April 17, 2025 • 26 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
In the Gospel message, Is it Jesus dying for our sins?
What really matters? What's the significance of the resurrection?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Today?
Speaker 1 (00:13):
On turning point, doctor David Jeremiah explains why Christ rising
from the dead isn't just important, it's at the very
core of our Christian faith. Listen as David shares a
special Easter message that answers the fundamental question about the resurrection?
Why does it matter?
Speaker 3 (00:32):
And thank you for joining us today, And let me
say to all of you listening, Happy Easter. And I
hope you are ready to celebrate the resurrection of the
Lord and your church and with your family and to
be filled with the joy of the Living Lord. We
are going to help you do that today with a
special message from Luke chapter twenty four. And the question
(00:53):
we're asking is why does it matter? Why does it
matter that the resurrection is taught as the centerpiece of
the Gospel. I didn't understand that for a long time
in my life, and then one day I heard a
message about it that changed everything. The Bible says, if
Christ has not risen, we are still dead in our sins.
(01:15):
And I realized the critical nature of the resurrection. I
never recovered from it, and I love preaching about it
every Easter. I'm going to do it in a short
time here on this program during the month of April.
We are so honored to be able to present to
you some opportunities to enhance your resources, especially on the
Book of Revelation. We have four study guides that will
(01:38):
take you through the entire book, verse by verse, with
the outlines and the illustrations and things for you to
look up. You find these study guides presented at David
Jeremiah dot org our website David Jeremiah dot org. But
you can get a copy of the book Escape the
Coming Night, which is a two hundred and ninety page
book that is a contemporary commentary on the whole Book
(02:01):
of Revelation. We'd love for you to have this because
I know that when you read this book, along with
listening to the teaching on the air every day, you
will grow in your understanding of the last book of
the Bible, the Book of Revelation. Here's how you get
your copy. Send a gift of any size to Turning
Point this month and ask for it. That's all you
have to do. Do your best gift and say doctor Jeremah,
(02:24):
I'd like to have a copy of the book Escape
the Coming Night. If you don't have this book, I'd
love to send you a copy as our way of
saying thank you for your investment in this international ministry.
And now let's talk about why it matters that Easter
is at the center of the gospel. In the twenty
(02:44):
fourth chapter of the Gospel of Luke, we have his
first hand account of what took place on that first
Easter Sunday. Sometimes we need to go back to the
original and remember what Easter is all about.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
What he wrote.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Now, on the first day of the week, very early
in the morning, they and certain other women with them
came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared.
But they found the stone had been rolled away from
the tomb. And they went in and did not find
the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened, as
(03:21):
they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold two men
stood by them in shining garments. And as they were
afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, these two
men said to them, why do you seek the living
among the dead.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
He's not here. He has risen.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Remember how he spoke to you when he was still
in Galilee, saying, the Son of Man must be delivered
under the hands of sinful men and be crucified. And
the third day rise again. And they remembered his words,
and they returned from the tomb and told all these
things to the eleven and to all the rest. And
it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna, and Mary the mother
(04:00):
of James, and the other women with them who told
these things to the apostles. And their words seemed to
them like idle tales, and they did not believe them.
But Peter he arose, and he ran to the tomb,
and stooping down, he saw the linen clothes lying by themselves,
and he departed, marveling to himself at what had happened.
(04:23):
It is the resurrection of Jesus Christ that sets our
faith apart from all religions. What we celebrated Easter is
totally unique to Christianity. Let me be very clear about that,
men and women. The foundation of our faith is not
the teaching of Jesus or the ideology that may have
developed from it. The foundation of our faith is not
(04:46):
the Christian worldview, as important as that is. Foundation of
our faith is not the wonderful life of Jesus with
his compassionate miracles. The foundation of our faith is not
even the death of Jesus Christ. All the religious leaders
of the world have died in that respect. Jesus Christ
(05:07):
would be no different. Now. The foundation of our faith
is the well established record of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Christ said that he would die and that in three
days he would come back from the grave. He did
exactly what he said he would do. And it was
that event that exploded into the hearts of the disciples
(05:27):
and convinced them that this Jesus was he who he
had claimed to be, the only begotten son of God.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
JOHNS.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Wales said, the Gospels do not explain the resurrection. The
resurrection explains the Gospel. Belief in the resurrection is not
an appendage to the Christian faith.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
It is the Christian faith.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
I don't know about you, but I grew up in
a good church when my father was pastor. He was
a good teacher and many school teachers. I was believed
in the resurrection and knew it was important, but I
didn't know it was the important thing in the faith.
In fact, I was a second year student in seminary.
Before I figured that out, it happened like this, Don
(06:13):
and I were invited into a special banquet that was
being held. They were doing these all over Dallas Fort
Worth where we were students. They were called a friendship banquets,
and all of the students and seminary family were told
to invite their friends to these banquets and one of
the professors from the seminary of one of the teachers
would come and speak at this banquet and share the gospel.
(06:35):
We were invited to this event, and our teacher was
Hadn't Robinson, the head of the theology department of Preaching,
and I went to that event expecting to hear a
rip rowing sermon on the cross of Jesus Christ and
his death and how you could be saved through the
death of Christ. To my surprise, he spent the whole
night talking about the resurrection. He mentioned the death of
(06:58):
Christ because you have to do that to talk about
him being raised, And for the first time in my life,
I realized the resurrection is at the core of everything
that Christians claim to believe. In this Easter message, I
want to show you why that is true, and I
want to help you get to where I got after
(07:18):
that banquet and how it's been a blessing in my life.
The first thing I want you to understand is that
the resurrection matters to Christ. Let's start by putting the
focus on the Savior, who's the star of this show.
The resurrection matters to Christ, and it matters to him
for at least three reasons. First of all, the resurrection
(07:42):
vindicates Christ's word. The women we are told remembered Jesus' words.
They recalled that Jesus had promised that he would die
and that he would be raised three days later.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Three times.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Even in the book of Matthew, Jesus told his followers
about the resurrection. In the sixteenth chapter and verse twenty one,
we read that from that time Jesus began to show
to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and
suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes,
(08:18):
and be killed and be raised the third day. A
little later in Matthew seventeen, we read, now, while they
were staying in Galilee, Jesus said to them, the son
of Man is about to be betrayed unto the hands
of men. And they will kill him, and the third
day he will be raised up. And on the way
(08:39):
to the cross, Jesus told his disciples, behold, the son
of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and
to the scribes, and they will condemn him to death
and deliver him to the gentiles to mock and scourge
and crucify. And the third day he will rise again.
So you say, well, why don't you make such a
(09:00):
big deal out of this, Why does it matter? Well,
it matters because if Jesus promised something that he didn't produce,
He's not worthy of anybody's faith. The resurrection is at
the very core of the validity and credibility of the Gospel.
So the resurrection vindicates Christ's word and it validates his work.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Let me ask you this question.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Suppose Jesus had said I'm going to die, I'm going
to be buried, I'm going to rise again the third day,
and then he died and nobody ever heard from him again.
Would his death on the cross be meaningful?
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Course not.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
The resurrection is what proves the reality of the crucifixion.
Someone put it this way. The cross is Christ's payment
of our debt. The resurrection is God's receipt for the
full amount. So you see the resurrection is important to
Christ because it validates his work. In fact, throughout the
scripture you hardly ever see the crucifixion mentioned without the resurrection.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
That's an interesting discovery.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
When Paul was writing to the Roman believers in the
eighth chapter, he said, it is Christ who died, and
furthermore is also risen. I don't want you to forget
that those two things go together. Christ died, furthermore was risen.
Do you know what the gospel is? The gospel is
(10:30):
defined for us in a very succinct paragraph and Onet
Corinthians fifteen. I want to read it to you, and
I want you to notice as I read this definition
of the gospel, that the resurrection is a part of
the definition.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Watch this.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
I declare to you the gospel that Christ died for
our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried,
and that he rose again the third day according to
the scriptures. You can have the gospel all three parts.
He died, he was buried, he rose again. There wouldn't
be a good Friday without Easter, because Christ would have
(11:09):
long since been forgotten. As just another martyr who died
for what he believed. But Easter, my friends, is what
validates the work of Christ. When he came out of
that grave, he set himself apart from any other would
be spiritual leader. No one ever has claimed to do that.
No one ever has done it. Thirdly, the resurrection not
(11:31):
only vindicates Christ's word, validates his work, it verifies his worth.
If the crucifixion had marked the end of the story
of Jesus, he would undoubtedly still have been remembered as
one of the greatest men to have ever walked on
this earth. I mean, he was a captivating leader who
amassed a devoted following those who loved him, like the
(11:55):
woman who lovingly embalmed him, and Joseph who offered him
his tomb, and Nicodemus, who assisted in the process of
embalming countless others. They would have still been glad that
they had been part in treating someone they loved with
such devotion. But when Jesus Christ came back out of
(12:16):
the grave, bringing with him power over death, he became
more than a memory. Oh. Yes, this event proved that
he was indeed the son of God. Paul said that
in Romans won. He said, Jesus Christ, our Lord, was
born of the seat of David according to the flesh,
and declared to be the son of God with power
(12:37):
by the resurrection from the dead. How do we know
that Jesus Christ is the son of God because he
came out of the grave, victorious over death, miraculously proving
his identity. If all there was to Jesus was the cross,
then he's just a martyr. But if the resurrection is true,
(13:00):
is the savior of the world. So the resurrection matters
to Christ. But do you know it also matters to
the critics. It should not surprise you that if the
resurrection of Christ is the cornerstone of the Christian faith,
the critics of the Christian faith are coming after the resurrection.
I cannot tell you how many books have been written
(13:21):
over the years tempting to disprove the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Do you know one of the most astounding statistics about
that is well over fifty percent of them are written
by guys who, in the process doing the research became Christians.
These books which criticize the resurrection offer various explanations and theories.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
But I got to tell you something. I've read most
of them.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
It takes more faith to believe the theories than just
to believe the truth. I'm not kidding you. Let me
explain to you what I mean. Here's a couple of
their ideas. The whole thing is they have to explain
the empty tomb. They have to explain it. One of
the explanations they concocted was what they called the wrong
tomb theory. And here's how this works. According to this theory,
(14:09):
the women who discovered that Jesus' body was missing had
simply gone to the wrong tomb by mistake.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
But think about that.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
If that's true, all the Jewish leaders who were trying
to disprove the resurrection would have had to do is
go to the correct tomb and produce Jesus' body. But
they didn't do that because it was in fact the
correct tomb. It was just an empty correct tomb. And
here's my favorite one. This is called the swoon theory.
The swoon means to faint or lose consciousness, and this is.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
What they came up with here.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
According to this theory, the disciples mistakenly believed Jesus was
resurrected when he was really just resuscitated, that he didn't die,
but was only unconscious and was laid in the tomb.
Now consider what you have to believe in order to
accept this theory. First of all, you have to believe
(15:04):
that Jesus survived a six hour crucifixion. Then you have
to believe that he somehow managed to survive for three
days in the coldness of a tomb. And then you
have to believe that, despite his weakened state, he was
able to move a large boulder that blocked the entrance
to his grave. And finally, you have to believe that
(15:25):
he evaded the guards stationed that the tomb, convinced his
disciples that he had a glorified body before disappearing into anonymity.
I told you it's a lot easier just to believe
the real truth he rose from the dead. There's one
final that's kind of interesting to me because it's actually
referenced in the Bible. When this whole thing happened, the
(15:48):
soldiers who were supposed to be guarding Jesus' body were
in deep trouble. They didn't know how to explain that
Jesus wasn't where they thought he was, so they gathered
together with their elders. And here's what Matthew tells us happened.
When they had assembled with the elders and consulted together,
the elders gave the soldiers a large sum of money
and said to them, tell them his disciples came at
(16:11):
night and stole him away while we slept. Remember, they're
trying to explain why the tomb is empty, and if
this comes to the governor's ears, we will appease him
and make you secure. So they took the money and
did as they were instructed, And this saying is commonly
reported among the Jews until this day. In other words,
they floated the rumor that the disciples came and stole
(16:35):
Jesus out of the tomb to explain why the tomb
was empty. This gives the disciples a whole lot more
credit than they deserve. They weren't exactly the bravest bunch
of men who ever walked on this earth. Do you
remember that when Jesus was crucified, the Bible says all
his disciples forsook him and fled. During our Lord's trial,
(16:57):
Peter denied three times that he even knew the Lord
chees After the crucifixion, the disciples hid themselves in an
upper room and lock the doors. The same disciples were
also skeptical when they first heard about the empty tomb,
and one of the disciples said, I'm not going to
believe it unless I can put my hands in the
wounds of Jesus. Two disciples on the road to Emmaeus
(17:21):
doubted the reality of the risen Lord while they were
at the same time talking to the risen Lord. But
after Easter, all of Jesus' disciples were willing to die
as martyrs for preaching about his resurrection. They didn't care
what anybody said. They knew Jesus was risen. They knew
(17:41):
this was the new message of the Gospel. They went
everywhere preaching, and if you study the sermons in the
Book of Acts, they are pregnant.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
With the truth of the resurrection.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Now, let me just tell you it would be highly
unlikely for them to sacrifice their lives for something they knew.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Was a hoax.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
If they had really stolen the body from the tomb,
do you think they would have gone to their death
on behalf of that rumor?
Speaker 2 (18:07):
So what happened.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
What happened was the resurrection. What happened was Jesus came
out of the grave after three days, victorious over death,
and ladies and gentlemen, the evidence for jesus resurrection is
so strong that nobody would question it except for two things.
First of all, it's an unusually meant and secondly, if
you believe it happened, you have to change the way
(18:31):
you live. Finally, the resurrection matters to Christ and the critics,
and it matters to Christians. Death is a very present
subject for many, very depressive. The Bible says that some
people live their whole life in bondage because of the
fear of death. We don't want to admit it. We
all share the same fate. The statistics on death are
(18:54):
one hundred percent, and they don't lie. It's the mature
person who fail. This is this reality head on. But
here's the amazing thing. Those of us who have met
the risen Christ, the one who conquered death itself, no
longer have to fear death. Death is just a transition
to the next life. Christians have a great perspective on death.
(19:17):
We don't want to die, and we'll fight to live
with all our might. But when we have this hope
of Jesus within us. We are not afraid to face
death because we know what comes next. But you know what,
the resurrection has a very present ministry to us as
well on our journey from here to Heaven. The resurrection
(19:39):
has a very important place to play in our lives.
It's our hope, it's our reason for everyday life. Hope
is everything. And if we're not careful ladies and gentlemen,
even though we are Bible carrying, church going Christians, we
can develop a lifestyle that lives as if Good God
(20:00):
is dead. We go through difficulties and trials, and he's
never a thought in our mind, never someone we go
to when he's standing ready to be with us in
every moment. The apostle Peter put it like this. He said,
in his great mercy, God has given us new birth
(20:21):
into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish,
spoil or fade. In all this you greatly rejoice, though
now for a little while you may have to suffer
grief in all kinds of trials. Peter said, You're going
to have trials. You're going to have issues. You're going
(20:43):
to have stuff. But in the midst of the stuff,
there is Jesus. In the midst of the stuff, there's
the risen Lord. He overcame death. Do you think he
can handle your issues. He's the living savior of the world.
He is yours, not only for heaven. He's yours for
an He's yours for every day. He's yours for tomorrow,
he's yours for that issue this week. You didn't know
(21:05):
what you were going to do with but you've got
to get involved with him. If you're not a follower
of Jesus Christ, if you are not a Christian, you
have a hard time making that work in your life.
And even if you are Christians, his disciples followed afar Off.
You can do the same thing if you're not careful.
One of my favorite preachers of the last generation was
(21:27):
Donald Gray Barnhouse, pastor of Great Church in Philadelphia. In
one of his books, he tells the story of Easter
vacation one year when he was trying to win this
young lady to Christ. She would come and talk to
him and he would tell her about the Gospel, and
she would say she liked the Gospel, and she wanted
to be a Christian, but she just couldn't believe, and
he was trying to help her understand what.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
It meant to believe.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
One day, he said to her, how are you getting
back to college? She said, well, I'm going back on
an aeroplane. You got your ticket yet? No, I'm going
down there tomorrow and talk with the people at the
airline and get my ticket. Do you know the person
at the ticket counter?
Speaker 2 (22:09):
No, I don't.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
And when you were going get on that airplane, do
you know the pilot? No, she said, I don't know
the pilot. He said, So you're going to trust the
word of someone you do not know to tell you
where to go, and then you're going to trust someone
you do not know and will probably never see, to.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Fly you where you're going.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
And yet you cannot trust one of the greatest and
most attested facts in history, of the risen Lord Jesus Christ.
You say, well, I don't have any faith. You put
your faith in something every day. But I want to
tell you the risen Christ is the greatest, most proven
fact in history. Some have written that there's more evidence
(22:52):
of the resurrection of Jesus Christ than that Abraham Lincoln
ever lived. It's the most researched, discuss examine truth that
you will ever find. And over these years that have
gone by in my lifetime, fifty some years of studying it,
(23:13):
the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ just gets
stronger and stronger, and you can trust it. If you
believe in Jesus Christ, you will go to heaven. If
you put your trust in him, you will live forever
with the Father. If you reject it, you don't have
that hope. I want to ask you today, is there
(23:35):
any reason why you would not want to be a
Christian and believe and trust in the one who has
conquered death for you.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Amen.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Amen, I hope you will put your trust in him.
If you haven't done it, here's what you need to do.
Just bow your head wherever you are, pull over to
the side of the road if you're driving, and say, Lord,
I know I have failed you and that I am
a sinner. I know I can't save myself. I need you,
Lord Jesus, to be my savior. I believe that you
(24:09):
are the Son of God who came to this earth
and died on the cross, was buried, and three days
later came out of the grave, victorious over death. I
believe you have come into this world not just to
seek me, but to save me, and I put my
trust in you. Now, Lord Jesus, come and fill me
up with yourself and help me to be the person
you created me to be. When you pray that prayer,
(24:32):
your life will change and it will be the most
important thing you've ever done. Do it today, Do it
on this Easter weekend. Enter into the Easter weekend with
Christ on the throne of your life. You will be
so glad you did. God bless you. We'll see you
here next time on this good station.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
For more information on doctor Jeremiah Special Easter message, please
please visit our website, where we also offer two freeways
to help you stay connected, our monthly magazine Turning Points,
and our daily email devotional Sign up today at David
Jeremiah dot org slash radio. That's Davidjeremiah dot org slash Radio,
or call us at eight hundred nine four seven nineteen
(25:18):
ninety three ask for your copy of David's best selling
in depth book on revelation, Escape the Coming Night. This
helpful resource is yours for a gift of any amount.
You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study Bible in the
English Standard, New International, and New King James versions, complete
with notes and articles from doctor Jeremiah's decades of study.
(25:40):
Get all the details when you visit our website David
Jeremiah dot org. Slash Radio, This is David Michael Jeremiah.
Join us Monday as we resume the series Escape the
Coming Night on Turning Point with Doctor David Jeremiah
In the Gospel message, Is it Jesus dying for our sins?
What really matters? What's the significance of the resurrection?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Today?
Speaker 1 (00:13):
On turning point, doctor David Jeremiah explains why Christ rising
from the dead isn't just important, it's at the very
core of our Christian faith. Listen as David shares a
special Easter message that answers the fundamental question about the resurrection?
Why does it matter?
Speaker 3 (00:32):
And thank you for joining us today, And let me
say to all of you listening, Happy Easter. And I
hope you are ready to celebrate the resurrection of the
Lord and your church and with your family and to
be filled with the joy of the Living Lord. We
are going to help you do that today with a
special message from Luke chapter twenty four. And the question
(00:53):
we're asking is why does it matter? Why does it
matter that the resurrection is taught as the centerpiece of
the Gospel. I didn't understand that for a long time
in my life, and then one day I heard a
message about it that changed everything. The Bible says, if
Christ has not risen, we are still dead in our sins.
(01:15):
And I realized the critical nature of the resurrection. I
never recovered from it, and I love preaching about it
every Easter. I'm going to do it in a short
time here on this program during the month of April.
We are so honored to be able to present to
you some opportunities to enhance your resources, especially on the
Book of Revelation. We have four study guides that will
(01:38):
take you through the entire book, verse by verse, with
the outlines and the illustrations and things for you to
look up. You find these study guides presented at David
Jeremiah dot org our website David Jeremiah dot org. But
you can get a copy of the book Escape the
Coming Night, which is a two hundred and ninety page
book that is a contemporary commentary on the whole Book
(02:01):
of Revelation. We'd love for you to have this because
I know that when you read this book, along with
listening to the teaching on the air every day, you
will grow in your understanding of the last book of
the Bible, the Book of Revelation. Here's how you get
your copy. Send a gift of any size to Turning
Point this month and ask for it. That's all you
have to do. Do your best gift and say doctor Jeremah,
(02:24):
I'd like to have a copy of the book Escape
the Coming Night. If you don't have this book, I'd
love to send you a copy as our way of
saying thank you for your investment in this international ministry.
And now let's talk about why it matters that Easter
is at the center of the gospel. In the twenty
(02:44):
fourth chapter of the Gospel of Luke, we have his
first hand account of what took place on that first
Easter Sunday. Sometimes we need to go back to the
original and remember what Easter is all about.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
What he wrote.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Now, on the first day of the week, very early
in the morning, they and certain other women with them
came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared.
But they found the stone had been rolled away from
the tomb. And they went in and did not find
the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened, as
(03:21):
they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold two men
stood by them in shining garments. And as they were
afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, these two
men said to them, why do you seek the living
among the dead.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
He's not here. He has risen.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Remember how he spoke to you when he was still
in Galilee, saying, the Son of Man must be delivered
under the hands of sinful men and be crucified. And
the third day rise again. And they remembered his words,
and they returned from the tomb and told all these
things to the eleven and to all the rest. And
it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna, and Mary the mother
(04:00):
of James, and the other women with them who told
these things to the apostles. And their words seemed to
them like idle tales, and they did not believe them.
But Peter he arose, and he ran to the tomb,
and stooping down, he saw the linen clothes lying by themselves,
and he departed, marveling to himself at what had happened.
(04:23):
It is the resurrection of Jesus Christ that sets our
faith apart from all religions. What we celebrated Easter is
totally unique to Christianity. Let me be very clear about that,
men and women. The foundation of our faith is not
the teaching of Jesus or the ideology that may have
developed from it. The foundation of our faith is not
(04:46):
the Christian worldview, as important as that is. Foundation of
our faith is not the wonderful life of Jesus with
his compassionate miracles. The foundation of our faith is not
even the death of Jesus Christ. All the religious leaders
of the world have died in that respect. Jesus Christ
(05:07):
would be no different. Now. The foundation of our faith
is the well established record of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Christ said that he would die and that in three
days he would come back from the grave. He did
exactly what he said he would do. And it was
that event that exploded into the hearts of the disciples
(05:27):
and convinced them that this Jesus was he who he
had claimed to be, the only begotten son of God.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
JOHNS.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Wales said, the Gospels do not explain the resurrection. The
resurrection explains the Gospel. Belief in the resurrection is not
an appendage to the Christian faith.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
It is the Christian faith.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
I don't know about you, but I grew up in
a good church when my father was pastor. He was
a good teacher and many school teachers. I was believed
in the resurrection and knew it was important, but I
didn't know it was the important thing in the faith.
In fact, I was a second year student in seminary.
Before I figured that out, it happened like this, Don
(06:13):
and I were invited into a special banquet that was
being held. They were doing these all over Dallas Fort
Worth where we were students. They were called a friendship banquets,
and all of the students and seminary family were told
to invite their friends to these banquets and one of
the professors from the seminary of one of the teachers
would come and speak at this banquet and share the gospel.
(06:35):
We were invited to this event, and our teacher was
Hadn't Robinson, the head of the theology department of Preaching,
and I went to that event expecting to hear a
rip rowing sermon on the cross of Jesus Christ and
his death and how you could be saved through the
death of Christ. To my surprise, he spent the whole
night talking about the resurrection. He mentioned the death of
(06:58):
Christ because you have to do that to talk about
him being raised, And for the first time in my life,
I realized the resurrection is at the core of everything
that Christians claim to believe. In this Easter message, I
want to show you why that is true, and I
want to help you get to where I got after
(07:18):
that banquet and how it's been a blessing in my life.
The first thing I want you to understand is that
the resurrection matters to Christ. Let's start by putting the
focus on the Savior, who's the star of this show.
The resurrection matters to Christ, and it matters to him
for at least three reasons. First of all, the resurrection
(07:42):
vindicates Christ's word. The women we are told remembered Jesus' words.
They recalled that Jesus had promised that he would die
and that he would be raised three days later.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Three times.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Even in the book of Matthew, Jesus told his followers
about the resurrection. In the sixteenth chapter and verse twenty one,
we read that from that time Jesus began to show
to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and
suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes,
(08:18):
and be killed and be raised the third day. A
little later in Matthew seventeen, we read, now, while they
were staying in Galilee, Jesus said to them, the son
of Man is about to be betrayed unto the hands
of men. And they will kill him, and the third
day he will be raised up. And on the way
(08:39):
to the cross, Jesus told his disciples, behold, the son
of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and
to the scribes, and they will condemn him to death
and deliver him to the gentiles to mock and scourge
and crucify. And the third day he will rise again.
So you say, well, why don't you make such a
(09:00):
big deal out of this, Why does it matter? Well,
it matters because if Jesus promised something that he didn't produce,
He's not worthy of anybody's faith. The resurrection is at
the very core of the validity and credibility of the Gospel.
So the resurrection vindicates Christ's word and it validates his work.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Let me ask you this question.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Suppose Jesus had said I'm going to die, I'm going
to be buried, I'm going to rise again the third day,
and then he died and nobody ever heard from him again.
Would his death on the cross be meaningful?
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Course not.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
The resurrection is what proves the reality of the crucifixion.
Someone put it this way. The cross is Christ's payment
of our debt. The resurrection is God's receipt for the
full amount. So you see the resurrection is important to
Christ because it validates his work. In fact, throughout the
scripture you hardly ever see the crucifixion mentioned without the resurrection.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
That's an interesting discovery.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
When Paul was writing to the Roman believers in the
eighth chapter, he said, it is Christ who died, and
furthermore is also risen. I don't want you to forget
that those two things go together. Christ died, furthermore was risen.
Do you know what the gospel is? The gospel is
(10:30):
defined for us in a very succinct paragraph and Onet
Corinthians fifteen. I want to read it to you, and
I want you to notice as I read this definition
of the gospel, that the resurrection is a part of
the definition.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Watch this.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
I declare to you the gospel that Christ died for
our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried,
and that he rose again the third day according to
the scriptures. You can have the gospel all three parts.
He died, he was buried, he rose again. There wouldn't
be a good Friday without Easter, because Christ would have
(11:09):
long since been forgotten. As just another martyr who died
for what he believed. But Easter, my friends, is what
validates the work of Christ. When he came out of
that grave, he set himself apart from any other would
be spiritual leader. No one ever has claimed to do that.
No one ever has done it. Thirdly, the resurrection not
(11:31):
only vindicates Christ's word, validates his work, it verifies his worth.
If the crucifixion had marked the end of the story
of Jesus, he would undoubtedly still have been remembered as
one of the greatest men to have ever walked on
this earth. I mean, he was a captivating leader who
amassed a devoted following those who loved him, like the
(11:55):
woman who lovingly embalmed him, and Joseph who offered him
his tomb, and Nicodemus, who assisted in the process of
embalming countless others. They would have still been glad that
they had been part in treating someone they loved with
such devotion. But when Jesus Christ came back out of
(12:16):
the grave, bringing with him power over death, he became
more than a memory. Oh. Yes, this event proved that
he was indeed the son of God. Paul said that
in Romans won. He said, Jesus Christ, our Lord, was
born of the seat of David according to the flesh,
and declared to be the son of God with power
(12:37):
by the resurrection from the dead. How do we know
that Jesus Christ is the son of God because he
came out of the grave, victorious over death, miraculously proving
his identity. If all there was to Jesus was the cross,
then he's just a martyr. But if the resurrection is true,
(13:00):
is the savior of the world. So the resurrection matters
to Christ. But do you know it also matters to
the critics. It should not surprise you that if the
resurrection of Christ is the cornerstone of the Christian faith,
the critics of the Christian faith are coming after the resurrection.
I cannot tell you how many books have been written
(13:21):
over the years tempting to disprove the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Do you know one of the most astounding statistics about
that is well over fifty percent of them are written
by guys who, in the process doing the research became Christians.
These books which criticize the resurrection offer various explanations and theories.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
But I got to tell you something. I've read most
of them.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
It takes more faith to believe the theories than just
to believe the truth. I'm not kidding you. Let me
explain to you what I mean. Here's a couple of
their ideas. The whole thing is they have to explain
the empty tomb. They have to explain it. One of
the explanations they concocted was what they called the wrong
tomb theory. And here's how this works. According to this theory,
(14:09):
the women who discovered that Jesus' body was missing had
simply gone to the wrong tomb by mistake.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
But think about that.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
If that's true, all the Jewish leaders who were trying
to disprove the resurrection would have had to do is
go to the correct tomb and produce Jesus' body. But
they didn't do that because it was in fact the
correct tomb. It was just an empty correct tomb. And
here's my favorite one. This is called the swoon theory.
The swoon means to faint or lose consciousness, and this is.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
What they came up with here.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
According to this theory, the disciples mistakenly believed Jesus was
resurrected when he was really just resuscitated, that he didn't die,
but was only unconscious and was laid in the tomb.
Now consider what you have to believe in order to
accept this theory. First of all, you have to believe
(15:04):
that Jesus survived a six hour crucifixion. Then you have
to believe that he somehow managed to survive for three
days in the coldness of a tomb. And then you
have to believe that, despite his weakened state, he was
able to move a large boulder that blocked the entrance
to his grave. And finally, you have to believe that
(15:25):
he evaded the guards stationed that the tomb, convinced his
disciples that he had a glorified body before disappearing into anonymity.
I told you it's a lot easier just to believe
the real truth he rose from the dead. There's one
final that's kind of interesting to me because it's actually
referenced in the Bible. When this whole thing happened, the
(15:48):
soldiers who were supposed to be guarding Jesus' body were
in deep trouble. They didn't know how to explain that
Jesus wasn't where they thought he was, so they gathered
together with their elders. And here's what Matthew tells us happened.
When they had assembled with the elders and consulted together,
the elders gave the soldiers a large sum of money
and said to them, tell them his disciples came at
(16:11):
night and stole him away while we slept. Remember, they're
trying to explain why the tomb is empty, and if
this comes to the governor's ears, we will appease him
and make you secure. So they took the money and
did as they were instructed, And this saying is commonly
reported among the Jews until this day. In other words,
they floated the rumor that the disciples came and stole
(16:35):
Jesus out of the tomb to explain why the tomb
was empty. This gives the disciples a whole lot more
credit than they deserve. They weren't exactly the bravest bunch
of men who ever walked on this earth. Do you
remember that when Jesus was crucified, the Bible says all
his disciples forsook him and fled. During our Lord's trial,
(16:57):
Peter denied three times that he even knew the Lord
chees After the crucifixion, the disciples hid themselves in an
upper room and lock the doors. The same disciples were
also skeptical when they first heard about the empty tomb,
and one of the disciples said, I'm not going to
believe it unless I can put my hands in the
wounds of Jesus. Two disciples on the road to Emmaeus
(17:21):
doubted the reality of the risen Lord while they were
at the same time talking to the risen Lord. But
after Easter, all of Jesus' disciples were willing to die
as martyrs for preaching about his resurrection. They didn't care
what anybody said. They knew Jesus was risen. They knew
(17:41):
this was the new message of the Gospel. They went
everywhere preaching, and if you study the sermons in the
Book of Acts, they are pregnant.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
With the truth of the resurrection.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Now, let me just tell you it would be highly
unlikely for them to sacrifice their lives for something they knew.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Was a hoax.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
If they had really stolen the body from the tomb,
do you think they would have gone to their death
on behalf of that rumor?
Speaker 2 (18:07):
So what happened.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
What happened was the resurrection. What happened was Jesus came
out of the grave after three days, victorious over death,
and ladies and gentlemen, the evidence for jesus resurrection is
so strong that nobody would question it except for two things.
First of all, it's an unusually meant and secondly, if
you believe it happened, you have to change the way
(18:31):
you live. Finally, the resurrection matters to Christ and the critics,
and it matters to Christians. Death is a very present
subject for many, very depressive. The Bible says that some
people live their whole life in bondage because of the
fear of death. We don't want to admit it. We
all share the same fate. The statistics on death are
(18:54):
one hundred percent, and they don't lie. It's the mature
person who fail. This is this reality head on. But
here's the amazing thing. Those of us who have met
the risen Christ, the one who conquered death itself, no
longer have to fear death. Death is just a transition
to the next life. Christians have a great perspective on death.
(19:17):
We don't want to die, and we'll fight to live
with all our might. But when we have this hope
of Jesus within us. We are not afraid to face
death because we know what comes next. But you know what,
the resurrection has a very present ministry to us as
well on our journey from here to Heaven. The resurrection
(19:39):
has a very important place to play in our lives.
It's our hope, it's our reason for everyday life. Hope
is everything. And if we're not careful ladies and gentlemen,
even though we are Bible carrying, church going Christians, we
can develop a lifestyle that lives as if Good God
(20:00):
is dead. We go through difficulties and trials, and he's
never a thought in our mind, never someone we go
to when he's standing ready to be with us in
every moment. The apostle Peter put it like this. He said,
in his great mercy, God has given us new birth
(20:21):
into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish,
spoil or fade. In all this you greatly rejoice, though
now for a little while you may have to suffer
grief in all kinds of trials. Peter said, You're going
to have trials. You're going to have issues. You're going
(20:43):
to have stuff. But in the midst of the stuff,
there is Jesus. In the midst of the stuff, there's
the risen Lord. He overcame death. Do you think he
can handle your issues. He's the living savior of the world.
He is yours, not only for heaven. He's yours for
an He's yours for every day. He's yours for tomorrow,
he's yours for that issue this week. You didn't know
(21:05):
what you were going to do with but you've got
to get involved with him. If you're not a follower
of Jesus Christ, if you are not a Christian, you
have a hard time making that work in your life.
And even if you are Christians, his disciples followed afar Off.
You can do the same thing if you're not careful.
One of my favorite preachers of the last generation was
(21:27):
Donald Gray Barnhouse, pastor of Great Church in Philadelphia. In
one of his books, he tells the story of Easter
vacation one year when he was trying to win this
young lady to Christ. She would come and talk to
him and he would tell her about the Gospel, and
she would say she liked the Gospel, and she wanted
to be a Christian, but she just couldn't believe, and
he was trying to help her understand what.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
It meant to believe.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
One day, he said to her, how are you getting
back to college? She said, well, I'm going back on
an aeroplane. You got your ticket yet? No, I'm going
down there tomorrow and talk with the people at the
airline and get my ticket. Do you know the person
at the ticket counter?
Speaker 2 (22:09):
No, I don't.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
And when you were going get on that airplane, do
you know the pilot? No, she said, I don't know
the pilot. He said, So you're going to trust the
word of someone you do not know to tell you
where to go, and then you're going to trust someone
you do not know and will probably never see, to.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Fly you where you're going.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
And yet you cannot trust one of the greatest and
most attested facts in history, of the risen Lord Jesus Christ.
You say, well, I don't have any faith. You put
your faith in something every day. But I want to
tell you the risen Christ is the greatest, most proven
fact in history. Some have written that there's more evidence
(22:52):
of the resurrection of Jesus Christ than that Abraham Lincoln
ever lived. It's the most researched, discuss examine truth that
you will ever find. And over these years that have
gone by in my lifetime, fifty some years of studying it,
(23:13):
the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ just gets
stronger and stronger, and you can trust it. If you
believe in Jesus Christ, you will go to heaven. If
you put your trust in him, you will live forever
with the Father. If you reject it, you don't have
that hope. I want to ask you today, is there
(23:35):
any reason why you would not want to be a
Christian and believe and trust in the one who has
conquered death for you.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Amen.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Amen, I hope you will put your trust in him.
If you haven't done it, here's what you need to do.
Just bow your head wherever you are, pull over to
the side of the road if you're driving, and say, Lord,
I know I have failed you and that I am
a sinner. I know I can't save myself. I need you,
Lord Jesus, to be my savior. I believe that you
(24:09):
are the Son of God who came to this earth
and died on the cross, was buried, and three days
later came out of the grave, victorious over death. I
believe you have come into this world not just to
seek me, but to save me, and I put my
trust in you. Now, Lord Jesus, come and fill me
up with yourself and help me to be the person
you created me to be. When you pray that prayer,
(24:32):
your life will change and it will be the most
important thing you've ever done. Do it today, Do it
on this Easter weekend. Enter into the Easter weekend with
Christ on the throne of your life. You will be
so glad you did. God bless you. We'll see you
here next time on this good station.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
For more information on doctor Jeremiah Special Easter message, please
please visit our website, where we also offer two freeways
to help you stay connected, our monthly magazine Turning Points,
and our daily email devotional Sign up today at David
Jeremiah dot org slash radio. That's Davidjeremiah dot org slash Radio,
or call us at eight hundred nine four seven nineteen
(25:18):
ninety three ask for your copy of David's best selling
in depth book on revelation, Escape the Coming Night. This
helpful resource is yours for a gift of any amount.
You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study Bible in the
English Standard, New International, and New King James versions, complete
with notes and articles from doctor Jeremiah's decades of study.
(25:40):
Get all the details when you visit our website David
Jeremiah dot org. Slash Radio, This is David Michael Jeremiah.
Join us Monday as we resume the series Escape the
Coming Night on Turning Point with Doctor David Jeremiah
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