By TIMOTHY L. MELTON, PASTOR
(Transcribed by Myra D. Colgate)
Cherokee Pentecostal Holiness Church
Continuation…
Read Matthew 28:1-10; Mark 16:1-20; John 20:12, 18-23
God is Real. God is Powerful. God can make things happen. The tomb is empty, and the stone is still rolled away. As the women had gathered at the tomb, they had found this to be the Truth, but the Apostles had even said to them, “Their words were as ‘idle tales to them because they didn’t believe their words.”
What a sad commentary on that morning, the very ones God had chosen, even though they had walked with Him and talked with Him, those who had seen all the miracles, still could not believe it when they heard that He was alive. The women knew it was true that the tomb was empty. Whether one believes it or not… They found out that even though they didn’t believe it, they found it was still True. True, even though they didn’t know what made the difference. It was still the Truth. They knew it was real.
Whether one believes it or not, He’s still alive and well. Whether one believes it or not, He’s still alive and well. Whether one knows it or not, He’s still on the Throne, He’s still working in one’s life. He’s still a Healer if one is sick, He’s still a Deliverer if one is bound. He’s still the God of all Creation, even if one’s world is falling apart, whether one does believe or if doesn’t believe, He’s still God.
Now I know that this is the church group, and one might say, Pastor Tim, I’d never say that the Bible was ‘idle tales. I’d never disbelieve what the Word of God says, but how many times has all hell broke loose in one’s life, and one has fallen on their face and begun to cry instead of lifting up one’s hands and has begun to praise Him? Do we understand what the problem is?
So, suddenly, we look at somebody else’s life and rejoice about what God has done in their life and cry about what’s going on in our own. We feel like the sepulcher today is full of the failures of our own lives and situations. We wonder who is going to roll away the stone. Who is going to tell us about this thing’s for real, that this thing’s Powerful?
I got that call this week about a person being set free and delivered and that they’ve begun doing the impossible. I said to him, “You realize what you’ve gotten a hold of is real and it’s Powerful?” I don’t understand why everyone in Cherokee is not in a church somewhere this morning because God is real, the Word is real. He can make things happen that no one else can. That’s why I hear this repeatedly when somebody comes in and gives their heart to Jesus and they begin to believe the Word of God, “Why didn’t I do this sooner?” “Why didn’t I grab hold of this sooner than I did?
I’ll tell you why. A person just wasn’t convinced. There’s still an empty tomb and no one is in there. The stone has been rolled away.
What He’s said is true! Something else happened that day. Something else began to stir because there was a man there by the name of Peter, and that was when the ladies began to say, ‘Here’s what we saw, and here’s what the angels reminded us of.’ Right down the road a piece, there’s a mighty moving in the Spirit Realm taking place.
The Bible said in verse. 12. “Peter arose.” He couldn’t take anymore, and he ran down to the sepulcher to see what was going on. And the Bible said, “He stooped down and beheld the linen clothes laying by themselves and he departed wondering if that which he saw had really come to pass?”
Peter had been hiding in a house. No doubt, he was afraid that they’d come after him next. He was concerned that he had ‘put all of his eggs in one basket’, and that now the basket had fallen to the ground. He was there trying to figure it out. ‘What are my next steps and what do I do now? How do I handle a situation that is so broken?’
Peter seems to have explained this, in that, he had spent the last three and a half years telling people that this was the Messiah and now He’s dead, and having walked beside Him and testified of Him and now it seems to be all over. I’m hiding because I’m afraid of the people. I’m hiding because I’m trying to save face.’
To be continued…
