The Stone is Rolled Away

0:00Good morning. Again. Let me say once more, our Lord is risen. We can say amen to that. The past two Easter Sundays, we have looked at text outside of the resurrection narrative. We focused more on gospel-centered passages. If you were with us the past couple years, you know that. And there will certainly be plenty of gospel for us this morning, but I want to look specifically at the story of the resurrection as given to us in the Gospels. And in continuing with the previous weeks that we've looked at, kind of those leading up to and through the resurrection narrative. The overarching theme, which is also the title of this sermon, which providentially Stephen also brought up in Bible study, which mom also thought about putting in the bulletin, but she didn't listen to the Spirit. That's fine. That's fine. The title of the sermon is The Stone is Rolled Away. And I want to look at this passage with fresh eyes this morning and perhaps give you a different perspective as we consider the fact that the stone has been rolled away. As I often do, I'm going to try my best and hopefully and likely will wreck your childhood memories of the Easter coloring pages that you've done in Sunday school. No surprise, but those were half-truths. And the real story is perhaps way better. And I hope the Lord will give us that this morning. That's all I'm going to give you, though, as an introduction. We're going to read, if you turn with me, and I didn't pre-turn, so give me one second here. Let me get to Matthew chapter 28. We're going to read verses 1 to 10. So please stand with me as we read Matthew 28, verses 1 to 10, and they will be up on the board as well as we read. Now, after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen. And he said, Come see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Gal to Galilee. There you will see him. See, I have told you. So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and said, Greetings. And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshipped him. Then Jesus said to them, Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray once more. Lord, I thank you again for this word. Lord, please open our hearts to receive what you would have for us this morning, and I pray in the name of Christ and for his sake alone. Amen. As we begin this morning, I want you to all think about your time back in childhood in Sunday school. For those that grew up in the church and went to Sunday school as a child, think back to that time. For those of you who did grow up in church, you undoubtedly did a coloring page or craft that involved Jesus emerging triumphantly from the tomb with the stone rolled away behind him. Have you done this? Have you done something like this? Maybe? Maybe not? If not, you have this picture in your head because several film adaptations of the resurrection have been done showing an angel coming down from heaven and rolling the stone away, and there's this bright light coming from inside the tomb as the resurrected Jesus emerges from the tomb. And these are all very dramatic portrayals of this event, but the question I want us to consider this morning is: is that really how it happened? And if not, how did it happen and what difference does that make for us? You all know that our responsibility is, and certainly my responsibility, is not only to make sure that you think about the Bible rightly, so far as I'm able, but that you also know why it matters to think about the Bible rightly. I do earnestly pray that our God would show you this morning not only the infinite grace that He provides for us in the resurrection, but also the same grace that he displayed in the reality that the stone is rolled away. And in that effort, I want us to continue another, consider another passage later in the resurrection story. This story is recorded in several of the other gospels, but for our purposes this morning, turn with me real quick to John, the Gospel of John, chapter 20. John chapter 20 and verse 19. On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked, where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, Peace be with you. When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. And the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, Peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you. What sticks out to you about that story? Anything? The disciples, fearing that at any moment the Jewish authorities were going to find them and do to them what they did to Jesus, they essentially locked and barricaded themselves in a room. Somehow, though, Jesus still managed to get into the room. He didn't use the door. And the account of this story that we get in Luke, the same account of this same story that we get in Luke, tells us that they thought he was a ghost or a spirit, either because he appeared out of nowhere, or perhaps he just moved through the wall. We don't know. But again, he didn't use the front door. And we know further that it was actual flesh and blood and bones of the resurrected Jesus because he showed them his hands and his side, and they touched flesh and bones. So how does flesh and bones walk through walls? How did the resurrected body of Jesus enter a locked room? I'm not going to speculate as to the how, except to say that he did it. He did it. Scripture says that he did it. And I will further have nothing to do with the materialistic argument that says that or supposes that there has to be some other explanation, something that the text is missing, or some logical explanation to what could have happened there. We're talking about a man, Jesus, who, after hanging on a cross for hours, bleeding and suffocating to death, had a spear run through his side. He was pronounced dead by Roman executioners who knew pretty well what they were doing. The same man lay dead in a tomb for 48 hours-ish, give or take. And then on Sunday morning he woke himself up. All his wounds having been completely healed. But yet we get hung up on the fact that maybe he can also walk through walls. Silly. Do not be ashamed to think. Do not be ashamed to think, nor let a materialistic world call you crazy. Because you believe that a stone tomb, however thick, or a locked door, however strong, is wholly insufficient to keep our Lord from showing up when he says he will. So as we bring that truth into Easter Sunday this morning, we have to consider the stone being rolled away. Why was the stone rolled away? Surely don't think, like perhaps your mind was guided as a child, that the stone was rolled away so that Christ could get out of the tomb? Do we consider our Savior and our King one who would let a stone, even though an immensely heavy one, stand in his way? Or that he needed an angel to come and break him out? Of course not. Unashamedly, my favorite passage in all of Scripture, Romans 8, 38 and 39, for I am sure that neither life nor death, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. We read there, nor anything else in all creation. I mean clarify anything else in all creation, if I may. Locked doors, large stones, stubborn wills, disobedient hearts, doubts and fears, even threefold denials. When our Lord has set his affections upon you, nothing will stop him from redeeming and from taking for himself what is his. If you are in Christ, he has rescued you. And for at least some of us, maybe some of you, he had to walk through a locked door to get to you. And we will get to what I think the stone rolled away. We're gonna get there, what it means in just a second. I want to make sure, I've got to turn back to Matthew 28. I want to make sure that you see in the narrative of Matthew that it does appear that our Lord was already out of the tomb long before the stone was rolled away. I don't want to say long before. Before the stone was rolled away, he was not there. And there are some differences in the Gospels about who all was there initially, when that stone was found to be rolled away, but I think exactly who was there is, of course, a secondary issue. These women were making their way, as we read, down to the tomb.

11:51Right?

11:51That's what our text said. And at some point during that walk there was an earthquake, and the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, rolled the stone away, and sat on it. Okay, presumably waiting on the women to get there so that he could tell them what was going on. That is what happened. That's what our text said, that's what we read. We can read it again, but it's plain enough to me. If we were to look at this account from the other gospels, we'd find it viewed from different perspectives, and some of the details uh rearranged a little bit, and that of course lends itself to the reality that the Spirit's inspiration of Scripture did leave room for human agency. As some of the details are left to the perspective of those who actually witnessed it, but the main focus is always clear, and it is clear here in Matthew and elsewhere. By the time the stone was rolled away, our Lord was already gone. He was already risen. Okay, but why does that matter? Isn't it trivial? Isn't that a trivial detail to quibble about? I'm spending right now, perhaps the best Sunday sermon of the year splitting a hair, am I? Why does it matter if Jesus came through the front door or by some other natural means? Okay, this is why it matters. If the stone was rolled away, if the stone was rolled away so that Jesus could exit the tomb, then the rolling of the stone was by necessity. If the stone was rolled away so Jesus could get out, the rolling of the stone was by necessity. If the stone was rolled away after he was already out, then the rolling of the stone is a divine act of grace. And this is the difference. And this is what we see in our text, right? And perhaps the most underrated line of all of Scripture, we see this angel telling the women, come and see the place where he lay. Come and see the place where he lay. But so that we could enter in and see that our King is not dead. Our Lord, with a flick of his pinky finger, could have turned that stone to dust, couldn't he have? That's not how he operates. At least not yet. And put yourself in the position of John, who we know was an eyewitness to the crucifixion. We know John was there. He was there, he saw what Christ went through, he saw the nails driven through his hands, he saw the spear ran through his side, he saw Christ die, possibly, or even probably was saw the deceased body of Christ up close. And John, when he heard the news of Christ, he sprinted to the tomb, it says. He outran Peter to do so. That was another we get in John's gospel. He mentions that he outran Peter, which is interesting. He entered the passage left by the stone having been rolled away. And John records this: that he went in, he saw, and he believed. For as yet, this is quoting John, for as yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead. In this singular moment of clarity, everything likely came crashing down on John there. He connected all that he knew about the Old Testament, all the teachings of Jesus, and in that moment his eyes were fully opened to the truth, and he believed. Not belief as it has been before for him, because he would have confessed before the resurrection that he believed, right? But now he believes as one who has had the pure and true revelation poured out into his heart. Oh my Lord, how could I have been so blind as to not see this? I imagine John thinking. He is real. He is the Christ. This is the same John who wrote in his gospel, but these things were written or are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. Not belief as John had while he walked with Jesus and followed most of his teachings. Many have that belief. Rather, belief that heeds the words of the angel at the tomb who said, Come and see the place where he lay. Come and see the empty tomb. Not the belief that Peter had, right? Who while he was with Christ, when Christ was still alive, confessed Jesus to be the Christ, remember? And he said that he'd fight to the death for him, but later he denied him three times. But the belief after Peter saw the empty tomb, he stood before the same people who shouted, Crucify Him, and through the empowerment of the Spirit, he said, Let all those of the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. How can he be so certain? Only because of the grace of God can he be so certain. Only because our God did not leave him wondering, can he be so certain? Our God did not keep the tomb sealed. He did not reveal himself before first having shown him that the tomb was empty. Jesus was alive. And what grace is this, honestly? What grace is this that our Lord would not only do that all he did for us, right? Not only would he do all that he did for us, and that we've talked about over these past few weeks, but that he would also leave no room for doubt. There is no room for doubt. Do you know that? Even Thomas, who doubted, said, No, I need to see him for myself. I need to see Christ crucified or raised. Christ showed up for him, didn't he? He has made it so plain and so clear, and by his grace, he does not ask us to leap blindly in the dark or trust in something that can't be proven. It is proven. He rolled the stone away to say to all of us, come and see the place where I lay. He's not there anymore. Our king is alive. Does that make sense this morning? Have you, like John, though hesitant at first, walked into the tomb to see where he lay? And by the grace of God had all of those pieces put together. And that's precisely what we do every year. We enter once again into the tomb. So that we may be reminded again, yeah, it really is still empty. To be reminded that though Christ was the first tomb to be emptied, it most certainly won't be the last. If by his grace you believe this way. If you believe that Jesus was and is the Christ, the Son of the living God, if you believe that God wrapped himself in humanity to earn righteousness for us, because he certainly didn't need it to earn it for himself, right? If you believe that he willingly went to the cross to appease the wrath of the Father, that was pointed directly at your sins. If you believe that he is now willingly giving us the righteousness that he earned to his children free of charge, all by his good grace. If you believe that he rolled the stone away to leave no doubt and to open your eyes to see that he is all of the things that he says, and he did all the things that he said he would do. You might say he left no stone unturned. That's a pun. If by his grace you believe that this morning there will be a day when an empty grave will be all that's left behind where you lay. I don't know. But I can promise that for all eternity you will be with the one who did walk through walls. So that leads us to the second aim of the text, and that is what are we supposed to do with that knowledge that we have clearly been given? And there's three things. And I'm taking these from our text. And first is the obvious is we must believe. We must believe. I mentioned Thomas as recorded in the Gospel of John, and it was to him who Christ said, to Thomas, Christ said, Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed. And the next two verses of The Gospel of John, following those words of Christ, or those from John stating the reason why he wrote the book of John, which I just said, is so that we would believe, that we may read those words and believe. So in one sense, we believe not having the benefit of seeing the physical resurrected body of Christ, right? We don't physically see him, but yet we believe. But we've hardly been left in the dark about this. We have been given the testimony. These are true historic accounts of those who did see him. So we may know and we should know and we must know beyond all doubt that Christ was as is everything that he claimed to be. And that he accomplished everything that he said he would accomplish. That's without dispute. We cannot dispute that. It's verifiable, it's verified, it's eyewitnessed, it's documented, it is fact. And all by his grace. So that everyone is far beyond excuse. You will have nothing to say when you stand before your God on the final day because he has made it so plain to us. His grace has literally opened the door or the stone. We must believe. We must believe. And it's not a surface belief, though, right? It's not a surface belief. It's not a pre-resurrection belief. It is a spirit-given, divine grace, active, worship-inducing kind of belief. And this, for our purposes, we can call it faith. We certainly can. And this faith is not only a gift grounded in his grace, which I hope I've labored to show that, that this faith is a gift grounded in his grace. It also manifests itself in particular ways. We see it in Thomas, who upon the revelation of Christ responded, If you remember, my Lord and my God, he says. It's an act of worship. He worshiped. So that's the second thing we believe, number one. The second thing we do is we worship. In response to the resurrection, we are to worship. And we see this in the main text that we read this morning, Matthew 28 and verse 9. He says, And behold, Jesus met them, saying, Greetings, and they came up and they took hold of his feet and they worshiped him. A side note, this is also a clear indication of the divinity of Jesus. Because remember when Satan tempted him and he said that we are to worship God alone and no other. Here he allows these women to worship at his feet, and he does not stop them nor correct them. He receives their worship. Which means, as Brother David said last week, Christ is either an egomaniac, he is a devil, or he is truly God. There is nothing in between. And if he is truly God, which he is, the first and only proper response is worship. And worship is much more than singing songs on Sunday, much more than listening to a sermon once a week. Worship is the constant and continued expression of adoration and devotion to our God and our Savior. Constant and continued expression of adoration and devotion to our God and Savior. Worship is not a singular act. It's not necessarily something that we do, although it is. Worship is the disposition of our hearts now bent towards and straining to reach the one who has given himself for us. Worship is the returning a life of sacrifice and obedience to the God who sacrificed himself for you. Worship to God takes on many forms for all of us. But it is certainly no less than a life given in sacrificial devotion to the risen king. And so finally, as we see in verse 10, the final response to the resurrection, verse 10, and I'll read it. Then Jesus said, Do not be afraid, go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me. So the third response is we need to tell somebody. We need to tell somebody. Just a few verses later in Matthew, Jesus, of course, commissions the disciples to go on a much larger scale than just this once right after the resurrection. But the point is that the resurrection was never meant to be kept a secret. Much of Jesus' life, you remember, through the gospels, he was trying to minimize the work that he was doing, right? He's trying to keep things quiet a little bit. He's trying to keep them under wraps. He doesn't want an uprising. He's trying to avoid a potential uprising. But that all changed when he announced it is finished. When Christ came out of the grave and he ascended to the right hand of the Father, and when he claimed all authority in heaven and on earth, no longer did he say, don't tell anybody about what I've done. Now he says, go and tell everybody. Tell all the nations. And don't just tell them. Make them disciples. Make them followers of Christ. Teach them. Train them in obedience and righteousness. Teach them sound doctrine. Show them truth, being ready for every good work. If the word commands us to do that for others, it certainly means for us that we should be and do all of those things. So in conclusion, then he is risen. How do we know this? How can we be so sure? Because by the grace of God, the stone is rolled away. And not just that. He invites us in. He invites us to come in and see the place where he lay. It's empty. Only some folded clothes remain. A spot where he lay. See and believe, church. Hear and believe. Our king is alive. The uprising has now begun. Will we give our lives to him? Will we serve him? Will we fall at his feet and worship him? Will we make disciples for him? May our God make it so in all of us. The final bit of good news is that though the tomb is empty and Christ has returned again to heaven, he has not left us alone, right? I remind you again how the book of Matthew concludes, quote, and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. He is risen, but he is not gone. If you would reach for him this morning, if you would reach for him, you will find that he is actually not far from each of us. And that too is an amazing grace. Amen. Let's pray. For your perfect obedience to the law that you lived for us, Lord. For your passive obedience by surrendering to the will of your Father. For going to the cross, dying for us. For suffering the wrath of God for us, Lord. For taking that upon yourself, that which we deserved. Lord, for raising yourself from the dead, for our justification, Lord. And for rolling the stone away, so that we know and we can trust and we can believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are alive, that you have done everything that you said you would do. Thank you, Lord. As we go into this time of supper, reflecting on that, Lord, the sacrifice that you've done for our behalf, the shedding of your blood and the breaking of your body, Lord, please help us to confess our sins to you this morning, knowing, Lord, not only that our sins are great, but that your grace is greater. But that you have promised that you will forgive us for our sins if we confess them to you, Lord. And you have now covered them by the blood of Christ. May we reflect on that this morning, Lord. May we confess those sins to you. Lord, and may you be faithful to forgive us for those sins. We love you, Lord. Ask all these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.