Jesus Descended Into Hell: 3 Days & 3 Nights with Pastor Allen Nolan

easter is a time when we celebrate the death burial and resurrection of jesus christ now most pastors will either focus on the death of jesus or the resurrection of jesus but they rarely talk about what happened in between his death and his resurrection you see the bible says that as jonah was in the belly of the well for three days and three nights so shall the son of man be in the belly of the earth for three days and three nights in fact if you would turn with me to the book of matthew chapter 12 verse number 40. i'm going to read that passage of scripture and as you're turning there let me give you a little bit of background information the religious leaders actually came to jesus and they said if you're the messiah give us a sign and of course jesus said an evil adulterous generation seek after a sign i'm not going to give you a sign except the sign of jonah and then he actually says this that we're going to read now here's what's interesting to me jesus had already given all the signs they really needed he had healed everyone that had come to him he cast out demons he had performed miracles up to this point he'd even raised the dead so they should have been able to recognize him as jesus but what they really wanted is do something right now and jesus realized that he did not need to act like a dog and jump through hoops she said the only sign i'm going to give you is the sign of jonah and then this is what he said first jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth and of course jesus was talking about the time period between his death and his resurrection so what happened during those three days and three nights in other words what happened to jesus soul after he died on the cross because we know what happened to his body his body was placed in the tomb of joseph of arimathea but what happened to his soul where did he go did he go to heaven or did it go to hell well that's what i want to talk about this morning but first we need to talk about death and what happens to a person so when they die so do you know what happens to a person so when they die well prior to the resurrection of jesus christ when a person died their soul went to a place called show now if you grew up in church you probably heard your pastor pronounce it shio that's cherokee county but i want you to understand hebrew if you go to israel they're going to pronounce it and it didn't matter whether you were good or you were evil everyone so went to shaol after they died now according to numbers chapter 16 verses 30 through 33 sheol is in the center of the earth so that's why jesus said what he did in matthew chapter 12 verse 40 when he said as jonah was three days and three nights in the well's belly so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth he was talking about his soul being in shaol for three days and three nights now isaiah describes shaol as a city with gates you'll find that in the book of isaiah chapter 38 verse number 10. jose says that it has bars you'll find that in job chapter 17 verse 16 but he also described it as a land of darkness look at job chapter 10 verses 19 through 22. here job is talking he said if only i had never come into being or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave i'm telling you this is pretty sad when a person says i wish i would have never been born i wish i never would have existed or if i had been born i wish that i would have died as soon as i was born and they would have carried me straight to the grave this is what he's saying and most of us understand why he's saying this he's saying this because he had lost everything he lost his children he had lost all of his possessions and he'd even lost his health and he's to this place where he is so depressed he's so down that he says if only i had never come into being or have been carried straight from the womb to the grave and then he goes a little bit further are not my few days almost over turn away from me so i can have a moment's joy before i go to the place of no return to the land of gloom and utter darkness to the land the deepest night of utter darkness and disorder where even the light is like darkness david referred to show as a land of forgetfulness because you're eventually forgotten by those who are still living now the new testament the hebrew word shaol is translated as hades and it bears resemblance to the hades of greek mythology in that it had two compartments the first compartment was a place of torment where the sows of the wicked were sent after they died and the second was called the bosom of abraham it's where the souls of those who believed in yahweh and believed in the promised messiah it's where their souls went when they died this compartment was also referred to as paradise you see as you're reading through the bible you'll come upon this word paradise from time to time sometimes it refers to heaven sometimes it refers to the bosom of abraham so how do you know which is it's referring to well you have to look at it in context but many times the bosom of abraham is referred to as paradise if you remember jesus told the thief that was crucified next to him he said today you will be with me in paradise he wasn't talking about heaven he was talking about the bosom of abraham in show so it was a blissful place of comfort and security as opposed to the other side which was a place of torment in fact jesus gives us great insight as to what these two these two compartments in sheol were actually like turn with me if you would to luke chapter 16 verses 19 through 26 and follow along as i read this passage of scripture now there was a certain rich man and he habitually dressed in purple linen and purple and fine linen gaily living in splendor every day didn't have a care in the world because he was so wealthy and a certain poor man named lazarus was laid at his gate covered with sores and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich men's table besides even the dogs were coming and licking his sores i'll be honest every time i read that you know what it makes me think of when we were a kid we would go to barron fork and that's where we would see it only the rich people went to the city pool how many know what i'm talking about you know man i gotta go to city pool well my parents would take us to barron four creek and you know when you're a kid growing up you're always falling down scraping your knees so you'd have these scabs and you get in the water and in the shallow side you're getting the water and the middles would come up and they would nibble at your scabs do you remember that that's what i think of when i read this it says even the dogs were coming and licking his sores now it came about that the poor men died and he was carried away by the angels to abraham's bosom now why was it called abraham's bosom does anyone know let me see if i can explain it to you abraham was promised to be the father of many nations in other words because of who he was and what he would do his uh what he had done would actually allow people to come into the gates of heaven and they would be his children so he was considered to be the father of many nations but he was also considered to be the father of our faith so anyone who has faith in god jehovah or jesus christ they are a child of abraham so when a person died who believed in yahweh in in the coming messiah they would go to this place where abraham would greet them and he would hug them he would kind of do what grandma used to do you remember grandma would always reach out there when you're a kid and she would pull you into her bosom so basically that's what abraham's bosom means the jews referred to it because it's a place where you went that abraham would greet you and then he would hug you and welcome hit you into this place called paradise so it was a blissful place of comfort and security as opposed to the other side as a place of torment so that's where he was carried and then it says and the rich man also died and was buried and in hades he lifted up his eyes being in torment and he saw abraham far away and lazarus in his bosom and he cried out and said father abraham have mercy on me and said lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue for i am in agony in this flame but abraham said child remember that during your life you receive your good things and likewise lazarus received bad things but now he is being comforted here and you are in agony and i'm going to add the word there and besides all this between us and you there is a great chasm fixed in order that those who wish to come over from here to you may not be able and that men may cross over from there to us now obviously this is a parable it's a fictitious story that's used to illustrate certain spiritual truths that's what a parable is in this case it's illustrating spiritual truths about the afterlife in other words what happens to a person when they die now remember parables are allegorical in nature that means that the people things or events in the story have symbolic meaning now here's what's interesting the characters in this story are symbolic but what these two men experience in the story is not symbolic in other words the men in the story are fictional but what they experience is factual let me say that again because when jesus gives this parable he's not just telling you a story he's telling you what the afterlife is like and he's telling us that these two men are are fictional but what they experience is factual now lazarus symbolizes believers in fact the name lazarus means god is my helper so lazarus represents those who trust in god and depend upon him for their salvation the rich man symbolizes unbelievers now jesus wasn't trying to imply that if you're rich you can't be a christian huh jesus wasn't doing that in fact most of the patriarchs in the bible were rich and when i say rich i mean very rich abraham isaac and jacob were very rich job david and solomon were filthy rich the apostle john came from a very wealthy family and they were very connected politically in fact if you remember on the night that jesus was betrayed john and peter actually followed jesus and the guards and they followed them to the house of the high priest and here's what's interesting the servant of the high priest is out there and john just walks right on by and the reason he gets to walk right on by is because this girl this servant girl was used to seeing john and his family come to the house of the high priest so he just walks right on by he's someone that's always coming peter stops there the girl doesn't recognize him but my point is this john came from a very wealthy family who was good friends with the high priest now that tells me that jesus wasn't dissing rich people but the truth is most rich people don't trust in god they trust in their riches so that's why the rich man represents unbelievers now i want you to notice that when lazarus died his soul went to the bosom of abraham where he was comforted when the rich men died his soul went to the place of torment the place we don't want to go now both of these places were in oh but they were on different sides the bosom of abraham was a place of comfort and it was on one side of shaho on the other side was the place of torment and there was a chasm between the two so that you couldn't cross from one place to the other do you understand what i'm saying so if you died and you were a believer you would go to the bosom of abraham where he would greet you and he would pull you in and he would hug you because you would be a child of abraham but you would be able to look past this chasm to the other side called the place of torment and let's suppose that one of your family members had died they weren't a believer so they went to the place of torment you might see them over there and if you wanted to go over there to help them to comfort them you couldn't do it because there's a chasm there you can't cross over and if you were in the place of torment maybe you were a jew and you see abraham over he said abraham i'm one of your children can i come over abraham would say no there's a chasm here i can't cross to you and you can't cross to me in fact look back at luke chapter 16 verses 22 through 26 and i'll show you what i'm talking about now it came about that lazarus died and was carried away by the angels to abraham's bosom and the rich man also died and was buried in hades he lifted up his eyes being in torment and saw abraham far away and lazarus in his bosom what does it mean lazarus in his bosom it means that when they died they both went to this place immediately he's in this place of torment he looks over and guess what lazarus is in abraham's bosom in other words he's being hugged by abraham and then notice what it says and he cried out and said father abraham have mercy on me and send lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue for i am in agony in this flame in greek it's this fire there's fire in the place of torment so yes some of our superstitions about hell are real there's fire there and he says but abraham said child remember that during your life you received your good things and likewise lazarus bad things but now he is being comforted here and you are in agony and besides all this between us and you there is a great chasm fixed in order that those who wish to come over from here to you may not be able and that none may cross over from there to us so prior to the death burial and resurrection of jesus christ this is what happened to people who died i'm going to show you my great artistic ability first of all i'm going to make a timeline put a little bar here and this timeline goes all the way here and it goes to eternity and so that's what that arrowhead means this starts at this point where adam and eve sinned now the reason i'm doing that is because adam and eve were created to live forever but when they sinned they brought forth the curse and part of the curse was they died and here's what's bad adam and eve passed that curse on to us so now every one of us have the sin nature and because of this sin nature it means two things number one we're separated from god number two we will die now about four thousand years from the time that adam and eve sinned jesus christ came he's the messiah and he died for us he was buried and he was resurrected so i'm going to draw a little cross there that cross represents jesus death burial and resurrection now this period is the old testament time this period is the new testament time now prior to jesus death burial and resurrection here's what happened when people died and i'm going to draw two stickmen one represents believers one represents unbelievers so let's see what happens to the person who dies that's a believer and then what happens to a person who's an unbeliever prior to the death burial and resurrection of jesus when an unbeliever died and what's what the x means his body was buried or placed into a tomb and it begins to rot in the grave but his soul was created to be immortal so the believer his soul would go to this place called the bosom of abraham and it was a place of comfort it was a place of security and a blissful place now what happened to the unbelievers well when an unbeliever died his body was also buried or placed in a tomb or if there was no one around the animals ate his body but then his soul would go to a place called the place of torment now everyone went of torment can you read that everyone went to show so all of this place is considered to be sho but there's two compartments the bosom of abraham which is paradise where you go it's a blissful place where you have comfort and security the other place is a place of torment but jesus told us this is great chasm between the two so those in the place of torment cannot go to the bosom of abraham neither can those in the bosom of abraham go to the place of torment they are separated by this chasm so that's what happened when a person died everyone so went to show they either went to the bosom of abraham or they went to the place of torment now when jesus died he experienced what all men do at death his soul was separated from his body and it went to oh the place of the dead in fact that's part of the apostles creed how many of you grew up in a church that recited the apostles creed so you grew up reciting the apostles creed how many of you here my gosh are you scared to lift up your hands there's a few that do this how many of you went to a church for your side of the apostles creed all right it's good to see that if you grew up in a church that was a methodist church or presbyterian church or lutheran church or episcopalian church or an anglican church or even the roman catholic church you grew up reciting the apostles creed if you grew up in a baptist church or an assembly of god church you did not recite the apostles creed but this is what the apostles creed says 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 to hell now some of you might be saying now wait a minute i don't remember saying that well that means that someone who was in your denomination took that out because you go all the way back to the third century and that was in the apostles creed has always been in the apostles creed if you go in the in the presbyterian church if your pastor is a liberal he'll have a little asterisk there but part of the the apostles creed says jesus descended to 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 of the dead i believe in the holy spirit the holy catholic church now this catholic word catholic doesn't refer to the roman catholic church catholic literally means universal and what this means is anyone who accepts jesus christ as their lord and savior puts their faith in him and makes them lord of their life they're part of the universal church doesn't matter what denomination you go to if you've accepted jesus christ as your lord and savior you're part of the universal church so this isn't saying i believe in the roman catholic church it's saying i believe in the universal church so let's read this i believe in the holy spirit the holy catholic church universal church the community of saints the forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting amen now i want you to notice that the apostle creed specifically states that jesus descended into hell which of course refers to his soul after he died on the cross but what i want you to know is that the apostles creed is based on the scriptures and that includes the part that says he descended into hell and when i say that it's based on scripture i don't mean just mean one scripture it's based on many scriptures in fact let me give you a few of those scriptures i won't give them all to you because there's quite a few but i'm going to give you two the first is psalms chapter 16 verse number 10. psalms chapter 16 verse number 10 is a messianic psalm everyone knows what that means right it means it's a messianic prophecy in the book of psalms the reason we know it's a messianic prophecy is because on the day of pentecost peter gets up and he gives this great sermon in fact it's a famous sermon in the book of acts in acts chapter 2 verse number 27 he quotes psalms chapter 16 verse 10 and he quotes it to show that jesus fulfilled this prophecy so we know that this verse we're getting ready to read does not apply to david doesn't apply to any human being it applies to jesus christ because peter is referring to jesus when he quotes this so notice what it says for that will not abandon my soul in show neither wilt thou allow thy holy one to undergo decay now notice it says thy holy one i want you to understand that david was not holy so it can't be referring to david even if he is actually writing this psalm david was the author of this psalm but he's not referring to himself because david was not a holy person in fact david had an adulterous relationship with bathsheba and when she became pregnant he wanted to cover it up and the way that he covered it up is we asked her husband to come home so she could so he could sleep with her and then he would think that it was her his child that she was pregnant with but he refused to do that so guess what david did david had him murdered so david was an adulterer and david was a murderer and i can guarantee you he never thought of himself as a holy person this isn't talking about david this is talking about jesus so it says for that will not abandon my soul jesus so in show neither will thou allow thine holy one to undergo decay in other words his body won't rot in the grave now i want you to underline the word abandon abandon is translated from the hebrew word azab and it literally means to leave i want you to think about this if i leave something what i'm doing is allowing it to remain where it was as an example if i tell you that i left my keys what i'm saying is that i didn't pick them up instead i left them where they were so what psalms chapter 16 verse 10 is saying is that jesus went to show when he died but god did not leave him there he didn't leave him where he was and where was that well psalms chapter 16 verse 10 tells us he was in show you see if i tell you i didn't leave the kids at the movies you naturally assumed that they were at the movies right think about that if i say i did leave the kids at the movies that means they were at the movies well if god didn't leave jesus in chao it means he was in show does everyone get that so jesus was in chao for three days and three nights but god did not leave him there and neither did god allow his body to rot in the grave instead he resurrected him but my point is this jesus descended into show but god didn't leave him there now let's look at another scripture turn with me if you would in the book of ephesians chapter 4 verses 8 through 10. it says this wherefore he saith when he ascended up on high he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men now that he ascended what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth he that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens that he might feel all things and that word feel of course in the greek means fulfill that he might fulfill all the messianic prophecies now there's two things i want you to notice about this passage of scripture first when jesus ascended to heaven he took captivity captive in other words all of the souls that were in the bosom of abraham he took with him when he ascended to heaven the reason they're referred to as captives is because they were held captive in shaol until the messiah came and redeemed them remember the old testament always referred to this to show as a city with gates and bars and there was no way to escape you couldn't go from here to there or from there to here plus you couldn't go back to the earth you were held captive in chao so what this says is when jesus ascended he took those captive in the bosom of abraham with him when he ascended to heaven the second thing that i want you to notice is that before jesus ascended to heaven he first descended into the lower parts of the earth look back at verse number nine you'll see what i'm talking about now that he ascended what is it but that he also descended first in other words before he ascended he descended and where did he descend to it tells us in the lower parts of the earth now it didn't matter whether you were a greek or a jew you knew that shah was in the lower parts of the earth so there's no doubt that what paul was talking about is that jesus descended into shaol or what we would call hell you see in hebrew it's the word show in greek it's the word hades in english it's the word hell but it all refers to the same thing but when jesus work was done in hell he took those who were held captive in the bosom of abraham to heaven with him and people that's why the apostles creed says he suffered under pontius pilate was crucified died and was buried he descended to hell the third day he rose again from the dead so historically the church has always taught and believed that when jesus died his so descended into hell in order to pay the penalty for our sin and if you want to verify that what i'm telling you is true all you need to do is go back and read the writings of clement of alexandria tertullian cyril of alexandria origen athanasius and thomas aquinas those are all early church fathers and what you'll find is that they all believe that when jesus died his soul descended into hell in order to pay for our sin in fact even the two greatest scholars in the reformation era martin luther and john calvin believed that when jesus died his soul descended into hell now how do we know they believe that well first of all martin luther is called the father of the reformation so when he died all of his letters all of his sermons all of his writings were collected and put in books and we know for a fact that on one easter sunday morning he preached that jesus descended into hell in order to pay for our sins we actually have everything that he said in that sermon it's right there and he believed that jesus descended into hell john calvin also believed that and he put it in his writings in fact if you don't mind i'm going to read some portions from calvin's book the institute of christian religion in fact some of you might have this book it's a great book now of course calvin is not the father of calvinism most of you think that actually augustine is or maybe you've heard your professors call him augustine but he's the one that gets credit for it but this is his book and it's a great book it's one volume sometimes it's in three volumes i have both the three volumes one volume different editions but i want you to notice what he wrote just follow along with me as we go through it but apart from the creed what creed is he talking about the apostles creed we must seek for a sure exposition of christ to send to hell in other words we can't just depend on this creed to know if jesus descended into hell we need the scriptures to tell us and that's what he says but apart from this creed we must seek for sure exposition of christ is sent to hell and the word of god furnishes us with one not only pious and holy but replete with excellent consolation now it doesn't mean one passage what he means is the word of god gives us one and it means it gives us many to let us know that jesus did descend into hell let's keep reading nothing has been done if christ has only endured corporeal death not corporal death corporeal everyone knows what corporeal means right corporeal means physical rather than spiritual it means it means spirit or body rather than soul so notice what this is saying nothing had been done if christ only endured physical death in other words if all jesus did was die on the cross you're still in your sin nothing's been done your sin has not been paid for if jesus only endured physical death this is what he's saying in order to interpose between us the word interposed means intervene in order to intervene between us and god's anger and satisfy his righteous judgment it was necessary that he should feel the way to divine vengeance whence also it was necessary that he should engage as it were at close quarters with the powers of hell hell in english hades in greek show in hebrew and the horrors of eternal death in greek that is phenitos spiritual death when jesus died on the cross he spiritually died and his soul went to sheol that's what calvin is saying let's keep going he undertook and paid all the penalties which must have been exacted from them the only exception being that the pains of death could not hold him hence there is nothing strange in it being said that he descended to hell in other words you shouldn't be surprised that the apostles creed says that he descended into hell seeing he endured the death which is inflicted on the wicked by an angry god in other words if god's anger going to punish you this is where you go to be punished for your sin then he goes further the creed appropriately adds the invisible incomprehensible judgment which he endured before god to teach us that not only was the body of christ given up as the price of redemption but that there was a greater and more excellent price in other words jesus didn't just die on the cross to pay for your sins but he did something that was greater and more excellent and this is what he says that he bore in his soul the tortures of the condemned and ruined man jesus didn't just suffer in his body on the cross when he died he suffered in his soul the tortures of a condemned and ruined man so as you can clearly see calvin believed that when jesus died his soul descended into hell in order to pay for our sin so historically the church has always believed and always taught that jesus didn't just die on the cross and that was it no when jesus died his soul descended into hell in order to pay the penalty for our sin of course today you have those who've been influenced by liberals and liberals don't believe that the bible says what it means and means what it says so these pastors and these scholars that have been influenced by liberals they twist the word of god to try and make it fit their own personal theology in fact let me show you a video clip of several scholars doing that let's run that video clip he descended into hell actually refers to what happened to jesus on the cross that on the cross he descended into hell in the sense of suffering the the consequences of sin the penalty of sin as we should have done he paid hell as it as we could say it on the cross there and then the descent into hell means the agony that christ suffered on the cross that the agony the spiritual agony that christ suffered in that cry of abandonment meant that he descended into the hell that human beings suffer and that the hell was on the cross and that that cry of abandonment exemplifies the pain of hell bullcrap the bible says what it means and it means what it says when jesus died his soul descended into hell in order to pay the penalty for our sin and that's where he was and what he was doing for three days and three nights but when all of our sin was paid for god looked into hell and he saw a soul that had never sinned even in becoming our sin and based on leviticus 18 5 god legally raised him from the dead now why is this important in other words why does it matter whether jesus descended into hell or not well i'll tell you why it matters it matters because it's proof that all of my sin has been paid for so when i die i don't have to go to the bosom of abraham instead i get to go to heaven to be with my lord and savior jesus christ in fact here's what happens in the new testament period after the death burial and resurrection of jesus christ you have two groups of people you have those who believe in jesus and you have those that don't believe in jesus this person represents the people who believe this person represents the people who don't believe the person who believes in jesus christ when he dies his body is buried and he goes into the grave and his body begins to rot but his soul doesn't go to show it now goes to heaven to be with the lord jesus christ the person who's not a believer when he dies his body is buried it begins to decay in the ground but his soul does not go to heaven because he hasn't accepted jesus christ he doesn't believe that he's his lord and savior and as a result of that he's telling god i'll pay for my own sin and so he does his so then goes to the place of torment this is why it's so important the reason i know that when i die i am not going to hell the reason i know that i'm not going to some other place is because jesus christ came and not only did he die on the cross but he also died his so died and went to hell and paid the penalty for my sin now here's the question this morning when you die where will you go when you die will you go to heaven to be with jesus christ or will you go to hell the choice is yours you see romans chapter 10 verses 9 and 10 tells us what we must do in order to be saved and go to heaven it says if you confess with your mouth that jesus is lord and you believe in your heart that god hath raised him from the dead you will be saved from the place of torment you will be saved for it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with god in other words you can go to heaven and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved so if you're here this morning i want you to understand if you never receive jesus christ as your lord and savior when you die your soul will go to hell if you're a believer in jesus christ if you made him lord of your life when you die you'll get to go to heaven it's as simple as that

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Id: 4xUfLwxNhHM

Length: 36min 26sec (2186 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 10 2021