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

Episode Date: December 28, 2022

Some people dwell on Christ’s power and authority and majesty, and other people dwell on Christ’s vulnerability and tenderness and grace. But it’s critical not to, because of our own temperaments, screen out one side of Jesus as if it’s incompatible.   This passage shows us that the power of Christ is caring power, and the care of Christ is powerful caring. Jesus Christ, the little, tender, meek and mild baby, is the Lord of the storm.   This tells us four things about the power of Christ: 1) the reality of Christ’s power, 2) the magnitude of Christ’s power, 3) the divinity of Christ’s power, and 4) the compatibility of the caring power of Jesus with storms. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 5, 1997. Series: The Real Jesus, Part 2: His Life. Scripture: Mark 4:35-41. 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.

Do you know the real Jesus? If you're going to find out whether Jesus is the one to be king of your life, you have to make sure you understand him first in order to understand who you're meant to be, and you should know that if you reject him, you'll never be able to stop searching for him. Today on Gospel and Life, Tim Keller is looking at the Gospels to show us who the real Jesus is and what that means for our lives. After you listen, we'd appreciate it if you take a few moments to rate and review the

podcast. When you do, you'll be encouraging others to listen so they can discover the real Jesus because the gospel changes everything. Now here's today's teaching from Dr. Keller. The passage is in the gospel of Mark chapter 4 verses 35 to 41. We are in a series this year, at least for a great part of the year, in which we're in a sense looking at the life of Jesus, we're building a biography. We're not looking as much at his teachings as at the events of his life.

And during Advent, or the time coming up to Christmas, we looked more at events that show us his humanity, show us what Christmas shows us. And that is the divine God became a person. A person you can touch became human, became vulnerable, became weak. But now in these first couple of weeks here after Christmas, we're looking in the gospel of Mark at the power, the majesty of Christ. And it's so important to realize these are both Christ. He's Lord of the wine and Lord of the whips. The conservative temperament likes to dwell on his power and authority and majesty.

And the liberal temperament likes to dwell on his vulnerability and on his tenderness and on his grace. But it is absolutely critical not to because of your temperament and because your temperament likes one side of Jesus to therefore screen out the other side as if it's incompatible, but that's what makes Jesus, Jesus. In a sense, human beings are capable of one or the other, but nobody's capable of what he was capable of. He was both.

And what we have here in this first passage we're about to read, this is the beginning of a whole series of power miracles that Mark introduces as he's introducing us to the power of Christ. He shows us even right here that the power of Christ is caring power and the care of Christ is powerful caring. Jesus Christ, the little tender, meek and mild baby, is the Lord of the storm. Now, let's take a look at this parable. I'm going to read it, pardon me, parable.

This miracle account, and I'm going to read it. And after that, we're going to draw out four lessons. Each one has a theological point and a practical personal point. Let's read it together. No, let me read it, and you listen. OK, I didn't mean that. The word read means something different for me than for you.

Say, equivocal use of the word. I know you'll catch on. All right, Mark 435 to 41. That day, when evening came, he said to his disciples, let us go over to the other side. Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious

squall came up and the waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, Teacher, don't you care if we drown? He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, quiet, be still. And then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith? And they were terrified and asked each other,

who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him. This is God's word. Excuse me as you can tell, I have a cold, so I'll sometimes sound like I have multiple personality. There'll be a pranotim and then the base Tim and the same sentence. Sorry about that, but bear with me. Four things that this tells us about the power of Christ. The first thing, I don't want to overlook

this and I'm going to take a minute or two on it. This text, this passage, shows us the reality of this power. That his power is real. It wasn't legendary. I counted. Now, it depends on the translation. This is a very, very excellent story. It's very vivid, doesn't it? Doesn't the writer depict it for you so that you really

see it, only 150 words, depending on how it's translated. 150 words. A tremendously compact story, incredible economy of style, and yet every scholar that I read, every scholar who commented on this story said, one thing that's so interesting is how many unnecessary details are in it. Unnecessary, now look, for example, look at the details. It says that day evening came, we're told what time happened.

Secondly, we're told that he went along just as he was, he didn't change for the trip. Then thirdly, we're told there were also other boats with him. Did you ever, you may have heard this story before, did you know there were boats all around him? Many other boats with him. We're also told that Jesus was in the stern asleep. We're told what part of the boat he was on. Lastly, we're told, or I'm giving you all these

unnecessary details, and I'll explain why everybody says they're unnecessary. He was asleep on a cushion. And we know this. Historians will tell you that no something about how fishing was done in those days, that if you were a passenger on a boat, you were neither a sailor nor a fisherman. There was a cushion under the cox-sweighing seat

that was used for your comfort, because you sat, and he and I will fall asleep on it. Now, why do we call these unnecessary? Give me a couple of minutes on this. Any scholar of ancient literature knows that this is not the way fiction was written. If you're going to write a legend, you don't put things in that don't help you a bit when it comes

to moving forward the plot or developing the character. These are unnecessary details. They help in no way, they're pointless for the story. They don't help the story at all. And the scholars will tell you, it wasn't until the last 200 years that fiction was given little details that fiction writers would write in these details to give you the aura of reality. If you read any ancient legends, you know, details are not there. Recently I just went through some old English legends that I love to read, Beowulf and the story of Judith and so forth. And it's very typical, read any ancient legends.

You just don't have these little notations saying he was in the stern, he wasn't in the bow. He was on a cushion. There were several other boats. He hadn't changed. Who cares he hadn't changed? Think about it. I want to hear this great story.

Well by the way, before he went, he didn't even change. He went just as he was. Who cares? I don't care. They're not going to say what Hercules was wearing. You know? They're not going to say he changed into was wearing. You know, they're not going to say he changed into a green tug of before he fought the dragon.

They're not going to say that. I'll tell you why are these here? And every scholar that I read was very honest and said, these are here because the source of the story remembered them. These details are only here because they are the marks of a personal reminiscence. These are here because the people who told Mark the story remembered them.

There's no other reason for them to be there. And therefore, the very passage is bristling with evidence that this is a historical account, that this really happened. Sometimes when I'm doing studies, I'm ready for a sermon. I get some information that I never get to use in the sermon, but then sometimes I can use it later. When I was studying about Jesus during Christmas, remember we, one of the sermons of the millions of sermons

on Christmas that you preach every year, was about the flight into Egypt. And one of my commentaries pointed out something pretty interesting, and that is that that all of the early opponents of Jesus, the Talmud, Jewish rabbinical writings who opposed Jesus' claims to be the Messiah, but they were written just a few, you know, in the first century or two after Jesus died, and after the rise of Christianity. A guy named Celsus who was a pagan philosopher

who was a great opponent of Christianity, all the opponents of Christianity denounced Christ but never ever denied his miracles. His enemies knew better than to deny his miracles. Nobody denied what they all said was, he probably learned them through black magic because he spent his childhood in Egypt. His opponents jumped on the fact that Jesus did not actually spend his early years in Nazareth, he spent his earliest years in Egypt,

because of the flight to Egypt. They said that's probably where he learned to do it. But the point here is what? None of his enemies ever denied his miracle working power. Why? Because his miracles were common knowledge There was no way that anybody could deny them these things happened Mark was only writing 40 years later if you're gonna make up a story about a miracle 40 years after it supposedly happened you say three people saw it and they're all dead You don't make up a story like this. You don't talk about 5,000 people being fed miraculously. You don't make up a story about rising a man from the dead

with hundreds of mourners around to see him come out. And you don't talk about this miracle where you had hundreds, maybe, scores of people and boats all around him. If in 1997 I wrote a story about what happened on January 5th, 1957, 40 years ago, if I said 300 people on Main Street in Flushing saw man fly through the air without any means of support. If that didn't happen, I better wait. I better not write it 40 years later.

Because there's hundreds of people living in flushing now who were living then and they say, what would they say if I wrote this in the New Yorker magazine they'd say, hey if that happened I would have known about it. This is ridiculous, there's no evidence for this, but Mark 40 years later could write in public documents these detailed accounts of all these miracle stories without any fear of contradiction. And none of his enemies even dared to deny his miracles, they just tried to find another way of explaining them. And therefore, if today you say, well, I'm not a Christian, and one of the things that I'm very doubtful about is

whether Jesus ever did miracles. I don't believe Jesus miracles. I did believe he was a fine teacher, and these stories were all, you know, developed and bellished afterwards. That's just not a congruent statement with the evidence. It's just not. Why am I making this first point?

The passage itself teaches us the reality of the power of Christ and this is not an academic point. You know why it's not an academic point? Because the teaching of this passage is that Jesus Christ will put us through the storms of life. And if you are going to trust him in those storms, you've got to believe in the reality of this story. That this is an account, this happened.

You're never going to deal with the troubles of life and the storms of life. Unless you look at this and say, that's my Lord. He did that. He is that. That really happened. It's not an academic point. The reality of the power of Christ. The second lesson we learn is, and this will be kind of brief, the magnitude of the power of Christ. You can miss it, and here's the reason why. This storm came up, and it was a huge storm. It terrified them. Storms on the Sea of Galilee were very common,

because the Sea of Galilee is surrounded by high mountains, and there's a cleft in the southern range of the mountains, and therefore, winds will come through that cleft, and storms come up very, very quickly. And if you're a sailor or a fisherman on the sea of Galilee, you're very used to storms all the time. You're kind of jaded, you know, you, they're routine. And so for these experienced fishermen to believe they're about to die,

meant that this must have been what in one heck of a storm. This is a big storm. And Jesus stands up, and if you notice carefully, he rebukes two things. Now here's what I want you to notice. First of all, what he says, he says, quiet be still, that's a little better. You know, in the old King James version, he gets up and it translates it peace be still. You know, it's so pious. Here it's a little better, but really the best translation I've ever heard is Jesus gets up and he says, shut up.

Quiet, it's better, peace, come on. He gets up and he says, shut up and then the second thing he says really is, and stay shut up. He says, be quiet and stay quiet, but better yet shut up and stay shut up. Now, do you see the power in this? There's no conjuring. There's no rolling up of the sleeves. I mean, you know, even Charlton Heston,

when he was playing Moses in the Ten Commandments, when he's the Red Sea, you know, he gets up there and he says, you know, he's doing all this stuff. Behold, you know, the mighty Lord, Jesus doesn't do that. He doesn't get up and say, now watch this. He gets up and he says, shut up. He lifts the pinky of his power. Do you see the attitude here?

This is nothing for him. And what happens is, and you can really easily miss this, he doesn't just rebuked the wind, he rebukes the waves. You see it says, he got up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, shut up and stay shut up. And what happens? The wind died downed and it was completely calm.

You know what it means. You see, he spoke to two things and two things happened, not only did the wind stop, but this word here completely calm is a word that literally means that the sea became mega calm. It became smooth as glass like that. Now you see, to get up and say to the wind, stop, and suddenly the storm clears. That can be almost a coincidence. But this is way beyond any kind of human experience.

This is beyond anything you see. This is beyond any other miracles that anybody ever even claims to have done. He doesn't just stop the win. It's not something that's fairly, you know, over five-minute period, he says, peace be still and everybody sat around, they watched it slow down. He said, peace be still, and instantly, instantly. The sea, not only the wind stops, those of you know, when the wind stops, the sea keeps on rolling. When the storm clears, you still have this incredible surf. It went as like glass. Dead calm, instantly.

As we near the end of another year of ministry, we want to pause and thank everyone who is graciously and generously supported this ministry in 2022. We are so grateful for your support. We also thank God for all the ways he's working through gospel and life and through you to bring gospel renewal to people all over the world and it is our privilege to serve you through this ministry. As we come to the end of this year, we ask you to prayerfully consider

making a year-end gift to help gospel and life finish the year strong and start 2023 ready to share the beauty of the Gospel with more people. To make a year end gift today, go to Gospel and Life.com slash give. That website again is Gospel and Life.com slash give because the Gospel truly changes everything. Now here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's message. It doesn't really matter how unruly the forces are in your life. It doesn't really matter how twisted and messed up you think you are. Jesus is not just a match.

Don't you see? Nothing is a match for Jesus. There were Jesus is not a match for your problems. Jesus is not a match for the unruly forces in this world. Jesus is not a match. There is no match. There's no wrestling match. There's no sparring. He doesn't even have a sparring partner here

in the Great Hurricane. He is Lord of the Storm. Thirdly, the third thing we learn here is not just the reality of his power and the magnitude of his power, not just the reality of his power and the magnitude of his power, but the divinity of his power. And even though I don't want to, I won't belabor this very much, if you are a reader of the Old Testament as these disciples were and the people in all the boats around them

who saw this happen, if you're a reader of the Old Testament you will know that the wind in the sea in the storm means more than just a wind and a sea and a storm. In the Bible, and you can understand this especially, this is a way for God to talk to ancient people, there is no greater symbol of the impotence of human power in the face of nature. There is no greater symbol of uncontrollability. There is no greater symbol of uncontrollability. There is no greater symbol of fury in chaos. There is no greater symbol of these things than the sea. That's the reason, by the way, why it's interesting. In Revelation 21, it tells us that in the New Heavens and the New Earth, there will be no sea.

And I don't believe that means there won't be any water or lakes or anything like that, it's talking about this. The Bible says that the sea represents chaos, and only God, only God could possibly have the power to still the sea. And all through the Old Testament, it talks about God being able to do that. And so when Jesus does it, everybody in that boat, everybody in all those boats, they know that this is not just a display of great power, this is a claim of divine power. And so when you get to, for example, Psalm 29, a Psalm that I learned and discovered after tornado came nearly through my backyard in Virginia, Psalm 29 says, the God of glory thunders, the Lord sits enthroned above the flood.

He is enthroned as King forever. And that's what Jesus is doing here. And that explains it, doesn't it? Psalm 29 explains it. Why is God alone able to still the flood? Because why is God alone able to stop the thunder? Because it says it's the Lord who is thundering, which means all power, any display or exercise of power anywhere in the universe is a power

on loan from him. And so Jesus Christ doesn't get up and say, I have power. Jesus Christ at this point is actually saying, I am power. He doesn't just say, I've got the power to deal with this or that. He says, I am the power from which these things derive what they have. That's the reason why I can get up and say, shut up. And it's over. This is a claim of absolute divine power.

And you know why I think I've got good evidence for my inference here that they know that this is not just a display of great power, but it's a manifestation of divine power because if you look carefully, look very carefully. In the beginning, they're scared. Verse 36, pardon me, verse 37, a furious squal came up, the waves broke over the boat. Jesus was in the stern sleeping, the disciples woke him and said, don't you care if we drown. They thought they were drowning.

They were scared. So when they were in their problem, they were scared. But when Jesus Christ got up, and when he still the storm, what does it say happened to the disciples? Did they go from being scared to being happy? What happened? Look at it. What were they like after? They were

scared before he saved them and they were terrified after he saved them. They were scared when they were in peril and they were even more scared when they were saved. Now there's a theological and a practical point as I've been saying all along. The theological point is, the reason that they're terrified is because they were scared in the presence of the storm's power, but now suddenly they realize it in the presence of someone from another world, someone from another plane. They know they're in the presence of a greater power, they know they're in the presence of the Holy.

And as Moses hit the deck, when the glory of God was revealed in the fury of the fire, and when Job hit the deck, when the glory of the Lord was revealed in the fury of the wind, so they now are trembling with what they, what Rudolph Otto calls, Numenus awe, they know they're in the presence of the Holy, because in the power and the fury of the water, the glory of God has been manifested to them.

This is God. And they experienced the presence of God, and they're terrified. More terrified than when they were in the storm, but here's the practical point, which I will come back to in five minutes after I've made the last point, and I'll pull it together.

The practical point is this, I'll say it twice. Sometimes very often God's solution to your problems is more terrifying than the problem was. Sometimes the help God gives, sometimes the solution God gives. Sometimes what he puts you through in order to get you out of your problems is more terrifying than the problem himself was. When they were in their problem, they were scared. When they were out of their problem, they were terrified. Now, how could that be?

Well, let me make my last point and I'll tie them together. The last point is this. We've seen the reality of the power of God of Jesus. We've seen the magnitude of the power of Jesus. We've seen the magnitude of the power of Jesus. We've also seen the divinity of the power of Jesus, but last of all, and in some ways, this is, I think, the most critical. That's why I kept it to the last, the compatibility of the caring power of Jesus with storms. In other words, Jesus' caring power is compatible with you sinking. When they come to Jesus, they don't just say, master, do something. They say, teacher, don't you

care that we're drowning. And at this point, we should all be on very familiar emotional terrain. If you've never felt this way, I don't know. Here's what they're saying, they're saying, Lord, we thought that if you were with us, these things wouldn't happen. We thought if you're in the boat, our lives wouldn't be sinking. We thought that now we're followers of yours, we might have little problems, but not big problems. This is a life-threatening problem.

This is a life-and-death issue. We're sinking. And what they're saying is not just do something. They're saying this storm is incompatible in our thinking with the caring power of Jesus Christ. If you care, you wouldn't let this happen. And if you let this happen, you don't care. That's what's going on. They're saying, why are we sinking?

Why are you asleep in the storm? Why are you letting this go on? Now before anybody says, well, that's not really what it teaches, what it teaches is if you finally get Jesus up eventually, he'll make your problems go away. That's not what it teaches. It's the whole idea is that he was, when they were were thinking he was sleeping, when they were thinking he was quiet. And they say, that can't be. If you care, you would stop this. If you don't stop this, you don't care.

The caring power of Jesus Christ should be incompatible with life-threatening, difficult, terrible problems in the lives of his followers. It just shouldn't be. And you know what? Jesus gets up. And after he rebukes the wind in the waves, he rebukes them. And I've been thinking about this. I've been, and this is scaring me a bit.

I mean, in a good way, it challenges me. Jesus is not a near-edible person. That's one thing I'm learning. I hope you're learning as you, as we look at his life. He is so patient with people. He is so gentle with the woman caught in adultery. He is so patient with the tax collectors and the publicans. It's incredible. He is not an irritable person. Yet at this point, he is not sympathetic with the person who says, Jesus, if I'm a Christian,

I should not have problems in my life. He's not patient with them. He's not sympathetic. He's not patient with them. He's not patient with them. He's not patient with them. He's not patient with them. He's not patient with them. He's not patient with them should not have problems in my life. He's not patient with them. He's not sympathetic. Now why not? You know, at this point, I can draw on my experiences

apparent, though even though since most of you I know are not parents, I think you'll find that this experience is something you've all had in some relationship. If you go out of your way to sacrifice to give your child a thing after thing after thing and then suddenly you get to a place where you cross his or her will. You know, you've gone out of your way, you do everything, you spend the money, you spend the time, you know, one request after another and suddenly you get to one and he says, what? No, I don't want you to do that. If that person looks at you, if your child looks at you, says, that shows you don't care. That's not time to be sympathetic. It's person looks at you, if your child looks at you, says, that shows you don't care. That's not time to be sympathetic.

It's time to sit down and say, oh, I understand why you're so upset. Instead you have to look and say, wait a minute. I have joyfully disrupted my life for you for years. I have given you all sorts of things, and you don't understand clearly my love for you, if you would look at one place where I say no to you and assume that I'm not doing that out of love. If you assume I'm not doing this out of love, that shows that you didn't understand anything else

I've ever done, my child, I feel used. So that's not the time to be sympathetic. And that scares me a little bit, because I have a tendency when storms come into my life to look to God and to say, don't you care that I'm drowning? And see what Jesus hears, here's what I think is going on. Jesus is saying, don't you care that I've perished for you? Think. Now listen, when we get in, see, the point, and let me just end with a couple of practical points here.

The point of this is, Jesus is saying that if you start with a premise that my caring power cannot allow you to go through storms, then all of your conclusions will be wrong. If your premise is wrong, your conclusions will be wrong. And look at your premise. Look at your premise. Elizabeth Elliott tells this great story. She was up in some neck of the woods, I think it was in Scotland. And he saw that at one point, the shepherd has to take the sheep and throw them into a vat of insecticide. Just throw them in. You know, submerge them. Because if they don't, there's a certain time of the year in which the bugs will either, will basically swell them up

incredibly, injure them or even kill them within sec bites. Now, the point is, when you grab a sheep and the sheep says, what are you, you know, the sheep's bleeding like crazy, you're drowning me, what do you do? You can't explain it to the sheep. But you can still love the sheep, you can still do it to the sheep, and the sheep will still get the benefit of it, but you can't explain it to the sheep, but you can still love the sheep, you can still do it to the sheep, and the sheep will still get the benefit of it, but you can't explain it to the sheep.

You just do it. The storms of our lives, is it not possible that someone who is far higher than a shepherd is of her sheep? Someone who is far higher than wisdom and power and glory and in love than you and me. Isn't it possible that that shepherd could throw us into vats, submerge us, make us feel like we're dying when he's trying to teach us things that we absolutely have to have? Isn't that possible? Is it really true therefore that our premise, that if you love me, you wouldn't let this happen and if you have the power then you don't care. Is that premise right?

The whole point of this passage is to say, no. I do care. I do have the power. And yet you can still sink. You can still have these storms. Well now what are you supposed to do? When you actually get into those storms, I suggest quickly four things. One thing is the power of focus. Notice a little word still. He says, do you still not believe? That word

still means that you, they should be focusing on things that they know about them. You know what, you know how Luke puts it? Luke in Luke 8, chapter 8, he gives the same account, but when Jesus rebukes them, the way Luke has it worded, is Jesus says, where is your faith? That's the same statement. But it really is very interesting. Do you think faith is automatic?

Do you think faith is something that just happens if you have faith when the problems come, then you'll just have faith, and you'll be able to get through it. And when your problems come, you just don't seem to have faith. Almost like poor little you, the faith just happens to you. No. Jesus goes after them and says, you have what you need to face this. Do you still not, you're not using it? Where is your faith? Get it out of it ought to be here. You've seen what I've done. You know what I've done, and actually you and I know far more than they do, because we know that he bowed his head into a storm of God's justice for us.

And if he didn't abandon us in that storm, if he took that for us, he's not going to abandon you in this storm. And what Jesus is saying with that little word still is, think. Faith is not automatic. You have to focus. Think about it. Think about this. If he died for you, in other words, if he paid zillions of dollars out of his heart for

you, you think he's going to begrudge you the thing that he's not letting you have right now unless he has a loving purpose. Think, focus. The second thing, think. The second thing is think about his death. If you say to him, don't you care that I'm perishing, he can look back at you and say, if you ask that question, you don't care that I perished for you.

You're not looking at it, you're not thinking. Thirdly, this is what I mean when I say, care that I perished for you. You're not looking at it. You're not thinking. Thirdly, this is what I mean when I say sometimes the solution is more terrifying than the problem. When you get into storms, notice what Jesus says here? He says the reason that you were terrified was because your faith wasn't in the right place. He goes after them. He doesn't just say, well, you just need to believe more. Your faith isn't in the right place. He goes after them.

He doesn't just say, well, you just need to believe more. Your faith isn't in the right place. I'll put it to you this way. Matthew 7, Jesus tells a story of a man who built his house on the rock and on the sand. Two men, two houses. The storm came. That means the problems of life. The wind came.

The rains came. And the house on the wrong foundation flew, you know, just it collapsed, and the house on the right foundation stayed up. What does that mean? It means this. If you love your career, then when a storm comes at work, it'll hurt. But if you've built your life on your career, if it's your spiritual foundation, if it's the thing that you live for, then a stormant work will destroy you. You won't be able to weather it. If you love a person and it's a storm in that relationship, it'll hurt terribly. But if you live for a person, if that person is your spiritual foundation, a storm in that

relationship will destroy you. Jesus comes to them and says, the reason you were terrified is because, look at the foundations. Where did you believe? What was your faith in? Who's wisdom? Were you believing in? Mine are yours.

Who's love? Who's honor? What was your foundation? And that's why it's so terrifying to go to Jesus in storms because he might actually say, the reason this storm is killing you is not because of the storm, but because of where you've put your heart. And he may show you things about yourself

so that the storm was scary, but the solution is even more scary, but liberation is the way that you want to go. Last thing, notice that Jesus Christ stills it with a word. He doesn't just get up and go. He uses a word. His word is powerful. Go to his word. Do you want focus? Do you want to see his death? Do you want to look at your foundations? Those are the three things. Then go to his word. That's the fourth. Go to his word. Read it. It'll get you through the storm. It was all perfectly summarized by John Newton so long ago, and that him, based on this incident, when he said, his love and times past forbids me to think.

He'll leave me at last in troubles to sink. By prayer let me wrestle, then he will perform. With Christ in the vessel, I smile at the storm. Let's pray. Fathers, we go to the Lord's table, help us to see that you do care, and that your caring power can, not only is compatible with storms, but it will take us through them.

Show us that now as we meet you over the table in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We hope you enjoyed today's teaching about knowing Jesus, and we hope you'll continue to join us throughout the month as we continue to discover the joy and freedom of putting him at the center of your life. Before you go, if you were encouraged by today's podcast, please rate and review it so more people can discover the message of Christ's love.

Thanks again for listening. This month's sermons were recorded in 1996. 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.