christian is a servant. Through this story, we'll see that a servant is somebody who has settled something intellectually and emotionally; they’ve settled that God owes them nothing. But we'll also see that a Christian is more than a servant: Christians are sons and daughters of God.  This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on August 21, 1994. Series: The Parables of Jesus (1994). Scripture: Luke 17:1-13. 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.
September 28, 2022
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The parable of the Great Banquet shows us that God's kingdom is a feast, but it’s not the kind of feast you’d think. Instead of the feast for the rich and the proud, it’s a feast for the humble. How can we humble ourselves so we can enter the kingdom? First, Jesus shows that you must be humbled under the slowness of the kingdom. Secondly, under the freeness of the kingdom. Thirdly, under the commonness of the kingdom. Fourthly, under the priority of the kingdom. his sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on August 30, 1992. Series: The Parables of Jesus (1992). Scripture: Luke 14:7-24. 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 26, 2022
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Susan Nacorda Stang interviews Tim Keller as they discuss how to communicate the Gospel in preaching, teaching and writing. 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 24, 2022
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In the parable of the sower, we see that Jesus did not just come to bring forgiveness of sins, but the very kingdom of God—in other words, forgiveness of sins is just the beginning. The kingdom of God is nothing less than the power of God in heaven entering the world to heal every alienation and every brokenness. What does it mean to enter the kingdom of God? How do we come into the power of the kingdom of God? In this parable, we learn that listening well, listening deep, and listening in understanding is the primary skill of the kingdom of God. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on August 23, 1992. Series: The Parables of Jesus (1992). Scripture: Matthew 13:1-9; 18-23. 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.
September 23, 2022
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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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