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 Apostles’ Creed wanted to make sure that an essential part of the Christian Faith, was that Jesus, the founder of our faith and the one we call Lord and God: died.
When you think about it, it’s kind of odd. How many other religious or philosophical movements champion the death of their leader – not just admit/recognize it but emphasize it and even celebrate it?
It’s not just a morbid outlook on life that caused the early church to emphasize Jesus’ death.
But it’s because Jesus’ death is utterly essential to the gospel story and gospel hope.
And we’re going to look at the three points of the creed and then 3 applications:
And what I believe this phrase that Jesus died, was buried, and descended into hell, is trying to teach us, is 3 things:
- Jesus died. 2) Jesus really died. 3) Jesus really really died.
1) The first thing this section of the creed is trying to teach us, is that Jesus Died. And we see this in the phrase of the creed where we say, “he died”.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified (we looked at last week) and this week we see that the end of those things wasn’t just that Jesus had a really bad day that day – but that his earthly life came to an end in death.
Jesus died. When Jesus suffered in this life and in his crucifixion, that suffering didn’t just go a certain point and then stop.
But his suffering went as far as it could go. That suffering went all the way – all the way to the point when his body could suffer no more. All the way to death. He died.
2) The second thing this section of the creed is trying to teach us is that Jesus really died.
And we see this in the phrase, “he was buried.”
“He was buried”, adds two important things here: 1) it adds the confirmation of human eyewitness testimony to Jesus’ death, in order to give evidence that he was in fact dead; and 2) it accounts for the whereabouts of Jesus’ body between his death and resurrection – in the tomb that was guarded by Roman soldiers.
He really died.
And, of course, there’s no difference between being dead and really dead. You’re not dead in degrees – it’s an all or nothing kind of thing, death is.
You’re either dead or you’re not dead; and if you’re truly dead, then you’re really dead.
But what I mean – and what I think the Creed means to emphasize, is that, he didn’t just appear to be dead. He wasn’t just “half-dead” as we might sometimes say to describe someone who came very close to death, or appeared dead.
He didn’t just appear to be dead to those watching at a distance, who thought, “well he said it is finished”, and I think he stopped breathing – at least as far as I can tell — let’s just head home – and that’s it until he appears again.
If that was it, then how much confidence did they – or do we – have to conclude that when Jesus appeared, it was a resurrection?
If Jesus wasn’t truly fully dead with that confirmed by witnesses and his dead body accounted for in the sealed tomb; then on Easter Sunday we don’t have a resurrection, we have a resuscitation.
If Jesus really was raised from the dead, that changes everything. And that’s why the fact of his death is so crucial: because If Jesus was really raised, that changes everything; but if Jesus wasn’t really dead, then he wasn’t really raised.
In order for the gospel to be the gospel, just as much as it needs an empty tomb, so it first needs an occupied tomb – occupied with a truly dead body.
That’s why the burial of Jesus was so important – that’s why the gospel writers and creeds don’t jump right from the crucifixion to the resurrection – because the gospel requires a dead body.
And let me just try to walk through the laborious efforts of the gospel accounts to show the true full real death of Jesus and the confirmation of it by eyewitness testimony:
Jesus burial only came after Jesus’ body was released by Pontius Pilate’s permission – which came only after Pilate make special confirmation that Jesus was in fact dead – this account in Matthew doesn’t give the details, but Mark’s account shows that Pilate got specific confirmation from the centurion that Jesus’ body was in fact dead.
And John’s account shows us that the confirmation of Jesus’ death by that soldier came through the piercing of his side with the spear.
But, think about this: not only did the witnesses see Jesus die, and the centurion confirmed Jesus’ death – but they took the body; they handled it; and they buried it.
They loved him! you think they’re not going to check for breathing?
They felt the cold limp lifelessness of it; If you’ve ever felt a dead body when a loved one has died and you don’t want to let them go – if you’ve ever felt a dead body – it feels like a dead body!
Them taking him down from the cross, carrying him to the tomb, preparing his body for burial, and then still after all that being so convinced that he was in fact dead that they sealed him up in that tomb – I think is very compelling testimony and evidence that he was in fact dead.
See that laborious effort of the gospel accounts is why the Creed so greatly emphasizes this.
- Jesus died; 2) Jesus really died;
3) Jesus really, really died.
This last phrase, “descended into hell” – is tricky. This is by far – I think – the trickiest part of the Creed.
What it doesn’t mean: is that the person of Jesus went into hell and suffered torment by the devil for three days until he had a sort of sudden “Rocky Balboa comeback” and knocked Satan out and only then could he rise back up to life from Hell.
Jesus suffering – he himself says – was finished on the cross – the victory was won.
His resurrection didn’t come immediately but not because he was still trying to accomplish victory.
So, if he wasn’t in hell, where was he, and why does the creed say he was?
3 possibilites. And I hate to do this in sermons but we’re going to walk through 3 possibilities:
1) An actual descent into a spiritual underworld called Hades – where the souls of the saints of the OT were waiting; and Jesus descended there to bring them to God – from hades to paradise.
This is possible; but there’s no biblical suggestion that this is what happened after Jesus’ death. Biblical support for this is found in 1 Peter 3, but that’s a very unclear text, and there are other more likely interpretations of it –
but there are two main problems with it:
The OT does suggest that OT saints had an expectation of entering into the presence of God when they died; and the OT and NT confirms that expectation as fulfilled;
but whatever you think of where the souls of OT saints went at death; the bigger problem with this view is Jesus’ own words which imply he went somewhere else at his death:
That his body went into the grave, but his spirit went to be with his Father:
Remember, he said to the thief on the cross: “Truly I tell you: Today, you will be with me in Paradise”. And, one of his last prayers was: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”
It seems that Jesus expects his Spirit to enter directly into his Father’s presence at his death.
2) The creed is talking not the literal place of hell but about a metaphorical hell – a reference to the wrath of God that Jesus experienced on the cross: that he experienced “hell” on the cross.
This was John Calvin’s view; And certainly it is true. But it’s unlikely I think that that’s what the creed meant by it. Because the creed is so chronological at this point – it’s telling the gospel story – and this would be out of order in that story.
3) It’s restating for emphasis the previous two statements of Jesus dying and being buried.
I think this is the most likely interpretation of the Creed.
The word in the creed “hell” is the greek word “hades” – the equivalent of “sheol” from the OT – which was kind of vague but meant something like grave, or realm of the dead –
Hell in English used to include that meaning but not really any more – now it exclusively refers to the final place of torment – Gehenna in the NT.
And so when we say that Jesus descended into hell, we’re really saying that he descended into Hades, which probably originally meant the grave – and so it’s a reference to Jesus body being dead and continuing under the power of death for a time – until his resurrection – rather than a reference to something his spirit was doing – which as I suggested, was in Heaven with God. And this fits the context of the creed – where Jesus’ body is in view with his crucifixion, death, and burial.
Now this phrase was not in the creed until the 4th century. And so one ancient writer addressed the question of whether the church was erroneous in leaving it out; and he said no, and the reason, was that it was meant to communicate the same thing as dead and buried.
And so I think the point of adding this phrase was for emphasis. That he really, really died – that he went as low as humanity can go – he shared in what is the lowest state of our human existence – and that’s why the creed uses the language of descending: the lowest point of Jesus’ humiliation that I talked about last week was his descending into death.
He didn’t just pass out or faint on the cross; he wasn’t just unconscious in the grave; but he truly descend into death.
It matters that Jesus was truly dead – not only because as I said before – that is what a true resurrection requires, because we’re going to truly die.
“A truly dead Christ gives us confidence about what will happen to truly dead Christians.”
Just like Jesus, our body goes into the grave, to await our resurrection at the last day; but until then, Just like Jesus – our soul goes immediately into the presence of God.
And that’s no small hope, when you or those you love, are facing death.
3 applications:
Jesus tasted death;
Jesus transformed Death;
Jesus traversed Death
Death is one of those weird things that happens to everybody, but no one really wants to talk about.
In fact, death seems to move more and more to the background – we don’t deal with it – we call in the professionals for that; we don’t talk about it – and even when we do, ew don’t even like to say the word – saying someone died sounds so callous and stark and rude and so we say “she passed away”. In fact, the dictionary states, that “pass away” means, to die. Quote: This word is used to avoid saying “die” when you think this might upset someone.
Why is that? It’s because death is upsetting! More than that: death is terrifying! And we don’t want to deal with the terror of it or the upsetting nature of it and so we either cover our eyes to it or lie to ourselves about what it is.
Death is such an unavoidable, inevitable, and universal part of life that is common to all people. Yet saying that someone died might upset them. And so we veil the reality of that with nicer-sounding words.
We don’t deal with death; we don’t talk about death; we don’t even like to think about death. Death is relegated to fantasy of movies and video games but we prefer to keep it outside the realm of reality – and when we do allow it inside the realm of reality we still relegate it as something that happens to other people – not me. Or, something that maybe other people are particularly or immediately vulnerable to but as something that is vague and distant on the horizon and doesn’t really need to bear upon me and my life.
None of us admit we’ll never die; but we sort of act like it. And I’m not advocating morbidity but that the reality of death is something that we have to deal with – we can’t just stick our head in the sand but it’s the most important question of our existence – because:
“Death is not merely an event that awaits us, but a power that rules us now. it’s futility permeates all our achievements and denies our souls peace and contentment.”
If there’s nothing beyond the grave, then ultimately there’s nothing but the grave; and death casts is dark shadow of hopelessness, meaninglessness, and emptiness over all of human existence.
Hebrews 2: Fear of death not just a subjective experience; but an objective reality – that it holds us in slavery.
in Bible: Death is the great enemy of life that robs life of what it was meant to be, that destroys all we work for and ruins all we love, and that strips man of the glory and honor that he was created for.
Hebrews 2:9 which we didn’t read says that Jesus tasted death for everyone – and his tasting death doesn’t mean he just took a little sip but that as we read in vv 14-15 – he so shared in our humanity and really died as a human so that he could die for us – and by his death break the power that death held over us – so that we don’t need to be captive to it.
Calvin: “Death held us captive under its yoke; Christ, in our stead, gave himself over to its power to deliver us from it… he let himself be swallowed up by death, as it were, not to be engulfed in its abyss, but rather to engulf it that would soon have engulfed us; he let himself be subjected to it, not to be defeated by its power, but rather to lay it low.”
He tasted death for us; he conquered death for us.
In the early chapters of Genesis we see that in the biblical perspective, death is not a natural part of life; but an intrusion: death is related to sin; death results from sin. When human sin entered God’s world, human death entered God’s world. “On the day you eat of it, you will surely die”.
Even though they didn’t drop dead when they ate, they surely did die.
Death entered in 3 ways:
Spiritual death (separated from God – symbolized by their being banished from the Garden, living under the guilt of sin, corruption of sin, and with the consequences of sin.)
Physical Death (on that day, their bodies started to die, and were then on marked by death’s certainty; humanity started to experience the decline and suffering and decay that precedes and inevitably leads to physical death.
Eternal death – the final conquering of death: when we live apart from God’s blessing forever; when we live under God’s wrath forever.
But, God by his grace did not leave us to be conquered forever by death; but Jesus who did not deserve to die because he did not sin; tasted death for us who do deserve death; and he conquered it, and gives us new life.
Jesus tasted death; Jesus transformed death
In him we have:
New Spiritual life – we are reconciled to God and enjoy a right relationship with him;
New physical life – though we still die, though in this life are bodies are still marked by death and suffer and continue to waste away – decline and decay, one day, the last day, even our physical death will be overcome, and we will have new, glorified bodies that no longer face or see death
We hope in new eternal life – we live with God forever, perfected in our spirits with perfected bodies in a perfect world.
we still face death in this life; but it’s radically transformed. Instead of facing death with despair; we face it with hope. Because instead of death being devastating conqueror; it is merely transition into fullness of life; from this earthly existence of suffering to a heavenly existence of joy and comfort in the presence of God forever.
That’s why Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 says, “Where death is your sting? Where death is your victory?”
It’s gone! It’s like a scorpion that though it still stings us in that we pass through it; but though it still stings us it’s poison is removed.
Christians can face death with hope; with confidence; though it still may scare, we can walk to and through our death in faith – because Jesus walked to and through it – and see what happened to him: God did not abandon him; God did not forsake him; but Jesus committed his soul to God and God brought him into his presence and raised his body to new life; and we can face death with the confidence that if by faith we are in Christ, then what happened to him, will happen to us.
And so, even dying becomes another way of following Jesus our Lord and savior.
“We are all on the way from birth to death; but in Jesus, we go in the opposite direction: we move from death to new birth
Jesus tasted death; Jesus transformed death;
Jesus traversed death:
I believe there’s two particularly terrifying things about death:
the mystery of it; and the aloneness of it.
Death is mysterious. Because generally speaking, no one comes back from it to tell you what’s on the other side of it.
And, so, we can speculate all we want; but in the end we know it’s just that – speculation.
Scanning through news this week and headline caught my eye – in part because of the sermon I’d be preaching:
“Keanu Reeves Leaves Colbert Speechless With An Incredible Reflection On Death”
And I thought – I’d like to see his incredible reflection maybe we can learn something from it.
article: “Actor Keanu Reeves not only managed to answer one of the hardest questions of all time, but he did so in a way that left “The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert at a rare loss for words.
The actor is talking about his movie and he says: “You’re facing your own mortality and the mortality of all existence. Wow,”
“Colbert replied. “What do you think happens when we die, Keanu Reeves?”
The audience laughed at the unexpectedly deep question.
The “John Wick” actor paused, exhaled, then delivered an answer for the ages now going viral on Twitter:
I know that the ones who love us will miss us.”
Well that’s certainly true and I would never want to make light of or dismiss the fact of the painfulness of death in life when it takes from us those whom we love.
But there wasn’t much actual insight into the question of death – when it comes to what we face in death.
And, you know, without God’s shining some light on things for us – that’s really the best we can do.
But God doesn’t leave us in the dark: Our Christian Faith shines light into the dark mystery of death: it gives us Someone who stands outside of death – over death – such that he can see our side of death and he can see the other side of death – and can speak to us who are on this side what’s on the other side;
but more than that – someone who went through death to the other side – and came back to us on this side; and promises to be with us and go with us when we pass traverse death.
the mystery of it; and the aloneness of it. Humanly speaking:
Death is the thing in life that you are most alone in when you face it. Up to death, you can be surrounded by friends and family holding your hand and offering you words of comfort; but at the point of death, they can’t come with you. You can’t take anyone or anything in this earth but you leave it all behind.
But Jesus walks with you through it. All the way. The one who went through death, now takes you along. He’s been there before us; and he’ll see us through it. He doesn’t leave you alone for one bit; and we read in the Romans passage – not even death can separate us from the love of God that is our in Christ Jesus.
Hymn: “Jesus leads me through no darker rooms than he went before.”
Death is a dark room; but Jesus walked through it before us, and leads us through it when we face.
For the Christian: death is not the end; death does not defeat God’ promise. Death does not separate us from God.