Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  Day 77

March 18, 2018;      Matthew 27:66;       27/260(IV);        ‘The Secure Tomb’

Matthew 27:66 So they went and made the tomb secure, sealing the stone and setting the guard.

The devil and the religious leaders thought that they won.  The Lord Jesus was mocked, beaten and finally crucified.  What none of them realized was that Jesus allowed them to do this.  At any time He could have called for thousands of angels and Jesus would have been ‘rescued.’  No one, but the Lord and God the Father knew that this was the ultimate reason the Lord Jesus came to earth.  He shared this with His disciples, but they did not fully understand.  Now, after Jesus released His spirit and died physically, the religious leaders knew Jesus said He would raise from the dead in three days.  Knowing this, though they did not believe Jesus would literally raise from the dead, the religious leaders told Pilate the tomb had to be made secure, so that the disciples could not come at night, steal Jesus’ body and then claim He had risen from the dead.  Pilate told them to make the tomb as secure as they could and then post a guard to see to it that Jesus’ body was not stolen by the disciples.  Three days later, in the spiritual realm, when the Lord Jesus’ spirit had paid the price for sins in hell, the Holy Spirit, the Glory of God went down into hell and raised Jesus spirit.  Jesus’ spirit was reunited with His body and on His way back to heaven, Jesus’ body was transformed to the first resurrection body.  Meanwhile, back at the tomb of Jesus, an angel came, rolled the stone away from the front of the tomb and sat upon it.  The mighty Roman soldiers, fainted when they saw him.  The religious leaders terribly deceived as they were told the soldiers to lie and say the disciples stole Jesus’ body. We know better.