Mission Impossible
Matthew 27:62-66
A CHURCH IN OKLAHOMA HAD SOME BEAUTIFUL PINE TREES which adorned the property. During a bad storm several of them were hit by lightning. It destroyed two of them and badly damaged others. The church board met and one of the members asked the chairman, “What are we going to do about this? We can’t keep losing our trees!” The chairman gave a tongue-in-cheek reply: “Very well, I shall entertain a motion of this body to have the lightning stopped!”
This reminds me of verse 65 of our scripture passage. The Jews wanted to take special steps to guard the tomb. Pilate gave these instructions: “Take a squad of soldiers and make it (the tomb) as secure as you can.”
Unconsciously, Pilate was saying, “Keep Christ in the tomb!” He may as well have asked them to keep the sun from rising, or stop the law of gravity, or keep the stars from appearing. In others words, it was an impossible mission that those soldiers were sent on.
But, in any event, they took their steps. The door of the tomb was closed by a great round rock, shaped like a huge cartwheel which ran in a groove. It is estimated to have weighed over two tons! But one thing existed that they just did not reckon with—there was not a tomb in all the world which could imprison the Son of God!
ROCKS have never been a problem with God. This includes Moses’ water shortage in the wilderness. It included the so-called impregnable walls of Jericho. In the Resurrection Garden, God Almighty was laughing at man’s puny efforts. Psalm 2:4 says, “He that sits in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord will have them in derision.” When God sets out to do something, it shall be done!
Jesus had openly and clearly declared His resurrection and no power on earth or in hell could prevent it from occurring.
• The soldiers couldn’t prevent it.
• All of Rome couldn’t prevent it.
• The stone in front of the tomb couldn’t keep it from happening
• The one hundred pounds of graveclothes couldn’t stop it.
• Not even all the imps of hell could keep our Lord in the tomb.
There are those today who try to keep Jesus in the grave, but its impossible!
• The atheist can’t do it
• The liberal theologians can’t
• The cults can’t
• Science can’t
• Secular humanists can’t
A legend says that when the body of Jesus was placed in the tomb that Satan sent his demons to guard the entrance to assure that He didn’t come out. On the third day the demons returned to their master with this report: “We could not hold Him. He got away!”
The embalmed remains of Lenin were placed in a crystal casket in Moscow many years ago. On the casket were these words: “He was the greatest leader of all people, countries and times. He was the lord of the new humanity. He was the savior of the world.”
Did you notice that all that is said about him is in the past tense? By contrast, listen to the words of Christ as found in Revelation 1:18: “I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever.”
Something mysterious and yet wonderful happened inside that tomb. It was a transformation. Death yielded to life. Darkness gave way to light. Defeat surrendered to victory.
Every time a person is born again, this resurrection scene is repeated, in a sense.
For you see, the human heart is like a tomb, full of sin and the odor of death. There is a stone set before the entrance. It is a mark of separation–keeping self imprisoned and God out.
And the message of Easter is simply this: The Resurrection of Christ has opened the way for God to make us alive unto Himself here and in the hereafter.
Every time a Christian lets God fill him with His presence and power, another miracle takes place. Its called the GREAT RELEASE. It’s the release of Christ through our personalities to reach out to a lost and dying world. And there is no power that exists that can keep Christ in, outside of our won will. The great question of the hour is, “Am I releasing Him or keeping Him entombed?”
A careful reading of the Book of Acts reveals that the early Christians were so full of God and His righteousness that they had to share Him. The devil’s attempts to silence them became an impossible mission.
JESUS IS LOOSE! He’s everywhere!
• In the heart of a child
• In the church
• In that missionary as he ventures into remote and dangerous places
• In that Christian lady as she calls on that shut-in
• In the Gideon as he distributes Bibles in the school, hospital, and jail
• In the U.S. Senate as the chaplain opens each session with prayer
• On Wall Street as that Christian businessman leads a Tuesday morning Bible study
• In the local hospital as a Christian nurse shares her faith witha troubled patient.
He’s alive and He’s loose!
There are those within the Church who try to keep Jesus imprisoned in rituals, creeds, traditions, theology, and history. But He cannot be contained. He is everywhere! When He accomplishes a great feat, He doesn’t need the help of angels (they removed the stone, but not to let Jesus out!). Nor does He meed the approval of even the understanding of man.
We cannot overemphasize the importance of the Resurrection of Christ. It is the most crucial doctrine that we hold to. For the Christian, it means:
• Jesus is now at the Fathers’ right hand, interceding for us.
• He lives where ever His people are in need, i.e., when they face:
-trouble
-temptation
-sorrow
-failure
-disappointment
-death
In the catacombs of Rome, where many heathen and Christians were buried, there is a marked difference between The inscription on the tombs of those two groups. On the heathen tombs are inscribed words of sarcasm and resentment to the gods of the lower world. But on the Christian’s tombs are inscriptions which read; “He Lives Forever.” “Weep Not, My Child. Death is Not Eternal.”
Illus: “Shoguns Impossible Strategy”
In a chain of islands which were formerly a Japanese possession, Dr. E.R. Bull, a missionary, found on one island a mammoth grave. A boulder marked its site. An inscription on the boulder read, “Here Lie the Heads of 11,111 Christians, 1637.” That was the year the Japanese exterminated all Christians. Only the heads were placed in the graves. Their bodies were buried elsewhere. When Dr. Bull investigated further, he was told that when the missionaries preached the resurrection they said that Christians would rise again. So the murderous Shoguns, fearful that the resurrection was an actual fact, conjured up a novel strategy. They buried the heads and bodies separately, believing that this would make it impossible for them to rise again.
How appropriate are the words of Jesus in Matthew 22:29: “Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.”
You may be buried in a potter’s field or in a watery grave. But as a saint of God the trumpet of God will locate you, no matter where your body lies. None outside of Christ have such hope. May God grant us the courage to believe and then to share our faith and assurance with those who are still without Him.
THANK GOD, HE’S LOOSE TODAY!
