After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.
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There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4 The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.5
The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you."8
So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. (Matthew 28:1-8)
Had you been there the first Easter morning, you would have noticed that it was an extremely sad day. Hopes had been dashed. Jesus Christ had been killed. And if you can picture yourself as one of His followers, you would have been full of despair, puzzlement, and perplexity. You wouldn’t really have understood what was going on.
The disciples had fled. Peter was beside himself. At one point, we read in John 21:3, he said, "I am going fishing," which meant, "I am going back to my old profession. I was a fisherman before I met Him, and I don’t really understand what is going on. I just think I’ll go back and do what I did before."
In the midst of the confusion we see of a couple of faithful ladies who had ministered to Jesus and who had been the recipient of His ministry going to do a last faithful service to Him. When they arrived a sight they had not expected to see confronted them. The stone was rolled away. What did it mean?
Well, they were about to find out. You see, there is a powerful message in the stone rolled away. If I could just step aside this morning, I would let the stone itself preach to you. This stone cries out with the great message of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and its implications for every one of you sitting here today. The resurrection of Christ was not merely an event in history, which we are invited to view with no challenge whatsoever. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is, at once, both the most significant event in history, and the most powerful challenge to humanity, saved or lost.
It does not really matter whether you are a Christian, an agnostic, or even a professed atheist. It does not matter what denomination with which you are affiliated. It does not matter whether you are rich or poor, educated or uneducated. Your station in life does not matter. A challenge is issued to you wherever you are. There is a message here for you. This stone speaks. Let’s listen to what it says. It says that …
I believe that the stone is a symbol of death. Death comes to all of us. It came to Jesus and one day it will come to us. We look at it, and at once we are made aware of the universality of death. We read in Hebrews 9:27 that …man is destined to die once and after that to face judgment. Death will come to everyone.
And death is the great equalizer. It comes to those who are rich; it comes also to those who are poor. It comes to those who are educated; it comes to those who are without any formal training whatsoever. Death comes to the young as well as to the old. There are no family ties that death cannot loosen. We live every day in light of the fact that all of us will die. And we wonder why we live at all if we are only to be faced with death. We can work all of our lives, study, labor, amass great wealth, prosperity, success, but what is it for, if, at one point in our life, unknown to us, we will come face to face with death, and succumb to its power.
Man has long searched for the answer to death and that search has manifested itself in many ways. Some hold to various forms of religion and a hope that somehow, as they die, they will transcend this life and find some meaning in whatever there is beyond. Some hold to reincarnation because they just cannot let go of life. Faced with the idea that death ends it all–– it is just too much for their minds to bear. They would rather believe that they might live again–– even as a caterpillar–– rather that face the alternative of ceasing to exist at all. But you see, the stone is too big to ignore. When we are faced with the reality of death, we need an answer, beyond our own human wisdom.
The stone rolled to the mouth of the tomb says that Jesus died a real death. On the Cross of Calvary, Jesus was executed. He gave his life that day for us. He became our substitute. He died in our place in payment for our sins. Because of his great love, he went to the Cross in order to reach out to people who did not even care. Listen to what Romans 5:8 (NIV) says: But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
This stone speaks of the reality of death. Christ died and we must also die. But the stone is not silent at this point. It continues to speak to us. It has something else to say. It says that …
You see, the stone, which was rolled to the mouth of the tomb in order to seal it, did not stay there. It was rolled away. An angel of the Lord came to the tomb and rolled the stone away.
But what does this say to us? Remember, the stone is a symbol of the bondage of death. So the rolling away of it is a symbol of the freedom that Jesus Christ has bought for us. Listen again to the stone speak. It says to us that Jesus Christ conquered death. Acts 2:24 (NAS) says: And God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power. The stone rolled away reveals that Jesus Christ is victor over death.
But why was the stone rolled away? Do you think that the stone was rolled away for the Lord to come out? Not so. The stone was not rolled away for Him to come out. He did not have any need of that. We find, later on, in the accounts of His appearances, that at one point the disciples were hidden away in a room where the windows and doors were closed and locked and Jesus Christ just walked right in. He needed no door. No wall could hold Him out. In His resurrection body, He could walk through the stone walls of that tomb. No, the stone was not rolled away for Him to come out.
Instead, the stone was rolled away so that we could look in. It was rolled away for our sakes, so that the empty tomb could be visible to all. The empty tomb is the greatest evidence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ in all of history. I believe it is indisputable evidence. Cynics and critics have tried to explain it away, and they have not been able to. The empty tomb still stands as evidence to all that Jesus is not dead, that the bonds of death could not hold Him. He is alive today.
There is no other explanation. Some say it was the wrong tomb. But if it were the wrong tomb, the Pharisees and the Sadducees who put Jesus to death certainly would have found the right tomb, rolled the stone away, and produced the dead and decaying body of Jesus Christ. But they were unable to because it was the right tomb, and it was empty. All of the great religious leaders of history have lived and died, and their bodies are buried today. Only Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Only Jesus Christ broke the bonds of death and hell and came forth as victor.
The significance of the stone rolled away is found in the words of the angel, "He is not here; he has risen, just as he said." The Gospel message is that Jesus Christ lived, died, was buried, and rose again from the dead. Skeptics have denied it, and philosophers have tried to explain it away, but the tomb is empty. He is alive. Had He not come forth from that tomb that day, He would have been no more than a fraud. He would have not been our Savior. We would still be in our sins. There would be no hope for the future, no power for living now. But on that first Easter morning, He arose.
On that first Easter morning, I believe God the Father looked down from heaven, as it were, through tears of sorrow, for He had seen His Son die. He had endured the heart-wrenching pain of watching Jesus suffer for the sins of others at the hands of cruel men. He had to endure the spiritual suffering of watching His beloved Son writhe in agony on the Cross and be placed in a tomb. But it is as if, on that first Easter morning, He looked down from heaven and said to Himself, "It is time." And with a mighty arm, God the Father reached down and broke the bondage of death and pulled forth His Son, alive, from the grave. Jesus Christ came forth and the stone was rolled away.
All of you have probably heard that story before and know of the significance of what I have said thus far. But I want us to look at one thing further this morning, before we go. I want us to look at something else the stone says to us. What does the stone say? It says that …
Death, while it is a great enigma to our minds, is not an enigma at all; it is not a puzzle to God. God understands it fully. As a mater of fact, death is simply a doorway into His eternity. We do not see it from our side, often times, but He sees it clearly.
We dwell in the midst of time. We see birth, life, and death and that is all. God sees birth, life, death, and the life beyond. The resurrection of Christ means that there is hope for us for the future, even beyond death. Listen to the continuation of the passage we read earlier from Romans chapter 5:8. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! (Romans 5:9-10)
Salvation has been provided for us, because Jesus, far from being a fraud, was indeed who He said He was, the Savior of mankind. His death on the Cross was a just and final payment for all of our sins, and because of that death, we can now be forgiven. The Gospel is true. Jesus is our Savior. There is forgiveness. There is freedom. There is eternal life. The resurrection of Christ proves one indisputable fact. It proves that He is Lord.
And He calls to us today, Christian and non-Christian alike, not from the Cross, for He is not there. He calls to us, not from the grave, for He is not there. He calls to us from the right hand of the throne of Almighty God, from where, one day, He will come to set up His kingdom on this earth. He will come to judge all the living and the dead. They will all stand before Him, for He is the resurrected Lord. He calls to us, "Look at what I did for you. Come and follow me."
The resurrection of Jesus Christ represents the fact that the Lord gave up His eternal glory in heaven, where He existed with God from eternity past. He gave it all up to come and be made a man, to suffer humiliation, ridicule, scorn, to endure the cruel death of the cross, to be buried, then to rise again. The resurrection of Christ is evidence of God’s plan and desire for us, of His love for us. It shows us that Jesus Christ thought it not too high a price to pay to give His own life for you and for me.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is really a call to a full and unconditional commitment. It is a call for Christians to live for Him. Let me ask you, are you living for Him? Are you really living for Christ? Look at your life in light of what Jesus did for you. What does it mean that God Almighty loved you so much that no suffering was too great for Him to endure so that you might have life eternal? The death and resurrection of Christ showed that God loved you so much that He was willing to give whatever it took to see that you had eternal life. Can we give less than our total commitment to Him?
Christian, the call to full commitment comes to you and says, "What will you do? Will you surrender your life to him? Will you pursue your relationship with Jesus Christ and put it above everything else in your life? Or are you just playing around?"
Will you be faithful? Being full of faith will make you faithful. And faithfulness in your relationship with Jesus is essential to following him. Just as faithfulness in any relationship is vital, so it is with our walk with God. If we consistently and faithfully meet with the Lord daily in prayer, in meditating on his Word, in listening for his still small voice–– daily surrendering our lives to him–– we will begin to be changed into his likeness in terms of our character and nature. But if we do not make following the Lord our first priority, we will not do it. Other things will crowd it out.
Our level of faithfulness is not necessarily God’s level. Someone once posed the following questions: "If your car started one out of three times would you call it faithful? If your refrigerator ran only one out of three days would you call it reliable, or dependable?" The answer is clearly no. Yet there are some Christians who try to follow Jesus like that–– in a hit and miss fashion. Some even come to church like that–– they make it to church maybe once out of every three meetings. And they have convinced themselves that they are somehow active and faithful to the Lord. You can’t live like that, as a Christian, and expect to know God. If you do, don’t be surprised that you have no real power as a Christian. Don’t be surprised that you have no real joy as a Christian. Some have also convinced themselves that if they don’t sin too much, they are OK. Not so with God. He wants a life laid down, a heart that is His, a Christian who is living out what he or she is professing to believe, giving Him not just their spare evenings but the whole of their lives.
Sometimes we are hypocrites and we do not even know it. But if we would win the world to Christ, if we would share the Gospel, if we would be the kind of church God has ordained for our church to be, we need to walk in the fullness of the power of the Spirit of God, and we can’t do it on our terms.
What we need is the resurrection power manifested by the stone rolled away. You see, the stone was rolled away because Jesus could not be held by death. He said about Himself, in John 11:25, "I am the resurrection and the life." In other words, resurrection power centers in Jesus. And in Him we can tap into that resurrection power. Paul knew the vital importance of walking in that power and revealed it when he said, "I want to know Christ, and the power of His resurrection" (Philippians 3:10). The power of His resurrection must become the power of our lives. It can only become so when we surrender to the one who rose again from the dead.
The stone speaks. It speaks to us of death, victory over death, and hope for the future through Christ. The stone was rolled away so we could encounter the risen Lord. He is risen! He is alive today. He calls you to live for Him. How will you respond?
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