The Gift of Tim Keller
Photo credit: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/tgc-co-founder-tim-keller-dies/
“I thank my God in all my remembrance of you.” Philippians 1:3
The other night, an old friend came to my house for a visit. I hadn’t seen him in a while, and we realized later that even though we had served alongside each other in ministry at a church before for years, we had never really sat down and talked at any great length. We were in meetings and studied the Bible together, but we never sat and just talked.
Well, that night, we talked. And he brought with him a little box of little gifts for me. Many were baseball-related because we share a love of the game. In the box, there was a piece of paper. It was a list of names with books beside each name. He told me it was from the first men’s group meeting he attended at our church a dozen years ago. About 30 or so guys met each week for theology, community, and honesty, and we started each meeting with an icebreaker. The night's icebreaker was, “What is the most influential book you’ve ever read?”
He asked me, “Do you remember which book you said?”
I thought about it. It was 2011. “Did I say, ‘Prodigal God’?”
“Yes! And I went home, bought it, sat on my porch, read it, and just wept.”
Tim Keller had that effect on people.
For about as long as I’ve been a Christian, Tim Keller has been there. His articles have answered my questions. His sermons have lifted my heart to Jesus. His books have engaged me and changed me. His humility has inspired me. His cultural apologetics has challenged me. Without me realizing it, Keller’s thinking slipped into my own. He became a friend from afar, always there with an encouraging word or a challenging thought.
He taught me that I’m far more sinful than I ever dared to imagine but far more loved than I ever dared to hope.
He taught me that Jesus’s kingdom is an upside-down and inside-out kingdom where death is the way to life and the last are first.
He taught me that all death can do is make the Christian’s life infinitely better.
He taught me that making work my identity will mean success will go to my head and failure will go to my heart.
He taught me that the only person who dared to wake a king at 3:00 am for a glass of water is a child, and we have that kind of access.
He taught me that God either gives me what I ask or gives me what I would have asked if I knew everything he knows.
He taught me that the only thing that can truly destroy me can’t anymore because it destroyed Jesus.
He taught me that if the resurrection is really true, everything I’m worried about right now will one day be ok.
He taught me how to center a church’s ministry on the gospel alone.
He taught me how the Father loves and invites both the irreligious, sinful younger brother and the moralistic, self-righteous elder brother back home.
He taught me that the world screams with reasons for God’s truth to be true truth.
He taught me that ministries of mercy in the local church are how Jesus changes a community.
He taught me that marriage is more than two people trying to live together. It is a picture of the gospel.
He taught me that preaching is not just an explanation of a text but an engagement of the heart.
He taught me how to navigate leadership and church size dynamics.
He taught me how to identify counterfeit gods and recognize the one true God.
He taught me how to have hope in times of fear.
He taught me how to walk with God through pain and suffering.
He taught me how to pray.
He taught me how to work for the glory of God.
He taught me how to make sense of the world God made.
He taught me how to read the Bible as one big story.
He taught me how to meditate on the Psalms.
He taught me how to understand the true meaning of Christmas.
He taught me how to navigate life in wisdom.
He taught me how to read the book of Jonah and see in it the true prodigal Prophet coming for us all.
He taught me about the God who came to become King, but a King who chose the cross as his point of victory.
He taught me that Jesus is the true and better everything.
He taught me so much more even than that.
Keller is the one I seek for help understanding a biblical passage every time I preach or teach. His clear thinking and his devotion to Christ have not once failed to help me help others. If you have benefited from my writing or teaching or preaching in any way at all, you owe a debt of gratitude to Tim Keller.
Tim Keller is now with Jesus. It’s the one place he longed most to be. I cannot be sad for him, though I am sad for myself. I’m sad for the world. The Lord gave us an immense gift in Tim Keller. It's hard to even put into words all that he gave us. The Gospel Coalition, Redeemer Presbyterian Church, all his books, all his sermons, all the cultural apologetics that helped so many of us understand our world. It's amazing how powerfully God used him.
I’m sad he’s gone, but I’m profoundly grateful he’s more alive now than he’s ever been before.
And because the resurrection is actually true, the cancer that killed him will one day be crushed under the Savior’s feet, and everything sad will come untrue.
