220 – Did Christ Descend Into Hell – Part II
May 1, 1960
Pastor Henry F. Kulp
Ephesians 4: 7 - 11 But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
Last week as we talked on this portion of Scripture, we told you that in the so-called Apostle’s Creed, many folks tells us that Christ descended into Hades and that teaching concerning this that Christ had the Old Testament saints in Hades because the blood had not been shed as yet. As so when He finished His work upon Calvary, He went down into the saved portion of Hades, preached to the saints there, and then delivered them up and took them to Heaven. Of course, I believe this teaching is absolutely ridiculous. Because, in this portion of Scripture you cannot find anything like this at all. This Scripture is not talking about a physical descending or ascending, but it has to do with position, with power, with authority.
1/ Christ, Who had been equal with God, He was part of the Triune Godhead, had put Himself in the place where He took orders from God the Father, when He came to do His will. He became obedient to the government, He became obedient to His parents, and He became a slave for mankind, and went to the Cross of Calvary and died, and was resurrected from the dead. Because He did this, the Bible teaches us He will be in an exalted position far above all Heaven – this cannot speak of a physical position, because one cannot get far above all Heaven – for Christ right now is seated in the Third Heaven – He is seated at the Right Hand of God, the Father. So this is speaking of position, not physical ascension – So this descending here is not speaking of physical descending, but the fact that He lowered Himself, became a man, became a slave; was made a curse when sin was put upon Him and He died upon the Cross of Calvary.
2/ When it tells us that He descended into the lower parts of the earth, that should be He descended to the lower parts, the earth. For in doing so, He became the slave of mankind. A position He had never known in eternity past, and will not know in Eternity future.
3/ John 13: 4, 5 He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself. After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.
Here we have a picture of Christ descending in this position. Here we have the Lord Jesus Christ washing the feet of the Twelve Disciples after walking along the road, where it had been dusty, and He had been invited to a supper, and He comes in for the meal, and of course, His host has a slave there to wash His feet, so that He will be comfortable when He sits down to the meal. Here we have Jesus Christ taking a towel, and girding Himself and washing the disciple’s feet, for Christ here is a slave, washing the feet of His disciples. It shows Him as a slave. He did what a slave would do, He took a towel, girded Himself, that is the picture of the garb of lowly service and that is what He took when He became a Man, He became a slave and He died on the Cross of Calvary for us.
4/ Then it tells us that He led captivity captive. To understand this portion of Scripture, we have to understand there is no reference to any leading at all in the Ephesians passage, and the Greek expression simply means HE MADE CAPTIVITY CAPTIVE. Then also, notice the mention of grace in Ephesians 4: 7 But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
Every one of us is grace-given. Then it says therefore, and it could be, because of this very circumstance, He says, when He ascended up on High, He captured captivity. When Christ was exalted far above all principalities and power, and might and dominion and every name that is named, He took captive the very principle which had produced a bondage among the sons of men. It was His divine work to blot out the hostile hand-writing of the law that was against it, He nailed it to the cross, and thus captured the state of captivity and broke its back. Then ascending to the throne of God, He made this condition null and void. The law came from the Seat of God, the Throne of God, and by His ascension, He set it aside completely and now grace operates in our lives.
5/ You remember that we constantly speak of this age as being the age of all-grace. In other ages men were saved by grace, but it wasn’t all grace. Because we read in the book of Galatians, that the law was added alongside of Grace. And God broke the back of that law, He captured that which caused captivity, and now only grace reins in our lives. We are saved by grace, apart from anything that man can do. There are no ordinances against us, or law against us.
6/ Colossians 2: 14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
These were the things that held man in captivity, and Jesus Christ nailed it to His cross, and when He ascended to Heaven, He broke the back of all these ordinances, that were against us—only grace operates in our midst.
7/ Then you’ll notice, He gave gifts unto men. As the resurrected Christ, He gives these gifts unto us. What are these gifts? He gave some apostles, and some pastors, and some evangelists, and some teachers.
8/ What is the evangelist? He is the bearer of glad tidings. The ministry of the evangelist is particularly to the world outside. If God gifts a man as evangelist He fills his heart with fervent love of the lost world, for the unsaved. Gives him the ability to proclaim the Gospel in freshness and power. What a marvelous gift it is to be an evangelist. But we do not all have this gift. His message has the message of conviction in it. You have met men who are just wonderful soul-winners. They have a desire to talk to men and women about Jesus Christ, and they have the ability of leading them to Jesus Christ. I have met some men like that. I can think of a pastor who had, I believe, the gift of evangelism (In Johnstown). My, how he could go out and win souls to Jesus Christ. His whole life was wrapped up in it. You would have a date to meet him someplace, and he would always be an hour or an hour and a half late, and he would explain that he met someone on the street, or in the barber shop, or someone there in the restaurant, and he never met them before, but he sat down and talked with them about Jesus Christ.
9/ Then we read, He gave some pastors. The word means, SHEPHERD The true pastor is a shepherd who has the heart for the sheep of his flock. When our Lord challenged Peter with the words, Lovest Thou Me, more then these? And after Peter earnestly confessed, I know I don’t have love in myself, then Jesus said, Feed my sheep – feed my lambs, shepherd my sheep. In other words, He made Peter a pastor of that flock.
10/ We realize that the evangelist finds the unconverted, brings them to Jesus Christ, and he should bring them into the flock. And then the Pastor seeks to lead them in the green pastures of the Word of God, to minister to them, to show them how to make the Word applicable to their lives, to help them in the problems of life.
11/ Then we come to the teacher. What is the difference between the pastor and a teacher? The teacher is someone who can open the Word of God and explain it to you. He can give you special insight into the Word of Gd. He has the ability to take a deep truth and explain it in such away that everyone can understand it. Many men may have the ability as evangelist, pastors and teachers, but usually every man will excel in one field or another. Even though he may have all three gifts, one will be stronger than another. He may be a better Bible teacher than he is a pastor, or an evangelist. Or he may be a better evangelist than he is pastor or teacher. So we can see that these groups are given to the church.
Notice also that apostles and prophets are gifts of the risen Christ. Notice also the order of words. Apostles and prophets, Paul does not say here Prophets and Apostles, that is the Old Testament order.
II Peter 3: 2 That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour:
Peter there talks about Prophets and Apostles, that would mean the Old Testament saints. This does not mean the Twelve and the Old Testament prophets. Not at all. This is under the body. Of course, apostles means sent one—and a prophet means one who goes to tell forth. It does not have to have in it the ability to predict future events.
12/ There is a basic reason, for the gift of these folks to the body of Christ. As you folks know, the punctuation in our Bibles is not inspired. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it does not. In this case, it does not help. By striking out the comas in verse 12, we have the true meaning.
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
There is the basic reason for the giving of these gifts to the church. The word, perfect, does not mean to make faultless, but rather, PREPARE OR EQUIP.
13/ Thus these gifts are so that the people might be equipped, that is people of the local congregation who have believed on Christ might be equipped to do the work of the ministry.
14/ So we have here these gifts are given to the church, the body of Christ for the purpose of perfecting or developing the saints in order that they might do the work of the ministry and thus edify the body of Christ.
If we could only get the saint in the pew to really work. If you say you are a believer in Jesus Christ, and you are a do-nothing, you are certainly a puzzle to the angels of God and a delight to the demons of darkness. For the ministry has been given to all that we in Christ’s stead might plead with men that they might be reconciled to God.
II Corinthians 5: 17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
15/ I had a young man who has been a member of our church and now has a pastorate. I was preaching in his church, when I was finished he came to me and said, Do you mind if I use that sermon? I said, No, I would be happy to have you use it. He said I am going to be speaking to a group of ministers this week, and I want to use that sermon, and he said, By the way, I’ve used quite a few of your sermons here at the church, so I said, If something has gripped your soul that you can pass on to somebody else, and make it a blessing to them, I thank God for it. If you get a convert, you will be the father, and I will be the grandfather. But if a congregation is to go forth and do its job, and I am convinced that the local congregation is the most important thing in God’s sight, we must have everybody working at the ministry. No pastor can do it alone, no group of pastors can do it alone.
16/ I Corinthians 1: 10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
Here it shows us the folly of not working together, not being prepared. They were in trouble in Corinth, because they were busy working on each other, rather than doing the work of the ministry. Saints who are busy in the work of the Lord have no time to pick others apart. If you are disgruntled, critical saint of God, you can learn something from the late Billy Sunday, who was criticized for his method of preaching the Gospel by some holier-than-thou saint. He asked this saint, “If you don’t like the way I do it, how do you do it? How do you preach the Gospel?” “Oh, I don’t,” was the reply. Billy Sunday retorted, “Well, I like the way I do it, better than the way you do it.”
17/ It is important to see what God expects of you. Your main duty in life is to give forth the ministry. You are not here to accumulate houses and lands and property. You are not here to accumulate a bank account. The thief demands your money or your life. But God demands even more, He says, your money AND your life. If you are not being used of God, perhaps it is because you will not allow Him to use you. Why was it that God could be used so mightily of the Macedonia churches? I will tell you why, because they first gave themselves to Him.
I Corinthians 8: 5 For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,)
18/ How long will this go on? I can tell you.
Ephesians 4: 13 Until we come into the unity of the faith, and the knowledge of the sons of God, into the perfect man, unto the fullness of Christ.
What does that mean? It means at last the entire church will be gathered home to Heaven, and Christ will be fully revealed in all of us. For it all boils down—what is the fullness of Christ.
Ephesians 1: 23
Where we read, Which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.
Christ is the Head up there in Glory, and we are the members of His body, and He is not complete without us, and we are not complete without Him. But when we have the fullness of Christ, we will be with Him in Heaven.
AMEN
Ref: 05/01/1960 / 220 - DID CHRIST DESCEND INTO HELL? PART II / 08/01/2020
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