Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Converted by the Cross

Episode Date: April 24, 2024

Conversion is a radical change of life. And in its early days, Christianity grew through conversions. It spread so rapidly that it changed a hostile society completely. What does it mean to become a Christian? By looking at the conversions in Acts, we can see what Christianity really is.  In this passage, the conversion of an Ethiopian, we learn three things: 1) who converts, 2) the context of conversion, and 3) the key instrument conversion uses. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 16, 2003. Series: The Necessity of Belief. Scripture: Acts 8:26-40. 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.

Welcome to Gospel in Life. We live in a culture today where there are competing worldviews about what the purpose of life is, what truth is, and how we can determine what's right and what's wrong. In such an environment, it can be challenging to decide what and whom to believe. Join us today as Tim Keller teaches on how the Bible can help us navigate the complexities of our cultural moment. Thank you for joining us. Tonight's reading is taken from Acts chapter 8 verses 26 through 40.

Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, go south to the road, the desert road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. So he started out and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship and on his way home was sitting in his chariot, reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, Go to that chariot and stay near it. Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. Do you understand what you are reading? Philip asked. How can I, he said, unless someone explains it to

me. So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. The eunuch was reading this passage of scripture. He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth. The eunuch asked Philip, Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else? Then Philip began, without very passes of scripture, and told him the good news about Jesus. As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, Look, here is water. Why shouldn't I be baptized? And he gave orders to stop the chariot.

Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. Philip, however, appeared at Asotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea. This is the word of God. Book of Acts tells us about how Christianity was born into a culture that was as hostile or resistant to the claims, its claims as our culture is today. And it also tells us, however, that nevertheless it spread so rapidly and so powerfully that it changed that old brutal society completely. And the way that happened, according to the book of Acts, is

through conversions. The book of Acts gives us a whole series of case studies of conversions. When Christianity was at its most powerful, when it was at its most potent, when it was at its most vital, I don't mean people were in power, of course Christianity in the early days, they were all people outside of power, when it was the most potent and the most vital, it added people through conversion. It grew through conversion. Conversion is a radical change of life. And if that's the case, and then looking at this series of case studies on conversion, we'll be able to find out finally what Christianity really is. What does it mean to be a Christian?

What does it mean to become a Christian? Now, in chapter 8, which we just read, there's a case study of an African being converted to Christ. In chapter 9, which we'll look at next week, there's a case study of a Jew being converted to Christ. And in chapter 10, which we will look at the last Sunday in November, there is a case study of a European being converted to Christ. We are going to look at each one. Now this one tonight is the conversion of an African, black African, Ethiopian. And what do we learn here about conversion? We learn three things. We learn who, where and what. We learn who that is the agent in conversion, who converts. Secondly, we learn the where, that is the context of conversion, where it happens. And last of

all we learn the what. What is the key? What is the key instrument? What does the one who produces conversions use? Who, what, pardon me, who, where and what? Let's first of all look at who. Who is the agent in conversion, Christian conversion? Who produces Christian conversion? Now the answer is not that hard to see. It's all through the first few verses of the passage. The first few verses of the passage show something that readers have noticed for centuries, and that is there's more divine intervention. There's more divine direction. There's more actual instruction, specific instruction coming to Philip.

And also in Acts 10 we're going to see in a couple of weeks to Peter because usually of course there's many places in the book of Acts where you have God guiding people but never like this. Look how detailed it is. First an angel says to Philip, go down this road. And then the spirit gives Philip incredibly detailed instructions. It says the spirit told Philip, go to that chariot and stay near it. And then Philip ran up to the chariot. Now do you see what he's saying? Do you see what the spirit's doing?

Why would he have to run in order to stay near the chariot? Because it's moving. It's moving. And the man is in the chariot and the spirit says go run alongside the man in the chariot and get into a conversation. Philip would never do that. The spirit told him to do it. In fact, by the way, if you were making this up, you wouldn't make up a story like this. This is silly. This is exactly what happened, though. Here's Philip coming up. I see you're reading something. Yes, yes, I am reading something. Do you understand

it? Well, no, I really don't. Would you like some help? The spirit is absolutely involved in every single little aspect of this situation. Why? I'm afraid the answer is very unflattering. Jesus was continually saying when he was alive, I want my message to go to all peoples, to all ethnic groups, to all races, to all cultures. At the end of the book of Matthew, the famous great commission, he says go to all nations, but the Greek word he actually uses is taetne. He actually says go to all the ethnics. In the beginning of the book of Acts he says I want you to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth. Jesus in many ways, in every way, says to his disciples,

my message isn't just for people like you. It's for all races, for all peoples. And yet, when you get into the book of Acts, God has to do excessive prodding. There has to be ‑‑ we'll see this when we get to Acts 10. To get Peter to go to a Gentile, Cornelius, to get Philip, a Jew, to go to a black African. God has to go over and over, very specific ‑‑ go down that road. You see that chariot? Yes, run up, yes, stay with the chariot. In other words, what produced this conversion? It's not the Ethiopian, it's not Philip. It's the spirit of God. Absolutely no other force could produce this conversion. And unfortunately, every place the Christian leaders were being called to open their arms

to someone of a different race or a different culture, God had to practically beat them over the head with the Holy Spirit. But what did we learn? So first of all we learned the agent of conversion is always the Spirit of God. Not you, not the person who's trying to convert you, not you who are being converted, it's the spirit. But before moving on, there's a couple of things we learn, a couple of very, very interesting things we learn about the agency of the spirit. Do you see what we learn here? First of all, we learn that the spirit wants racial barriers surmounted.

The spirit wants us to get over the barriers between the races. Look at ‑‑ what does the spirit say? Run! He says, Philip, you see that sexually altered black African, a person you would never in a million years as a middle-aged Jewish male want anything to do with, go to him. That's the spirit. That's the drift of the spirit. That's the force.

That's the current. That's the direction of the spirit. Or let me, not to put too fine a point on it, if you have people that you see here in New York, racial groups or cultural groups that you disdain, you kind of look down your nose at them, you kind of despise them, you're resisting the spirit of God. You're quenching the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God says, go, cross that barrier, I want you to get to know him. By the way, why?

Because, and we've talked about this over during the fall, but I'll say it again, the way the human identity, apart from conversion, is structured is this. Our self-worth is based on something we do or have better than other people that we can be proud of. That's where we get our self worth. That's how we get our identity. Our identity is based on something we either do or have better than other people that we can be proud of. Now in more individualistic cultures, western cultures, it has more to do with what we do.

We feel good about ourselves because we have accomplished certain things that makes us better than the average person. We're good at this or we're good at that. In more traditional cultures, it's not so much what you do but what you have. Your race or your culture or your family or your status or your role in the family and that sort of thing. But the gospel of grace is that you're saved apart from your pedigree, apart from your works, apart from your accomplishments, apart from your works, and the Spirit of God brings

the love of Christ free into the ego. It swamps the ego with free love. Not love that you have to earn, not love that you have to do something in order to feel better than other people, now I know I'm better. The Spirit of God always is moving away from racial pride. If you understand the Gospel, here's what you would do with it. You would consciously and deliberately use the Gospel to undermine the natural gravity of your heart, of your self-justifying little heart to stay with people who are like you. If you're not using the gospel to erode that, to resist that natural gravitational pull of the heart to people who are just like

you, you don't understand what the gospel really means and you certainly don't understand what the spirit wants. The spirit wants racial barriers surmounted. And that's one of its goals in conversion. It's because the Ethiopian and the Jew are converted that they can be brethren, that they're able to embrace each other. Otherwise it would never happen. Here's something else though we learn about the agency of the spirit. The spirit of God works just as well in one culture as another.

Hmm? It works just as well in one culture as another. The Spirit of God created Christianity in the Jewish culture in Jerusalem, but now it's recreating Christianity into African culture, into Africanness. And this is a very important point. Why do I say this? Here's why. In New York, you're going to hear this all the time.

In fact, if you read the New York Times this week and you're looking for it, in some form you'll see it because it's there every week. And it goes like this. It's this mindset. You don't want to convert people. You're a Christian, but you don't want to convert people. You don't want to destroy their culture. They have their culture.

You have your culture. If you try to convert people who aren't Christians, you're destroying their culture. Don't do that. Let them have their culture, you have your culture. What's the assumption behind that? You hear that all the time. What's the assumption? The assumption is that Christianity is a product of Western culture.

But that's not just historically stupid. But the Bible says that Christianity is not the product of any Western culture or any particular culture, it's the product of the Holy Spirit that recreates Christianity in each and every culture of the world. And it shows us here, in fact, if you want, if I can give you some proof of this, that Christianity doesn't necessarily, of course, if I can give you some proof of this, that Christianity doesn't necessarily, of course, obviously people can use Christianity or anything else to destroy someone else's culture.

But Christianity, true Christianity, does not destroy culture. And if you want to get an interesting proof of this, let me give you a case study of something that actually is only now the end point of the process begun in Acts 8. Here's the spirit putting Christianity, recreating Christianity in African soil. Now there's a book I've been reading recently and I can recommend it to you. It's a new book and it's short and it's readable. It's by an African scholar, Lamin Sané who teaches at Yale. He's written a book called Whose Religion is Christianity? And in it he discusses

one of the great phenomenons of the 20th and 21st centuries and that is this, that in 1900 there were nine million Christians in Africa, most of them were Coptics by the way in Ethiopia interestingly. In 1900 there were nine million African Christians. In the year 2000, there were 380 million. In other words, Africa went from being about 8 or 9% Christian to being 50% Christian in 100 years. And it's fast going. Very soon it will be two-thirds Christian in about 20 or 30 years. Not only is Christianity growing through conversion ten times faster, seven to ten times faster than the population,

it's growing four times faster than Islam. Why this explosion? And Lamin Sane in his book gives the reason. Now let me just give you a little quote because it's fascinating but I'll explain what he means from the whole book. He says, the African old religions provided the rules, rewarding good conduct and punishing wrong, but they had only a limited ethical range. Christianity answered this historical challenge by a reorientation, which means conversion. People sensed in their hearts that Jesus did not mock their respect for the sacred nor their clamor for an invincible savior. So they beat their sacred drums for him until the stars skipped and danced in the skies and after that dance the stars weren't

little anymore. Christianity helped Africans to become renewed Africans not remade Europeans. Now listen to what he's saying. Here's what he says in the book. He says, Africans have always believed in a world of supernatural forces. They have always believed that there were good and evil spirits, there were supernatural forces everywhere. But Africans also sensed, so many of them sensed, that they were powerless against the evil forces. They saw the evil forces in their lives, they saw the evil forces in their society, they saw the evil forces in their family and they didn't know what to do about it. And they realized, well, what are our alternatives? The first alternative is Western secularism. Western secularism that says there is no supernatural. Everything has a natural cause. Western secularism

and the Africans, this is what Lamin Sané says, this is not my opinion, Lamin Sané says the Africans realized that if we became modern Western people, that would destroy our African-ness. It would destroy our belief in the sacredness of everything. So then they looked at some other things. They looked at Islam, they looked at other religions and they realized that secularism, if they embraced it, would replace their African-ness. And that Islam and many of the other religions would also replace their African-ness, because they didn't believe in all the evil spirits either. But then they got to the Bible. And as they read the Bible, they came to realize that on the cross, Jesus Christ defeated the evil powers and brought forgiveness and pardon in the life of people who had been defeated by evil powers and brought freedom from it.

And you know what Lamin Sané says? We came to realize that being coming Western modern people would replace and destroy our Africaness and other religions would destroy our Africanness, but Christianity converted our Africanness. Christianity completed, resolved our Africanness. And that when we became Christians, we became not Europeans. It didn't destroy our culture. When you become a Christian, you become a Christian first, you're a Christian first, and you're an African or you're an Asian or you're an Anglo second. But, he said, Christianity did not turn us into something else. It didn't destroy our culture. It didn't. When we became Christians, it didn't destroy our culture, he says. Don't talk like that. Christianity is as much ours as yours. It's not a European religion. It's our religion now,

he said. And you realize that that destroys the whole objection that says, says, you mustn't convert people because they have their own culture and you have your culture. But the Bible says that Christianity, Christian conversion is not the product of a culture. It's not a cultural product. It's the product of the Holy Spirit that recreates Christianity afresh in each and every culture. Do you believe that? The Ethiopian didn't produce this conversion and Philip didn't produce this conversion and culture didn't produce this conversion, it was the Holy Spirit. The agent in every conversion. So that's the first thing we learned. The second thing we learned is the context. The Holy Spirit not just who produces

conversion but where it's produced. And what do I mean by where? What do I mean by the context? Well, there are three questions, by the way, that this Ethiopian asks during the time of the incident. And the first question and the last question tell us the context for all conversion. The first question is, how can I understand this unless someone explains it to me? And the last question is, here is water, why shouldn't I be baptized?

Now you know what both those questions are pointing to? Something very important. The first question is actually very startling. And if you think about who this man is, it is a very startling question. You know who this guy is? First of all, we're told he's the finance minister of the nation of Ethiopia. He's the CFO. He's the cabinet minister. He's the top. He's powerful.

Here's the second thing we know about him. He can read. Do you realize how unusual that is? Do you realize how rare it is that he can read? Hardly anybody could read back then. And there he is reading. So he was a man of incredible education, intellectual sophistication, he was a man of great power. And last of all he owned a scroll, an Isaiah scroll. Do you realize how rare that was? People didn't own Isaiah scrolls, they didn't have scrolls

and books in libraries, it was incredibly expensive to do something like that. The scrolls were kept in some public place, the synagogue, the schools and so on. So here's a man who is unbelievably able. He's made it to the top. He's brilliant. He's educated. He's wealthy. So along comes this guy, you know, alongside the chariot saying do you understand what you're reading? Could you use any help? Now, why didn't the man say, this is the natural thing for him to say, no, I don't right now, but give me some time, I certainly did not get into my position of power by talking to people like you, people that don't even have their own chariot. I'll get it, I don't get it right now, but I'll get it, I don't need anybody's help. That's not what he says. He says, I need someone.

And we would never have heard of this man, and this man would have never connected with God if he had decided I can handle this by myself. The context of conversion is always community. He lets the guy into his chariot. He admits that he doesn't know. That's vulnerability. He admits his ignorance. He asks for help. He brings him into his chariot. He brings him into his life. A new friendship. It's wonderful, you know, the big churches are wonderful because they're anonymous. If you're on a spiritual search, you can come to Redeemer, you can get your inspiration, you can go home. Nobody has to know. Just you and God. You're reading and you're thinking. You don't want to get involved.

You don't want to become participants. You want to volunteer for anything. You don't want to be in a small group. You don't want to find a new group of friends who are ahead of you spiritually that you can share your ignorance and doubts with. Because everybody in New York is very, very adept and you're experts and you're smart and you're good

and that's why you're here. And nobody wants to admit how stupid you are at spiritual things and find somebody who knows something more. But if you don't, you're not gonna have your life changed by God because God changes. The Holy Spirit works through community. How can we understand the meaning of life's milestones

through the lens of the gospel? In the How to Find God series, Tim Keller offers three short books on birth, marriage, and death that will help you understand the meaning of these milestones within God's vision of life, with biblical insight for how the scripture teaches us to face each one. These books of pastoral care are designed for specific life situations you or someone you know will go through.

When you give to Gospel in Life during the month of April, we'll send you the How to Find God series as our thanks for your support of this ministry. To receive this short three-book set, simply make a gift at gospelonlife.com slash give. That's gospelonlife.com slash give. Your gift helps us share the message of Christ's love all over the world. So thank you for partnering with us, because the gospel truly changes everything. The agent is the spirit, but the context is community. And look at the other end.

That's the front end of his conversion. He would never even become converted if he hadn't been willing to get into a relationship, into a community, actually. But look at the end. He says, here's water. Why shouldn't I be baptized? Now you know what he's doing? He doesn't say, Philip, baptize me. He says, shouldn't I be baptized? Why not? Evaluate me. You see, he had heard the gospel. We'll get to that in a minute.

And he had believed it. So why didn't he just say, Lord Jesus, please come into my life? Now there's nothing wrong with that. And that's good. But when you just simply pray, Lord, I want to believe in you, come into my life, I give my life to you, that's just a nice individual you and God thing, isn't it? Notice he doesn't turn to Philip and say, I've had a religious experience,

but I don't want anybody evaluating it. It's between me and God. I believe religion's a private thing. No, listen. You can pray a prayer asking Jesus into your life as an individual, but to be baptized, you've got to get somebody to do it. And he knows enough to say, I know you won't baptize me unless you can evaluate. He says, should I be baptized? Or why shouldn't I be baptized? Evaluate me. You heard what I just said. In other words, baptism is a communal act. Baptism means you gotta get somebody to do it.

You gotta get somebody to sign off on you. He's not self-accredited. He doesn't say, well I know I'm right with God. He says, no, look at me. Should I be baptized? He looks to someone else to affirm and interpret his experience. Because you see in the Bible when you convert to God you get converted into a community, not just into

a one on one relationship with God. And why? If you think, now we'll talk about this more in the next couple of weeks, the word conversion in the Bible means to turn around and move in another direction. Okay? To turn around and move in another direction. Okay? To turn around and move in another direction. And the point where you turn, we call conversion, but then moving in another direction. You turn away from serving yourself, you turn towards serving God and you move in that direction. And of course, in another sense, in one sense you get converted in an instant. In another sense you spend all the rest of your life being converted, right? All the rest of your life more and more being converted, living your life on a whole new basis. But what made you what you are today?

It's a western myth for you to say, I am who I am because of my individual choices. I am who I choose to be. Give me a break. Did you choose your parents? No. But they've had a little bit of an influence on you for good and ill? You didn't choose your siblings? You didn't choose hardly anything that you did for the first 10 or 15 years of your life when you were completely formed? My friends, you are not the product mainly of what you have done. You are the product mainly of what has been done to you.

And do you think you're going to have any kind of major change in your life without entering a brand new community? Unless you get radically and deeply involved in a new community? Unless you become accountable, unless you become a participant? Do you think that just you and having this, you're going to come and you're going to get inspired on Sunday and then you're going to have your own kind of goals and your own prayer and your own reading? Absolutely not. That will not convert you. That will not take you into a whole new self. No new self without a new community. Old self came from the old

community. New self for the new community. The Spirit of God is the agent of conversion, but community is the context. Now there's a third thing, last thing, important thing. What does the Spirit of God in community actually use to bring about the big change, the turn, the about face? What does he actually use? What does the Spirit actually use? What does the spirit actually use? And the answer is understanding of a particular truth. This man is reading Isaiah 53 verse 7 and 8 and God brought, the spirit

brought Philip to him just as his eyes lit on that text. And at the moment he was able to understand that text and the truth that was in that text, the penny dropped. The change happened. Now what was it that he was reading? If you want to understand what he was reading, you need to understand a little bit about the background. What brought him to that point? This is the climactic moment of his life which we don't really understand unless we look at the clues. Here's what the clues are. Let's think about who this guy is. First of all, who is he? We already said he's to the top. He's the CFO. He's the cabinet

minister. He's made it to the top. Okay? So he's a man of great power and great wealth. He's successful as you could be, number one. Number two, the second thing we learn is he paid quite a price to get there. What is that price? Well, do you know, interestingly enough, that I found this out when I was studying this, that the Greek word for eunuch and the Greek word for prime minister or high court official in the Mediterranean world and all the courts is the same word. Why would that be? Why would the word for prime minister and the word for eunuch be the same word? And the answer is this, if you were a commoner and you were going to make it up to the very, very top of the royal courts, the male royal personages did not trust any commoner to come and work in close quarters with the female royal personages unless they were castrated. And that's the reason why nobody who wasn't

already royal got to the very top and pinnacle of power in any of these royal courts unless they became eunuchs, unless they were castrated. Does that shock you? It really shouldn't. Because frankly, in New York City, it's very, very hard to make it to the top and keep any kind of relationships intact, marriage, family or any kind of sustainable love language, anything. You sell your soul very often to make it to the top and it means relationships, sorry, I got to work, I got to go, I've got deals to make, sorry. And you spend all of your life like that, all of your life like that. I mean, even today, you've got to be a eunuch to make it to the top. It hasn't

changed that much. So he's made it to the top and he's paid a terrible price. But here's the third thing we know. He's not happy. He's made it to the top, paid a price, but he's spiritually empty. Now how do I know that? How do we know that? Look where he's coming from. He's Ethiopian, which means he lives at the uttermost part of the world. As far as the Jews were concerned, they didn't know of anything beyond Ethiopia. It was hundreds of miles away. It was on the outskirts of the known civilized world or whatever. But what does it say in verse 27?

He was on his way home, having gone to Jerusalem to worship. Now can you imagine when this man decided to tell everybody I'm leaving my job for several months I'm going to take a very dangerous incredibly long journey to Jerusalem to worship at the temple. And everybody in Ethiopia would have said, what? Are you kidding? We've got all these temples. We've got all these gods. We've got all these religions. What are you talking about? He says I want to see, I want to learn about this God of Israel,

I want to learn about this God I've heard about, I want to learn about the God of the Bible. Now what would make a man do something like that? And there's only one answer. This is a man in serious spiritual search mode. This is a man who must be seriously empty, who must be made to the top and he's not happy. You know, one of the reasons we don't have more people in serious spiritual search mode right now is because those of you who haven't made

it to the top think you actually will be finally happy if you get up there. But those few who have made it to the top, their illusion has been shattered. They know there's nothing there emotionally, they know there's nothing there psychologically, they know there's nothing there spiritually. He must have been incredibly empty. He must have tried absolutely everything to go on a trip to Jerusalem to get to the temple. Here's a man who was seriously spiritually dissatisfied with all of his success and all that he had accomplished. So we know he's made to the top, he's paid a terrible price, he's incredibly unhappy

anyway, so he goes to Jerusalem and there's one more thing we know about this trip. All the commentators say so. He probably wouldn't have known this until he got to Jerusalem, but when he got to Jerusalem and tried to go in the temple, he would have been told eunuchs can't come in here because that was the rule. There are a lot of groups, there are a lot of people who weren't allowed into the temple to worship lepers and all sorts of other people, but one of them were sexually mutilated people. Can you imagine? Here's a man, for all I know, I don't know how you keep your job when you're going to leave for months and months to go on a spiritual wild goose chase.

But here's a man who has just thrown everything aside. Gone he's in major spiritual search mode. He gets to the temple and they're told, people like you are not allowed in here. Can you imagine the turmoil as he's coming home? Can you imagine how deformed he feels? How rejected, how unclean, how cast off. And he's scouring the Isaiah scroll. You know why? We know he's reading in Isaiah the 50s. He's reading in that part of Isaiah. And if you open the Isaiah scroll and you read the part that he is reading when Philip

comes out to him, on the same, on the same, on the same place, in the same field of vision, he would have read this, Isaiah 56 verse 3, 4 and 5. Let no foreigner who has been bound to the Lord say, the Lord will surely exclude me from his people. And let not any eunuch complain I am only a dry tree. For this is what the Lord says, to the eunuchs who hold fast to my covenant, to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off."

Can you imagine? It must have gone right through him when he read, Let not the eunuch say, I am a dry tree. I am no fruit. And when he saw God say, I will give you an everlasting name that will never be cut off better than sons and daughters. And he must have said, what are you kidding? There is no other way to have a name. He lived in a time in which the most important thing was descendants.

The most important things were sons and daughters who carried on your name. And he's looking at this and saying, wait a minute, how in the world could I have an everlasting name? How could I possibly get something better than sons and daughters? How could I not be a dry tree? So he's scouring around and you know what he comes upon? This astounding passage in Isaiah 53. What it says, what does Isaiah 53 say, verse 5, 4, surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him

stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed." And here's the passage he was actually looking at, the verses when Philip came up to him. "'He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, as a lamb before the shearer is silent. He did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. And who can speak of his descendants? And the eunuch is saying who is this figure who voluntarily has become a eunuch?

Who voluntarily is cut off without descendants? Who voluntarily takes injustice? Who voluntarily, he's doing everything that I've experienced but he's doing it as a substitute. Who is this? And so Philip walks up and says, do you need any help with this? At the moment of his life, his whole life is turned into ashes, and there's this very, very strange cryptic, fleeting note of hope, and he says, who is this? Is Isaiah writing about himself or someone else? And Philip says, I know just who he's writing about himself or someone else. And Philip says, I know just who he's writing

about. Jesus is the substitute. In fact, Philip might have said something like this, do you know sir, that you can understand all of life and all of the Bible in terms of the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ? Sin is you and me substituting ourselves for God, being our own bosses, acting as if we're in charge. Sin is you and me substituting ourselves for God. But salvation is God substituting himself for us, putting himself where only we deserve. In Jesus Christ, God came and put himself on the cross, himself where only we deserve. In Jesus Christ, God came and put himself on the cross and he paid our penalty. He was made unclean so you could be made clean. He was cut off so you could have his everlasting name. Now here's the key. The moment that you find the substitutionary

sacrifice of Jesus Christ intellectually coherent and existentially melting is the moment your identity structure has changed. It's no longer based on something you have or you do, which is better than others that you can be proud of. It's based on free, swamping grace, free, overwhelming waves of love. When that is existentially melting, intellectually coherent, the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ, that's what changes. Then the penny drops, then the epiphany, then you're converted, then the turn. Example, at the end of Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, talks about two men, kind of friends, Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay, and Sydney is in love with Lucy, but Lucy marries Charles. Charles, however, is arrested

during the French Revolution, and he's condemned to die die and he's in the prison with the other prisoners who are going to be executed the next day. They're going to go to the guillotine. And that night, Sidney sneaks in and says to Charles, look, we resemble each other. We always have resembled each other. Let me take your place. You go to Lucy. You go and live with her. You go and have your children. You have a family. And Charles won't do it. And if I remember correctly, Sidney has him knocked out and pushed out and he takes his place. And there's a little girl, not a little girl, but a girl, a young girl, a seamstress, who's in there and she is going to be executed the next day. She's been condemned to die as well.

And she walks up to him because she knows Charles Darnay, at least she does know Charles Darnay. And she begins talking with Sydney as if he's Charles, thinking, oh, of course, you know, we know each other. And Sydney tries to keep up the ruse a little bit and say, well, yes, of course, you know, it's nice to see you and so on. And suddenly the girl realizes this isn't Charles. And she looks and she sees that's somebody else who's taken his place. And her eyes get big and suddenly she says, it dawns on her. And suddenly she says, are you dying for him? And Sidney says, yes, and for his wife and child. And basically

she says this after that. She says, you know, I'm having a lot of trouble facing my death, but if you, oh brave stranger, would just hold my hand, I think I could do it. The wonder of his sacrificial love changed her, and it wasn't even for her. Imagine what change comes into the human soul when you look at Jesus and your eyes get big and you realize what he's done and you say, are you dying for me? And he says yes. And he says, I'll hold your hand through the rest of your life and you'll be able to face anything. When the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ becomes intellectually coherent and existentially melting, that's what changes the fundamental way your human heart works.

Instead of saying, I know I'm okay, I know God loves me, I know people think I'm okay, I've proved myself, I'm living a good life, you have all the insecurity, you have all the racism, you have all the superiority, you have all the self-righteousness that comes from that. All the insecurity, all the unhappiness, all the fear. But the moment you realize that he's done that for you, and he takes you by the hand, and you know you're loved in him, and you're accepted in him, and the pressure is off,

and you never have to prove yourself again, it changes everything. The gospel is not, live a good life and try to be like Jesus. The gospel is not what would Jesus do. The gospel is what has Jesus done. That's what changes you. And here's the sign you've been changed. Have you been converted? If you've been converted, if you've had that incredible psychological change, you'll have this sociological change.

Because what does the Spirit show is the sign of conversion. A middle-aged Jewish man putting his arms around a sexually altered black man and calling him brother. If your psychology has been changed, your sociology will be changed. What could do that? Only the gospel. Have you been converted by the spirit in a context of community? Have you been converted by the Spirit in a context of community? By the power of the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ? And having made the turn, are you now being more and more converted and renewed into his image? Let's go to the Lord's table and ask God to continue or begin that process.

Let us pray. Thank you Father for showing us the author and the context and the instrument of conversion, which is the gospel, and we ask that you would help us to either be converted or to become more converted because we spent this time together tonight. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening to Tim Keller on the Gospel in Life podcast. If you found today's teaching helpful and something you feel more people should hear,

we invite you to consider becoming a Gospel in Life monthly partner. Your partnership helps more people discover the truth of God's Word and the hope and joy of the gospel. Just visit gospelonlife.com slash partner to learn more. This month's sermons were recorded in 2003. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel on Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.