The Strength of Samson

Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life

Tim Keller

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

4.8 • 15K Ratings

🗓️ 13 October 2023

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Forget the heroes. These days, we want authenticity. We want personal vision. We’ve done away with hero worship. In the story of Samson, we see that the Bible doesn’t give us hero worship, but it also doesn’t give us hero hatred or deconstruction. Some people have called Samson an old-fashioned hero, like Superman—but he’s not. I’ve been waiting for people to call him the anti-hero—he even makes jokes when he’s killing people. Samson is physically quite strong and morally quite weak. But in spite of this, God actually judges Israel with him. What does it all mean? In the story of Samson we see that 1) hero worship does not help, 2) but hero deconstruction doesn’t help either, and 3) we need something else. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 12, 1997. Series: Pointers to Christ – Directional Signs in History. Scripture: Judges 15:9-20. 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	Did you know that the Bible is all about Jesus from beginning to end?
0:07.1	But sometimes you need signpost to point you to Christ.
0:10.2	Today Tim Keller is looking at how we can see Christ and his mission in glory.
0:14.8	After you listen, we invite you to go online to gospelunlife.com and sign up for email updates.
0:20.1	When you sign up, you'll receive our quarterly newsletter with articles about gospel change
0:23.9	lives as well as other valuable gospel-centered resources.
0:27.7	Subscribe today at gospelunlife.com.
0:30.9	Read the passage with me, story of Samson, judges chapter 15, 9 to 20, or one of the stories
0:38.3	of Samson.
0:40.4	The Philistines went up and camped in Judah, spreading out nearly high.
0:45.8	The men of Judah asked, why have you come to fight us?
0:49.6	We have come to take Samson prisoner, they answered, to do to him as he did to us.
0:55.1	And then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cave in the rock of Etaam and said
1:00.1	to Samson, don't you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us?
1:04.9	What have you done to us?
1:07.0	He answered, I merely did to them what they did to me.
1:10.6	They said to him, we've come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines.
1:14.7	And Samson said, swear to me that you won't kill me yourselves, agreed they answered,
1:19.7	we will only tie you up and hand you over to them.
1:21.6	We will not kill you.
1:22.6	So they bound him with two new ropes and let him up from the rock.
1:25.8	And as you approach the high, the Philistines came toward him shouting, and the spirit of
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