Dwelling Place

Guest (Male): Today on the Dwelling Place.

Al Pittman: God doesn't want you on parole. He wants you living by His promises. And His promise is that when He forgives you, your sins are separated from you as far as the east is from the west. As far as your sins being thrown into the depths of the sea, that God remembers your sin no more!

That's the promise of God. He doesn't want you living on parole, but by His promises, your sins are completely expunged. That word expunge means erased, removed, rubbed out, deleted forever from the sight of God.

Guest (Male): Thank you for listening to the Dwelling Place, a radio ministry from Pastor Al Pittman of Al Pittman Ministries. The purpose of this radio program is to encourage you, strengthen your walk with the Lord, and grow.

To support this program financially or learn more about the ministry, visit us online at alpittmanministries.com. That's alpittmanministries.com. Thank you for partnering with us. Now, here is Pastor Al.

Al Pittman: Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Without it, we would be—Paul said—if Christ is not risen, then we are the most pitiful people on the planet. As the apostle said in 1 Corinthians. And he said that we are the most pitied among all the people in the world. We're just fools.

All the things Jesus did—raising the dead and healing the sick and all the wonderful things He said—would mean nothing if He is not alive. But we are not here to celebrate some monument. We're not here to worship some religion. We're here to celebrate and worship a living Christ. He's alive today. Amen. He is risen. It makes all the difference in the world.

People wonder, "Which religion should you follow? Which follower should you go after?" The one that's alive. Amen. Christ is risen from the dead. Praise the Lord. From death to life. I'm looking at John chapter 20, verses 1 to 18. John's account of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Easter, Resurrection Sunday, represents a message, the message of the gospel. It is actually the power of the gospel because if Christ is not risen, then our hope is in vain. Jesus said something in John 10:10. He said that the thief—that is, the devil—is come to do three things: to steal, to kill, and to destroy. You can watch it on the news. It's happening all around us.

But He said, "I have come that they may have life, they might have life and that more abundantly." That's why He has come. In John's account of the resurrection, we find three characteristics of abundant life which appeared defeated, they appeared dead on that resurrection morning, that first resurrection morning. Three characteristics of abundant life that appeared hopeless or dead on that day, that morning. And they are love, forgiveness, and hope. Those three things appeared dead on that first resurrection morning.

I want us to read the text, verses 1 to 10 in John chapter 20. We'll see what I'm talking about here in just a moment. The Bible tells us in John chapter 20, verse 1. It says, "Now the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb."

Then she ran and she came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved and said to them, "They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know, we do not know where they have laid Him." And Peter therefore went out and the other disciple and were going to the tomb. And so they both ran together, and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first.

I always thought that was kind of curious that John, who is the author of the Gospel of John, just happens to mention that he outran Peter to the tomb. He just thought he'd kind of slip that in there. Amen. Probably pretty competitive John was. Verse 5 says, "And he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen cloths lying there, yet he did not go in." John didn't go in.

But then Simon Peter came following him, verse 6 says, following him and went into the tomb and he saw the linen cloths lying there and the handkerchief that had been around the head of Jesus, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself. That always amazes me because it's like the Lord was not in a rush. He wasn't in a hurry.

I have read where they had wrapped His body, and the women came to the tomb of course to anoint His body that early in the morning. But they had wrapped His body in that. Jesus didn't get out of His wrappings by ripping them off, but He just sort of came through the wrappings. They were still there, coiled just where He came out of His body.

And then He took, of course, the handkerchief that covered His face, and He took time to fold it, and He set it by the side. It wasn't like things were all over the place. He wasn't in a hurry because He's sovereign. He wasn't rushing. There was no anxiety in the resurrection. And so it is even in our lives if we know Christ. The Bible tells us as Christians to be anxious for nothing but in all things pray. Why? Because God is in control.

And Jesus demonstrated that even in the resurrection. There was no hurry, no panic at all. In verse 8 of John chapter 20, "Then the other disciple, who came to the tomb first, went in also and he saw and he believed." And then in verse 9 it says, "For as yet they did not know the scripture." In other words, they didn't know what you know. Amen.

We like to exalt these people, but they were just people like us. They did not know the scripture. They'd forgotten God's word, like sometimes we forget the word. Did not know the scripture that He must rise again from the dead. Now Jesus told them He was going to do that. "Tear down this temple"—speaking of His own body—"and I will raise it up in three days." And they were like, "Yeah, that's cool." But they weren't really listening.

Sometimes we're hearing the word, we're not really listening. So they didn't know that it was foretold in the scriptures that He would rise from the dead. And verse 10 says, "Then the disciples went away again to their own homes." Interesting they came to the tomb, they saw the empty tomb, and they went back to their own homes, kind of the same way they came.

Like a lot of people will attend Easter services today, and they will come in and leave the same way they came in, going back to their own despair, their own doubt, and their own fears even though they see that the tomb is empty. I pray that you would not do that today. I pray that you would leave transformed in this auditorium, you're watching online, you're in the overflow. I pray that God would transform your life today by the power of His word. Amen.

The three individuals mentioned here on that first resurrection morning represent lost love, lost forgiveness, and lost hope. They are, of course, we clearly can see it's John and Peter and Mary Magdalene. John represents love lost. He was often referred to and he referred to himself more than often referred to—he referred to himself as the disciple that Jesus loved. We just read that in verse 2.

He loved the Lord. Why? Because the Lord first loved him. He would later write in 1 John chapter 4, verse 19, that we love God because God first loved us. But now it appeared after seeing Jesus crucified that divine love was forever lost. Not the love of the world, the erotic love of the world or some friendship love, but agape love was lost.

God's love, love which goes deeper than the flesh, which satisfies the deepest need of the soul. In the book of Zephaniah in the Old Testament, chapter 3, verse 17, the Bible says that, "The Lord your God in your midst, the Mighty One, will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you with His love. He will rejoice over you with singing."

Did you know, those of you who are in Christ, that the Lord sings over you? I know we look in the mirror and we go, "Ugh." But God rejoices and sings over us. He is the almighty God who saves. Amen. He rejoices over you. He quiets, He comforts your soul. He sings over you because He's so in love with you. Think about that, that the Lord sings over you. People may curse over you, but God sings over you.

This was love, the love that John was looking for with that love that never fails. Paul talked about in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 8. He said, "Love never fails." And then John reminds us in 1 John that God is love. Love made available—that love was made available to all mankind, to you today, because there's an empty tomb, because Christ is risen. John was in search of the love of God.

Now Peter. Peter represented on that first resurrection morning, on that day, the death of forgiveness. He was a man in desperate need of God's forgiveness. And many of you know the story that Peter warmed himself by the fire at the trial of Jesus. And when people recognized that he was thought he was one of the disciples, he vehemently denied that he even knew Jesus.

Publicly denied the Lord not once, not twice, but three times. And on that third time, Bible says that Jesus had told him that before the rooster crows, you're going to deny me three times. And on that third time he denied Him, the rooster crowed and Jesus and Peter locked eyes. And Peter ran out, weeping bitterly at the trial of Jesus.

He was a man in desperate need of forgiveness. And sometimes we try to earn that forgiveness by our good deeds or giving more money to the church or what have you. Amen. But true forgiveness really begins with God. And Peter needed God's forgiveness. He saw an empty tomb. He's now facing an empty tomb, and should he be happy or should he be sad?

Because if Christ is risen, I'm in trouble, Peter probably thought, because I denied Him three times. Like a lot of people think today, "Well, if Christ is risen, Pastor, I'm in trouble." And people say, "You invite them to church, I can't go in there, the roof would fall down." And will you please assure them that Pastor Al is there and the roof hasn't fallen? And if God can be gracious toward this person, He can be gracious toward anybody.

And God's grace is sufficient for them. The roof will still stand up. It'll still hold up. But some people feel that way. They feel like, "I'm so guilty and I've done so many things that I can't even darken the door of the building. I can't be in the fellowship." I'm sure Peter felt that way. He felt so guilty. He thought, "I hope He's alive, but no, I don't, because if He does live, if He is alive, then I'm in trouble."

But Peter would learn to his delight later on, Jesus met them by the Sea of Galilee, that through faith in Jesus Christ, faith in the resurrection of our Lord meant that there is justification, there is forgiveness in Christ for all who will put their faith in Jesus. The biblical scholar Warren Wiersbe described justification this way. Justification or forgiveness in the Lord, you could say.

He wrote this and I quote, "Once you have been justified by faith, you can never be held guilty before God. Justification, God's forgiveness, is also different from pardon, because a pardoned criminal still has a record. When the sinner is justified by faith in Christ, his past sins are remembered against him no more, and God no longer puts his sin on record." Amen. That's the forgiveness that Peter needed.

And that's the forgiveness that you have in Jesus Christ. You put your faith in Christ, but a lot of times Christians, we act like when we come to church, we're on parole. We're reporting to the parole officer on Sunday morning. My parole office is Calvary Worship Center. Here I am. God doesn't want you on parole. He wants you living by His promises.

And His promise is that when He forgives you, your sins are separated from you as far as the east is from the west. As far as your sins being thrown into the depths of the sea, that God remembers your sin no more! That's the promise of God. He doesn't want you living on parole, but by His promises, your sins are completely expunged.

That word expunge means erased, removed, rubbed out, deleted forever from the sight of God. That's the good news of the gospel. And it's all because Jesus is risen from the dead. Amen. Peter longed for that sort of forgiveness on that first resurrection morning. This is the forgiveness that mankind, I might add, desperately needs today. The hatred and the vitriol, the cruelty, the wickedness that we see in our time.

People needing God's forgiveness, desperately needing God's forgiveness. You're here today and God loves you. And He wants to freely forgive you through faith in Christ, but you must come to Him. Not just look at the tomb, but you must come to Christ by faith and believe and put your trust in what He has done for you on the cross, not what you can do for Him.

The Bible tells us in Psalm 32, verse 2, it was King David who said this. David had sinned against the Lord and indeed he came to understand the blessed benefit of being forgiven by the Lord when he wrote, "Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity," the man or woman, "and in whose spirit there is no deceit." Blessed. That word blessed means happy. Amen.

People looking for other people for their happiness. Your happiness first comes with a right relationship with God when you've been justified and forgiven through faith in Jesus Christ. That's the source of our happiness and true joy. Amen. Because Christ is risen, we no longer have to bear the weight of guilt and shame. Now here in our text, love and forgiveness returned home. That is, Peter and John returned home.

But hope stayed behind. Mary Magdalene represents hope lost, or lost hope. Some Bible scholars believe that before coming to Christ, Mary Magdalene was a prostitute in the town of Magdala. We have taken trips to Israel, and many of you have gone with us. They have discovered some years ago, the archaeologists have discovered the ruins of the town of Magdala by the Sea of Galilee.

Mary Magdalene was from the town of Magdala. And many scholars again believe that she was a prostitute there. And not only that, but when she met Jesus, she was a woman possessed by seven demons. Seven demons. She was not only from the other side of the tracks, she was not only involved in sex trafficking, being trafficked herself, but she was also a woman possessed by seven demons.

And she encountered Jesus. She encountered Him when at a time she was full of hopelessness. In fact, the number seven in Hebrew stands for completeness. So you could say that Mary Magdalene was completely hopeless. Is there anybody here who can relate to that? Is there anybody watching online who can relate to being completely hopeless?

And we don't have to look far to see people completely hopeless. We just need to watch the news, the people who we work with, the school you go to or what have you. People are completely without hope today. I mean, it's crazy. I don't need to go into all the details, but it's sad the things we turn to rather than return back to God.

And I pray that in America, that God is calling America back. That God is sending us an awakening at this time, because we are a nation, I'm telling you, that's full of hopelessness. We desperately need a savior. So many people can relate to where Mary was at that first resurrection morning. Scripture tells us, however, when Mary met Jesus, that Jesus had cast out her demons.

And by doing so, He gave her not just hope, but living hope. Peter writes about living hope. There's a difference between hope and living hope. If you hope in somebody, a place or thing, a building or whatever, that hope can pass. It's temporary hope. But the hope that we have in Jesus Christ, because He is risen, it's a living hope. Amen.

And that means that we have hope despite what we might experience in this life. Our hope is still alive. Why? Because Jesus still lives and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. And so Peter writes in 1 Peter chapter 1, verses 3 to 5. He says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

To an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away." Do you have that kind of inheritance? That's a living hope. "Reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time," in the last days. Amen. And that salvation is ready to be revealed to the entire world because Jesus is coming soon.

But that salvation we have is kept by God. It's reserved in heaven for you. Here's the question: Do you have your reservation? Do you have your reservation? Do you know for certain if you were to die today that you'd go to heaven? Do you have that sort of everlasting hope, that inheritance that does not fade away through faith in Christ? An inheritance guaranteed by the fact that Jesus is risen from the dead.

On that first resurrection morning, however, Mary Magdalene, she didn't know what we know. Oh, she wished she'd known that day what we know right now. But she didn't know. She was full of hopelessness. Hope appeared to be dead, but an empty tomb would prove to be evidence of the fact that living hope in Christ never dies.

We have a living hope in Jesus because it is sustained by the mercy of God. Living hope sustained by the mercy of God. The Bible tells us in Psalm 90, verse 14, "O satisfy us early with Your mercy, with Your mercy God, that we may rejoice and be glad all the days, all our days." Are you rejoicing and glad?

We can rejoice in the Lord and be glad in the Lord because we have a living hope that is sustained by the mercies of God. And when does God give us mercy? His mercies are new when? Every morning. Great, O God, is Your faithfulness. Amen. Did you partake of His mercy this morning?

Guest (Male): Learn more about Pastor Al and his ministry by visiting alpittmanministries.com. Also consider supporting us financially. You can send a check to Al Pittman Ministries at PO Box 5058, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80949, or visit us online. Thank you for your prayers and your support. Your generosity keeps this radio ministry going.

Lastly, we would love to hear from you. You can contact us by emailing info@alpittmanministries.com. That's info@alpittmanministries.com. We look forward to hearing from you. Again, thank you for joining us, and we'll see you next time on the Dwelling Place. God bless.