Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - The Gospel to the Ethiopian

Episode Date: October 12, 2024

The book of Acts is all about the earliest Christianity. It shows us something about the character of the earliest Christianity, especially about where the church got its power. The book of Acts, but also the Bible in general, is bound to surprise you. No matter what your culture or what your class, no matter what conceptions and categories you come to the Bible with, it will smash some of them.  This story in Acts about Philip and the Ethiopian is the same way. It will show us the inclusivity of Christianity; the exclusivity of Christianity; and the grounding for both. Most people see Christianity as either inclusive or exclusive, but the fact is Christianity is both. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 3, 2013. Series: Acts: The Gospel in the City. Scripture: Acts 8:26-40. 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.

Thanks for listening to Gospel in Life. After you listen, we invite you to go online to GospelinLife.com and sign up for our email updates. Now here's today's teaching from Dr. Keller. The scripture this morning is from Acts chapter 8 verses 26 through 40. Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, go to the south road, the desert road, that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. So he started out and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Kandasi, queen of the Ethiopians.

This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. The spirit told Philip, go to that chariot and stay near it. Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah, the prophet. Do you understand what you are reading? Philip asked. Well, how can I? he said, unless someone explains it to me. So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. The eunuch was reading this passage of scripture. He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shear is silent,

so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants, for his life was taken from the earth? The eunuch asked Philip, tell me please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else? Then Philip began with that very passage of scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. As they traveled along the road, they came to some water

and the eunuch said, look, here's water, why shouldn't I be baptized? And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch said, look, here's water. Why shouldn't I be baptized? And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away and the eunuch did not see him again,

but went on his way rejoicing. Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea. This is the word of the Lord. So the book of Acts, which we're moving through, is all about the earliest Christianity, where we are learning about the character of the earliest Christianity, and especially about where it got its power. We get to this account today, and I have to tell you over the years,

this story of Philip and the Ethiopian, I regard with more and more amazement. It brings to mind a single line in George Herbert, who was a 17th century poet. George Herbert has a single line in one of his poems that goes like this, Bible's laid open, millions of surprises. No matter who you are, the Bible will surprise you. No matter what your culture or what your class, no matter what conceptions and categories you come to the Bible with, it will smash some of them. It will smash some of them. This is a very, very surprising category

busting text and I like to look at it under three headings. This text will tell us about the inclusivity of Christianity. This text secondly will also tell us about the inclusivity of Christianity. This text, secondly, will also tell us about the exclusivity of Christianity. And finally, I think, we'll learn the reason and grounding for both. See, most people say, well, you're either inclusive or you're exclusive, but the fact is that Christianity is radically inclusive and radically exclusive,

and it's both because it is both. It can be both because it is both. First, let's notice the inclusivity of Christianity. Who is this main figure in the story? We're told here that he is an Ethiopian eunuch. Now that means on the one hand he was a black African. Ethiopia at that time meant the upper Nile region from as far north as Aswan to as far south as Khartoum. It really is what we today would call Nubia. This man was a black African. Secondly, he was a eunuch.

He had been castrated. And that was common if you were not a royal person, if you're not of the royal family, and yet you were being groomed for administrative leadership in government, and therefore you had to be constantly dealing in close proximity with royal family members. The price to get into that was castration, he was a eunuch. Now, right away we have to notice two things.

First of all, how different the two people are in this story. Philip is a middle-class Jewish man. This man was racially different, he was black. He was from the outermost known civilized world, so he would have been considered a barbarian. He was sexually altered, so he was a racially different, sexually altered barbarian, as different from Philip as possible. And remember, the Jewish men got up every day and prayed this prayer. Oh, Lord, I thank you, you didn't make me a woman,

a slave, or a Gentile. Jewish men were told you don't want to participate with people who are different than you because it defiles you, and this is about as defiling a person as possible. The second thing to notice is how direct God's intervention had to be, how absolutely direct it had to be

in order for this connection to be made. Because look, in verse 26, an angel of the Lord told Philip to go to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. So first of all, an angel put him on the road. Then secondly, in verse 29, it says, when he sees the Ethiopian, the spirit told Philip, go to that chariot and stay near it.

Then Philip ran up to the chariot. You know why the spirit had to say, go up to the chariot and stay near it. Then Philip ran up to the chariot. You know why the spirit had to say, go up to the chariot and stay near it? Because it was moving. And that's the reason why he had to run. And he's not being asked up into it until verse 31. Invited Philip to come up and sit with him. So this is what's really happening.

You know, hi. Let's see here. I see you're reading the Bible. Do you understand what you're reading? I mean, this is not the sort of thing that would have happened. A Jewish man doesn't hang out with an Ethiopian eunuch. It also, even if he had met him, it wouldn't have happened unless the spirits had go and run alongside and have a conversation. And then we're told, by the way, at the very end, verse 39,

that as soon as the baptism happens, the spirit took, we don't quite know how he did it, but the spirit takes, it's a word that literally means seize. The spirit seized Philip and took him away. This was a divine encounter. Every single aspect of it happened because of a divine intervention. So what do we learn here? Two teachings. Two things we learn from this. First of all, the Spirit of God strongly desires racial barriers between people to be surmounted. It's one of the most obvious themes if you're reading all

the way through the book of Acts. Over and over and over again, it's the spirit that has to force the Christians to break barriers, to get out of their comfort zone, to be dealing with and embracing people of different races and different cultures and different geographic places. Over and over again, the spirit has to do this. The Bible talks about the Spirit being grieved if we don't love what Christ loves or what God loves. He's grieved if we don't love what God loves. And what this must mean is it grieves God if especially Christians of one race either show disdain or contempt or just avoid or ignore people

of other races and cultures. It quenches the spirit, it grieves the spirit. Because listen to the voice of the spirit, everybody. Here's the voice of the spirit. Philip, run up to that racially different, sexually altered man that you would ordinarily never have anything to do with and stay close. That's the language of the Spirit. That's the trajectory of the Spirit, see? In the whole book of Acts. And it's still the trajectory of the Spirit. It's still what the Spirit desires, God desires, the Spirit of God desires that racial barriers be surmounted. But secondly, the other thing we're learning here is very important.

It's again a theme in the book of Acts, is that the gospel, Christianity does not belong to one culture more than another. Christianity doesn't belong to one culture more than another. Here's that other theme. Over and over in the book of Acts, we see first Samaritans getting converted. Remember Samaritans, we looked at this last week, geographically near but racially alienated because the Jews and Samaritans hated each other. But Samaritans get converted. Now, an African, a black African gets converted, someone who's not just racially different but also geographically from the far reaches

of the world. And then we're going to see a Jewish Pharisee getting converted by the gospel. And then we're going to see a Jewish Pharisee getting converted by the gospel. And then we're going to see a Roman getting converted by the gospel. Over and over again, the book of Acts says, there is no culture, one culture to which Christianity belongs more than another. Now, Jesus in the very beginning said, no, the gospel is for every tribe, tribe, people, and nation. Do you know how that puts the Bible into direct conflict with the ordinary understanding of how culture and religion relate? See, most today would teach you this. You go to most colleges or schools, they'll teach you this. The religion is just an extension of it, just

a function of culture. Religion is basically an invention of culture. Why? Well, every culture needs solidarity. Every culture needs to have people cohere. They need cohesiveness, glue to keep a culture together. And one of the ways to do that is it spins out these stories, these metaphysical, spiritual stories that become religion.

So every culture develops a religion in order to keep its people together. And so they would say, you know, every religion's got its own, every culture's got its own religion. So Europeans and North Americans developed Christianity. And South Asian cultures developed Hinduism and Far Eastern cultures developed Buddhism or Confucianism or Shinto and you know the Middle Eastern and some South

Asian cultures and North Africa developed Islam and so every culture develops a religion and that's all religion is. That's all religion is. But Lamin Sané, African professor at Yale, Christian, wrote a little book some years ago that's a terrific book called Whose Religion is Christianity? Hear that? You see the title tells you. Whose Religion is Christianity? And in there he points out something that you can learn elsewhere too. All the major religions except Christianity, all the major religions, if you look at where

their population centers are, their population centers are still roughly near where they started. The cultures out of which they developed, that's still where the vast majority of the adherents of that particular religion are. And that, of course, plays into the theory that religion is just an extension of culture. So, for example, 98, 96 percent of all Muslims actually live in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. And in Europe, North America, South America, China, the far east, there's only 4 percent of Muslims are there.

Ninety-six percent of Muslims are near where, you know, around where it started. 88% of Buddhists live in East Asia. 98% of Hindus live in India or South Asia. But when you get, and Sanne points out, but when you get to Christianity, it is absolutely different. It's the only worldwide religion.

Christianity, listen to this, 25% of Christians are in Central South America, the Caribbean. 22% are in Africa. 15% of all Christians are in Asia, but that number is growing very, very fast. Only 12% of all the Christians in the world are in North America. And something like 20-some percent in Europe.

There's no other religion that looks like that. In fact, Richard Bauckham of St. Andrews, a scholar at St. Andrews in Scotland, says, quote, almost certainly Christianity exhibits more cultural diversity than any other religion and that must say something about it. Absolutely it says something about it. Sanne goes on to explain it. See, one of the questions is,

why is it that Christianity is far more inclusive of cultural diversity than any other religion? And therefore, it's really the only worldwide and really culturally diverse religion. Why is that? Sanne gives one example, because he's African, and he gives one example. And's African. He gives one example. And here's what he says. Listen carefully. I'll tell you the story and then you know that Korea went from 0% to about 40 or 50% Christian in about 100 years. China is doing the same thing right now over 100 year period, which is quite a bit bigger than Korea, by the way. Okay, that's the reason why I said, you know,

that the percentage of Christians in Asia is growing very rapidly. Africa went from about 9% Christian to 50% Christian in 100 years. See, no other religion has ever moved into a brand new continent and done anything like that. It just never happened before. And Sonny gives an example from the African side.

He says, think about this. Africans have always believed that the world was a supernatural place. They've always believed that the world was filled with spirits, good spirits and evil spirits. That's at the heart of what it means to be an African. However, there's problems. What do you do about the evil spirits? They're powerful. And evil spirits can seduce you over to evil or they can come

and dominate you. What do you do about that? Well, Sonday says, if an African would go off to a secular country or a secular school, what if you went off to Oxford or Cambridge or Harvard UO or Princeton or something like that? You're an African, you go there. What are they going to do? They're going to say like that. You're an African, you go there. What are they going to do? They're going to say, oh, we're very inclusive, we're multicultural. We're very happy for you to eat your African food

and wear your African dress, but there are no spirits. There are no demons, there is no angels, none of that stuff. Everything has a scientific explanation. In other words, Lam and Sane would say, oh, we really love your culture, we're just going to just take the heart out of it. What we're actually going to say to you is you've got to become a late modern secular

individualistic westerner like us or else you're not enlightened. See, that's not inclusive. That's exploitative. That's ideological. That's crushing. But, as Sané says, when Christianity comes to Africa, it goes like this. Christianity challenges and yet accepts Africanness. It says on the one hand, you're right. The world is a supernatural place. There are lots of spirits. There are lots of good spirits, a lot of evil spirits. They're out there. But there is one who has overcome their evil spirits, Jesus Christ. And through him, you can overcome them too. And Lamin Sané says, on the one hand, you see that affirms

Africanness and yet renews it. And this is what he says, this is his quote about it. He goes up and he says, people, that means Africans, sensed in their hearts that Jesus did not mock their respect for the sacred nor their clamor for an invincible Savior. So they beat their sacred drums for him until the stars skipped and danced in the skies. And after that, the stars didn't seem little anymore. Christianity helped Africans to become renewed Africans, not remade Europeans. In other words, Christianity is far more inclusive, he says,

than secularism, which is always talking about inclusiveness. Christianity is way more inclusive than the people who are always talking about inclusiveness. Christianity does not belong to one culture or this culture or that culture. It's not an extension. It's not a function. It's not a product of culture.

It comes down from above. It stands over all culture, and it's the job of the Holy Spirit to recreate Christianity in the soil of every culture. Christianity is therefore the most inclusive of all religions, even more inclusive than secularism, to cultural differences. Point one. But point two, which is way shorter, and I'll tell you why it's way shorter. I'll tell you why it's way shorter. If you live in Manhattan, you're probably getting this really warm feeling already, because if you say inclusive, inclusive, inclusive to a Manhattanite,

they just get warm feeling all over, down to their toes. Oh yes, inclusive. And, yeah. toes. Oh, yes, inclusive. And, yeah. And of course, to hear the Christianity, to actually see the empirical evidence that Christianity is the most, is the religion that is the most inclusive of cultural differences, it just has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? Okay. But if you want to understand why Christianity is more fundamentally culturally inclusive than secularism or than other religions, you need to see how it's exclusive. And the reason this is a short point is because you don't really need, I don't think,

a lot of argument to convince you that Christianity does make exclusive claims. You can see them right here. It's because, for example, down in verse 34, when the eunuch asked Philip, what does this text mean? He's reading the Isaiah scroll. So you see, basically he's saying,

I don't know what the text means. Will you please tell me what it means? Philip did not respond in good postmodern literary, you know, theoretic way. He didn't say, well, look, you have to recreate the meaning of the text for yourself. You know? You have to decide what is right or wrong for you.

You have to decide what the text means for yourself. I can't tell you. No, he doesn't do that. He says, you don't know, I know. Here is the truth. It's Jesus. Jesus is the hermeneutical principle. Jesus is the interpretive principle.

Jesus makes sense of everything in the Bible and he tells them the good news of Jesus, the gospel. Good news, gospel. And then when he says, shouldn't I be baptized? You know what baptism means? It means conversion. Baptism means one way of life is over, a new way of life begins. Baptism means I stop believing this and I start believing this.

I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. In other words, baptism means I stop believing this, I start believing this, I stop living this way, I start living this way. He's converted. He's not being told, well, you have to sort of serve God and find God in whatever way is most meaningful for you. In fact, let me push you, and this is a push. Christianity, I've already showed you, is probably, well, I think Christianity, I've already showed you, is probably, well I think you can make a case that it's the most inclusive, culturally inclusive religion out there.

But it's also the most exclusive religion. If it's more inclusive than other religions, it's more exclusive too. Most people think Christianity is either incredibly inclusive or unbelievably exclusive. But the fact is, Christianity is both radically inclusive and radically exclusive. How can this be? In his short book, The Gospel on the Move, How the Cross Transcends Cultural Differences,

Tim Keller shows us how we can make sense of this apparent paradox. Through the New Testament story of Philip and the Ethiopian, we learn how the gospel allows us to humbly critique our own cultural biases while becoming a united people of God. This month we have an exclusive resource only available through Gospel in Life that we want you to share. When you give to Gospel in Life in October, we'll send you three copies of Dr. Keller's short book, The Gospel on the Move, as our thanks for your gift. This short book is a great way to present the Gospel to a friend or loved one.

We hope you'll prayerfully consider who you could give each copy to and that it helps you live more missionally. To receive your three copies of this short book, just visit gospelonlife.com slash give. That's gospelonlife.com slash give. And thank you for your generosity, which helps us reach more people with the gospel

You say how well every other religion Has a founder who basically is a prophet or a sage or a wise teacher and every single one of them is saying Here's how to get to God every one of them is saying, here's how to get to God. Every one of them is pointing away and saying, here's how to get to God. And you know, the idea, the image that every religion is a different path up to the same top of the mountain. Every religion's a different way to the top of the mountain. But we all going to the same place.

We're all going to the same God. You can almost get that if it's true that every single religion says this is the way God. You can almost get that if it's true that every single religion says, this is the way up. So, you know, the Buddhist way to God is the eightfold path and the Hindu way for God is the five pillars. And yeah, they seem to go different ways, but you know, they're all going to the top. I mean, they're different paths to the top. That works except for Christianity. Because as we often say here, Jesus Christ does not say,

I'm here to show you how to find God. Jesus Christ says, I'm God. I've come to find you. You'd never get to the top of the mountain by yourself. I've come because I am the God that you're seeking. And see, if you have one religion, unlike all the others, in which the founder says, I am the God everybody's seeking, then that is either a better religion and all the rest,

or it's worse because he's a liar. But either it has to be better or it has to be worse, but it can't be one more. It can't be, which means that Christianity, isn't this ironic, isn't this paradoxical? It's the most worldwide, and it's the most culturally diverse and it's the most culturally diverse, it's the most inclusive culturally,

and yet it's the most exclusive in its claims. How do we read that? How does that work? Thirdly, how can they both be? Here is the reasoning and the grounding for both. It all comes down to understanding this story, and the way you get into the heart of the story

is to ask a question. In other words, one of the best ways to understand a story is to ask the story the right question, and then let the story answer it. The question is, why is this black African reading the Isaiah scroll? Why is he reading it? Why is he reading it so intently?

And so we have to say, well, what else do we learn about him? And here's what we learn, it's an amazing thing. He has gone from his kingdom all the way to Jerusalem to worship at the temple. Now here's what we have to, why in the world would he do that? First of all, we have to think about who he is. He is a eunuch. He has reached the top,

because when it says he's the head of the treasury of the queen, that means he was the CFO of his country. Okay, and he had way more power than a secretary of treasury today, I'm going to just tell you that. He was at the top, and he had gotten power and success, but he'd made a huge sacrifice. And you have to remember, he made a sacrifice in a time,

in a culture, all the ancient cultures were not as individualistic as we are today. Today, you get your self-worth mainly from your own achievements. But self-worth back then came not from your own personal achievements, but by the standing of your family. You only had honor, you only had pride if your family's standing was good. And you had no way of having any kind of legacy unless you had, the only way to pass on your name and your honor was

to your children, your sons and daughters. Here's a man who had made the ultimate sacrifice in order to get power. He had given up the very idea of a family in a completely family-dominated culture. So that meant loneliness. So he'd gotten to the top. Here's my question. Why would a man take a thousand mile journey to leave his culture that had all of its own religion, to leave his position, which by the way

would have jeopardized it. When you left for a thousand mile journey for a year, the idea of somebody coming and taking your place, usurping your place is pretty good. Also, a thousand mile journey, do you realize how long that was? Do you realize how dangerous that was? Why would he do that?

And the answer is, there must have been enormous emptiness in him. There must have been. His own religions couldn't fill it. All of his power and success couldn't fill it. Why else would he get interested in the God of the Bible and say, maybe there's something for me in Jerusalem and go all the way to the temple? And here's the other thing we know, and that is that when he got to the temple, after all that way, after all that sacrifice, they wouldn't have let him in.

The temple and all of its worship was regulated by the Mosaic Law. The Mosaic Law, which is still a little bit of a puzzle to modern readers, had all these rules about who could get into the temple and worship God and who could not. You know, if you touched a dead body, you couldn't go. You were excluded from the temple for a certain number of times, you know, if you had mold in your house,

you were excluded. Why? All the rules were there to get across, a spiritual idea often was missed, but the spiritual idea was that God is holy, and we are sinful, and you can't just walk into God, you need to be cleansed, something needs to be done about your sin, and all those rules and regulations were like lessons,

object lessons to try to get that across. But some of the rules permanently excluded people. Some people could never go in and one of the rules was no eunuch, no castrated person can ever go in and worship God. So he went to all this trouble to just be excluded. He went to all this trouble to be left on the outside. You can imagine the disappointment. You can imagine. So why on his way home is he pouring over the

book of Isaiah? I'll bet you for one reason, and by the way, we also know where he was by this quote. This is from 53, we'll get there in a second. But he was reading in the chapters of 40s and 50s, and we know something about those chapters. They're called the servant songs. And do you know in chapter 56, which isn't very far from this passage, he would have read this? Let no foreigner say the Lord will exclude me from his people and let no eunuch complain. I am only a dry tree.

For this is what the Lord says. To the eunuchs who hold fast to my covenant, to them I will give a name better than sons and daughters, an everlasting name that will never be cut off." Now, can you imagine his reaction when he saw, let no eunuch say, I am only a dry tree, no fruit. And then says to the eunuchs who keep my covenant, I will give him a name better than sons and daughters.

Well, he would have been sitting there saying, wait a minute, I don't know of any way to pass on your name except through sons and daughters. What is this everlasting name that will never be cut off? What is this? He's being told in his own cultural terms that there is a salvation that goes beyond not only power and success, but also family. What is this? So he's reading and suddenly he realizes all through this part of the scripture there is this strange and enigmatic figure called the servant. God calls him my servant. And he's suffering. And he comes to the passage.

Now, do you realize a eunuch, why he would be looking at this passage? This severant, he was led like a sheep to the slaughter and as a lamb before the shearer is silent so he did not open his mouth. And who can speak of his descendants? Don't you see? Did you notice that? You probably didn't. Why was he fixating on that?

Here is somebody who seems to be voluntarily becoming a lamb who was slain and voluntarily becoming a eunuch, or the same as. In fact, if you go a little further, it doesn't quote it, but this is what it says, Isaiah 53, eight. By oppression and judgment he was taken away, and who can speak of his descendants, for he was cut off from the land of the living.

For the transgression of my people he was stricken. And just at the minute he's sitting there saying, who is this? Who is this? Philip comes up and says, say, do you need any help understanding what you're reading? And he turns to him right away and he says, is the prophet talking about himself or someone else? And Philip comes up and he basically says this, oh yes, he is talking about someone very, very, very, very, very else. Someone absolutely unique. It's Jesus. Jesus Christ, born in a manger, died on the cross. Jesus became a lamb who was slain. Jesus became a leper to the lepers.

He became a eunuch for the eunuch. In other words, Jesus Christ was excluded. Oh, don't you see, oh, my African friend, said Philip. That all the mosaic law was this pointing to a spiritual truth, we're all like eunuchs. We're all really excluded from the presence of God. Because of our sins, nobody loves God with all their heart, soul, strength, and mind.

Nobody loves their neighbors themselves. Nobody can go with it. We all deserve to be excluded and to be lost, but Jesus Christ was excluded on the cross. He said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He experienced God forsakenness on the cross. What we deserve. He was excluded so we can be brought in.

He was made unclean so we could be cleansed. And we could never ever make it ourselves. We could never cleanse ourselves. We could never be good enough. But Jesus Christ has done it for us. That's the good news of Jesus. Now, question. Why is the most inclusive the most exclusive?

And why would the exclusivity of Christianity bring about this inclusiveness? Three answers. What it does, you know, why it does it and the key to it all. What it does. Do you understand why Christianity now would be more culturally flexible? What if salvation was like this? What if God came down as a general and he says, anyone who obeys everything I tell them will be blessed and successful? So, in other words, if salvation was from a strong God to strong people, sum it up your strength and be as obedient as you possibly can be. If it was from the strong to the strong, if that's how salvation operated,

Christianity would be a religion of law, nothing but law, lots of laws, lots of laws. You would want to be completely compliant because you're blessed and successful if you're absolutely obedient. So the laws would be, Christianity would tell you even how to, what to eat and how to dress and everything. And that would destroy culture. If you became a Christian, you would have to completely leave behind your culture.

But that's not the way, the gospel, that's not Christianity, that's not the salvation that we have here. What is that salvation? The deepest revelation of the nature of God is on the cross. The Christian God's greatest glory is seen in how he was willing to lose all of his glory. His greatest beauty is that he was willing to lose his beauty. He had to become weak, he had to die, he had to go and take our punishment and take the divine wrath.

The only way to save us. The only way that someday he can end evil without ending us. The only way to forgive us. And therefore there's a weakness in the heart of Christianity. And what that means is this, Christianity is not a relativistic religion.

There are things that are right and we must do. But it's not relativistic and it's not just a religion of truth. It's a religion of truth spoken in love. And even though there are norms, there's a tremendous amount of freedom. There's a softness and a hardness about Christianity. There's a weakness in the middle of the omnipotence of God. And therefore it makes perfect sense that Christianity is so flexible because salvation is not through law keeping, it's through grace. But also the way it works

is your identity is changed. When you become a Christian, it changes your identity, and that's the reason that you're able to overcome these barriers. And here's why. If you get your self-worth out of being a hard-working person, come on everybody, you know what that means is you have to look down your nose at people who you think are lazy. If you get your self-image out of being an intuitive person, you don't like the rationalistic. Or if you get your self-image out of being a rational, reasonable person, that you think things out, you know, you look down at the intuitive.

In other words, no matter if you accomplish your own salvation, if your self-image is based on something you achieve, you will look down at other cultures, other classes, other vocational groups, other kinds of people, other temperaments than yours. But the gospel doesn't start with strength, it starts with weakness. It says a weak God gives you a salvation

that you can only receive if you humble yourself. Weak, admit you're weak. Christianity's not for the strong, it's for the people who know they're not. It's for those who admit they're weak and then they receive it by grace and then they are affirmed to the skies and they are valued by God's love.

And what that means is you can't feel superior to anybody. And that's the reason why you can break through those barriers. But the key to it all is this. At the heart of the Bible, and this man was at the heart of the Bible, it was all by the Spirit, of course. The Spirit didn't just bring Philip.

The Spirit also directed this African to perhaps the text that is the heart of the whole Bible. You know why? It's about substitutionary sacrifice. Everything in the Bible is about this, that our salvation is not something we accomplish, but Jesus Christ comes and in our place as our substitute does what is required. You know, the Bible sometimes talks about what Jesus did in the language of the battlefield. He fought the powers of sin and death for us. Or sometimes it's the language of the marketplace. He paid the price.

He paid our debt. Or sometimes it's the language of the temple. He gave the ultimate sacrifice so that we can be cleansed and acceptable in God's sight or sometimes It's the language of the law court He stood in our place and he took our judgment and he paid our penalty But don't you see that running through every single one of all those different vocabularies is what? substitution the most compelling

the most electrifying The most wonderful plot line of any story is someone dying to save other people. I had no doubt, you know, as over those years when all those Harry Potter novels were coming out, everybody's saying, you know, what's going to come, what's next, how is she going to bring it all to a conclusion? How in the world is she going to bring it all to a conclusion in the seventh book? I always knew. I always knew. nobody believed me. I knew that Harry had to die for his friends to save them. Why?

There is no more compelling, more electrifying, more life changing, more converting, more transforming storyline. And if you know somebody's done it for you, there's nothing that changes you more than that. Some of you know, my favorite story in literature that gets us across is The End of the Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. One man, Sidney Carton, breaks into the dungeon where a man who looks like him,

Charles Darnay, is about to be guillotined, takes Charles out, who's got a wife and a child and Sydney Carton sits there waiting to be guillotined in his place, dies to save. There's a bunch of other prisoners around and a little seamstress, a little girl comes up and she's waiting to be executed too and she sees this man who she thought was Charles Darnay but then the more she looks at him, she realizes somebody else, you know, his cap's pulled down over his face but she recognizes him and your eyes get big and she says, are you dying for him in his place? And he goes, yes, for him and for his wife and his child. And she says, Mr. Stranger, something like this,

as a paraphrase, Mr. Stranger, I don't think I can face my own death, but maybe if I hold the hand of someone as brave as you, I'll be able to do it. And he says, all right. See, she was transformed and strengthened by his substitutionary sacrifice and it wasn't even for her. How much more will you become an agent for racial reconciliation?

How much more will you become an agent for the spread of the gospel? How much more transformed will you be if you grasp his substitutionary sacrifice for you and base your life on it, let us pray. Our Father, we thank you that your Spirit once racial barriers surmounted and your gospel gives us the wherewithal to do that. And we pray that we might be real agents for peace and healing and justice in this world because we are following in the footsteps of your son and because we do look at what he did for us and we have let it change the very structure of our identity. We thank you and we ask that you would accomplish this all in our lives in the name of the one who came not to be served but to serve and to

give his life a ransom for many. In his name we pray, amen. Thanks for listening to today's teaching. We trust you were encouraged by it and that it gives you a deeper appreciation for God's grace and helps you apply His word to your life. You can find more resources from Tim Keller by subscribing to our quarterly journal at GospelAndLife.com. When you subscribe, you'll receive free articles, sermons, devotionals, and other valuable resources. We also invite you to stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter.

Today's sermon was preached in 2013. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.