Sermon Central
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Roll Away The Stone
Contributed by Mark Aarssen on May 30, 2009 (message contributor)
Summary: We bury a lot of things in our hearts and hide them there behind very heavy stones. These stones often have a name, like shame, hurt, bitterness, loss, and grief. Others are called selfishness, envy, lust, and greed. I want you to know that whatever is en
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Roll Away the Stone
Today we celebrate with Christians all over the world the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is the great event that separates the Christian religion from all others.
Our God is not an idol of stone or wood but our God is alive.
A great battle took place behind the stone that sealed His body from human sight. A great victory was won when that stone was rolled away by the power of His love for you and me.
The battle was for your soul and my soul it was a battle over my sin and your sin.
The bible tells us that the wages of sin is death.
Romans 6:23 NIV
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in [Or through] Christ Jesus our Lord.
My friends Easter is a time of gift giving. We do it with our children and our Heavenly Father does it with His children. Our Father has chosen to give us a pardon for our sin and forgiveness forevermore.
Only the love of Jesus was powerful enough to roll that stone away.
Jesus is the Lamb of God. Jesus is the perfect sacrifice.
I deserve death that is what I have earned in my sinful life. But Jesus put a STOP PAYMENT on my sin.
During Jesus time in the tomb sin and death tried their best to keep Jesus behind the stone. But they could not hold Him because Jesus was with out sin
1 Peter 2:22 NIV
He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth. [Isaiah 53:9]
It took the blood of Heavens King to wash away our sin and vanquish death forever more. It took the Royal Blood of Gods own son.
Hebrews 10
19Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
Friends Jesus made a way for us to pass over from death to life just as Moses parted the Red Sea and allowed Israel to make its exodus from Egypt so Jesus parts the stone that would have kept us buried in our sins.
Death will not have the final victory over the man or woman who trusts in Jesus.
How great a weight was on the stone that covered Jesus in the tomb?
Worlds Heaviest Stone: Wikipedia
At the southern entrance of Baalbeck is a quarry where the stones used in the temples were cut. It was a flourishing Phoenician town when the Greeks occupied it in 331 B.C. They renamed it Heliopolis (City of the Sun). It became a Roman colony under the Emperor Augustus in 16 B.C. A huge block, considered the largest hewn stone in the world, still sits where it was cut almost 2,000 years ago. Called the Stone of the Pregnant Woman, it weighs an estimated 1,000 tons.
She has been pregnant for 2000 years and has not given birth.
But the stone that covered Jesus tomb did move and gave birth to everlasting life for you and me.
The stone that covered Jesus tomb weighed far more. It was the weight of the world’s sin, past present and future. That made it one heavy stone.
Yet Jesus love out weighed the stone covering the tomb.
I can not give what I do not have.
I can not give you forgiveness for your sins.
I can not give you peace with God.
I can not give you eternal life.
I can only give you a name - Jesus the name above all other names.
Philippians 2:9 NIV
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name.
Ephesians 1
18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that can be invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.
