HE STILL MOVES STONES
Scott Bayles, pastor
First Christian Church, Rosiclare, IL
It was early that first Easter morning. What little grass grew in that arid climate was moist with the morning’s dew. The cool air of early spring breezed through the blossoming branches of nearby trees. The sun crept slowly over the mountains before spilling its light over the rolling desert hills of Palestine. The bright morning star could still be seen in the northern sky—a symbol of hope, a sign that something better loomed on the horizon. But for the small band of women making their way to the tomb of Jesus, hope was in short supply. Their spirits had been crushed by the same nails that pierced the hands and feet of Jesus. They were discouraged, disheartened and defeated. And what they wanted more than anything else was to see Jesus one last time, to honor him by anointing his body with spices and perfumes (the first century equivalent of laying flowers by his grave side).
But as they walked that long, lonely path to the tomb, it suddenly dawned on them. The Bible says they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” (Mark 16:3 NIV). Two of these women, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James, had seen where the body had been placed and knew that a huge stone had been rolled across the entrance to the tomb, so as they approached the gravesite they remembered the stone and realized that they couldn’t move it on their own. The stone itself probably weighed several hundred pounds and would have to be rolled uphill out of a rut in the ground in order to open the tomb. Even if all five women worked together, they wouldn’t have been able to budge it. As far as they were concerned, it was an insurmountable obstacle.
But you know what that’s like, don’t you? We all have our own stones. You know yours. You know its size, its shape and circumference. Your stone doesn’t cover the entrance of a tomb in Jerusalem; rather, your path is blocked by the boulders of unemployment, abandonment, abuse, or addiction. We face the insurmountable obstacles debt, divorce, drunkenness and depression. You have bills you can’t pay, grades you can’t make, people you can’t please, whiskey you can’t resist, pornography you can’t refuse, a career you can’t escape, a past you can’t shake, and a future you can’t face. And the reality is—by ourselves, we aren’t strong enough to roll those stones away. Come at from any angle you choose, use whatever tools you wish—you can’t budge it, you can’t get over it, you can’t go around it, you can’t move it, not even inch. But Jesus does for us, what He did for Mary, for Salome, for Peter, James and Thomas. Their lives were forever changed because He rolled the stone away. That stone represented the fears and failures of Jesus closest friends. And His resurrection personally and powerfully impacted the lives of those who knew Him and loved Him. It rolled away the stones that hindered their faith and their future. Other than the stone blocking the entrance to His own tomb, Jesus moved no less than five other stones that Easter morning. The first was the stone of discouragement.
• THE STONE OF DISCOURAGEMENT
Let’s go back to Mary and the other women at Jesus’ tomb. To say these women were discouraged is an understatement—they were devastated, heartbroken. They believed in Jesus. They put their faith in Him. All their hopes and their dreams rested in a man they believed was God in human flesh. But then He died. The ground beneath the Old Rugged Cross was tinged red with the blood of God. They weren’t the only ones feeling discouraged either. All of Jesus’ followers were disappointed and disillusioned. I think the two disciples walking on the road to Emmaus, spoke for everyone when they said, “We had hoped that He was the one” (Luke 24:21 NIV).
Anytime you start talking about hope in the past tense, you know you’re in trouble. A soul without hope is like a body without food. Can you identify with these disciples? Have you ever had your hopes crushed right in front of you? We have all kinds of hopes and dreams—the hope that we might meet that perfect man or woman and get married or the hope that the marriage we have might be rekindled. Some of us hope desperately to have a child, while others hope that their adult children might finally turn their lives around. We hope to get out of debt or escape our stress. We long to be healed of some disease or disability, or we hope we won’t have to take a medication the rest of our lives. When those dreams go unfulfilled or our hopes are shattered, it’s discouraging, sometimes devastating.
But when Mary and the others saw their risen Savior, it changed everything! The Bible says, “The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord” (John 20: 20 NIV). The Message says, “The disciples, seeing the Master with their own eyes, were exuberant.” The New Century Version says, “The followers were thrilled when they saw the Lord.” The Living Bible says, “And how wonderful was their joy as they saw their Lord!” Seeing Jesus made all the difference. In that moment, they went from hopelessness and depression to joyful, thrilling, overflowing exuberance.
When we put our faith in Jesus we will never experience a bankruptcy of hope. Psalm 22:5 puts it best: “They trusted you and were never disappointed” (GWT). Apart from Christ, life is full of disappointments and discouragement, but Jesus gives us hope. The trick is to put all our eggs in the right basket. When we hang our hopes on the things of this world, we’re only building castles in the sand. But when our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus Christ, then we’ll be standing on solid ground and we will never be disappointed. Jesus rolls away the stone of discouragement. He also rolls away the stone of dread.
• THE STONE OF DREAD
Do you remember what happened to all the apostles when Jesus was arrested? They ran away. They abandoned Jesus in time of need. Of the twelve apostles, hand-picked by Jesus, only one even had the guts to follow Jesus to the cross. And, of course, after Jesus was crucified, they were even more terrified. They were certain that they were next. In fact, the Bible says, “That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders” (John 20:19 NLT).
Confused and fearful, the disciples stayed close together, hiding from the authorities and huddled behind locked doors. Jesus had told them to meet Him in Galilee, but they wouldn’t go. They were paralyzed by fear. Fear does that to us, doesn’t it? Fear closes the windows and locks the doors. Fear is a prison of our making and it keeps us from accomplishing what God wants us to do. What are you afraid of?
Do you have a fear of rejection that keeps you from sharing your faith? Or, a fear of intimacy that prevents you having any meaningful relationships? Maybe a fear of failure that thwarts every attempt to try anything new?
As the disciples cowered behind those locked doors, Jesus appeared to them. The Bible says, “Then Jesus came and stood right in the middle of them and said, ‘Peace be with you’” (John 20:19 NCV). Their fear was transformed into faith. The next thing you know, these same fearful followers are out in the city streets and the Synagogues boldly proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus. What made the difference? Maybe it was the promise Jesus gave them: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19). Centuries earlier God said it Joshua, “Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the LORD your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9 NLT).
Whatever challenges we meet, whatever obstacles we face, we don’t have to be afraid because we are not alone. Cancer, Alzheimer’s, car crashes, a failing economy, a floundering 401K, teenage pregnancy, crime, natural disasters—come what may, God is by your side. In the words of hymnist E. A. Hoffman: “What have I to dread, what have I to fear, Leaning on the everlasting arms” of Jesus? The risen Jesus removes the stone of dread. And He removes the stone of doubt.
• THE STONE OF DOUBT
Poor Thomas. Thomas missed this first appearance of Christ. While the others hid behind locked doors, Thomas was off on his own. No one really knows why Thomas wasn’t there, but he sure has been chastised for it. Doubting Thomas. That’s what we call him. The Bible says:
One of the disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. They told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.” (John 20:24-25 NLT)
Thomas was a skeptic. He wouldn’t believe it, until he saw the evidence. Now, Thomas has taken quit a lot of criticism for his doubts, but he certainly isn’t the only person to doubt the Christian faith. Maybe you have some doubts of your own. I know I did at one time. And occasionally those doubt creep back up again, don’t they? But the resurrection of Jesus removes any doubt we may have. There’s nothing wrong with being skeptical, as long as we’re willing to follow where the evidence leads.
Thomas reminds me of a man named Lee Strobel. Lee was an investigative editor at the Chicago Tribune and a confirmed atheist. That is, until his wife became a Christian. As her faith grew, he saw so many changes taking place in her life. He was afraid that he was losing her. So he set out on a mission to investigate Jesus Christ. His goal at first was to prove to his wife that Jesus was not the Son of God, but things didn’t go exactly as planned. He used his resources at the Tribune to contact scholars and historians from around the globe investigating the reliability of the Jesus’ biographies, the extra-biblical attestation for the life and works of Jesus, but everything hinged on the resurrection. If Jesus really died and came back to life three days later, then that validated everything He ever said and proved that He is who He claimed to be. The evidence was irresistible.
I’d love to share to all that evidence with you today, but that’s a sermon for another week. In fact, that’s a sermon for next week.
After nearly two years of investigation, Lee sat down at his desk with legal pad and drew a line down the middle. On one side he wrote all the evidence against Jesus being the Son of God and one the other all the evidence for it. Overwhelmed by his own discoveries, he gave his heart to Jesus right then and there. Thomas did the same thing. Upon seeing the evidence—seeing Jesus with his own eyes—Thomas fell to his knees and exclaimed, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). The resurrection of Jesus moves the stone of doubt. It also moves the stone of defeat.
• THE STONE OF DEFEAT
You’ve got to love Peter, don’t you? Peter was such a simple, yet passionate follower of Jesus. He was an all or nothing kind of guy. On the night that Jesus was arrested, he was all in. Peter said, “Lord… I will lay down my life for you” (John 13:37 NIV). But by sunrise the next morning, he folded. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, before the roster crows, you will disown me three times!” (John 13:38 NIV). Jesus was right. Peter was wrong. He failed Jesus when it counted most.
Do you know what it’s like to fail? Do you know the heartache of a failed marriage or a failed career? Do feel like a failure as a father or a friend? Peter’s failure hung over his head like a dark cloud. He was ready to quit. Three years ago, Jesus had called him away from his career as a fisherman to become a fisher of men. Yet, even after Jesus came back from the dead, Peter still felt like a failure. Rather than head toward Galilee like he was supposed to, Peter went back to what he knew best—fishing. He was ready to return to his old life, to give being a follower of Jesus. But you remember the story don’t you?
Peter and the others are out on the Sea of Galilee. They’ve been fishing all night with no success. Then Jesus shows up. He tells them where to cast their nets, and then he sits down with them on the beach to share a barbeque breakfast. During that meal, Jesus asked Peter three times: “Do you love me?” And each time Peter said yes. And the last words that Jesus spoke to Peter are exactly the same as the first word He spoke to Peter: “Follow me” (Matthew 4:19, John 21:22). Peter got a second chance.
In a Nike commercial several years ago, a voice came over the television saying, “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” Those words were spoken by Michael Jordan. Just because we fail, doesn’t mean we quit. Just because we’ve been defeated in the past, doesn’t mean we surrender. We have a God of second chances, who rolls away the stone of defeat. And, finally, He also rolls away the stone of death.
• THE STONE OF DEATH
Ever since the Garden of Eden, death has been the archenemy of humanity—and death always wins. The odds that you will eventually die in a car crash are 1:125. The chance of you dying in a fire is 1:4,000,000. But, the odds of you dying are 1:1. Death is inescapable; it comes to every living thing. For thousands of years, death has stalked its prey with exacting precision—a 100% success rate. That is, until Jesus. Jesus’ conquered death through His resurrection and offers to do the same for you and me. The Apostle Paul put it this way:
“But the fact is that Christ has been raised from the dead. He has become the first of a great harvest of those who will be raised to life again. So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, Adam, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man, Christ. Everyone dies because all of us are related to Adam, the first man. But all who are related to Christ, the other man, will be given new life.” (1 Corinthians 15:20-22 NLT)
All throughout Jesus’ ministry He promised one thing that no one else could offer—eternal life, immortality. That’s what Jesus came into this world to offer. In John 10:10, Jesus declared boldly, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (NKJV). Adam’s sin allowed death to claim every human’s life; Christ’s death challenged that claim and nullified it in the Resurrection. Adam gave us all death; Jesus offers life to all. In other words, real life can only be found in Jesus Christ. At conception, we receive as part of our human inheritance the gift of death; at conversion, we receive Christ’s gift of eternal life. Our eternal destiny is not a matter of better or worse. It’s nothing less than a matter of life and death! The choice is between death and life. What will you choose?
• CONCLUSION
Have you ever wondered why God rolled the stone away from Jesus’ tomb? I mean, in His resurrected body Jesus could materialize behind locked doors. Surely, He could have left the tomb without moving the stone. But He didn’t. I think He moved the stone for Mary, for Peter, for James, for John, for you and me. He moved the stone, just to show that He could. He still moves stones. Whatever challenges you face, whatever boulders block your path—whether its discouragement, doubt, depression, divorce, debt, drunkenness, fear, failure, or even death—just know that He still moves stones. He stands ready to move yours, if you’ll surrender it to Him. You have a chance to do that right here, right now.
