Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Gifts of the Risen Lord (Easter)

Episode Date: March 29, 2024

Jesus Christ says not just “I was resurrected,” but “I am the resurrection.” Present tense. He comes after his resurrection with his arms full of newness.  I don’t know why we get into gift-giving at Christmas—I think we ought to be getting into it at Easter. Because as soon as Jesus Christ shows up risen from the dead, he is giving out all kinds of gifts of newness.  Let’s look at these gifts and divide them into two parts: 1) there is the gift of faith, and 2) there are all the rest of the gifts that come out of that. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 15, 1990. Scripture: John 20:10-29. 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.

If you are a Christian, you believe that Jesus is risen and not a dead teacher like the founders of so many other religions. Jesus is alive today and lives to reconcile us to God our Father. Today on the podcast, Tim Keller invites us to contemplate the earth-shattering reality of Jesus' resurrection. What does it mean and how does it revolutionize your life today? 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. I'm reading the 20th chapter and I will read from verses 10 through 29. John chapter 10 verses 10 through 29. Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, ''Woman, why are you crying?'' ''They have taken my Lord away,'' she said, ''and I don't know where they have put Him.'' At this she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was

Jesus. ''Woman,'' he said, ''why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?'' Thinking he was the gardener, she said, '' Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him and I will get him. Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, rabboni, which means teacher. Jesus said, Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father.

Go instead to my brothers and tell them, I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news. I have seen the Lord, she told them, that he had said these things to her. On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you. After he said this, he showed them his hands inside.

The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again, Jesus said, Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. And with that, he breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven." Now Thomas called Didymus, one of the twelve was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, we have seen the Lord.

But he said to them, unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were and put my hands into his side, I will not believe it. A week later his disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them. And though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, Put your finger here, see my hands, reach out your hand and put it into my side, stop doubting and believe. Thomas said to him, My Lord and my God. Then Jesus told him, Because you have seen me, you have believed.

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." Here ends the reading of God's holy word. Easter, the resurrection. We live right now in a culture in which special effects are very valuable. Movies, so many of them are all about special effects. A lot of, from what I can tell, Broadway shows seem to be all about special effects. A lot of best-selling books are nothing but special effects. We live in a culture where image is more important than substance, as we can see from any political campaign. And, as a result, many things are done simply to be spectacular.

But that's not the way God is. Because you see, God has nothing to prove. God has no one to impress. And so the resurrection is not just some great magic trick by some cosmic magician who wants to say, look at what I can do. The resurrection is not, in other words, to be gaped at. But you've got to think when you see the resurrection. Since God would never do something just for show,

we have to ask ourselves, what does it do? What does the resurrection accomplish? How can it make me different today? Which is the same question. They're all the same question. How can the resurrection of Jesus Christ revolutionize my life now, make it different before the day's out?

What does it actually accomplish? What does it mean? That's the question. Now, Jesus Christ, he comes to us and he says in the resurrection, I, not just I was resurrected, I am the resurrection. As a pastor, I sometimes, when I talk to so many people who are scared, so many people who are angry, so many people who are sad, and underneath all the details, because every

problem is in many ways unique as a snowflake or as a thumbprint, and yet underneath all the details, it seems to me that there's one theme. And the theme is resurrection, newness. Second Corinthians 5 says, Paul says, if any man is in Jesus Christ, he is a new creation. All things have become new. The old is passed away. Jesus says in Revelation 21, I'm making all things have become new, the old has passed away. Jesus says in Revelation 21, I'm making all things new. And underneath all of the problems is this thirst for resurrection.

It goes like this, if only I could take back the last 10 years of my marriage. If only I could take back the last 10 years. If only I could start over. If only I could take back those things that I said. If only I could somehow clear away the rubble of what I've already done and start fresh. If only I was able to get my old figure back, my old face back, my old hair back, my old whatever. If only I could go back. That's a thirst for newness. And here's Jesus Christ and He comes and He says, when He says, I am the resurrection of life, He is saying, I can do it. He says, I can do it. You want freshness. You want fresh start. You want newness. You want to go back. You

want to make it as if you could start all over. You want eternal newness. I can do it. That's what Jesus is saying. I can do it. And don't you see, if there's anybody here who rejects the gospel, doesn't like Christianity, thinks that classic Christianity is for the birds, don't you realize you've got one and only one ground reasonably and fairly on which you can reject the gospel. You can't say it's stifling or it's silly or it's terrible or it's awful. You have to say, it's too good to be true. I wish it was true. It promises everything I really want, but it's too good to be true.

On that basis, I don't mind anybody rejecting the gospel. That is fair. And yet, Jesus comes and says, now listen, to all sincere doubters today, and all of us, he says, it's not just I was resurrected, I am the resurrection, present-dense. That means I am dead and now I live. I was dead, I now live and my life can become your life if you unite with me by faith. And you'll die the old and my new life and resurrection power come into you now. Now you see this passage we're looking at shows us how Jesus Christ comes after His

resurrection with His arms almost full of newness. I don't know why we get into the gift-giving thing at Christmas. I think we ought to be getting into it at Easter, because as soon as Jesus Christ shows up risen from the dead, do you see how many times he says in here, receive, receive. This is for you. That's for you. Receive the Spirit. Peace be unto you. He's giving out all kinds of gifts of newness.

And what I'd like to look at today is, I'd just like to take a look in the treasure chest. I'd like to open up his sack and look inside and say, look at all the things that if you know Jesus Christ, the risen Lord personally, you have coming to you. And they're all gifts of newness. Now, actually, I'd like to divide them into two parts,

basically, even though there's a whole slew of them. There's only basically two. There's the gift of faith, and then there's all the rest of the gifts that come out of that. Now look, first, the gift of faith. The main point of the passage I just read, Jesus comes to Mary, Jesus comes to the disciples, Jesus comes to John, Jesus comes to Thomas, and what is he doing?

He's leading them to faith. The first and most important gift that the risen Lord can give you, the reason you can get it is only because Jesus is not just a dead teacher the way the Buddha is and the way Muhammad is and the way every other founder of every other world religion is, but he's alive now, and as a result of that, he can come and give you faith.

The first primary gift, the gift on which all other gifts come, the basis of everything else, the primary gift of the risen Lord is faith. Stop doubting, he says to Thomas, and believe. He comes to Mary. Believe. He comes to disciples. Believe. In every case, he's leading people to faith, and it's critical that we understand this. We're told in Ephesians 2, verse 8, faith is a gift of God, lest any man should boast. Think about Mary for a minute. The reason that Jesus Christ has to come and give everybody faith is because it's not something that we can spin out of our own soul the way

a spider spins out a web. It's not something we can produce on ourselves. It's not something that we can naturally come up with. Here's Mary. Now, look at her reaction. She sees the empty tomb. Now, here's what Mary and all the disciples have up to now experienced with Jesus. First of all, they have seen Jesus do innumerable miracles. You know, the Bible tells us we only have a small cross-section of the number of miracles He did. One scholar says that if it's really true, considering the population of Palestine at the time, considering that this is just a small cross-section, it's a possibility that for three years, death and sickness and disability was virtually eliminated from the face of

the nation. Jesus was massively doing innumerable miracles, incredible miracles, yeah, spectacular miracles. And they've also seen, remember, Mary's also seen Jesus raise people from the dead. And not only that, keep this in mind, Mary heard Jesus claim that he would rise from the dead. He made that claim so often and so thoroughly

that even Jesus' enemies had heard about it, right? Because they put a guard on the tomb. Jesus had claimed to rise from the dead so often that everybody in the country knew about it, even the enemies. And so Mary knew about it. Mary knew that he had done miracles. She saw he had raised people from the dead. She knew he claimed he was going to rise again on the third day. She knew that he had never, ever She saw he had raised people from the dead. She knew he claimed he was going to rise again on the third day. She knew that he had never, ever said anything that hadn't been fulfilled. And so what's her first response when she sees the empty tomb? What should it have been?

What's the only reasonable, the only reasonable under those circumstances, the only reasonable response? She should have said, it happened, he did it. I doubted it in my heart, I shouldn't have doubted it. He's risen instead. She looks in and she says, they took it. Everything is lost. Everything is in darkness. Oh, woe is me. My life is falling apart. She, listen, Everything is in darkness. Oh woe is me, my life is falling apart. She, listen, if Mary could not come up with faith, the disciples couldn't come up with faith,

under those conditions, don't you see that none of us can? Don't you see that Paul's right in Romans 3 when he says no one seeks for God, no not one. Faith is not something that you can be, can just come on out of you. Here she is running around, everything is lost, they took it, come on.

Now look, this means that faith is a gift and faith is something that God can give you and if you don't understand this, you are going to be in a lot of trouble. How do you get faith from the risen Christ? Three things you have to do. Number one, the first thing is you go to Him. Now, that may seem obvious, but it isn't. A lot of people here in their head, they've heard

people say, you're saved by faith. You're saved by faith in Christ. And they say, well, I can't go to Christ because I don't have enough faith. I can't go to Christ because my faith isn't pure. It's not strong. I'm full of doubts, I can't go to Christ. Now, if you understand that faith is a gift, then that excuse is gone, right? That excuse is gone. See, there's something very subtle and important that you have to understand. In a very subtle way, you can turn your faith into a work. The gospel, the gospel which has transformed thousands and millions of people over the years is that Jesus Christ died for our sins and lived a perfect life on our behalf so that by receiving him as Savior, God can receive us and adopt us into his family on the basis of what Christ did, not on the basis of us into His family on the basis of what Christ

did, not on the basis of what we do, on the basis of any of our good works. Or can I put it to you in another capsule? The determining factor in your relationship to God is not your past, but Christ's past. The determining factor in your relationship to God is not your past, but it's Christ's past, not your record, but Christ's record. That's the Gospel. But, it's very possible for you to say, that's right, I have to have faith, but my faith is so weak, my faith is so impure, I can't go, I don't feel worthy to go, and you've turned your faith into a work.

You feel like, unless I have enough faith, I'm not worthy, and there you are back negating the gospel, trying to earn your salvation with your faith. Of course you get screwed up that way. Of course you get stuck that way. Absolutely not. Faith is going to Jesus Christ and saying, Lord, I know I have full of doubts. I need your help even to believe. And the minute you do that, you have. Have what? You've believed.

You go to Him and say, I need your forgiveness, I need your help, I am helpless. Even my faith isn't good enough for salvation. And the minute you have gone to Him, you've believed enough to be saved. Can you do that? Can you swallow your pride? Can you go?

Don't you see, if you believe you're saved because of the strength of your faith, you've got actually a kind of works righteousness involved there, and you will have an excuse not to go to Him. But if you see that faith is a gift from Him, you have no excuse. You have to go now. We all know we're like Mary, don't we? Some of you are coming today. We all know we're like Mary, don't we? Some of you are coming today, now listen, some of you have come today and there's things

happening in your life that don't make any sense. There's problems coming up, there's little open tombs in your life that don't make any sense and you're running around saying, everything is lost, instead of saying, he's working. He's working in this. He's at work, he's doing things, he's got everything under control, Mary couldn't do it, and you can't either, unless you go to him now and say, oh Lord, here's my doubts, here's my fears.

You know, Job, if you read the book of Job, you see all those awful things that he says? He says, I cursed the day I was born, and he tells God he's done this wrong, and he's done that wrong. And at the end of the book of Job, God comes to Job and says, you have shown faith. And he turns to Job's comforters and his friends,

and he says, you better get Job to pray for you, or you're going to get it. And when you're at the end of the book of Job, you say, what are you talking about? Job, faith, look at all these awful things he said. But Job never stopped praying, friends. All those awful things he said, he said to God. He went to God with his lack of faith.

And that was the faith. You see, Jesus Christ gives you faith. So the first thing you have to do is go to Him and say, Oh Lord, help my unbelief. And that's belief. The second thing, you have to look at His wounds. You notice He constantly is showing people His wounds. He shows Thomas' wounds.

He shows the disciples' wounds. Why? Because faith is not looking at your faith, but looking at Him. And I think some evening sermon we said this, I can't remember when it was, faith is like a windshield. It's there to be looked through, not at. If you look at your windshield, you'll crack up.

If you look through your windshield, everything will be fine. If you look at your faith, you'll crack up. Some of you are. You look through it to His wounds. Faith is saying, my Lord and my God, I see your wounds are enough for me. I see that because of your wounds, I can be accepted. Your wounds are enough.

And that's faith. You see? That's faith. So first, go to him. And then secondly, look at his wounds and say, your wounds are enough. And thirdly, you have to drop your conditions. 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 gospelonlife.com slash give. That's gospelonlife.com slash give. Now here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. Faith is dropping your conditions. Faith is not a psychological certainty. Faith is coming and saying, I need you and I drop my conditions. What does that mean?

is coming and saying, I need you, and I drop my conditions. What does that mean? You notice how Thomas had all those conditions? That Thomas had all those conditions, what were they? If I can put my hand in his side, if I can put my finger in the nail prints, then I'll believe. If, if, if, then I'll believe. And when Jesus Christ shows up, He says, stop doubting and believe. Your conditions, get rid of them, Thomas.

And you notice, He says, go ahead, put your hand on my side. He says, put your finger in my nail prints. And what does it say? Does it say Thomas went and did it? Did you look? No, he didn't. He didn't touch him. He said, my Lord and my God, Thomas dropped his conditions on the spot.

And some of us have gone to him and we've also looked at his wounds, but we're saying I'll give myself to you if. And everybody's got a different if in here. It looks like there's about 200 of you, and there's 200 ifs. We've all got them. If you'll put something in my life that's missing, or if you'll take something out of my life that I've got to get rid of, or if you'll explain why this happened,

or if you'll give me this, or if you'll give me that. Friends, you can't bargain with someone like this. When Jesus says, look at my handprints, what he's saying is, I gave myself utterly for you. Now, how can you come to grips with someone who's given himself utterly for you without you giving yourself utterly to him? There's no other way to come to grips with a person like that. Your ifs show that you want to bargain, that you don't want to put your entire self up on the altar

and be a whole burnt offering, which is what God demands of us. If you want faith, and tie yourself up on the altar and be a whole burnt offering, which is what God demands of us. If you want faith, don't you see there's no excuses? If you want to have faith in Jesus Christ, you don't have to sit back and say, oh, I just, I've got to clean my life up first, or I just don't have enough faith. All the excuses drop at your feet if you understand the nature of faith and the nature of the risen Lord. Go to Him and say, Lord, I'm helpless, I need your forgiveness, I even need your faith. And that is the faith. Then look at His wounds and say, your wounds are

enough and then drop your condition and say, I give myself utterly for you and you're in. In what? You're in Christ. And His resurrection power comes in. It's what it means to be born again. And then all of the other gifts come in. It's what it means to be born again. And then all of the other gifts come in. Do you see what they all are? All I can do actually is go down the list from here on in. Number one, intimacy. What are the rest?

Two, purpose. Three, power. Four, peace. All I can do is name them, look at them. Number one, intimacy. You know the place where we just read Mary grabs him and Jesus says, don't cling to me, I haven't gone to my father. Now this, by the way, this has been a bit of a problem for Bible students. Why is he

saying don't cling to me? Does it mean, well, because, you know, I'm in some kind of strange state and that if you touch me, you'll get burned, you know, or you'll be zapped, or you'll go right through me because I'm a phantasm? No, obviously not, because we're told, you see, he lets Thomas, even though Thomas doesn't do it, he lets Thomas touch him if he wants. He lets his disciples touch him if he wants later in the chapter. What's he doing with Mary? What's wrong with hugging him?

And probably this is what he's after. He's saying, Mary, you're hugging me. You're hurting me. You know, you're clinging to me. Don't you realize that now that I'm going to my father, that the way in which we relate will be different? Intimacy does not necessarily any more mean, O Mary, physical proximity. Don't you realize that now any person, when I'm raised in my Father's right hand, that any

believer, without having to be physically near me, can have absolute intimacy. They can hug me right where they sit. See, intimacy with the risen Lord is one of the gifts and it's so important. Do you know Him? Do you know the risen Lord is one of the gifts and it's so important. Do you know Him? Do you know the risen Lord? I don't mean know about Him. You can be around Him, you can believe His teachings, you can go to all kinds of religious activities.

Yet at one point Jesus says to Philip in chapter 6 of John, He says, have I been with you so long, Philip, and still you do not know me." And would you please consider this, that it might be true of you on Easter? How do you know if you know Him? Well, do you know Him? Is there an intimacy? When you pray, do you feel like you really make contact? Do you sense His presence in your prayer? Do you find, not always, maybe not even usually, but often, that as you pray, thoughts about

His wisdom and thoughts about His mercy and thoughts about His goodness become big and clear and comforting and delightful? They fill you up. Do you find that as you pray, the burdens fall off? Do you find that the thoughts that you get in the morning stay with you all day? Do you feel like you can reach out and touch Him? Not always, not even usually, but often. That's knowing the risen Lord, and that is a gift.

And everybody in this room is divided into two. There's only two kinds of people here. I know this. Some of you are people who know the risen Lord, and when I describe that experience of intimacy, you're saying to yourself, yeah, I remember that. I felt that, but oh, how thirsty I am for that. I haven't felt that in I don't know how long. And don't you see that today at Easter,

you need to resolve that you are not, because of your laziness or because of un-dealt with sin, we're letting one of the greatest treasures we've got in Christianity go right through our fingers. So some of us are in that condition, but some of us possibly don't even know what we're talking about. You've never experienced intimacy like that because you've got to first go and get faith. You've got to first give yourself to Him, look at His wounds, trust in Him, and drop your conditions, and then the intimacy comes. The next gift is a purpose, right?

You notice where He says, as the Father sends me, I think that's verse 21, so send I you. As soon as you meet the risen Lord, you get busy. In fact, one of the best ways in which you can tell whether or not you've really met the risen Lord, whether you just know Him intellectually as a historical figure or whether you really know the risen Lord is whether there's any go ye about your life. Because whenever Jesus meets people face to face, it's amazing how fast He says, Go ye. As the Father sent me into the world, so send I you. Jesus' job is to spread His kingdom over the lives of people, and anybody who actually

meets the risen Lord finds Him or herself immediately enlisted. Are you a consumer? Do you just come to the Bible to get fed? Do you just come to church to get a little bit of inspiration? Or can you say you're busily working in Jesus' army, working to spread his kingdom over the lives of people? You see, if not, then you are a living contradiction to the

doctrine that you're celebrating today. Is there any go ye about your life? Purpose! Anybody who knows the risen Lord experiences that. Then let's see, purpose, power, power. Right, that's next. Intimacy, purpose, power. Jesus, the risen Lord, immediately comes and says,

receive ye the Holy Spirit. Right away, Jesus gives us the Spirit and the Spirit is that resurrection power and that is strong stuff. What is resurrection power? Look, if I buried somebody at the bottom of Mount Everest and next thing you know I see that person with his bare hands blasting his way out through the top, that's a strong person. But nothing like what Jesus Christ did, because Jesus Christ was buried into death. Now that's a mountain that no one ever has and no one ever

will be able to blast their way out of. Nobody, and yet Jesus Christ blasted His way out of that. That's power. And when He arrives and He meets us, he says, receive the Spirit. You know what that is? What is the Spirit of God? Do you think that's just a kind of glow? You know? Is it that little boost, that little lift, that little inspiration? What do you think that is? That is the thing that Jesus Christ had through which he blasted his way out of death itself, right out of the dungeon, right out of the belly of it, right out, right out of the top of the cone. And you see, the way you can tell you've met the risen Lord is if it's working in your

life, you see changes. You see growth. You are less grumpy than you were last year. You were less irritable than you were last year. You were less self-conscious than you were last year. You were less irritable than you were last year. You were less self-conscious than you were last year. You were less self-centered than you were last year. You were more peaceful than you were last year, more joyful than you were last year,

more able to take criticism than you were last year. Oh, I'm sorry. We've got two kinds of people in the room again. We've got the kind of people who are saying, yeah, I know, that's how it's supposed to be, and I have seen those changes, but here I am on Easter Sunday, and I realize I have appropriated so little of that resurrection power in my life. I am ashamed.

And I don't really know the risen Lord like I ought to. What a treasure chest I've got. And here on Easter I'm finally realizing I'm not even opening it up. I'm not taking it out. I'm not using it. I don't really know the one who called me by his own glory and excellency. I don't know him like I should. Oh, I've experienced some of that power. I've experienced some of that growth, but so little than today resolve that this is the last day you're going to be wandering around in shallows. You're going to get out into the deep water. And then there's others of you who, if you're honest, will admit you never had that kind of experience of Christ at all.

You've never seen that kind of power come into your life. You've never seen those kinds of changes. And you need to go get faith. And then you can get everything else. Intimacy, purpose, power, peace. This will be the last one. Peace. Every time the risen Christ appears to anybody, what's the first word he says?

You notice? Peace. What's so peaceful about knowing the risen Lord? Because the minute you have known the risen Lord, you have beaten death. I was reading an article recently that said that, you know, it's hard to get people to do social work anyway because of the problems and the difficulties of the job and the poor pay. But evidently, more than anything else, it's difficult, the article was saying, to get people to become social workers to work with the elderly.

And somebody did a study of it to find out why social workers coming out of the social work schools don't want to work with the elderly. And they decided the main problem is these folks who come out of school don't want to be reminded that they're on their way to die. Hebrews 2 says, we are all in lifelong bondage to the fear of death. You know what a midlife crisis is?

Some people accused me of having one to come to New York. A midlife crisis is where you finally realize, oh my word, I guess I am going to die someday. And then you do a lot of crazy changes in your life trying to convince yourself, my life is not over yet. There's all kinds of great things that I can still accomplish, you see. Listen, Jesus Christ says, peace, because a Christian knows, because of the resurrection, that the worst thing that could possibly happen to you is the best thing. What's the worst thing that could possibly happen to you is the best thing. What's the worst thing that could possibly happen to you?

Well, you get sick, no. Well, you lose your job, no. Well, somebody breaks up with you, no. Well, you're lonely, no. You die. And that's the best thing that can happen to you. It's a dark door into the light. Not only that, the resurrection tells us in the Bible that Jesus is raised to the right

hand of the Father where He is in charge of history. He's managing all things for us. The last line of that first hymn that we sang is an amazing line. It says, ours the cross, the grave, the skies. What does that mean? It means if you know the resurrected Lord, that means the grave is yours. It means your crosses are yours. Even the bad things that come into your life can only work out good. And so a Christian looks at the crosses and the graves and he says, come on crosses, he says.

Come on graves. The lower you lay me, the higher you'll raise me. me the higher you'll raise me." In Dothan, in Palestine, a city surrounded by the Assyrians, and Elisha is in the midst of that city, and his servant is scared to death. What are we going to do? They pray, and God sends chariots of fire that come down and rout the Assyrians and the city is saved. Now that's service. But in Genesis 37, hundreds of years earlier, in the same location, Dothan, eleven jealous brothers saw Joseph, the brother they hated the most, coming from a distance. They captured him and threw him into a pit.

And they got ready to sell him into slavery. And Joseph prayed, Oh Lord, don't let them sell me into slavery. Don't let them ruin my life. And God didn't do a thing. And he was sold into slavery, where he eventually became a great ruler and years later he said to his brothers, God meant it for, I mean, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. And you see, what happened at this point is because God is in control, God was just as

present to Joseph in his hiddenness and silence as he was to Elisha with his chariots of fire. A Christian is somebody who says, it doesn't matter what comes into my life, what cross, what grave, because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, I know this is redemptive. I know this is, it's not like Mary running around and saying, it's all over, it's all over. Instead, you can say, he's working. Come on crosses, come on graves. The lower you lay me, the higher you'll raise me.

At the end of that movie by John Huston, remember the Bible, at the end, here's George C. Scott, it's Abraham ready to put Isaac up on the altar. He's got Isaac laid out there. And Abraham had two things from God. One was God promised to give him a son out of whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed. And the second thing he knew was that God said, I want you to kill your son on an altar and sacrifice him to me. And all Abraham knew is I have to obey him.

There's a contradiction here. There's a contradiction here. There's a contradiction here. But I'm not going to run around and say, it's all over. Instead, I'm going to say, he's working. I don't know why. But the only way to resolve the contradiction is to obey. And as he's putting the fire in underneath Isaac, remember what the little Isaac says to him?

He says, is there nothing he cannot ask of thee? And Abraham looks and says, as he puts the fire in under his son's hair, nothing. And immediately God says, Abraham, Abraham, I was working. I took him out of the center of your heart so I can be the center of your heart. Pick him up, don't let him burn. The crosses, the graves, all they'll do is lift us to the sky because Jesus is our risen Lord and we have peace. Listen friends, the most interesting thing I see in this passage is the fact that Jesus says to Mary Magdalene, go tell my brothers that I'm waiting for them. This is the first time Jesus calls them brothers in the gospel.

Now why in the world does Jesus do that? Why shouldn't Jesus Christ say, hey Mary, go tell those miserable deserters that I want to see them now. And of course they would all come running. Of course, deserters, of course were deserters, they'd say. Absolutely. And instead he says, I do not call you deserters, I call you brothers. Now listen, friends, are you brothers to the risen Lord? Here's the way you can know. Brothers know that they're deserters. And if you're willing to say, yes, I know

I'm a deserter, I know I've gone my own way, I've tried to live for my own glory, I know I deserve death, I know I deserve rejection, if you know you're a deserter, then you can be a brother. If you don't know that, if you resist that, then you can't be a brother. Until you admit you're a deserter, you can't be a brother. But then if you come, come. And whatever you need today is in His hands. He's the risen Lord. What do you need? Some of you say, I need faith itself.

Okay, no excuses, remember? He's got it. Drop your conditions. Look at His wounds. Just say, I want to believe in you. I trust in you. And that's it. What else do you need?

Some of you are discouraged. You in you, and that's it. What else do you need? Some of you are discouraged, you need his peace. It's there. Some of you need change. He's got power, it's there. You know, the early Christians, nobody can understand them because the more the world was on top of them, the more they thought they were on top of the world. We can be like that too. Whatever you need, it's in His hands. He stands before

you today on this Easter Sunday and He says, receive, receive. Let us pray. Thanks for listening to today's teaching. It's our prayer that you are 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 in 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.