Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Head Over Everything

Episode Date: August 5, 2026

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 18, 1992. Series: Salvation From the Outside In. Scripture: Ephesians 1:22-23. 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. A common perception of Christianity is that its main emphasis is on living a morally good life. Yet, the Bible tells a very different story. The most important thing isn't what we do, but what God has done for us. Today, we continue Tim Keller's series from the Book of Ephesians, exploring the foundational truths at the heart of the Christian faith, and how they shape our understanding of who we are, why we're here, and where we find hope for the future.

Paul's prayer concludes with just these two little verses that are printed in your bulletin at the end of the songs that you just sang. Ephesians 1 22 to 23. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him, that's Jesus Christ, to behead over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fulfilled.

fills everything in every way. I would just like to draw out of the text the stuff we can feed on tonight as we get ready to meet the Lord at the table. What does this teach? This teaches that Jesus Christ is head over everything for the church. We just began to look at it last week, but I want to look at this week. There's two ways in which Jesus is head. He's head over everything, the whole world for the church. And then secondly, he's the head over the church as his body. See that in there? First of all, he's head over everything, the whole world for us. And then secondly, he's the head over us, his body, the church. That doesn't sound tremendously exciting, but I want you to know that it is, and I'd like to show you why it is.

First of all, question that comes up, how is it possible for Jesus to be head over the world now? How can it be head now? People are very confused about this statement. They can understand the idea that someday Jesus will be king, but they have a little more trouble figuring out how Jesus can be ruling or governing the world in any way now when the world looks to be such a mess.

And I haven't known what to do since Woody Allen. had his big problem because I love to quote Woody Allen. I've been trying to say, can I still quote Woody Allen? Maybe I should do this. I should say a famous New York film director has once said this.

More than at any time in history, humankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other to total extinction. May we pray that we have the wisdom to choose correctly. Christians have both a more realistic and a more hopeful understanding of history. We see that Jesus Christ is head over everything right now.

And as I want to show you in a minute, he's actually directing everything. All right, how could he be directing everything? In two ways. Let me use two terms that are theological. I mentioned one last week, and I got so much good feedback that I think I better finish that up and explain it again. I'm going to give you two theological, technical phrases. how is Jesus in control of all things now? How is he governing the world now? First, through common grace and second, through his providential control of history. Common grace is first. How is he head over all things

right now? The definition of common grace we gave last week is this. God preserves and beautifies all of human society and the world by continually exceive. exciting, provoking, instigating, even in the lives of disobedient men and women, all sorts of goodness, wisdom, greatness, and beauty. In other words, God excites and provokes and gives gifts of greatness and wisdom and goodness and beauty to all kinds of people, whether or not they obey Him, whether or not they believe in Jesus Christ. This is not a term common grace that you find in the Bible, but it's a concept you find in the Bible. You don't find the phrase.

You don't find the name, but you certainly find the concept. There's in a sense two kinds of grace. Now grace is God's power given, beneficial power given to undeserving people. Grace is God's beneficial power given to undeserving people. But there's two kinds. Theologians talk about special grace. and special grace is the powerful grace of God that comes in and changes your heart and gives you the new birth and converts you and turns you around. And this is what's given to people who believe in Jesus Christ.

We read about it earlier on in the chapter in Ephesians 1 7. It says, redeemed by the blood, we're forgiven our sins according to his grace. That's special grace. But there's also common grace. And common. Common grace. And common. grace are great gifts of goodness and wisdom and power and beauty and wisdom to people. Those gifts don't convert the people. That's not special grace. It's not converting grace. And yet, the wisdom is from God.

The beauty is from God. The skill is from God. The goodness is from God. The wisdom is from God. And the Bible teaches that he gives these gifts to all kinds of people all over the place, regardless of whether they believe in him or not. The Bible teaches it in a number of places. Some of these verses I'm going to give you, I mentioned last week,

but a lot of them I didn't, just to give you a little bit more of a sense of what this teaching is and how important it is practically. First, James 1, 17 says, every good and perfect gift comes down from above from the Father of Lights. Anything good, anything perfect, anything beautiful that you see

has its origin from heaven, has a heavenly origin. Every good and perfect gift comes down from above. Now, what are some of those gifts? Well, Romans 2.14, 15 says, talking about pagans, talking about unbelieving people. It says they show the mind, pardon me, they show, yeah, they show that the word of the law is written in their hearts and their consciences bear witness. In Romans chapter 2, God shows us, Paul tells us, that God has put in the consciences of every human being, innate understandings of his law. There is an innate sense in the human breast, in the human conscience, of fair play and justice, the golden rule, honesty, love. These things don't have to be taught. They're there. And if you have a decent family environment, and if you are raised in a society

that reinforces those things. A person who has absolutely no belief in Jesus and absolutely no interest in religious things can grow up with, according to this, with all kinds of solid moral character. What other kind of gifts? In Exodus 31, when God is telling Moses to build the tabernacle,

he says, now listen, in order to build a tabernacle, you're going to have to get really skilled artists. People that know how to work with wood and with metal. and with silver and gold, people who know how to do embroidery, people who know how to do tremendous metalwork, you're going to have to get skillful artists, he said, and then this is amazing. He mentions a number of people that are already in Israel, and he says, in the hearts of all the wise-hearted, I have put wisdom that they may make these things. I filled, he's talking about

one of them, a man named Bezalil, who was a craftsman. He says, I have filled him with the spirit of God and with wisdom in all measure of workmanship so that he can work in gold and in silver in all sorts of metal work. What this tells you is this. God gives wisdom to people. Now, I know these were Israelites, but isn't it interesting? He doesn't see an artistic gift as just simply a kind of accidental random talent. He doesn't see it as just something that's come through human evolution. He says, if a person is an artist, it's because I've given them a gift of wisdom. I've given them that ability. God spreads out gifts of musical and artistic and technical skill and wisdom and greatness, and he just throws those gifts out all through the human race like diamonds and rubies and sapphires.

He just throws them out there so that the world is. is beautified by it. What else does he give? Well, the Bible says something that has really puzzled people. Isaiah 45 tells us that Cyrus, who was a Persian king and a pagan king, not a believing king, not someone who believed in the Lord God of Israel or anything like that. In Isaiah 45, God tells us through Isaiah that Cyrus is his anointed prince, that Cyrus was anointed with the Holy Spirit for world leadership by God. And yet he's a pagan. In the book of judges and in the book of First, Second, Samuel, First and Second Kings, you'll very often read this, that some great leader is raised up by God,

and it says, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. Judges and kings and queens. And whenever the Spirit of Lord comes upon them, usually what happens is they get military genius or statesmanship or leadership skill or legal acumen and whatever. And in many cases, the persons like, for example, Saul, the King Saul, who was against David and sought to kill David. Saul, from what we can tell, was not someone whose heart was circumcised, which is the Old Testament way of talking about someone who's had,

who really believed from the heart and really has come to Christ to come to God. Saul was not someone like that. Saul turned away, and yet God gave Saul gifts through the Spirit. God gave Cyrus gifts to the Spirit. What does this mean? God gives to people, leadership ability, statesmanship, wisdom. He anoints people and gives people leadership in all sorts of organizational ability who are not necessarily Christians at all. And on and on it goes. We know right before the flood,

right before the flood, God says to Noah, he says, my spirit will not always strive with humankind. It's getting worse and worse out there. People are getting more violent. They're getting more inhumane to each other. Evidently, God's spirit is in the world constantly seeking to keep us from being as wicked as we ought to be, as selfish as we ought to be. We're all tremendously self-centered people, naturally. That's what sin is. Yet the Spirit of God keeps us from being as cruel to each other as we could be. Keeps the world from being as as unlivable a place as it ought to be. Now, what are the practical implications of this? This is extremely important. Do you understand the distinction between common and special grace? If you don't, you can really get fouled up.

Number one, if you don't understand the distinction between common and special grace, you're going to be very confused, very confused. You remember in the movie and in the play, Almodaeus, the real problem that Salieri had was Salieri was a pious man. He was a moral man. He was a decent man. He desperately wanted to be a great musician, and he was just a mediocre musician. And along comes Mozart, who's not a pious person at all, but someone who's degenerate and a

person of despicable character. And it's so clear to anybody, certainly now, that he was given almost divine gifts, people say. You know who says almost divine gifts? People who don't even believe in God, who don't even believe in the doctrine of common grace, but are almost forced by the power of the gifts that Mozart had to say, this is the voice of God I'm hearing when I hear his music. So I here he went berserk because he said, how could you give to someone as despicable as that? such gifts, and you don't give them to me. You know that place in the movie where he says, he looks up at the crucifix and he says,

you and I are enemies now. And he takes the crucifix and he throws it into the fire. Remember that? Poor Salieri, if he was a Christian, I don't think he was, if he understood this doctrine, he would have been able to handle his life. He would have been able to sit down and say, oh, Lord, I see that you, for the sake of your church,

in order to keep the world in a position where it's not a wicked and awful and terrible place. You give gifts of beauty, give gifts of artistic craft and technical skill and leadership and organizational ability and musical artistic ability and you just throw them out there so that the world is beautified.

I see that you've only given me a rather mediocre musical gift. But if Salieri was a Christian, here's how he could do it. He could say, but I've got special grace. And you see, the special grace will not make me the musical genius of the history of the world. It's going to make me something much better. I'm going to rule and reign as a priest and a king with you forever. You're changing me. You love me. And that means that someday I'm going to be

so much greater, something so much greater than even the musical genius of the history of the world. Meanwhile, I can enjoy what you've given me through Mozart. He couldn't think like that. All he knew was that here I am, try my very best, and here's somebody else who's been given more common grace than me. Christian friends, if you don't understand this doctrine, you're going to really wonder, why would God just lay all this common grace on somebody whose despicable character,

when I'm trying so hard and I'm not nearly as talented? Well, the answer is simply this. If you've got special grace working in you, you realize that what you're going to become is something far greater than the best musical genius or the best investment banker on Wall Street or the best singer in New York. Meanwhile, the gift is there for you, for us.

It's there for us to enjoy. It's there to beautify our world until Jesus finally changes everything at the end. You'll also be very confused when you see that many, many, many non-Christians are far more moral characters than us. You'll be sitting there saying, how do I have so much, I have so much trouble. biting my tongue. I have so much trouble with emotional self-control. I have so much trouble forgiving people. And here, over here is someone who's not even a believer at all, not even religious or maybe a member of another religion. And they seem to be so much more collected. They have so much

more self-control. They seem to be so much more moral than me. How could that be? Well, you have to understand that common grace is thrown out there and we should be mighty happy for it. because if the only people that were collected, if the only people that were moral, the only people that were just, if the only people that were compassionate were people that knew Jesus Christ's Savior, this would be an unlivable world. God throws that out there to everybody. Why does God allow suffering in the world? How can one religion be right and the others wrong? Hasn't science basically disproved Christianity? Tim Keller addresses these questions and many more in his book The Reason for God. Drawing on literature, philosophy, real-life conversations, and potent reasoning,

this book will challenge you to gain a deeper understanding of the Christian faith, whether you're a believer seeking to understand your faith better, whether you're exploring Christianity yourself or whether you're reading it with a friend who's searching for answers. When you give to Gospel and Life during the month of August, we'll send you two copies of the reason for God, one for you and one to give to a friend. It's our hope that through reading the book with a friend, you can have conversations about the claims of the Christian faith. To receive your two copies of the Reason for God, as our thanks for your support, simply make a gift at gospelinlife.com slash give. That's gospelinlife.com slash give. Thank you for partnering with us.

Your gift helps the message of Christ's love go out all over the world because the gospel truly changes everything. Here's something else. There is a kind of morality that arises out of common grace. It's static. It just comes because you've had a good childhood. It comes because you've had good parents. It's come because you, whatever.

And then there's a morality that comes from common grace, I mean from special grace, when the Spirit of God comes into you, and it's not a static thing, it's a living thing. Paul looks at the Philippians and says, I know that the good work, he began in you, he will bring to completion on the day of Jesus Christ. You see, the character growth that comes from special grace will blow by eventually any kind of character that's there through common grace. Meanwhile, you don't sit there and wonder about it. You know, the reason why so many Christians get so amazed, and confused about the fact that non-Christians, in many cases, are more moral and better and more admirable characters than so many Christians is because you have still not understood the gospel.

The gospel says something that nobody in their, in common sense, will ever believe. Only the, only the spirit can show you. The gospel says that here is an upstanding Boy Scout leader, you know, pillar of the community citizen. And here is a dysfunctional, broken, violent wreck. And in God's sight, they're both lost. neither of them love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, strength, and mind, neither of them love their neighbor as themselves. Both of them are living for themselves and not for me, and they're both lost, lost, and they both stand in need of grace. And the one who comes into the welcoming arms of the Father is the one who realizes he or she is lost, and who puts all his or

her trust in what Jesus has done on the cross and not in your good deeds and your performance. who's most likely to realize the gospel, not usually the Boy Scout leader. And you see, Christians are still so deeply, deeply locked into an understanding that basically what a Christian is is a good person rather than a dependent person. People are so locked in the idea

that basically what a Christian is is a moral person rather than a repentant person, that they have so much trouble when they see people so full of common grace, that they're more moral than the average Christian in their church. Don't be surprised. If you understand this doctrine, you can make sense of it. Also, this doctrine also proves one other thing.

That is, Christians have got to start getting humbled about the fact that God has put every good gift out there. There are lots of Christians that in their arrogance, and maybe in some ways it's a sincere arrogance, they believe, well, you see, if that person is a great musician, but they're not doing it for Christ and they're not talking about Christ and singing about Christ and playing about Christ, then I don't respect that. That's not Christian music. Or here is a person who's a fine civic leader, but I'm not going to vote for that person because that person isn't a

Christian. Don't you realize if you understand that Jesus Christ is governing all things through common grace? That means when you see a great civic leader who's not a Christian, you have to do what Luther said. Remember what Luther said? I mentioned this last week. is a great quote. Luther said, I would much rather be ruled by a wise Muslim than a stupid Christian. What was he meaning by that? He was trying to say, I understand the doctrine of common grace, that when I see a great opera written by somebody who's a pagan who really disdains the Christian gospel, and yet it's a work of tremendous beauty, it's a work of tremendous skill, I go and I appreciate it, and by doing so, I honor my God from whom that beauty came,

and I witness to the fact that Jesus is head over everything through common grace. Sometimes I feel like, though it's sincere, I don't know what's behind the Christian Yellow Pages movement. Is it really true that Christians, you should have a Christian auto mechanic if you're a Christian, you should have a Christian hairdresser? Is it really true? Isn't that a denial of the idea that Jesus Christ is head over everything right now

and ruling everything through common grace? Is it really true? Christians ought to segregate themselves and ghettoize themselves and refuse to admit that every good and perfect gift that comes down from above us from Jesus? Heck no. Absolutely not. Don't you see how this, to witness to the fact that Jesus is head over everything right now, humbles us, and yet it encourages us. And the reason it encourages us is this, because all of this is for us. All of this is for us. everything is happening is for us. Mozart's for us. You see that? Cyrus was for us. Great kings and queens and presidents are for us. God says it's for my chosen ones. It's for my church. It's for my sons and

daughters, my brothers and sisters that I'm doing this. I scatter these good deeds. I scattered these gifts of goodness and wisdom and greatness with both hands. And that is how I continue to keep in charge of this world and keep the world evil restrained and make it a place that's still a place of beauty and goodness and wisdom even under the circumstances of the fall of man. Secondly, Jesus is not just head of everything through common grace. He's also head over everything through providential control of history. Now, what I mean by that, we've actually talked about this several times, and that's why I've left this for last because it's something that's very, I can mention very briefly.

Providence is another word that's been coined by theologians to talk about God's complete control over history, complete control over everything that happens. What we have to realize is that if Jesus is head over everything right now, what the implications of that are. See, literally, it says in the Greek here, it says he is Hooper, over, Ponta, all for you, over all for you. Jonathan Edwards was a great Christian minister and writer, and he lived in Northampton, Massachusetts, and near where he lived, there was a mountain called Mount Tom. Some of you may know where that is.

Evidently, it's still there. And he used to climb it. and from the top of Mount Tom's, you can see very, very, very well and very, very easily the Connecticut River. Now, the Connecticut River flows south into the ocean, Connecticut. I mean, it comes through Massachusetts,

and it goes all the way down through Connecticut and it flows out to the ocean. Jonathan Edwards, though, when he got to the top of Mount Tombs and you would look down at the Connecticut River, this is what you would actually see. From the vantage point of that mountain, you could only see pieces of the river,

and then it would disappear. Then you'd see another piece, and it would disappear. Then you'd see another piece, and he said, what's so interesting? He knew, intellectually, that every bit of water in the Tom's River was flowing, you see, toward the sea. And yet, from that vantage point, there were parts of the Tom's River. Over here looked like a lake. It was broad and didn't look like the water was moving at all. And then another spot, the Tom's River was flowing very rapidly north. And then, over here, you'd see a place where it was flowing east. And he says, he wrote down one day, you know, that's exactly what the purposes of God look like in my life. There are many things that don't seem in any way to be making sense. The Connecticut River doesn't look like a shaft.

It looks like there's different pieces. It looks like at some points it's going north, some points is going west. It sure doesn't look like all the water in it is all flowing together toward the sea. and that's how your life looks when you look at it from the human vantage point. From the human vantage point, there are places in your life in which even though God says, my will for you is to be sanctified and holy, and yet God may be putting you in a situation that's bringing out the very worst in you. It's like the river's supposed to be flowing south. Why is it flowing north? There are other times in your life in which it doesn't seem to be like your life is a river

moving on into God's promises at all. Instead, God doesn't seem to be doing anything. Your life just seems to be going around in circle. You're stuck in a job. You're stuck in without relationships that you want. You're just going around in circles. You're going nowhere. Sometimes it looks like God's purposes in your life are not there at all. Sometimes it looks like God's work in your life is going in the opposite of what the Bible says it should be. You read the places that say, He loves me. He wants my holiness. He wants my holiness. He wants my wholeness. He wants my happiness. Well, for goodness sakes, you say, why in the world is he letting this happen and this happen and this happen? I seem to be going backwards. Now, friends, you can see this in many realms. You go to a good physical, you go to a coach and you say, I feel like

I'm physically weak. I need to be stronger. And the first thing the coach does, this put you through a regimen that makes you feel weaker than you've ever been. You go to a doctor and you say, I feel sick. I want to be healthy. He's the first thing he does is he cuts you open and you feel sicker than you've ever felt. You know that the, you know the Connecticut River flows south and yet from your vantage point is flowing north and sometimes doesn't be flowing at all. And Jonathan Edwards said, Jesus is head over everything for the church. That means everything in your life, every bit of water in that Connecticut River is flowing toward the sea in spite of how it looks. Every incident in your life, everything that's happening to you, every circumstance of your

personal history is all being worked together by the head who is working everything out for you, overall for you. It's all working together. Maybe tonight you'll see that. There's a place where David in Psalm 73 was so upset because everybody who seemed to be wicked, you know, all the Mozart's out there seem to be living wicked lives and prospering. Not that Mozart had such a great life. But, you know, David in Psalm 73 says, all the people that disobey you and disregard you, they seem to be having great lives, and I don't seem to be having a good life. You see, my life is flowing north and you told me it was going to flow south. And finally, there's a verse in Psalm 73 where David says, I went, though, into the sanctuary, and then I perceived the truth.

Sometimes you have to come into the Word of God, and you've got, because the Word of God, this particular verse that says, and God has made him head over everything for the church, is a higher peak than Mount Tom's. If you get up on the top of this thing, you'll be able to see that every part of your life is part of a river that's flowing on toward exactly what God has always said. Don't be deluded. There's a, at the end of 1st Corinthians 3, at the end of 1st Corinthians 3, it says, all things are yours. Whether life or death or present or future, all things are yours. What does that mean? Don't you see that Jesus has head over everything for the church? The Mozart's are for you, the prosperity and yet the adversity, the tragedies of your life and the joys of your life.

All of it's working for you. All of it's flowing toward the sea. All of it's taking you toward God. In spite of how it looks, you can only see it if you get up high enough. And the only way to get up high enough is to go to verses like this and passages like this and stand up there and look down and say, I know that you're in charge of everything. Your head over everything for me. If only I could get you to resign everything to him. If only I could get you to do that, he's head over everything for the church. Everything's for you. Everything's for you. Paul says, whether Paul or Apostle or Seifus, whether life or death, whether past or present, whether the world, all is yours. All things are yours. And you are Christ and Christ's God's.

Do you understand what that means? Literally it says here, all things, he has head over all things, everything that happens to you, everything that's out there is all working together for your good. It's all in the same river. He's head of everything. I don't know how broken up you are about the confusion of your life right now. I don't know, in other words, I don't know how high up you've climbed. You know, if you don't climb up very high at all, you can only see a little teeny piece of the river,

and it can look just like it goes nowhere at all. It certainly doesn't look like it's going to the sea. The higher you get up, the better the vantage point, the more you can begin to see that God really is in control. You've got to climb up on these verses. You've got to think about the truth. You've got to argue in the logic of what Paul is saying until you see that he really has had over everything for you.

Let's pray. Father, as we go to the table, as we go to understand, we pray that you would help us understand. The prayer that we've been studying starts up in verse 15, where Paul says, I pray that the eyes of your heart would be enlightened to see all these things. Now, Father, I know that when we come to the Lord's table, there are great promises that you make in connection with the bread and the cup. You have said you'll meet us there in a special way. I pray that you'll do that now. Father, there's hundreds of people in the room.

And every one of us, every single one of us needs to have the eyes of our heart enlightened so that this truth becomes more than just an abstract idea, would you show us that we have nothing to fear because you're in charge? We have no reason to envy because you're in charge. We have no reason to be discouraged because you're in charge. We have no reason to be afraid of people who criticize us because you're in charge. We have no reason to be afraid of people who would oppose us. us because you're in charge.

Your head over everything. So, Father, let every one of our fears, let our confusion and our anger, let our depression and our discouragement fall before the mighty truth that we've just read. As you burn it in and screw it down into our hearts with your spirit, 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 helps you apply the gospel to your life and share it with others. More helpful resources from Tim Keller, visit gospelandlife.com.

There, you can subscribe to the Life in the Gospel Quarterly Journal. When you do, you will also receive free articles, sermons, devotionals, and other great gospel-centered resources. Again, it's all at gospelandlife.com. You can also stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and X. Today's sermon was recorded in 1992. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were recorded between 1989 and 2017 will Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.