“Therefore it says ‘When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men’. (Now this expression, ‘He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things).”
As we come to look at this parenthesis wherein Paul explains his reference to Psalm 68:18, I want to share some thoughts with you ,that at first may cause you to wonder what I’m saying has to do with this passage.
In essence, it has nothing to do with the passage; but the process by which this sermon came has something to teach all of us, and I do not want to let this opportunity go by without addressing it.
I want to give you an exhortation today, concerning your personal decisions when it comes to choosing who you will listen to as a teacher of God’s word.
First the exhortation, then my explanation. If you find yourself under the leadership of any teacher of the scriptures, and it has become evident to you that the person teaching and preaching to you has stopped being willing to learn, himself, you must not let that man teach you any more. You have a responsibility before God to study and grow in the knowledge of His word to you, and if you sit under a man who has become un-teachable, either by stubborn self-pride or slothful neglect, then you have a responsibility to take yourself out from under that man’s authority.
The man who has ceased to learn is no longer fit to teach, because he has, in effect, said within himself that he knows it all…or at the very best, that he knows enough.
The scriptures are living and active, and there is no man who can say that everything he thinks he knows about them is complete and totally accurate. When in his mind, he feels he has no more to learn, and certainly will not let his thoughts be changed on any one issue, the process naturally leads to legalism, and error.
Now it may not lead to the kind of error that, if followed, will bring you to a place of drinking poison for him and laying down in the grass to die; but it will at the very least, lead you into the kind of error that will effect your relationship to other Christians, and the view you have of a lost world and their need for a Savior. It will affect your relationship with God, because as in any relationship, if it does not grow, it suffers. It doesn’t sit still, it regresses. You grow apart rather than together.
Now, why am I going over all this territory before addressing today’s topic? It is because when I sat down to write this sermon, I had a direction in mind that was based on some things I have held to be true for a lot of years. But I’ve never actually taught in detail on those things I was now prepared to put down in a sermon. Once I began reading and researching and pondering this sermon, I was forced to realize that some of the arguments I was basing my thoughts on, concerning this passage, were weak and even non-existent.
I thought I was going to tell you a neat story about Jesus preaching to those in Abraham’s bosom and then leading them home. I thought I was going to tie in the thief on the cross who had received a promise from a dying Jesus, that he would join him that day in Paradise, and that all of this had to do with Paul’s statement that He descended first into the lower parts of the earth.
As I studied and realized for the first time that much of my thinking that tied all these things together was based on error, I had to let God change my thinking, which put me right back to square one in the effort to prepare this sermon.
I don’t know if the things I have to say to you today will be as exciting as it might have been, had I clung to my past understanding and gone ahead with what I wanted to present. But I do come with confidence that had I done that, the Holy Spirit would not have used it, and therefore I would have been sinfully guilty of wasting your Sunday morning.
But I have to say to you, that I have had this happen in the past, in my times of study and sermon preparation. And one inevitable result of this process is that I come with confidence that the Lord has been my Guide and Inspiration for the sermon, since it is not what I wanted to say, at all! :>)
So let’s go on together and just look at this passage as it is written, and just let it say to us what it says without embellishment or speculation, and ask the Lord to bless it to our hearts.
HE ASCENDED ON HIGH
Now we have to remember that Paul says, “Therefore it says…” as he prepares to quote the Psalm. So look back at verse 7 and refresh your minds concerning where he’s going.
“But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift”.
So the underlying purpose of this entire passage is to impress upon the reader that what has been done has been for the purpose of giving to men, and to show that God’s gifts to men are according to His immeasurable grace.
So look first at this phrase, “…He ascended on high”
Again, Psalm 68:18 is being quoted here, and whenever the writer quotes an Old Testament passage and relates it to Christ and His work, we know that, since all scripture is ’God-breathed’, the Holy Spirit has revealed to the Apostle that the passage being quoted does indeed apply to Christ.
Now this line in Paul‘s parenthesis, “…what does this mean except that He had also descended” used to confuse me a little. Not necessarily the obvious meaning, but why he bothered to say it at all. So I had to sit and contemplate this a little. And that didn’t help either. So I started going to commentaries to see what these other guys had to say about it, and when one of them made a very simple statement that clarified it for me, I muttered to myself, “…well, duh…” and went back to typing.
You see, the Psalmist was writing about God. The Creator and Master of the universe and beyond. He is high and above all things. Right?
So to what could He ascend? How do you rise when you’re at the top and even above that?
So all Paul is doing is applying this Psalm to Christ, and saying, “How could we say He ascended, unless He first descended? Unless He first came down?
You may recollect that in the past couple of months we’ve had a couple of different occasions to talk about the ascension from the Mount of Olives.
I haven’t preached specifically about that event as the focus of one sermon, but we have looked at it in regard to how it affected the disciples and some of the final words Jesus had to say to them before He went.
But we haven’t looked at it from this perspective, and I’d like to pause here for a few moments today.
This was God, ascending.
A God who ascends. Who goes up. I don’t think we see that in any of the stories of the mythological gods. Oh, there may be some coming and going from earth to Valhalla and back or something of that nature, but not in the sense we see it in Christ’s ascension.
In just the fact of the ascension, is the message to us that God came down! Before He had done that, God had no place to ascend to. But He ascended. Therefore it forces our minds to deal with His first coming down.
Now I’m going to talk more about the implications of the phrase “…descended into the lower parts of the earth” in a few minutes.
But for now, I want you to consider that He ascended, and the conditions of His ascension.
1. He ascended back to the place He had been from eternity, equal with God as we’re told in Philippians 2, to be highly exalted by the Father. This also brings us to awareness of His earthly work. Because His exaltation by the Father, His anointing with the oil of gladness, as we read about in Hebrews 1:9, the invitation from the Father to “Sit at My right hand until I make Thy enemies a footstool for Thy feet”, is all in response to His humility and His accomplishments here below.
2. He ascended as a Man. They saw Him bodily rise from the mount, and watched as He ascended into the heavens. This was a permanent undertaking. He existed with the Father and the Spirit from eternity past, but for Him was prepared a body which He wore here below; suffered in, died in, rose in, and now, even right now, wears, glorified, and for eternity.
How significant is it that He ascended? Greatly significant for you and me, Christian.
Because His ascension means that He first came down. Down to meet us where we were. Down to His sin-ruined world to identify with us, serve us, suffer for us, die for us, forever bear His wounds for us.
Now as promised, before moving on I’ll address this idea of descending into the lower parts of the earth.
I’m not alone in thinking wrongly concerning this phrase, as I have read and heard taught by others that it is a reference to His descending into Hell, or into Abraham’s bosom, and preaching the gospel to those prisoners there.
Support for this teaching is taken from passages such as the promise of Jesus to the repentant thief that he would be with Him in Paradise, and interpreting that mention of Paradise to be Abraham’s bosom instead of Heaven. It is also taken from I Peter 3:19. Now that entire verse is the middle of a sentence. It is not even a complete thought in itself. So to take from that and build a point of theology is just irresponsible handling of the scriptures.
“…in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison…”
And that has been used to support the teaching that Jesus went and preached the gospel to those in Hell, so they’d know why they’re there. Others have used it to support the idea that He went to Abraham’s bosom, the place where Lazarus was comforted while the rich man suffered on the other side of the chasm that separated them.
That is the one I have had in mind for so long.
But a closer reading of that verse in I Peter, and looking at it in context, proves that it is referring to something quite different. If you look at verse 20 you see that the specific reference is to the sinners of Noah’s day. And then if you back up to verse 18, you see that it says Christ, in the spirit, preached to them.
Now since all sinners are the same; guilty and deserving of death, and all offered redemption through faith in a Messiah, and since there were already sinners in Hell from the beginning and not just those who died in the flood, then we know that Peter was not telling us that after His crucifixion Jesus went down to Hell and preached only to those who died in Noah’s time.
So what can we get from it?
That the world is now nearing another time of judgment. The earth was destroyed once by water, and it will finally be destroyed by fire, when the elements melt with an intense heat. Both then and now, the Spirit of Christ, through Noah and through His Apostles and preachers, cries out warning, announces the way of salvation, pleads with all who will to believe and be saved.
That is the message of Peter in his letter, and to make a long story short, there is no scriptural basis for a belief that Jesus descended into Hell or into Abraham’s bosom and preached the gospel.
So how do we reconcile Paul’s statement?
Well, first consider the mindset of the middle eastern ancient world. In their thinking there were three levels of heaven; the air or sky above us, what we call outer space, and the place where God dwells. To them, that was all the higher places, and earth was the lower places. It’s as simple as that.
We see an example of that in Psalm 139:15
“My frame was not hidden from Thee; when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth”
Now obviously that’s not saying His body was made under ground. When man is born, he is born on the earth. So the term ‘depths of the earth’, is simply a reference to down here in the lower plane, in contrast to Heaven, the highest plane.
So Paul is making as strong a statement as he can to impress upon us that He came all the way down to us; to the lowest of the low; and ascended on High, the Victor.
HE LED CAPTIVE A HOST OF CAPTIVES
The next thing we have to deal with is the idea that this phrase, “He led captive a host of captives” means that He led the Old Testament saints out of Abraham’s bosom and took them home to Heaven.
If Abraham’s bosom was a real place of waiting and not just a parable, then I suppose it must now be empty, because I don’t think that everyone who has died since the cross has gone to Heaven but God has made all the Patriarchs of the Old Testament wait in some place in the bowels of the earth until some later time.
In fact, as I gave this more careful thought, and weighing the whole concept against the fact that God is fair and just and does not show favoritism, I had to conclude that Elijah would not have been caught up to Heaven in a whirlwind, if all other Old Testament saints had to wait in the earth. And Enoch wouldn’t have been ‘taken’, he would have been ‘sent’. “And Enoch walked with God and he was not for God sent him” Doesn’t work!
So where does this take us? First, listen to the wording of the Psalm again:
“Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led captive Thy captives; “
We were the captives. Not just the prisoners in Hell, who, by the way, remain prisoners. There will not be some ‘second chance’ as some want to believe. Those who go into eternity having rejected God are eternally rejected by Him and that is just the awful truth. It will not change.
And if there were saints in Abraham’s bosom, they weren’t captives and they weren’t prisoners. They were saints waiting to go home. But as I said, a study of systematic theology shows that stand to be pretty shaky.
When Satan deceived the woman and the man through the woman and mankind fell, he became Satan’s prisoner. Captive to death and to sin and Hell.
Listen to Heb 2:14,15
“Since then the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is the devil; and might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives”
People, the victory was won on the cross. Jesus did not have to descend to Hell and snatch any ring of keys away from Satan. He didn’t have to go there and do some kind of cosmic battle and wrestle Satan to the ground with his arm twisted behind his back until he hollered “Uncle Screwtape!” (little C. S. Lewis humor there…)
“…having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them…” Not under the earth, not hidden away, but a public display.
Raised up from the earth, with all eyes watching, God publicly nailed our debt to the cross, and it was there that He triumphed over death and the grave and Satan and all the rulers and authorities. There was nowhere to go from there but up.
HE GAVE GIFTS TO MEN
As the Victor in a great battle, He gives gifts to men.
I daresay that until this latest war in Iraq, there has not been a war fought in the history of mankind, where the grunt in the field wasn’t allowed to take home spoils, and even gifts to his family.
It was even true in WWII, and Korea, and I know it was true in Viet Nam, because I was there. I’m sure it was also true after the Persian Gulf war in 1990, that soldiers took or sent gifts home to their families, or as trophies for themselves. This war we’ve just fought in Iraq has to be the first politically correct war in history. Some guy sent a painting home that he took from one of Saddam’s palaces, and he got arrested for it. Another soldier tried to keep a gold-plated pistol and is now being prosecuted.
Now I’m not necessarily defending them for doing these things. I think it’s called looting. But it’s just a simple historical fact that the victors in battle have always brought home the spoils.
We have an example of it in Marc Anthony’s speech at Julius Caesar’s funeral. “He hath brought many captives home to Rome, whose ransoms did the general coffers fill.”
He’s decrying the murder of Caesar under the pretense that Caesar was too politically ambitious, and saying, ‘as victor over our enemies he has made Rome rich with the spoils of war’.
So Paul is applying that analogy here, and saying that this is the great epic of redemption! God came down, incognito, destroyed the work of the enemy, the devil, him who had the power of death, set the captives free, and now shares the spoils of war with those He has liberated!
We’ve seen it over and over again in history, and we need to know that this is what was done for us in the spiritual realm when God came down.
Now if we leave out the parenthesis and just connect verse 8 of Ephesians 4 to verse 11, we see that he declares that Christ “gave gifts to men”, and then when he picks the thought up again he begins to list some gifts.
If we let our minds go all the way back for a moment to the beginning of this epistle, we remember that He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ. And we know that in Romans we are called joint-heirs with Christ; and I think all these things are included in the idea of His gifting us out of His grace and according to all that has come under His authority as Redeemer.
But Paul is getting more specific here, in keeping with the theme of his epistle and specifically this chapter, and continuing to expound on the church and her unity in the Spirit, and her purpose in the world.
We’re going to be going on and talking about those gifts and His purpose in gifting the church the way He has.
But I have to close here today, and I want to put this challenge to you.
Pray and ask the Lord by His enlightening Spirit, to make known to you the magnificence of this drama that has been played out in the plan of your redemption.
Consider a God who would come down, take on a body forever, pour out His blood to set you free of your evil captor and take you captive unto Himself, and then bodily ascend back to His rightful place to be your King and Intercessor; to be the fulness of all things and the giver of gifts for the carrying out of the work we now have to do.
Then, prayerfully, consider your gifts and your part in continuing the work until His enemies are forever made a footstool for His feet.
There is no fulfillment in this world, believer. If you haven’t realized that, you need to know it now. For you, the only purpose and fulfillment available is in His Spirit, and in joyful, active union with the saints, continuing a spiritual work, your face set like flint for the New Jerusalem.
Lord, let me be a captive,
A captive to your grace,
Equip me for the work below
To help men seek your face.
Lord, let me be a captive,
From this world to rise above;
Your bondslave by Your conquest,
Forever fettered to your Love
-c.e.t.
