Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - How Do We Share Our Faith Now? Practices

Episode Date: August 7, 2023

For a person to go from no faith to faith it takes at least four things.  There has to be 1) sustained attention, 2) some attraction, 3) a demonstration, and 4) an explanation.  I’m going to give a couple ideas on three of these four things. This talk was given by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 14, 2019. Series: Missional Living. 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're a Christian, you want to see your neighborhood workplace in city renewed by the gospel. But in today's culture, the challenges to sharing our faith or discipling someone can feel almost insurmountable. How can we effectively share our faith in spite of tough questions and misconceptions about Christianity. Today's podcast features teaching from the 2019 Missional Living Conference held at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. Listen as Dr. Keller explores how we can share our faith in a way that is relevant, win some, and true. After you listen, we invite you to go online to gospelandlife.com and sign up for email updates. When you sign up, you'll receive our quarterly newsletter with articles

from Dr. Keller as well as other valuable Gospel-centered resources. Subscribe today at gospelandlife.com. Now, for a person to go from no faith to faith, think takes at least four things. They're going to need four things. And I'm going to briefly talk to you about three because the fourth one Rebecca is going to give you a really great presentation on. Those four things are you have to get their attention, as I tried to say, they have to give sustained attention to thinking about Christianity. Secondly, there has to be some attraction because people have to get to the place where

they say about Christianity. It would be great if it was true. The why would they say, yeah, there has to be at a certain point, you have to get a person to the place where say, gee, that would be interesting. That would be great if that was true. And that's attraction. So they need attention, attraction,

then demonstration, which is how do you know if it's true. And that's what I'm not going to talk about right now, because Rebecca's going to talk about that. It's what, if a person goes from paying attention to finding Christianity attractive, then it's natural for them to say, but how do I know if it is true? And therefore, you do have to answer some questions there.

And then lastly, there's explanation, well, what is the gospel itself? Let me just give you a couple ideas on those three, three of those four. When we talk about attention, how do you get people's attention? I've already hinted at this, I already said something about this in the Q&A. Ultimately, people are going to need relationship now. It means, and Abe also has talked about it, so I really can be pretty brief on this. You've got a number of web, you might say, no, a number of relationship networks.

There's the people you actually live with. And even there, in New York, there's the people in your building, and there's some people in your neighborhood. It's not necessarily the same, but there's the geographical network, people that live near, but there's the geographical network, people that live near you. There's the work network, people that you work with, or people in your field, even if

it's not people in your actual company or business with people in your field. A third area, of course, is interests. That could be hobbies, but it just means something that you get involved in doing. Maybe hobby, avocation. A third network for some people are kinship networks, so I have to admit that probably the average person in New York City is not living near their extended family. That's not always true, of course, some of you are. But a fourth network of relationships are kinship networks, people who you're extended

family and relationship. A was right in saying that one of the most important things to do is to choose one of those and ask God to begin to help you be more intentional in developing relationships there. And it's not real instrumental. That is to say, the way to get those relationships going is really just to be more regular and inhabit them. If you, for example, do the same thing in your neighborhood

routinely, if, for example, in my building, I have found out that if you wash your laundry at certain times on certain days, I've noticed there are other people who are there always the same time on that day. That's their day or one of their days to do it. Not that hard to get to know them if you do that. If you go to the store at certain times, if you take even walks at certain times, if you're regular, you end up seeing

the same kind of people. What you really want to do in the very beginning is you want to be finding ways to adjust, strengthen the relationships in one of those fields. You need to say, this is where I'm going to pray that God would open some doors just to become friends. And don't forget the motivation. The motivation in these relationships is really on the one hand to say,

Lord, you have to open doors. If there's gonna be an openness to talk about the faith, that's something you gotta do. But it's also, your motivation is actually to love people. Talking about your faith, this might sound strange. Talking about your faith is really a means to an end. And what's the end? Loving them. Otherwise, you don't love them in order to show your faith. You show your faith in order to love them.

Those are two very different motivational structures to the heart. If you're loving them in order to share your faith, in some ways that you have objectified them, they're objects, not subjects. They are people that you wanna feel good about yourself because, hey, I'm sharing my faith. You don't love people to share your faith with them. You share your faith with them if you get the opportunity because you love them.

And so what you want to do is you want to deepen relationships in one area. And the only way people are going to pay attention is number one, they have a relationship with somebody who has a believer. And the number two, the moments come. Now what do I mean by the moments? A lot of you were saying, how do you get into conversations?

I'm a little more passive, maybe, than I should be, but I wait for moments, and there's three kinds of moments once you have the relationship. The one moment I'll tell you, here's the easiest one, is when you see an article or something that you've read online or in the paper or something like that. And you say it raises questions that aren't necessarily directly about Christianity or about even religion, but they raise some pretty interesting questions. They kind of get you talking beyond just the, hey, what do you think of how the anchors have done and that sort of thing.

You're trying to get people to start talking about life issues and what is the meaning of life and how do you make moral judgments and what are the important things for us to be doing. One of the things to do is just to see something like that. Especially when you know it's going to be a kind of interesting, just to give you an interesting article. There was an article a while ago in the New York Times called

Has Trump Stolen Philosophy's Critical Tools. And it's written by a guy who at the time was a PhD student in English, maybe still is, an English PhD student. Because it's two years ago, and we all know how the doctors go, at Duke. And what he says here in the article, he says this, he says, for decades, critical social scientists and humanists have chipped away at the idea of truth. We've deconstructed facts, insisted that knowledge is situated, and denied the existence of

objectivity. The bedrock claim of critical philosophy going back to Kant is simple. We can never have certain knowledge about the world and its entirety. And now these ideas animate the work of influential thinkers like Nietzsche, Foucault, Dera-Dah, and they become axiomatic for scholars in literary studies, anthropology, sociology. And from these premises, philosophers and theorists have derived a number of related insights, including this, all facts are socially constructed.

People who produce facts, scientists, reporters, witnesses, so they do it from a particular social position, and that influences how they perceive and interpret the world, and therefore all facts are socially constructed. We create them because they suit us. And he says, call it what you want,

relativism, constructivism, deconstruction, postmodernism, critique, the idea is the same. Truth is not found, but it's created. And making truth always means exercising power. Then he points out that this is what Donald Trump is doing. And he doesn't like Donald Trump. Donald Trump says, well, you have your facts, but I have my alternative facts. And he says, wait a minute, that's what we were told to do in the in the PhD program at Duke, that when somebody

came along and made truth claims, you say, ah, all truth claims are relative. Okay? He says, entire PhD programs are still running to make sure that good American kids are learning the hard way that facts were made up, that there is no such thing as natural unmediated, unbiased access to truth, that we're all prisoners of language, that we always speak for a particular standpoint. He says, what do you say when Trump is actually doing that? And here's what he says. It's right, the very end. Listen to this.

He says, well, here's the only thing he can say. He says, we need to recognize, though, that while all facts might be created and constructed, not all facts are created equal. Some facts are better than others. Now, okay, and he says, now here's the question, how would you know if some facts were better than others, unless there was an uncreated standard by which you're judging which facts are better than others?

So what he's actually trying to say is my own world view doesn't work for me. Now if you ask somebody else to read that and you just talk with them about it, you don't have to be talking about Christianity by any means, but you can actually say, it's not interesting. He's trying to say, he says, well, you know, I think all facts are just created. I don't believe there is such a thing as absolute truth out there. But now I don't know what to do about this guy, who I don't like. And therefore, I have decided that there must be some uncreated standards of truth, which is what I just said didn't exist. So talk about that.

I don't know what your friend would say about that. It's interesting. There's tons of these kinds of articles. They happen all the time. Do you have your antenna up? Ask them to read it. This is not getting right into Christianity at all. It doesn't even get close, I don't think.

But who knows? So number one moment is when you have a great article. Number two is when people see a story, they would be great if it was true, but it's only fiction. JR Tolkien wrote a wonderful, wonderful article, not an article, essay, a lecture years ago called on fairy stories. And he said, why is it that people love fairy tales?

And he said, because deep in the human heart, we have a massively deep desire for several things. We are fascinated by all stories in which somebody escapes time or when they escape death or when they commune with non-human beings or when they experience, they cheat death and they experience love without parting,

or when good really triumphs over evil. So say in fairy tales, this is not how things actually happen in the real world, and yet fairy tales, all these things are happening, and that's why we're so passionate for them. There's certain stories that just move us, even though they're not really true, except what JR are talking points out what JR are talking points out.

JR are talking points out. If the resurrection of Jesus Christ actually happened, every one of those things will literally be true. You will escape time, you will escape death, you will know love without parting. You will commune with non-human beings. They call themselves angels, but we can call them elves if you want.

You will see good triumph over evil. And there are places when someone's really moved by a story, which as being Christian terms will literally come true. But in non-Christian secular terms, it's just something you can pine for and then say, it's all, basically it's rubbish. It makes us, we would love it, but it's just not true. Is there a place to talk about that when people are reading, watching those stories, yes, there is. There's a place to talk about that. The last thing is this. And that is everybody's worldview.

If it's not a Christian worldview, is like, and by the way, some of us at my age certainly understand what I'm talking about here, if you're wearing a set of clothes that's too small for you, because you have gotten too big, all right? Then when you move and it's too small It either pinches, or it reps. Everybody who's not a Christian has a worldview that actually doesn't fit reality. They have meanings in life. My meaning in life is to get into a good school and be a doctor and really help people.

But then what happens if you get injured and you can't become a doctor or whatever, or you can't practice medicine or whatever. In other words, everybody has a meaning in life that can't handle suffering. Or has a real strong moral sense, but doesn't really have, what that poor guy has Trump's stolen philosophy's tools, tools has a strong moral sense, but doesn't have a worldview to back it up? Doesn't have the moral sources for his moral ideals.

And what it means to share your faith with people is to be near them and to like them and to love them and to have them like you and trust you. And be around for when there's times for articles like that, stories like that, or when suffering comes into their life and they find their world view actually pinches or rips. So be patient and love them. For many in our culture today, biblical Christianity is a dangerous idea, challenging some of their

deepest beliefs. In her book Confronting Christianity, 12 hard questions for the world's largest religion. Dr. Rebecca McLaughlin explores the hard questions that keep many people from considering faith in Christ. Tackling issues, including gender and sexuality, science and faith, and the problem of suffering, McLaughlin shows that what seems like roadblocks to faith in Jesus can become signposts to a relationship with him. Confronting Christianity is our thank you for your gift

to help Gospel and Life share the love of Christ with people all over the world. So request your copy today at gospelandlife.com slash give. That's gospelandlife.com slash give. Here's the last thing I'll just say about the gospel itself. You say, well, how do I share the gospel? Well, I've actually talked to several of you already tonight about this. There are so many different ways to the gospel presentation. And yet, and I talked to you, you're not going to have a gospel presentation that works for Hindus and Muslims and secular white people on that. No. And yet, in the end, everybody is trying to save themselves. They don't call

it that. Some people are going to church and hoping by living a good life that God will take them to heaven. Okay, that's, they are saving themselves. Other people are just throwing themselves into their career or romantic love or whatever. Everybody is trying to save themselves and at some point everybody will see they can't save themselves. And every other religion, every other philosophy says the way, once you fail, just say yourself, and they say, here's a, we'll try another way to do it.

Another way to save yourself. Get your life together. Go into therapy, learn meditation, do all these things and you can get your life together. And Christianity comes along and says, no, you never will be able to. You might do okay for a while, but you'll crash again. But Jesus Christ is the one founder of all the world religions who doesn't say, I'm a prophet, come to show you how you can climb up to God. No, Jesus is the only founder of any major religion that says, I am God, having come down to save you. And the idea of salvation by grace, that's it.

That's the heart of it. That's what you have to get across. You know, when, I mean, it's old English and all that sort of thing, but, you know, Nathan Coles, when he was converted by listening to a George Woodfield sermon in a field in Connecticut in the 1730s, he's got this very famous place where he wrote it. It's an interesting historical record, but in his autobiography he talks about it and he says, my hearing him sin gave me a heart wound. And by God's grace, my old foundation was broken up.

And I saw that my righteousness could not save me. Now, see, he's using traditional biblical language because he was listening to George W.F. preach. But basically, every person who grasps the gospel has to say, I've been living and making this into my salvation and it won't save me, I can't save myself this way. In fact, I'm failing and I'm just feeling cursed in myself.

But there is a way, I believe in Jesus Christ who took the curse for me, so that I can be received by grace. That's the essence, that's the essence of everything you're gonna do. I, this is what you're trying to get across. Yeah, they're gonna ask you a That's the essence. That's the essence of everything you're going to do. This is what you're trying to get across. Yeah, they're going to ask you a question about the Trinity. Yeah, they're going to ask you a question about hell. Go to your church and figure out ways of being able to talk about those things. But the essence of the essence of the essence is

salvation is of the Lord, Jonah chapter 2 verse 9. Salvation is not from you, it's not partly you and partly God, salvation is from the Lord, it's all from him. One of the great witnesses in history was the woman at the well that Jesus met in John chapter 4, and at the very end of John chapter 4, after he says to her, woman, would you give me some water to drink? And she says, he says, you know, and he gets the drink of water. And he says, I have water that if you drank it, you would never thirst again. And she says, give me that water. Then he immediately says, go bring your husband.

Interesting juxtaposition. He's obviously talking about spiritual eternal life. The water he has is the water of eternal life, ultimate satisfaction, ultimate thirst diswaging, ultimate joy. That's what I have. She doesn't understand that. She says, well, give me this water that if I drink it, I'll never thirst again. He says, well, go get your husband. He says, I don't have a husband. No, he says you've had five husbands and the man you're

living with right now is not your husband. Why does he say that? It's kind of harsh. No. He's trying to say, you've been looking for the water of life. You've been looking for joy and satisfaction. You've been looking for a love that would heal you and finally make you feel like, finally I'm okay, finally life is all right. You've been looking for it and you've been finding it in men. And I've seen all that you've done. And then he explains who he is. And then he understands the water of life. And so she runs into town and then leaving her water jar, the woman went back into town and said to the people,

come, see a man who told me everything I've ever done. Could this be the Messiah? Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. He told me everything I ever did, she kept saying. So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them. Because of the words, many more became believers.

They said to the woman, we no longer believe just because of what you said. Now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the savior of the world. Now maybe you don't feel that you are equipped to talk to your friends about Christianity. How equipped was she that she did when he training programs?

No. And look at what she said. Come see a man who told me everything I've ever done. What's that? You know what she said? She's saying, he saw me to the bottom and he still loved me. He saw everything about me and he still offered me the water of life He didn't say well my dear woman That's a lot that's a pretty bad record And if you want the water of life, I'll tell you what if you could just straighten up and fly right and keep your nose clean for

A couple of months. I'll come back and we can have another meeting and maybe then you'll be ready for the water of life. And that's not what she heard. Come see a man. That's God's, that's sharing the faith. Look at this man. And you know why he was able to give her the water of life freely without asking her to jump through a million hoops? Because on the cross he said, I thirst. So he got the thirst that we deserve. He got the separation from the Father that we deserve

so that he could offer us the water of life freely. And she didn't understand that, but she understood grace. She understood, here's a man that looked at, saw me to the bottom and loved me to the skies. Come look at this man. Hey, look, if she can do it, you can too. Thanks for listening to Today's Teaching. We pray that it challenged you and encouraged you. You can find more resources from Tim Keller at gospelandlife.com.

Just subscribe to the Gospel and Life newsletter to receive free articles, sermons, devotionals, and other resources. Again, it's all at GospelOnLife.com. You can also stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. This talk was recorded in 2019. The sermons and talks you here on the Gospel and Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.