No Grave 2
No Grave • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Text: Matthew 27.50-66
Your Savior is not in the Grave...
And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him.
And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
Saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes; and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles: And they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him: and the third day he shall rise again.
Though he was dead now he lives.
By the way he was dead, (give the account)
The story of Jesus in a sealed tomb begins with his crucifixion. According to the New Testament, Jesus was crucified, and his body was taken down from the cross and placed in a tomb that had been prepared for him by a wealthy man named Joseph of Arimathea.
The tomb was a cave hewn out of rock, and it was sealed with a large stone that had been rolled in front of the entrance. Guards were also posted outside the tomb to ensure that no one could steal Jesus' body.
On the third day after his crucifixion, which is now celebrated as Easter Sunday, a group of women went to the tomb to anoint Jesus' body with spices. However, when they arrived at the tomb, they found that the stone had been rolled away and the tomb was empty.
According to Scripture, an angel appeared to the women and told them that Jesus had risen from the dead. The women then went and told the disciples, who were initially skeptical but later had their own encounters with the risen Jesus.
The empty tomb has is the central symbol of the Christian faith, and it is seen as evidence of Jesus' resurrection and his victory over death. The story of Jesus in a sealed tomb is therefore a powerful reminder of the hope and new life that is offered to believers through their faith in him.
When a person receives Jesus Christ as Savior, the Bible says that the Holy Spirit seals, or guarantees, that the individual is a child of God. What does this mean? In what sense does the Spirit of God seal the believer? The New Testament says the following about this particular ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Our passage points to this interesting statement of what the tomb of Jesus would be given.
It is here that we find the tomb had some very specific features.
It was sealed Shut.
And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.
It was sealed Secure.
Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first. Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can. So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.
The bible describes that the Cross was sealed with the seal of Pilate. This was a roman seal made of clay that would then have the insignia of Rome emblazened on it. This seal was meant to warn any who would break the seal of the death and threat that they faced.
This seal was meant to signal two things.
The seal was meant to signal authority. .
The authority of the Roman government had taken the responsibility of making certain that this tomb would remain full. The seal of Pilate a claim to power that he and the full force of Romes might would overcome any opposition to anything or anyone that would leave this tomb empty.
The seal was mean to signal ownership.
This claim of the seal made the stone in front of the tomb the property of the Roman governemtn anyone tampering with it was under an instant death sentence. (Hence the guards) and gave the assurance that no one would have any rights before a magistrate to argue their case. Joseph has no claim to this tomb any longer for it now is governed by rome.
Only one problem with this...
Rome wasn’t big enough to stop our Savior from leaving the tomb. Rome didn’t haved the power to hold back our Lord.
This highlights one of the big problems of our world. That is that they want to claim the power to control but have no real power.
The lies of the devil have no real power
The limitations of our health have no real power.
The claims of our detractors have no real power.
The breaking of science by perverts has no real power.
Do you see what the request of the chief priests did? Instead of stopping Jesus followers from spreading hte meassage of a resurrected savior. They spread the message of a savior that couldn’t be kept in the ground.
I want to point out for you that this isnt the only seal offered in Scripture. The beaquty of the seal is that Jesus who couldn’t be held in the ground by a seal offers on to you and I.
Through his victory over the Grave Jesus has given us a Great seal.
Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
To begin with, all who believe in Jesus are sealed with the Holy Spirit of God. The sealing confirms the fact that the Holy Spirit will never leave them. The Scripture says. Sealing is for everyone who believes. There are no exceptions.
The Holy Spirit Is the Seal
The New Testament makes it clear that it is the Holy Spirit Himself who is the seal – we do not seal ourselves. Paul wrote to the Ephesians and said the following.
In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
He seals us. We have nothing to do with it.
You are sealed by God’s power not your works.
And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
Believers are never exhorted to be sealed with the Spirit or to strive to reach the goal of being sealed. They are sealed the moment they believe. It is something that God alone does.
Why are we sealed?
Because a Seal is a Sign of Authority.
Jesus has taken upon himself authority of the Believer. We are his He is ours. Jesus has taken the responsibility that we will be redeemed phyiscally and Spiritually. This will not be interfered with because Jesus bring the full weight of the Kingdom of God to bear on any who would wish to take us from him.
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Because a Seal is a Sign of Ownership.
Jesus has taken possession away from the enemy of our souls. He has taken all claim of this rebellious heart to belong to him in full submission. All that once had claim on me have let that claim expire becaus it is under new management. And Christ’s HOly SPirit is here to secure my eternal state.
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His tomb is empty! The tombs of Mohammed, Buddha, Confucius, Karl Marx, and every other religious founder and philosophical genius still hold and will hold the remains of their occupants until they go back to the dust.
But not that of the Lord Jesus Christ. His body was there for only three days, and then, having been resurrected, glorified, and immortalized, He appeared to His disciples, showing Himself to be "alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God" (Acts 1:3). Then He ascended back to heaven and ever since has been "at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us" (Romans 8:34).
One day, all the graves will be emptied! Jesus said to those who are His followers: "Because I live, ye shall live also" (John 14:19). He has promised to return some day (perhaps today!), and "if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him....and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:14-17).
In that great day, all made possible by the Resurrection of Christ, the graves of every believer in Christ of every age and place will be emptied, and we shall all receive glorified bodies like that of Christ Himself. "We know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is" (1 John 3:2; note also Philippians 3:20-21). "Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" (1 Corinthians 15:54-55).
But it is not only the graves of Christian believers that will be emptied. In the new earth where true Christians will live forever with the Lord, there will be no place at all for graves and tombs and sepulchers, for there will "be no more death" (Revelation 21:4), and, of course, no more sin whose wage is death. Even the great fossil graveyards in the sedimentary rocks surrounding the earth will be obliterated, for "the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up" (2 Peter 3:10) and God will then build "a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness" (2 Peter 3:13).
This message is not without its application… Simple as it may be.
Believer remember that your claim to meaning in this life is not a life of perfection, or acceptance, or compliance to some outward power. Your claim to meaning in this life is that you belong to the God of heaven who has not only promised to keep you but has given us his Spirit.
