Grace Baptist Church, Nokomis, IL.

Text:

I think after this service I’m going to need a nap. Just wake me up when I need to preach again. You know, this is the only morning out of the whole year that we have an early worship service. Why? Because our Savior is alive! He rose from the dead, so we rise from our beds.

And because Jesus rose, nothing stands in our way. If God is for us, who can be against us? No one! So the resurrection of Christ not only proves the power of God over death and gives us a sure hope of our future resurrection, but it also reminds us that God’s power can get us through any trial today, and that no stone is so large that God cannot move it.

Read Mark 16:1-4

I want you to notice first that the women went to the tomb early in the morning (v. 2). They wanted to be a blessing to Jesus in some way, even after He had died. They didn’t put it off for when they felt like they had time. And they didn’t decide simply not to go. They rose very early on Sunday morning to go to see Jesus.

And actually, their preparation started even the night before (v. 1). So after sunset on Saturday night, after the time of their Sabbath was over, they bought the spices that they would use. They made a plan to go to see Jesus on Sunday morning, and they were sticking to it. They went to be a blessing to Jesus. But they didn’t know that they were going to be the ones who would be blessed.

Do you see what I’m getting at? It would be so easy on Sunday morning to not gather as a church because we don’t feel like it. But it’s important to be here! We come to worship God! We come to be encouraged in our faith! We come to be an encouragement to other believers! God doesn’t want us to just stay home and worship at home. He wants us to come together as a church!

I hope that you all have a good time when you come. God wants you to have a good time when you come. God loves when His people love to worship Him!

But even when you don’t feel like coming, make a plan to come. Make a plan to bring your kids, even when they don’t feel like coming. Because sometimes they won’t want to. Sometimes you might not want to.

Let me let you in on a little secret. Sometimes your kids don’t want to go to school. And sometimes you don’t want to go to work. But you recognize that going to school and going to work is good for you and your kids, so you go to work, and you send your kids to school, and the same should be true with coming together as a church.

Because the more we worship, the more we’ll want to worship. And the more we grow in our faith, the more we’ll desire to grow in our faith. It’s not always easy. Getting up this morning with my family wasn’t easy. So we need to be in the habit of gathering together as a church family, and we need to form these godly habits in our children, so that we and they will continue to worship God and grow in our faith.

So they women rose early on Sunday and went to the tomb where Jesus was buried. As the women approached the tomb, they asked each other, “Who will roll away the stone for us?” They knew that they weren’t strong enough. It says in verse 4 that the stone was very large. They had an agenda for their day, but they had an obstacle that was too large for them to overcome. Because they fully expected that the stone would be in their way. And they expected that Jesus would be lying dead in the tomb. We know this because they were going there to anoint His body. This was something the Jews did to the dead. They would apply spices to the body to both delay the body’s decay and to give the body a more pleasing smell. That was the reason they were going there that morning.

But God had a different plan for them. You see, they would never get to do what they planned to do. And they would never have to solve the problem of rolling away the stone either. Because when they approached the tomb, they looked up, and the stone was already rolled away! Jesus had risen! He wasn’t in the tomb!

And sometimes we have plans and problems that only God can solve. Because of our sin, we all had a massive problem. But Jesus died on the cross, taking our place, and rose from the dead, so that if we scrap our plans and turn to follow Him, God solves our problem!

I love the allusion that we read about the resurrection in verse 2. The sun had risen! I love how in the English language, the word son sounds the same as sun. That wasn’t in the original language. But I think the concept was still there. When light broke through the darkness, when the light of the world rose, it was a new day!

And notice what happened when the sun rose: “they went to the tomb.” So even after the stone had already been rolled away, and even after Jesus had already risen from the dead, they went to the tomb, planning to anoint Jesus with spices, and wondering how they would roll the stone away.

God has a sense of humor, doesn’t He?

Here’s the thing: before we came to know Christ as Savior, we were going about our lives, making our own plans, and wondering how we would make it. Wondering how we would get through insurmountable obstacles. And wondering how we might go to Heaven when we die. And all the while, Jesus had already risen from the dead! The stone had already been moved! And we can rest today knowing that God has already done everything for us that needed to be done so that we can know Him and be forgiven of our sin, and go to be with Him after this life! God might have a sense of humor, but it’s not because He’s laughing at us, He’s just waiting for us to get the punch line.

So what stone stands in your way? It doesn’t matter how large it is. Listen, we’re not strong enough to move the obstacles in our lives. But God can move it. And in many cases, God already has moved it. God has already worked out the details. God has already put it on someone’s heart to bless you. And even when you go somewhere to be a blessing to others, God has already worked it out so that you will be the one receiving the blessing.

God wants to do something awesome in your life when you least expect it. And it’s all a result of the fact that Jesus rose from the dead. The same power the rose Him from the dead is in us, because the Holy Spirit is in us. And God wants to use you to do His work in the world today.