What the Stone Means -- Part Two

Two thousand years ago, God supernaturally rolled the stone away from Jesus’ tomb. Last week I began a short sermon series that answers the question every person has the right to ask every Christian: “What does the rolled-away stone mean to YOU?”

As with all things that are personal in Scripture, the answer to that question is manifold. We saw last week that the rolled-away stone is indisputable evidence that Jesus is Almighty God incarnate. We spent quite some time on that first and most fundamental truth. The second answer about the rolled-away stone is irrefutable evidence that God loves you. Deeply, emotionally, and passionately loves you. Indeed, God created you IN ORDER to shower you with His love.

Which brings us to today’s message in which I will share with you some more answers to tell someone who asks you: “What does the rolled-away stone mean to YOU?” Read with me in your handout this passage from Luke 23:44-24:3 – “It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour, because the sun was obscured; and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” Having said this, He breathed His last. 

Now when the centurion saw what had happened, he began praising God, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent.” And all the crowds who came together for this spectacle, when they observed what had happened, began to return, beating their breasts. And all His acquaintances and the women who accompanied Him from Galilee were standing at a distance, seeing these things.

And a man named Joseph, who was a member of the Council, a good and righteous man – he had not consented to their plan and action – a man from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who was waiting for the kingdom of God; this man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. And he took it down and wrapped it in a linen cloth and laid Him in a tomb cut into the rock, where no one had ever lain. It was the preparation day, and the Sabbath was about to begin. Now the women who had come with Him out of Galilee followed, and saw the tomb and how His body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and perfumes. And on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.”

 [Chapter 24:1-3] “But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.”

At first blush, this text might seem more fitting for the Easter season. But that would be an incorrect assumption. The story of the empty tomb and the rolled-away stone is suitable for any Sunday because without that empty tomb our Christian faith is a farce. As St Paul wrote to the Corinthians “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain . . . and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.” (1 Corinthians 15:14, 17-19)

And I will remind us once again, God created you to love you. He created you to commune with you for eternity. But – to use human terms and concepts to make the point – God had a problem after He created Man. Satan introduced into the human family through our first parents the only thing in all creation that would FOREVER disqualify any of Adam’s race from communion with the Holy God. Satan introduced sin.

Now, we know God is utterly holy, righteous, and is the very definition of justice. Therefore, sin must always be judged – and judged severely. That’s why the Holy Spirit tells anyone with ears to hear: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)

But Scripture also tells us, God is love. And mercy. And compassion. And therein lay the problem – so to speak. How was the God of love and mercy to restore communion with an entire race of sinners, and yet remain within His character of pure holiness and justice?

Well, if you know your Bible, you know the answer. God – who exists from eternity past and who reveals Himself as one God in three distinct Persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – each of whom is co-eternal and co-equal with each other – God introduced into human history the possibility for sinners to be judged ‘innocent’ of their sins.

The Creator did this when God the Son entered humanity, born through the Virgin’s womb, lived a sinless life in word, thought, and action – and then became our sacrificial SUBSTITUTE on Calvary. The Holy and Just Father directed His full wrath for OUR sin onto His Son as He died on that cross.

Such a plan of redemption of sinners should surprise no one who knows and believes the Bible to be God's inerrant and infallible word. Isaiah spoke of it 700 years before Jesus was incarnate: “But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.” (Isaiah 53:5-6).

The apostle Paul wrote of that redemption in virtually all of his letters. For example, he wrote to the Corinthians: “[God the Father] made [Christ] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

But what does that all mean in simple English? It means that the rolled-away stone GUARANTEES that those who belongs to Jesus through their baptismal faith in His death on their behalf – their sins are forever forgiven. ALL of their sins; What some might call little sins and what some might call the really, really big ones. ALL their sins are forgiven and pardoned by God and cast from His very memory as far as east is from west.

That’s one reason the Holy Spirit also inspired Paul to complete that text I just quoted for us: “The wages of sin is death, BUT THE FREE GIFT OF GOD is eternal life through Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:23)

And that’s why you can tell anyone who asks you what the rolled-away stone means to you – you can tell them it means YOU HAVE A CLEAN SLATE before the Almighty Judge. You can tell them that stone means God wiped away all the mess that was you because of your sins AND that He gives you a clean slate every time you repent of the sins you commit every day.

What a glorious truth! Even the most despicable sins some have committed can be – and HAVE BEEN – wiped clean by the merciful Judge because of their repentance and faith in Christ’s sacrifice on their behalf.

But we’re not yet done. Here’s another thing that rolled-away stone should mean to you: The stone is God's vow that as Jesus was raised from the dead – so also YOU will be raised from the grave.

Listen to Jesus’ words: (John 5:24-25) “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” 

Many of you remember the story of Lazarus. He’d been dead for four days when Jesus arrived at the tomb. Lazarus’ sisters wept before Him, “Lord, if You’d been here, he would not have died.”

Let’s pick up the story at 11:38 – “So Jesus, again being deeply moved within, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Remove the stone.” Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me.” When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth.” The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus *said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

As I prepared this message, I suddenly realized what my future holds when I am lying dead in the grave. I don’t think I’d ever thought of it in this way, but what Jesus said to Lazarus is the same thing I will hear Him say to me as my decaying body lies in that coffin.

And, moreover, what Jesus said to Lazarus is the same thing every true Christian in this sanctuary, and in this building, and around the world will hear Jesus say to them. We will physically hear Jesus call our name: “Come forth.”

Yes, that rolled-away stone means that you in this sanctuary, you who are true Christians, you will hear Him call YOUR name – “Come forth.” Oh! THAT’S what you can tell anyone who asks what that stone means to you.

I purposely emphasized ‘true Christian’ because it is disastrously possible to believe in Jesus, but yet be unconverted in your soul.

I need to repeat that for emphasis. It is possible to believe all the correct doctrines of the faith, to give full intellectual assent to those truths and to accurately teach them . . . and yet NOT be a true child of God.

Listen again to Jesus in Matthew’s gospel record: (Matthew 7:21-23) “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.  Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

So – Christian: Make certain of His calling and choosing you. Are you living a holy lifestyle for Christ to the best of your ability? Do you repent of your sins as often as He shows them to you? Or are you just playing the role of a Christian, living for yourself and according to your own philosophies and opinions – and not according to His?

That’s something to think about long and hard, isn’t it?

And now, finally for this series, let me remind you of one more answer you can offer those who ask what the rolled-away stone means to you. It’s because of that stone, we have every right to expect to be ushered by the angels into the eternal kingdom of our beloved Creator and Savior.

Sometimes I’ve been accused – as probably some of you have also been accused – of being too much a ‘pie-in-the-sky’ kind of person, too much with an eye, they say, toward children’s fairy tales, and superstitious promises of something better.

Oh! But that rolled-away stone is undeniable evidence to anyone with a heart open to God's voice that ‘something better’ is an absolute and inviolable promise God makes to all His true children. Something better WILL OCCUR. Of that we can be more certain than we are of the sun rising tomorrow morning.

Something better will occur when the Lord Jesus returns to set up His kingdom on earth – a kingdom where only righteousness dwells. No sin. No darkness. No murderers or thieves or liars. No death or disease. Or loneliness or sadness.

Yes, I look for something better. Some of you remember this promise spoken to us through Isaiah: [God] will swallow up death for all time, and the Lord God will wipe tears away from all [our] faces . . . . And it will be said in that day, "Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation" (Isaiah 25:8-9).

Can you even imagine such a place, an eternal home of which the apostle Paul told the Christians at Corinth: “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9) 

Many years ago, when Nancy and I lived in San Diego, we lived down the road from a street plagued with potholes. For two weeks, the highway department had posted notices that they planned to resurface the asphalt, fill in the ten million holes and smooth the roadway. But I suppose it’s because I saw the notices each day that I soon stopped paying attention to them. Before long, the signs disappeared into the background as I swerved down the street, trying not to crack the front axle.

So, when I left the house one morning and turned the corner, the unusually smooth ride startled me. For the first time in months, the minivan didn’t rattle with each rotation of the tires. I didn’t have to dodge craters in the middle of the roadway.

As I thought about my message for today, my mind went back to that incident because like that roadway, life can get filled with potholes and craters along the way. And we find ourselves spending all our energies to avoid crashing into them – or to get out of them.

And then we hear or see the notices posted along our life’s path. One promises that “The rough places will be made smooth” (Isaiah 40). Another, “In the twinkling of an eye we shall be caught up to be with the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15). Yet another says, “I will come again and receive you to Myself” (John 14).

There are so many promises we have to slow down to read them all. Over and over, season after season, we hear them. We talk of them. We debate their meaning. Before long, they become familiar friends.

But, then, if you’re like me, because they’re so familiar, we stop paying attention. The signs get lost in the busy-ness of just living one day after the next. We focus so much on dodging potholes, we no longer remember the promise that one day all who belong to Christ will leave the house, turn the corner – and find the road paved.

Listen, please: That rolled-away stone means that Jesus will come again. And when He returns for those who have placed their trust in Him, He will bind every shattered dream, restore every broken heart and heal every splintered life with His eternal love. Never again will we worry about rough roads. 

What does that stone mean to you? The stone means so much more than I have so briefly shared last week and this, but I hope I have reminded you of the incomprehensible VALUE that the rolled-away stone has placed into our accounts in heaven. I hope I have sufficiently reminded you of just how easily you can answer anyone – from children to those with several PhDs after their names who ask you what that stone means to you:

Jesus is Almighty God incarnate. And God created you to shower His love on you. The stone means that your confessed sins are FOREVER forgiven. And the stone means the true Christian will hear the Savior call his and her name to ‘Come forth” from the grave. And the rolled-away stone means the true Christian will live in eternity with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, along with all the angels and saints in God's most holy and perfect kingdom.

Oh! Thanks be to God for His most wonderful gifts!