Who shall roll away the stone?
Shell Point Baptist Church
Pastor Allan H. Kircher
Matthew 28:2,“The angel of the Lord descended from Heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.”
As the holy women went towards the tomb in the twilight of the morning wanting to embalm the body of Jesus,
they recollected that the huge stone at the door of the tomb would be a great barrier in their way.
So they said to one another, “Who shall roll away the stone?”
That question gathers up the mournful enquiry of the whole universe.
“Who shall roll away the stone?”
In man’s path of happiness lies this huge rock, which completely blocks the road to eternity.
Who among the mighty shall remove the barrier?
Philosophy and society have attempted at the task of its removal and miserably failed.
So who could move the massive stone and bring life and eternal existence to light?
Generations after generation of men have buried their loved ones and the all devouring tomb had swallowed the multitude.
Who could give hope beyond the grave?
Throughout the centuries there has been the whisper of the resurrection, but men would not believe it.
They dreamed of a future state, talked of its mysterious nature, but never considered the resurrection.
Men continued to enquire, “Who shall roll away the stone?”
To the women there were three difficulties;
1. The stone itself was huge,
2. it was stamped with the seal of the law,
3. and it was guarded by the powerful Roman Legionaries.
To mankind there were the same three difficulties:
1. Death itself was a huge stone not to be moved by any strength known to mortals,
2. Death was evidently sent of God as a penalty for offences against His law,
3. the red seal of God’s vengeance was set upon the tomb’s mouth.
Who could roll the stone away?
The women who loved the Savior found an answer.
They came to the tomb of Christ, but it was empty, for Jesus had risen.
Here is the answer to the world’s enquiry.
There is another life; bodies will live again for Jesus lives now.
Sorrow no longer; Amen. Those mourning at the tomb will know that the dead in Christ shall rise.
Wipe away those tears; for the believer’s grave is no longer a place for mourning, it is the passage to eternal existence with the almighty God.
I purpose, this morning, to talk a little concerning the resurrection of our exalted Lord Jesus.
First of all, may the Holy Spirit bless us to understand that the stone rolled away will preach to you?
And that our thoughts of this matter will be divided into six parts.
First, the stone rolled away is the door of the tomb that is removed.
Death’s house was firmly secured by a huge stone; but the angel removed it, and the living Christ came forth.
The massive door, was taken away from the grave—not merely opened, but unhinged, flung aside, rolled away.
Now death’s ancient prison house is without a door.
Christ’s believers shall pass in it, but they shall not be shut in.
For now, there is nothing to prevent us from coming forth and rising from it in due time.
Just as Samson arose early in the morning and took up upon his shoulders the gates of Gaza—post, and bar, and all—and carried all away, and left the Philistine stronghold open and exposed,
So it has been done at the grave by our Master.
Who, having slept out His three days and nights, according to the divine decree,
arose in the greatness of His strength
and bore away with the iron gates of the tomb, tearing every bar from its place.
The removal of the imprisoning stone was the outward sign of our Lord having plucked the gates of the grave and exposing that glorious light of heaven.
Remember that our Lord was committed to the grave as a hostage.
“He died for our sins.” Like a debt they were imputed to Him.
He discharged the debt of obligation due from us to God, on the tree.
He suffered to the fullest; the great substitution for our suffering, and then He was confined in the tomb as a hostage until His worked should be fully accepted.
That acceptance was His coming forth from the tomb;
and that coming forth would become our justification.
“He rose again for our justification.”
If He had not fully paid the debt He would have remained in the grave.
If Jesus had not made total final atonement, He would still be captive to the grave.
But HE had done it all.
When He had spoken from His own lips, “It is finished,” the verdict of Jehovah was established and Jesus was set free.
Shell Point, let us rejoice in this.
In the empty tomb of Christ we see sin forever put away.
We see death permanently destroyed.
Our sins were the great stone which shut the mouth of the tomb, and held us captives in death, and darkness, and despair.
Our sins are now forever rolled away, and death no longer a dungeon dark and dreary,
No more the anti-chamber of Hell, but rather the perfumed reality of eternal peace.
For as clearly as Jesus rose from the grave, so must His people leave the dead;
There is nothing to prevent the resurrection of the saints.
The stone which could keep us in the prison has been rolled away.
Who can hold us in when the door itself is gone?
Who can impound us when every barricade is taken away?
In the second place, regard the stone as a trophy.
May that stone be set as a memorial of Christ’s eternal victory over the powers of death and hell.
They thought they had defeated Him. They deemed the Crucified was overcome.
Grimly did they smile as they saw His motionless body wrapped in the sheets and put away in Joseph’s new tomb.
Their joy was fleeting, their boasting were but brief.
But Jesus had come forth from beneath their power.
His heel was bruised by the old serpent, but on the resurrection morning He crushed the dragons’ head.
Fellow believers in Christ, as we look at the stone, with the angel seated upon it,
it rises before us as a monument of Christ’s victory over death and hell.
It calls us to remember that His victory was achieved for us, and the fruits of it are all ours.
We have to fight with sin, but Christ has overcome it.
We are tempted by Satan: Christ has given Satan a defeat.
All of us will leave this body soon; unless the Lord comes swiftly, but death is defeated for us, and we can have no cause to fear.
Courage, Christian soldiers, you are encountering a vanquishing enemy.
Remember, the Lord’s victory is a guarantee for your victory.
If the Head conquers, it’s members shall not be defeated.
Don’t let sorrow dim your eye; let no fears trouble your spirit; you must conquer, for Christ has conquered.
Awaken all your powers to the conflict ahead, and nerve them with the hope of victory.
Set up that stone before your eyes this morning.
Say, “Here my Master conquered Hell and death, and in His name and by His strength I shall be crowned too.”
A third use of this stone, is to observe that it is the foundation laid.
That stone rolled away from the tomb certifies the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the foundation stone for Christian faith.
The fact of the resurrection is the key-stone of Christianity.
Disprove the resurrection of our Lord, and our holy faith would be a mere fable;
there would be nothing for faith to rest upon if Jesus who died upon the tree did not also rise again from the tomb.
And all of the great doctrines of our divine religion fall asunder like the stones of an arch when the key-stone is dislodged.
If the key stone of the arch is dislodged all others fall in ruin.
For all our hope hinges upon that great fact.
The resurrection is a fact of history.
The witnesses are many; they were men of all classes and conditions.
None of them confessed himself mistaken or deceived.
They had nothing to gain by such witnessing; they did not rise in power, nor gain honor or wealth,
They were truthful, simple minded men who testified of what they had seen and bore witness too.
Here is the confidence of the saints; our Lord Jesus Christ
Who witnessed a good confession before Pontius Pilate,
and was crucified, dead, and buried. Rose again from the dead, and after forty days ascended to the throne of God.
We rest in Him, we believe in Him.
If He had not risen, we would be men most miserable to be His followers.
Don’t you feel the Joy of the Savior in your heart?
If He had not risen, His atonement would not have been proven to be effective for the taking away of sin.
But He has risen, we build upon this truth; all our confidence we rest upon it, and we are persuaded.
Shell Point, are you resting your everlasting hopes upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead?
Do you trust in Him, believing that He both died and rose again for you?
Do you place your entire dependence upon the merit of His blood certified by the fact of His rising again?
If so, you have a foundation of fact and truth, a foundation against which the gates of Hell shall not prevail.
But if you are building upon anything that you have done, or anything that someone else can do for you,
you are building upon the sands which shall be swept away by the all devouring flood,
And you and your hopes too shall go down into the fathomless abyss wrapped in the darkness and despair.
Oh, to build upon the living stone of Christ Jesus!
Oh, to rest on Him who is a tried cornerstone, elect, precious!
This is to build safely, eternally, and blessedly.
The fourth voice from the stone is this: here is rest provided.
The angel seemed to teach us that as he sat down upon the stone.
How leisurely the whole resurrection was effected!
How silently, too!
What an absence of pageantry and parade!
The angel descended, the stone was rolled away, Christ rose, and then the angel sat down on the stone.
He sat there silently and gracefully, breathing defiance to the Jews and to their seal, to the Roman legionaries and their spears, to death, to earth, to Hell.
He did as good to say, “Come and roll that stone back again, enemies of the risen One.
All the satanic powers who thought to prevail against our ever-living Prince roll back that stone again, if you dare or can!
The angel did not say that but his majestic and quiet sitting upon the stone meant all that and more.
The Master’s work is done, and done forever, and this stone, no more to be used, this unhinged door,
no more employed to shut in the tomb of death, is the type that says “it is finished”
finished so as never to be undone, finished so as to last eternally.
And the resting angel whispers to us, “Come, and rest also.”
There is no fuller, better, safer rest for the soul than the fact that the Savior in whom we trust had risen from the dead.
Do you mourn departed friends today?
O come and sit upon this stone, which tells you they shall rise again.
O come and sit upon this stone, and know that death has lost its terror now, for Jesus has risen from the tomb.
Come you too, the feeble and trembling ones, and breathe defiance to death and Hell.
The angel will vacate the seat for you, and let you sit down in the face of the enemy.
Though you may be humble, or broken down, or have had long years of weary sickness,
you may well defy the hosts of Hell by resting down upon this precious truth,
“He is not here, but He is risen: He has left the dead, no more to die.”
In the fifth place, that stone was a boundary appointed.
There the boundary lies. Do you see it?
The angel sits upon it.
On one side are the frightened guards, stiffened with fear, like dead men.
On the other side, you see the timid trembling women to whom the angel speaks softly, “Fear not, for I know you seek Jesus.”
You see, then, the stone became the boundary between the living and the dead.
Between seekers and the haters. Between the friends and the foes of Christ.
To His enemies the resurrection is “a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.”
But to He own people, the resurrection is the headstone of the corner.
Our Lord’s resurrection is our triumph and delight.
The resurrection acts much in the same manner as the pillar which Jehovah placed between Israel and Egypt:
It was darkness to Egypt but it gave light to Israel.
All was dark among Egypt’s hosts, but all was brightness and comfort among Israel’s tribes.
So the resurrection is a doctrine full of horror to those who don’t know Christ, and trust Him not.
What have they to gain by the resurrection?
Oh, the horrors of that tremendous morning, when every sinner shall rise,
and the risen Savior shall come in the clouds of Heaven, and all the holy angels with Him!
Truly there is nothing but dismay for those who are on the evil side of that resurrection stone.
But how great the joy which the resurrection brings to those who are on the right side of the stone!
How we look for His is appearing with daily growing transport!
How we build upon the sweet truth that they shall arise, and with these eyes their Savior sees!
I ask you this morning, which side of the boundary stone are you on now.
Have you life in Christ? Are you risen with Christ?
Do you trust alone in Him who rose from the dead?
If so, fear not, the angel comforts you, and Jesus cheers you:
But Oh! If you have no life in Christ, but are dead while you live,
Let the very thought that Jesus is risen strike you with fear, and make you tremble,
for tremble well you may, at that which awaits you.
Sixthly, I conceive that this stone may be used, as a foreshadowing ruin.
Our Lord came into this world to destroy all the works of the devil.
Picture the works of the devil as a grim and horrible castle, massive and terrible, overgrown with the moss of ages, colossal, stupendous, and cemented with blood of men, ram parted by mischief, surrounded with deep trenches, and garrisoned with friends.
Satan’s houses are dreading enough to cause despair to everyone who goes around to it.
In the fullness of time our Champion came into the world to destroy the works of the devil.
During His life He sounded an alarm at the great castle, and dislodged it here and there a stone at a time.
For the sick were healed, the dead were raised, and the poor had the gospel preached to them.
But on the resurrection morning the huge fortress trembled from top to bottom.
When Jesus rose from the dead He entered into that mighty castle and began to overturn, overturn, overturn, from pinnacle to basement.
Jesus tore the huge granite stone of death from its position, and gave a sure token to His followers that they will do the same.
When that stone was rolled away from Jesus’ tomb, it was a prophecy that every stone of Satan’s building should come down,
Shell Point, that stone rolled away from the door of the tomb gives me glorious hope.
Evil is still mighty, but evil will come down.
Spiritual wickedness reigns in high places; the multitude still bellow after evil;
The nations still sit in thick darkness; many still worship the Harlot of Babylon
Others still bow down before Mohammed.
But Christ has given such a shiver to the whole fabric of evil that, every stone will be certain to fall.
So we have work to do; we must use the battering ram of the gospel
Be firm like those hosts around Jericho, to sound the trumpet still, and the day must come when every evil,
every colossal superstition, shall be laid low and the prophecy fulfilled, “overturn, overturn, overturn.”
That loosened stone on which the angel sits is the sure prognostic of the coming doom of everything that is vile.
Rejoice, sons of God, for Babylon’s fall draws near.
Sing, O Heavens, and rejoice, O earth, for there will not be an evil spared.
Truly, I say to you, there shall not be one stone left upon another, which shall not be cast down.
Now listen to the angel’s sermon in words.
This is the true gospel to be delivered.
Christ is the Word, and the gospel is a gospel of words and thoughts.
It does not appeal to the eye; it appeals to the ear, and to the intellect, and to the heart.
It is a spiritual thing, and can only be learned by those whose spirits are awakened to grasp at spiritual truth.
The first thing the angel said, “Fear not.”
Oh, this is the very genius of our risen Savior’s gospel—“Fear not”
You who are saved, you who would follow Christ, you need not fear.
There are no terrors in Heaven for the child of God who comes to Jesus’ cross, and trusts his soul to Him who bled for us.
God sees and loves you. O the comfort of the gospel.
There is nothing on earth, nothing in Hell that need make you fear if you trust in Jesus.
The past you need not fear, it is forgiven to you.
The present you need not fear, it is provided for you.
The future also is secured by the living power of Jesus.
Because I live saith the Lord, you shall live also.
Jesus is able to support you in all your temptations.
He lives and makes intercession for you.
He is able to save you to the uttermost, so do not fear.
Conclusion.
Christ will own you in the last great day. If you are willing to own Him now. “Fear not.”
Then the angel adds, “He is not here, for he is risen.”
He is really alive! Today
He is willing today to accept and bless you just as He was to bless the leper, or to heal the paralytic and forgive the prostitute.
Go to Him then at once, poor seeker, to Him with holy confidence, for He is risen, living, and reigning to answer your request.
Now, if any seeker here has been comforted by the thought that Christ lives to save,
do as the angel said, go and tell to others of the good news that you heard.
Do not keep the blessed secret to yourselves.
Today, in some way or another, I pray you make known that Jesus Christ is risen.
If any ask you of the gospel, tell them that Jesus Christ died for your sins, and rose again the third day.
He died the substitute for us criminals;
He rose as the representative of us pardoned sinners,
and died that our sins might die.
And lives again that our souls may live.
Diligently invite others to come and trust Jesus.
Tell them that there is life for the dead in a look at Jesus crucified on the cross.
Tell them that that look is a matter of the soul, it is simple confidence.
Tell them that none that ever confided in Christ were cast away.
Tell them what you have felt as the result of your trusting Jesus.
And who can tell, many disciples will be added to His church.
A risen Savior will be glorified, and you will be comforted by what you have seen!
He is not a dead Christ to whom I point you today.
He is risen, and He is able to save all that come to God through Him.
There is no better news today for sad souls, for distressed, for burdened, desponding and despairing souls,
No better news than this—the Savior lives, able to save and willing to receive you to His tender heart.
This is glad news for the angels and all the spirits in Heaven,
And glad news for us today. Let us rejoice today that our Savior is risen!
We will give way no more to doubts and fears, but we will say to one another, “He is risen indeed; therefore let our hearts be glad.”
Have confidence in the risen One, and live in the power of His resurrection.
Amen.
