Sermon
The Harrowing of Hell
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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Well, good evening. Thank you, thank you.
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If I have, don't know you. My name is Andrew me.
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And my wife, and our three kids. We used to be a part of Frontier
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church. And about a year and a half ago,
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we moved down to Texas where we are currently serving in student
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Ministry down there. So we've just been here for a
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handful of days and it's been a joy to be with you.
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So thank you for allowing me this privilege to teach tonight.
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And to talk about something that is often misunderstood or is
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just not thought about it all. I've got a couple of goals for
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us tonight and hopefully you've seen.
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I'm still on the frontier Church text messaging list so I know
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Cole has been blasting you with. Hey, here's what's coming up?
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Here's some articles to read. So I know that you hopefully
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understand what, what what tonight is about.
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But we're going to be talking about the harrowing of Hell or
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the dissensus, or the Christ descent into the underworld, or
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his descent into hell. And we're going to unpack that
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here in just a little bit. But on the outset of teaching, I
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just want to give you my two goals for the tonight.
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I've got two goals, the first goal.
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Is I want you to have handles to hold on to this doctrine of
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Christ descent things that you can hold on, you say, okay.
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I know what this is. I understand it.
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I know how this impacts my life. That's goal.
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Number one and the goal. Number two is, I want you to see
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how Christ descent gives us joy. How Christ is sent should cause
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us to worship Him and love him. And follow him, more closely to
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simple goals. And then a disclaimer, there is
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a lot of content about this doctrine of Christ to Ending
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into hell tons of it. I've got 30 minutes tonight.
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Hopefully, I will stay within that those boundaries, but I've
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sent through a lot of coal sermons or he went over the
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boundaries of 30 minutes or 50 minutes.
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So I might get to just drop a nuke tonight and he gets to deal
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with all the Pastoral ramifications of that.
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But anyway, so there should be some things.
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There should be some rocks that were not going to uncover and
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see what's hiding under those rocks.
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But what I want to do tonight is to give you an overview of what
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this Doctrine is. And how this leads us to find
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our joy in Jesus and to follow him.
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So I'm going to pray and they were to look at a few passages
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of scripture and that what I want to show us is how this
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actually impacts our daily lives how this impacts the way we
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think about Jesus and how this impacts the way that we think
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about ourselves. So let's pray and I'm going to
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dig into God's word together. Father, I thank you so much for
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this church. I think you that after a year
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and a half, I get to return and see how this church family has
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grown, and is flourishing. And not just because they have a
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building. But because of people who are
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investing in people in this church, I think you for this
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pastoral team in Frontier and how they, they feed the flock,
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and how they shepherd, the flock of God, and how they understand
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that, they are under Shepherds who were being shepherded by
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Jesus. I think you for the people who
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loudly they are truths through song on Sunday morning.
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It's a beautiful picture to see people who come from different
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walks of life and different backgrounds and come together as
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God's people and worship. And declare that Jesus is king
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of kings. And he's the Lord of lords that
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he is, Sovereign over all. And so, I think you for the
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blessing that Frontier church, has been to my family and how
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they've been a blessing to the city of Des Moines.
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And so I pray that you would continue to bless them that you
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would give them Grace and that you would continue to show them
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your kindness. In the powerful name of Jesus
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that we declare these things and ask these things of you, amen.
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All right, so tonight we are talking about Christ descent.
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We're talking about him, going down into the underworld after
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he's crucified. And I've been, I was a part of
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Frontier for about five and a half years and pretty much from
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day one. We've competitive confessed, the
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Apostles Creed, we did that tonight and you see this phrase
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pop up? He descended into hell.
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I don't know if you're like me, I grew up Baptist.
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I was Southern Baptist my entire life.
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I serve in a Southern Baptist Church now, and I would bump
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into That phrase, he descended into hell and that would freak
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me out. Like, what are you toeses think?
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Talking about you, Tommy the Jesus descended into hell, and
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that's because I believed my only understanding of that word
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h-e-l-l-o meant a place of eternal torment and so I did
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hear that and be like families. Catholics are weird.
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Why are we reading this Apostles Creed thing, and those press,
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those, those anglicans, they are some weird Falk.
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They believe that Jesus descended into hell, what, what
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is going on here? But as I've grown and come to a
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Understand the scriptures more richly and understanding what
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the Apostles Creed is trying to accomplish.
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It gave me a broader view of what Jesus did on behalf of
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those who would follow him. And so we're looking at the
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dissension of Christ into hell. We're looking at him going into
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the Afterlife and I want to flush that out here more in just
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a second but we all know about Good Friday.
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Good Friday, we may wear black clothing.
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You try to take on a more somber tone.
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We turn the lights down, we leave in silence and so we
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celebrate, and we mourn our sin and know that Jesus has been
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crucified on behalf of the faithful.
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We know that. And then we have this Saturday,
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they were like well I guess we're just waiting.
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We just going to fill these Easter baskets baskets on
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Saturday night. So the kids can have them and we
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really don't know what to do with Saturday and then and then
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Easter Sunday morning, we could celebrate and sing our guts out
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about Christ. Resurrection, but there's this
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time in between that we neglect often in our theology, in our
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understanding of Christ's Ministry that that, that we can
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squeeze out more joy out of it. And so this this day Saturday
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which throughout church history has been known as Holy Saturday.
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We look at what Jesus did whenever he was dead.
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We'd look at we're all pretty familiar with Christ died and
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then Christ was resurrected, but what do you do on the
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in-between? What's what He accomplished
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while his body was dead, while his lungs had no breath in them
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while his heart had no beet inside his chest.
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What is Christ at work doing? What does he accomplishing in
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his death and this doctrine of Christ descending into hell?
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The dissensus, the harrowing of hell, we see that Christ even
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though his body is dead, his spirit is at work on behalf of
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God's people and God's glory and God's judgment over the forces
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of evil. There's so much that we can
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learn. From this one day this Holy
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Saturday and understand what Jesus was doing for us.
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And I love this Doctrine, just really a few years ago is
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whenever I started to understand it and really fall in love with
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with this Doctrine. And so I hope that tonight what
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we accomplished here in these next, few moments will be
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helpful for you and that whenever you get to Holly
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Saturday here in a few weeks that it your Holy Saturday won't
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be wasted but that you'll actually know what to do.
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You'll know what to celebrate on that Saturday before Easter
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Sunday it. So we're going to look at three
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passages here and what I really want to do is present you kind
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of with what one of my favorite theologians will call a matrix
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of ideas, how all these ideas operate with one another and
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present us with information about who Jesus is?
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So the first pass is going to look at and if you want to turn
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there and your scriptures or turn on your glowy screen and
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and figure out what's going on there, you can turn to
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Revelation 1 and we'll look at 7 verses 17 and 18, Revelation, 1
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17 and 18. But we're going to start here,
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and we're going to kind of use this as a launching pad.
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And as I said earlier, there's a whole mine that we can dig and
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bring things back up to the surface and the passages that
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we're look at tonight, we're not going to have time to do all of
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that. And I'll if you want to catch me
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after we're done tonight, I can give you some more resources,
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Point some books out to you that have been really helpful for me.
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But we're to look at these passages and scrape the surface
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and then I get to leave and then I get to hear about what
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Frontier does next year on Holy Saturday.
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And how you guys are Going down into the mines, digging up these
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jewels that we find in these passages.
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Let me read read for us here. When I saw him, I fell at his
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feet as though dead, but he laid his right hand on me saying,
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fear not. I am the first and the last and
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the living one, I died and behold.
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I am alive for Evermore and I have the keys of death and
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Hades. Two verses there that I probably
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read. I don't know how many times in
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my life in the Bible reading plan or just me being bored.
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Like, let's look at this kooky stuff and Revelation these two
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simple versus here. Kind of set the stage for us.
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So we have John, who is given this Revelation by God, and he
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is encountering Jesus. And he's having this
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conversation with Jesus and John falls down at Jesus feet and
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he's freaking out. He says I it was basically like
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I was dead. I just fell on my face.
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Face and then Jesus lays his right hand on John.
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And he says, fear not. Why is he not supposed to fear,
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will? He unpacks and things but he
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says, behold I have the keys of death and Hades.
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What is, what does that mean? We could do a whole study on
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language of keys in the Old Testament and the ancient world
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and the Greco-Roman culture of the study of keys.
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We're not, we don't have the time for that tonight, but what
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Jesus is saying, is that I have ownership over death, and over
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Hades, Hades is the Greek word for hell and not just a place of
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eternal torment. But the place where, when you I
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your soul goes somewhere, your spirit goes somewhere, and to
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understand this more fully. We have to think about how
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people conceptualize the world. And this time frame, they view
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the world as a, it was a three, tiered Cosmos.
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There were the heavens, there's the Earth, and there's the realm
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under the Earth and that realm under the Earth is where your
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soul goes to after you die. And for God's people, his
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faithful people in the Old Testament, we see them expecting
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something to happen. After they died, when their soul
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is separated from their bodies, they they have hope that God is
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going to reunite their bodies and their souls.
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And in Revelation, we see this unfold that one day, there's a
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new heavens and a new Earth. But but where do where do these
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souls go? When they die, will they go into
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the underworld? If you were to ask someone 5,000
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years ago, four thousand years ago, three thousand years ago,
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two thousand years ago. What happens when you die, they
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would tell you, well our souls, leave our bodies because we If
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that we're not just we're not just sacks of flesh but there's
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something that inhabits our bodies.
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And when we die, when our blood isn't getting pumped through our
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bodies, whenever our lungs aren't pushing air in and out
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our souls depart somewhere and it goes into the underworld, it
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goes into Shale is the Hebrew word for this and the Hebrew
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understanding or it goes into Hades which is the Greek
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understanding of the afterlife but you'll see this language of
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Underworld. So when I swear I'm going to use
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these words very interchangeably tonight but Shale Hades
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underworld Realm of the dead. It's this this concept of when
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you die, your soul goes somewhere, you don't just cease
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to exist. You don't just you're not just
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annihilated. But you, your soul goes
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somewhere in the hope for God's faithful people.
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And the Old Testament is that God would resurrect you.
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He would reunite your body and your soul and you would Rule and
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reign with him forever. So that's come to understanding
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of, okay? There's this three-tiered Cosmos
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Heaven Earth, the underworld where you go when you die.
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And you're there. And it's not, it's not that
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you're being punished as an Unfaithful as a faithful
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follower of God, but you're in this, not Purgatory, but your
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soul goes somewhere and is waiting for something.
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And now we see in this Revelation to John, that Jesus
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says, I hold the keys of death and Hades.
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I have ownership. I can unlock these Gates.
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I am the title holder here. If you want to, you want to see
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the deed to this property? I got this deed to this
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property. I own the these things.
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Jesus tells him this because it tells John this to, hey, don't
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be fearful. Don't be afraid.
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I own death. I own the underworld.
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I own these things. I have rule over these things.
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I have sovereignty over these things and that should comfort
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you, John, and today, that should comfort us knowing that
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Jesus has authority over all things, the little things and
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the big things, he's authority over all of those things.
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And so, I wanted us to jump into this passage first.
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Just to show us, Jesus has authority over.
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Life and death. And the Underworld, the place
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that your soul goes when you die or at least in one cover.
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This more in a little bit. I'm getting ahead of myself, but
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we see, Jesus Authority, that should give us joy.
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When we see Jesus, Jesus have authority over all things.
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I don't know about you, but my life has been out of control a
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time or two people that I love and know their lives have been
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out of control after a time or two, but the hope that we have,
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as followers of Jesus is that he He is in control of all things.
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Nothing is a surprise to him. So, John is being comforted
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with, with the knowledge of Jesus Authority, his ownership,
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his holding the keys, Over Hades and death.
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I used to have a key to Noche were Frontier gathered a while
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back. I had this since kind of sense
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of ownership but I don't own that building Frontier.
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Only went up in there one son once a week on Sunday mornings.
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So, I had this illusion of ownership, but Jesus, there's no
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illusion of ownership with Jesus, he totally owns
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everything. He has control over Hades, the
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underworld He has control over death.
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So we're starting here because well if Jesus has the keys of
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Hades and death will then what does that imply?
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It implies that he had to go somewhere to get these keys and
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there's like a I'll punch a complaint.
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You some really helpful resources on just this concept
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of Jesus having the keys, there's an awesome book called
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The Battle of the keys. And it's about what Jesus did
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when he descended. And so we're starting here of
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Jesus, whenever he was crucified, he died as king Jimmy
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would say he gave up the ghost, his spirit.
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Descended into the underworld and he battles for the keys.
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He snatches the keys from Satan's grasp and now he owns
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it. And we'll show, I'll show you
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why that's important to understand him battling for the
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keys and having the keys in our next passage.
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So Jesus having these Keys implies that he went somewhere
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to get these keys. So the next passage I want to
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Peter chapter 3 will look at verses 18 to 22.
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First Peter 3, 18 to 22. So kind of laid the foundation
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here of Jesus, is the owner of these keys of death and Hades.
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Well, why is that significant What's going on here?
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Well, in First, Peter 3, Peter is writing to a church that is
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suffering or they're about to experience more suffering.
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There's a lot of debate on exactly what's going on but
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there is a level of suffering that Peter is addressing in
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these churches that are scattered about Asia Minor and
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he writes to them, he addresses their suffering and then he says
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for Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the
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unrighteous that he might bring us to God, being put to death
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and The flesh but made alive in the spirit.
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Oh, that seems like we've heard that about Peter.
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Yeah, we've heard. We've heard you talk about some
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things like this before. We've heard Paul talked about
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some things like that before, and then he goes on in which he
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went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison.
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What are you talking about here Peter?
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He went to his Spirit went and he proclaimed to the spirits in
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prison. Where is this prison located?
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And he goes on to say because they formerly did not obey when
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God's patience waited in the days of Noah while the ark was
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being prepared in which a few that is eight persons were
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brought slave safely through water baptism which corresponds
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to this now saves you know as a removal of dirt from the body
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but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, Through the
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resurrection of Jesus Christ who has gone into heaven and is at
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the right hand of God with angels authorities and Powers
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having been subjected to him. There's a lot of stuff in there,
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like I've heard that before, then you kind of hear, he
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wouldn't proclaimed a Spirits in prison.
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What is what's going on here? There's a lot of things that
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Peters assuming in addressing his original audience and we can
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we'll pull back a couple layers here but what Peter is assuming
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in his audiences that they're familiar with the story and it's
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called first Enoch where Enoch and it's a way we could no doubt
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on this and spin like seven hours talking about this
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tonight. But I'm trying to be I'm trying
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to be helpful. Be helpful in If you help.
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Okay. But it's a story and it's a
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fictional story is not in the scriptures, it's not canonical,
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but it's the story of Enoch. He was a righteous man he walked
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with God and he is taken for he is not so he never tasted death
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and then Enoch gets summons by these spirits who were
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imprisoned in hell and the underworld are in the
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unrighteous compartment of hell and they gets he gets summoned
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by them so he not goes down there and he's like what's up
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guys? And you know and they totally
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knock hey Can you go tell God that?
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We're sorry for this whole thing that we this whole Genesis 6
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thing where we were the sons of the most high.
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We were sons of God and we came down, we made it with women.
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We made babies made these things called Nephilim and that guy
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kind of wild not a hand. We did a lot of bad stuff but
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please tell him that we are sorry and we'll never do it
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again. And so you knock goes into God's
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presence and he tells God hate these dudes down here.
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They said that they're sorry, and that they'll never do it
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again. And then God says, You can tell
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them it's just as bad and I got some bad news for you.
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You're not going to be released from your change.
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You're going to remain imprisoned, you're going to be
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punished, you're going to be destroyed.
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And so Enoch takes his journey back down, talk to these.
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These homies who were in Chains and tells him hey God said that,
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it's cool that you're sorry but you can't undo what you have
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done. There is no forgiveness for you.
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You're going to be continued to remain and imprisoned here and
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so he preaches to them and then you knock goes back, elsewhere.
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And so, that's kind of an assumption.
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This was a very popular story that existed in Jewish culture
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and so Peter, we may not pick up on this stuff immediately, but,
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but Peters, audiences connect kind of have this in the back of
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their minds, this dissension to preach to these Spirits in
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prison and then Enoch goes back into God's presence.
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And so, what we see Peter doing here, as he says, he's using
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Enoch as a typology pointing to Jesus, And what Peter says is
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Christ, he was righteous, but he suffered for the unrighteous,
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and he was made dead in his flesh.
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But alive in his Spirit, he was made alive in his spirit, so he
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could go and preach to Spirits who were imprisoned.
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And so Jesus on, Holy Saturday, he is crucified and his Spirit
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descends into the underworld. And he goes on a preaching tour
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that we said that word proclaim here and most translations in
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English, but a better way to to help us understand this in a
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better translation. Is that he preached.
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So Jesus is going on this preaching to her, he shows up
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into the underworld and these evil spirits who rebelled
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against God in Genesis chapter 6, They're probably like a week
Genesis 6 chapter mention
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got this, dude, he thought he could trick us, he thought he
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could, he thought he was gonna just be hot stuff and he was
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never gonna die while we got him.
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And Jesus says, hey, I've got some bad news for you guys.
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I'm only going to be up in here for just a little bit and I'm
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going to be resurrected and I'm gonna be the first fruit of New
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Creation. My, my body is dead.
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My spirit is alive. And so Jesus, preaching the
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gospel to these evil spirits, the Spiritual Beings were in
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prison who stepped outside of their bounds.
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As we see elsewhere in scripture to describe this, Yeah.
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But there is no hope for forgiveness for them.
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There is no hope for a change of heart for them, but Jesus doing
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is he's, I picture in my mind, he's rattling.
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The cages of their jail cell and saying, what you have done is
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going to be undone by me. I have the keys now, I could let
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you out if I wanted to, but I'm not going to let you out.
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I could do this but I'm not going to because what you have
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done is you've perverted Humanity?
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You have brought more corruption into Humanity, you have brought
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you or agents of the kingdom of darkness, but the king of
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darkness is not going to overpower the Kingdom of Light.
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The city of man, the evil city of man is not going to overpower
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the city of God. This Kingdom you tried to build
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is not going to be powerful enough to wage war.
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That is going to be that. It's going to be thwarting.
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The kingdom of God, Jesus has the keys.
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He's Jingling the keys in front of them.
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Hey, you guys want to get out? Oh, psych.
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You can't get out, but they were also what he's doing.
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And we see this in Ephesians chapter 4 verses 8 and 9.
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We have a ton of time to get into that.
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But, but it talks about Jesus descending.
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There's a lot of debate on this passage and I can show you later
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why there's debate on this but talks about Jesus descending to
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the lower regions. If you have the ESV is going to
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say the lower regions comma the Earth.
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There's other translations that would say the lower regions in
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the earth. I just read a toll call like I
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would read a bunch of stuff other night and it kind of gave
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me too much content and I just verbally diary and up here right
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now as a result of that. But I think I think the more
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helpful translation is that he did descend into the lower
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regions of the earth. He goes down in there.
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And what he does is, he leads a host of captives and he gives
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gifts to men. And so Jesus, not only does he
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go on a preaching tour and Proclaim his victory over the
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principalities and over the darkness and over the evil
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Spiritual Beings, but he also does something else.
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He leads a host of captives and gives gifts to men, Luke talked
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about on Sunday, and I hate that he's not here because I was
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gonna give him a hard time about just because it's fun to do to
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Luke, but, but he talked about God's victory, over the Gods on
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the Earth. He set me up real well for
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tonight. God is going to destroy these
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gods that are on the earth that are leading God's people astray
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and causing them to worship idols.
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And now what we see in Jesus descent as him and his victory
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over the Spiritual Beings and the underworld under the Earth.
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Jesus, secures Victory on the cross whenever he is the perfect
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spotless atoning sacrifice. And then he goes down into the
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underworld and he proclaims his victory, he proclaims that.
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What I have done my perfect life, my sacrificial death.
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This was sufficient to rescue people who were in the
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Underworld and Usher them into God's presence.
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And so, Jesus goes on this preaching tour, it's like, eight
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pronounces, judgment pronounces that there is no hope for these
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rebellious Spiritual Beings, but then he also brings out.
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God's faithful people that are in the Underworld, I should have
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mentioned us earlier. And the way that people
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conceptualize the underworld, as there is an unrighteous
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compartment of this not should have put a graphic on the screen
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but, you know, I'm not like coal and all that graphics on screens
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but there's an unrighteous compartment where the people who
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have rejected God and the following other gods are and
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where evil Spiritual Beings are. And then there's the righteous
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compartment where the Old Testament Believers were
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located. But when Jesus goes down in
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there, he leads a host of captives.
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He brings God's faithful people out of this out of the
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underworld. Old and brings them into God's
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presence. He gives gifts to men.
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If you look at later on and if he's in chapter 4, what Jesus
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does is the gifts that he is giving our roles in the church
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that benefit the church and that build up the church where he's
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building up his kingdom. Within These Little mobile human
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beings, who are images of God and who are filled with God's
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presence. They are now that they're the
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new temples that are walking around and saw Jesus.
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He pronounces judgment Heap. Announces victory in the
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Underworld but he also rescues a group of people.
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And Peter also goes on here in First Peter chapter 3 he uses
1 Peter 3 chapter mention
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Enoch was kind of the story of Enoch.
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That's in the social imagination to show that Jesus is better
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than Enoch. He's stronger than Enoch, he's
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more powerfully than Enoch. He didn't just like Enoch, he
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didn't, just go and preach he preached.
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But then, he rescued and led people out of out of the
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underworld and to God's presence.
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And that's good news for us because whenever our souls
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depart from our bodies Upon Our death, Is that we don't just go
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into the underworld? We get to be like that thief on
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the cross, who Jesus says today you will be with me in Paradise.
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We get to be in God's presence and if you know your Bibles and
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you know, Revelation when you know that it's not the end of
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Heaven is not just like Cole said the other day on our pot,
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on the podcast, Heaven is not the end zone.
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Heaven is the red zone there is going to be a day that comes
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whenever we die in our souls. Go to be present with Christ.
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There's going to be a day that comes where Heaven and Earth are
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going to overlap and it's going to be a new Heaven and it's
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gonna be a new Earth. The Whole Earth is going to be
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the Garden of Eden as we better than anything we could possibly
-
imagine. But our souls, and our bodies
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are going to reunite all because of what Jesus has done on the
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cross and in his dissent. And so we have the hope that
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we're not just going to be this, disembodied spirit for eternity
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and that was still be sweet enough, right?
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We get to be disembodied floating around with our that
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looks like as a disembodied spirit with Jesus, but, but
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Jesus is returning back to God's.
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I bring returns us back to God. Odds ideal of being embodied
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spirits, who dwell and Rule, and Reign alongside God as a
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glorious reality, that Jesus has accomplished on behalf on our
-
behalf. I don't know about you, I
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couldn't accomplish this, right? I've sent a couple of times as
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I've been here. There's a long story, but
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anyway. Yeah, stay up way too late every
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night this week. My kids have stayed up way too
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late every night this week, but the last text that I want to,
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that want to point us to. We've looked at Revelations, we
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looked at John. Look at First Peter, we've heard
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Peters encouragement of the church that hey, I know, you're
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suffering and suffering is gonna get worse for you.
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But Jesus not only suffered on the cross for you but he also
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descended into hell. And proclaimed his victory over
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over sin and over death to that, that should help you.
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That should help you be motivated to pursue
-
righteousness whenever you're being persecuted.
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We've looked at those those two two pieces of scripture and if
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you might think that, well, this is just what these guys, this
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was their interpretation of what Jesus had to do.
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They just kind of came up with this, on their own, but if we
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take a gander at Matthew chapter 12, we see that Jesus has this
Matthew 12 chapter mention
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in his in his mind, as well. The Jesus.
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Talks about him descending wasn't just what some guys were
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like. It'd be cool if we wrote some
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stories about Jesus descending into hell.
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That wouldn't that be awesome if we talk about that?
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But Jesus conceptualize this as well.
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In Matthew chapter 12 verses 38 to 42 you probably got the
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heading in your scriptures that says something like the the sign
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of Jonah May have some different language there, but and the ESV
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what I've got here is the sign of Jonah.
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And so Jesus is talking with these fools, the scribes the
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Pharisees and they were talking to him and they said, hey
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teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.
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Jesus has been engaging, these scribes and the Pharisees, and
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they've been dogging him and trying to get them, but Jesus
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knows who they are and Jesus Jesus.
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So he is going to win and Jesus answers them an evil and
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adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be
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given to it except the sign of the prophet.
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Jonah for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in
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the belly of the great fish. So will the son of man be three
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days and three nights in the heart of the Earth, the men of
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Nineveh will rise up at the Judgment with this generation
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and condemn it for they repented at the preaching and behold
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something greater than Jonah is here.
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The queen of the South will rise up at the Judgment with this
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generation and condemn it for. She came from the ends of the
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Earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and behold something
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greater than Solomon is here. So Jesus uses Jonah as an
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archetype, as a typology of what he is going to do.
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If you don't remember the story of Jonah, which as long as you
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don't remember it, as Like in terms of VeggieTales then you
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can kind of understand what's going on here.
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Jonas told to go preach to Nineveh caught, tell them to
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repent and Jonah says, no, I don't like those guys.
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And so Jonah goes, the exact opposite direction gets on a
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boat. The boat starts rocking in a row
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on. The sailors are praying to all
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their guys and they're like, yo, don't know, why are you asleep
-
in this boat? Man?
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We're about to all about to die. I pray to your God.
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And so I was like, hey, this is because of me, guys.
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If you chunk me over the the edge of this boat will be good
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to go. So they tossed Jonah over the
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boat and he goes into the water and he's like, okay, cool.
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I finally Like I'm for sure, not going to Nineveh.
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Now I'm going to die, I'm going to drown and then this fish
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comes in Scoops, Jonah out. And then we see Jonah kind of
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come to terms. He kind of repents he prays this
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prayer and Jonah talks about him being in the pits, which another
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way to think about that as Jonah was envisioning himself.
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As in Shale. He was, he was in this place and
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he had descended down. And then he gets spewed out onto
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the shores and he had goes to Nineveh and preaches.
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And Jesus says uses this as the sign of Jonah, these scribes and
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Pharisees are wanting a sign they wanted Jesus to do
-
something that and Jesus has been providing, all these signs
-
has been healing. People casting out demons, and
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preaching and teaching, but they want something more in, Jesus
-
says, what I'm going to do, I'm going to take on the sign of
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Jonah Jonah. Went into a fish for this amount
-
of time but I'm going to go into the heart of the earth.
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So Jesus is saying I'm going to go into anyone.
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Say that the understanding is that he's going into the place
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of the dead, that's where he's going to be.
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He's descending down in there and then he's going to rise up
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again victoriously and he's going to have this preaching
-
tour just like Jonah did Jonah went and preached around in
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Nova. Looks very short and what we
-
have in the scriptures but Jesus while he's descended and why
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he's resurrected preaches. Then he resurrects and it is at
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this as a sign of the power of God that he holds the keys.
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That he has authority over all things that death cannot control
-
him. That's a lot of information, a
-
lot of content, right? There's probably some murky
-
areas that I left there and I'm some of them.
-
I left intentionally murky to. So you can have some follow up
-
with coal while I'm gone. We recorded a podcast yesterday
-
that maybe can be complementary to this.
-
But as I said, the beginning, I wanted to give you some
-
information to give you handles onto this doctrine of what
-
happened when Christ died, the you just die and go take a nap.
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That he died and just wait for his resurrection or was he at
-
work? I think the scriptures have
-
given us an information here that Jesus was at work.
-
At First Peter 3 pack, text has become one of my favorite
-
passages because it shows him at were even, Jesus Is So Glorious.
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And so powerful, that even while his body is dead, his soul is
-
securing the hope and the destiny of the faithful.
-
The Jesus, even when his, whenever his body is lifeless
-
his soul. Is proclaiming victory over the
-
kingdom of darkness. Let that sink in to your to your
-
mind in your heart. That's how powerful our Jesus
-
is. Our King has his Reign, never
-
ends and even when it looks like he lost there on the cross, he
-
didn't his economy is upside down from that than that of
-
other kings, he died so that he could be a sacrifice, but he
-
died. So also he could go down and
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Proclaim judgment over the principalities in the rulers of
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Darkness that are in the Underworld.
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That's how powerful Jesus. Is that should give us joy.
-
That should give us, hope it does this Doctrine.
-
I'll end with this here before we get to respond, to the power,
-
and the Majesty of Jesus. But this, this Doctrine has been
-
special to me and several ways. This as I talk with people who
-
have a fear of death, as I think about my depression and anxiety,
-
as I think about the evil that exists in this world, embracing
-
the doctrine of Christ descent into hell.
-
Helps me combat those things. Helps me combat where I think
-
that things are just not going to get better.
-
And you guys, if you were a part of Frontier year and a half ago,
-
so I'm going to bawl my eyes out and I was just a point where I
-
felt like nothing was ever going to get better.
-
There's gonna be stuck in this state, embracing this doctrine
-
of Christ descent that he suffered on my behalf and
-
descended into the place of the dead and he pronounced victory
-
over the rulers of Darkness. He pronounced a victory over
-
sin. He pronounces victory.
-
Over death, that's come. I was comforting for me to
-
embrace him that to think that Jesus didn't just suffer.
-
But even when he was dead, he was at work for me.
-
Help me combat that. I kind of have this irrational
-
fear of death at times, but then, thinking of how Jesus is
-
Victorious over death, that death could not hold him.
-
And the, that that the rulers of evil thought that they had
-
defeated Jesus, but Jesus says, I'm going to be resurrected, You
-
Don't Own Me. I own you.
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The helps me come combat. That it helps me.
-
Also, give me a beautiful picture of baptism.
-
Baptism is a picture of this story of Jesus being crucified.
-
He's buried. Shenzhen to hell.
-
And then he's a resurrected and brought to New Life, it gives us
-
another angle to view baptism with there's so many
-
implications that we have with this doctrine of Christ.
-
The scent. I know, it's weird, right?
-
If you think it's weird, it's okay.
-
But if you also think that Jesus was born of a virgin, that's
-
also pretty weird as well. So who's to say that Jesus is
-
limited. He doesn't descend into the
-
underworld and pronounced victory, over the spirits who
-
are imprisoned So I hope that yeah that this content went
-
longer than I should have but I hope of this content.
-
Was it helpful for you? Just to kind of conceptualize
-
what's going on and feed you with joy in Jesus.
-
So now we get to we're going to confess the Apostles Creed again
-
together, and then we're going to have to worship Jesus Through
-
song after we get this Apostles Creed done.
-
If you got questions about any of the stuff, I joked and said I
-
was gonna do it on coals lap, but I've got some more notes and
-
some resources that might be helpful for you, but I'm
-
passionate about this I love it. It's changed is impacted me.
-
It's been good for me. I've been like, oh, it's not.
-
Do those Catholic weirdos who balloon talk about the stuff,
-
but people for centuries, believe this in confess this and
-
I can talk to you about the history of that.
-
And when it changed, but I'm glad that I get to be a part of
-
a be here in a part of this with you tonight and y'all don't look
-
at me. Like I've got 12 heads on my
-
shoulders right now because I've set talk about this up before
-
and people look at me like I was a fool anyway. let's stand and
-
can and and confess the Apostles Creed together with that with
-
the mindset of what Christ did for us when he descended let's
-
stand and can and and confess the Apostles Creed together with
-
that with the mindset of what Christ did for us when he
-
descended