An exit or an entrance

Pastor Don Porter,
Gods Chruch of Sucker Creek

Easter is a celebration of the fact that on that day over 2,000 years ago, after Christ was crucified and pronounced dead by an experienced Roman executioner, who also pierced His side to ensure His death, and was buried. . .Christ arose again from the dead. Christ did this to show His authority over death and that physical death could not hold Him in the grave. If we were to visit the graves of every other religious leader we would find evidence that their bodies remained in the grave. That is why their burial sites are considered holy. But not so with Jesus! He is not in His grave. No one has ever discovered His body or remains no matter what some people claim today. This fact was shown to many witnesses. When Mary and the other disciples went to the tomb, which had been sealed with a large rock and had Roman soldiers guarding it, they discovered that the stone had been rolled away and the body was not there. But who rolled the heavy rock away from the entrance and why? In Mathew 28:2 it says” “... an angel of the Lord...going to the tomb, rolled back the stone. Was it really necessary for the stone to be rolled away before our Lord could exit the tomb? Christ’s body, when He was resurrected, was able to pass easily through doors, for He came to His disciples when the doors were shut. So like everything else in God’s plan, God had the stone rolled away not that Jesus His Son might come out but that the disciples might go in. It was intended not as a means of exit but as a means of entrance. You see, Christ’s death on the cross as an atonement for the sins of mankind was part of God’s plan for the beginning of time. But Christ’s death was not all there was to God’s plan. God also intended that in three days Jesus would rise again from the dead. In fact Jesus prophesied this in John 2:19. Jesus himself said, “Destroy this temple (meaning his body), and I will raise it again in three days...” But what good would it have done if Jesus rose again as He proclaimed if no one had seen Him? How would anyone believe that He has risen if the stone remained covering the cave in which his body was buried? One preacher put it like this: “God rolled away the stone not that His Son might rise, but that we might know He had risen; that we might steal into the empty tomb and see only the place where they laid Him.” When I was a young Christian, another pastor said: “Suppose we live in a home that has no electricity and a young nephew comes to stay with us for a weekend. Suppose also when we put the child to bed there is in the corner of the room a dark curtain which hides such things as suit cases. And suppose further, when we are about to leave the room turning out the light with us, the child falteringly confesses to a fear that on the other side of the dark curtain is someone that might harm him. “What do we do? We go to the curtain, fling it aside, and flood the gloomy recess with light and say: ‘Look, there is nothing to fear.” To remove the curtain is to remove the dread. That is why God rolled away the stone. It was not necessary for the resurrection, but it was necessary for its proclamation. So next year when we celebrate Easter and Christ’s resurrection let’s pause for a moment and sit in awe and wonder at the marvelous plan that God the Creator devised to reconcile sinful mankind to Himself. If you haven’t already done so don’t let this opportunity to accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour pass by without you bowing your knee and asking Him to forgive your sins and become Lord of your life. The Bible says that Jesus stands at the door and awaits your invitation to come into your life and that when you invite Him, He will eagerly answer, for that has been God’s Plan from the beginning.