Apostles' Creed Sermon - 6

Apostles’ Creed – He Descended to Hell

1 Corinthians 15:54-58

1. Introduction – So where are we today? Well today we’re studying a little known and little remembered day that some call “Holy Saturday.”

a. It’s the only day in history when no one thought Jesus was alive. And there’s a good reason for that…he wasn’t.

i. Saturday is a confusing day, a disorienting day. Jesus’ disciples went in to hiding on Saturday, fearing they would experience the same fate as Jesus.

b. And we have to wonder, why is the most important event in the history of the world a three-day drama? Why crucifixion, burial, resurrection? Why a day in the middle? Why is there a day of confusion? A day of silence?

i. But our faith revolves around this three-day drama, and the Apostles’ Creed lays this out for us. Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. Friday.

1. He descended into hell. Saturday.

a. On the third day, he rose again. Sunday.

c. After the drama of Good Friday, and before the gloriousness of Easter Sunday, we have Saturday. Why talk about Saturday? Why include a line in the Creed about a day that is barely even mentioned in Scripture?

i. Well, actually, this line wasn’t included in the original Creed. The Apostles’ Creed was written sometime in the 3rd century and this line wasn’t added until the 6th. Why was it added?

1. It was added to answer the question, “What was Jesus doing between Friday and Sunday?’

a. It was added to show that Christians believe that on the cross – Jesus actually died.

d. Around the 5th and 6th centuries, heresies started being formulated that taught Jesus didn’t really die and rise again.

i. Some taught that Jesus merely passed out, and when they took his pulse, it was so faint, it wasn’t recognizable.

1. But after a couple days of recover, Jesus regained his strength, was resuscitated and it appeared that he had come back from the dead.

a. There’s a word for what I described to you, and to put it nicely, it’s garbage. Absolutely garbage. It is downright heresy.

e. So in order to combat this heretical teaching, some sound theologians decided to do something about it. They set out to show that Jesus died and he felt the full extent of death.

i. Jesus was flogged, multiple times, he carried his cross, except he was so weak from the flogging that Simon of Cyrene had to carry it most of the way.

1. Jesus was nailed to a cross. Now, people didn’t die from the nails – the suffocated to death.

a. They were placed in such a way that it was impossible to breathe without pushing up on the nail in your feet in order to gasp for air.

2. The Bible tells us that Jesus had a spear rammed in to him – that blood and water came pouring out.

a. Now, I always pictured it happening down here. But as I’ve read and studied this scene, I’ve learned that the spear was actually driven up under his ribcage and into his heart.

i. The ‘water’ that came out was fluid as his pericardial sac around his heart was punctured – and the spear driven straight into his heart.

f. You want to tell me that he wasn’t dead? Some want to say he just passed out from that? How?! No, Jesus was dead. Crucified, dead, and was buried.

i. And 6th century theologians furthered the fact of Jesus’ death by stating that he descended into hell.

1. In just a little bit we are going to try and unpack and decipher what this line means and why it’s important.

a. But before we do that, I wanted to take some time and show you various interpretations of this line.

g. It’s hard – perhaps this line needs some investigation. We probably won’t come to a solid conclusion this morning, I’m simply going to present different sides of the interpretation, and try to show you how important this line really is.

2. Omit It – The first way this has been interpreted is to NOT interpret it, and simply omit it from the Creed.

a. As far as I can tell, there are 2 versions of the Apostles’ Creed – one that has this line and one that doesn’t.

i. Those who omit this line see it as a late addition, unimportant and don’t see how it adds anything to Christian belief.

b. I debated whether to use a version of the Creed that didn’t have this line – simply because it would have made my life a little easier…especially for this week.

i. But I believe this line is important and it should be included…so here we are.

3. Metaphorically – Other people interpret this line metaphorically.

a. If this line is left in the Creed – it is sometimes taught that Jesus experienced ‘hell’ while he was still on the cross.

i. Just before he died, Jesus cried out, “My God, My God…” And it is in this moment that Jesus for the first time ever, experienced separation from the Father.

1. Jesus ‘descended into hell’ because the he took our sins upon himself on the cross.

a. If ‘hell’ means separation from God, then while he was on the cross, Jesus descended there as the Father turned away from the Son.

2. And while this is true, Jesus did experience separation from the Father when he became sin for us, I don’t think a metaphorical interpretation is true to the original intent of the line.

4. Literally – And if there are some who interpret this line metaphorically, then there are also those who interpret this line literally.

a. Some interpret this line as saying that Jesus went down into the very abode of the devil; that he infiltrated the headquarters of evil in order to defeat it.

i. And while this can be a really powerful image, and I’m sure some really incredible and moving artwork has been made of this scene – I see one major flow in this interpretation, and we’ll look at the flaw in just a bit. It’s often called the harrowing of hell.

b. And while both of these interpretations have strengths and weaknesses, I believe they both fall short of the original intent of this line.

5. Deciphering – So how are we to understand this line of the Creed? Well, like I’ve said a couple times already, we need to understand the original intent of this line.

a. As mentioned there were theories floating around in the 6th century that Jesus wasn’t resurrected, he was simply resuscitated.

i. That he wasn’t dead and raised to new life, he merely passed out and was revived.

1. So in order to combat this heresy, this line was added to the Apostles’ Creed.

a. And so in the language it was originally written in, Latin, this like looked like this… descendit ad inferos.

b. I want to focus on the last word in the phrase. The Latin word ‘inferos” is the Latin equivalent to a couple words we see used in the Bible – Sheol or Hades.

i. In the ancient world, Hades or Sheol, or as the Creed states it, inferos, is known as the place of the dead.

c. However, to make matters even more difficult and confusing, a monk named Rufinus changed the line in the Creed to from inferos to infernos. And that extra “N” makes a huge difference.

i. Because changing the line from inferos to infernos, means it no longer says Jesus descended to the place of the dead – to Hades or Sheol – it now states that specifically Jesus descended to hell – or if we use a proper biblical term – to Gehenna – to the place of eternal torment.

1. With the Creed reading “descendit ad infernos” it states that Jesus descended to a place of conscious torment – a place of eternal separation from God.

a. And even though there’s only one letter different, there’s a huge difference in meaning.

d. In the ancient world, there wasn’t this thought like in our day, that when you die you either go up or down. You either go up to heaven, or down to hell.

i. In the ancient world, they called the afterlife ‘the underworld’ and everyone who died went down – to Hades – to inferos.

e. But, within Hades, in the underworld, there were two separate sections. One section called Paradise, which was the resting place of the righteous, and the other section called Gehenna, reserved for the unrighteous.

i. We actually see this in the Bible, taught by Jesus himself. In the story of the rich man and Lazarus – both men die, but the unrighteous rich man is sent to Gehenna – an irreversible place of conscious torment.

1. And it is while he is in Gehenna, in hell, that he sees a man Lazarus, resting in the bosom of Abraham. He was carried away to Paradise.

f. And what does Jesus say to the thief on the cross? “Today you will be with me… where??? In heaven?” No, Jesus uses a very specific word, “in paradise.”

i. To say that Jesus went to the place of the dead, to Hades, to inferos, is another way of saying that Jesus really died.

1. He experienced the separation of soul and body that everyone experiences when they die.

a. He wasn’t sleeping or swooning, or passed out; Jesus was dead. His body was placed in a tomb while his soul traveled to Paradise.

g. But, to say Jesus literally went to infernos, Gehenna, hell – is problematic on all fronts. As I said before there is one major flaw with a literal interpretation of this line.

i. It’s problematic because Gehenna is the final and irreversible judgment for those who reject God.

1. Gehenna, Hell – the place of eternal conscious torment – is an entirely inappropriate place for God’s Son to be.

h. What this line is, what it represents, is the lengths God went to in order to solve humanity’s sin problem.

i. This is the Creed’s final word on Jesus’ death. In fact, from here on out, the Creed is formulated with his upward trajectory.

i. For the past few weeks, the Creed has kinda been descending. We started high, God, the Father Almighty. I Believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord… but from there, we’ve kinda been on this downward trajectory.

i. Actually, the Apostles’ Creed is structured a lot like the great Christ hymn recorded in Philippians 2.

1. While Jesus is equal with God, he didn’t see that equality as something to be grasp.

a. So he gave it, came to earth to live like a human, he died a criminal’s death on the cross. He died and was buried. We’re trending downward here. Kinda sounds like the creed – Jesus Christ, conceived, born, suffered, crucified, died, buried, descended.

i. But the last half of the Christ hymn of Philippians 2, much like the rest of the Apostles’ Creed – trends upward.

1. Jesus was raised to new life, given the name above every other name. As the Creed states, he sits at the right hand of God – will come back to judge the living and the dead.

j. Jesus died a full death. He experienced the separation of soul and body. He waited with all the other departed souls for the resurrection.

i. Jesus preached Good news to the souls in Paradise and on the third day…well, that’s next week’s sermon. I don’t want to get ahead of myself.

1. Descendit ad inferos – Jesus descended, not to a literal place of hell, but he descended to the place of the dead. So every time we say the creed from now on, we are going to insert the line “he descended to the dead.” Hopefully it will clear up any confusion and won’t lead us in to any heresy.

6. For Us – So what can this line do for us? How is this foundational to our faith? How does it round it out and bulk it up?

a. Well, I want to focus on 2 things – 2 sides of the same coin really.

b. First, this line, when properly interpreted and understood brings us comfort.

i. We’ve all had ‘Saturday’ experiences. This day – when on top of the pain and trauma of the initial events, we have this day where God seems to be silent. A day when our world feels upside down.

c. We’ve all had days when we cried out to God, prayed intensely – but nothing happened. Maybe our situation even got worse.

i. We’ve all been there, and here’s some comfort – God’s been there too!

d. Our faith revolves around 1 weekend, 3 days. 1 day of suffering, 1 day of great rejoicing, and sandwiched in the middle, a day of silence.

i. God gave us Holy Saturday, the middle day, so that we would realize that God is not separate from this kind of unsure and numb emptiness.

e. One day, unexpectedly or not, peacefully or painfully, whether we’re ready for it or not, death will come for us.

i. Unless Jesus comes back first, we will all experience death, our souls will separate from our physical bodies – and I find it comforting to know that, even in death, God doesn’t abandon us.

f. It’s comforting to know that even in death, we will find Jesus, right there beside us.

i. In fact, he’s gone there before us, and think about this…if Jesus shows up in death, where will we NOT find him?

1. If he will turn up there, he will turn up anywhere. He descended to the dead…what great words of comfort.

g. But these words are also words of hope.

i. And the hope is that through his death and resurrection, Jesus has defeated death.

1. Yes, if Jesus doesn’t return first, we will still experience physical death, but the hope is that, one day, just like Jesus, we will also be resurrected.

a. We will receive new resurrected bodies and we will spend eternity in God’s presence.

h. Jesus has defeated death, not by proclaiming his invincibility over it, but by submitting to it…and conquering it three days later.

i. And because Jesus descended an rose, the doors of death can’t prevail over the church. Because Jesus descended and rose, death couldn’t hold him or keep him. Because Jesus descended and rose death has been defeated and has been subjugated to the will of the Risen one.

1. Because Jesus descended and rose, he holds the key to death and the Grave.

a. We are going to talk more about our hope of resurrection in a few weeks when we study the line, “I believe in the resurrection of the body.”

i. And when properly understood this line, when we understand what Jesus did when he died for us, when we see the hope and comfort that it can bring, we see that death loses the war that death doesn’t have the final say, that death, indeed, loses its sting.

7. Conclusion – At the cross, it looked as if evil had won the day. Jesus’ lifeless body was wrapped up and placed in a rich man’s tomb.

a. His soul descended to the place of the dead. For many, all hope looked lost.

i. But on the third day…well we’ll have to wait until next week to find out what happened.