"From Eden to Eden -- Exploring the Saga of Salvation History"

Part VII: The Day God Went to Hell for You

Sermon by Pastor Dale Wolcott

March 3, 2001

(All scriptures are from the New King James Version unless otherwise noted.)

Open with me to Luke 23.

If you were asked to visit a condemned murderer who was scheduled for execution 48 hours from now, what would you say to him?

Bright Halwindi is a Seventh-day Adventist pastor in Zambia, Africa. In one of our church papers recently, he told of his experience when he was asked to make a visit to death row. The three men whom he’d been asked to visit were facing death by hanging just two days hence.

The pastor says, "My impression was that with death approaching in two days’ time, they would accept salvation freely given to them." But instead, when he walked into the cell all three began shouting and cursing at him. "Where is the God you talk about? We’re going to be executed and He can’t save us. Down with you and your God."

With a touch of humor, the pastor says he recalled some times when it appeared that even his own congregation didn't seem interested in hearing his sermon, so he went ahead and preached for a while to them but they literally shouted him down.

He went back the next day, with the same results. On the day of the execution he went back again, and this time he found one of the three men sitting there shivering violently, his whole body wet with sweat. The pastor says, "He was so afraid of death that he could not stand. He did not [even] have the strength to shout at a preacher."

As Pastor Halwindi approached, he could see something in the man’s eyes that invited him to come closer. He sat down and said, "Would you like to listen to me?"

"Yes, pastor."

He opened Bible to the story of three other men sentenced to execution long ago, on a hill outside Jerusalem. One was Jesus. One was a criminal who watched the way Jesus was dying, and became convinced that this was truly the Son of God, the Lifegiver.

Then he read these words from Luke 23:42, 43: "Then he said to Jesus, ‘Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, today[,] you will be with Me in Paradise.’"

As Pastor Halwindi tells the story: "Almost instantly, hope seemed to take over his life.... The shivering stopped.... He spoke in a soft voice, "Pastor, I have never entered the doors of a church in all my life.... I have killed many people.... Pastor, do you think this Jesus can forgive me like he forgave that robber?"

The pastor read him from Psalm 103: "As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us." Then he read about the resurrection morning, "Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection; on such the second death has no power."

Pastor Halwindi’s testimony is that that hardened criminal prayed one of the most powerful prayers he’s ever listened to. Then as the pastor walked at his side, the murderer went to his execution with a spring in his step and hope in his heart. As he stood on the gallows with the pastor at his side, he asked permission to pray again. His prayer was a testimony to the officers and others who were the witnesses of his execution.

At this man’s funeral in the prison graveyard, the pastor told the same story of Jesus to the prisoners and officers who had come to bury the executed one. Six months later, every prisoner who attended that burial was baptized, along with 2 of the prison officers. [Bright Halwindi, "The Challenge and Reward of Prison Ministry," Ministry, September, 1998, pp. 22, 23.]

We’ve been telling Bible stories each month in our "Eden to Eden" series, this Saga of Salvation History: Adam and Eve, and the serpent who was actually a fallen angel. Noah, Abraham and Isaac, Moses and the sanctuary, given to God’s people at the time of Exodus. Jeremiah, the prophet of the broken heart, to whom God gave the promise of a new covenant, a new relationship that would rebuild broken hearts.

Today we come to the fifth of our six banners (the seventh of our 10 stories), but this is really the central story of the whole Saga. To emphasize that, we have a new banner hanging here at the front center of our sanctuary, "God Is Love."

Many of you know that there’s a series of commentaries on the Bible story, written by Ellen G.White, which provide much of the inspiration for this sermon series: the "Conflict of the Ages" series. The first words on the first page of the first volume quote these three words from the Bible: "God is love."

The last three words on the last page of the final volume repeat them again, "God is love."

The central volume, Desire of Ages, is the story of Jesus; it contains 835 pages describing the love of God in Person. I want to share just a few sentences from the first chapter of Desire of Ages:

The earth was dark through misapprehension of God. [4,000 years have passed since Adam and Eve left Eden. It’s been 600 years since the new-covenant promise to Jeremiah. The earth is still dark. The chains are still there, as shown in one of our banners.] That . . . the world might be brought back to God, Satan's deceptive power was to be broken. This could not be done by force. The exercise of force is contrary to the principles of God's government; He desires only the service of love, and love cannot be commanded; it cannot be won by force or authority. Only by love is love awakened. To know God is to love Him; [therefore] His character must be manifested in contrast to the character of Satan. [How was God going accomplish this?] This work only one Being in all the universe could do. Only He who knew the height and depth of the love of God could make it known. [Who is that? Yes, JESUS.] Upon the world's dark night the Sun of Righteousness must rise, 'with healing in His wings'... [One more sentence now:] God did not ordain that sin should exist, but He foresaw its existence, and . . . so great was His love for the world, that He covenanted [from the very beginning of sin, way back at the gates of Eden] to give His only-begotten Son, "that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16. {Desire of Ages, p. 22.2}

So we have 30 minutes for the greatest story in all of human history! Let’s make them count.

The greatest of all the stories of Jesus is the story of the cross.

I’ve struggled this week. How can I tell this story so that it will awaken love in your heart? How can I paint this picture so that it will make the kind of transformation in your life, even in mine, that it made in the life of that death-row prisoner?

Please pray with me. Lord God Almighty, please do more than touch our hearts today.

Break them and then recast them into the shape of your own love, as we re-live that

blackest and brightest of all days, the day God went to hell for us in the person of Your Son Jesus. I ask it in His name, Amen.

The story of the cross calls for a response from our hearts. I’m going to be asking you to make a specific response this morning. The deacons have a little response card to place in your hands now. It has a place for three possible responses. You may want to mark it as we go along, or wait until the end.

The first item is the response of your head, your intellect. The second is the response of your heart. The third is an action response; it says "I would like to prepare for baptism." If you have not been baptized, or feel a need to be baptized again, please mark that box. As in past, hand the cards to the ushers as you leave. Hand them in face down for privacy; then they’ll be given to me.

Open to Acts chapter 2.

Based on Jesus’ words to the thief on the cross, some people think Jesus spent the crucifixion weekend in heaven. Of course Jesus’ words can just as well be taken to mean, "I say to you today, you shall be with me in Paradise," as "I say to you, today you shall be with me in Paradise." Whenever a Bible verse is ambiguous or its meaning uncertain, we can look elsewhere and discover that the Bible explains itself. So let’s do that.

In Acts 2, just six weeks after the crucifixion, Peter is preaching on the Day of Pentecost and makes it clear where Jesus spent the weekend. He is quoting the Old Testament to prove that Jesus had come back to life, and that He was the promised the Messiah, the Lamb of God. In verses 35-38 he quotes from Psalm 16, and then explains the Psalm in verses 29-31. Note verse 31 (King James Version): "He (David) seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption."

Where did Jesus go when He died on the cross? Where did He come back from when He rose from the dead? The Bible says, HELL! Actually most Christians believe this, although they haven’t thought it through. There’s a very ancient document called the "Apostles’ Creed" which is accepted by all Catholics and many Protestants, which says in part: "I believe in Jesus Christ..., conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, crucified, dead and buried; he descended into hell, rose again the third day, ascended into heaven...."

Very quickly someone says, "but that word 'hell' (Hades in the New King James and other versions) doesn’t mean what most people think it means." You’re absolutely right!

The Greek word hades (Hebrew sheol) simply means "the grave."

Jesus spent the weekend in the tomb. He didn’t "go" anywhere, in the sense of His departed spirit traveling to some nether region or place of torment. He rested in the grave over the Sabbath, and that’s what Peter is talking about.

But He didn’t stay in the grave; He came out on the Resurrection Morning, which is why our little advertising brochure for today said we’re going to celebrate Easter six weeks early.

Hallelujah, Jesus is alive! Amen?

But some of you know there’s also another word for "hell" in the Bible. In both Greek and Hebrew it’s Gehenna, a place of burning. Revelation chapter 20 calls it the "lake of fire." (Verses 9-15.)

Jesus says that this lake of fire is "prepared for the devil and his angels" [Matthew 25:41]. Peter tells us the lake of fire is not burning now, but will come into existence at the end of time when "the elements shall melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up" [2 Peter 3:10].

Question: Do you deserve to go to hell?

Answer: Yes. The wages of sin is death. [Romans 6:23] That means the second death, final destruction.

Another Question: Is that second death going to be painful?

Answer: I’d really rather not think about it! If I die before Jesus comes, I hope it doesn’t have to be in a fire: a house fire, a car fire, or any other kind of fire.

Back in the Dark Ages, some of the Christian martyrs were burned at the stake: John Hus, William Tyndale, and many others. They were accused of being heretics, and their method of execution was to be a foretaste of the fires of hell to which the religious authorities believed they would go at the instant if their death.

But the pain of the second death is something more than the fire: it includes the emotional torment of final separation from life, from the future, from love, from God. I think that terrified criminal who faced death by hanging came closer to experiencing the second death than Hus or Tyndale, who died by fire but died singing. That second death is intended only for the devil, but the Bible says everyone whose name is not written in the Book of Life will finally find their deserved place in that fire.

Final Question: Did Jesus die in your place; did He take the consequences of your sin?

Answer: The Bible says Jesus, the second person of the Godhead, the Holy Trinity, suffered the Second Death, at the cross, for you and me. That was the day God Himself went to hell for you!

Turn again to Luke 22, and let’s imagine ourselves reliving the story of Jesus’ journey to hell. Jesus knew He was going to hell before it ever happened. Note verse 37, He’s speaking to the 11 disciples before leaving the Upper Room, and He quotes a verse from Isaiah 53: "For I say to you that this which is written must still be accomplished in Me: ‘And He was numbered with the transgressors.’"

Then when He went out to the Garden to pray, what did He say to His Father? Remember? Note verse 42, "Father if it is your will, take this cup away from me." Matthew says he prayed this three times. Turn to Isaiah. Jesus quoted from Isaiah 53, but first let’s go to Isaiah 51.

What was the cup? We say, "the cup of suffering," thinking of physical suffering. Jesus' physical suffering was horrible, but that is also true of many, many others all through history.

When Jesus prayed about the cup, I think He was recalling these words of Isaiah in chapter 51, verse 17: "Awake, awake! Stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of His fury; you have drunk the dregs of the cup of trembling, and drained it out."

It was the cup of God’s righteous anger against the sin and rebellion and idolatry and evil of His people back in the time of Isaiah and Jeremiah.

And when Jesus pleaded, "Father, can You maybe take it away," I think He was remembering verse 22: "Thus says your Lord, the Lord and your God, Who pleads the cause of His people: ‘See, I have taken out of your hand the cup of trembling, the dregs of the cup of My fury...’" But the reason God could promise to take the cup away from Israel, was that Jesus was going to drink it to the dregs.

So Jesus’ trip to hell didn’t begin with the crown of thorns, or the Roman scourge, and it didn’t end with the nails and the burning thirst in the midday sun as He hung on the cross. Jesus’ cup, Jesus’ hell, was the weight of the world's guilt, and it began there in the Garden. (Actually, it began much earlier, even as early as the Wilderness of Temptation; but in the Garden He felt the guilt of the world full-force.)

As Jesus lay there on the ground under the olive trees, clinging desperately to the damp earth, He was experiencing the collective guilty conscience of every sinner on the face of the earth. It felt to Him as if God was blaming Him for all the sin of the world; and not wrongfully but rightfully!

You know, guilt is deadly, right? Even the psychologists will tell you that. And it would have killed Him there in the garden, if an angel hadn’t come to strengthen Him. As it was, he was sweating blood. The Bible says he was in "agony" (similar to that African criminal; but with no relief.) This was before a soldier or a priest ever laid a hand on Him.

On the day Jesus died, He felt the way sinners will feel as the final sentence is pronounced on the last Judgment Day, as the fire is falling when every lost person will know that God is doing the right thing; that they deserve to die forever because of their own choices, because of the wrongs they have done against their Creator who loved them.

Turn to Matthew 27. We’ll pass over the horrible details of Jesus’ arrest; the farce of an

all-night trial; multiple scenes of insult and injury, first from the priests’ servants, then by the Roman soldiers; the scourging; and then after sunup, the torturous trek to Calvary; the nails in hands and feet; the lifting of the cross and jolting it into place.

Note verse 45, "Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land." Why the midday darkness? The Bible says, "God is light, in Him is no darkness at all." [1 John 1:5] Jesus had spent His whole earthly life walking in the light. He "did no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth." [1 Peter 1:22] He said, "I do always those things that please Him." [John 8:29] But when God the Father looked down at His beloved Son on the cross, He didn’t see a spotless, pure, holy Lamb. He saw a sinner, the chief of sinners; He saw all the sin of the world concentrated into Jesus’ consciousness.

The darkness was the final piece of hell for Jesus that day. Note vs. 46, "And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’"

I used to wonder why Jesus would say such a thing; as if He lost His faith for a moment.

No, He was simply speaking the truth. Jesus was under God’s wrath against sin; He was feeling what sinners must feel at the last Judgment Day. That’s what Hell really is: God-forsakenness.

Lots of people have died in fire, but Jesus died in hell; the way He felt was completely separated from God, His unity with the Father broken up. He died of a broken heart.

But even through the agony, He didn’t lose His faith. With His last breath he said "Father, my life is in Your hands." And then He shouted, "It is finished." Hell was finished for you and for me.

Through death He destroyed Him who had the power of death. He tasted the second death for everyone. We don’t need to fear death, if we choose to trust Him.

Quoting again from Desire of Ages, p. 25:

"Christ was treated as we deserve, that we might be treated as He deserves. He was condemned for our sins, in which He had no share, that we might be justified by His righteousness, in which we had no share. He suffered the death which was ours, that we might receive the life which was His. With His stripes we are healed."

Do you have that little response card? Please take it out now and think about what it says as we wrap up.

God went to hell for you. And for me. That’s how I know He’s love. That’s why I’m determined that what He did isn’t going to be wasted, for me personally. I’m going to trust Him with my life. I’m going to trust Him to build His love into me, so that I’ll be the

kind of person He can have in His heaven.

He hasn’t finished that yet, but if He loved me enough to go to all the way to hell for me, I’m confident He will go all the way in doing what it takes to get me ready for heaven.

Can you make a decision like that this morning? If you can, please share it with me on your response card. Can you mark the first box? "I believe that Jesus suffered the Second

Death in my place."

The second response is a heart response: "God’s love at the cross has convinced me that I can trust Him completely. I choose to give my life fully to Him."

For the third response: If you know God is calling you to be baptized, please put that on the card also.

Again I ask everyone to just hand your card to the usher as you leave.

Our Hymn of Response is number 159.