The Disciple-Leader Newsletter #17 on May 20, 2023.
On Friday, May 19th, 2023, Tim Keller passed away at the age of 72. Tim Keller is one of my heroes. He, along with Elder Neal A. Maxwell, was to me the modern-day C.S. Lewis. He was the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. He's also the author of countless essays, articles, and books (a few of which I own). His writing was as spiritually penetrating as it was prolific. I'd be hard-pressed to find many people who've shaped my thinking as much as Tim Keller. He's on my Mount Rushmore of writers/thinkers.
Instead of adding my own writing to this newsletter, I'll just be sharing some of Tim Keller's words regarding discipleship, leadership, and mental performance.
RIP Tim Keller.
DISCIPLESHIP
Tim Keller on the attitudes and priorities that permeate true discipleship.
Then Jesus addresses two other men, similarly concerned with their families. One says, “I’d love to come with you, but first I have to bury my father.” The other says, “First let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” There is nothing wrong with having a funeral for your father or going back to see your family, but behind these requests, Jesus sees a wrong attitude of heart. He’s saying, “For you to go to your father’s funeral—or back home—would be a bad idea. I must come first.” Notice their language. In both cases they say, “Lord, first, let me do this.” Jesus says there can’t be any but first. “I must be your first priority.” That’s what he means when he says: “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
Anyone who plows a field must be completely focused on plowing. And following Jesus is no different, “My disciple has to be utterly focused on me.” By the way, “fit for the kingdom” is an unfortunate translation; the word there means “useful.” You might think he’s saying, “Unless you’re totally committed, you don’t qualify for my kingdom.” Of course, no one qualifies for Jesus’ kingdom. It’s all by grace. He’s saying: Unless delighting Jesus, resembling him, serving him, and knowing him is your highest priority, the healing power of the kingdom of God will not be flowing through you. You will not be a useful vehicle for it.
The second and more cryptic line is, “Let the dead bury their own dead.” Obviously, physically dead people can’t dig graves, so the first noun must refer to the spiritually dead. To be spiritually dead means to be as blind and insensitive to spiritual reality as a physical body is to physical reality. You may be saying, “Well, I believe in Jesus, but I can’t put him first right now. I’ve got my career; I’ve got to wait till my parents die because they would be unhappy if I became a Christian… I see who he is and what he’s done, but I’m not going to put him first just yet. Someday I will.” When someone says, “I understand Christianity. I’m just not ready to put it at the central place in my life,” then that person really doesn’t understand it yet! Jesus says: Putting anything before me reveals spiritual deadness. Let the dead bury their dead. If you put your father before me, there’s a spiritual deadness in your life.
From his sermon, The Call To Discipleship.
Tim Keller on how God feels about you.
“To be loved but not known is superficial. To be known but not loved is our nightmare. Only Jesus knows us to the bottom and loves us to the sky.”
“The central basis of Christian assurance is not how much our hearts are set on God, but how unshakably his heart is set on us.”
“If the suffering Jesus endured did not make him give up on us, nothing will.”
Tim Keller on the Divinity of Jesus Christ
“If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said. If he didn’t, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether you like his teaching, but whether he rose from the dead.”
"Jesus is one of the following: Lord, Lunatic, Liar, or a Legend. Only four possibilities."
“When you come to Christ, you must drop your conditions. You have to give up the right to say, ‘I will obey you if . . . I will do this if . . .’ As soon as you say, ‘I will obey you if,’ that is not obedience at all. You are saying: ‘You are my adviser, not my Lord. I will be happy to take your recommendations. And I might even do some of them.’ No. If you want Jesus with you, you have to give up the right to self-determination. Self-denial is an act of rebellion against our late-modern culture of self-assertion. But that is what we are called to. Nothing less.”
LEADERSHIP
Tim Keller on what people look for in a teacher (but in a more broad sense, a leader).
"We have said that your listeners will be convinced by your message only if they are convinced by you as a person. There is no escaping this. People do not simply experience your words, arguments, and appeals as disembodied messages; they are always sensing and evaluating the source. If they don't know you, they are (usually unconsciously) gathering evidence to determine whether they like you, can relate to you, and respect you. They're noticing whether you're a happy or dour person, whether you are poised or nervous, whether you seem kind or hard or smug. They are looking for love, humility, conviction, joy, and power––for some integrity and congruence between what you are saying and who you are. Audiences are able to sense what kind of energy––or lack thereof––lies behind the speaking. They may see insecurity, the desire to impress, a lack of conviction, or self-righteousness––any of which closes their minds and hearts to the words ... For the act of preaching (or leading) in particular, there's something ... central to persuasion: your listeners' sense of the Holy Spirit working in and through you."
Two Tim Keller one-liners on leadership:
"The best way to love someone is to serve their best interest, even at your own expense."
"In the end, we love people into belief. We do not argue them into belief."
MENTAL PERFORMANCE
Tim Keller on our minds.
“What the heart most wants the mind finds reasonable, the emotions find valuable, and the will finds doable. What makes people into what they are is the order of their loves — what they love most, more, less, and least. That is more fundamental to who you are than even the beliefs to which you mentally subscribe. Your loves show what you actually believe in, not what you say you do. Change happens not just by giving the mind new arguments but also by feeding the imagination new beauties.”
Tim Keller on our mindset toward change.
“Fear-based repentance makes us hate ourselves. Joy-based repentance makes us hate the sin.”
Disciple-Leadership: Jesus-led. Lead like Jesus.
Aaron @ The Disciple-Leader