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00:00Find clarity and hope in God's unwavering prophetic plan
00:03with Understanding Biblical Prophecy.
00:06This all-new Bible study from Dr. Jeremiah
00:08will guide you through 30 powerful prophetic passages.
00:11As you read each prophecy, learn its context,
00:14answer reflection questions, and apply it to your life,
00:17you will learn to understand God's Word,
00:19trust in His promises,
00:21and face tomorrow with unshakable confidence.
00:24Request Understanding Biblical Prophecy
00:26for a gift of any amount
00:27from Turning Point Ministries today.
00:30Biblical and historical accounts
00:32tell of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
00:35We read the story of a stone taken away,
00:39an angel, and vacant burial cloths.
00:42But what if the resurrection never happened?
00:45What if the tomb remained the site of death instead of life?
00:50What would that mean for us today?
00:54Join Dr. David Jeremiah
00:56as he answers those questions
00:58today on Turning Point.
01:01A tomb, a stone, a military guard.
01:06If you were looking for Jesus in the two days following His crucifixion,
01:11that's all you would have seen.
01:14A tomb, a stone, a military guard.
01:18But, oh, that third day, how the picture changed.
01:23Hello, I'm David Jeremiah,
01:25and welcome to Turning Point on this marvelous resurrection day.
01:30But suppose for just a moment that on the third day nothing had changed.
01:35That Jesus' lifeless body was still in the tomb,
01:39and the entry was still sealed by a heavy stone and guarded by armed soldiers.
01:46What would that mean for mankind?
01:49It's a mental exercise the Apostle Paul felt was worth exploring,
01:53and I think you will too,
01:56as we ponder what life would be like if the resurrection had never happened.
02:01So join me for today's special Easter message,
02:05What If, coming up on Turning Point.
02:09Easter is a time for reflection, renewal, and reconnection with God,
02:14His Son, and those we cherish most.
02:16As you prepare to celebrate and gather with loved ones,
02:19prepare your heart for this most significant of holidays
02:22with Season of Hope, a celebration of Easter by Dr. Jeremiah.
02:26In this beautifully designed book, you'll discover four ways
02:30to find a deeper spiritual connection to the Savior during the Easter season.
02:34Reflect on two foundational Easter passages from God's Word.
02:37Take a 25-day journey of hope as experienced through the promise,
02:41people, and places of Easter with 25 daily devotionals.
02:45Search for the Jesus of Easter in the crowds, at the garden,
02:49at the cross, at the tomb, and in the sky
02:52through five inspirational readings.
02:54And explore 10 answers to questions
02:56to help you better understand the prophecies fulfilled
02:59and the events that occurred that first Easter.
03:01This treasury of Easter readings is sure to become a cherished volume
03:05you will come back to year after year.
03:08Season of Hope is yours for a gift of any amount
03:10in support of Turning Point.
03:11Or for a gift of $100 or more,
03:14order a four-pack to share with others.
03:16Celebrate Easter with renewed faith, understanding, and hope.
03:21Order Season of Hope from Turning Point today.
03:35Some of you may know
03:37that one of the great Reformation leaders of the past,
03:40a guy by the name of Martin Luther,
03:43suffered from huge bouts of depression.
03:47For days, he would have a hard time just functioning,
03:51and he tried a lot of things and had a wonderful wife.
03:55And the story is that one day he was at breakfast
03:57and she came down and she was dressed in black.
04:01And he asked her why she was dressed like that,
04:03and she said,
04:04well, I'm in mourning.
04:05And he says,
04:06what do you mean, I'm in mourning?
04:07She said, well, I'm in mourning.
04:08He says, well, who died?
04:09She said, God died.
04:12And he said,
04:13well, you know better than that.
04:14You know that God did not die,
04:16so why are you dressed in black?
04:17And she said,
04:18well, Martin,
04:19you're living as if God had died,
04:22and I thought I could get your attention
04:23by maybe showing you that he isn't dead,
04:27that he has risen from the dead,
04:28and he is alive,
04:29and you needed to start living like he was alive.
04:32So even preachers get in-your-face messages once in a while,
04:36and that was one for Martin Luther.
04:38What she was doing that day
04:40was not trying to prove the resurrection.
04:42She was trying to pretend that it hadn't happened.
04:45She was trying to get him to look at his life
04:49and realize that sometimes you forget things
04:51that are important,
04:52and it affects the way you live every day.
04:55And that's what Paul was trying to do,
04:57I believe, in the 15th chapter.
04:58of the book of 1 Corinthians.
05:01In the span of nine verses,
05:02he uses the word if six times.
05:05What if Christ had not been resurrected from the grave?
05:11Just suppose for a moment he wants us to think
05:14that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is untrue.
05:17What if the women who went to the tomb
05:19on that first Easter Sunday
05:21found that the stone was still in place
05:23and the soldiers were still marching up and down
05:26in front of the tomb?
05:27What if nothing had changed at all when they arrived?
05:31What if these women had to live
05:33by the memory of those cold, dead eyes
05:35and the body of Jesus
05:37as it was taken down from the cross?
05:39What if Jesus Christ had not come back from the grave?
05:44First of all, in the 14th verse of the 15th chapter,
05:48he says to us that if there is no resurrection from the dead,
05:52if Christ is not risen,
05:54then our preaching is foolishness.
05:57And since I'm a preacher, that gets my attention.
06:01When Paul says that our preaching is empty,
06:04what he is saying that if there is no resurrection,
06:07there's no foundation for any preaching.
06:08When Christ came out of the grave,
06:11he proved that what he had said he would do, he did.
06:15He proved that he had the power over death and life.
06:18He proved that what he did on the cross
06:21to take away our sin was sufficient,
06:23and Almighty God answered from heaven
06:25by allowing him to come back to life from death.
06:29I have to tell you,
06:31I love preaching more than anything else that I do.
06:35But if Jesus Christ did not come out of the grave,
06:40there's no reason for me to preach.
06:42If I did not believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
06:46I would resign from my job,
06:47and I would never preach again,
06:49for the only thing I have to offer anybody
06:52from this pulpit, from the Word of God,
06:54is the message of hope in the risen Christ.
06:58Paul is teaching us the absolute priority
07:01of the resurrection.
07:02If Christ is not risen from the dead, he says,
07:05the gospel message is without any meaning at all.
07:09There is no reason for anyone to preach,
07:12and we have no hope to offer the world.
07:14But it's not just about preachers.
07:17He has something to say about you
07:19and to all of us in that respect.
07:21In verses 14 and 17 of the 15th chapter,
07:25he tells us that if there is no resurrection,
07:27there is no such thing as personal faith in God.
07:31He says in verse 14,
07:33and if Christ is not risen, then your faith is empty.
07:37And in verse 17, and if Christ is not risen,
07:40your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins.
07:46If we put our trust in him, he promises that he will take
07:49all of our sin away from us and place it on himself
07:52and pay for it by what he did on the cross.
07:55However, if we choose not to do that,
07:58all of the weight of our sin rests on us.
08:04But if Jesus didn't come out of the grave
08:06on that particular Easter Sunday 2,000 years ago,
08:09we're still in our sins.
08:10Our sins aren't forgiven.
08:12We still have to deal with them ourselves.
08:14And one of these days, we're going to stand before a holy,
08:17righteous God to have to give an account of all the things
08:20that we have done that have violated his holy standard,
08:22whether in word or deed, whether by omission or commission,
08:26we will stand with our sins before a holy God
08:29if there is no resurrection from the dead.
08:33I still remember the day as a teenager
08:36when I asked Christ to come into my life and forgive me.
08:42Some of you may know that I grew up in a pastor's home,
08:44so what chance did I have?
08:47I used to tell people that when I was little,
08:48I had a drug problem.
08:50I was drugged to church every week.
08:51I mean, that's the way it was.
08:54But, you know, I had a lot of preliminary experiences
08:58with the Lord, as most children do,
09:00in vacation Bible school and Sunday school.
09:03But when I was a teenager, I really, really,
09:07for the first time myself,
09:08understood the implications of the gospel
09:11and made what I believe to be a meaningful decision
09:15to trust Christ, knowing what I needed to know
09:17to make that decision.
09:19And I have to tell you that when I did that,
09:21I didn't have any emotional response to it.
09:23I didn't cry.
09:24I'm not much of a crier.
09:26I didn't run around the house with my hands up high singing
09:28or anything like that.
09:30But what I do remember, and it's interesting
09:33that after all these years, I still remember this.
09:36I remember that I felt like something was lifted off of me,
09:40that I didn't have the weight of sin
09:43that I didn't know how to deal with.
09:45It's a strange thing, because I don't get into all
09:48of the emotional things that many people do.
09:49I just kind of felt lighter.
09:52For the first time, I realized that God loved me
09:55and that Christ had died for me
09:56and that he had taken all of my sin off of me,
09:59and now it was on him.
10:02That is why Christ came into the world,
10:04and that is why he died on the cross.
10:06But three days later, he came out of the grave,
10:09proving beyond any doubt that he who claimed to be
10:13the Son of God and able to forgive sin
10:15would and could do it and did do it.
10:19If Jesus Christ is not risen from the dead,
10:22our faith is futile, and we still carry
10:25all of our own sins on ourselves.
10:28Third, if there is no resurrection,
10:30our profession is false.
10:34It says in verse 15, yes,
10:35and we are found false witnesses of God,
10:39because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ,
10:43whom he did not raise up if, in fact, the dead do not rise.
10:47Now, watch this.
10:48The Book of Acts is the story of the birth of the early church.
10:53It begins primarily with the ascension of Christ
10:56and then the day of Pentecost
10:58and how the church in Jerusalem began to grow.
11:01And the Bible says that one of the first services
11:04they ever had Peter was the preacher,
11:05and when he got on preaching, 3,000 people got saved.
11:09And if you study the historic documents
11:12that go with that period of time,
11:13what you learn is that in the early church in Jerusalem,
11:16there probably were about 100,000 members of the church
11:19in just a few weeks.
11:20The church just exploded, and it exploded for two reasons.
11:25First of all, because of the day of Pentecost
11:26when the Holy Spirit came down and filled everybody with himself.
11:29But it exploded also because of the preaching that happened.
11:34The apostles were preachers,
11:35and they went everywhere preaching the gospel.
11:38But if you study what they preached, you'll be amazed.
11:42There are 19 sermons or addresses in the Book of Acts,
11:47and every one of them are about the same thing.
11:52They're about the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
11:55You say, well, why would that be true?
11:56Well, I'm gonna show you just a couple of places,
11:58and you see if you don't understand
12:00why this was such a dynamic thing in their lives.
12:03You begin to read this when you see Peter preaching
12:06on the day of Pentecost.
12:08And when he got done preaching and 3,000 people got saved,
12:11this is what it says.
12:12He preached this,
12:14this Jesus God has raised up of whom we are all witnesses.
12:23Over and over again, you see that phrase,
12:25when Peter healed the lame man at the gate of the temple,
12:28and a whole crowd of people showed up because of the miracle,
12:31he spoke these words.
12:33Listen again.
12:34But you denied the Holy One and the just,
12:36and you asked for a murderer to be granted to you,
12:38and you killed the Prince of Life,
12:40whom God raised from the dead,
12:43of which we are all witnesses.
12:48After the supernatural escape from prison,
12:50the apostles again spoke of the resurrection.
12:52And they said,
12:54the God of our fathers raised up Jesus,
12:56whom you murdered by hanging on a tree,
12:58and we are his witnesses.
13:02The apostles knew who Jesus was.
13:05They had seen him in his resurrection body.
13:08These are the apostles who had seen him hanging on a tree,
13:11so dead that the soldiers didn't even break his legs.
13:15They had seen his limp, dead body taken down off the cross,
13:19and hundreds of pounds of spices rolled into the fabric
13:22with which he was entombed.
13:24They saw him placed in the grave and the stone
13:27put across the mouth of the tomb.
13:29And then on Easter, they saw this same person,
13:33undeniably identified by the Prince in his hands
13:36and in his feet,
13:37and they saw him walking around in a resurrected body.
13:43And they couldn't help but tell everybody
13:45what they had seen.
13:47Put yourself in their shoes.
13:49They had known Jesus before his death.
13:51They had seen the brutality
13:53that had been wreaked on his body,
13:55and then they saw him after death,
13:58walking around the resurrected Son of God.
14:00And everywhere they went, they said,
14:02he is risen, he is risen indeed.
14:06You see, it's not like you can just set the resurrection
14:08over here and say this is optional belief for a believer.
14:11You don't get to do that.
14:12If you don't believe in the resurrection,
14:14everything falls apart because everybody
14:17who was a part of that story witnessed that it was true.
14:22And these are the people who have written to us
14:24the instructions as to how to live as Christians.
14:26These are the apostles, the witnesses of the resurrection.
14:30And Paul says, if Christ is not risen,
14:34they're all false witnesses.
14:36They're deceitful people.
14:38Here's the fourth thing he wants us to know,
14:40that if there's no resurrection,
14:41our promise for the future is fraudulent.
14:44I love verse 18.
14:46He says, then also if he is not risen,
14:48those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
14:52If Jesus didn't come out of the grave,
14:54nobody else is gonna come out of the grave either.
14:56If the resurrection didn't happen,
14:58if he did not conquer death by his resurrection from the grave,
15:02there is no hope that anyone will ever live again
15:05after they die.
15:09I know that one day I'm gonna see my mother and my father in heaven
15:12because they trusted in Christ.
15:15And I'm gonna see my sister and others that I have known
15:17and been close to over the years who've gone on
15:19to be with the Lord.
15:20They're in heaven.
15:22My hope for heaven is based upon what Jesus did
15:25when he came out of the grave.
15:27When he came out of the grave, he put his foot on the neck of death,
15:31and he broke it, and death is broken because he broke through death
15:35so that we would have hope that after his resurrection,
15:39one day we are going to be raised again to life.
15:44So, let's review.
15:46If there's no resurrection, preaching is foolishness.
15:49If there's no resurrection, personal faith is futile.
15:52If there's no resurrection, our professions are false.
15:56And if there's no resurrection,
15:58our promise for the future is fraudulent.
16:00But here's the last one.
16:01If there's no resurrection, our prospect for life is fantasy.
16:05You see, the resurrection not only is about the past
16:08and about the future, but it's also about the here and now.
16:12Listen to what Paul says in verse 19.
16:14He says,
16:15If in this life, in this life in which we live right now,
16:19only in this life we have hope in Christ,
16:22we are of all men most pitiful.
16:24In other words, if we don't have Christ,
16:27our resurrected Lord as our hope,
16:30even what we do in the current life begins to come unraveled.
16:34If all I am living for in the here and now is the here and now,
16:39that's not enough because it continues to recycle itself
16:44and it doesn't come out in the right place.
16:47I need something much more powerful to hinge my life on
16:50than just what's going to happen tomorrow.
16:53I need to know that my life is meaningful
16:55and that it has a purpose beyond this life.
16:59Someone has said that when you become a Christian,
17:01you cast an anchor into heaven
17:02and it's twirled around the throne of God
17:04and that anchor continues to pull you toward the Father
17:08and every day you realize you're connected to eternity.
17:12But if you don't have a connection to what comes after this life,
17:16then the life you live now will have its good moments
17:18and its bad moments, but it won't have any meaningful moments
17:23that will keep you going and give you hope.
17:26If we don't know that there is a future with God,
17:31it affects our future with God,
17:34but it also affects the here and now.
17:37Here's the way I like to say it.
17:38If you get heaven, you get heaven and now as well,
17:42but if you don't get heaven, you don't get either one.
17:44If you don't get heaven, you don't get the future
17:46and you don't get meaningful life.
17:48The reason my life is meaningful is because
17:50even though I know there are issues and troubles
17:53and difficulties here, I'm living my life
17:55for something beyond my death.
17:59My life has a meaning because of eternity
18:01and because that Christ is there,
18:03and one day I'm gonna be with him,
18:04and one day I'm gonna spend eternity with him,
18:06and everything I do on this earth
18:08is connected to that in some way,
18:10and I'm still learning as I grow in Christ how that all works.
18:14But what I know is that heaven and the future
18:17and life after death and understanding how that works
18:21in my life brings meaning and hope to every day.
18:25If we only have this life, if all we have is living for now,
18:33Paul says that's not enough, and many of you have told me
18:37over the years you've discovered that as well.
18:39When you find Christ, you find the center of meaning.
18:45Often we have said it this way, when God created you,
18:48he built you with a God-shaped vacuum in your heart,
18:51and until God is in that place, you feel incomplete
18:55and something of an emptiness.
18:58The purpose of Paul's argument here is this.
19:02If Christ is not risen, everything we hold dear
19:05as followers of him falls apart.
19:08But I'm glad he didn't end his little message
19:11on kind of a negative list of tragedies.
19:15He gets through with all of these what-ifs,
19:18and when he gets through with all of the what-ifs,
19:20he comes to the 20th verse of this 15th chapter.
19:24And in this verse, he puts it all into perspective.
19:29It's no longer what-if, what-if, what-if, but it is,
19:31but now Christ is risen from the dead,
19:36and he has become the firstfruits of those
19:39who have fallen asleep.
19:42The Scripture says that Jesus Christ is not in a tomb.
19:45He is risen from the dead.
19:47He is alive forevermore, and because he lives,
19:51we too shall live.
19:53And that is the hope of Easter,
19:54and that is the hope of the gospel.
19:56And without the resurrection, there is no gospel.
19:59There's nothing really to believe in except a fantasy story
20:02about a good man who walked on this earth many years ago.
20:05But if he really did what the Scripture says he did
20:09and what historians have adequately proven he did,
20:12if by his own power on the third day after his death,
20:15he walked out of that tomb victorious over death
20:19and says to us,
20:20because I live, you too shall live,
20:23it is worthy of us to put our trust in him,
20:27both for now and forever.
20:31Don't miss this point.
20:32He is risen.
20:33He is living.
20:34He is the one who said to the sister of Lazarus,
20:39I am the resurrection and the life.
20:42He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live,
20:45and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.
20:49Do you believe this?
20:51What did he mean?
20:53Was he saying that if you believed in him,
20:55you would never physically die?
20:57Of course not.
20:57He had just presided over the resurrection of Lazarus.
21:01What Jesus was saying is what we need to understand
21:04as we bring this all together into our hearts today,
21:07that there is life and there is death
21:09in two areas of existence.
21:12Just as we are born physically
21:14and one day will die physically,
21:17so we have the opportunity to be born spiritually
21:21so that we never die spiritually.
21:25Here's how it works.
21:26Death is simply a word that means separation.
21:29When we say somebody has died physically,
21:32that means their soul and spirit has departed from their body.
21:35Their soul and spirit has separated from their body.
21:38In the New Testament, one of the writers said,
21:40absent from the body, present with the Lord.
21:44But spiritual death is also separation,
21:46much more seriously so.
21:48Spiritual death is the separation of your soul from God.
21:53You can overcome physical death,
21:56but you cannot overcome spiritual death.
21:58Just as we are born physically,
22:00we need to be born spiritually.
22:03Jesus Christ went to the cross and was resurrected from the tomb
22:06so that we could have new life in him.
22:09That new life begins when we put our trust in him
22:12and what he has done.
22:12And the Scripture says when we do that, we are born again.
22:17That's what Jesus said to Nicodemus,
22:19except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
22:24So, here's how it works mathematically.
22:26If you are only born once, you have to die physically
22:32and then ultimately die spiritually.
22:36You will be separated from your body,
22:38and if you haven't had a second birth,
22:40you'll be separated from God.
22:41But if you are born twice, you only have to die once.
22:46If you're born twice, you're born physically.
22:49You may have to die physically if the Lord doesn't return
22:52before your death time.
22:53But if you've trusted in Jesus Christ
22:55because you've been born again,
22:57you will never, ever die spiritually.
23:00Now, listen to these words again.
23:02Jesus said to her,
23:04I am the resurrection and the life.
23:06He who believes in me, though he may die physically,
23:11he will live.
23:14And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.
23:20That is the message of the gospel,
23:22and you can see how it is so entwined
23:25with the resurrection of Christ.
23:27Because he came out of the grave victorious over death,
23:31he canceled death's power over us,
23:34so that one day we too shall live because of what he did.
23:39And it behooves us to make sure of our birthdays
23:44that we've had two of them.
23:47Because if you've only been born once,
23:50you will have to die twice.
23:52But if you've been born twice, you will only have to die once.
23:56And if Jesus comes back, you might miss that one too.
24:00That's kind of what I'm hoping for.
24:02I want to be alive when he comes back,
24:03and then I'll miss both of those.
24:06You see, when you believe in the resurrection
24:09and you know that you have a living Savior,
24:11everything changes.
24:13We live in a very troubled world,
24:15and every day seems like something happens
24:17that was worse than anything we've ever heard before.
24:20Sometimes we have to just step away
24:22from all the things that are happening
24:23in the temporal world in which we live
24:25and get a long, long look at the risen Christ.
24:29And remember that he has overcome it all,
24:32and there is nothing too hard for him,
24:34and he stands in the wrecks of time
24:36with his hands lifted up as the risen Savior.
24:40Jesus Christ is the champion over everything for one reason.
24:45He is the only one who ever faced death square in the face
24:50and overcame it by his own power,
24:53and he says to you and to me,
24:55if you'll put your trust in me,
24:58you can be victorious over death yourself.
25:03That's the message of Easter.
25:04That's why I love to preach it,
25:06because it is the most liberating truth you will ever hear.
25:13If you're a Christian, no doubt you're as glad as I am
25:17that today's what-if question is just hypothetical.
25:21But if you haven't yet trusted Christ as your Savior,
25:25I hope today's message makes the right choice crystal clear,
25:29the only way to a life of joy and peace and fulfillment now and for eternity
25:36is through a personal relationship with the risen Savior, Jesus Christ.
25:43It's my deepest hope that you make him the Lord of your life
25:47and that you're walking with him in a dynamic relationship.
25:52To help you deepen that relationship with Christ,
25:55I want to send you two free resources
25:58that have helped millions around the world.
26:00A booklet called Your Greatest Turning Point
26:04and our monthly devotional magazine, Turning Points.
26:07They're both yours at no charge
26:09when you contact us here at Turning Point.
26:28Season of Hope is sure to become a cherished volume you will come back to year after year.
26:32Yours for a gift of any amount in support of Turning Point.
26:35Or for a gift of $100 or more, order a four-pack to share with others.
26:40Thank you for your support of Turning Point.
26:43Request Season of Hope today.
26:49David Jeremiah and Turning Point are making a global impact for the Kingdom of God,
26:53but we can't do it alone. That's where Bible Strong Partners come in.
26:58Bible Strong Partners form the foundation of Turning Point, allowing Dr. Jeremiah to reach the world with the gospel
27:03and enabling you to share in the eternal impact of the ministry.
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27:11To become a Bible Strong Partner, go to davidjeremiah.org slash Bible Strong today.
27:19Next time on Turning Point.
27:22The Bible says, don't be surprised when these things happen to you.
27:26The thing I love about Jesus is He wants us to know the truth.
27:29He wants us to know the future.
27:31He goes out of His way on the Tuesday before He dies to give us the longest speech He ever
27:36gave
27:37about what's going to happen in the future. He says, please, hear me.
27:42The Olivet Discourse is His message of love to us.
27:47Join Dr. Jeremiah next time for a special interview introducing his series,
27:51The World of the End, hosted by Sheila Walsh, here on Turning Point.
28:00Dr. David Jeremiah is delivering the unchanging Word of God every month to more than half a million homes
28:06through Turning Point's magazine and devotional.
28:08Request your first issue now to read inspirational, in-depth articles
28:12and quick, clear, and creative devotionals from Dr. Jeremiah each month
28:16that will encourage, challenge, and strengthen your walk with the Lord.
28:19Request your first three issues of Turning Point's completely free,
28:23or give a gift of any amount to receive an annual subscription.
28:26Contact Turning Point today.
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