the glory of God. Now, Christian creed is a symbol or a summary of the basic fundamental issues of the Christian faith. And there are several creeds that have been developed over time. And among them, the two most famous and the most widely used creeds probably are the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed. both of which are used to this day by both Protestants and Romans. The creeds were initially developed to help new converts understand the fundamental and essential truths of Christianity. Most people in the early days of the church were illiterate, and so the church developed simple, easy-to-memorize creeds to instruct new believers into what they should believe and put their trust in. Initially, those recently saved souls were instructed to take 40 days to bear fruit of genuine repentance, to study and memorize the creeds, and to ask questions about what the creeds meant, so they could prepare themselves for the public affirmation of their faith in the waters of baptism, where they would recite the creeds before immersion. That's the way things went for a couple of hundred years in the early days of Christianity. And what is interesting, as I was studying this, is that in addition to memorizing the creeds and asking questions about the Christian faith so they could understand what they were doing, they also were told to go back out into the communities in which they had lived And if they had defrauded anybody to repay them, if they had lied, go and ask for forgiveness for the people in the community that they had lied to or stolen from or done bad things, so that when people joined the church, the people in the community also gave a sigh of relief that this bad guy was now saved and he was going to serve God. because he had created so much havoc in the community. It was a testimony out in the community that church really meant something. And so they didn't always just hurry up and get people baptized. So creeds were initially useful in instructing new converts in the basic truths of the Christian faith while helping to overcome the heresies and false teaching that began to war against the truth. over the years is more and more tax against the church came from false teachers armed with doctrines of devils the creeds got longer and longer and contained more and more detail into the creeds had more in common with catechisms and confessions than they did with short easy to memorize summary statements you can see this in the at the nation created this is pretty long and it said well it's not this but it's this and it don't we don't mean this but we mean this And for you to memorize all of that became very cumbersome. And this illustrates my problem with using creeds in our services. I do not disagree that the creeds can be somewhat useful. However, 2,000 years to the rite of the resurrection requires much more in-depth teaching and instruction than any creed could possibly contain. In other words, the creeds are good, but they don't go far enough. And case in point is the Apostles' Creed, which is used today in both Protestant and Roman services. Now that's interesting, because even though Protestants and Romans don't agree with who has final authority to bind the conscience, we say Scripture alone, they say papal infallibility, or how lost people are justified, We say, by faith alone, sola fide. They say, sacerdotal regeneration, along with a host of other issues. They can both recite the creeds with no problem. But we ought to have a problem if we don't agree on how lost people get saved. We ought to have a problem. And yet we don't with these creeds. So, now the earliest mention of the Apostles' Creed occurred in a letter from a church synod back in A.D. 390. And back in the fourth century, it was commonly accepted that God the Holy Spirit had moved upon each of the twelve apostles to write down a section of that creed. We now know that that is not true. But the Apostles' Creed is divided into several sections dealing with the basics of what the Bible teaches about the triune God, the church, and salvation. And the English rendition of the Apostles' Creed goes something like this. I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead, He ascended to heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From there He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen." The word Catholic, of course, means one universal worldwide church. Not Roman Catholic. Now maybe you noticed that when delineating the basic truths about Jesus Christ, the Apostle's Creed said that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Got you. Born of the Virgin Mary. Got. Suffered under Pontius Pilate. Correct. Crucified, died, and was buried. Okay. He descended to hell. Third day he rose again from the dead. Got it. Ascended to heaven. Okay. So, is that true? Did Jesus descend into hell when He died? Does the Bible teach that? And if so, what did He do in hell? And if not, then why does the Apostle Creed say that? First of all, we need to establish that Jesus actually died. And in verse 46, Dr. Luke wrote this, And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit. Having said this, He breathed His last. The Apostle Levi wrote this in Matthew 27 verse 50, Jesus cried again with a loud voice and yielded up His Spirit. So, yielding up your Spirit and breathing your last is the same thing, okay? Here's what John Mark wrote in Mark 15, verse 37. Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed His last. While in John 19, verse 30, the Apostle John said, Therefore, when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, It is finished. And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit. So all of that is the same thing. The Gospel writers were unanimous. Jesus literally and physically died. But it isn't only the writers of the four Gospels that testified that Jesus died. The Apostle Paul believed and taught that Jesus died. Romans 5 verse 6, For while we were still helpless at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. Romans 5.8, but God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 8.34, who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died. Yes, rather who was raised, who is the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 1 Corinthians 15.3, for I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. 1 Thessalonians 5, 9 and 10, for God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him. But not only Paul, The apostle Peter also believed and taught that Jesus died. 1 Peter 3 verse 18 says, For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit. You see, Peter goes to a little more detail. That's what epistles do. They go a little bit deeper than the Gospels. The writer of Hebrews said this in Hebrews 9, 24-26, For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself. now to appear in the presence of God for us. Nor was it that he would offer himself often as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise, he would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world. But now, once, at the consummation of the ages, he has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." And the Apostle John said this in the book of Revelation 13 verse 8, All who dwell on the earth will worship Him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain. And Jesus Himself said this in Luke 18, 31-33, Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished. For He will be handed over to the Gentiles, and will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon. And after they have scourged Him, they will kill Him. And the third day He will rise again. Jesus speaking in the third person. For the Bible is crystal clear that the incarnate God, Jesus Christ, died by crucifixion. The only person in the history of the world who was fully God and fully man, in the same body at the same time without conflict or contradiction, physically and literally died. He quit breathing. His brainwaves ceased and the heart of the God-man stopped beating. Jesus died. Now, there are many today, like professing Muslims and Jews, who reject either that Jesus literally died or that Jesus was God or both. And they reason to themselves that God cannot die. So if Jesus dies, then does that not prove that He was mortal and not really God to begin with? And so they reason if Jesus was God, then His death would be impossible. And false teachings like that have been circulating for over 2,000 years. A Muslim will agree with you that Jesus is virgin born. A Muslim will agree with you that Jesus performed miracles including raising the dead and forgiving sins. A Muslim will agree with you that Jesus Christ was crucified. A Muslim will agree with you that He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the power of majesty on high. The Muslim will categorically deny that Jesus is God. And therefore, no true believing Muslim can be saved. No practicing Muslim can be born again because a requirement for salvation, you must confess that Jesus is God. And that's why they get all these Christians to recant before they cut their heads off. Because they understand better than most Christians in the United States that we are saved by what we believe in and what we confess. Therefore, our confession has to do with our salvation. And that's why they do that. And that's why Jesus said, if you're ashamed of me before men, my Father will be ashamed of you. So when it comes time for you to say, I am a Christian and I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and I'm saved, you better do that. Don't think you can deny that and then still go to heaven. Jesus said you can't. You say, golly, Brother Blair, what if they're going to kill me if I say that? Then die gracefully. but don't deny Jesus. You're going to die anyway. For example, back in the second century, an ancient group of heretics called the Gnostics thought that Jesus only seemed to die, that his death was only a mirage. And they had a big convoluted theology that said that Jesus was on the cross, but Christ was not on the cross. And so they have all that going on. So is it important that those of us who live in the 21st century believe and teach that Jesus died? Is it a primary or essential doctrine of Christianity? Since the entire subject of an incarnate God is so deep and so complicated and so fraught with wrong thinking, do we really need to struggle with it in our day? Is it enough to believe that Jesus was crucified and then rose from the dead? May we just skip past His death Yes, it is a primary and essential doctrine of the Christian church to believe and teach that Jesus actually died. And no, we may not just skip over it. The actual and literal and physical death of Jesus is mandatory for biblical salvation. In other words, to reject or deny or to even minimize Jesus' real death affects forgiveness and salvation so negatively that the end result would be that we would be yet in our sins. Because if you don't believe that He died, you have trouble explaining what He was risen from. You see, it's not enough for Jesus to simply suffer on the cross under the wrath of God that was against our sins. He must also die so that our sins are eternally damned. So our salvation is dependent on Jesus actually paying the full price for our redemption. And that price not only includes His horrific suffering, but it also includes Him dying with our sins completely damned by God. Now this gets into what you believe about salvation. Jesus did not die on the cross to give everybody an opportunity to be saved if they will only take Him up on His free offer. Jesus died to actually purchase the salvation of those that God determined to save from before the foundation of the world. Death was a done deal. It was a redemption. So those who are chosen for salvation are bought and paid for. Hallelujah. And that's why we're not our own. So now you can't have it both ways. You can't have the certainty of the death and the uncertainty of your own salvation. So it's got to be certain or it's not of God. And I'm not just talking about believing you're saved no matter how you live your life. I'm talking about actually being saved. And that price not only includes his horrific suffering, but it also includes him dying with our sins completely damned by God. And then, it also includes Jesus rising victoriously without our sins. So Jesus didn't just rise. He rose from the dead. which is why in Hebrews 9.28, the writer of Hebrews said, So Christ, also having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin to those who eagerly await Him. Now this is an area, the last phrase in that verse is an area that people don't talk about very much. It's not enough for you to believe that Jesus is coming back. You have to be eagerly awaiting Him. Amen. So if Jesus did not die, He could not rise from the dead. And if Jesus did not rise from the dead, we are yet in our sins. So as profound as Jesus' death may be, as difficult as it may be for us to even imagine it and maintain His full deity, as difficult as it may be to teach it and to always distinguish the truth, about His death from heresies, both ancient and modern, the actual, literal, and physical death of Jesus is a core doctrine of Scripture and one that the church of Jesus must uphold and maintain and believe and teach and defend and celebrate. The communion service this morning said we do this so we proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. Yet the great mystery surrounding the death of Jesus in His full deity is no less profound, no less deep, no less complicated than the great mystery concerning His actual, literal, and physical virgin birth. Or for that matter, Jesus' sinless life. Everything about Jesus is unique and different from everybody else's precisely because God will never take on human flesh and become man again. Everything about Jesus is miraculous and amazing. And that is why the person of Jesus, in both His full deity and His full humanity, has been the subject of much study, many books, many debates, much false teaching since the earliest days of the Christian church. And it's over against all of these false teachings that the sacred Scriptures stand strong in what they clearly and repeatedly affirm, Jesus Christ actually, literally, and physically died by crucifixion. And so while the concept of sola scriptura does not end the amazement about Jesus' death, it does end the debate. even as it ends the debate about His virgin birth and His sinless life and everything else about Jesus. These amazing issues are biblical and thus they are true. And that means these profound truths are not just window dressing, but mandatory and core Christian beliefs that affect whether or not a sinful human being is saved. Because that's true. Even as I would deny the salvation of anyone who rejects the virgin birth and sinless life of Jesus, I would also deny the salvation of one who rejects that Jesus actually died. Now, as to just how a person who is fully deity can die, I have no idea other than to say that he did. But that really doesn't bother me because I have no answer as to how Jesus could be fully God and fully man at the same time in the same body without conflict or contradiction either. You want to see pictures of my grandchildren? Fine. You want me to talk to you about the Trinity? And it's going to require you to accept a particular doctrine. Because that is what the Bible teaches. that God is one in his essence and is eternally manifested in three distinct persons of God, the Father, God, the Son and God, the Holy Spirit. And you're free to talk about the Trinity any way you want to as long as you stay inside that fence. You're not free to go outside that fence and talk about it because you will fall into heresy. The mystery surrounding everything about Jesus is part of why we marvel at Him and why we stand amazed at Him and why we worship Him. In 1 Corinthians 15, verse 3, one of the most educated men in the history of Christianity put it very simply when he said, Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. So Paul didn't understand how it worked either. But notice that the entirety of the authority and basis as to why this highly intelligent apostle believed and taught that Jesus died was not because he understood all the nuances of it, but rather that Jesus' death was according to the Scriptures. That's enough! Now to further prove that Jesus died the apostle Matthew goes into great detail as to what those who love Jesus did immediately after he died Matthew's twenty seven fifty seven through sixty said while it was evening there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph who himself would become a disciple of Jesus the man went to pilot and asked for the body of Jesus then pilot ordered it to be given to and Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb which he had hewn out of the rock and he rode the large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away. John Mark said this, when evening was already come, because it was the preparation day, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea came, a prominent member of the council, who himself was waiting for the kingdom of God, and he gathered up courage and went in before Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate wondered if he was dead by this time, and summoning the centurion, he questioned him as to whether he, Jesus, was already dead, and ascertaining this, they came to the conclusion that Jesus was dead. Huh? From the centurion. He granted the body to Joseph. Joseph brought a linen cloth, took him down, wrapped him in the linen cloth, and laid him in the tomb which had been hewn in the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph was looking on to see where he was laid. Now, taking Jesus off the cross was a big deal. Many times the single nail in the feet had been bent and that's why they cut the feet off of people who were being crucified they couldn't get the nail out they had to get that nail that spike out of his feet and out of the cross in order to take him down the ones in his hands and in his wrist his hands his thumb wherever you want to call it had to be taken as this was a big deal this would have been excruciatingly painful if Jesus would have still been alive. Now even though we know that Jesus died, when we put everything we know about Jesus from the Scriptures together, we can say a few things that makes the death of Jesus very unique and special. Jesus' divine nature never died. Because remember, He wasn't just a man. He was also God. So He had the same essence, the same substance, the same nature of the Father and the Holy Spirit. That never died. That was deity. Jesus' human soul never died. Yours never dies either. Jesus' fleshly body died. Just like yours does. So Jesus had three parts. You've got two. Even in death, Jesus remained fully God and fully man. And therefore, unlike us, His divine nature, our substance, our essence, never ceased to be exactly the same as His Father. Now, there's a little Greek word in parentheses right next to the word Father there. For those of you that's been here a while, you know that I went into great length about the battle of Arius and Athanasius in the Christian church over one letter of one word. The Christian church spent 42 years battling over one letter of one word. And that is the reason why we are not all Jehovah's Witnesses today. that one letter is the letter I. And in the Greek alphabet it is the iota. And that's where the phrase that is common today, there's not one iota difference between the two. That's where that phrase came from, from the battle of church history, where the church of Jesus wrestled over one letter of one word for 42 years. And there is one man, everybody, I preached on him last November, Athanasius. is one of the greatest heroes of the Christian church. By himself, alone, against the emperor of Rome to his face and every other bishop. Three hundred bishops were against Athanasius. Eusebius, the church historian, was against Athanasius. Arius was against Athanasius. Constantine, the emperor of Rome, was against Athanasius. And Athanasius was the first bulldog in church history. And they banished the man three times trying to get him to recant. And every time they bring him back, they say, have you changed your mind? And he said, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And they said, get him out of here again. And finally, he stood against them all by himself. God raised him up. And single-handedly, he rescued the Christian church from damnable heresy that said Jesus was similar to the Father, but not the same as the Father in His nature or substance. Homoousia is the Greek word. And Arius added one letter right after the second O He made it homoousia, which said Jesus was similar to the Father in His substance or nature, but not the same. And in the Nicene Creed, Athanasius wrote, physically, personally wrote the part that says that Jesus was God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of the same substance of the Father. That's why you need to memorize that word. That is the reason we're not Jehovah's Witnesses right now. Because Arianism is the foundational teaching of Jehovah's Witness. And so even in death, Jesus never ceased to be omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. So now, I don't know how this works, but on the cross, while He's dying, Jesus is omniscient. He knows everything about everything. And He's omnipresent. All of God was everywhere all at the same time. While He's on the cross dying. Let me make it even more complicated for you. While God the Father is pouring out damnation on God the Son for the sins of the world, Jesus is omnipresent throughout the universe in His nature. I can make it harder. You stand back from Jesus and you go, and that's the correct response. Nobody is like this man. He is a marvel to behold. And like us, Jesus' immortal soul never died. And so the only thing that died with Jesus is the very same thing that dies with us. His body. Now there are three very important aspects about Jesus's death and resurrection that we need to understand. Number one, Jesus died on Friday afternoon just before the Sabbath began. Number two, Jesus was dead during the entire period of the Sabbath, and boy does that have theological implications. And number three, Jesus rose from the dead after the Sabbath was over. and these three indisputable facts give us their answer to several important questions that have troubled people for centuries and that trouble people in our day as well such as how could Jesus fulfill Matthew twelve verse forty and why do Christians not assemble together on the Sabbath. I want you to look at Matthew twelve thirty nine through forty two with me. But he answered and said to them, All an evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign, and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three and three in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And behold, something greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the south will rise up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold, something greater than Solomon is here. And verse 40, Jesus clearly says that the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Yet we see that scripture tells us that Jesus died about 3 p.m. on Friday, just before the Sabbath came into effect at sundown. Now normally, three whole days and three whole nights equals 72 hours. And yet at best, Jesus was only in the heart of the earth for no more than 39 hours. Three hours on Friday, 24 on the Sabbath, and 12 on Sunday. So what do we make of this? Now it could have been less than 39 hours, but it wasn't any more than 39 hours. So what do we make of this? Why was Jesus so specific in Matthew 12 verse 40? And how do we make all this to work out? Some try to make it be three whole days and three whole nights by suggesting that Jesus was actually crucified on Thursday. But this ignores what Dr. Luke wrote in Luke 23 verse 54 about the moment Jesus died. It was the preparation day and the Sabbath was about to begin. So when Jesus died at around 3 p.m. on Friday, it was just about three hours before the Sabbath began at sundown. Now there's no reason to jump through all these hoops to try to make this all work out because the fact of Jewish culture back in the first century was that any part of a day, the Hebrew word is yom, that occurred before sundown was considered to be the entire day. Jesus died at around 3 p.m. on Friday, about three hours or so before the Sabbath began, at sundown. And that means that the entire day of Friday counts. He remained dead all during the Sabbath, sundown Friday through sundown Saturday, thus completing the second day, and did not rise again until after the Sabbath was finished, allowing for the third day, which was Sunday. And so the resurrection did not occur on the Sabbath, but on the first day of the week, which was Sunday. And this is why the Christian church gathers together and celebrates together on Sunday rather than on the Sabbath, and we'll get into that in more detail, Lord willing, next week. So now we know that Jesus has died, but what happened after He died? We know that His body was laid in Joseph's tomb, but what about His divine nature and His immortal soul? Where was he from 3 p.m. Friday until his resurrection? And what did he actually do after he died and before he rose from the dead? The Apostles' Creed says that Jesus descended into hell. Now literally, the ancient Latin wording here says, decedit ad inferos, where inferos may be translated as the lowest, or as those below, or underworld, or netherworld, or abode of the dead. The concept that Jesus actually went to hell and preached to those souls who were there, freeing some to be resurrected and others to simply go into heaven was first preached by Melito of Sardis who died in A.D. 180 in his sermon, Homily on the Passion. The early church father, Tertullian, began calling this event the harrowing of hell in his sermon, Atreides on the Soul. Hippolytus, A Treatise on Christ and Antichrist, Origin Against Celsus, Book 2, Volume 43, and later Ambrose, who died in AD 397, all wrote about the harrowing of hell. The early heretic, I'll call it Marcion, but it's Martian, and his followers also discussed the harrowing of hell in their writings. Early on, the Roman religious organization codified this doctrine into their catechism and used the early church fathers' position as their justification. They also referenced 1 Peter 3, verses 18-20 and Ephesians 4, verse 9 to justify their position. But I want to look at those verses carefully. Let's look at 1 Peter 3, verses 18-20. The apostle Peter wrote for Christ also died for sins once for all the just for the unjust so that he might bring us to God having been put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit in which also he went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison who once were disobedient when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah during the construction of the ark in which a few that is eight persons were bought safely through the water. That's what Peter says. Now the Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 4 verse 9 now this expression he ascended what does it mean except that he also had descended into the lower parts of the earth. Now this doctrine may be true however There are several problems with this interpretation. First of all, the Roman religious organization conveniently omits the fact that Augustine, a man they consider to be the greatest Christian thinker of all time, taught that Jesus did not preach to the people in hell when he died, and that Ephesians 4 verse 9 was simply allegorical and not to be taken literally. But even more importantly, using the Bible to interpret the Bible. What a novel idea. The passage in 1 Peter 3 is explained by 1 Peter 4 verses 4-6 that says, In all this they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation, and they malign you. But they will give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead. that though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the Spirit according to the will of God. Huh. Now, these verses contain some of the most complicated Greek wording in the entire Bible. And later this year as we begin to go verse by verse through 1 Peter, I'm going to take more time with this, but in context, 1 Peter 3 is not talking about the time frame when Jesus died. It is talking about the time when Noah was alive. And the apostle Peter is merely saying that back when Noah was building the ark, Jesus Christ, through the voice of Noah, preached the gospel to that generation. And then Peter tells us that the generation that Noah preached the gospel to are now in prison, meaning they are in hell. In other words, Peter does not say here that Christ preached to these people while they were in prison during the time that He was dead. Now Jesus very well may have done that. But you simply cannot prove that from what Peter is saying here without taking these verses completely out of context. Peter is saying that Jesus preached to them once during the days of Noah, and now these people are in hell. That is the most natural understanding of this passage, especially when you realize what Peter said earlier in 1 Peter 1.11, the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as he predicted the suffering of Christ and the glories to follow. So anytime you go and you preach the truth to people, it is the Spirit of Christ in you that is preaching the truth to them. It isn't you. It's the Spirit of Christ in you that is preaching. That's why it's true. Left up to you, you'd botch it up. I would too. So when we preach the truth, it is to God be the glory, not ourselves. And that's because the Spirit of Christ is preaching through us. That's what Peter was talking about. So in 1 Peter 4, 6, the phrase, the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead, refers to those who after being preached to have since died. So Peter is not talking about Jesus preaching to them in hell after He died. And the late Oxford theologian John Kelly agreed. when he said this, quote, They, the Christians, may well have been exposed to scoffing questions from pagan neighbors and anxious ones from one another. What is the gain of you having become Christians since you apparently die like other men? The writer's, Peter's, answer is that so far from being useless, the preaching of Christ and His gospel to those who have since died has precisely this end in view. that although according to human calculation they might seem to be condemned, they might in fact enjoy life eternal." Now, there really is no biblical basis in the New Testament for claiming that between 3 p.m. Friday and Sunday morning, Jesus was preaching to souls imprisoned in Hades. There is biblical basis for saying that Jesus was with the repentant thief in paradise, and that he was very busy, and that powerful and amazing things happened. And when you consider the great hope that the promise Jesus made to that robber had for him, you cannot then think that Jesus meant some inferior or defective place from which the robber had to be delivered by even more preaching. That wouldn't have been happy for the robber. For these and other reasons, it seemed best to me to either just omit the phrase, he descended into hell, when reciting the Apostles' Creed, or be able to defend your position biblically. And before you take up rocks to stone me, consider that no less than John Calvin struggled with this phrase as well. And I gave you the website where you can look at how Calvin struggled with it. And it's not short. It's a big ol' long, which is what Calvin did. You think I write a lot. Now, I want to be crystal clear about what I'm saying here. I am not telling you that Jesus did not preach during the time He was dead and that some believe and part of them rose from the dead while others just went into heaven. I personally believe that Jesus was very busy the entire time He was dead, fulfilling all the Scripture details. But 1 Peter 3, 18-20 doesn't say that. So all I'm saying here today is if you believe that Jesus was doing great things while He was dead, like I do, then you have to come up with another passage beside what the Apostle Peter wrote, because he didn't talk about it. So we are left in with having to take a little bit from a lot of different verses and put them together to arrive at what we believe about this issue, like we do with the doctrine of the Trinity. Because there isn't just one passage that talks about it. Now, one of the reasons we know that great and powerful and amazing things happened during the time that Jesus was dead was because Matthew tells us that many of the Old Testament saints rose out of their graves and went into Jerusalem and spoke to many people. And by that, and much more, we know that Jesus was very busy finalizing the Old Covenant. And so we know that Jesus ended the way that God deals with the redeemed who die. So when a saint dies today, Jesus does not transfer them into Abraham's bosom, but straight into the bosom of God the Father. Now how should this affect us today? Well, first of all, look at what David wrote as he was moved along by God the Holy Spirit a thousand years before Jesus died in Psalm 16, verse 10. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, nor will you allow your Holy One to undergo decay. This passage describes the normal account of what happened when a human being died prior to the death and resurrection of Jesus. Normally the soul was abandoned to Sheol and the body underwent decay. Yet notice that in this verse, David prophesies that this is not the way it will be with the Messiah. Now the New Testament Greek translated the Hebrew word Sheol into the Greek Hades. So Hades in the New Testament is Sheol from the old. And for some reason, the King James incorrectly uses the word hell in every instance where either Hades or Sheol was used. And that translation difficulty has contributed to many of the doctrinal issues that people have had through the years in understanding all of this. Now I want you to go with me to Acts 2 for a moment. And let's look at what Peter said about this in his first sermon on that balcony of the upper room as the church was being born. Acts chapter two verses twenty three to thirty six. Peter's talking this man Jesus delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God. You nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death. One of the most profound verses in the whole Bible. Here it talks about evil men doing evil things willingly. And yet the evil that these evil men are doing willingly is the predetermined plan of God. Now, I spent a lot of time on that. I hope you remember. But this is huge if you want to understand sovereignty. But God raised him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for him to be held in its power. For David says of him, I saw the Lord always in my presence, for He is at my right hand, so that I will not be shaken. Therefore, my heart was glad and my tongue exalted. Moreover, my flesh also will live in hope, because you will not abandon my soul to Hades nor allow your Holy One to undergo decay. So Psalm 1610 says Sheol. Peter in Acts 2 says Hades. That's the Greek and the Hebrew is all the differences. You have made known to me the ways of life you will make me full of gladness with your presence. Brethren I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried in his tomb is with us to this day. Let's go dig him up and look at his decaying bones. David is dead and his bones are decayed. Jesus is alive and he has no bones in the tomb. Hallelujah. And so because he was a prophet, David was a prophet, and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants on his throne, he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh suffer decay. Now what Peter is doing here is a miracle. This uneducated fisherman is being endued with power from on high to correctly interpret a thousand-year-old psalm that not a rabbi in Israel was able to understand before Peter got up and said this. And the authority of an apostle to do that is that once Peter tells you that Psalm 16.10 is about Jesus, You can't ever say it's about anything else. That is the one single understanding of Psalm 1610 and it is forever that way. That is one of the authorities of an apostle to do that. This is amazing. And look, he did it without notes. Huh? Yeah! This is amazing. This Jesus God raised up again to which we are all witnesses. Therefore, having been exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth that which you both see and hear. For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says, The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know for certain that God, I tell you, God has made Him both Lord and Christ." Huh? You hear all these Baptists and Gulfports about, I made Jesus the Lord of my life. No, you didn't. God made Him Lord. You didn't make Jesus squat. Amen. Jesus is Lord. God made Him Lord. This Jesus whom you crucified. So here in Acts 2, Peter tells us that David, in writing Psalm 16, foresaw the resurrection of Christ. Peter said, he, David, looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he, Jesus, was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh suffer decay. Now, notice here in Acts 2.31 that Peter is quoting David, from Psalm 16.10 to say that Jesus' soul will not be left in Hades and His body will not decay. So Sheol in Hades is the resting place of the dead before the resurrection of Jesus. And evidently, Sheol or Hades had two compartments. One for the dead who were saved and the other for the dead who were lost. Now today, when a saved man dies, his immortal soul goes immediately in the very presence of God. 2 Corinthians 5, 6-9 says, Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith and not by sight, we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore, we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him." So, ever since the resurrection of Jesus, for any of us to be absent in our body through death means that our soul is immediately present with the Lord. And there we will remain until the day when our immortal soul is reunited with a glorified body, which is the finality of our salvation. Now, I don't have time to get in this too deep, but let me just tell you something. There are souls right now who died a long time ago that have been in the very presence of God the Father Almighty for thousands of years. And they're praising God and they're enjoying God's very presence. You got that? They're in the presence of God right now. And their salvation is not finished. Salvation is not finished until that soul is united with a glorified body. That's the reason we're not Buddhists or Hindus. That's why we don't believe in reincarnation. That's why we believe in resurrection. That's huge, but I'm just going to give you that to chew on for lunch. You're not finished because you're in God's presence. You're only finished with what Jesus provided for you and what the Father has planned for you and what the Holy Spirit has assured for you when your soul is reunited with a glorified body that will never die. That's when salvation is finalized. Hallelujah. Since the resurrection, the dead who refuse to repent and put their trust in Jesus in this life will go immediately into Hades where they will be tormented day and night. And at some point in the future, their immortal soul will be united with an indestructible body and they will then be cast into the lake of fire to forever suffer divine vengeance, retribution, and everlasting punishment. There is a punishment yet to come that is worse than the punishment people are going into right now. Because death and Hades will be cast into the lake of fire. That is the second death. That's worse than the bad part of Hades is right now, even though the man said, I'm tormented in these flames. Don't go! So it is important that we know that the understanding about things like death and hell and eternal rewards and eternal punishments grew exponentially with the coming of the final full and completed revelation of God in the new covenant. Under the inferior first or old covenant, these things were not revealed clearly. So before the resurrection of Jesus, comprehension about these eternal aspects were cloudy and vague and general in nature. So from what we can read in inspired Scripture and what we can glean from reading ancient rabbinical writings, before the resurrection of Jesus, both the saved and the lost dead went into a place that was called Sheol in the Hebrew, Hades in the Greek. And this place had two sections, a place for the righteous and a place for the ungodly. And the place in Sheol for the righteous was referred to as Abraham's bosom. And this was the resting place of the dead who were saved before the resurrection. The place of the damned before the resurrection of Jesus, to my knowledge, was not named, but it did contain tormenting fire. So in the New Testament, Hades became the resting place of the dead, both the saved and the lost, until the resurrection of Jesus. And all of this is best illustrated in the parable that Jesus gave back in Luke 16. Now evidently part of the torment or the loss during this time was that they could actually see those who were saved sitting at the table with Abraham rejoicing while they were separated from that with a wide gulf and being tormented in flames. And from the Scriptures we know several things about the part of Sheol or Hades where the damned went. It is under the earth, according to Numbers 16. It was like a city with gates, Isaiah 38. It is a place with iron bars, Job 17. It is a land of darkness, a place where shades, the shadowy souls of men dwell, Isaiah 14. It is a land of forgetfulness, Psalm 88, 12. It is a place where no work is done and no wisdom exists, Ecclesiastes 9. And it is a place where no one praises God, Psalm 6, verse 5 and following. Now remember that Jesus was fully God and fully man, and so Jesus' nature was divine. And so Jesus' substance or His essence was the very same as God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. And so it is correct to say that at the moment of Jesus' death, His divine nature went to heaven with God. His physical body was placed in Joseph's tomb, while His immortal soul went into the depths of the earth, into Hades, our Sheol. And evidently, another description of Abraham's bosom was paradise. And it was in paradise, that very day, that Jesus and the repentant robber were reunited at the death of the robber. Now, understanding all this not only sheds light on the Bible's teaching about death and the afterlife, but it also is a great encouragement to those of us who are going to face death in the future and who seek to do so without fear. First of all, what exactly is death? By definition, death is a separation, a dividing between things that ought to be united. So fundamentally, death is a separation from God. And Paul suggests as much in Ephesians 2, 1 and 2 when he said, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working and sons of disobedience. So to be fallen, is to be spiritually dead. Not sick, not merely separated, but stone cold dead. To be lost is to be enslaved to dark powers. To be separated from God. To be children of His wrath. And this type of separation is an estrangement, a hostile alienation from the life and hope of the living God. So in this sense, all of us by nature are stillborn. We are conceived in our mother's womb as spiritually dead people. And it is for this death that Jesus endured in His suffering on the cross. But of course, death is much more than just separation from God. Death also marks the separation of the soul from the body. God made human beings to be two things. Embodied souls. Souls with a body. And ensouled bodies. Bodies with a soul. and death rips this union asunder. So Christians are different from Buddhists and Hindus in that we believe that we are not completed until our souls are united with the body. This is why we believe in resurrection and not reincarnation. So evidently, following His death for sin, Jesus' soul journeys to Hades, the city of death. Here's another thing, and I probably should have put this in here. I don't think grace is a dainty, fragile, feminine, tender thing. I think grace is violent. Grace is powerful. It is indestructible. It always accomplishes what it seeks to do. And so, rather than just preach to people in the hope that somebody might believe who are already in Hades, which is how the teaching usually goes, No, Jesus violently ripped the gates off the hinges. Jesus then victoriously liberates Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, John the Baptist, and the rest of the Old Testament faithful, ransoming them from the power of Sheol. These believers had waited there for so long, not having received what was promised. Now, I'm getting a little bit into Augustine's belief about this. Augustine believed Jesus went down and said, pretty please, will somebody please believe in me? Because He didn't do that while He was alive. Jesus went down there as a conquering warrior that He had overcome on the cross. And He went down there to get God's people and to set them free. Hallelujah. Yeah, He did. These believers had waited there for so long, not having received what was promised, so that their spirits would be made perfect along with the saints of the New Covenant. Read Hebrews 11 about that. This effectively ended the way that God dealt with the saved before Jesus. And then after His resurrection, Jesus ascends to heaven, brings the ransomed dead with Him, so that now paradise is no longer down near the place of torment, but is up to the third heaven, the highest heaven where God dwells. So now, that's why Paul said, I was caught up into paradise. Hallelujah. So now in the church age, when the righteous die, they are not merely carried by angels to Abraham's bosom. They depart to be with Christ, which is far better. The wicked, however, remain in Hades in torment until the final judgment when Hades will give up the dead who dwell there and they will be judged according to their deeds. And at that point, both death and Hades will be thrown into the lake of fire or hell which is the second death. So why is this good news for us? Jesus' journey to Hades demonstrates that He was indeed made like us in every way. Not only did He bear the wrath of God on our behalf, He endured death, the separation of His soul from His body. So while His essence was always with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, His body was in Joseph's tomb and His soul was three days in Sheol, the heart of the earth. But as Psalm 16 makes clear, Jesus is not only like us, but He is also very different. Jesus' body was buried like ours, but it did not decay. Jesus' soul went to Hades like the Old Testament saints, but He was not abandoned there. God raised Him from the dead, reunited His soul with the now glorified body so that He, is the first fruits of the resurrection harvest. And this is good news for us because those in Christ now bypass the land of forgetfulness where no one praises God. Instead, when we die, we join with the angelic choir and the saints of old to sing praises to the Lamb who was slain for us and for our salvation. Hallelujah. Let's pray. Glory to God. I got raptured.