THE GREATEST VICTORY ! part 2
The Rulers were afraid that somehow the body would disappear and it would seem that Christ had been raised. Pilate sent a guard and they sealed the stone that covered the mouth of the cave with a Roman seal. Now no one could take His body, no one except His Father.
Early Sunday morning while it was yet dark a brilliant angel descended from Heaven and rolled back the stone that covered the door of that tomb and He called Christ forth.
The risen Saviour stepped
forth the victor over death, the mighty conqueror! The soldiers were
struck down as dead men by the glory of that one angel.
The story of
His resurrection was the driving power of the early Christian church, as the Romans had no hope beyond the grave,
neither did many of the Israelites as the Sadducee sect did not
believe in a resurrection. The
only thing that they knew was that the grave was a deep, dark pit
out of which no one could hope to have life. Now the Christians
had a message of hope, there was a life to be had beyond the
grave.
The catacombs under the city of Rome show the difference between the pagan’s death and that of the Christians. Notice the epitaphs on the burial place of the tombs of those who died in pagan hopelessness.
Over
and over again is inscribed these words of sorrow: Goodbye forever
or Goodbye for eternity.
Now, notice what
the inscriptions are on the tombs of the Christians: Goodbye until we meet again or Goodnight until
the morning. Their tombs were inscribed with hope and courage,
looking forward to the resurrection day.
“I am He that
liveth, and was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore. And I have the keys of Hell and of Death.” Revelation
1:18
There
is no real hope for the future beyond death unless Christ is our
personal Saviour.
|
