If you would, please stand as we say together our memory Scripture for this quarter:
Romans 12:4-5
“Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”
And our memory refresher Scripture is …
Philippians 4:8
“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things.”
Please open your Bibles to Acts 1:1-11 which we will read in a few minutes.
Ten days ago, on the Thursday before this past Thursday, there was a special date on the church calendar. That date appears exactly 40 days after Jesus rose from the dead. What does that date commemorate? Jesus’ ascension into Heaven.
With that in mind let’s go ahead and read Acts 1:1-11
The ascension of Jesus into heaven is truly important for many reasons but the most important reasons are:
1) Jesus became the one and only Mediator between us and God the Father:
1 Timothy 2:5-6
“For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all people - this has now been witnessed to at the proper time.”
2) God the Father would not send the Holy Spirit until after Jesus returned to Heaven.
Why? Why couldn’t we have the presence of the Holy Spirit to indwell us while Jesus was on earth?
We don’t know and we really don’t need to know, we just need to trust.
What we do know is that the Holy Spirit has a supremely important work to do in our lives to bring us to salvation and to keep us growing more and more into the image of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Today I want to ask a question that is not directly linked to the ascension of Jesus into Heaven but is concerned with the period between Jesus’ death and His resurrection and that question is, “Where did Jesus go?”
And in order to answer that question we need to look at some places of spiritual existence that we may not have thought much about before.
We think a lot about the Eternal existence of God the Son. We think a lot about the Incarnation. We think a lot about the crucifixion and the resurrection and the ascension and the return of Jesus but there is one period of Jesus existence we don’t talk about.
The three days Jesus was in the tomb.
When we think of places of spiritual existence we often only think of Heaven, the abode of God, and hell, a place of eternal torment and punishment apart from the presence of the Lord.
But what happened to Jesus during those three days; where did He go?
And, what will happen to my spirit between the time I die and the time of the resurrections?
Some people believe in “soul sleep” where the soul of a person is essentially turned off to an unconscious state between the time of death and the time of the resurrections of the dead.
This, of course, is not Biblical.
On the surface you might think that it would be because when you read through the histories of the kings of Israel and Judah at the end of their life it would be recorded as, “and king so-and-so slept with his fathers and was buried at such-and-such-a-place.”
And even in the New Testament there are references to “those who have fallen asleep.”
Naturally, we know that these are figures of speech and not meant to be taken literally.
How do we know that? Well, from the Bible, of course!
When Jesus was on the mount of transfiguration in He was speaking with Moses and Elijah. Were they in soul sleep and Jesus just woke them up for a brief chat?
(Matthew 17:1-13)
We also have the thief on the cross and the account of the rich man and Lazarus but we’ll talk about them more in depth later.
So, where did and where do the souls of the departed go???
Well, before the ascension of Jesus into heaven it looked like this …
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Here I show a slide entitled “The souls of the departed from Creation to the Ascension of Jesus.”
Then it looked like this:
|- Paradise – Souls of the Faithful Departed
Sheol -|
|- Hades – Souls of the Wicked Departed
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This is what the Jews believed and it is what Jesus taught.
We see this clearly defined by Jesus Himself in the account of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16.
Who would be in Paradise? Able (it must have been lonely for a while)
Abraham, Samuel, King David, King Josiah, Elijah, Elisha, Ezra, Nehemiah, Job, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zachariah, Malachi for a few.
And, who would be in Paradise from the New Testament period before Jesus ascension?
Zechariah, Elizabeth, John the Baptist, Joseph, Simeon, Anna and the thief on the cross …
I have been told that the translators of the Bible have gotten Luke 23:43 wrong; that the comma is in the wrong place.
I am told that the verses should not say, “Jesus answered him, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in paradise.’” But that it should say, “Truly I tell you today, you will be with Me in paradise.”
So, I went out to BibleGateway.com and checked all 59 English Translations and they all were the same, saying, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in paradise.”
The only translation with the alternate punctuation was the Jehovah’s Witnesses New World Bible and it is translated that way because they DO believe in soul sleep and other heresies and translate the Bible to support their heresies.
Well then, if we know who would have been in Paradise who are some who would be in Hades?
Some notorious ones would be Ahab, Jezebel, the prophets of baal, many of the kings of Israel and Judah, and the rich man in the account of the rich man and Lazarus.
So, what about after the ascension of Jesus to heaven? What does it look like now?
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Here I show a slide entitled “The souls of the departed since the Ascension of Jesus.”
Now it looks like this:
|- Heaven – Souls of the Faithful Departed
|
|- Paradise – (Empty)
Sheol - |
|- Hades – Souls of the Wicked Departed
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How do we know this? Well, we look to the Scriptures for all our answers!
When Stephen, the first Christian martyr, was being stoned to death and he looked up into heaven and saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God the Father in heaven, he said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
The apostle John writes in the Book of The Revelation that he saw under the altar in heaven, “the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained”.
And these souls are in heaven and not sleeping but asking in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until You judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?”
The apostle Paul writes, “My desire is to depart and be with Christ” (Philippians 1:23) and, “we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord”.
OK … now that we know where Jesus went during the three days between His death and His resurrection we need to ask another question and that question is, “Will I follow in the footsteps of Jesus?”
So, what were the footsteps of Jesus?
(These steps are shown on a series of PPT slides which I can send to you if you email me at ArcadeNazarene@gmail.com)
1) We see Jesus as a Spirit. The Bible says that God is Spirit and that He exists eternally. So we see God the Eternal Son in heaven.
2) In the Incarnation at Jesus’ birth He becomes both God and Man, fully God and fully man; body and soul, flesh and spirit.
3) At Jesus’ death we see the physical, mortal body of Jesus go into the tomb and descends to Paradise. “I tell you the truth, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
4) Jesus is resurrected and His Spirit returns from Paradise and is united to His New, Immortal, glorified Body.
5) Jesus ascends to Heaven and the souls of the righteous dead are now with Him.
So, can we follow in the footsteps of Jesus? Yes, but not exactly.
Now, remember, this is only for those who are sons and daughters of Jesus, for those who have repented of their sin and turned to Jesus for salvation.
So, what do I mean by, “Yes we can follow in Jesus’ footsteps but not exactly?”
Well for us it’s even better!
1) At birth (or really conception) we become a spirit with at body. We are not a body with a spirit, we are a spirit with a body. This mortal body will pass away but our spirit is forever.
2) Here is the difference: at death our body goes into the tomb (that is the same) but our spirit goes to be with the Lord in heaven and not into Paradise (that is the difference).
3) At the resurrection our spirit is reunited with our new, eternal, immortal body.
How do we know this? The Bible, of course …
1 John 3:2
“Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”
1 Corinthians 15:51-53
“Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed - in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.
4) Just as the disciples saw Jesus ascend into heaven we will ascend to meet Him in the air! Is that awesome or what?
Read 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 with an emphasis on the phrase:
“we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him”
“we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air”
Now, don’t ask me now this is going to happen but it will.
This is amazing! This is incomprehensible! What an awesome God we serve!!!
And, yet, there is a terrible, terrible sadness that exists.
We as believers in Jesus see our path as birth(soul and spirit), death (body in tomb and spirit with the Lord), resurrection (spirit united with immortal body) and ascension to meet the Lord in the air and so we shall ever be with the Lord.
While that is wonderful the terrible sadness comes from the reality that there will be those who will not share in this wonderful destiny but will suffer a horrible fate.
As those who reject Jesus as their Savior the path will be birth (soul and spirit), death (body in tomb and spirit in Hades with all others who have rejected Jesus), resurrection (spirit united with immortal body), judgment and eternity in hell.
What makes this so sad is that it is totally, absolutely unnecessary!
Christ’s death provided for salvation for all!
John 3:16-18 (read or recite)
“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires (salvation through faith in Jesus) will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened.”
Just try to imagine this …
In the account of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man can see into Paradise and Abraham and Lazarus can see into Hades.
Imagine the three days when was in Paradise presenting the gospel to the righteous souls who had always been faithful to the Lord even before Jesus came.
And then when Jesus ascended to heaven all of those in Paradise were whisked away to heaven leaving the place vacant.
Imagine those in the place of torment seeing Jesus and hearing the proclamation of the Gospel but not being able to respond because it’s too late. And suddenly Paradise is empty and knowing that those souls have gone to an even better place and that only judgment and eternal punishment waits for them.
Needless, endless eternity …
The Bible and all of Jesus true believers have one thing to say in unison, “Don’t wait!”
John 6:40 AMPC
“For this is My Father’s will and His purpose, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in and cleaves to and trusts in and relies on Him will have eternal life, and I will raise him up [from the dead] at the last day.”
Closing comments and possible invitation
Benediction
