A 299 The Symbolism of the Stone

Hi, welcome to my lecture, today I'm going to talk about the importance of the word of God and the importance of the word of God in the history of the United States of America, and I'm going to talk about the importance of the word of God in the history of the United States of America, and I'm going to talk about the importance of the word of God in the history of the United States of America, and I'm going to talk about the importance of the word of God in the history of the United States of America, and I'm going to talk about the importance of the word of God in the history of the United States of America, and I'm going to talk about the importance of the word of God in the history of the United States of America, and I'm going to talk about the importance of the word of God in the history of the United States of America, and I'm going to talk about the importance of the word of God in the history of the United States of America, and I'm going to talk about the importance of the word of God in the history of the United States of America, and I'm going to talk about the importance of the word of God in the history of the United States of America, and I'm going to talk about the importance of the word of God in the history of the United States of America, and Peter said in reply to a question by people at a meeting, and Peter said in reply to a question by people at a meeting, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven. repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven. It was some three years ago that I accepted the Lord Jesus as my personal savior, and it was a wonderful experience because at that time I was also to find that the Lord had not forgotten me, and it was a wonderful experience because at that time I was also to find that the Lord had not forgotten me, although for many, many years I had forgotten him.

I had gone to Sunday school and was later confirmed, but after a while I thought I could do without the Lord and without the fellowship of the church, but I'm sure that the Lord creates situations in the lives of people who have not accepted him as their savior, but I'm sure that the Lord creates situations in the lives of people who have not accepted him as their savior, and he waits and hopes for you to turn to him. As I look back on my life, I'm sure there have been many times when the Lord has just stood at the door and waited for me to knock, but I never did. But three years ago he created a situation in my life just to see if I was ready to turn to him again.

But three years ago he created a situation in my life just to see if I was ready to turn to him again. And he not only created the situation, but he also had a perfect timing, and that was because at the time I was told I was to have the first of my operations for cancer, and that was because at the time I was told I was to have the first of my operations for cancer, I was entirely alone in the house, and although I had not turned to the Lord for many years, I had lived in a Christian home, and so it seemed perfectly normal for me to turn to the Lord. And that evening I said to the Lord, Lord, you must help me.

I cannot take this on my own. And the next morning, true to his promise, I had a peace that passed all human understanding, plus the knowledge that the Lord had not forgotten me. But a few weeks later as I was recovering in the nursing home, I was to find that Satan was not prepared to give me up that easily.

I went through a most terrible experience of feeling that somebody was sitting on my shoulder, and if I was to turn around, I would see the devil there. I had the feeling that I was being overcome, not only in my body, but my mind. And while I was there, a clergyman from the local church in whose parish the nursing home was came to see me, came to visit the nursing home, and he eventually found his way to my room.

And I thought, good, here's somebody who could help me. So I explained to him this horrible feeling that I was going through. And his answer to me was, you must not be too hard on yourself.

Take things easy. It's most probably the after effects of the operation. Well, I'd been brought up to be polite to people, so I didn't quite tell him what I thought.

I knew jolly well I didn't have any after effects. So I said to him, sir, I feel very sorry for you, because you do not know one thing of what I'm talking about. But the sister of the nursing home had an idea of what I was going through, and the effect on me by this time was quite noticeable.

And she asked Mr. Ronald Volk, who is now in heaven with his personal savior and friend, to come and see me. And I'm sure that if I could have seen Satan, he would have been trembling in his shoes as this wonderful Christian man entered my room, because he must have known that he would never stand a chance with me after talking to Mr. Volk. Mr. Volk and I talked, and I realized what was my problem.

You see, I was very young in my faith at this time. Although I knew the stories of the Lord, I was not mature, and I didn't know what to do. And the problem was that I had not learned to take my sins to the cross and leave them there.

Although I had read my Bible and I'd asked the Lord to come into my life and take me over, I had not left my sins where they should have been left. And it was through Mr. Volk that I came here to the TAB and to learn the wonderful fellowship that does exist here. But the Lord was—and after listening to the word of the Lord explained here from this pulpit, I became a little more mature, and the Lord decided he was going to test me just a little further to see if I'd learned anything.

But this time he wanted more from me because I had become a little bit more mature. And although I'd handed the whole problem over to the Lord, he just wanted that little bit more from me, and I didn't quite know what it was. And after talking with Muriel Foxon, I realized what it was.

It wasn't just enough to hand myself to the Lord. There had to be no ifs and no buts. Subconsciously, I realized there was a but.

But when I looked back, I realized that was a lie. It wasn't subconsciously, it was consciously. And the but was I didn't want to be standing here in front of everybody.

But the Lord had a different idea. He did want me to stand here. And because I submitted to his will, I was yet to learn another lesson of his great love.

And that lesson was that this body does not belong to me. It belongs to the Lord. And whatever happens, it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter what he has in store for me. Whatever he has in store for me is only with his love and with his knowledge. And I know that he'll never allow me to have anything or to bear anything that I can't stand.

And I would like to say that I consider it a great honor and a privilege to be able to stand here and praise the Lord and say thank you. And that it's all been worthwhile. Matthew 28, verse 1. In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the serpukah.

And behold, there was a great earthquake. For the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and set upon it. His countenance was like lightning and his raiment white as snow.

And for fear of him, the keepers did shake and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye, for I know that ye seek Jesus which was crucified. He is not here, for he is risen, and as he said, Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

And go quickly and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead, and behold, he goeth before you into Galilee. There shall ye see him, lo, I have told you. And they departed quickly from the serpukah with fear and great joy and did run to bring his disciples' word.

And as they went to tell his disciples, Behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail! And they came and held him by the feet and worshipped him. Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid. Go, tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me.

Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city and showed unto the chief priests all the things that were done. And when they were assembled with the elders and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers, saying, Say ye, his disciples came by night and stole him away while we slept. And if this come to the governor's ears, we will persuade him and secure you.

So they took the money and did as they were taught. And this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day. Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.

And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.

And, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Mark 16 and verse 3 and 4 says these words, And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away, for it was very great.

Who shall roll us away the stone? It seems to me if I can meditate on that question just for a moment or so, it enshrines the problem which has plagued mankind down the centuries. Preventing man's happiness has been that great obstacle that's come the way of everybody. Tens of thousands and thousands upon thousands have died.

And the question has often been raised in secular as well as in religious literature. Will they ever live again? When worms destroy this body, shall I in my flesh see God? There has been a whisper of immortality. Almost inaudible, but it's there in Greek philosophy.

There has been a straining towards resurrection in the thought of the most primitive tribe that has ever been able in later years to put its religion down in print. The question, I say, has been the cri de coeur, the cry that has left the hearts of men and women down the centuries. Who shall roll us away the stone? Where is that great Hercules who shall come and take upon himself the burden of death and answer its problems, toss the obstacle on one side and allow humanity to go through into incorruption and immortality? The sob of the world's anguish is heard in the perplexity and the anxiety of those two diminutive ladies as they make their way to the scene of the entonement of Jesus.

One Sunday morning, who shall roll us away the stone? There were three great obstacles. The first is obvious. The stone was heavy.

And they're members of the weakest sex and getting on in years. And on top of that, that stone bears the seal of the empire. And on either side of the stone, there is the Roman equivalent to Securicore in the form of two large soldiers.

On the spiritual level, as you contemplate the question, who shall roll away the stone? There's also a trio of problems. There's the fact of man's sin which stands in the way. There is the red seal of the anger of God which pronounces condemnation on those who have broken His laws and pulled themselves down and often their environment as well to the level of the gutter.

And there are all the fiends of hell who would watch over an entombed humanity, lest some might dare to escape from the sepulchral vault of their sinfulness. Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? The womenfolk were to realise that their problems had been completely without foundation. For when they arrived at the actual spot in which Jesus' body had been laid, that virgin tomb, the seal was broken.

The stone which was an obstacle to the entrance, a sort of door, was moved away, and as for those huge Roman soldiers, they were nowhere to be seen at all. The grave was empty. Inside only was the grave clothes to indicate that a body had been there.

So you see what I mean when I suggest, just for a moment or so, just for a fraction of time this evening, it is possible for us to meditate on the symbolism of the stone. What did that stone stand for? What does it communicate? It teaches us on both levels, that of the women and that of the human problem that has been with us ever since time commenced, that here is the possibility of the end of death's reign. The stone was indeed the door of the sepulchre.

Death's house was firmly secured, and yet now we find that the massive doorway is not just open a little bit, not just ajar, it's completely shoved out of the way, leaving the entrance to the tomb wide open for any curious, sensitive eyes to look therein. Samson was on one occasion in the city of Gaza, and he went to sleep, and didn't wake up until after curfew, and the Philistines had locked the city. And Samson, with his amazing strength, trying the gate, discovering that he was locked in, picked up the gate, the posts, and the pillar, and carried the lot onto a nearby hill, leaving that Philistine city vulnerable to any who wanted to make attack, open for any who wanted to get out.

And here is Jesus, moving away from the prison house of death, not with the conniving of a felon who steals past the guard, but at his own time, in the pleasure of his Father, for the Father will not see his Holy One suffer corruption, but brings him back to life, and by a power that is beyond human understanding, the stone is rolled away. Jesus takes the gate and the lintel, the whole barrier of death, and he moves it, that obstacle, on one side, so that those who have been imprisoned as a result of their sinfulness, those who felt that they would always be enslaved and were constantly condemned, might go through the doorway opened by the Lord Jesus and find newness of life and salvation. Death now has changed completely.

No longer is that sepulchral vault damp, smelling with corruption, a horrific thing for men and women to contemplate. Now it has the fragrance of the Christ about it, and death becomes the very antechamber of heaven, and the Christian can look into the grave, and he can use almost the mockery that the Apostle Paul once showed as he aspired a sepulcher, and say, O grave, where is your sting? O death, where is your victory? Because the Christian has his eye not so much upon the tomb, but upon the stone that's rolled away, and knows that all who have confessed Jesus as Savior are not to be incarcerated in the tomb of their own sinfulness, but are to be led into freedom, and one day when physical decay takes over their bodies, their spirit shall go to be with the Lord in heaven. The symbolism of the tomb, it stands for the end of the reign of death.

It's a monument to the claims of Jesus. How often have you been in London and stood there by Trafalgar Square and looked up on that gigantic column and aspired Nelson, the nation's tribute to a great seafarer? Or maybe you've aspired Wellington's statue, and if you know anything about history at all, it's brought back to you the greatness of the British Empire and the leaders of prowess and skill that the country has had. But for King Jesus, my friend, there's no statue.

He's not placed somewhere on a column made out of marble or cast of bronze, standing on top of that high place for all to adore a memory that once was but now is no longer. The incredible thing about the Christian faith is this, that basically its emblem is a stone, a huge stone, the door of the sepulchral vault, blown open, so to speak, not just ajar, not swinging on its hinges, but moved completely out of the way, testifying to what? To the greatness of the Christ, who said that if he be lifted up, he would draw all men unto himself, and also added that he came, the Son of Man, not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many, a monument to the claims of Jesus. And when the Christian feels defeated, and sometimes the pressures just are upon his shoulders and he wonders how he's going to get through, he looks away to yonder stone in the garden, and he realizes that all his problems are really diminished.

They're hardly worth considering compared with the great blessing that Jesus has achieved for believing mankind through his death and his mighty resurrection, having led captivity captive and given the gift of salvation to believing men and women. That stone symbolizes the end of the tyranny of death. It's a monument to the claims of Jesus Christ, and, my friend, it's the foundation of the Christian faith.

If Christ be not risen, then our faith is in vain. If the bones of that Galilean carpenter are somewhere being bleached by the eastern sun, if his remains are still discoverable in Palestine, then of all men we are most miserable. If Jesus were not raised from the dead, then there is no salvation.

Move the foundation stone of this tabernacle and the lot will come down. Disarm the Christian church of its belief in the resurrected Christ, and there is no gospel. There is no salvation.

But Jesus taught that having been crucified, having descended into the belly of the earth, as Jonah was in the belly of the whale, on the third day, he would be raised from the dead in the power of an endless life. And the message that he places at the feet of his disciples to proclaim around the world is not simply the message of his crucifixion. That's part of it.

It's a message of his resurrection. And the stone, it symbolizes this. Death could not keep its prey.

Jesus, my Savior, he tore the bars away. Jesus, my Lord, so much more I'd like to tell you about the symbolism of the stone. Monuments in Scripture abound.

Jacob upended the stone that was his pillar and commemorated a night that he had spent in the presence of God. The Hebrews, as they passed over the Jordan and took possession again of the promised land, placed stones commemorating the crossing of the 12 tribes into Canaan. And here is the stone, that huge boulder outside the open sepulcher of the Christ, underpinning the claims that not only did he die, but he rose again.

And what does that mean? What did it mean for those two ladies that first Sunday morning? It meant, my friend, that their devotion was inadequate. They loved Jesus, but loving Jesus is not synonymous with salvation. You can love Jesus without believing in Jesus.

Did you know that? They loved him to the extent that they brought their costly perfume and these women, by contextual deduction, were not rich. And they were going to embalm the body of the Lord, but it had already been done. And if only their belief had matched their devotion that morning, then they wouldn't have found themselves in the tearful condition in which they are here pictured.

If only your belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, approximated to the affection that some say they hold him in, not just the Christ who died on the cross, but the Christ who was raised from the dead, an emphatic belief that he is the Son of God and demands your allegiance and asks you to confess your sin and he'll move it away, like the boulder in front of the sepulcher was shifted. For these women, their anxiety was completely unnecessary. They wouldn't have been asking the question, who shall roll us away the stone, if they had paid more attention too.

And one isn't being critical for one realizes one's own inability at times to grasp the significance of the Christian faith. But had they paid more attention to what Jesus had been saying in the years that had gone by, then they wouldn't have been in this dilemma. And how many of you have gone through anxious moments in your life, whether it be a young life or one in its middle years or its advanced years, that anxiety would have been completely without cause, unnecessary, had you known the risen Lord Jesus as your Savior.

But then another deduction that you can draw, particularly from the chapter that Joseph read to you in Matthew's Gospel, a parallel account, is that the hope of these women was restored. They didn't lose their awe immediately, but eventually they lost their fear and they're told not to be afraid of the future because the Lord Jesus Christ has gone before, not only into Galilee, but He's gone before down the years of their lives. And if they can accept this, and more importantly, if you can accept this, my friend, tonight, your fears too will be banished.

Your anxieties will be dwarfed. As you do what? As you move away from philosophical debate. As you stop wondering who's going to move the stone of death and who's going to answer the problems that confront us as mortal men and women and come to the point where your eye is focused not upon the problem but upon the solution and see the stone which symbolizes the end of the tyranny of death, the monument to the claims of Jesus to deliver believing mankind from the consequences of their sin, the foundation stone of the faith which reveres not only a Christ who was pinned to a gibbet, but a Christ who was raised from a sepulchral vault.

Who shall answer the problem of our sin? Who shall move the obstacle? Jesus, our Samson, has taken the gate of our entombment away and made it possible for all who will pass through the doorway he has opened to go on into liberty and the freedom of life eternal. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for this day and for the message of Easter, the message of the cross, the message of an empty tomb.

And we bless you for the salvation which you contrived and have made available freely to all who respond to the promptings of your Spirit. And we ask you now to move upon this congregation and to resolve the perplexities of those who need to have sins forgiven and commit themselves to the Christ of God who triumphed over sin on the cross and death in the tomb. Amen.