What Does the Stone Mean to You?

 

In the early chapters of the book of Joshua, we discover Moses has died and God buried him in an unknown grave. God then appointed Joshua to lead Israel across the Jordan into the Promised Land. As soon as the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant stepped foot into the river, the waters stopped flowing and stood up in a heap – just as the waters of the Red Sea stood in a wall on either side of the people as they crossed over on dry land. When the nation finished crossing, Joshua commanded 12 men – one from each of the tribes of Israel – to gather twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan where the priests were standing and bring them to the shore of the Promised Land. When they’d done that, Joshua then told them to bring 12 stones from the shore and place them at the feet of the priests still in the middle of the Jordan. We now pick up the story in chapter four and verse six when Joshua says to the nation:

 

“Let this be a sign among you, so that when your children ask later, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ then you shall say to them, ‘Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off.’ So these stones shall become a memorial to the sons of Israel forever.”

 

I want to focus our attention for a moment on what Joshua said about the stones; In years to come, when their children asked their parents, “What do these stones mean to you” – the parents were to tell them of their deliverance from Egyptian slavery.

 

With that backdrop, we now fast-forward to the first century A.D. Israel suffered under yet another despotic regime, and Almighty God sent a Deliverer – but not one they were expecting. This Deliverer entered the human race to deliver not only God's people, but all of humanity from the bondage of Satan and sin – a bondage to which MOST of humanity, even to this moment and including so many there in that dining room – a bondage to which most men and women are oblivious.

 

Let me illustrate that point this way: Have you heard of people who had cancer growing in their body, but they didn’t know it? And because they didn’t know it, they never sought medical help. And by the time they knew something was wrong, it was too late. Within a short time, they were dead.

 

That scenario of the silent cancer is not all that uncommon, and because of its silence it illustrates the deadly plight of most men and women living today. They are dying from an inevitable, albeit silent, terminal illness the Bible calls ‘sin. And most remain completely ignorant of their desperate situation. And meanwhile, sin’s cancer eats away at their souls – slowly in some cases, rapidly in others. And because they don’t recognize how sick they truly are, they have no reason to call the Great Physician for healing. And unless they come to their senses, it will be too late when the wages of sin bring about their eternal death and separation from God in hell.

 

No wonder the Lord Jesus so often warned the crowds of laity and religious: “It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:31b-32))

 

Which circles us back to Joshua’s stones and the question their children would ask of them in later years: “What do these stones mean TO YOU?”  

 

Fourteen hundred years after Joshua’s stones, a much more precious stone entered humanity’s story. It was that stone which was rolled away from an empty tomb just outside Jerusalem. And it is about THAT stone that children have the right to ask of their Christian parents what it means to them. It’s also a question people in the dining room this afternoon all have the right to ask the Christians at their dining room table. “What does that stone rolled away from the tomb’s entrance mean TO YOU?”

 

I suspect I know how many of you will answer that question, but I’ve learned in my 50+ years of teaching God's word that I must never make blanket assumptions about those with whom I communicate the gospel. And so, please indulge me if I tell you things that you’ve known, and believed, and loved for many years – even decades. It’s always good to hear it again and again.

 

There are so many glorious and life-changing truths inherent in the rolled-away stone that I can only scratch the proverbial surface of those truths. And certainly, such truths deserve much more than mere soundbites in response, which means today’s message is the first of two, maybe three messages in answer to the question: What does that rolled-away stone from Christ’s empty tomb mean TO YOU?

 

Well, first – and this is the fundamental answer upon which every other answer must rest: The rolled-away stone is indisputable evidence that Jesus is Almighty God incarnate. Period. End of sentence. End of discussion. Jesus is Almighty God-Who-Became-Flesh upon His conception in the Virgin’s womb. Here is only one text given us by the Holy Spirit to establish that point:

 

(John 1:1-3, 14) “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being . . . ¹⁴ And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

 

It is vital to the issue of Jesus’ deity to remember that under the Mosaic Law, anyone who blasphemed God was to be put to death. For the sake of time, we won’t turn there, but we find that commandment in Leviticus 24:16. Furthermore, blasphemies against God included false prophecies and false teaching. Listen to Deuteronomy 13:5 – “But that [lying] prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has counseled rebellion against the Lord your God . . . to seduce you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So, you shall purge the evil from among you.”

 

No wonder the religious leaders wanted Jesus dead because they thought He was blaspheming God when He said of Himself things like: “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30). And at another time, He told them: “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, ‘I AM’” (John 8:58). The Jewish leaders clearly understood that He was claiming preexistence and – just as blasphemous – Jesus claimed to be the great “I AM” of Exodus 3:14. Many of you will remember when God spoke to Moses from the Burning Bush, the text tells us God said of Himself: “I AM WHO I AM”; and [God further said to Moses], “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

 

I won’t belabor the point that Scripture repeatedly makes about Jesus’ co-existence, co-equality, and co-eternality with the Father and the Holy Spirit. So, when the stone was rolled away from the empty tomb, the Father Himself was giving His 100% stamp of approval on everything Jesus said about Himself and His relationship within the Triune Godhead. The Father made it superabundantly clear with the rolled-away stone that everything God the Son said about Himself, about sin, forgiveness, hell, eternal life, and all the rest – it was all true.

 

So, when you’re asked, “What does the rolled-away stone mean to YOU,” one of the answers ought to be that it proves beyond any logical and rational doubt that Jesus is Almighty Jehovah God incarnate – God-made-flesh.

 

But we mustn’t stop with that declaration. We must move to the application of what that stone means to you and to me. It is entirely insufficient – indeed, it is DANGEROUS to our eternal destiny – to merely give intellectual assent to the deity of Jesus and not make that truth personal in our lives.

 

That means we’d better be VERY careful about how we treat Jesus AND how we treat His name. We must be careful to give Him the same reverence and worship and honor and awe and obedience that we should always give the Father and the Holy Spirit.

 

Listen: Scripture also makes it clear that when this earth and heaven are recreated, that “At the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:10-11)

 

EVERY knee. Of angels and demons – including Satan himself. Every knee. Of world rulers and impoverished people who sleep under bridges. Every knee. Yours and mine. And we are very wise to live today, and every day for the rest of our lives, in utter humility before our God and Savior, Jesus the Christ.

 

“What does the rolled-away stone mean to us?” We will tell everyone who asks, the stone means Jesus is Lord, God, King, Savior, Deliver, and our best Friend.

 

And so, please, ask the Father to help us get to know Christ better and better with each passing day. Spend time with Him. Talk to Him – and listen to His voice. You will hear it when you listen for it.

 

And take time to read, reflect and memorize His word printed between the covers of your Bible. And when facing temptation or confusion or stress, respond to those things with the word of God you’ve memorized – even if that memory is imprecise. Please remember how the Lord Jesus responded to each of Satan’s temptations with Scripture.

 

Scripture tells us, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; The righteous runs into it and is safe.” Proverbs 18:10) And, “Every word of God is tested; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.” (Proverbs 30:5)

 

And if you can’t think of a scripture text at the moment of need, the 23^rd Psalm is always a good place to start. Or the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6.

 

Now listen, I’m speaking from experience: You’ll probably come up with all kinds of excuses to avoid getting to know Jesus better, to talk to Him, to read and reflect on His word, and to memorize Scripture. You’ll convince yourself you’re too tired, too busy, or you’re not feeling well.

 

So, here is a strategy that will enable you to actually use those excuses as ‘conversation starters” with the Lord: Tell Him how you’re feeling. Tell Him you’re too tired, or too busy, or too sleepy, or not feeling well.

 

You may be surprised when He then starts a conversation with you. Whether it be a short conversation or long, the point is – He appreciates our honesty.

 

Well, that’s the first answer we can give those who ask us what that rolled-away stone means to us. Let me now in the short time remaining begin to touch on what else we can tell the questioner about that stone.

 

It means God loves you. And He loves them. Even if we don’t believe it, the stone rolled from that empty tomb roars that truth more thunderously than ten thousand hungry lions.

 

But how, exactly, does the rolled-away stone demonstrate God's love?  Well, I’ll talk about that in more detail next week, but for now let me just quote a text where Paul writes: [Christ] was delivered over because of our transgressions and was raised because of our justification.” (Romans 4:25)

 

In simple terms, because God loves us so much, He poured out His wrath on His Son who took our sins on His shoulders, and by His resurrection God made all who come to Christ in repentance – He made us to be without sin.

 

We’ll look much more closely at this meaning of the rolled-away stone next week, but for now, let me take a few more minutes to introduce the limitless subject of God's love for you and me.

 

As I said last week, we often say “God loves us” almost mechanically, almost without much thought to what it actually MEANS that God loves us. And I’ve thought about that question from time to time over the last 50+ years – ESPECIALLY when I remember the unspeakably horrible things I’ve done in my life. But the question of why He loves me brought me to an even more basic question: Why did God CREATE me. And, oh, yes: Why did He create YOU.

 

I hesitate to compare what I am about to compare, but I use this next illustration because it’s the only kind of relationship that comes close to answering the question of why God created us.

 

First of all, He did NOT create us – as some who have as much understanding of God as a pebble – He did NOT create us to us tell Him how great He is. He didn’t create us as a means to boost His self-esteem, or so that He could push His weight around and tell us what to do and what not to do.

 

No, none of those reasons even begins to rise to the lowest level of stupidity. So, why did God create us? Because God is Love, and everything He does is rooted in Love. And although there aren’t any biblical texts that say, “God created men and women so He could shower His love on them,” I think it is reasonable to extrapolate from Scripture that God created you and me because He wanted to do just that – to shower us with His love. He created us to have INTIMATE communion with Him for all eternity. Because He loves us.

 

It might help us understand what I’m trying to say if we think of it this way: Why do married men and women who deeply love each other want to ‘make’ children? At its very root, isn’t it because they want to share their love with their children. And if that’s true of men and women created in the image of God, then how can we think that God doesn’t want to share His love with you and me? Of course, He does.

 

Please think on that a long moment: God created you to LOVE YOU. YOU! Say your name out loud – He created you to love you. Listen to how God guided the Psalmist to record it in Psalm 139:

 

O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar.  You scrutinize my path and my lying down and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O Lord, You know it all. . . . ⁷ Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there Your hand will lead me . . . ¹³ For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

 

Please, please hear me: Those are only two of the many things that rolled-away stone means – what if SHOULD mean – to you and to me. Those are only two of the things we can tell those who question us about the meaning of that rolled-away stone: Jesus is Almighty God incarnate, and OH! How He loves you. Oh, how He loves me. Oh, how He loves you and me.”

 

I expected my time to disappear when I got to this point in the message, so next week I will pick up here, where we left off. But until that time, I hope you will spend time this week rehearsing for yourself what that rolled-away stone means to you – the stone that speaks far, far better than Joshua’s stones – and how grateful to God you are for all that it means to you, and to everyone with eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts open to receive His boundless love.