The Western romantic idea of human nature was that we’re inherently good. But the problem is over the last century, we’ve discovered that oppression and evil have not gone away but rather have erupted with ferocity over and over again regardless of social and political arrangements. This has created a crisis for the modern secular person. But the book of Genesis not only accounts for what we see, but also gives us enormous hope that there’s something that can be done about it.  Let’s look at...

Earlier in the twentieth century, the intellectuals of the Western world said it was our society and our institutions that were making us bad. If we changed them, then we’d get rid of atrocities, evil, war, racism, and poverty. But it hasn’t worked. More and more, the Western world is looking back at Genesis, and I believe if you’re smart, you will too. In Genesis, we can see how sin and evil came into the world, and we can see the results. What we have here is a diagnosis and then what God...

At street level there’s still this saccharine view that human beings are basically good and our problems come from our environment. But the Western intellectual world is beginning to see evidence that there’s something inherently evil and violent in us. And if that’s true, there’s almost no hope. But if you look at Genesis, you have the only hopeful answer for how evil got here: it’s not natural, and therefore, there’s something you can do about it. The Bible says Adam and Eve lost their...

We are created for relationship. One of the key differences I hope to show you between the biblical idea of God and other alternative views of God is in this whole idea of relationship. Genesis 1 shows us three things: 1) why we need relationships, 2) what kind of relationships we need, and 3) the key to getting relationships. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 29, 2000. Series: Genesis – The Gospel According to God. Scripture: Genesis...

The book of Acts is all about the earliest Christianity. It shows us something about the character of the earliest Christianity, especially about where the church got its power. The book of Acts, but also the Bible in general, is bound to surprise you. No matter what your culture or what your class, no matter what conceptions and categories you come to the Bible with, it will smash some of them.  This story in Acts about Philip and the Ethiopian is the same way. It will show us the...

Something is going on with work in our culture. We’ve lost our rhythms of work and rest. And work is becoming a crisis issue.  In Genesis 1 and 2, work and rest come up in the very beginning of creation. This tells us that understanding work and rest is at the very essence of living a human life.  Let’s look at what this says about 1) what we’re called to do (which is work), 2) how we’re called to do it, and 3) what we need in order to do it. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at...

If you live in North America or Europe, the question almost everyone has in mind when they read Genesis 1 is “How?” They ask, “How did it happen? How long did it take?”  But how questions aren’t as important as why questions. What you really need to know about this world is why did God make it? What is it for? Why do we feel the way we feel about it? How do we live in it?  Let’s look at what Genesis teaches us about 1) how the world began, but most importantly, 2) why the world began. This...

We’re in the second of a two-part series on the devil and the conflict between supernatural forces of good and supernatural forces of evil.  In Part 1, I made my case for why I think it’s immanently sensible to say there really is a devil. And we talked about Satan’s weapons and strategies. If you go through the Bible all the way back to Adam and Eve, what is Satan’s strategy? He’s not possessing them. He’s lying to them. On the basis of that understanding, we’re going to proceed and look at...

The devil. Spiritual warfare. In Africa, Latin America, Asia, most places in the world, the idea of spiritual warfare—of a conflict between spiritual good and spiritual evil—is not an unusual concept. Many people in many parts of the world think this helps make sense of reality. But here in the Western world, we find it a foreign concept.  Let’s look at this passage on spiritual warfare, and let’s notice 1) whom we fight, 2) what we fight, and 3) how we fight. This sermon was preached by Dr....

What it means to be a Christian is to be theologically driven—it means stuff about the cross, and grace, and redemption. And all those things have an effect on how we live in every area of our practical lives.  It’s helpful to look at the big picture and to see how Christ really is Lord of every area of life. In Ephesians 6, two of those areas are laid out for us: work and family.  Let’s take a look at this under these three headings: 1) Jesus and your work, 2) Jesus and your family, and 3)...

Ephesians 5 is like a fair number of people in New York City. It’s both rich and famous. Because it’s so rich, you could work through it word by word and get quite a bit out of it. But it’s also advantageous to do what we’re going to do, which is to fly over the whole thing. In this way, we’ll get a panoramic view of the immense biblical wisdom on this subject of marriage. What we learn about marriage here is 1) what it is, 2) what it does, 3) what it needs, and 4) what it shows. This sermon...

Christianity is not just a vitamin supplement. It doesn’t just come into your life and give you a little boost to live a better form of the life you’re living. It’s a sweeping revolution that affects every part of you. In Ephesians 5, we have a long passage on what it means to live the Christian life. And it’s not that we live in a certain way and, therefore, become Christians. It’s that we become Christians and, therefore, live in a certain way—because we’re saved not by what we do but by...

We all want to change. I don’t know anybody who doesn’t say, “I really need to change.” And one of the greatest things about Christianity is Christianity gives you the resources to change. Jesus Christ was born into this world to give us second birth. The idea of being born again means radical change. Often we don’t quite know how change actually happens. But Ephesians 4 gives four concrete principles for how the gospel helps us change. What does change mean to Christians? It means you have...

In Ephesians 4, we find a pretty remarkable argument. The argument has three parts. The flow of the argument is that even though we have the life of the trinity in us, we live in spiritual immaturity until we’re willing to do the hard work of developing and creating unity in the church. Let’s take a look at each part: 1) the life of the trinity, 2) we live in spiritual immaturity, and 3) do the hard work of developing and creating unity in the church. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy...

Thinking about the gospel of Jesus Christ leads Paul to pray in a particular way—in a passionate way. Usually people in those days prayed standing. Paul kneels—it’s a sign of great emotion and solemnity. And what does he so passionately pray for? That his readers—and that also means us—would be strengthened with the power of the Spirit. Let’s explore this: 1) Why is that so important? 2) What is it? and 3) How do we get it? This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer...

Most teachers tend to overlook or go past this particular passage in Ephesians 3. Here’s the reason. In the middle of the first sentence, there’s a dash. Paul just breaks off and goes into a digression, literally a sidebar, and he doesn’t come out of it until verse 13. This really is a sudden thought he had. And yet, what’s in here is so practical. In here we’re going to learn 1) the hardness of life, 2) the wonder of grace, 3) the brilliance of the church, and 4) the freedom that comes. This...

There’s a problem. We aren’t what we are. The book of Ephesians is ultimately about the church. Paul very directly talks about what the church is and who the church is. These are some of the most powerful passages on that subject that you’re ever going to find. And in Ephesians 2, we’re being told 1) what we were, 2) what we are, and 3) how we can really become what we are. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 13, 2011. Series: A Study of...

Paul prays that we’d see the evidence of God’s mighty power at work in the world. And in Ephesians 2, we see one of the main ways we can be sure God’s power is at work. It’s the real heart of what Ephesians says about the church. And that is that inside the church, people who could never get along outside the church, are now living together in peace. Paul says God has addressed one of the main problems the human race has ever had: 1) what is the problem? 2) what is God’s solution for it? and...

Christians talk about being saved. But what does it mean to be saved? Whatever we say we think it means, we should be meaning what’s said here in Ephesians 2. This is one of the richest passages in all the Bible word for word on what it means to be saved. And it says twice that we’re saved through faith. Notice it easily breaks into three parts: 1) the life we’re saved from, 2) the life we’re saved for, and 3) how we get from here to there. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at...

Many people say they don’t believe in Christianity. But in all my years as a minister, I’ve seldom talked to anybody who rejected Christianity and actually knew what they rejected. If you’re uninterested in Christianity, you need to know what it is you’re rejecting. And if you are a Christian, you need to figure out if you’re living consistently. In these first verses of Ephesians, Paul gives an amazing picture of what it means to be a Christian. This passage shows us that being a Christian...

No matter how long a sentence is, if you find the subject and the predicate, you can figure out the point of the sentence. In the original Greek, there are 202 words in this one sentence that spans from verse 3 to 14 of Ephesians 1. The subject of this great sentence is God and everything God is doing. And the predicate shows that everything God’s doing is happening toward an end. There is a plan for history, and Jesus is the point of the plan. Let’s take a look at these three things: 1)...

We’re looking at an astonishing claim. In the New Testament, the word “blessing” doesn’t just mean what we mean by it today. It’s closer to shalom. It means every joy and every benefit your heart and soul needs and longs for. And in Ephesians 1:3, we’re told if you’re a Christian you have already been blessed (past tense) with every spiritual blessing there is. What in the world could that mean? Let’s look at the text with these questions: 1) How do we get every spiritual blessing? 2) What is...

In Jonah, the antagonists are the religious, moral people. It’s us. It’s the city-disdaining, city-phobic, religious, moral people. We’re the antagonists, and God is the protagonist. It all comes down to this last question when God says, “Should I not have compassion? Should I not love that great city?” This is what the story is about. It’s about God’s love for a big, unbelieving, unjust, violent, pagan city. We can learn about three things here: 1) God’s call to the city, 2) God’s view of...

History tells us the Assyrian empire brought cruelty and massacre to a new level. It was a violent empire that slaughtered helpless people. And Jonah’s response to it is anger. He wants them punished. Yet, in the book of Jonah, we see one of the greatest surprising turns of all the stories in the Bible. God refuses to accept either the violence of Nineveh or the poisonous anger of Jonah. Let’s look at three things that this text tells us about violence: 1) the surprising sources of violence,...

Jonah’s spirituality was fine for his old world and his old situations. But when he’s faced with a new situation, it just collapses. Then, when he’s in the belly of the fish, Jonah begins to reflect and pray, and as the prayer moves along, we see he has a spiritual breakthrough. Now the new situation is something he can handle. How do we, too, move to the next level? By looking at Jonah’s prayer we learn about 1) the key to spiritual transformation, 2) the method of spiritual transformation,...