“Who Shall Roll Us Away the Stone”

Mark 16:1-8

 

INTRO: I speak this morning on the subject of the Resurrection of Christ because our minds are focused on this event today.  We think of this because Sunday is the day of resurrection.  Every Sunday of the year is a testimony to the fact that Christ arose.  Sunday is the first day of the week; and on this day, the first day of the week, Christ arose.   Friends, the tomb is empty.  Christ is not there!  The Gospel is not just the death and burial.  It includes the resurrection.

The resurrection of Christ makes a statement, and what an important statement it is!  The resurrection says that Christ is who He said He is: He is the Son of God (Rom 1:4).

 

I.         VSS. 1-2, THE SABBATH IS ENDED

A.        Vs. 1, It is Saturday evening after 6 PM.  The shops in Jerusalem are now open for business.

1.  Three women go to a shop and buy spices to anoint the body of Jesus.  They want to get to the tomb early in the morning.

2.  Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had gingerly and tenderly taken the body of Christ from the cross.  They wrapped the body in linen bandages strewed in a mixture of myrrh and aloes as they did so.  Yet, the body had not been anointed with fragrant oils and spices, not since death.

a.  Let us not forget that Mary of Bethany had anointed Jesus before His crucifixion (Mk 14:3-8).

b.  We can rejoice that Mary loved Jesus enough to anoint His body for burial.  What we do for others let us do it now (Mk 14:8).

B.       Vs. 2, Note the words, “very early.”  When the women left Bethany, headed for the tomb, it was still dark.  “The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark...” (John 20:1).  When they arrived at the tomb, a two mile walk, it was early morning, day break, while the dew was still on the roses.  “As it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the tomb” (Matt 28:1).

1.  They expected to find the dead body in the sepulcher.  That had been the history of man and his relation to the grave.  Wherever he dug a grave, or built a tomb or hollowed out a sepulcher, he filled them with his dead.

2.  Thank God for the faithfulness of godly women.  They had ministered to Jesus in life; they were faithful in death standing at the foot of the cross.  Now, they are headed to the tomb to anoint His body.

 

III.      VSS. 3-4, THE STONE

A.        Vs. 3, The women, as they came to the tomb, wondered: “Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulcher?”

1.  The verb here is in the imperfect tense meaning that they kept on saying among themselves.

a.  The stone was the main topic of discussion.

b.  They were not thinking victory; there were not thinking resurrection.  In the midst of our problems, we need to think victory (II Cor 1:9).

2.  This question: ”Who shall roll us away the stone,” is an ancient one.  The stone of death has stumped many a philosopher.

3.  The women faced three difficulties:

a. The stone was huge and heavy.

b.  It was stamped with the seal of the law.

c.  It was guarded by the representatives of worldly power.

4.  To mankind there are three difficulties:

a.  Death itself was a huge stone not to be moved by any strength known to mortal man.  Death is the penalty for sin (Rom. 5:12, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; so death passed upon all men...”).

b.  The seal of God’s vengeance was upon the mouth of the tomb.  “The soul that sinneth it shall die.”  Those who break the law are doomed.  “All have sinned...there is none righteous.”

c.  Demon forces and the powers of hell are watching the sepulcher to prevent escape— who could face these and wrench departed souls from between the lion’s teeth of death?

5.  Who shall roll the stone of death, hell, and the grave away?

a.  Friends, as we shall see, they came to the tomb of Jesus and found it empty for Jesus had risen.

b.  Here is the answer to who shall roll the stone away.  Jesus is the answer.  There is another life.  Bodies will live again for Jesus lives.  (Rev 1:18).

B.       Vs. 4, When the women looked—  the Greek word for look is anablepo and it means: “to look up.”  When they lifted up their downcast eyes and bowed heads, “they saw that the stone was rolled away.....”

1.  An angel had come down from heaven and rolled the stone away (Mt 28:2).

2.  The stone was not rolled away to let Jesus out, but to let the women and later Peter and John enter the tomb.  The stone is rolled away so you and I can see that He is alive.

3.  Because Jesus is alive, the grave is not a place of finality for the believer. (Jn 11:25-26).

a.  Christ is risen.  The dead in Christ shall rise.  The stone is rolled away.  The grave cannot hold the believer. ( I Thes 4:13-18).

b.  “For surely as Jesus rose, so must His people leave the dead: there is nothing to prevent the resurrection of the saints.  The stone which could keep us in prison has been rolled away” (Spurgeon 40).

 

III.      VSS 5-6, THE SAVIOR RISEN

A.        Vs. 5, The angel that had removed the stone is in the tomb when the women get there.

1.  The angel looking like a man, was seated in the tomb clothed in a long white garment.

a.  The word for garment is the Greek word stole meaning, “a long stately robe reaching to the feet, train like, sweeping the ground.”

b.  The word stole also speaks of richness and beauty.  This was a heavenly garment.

2. “Affrighted” — Greek ekthambeo meaning “amazed, to throw into terror, to alarm thoroughly, terrify.”  The women were completely amazed.

B.       Vs. 6, the angel tells the women that their reaction to him and the empty tomb should be different.  Instead of alarm, they need to rejoice.