Running From God

Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life

Tim Keller

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality:christianity, Spirituality, Religion, Religion & Spirituality

4.9 • 16.2K Ratings

🗓️ 4 May 2026

⏱️ 47 minutes

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Summary

Words like sin, sinner, heathen and heretic have been used for centuries to exclude and oppress people. That’s one reason we need the book of Jonah. Jonah gives a concept of sin that can’t be used to oppress people. In fact, it shows that it’s one thing to believe in sin and another thing to understand it in your own heart. Jonah was a prophet, but there was a kind of sin in his heart that flew under his radar—until it blew up. Let’s look at four features in the narrative that each tell us something about sin: 1) the coming word, 2) the running man, 3) the deathly sleep, and 4) the stormy hope. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 9, 2001. Series: The Church in the City. Scripture: Jonah 1:1-10. 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.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Gospel in Life. Where do you turn for reassurance in a crisis? When life feels out of control,
0:10.4	we can quickly discover that the things we turn to for our deepest security don't actually have the power to help us.
0:17.1	Today, Tim Keller looks at the story of Jonah to explore how life storms reveal what we're really trusting in
0:23.1	and how our fears are calmed when we look to Jesus who face the ultimate storm on our behalf.
0:36.5	The Word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amatai.
0:40.1	Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.
0:46.5	But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish.
0:50.1	He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port.
0:59.0	After paying the fair, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord. Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.
1:06.0	All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own God, and they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.
1:14.6	But Jonah had gone below deck where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.
1:19.8	The captain went to him and said, How can you sleep? Get up and call on your God.
1:24.2	Maybe he will take notice of us and we will not perish.
1:29.4	Then the sailors said to each other, come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity. They cast lots,
1:36.2	and the lot fell on Jonah. So they asked him, tell us, who was responsible for making all this
1:42.5	trouble for us? What do you do? Where do you come from?
1:46.4	What is your country? From what people are you?
1:49.7	He answered, I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven who made the sea and the land.
1:57.2	This terrified them and they asked, what have you done?
2:01.3	They knew he was running away from the Lord because he had already told them so.
2:08.3	The book of Jonah, which we're going to look at for a number of weeks,
2:14.6	is small but extremely famous.
	...

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