He Did It for Us
Dave Hartson
Resurrection Sunday / Resurrection of Jesus Christ
Introduction
It is Resurrection morning and Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome are going to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus with oils. If you remember, on the day of His Crucifixion, because it was getting near dusk, the ladies did not have time to prepare the Jesus’ body before it was placed in the tomb.
And the Bible says as these three women were approaching the tomb, they asked this question among themselves: “Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?” The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke and John, all tell us the stone is rolled away when the women arrived. It is Matthew and Mark that tell us an angel rolled away the stone. Luke and John only informs us that the stone was rolled away and does not specifically say that an angel rolled the stone away.
But as I kept looking at that Resurrection account in those four Gospels, the thing that struck me is that all four Gospel mentioned the stone rolled away. Obviously, each Gospel writer thought that stone being moved away was a significant event. So, I began asking myself the question, “Why was that stone rolled away?” I hope to answer that this morning. Please stand for the reading of God’s Word from Matthew 28:1-8.
Scripture Reading
Matthew 28:1–8 NKJV
Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came 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 from the door, and sat on it. His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men.
But the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you.”
So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word.
Points
#1
The stone was rolled away not because Jesus needed the stone rolled away in order to come out of the grave.
My Bible tells me that nothing is impossible to God. If you and I found ourselves in a place where we could not get out, I imagine we would be knocking, banging, and screaming for someone to open up a way for us to get out. I don’t picture that happening with Jesus.
In the Gospel of John, the 20th chapter, Jesus appears to his disciples on that Resurrection evening by walking through a locked door. He went right through the door. He did not open the door; He went through the door. That same Jesus that went right through that door could have gone right through that stone that blocked the entrance. My Bible tells me nothing is impossible to God.
So, Jesus did not have to summons an angel to come from heaven to roll back the stone so He could get out. If the devil, in the wilderness temptation, admitted that Jesus could turn stone into bread, I don’t believe Jesus would have had any difficulty just speaking that stone away. I am quite sure that the angel that came from heaven did not come to get some exercise. So, the stone was rolled away for His followers at that time and for every generation thereafter.
Let me tell you why?
A.
The stone was rolled away to prove that all Jesus said was true.
Let me you a couple of Scriptures:
Luke 9:22 (NIV)
22 And he said, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life."
Luke 18:31-33 (NIV)
31 Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, "We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled.
32 He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him.
33 On the third day he will rise again."
And then on that Resurrection morning, the angel at the tomb spoke to the three women and said to them: Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’
And so, the stone was rolled away not for Jesus to be able to get out but to prove to His followers of all generations that His Words are true. How many people do you know who rose from the dead to live forever more? Only one-Jesus. Lazarus rose from the dead, only to one day return to the grave. The daughter of Jarius rose from the dead only to one day return to the grave. And the son of the widow at Nain rose from the dead only to one day return to the grave. Jesus rose to live forever.
Now if Jesus can proclaim that He is going to rise from the grave to live everlasting and actually do it, what does it say about everything else that He said? It say that we can rely on it.
He said that He would die for our sins- We can rely on it.
He said that He would leave us the Holy Spirit to guide and direct us- We can rely on it.
He said that death cannot hold us- We can rely on it.
He said that He is preparing mansions in heaven for us- We can rely on it.
He said that He is coming back again- We can rely on it.
Yes, that stone was rolled not so Jesus could get out but to remind us that everything Jesus said was true.
B.
The stone was rolled away to make the Resurrection of Jesus Christ a foundational fact of the Christian life.
In the Book of Hebrews, the 11th chapter the first verse says: faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
We are not asked to believe the Resurrection by faith. We are asked to believe Jesus’ Resurrection as a fundamental fact of the Christian faith. If the stone were not rolled away and we are not able to look inside and just told that Christ arose then we would have to believe it my faith. But we got to see in the tomb, and it was empty.
If Jesus did not appear to the three women as they ran back to report an empty tomb, if He did not appear to the men on the road to Emmaus, if he did not appear to the disciples in the locked room, if He did not appear to Saul of Tarsus on the Damacus Road, and if He did not appear to some 500 people as reported to us by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 then we would have to believe by faith that Jesus rose from the grave. But because of the empty tomb and because of His appearance to so many, it is a foundational fact of our faith that we have a Resurrected Savior. And it is from that basic foundational fact that Jesus did indeed rise from the grave that everything else we believe in build on. Paul says it this way: 1 Corinthians 15:12-14 (NIV)
12 But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.
14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
C.
The stone rolled away to reveal to us that Jesus’ death was not in vain.
I love what the angel says in Matthew’s Gospel: “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here; for He is risen, as He said.
The angel saw a connection between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. The angel could have said. Jesus is not here; He is risen. But that connection if the Crucifixion and Resurrection is so important to us. It was so important that Jesus taught it to His disciples. Matthew 16:21 (NIV)
21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
If there was a crucifixion without a Resurrection, our sins would be forgiven, but there would be no eternal life in heaven for us.
If there was a Resurrection but no Crucifixion Jesus would be in heaven, but we would be spending eternity in hell because the wage of sin is death, and I would be paying for my sins.
But praise God, Jesus connected the two events. He died for my sins and He rose from the grave so that I can have eternal life with Him. Jesus connected the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. The stone rolled away lets me know the connection is real.
Happy Resurrection Day! Let us pray.
