“I BELIEVE HE DESCENDED INTO HELL”
1 Peter 3:18-22, Hebrews 11:39-40, Luke 23:42-43
I. While every article of the Apostles’ Creed is essential to our faith, and understanding what God has done for us in Jesus Christ, the crucial results of Jesus’ descent into Hell are lost on many because people are hesitant to even consider Hell.
A. Actually two of Jesus’ most important statements are tied to this.
John 14:1-3 "Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. (2) "In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. (3) "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.
John 14:6 Jesus *said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”
B. Without an understanding of death and Hell from a Biblical perspective, and the importance of the statement in the Creed, “He descended into Hell,” we will miss out on the richest aspects of what God has done for us through Jesus Christ.
II. Understanding death
A. Separation from God
B. Separation of the soul from the body
III. A Biblical perspective of Hell
A. Sheol – the holding place of the souls of the dead.
B. Until Jesus came, it had to sections
1. Hades – the holding place of the evil dead
2. Paradise, or Abraham’s Bosom, the holding place of the righteous dead.
3. Illustrated in Jesus’ account of the rich man and Lazarus in Juke 16:19-31
IV. What Jesus did
A. The salvation of the righteous before Jesus’ work on the Cross was not complete. Even they could not come to the Father but through Jesus. Also, God reaches back through time and preaches to everyone in Hell, on both sides of the chasm. (Hebrews 11:39-40, 12:2-4, I Peter 3:18-22)
B. Now, all from Adam and Eve forward have had the opportunity to hear and respond to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
C. The question of what about all those who died before Jesus came is answered in this article. He descended to the holding place of the dead, and all who heard Him preach had the opportunity to accept or reject Him at that time. No one, from any age, comes to the Father except through Jesus Christ.
