In Touch Ministries

Dr. Charles Stanley: He rose from the grave, giving us the most awesome message the world will ever hear, and a message that needs to be carried to the uttermost parts of the earth. And the issue is, in the life of the believer, what difference does it make? What difference is it making? What are you talking about? What's the center of your life? Is Jesus Christ the center of your life? Does your life revolve around him, or does your life revolve around you? What is this message of the resurrection?

Guest (Male): The disciples must have been in great despair when they watched Jesus suffer on the cross. But death was not the end for him, and it's not the end for believers either. Today on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley, you'll find assurance to face eternity, not with anxiety, but with peace, as you listen to the inspiring message of the resurrection. Let's listen now to Dr. Stanley's message.

Dr. Charles Stanley: What would you have thought if the man you followed for three years made such statements as this? I and the Father are one. If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. I am the light of the world. No man comes to the Father but by me. In fact, I could call down legions of angels and they would destroy the enemy. I am the door. I am the good shepherd. Those whom the Father gives me are mine.

And all of a sudden, here he is hanging upon a cross between two thieves and dying. Now wait a minute. This man said that he and the Father were one. He could call down legions of angels. No man comes to the Father but by him. He was before Abraham was. What about all this kingdom business? What about all of these promises he's made? And here he is dying, crucified between two thieves. How does all this fit? And all of a sudden, their life fell apart. They didn't know what was happening. It was midnight in their soul. Their leader, who said he was the son of God, who said he was the Messiah, is now dying between two thieves. This doesn't make sense, and all of a sudden, everything looked absolutely hopeless.

And then all of a sudden, something happened. Somebody came to the tomb looking for him, and here's what they found. The angel said, "He's not here. He is risen, just as he said." And all of a sudden, life changed. Did they all believe it at the moment? No, they did not. You know why? Because they were believing what they saw rather than what he promised. Because he'd said to them, "I must be killed, buried, rise again. I can lay down my life and I can take it up again." They had this crucial decision to make. Will we believe what we see, or will we believe what he promised? And when they began to believe what he promised, everything in life changed.

Because you see, the most awesome words ever heard on the face of this universe is, "He is not here. He is risen, just as he said." And if you'll turn to Luke 24, let's read this account of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Beginning in verse one, he says, "But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And while they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing. And as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, 'Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here, but he has risen. Remember how he spoke to you while he was still in Galilee, saying that the son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and the third day rise again?' And they remembered his words, and returned from the tomb and reported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest."

This is without a doubt the awesome inspiring message of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. There are lots of messages being delivered today, but none so powerful as that of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You may have been a Christian for quite some time, and you believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. But let me ask you a question. What specific impact has the resurrection of Jesus Christ made in your life? You believe that he rose from the grave. You've trusted him as your personal savior. What impact does it make in your daily life? Do you talk about it? Do you live out your life in such a way that you are living for the risen, resurrected Christ? Do you really and truly believe that he's living on the inside of you? Do you believe that he's the sovereign of the universe seated at the Father's right hand? Or is the resurrection sort of the Easter message?

So what I want to do is this. I want to leave you some simple phrases that will help you to recall and to understand what is the resurrection of Jesus Christ all about. It is not about an Easter season. It is about the most profound event ever happened on this globe or anywhere else in space, or whatever it might be. What is this message? And you see, if I'm inspired by something, it's going to make a difference in my life. You cannot understand fully the message of the resurrection and never talk about it. You cannot fully understand the message of the resurrection without it having a tremendous impact in your life.

And the truth is, life is not all about us. Life is all about Jesus Christ. And the resurrection of Jesus Christ helps us to put in proper perspective what this life is all about. It's all about him. It's all about believing him, trusting him, loving him, obeying him, sharing him, telling him to the world. And somehow we have the idea that when we come to that passage of scripture in Matthew, the last few verses of chapter 28, which we call the Great Commission, we have the idea that's for missionaries. And that's what missionaries do.

Listen to what that verse says in reality. Because what it really says is simply this: as you go, make disciples of all nations. As you go, as a present active participle of something that's like a normal part of life. For example, not going to all the world, but as you go, as you go about your own house, as you go about where you work, as you go about among your friends, as you go about where you have your pleasures in life. As you go, as you and I live out our lives, he says, "Make disciples, talk about Jesus, discuss him, share him." And so often we don't because we are too uncertain about those very, very basic truths that make an awesome difference and impact people's lives.

So when we say that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, that is the bottom line of what you and I believe. That he is alive, and the scripture makes it clear that not only is he alive, but where he is. He is seated at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us. Seated at the right hand of the Father, sovereignly overruling in all the earth. Seated at the right hand of the Father, keeping every single promise that he's ever made. Seated at the right hand of the Father, caring for the needs of his people. Jesus Christ is the risen Lord. The second person of the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

And you see, the scripture says that Jesus said to his disciples the night before he was crucified. He says, "I'm not going to leave you as orphans. I will be with you. I'm going to send the Holy Spirit, one just like me." He said, "He'll be in you, with you, and upon you." Where is Jesus Christ today? Here's where he is. He is seated at the Father's right hand, exercising all authority and power given to him. But he's also living on the inside of every single person who has trusted him as personal savior. Here's what he says. "I'm going to send the spirit. He'll be in you, with you, and upon you forever." And that's why those of us who believe this have absolute certainty of our eternal future. Jesus Christ is alive. He is not like any other prophet, any other teacher. The Christian faith is not like any other religion, because all their prophets, all their teachers, all their philosophers, all their propagators of all their propaganda and their so-called truth, they died. They died in the grave. You go to those graves.

But think about this. Somebody says, "Well, I just don't believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead." Well, I want you to think about something. I'm not going to take time to prove he's alive. We know he's alive. But if you question that, think about this. Those Pharisees and Sadducees were absolutely, totally committed, whatever the price, whatever the cost, to remove the very idea that Jesus Christ could be the son of God or that he died and could rise again. That's the last thing they would have tolerated. Therefore, as the scripture says, those guards went back and told what happened. If they did not believe that, here's what they would have done. They would have congregated their largest group of searchers ever to be congregated, and they would have searched every single square inch of Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria. They would have covered everything possible. They would have found him if he had not risen from the grave, because they would never have given up. There isn't even a search. It was the truth. He's alive, and he is just as much alive today as he was when he walked the face of this earth, and more so because he's walking the face of this earth in the body of every single person who has placed their trust in Jesus Christ as their personal savior. That means he's on the inside of us.

So if somebody says, "Well, where is this God of yours?" Say, "Yes, indeed, I can explain that to you. He's seated at the Father's right hand, exercising authority and control over all things, including us, sir, that you may doubt him. Secondly, he's on the inside of each one of us. He's on the inside of me, guiding me, leading me, helping me, strengthening me, healing me, caring for me, providing for me, answering my prayers, doing everything he said he would do. That's where he is. He is alive."

The second thing that makes this message of the resurrection so awesome is simply this, and that is that you and I are forgiven and eternally secure. He says he came to his own, but they rejected him. But as many as received him, placed their trust in him, to them, he gave the right, the authority, to become the sons of God. He says in the scripture, for example, "If you shall confess with your mouth Jesus Christ is Lord," that means that you're confessing that you believe in his death and resurrection, his ascension, that he's seated at the Father's right hand. If you confess Jesus Christ as Lord and believe with all of your heart that he has risen from the dead, you will be saved, forgiven, justified, declared righteous, reconciled.

And how did he do that? When Jesus came, he came for the primary purpose of dying on the cross, offering himself as a substitute. And therefore, God placing upon him the sin debt of the entire world. Why do you say that Sunday after Sunday? Because I want the whole world to hear it. Because it is the most awesome truth, that he paid our sin debt in full. And in the process of doing that, he was crucified. He died. And in order for us to know and believe with all of our heart that he was who he said he was, that he would do what he said he would do, he is risen, seated at the Father's right hand. So that every single one of us who is willing to ask God to forgive us of our sins based on one thing and one alone—there's only one thing, and that is on his substitutionary, sacrificial, all-sufficient death at Calvary where he paid our sin debt in full—the moment I accept him as my personal savior, I am forever a child of God.

Somebody says, "Well now, I believe that you can be saved, but I don't believe that you can be saved forever." Well, let me ask a question. Then how long are you saved for? How long is that? If not forever, how long? Will you say till I sin again? Then you're out of luck because that's not going to be very long. And you see, the problem is, that is not the truth. When God pardoned you, you trusted Jesus Christ as your savior, you are pardoned forever. You say, "Well, what about my sin?" We come to him, doing what? He says if we confess our sins—talking about believers now, read First John, he's talking about believers, not lost people—"If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just," that means he's always dependable. He has the right to forgive us even though we've sinned against him. He has the right to forgive us, just, righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Why? Because he paid our sin debt in full, and the reason we confess our sin today is to keep our life clean and pure before him. It's not to get saved over and over and over again. Saved once and for all, that is the awesome power of the atonement, because any other way is something you've got to do in order to be saved, and salvation's not in works.

The message of the resurrection is this: what he said he meant. The message of the resurrection is this: that you and I are his forgiven children. There's only one thing that pays our sin debt in full, that's the blood of Jesus. And the fact that it's forever. Does he not say in John chapter 10, for example, "My sheep hear my voice, I know them and they follow me. I give unto them eternal life." What's that? How long is eternal life? Forever life. Is it ever ending? No. Eternal means eternal, it means everlastingly, it means unending. "I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish." Not "except," not "if," not "and," not "but," not "when." They shall never perish. "My Father which gave them to me is greater than all, and they're in my Father's hands, and no one is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." One of the messages of the resurrection is that we have eternal life and eternal security forever and ever and ever. No one, nothing, no matter what, can ever take you and separate you from God.

That is the awesome message of the resurrection. And think about this. All these other religions in the world, all these cults and all these beliefs, every single one of them has this as a part of their theology: what you must do to please, what you must do to keep saved or forgiven, what you must do, your works and your denial and all these things. It's all about Jesus, not about us. That's what life's all about. It's all about Jesus Christ within us. Jesus Christ living in us, through us, and reigning over us. So that one of the aspects of the message of the resurrection is that we are his forgiven children, and we are sealed by the Holy Spirit forever. There's not a single phrase, not a verse anywhere in the Bible that indicates that the Holy Spirit seal can be broken. Somebody says, "Well, I can take it off." No you can't. You see, anybody who says that does not understand the awesome power of God. You are forever a child of God, not because that you're good enough, not because of your works, but because of a decision he made.

You and I would have reason to question that if he had not risen from the grave. What does his resurrection do? His resurrection validates, affirms, confirms, and proves forever that this Christ who made promises stood the acid test and passed it when he said, "I lay down my life and I'll take it up. They'll crucify me, bury me, but I will rise again," and he did. If that were not there, we'd just be another religion, another faith. But we're not just another religion. We don't have just another message. We have the awesome message that gives not only eternal hope but absolute eternal assurance.

The message of the resurrection is awesome. Not only that, but the message of the resurrection is that you and I are going to live forever. And there are people who believe that once you die, that's the end of you. You're in for a very, very, very alarming bit of information. Here's what the word of God says. "It is appointed unto man once to die and after this the judgment," not once to die and that's the end of you. Every single person who's alive will live forever somewhere. There's not any verse in the scripture that says, "Well, that's just the end of us." That's why Jesus said it's appointed to everyone once to die. He says we will all stand before the judgment and give an account for our lives. Those of us who've trusted Jesus Christ as our savior, we have the Holy Spirit living in us. He is our seal. It's like he is God's down payment. That is, he's placed himself within us a seal that says, "He belongs to me, she belongs to me."

We're going to live forever. And when you and I leave this life here, absent from the body, present with the Lord. What happens? Jesus said, "I'm the door." For the believer, death is a door. It's a door from what? It's a door from this life to his life forever. The wonderful message of the resurrection is this: we're going to live forever. You and I want to be sure we live forever where our Lord wants us to live forever, and that is indeed with him. We're going to live forever. He says, "Listen, wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Guest (Male): You're listening to In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. Christ promised eternal life to those who believe in him, and when he rose from the dead, he assured us that he can fulfill every promise that he made. You can hear these encouraging truths again at the link "Today on Radio" at intouch.org. And look around to find all kinds of helpful biblical resources. That's at intouch.org. And you can order a copy of today's complete message online. The title is "The Inspiring Message of the Resurrection." Again, you'll find these tools and more at intouch.org. To call or text us, the number is simply 1-800-INTOUCH. Or write to us. Address your letter to In Touch, Post Office Box 7900, Atlanta, Georgia 30357. What you're holding on to could keep you from fully experiencing God. Today's "Moment with Charles Stanley" is coming up.

Have you ever forgotten something God taught you when you were reading the Bible? When we take note of what God reveals to us, it helps us to apply it to our lives. With the Charles F. Stanley Life Principles Journal, you can keep track of your spiritual journey and be transformed by God's truth. This journal features artwork of Dr. Stanley's 30 life principles, lined pages for writing, a prayer journaling section, and more. To order, call 1-800-INTOUCH or go to intouch.org/journal.

The cross was not something that God gave us as a point of decoration. The cross is the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. But what is it about the message of the cross that can transform you every day of your life? In his book, "The Gift of the Cross," Dr. Charles Stanley walks us through scripture to show us how to see the cross in a new light. "The Gift of the Cross," order yours today at intouch.org/store.

You're listening to In Touch. When God disciplines believers, it's always motivated by his glory and his never-ending love. Here's a "Moment with Charles Stanley."

Dr. Charles Stanley: You'll never be able to become all that God wants you to be until you surrender your life to him. Now, sometimes we misunderstand this, and we think because the suffering comes our way, that God is angry with us or that he's punishing us. But remember this: God does not punish his children. Punishment is the wrath of God exhibited and expressed toward people who have rejected their only hope of salvation, which is Jesus Christ. When you reject Jesus Christ as your personal savior, you have no other hope whatsoever to get to heaven. So when a person rejects the Lord Jesus Christ, they're rebelling against God, saying no to him, and so the wrath of God will come upon them.

Now, what about the believer? Somebody says, "Well, you know, sometimes I think what comes in the life of a Christian, of a believer, is as bad as it is in the life of an unbeliever." Well, it may look that way. The only difference is this: one of them is motivated by the wrath of God, and the other is motivated by the love of God. His love doesn't always come easy, simple, plain, clear, pleasurable, and enjoyable. It's not always that way because you see, he loves you and me too much to allow us to remain where we are. So what is he doing? He's training us. And so what is this pain and hurt and suffering? It's not punishment. It is discipline. It is God's tool to bring you and me to the end of ourselves so that we can begin to see things the way he sees them. We can begin to become the persons that God wants us to be. That is, we can begin to die to those things in our life that are obstructions to the very blessings that we seek.

Guest (Male): When you receive God's forgiveness from the penalty of sin through faith in Jesus Christ, you are free from the threat of God's wrath and you live in the freedom of his love. Visit us at intouch.org to learn more. Did you have a fresh understanding as you listened to this program? Tell us what you learned today. Next time on In Touch, Christ's resurrection guarantees that believers like you and me will live for eternity. So I hope you'll join us again for more encouragement on that theme on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. This program is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia, and remains on this station through the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.