Jesus Is Going To Hell! (1 Peter 3:19, 4:6 / Salvation) By Win Green I. Jesus Is Going To Hell! After Jesus was crucified on the cross, what exactly did He do for the three days he lay dead in the tomb? Was He without consciousness? Did His Spirit roam the earth like a ghost? Or did His death in the tomb have a larger purpose? We find a clue in the Apostle s Creed the statement of Faith Christians have been saying for 1,700 years Here is what it says: I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, And in Jesus Christ His only son our Lord. Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Born of the Virgin Mary. Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried, HE DECENDED INTO HELL... ( United Methodist Hymnal, 89) For 2,000 years Christians have believed that Jesus crucifixion on the cross freed us from our debt to sin, AND that His three days in the tomb had its own important purpose of freeing those who had no hope in hell. Here is what St. Peter Himself says in the Scriptures: For Christ died for the sins once and for all in order to lead you to God and He went and preached to the imprisoned spirits the spirits of those who had not obeyed God (1 Peter 3:18-20) Who were these imprisoned spirits? St. Peter goes on to say: the Good News was preached also to the dead, to those who had been judged it was preached to them so that in their spiritual existence they may live as God lives. (1 Peter 4:6) In other words what the Scriptures testify, and our ancient creeds agree, that Jesus descended into hell after His crucifixion, and for three days He Manuscript By Win Green 1
preached the Gospel of unconditional love to those who had been condemned to hell. Some of us may have a hard time with this idea of Jesus descending to hell. But think about it. The Bible tells us the devil can prowel around heaven as it says in the book of Job: the day came for the heavenly beings to appear before the Lord, Satan was there among them. (Job 1:6) If the devil can prowel around heaven then why can t Jesus preach in hell? Personally, I like the idea of Jesus preaching in hell. What an incredibly powerful image Jesus storming the gates of hell itself with the Gospel of peace! II. If Jesus Will Go To Hell, He ll Go Anywhere! Why is this important? Why should we care what Jesus did after His death on the cross? If Jesus death on the cross frees us from damnation, then why should we be concerned with some strange story of Jesus preaching the Gospel to the dead in hell? Here is the answer. If Jesus is willing to go to hell with the Gospel, then He ll go anywhere! If Jesus is willing to descend into hell itself to share God s unconditional love, then there is no place into which you or I can descend that is beyond His loving reach. There is no immorality we can stumble into, there is no depression we can fall into, there is no evil we can be seduced by that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. This is the wonderful news St. Paul trys to tell us in his letter to the Romans: I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God s love. Death can t, and life can t. The angels won t, and all the powers of hell itself cannot keep God s love away. (Romans 8:38, LB) In other words, you can never sink so low as to be beyond the loving reach of God. The Bible tells us that King David knew how low a human being could sink. He broke every one of God s laws murder, adultery, lying and stealing. He was hunted down like a dog by his father-in-law, was Manuscript By Win Green 2
abandoned by his first wife, he murdered one of his most loyal friends, he lied to his countrymen, stole from the temple, and he was forced to kill his own son Absalom. From personal experience David knew just how low a low a human being could sink, but through it all he never lost the sense of God s presence. From his own personal experience he wrote that there was no place so deep and dark into which God s loving arm could not reach. In Psalm 139 David wrote: I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God s love. Death can t, and life can t. The angels won t, and all the powers of hell itself cannot keep God s love away. (Romans 8:38, LB) King David s own personal experience taught him that there is no immorality, depression, or evil into which he could sink from which God cannot or will not rescue him. David s testimony is this, even if we make our bed in hell itself, still God is there if only we open our hearts to Him. So what pit has your life fallen into? Has your marriage decentegrated into a dark place? Are you buried with guilt over some secrete sin? Has your spending gotten you into a financial hole? Or have you fallen into a ditch morally? Well, if Jesus is willing to descend into hell to offer the Gospel to the damned then He is certainly willing to dig His way to wherever you might have buried yourself. Scripture tells a story about a man who fell into a deep dark place and how in the depth of his dispair he cried out to God, and how God rescued him. The name of this man is Jonah. III. Out Of The Belly Of The Whale Jonah was a prophet who did not obey. God called him to a mission of saving souls in a foreign land, but Jonah was a racest who had no interest in the welfare of anyone different from himself. God directed Jonah to sail east to the great Babylonian city of Nineveh that he might preach the word of the Lord to its citizens, but in rebellion Jonah sailed west. As the scripture says Jonah thought he could sail away from the presence of the Lord (Jonah 1:3) Manuscript By Win Green 3
But this was Jonah s first mistake. The Lord caused a great storm to blow upon the sea, a mighty tempest, and Jonah s ship threatened to break up. The crew was terrified, with each crying to his god. They threw everything they could into the sea to lighten the ship, but it was of no use, for the ship was clearly in the hands of the Lord. The crew decided to cast lots to see who was responsible for the evil of the storm, and the lot fell upon Jonah. The men asked him, Who are you, and what evil have you done? Jonah responded, I am a Hebrew, and I am fleeing the presence of the Lord. The crew asked him, What shall we do to quiet the sea? And Jonah said, Throw me overboard and the sea will calm itself, for it is because of me that this great storm has come upon you. But the sailors had no stomach for sacrificing innocent blood, so they tried to steady the ship, but to no avail. The storm was breaking their ship apart. So in desperation they took hold of Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the storm ceased its raging. But the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and for three days and three nights he clung to life in the belly of the whale the deepest darkness he had ever known. There was little air, and what he could breath was foul. He sloshed in the stomach of half digested whale slime and fish guts. There was neither light nor hope. Every moment was a desperate gasp for breath. He had disobeyed the Lord, he knew it, and so his bed was made in hell.there was no excuse or explaination, Jonah got what he deserved. For those who don t believe in the Gospel of 2 nd chances the story would end here. But this is not the kind of God we follow. We believe in a God who gives back better than we deserve. We trust a God who is always more eager to forgive than to punish. We follow a God who loves to lift us up when we are humbled. And with all his many flaws, Jonah too believed in this same God, so there, deep in the belly of the whale, Jonah cried out to the Lord, and the Lord heard him! The Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land. God is a God of second, third, and forth chances. You can mess up, fall down, and sink low, but you will never be able to dig yourself deeper than God s loving arm can reach. Jonah was a man of many faults and failings. He was a racist. He was hard headed and rebellious. He turned away from God, but God would never turn away from him. Though Jonah made his life a living hell, still God would never forsake him. This is what Jonah himself wrote of his experience: I called to the Lord, out of my distress, Manuscript By Win Green 4
and He answered me; out of the belly of hell I cried, and Thou didst hear my voice. Thou didst bring up my life from the pit. (Jonah 2:2, 6 RSV) IV. Going Down For Standing Up! But let us not assume that deep darkness and hellish experiences are reserved just for those who disobey. The Bible is a witness to those who do everything right, and still wind up with a bed made in hell. Recently, a woman stopped me after church and told me that ever since she became a Christian her life has become a living hell. I believe her. The day you become Christian is the day hell itself unleashes its demons upon you. As a Christian you are opposed by the world, the flesh, and the devil. They will do all they can to secure your place in the deepest darkness imaginable. The prophet Jeremiah was a man who was thrown down deep into a waterless well for having the courage to speak the truth as God had given it to him. (Jeremiah 38:6) The prophet Daniel was a man who was thrown down into a lions den for staying faithful to God in the face of opposition. St. Paul was thrown down into the deepest bowels of prison for witnessing to the hope of Christ. Just because you do what is right doesn t mean that you won t wind up in some hellish circumstance. But God rescued Jeremiah from the well; God rescued Daniel from the Lion s den; God rescued St. Paul from prison. And He can rescue you whenever your piety leads you to a dark and lonely pit. V. The Gospel: Jesus Goes Down to Lift Us Up! How can we summarize the gospel of Jesus Christ? It is this: we may be closer to hell than we are to heaven, BUT we are never too far from the loving arm of God. No matter how far away we may feel, no matter deep and dark the pit, still God s presence is only a prayer away. King David expressed his confidence in God s loving arm this way: I waited patiently for the Lord s help; then He listened to me and heard my cry. Manuscript By Win Green 5
He pulled me out of a desolate pit. ( Psalm 40:1-2 ) The prophet Daniel expressed his confidence this way: God sent His angel to shut the mouths of the lions so that they would not hurt me. (Daniel 6:22) St. Paul expressed his confidence this way: we do not what you to be ignorant, breathren, of the affliction we experienced we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself but that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead; He delievered us from so deadly a peril He will deliver us again. ( 2 Cor. 1:8-10 ) Manuscript By Win Green 6