Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Paul’s Detour

Episode Date: September 23, 2026

As we find ourselves discouraged with our circumstances in life, we usually react in one of three ways. We might harden ourselves by saying life is unfair and we should get used to it, we might be overcome by despair, or we might simply believe everything will get better for us soon. The apostle Paul shows us there’s a better way to deal with discouragement. Even as he writes from prison, he explains how our suffering can’t compare to the gifts God has given us—and how it can deepen our appreciation of how Christ suffered for us.  Let’s examine how 1) hardship is inevitable for Christians, but 2) our hope in Christ gives us a remarkable motivation to persevere through it. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on August 15, 1993. Series: Salvation From the Outside In. Scripture: Ephesians 3:1-12. 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. We tend to think of faith as a personal matter, a relationship that's just between us and God, but the Bible presents a much bigger vision, one in which God brings people into a relationship with himself and brings them together into a new kind of community with each other. This month, we continue going through an extended series of teachings from Tim Keller that explore the core truths of the Christian faith and what they reveal about God's purposes for our lives together.

Some of you, especially those of you who've been around for a while, realized that for the last couple of years, we've actually been looking at the book of Ephesians verse by verse. Now, we've been doing it admittedly in a very, very convoluted way. We started in chapter four and went through five and six, and then we went back to chapter one and worked through chapter two. Now there's six chapters in the book of Ephesians. So we started at the end, and then we came back to the beginning.

and it seems that the at various times of course we've left our study of ephesians to do some shorter series seasonal series and so forth and it seemed very important i thought to try to go back to chapter three of ephesians and look at it as a whole uh between now really in the end of august so that after labor day and as the fall begins and we begin into our more regular rhythm we'll go somewhere else, but I wanted to finish Ephesians. And it's actually, believe it or not, and I'm not saying that any other minister should do it this way. It's not a bad idea having now come to this place to do Ephesians chapter three last. Because in some ways, Ephesians 3, especially the prayer at the end of Ephesians 3, it's like a peak, a mountain peak, and everything else in Ephesion is sort of like

the foothills on the way up, or the spurs or the shorter peaks. Ephesians chapter 3, and I'm going to read you the whole thing and then in just three weeks we're going to cover it i know that's not the way we've done ephesians but i think that in some ways we'll get a a better view of it that way the best way to you know you can either climb a mountain peak or you can take take the helicopter up to the top and uh it's it's time for a helicopter i think ephesians chapter three is so helpful because a lot of mainline what's often called liberal churches if you hang around them you can get the impression that the real center of Christianity is in the intellect because these are usually churches that cater to the educated classes of people.

They're usually, you very often find erudite and intellectual sermons and lots of discussion groups and everybody sits around and talks about these religious and philosophical issues. And if you look at mainline liberal churches, you might think that basically what it means to be a Christian is an intellectual. that's the center. The center's in the intellect. If you look at a lot of, we might call conservative fundamentalist churches, much more regimented, in many cases, let's admit it, more legalistic. Lots of emphasis on what to do. You might get the impression that the locus or the center of Christianity is in the will. It's in the doing. Some churches give you the impression it's in the mind, the thinking, and some in the doing. If you read chapter three,

you'll see that the center of Christianity is the heart, and I don't mean the emotion. but the desires, which we'll look at. Chapter 3, let me read it to you, and if you listen carefully or you watch it carefully, we're only going to, you can easily break Ephesians 3 into two pieces. Ephesians 3 has two pieces. Paul's detour and Paul's prayer. Paul's detour and Paul's prayer. Tonight we'll look at Paul's detour in the next two weeks.

We'll look at Paul's prayer. Let me just read you the whole thing. chapter three of Ephesians for this reason i paul the prisoner of christ jesus for the sake of you gentiles now surely you have heard about the administration of god's grace that was given to me for you that is the mystery made known to me by revelation as i have already written briefly in reading this then you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of christ which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's Holy Apostles and prophets. This mystery is that through the gospel, the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel,

members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise of Christ Jesus. I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power. Although I am less than the least of all God's people, this grace was given me to preach to the Gentiles. the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone in the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. His intent was that now through the church,

the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus, our Lord. In him and through faith in him, we may approach God and with freedom and confidence, I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory. For this reason, I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches, he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being,

so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now unto him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us. To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen. Now, we said if you look, and it wasn't that hard to see,

wasn't it? The chapter consists of two parts, Paul's detour and Paul's prayer. You see, he starts off, for this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for the sake of you Gentiles, surely you have heard. Now, it's pretty clear that Paul starts to say something and he breaks off and he does what's called a digression, a detour, he takes a detour. It says, for this reason, for this reason, now, what is he referring to? I have to remind you, chapter two is what he's referring to, and it's referring to the fact that Christ and the gospel unites diverse kinds of people who otherwise could never get along in any other way. Christ, the gospel, destroys divisions between human beings that can't be eradicated any other way, and he brings them together in the case study that Paul uses the Jews and the Gentiles.

And there was a long discussion about that in Ephesians 2. So Paul starts off saying, for this. reason, I, Paul, and then he suddenly cuts off. Now, what was he going to say? Believe it or not, it's not that hard to know. It's fairly easy to find out what he was going to say, because if you look carefully, when he gets down to verse 14, he starts off the same way. He says, for this reason, I. So whatever he was going to say in verse one, he gets back to it in verse 14. This is what he was going to say in verse one, verse 14. He was about to say, for this reason, he was about to say, for this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ, I kneel and I pray this prayer for you, but something makes

him detour. What makes him detour? Now, when we talk about the Bible being infallible, we talk about the Bible being authoritative and true and all of its teaching that there are no there's no fallibility, no flaws in it, we sure don't mean that there's no stylistic flaws, there's no grammatical flaws. We never meant that, never. Any good English teacher or a Greek teacher, whatever, you know, he wrote in there, would flag this. This is bad form. This is bad style. But Paul wasn't out here to write a masterpiece. And you know, here's, this is what is so exciting and also hard about understanding the scripture. You've got to stand back and read the thing as a whole. Why does he go into this digression? In the digression, he starts talking about

his calling. He says, now, have you heard? I guess you've heard. I understand. Indeed, I assume that you've heard that God has given me a special administration, which means he's given me

a special gift and a special calling. I have gotten this great insight into the gospel, he says, and it's my job to take it to you Gentiles and to preach it to you Gentiles. I became a servant of this gospel, and he goes through, and he gives this long discussion of his job,

his job description. Why? Paul wasn't out to write a masterpiece. Paul was a pastor. And at the end of chapter, at the end of this detour before he gets back into his prayer, he says in verse 12 and 13, he says, I ask you therefore not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory. Now, everything in verses 2 through 12 has to be understood in light of that. Paul, was not actually trying to teach us anything about his job description. He even says, I've already told you all this. I assume that you know this. Now, as we'll see, we can learn from it. But his whole point was, he didn't want them to be discouraged over the fact he was in prison. See why he breaks

off now? In verse one, he says, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ, and all of a sudden, Paul is such a great pastor, he immediately realizes, I'll bet you these folks are struggling. with my weakness. I bet these people are struggling with my being a prisoner. And as soon as he mentions the fact he's in prison, he suddenly says to himself, I better make sure these people aren't being discouraged, and off he goes.

Now, the reason this is so extremely important, the teaching here is Paul's way of showing how to deal with discouragement. He realizes they may be discouraged because the fact he's in prison. And so he actually, says, I'm going to tell you a few things. So, look, I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged over the fact I'm in prison.

For years, in fact, actually, until this week when I was studying the passage to try to come to understand it, for years I thought that the purpose of Ephesians 3 was to tell us about Paul's job. And now I realize it wasn't. They already knew this. He was only reminding him in a very brief cursory way because he was trying to teach them how to do with discouragement. and if you read very carefully, you'll see how Paul deals with his own discouragement, and that will give us principles for you and me how to deal with our discouragement and how to deal with our disappointments and our frustrations and our obstacles.

So let's look. Paul's detour teaches us one thing directly, how to deal with discouragement, and it teaches us a few things indirectly that before we're done here, we'll take a look at. Paul's detour, how to deal with discouragement. Now, see what it is that these people are discouraged about. There is nothing that more vexes and perplexes a lot of us than what lies behind this word, this phrase, the prisoner of Christ.

Why would Christ have put Paul in prison? That's what he's saying. You see, the Bible is full of all kinds of statements about God protecting us, and they are infuriating because they seem so categorical. There's the place where it says, God is our refuge in strength. A very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the mountain, the earth give way and the mountains be removed into the midst of the sea. When we were in Colorado, my family, my wife and myself and two of our kids decided we were going to do what they said the tourists are supposed to do.

What we were going to do is we were going to take a four-wheel drive vehicle and go up a Jeep trail over the car. some ancient stagecoach road up to the top of a 12, 13,000 foot pass called Tin Cup Pass. And it was really exciting. This was in the middle of July, of course, the end of July. They told us there was a lot of snow up there. I couldn't even believe them. But we went up. And as we got just to the top, we got to this place where we saw there was so much snow

that it was coming right down onto the road. The road, you have to realize, was about this wide. It was one lane. On the side, there was a sheer drop all the way down. The road was muddy. The snow was a huge snow drift halfway on to the thing. And all of a sudden it started

to thunder and lightning and hail. And it was a frightening thing, a very frightening thing. And we looked, we said, uh-uh. And so we turned around. And they have to realize we're on a one lane Jeep trail. It was actually an ancient stagecoast trail. At the top of this awful

pass in the midst of a rainstorm, and we turned around. I'm very proud of myself. We turned around. And a one line thing. But it was very, very frightening. And I realized it was just one inch, you know, at any given time from going over the side. And it was also raining.

I didn't know how long it was going to give way. And we went back. My youngest son had a real problem. He had a real, he had a phobic reaction, frankly, up there. And after that, he was just deathly afraid any time we got up on any kind of high road. And at one point, I had to sit down with him. And I went to Psalm 46. And I said, look here, it says, God is our refuge in strength, a very present help in terrible.

Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth give way, and though the mountains be cast into the midst of the sea. And he says, Daddy, now, are you saying that if we're Christians, there's no way that our car could have fallen off of the mountain? I said, no, I'm not saying that. He says, well, what good is the Psalm then? What about the place where it talks about where Jesus says, not a hair of your head? head will be harmed. What about the place where it says a thousand will fall at my right hand and 10,000 at my other hand, but it shall not come nigh unto me? What does that mean? When in light of the fact that Paul here says, I'm a prisoner of Christ. You see, what Paul is dealing with is something

extremely important. In fact, it cuts two ways I want to show you. When you seek to obey Jesus Christ, not only do bad things very often happen to you, terrible things often happen to you. It's not just that bad things happen to you when you're following Christ. The real problem is lots and lots of bad things happen to you because you're following Christ. It would be bad enough if it was when, but it's because. See, when Paul says, I'm a prisoner of Christ, what he's saying, and he realized immediately he better deal with this because everybody's going to get discouraged. Right away, what's going to come into your mind? You're going to say, yeah, wait a minute.

You're right. You are not in prison because you broke a law. You're in prison because you're a Christian. You're a prison because he was preaching Christ and because he ran afoul of certain authorities. And that's why he was in prison. See, it's one thing to say, I'm a Christian. I did something wrong. So I'm in prison. It's another thing to say, I'm a Christian and I was trying to obey God. And now I'm in prison because I was trying to obey God. What we're talking about here is the fact that the Bible comes right out and teaches, and we know from experience, that the more consistent a Christian life you live, the more likely you are to actually suffer for Christ. You see, if you refuse to sleep with this person, if you give a lot of your money away, you know, in biblical portions, if you stand up and identify yourself as a Christian, if you refuse to lie in a situation in which it would be good for you and for the people in your department, if you continue to try to love a manipulative person, if you turn the other cheek, you know, There's there seven or eight different ways in which if you are consistently obedient to what the Bible says a Christian ought to do, it's inevitable that something bad is going to happen to you.

When I say this cuts both ways is this. If you have never wrestled with this, it's probably because you're not living a consistent enough life as a Christian. Anybody who really lives a consistent Christian life, Paul says in 2 Timothy 312, all who live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. that doesn't mean just that some bad things will happen to Christians it means that bad things will happen because you're a Christian it will happen Paul says it's inevitable if it if you have never wrestled with this is actually because you've been wimping out somewhere as a Christian you know one of the an easy illustration is and one that continually comes to my mind is just a guy

who after they became a Christian in my former church came and told me he said I got a problem I'm a waiter and I got real convicted after studying the Ten Commandments. Everybody, where I work, vastly under reports their tips. They only record, they only report a very small percentage of the tips. That's why we don't have to pay taxes. I don't think that's right. So I started to report all my tips and I'm getting tremendous pressure from everybody. Everybody, even the supervisor says you're going to create a lot of problem. If you start to report this many tips and nobody else does, you're in a lot of trouble so don't do it. He says, I'm in a lot of trouble now. What should I do I said, first of all, psychologically, you've got to follow your conscience.

Secondly, theological, your conscience is absolutely right. And thirdly, just don't act in a condescending superior way. Don't say, well, you aren't as, you know, don't look or imply or say that somehow they're less moral and less consistent, less conscientious than you are because they're not doing it. Just do not have a superior attitude at all, at all. Okay, he said, but he still lost his job. And he lost some friends in spite of doing everything. just right. You see, Jesus fired him. That's what Paul's saying. Paul says, I'm not Caesar's prisoner.

I'm not the constable's prisoner. I'm not Rome's prisoner. I'm Christ's prisoner. I'm here strictly because I've been obedient to Christ, and I'm here because it happened. I'm here for Christ's sake. And that means there's a lot of people who have been fired by Christ. There's a lot of people who have been fired by Christ. There's a lot of people who've been rejected, you see, by the people around them for Christ's sake. There's a lot of people who have experienced this. And as a result, as Paul pointed in verse 12, people get pretty discouraged. They struggle with this. They lose friends.

They lose promotions. They lose their life. They lose their freedom. It's been happening to Christians for centuries. How could it? And what in the world do all of these promises mean, Daddy? Does it mean we couldn't have fallen? No, well, what good are the promises?

Woven into our slogans, songs, and social media feeds are the stories that our culture tells us about life's biggest questions, like, what gives my life meaning? Can I have a happy and fulfilling life? And why is there so much suffering in the world? We don't really choose these stories, but our culture is telling them to us every day. So what are these stories our culture tells us about who we are? And do they actually deliver what they promise? Tim Keller and his son Michael Keller explore this in a brand new book, The Stories We Live By.

Tim began this book before his death, compiling hundreds of pages of notes and collaborating with Michael before giving it to him to complete. In it, they explore some of our culture's most prominent narratives about topics like identity, freedom, happiness, and progress, unmasking how these narratives shape our lives. They examine why these stories resonate with us so deeply, and yet how these narratives ultimately aren't able to help us through the hardships and sufferings of life. The stories we live by offers a challenge to skeptics and to Christians alike to examine the underlying narratives that drive our lives, and an invitation to discover a story that's big enough to make sense of the beauty

and the brokenness of the world. When you give to Gospel in Life during the month of September, we'll send you this new book, The Stories We Live By, as our our story, thanks for your gift to help gospel in life share the love of Christ with people all over the world. So request your copy today at gospelandlife.com slash give. That's gospelonlife.com slash give, because the gospel truly changes everything. Now, how does Paul help people who see, and listen, if there's anybody in this room, if you read what the Bible says you have to do in order to follow Christ, at some point you're going to take it on the chin. You have to. If you haven't taken on the chin yet, it's because you have at some point,

As I said, a minute ago, you've chickened out somewhere. So this is a big issue, a very important issue, and therefore it really behooves us to see how Paul deals with it. And he deals with it in such a wonderful and subtle and insightful and deep way. How does Paul deal with the issue? Well, first of all, let's point out what he doesn't do. First of all, he does not take what I call the worldly wise stance. His attitude is not, well, you know, this is the way things are. grow up. This is the way, things are very, very hard. Come on, cut it out. Don't, you know, stop blubbering.

That's the worldly wise approach. Nor does he take the romantic approach. Now, the romantic approach goes something like this. Well, things look bad, but I'm sure just any time now, it's going to turn out for the best. Oh, wait a minute. Somebody says, you call that romantic? I thought, isn't that what the Bible says? Doesn't I say that in Romans 828? Doesn't it say, all things work together for good and then that love God and are called according to his purpose? Yeah, it does. But you see, many people read that and immediately jump into a kind of romanticist notion, which isn't biblical at all. It does not say that you will ever see what that good is. It does not say that things will work out in a way that you understand. It doesn't say also that it'll work out

along the lines of some kind of, a set of understanding of good that you've got. It doesn't say things will certainly turn out for the best according to your agenda. None of that. There's no promise in there that you'll ever find out what the good is. It does say, of course, that from heaven's point of view, when we get to the throne, we're going to look back and everything will make sense, but it doesn't say ever that you're going to get some kind of bulletin in the mail. So a romantic view is saying, well, I'm just sure, you know, don't you hate it when people say, I know it's going to turn out for the best, I'm just looking to see how. You may never see how. Bible never holds out that kind of thing. It doesn't mean that it's not true that everything works out for the good, but you've got to be careful that you don't take that and jump into a kind of romantic notion. No, Paul is not cynical. He doesn't say, oh, you know, that's the way life is. It's a wreck. It's a crock. Well, tough. He's not a romantic. He doesn't say, oh, well, you know, everything I'm sure is going to turn out for the best soon. I don't know where it is, but it'll be here. We're just going to watch for it. You don't do that either. He doesn't do that. Thirdly, Paul is not really a stoic about it either. He doesn't say, you'll never have a rose without a rose without.

a thorn. You've got to be strong. You've got to, you know, you've got to stop murmuring. Pull yourself together. He's not a stoic either. No, in none of these ways. In fact, I want you to know that stoicism, this keep a stiff upper lip, is sheer paganism. It was developed by the Greeks, and it not only is not Christian, but it's the opposite of Christianity. Because stoicism says the way you deal with suffering is to not think about it. Think less about it. Just be strong. Just move on. just don't let it get to you, just plow ahead. Stoicism says think less about it. Christianity always says deal with suffering by thinking more about it.

It's the opposite of stoicism. It's the opposite of romanticism either. Because Christianity never says everything will just work out according to my agenda. What does Paul actually do? What Paul does is he teaches people to look at his suffering the way he looks at it and therefore not to be discouraged. And what he does, as he always does, is he says, you must, you must, you must look at it through certain truths about God. And so what he does is this.

Notice, now, I'm just going to survey it. In verses 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, he says, God has helped me to a deeper understanding of Christ's purpose. See, he says, you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you. The mystery would be made known to me by Revelation. In other words, I've gotten, God has given me this tremendous insight into what his plans are for all, for all. all human beings. I understand the gospel. I understand the Christian message. That's my calling. I get it. It's come to me, right? But then, look, in verse 7, 8, and 9, he says, So I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power. Although I am less than the least of all God's people, his grace was given me to preach to the Gentiles,

the unsearchable riches of Christ. Now, if you look carefully, you'll see, first of all, he says, I am now a servant. I don't belong to myself anymore. When I saw this gospel, when I saw what Jesus Christ had done, when I saw the wisdom of it, when I saw the beauty of it, when I saw how it brings everything together,

how it answers all the philosophical questions, how it meets every single human need, and how it's going to draw all of history together and all the loose ends of history together. He says, I became a servant. I became a slave to that. That's what he says. He uses a very strong word. You know, we've talked about it before.

The word for do loss, the way he said, he said, I lost the rights over my life when I realized the greatness of this message. And he says, though I was the least of the apostles, I became a herald. I became a preacher of this. Now, do you sense? He says, I became the least, even though I was the least. I was the wickedest of all. I was, I didn't deserve this. And Paul is getting this sense of this privilege.

He says, I have lost control of my life, but no problem. Because it is just a privilege to be able to tell even one person about this tremendous message. Now, what is he saying? He is saying that my values and my priorities have been totally and completely reworked. You only get demolished with regard to your goals, your priorities. You suffer. and you get discouraged, but you always get discouraged in relation to what you are really after. And this is the bottom line.

Paul says, when I change, my life changed, so that when I'm really after, the bottom line of what I really want in life has changed. Therefore, no way do I ever get discouraged. Look, here's a woman, and she is basically a, she's a business woman. She loves the business world. She loves, she's an entrepreneur, and she just loves her business. And she also, as a hobby, she likes acting, musical acting. She likes to sing and dance and act. And so she tries, you know, as a sideline, she likes to perform on stage.

Here's another woman whose heart desires to be a musical actor, you know, to be a song and dance person. And to make ends meet, just so she has money, she works in business. So here we have two different people And they're actually both working in business And they're both going out for auditions And they show up at the same audition For the same show, for the same part Two women, same age basically

Same basic line of work Where they're making their money Showing up for the same part And they both are rejected They're going to experience Very different levels of discouragement, aren't they? Why? Now why?

would they? I mean, they're both the same kind of person, basically, right? I mean, the same situation, the same event, the same moment. Why would they, why would one be probably much more discouraged than the other? What are you really after? See, the one woman, her sumum bonum, her highest good, the thing she's really after is to sing and dance on the stage. She's an artist. And the other person is not. What she's really after, what she really enjoys doing is is picking up old businesses and that are about to die and reworking them and changing management and getting them up and that's that's her that's her joy what paul is trying to say is never look at the circumstance that is discouraging you and blame the circumstance for discouraging you always look

and say what i'm really after is the cause of my discouragement he says once you realize that the thing that you really after is just to please jesus just to please jesus the one who gave me this great gospel, the one who did all these wonderful things, and the one to whom now, all I want to do is that because you've done all this for me and you've given me this great privilege to be your servant, I'm happy to do anything that you want me to do. Do you want me to, you want me to succeed? Wonderful. Do you want me to fail? Great. As long as I'm doing it for you. If I succeed for you, that gives me all sorts of opportunities. And if I feel for you, there's other opportunities.

What do you mean there's other opportunities? The great quote on suffering. I was talking to Kathy about this the other day. When you're a minister and when you're a reader like me, you're always reading books and articles and papers on suffering and trouble and what the Bible says about it. But it's Elizabeth Elliott who has the all-time, as far as I'm concerned, great quote, the best one, the one that sums it all up,

the one that just lays you in the dust, that turns the world's wisdom upside down, that gets rid of all your self-pity, shows you just what to do. I've used it before. She said, this is what the Bible teaches. He suffered. Not that we might not suffer,

but that when we suffer, we will become like him. It's all there. He suffered, not that we might not suffer. He doesn't say, he died, that you might not die. see he was tortured so that none of his followers would ever be tortured he bled to death so that no so that none of his followers who believe in him will ever bleed to death he was persecuted so that nobody that he that follows him will ever be persecuted he fell off the mountain so that nobody who believes in him will ever fall off the mountain

that's not what the bible says how could it but what it says is he suffered not that we might not suffer but that when we suffer, trusting in his suffering, our suffering would make us like him. We'd become like him through the suffering as we obey, as we trust, as we look at him and say, you suffered this much for me, I can suffer this little for you. You suffered the wrath of God, I certainly can suffer the disdain of my department. You suffered with God turning his back on you. I certainly suffered with God actually bending near and saying, I will be so close to you during this time. You don't have to find out all the reasons why. This is the reason why.

Paul says, and when you figure this out, you are free. Paul says, I am not Rome's prisoner. I'm Christ prisoner. That means I'm invulnerable. I will never be in prison except because Christ wants me there. And my master loves me, and he knows what's best in this. This is the way he wants me to serve him. Fine.

You see, you know, remember Jesus did this to pilot. He says, the pilot, you've got no authority. I'm not your prisoner. Remember that? He says, I'm my father's prisoner. Once you're reconciled to that, oh, so many of us don't want to believe that. We say, he suffered that we might not suffer. That's not the gospel. How could it be the gospel?

A servant is not above his master. He didn't suffer that we might not suffer. He suffered so that when we suffer, the suffering instead of breaking us will make us. The suffering instead of cracking us apart will make us whole. And it can. You know how it happens? You have to get rid of that self-pity, like Paul did, by saying, just think about the privilege of being a Christian. Think about the privilege of what it means.

Think about the glory that's ahead of you. So what in the world are you upset about? God's given you this incredible gift, and you're upset because the ribbon isn't the right color on the outside. What you're going through is nothing compared to what he's going to give you, you see? So to suffer for Jesus really means first you get rid of yourself pity when you think of it that way. it means you realize here's a wonderful and incredible opportunity for me to probably have to have my character to have my humility deepen my faith deepen my patience deepen I'm not your prisoner I'm God's prisoner you haven't fired me God fired me

and if this is the way he wants me to serve him great because all I want to do now is to please him Now, if the number one thing you want to do is to use God in order to get a lot of money, of course you're going to be bitter. But if, don't you see, if the means is God and the end is money, you're going to be bitter. And if the means is money and the end is to serve God, then you're not going to be bitter. And if you're bitter, you better look and see what you're really after. And I'll tell you something, if the number one thing in your life is not to serve and to please him, you're going to find that you're really not free.

You're not going to be Christ's prisoner. You're going to be Pilate's prisoner. You're going to be Caesar's prisoner. You're going to be everybody else's prisoner. You're not really going to be free. Not only that, one last thing. Paul not only deals with his discouragement. He gets rid of his discouragement by saying, I'm Christ's prisoner.

But he also says, I'm Christ's prisoner for your sake. One of the interesting things, those of you who are parents understand this, If you're in a situation where you've got to spend $10,000 on your child or your children this year, and raising children is tremendously expensive, what do you do about that? You just do it. I remember thinking, if $10,000 jumped out of your bank account and fell into the river and went over Niagara Falls and was gone forever, you'd be pretty distraught. But that's, you know what that's just what happens to being a parent anyway, every year it happens.

$10,000 leaps out of your account. And it goes. You don't spend it on yourself. It doesn't go into your vacation. It doesn't go into your wardrobe. It doesn't go into you at all. It goes into your kids. Why isn't it as upsetting?

Because you're suffering for them. Whereas if you had to suffer for the Niagara Falls, it would be pretty upsetting. Now, the fact is that when you suffer, almost always, and you suffer like Christ, if you suffer trusting, if you suffer humbling and depending yourself on him, If you suffer in a way that you're growing, you actually, no matter who you are. Now, Paul, it's very obvious when you're a minister, you're in a fishbowl. Everything you do is watched. It's pressure.

It's tough. But I want you to realize, no matter who you are, your obedience has tremendous ramifications for the people around you. You are not, just like the poet says, none of you is an island. And therefore, whenever you suffer and you do it to please, you don't just suffer. for Jesus, you're also suffering for the people around you. Go to pieces. You know, when you're suffering, you feel like, who cares what anybody else thinks? Who cares, you know, how upsetting it is to other people? I'm the one who's suffering here. I'm the one who's hurting. Oh, no, you're not. When you just let yourself go when you're suffering, you take all kinds of people down with you. Just watch, just look.

You can't tell when you're suffering because you're so absorbed in self-pity. You can only tell next time you're around somebody else who's suffering who's doing that very same thing. Paul says, the reason I'm able to deal with my suffering is I realize if I suffer gladly, if I suffer happily, I'm not only pleasing Jesus, but I'm also doing it for you Gentile's sake. And that's the way Paul deals with it. And that's the way Paul comes to his conclusion. I'll tell you something. Love Christ and be after him more than anything else or be destroyed with self-pity. There's nothing else. There's no other alternatives. Well, it's one of the most beautiful things about what Paul says is

the reason he's so excited and the reason, and this is very important now as we go to the Lord's table about this gospel message, he summarizes it in a verse that doesn't really get the kind of publicity at all to. It's not a very famous verse, but it's a wonderful verse. It's actually right here in verse 11.

According to his eternal purpose, which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in him and through faith in him, we may approach God with freedom and confidence. That's the gospel. Paul was so excited about that that it enabled any prison he was in to become a palace. Paul was so excited. The fact is that through Christ I can approach the holy God with freedom and confidence,

knowing he wants me. Now, if that doesn't excite you, the way it excited Paul, you haven't really looked at it, you haven't really understood it. Paul was so thrilled by this message that it turned his prison into a palace. He says, I have been so completely transformed that just by that, I've got so much

that nobody can take anything from me. I am so rich with that that no matter who tries to pick my pocket and rob me, they can't do it. If you don't understand that, if all of your Christianity doesn't bring you to that, then it's all worthless and you haven't understood the point of it.

it. And what the Lord's Supper is is a time in which we celebrate this very thing that excited Paul so much that he was able to deal with his prison. Are you able to deal with your prisons? Are you able to deal with the things? Almost for sure

what you're facing right now, which is really bothering you, I know, isn't what Paul was facing. If you face it, the way Paul faced it, you won't be discouraged either. Let's pray. Our father, we ask that you would now bring us to the place where we can actually experience what Paul just was talking about in such

thrilled terms he says in him and through faith in your son jesus and through faith in him we can approach you holy and majestic you though you are in freedom and confidence would you now please enable everybody in this room either for the very first time or in a new and fresh way or in a deeper way than ever to experience this thing that just thrilled Paul so much. Let us experience your presence. Let us experience access to you. Let us approach you in freedom and confidence. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for joining us here on the Gospel and Life podcast. If you are encouraged by today's teaching, you can help others discover this podcast by rating and reviewing it. And to find more

great gospel-centered content by Tim Keller anytime, visit gospelandlife.com. Today's sermon was recorded in 1993. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were recorded between 1989 and 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.