Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Doubt, Joy and Power (Easter)

Episode Date: March 27, 2024

We’ve been looking at the life of Jesus and we come now to the risen Jesus. At the end of the gospel of Luke, the risen Jesus does four things that change the lives of his disciples forever. And because he’s the risen Jesus, he can do the very same things for us right now.  Jesus 1) answers the doubts of their minds by arguing with them, 2) satisfies the needs of their hearts by eating with them, 3) reforges the direction of their lives by sending them, and 4) shows them his hands and his feet. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 20, 2003. Series: The Meaning of Jesus Part 3; Seeing Him. Scripture: Luke 24:36-49. 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 Gospel of Luke answers two basic questions. Who is this Jesus and what does it mean to follow Him, to be a disciple? Today on the podcast, Tim Keller explores the person and mission of Jesus and what it means to go beyond knowing about Him to having your life transformed by Him. After you listen, we invite you to go online to GospelInLife.com and sign up for email updates. When you sign up, you'll receive our quarterly newsletter with articles about gospel-changed lives as well as other valuable gospel-centered resources.

Subscribe today at GospelInLife.com. While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, Peace be with you. They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, Why are you troubled? And why do doubts rise in your minds?

Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself. Touch me and see. A ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see I have." When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, "'Do you have anything here to eat?' They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence. He said to them, "'This is what I told you while I was still with you. Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets,

and the Psalms.'" Then he opened their minds so that they could understand the scriptures. He told them, This is what is written, The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised, but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high. This is God's word.

As many of you know, we've been looking at the life of Jesus in the gospel of Luke for a number of weeks, months, and now of course you come to the very end of Luke. Jesus, the risen Jesus does four things, four things in this passage that changes the lives of his disciples forever and because he's the risen Jesus, he can do the very same things to us right now. Four things. He answers the doubts of their minds

by arguing with them. He satisfies the needs of their hearts by eating with them. He reforges the direction of their lives by sending them, and then he shows them his hands and his feet. Four things. Let's take a look at them. First thing we learn is he answers the doubts of their mind by arguing with him. Now you notice how it starts? He's doing it lovingly but he has to do it persistently. Jesus is debating with them. He's arguing with them about their doubts, see? He says, why are you troubled? Why do doubts arise in your minds? Look at my hands, look at my feet. It is I, touch me. Do you have something to eat?

Repeatedly, he's arguing with them because, and here's his point, I'm really raised from the dead. I'm not just spiritually raised from the dead, you're not just having a spiritual experience. i'm really raised from the dead i'm not just spiritually raised in the dead you're not just having a spiritual experience i'm really here i'm bodily here i'm physically here uh... the resurrection is historically true and real

i have literally physically historically risen from the dead that's gotta come first if you don't get this down, if you don't let them argue with your mind and deal with your doubts about the resurrection, you can't do anything else in your life with the resurrection. Now, modern people, of course, have a great deal of trouble with this. Most modern people just don't buy the idea of the physical resurrection, a bodily resurrection. On the one hand, they say, well now look, I really don't believe these are actual eyewitness accounts. This is typical of people to say, these are fictional accounts.

These are accounts written many years later, and they're written by people who wanted everyone to believe that Jesus was raised from the dead. They're written by people who wanted people to believe that Jesus was raised from the dead. Now, I'm going to use them a couple of times here in the very beginning. There's a great new book, the best book I've ever read on making a case for the historical, the historicity of the resurrection by N.T. Wright. And N.T. Wright, who's a major historian, says

he says, look, I've been anyone who's really an expert on vision literature and legends and all that, this is not the way you would write a fictional account. He said, for example, N.T. Wright says, the only Old Testament reference in all of the Old Testament to a resurrection or a resurrected body is Daniel chapter 12 verses 2 and 3 that actually talks about a resurrection at the end of time when everyone will be resurrected when the

world is renewed. And in Daniel chapter 12, 2 and 3, it talks about people shining, the resurrected bodies shining and radiant. So if you were going to make up a story about the resurrected Jesus Christ, you would never make up a story like this. Never, says Wright. You might have Jesus, some luminescent, radiant Jesus bursting through the doors and everyone going like this, but instead, what

have you got? Would you, if you were making up a story, would you do this? He just appears in their midst and says, do you have anything to eat? Now look how magnificent, look what a faith building experience. And they gave him a piece of broiled fish and he ate it Seriously if you were making up a story about the resurrected Jesus you just wouldn't say things like this What possible why would this be there how mundane how, you see, how completely uninspiring. Why would that be there? The only right answer is, if you're reading literature, is it must have happened. I mean, why else would you put it in?

Legends are not like this. Vision literature is not like this. Well, somebody says, okay, look, but here's the problem. We now have a modern scientific worldview that says that resurrections are impossible. Dead people just don't rise. We have a modern scientific worldview and it says dead people are impossible. Back then, the people had a different worldview. They were primitive.

They believed in miracles everywhere. So they didn't have a problem with it, but we have a problem. Our worldview says that resurrection is not possible. And again, that does not fit in with not only this text, but with what we know of history. For example, let's look at the text. Is that what you see?

When Jesus shows up, do they immediately say, we knew you could do it? No, they're startled and frightened. And here's what's so counter, again, counterintuitive. If you were making this up, or if these people were primitive people that had a worldview that allowed all sorts of weird things to happen, then when he shows up and he says, it really is me, look at me, touch me, they would have, they said, oh, we do believe, but that's not what happens. After he goes through the first line of debate, first line of arguments, what does it say? They still did not believe. Now this fits actually in exactly with what we actually know of first century history.

Let me read you a great quote. I actually just read this at Columbia University just two days ago. Some of you may have heard this, but it's a terrific quote by the scholar N.T. Wright, who says this, it cannot be stressed too strongly that first century Jews were not expecting people to rise from the dead as isolated individuals. Resurrection for them, remember, based on Daniel chapter 12, was something that might happen to all on that great future occasion when God brought history to an end and a whole new world was renewed. It will not do therefore to say that Jesus' disciples were so stunned and shocked by his death,

so unable to come to terms with it, that they projected their shattered hopes onto the screen of fantasy and invented the idea of Jesus' resurrection as a way of coping with their cruelly broken dream. That has an initial apparent psychological plausibility to 20th century people, but it will not work as serious first century history. There were lots of other messianic and similar movements in the Jewish world, roughly contemporary with Jesus. There were many situations in which a messianic leader died a violent death at the hands of authorities. In not one single case do we hear the slightest mention of the disappointed followers claiming that their hero had been raised from the dead.

They knew better. In the Jewish worldview an individual could not be resurrected in the middle of history and history just continued going. It was not something that was possible in their worldview. So Jewish revolutionaries whose leader had been executed by the authorities had only two options. Give up the revolution or find another leader. Claiming that your original leader had been resurrected was not an option unless of course he was. You see it's simple but very profound. It's very easy for us to say in the modern, you know, well back then they had this worldview that allowed all sorts of things.

So, of course, they wanted him to be raised, so they talked themselves into it. And he writes this, look, you have a modern scientific worldview that says, resurrection impossible. But they had a worldview that said so too. The Greeks and the Romans had a worldview that said resurrection of the body was utterly impossible. But they had a worldview that said so too. The Greeks and the Romans had a worldview that said resurrection of the body was utterly impossible. They'd never think of it. The Jews had a worldview that said an individual resurrection now in the middle of history was impossible.

So no matter how much they might have longed for him, they never would have imagined it unless it happened. You see, you can hear the early Christians saying to you across the years. You can hear Luke saying to you across the years, look, you have a scientific worldview that doesn't allow for this to happen. But we had our worldviews that also didn't allow for this to happen. This was as unexpected for us as for you. Nothing in our philosophy and worldview led us to expect it. Nothing in our lives led us to expect it.

The only reason we're telling you that it happened was because it did. We saw Him. There's no other reason why we're telling you this except we saw Him. We never would have thought it up. We never would have dreamed it up. If you think we did, you don't understand history. You don't understand. We touched him. See, John the apostle says this in the beginning of 1 John chapter 1 verse 1.

That which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked at and touched, him we proclaim. Jesus Christ, the word of life. It's almost like these first eyewitnesses are saying, look, you can call us liars or you can believe us and come Jesus Christ, the word of life. It's almost like these first eye witnesses are saying, look, you can call us liars or you can believe us and come into a whole new world, but don't tame what we're saying.

Don't tame it. Don't say, oh, these are just wonderful symbolic stories. These people were kind of mythologically oriented and they love to talk about this. Don't tame it. This happened. Call us a liar or believe us, but don't you dare tame what we're telling you. So you see, let the text argue with you if you don't believe

the resurrection really happened physically, historically, bodily. If you don't believe that, none of these other three things I'm about to tell you that he did in their lives can happen in yours. So first of all, he satisfies the doubts, he answers the doubts of their minds by arguing with them. Secondly though, he satisfies the desires of their hearts by eating with them. See, when he eats with them, you and I immediately see that as just another proof and I guess it was but when ancient people sat down to eat with one another it meant something much more than it does even with us you know Revelation chapter 3 verse 20 it's a very famous place where Jesus says behold I stand at the door and knock if

anyone opens to me I will come in and eat with him." And we're modern people and we say, you will come in and eat with him? Why don't you say you'll come in and do this thing? But you see, for ancient people, to bring someone in to eat with them was to invite them into not just a meal, but into friendship, into relationship, into intimacy. You see that? And therefore, what Jesus is saying is, look, when someone dies, you can read their words and you can remember them and you can keep the room just the way it was and you see their clothes over there and you keep it in the closet and you can say, I still feel that he's still with me but

it's such a vague way of being with the person is so vaguely with you that it makes you ache for the person to really be with you huh see when dead people you can say all the person still with me but but it's such a vague he's vaguely with you in such a way that makes you want him to really be with you you ache from to really be with you but Jesus says for him to really be with you, but Jesus says, I was dead, but not anymore. Because I'm resurrected, you can have me. You can really have me. You don't have just a kind of vague way in which the presence of Jesus is with me. You can really have me. Now, here's the significance of this. I wouldn't say this is true of everybody, but for an awful lot of us.

A lot of us grew up with this weird idea that if we could just find this one great person, this one person that came into our life who would love us, complete us, finally make our lives right, finally put everything right in our lives. A lot of us have this sense that there is this someone that we're after. This is the reason why a lot of you, and I know you won't admit to anybody else, but you can just admit it to me, that most of us when we were about 12, 13, 14, 15, somewhere in there, we saw some movie or read some book in which there was a character we had a huge crush on. You can admit it to me. And you fantasize about it. You

fantasize about going off into the sunset with this particular person in the movie. You put yourself in the movie or you put yourself in the book and that sort of thing. But here's what's really worse. Then you grow up and then you start to look for this person to marry them. And you're looking for that one person who is so great and so wonderful and the ultimate love object who will come into your life and love you and complete you and make everything right. And if you, you know, it's one thing to sort of fantasize

you're in the movie with the person. It's another thing to try to marry that person and find that person out there and marry them and say, you're the one who's going to do this for me. You're in trouble. There is not a single human being who could possibly bear the weight of those expectations. Oh, no, wait. I'm sorry. There is one. Only one. You read the Gospels and you will see Jesus Christ is sort of like all the protagonists, all the knights in shining armor, all the beauties, all the heroes, all kind of rolled into one. And he comes and says, you can have me. Not just fantasize about me the way you fantasize about this or that person in that movie. Me!

You can have me. Really! Not just have some vague chicken soup of the soul kind of, you know, words of Jesus inspire me. You can have me. Really have me. And let me show you how palpable it can be. One of the most, here's proof you how palpable it can be One of the most here's proof of how palpable it can be

The the Jews of the first century when they had a prophet or a martyr who died they venerated the tomb when one of these great all as NT Wright mentioned in that quote we have all sorts of examples at least a dozen examples of other Messianic type leaders that got a movement together, people got together back in that same time period and said, this is the one who's going to lead us out. And they were killed by authorities. We have one after the other after the other. In almost every case, people would take their tomb and turn

it into a shrine. They would do pilgrimages to the tomb. They honored, they venerated the tomb. They would meet there and they kept the words of the teacher going on and on. This is how Jews did it with the prophets and with the martyrs. And not only that, but we also know that for the first two or three centuries of the Christian church, Christians did that. Justin Polycarp, the bishop of Srna there they made it a shrine out of his tomb People knew where the tombs were for centuries because there was a shrine. It was a place to go But there is not the slightest shred of any kind of historical evidence That any Christian ever did that to the tomb of Jesus?

In fact the proof of that is that we don't know where the tomb of Jesus is. Now, I know the Jerusalem Tourist Board, when you go there, will tell you where it is. They have no idea. Within a few decades, nobody could find it because it had been so utterly ignored. They lost it. How do you lose the tomb of Jesus? And here's why if if a loved one is Someone who's lived with you someone who you love dies Suddenly their room matters It becomes sort of sacred and their shoes matter and their shirt matters because you don't have them But I happen to know that if you have them and they're

living with you, their shoes and their shirts all over the place, you say get these things out of here. If you have the person, the shoes and the things don't matter. If you don't have the person, they do matter. Why didn't the two matter? Why didn't the grave clothes matter? Where was the shrine? Where was the veneration? We know they did it before that we know they did it after. Why? They had him, they had him, the love object, the lover you've been looking for all your life. The way you so desperately wanted your life. He says, I'm resurrected.

You can have me really have me. They had him so much. They treated him as if he was alive, because he was. The resurrection means you can finally have that love relationship you've been looking for all your life. Only if you believe it really happened. Jesus was the most influential man to ever walk the earth, and his story has been told in hundreds of different ways. Can anything more be said about him? In his book Jesus the King, Tim Keller journeys through the Gospel of Mark to reveal how the life of Jesus helps us make sense of our lives. Dr. Keller shows us how the story of Jesus is at once cosmic, historical, and personal, calling each of us to look anew

at our relationship with God. Jesus the King is our thank you for your gift to help Gospel in Life share the transforming love of Christ with people all over the world. So request your copy today at gospelinlife.com slash give. That's gospelinlife.com slash give. Now here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. Now here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. So first of all, he deals with the doubts of their mind by arguing with them. He satisfies the needs of their heart by eating with them. Thirdly, he completely reorients the whole direction of their lives by sending them out. Notice at the end here, he sends them out and he calls them, you will be my witnesses. You are witnesses of these things. That's a very

interesting word. What he's saying is, I want you to go out and live in the world completely shaped by what you've seen. What have they seen? The resurrection. He's saying once you know the resurrection, once you know that God has raised Jesus from the dead physically, that God is going to renovate the whole world, this is just the beginning. He's going to cleanse the material world of all of its plumishes, of all of its brokenness, all of its flaws, and of all disease and death and imperfection. Once you know that, He says you must live as witnesses, which means everything in the world, your whole life in the world is utterly shaped by the resurrection.

Now let me just give you two examples, or two ways, in which if you're really living in the world, as if you believe in the resurrection, that means on the one hand, you're free from the material world. Listen carefully to my prepositions. You're free from the material world. Now what do I mean by that? It means as great as the material world is here, it won't have to control you. See, in New York, people are frantic. You know, people, basically, this is what they say, I've got so much I've got to do. I've got so much I've got to do. You know, in my life, I want to see the Alps.

I want to make a lot of money. I want to get to the moon. I want to sing in the Metropolitan Opera. I want to, you know, I want to invent something that no one else has invented. I've got much to do. You see, I'm a talented person. I'm living in New York, and you frantic. I've got all these things I've got to get done. And when it begins to be obvious that there's some things you're never going to get to, and especially when tragedies happen, and some horrible thing

happens, you realize I'm never going to have that career. Or something even worse than that that says, you know, I've been physically maimed. I'm never going to be able to do this. I'm never going to be able to do that. And there's incredible regret. There's franticness, or there's despondency. But what if the resurrection is true? Johnny Erickson was a Christian woman who was paralyzed from the neck down in a terrible

accident when she was 18. So she was a quadriplegic and she was in a wheelchair. And she writes that one time she was at a meeting in which, and I, gotta be, the leader from the podium said, let's pray, and she was in part of this large group, it was, you know, somebody was a speaker, and said, and let's kneel to pray, let's kneel before God. So everybody knelt down, but of course she couldn't. And because she was raised Episcopalian, she had been used to kneeling, and then she suddenly realized she couldn't and she would never kneel.

The thought came into her head, I'm never going to be able to kneel before God. And she burst into tears. And then, she writes, I remember the resurrection. Just before the party gets going, the wedding feast of the Lamb, the first thing I plan to do on my resurrected legs is to drop on grateful glorified knees, kneel quietly before the feet of Jesus and then I'm gonna be on my feet dancing. Can you imagine the hope, she writes, that this gives someone with a spinal cord injury like mine?

Can you imagine the hope this even gives someone who is manic depressive? No other religion, no other religion promises new bodies, a new material universe. Only in the gospel of Christ do people hurting like me find such enormous hope to live? You see what she's saying? You're not going to float in the kingdom of God. New heavens, new earth.

You're going to eat. You're going to drink. You're going to run. You're going to dance. You're going to sing. You're going to hug. New heavens, new earth, new bodies. And what does this mean? Relax. You say, I'll never get to the Alps now. Yes, you will. I never learned to dance. You will. I'm a lousy dancer. You won't be.

And even if you were in a wheelchair, there's no reason to despair. You are not going to miss out on anything. And because you're not going to miss out on anything, Christianity alone says it's a material universe that's going to be cleansed, that you're going to get. That's the eternal state. Eating, drinking, and he eats a fish! Jesus eats a fish! What does that mean? It's a palpable future. You're not going to miss anything. Not a thing. And what does this mean? You

are free from the material universe. That means to say these things shouldn't control you. If you lose something, so what? If you have to give up something to serve someone or love someone, give it up. If something, some terrible circumstance comes in your life that cuts you off from it, so what? You're not going to miss out on anything. So you don't have to spawn it, you're not frantic. So on one hand you're free from the material universe, but on the other hand, the resurrection means you're free for it. Because the resurrection means salvation is not escaping this material world with all of its troubles. Christian salvation is not us leaving this awful world and going to heaven.

Christian salvation is heaven coming down into this material world to cleanse it, get rid of all hunger, all sickness, all disease, all death, all injustice. What does that mean? Martin Luther was once asked, what would you do if you knew Jesus is coming tomorrow? What would you do if Jesus was coming tomorrow? You knew Jesus was coming tomorrow. What would you do today? You know what he said? I'd plant a tree. Now if your first response is

why tomorrow everything's gonna be over? why get started on planting a tree? I would like to challenge you, maybe you think you understand the theology of resurrection, you don't. You haven't worked it into your thinking in life. You know what Luther's saying? If Jesus is coming back tomorrow, I better plant a tree. Think of what Jesus coming is going to do to that tree. Because you see Jesus coming is not the end of the world. It's the beginning of the world. Think of what Jesus is going to do for that tree.

Think of how it's going to grow. Think of how it's going to blossom. In fact, if you take Psalm 96 seriously, think of how it's going to dance. Think of how it's going to sing. So plant. So go repair a person's body. Go repair a person's neighborhood. Because God's out to do it himself. So we can work to repair the material

world with enormous hope. See how unique this is. Please see it. There is a worldview that says, this world is not important. All that matters is heaven and the spiritual. See, that'll give you some freedom from the material world, but not freedom for it, not engagement. And then you have the secular mindset that says, this material world is all there is. We better fix it. See, that gives you freedom for the material world, but not from, because if anything

goes wrong, if anything goes wrong in your life, your life's over. But the resurrection gives you freedom for and from. It gives you poise, it gives you peace, you can handle anything, you're not going to miss out on anything, but you're engaged, you're involved. I send you, now that you've witnessed the resurrection, into the world to live utterly different lives. It re-forges your entire life. Now lastly, he doesn't just deal with their minds, he doesn't just deal with their hearts,

he doesn't just deal with their lives, he deals with their wounds, with their sorrows. The last thing I just want to show you is verse 41, he showed them hands and feet. Look at my hands and my feet." And you see what the response is? Joy and amazement. Now, why did he do that? Why didn't he say, look at my eyes? Look at me?

Why did he say hands and feet? What were on his hands and feet? And why, if his body was glorified, would they still be there? Why would the nail prints be there? Let's answer it by asking another question. What are the very best stories? I mean, we all love happy endings. We all know that. Movies, no happy endings, $20 million at the box office. Movies with happy endings, 200 million dollars at the box office. And a happy ending story is

bad thing, bad thing, bad thing, bad thing, bad thing, happy ending, unexpected, you know, unlooked for, but happy ending. We like that. All the bad things, bad things, in spite of the bad things, something good. But there's even a better kind of story in which the bad things are part of the deliverance, are the means to the deliverance in which the bad things are in a sense taken up in and subsumed in the joy.

Like for example the movie Signs, interesting movie, a lot of bad things. You know the protagonist, first of all his wife is killed in a terrible accident. His brother has got his baseball career, his athletic career is in tatters. He's got a little boy, his son, who's got terrible asthma. He's always on the verge of dying. He's got a little girl who's kind of obsessive compulsive who therefore every time she takes a drink of a glass of water She doesn't like it anymore and leaves all these glasses of water all over the house and

Then aliens invade the world Bad thing bad thing bad thing bad thing bad thing. It's terrible and then suddenly When it looks like absolute disaster, it's a dark movie. I mean, it's nothing but darkness and nothing, and everyone's losing their faith and everything's getting worse and worse. And suddenly at the end, the joy hits you in the stomach because not just that there's a deliverance at the end in spite of the bad things, but every single one of those bad things is part of the deliverance. The joy at the end subsumes the other things, explains why they happen, redeems them. In fact, in

some ways, the bad things make the joy possible, the bad things make the joy greater. Now Jesus Christ, why does he show them those nails prints? Do you realize what those things are? Up to three days ago, the disciples had in their mind, when Jesus Christ is president, I'm going to be in the cabinet. My life is going to be great because Jesus is on his way to the top. Nothing can stop him and I'm going to be riding on his coattails. And then those nails. And when those nails went into the hands and the feet, their lives were over.

Those nails ruined their lives, right? But Jesus says, no, these nail prints saved your life. The thing you thought was ruining your life actually saved your life. And what is the resurrection? The resurrection isn't joy in spite of the sorrow of Jesus. It's because of it. The resurrection is not, doesn't just make Jesus forget his suffering. His suffering, why is his nail prints still on his glorified body? Because the joy of the resurrection, this is how God's salvation works. The joy of God, the resurrection power of God, will not just make you forget all the troubles of your life, all the tragedies of all your life, all the might-of-beings of your life, all the terrible things of your life.

It will include them. It will explain them. It will redeem them. It will subsume them. In other words, it will turn them, it will explain them, it will redeem them, it will subsume them. In other words, it will turn them into joys, it will turn them into sources of joy. Your glory and your joy eventually will be enhanced because of it. Look, after years and years of being a Christian, I can just start to get a little glimpse of how that's going to be true for me. But it won't be until we actually get there that we'll see how. But that's what he's saying.

I've got a joy that will not just make you forget the bad things in your life, but turn them inside out so that they are a source of joy for all eternity for you. I will take your sorrows up in the joy. I will enhance the joy with the sorrows. Look at my hands and my feet. I will show you when I finally meet you in our resurrection embrace that all the things you thought had ruined your life had really saved it. Just like the same things that you thought had ruined my life saved it. Just like the things that you thought had ruined my life saved it.

Just like the things that you thought were ruining your life saved it. Those great stories, those great movies, those great books, those great stories when you get to the end and the joy just grabs you and you cry with joy, it's just a glimpse of a joy beyond the walls of the world. But this is the joy that that's just a glimpse of resurrection if you believe it if you listen to him arguing if you agree with him that he really really really really was raised from the dead

let him come into your life with resurrection power he can do all that for you let us pray thank you father for Easter but let us pray. Thank you, Father, for Easter. But let us not just think of it as a symbol of hope in some vague, general way. We pray that by believing it and receiving it, your resurrection power, your resurrection joy will come into our life and heal our sorrows and reforge the way in which we live

and give us the love we've been looking for all of our lives. Thank you that these things are all available for us. Help us to take what you offer. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for listening to today's teaching. It's our prayer that you were encouraged by it and that it equips you to apply the wisdom

of God's Word to your life. You can find more resources from Tim Keller at GospelandLife.com. Just subscribe to the Gospel and Life newsletter to receive free articles, sermons, devotionals, and other resources. Again, it's all at GospelandLife.com. You can also stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. This month's sermons were recorded in 1990, 2003, and 2010. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.