The Meaning of Christmas

Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life

Tim Keller

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

4.8 • 15K Ratings

🗓️ 25 December 2023

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Christmas shows why Christianity is unique. In all other religions, a prophet arrives and teaches how we can find eternal life. In Christianity, God himself comes to us and gives himself as the way to eternal life. Christmas shows that salvation is by grace, that we can have true intimacy with God, that love really matters, and that there exists an unceasing river of joy beneath all the sorrows of this world. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 18, 2011. Series: Christmas 2011. Scripture: 1 John 1:1-4. 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 and life. In our broader culture, you may have heard that working hard to help others and making the world a better place is the true meaning of Christmas.
0:12.0	But if you look at the story of Christ's
0:14.2	birth in the Gospels, you'll find a completely different message that Jesus
0:18.6	came to Earth because we absolutely cannot save ourselves by our good works.
0:23.6	Listen now as Tim Keller shares the amazing news of the Christmas message and the gift
0:27.8	we have in Christ.
0:29.8	The scripture reading is from 1st John chapter 1 verses 1 through 4.
0:38.0	That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have
0:45.9	looked at and our hands have touched this we proclaim concerning the word of life the
0:52.1	life appeared we have seen it and testify to it and we
0:56.4	proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and has appeared to us.
1:01.7	We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard so that you
1:06.1	may also have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.
1:17.0	This is the word of the Lord.
1:21.0	Now to Christmas service you can go to a text for reflection that describes the Christmas
1:30.0	events.
1:31.0	So you can go to a text that has Shepherds, angels, wise men, the manger.
1:38.2	This is actually a text that's obviously not describing the events of Christmas.
1:42.2	It's telling us what they mean. It doesn't tell us what happened. It tells us what happened. It tells us what happened means.
1:51.0	And this is the beginning of 1st John. John wrote the Gospel of John,
1:57.0	plus these three letters. The prologue or the very first four verses of John that we've just read are very like the very first
2:07.7	few verses of the Gospel of John, which you've actually got also printed a couple pages back that was read in Flemish.
	...

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