Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Good News to the Poor

Episode Date: March 18, 2024

If you ask the question, “Why should a believer in the gospel of Jesus Christ be passionately involved with the poor?” this text gives you the answers.  Isaiah 61 is the last of the Servant songs, a prophecy about the Servant of the Lord. And Jesus Christ preached from this in his first sermon. When Jesus reads this, he’s saying, “This is the essence of my mission. I have come to bring good news for the poor.” What does that mean?  The three reasons why a believer in the gospel of Jesus Christ should be deeply involved with the life of the poor are 1) because of the future, 2) because of the present, and 3) because of the past.  This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 28, 2010. Series: The Songs of the Servant (from Isaiah). Scripture: Isaiah 58:6-10. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel in Life. If someone asked you what Jesus' mission on earth was, what would you say? Today, Tim Keller is preaching from the book of Isaiah to help us understand the mission and purpose of Christ while He was on earth, and how it can transform our lives today. Thank you for joining us. The scripture reading comes from Isaiah chapter 58 verses 6 through 10 and chapter 61 verses 1 through 4. Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke to set the oppressed free and to break every

yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter when you see the naked to clothe him and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear. Then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer. You will cry for help, and he will say, Here am I. If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness and your night will become like the noonday. The spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners. To proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn and provide for those who grieve in Zion. To bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of

mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated. They will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. This is God's word. We have been looking at the last chapters of Isaiah because they all prophesy the servant of the Lord and the New Testament identifies that as Jesus. And the servant of the Lord is prophesied by Isaiah to bring salvation into the world. One of the things that I have to personal note here,

one of the things that surprised me as we got into the text was how often, how over and over again, these passages about Jesus, salvation, have to do with the poor and the subject of justice. In fact, when I started preaching on them, I didn't think we'd be coming back to the subject so often. But you have to follow the text. You have to follow the agenda of the Bible, not your own. And here we have again the last of the servant songs. Isaiah 61 is usually called the fifth servant song. And Jesus himself preached from this in his

first sermon. If you're Jesus Christ and you preach your first sermon, what text do you choose? He chose, we see this in Luke chapter 4, Isaiah 61. Because where it says, the Lord has anointed me, that is the word for Messiah, you know. You know what the word Messiah means? The anointed one, the chosen one. And when Jesus reads this, he's saying, this is what I'm about, basically. This is the essence of my mission. I have come to bring good news for the poor. And what does that mean? Well, I think that this passage gives us a kind of summary of everything we've been looking at. If you ask the question, why should a believer in the gospel of Jesus Christ be passionately involved with a poor,

there are three answers and this text gives you those three answers. And what I'm going to do is go fairly quickly through the first two because I think actually the third one is the main one. But let's take a look at them. The three reasons why a believer in the gospel of Jesus Christ should be deeply involved with the life of the poor is because of the future, because of the present, and because of the past, okay?

First, the present, pardon me, no, first the future. And we see this in 61, verses one and two, where Jesus says, as the Messiah, I am anointed to come, and verse two, proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Now, this is a reference to Leviticus 25. Because in Leviticus 25, there was a fascinating law that was part of Israel's law code, the Mosaic legislation. Every 50 years, all debts were forgiven, all slaves were freed, and all the land went back to its original

allotments. You see, when Israel came into the promised land from Egypt, it was divided up. Every clan, every tribe, every family got an equal amount of land. As the years go by, what happens? Some people do better, some people do worse. Some people, partly through circumstances, partly through choices, good choices, partly through hard work, some people do better and their land grows. Some people do worse and they lose their land or they have to sell their land off, right? And God says every 50 years, no matter what's happened, all the land goes back to its original allotments.

One Bible scholar put it like this. He says, what this meant was on the average, each person or family had at least once in a lifetime a chance to start afresh, no matter how irresponsibly they had handled their finances or how far into debt they had fallen. Can you imagine Americans being told that's the law of the land? Every 50 years things go right back to the way they were 50 years ago. The reason God did that was he was there to say, I own the land. I am the author of all your wealth.

And I don't want permanent poverty in my country. So the law of Jubilee was a fascinating law in Leviticus 25. But look carefully here. When the Messiah comes, he's going to say, I proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Not a Jubilee, and Jubilees came up every 50 years, the Jubilee. And what does that mean? It's talking about this. Look at the description of this Jubilee here. I'm gonna release darkness. I'm gonna release the prisoners from darkness.

I'm gonna proclaim freedom for the captives. I'm gonna bind up the brokenhearted. I'm gonna preach good news to the poor. But then look at verse two and three. I'm gonna get rid of all mourning. I'm gonna get rid of all grief. I'm gonna get preach good news to the poor, but then look at verse two and three. I'm going to get rid of all mourning. I'm going to get rid of all grief. I'm going to get rid of all sorrow. This is telling us about the future that God has provided

and the future that the Messiah is going to bring. Someday, the new heavens and new earth, this world is going to be, this physical world is going to be wiped clean of all problems, of all flaws, of all blemishes, and all poverty, all injustice. All hunger, all disease, all death, all suffering will be gone. And that's the future. Now, what does that mean?

What are the implications of that? Two. One is, if God invented both your body and your soul, right? And if he's going to redeem both body and soul, that's what the resurrection's all about. He's not just taking us to heaven, he's resurrecting us. Romans 8 says we're longing for the redemption of our bodies. If he invented body and soul,

and he's going to redeem body and soul, if he's going to get rid of both physical and spiritual darkness, if he's gonna redeem body and soul. If he's gonna get rid of both physical and spiritual darkness, if he's not only gonna heal souls, but heal bodies, then that has to be reflected in our lives as believers, right? If you believe that that's what God is at infinite cost going for, the end of disease, the end of poverty,

the end of death, the end of sickness, then that means we should be, if we believe in that future, we should be healing the sick where we can. We should be feeding the hungry where we can. It's our way of showing that we believe in that future and that in other words we have to reflect that somehow. Does that not make sense? So the first reason why we care about the poor and we care about injustice, and we care about sickness and disease and all that is because of the future.

That's point one. The second motivation and second reason though is our present. Not just the future but the present. For that, let's go to verse six and seven. In verse six it says, is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen to loose the ‑‑ and we'll get to fasting in a minute, all right? We'll get back to that. For now, just put that aside. What does that mean?

Okay. It says to loose the chains of injustice, to set the oppressed free. What does that mean? What does it mean when God says I want you to lose the chains of injustice and set the oppressed free? Well, it looks like he goes on to describe it in verse 7. Because in verse 7 it says, is it not to share your food with the hungry, provide the poor wanderer with shelter, that's the homeless person, and clothe the naked? So it looks like in verse 6 when he says, I want you to do justice, in verse 7 he's saying, and what that means is, I want you to pour yourself out for the poor, for the hungry, for the naked, and for the homeless. In fact, down in verse 10, it says you are to spend yourselves.

Spend yourselves. That's not just giving them a little bit of money. To spend yourselves means your whole life has to be involved. Now, a lot of people don't like putting six and seven together. Because if you say verse six, do justice, is described in verse seven, care for the poor, some people don't like that because a lot of people say, well, verse 7 is talking about charity. We should be charitable to the poor. Now, the reason they would rather use the word charity is because charity is never obligatory. See, charity is optional, right? You may want to be charitable, maybe not. And if you're not helping the poor,

then you're not being charitable. Well, that's a shame. You ought to be more charitable. But justice is not an option. And if verse 6 is describing verse 7, if Isaiah is actually saying, if God here is saying, if you don't feed the hungry, you're being unjust, well, a lot of people say that's bad because they say, I don't believe that. I don't believe I owe the poor anything. If I want to give it to them, fine. But I don't owe them anything. It's not unjust. Maybe uncharitable but not unjust. But that

doesn't work. That argument doesn't work. Because look at the very last clause of verse 7. It says, share your food with the hungry, provide the poor wanderer with shelter, see the naked and clothe him, and don't turn away from your own flesh and blood. What does that mean? Now, own flesh and blood is usually what? When you hear that, what does that mean? Your family, someone you're related to. But the word poor wanderer, which is described here as your own

flesh and blood, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and shelter the poor wanderer. Do not turn away from your own flesh and blood. What God is saying is that poor wanderer is your own flesh and blood. But the word poor wanderer means an impoverished person of another race. It's a word that's often translated as stranger, alien, an impoverished person of another race. It's a word that's often translated as stranger or alien, an impoverished person of another race. Yet God here is saying, when you turn away from a poor person in your city of another race, it's like turning away from your own flesh and blood. Why would he say that? In fact, it was outrageous to speak into a patriarchal society, like ancient societies were, where family meant everything and blood meant everything, and to say that the poor person of another race is your own flesh and blood.

What is God saying? He is saying, every human being is in the image of God. If you understand the fact that I created all beings, and they are all human beings, and they're all in the image of God, that therefore if you turn away from them, it's as if you're turning away from your own flesh and blood. In fact, you are turning away from your own flesh and blood,

and therefore you are responsible for their needs. And to turn away from your own flesh and blood is wrong. It's not just uncharitable, it's wrong. This is a very strong argument, and it's tied to what we've talked about for several weeks. I don't know whether you've been here over the last few weeks or not, but what we've said is this. Yes, if you have this much, and this much is yours, to some degree it's because you worked hard for it, but only to some degree. And not to the main degree. Because the main reason why you have what you have is not just that you worked hard, is because you were born in this century rather than the sixth century. And you were born in the country you were born in,

the century you were born in, the fact that you are born with talent, your health, all of these things. Without them, you would be nowhere. And therefore, mainly what you have is a gift of God. And if you act as if it's yours, and if you want to give it away, that's completely up to you. No, no. If you act as if it's yours, and if you want to give it away, that's completely up to you, no, no.

If you act as if it's yours, that shows you do not understand your real relationship to God and the rest of the human race. What you have is a gift from God. What the human race is, is other members of the human race who are made in the same image of God

that you are made in, and therefore infinitely precious. And what this means is if you are unkind to the poor, you don't understand the actual relationship you have to God, the actual relationship you have to other people, and you are being unjust. And therefore, we can say first, that we should take care of the poor

is because of the future, and the second reason we should take care of the poor is because of the future, and the second reason we should take care of the poor is because of our present. Because of our present relationship to God and one another. Now, I'm not going to stop there and I'll tell you why. If we end of this sermon here, this is basically, let me just give you a summary of what the argument's been so far. Feel guilty, feel guilty, look how much you have, feel guilty now, go help the poor, let us pray. I mean that's basically what we've done so far. Look how much you have, it's all a gift of God. They don't have as much, see? You know, God cares about the poor.

He's going to deal with the poor. Don't you want to be like God? You know? So guilt, guilt, guilt, guilt, guilt. Now, go help the poor. Let us pray. And it won't work. Oh, maybe it'll work briefly, but it really won't work. And I've been around long enough to know that guilt in the end doesn't really change hearts.

But there's a third reason that the Bible gives that believers in the gospel of Jesus Christ ought to be involved with the poor. And that third reason is the primary one in the Bible. And here's what it is. Not the future, not the present, the past, the atoning sacrifice. If you understand the atoning sacrifice, if you understand what's done for you, you'll want to be involved with the poor. More than that, it'll change your very understanding of the poor. 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. At the very beginning of the passage it says, is not this the fast I choose? Now what is that about?

The first part of the passage, which we didn't print here, the first part of the chapter, in that part the Israelites are complaining because they fast and they fast and they fast and God isn't answering their prayers. This is what the chapter says. Why have we fasted they say and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves and you have not noticed? But says the Lord, on the day of your fasting you do as you please and exploit your workers. Is this the kind of fast I have chosen? Says the Lord. Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a feast?

A day acceptable to the Lord? And then he turns in verse 5 and says, 6, he says, is this the fast I choose? Now what's this all about? It's about Yom Kippur. It's about Yom Kippur. You see, one day a year, the Israelites came together for a blood sacrifice to atone for their sins. That's what Yom Kippur means, the Day of Atonement. And it really was a way for God to say, even though the Israelites all during the year have been trying very hard to live a good life, they've been trying to obey God's

law, trying to obey the Ten Commandments. Every year, they're going to look back and realize they failed. And Yom Kippur was God's way of saying, there is no way that anyone can be in a relationship with me through their moral excellence. The only way anybody can be in a relationship with me is through atonement, forgiveness, grace.

And on the day of Yom Kippur, in order to show that they understood that God was a God of grace and that they had been forgiven, the Israelites ordinarily fasted. Now why? Well, fasting is a way of humbling yourself. It's a way of denying yourself. And it's a way of saying, well, you know what, I realize I'm a sinner saved by grace so I will act humble. But God noticed something. That even though the Israelites for a couple of days would fast and deny themselves food, they continued to exploit their employees by not paying them well. And what God is saying here is you do not understand what kind of fasting I want, which is another way of putting it.

You do not understand what kind of life I want to result from the knowledge that you're saved by grace, that you're saved only because of the atoning sacrifice. He says if you want to see the kind of life that should come from a knowledge of grace, the fasting, quote unquote, I want is this, to spend yourselves for the poor, to pour yourself out for the poor. Don't just give up sweets for Lent, he says. Give up living at this level because you're so generous to the poor. Pour yourself out for your whole life.

That's the kind of life that should come from a knowledge of atonement. If you really understand blood sacrifice, God is saying, if you really, really understood my grace and you saw the hungry, you would feed them. And you saw the naked and you would clothe them, and you saw the homeless and you would shelter them. That's what God is saying. And if you're not caring for them, that shows you don't understand my grace. Now, let's be understanding. I want to be understanding to the Israelites.

Because to what degree could they have really understood the meaning of that blood sacrifice on Yom Kippur? To what degree could they have understood what it was really pointing to? They knew that in general it meant that they could only be in a relationship with God through His mercy. But they couldn't really understand what it was pointing to, but we can. And you know what that means? It means we have even less excuse.

Centuries later, Jesus Christ, in one of the most blood-curdling and amazing parts of his teaching in Matthew 25, took Isaiah 58 and reworked it. Remember what Isaiah 58 is saying? God is saying, you say you know that I have atoned for your sin. You say you know about the blood sacrifice. You say you know that you're saved by grace.

But if you see the homeless, if you see the naked, you see the hungry and you don't do anything about it, that proves you don't know. See, God is not saying, by the way, They hungry and you don't do anything about it, that proves you don't know. See, God is not saying, by the way, if you want to be saved, you have to help the poor. What he's saying is, if you are saved, you will help the poor.

And this is how you'll know you're saved. In Matthew 25, listen to what Jesus does. He takes Isaiah 58, almost verbatim, but he twists it, turns it, reworks it like this. In Matthew 25, Jesus says, on judgment day, on judgment day, I will look at some people and say, depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire.

For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink. I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink I was naked and you did not clothe me. I was a stranger a poor wanderer and you did not give me shelter I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me and They will answer Lord. When did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison and Did not help you and the Lord reply, I tell you the truth, whenever you did not do it for one of these, you did not do it for me. You know what Jesus is saying?

Exactly the same thing God is saying. If you love me and if you know my love and if you know what I've done for you, then when you see the poor you will love the poor. And if you don't love the poor, then that shows you don't love me and you don't understand my love at all. He's not saying if you care for the poor then you'll be saved. He's saying here's how you know you're saved, you care for the poor. Now you say, well, wait a minute, how could that be? All right, let's think it out wait a minute, how could that be? All right, let's think it out for a minute. Let me ask you a question.

Do you know what it means when Jesus says, blessed are the poor in spirit? Only the poor in spirit are blessed. What does that mean? All right, it means to be spiritually bankrupt. It means to be spiritually poor. Or put it like this. Do you know and do you believe that you are spiritually and morally bankrupt before God? Put another way. If you were to stand before God right now, would you be willing to admit that there's

absolutely nothing that you have ever done, even your best deeds have bad motives to, you've never loved God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, you've never loved your neighbor as yourself, that you actually have nothing that you could say to God on the basis of this except me. You're bankrupt. You're morally and spiritually bankrupt. Do you believe that?

And do you believe that the only possible way you could have any relationship with God, any hope, is through the absolute free generosity of God? Do you believe that? Then you are spiritually poor. You're spiritually bankrupt. You've declared bankruptcy. And the only way the Bible says to be saved is through the bleeding charity of God.

Bleeding charity, the cross. And the only way you can be saved, the only way you can get charity is if you are humble enough to ask for it. And if you're too proud to ask for charity, you'll never get it. Now what Jesus is saying is, only the poor in spirit can be saved.

That's the reason why he has come to declare liberation for the spiritually poor. Only the spiritually poor can receive his salvation. But if you've become spiritually poor and you receive God's Jesus salvation, if you believe the gospel, in other words, that won't completely change the way you look at materially poor people for the rest of your life. You can never look down at them. You can never be condescending. You can never say pull yourself up by your bootstraps because you didn't. You could never say, ah, you're undeserving. You know, you got yourself into that situation. Well, so did you, spiritually speaking. And yet God's generosity saved you.

What does that mean? If you truly are poor in spirit, if you truly are spiritually poor, you will love the materially poor. When you look at them, you'll feel like you're looking in a mirror. You'll realize this is what you look like to God, and yet he gave everything to help you. Okay, now maybe you don't believe that. Maybe, is there anybody here who believes that if you were to appear before God, he would owe you? Is there anybody here who feels like I've lived a pretty good life and I haven't had a very good

life basically and I feel like God hasn't really done right by me? I've lived a pretty decent life, better than many people. Do you believe that if you were to appear before God, God would owe you? Well, you're not poor in spirit, you're middle class in spirit. You know what you're feeling like? You say spiritually speaking, I've paid my taxes and I have my rights. Right? And I, you have to listen to me. See, you're middle class in spirit. But if you're middle class in spirit, Jesus says, you're going to be indifferent to the plight of the materially poor. Because you'll say, pull yourself up by your bootstraps. I did. Don't you see what Jesus is saying? Here's how you know whether you're a sinner saved by grace or just a Pharisee. You'll love the poor, the materially poor. If you're spiritually poor,

you'll love the materially poor. Wow, this middle class spirit, pretty deadly, isn't it? Yes. And here's how you can escape it. You need to really look deeply at what Jesus did. And here's what he did. Don't say to Jesus Christ, on the last day, when did we see you naked? Because you know what he's going to say? Are you kidding? They cast lots for my garment. And don't say when did we see you thirsty? Because he'll say are you kidding? I cried out I thirst. And don't say Lord when did we see you in prison? He's going to say are you kidding? On the cross. On the cross I who deserved acceptance got condemnation so that you who deserved condemnation could be accepted by grace.

And when you see Jesus Christ becoming poor for you, powerless for you, marginalized for you, when you see him becoming a victim of injustice for you, paying the penalty for your sins, that's what the Christianity is all about. You will never look at poor, marginalized, and victims of injustice the same way again, never. I mean if Jesus loved us so much as to become a poor, become a victim of injustice, become powerless, we have to love those people the way he did. We have to. We have to love them. We will. Read this text and remember this. Jesus' heart was broken on the cross. Jesus was plunged into darkness on the cross.

Jesus got the ashes so that we could have the crown of beauty. Jesus got stripped naked so we could have garments of praise. Now let me close like this. This is an incredibly strong truth that not guilt, but an understanding of the grace of God and of how Jesus Christ, though he was rich, became poor so that through his poverty, through his impoverishing of himself, we might become spiritually rich. That if you understand that at all, it radically changes your way of looking at poor people and gives you this passionate, loving desire to do something for them as

Jesus Christ did for you. That's not guilt, that's grace. And now one of my questions is this, and I've had this for many years, and actually I'm going to take a little pressure off you everybody. The Bible in the Old Testament and the New Testament says, the way you know that you really are a sinner saved by grace is you love the poor. You know, there's places where Jesus says,

the Pharisees make long prayers but devour widows' houses. He's using the very same standard that the Old Testament uses. Here's how we know that you're a sinner saved by grace. Here's how we know you're spiritually poor, you love the materially poor. And yet, I happen to know, and you do too, that there's an awful lot of people

who really do believe they're sinners saved by grace, who are not very involved with or concerned about the poor or not. They're certainly not spending themselves. They may be spending a little bit of money, but they're not, verse 10, spending themselves. Why? And I want to take a little bit of pressure off you.

It's our fault, we ministers. I hope you appreciate what I'm doing for you right here. And I'll tell you why. I believe that deep in every, the heart of every person who believes the gospel, there is a button. And that button gets pushed when somebody connects grace to the poor rather than guilt. And I think most of us ministers only know how they try to get you to get involved with the poor through guilt. But when the gospel of grace is connected to the poor, somebody pushes that button and

you wake up. This is the sermon I read 20 years ago that woke me up. This is from the 1830s in Scotland, Robert Murray McShane preaching on the text, it's more blessed to give to receive. Let me just end with this. Now, dear Christians, this is the sermon. Some of you pray night and day to be made branches of the true vine. You pray to be made all over in the image of Christ. If so, you must become like him in giving. Though Jesus was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor. Objection. My money is my own. I've earned it. Answer. Christ might have said, my blood is my own. My life is my own. Then where would you have been? Objection. Ah, but the poor are undeserving. Answer. Christ might have said, look at these wicked rebels, shall I lay down my life for these?

No, I will give to the good angels the deserving. But no, he gave his blood for the undeserving. You. Objection. But the poor may abuse it. Answer. Christ might have said the same thing with far greater truth. Christ knew that thousands would despise his blood and that many would make it an

excuse for sinning more. Yet he gave his own blood. Oh dear Christians, if you want to be like Christ, give much, give often, give freely to the poor, even to the thankless and the undeserving ones. Don't you see Christ is glorious and happy and so will you be. It is not your money I want, but your happiness. Remember what he said, it is more happy, it is more blessed to give than to receive. Can you feel the Spirit of God pushing your button?

Let's pray. Our Father, let us become bearers of this great message, that Jesus Christ came to preach good news to the poor. And that means, Lord, only the spiritually poor can receive his salvation, but then receiving his salvation, Jesus creates a new community of people who love the materially poor. And so the gospel is good news for the spiritually poor, it's good news for the materially poor. We pray that you would help us become a church in which that is obvious and evident.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for listening to Tim Keller on the Gospel in Life podcast. Amen. Visit GospelInLife.com slash partner to learn more. 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.