← Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life
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Welcome to the Gospel and Life Podcast. Do you believe Christ's resurrection is merely a symbol or an actual real historical event? Today, Tim Keller is teaching on why believing in the historical reality of the resurrection is the only way it will really change you. After you listen to today's teaching, we invite you to go online to gospelandlife.com and sign up for email updates. When you sign up, you'll receive our quarterly journal and other valuable gospel centered resources. You can subscribe today@gospelandlife.com.
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Turn in the bulletin to the passage of Scripture on which the teaching is based first Corinthians 15 now there's three basic things that Paul says about the Resurrection. Now the musicians know what they are, don't you? The musicians have heard this three times and they are so holy that tonight when they turn off the lights, they're going to glow in the dark. But you don't know what those three things are yet. And so just to get a little bit of the effulgence of the musicians to get your ear cut, let's read First Corinthians 15 for what I received, I passed on to you as of first importance that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter and then to the 12. And after that he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive, but each in his own turn. Christ the first fruits. Then when he comes those who belong to Him, Then the end will come when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed all dominion, authority, and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. Listen, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. And when the perishable has been clothed within the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true Death is swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, he gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. Now, what Paul does here is he answers three questions, and it's a long chapter, and I've only pulled a couple of pieces out. And you could do worse than to read the whole chapter on Easter Sunday, First Corinthians 15, maybe the great chapter in the whole Bible on the meaning of the resurrection of Jesus. And he answers three questions about Jesus. Resurrection. Did he do it, what did it do, and what should we do about it? See, did it happen? In other words, what did it accomplish and what should we do about it? Now, those three things hang together, though. I'd like to concentrate tonight on the last point. But see, here's how they hang together. First of all, Paul, in the first few verses, tries to explain that if you're going to get the benefits of the resurrection in your life, if it's really going to make a difference in your life, if it's really going to change you, you have to believe it actually happened. That's the reason he goes to the trouble in the very beginning of saying, look, I received. Now, these are technical Greek verbs. Actually, he chooses verbs when he says, I received and I passed on to you. These are verbs that mean I researched, I got information, and I passed it on. I talked to the eyewitnesses. I talked to 500, he says, 500 Christians who are still alive. When I'm writing this, which is 20 years after Jesus, death and resurrection, who are still there, you can still go and ask them. See, when Paul makes this sort of public claim in a publicly circulated letter, when he says, look, there are 500 witnesses. Go and talk to them if you want. They all saw Jesus at once after he had been raised from the dead. What is Paul doing? He was saying, it matters. It matters whether you believe it really happened. The average person in New York City believes the resurrection is a wonderful concept. It's a symbolism. It's a symbol of good triumphing over bad. It's a symbol that you can have a new start after a disaster. If you want a little example of it, of that view of the resurrection, it's in the New York Times lead editorial today. It says, well, Christians have always you know, celebrated the fact that here was a man who stood against, you know, tyranny. You know, if you. Since Christians are not supposed to be sensitive, that would be an insult, and therefore it's not. But if we were sensitive, it would be an insult because Paul goes to great pains and says, if you have a comfortable little life, the symbol of the resurrection, meaning just how good things overcome bad things, eventually might be of some comfort. But when you take deal in your life with concrete trouble, concrete trials, concrete real death coming at you, unless you believe in a concrete, real, physical, literal, historical resurrection, you're not going to be any different. You're not going to be able to handle real trouble unless you believe in a real resurrection. You can't believe the resurrection is just a beautiful symbol, but didn't happen literally or physically. Paul goes out of his way to say, like in verse 20, but Christ is risen indeed. That's why we say not just he's risen indeed, he's risen. Really risen, actually risen, his body rekindled, and he walked out. And Paul's here saying the reason he lays all these verses down in the very beginning is he says, unless you believe it, it's not going to change you. That's the first point. Now, the second point is, not only does he say you have to believe it happened, but he also says you have to believe or have to understand what it accomplished. The resurrection isn't just something that happened. It's not just a naked display of power. It accomplishes something. And what does it accomplish? Well, there's two things that Paul says happen that the resurrection accomplishes. The first one he says in verse 17, which I didn't print there, unfortunately, where Paul says, if Christ is not raised from the dead, you're still in your sins. In fact, he says it in a very vivid way. He says, if Christ is still on the ground, you are still in your sins. Why would that be? Because the resurrection proves that something is over. What's over? It says in Romans 4:25, Jesus was put to death for our sins, but he was raised for our justification. What's that mean? It means this. When you see death, when you get near death, when you go to a funeral of somebody you know, no matter who they are, in spite of the fact that this society will tell you death is natural. It's a normal part of living, you know, it's not. Death is unnatural. Death isn't right. We don't want to die. We don't want to see our loved ones die. There's something abnormal about it. Death forbids us to rise, but we want to rise, but it forbids us to rise. Death pulls us down. Death isn't right. That's the reason why that famous line of Dylan Thomas is so famous. Dylan Thomas says, we rage against the dying of the light. We rage. We know death isn't natural, but if it's not natural, then it's been inflicted. See, you know that death isn't natural. But if death isn't natural, then it's a judgment, then it's a punishment. And why? Well, the Bible answers that we have been put into a world that's built. It's built to work. If we live not for ourselves, but for others and for God, we're built to serve other people and to serve God. That's not how we live. We live to serve ourselves and use other people in God to reach our needs and to make our. To get to our goals. And as a result, the world doesn't work and we don't work. And death is a natural consequence. We're going against the warp and woof and fabric of reality. And the wages of that is disintegration. And disintegration is death. And therefore death has authority. Death is a judgment. When Jesus Christ died, Paul says, if he didn't rise, you're still in your sins. Why? Here's why. If Jesus Christ had died, death would still be owed. Death would still have authority. But when Jesus Christ rose, we already sang about it. Death in vain forbids him rise. The last hymn too is great. It talks about death in vain. Death can't. Why? Because justice has been paid. Judgment has been paid. Jesus Christ, when he died, rendered everything necessary. And therefore death in vain. Death has no power. Death has no authority over us. And therefore condemnation is done. See, the resurrection means condemnation is over. The resurrection means that your sins have been paid for. God has satisfied you. Actually, if you go to the Old Testament, on one day of the year, all the people gathered and the high priest came on Yom Kippur. And what did the high priest do? He went into the veil. What was behind the veil? The Holy of Holies. Where was he going? He was going to atone for the sins of the people. And everybody was nervous. Why? Because he was going back before the raw presence of God. Would the sacrifice be acceptable? So everybody waited with bated breath. And he went down. You know, he went to almost a certain death. He went into the veil. But after he had made the sacrifice, every year he came out, he came through, and everybody rejoiced why? Because it meant that their sins had been atoned for. But that was happening every year, over and over again, as the Book of Hebrews says, in a way that can never completely satisfy the conscience. But when Jesus Christ went into the earth and came out, that was God's way of saying to everybody, your sins have been paid in full. And that's the reason why, on the one hand, without the resurrection, you'd have absolutely no confidence that God looks at you right now and is satisfied and accepts you. But on the other hand, the resurrection does not just prove that something is over, it proves that something has begun. Because in verse 20:23, twice, we're told Jesus Christ is the first fruits. Now, what's the first fruits? Wow. Here's what the first fruits mean. There's a world. There's an eternal world, a world of complete justice, a world of complete love. A world where nothing gets old and dies and decays. A world of life and truth and beauty. But it's the ideal world, and this is the real world. And everybody knows that there's a concrete slab between the real world and the ideal world. But when Jesus rose from the dead, this was not just fireworks. This was not just a naked display of power. This was the ideal. Breaking into the real Jesus Christ is the first fruits. What are the first fruits? It's the first thing out of the garden. It's the first thing out of the grain. It's the first fruit of the vine. It's what's about to come. It's the reality. It's really part of the harvest, even though it's not in there in fullness. And what it means is the future of God has landed in the resurrection. A hole was punched in the pitiless walls of the world. And into a world of decay has come immortality. Into a world of darkness has come light. And when Jesus Christ says, believe in me and you'll receive the resurrection into your life, this is not just you're going to get inspired, you're going to get a little happy. You know, he's going to kind of give you strength to go through the day, lift up your eyes, give up your small ambitions. The Bible says that Christians and the church is God's eschatological beachhead. That means the future. Eschatology. Eschatological means his future has come in now. Partial but real. First fruits, but only first. But really fruits, but only the first. But into the world now, when you become a Christian, into your heart comes the fruit of the Spirit. Into your life comes the gifts of the Spirit. Into your heart comes real, divine future joy and love and glory. And when you have the gifts of the Spirit, it means that when you care for other people, when you counsel other people, when you witness other people, when you teach other people, you're bringing the life of the future into their lives. And the alienations of this world, the alienation where we're spiritually alienated from God and we're psychologically alienated from our own true selves, and we're socially alienated from other people, races and classes and nationalities, those things begin to get healed through the gifts of the Spirit, which are given to you because the future has come.
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Are you looking for ways to grow in your faith this summer, or are you hoping to help new believers or kids grasp the heart of the Christian faith? For many of us, the summer months can provide more time to deepen our faith and our understanding of what it means to follow Christ. A great resource to start using this summer is the New City Catechism Devotional, God's truth for our hearts and minds. This devotional brings the historic catechisms of the Christian church to life, offering a question to consider for each week of the year. In the introduction, Tim Keller lays out the case for catechesis, the rich and communal practice of learning and memorizing questions and answers that frame the foundational beliefs of the Christian faith. Each week includes a scripture passage, a prayer, and a brief meditation that will challenge and inspire you. The included commentaries are by contemporary pastors such as John Piper, Tim Keller, and Kevin DeYoung, as well as historical figures such as Augustine, John Calvin, and Martin Luther. This month, in addition to the New City Catechism Devotional, we're including a great companion resource, the New City Catechism for Kids, as our thank you for your gift to help gospel and life share the hope of Christ's love with with people all over the world. So request your copies today@gospelandlife.com give that's gospelinlife.com give now here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching.
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The resurrection has brought the future into the present. The resurrection has brought you your justification. So what's over? Condemnation and judgment forever. And what's begun? The kingdom that's right there in verses 20 to 24. The first fruits of what? The kingdom first, then and finally the full kingdom. That's what 20 to 24 says. Now let's get to the last point, because Paul is basically saying all of this to get to the end when you get to the end. He's saying, all right, what difference does this make in the way we live? And I love the word there in verse 58 or 59, where he says, therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord. Therefore. What's therefore? What's the therefore referring to? Let me take a minute here. How do you deal with trouble? How do you become strong? How do you face the troubles of life? How do you become immovable? How do you become someone who, you know, who stands firm? That's what Paul's talking about. How do you do it? How do you deal with the troubles of life? You know, do you stiffen your upper lip? Do you say, I'm going to be tough? Do you just say, I'm a Christian. I'm not going to let this get to me? That's not what Paul does. Paul doesn't say, you know, stiffen your upper lip and be, you know, let nothing move you. What is it therefore referring to? Therefore is all the theology of First Corinthians 15. See, when Paul says, I want you to become somebody who's strong, he doesn't say, just defy the world. He says, think. He says, think till the glory of what God has done overwhelms you. It's very holistic. Get your mind engaged until your heart gets so overflowing that your will becomes absolutely overwhelmingly strong. So when Paul said, that little word, therefore is referring back to all of First Corinthians, and what he's really doing is the way most of us deal with trouble is we just defy. It's just totally stoic. We work right with the will, not Paul. Paul says you need hope. And hope only comes from understanding that this resurrection really happened and what it did. You know, one of my heroes is Sam Gamge in Lord of the Rings. Da, Da. And there's one place where he's just about at the end of his rope, and he looks up into the stars and he sees something. It says he crawled from the hiding place and he looked out. The land seemed full of creaking and cracking and sly noises. He was in a terrible spot. You don't need to know. But he says there, peeping up among the cloud rack, far above a dark tower in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle. The beauty of it smote his heart as he looked up out of the forsaken land. And hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end, the Shadow was only a small and passing thing. There was light and high beauty forever beyond its reach. His song in the tower had been defiance rather than hope, for then he was thinking of himself. Now, for a moment, his own fate ceased to trouble him. He crawled back into the brambles, laid himself down, and putting away all fear, he cast himself into a deep, untroubled sleep. Now, there's a lot of nuances in there. See, in the past, the way Sam had gotten strong was. He was just defying. He worked on directly on his will. But in the end, you notice it said. It said it was self absorbed. To be defined is to be self absorbed. To say, I'm not going to sweat. I'm not going to sweat. I'm going to be okay. I'm going to be strong. But suddenly, here he got hope. What is hope? A thought that pierces his heart. See, like a shaft, clear and cold. The thought pierced his heart that in the end, the shadow was a small and passing thing. And there was light and high beauty forever beyond its reach. Now, that is nothing but whistling in the dark. Unless the resurrection of Jesus Christ happened. And if it happened, then I suggest you look at it like Sam looked at that star. Until the shaft pierces your heart and. And then you will be immovable. Nothing will bother you. Let me just give you quickly some things that won't bother you, that are mentioned here. First of all, your sins and flaws won't bother you. Do you believe in the resurrection? You see? You see, if Jesus is out, then God looks at you and is satisfied and accepts you. And your sins and flaws won't bother you. You say, how does that work? Imagine you're buying something in Macy's. You know, Macy's, a very, very big store. And let's just say you bought something huge, some big object that you can't put in a bag and you have to walk from where you are out to the street. Now, when you get to the street, you'll be all right. But on the way out, you know what they'll say? They say, take a receipt. Why? Well, if a security man stops you or if a salesperson or somebody stops you and says, what are you doing with that? What you can do is you can wave your receipt and you can say, trouble me not. I have paid for this. I don't owe a penny. I owe nothing. I am free and clear. What is the resurrection? It's your receipt. Because, you see, you're going to get questions. You're going to get lots of questions. You're going to get questions from the world. You're going to get questions from the flesh, and you're going to get questions from the devil. And the questions will come like this. It'll say, if anybody knew the kind of thoughts that go through your heart. During the Westside 5 o' clock service, I notice somebody who's pretty attractive over there and I start to think about things and wow, I can't believe it. Here I am in church. Oh my gosh. Your own heart's going to come and say, what makes you think God loves you? Why would God love you? And as your heart starts to sink, you pull out your receipt, which is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And you say, trouble, trouble me not. Trouble me not. I'm paid for. I'm free and clear, you see. Don't you dare flagellate. You can say this. The world, the flesh, your own heart, the devil, whatever. Don't you dare flagellate me. And I'm not going to flagellate myself because he has risen. And that's my receipt. That means everything's been paid in full. So don't let your sins and your flaws get you down. Don't let them move you. Don't let them throw you see, let nothing move you. Don't let them move you. Secondly, don't let ambiguity of life move you. Now, I know this is going to sound weird. I'll be brief. Christians, if you understand the doctrine of the resurrection, and the doctrine of the resurrection is the first fruits, but only the first fruits. In other words, the future of God has landed, which means incredible power is available to see all sorts of things change. But it's only the beginning. It's only the first fruits. God hasn't come in his fullness. There's still tons and tons of brokenness. There's still tons and tons of death. There's all kinds of problems. Now, what does that mean? Well, people get into life and first of all, they'll see all kinds of disappointments and all kinds of tragedies and they'll harden their hearts. They'll say, look at how bad life is. So you give up hope, you get cynical. You say, well, what can you expect? You harden yourself because you don't want to be disappointed. But Christians won't do that. Christians stay impatient with the world. They stay impatient with themselves because they have hope. If you have hope, you're impatient. If you say to your friends, you could be better than this. If you say to yourself, you could be better than this. If you say to New York City. You could be so much better than this. You're not a cynic, you're impatient because you're filled with hope. But Christians also are against pat answers. Christians also realize there's all sorts of brokenness here. Christians should not be naive, bright eyed, bushy tailed people and they shouldn't be cynical people. They shouldn't be walking around saying everything's a blessing and there's going to be revival. If you just believe in Jesus Christ, your whole life will come together. That's not what, that's not the doctrine of the resurrection. We only have the first fruits. That's it. There's all sorts of brokenness here. Christians have the theology to understand the ambiguity of life in a way that nobody else does. And therefore we should have high tolerance for ambiguity. Not ambiguity of belief, but the ambiguity of the circumstances of life. Neither cynical nor naive. You see, happily ironic, see joyfully humble, bold and absolutely ready to have God say no. Are you ready for that? You know, an awful lot of people go from the cynicism, from the naivete to the cynicism and it happens in Christianity. People who are Christians are very, very naive and everything's going to be fine and then we find that things aren't fine and then they get really, really cynical because you weren't listening to the sermon. Thirdly, and lastly, don't let your sins throw you. Don't let the ambiguities of life throw you. But lastly, don't let death throw you the It's a historic fact that when the epidemic swept through the Roman cities in the 2nd, 1st, 2nd and 3rd centuries BC AD the Roman, the Roman cities, the plagues came through. And the pagans, though they didn't believe in, they didn't have germ theory. They knew that if you kept contact with someone who was sick, you were going to die too. And the plagues were probably smallpox and they were terrible. 25 to 33% of all the people in the major Roman cities died during the epidemics. And we were told that what pagans did was those who had the means got out of the city. And it was very, very normal when a member of your own family got sick to even before he or she was dead, throw them in the street. But Christians did not leave. Christians picked up not only their own sick and stayed in the city and cared for them. They picked up the pagan sick, touching them, lifting them up, their sores oozing onto their hands, knowing that this probably meant they might die. But they stayed. Now why did and historians will show you that the Christianity Christians, because they stayed, because they weren't afraid, because they cared for the sick and the dying and the poor, not only of their own, but also of pagans. It had an enormous impact on the people, had an enormous impact on society. It made Christians incredibly credible. But here's the question. Why did they stay and the pagans left? Well, you say, well, I guess Christians were better people. No, they believed in the Resurrection. It had pierced their heart like a shaft. And they looked around, they said everything was. There was oppression and there was disease and there was death. And they said what? The shadow was a passing thing compared to light and high beauty. And because the Resurrection happened, we know it's there. Therefore, what if I die? Come on, death, give me your best shot. Do your worst. The lower you lay me, the higher you'll raise me. The worst that you can do is the best is just make me better. As George Herbert said, death used to be an executioner, but the Gospel made him just a gardener. And then the other reason that they picked up the bodies was because the resurrection doesn't just make you unafraid of death and willing to handle suffering, but the resurrection also means the body matters. The body matters. Jesus Christ came from heaven to earth not to deliver us from the body, but to mend the body. Jesus Christ took a body and he raised the body. He didn't discard the body. In other words. In other words, not just the soul, but the body is the object of God's redemptive purposes. And if Jesus Christ would go to all the suffering and come all the way to not just redeem your soul, but your body, then Christians see people who are hungry, people who are poor, people who are diseased. This is the reason why we take the Easter sacrificial offering for the needs of the poor and the needs of the city. Because the Resurrection means God does not just want your soul saved, but he wants your body mended. And Christians are out there not just to save people's souls, but to bring healing to every aspect of life, to deal with every aspect of sin. Listen, let nothing move you. Therefore, do you understand this? To the degree you do, nothing will move you. Let's pray. Father, we ask that you would make us these strong, immovable people because of the hope that has pierced our heart like a shaft. Not just defiance, not just keeping a stiff upper lip, not just stoicism, but truth, hitting our heart and overwhelming us with the glory of it till we become people like those folks who changed the old Roman world, we could do it now. Make us people of the resurrection. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
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Thanks for listening to today's teaching. It's our prayer that you were encouraged by it and that it helps you apply the Gospel to your life. For more helpful resources from Tim Keller, visit gospelandlife.com There you can subscribe to the Gospel and Life Quarterly Journal. When you do, you will also receive free articles, sermons, devotional and other great gospel centered resources. Again, it's all@gospelandlife.com you can also stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and X. Today's sermon was recorded in 1999. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life Podcast were recorded between 1989 and 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
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