Have a stone in your life

Have a stone in your life that needs to be removed?

Posted By NEWS RELEASE

Posted 1 day ago

FROM REV. BENNY KJIERSDAMN, Elim Pentecostal Tabernacle: In Mark 16:4 when Mary Magdalene, Mary, and Salome arrived at the tomb on that first Easter Sunday morning the stone had been rolled away.

This stone covered the entrance to the burial place of Jesus. Its purpose was to keep the animals and the grave robbers out.

The tomb was a cave. This large stone sealed the entrance. The stone fit into a groove that was cut into the rock. It would take several men to roll into place.

The Gospel writers tell us the tomb was sealed. Sealing involved taking a rope and stretching it across the entrance of the tomb and attaching it to each side with a Roman clay seal. The stone could not be moved without breaking this seal. To break the seal would result in punishment under Roman law.

We also find that a Roman guard was placed at the entrance of the tomb. A Roman guard consisted of four soldiers. These soldiers were trained to kill.

Who rolled the stone away?

Some have sought to explain this even by natural means.

Some believe that Christ's disciples rolled the stone away. This explanation claims the disciples had a vested interest in the body of Jesus disappearing. The disciples, consisting of fishermen, farmers, and tax collectors, who up until this point remained hidden and fearful, somehow gathered courage to come out from behind locked doors. They went to the tomb, overpowered the Roman guard, rolled back the stone, stole the body of Jesus and disposed of it. Afterwards, they preached boldly of Christ's resurrection, turned the world upside down, and died a martyr's death for a gospel they knew wasn't true.

They apparently died for a lie.

According to another explanation, Jesus in His humanity rolled the stone away. In this explanation Jesus didn't die, but was unconscious. His bloody, beaten, body was taken down from the cross and wrapped in a sheet mixed with perfume and spice. The coolness of the tomb was enough to revive Him. He freed Himself of grave clothes, pushed Himself out past the massive stone, overpowered four Roman soldiers, walked into Jerusalem on nail-pierced feet, washed and changed His clothes and presented Himself to the disciples as the risen Lord.

Did Jesus move the stone?

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The stone was moved. The tomb was empty.

Within 50 days the disciples preached the message of the resurrection and turned Jerusalem upside down.

I believe God moved the stone.

Matthew 28:2 records that there was a mighty earthquake and an Angel of the Lord came down from Heaven and rolled back the stone. The impossible became possible.

God moved the stone for two reasons.

1. So the world can see an empty tomb. Anyone in Jerusalem who heard the message of the resurrection could make their way down to the tomb and see the tomb was empty. Jesus had risen from the dead.

2. The stone was rolled away because we needed to know today that God is still able to remove the stones of impossibility in our life. He is able to make the impossible, possible.

Do you have a stone of impossibility that needs to be removed? I would encourage looking to Him looking to God and finding His grace, helping and supporting you in your time of need.