Dwelling Place

Al Pittman: But Jesus Christ had the audacity to defy forensic anthropology and reverse the natural decomposition of the flesh and command Lazarus to come forth. And today, he has the audacity to command despite the decomposition of sin in your life.

No matter how messed up your life is, he has the audacity to call you forth to reverse the effects of sin in your life. Will you come forth?

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 ministry financially or learn more about the ministry, visit us online at alpittmanministries.com. That's alpittmanministries.com. Your donations keep this radio ministry going. Thank you for partnering with us. Now, here's Pastor Al.

Al Pittman: 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?

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

I pray that in America, God is calling America back. That God is sending us an awakening at this time because we are a nation that's full of hopelessness. We desperately need a Savior. So many people can relate to where Mary was that first resurrection morning.

Scripture tells us, however, when Mary met Jesus, that Jesus had cast out her demons. 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, a 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, is 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.

Peter writes in 1 Peter chapter 1, verses 3 to 5. He says, "Blessed be to 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?

It is an inheritance guaranteed by the fact that Jesus is risen from the dead. On that first resurrection morning, however, Mary Magdalene didn't know what we know. 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 and be glad in the Lord because we have a living hope that is sustained by the mercies of God.

When does God give us mercy? His mercies are new every morning. Great, O God, is your faithfulness. Amen. Did you partake of his mercy this morning? When we partake of God's mercy, our hope is alive. It's living hope sustained by the mercy of God that's given to me every morning through faith in Christ so that you might have joy, you might rejoice and be glad, as the psalmist said, all your days.

Mary was looking for hope, the hope that can only be found in Christ, living hope. Verse 11 to 18 in John chapter 20 says, "But Mary stood outside longing for that hope by the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she stooped down and she looked into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet of where the body of Jesus had lain."

What she was seeing was really an image, a vision. It was more than a vision, the angels were actually there. But she was seeing the new covenant of God's grace. In the Old Testament, God commanded Moses to design what we call the Ark of the Covenant. It was a box overlaid with gold. It represented the presence of God with the children of Israel back in the time of Moses.

The Ark was what they had placed in the temple, the tabernacle. It was in a place called the Holy of Holies. You would go into the holy place where you'd have the lampstand, the showbread, and the altar for burning incense, the altar of prayers to the Lord. But there was another curtain that you would walk through, and it was the Holy of Holies.

That's where the priests would go once a year to make atonement for all the nation of Israel. So without going into a whole lot of detail, there was the Ark of the Covenant. In the Ark were the Ten Commandments, the jar of manna, and the rod of Aaron that budded. It was a dead piece of wood, and in order to show the children of Israel that Aaron was to be the first priest of Israel, that dead piece of wood budded. It came alive again. Amen. Another picture of the resurrection.

That was in that box overlaid with gold. The box also had on the top two figures of cherubim. They were angelic images and their wings would touch. They were on either end of the box. That box, that covenant, was the old covenant. And Jesus came to give us the new covenant of God's grace.

So when Mary Magdalene looked into the tomb and saw an angel at the head and one at the feet of where they laid Jesus, it was a picture, a portrait of the Ark of the Covenant. But it was a covenant of grace because Christ is now risen. Amen. Praise his holy name.

It's the new covenant of God's grace towards us. In verse 13, John chapter 20 goes on to say, then they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" And she said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid him."

In verse 14, "Now when she had said this, she turned around and she saw Jesus standing there and did not know that it was Jesus." There's a great lesson there for us. Sometimes hopelessness can cause you to look past Jesus. Sometimes hopelessness can cause you to look past hope. Jesus is standing there and she doesn't recognize him.

In verse 15, Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" And she, supposing him to be the gardener, said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away." And Jesus said to her, "Mary. Mary."

We were at an event the other night, my wife and I, put on by Springs Rescue Mission. We're sitting there with the CEO of Springs Rescue Mission and we're talking. One of the things he said was that a lot of times people come to him and ask, "What's the best thing to do when I meet somebody that's homeless? I don't know what to say. Should I give them money?"

He suggested asking them their name. Because in many cases, it's been days, weeks, or months since they've heard anybody speak their name. Psychologists tell us that when someone speaks your name, there's a chemical reaction in your brain. It affirms you. It gives you worth. When you speak that person's name and ask, "What is your name?" and you speak it, it gives them validity. It gives them self-worth as a human being.

But oh, when God speaks your name. When he said, "Mary," something happened. A chemical reaction, a Holy Ghost spiritual reaction happened in her soul and her eyes were opened. When he said her name, what he was saying was, "I know everything about you."

The Bible says that God knows our thoughts even before we think them. Did you know that? I know every secret thought you've had. I know the things you've done in secret that you think people don't see. I know the thoughts that you have that you think nobody really sees. But God sees them. God knows everything about us and he still calls your name.

Whether you're watching online today, here in this auditorium, in this building, or in our overflow in the other building, God knows your name. That means he knows everything about you. So when she heard "Mary," the light was turned on. Amen? Hopelessness fled and living hope flooded in. Amen. Praise the Lord.

When God says your name, the same thing happens. He is calling you today as well. Hopelessness had to flee when living hope comes in. And notice something here, our tears can give us away with God. The angels said, "Why are you weeping?" And even Jesus said to Mary, "Why are you weeping?"

Then he asked her the question, "Whom are you seeking?" He said that because our tears have meaning. Many times we are weeping because we are looking for somebody to wipe away our tears. "I'm searching for that person, that relationship that will make it all good." That's why Jesus said, "Whom are you seeking?"

The reality is that nobody can wipe away our tears but God. God knows the meaning of your tears. Did you know that? Every tear that ever rolled down your cheek, he knows and understands it. The Bible says in Psalm 56, verse 8, "You, that is God, number my wanderings. Lord, you know where I've been and you put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?"

Not only does he capture my tears, he catalogs them. That's how much he loves you, how much he cares for you. He knows why you cry. And he's the only God who can wipe away your tears. Amen. In verse 16, the latter part in John chapter 20, we read there to verse 18 that she turned and Mary Magdalene turned and she said to him, "Rabboni, Rabbi," which means Teacher.

Jesus said to her, "Do not cling to me." Oh, she was clinging. Everlasting hope. "For I have not yet ascended to my Father. But go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God because I am risen, God is now your Father." Amen, praise his holy name. You are not fatherless.

I don't care what your daddy did on earth or your earthly father, whatever, you are not fatherless. God is your Father. Everyone who puts their faith in Christ, John says in John chapter 1, they have the right to be called children of God. You go tell them that I'm going to my Father, but their Father as well. My God and their God.

He said, "Don't cling to me because I'm yet to go." Jesus had to make an appearance before the Father for atonement, offering his own blood before the Father for the forgiveness of our sins. Verse 18 says Mary Magdalene came and she told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that he had spoken these things to her. Amen.

So at the tomb that first resurrection morning, we think, oh, it was just so wonderful. No, there was lost love, lost forgiveness, and lost hope. But that empty tomb caused love to live again, forgiveness to be a reality, and everlasting hope to be a living hope through faith in Christ.

Are you in search of love today? Are you in search of God's forgiveness? He's here to forgive you. Are you in search of living hope? Well, there's an empty tomb today that declares that all of that is available to you through faith in Christ. Jesus is risen from the dead that we might be raised from death to life through faith in him.

In John chapter 11, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. There are four things I observed in the resurrection of Lazarus, a friend of Jesus, that I want to share with you quickly that really speak to the fact of how the Lord raises us from death to everlasting life. The first thing I noticed in the resurrection of Lazarus is that Jesus knew Lazarus' true condition.

The Bible tells us that Jesus said Lazarus was sleeping, and the disciples assumed that Jesus meant that Lazarus was resting because when you're sick you need to rest. Then Jesus had to break it down to them and said, "No, Lazarus is dead." He's dead. And I thought about that in the sense that God knows our true condition.

We might look like we're resting, we might look like we're prospering in life, but if we don't have a right relationship with God, we're still dead in our sins, as the Bible says in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1. Dead in sins and our trespasses. That's our true condition apart from God. And only through faith in Christ can we be raised to life.

The second thing I noticed in the resurrection of Lazarus is that Jesus can take away the stone. Jesus can remove the stone. By the authority of his word, he told the people at the tomb of Lazarus, "Take away the stone." I love that because the Lord is able to take away those things that are an obstacle to us.

The Lord is greater than your addiction. The Lord is greater than your problems or your circumstances. By his word, he commanded, "Let the stone be taken away." The Bible says in Luke chapter 18, actually Jesus said it, that "the things which are impossible for men are possible with God." You're not a hopeless case.

The third thing I noticed is that Jesus has authority over sin's decomposition. In verse 43 of John chapter 11, Jesus commands that Lazarus come forth. In verse 39, when Jesus said, "Remove the stone," Martha said, "Hey Jesus, you may not want to do that because there may be a stench. Lazarus has been dead for four days. Decomposition has set in."

But Jesus Christ had the audacity to defy forensic anthropology and reverse the natural decomposition of the flesh and command Lazarus to come forth. Today, he has the audacity to command despite the decomposition of sin in your life. No matter how messed up your life is, he has the audacity to call you forth to reverse the effects of sin in your life. Will you come forth?

He has the power over the decomposition of sin in the spiritual sense in our lives. Romans 8:28 says that he works all things together for good to those who love God who are called according to his purpose. Isaiah 61, verse 3 says that he gives beauty for ashes.

You say, "Pastor Al, you don't know my situation. I'm sitting in a hotel room watching you right now or I'm at home by myself. I have burned down my life." But God can make something beautiful from the ashes of your sin. He can reverse the process if you'll put your trust in him. Amen.

The fourth thing I noticed about Lazarus' resurrection is that Jesus declared Lazarus to be set free. In Christ, we are set free. In verse 44, as Lazarus came out of the tomb, he said, "Loose him and let him go." I love that because condemnation has to let you go. No more condemnation in Jesus Christ. Loose him. You are free in Jesus.

The Bible says in Romans 8:1 that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Judgment, the weight of sin, the guilt, has to let you go. Loose him, loose her, let them go free. In John chapter 8, verse 36, Jesus said, "Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed."

Are you free today? Have you come forth out of the tomb? There's no time for excuses. It's time to come forth right now. Christ has the authority. He knows your true condition, yet he still calls you. He calls your name. In conclusion, Jesus asked Martha, the sister of Lazarus, an important question that we all have to answer.

I don't care who you are. You could be the President, I don't care who you think you are, how powerful you might be, or how much money you have. You're going to have to answer this question because one out of one person dies. One out of one person dies.

When Martha came to Jesus and said her brother Lazarus was sick, Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And those who live and believe in me shall never die." And then he asked the question, "Do you believe this? Do you believe this?"

Looking at an empty tomb, we know Christ is risen and we go, "Oh, that's wonderful, what a great story." But do you believe this? Have you received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Do you know for certain if you were to die today that you'd go to heaven? You can stare me down, you can have a stiff neck and ignore me, but you cannot ignore God.

He knows your true condition. You say, "Pastor Al, I don't really know, but I want to know. I want to know I'm on my way to heaven." My friend, I'm so glad you're watching online today. I'm so glad you're in the overflow or in the other building or in this facility today because this is your day for everlasting life. This is your day for everlasting love, everlasting forgiveness, and everlasting hope through faith in Jesus Christ.

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 50584, 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.