Even So, Lord, Come Quickly - DJ
Transcript
00:00No one knows when Christ will return, but imagine if we did.
00:11Imagine if you only had seven days until he comes back.
00:15One week, 168 hours, 10,080 minutes, 600, 4,800 seconds.
00:26What would you do?
00:27How would you change the way you lived?
00:30What would you say to God?
00:33Who would you tell about him?
00:35What relationships would you make right?
00:39What good would you stop putting off?
00:42We don't know the day or hour of his return, but we should live as if today were the day.
00:51Imagine if we did.
00:53You would turn the whole world upside down.
00:57Up for the challenge?
01:08Today we conclude my seven-part series of messages called Seven Days Until Christ Returns.
01:15When Jesus was sealed in the tomb, his disciples thought they would never see him again.
01:21But they were wrong.
01:23Our Lord overcame death and walked out of that grave victorious over death.
01:29And he promises to those of us who believe in him that we too shall live.
01:35Just as the early disciples learned to live in light of Christ's resurrection, we must
01:40commit to living faithfully in light of his second coming.
01:44I hope you'll join me for today's edition of Turning Point as we not only celebrate
01:49Christ's resurrection, but also his coming again.
01:56Drawing from decades of experience as one of the world's most respected scholars of
02:00Bible prophecy, Dr. Jeremiah brings his signature wisdom, depth, and compassion to the Book
02:06of Signs, 31 Undeniable Prophecies of the Apocalypse, his masterwork on prophecy.
02:11A must-have volume for anyone interested in end-times theology.
02:15The Book of Signs will be sent to you in appreciation when you support this program
02:19with a gift of any amount.
02:22Also available, the Signs Set, containing the Book of Signs, the 31-message Signs CD
02:27collection with three correlating study guides, and the Revelation Prophecy Chart, plus the
02:32Prophecy Interview DVD, yours in appreciation of your generous gift of $135 or more, or
02:39three monthly payments of $45.
02:41The Book of Signs and the Signs Set, Dr. Jeremiah's legacy work on Bible prophecy.
02:48Contact Turning Point today.
02:52Thank you for watching Turning Point.
02:54Now here is Dr. Jeremiah with his message, Even So, Lord, Come Quickly.
02:59400 years before Christ's birth, the Greek philosopher Socrates was dying and he was
03:09considered the wisest teacher in the world.
03:12But when his friends asked him, shall we live again?
03:17His only answer was, I hope so, but no one can know.
03:23It's the most crucial question of the ages.
03:27In fact, in the book of Hebrews we're told that some people are so paralyzed by this
03:30question through the fear of death are all their lifetime subject to bondage.
03:36Many people that you and I know are deathly afraid of death.
03:43And without some assurance of life after death, death becomes for all of us a terrifying proposition.
03:49And that's exactly why Easter is such a celebration.
03:54Because the resurrection of Jesus Christ settles the age-old question once and for all, if
04:00a man dies, will he live again?
04:04The resurrection takes Christianity out of the realm of philosophy and turns it into
04:09a fact of history.
04:11It proves that there is indeed life beyond death.
04:16You see, the doctrine of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is central to our faith.
04:20It is just not one of those optional things we may choose to believe in or not and still
04:25be Christians.
04:27It is not just a one-day celebration we observe in the spring of each year.
04:32To deny the resurrection is to remove the core from the Christian faith.
04:38The crucifixion of Jesus would have been in vain without the resurrection, for the resurrection
04:44validated what Christ did on the cross.
04:47Many have gone to some sort of a martyr's death supposedly on behalf of what they believed.
04:54But none of them have come back from the grave except for Jesus Christ.
04:59Of all the world's belief systems, only Christianity is based on the resurrection of its leader.
05:07Therefore, if the resurrection is not a fact, Christianity is a waste of time.
05:14If Christ is not raised, Paul told the believers at Corinth, our preaching is vain.
05:20It's empty.
05:21It's foolish.
05:22Our faith is without any basis.
05:25The writers of Scripture have lied, and deliverance from sin by faith in Jesus is a joke.
05:32Hope after death is no better than any man's guess.
05:36Paul said, if Christ is not risen, our preaching is empty and your faith is empty.
05:41But I'm here to tell you, Christ is risen.
05:46Easter is true.
05:48The Bible teaches that Jesus of Nazareth, a Jewish prophet who claimed to be the Christ
05:53prophesied in the Jewish Scriptures, was arrested and judged a political criminal and
05:58then crucified.
06:00And three days after his death, some women went to the tomb and found his body gone.
06:05And his disciples claimed that God had raised him from the dead, that he had appeared to
06:10them several times before he had ascended to heaven.
06:14Many men and women have tried to disprove the resurrection in hopes of crushing Christianity,
06:21but none of them have succeeded.
06:26One such critic was a man by the name of Frank Morrison, who was an attorney, who decided
06:30early in his career that he would devote his whole life to disproving the resurrection
06:36and therefore he would destroy the foundation upon which Christianity had been built.
06:43In the midst of studying all the biblical and historical records, something strange
06:48happened.
06:49Frank Morrison became a Christian.
06:51He discovered that the evidence was so, so powerfully in favor of the resurrection and
06:57that if the resurrection was true, that Christ had a claim upon his life and he became a
07:03follower of the one he had attempted to discredit.
07:08As we reflect on the resurrection each year, there are all different kinds of ways we can
07:12approach it, but I'd like to take a few moments this year and just talk about three levels
07:18and lines of proof, some which we may be familiar with and others which may not be
07:24familiar to us.
07:25First of all, I'd like to suggest that the resurrection was not or should not have been
07:33news to the disciples of Jesus Christ because Christ predicted that he would do this.
07:38Christ promised them that he would come back from the grave, and that comes as a surprise
07:43to many people.
07:44I've actually had some people that have gotten into discussions with me about this saying,
07:48you know, Jesus never even said he would come back from the grave.
07:51Jesus didn't even believe in the resurrection.
07:53He never told anybody he was gonna become the resurrected Christ.
07:58And if people ever say that to you, you can know one thing about them, they don't read
08:01the Bible.
08:03Because in the Bible, over and over again, we are told that Jesus told his followers
08:08what he was about to do.
08:11There's a little section in the book of Matthew where a lot of these passages are right together,
08:15and I'm gonna read them to you.
08:17You can write the references down in your notes and look them up later.
08:20But it's quite amazing that within such a short span of Scripture, we have so many declarations
08:26by Jesus Christ that he was going to go to the cross and die and be buried and come back
08:31from the grave victorious over death.
08:34Here are his words.
08:37Matthew 16, 21, from that time, Jesus began to show to his disciples that he must go to
08:42Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be
08:48killed and raised again the third day.
08:53In the very next chapter of Matthew, right after the record of the transfiguration, we
08:58find these words in verse 9 of chapter 17.
09:01Now, as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying,
09:06"'Tell this vision to no man until the Son of Man is risen from the dead.'"
09:14Again in the same chapter, verses 22 and 23.
09:17Now, while they were staying in Galilee, Jesus said to them,
09:21"'The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill him,
09:26and the third day he will be raised up,' and they were exceedingly sorrowful."
09:31In the 20th chapter of Matthew, verses 18 and 19, we read again the words of our Lord.
09:37"'Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief
09:42priests and to the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him to the
09:48Gentiles, to mock and to scourge and to crucify, and the third day he will rise again.'
09:56At the Last Supper, the Lord again spoke of his resurrection," Matthew 26, "'After I have
10:02been raised,' he said, "'I will go before you into Galilee.'"
10:06And not only did he do this directly, but he also did it indirectly and metaphorically
10:11on one occasion during the period of time when the temple was being cleansed.
10:16Jesus got into a discussion with those who were there, and he gave them this little analogy.
10:20He said, he said, "'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.'
10:26And they got all, they got all bent out of shape because they thought he was talking
10:30about the literal temple that had taken years and years to be built.
10:35But if you read the rest of the passage, it says Jesus wasn't talking about the literal
10:39temple.
10:40He was talking about the temple of his own body, and he was saying, "'If you destroy
10:43this temple in three days, I will raise it up.'"
10:47So whatever you may want to believe about the resurrection, don't give me any of this
10:50nonsense about the fact that Jesus never said he was going to be resurrected because he
10:55said it over and over again.
10:57Now, if you have a hard time grabbing hold of it, let me encourage you, the disciples
11:01who were with him every day, they didn't quite grasp it either until it was over.
11:06There's no one else who's ever said it or done it, but he did it.
11:10He went to the grave, and of his own power, he overcame death and walked out of that grave
11:14victorious over death, and he promises to those of us who will put our trust in him
11:20that if we will believe in him, we too shall live.
11:25We too shall have victory over death.
11:28Now, those are the predictions of the Lord Jesus.
11:33But after the resurrection, there were some proofs that it happened.
11:37Let me ask you this question this morning.
11:38If someone told you the story of the resurrection, and they said, I'd like to prove it to you,
11:46what would be some of the lines of proof that would be helpful to you?
11:49Well, I could name a number of them, but one of the first and most important would be,
11:54did anybody ever see him after he came out of the grave?
11:58If you look at all of the New Testament records, you will find at least 10 different appearances
12:04of Jesus Christ to his followers.
12:06He appeared to men and to women.
12:09He appeared to groups and individuals.
12:11He appeared in a house and on the street, to disciples who were sad and disciples who
12:16were happy, in periods of time that were short and in periods of time that were stretched
12:21out over time.
12:22The variety of his appearances is one of the reasons why people who have studied the resurrection,
12:28even trying to disprove it, have come away and said, there's no way that you can explain
12:33this.
12:34First Corinthians 15.6 says that he was seen by over 500 brethren at one time.
12:42And then Paul writes, of whom the greater part remained to this present.
12:46In other words, when Paul wrote those words in 1 Corinthians, he said, there were 500
12:51people who saw Jesus after he came out of the grave, and most of them are still living
12:55as I'm writing this.
12:57They could all have come forward and said, no, I didn't see him, no, no.
13:00They saw him, 500 at once.
13:03And as you go through these testimonies of those who saw Jesus, you realize that the
13:07post-resurrection appearances of Jesus are easy to document.
13:13He appeared to Mary Magdalene by the tomb.
13:15He appeared to the other women returning from the tomb.
13:18He appeared to Peter the same day, to two disciples on the road to Emmaus.
13:22He appeared to the apostles inside a locked room on two occasions, once when Thomas was
13:27with them and once when he wasn't.
13:30He appeared to the seven disciples by the Sea of Tiberias.
13:34He appeared to a group of 500 people on a Galilean mountain.
13:38He appeared to the 11 apostles.
13:40He appeared to James.
13:42He appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus.
13:45He appeared to John on the Isle of Patmos.
13:48One of the proofs of Christ's resurrection is the number of sightings from individuals
13:53to large groups over a period of 40 days.
13:57He wanted to make certain that his resurrection could be proven beyond all doubt.
14:03And Acts chapter 1, verse 3 says, he presented himself alive by many infallible proofs, and
14:11indeed he did.
14:14So the bottom line is this, folks.
14:16The body of Moses is in a grave somewhere.
14:19The body of Mohammed lies in a tomb.
14:21The remains of Lenin are in a glass-covered casket in Russia, and on his casket are these
14:26words, he was the greatest leader of all peoples, of all countries, of all times.
14:31He was the Lord of the new humanity.
14:32He was the Savior of the world.
14:35But when Lenin went to bed on January 20th, 1924, he never woke up.
14:41No one has heard from him since that night.
14:44He's dead, like every human being who's ever lived and stopped breathing.
14:51If Lenin is indeed the Savior of the world, we are in a world of hurt.
14:55But on the authority of the Word of God, I tell you today that Jesus Christ, who said
15:00he would die and rise again, is the Savior of the world.
15:04He is the Lord of lords.
15:05He is the living King of kings.
15:07He is alive.
15:08He is really alive.
15:14Well, you say, Pastor Jeremiah, that's the predictions of it.
15:21That's the proof of it.
15:22What about today?
15:23What is the evidence today of the resurrection?
15:26Let me suggest several lines of proof in today's world.
15:29First of all, the Christian faith.
15:31You know, the Christian faith makes up a huge part of the religious community, and the Christian
15:38faith is built totally on the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
15:42The resurrection of Jesus is the very citadel of the Christian faith.
15:46It turned the world upside down, and it separated Christianity from Judaism and from some of
15:51the other pagan religions of the Mediterranean world.
15:54If Jesus did not rise, there is no Christian faith.
15:57If the resurrection is not true, neither is anything vital or unique about the gospel.
16:02It has been said that if the resurrection of Jesus Christ is not an historic fact, then
16:07it is our duty to dig a new grave and bury in that grave not a man, but a religion.
16:12That religion is Christianity, the only hope of the world.
16:16The Christian faith demands the resurrection.
16:19Why do they go to church?
16:21To celebrate the faith of the resurrection.
16:25There is no way to explain our faith if the resurrection is removed.
16:30Jesus would have been just another quack claiming something for himself that was not true.
16:38But look at what has happened to Christianity over the years and how it has spread throughout
16:42all the world until today.
16:44There's hardly any place in the world where there is not some evidence of the Christian
16:49faith.
16:51Add to that the Christian church.
16:54If the crucifixion ended the disciples' experience of Christ, how do you explain the church?
16:59The church is founded on Jesus, the Messiah.
17:03It's built upon the foundation of Christ.
17:06The sole reason the church survives and flourishes today and can celebrate Easter Sunday is because
17:12Jesus broke out of the tomb.
17:14Do you believe that for one moment the early church could have survived a week in its hostile
17:19surroundings if Jesus Christ was still in the grave?
17:24The resurrection of the one on whom the church was founded was preached, watch this, within
17:28just a few minutes' walk from the tomb.
17:32If Jesus were still in the tomb and they were preaching that he had resurrected, all they
17:36would have to do is walk down the street and say, look, he's still there.
17:42But they couldn't do it because he wasn't there.
17:44He was gone.
17:45The tomb was there, but he was gone.
17:46The tomb was empty.
17:48He had come back from the grave.
17:51As a result of the first sermon that Peter preached on that subject, 3,000 people were
17:56converted.
17:57A few days later, 5,000 more became Christians.
18:01The resurrection was such a powerful truth and the empty tomb, which was substantiated
18:06by those who were there, it was so powerful that it totally controlled the environment
18:11all around it.
18:12And people were coming to believe in Christ, hundreds, thousands of people.
18:19The Christian faith and the Christian church, what about the Christian Sunday?
18:23The original day of worship for those at the time of the crucifixion was Saturday.
18:29The Jewish people worshiped on the Sabbath.
18:31Every once in a while somebody comes to me and says, I'll see you on the Sabbath, and
18:35they think the Sabbath is Sunday.
18:36But the Sabbath means seven, it's Saturday.
18:39We don't worship on the Sabbath, we worship on Sunday.
18:42But Christians began meeting on the Sunday, the first day of the week, after it was acknowledged
18:47that Jesus had been resurrected.
18:50Sunday is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
18:53The early church was made up predominantly of Jewish Christians.
18:57To make the change from the Sabbath worship to Sunday worship was earth-shattering.
19:03It was the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave that caused that to happen.
19:08Sunday services are a testimony to the resurrection of Jesus, and the practice goes all the way
19:13back to the first century when those who actually saw the risen Lord with their own eyes began
19:19to worship him, not on the Sabbath, but on the first day of the week.
19:23Then the Christian ordinances.
19:26We have two ordinances there, baptism and communion.
19:30Did you know that both of those ordinances are totally conditioned upon the resurrection?
19:35What about baptism?
19:36People come into our baptistry up there and they give a verbal testimony of their faith
19:40in Christ, and then they are placed under the water and brought back up.
19:44It's called baptism by immersion.
19:47Why do we do that?
19:48Well, first of all, the Bible teaches us to do that.
19:51Why does the Bible teach us to do it?
19:52It is a picture, according to the New Testament, of our relationship with Christ, who was crucified
20:00and he was buried and he rose again to new life.
20:05When we are Christians, we are baptized, and when we are baptized, we are buried with Christ
20:09in baptism and we are raised again to new life.
20:13So, our very baptism in our church is a testimony to what?
20:18The resurrection.
20:20When we have communion, the Bible tells us that we are remembering the Lord's death until
20:25he comes back again.
20:27Remembering his death until he comes back?
20:31How is he going to come back if he died?
20:33Oh, there was a resurrection in between those two things.
20:38And when we take these two elements, we celebrate the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus
20:43Christ.
20:44You see, you cannot go to church, you cannot celebrate Easter, you cannot celebrate on
20:51Sunday, you cannot take the ordinances without giving mute testimony to the reality of the
20:57resurrection of Jesus Christ.
21:00And that leads me to my last evidence of the resurrection in our current culture, and that
21:04is the changed lives of people.
21:09What can I say about that?
21:11As I've already mentioned, when the disciples came to the crucifixion and Jesus was going
21:14to die, they ran from him.
21:17They wanted nothing to do with him, but because of the resurrection, they were totally transformed
21:23into men of great courage and bravery who didn't really care what happened to them,
21:28who were heard to say, is it better to believe God and obey him or to obey man?
21:33And they stood in the trenches and followed the will of God all the way to a martyr's
21:38death because they knew the truth of the resurrection.
21:42What can explain such a dramatic change?
21:44What could have turned these cowards into great evangelists?
21:49Only one thing, and that's the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
21:53And I want to tell you something.
21:56The changes didn't stop when the disciples died.
22:00The gospel's been changing people from that day until this.
22:04And many of you who are in this room today can say, it was through the power of Jesus
22:08Christ that my life was changed, amen?
22:11That's what happened.
22:12How do you explain David-Jeremiah?
22:14There's only one way.
22:15Jesus changed his life.
22:17How do you explain your life?
22:18If you're a Christian today, it's only explainable in these terms, that one day as a sinner you
22:23came to see Christ as your only hope.
22:26And why did you believe he was your only hope?
22:28Because he alone has conquered death and come back victorious with the hope of forgiveness
22:34and transformation that he offers to you and to me.
22:38And your life has been changed.
22:40Has there ever been a time in your life when you have trusted him with your future?
22:46The Bible tells us that Almighty God has a perfect standard which cannot be violated.
22:51God is holy and righteous.
22:54Here's the problem that we have, most of us.
22:56We think that in order to go to heaven and to relate to God, we have to somehow try to
23:00get up to his standard.
23:01Here's his standard of holiness.
23:02We're reaching up.
23:03But you know what the Bible says?
23:04The Bible says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
23:10Nobody makes it.
23:12If the standard and the entrance requirement for heaven is absolute holiness, you have
23:18to make it all the way.
23:20There cannot be any gap between who you are and who God is if you go to heaven on the
23:26basis of holiness.
23:27You say, well, man, that's impossible.
23:29Absolutely impossible.
23:31And that's the reason why Almighty God took things into his own hands.
23:35He said, my creatures can never be holy enough to measure up to my perfect standard, so I
23:43will have to reach down to them.
23:45And he sent his own perfect Son, Jesus Christ, to come to this earth and to become our substitute
23:53so that we can measure up.
23:56We make it so hard.
23:57We make it so hard we stumble over it, but it's down on the lower shelf so even children
24:02can understand it.
24:03Here's what you must do.
24:04You must by prayer come to God and say, Lord God, I know I'm a sinner.
24:09What does that mean?
24:10It just means you can't get a hundred on the test.
24:13I always tell our kids, God doesn't grade on the curve.
24:15You gotta make a hundred.
24:19When you acknowledge that you're a sinner, then you're in the perfect position for God
24:23to help you.
24:24You say, Lord God, I'm a sinner.
24:25I know I can't save myself, but I wanna trust in your Son, Jesus Christ, to be my Savior.
24:31I know he came down here, and I know he went to the cross, and I know he paid the penalty
24:35for my sin.
24:36Now, God, I accept that.
24:39I accept it by faith for myself, and I invite him to come and live within my heart.
24:46And when you do that, you become a Christian.
24:49When you do that, you become a follower of Christ, a member of God's forever family.
24:56Dr. Jeremiah will return in a moment to close today's program.
25:00Right after this.
25:04Thank you for watching today.
25:05Dr. Jeremiah would like to offer you The Book of Signs, his masterwork on Bible prophecy,
25:11a must-have volume for anyone interested in end times theology.
25:14The Book of Signs will be sent to you in appreciation when you support this program with a gift
25:19of any amount.
25:21Also available, The Signs Set, containing The Book of Signs, The 31-Message Signs CD
25:26Collection with three correlating study guides, and The Revelation Prophecy Chart, plus The
25:31Prophecy Interview DVD, yours in appreciation of your generous gift of $135 or more, or
25:38three monthly payments of $45.
25:40The Book of Signs and The Signs Set, Dr. Jeremiah's legacy work on Bible prophecy.
25:47Turning point today.
25:51And now, with one last word for today's program, here is Dr. Jeremiah.
25:56No one, including me, knows the day or the hour when Jesus Christ will return.
26:04But because Jesus said plainly that He would return, our job is to live expectantly and
26:10obediently as if He might return today.
26:14The first step in preparing for Christ's return is to make sure you have trusted Him
26:19as your Lord and Savior.
26:21And to encourage you in that decision, please allow me to send you two free resources, a
26:27booklet called Your Greatest Turning Point and our monthly devotional magazine, Turning
26:33Points.
26:34These biblically-based resources will help you understand how to begin and grow in your
26:41relationship with Christ.
26:43And we will send them to you promptly and free of charge if you will contact us here
26:48at Turning Point today.
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27:25Next time on Turning Point.
27:27What we do know for sure is from the time you became a Christian and the time I became
27:32a Christian, the coming of Christ is nearer than it was then.
27:35That's good news.
27:36And what we aren't supposed to do is try to determine the time, but to be ready whatever
27:42time it is.
27:44Join Dr. Jeremiah next time for his series, Signs, Undeniable Prophecies of the Apocalypse,
27:50starting with a special interview where Dr. Jeremiah discusses the importance of studying
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