Understanding Eternal Life in the Bible | David Jeremiah

Life makes perfect sense when we understand that Jesus loved us from eternity past, has placed eternity in our hearts, and provides eternal life for us starting the moment we receive Him as Savior.

Many say I know about Jesus.
You may know about Jesus. But do you know Jesus?
Do you know him personally?
The study of Jesus as revealed to us in the New Testament scripture shows he is more than just a man, more than a martyr, more than a revolutionary, more than a movement, more than a superstar.
So who is Jesus?
Jesus is the mystery of the ages and the marvel of history.
He is personal and knowable and he longs to know you more discover how your life will overflow.
When the Jesus you may not know becomes the Lord and Savior you will always love in today’s message.
Doctor Jeremiah answers the question. Is he from history or from eternity?
I have it straight from the word of God on the authority of the word of God that Jesus Christ is at the right hand of the Father and he is in control.
Hallelujah, stay tuned for Doctor Jeremiah’s series, The Jesus.
You may not know today on turning point, take the journey from knowing about Jesus to deeply knowing him in Dr David Jeremiah’s new book, The Jesus.
You may not know yours for a gift of any amount in support of this program or for a gift of $55 or more.
You will also receive Dr Jeremiah’s previous companion book, The God.
You may not know and for a generous gift of $75 or more, Dr Jeremiah will send you in appreciation the Jesus, you may not know set containing his new book, study guide, online Leaders guide.
And the he is Bookmark plus his newest teaching series on CD or DVD, which will arrive at the conclusion of the series.
Receive the Jesus. You may not know.
And these additional resources when you support this program contact turning point today in appreciation of your viewership.
Today, Doctor Jeremiah would like to give you the he is Bookmark, an inspirational reminder of the names of Jesus to help you grow closer to Christ each day.
Receive the he is Bookmark completely free when you contact turning point today.
Now here is Doctor Jeremiah with his message. Is he from history or from eternity?
Hardly anything is eternal.
In fact, nothing in this world is eternal and given enough time, everything crumbles and returns to dust.
And that’s why you and I live in an antcy world, isn’t it?
We see around us, the things that we used to think were immovable and they’re gone.
And unfortunately, for us today, the word eternal and especially the word eternity has lost its meaning and eternity is a time thing for us.
But eternity is not time. Eternity is beyond time. We don’t understand eternity because we have no precedent.
Don. And I were talking about it this week at home and we were talking about how hard it is to wrap our minds around.
Something that never began and never ends something that has no beginning and no end. But that’s what eternity is.
We live in a world which given enough time, everything crumbles and nobody remembers us and life is ultimately meaningless and absurd.
And if you don’t understand what God has given to you in his word, to give meaning to this life, it’s very difficult to make it all the way through because in Jesus Christ alone, is it possible for us to discover the meaning of eternity?
I wanna talk about eternity in history, eternity in your heart and eternity in heaven.
First of all eternity in history, let’s begin in many respects.
The idea of associating history with eternity is absurd.
Eternity is you see one of the great mysteries of the universe, one of the great mysteries of God.
Everything is now to the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is a mystery and it is difficult to get our minds around it and it stretches us.
Does it not, it reminds me of that powerful thought that if the God you worship is small enough for you to understand he’s not, not big enough for you to worship.
I don’t understand all of this. I learn everything I can from the revelation of the scripture.
But when I’ve learned all I can learn about God, there’s so much, so much more about God that I cannot know one day I will know.
But I don’t know now. So what that means for you and for me is that since Jesus is God and since He has no beginning and no end and he has existed ages before he came into the world to be our savior.
When the prophet predicted that Jesus would come to be our savior, did you listen to his words?
Listen to how he described it. He said, out of you shall come forth to me.
The one who is to be ruler in Israel, who is that Jesus Christ who’s going forth are from of old, from everlasting.
In other words, Jesus Christ is coming to be the ruler of Israel, but he’s been around forever.
He’s never had a beginning. One day, Jesus was talking to some of his friends and he stunned them.
They, they never did get over this. They were talking about Abraham and David and all of that.
And Jesus said before Abraham was I am.
In other words, here’s Jesus 30 years old saying that he knew Abraham almost like Abraham and I were buddies.
Jesus didn’t say before Abraham was I was, he said before Abraham was I am.
In other words, Abraham had history, Jesus doesn’t have any.
He is forever where you say how does that affect me?
Well, listen up, the Bible says that you and I were chosen in Christ before the world began.
Ephesians 1 4 says he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.
What that means men and women is since we are in Christ, before the foundation of the world, we have been loved by Christ for a lot longer than you may think.
We have been loved by Christ throughout eternity. Jeremiah 31 3 says it this way.
Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love.
Sometimes we think Jesus only loves us if we do good things.
You know, we sometimes pick that up along the way growing up in our culture.
If you’ll be good, God will love you if you be bad.
He won’t, but that’s nothing to do with God’s love for us.
The scripture tells us that long before the world was long before there was a creation.
Long before Abraham Jesus loved us that he loves you.
I remember reading that Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury was asked what he believed to be the greatest challenge we face as Christ followers.
And without a moment’s hesitation, he said, every Christian I meet cannot quite believe that they are loved by God.
One of the great, great problems people have is accepting the fact that Almighty God loves them.
Maybe you’re like that, maybe you don’t believe Jesus loves you at all.
God through Jesus Christ has loved you before the foundation of the world, before you could do anything good or bad.
You were loved by God. That means He doesn’t love us because of who we are.
He doesn’t love us because of what we’ve done.
He loves us because of who he is when we succeed. He says I love you when we fail.
He says I love you because he is love.
There is nothing you can ever do to make Him stop loving you.
And there’s not anything you can ever do to make Him love you more than He already does because His love is eternal.
It’s a part of who He is as God and it’s always been true.
Everything you have ever done or thought whether it be good, better and different was in the future.
When God set his love upon you, he loves you, my friends, like you cannot imagine where you say, I don’t feel loved.
Let me tell you with authority. That is not God’s problem.
We cannot blame God for our feelings. God has told us the truth.
He loves us, believe it eternity in history. God loves you.
Here’s the second thought, eternity in your heart. This is really an amazing thought.
Hold this because it’s important to this. He’s loved us forever.
Then he set about creating us and he created us men and women with eternity in our hearts.
He created us literally so that all of us were made for Him, it should say on us, made for God because every one of us have been created for His pleasure.
And the Bible tells us that when God created us, he left a space within us vacant a space that only He can occupy in Ecclesiastes 3 11, we read these words, God has put eternity in our hearts.
That means that every one of us has a hunger and a longing for God.
Even if we don’t know it, that even when we might be rebelling against God, we might be saying I won’t have Him to rule over me.
There’s still this empty place in our hearts and God is the only one who can fill that.
One of the challenges we have in our culture is we try to fill that with everything else, don’t we?
We try to find meaning through riches or relationships or pride or money or sex or drugs or whatever.
Everything we stuff into that space doesn’t fit because that space was made for God.
He created eternity in our hearts. God has put every one of us in a place of knowing God.
If we want to. He’s built this place in us, that’s specifically for Him.
And if you do not know that if you do not accept it, it doesn’t go away, it will continue to be there.
And do you know that even after we become Christians, there’s still a bit of that within us.
The Bible says that all creation is groaning, waiting for the day of redemption.
What that means is that in this world, in which you and I live, we can have the joy of knowing Jesus Christ in a personal way.
But we were not built for this world and this world was not built for us.
We were built for eternity until we get there. We’re not gonna have that wonderful feeling that everything is right.
I think when we get to heaven, the first thing we’re gonna do is say, oh man, this is what I’ve been looking for.
And I’ve heard over and over again, people who have accomplished great things, they get to the place they hope they could get to and it didn’t feel the emptiness in their heart.
You know why Jesus is the only one who can feel the emptiness in your heart.
You can keep trying if you want to, it’ll be a frustrating existence if that’s what you do.
So eternity is in our hearts. In fact, ST Augustine once wrote it this way.
He said you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they learn to rest in the So what is eternal life?
John 17 3 says it this way. This is Jesus definition of eternal life. Listen carefully.
This is eternal life that they may know you. The only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
What did Jesus mean by eternal life? Let me tell you a story.
I don’t know how I got fixed on this, but I, as a young pastor, when I would ever go to do a funeral and go to the cemetery, I started kind of getting there early and walking around and looking at what people put on their tombstone turned out to be sort of a little gathering of humor for me over the years.
And then people found out about it and they started sending me all these really crazy epitaphs.
I got a whole book full of them.
Like here lies the body of old man peas buried beneath the flowers and trees, but peas ain’t here.
Just the pod peas shelled out and went to God. There you go.
That’s on a tombstone someplace or this one here lies the body of Mary Anne Brown at death.
She weighed 400 lb. But now in Sweet Rio, she rests in peace and rest on Abraham’s breast.
A little boy came along and saw it and thought they need another stanza.
So he added it may be sweet for Mary Anne, but it’s really tough on Abraham.
So I got all these epitaphs.
But you know what folks the, the strangest epitaph you’ll ever see and you will see it over and over.
You can go to almost any cemetery and you’ll see it. Here’s what it says.
Born August 1, 1930, entered into eternal life and then there’s a date and the only thing wrong with that is that’s not true.
You do not enter into eternal life. When you die, you enter into eternal life.
When you receive Jesus Christ, as your Savior, Jesus said, and I give them eternal life and they shall never perish.
Eternal life is described by 1 Scottish Minister as the life of God in the soul of man.
When I accept Jesus Christ, and he comes to live in that vacuum that God created in my heart, eternal life begins.
And when I die, it just takes a step forward. So I am living today, I have eternal life.
We say that on occasion, but we don’t really stop to think what it means.
You don’t get eternal life through death, you get eternal life through faith.
When you see Jesus Christ and you receive him as your savior, you become a Christian.
The Bible says you have eternal life. So now you have eternal life. And what does that mean?
Well, first of all, it means enjoyment.
How many of you know, when you, when you’re not a Christian, your attitude about Christianity is that you don’t want to be a Christian because it won’t be any fun.
I had a guy tell me one day, I’d be a Christian doctor Jeremiah, but it would be really inconvenient for me right now.
And what he meant by that was he’d have to stop doing some of the stuff he was doing because he wouldn’t think that would be right for a Christian to do.
I’m here to tell you that the greatest joy you will ever know.
You will know when you become a Christian. I’m not talking about happiness. I’m not talking about ra, ra ra.
I’m talking about the deep subtle piece in your heart that all is well with you and your maker.
When you have that kind of joy, you’ve never experienced it before.
You can’t have it any other way, except through receiving Jesus Christ and eternal life, you will have enjoyment and then you will have enlargement.
When you become a Christian, it isn’t God’s purpose to shrink you down, but to expand you, he gives you his Holy Spirit.
And when the Holy Spirit comes, he begins to identify gifts in you that can be utilized for the kingdom.
One of the greatest things to see for me is to watch people become Christians and then watch what happens to them after they become Christians as God begins to use them and they explode into something far greater than they could ever have believed would be possible to them.
Becoming a Christian is not dialing life back.
It’s turning it up and seeing how God allows you through your faith, to touch people everywhere you go and to make an impact that you never thought possible.
Eternal life is enjoyment and it’s enlargement. But it’s also enrichment.
When you become a Christian, you get the Holy spirit and everything the Holy Spirit brings to you, your life is enriched.
You know, I can say this as a fact, I’ve been a Christian for many years and I’ve been serving the Lord now as I just discovered for 50 years as a pastor.
And I look back over my life and I’m just amazed at how God has changed me as a person.
Everything that we have started. God got a hold of it.
He took it to the level I could never have believed.
When I left college, my goal was to be a disc jockey. I was doing that right.
Then I didn’t want, I didn’t want to go into the ministry because I thought by going into the ministry, I wouldn’t be able to fulfill my love for radio.
Are you kidding me? I was on a couple of little stations as a disc jockey turning point is now on 3000 stations in America alone.
Who does that? God does that God saves us.
Not only to bring joy to our hearts and to expand our influence, but to enrich us.
That’s what eternal life is all about. Never forget it. Eternal life is enjoyment. It’s enlargement and its enrichment.
When you become a Christian, those things happen in your life, it doesn’t mean you don’t have issues, you don’t have trouble, you start living life in a whole different way.
The Bible says that for 40 days after Jesus had risen from the dead.
He was here on this earth showing himself to his disciples. And then he ascended to heaven.
The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 12 by this man after he had offered one sacrifice for sin, sat down at the right hand of God, where is Jesus right now?
He’s at the right hand of God.
And the Bible says, he went into heaven and he sat down, he didn’t sit down because he was fatigued.
He sat down because he was finished. He had finished what he came to do.
And he sat down at the right hand of the father.
A lot of times Children will ask you, is Jesus in heaven? Is he up there forever? Yeah.
What’s he doing? That’s kind of what they ask. And we offered one of that too.
What is Jesus doing in heaven? Let me tell you a few things I’ve discovered from the scripture.
First of all, he’s providing for you at this very moment.
He’s seated at the supreme place of authority. He isn’t resting. He’s reigning.
Sometimes I look around and I wonder what in the world is going on.
And I sometimes even say to Donna, it’s like nobody’s in charge.
But I want to tell you Jesus is in charge and no matter what’s going on in this world that seems so disconnected to us.
So crazy and unresolvable almighty God has it all in his hands. You say, well, what if this happens.
Let me tell you what, I know nothing’s gonna happen, that Jesus doesn’t let happen or want to happen.
He’s in control. So when you go to bed tonight and you’re tempted to worry about what’s going to happen tomorrow in this place or that place with this leader or that leader, just rest assured it’s all under control.
We may not see it in the everyday things that go on around us, But I have it straight from the word of God on the authority of the word of God that Jesus Christ is at the right hand of the Father and he is in control.
Hallelujah. Here’s the second thing. This will surprise some of you. Did.
You know that Jesus is praying for you or you say pastor that’s wrong. I’m praying to Jesus.
No, no, Jesus is praying for you. Listen to this. Jesus said to Peter just before Calvary.
He said, Simon indeed, Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail.
Who is the eye? Jesus? Jesus said, Peter, I’ve been praying for you and I wanna tell you on the authority of this and two other scriptures that he’s praying for you.
Romans eight says, who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died and furthermore is also risen.
Who is even at the right hand of God who also makes intercession for us, Jesus is making intercession for us.
He’s praying for us. Hebrews 7 25.
He is also able to save to the utmost who come to God through Him.
He is always living to make intercession for us.
I have to promise you that I don’t know how this works.
But since Jesus is the infinite, eternal God, it is absolutely possible for Him to at one at the same time, be always praying for those of his family, including you and me.
And he prays for us before we even know we need prayer because he knows what our needs are.
And this week, wherever you go, and maybe you have an interview this week for a job or you’re facing a doctor’s appointment.
You dread. Let me just tell you something, whatever is going on in your life, Jesus is praying for you when you pray to him, you know, he’s already praying for you.
The scripture teaches that I believe that I’ve experienced that in my life.
Here’s the third thing he’s providing for us. He’s praying for us and he’s protecting us.
I don’t know how he does this, but he has this way of caring for us.
This is born out in one of my favorite benedictions. Listen to this benediction. It’s from the book of Jude.
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.
Did you know that one of Jesus roles in heaven is to keep us from stumbling.
So that one day he can present us faultless before the father. That’s what he’s doing in heaven.
He’s providing for us. He’s praying for us, he’s protecting us.
And here’s maybe the one, you know, best of all. He’s providing a place for us where we’re gonna live.
Some day. John 14 says it this way in my father’s house are many mansions if it were not.
So I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again to receive you unto myself.
That where I am there, you may be.
Also, Jesus is up in heaven getting our residences ready so that when we get there, we won’t have to get a real estate person to help us find where we’re gonna live.
You say, well, what are they gonna look like? I have no idea.
But here’s what I do know, Jesus took seven days, 24 hour days to create the whole world and we’ve given him a whole lot more time on that to work on our heaven.
So I think it’s gonna be pretty good.
And if you take the descriptions of heaven that are in the Bible, seriously, and I do it is beyond anything you can imagine.
He’s getting ready for us and one day we’re gonna be with him and we’ll live with him forever.
And you know how I know that the Bible tells us that the Bible teaches that.
And when does that start? It starts the day, the hour, the moment when you say yes to Jesus, when you accept Him as your savior, and you receive the gift of eternal life, the Bible says this, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.
Our Lord. I want to ask you today. Do you have eternal life?
Have you filled that space in your heart that just cries out for God?
Are you still trying to figure out some way to bypass God’s plan and stuff everything else into that space.
I want to promise you, you will never know joy and satisfaction and peace until you know Jesus.
I’d like to ask you to accept him as your savior today.
I’d like to introduce him to you and tell you with absolute confidence that if you make Jesus Christ the Lord of your life today, it will be the absolute best decision you have ever made or will ever make.
It will change everything in your life, not only here but in the future, please don’t walk away from that opportunity.
Thank you for watching. Turning point.
Dr Jeremiah would like to offer you the Jesus.
You may not know to take you on the journey from knowing about Jesus to deeply knowing him.
Jeremiah’s new book will be sent to you as a thank you for a gift of any amount in support of this program or with a gift of $55 or more.
You will also receive Dr Jeremiah’s previous companion book, The God.
You may not know and for a generous gift of $75 or more, Dr Jeremiah will send you in appreciation the Jesus you may not know sent containing his new book, study guide, online Leaders guide.
And the he is Bookmark plus his newest teaching series on CD or DVD, which will arrive at the conclusion of the series.
Receive the Jesus. You may not know and these additional resources when you support this program, contact turning point today.
If you have never taken the step to believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you can do that today.
If you will allow us, Doctor Jeremiah would like to send you two resources that will help you.
The first is a booklet called Your Greatest Turning Point, which will help you as you begin your relationship with Christ.
And the second is our monthly devotional magazine turning points to give you encouragement and inspiration throughout the year.
These resources are yours completely free when you contact turning point today.
In addition to these free study resources, nothing is as profound as the word of God.
And now Doctor Jeremiah has a Bible for every member of the family.
There are numerous versions of the Jeremiah study Bible perfect for adults and teens and the airship genesis kids study Bible will bring the truth of God’s word to the young ones in your life.
Contact turning point for more information or to order today.
Next time on turning point, Jesus Christ is the promised messiah.
There isn’t any question about it.
Any thinking person, any honest reasonable person who goes to the study of it will come away, not doubting but with their hands up high in faith.
Thank you for being with us today. Join Doctor Jeremiah.
Next time for his message, is he from the Old Testament or the New Testament here on turning point.