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Apostles Creed 12: On the Third Day He Rose Again from the Dead

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What we now know as the Apostles Creed descended from an earlier form of the creed, known as the Old Roman Symbol. The beginning of the creed dates from as early as the second century. We do not have any direct evidence that it was penned by any of the apostles, but it is an admirable summary of the apostolic teaching.

Introduction

Since the first century, the Christian church has commemorated the resurrection of Jesus from the dead by meeting on the first day of the week, the Lord’s Day (Rev. 1:10Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)). The Sabbath was ordained, as the Old Testament makes abundantly clear, for as long as the old creation lasted. Therefore, nothing would be adequate to shift the day from the seventh to the first short of a new heaven and new earth. And in the resurrection from the dead, this is precisely what we find.

The Text

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the Holy Ghost, and born of the virgin, Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into Hades. On the third day He rose again from the dead, ascended into Heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Summary of the Text

“Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection” (Acts 17:18Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)).

As we will see, the apostolic proclamation of the gospel centered in an important way on the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. This is apparent in multiple places, and here on Mars Hill it comes out in a curious way. The Greek word for resurrection is anastasis, and the philosophers there thought that Paul was preaching strange gods. Note the plural. They thought this because he was preaching about Jesus and about Anastasis. The resurrection featured so strongly in his preaching that they thought Resurrection was one of a pair of gods.

When the disciples replaced Judas, they wanted someone who had been with them since the baptism of John down to the ascension. That apostle’s job was to be witness, together with them, of the resurrection (Acts 1:22Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)). The enemies of the gospel were grieved that the early Christians were preaching the resurrection of the dead through Jesus (Acts 4:2Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)). The orthodox Jews believed in a resurrection of the dead, contra the Sadducees, but the Christians were preaching that this resurrection had surfaced in a strange and unexpected place, through the resurrection of Jesus. This is why Paul was able to divide the Sanhedrin on this question (Acts 23:6Open in Logos Bible Software (if available), 8Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)). There would be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust and the Jews knew it (Acts 24:15Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)). But there was something they did not know.

A Brief Word about the Third Day

As we saw in the previous message, Jesus had predicted that He was going to spend three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Matt. 12:40Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)), just as Jonah had spent that time in the fish. This raises a question for the curious—how on earth can you get three days and three nights to fit in between Friday afternoon, and Sunday morning? The brief answer is that you cannot, and despite all the Good Friday services we hold, Jesus did not really die on Friday. The thing that makes some people think He did is that the gospel of Luke tells us that He was crucified on the day of preparation, as the Sabbath drew on (Luke 23:54Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)). But the Jews had more Sabbaths than just the weekly Sabbath. The Scriptures refer to high holy days that are not the weekly Sabbath as Sabbaths (Lev. 16:29-31Open in Logos Bible Software (if available), 23:24-32Open in Logos Bible Software (if available), 39Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)), and Jesus was crucified just before the Passover. So there were two Sabbaths that week. After that first Sabbath, the women purchased spices for use on His body (Mark 16:1Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)). The weekly Sabbath was the second Sabbath that week, and Luke 23:56Open in Logos Bible Software (if available) tells us the women, after they had prepared the spices, rested on the Sabbath (Luke 23:56Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)). How could they buy spices after the Sabbath, and also rest on the Sabbath after they had prepared those spices—unless there were two Sabbaths that week? So, without belaboring the point, I think we should assume that the first day of Passover that year was Thursday. Jesus died Wednesday afternoon, and was laid in the grave around sundown Wednesday night. Thursday night was one day, Friday night the second, and Saturday night the third. For the Jews, the first day of the week would start at sundown our Saturday night, and that is when Jesus rose. So when the women came on our Sunday morning, the grave was already empty.

Some Mocked

“And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.” (Acts 17:32Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)).

One of the things that the unbelieving heart loves to do is take certain obvious things for granted, in order to suppress and ignore them, and to do this in order to ridicule the coming glories as incredible. One time I was with Christopher Hitchens on Joy Behar’s show, and they were making merry over the fact that I believe the Bible, meaning that I believed in talking animals—like the serpent in the garden, or Balaam’s donkey. “How can you believe in talking animals?” My response was, “But we’re animals, and we talk.” And nobody knew quite what to do. In short, everybody believes in talking animals.

And what about life from the dead? Everyone believes in that too. The evolutionist believes that inanimate matter one day jumped the chasm and became animate—life from death. And it did this all by itself. And Christians believe that God formed Adam from the dust of the ground. When He breathed the breath of life into him, that inanimate matter became a living soul (Gen. 2:7Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)). Everyone believes that life came from death. What our faith in the resurrection means is that we believe it will happen again. But why on earth would anyone declare a miracle an impossibility the second time? “Sure, you walked on water once, but a second time is plainly impossible.”

Inside Out History

Having no doctrine of creation, a common pagan assumption about history involved it in endless recurring cycles. The Jews had a doctrine of creation, and so they had a linear view of history. It was a story with a beginning, middle, and end. The resurrection from the dead would occur on the last day. Jesus said the general resurrection would happen on the last day (John 6:39-40Open in Logos Bible Software (if available), 44Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)). Martha expected to see her brother Lazarus at the last day (John 11:24Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)). Unbelievers would be judged by the words of Christ on the last day (John 12:48Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)). And this is all true enough, as far as it went.

But the startling thing that God did was this. By doing this, He transformed the entire nature of human history. He punched a hole in the fabric of history, right in the middle of it. That hole was the tomb of Christ. He reached through that hole, grabbed the last days, and pulled them through the tomb. The resurrection of the last days has begun, and it began in the middle of ordinary time. Christ rose in the middle of history, which means that all our reckoning has to be adjusted accordingly.

Resurrection on the Move

Everything that was entailed in the resurrection of the last day has been accomplished in Christ. He rose from the dead bodily. His resurrection was the down payment on what will be for the rest of us. “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself” (Phil. 3:20–21Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)).

The last day will still see wonderful things—our bodies will be transformed then, just as the Jews expected. But because Christ’s body was transformed in the middle of history, what was pulled after this? Christ’s resurrection pulled our regeneration (our spiritual resurrection from spiritual death), and our regeneration pulls our bodily resurrection after it. “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness” (Rom. 8:10Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)).

But of course it is the hand of God that is doing all the pulling.

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Spiritual Child Rearing 1: How Much More?

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Text

“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:11)

1. God is bent on revelation of Himself to His creatures.
What has God revealed or how how He revealed Himself? In Romans 1:19-20  “Because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.  For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.” While we may think of this verse primarily in terms of general revelation to an unbelieving world, George MacDonald points out how God reveals His character in very practical and poetic ways to reveal Himself to His children.

2. Jesus’ use of the “how much more” argument
In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus argues from the lesser to greater four times using the phrase: “how much more.” For example in Matthew 7:11, Jesus says, “if you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” The argument is, if you know how to act kindly toward your children, how much more will you Father in Heaven be actively giving gifts to His children.

3. Reverse engineering
Reverse engineering is the process of starting with a finished product and working back through its components to understand how it was made. Similarly, if we look at how we raise our children and experience life with them, even as wicked people, we can reflect on how much more God deals perfectly with us.

4. How it all starts
In John 3, Jesus deals with Nicodemus’ desire to understand entrance into God’s kingdom. Jesus lays out with clarity that God’s family is entered through only one door — spiritual rebirth. What Nicodemus struggles to comprehend Jesus answers with analogies and Scripture aimed at heart issues of need and faith.

5. Hinderances to rebirth and growth
Belief is not stopped by the knowledge of a God more powerful, more loving or more awesome than Jesus. It is not like we are evaluating all the religions of the world, building a spreadsheet and making a comparison or ranking, and then choosing the best of the lot. No, John 3:19-20 says that unbelief is a result of loving the darkness rather than the light because of evil deeds and the resulting shame. While this verse is pointed toward unbelievers, it often applies to believers trapped in some level of unbelief about the thoroughness of God’s forgiveness.

6. God’s purpose in redemption of His children
God’s purpose in bringing this about is based solely on His love and extended grace to us. “While we were yet sinners Christ loved us” His express purpose is to unite us together with Himself and the Son. In Christ, God has already cleansed us from our sins, and in our new state of being (as child of God), we are being changed into His likeness. And, while this process will not be complete until the day of Christ Jesus (1 John 3:2), it is inexorable (Philippians 1:6).

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Apostles Creed 11: He Descended into Hades

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What we now know as the Apostles Creed descended from an earlier form of the creed, known as the Old Roman Symbol. The beginning of the creed dates from as early as the second century. We do not have any direct evidence that it was penned by any of the apostles, but it is an admirable summary of the apostolic teaching.

Introduction
And so now we come to an odd one, one which reveals a fairly large gap in cosmology between a child of the biblical era and a child of the modern era. It is also a testing point, sometimes, for the most stalwart inerrantist. Wait, what? You think that an actual star came down and picked out a house in Bethlehem for the magi? And all God’s people, along with our Christmas cards, said, yup.

Cosmology answers the question of what kind of world you assume yourself to be living in. Is the cosmos mostly empty space, punctuated here and there by flaming gases and dead hunks of rock? And with our miniscule lives tucked away in some miniscule corner of it? Or is the whole thing an intricately designed artifact, one that fits easily in the palm of God’s hand?

The Text
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the Holy Ghost, and born of the virgin, Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into Hades. On the third day He rose again from the dead, ascended into Heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Summary of the Text
“For as Jonas 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” (Matt. 12:40).

Jesus knew that He would die and go to Hades (Ps. 16:10). He also knew that He would be there for a brief time. It would be sometime less than four days—Lazarus began to see corruption after four days (John 11:39), and the episode with Jonah told Him exactly how long it would be. He knew on the strength of Psalm 16 that He would not be abandoned there. Peter, preaching on the day of Pentecost, quoted Psalm 16 as a proof of the resurrection. “He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell [Hades, translating the OT Sheol], neither his flesh did see corruption” (Acts 2:31). Not only was this a prediction of a resurrection, but of a resurrection after a comparatively brief time in the grave. The Christ was to be in Sheol/Hades, but not for long.

Distinguishing Some Terms
The final judgment, the eternal lake of fire, is what Jesus called Gehenna. But this is different from Hades, which should be understood as the intermediate place of departed spirits. The Old Testament name for this place was Sheol. We distinguish Sheol/Hades from Hell proper because John tells us that death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:14).

We are sometimes thrown off because many translations of the Apostles Creed say, “He descended into hell.” The problem with this is that the Lord did not descend into the lake of fire, into a place of torment. The Apostles Creed was originally written in Greek, and the word at this place is Hades, not Gehenna. The confusion occurred because Hel was the name of the Norse goddess who ruled over the underworld. In other words, our word Hell used to mean something more like Hades.

Symbolism . . .
In Scripture, the ultimate description of the final things is given to us in symbolic language. But do not play with this like a liberal. Liberals say that something is “symbolic” as a coping mechanism, trying to get the reality being represented to go away. But what is greater, the symbol or the reality being pictured? If the lake of fire is literal, it is really bad. If it is figurative, then it is actually far, far worse.

The word Gehenna comes to us from the Valley of Ben Hinnom outside Jerusalem. That was the dump, the landfill, where fires were constantly burning, and where worms never went extinct. It had been the place where Molech worship had once been conducted.

In the Old Testament Era . . .
In the time before the Messiah came, the expectation of the godly was to die and go to Sheol. Jonah (most likely) actually died and cried out to God from the depths of Sheol (Jon. 2:1). The psalmist expected that Sheol would swallow him up (Ps. 18:5; 86:13; 116:3).

In the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, they both died and went to Hades. In that parable, Hades was divided in two by a vast chasm. The side where Lazarus was had the name of Abraham’s bosom (Luke 16:23), while the rich man was in torment in Hades. Nevertheless, communication occurred across the chasm.
In our text, Jesus said that He was going to be three days and nights in the heart of the earth. But He also told the thief on the cross that He would be with him in Paradise that same day (Luke 23:43). So then, Abraham’s bosom was also known as Paradise. To the Greeks, this would have been Elysium. This is where Jesus went, and preached across the chasm.

The Greek word for the lowest pit of Hades, the worst part, was Tartarus. This word is used once in the New Testament (without any redefinition, mind). Peter tells us this: “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell [Tartarus], and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment” (2 Peter 2:4).

What Did the Lord Do While There?
While in Hades, the Lord preached. But the preaching was not “second chance” preaching. Rather the word used is one used for heralding or announcing, not the word for preaching the gospel. “By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water” (1 Pet. 3:19–20).

He Holds All the Keys:
The Bible teaches us that Jesus is the king of all things. The devil is not the ruler of Gehenna—Jesus is. The lake of fire was prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt. 25:41). Furthermore, Jesus holds the keys to Hades as well. “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell [Hades] and of death.” (Rev. 1:18). When the Lord rose from the dead, He led captivity captive (Eph. 4:8)—all the saints in the Old Testament who had died and gone to Abraham’s bosom were transferred when Paradise was moved (Matt. 27:52). And by the time of Paul, Paradise was up (2 Cor. 12:4).

That at the Name of Jesus:
And so we preach Jesus, king of Heaven, and Lord of Hades. Hades is the place where He emptied out Paradise, and Hades is the place He will throw into the lake of fire. He is the king, I tell you. And so we proclaim Him, such that at the name of Jesus every knee might bow, whether in Heaven, or on earth, or under the earth (Phil. 2:10).

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The Beginning

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The Text
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God . . . ” John 1:1-18
The Word and the New Creation (vs. 1-5)
John’s gospel opens with one of the best known passages in the Bible, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” We are reminded of creation, given more information of that creation, and are introduced to a new creation. The word “genomai” is used three times in verse 3 and is translated as made, made, made. If you say, “I made my bed,” you mean that you shuffled the sheets and blanket into a different position. But if the Word made the bed, the Word made the cotton bush for the sheets and made the color pigments and made the idea of Captain America. You made the bed, but the Word made the bed. The Word is fundamental to life. John introduces the beginning of a new creation and a new life and so light shines in the darkness (Gen. 1:3, Jn. 1:5). 
 
John the Witness (vs. 6-8)
Since this is a new creation of men, God sends a man named John as a witness. A witness has two credentials––1) see or experience an event 2) repeat what he experienced. John was a witness of the light–– “I’ve seen the light. Let me tell you about the light.” The result of John’s testimony is belief, “that all might believe through him” (vs. 7).
 
To Become Children of God (vs. 9-13)
 In this new creation, a problem exists that didn’t in the original creation. The Light comes into the world––the world he created––but the world scrunches up its eyes and remains in darkness. The Light should enlighten the dark world. That’s what happened in the first beginning, “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. And God saw that the light was good” (Gen. 1:3). But now, God send the Light into the world, but the world hates the Light and remains in darkness. Creation has gone wrong (Jn. 3:19-21). The problem is that those in the world love their darkness, and so, his own people do not receive him. 
 
John introduces the good news in verses 12-13. But all who receive the Light will receive the right be become children of God. This will happen––not of blood, because you have the right blood line tracing back to Abraham; nor of the will of the flesh, because you try really, really hard; nor of the will of man, because your parents or pastors or girlfriend want this for you––because God wants you to be his son. God’s will is for you to be his daughter. When you are born as a child of God, it’s not a “natural” birth but the supernatural work of God. As God must act for darkness to become light so must he act for children of the world to become his children. How can men and women, girls and boys, become children of God?
 
The Word Became Flesh (vs. 14)
The Word of God became flesh. John bluntly describes the genuine humanity of the Word. John could have used more pleasant words like––the Word became a man. Or the Word took on a body. But “flesh” is a strong, even crude way of referring to who we are and what we have. Flesh is what the wolf pack tears off deer bones. If we don’t cringe when we hear “the Word became flesh,” then we don’t understand the stupendous work of the fleshed Word.
And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. The Tabernacle was the mobile tent during Israel’s wandering in the wilderness to worship God. Whenever God’s glory came into the Tabernacle, Moses and anyone else near by had to run out (Ex. 40:34-35). But now the glorious Word descends into the tabernacle of his flesh, and, instead of fleeing, “we have seen his glory…full of grace and truth.” 
 
Glory, Grace, and Truth (vs. 15-18)
What do we discover about God’s character when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us? We see His glory, grace, and truth. 
 
Glory is one of those Christian words that’s really hard to define. John introduces here the source of glory––glory as of the only Son from the Father. Where do you find glory? Look at God the Father and his Son. But unlike the glory of the Old Covenant that you could not see, could not touch, the glory of the Son from the Father can be seen, touched, kneeled before, kissed. 
 
Grace and truth are not abstract words or ideas. They are incarnate. Truth is a person. Grace overflows from the Son. You can’t know what the words “grace” or “truth” mean really until you know the Word who became flesh. How can we experience the LORD’s glory and live? (vs. 18) No one has seen the God the Father…until now. Until the Son is sent to the world. Until the Word becomes flesh. Until the Light shines in the darkness. Will you receive the Son? Will you listen to the Word? Will you see the Glory? 

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Biblical Psalmody

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The Text:
“Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.” Ephesians 5:17-21
1. The Uniqueness and Importance of the Psalms 
 
2. The Purpose and Context of Psalm Singing/Recitation in Scripture
Corporate
  • Exodus 15
  • Deuteronomy 33
  • Judges 5
  • Acts 4
Individual
  • 1 Samuel 2
  • Luke 1:46-55
3. The Challenge of Psalm Singing in Scripture 
 
  • Ezekiel 33:30-33
  • Exodus 15:14-18 

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