Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - The Birth of Jesus

Episode Date: December 21, 2022

We’re looking at the life of Jesus. Not at his words and teachings, but at his deeds and his life—the things that happened to him and the things he did. Of course at the very beginning is his birth.  The birth of Christ has one wonderfully big word attached to it: the word “incarnation.” The birth of Jesus is the incarnation of God. Incarnate means God comes in. He comes in our flesh. He comes into our humanity, into our vulnerability, into our history, into our reality. God comes in.  We’ll look at the incarnation in this way: 1) what it is, 2) what it means, and 3) how we can connect to it. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 3, 1996. Series: The Real Jesus, Part 2: His Life. Scripture: Matthew 1:17-25. 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. This month, we're looking at stories from the life of Jesus. Throughout the Gospels, we see how the events of Jesus' life, death and resurrection confounded the expectations of the people he encountered. Listen now to today's teaching from Tim Keller on the surprising life of Christ. This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.

Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph's son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet. The Virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son,

and they will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife, but he had no union with her until she gave birth to his son, and he gave him the name Jesus. This is God's Word. Well, now somebody says, why do we have a Christmas sermon in the beginning of the memory? Is the picture? Does he have such a sense of the importance of a community solidarity that he's helping the retailers of New York by putting his congregation into the Christmas spirit? Will that help sales in New York? Will that generate jobs? And actually, I hadn't thought of that

till this very second, but that's not really the reason why. We're starting today and stretching out through the rest of, you might say, the school year. I wanna look at the life of Jesus. Not the teachings of Jesus, which we started looking at this fall, but the life of Jesus. Not looking at his words and teachings, but at his deeds and his life. And what we're going to do is starting here and working all the way through.

We're going to look at the events of his life. The things that happened to him and the things that he did. And of course, the very beginning is the birth. And the birth of Christ has got one wonderfully big word attached to it. And we'll never get rid of it. We will never say, oh, let's not use this big word. It's just too wonderful.

And it's the word incarnation. The birth of Jesus is the incarnation of God. Incarnay means the doctrine is this. God comes in. He comes incarn carne. He comes in our flesh. He comes into our humanity, into our vulnerability, into our history, into our reality. God comes in now. I would like to first of all look at this in this way. I'd like to say, all right, what happened? What does, what is that? What happened?

God come in. And then secondly, what does it mean to the way in which we live our lives? And then lastly, how do we connect with this? How did Joseph and Mary receive it? How can we receive it? So what it is, what it means, and how we can connect to it. Now, what is the incarnation? God comes in. In verse 18, literally it says,

Mary was found with one in her womb by the Holy Spirit. And let me put the doctrine of the incarnation like this. God broke in. God broke through, he penetrated into our world through the womb of one faithful teenage Jewish girl. At that spot, at that point, he broke through, he came in. One world broke into another world through the womb of one faithful, seeing an age Jewish girl. Now, this is a unique claim. No other religion claims anything like it.

And in fact, I find it's clarified, it's sometimes helpful to see the reasons that all the other religions of the world rejected. Basically, the objections of all the other religions of the world to the doctrine of the incarnation fall into two categories. On the one hand, the Western religions, like Islam and Judaism, the Western religions say the incarnation is impossible. But the Eastern religions, like Hinduism and Buddhism, say that the incarnation is unnecessary. And if we look and see how Christianity differs from those two,

the West and the East, we'll understand the premises behind incarnation, and understand what this claim really is. Let's look at the East. On the one hand, the East, Eastern religions say the incarnation is unnecessary because they say God is already in. We don't need an incarnation. God is already in. God is in us all. He's in everything. In fact, we are God. And see, in Eastern religion, salvation is really changing your consciousness of the fact that God's in you and that you are God.

But the premise of the Christian doctrine of incarnation is, no. That God's world is a part from our world. That there's a separation between God's world and our world. That's the first premise. Christianity says just as when the body is separated from the soul, it falls apart. So Christianity says the reason our world is falling apart is because it's separated from God's world. Now, for example, a quick example, you can refrigerate things

and they'll fall apart just more slowly or you can, and your body will fall apart just more slowly. Or you can use cosmetics. The high for the fact that your body is falling apart. I'm not trying to pick on anyone gender, it's just not culturally appropriate. We have other ways. Or you can work very hard at keeping, you can work very hard, very hard at keeping your family together. And if you don't work hard, your family will fall apart very quickly.

But even if you work incredibly hard, it's going to fall apart. People move away, they die, everything falls apart. Civilizations, every civilization falls apart. It comes up. And you can do very, work very hard to keep it just and vital, but it falls apart. Why? And my s s s, well, the Bible says Genesis 3. In Genesis chapter 3, we're told that when humanity decided to disobey God, our garden and God's garden became two separate places and between them was a flaming sword. Garden and God's Garden became two separate places, and between them was a flaming sword. Adam and Abraham cast out, flaming sword.

So they couldn't get back in, and there's two gardens now in the universe. There's a garden where everything stays bright, and there's our garden where things get dimmer and dimmer. There's a garden where things get newer and newer, and a garden where things get older and older. A garden where things get brighter, garden where things get dimmer. A garden where things come together, a garden where things fall apart.

A garden where things get stronger and stronger, a garden where everything gets weaker. And I submit to you that everybody knows that there are two worlds and that they are separated by a concrete slab, a flaming sword. Everybody knows that. See, over the years, I cannot tell you how often I've had a conversation like this. I sat down with people, and I particularly like to talk to people who believe there's only one world, the secular world, the physical world, this world, time and space, that's it.

I particularly enjoy talking to people who say, this is it, this is all the world there is. When you die, you're right, time and space, that's all we've got. And then I'll say, what do you think about injustice? And I'll say, like what? And I'll say, well, I've got murder or oppression, and that's, well, that's very wrong. And I'll say, well, he may ask you a question. And I can just paraphrase what C.S. Lewis said in a letter. I mean, paraphrase it this way. Lewis says, fish do not feel out of place in water. They never feel wet.

Fish never feel wet. Because they're made from water. But here's the question. If this world is all there is, why do we feel out of place in a world? Whether it's injustice, even though all you have in nature is the strong eating the weak, that's all you've ever had. The strong eating the weak. If this world is all there is, why do you feel out of place with that? Why do you say that injustice is not just something I feel is wrong because of my culture, because of my biology, but it's wrong.

Even though there's no ideal justice ever in this world, there's nothing but this strong eating the weak yet I know the ideal justice is not here, but it is. Truth and justice are not here, but they are. They exist, but they're not here. You see, fish don't feel wet in the water, but we, in this world, long for a place, whether it's justice, perfect justice, even though nature is nothing but red and tooth and cloth as strong in it in the week.

Or why do we long for a place where people don't die and where love doesn't die? Why? And the answer is we feel wet here because we're not from here. Everybody knows that there is an ideal, that there's a place of justice, there's a place of beauty, there's a place of beauty, there's a place of truth, we know it, and every word and every thought and every deed, we show that we know it. You may intellectually deny it, but we know it. And we also know that it's separate.

It's somewhere else. There's a concrete slab between the real and the ideal. And that's the first premise of the incarnation. God's world is not here. God's world is a part that will be long for. But the second thing is the Western religions say the incarnation is impossible. And what the Western religions say is something like this. Yes, of course, God's world is a part of Mars. Of course it is, but God is too great. God is too high. God could never come down into the womb of an illiterate Jewish teenager. God could never become a little child or before that, a single cell, a little child that you can

hug and that wets on you. And then so we, Convolverable, needs to be kept and held. God could not be that palpable. Our God is too great. God is too great for that. Well now, what does Christianity have to say to that? Christianity, on the one hand, the first premise of the incarnation is that we know this world is not the way it ought to be and we know we're not built for this world and we know there's another world and we know it's apart from this one. But on the other hand when someone says well the incarnation

is impossible because God is too great. What do we say to that? We say if God is great, look if a person is too great to get down on the floor and play with a little kids. That person is not so great. A person who thinks they're too great to get down on the floor is lesser than the one who does go down. And here's all we can say. And that is a God who would descend. A God who would become small. A God who would become vulnerable for us. That's not a God who is less than great. No greater, more magnificent exhibition of the majesty, and power, and love of God is possible than that he would become a baby. Impossible? Why? Why would it be impossible? Why would it be impossible? You tell me. Because God is too great, because it's too primitive.

This is not a primitive you have got. This is the highest you have got possible. The doctrine of the incarnation is that through the womb of Mary, that world that we all know about came in through the pitiless slam. The pitiless walls of the world got punched the hole and he punched the holes we're gonna see in a second through a single person who was willing to bow to him. He punched the hole right there and he came in. the ideal became real, the impossible became possible, the supernatural became natural, the metaphysical became physical and

more than that, the powerful became powerless, the invulnerable became vulnerable. The unapproachable became hugable, the immense became a single cell. The honest sale, the remote, became God with us. That's the incarnation. Here's nothing like that. Nobody's ever made a claim like that. If you don't believe it, even if you don't believe it, you ought to sit down in front of it and show respect to it because dog on it, if it's not true, the reason you shouldn't believe in it is not because it's so primitive or because so unnecessary, but because it's too good to be true. If you don't believe the incarnation, the only rational, the only human reason to disbelieve in it is because it promises too much.

That's the doctrine of the incarnation. God came in. Now, what does it mean? Now, if you do accept it, and if you say, I do believe this, the ramifications are unbelievable. This is the most wonderful of all gifts. This is what's what's called the grand miracle. And if it comes down, no, it's not just something now, what is the result of incarnation? Christmas?

You know, a retail holiday. The result is it revolutionizes your view of all sorts of things, and I only have, well, I got time to kind of fly you over four areas where if it's as true, if God has come in, if he's broken through how it revolutionizes, you know, and just so we can keep it in mind so you can remember it afterwards, I'll say it revolutionizes your attitude toward pain and the poor, towards fiction and the future. And that's just for, but it totally revolutionizes your attitude toward pain and the poor toward fiction in the future. Ah, look, for example, I'll be quick, because in some ways it's more exciting to fly over some of these things that is to get down and walk through them.

First of all, pain. Your view of God is whether you're an atheist or an agnostic or a believer in God, a theist or a pan... Whatever your view of God is, the biggest problem you've got is the suffering and pain of life. And if anybody wants to stick around and ask me about that, I can talk to you about it at the question and answer time. Or if anybody really wants to kind of get into these sorts of things, stay for the class. It's always after a church called the credibility of Christianity in which we work on these things. But if you're an atheist, suffering is a problem for you, a huge problem.

Because if you say there is no God, then what's wrong? Why are you upset about it? How do you even define suffering? Whatever it is. And if you have a general view of God, you've got a real problem. Because if God is so good and so powerful, why doesn't he stop suffering? But if you don't believe in a general God, if you believe in the Christian God,

the incarnate God, all the answers are not here. I know what you think that I think now there's no problems, but you have the least problem. That's all. And here's the reason why. God says to you, through the doctrine of the incarnation, I hate suffering so much, and I love you so much, that I was willing to voluntarily become a mesh in it myself.

The only way that I can destroy suffering is if I experience it myself. The only way I can destroy suffering without destroying you is if I come down and experience it myself and pay the penalty for your sin. I love you so much and I hate suffering so much that I would voluntarily come into it so they can destroy it without destroying you. That's the doctrine of the incarnation. And you know that does not answer all the questions, but here's what happens. If you believe in the incarnation and you suddenly come into pain, there's two common things that people almost immediately do when suffering is that you don't have to

do anymore. You're free from them. If you believe in incarnation, first of all, one thing that happens when people suffer right away, right away, what do they say? They say, something's wrong with me. I must be a bad person. Very often when suffering happens, you hate yourself. I hate me, you say. I hate me because I must be very bad, but the doctor of the incarnation shows what? The doctor of the incarnation shows that it's not bad people that suffer and good people that have a good life because the very best people who ever lived suffered the worst. That's how the world is. See, the doctrine of the incarnation gets rid of this idea

that because I'm suffering, there must be something wrong with me, utterly. But on the other hand, the other thing we do when we suffer is we don't say, I hate me. Sometimes we say, I hate God. God, you must be unfailing and cruel to let this happen. But the doctrine of the incarnation says this, if my God voluntarily came down and suffered far worse than I'm suffering right now,

just so we could destroy suffering. He is not unfeeling. He is not uncauring. I don't have a right to say that. And for some reason, suffering isn't over yet. But if he takes it so seriously that he would do this, then soon it will be over. Why it's not over yet, I don't know, but I cannot say he's uncaring.

You see, our God is the only God with wounds. No other God. There's all sorts of God. There's the pantheistic, the theistic, the general God. There's all sorts of God's around. This is the only God that even claims to have's, and that our ones, his ones speak, and no other god has one's to speak to you. You see, if you believe in the induction of the incarnation, it revolutionizes your process. Revolution, you do not have a God that has not experienced what you've experienced. And you do not have a God who just punishes people by being if they're bad through suffering, and then on the other

hand rewards people who are good through it and easy life. That's not how it works. The incarnation blows that away. And you move out into pain knowing this is temporary. He loves me in it. He's walked in it before me. He's walked in, he's waited a far deeper river than this. It changes your view of pain. Everybody thinks they know the Christmas story. Yet, while there are many Christian references all around us during this season, how closely have you examined what really happened that first Christmas night? In his book, Hidden Christmas, Tim Keller takes you on an illuminating journey into the surprising background of the Nativity story to help you better understand the redeeming

power of God's grace. Hidden Christmas is our thanks for your gift to help Gospel and Life reach more people with the amazing love of Christ. Request your copy of Hidden Christmas today when you give at Gospel and Life.com slash give. That's Gospel and Life.com slash give. Now here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. I got to be quick here. Now here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching.

I got to be quick here. Secondly, we said, the incarnation revolutionizes your view of the poor. You know why? Jesus Christ is the only God of all the gods, not only that has wounds, but He's the only God that has a body. Our God came down into the world and became physical. And our God came down into the world as a poor man. He was a refugee as a child. He had to go to Egypt. He was lonely as an adult.

He experienced an unjust trial and he was put to death unjustly. He came into a poor family. The family was so poor that when they went and they gave their offering to the temple, they gave two turdleduz, they gave two turtle does, which meant that they were at the bottom of the bottom. That was the sacrifice for the poorest of the poor. What does it mean? God gets his hands dirty. God moves in with the poor. And what it means is we are the one religion that should be able to speak with integrity about the salvation of the soul and at the same time creating warm and safe neighborhoods

because God came to redeem soul and body God came into the physical to remake the physical He came into injustice to remake the injustice you see and Therefore we never ever look and say well the important thing is the spirit not the physical. Oh, no Jesus ate a fish. Remember that? When his body was resurrected, they say you're a ghost. Jesus says, give me a fish. Christians love matter. Matter matters. Food tastes good and people that don't have it need to have it. That's part of our work. Christianity is a fighting religion. The physical is important, you see?

So a revolutionized review of the pain, a revolutionized review of the poor. Oh, a revolutionized review of fiction and the future. Here's what I mean by that. When you read stories, what do you see? All the old stories and even most of the new. Here's what they tell you. The stories that make you weak. The stories that give you joy, they say things like that say love is more powerful than evil. And then they say that character is more important than success. And then they say that one human life is more valuable than a mountain of money.

Isn't that what they say? When you see stories like that, old stories, new stories, you say, yes. And here's what I want to know. We say, that's the truth. That's true. That's the way things should be. But here's the question. What's the evidence for that, in fact? Look at science. This science gives you any evidence that love is more powerful than evil, that one human life, science will tell you one human life is worth how much in chemicals. See, will science or history, is there any evidence that love is more powerful than evil

or that one human life is more important than a mountain of mine? Is there any evidence for it? In fact, Leo de Rocher says, nice guys finish last. human life is more important than a mountain of mine. Is there any evidence for it? In fact, Leo de Rocher says, nice guys finish last. Dion de Mucci says, the good they die young. So over here you have the stories, and they're true, and then over here you have the facts.

And there's no evidence, you see, in the heart facts of life, for these things that deep down inside we know is true. If you're a Christian, there's a difference. When Jesus Christ broke into the world, when God punched the hole, the wall between truth and the hard facts of life has come down. And here's the thing, when you read the story, duty in the beast, that there is a love that can overcome our prisons and redeem us, or you read Peter Pan and says, we can fly and will never grow old. Or you read Sleeping Beauty that even though we're in a living death, there's a handsome prince who can come and take us away from that.

Christians are different. Everybody else has to say, that's right, that's exciting. I weep for joy, I'm moved, and yet it's not true. It's true, but it's not a fact. Those things never really happen. There's an absolute slab between the real and the idea, but when Christians read stories or act out stories or write stories or paint stories or sing stories, see, Christians approach to artists totally different

because Christians say, guess what, there really is a night who will slay the dragon. We really, literally, are eventually going to fly and never grow old. The stories are true. The stories really are true. The wall is down. Christians have an ocean of joy when they hear any story, when they sing any song about that sort of thing. Everybody else has a feeling that this is true, but there's a slab. We know it never will be true, but there is a handsome prince who will kiss you and wake you up.

These things are true. In every story, there's two stories, in every song there's two songs. And lastly, and most important, and then it gets us to the last point, Christians are revolutionized in a view of pain because of the incarnation, revolutionized the view of the port,

revolutionized the view of stories, of fiction. But last of all, they have hope for the future, and here's the reason why. There's this amazing spot where Paul says this, in Galatians 4.9, he's writing to his Galatian Christians and he's very worried about them and he says, you're my dear children for whom I'm again in pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you. Listen. If anybody thinks that this is kind of daring,

this is kind of strange, this kind of strange metaphor, what are you trying to do? Are you trying to take that something? I got it from St. Paul. St. Paul says, just, because the ideal impregnated the real on Christmas, so the ideal can impregnated the real on Christmas. So the ideal can impregnate you. He says, I am in labor for you, Galatians to Christ, is formed in you.

Because God really punched a hole and came through into Mary's womb, one girl who says, I don't understand this, but I will obey. I don't understand this, but I will give myself. And through her, Christ was formed into the world, and has changed the world. Well, what does Paul say? He says, I still can't help it. Christ is formed in you.

And therefore, look at yourselves. Have you lost hope? Are there habits you don't think you can ever overcome? Look at the people around you. Do you feel like there's some people this can never change? Christian friends listen, the incarnation on the one hand makes you very realistic because the incarnation says on the the only way to overcome suffering is to go through it. Incarnation, the doctor of incarnation says we do expect weakness, we do expect suffering, we know it. We're not shocked and surprised, but on the other hand, the incarnation

says of all people, Christians have the most hope. Anything can happen now. Anything can happen through you. Who knows what can happen through you? Christ can come into the real. Someday, it will totally transform the real. Now, it's partial, but it's there. There's nothing that you should, nothing that you should look at and say, that'll never change. That can never happen. Are you kidding?

Look what one little, little, little, little, little teenage girl did. Who simply said, listen, how do you connect with this? How can you know the Christ is formed in you? And how can you have this great power come through your life? Here's what I suggest. When we get to Christmas time, I really will preach on this again. Don't worry.

I won't. I'll get back. But you see, in the book of Luke, we see what Luke, what Mary did. It kind of gets inside Mary's psychology. But if you look carefully at the passage here, you will see that it's Joseph that is really give, Joseph is the story here. It's what Joseph is feeling and this is what's going on. Here's what you have to realize.

And Joseph is our model today. Joseph is our imitation. You see, when Mary began to get pregnant and Joseph and Mary were betrothed, to understand and ramifications, you have to understand ramifications, you have to understand just for a second the custom. When a Jewish man and woman got engaged, they had a year of patrol. During that time they did not have sex, you didn't have sex until you were married. But during that time they were so bound together in pledge that in order to break patrol you had to get a bill of divorce, it was an engagement divorce, not a marriage divorce. You could get a divorce in the middle of your betrothal. You could not get a divorce after. After you're married. You see, Mary's beginning to show. Have any of you ever lived in a small town?

If Mary's beginning to show, she's pregnant. That means to everybody around that either she has been unfaithful to Joseph or Mary and Joseph have been unfaithful to God. And if you're ever been in a small town, you know this that Mary's life is ruined. It's ruined. She will be socially marginalized forever. Her family, her society doesn't mean that they'll shun her necessarily, but she'll always be on the off, always on the outside. When Jesus Christ comes down into your life, that doesn't mean your life goes well. Because the incarnation is that God becomes breakable. He becomes breakable so that through his breakability others can be mended. And when Jesus Christ comes down into the life of anybody else, we participate in that.

When Jesus Christ comes down, there's brokenness. And Joseph had something that Mary didn't have. Joseph realized that if he divorced her, he would be able to distance himself from the scandal. If he divorced her, he'd be telling everybody she was unfaithful to me. And he would be saying, this child has come into Mary's life and her life is broken. All I've got to do is divorce, divorce her, and then the brokenness that this child

is bringing into her life, I'm immune from. And Joseph has this choice. I can either have in the my life the Christ child, or I can have a tidy life, but I can't have both. I can have in the my life the Christ child, or else I can be courageous, or but I can't have both. I can have in my life the Christ child or else I can be courageous. Or else I can be a coward. See, if I'm one to have the Christ child, I've got to give me an courage. And I've got to embrace the brokenness that comes. And I've got to embrace the difficulties that come. And I have to realize that when Jesus Christ comes down into my life, he doesn't come tidally, but he creates disruption. That's what indapournation is, disruption, intervention.

And you know what? He takes it. He receives it. If you want Christ to be formed in you, the one thing you have to do is you have to be willing to take some of that brokenness in yourself. Because just as through Christ's great brokenness, He brings tremendous wholeness. So through your smaller brokenness, your brokenness will never be anything like His, but through your smaller brokenness, that always comes when He comes into your life.

Options are closed now to you. People will never understand. Some people will never understand. But through your little brokenness, other people we've made whole as well. Maybe the last thing I'll say here is this. No, definitely the last thing I'll say here is this. The angel says to Joseph, if he comes that into your life, of course, they'll be brokenness, but receive him and receive her.

And then he says, but don't you dare name him. We will name him. You realize how awful that is? Because naming was the parents prerogative, because you naming is the mark of a superior. And naming is the mark of a manager. But God says, Joseph, when Jesus comes into your life, he does not come into your life as your servant. He comes into your life as your Lord. You cannot name him. He has to name you. And if you want to receive Christ, if you want him formed in you, you know, we always ask

him in to be a servant. We always do it. In the beginning, we say, I've got a problem in my life. Oh, Lord, help me with it. Some of you might be here today because troubles have been going on in your life. And you say, maybe I need a little extra. And maybe you're saying, Lord Jesus, I don't know what this means, but I hope you come into my life, please.

And you're always saying, please come in as a servant. But CS Lewis says, if you ask Jesus Christ into your life, to clean out the gutters, he'll do it. But then it'll also start knocking the walls down, because he wants to turn your cottage into a palace. He's not your servant, he's your Lord. The incarnation is Jesus Christ's palace became a hubble so that your hubble could become

a palace. If you receive him, the brokenness comes in. But you're receiving Christ, you're receiving God, you're receiving a manual, you're receiving the ideal, it comes into you and begins to transform you into its own likeness. Now as we go to the Lord's Supper, let me apply it to you this way. What do you have here? The incarnation means God becomes breakable. See? The incarnation means God is drained,

is poured out. And this passage tells us that if you want God in your life, you have to receive Him with courage. And here's what I suggest. Some of you might have broken this in your life through your own sin today. He realized some of the problems I've got are because of my sin. Well, look at this. Jesus Christ was broken so that when you, when you fail, he receives you back. He died to pay the penalty for that.

Get courage enough to repent. Get the courage to repent by looking at his brokenness. On the other hand, some of you are here and you're in distress and brokenness, not because of anything you've done, but because of what the world is doing to you and what people are doing to you. We'll look at this. Get the courage to continue, because Jesus and his brokenness gave Himself to the Father. And because He did, look at that, because He was torn and others were mended, because He was broken, others were made whole, and therefore get the courage to continue to not give up by looking at the brokenness and the port outness of Jesus. Let's pray. Our Father, we're going to stand, we're going to confess our faith, we're

going to approach the table, we're going to take up these elements and we pray that in just a moment we might find as Mary and Joseph open themselves to the messiness and the disruption of your son. But through that became great and saved the world. We pray that we might become open to the disruption and the messiness of your son. So through him, through us, he can work in the lives of the people around us and in our own. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for joining us today. If you were encouraged by today's teaching, please rate and review it so more people can discover this podcast.

please rate and review it so more people can discover this podcast. This month's sermons were recorded in 1996 and 1997. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel Unlife Podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. you