Death, Descension, Resurrection | 12 Lines | Pastor Derick Amsler

Grab your Bibles. Grab something to take some notes with today. I don't know if it's true, but I heard there's better seating in heaven for those who take notes. I don't know. I don't know.

That may not be in the Bible as a means of introduction. If you weren't here on first Wednesday, I continued the next line of the Apostles Creed. Last Wednesday, he suffered under Pontius Pilate. And we looked at, what does Pilate have to do with our living today? And you can catch that on the line.

So I'm not skipping over it. I handled it on a Wednesday, but here we are on a Sunday. Let's get into it. Have you ever agreed to do something and then regretted what you just agreed to after you found out the details of what you agreed to? Anybody know what I'm talking about?

If you bought a pickup truck, I know you know what I'm talking about. As soon as you bought a pickup truck, Everybody has a mattress that needs to be moved. And somebody's got a. Somebody's got a dresser on the third floor of an apartment with no elevator, and they need you to come over and rescue them. Come on.

How many of you have agreed to do something only to regret it later? Oh, I know you have. Signing your kids up for that fourth sport. I know you regretted it. Practice every day, honey.

Every day. How about this one? Dog sitting. Anyone? Anyone?

I'm not a fan. I'm not a fan. I'll never forget the first time we dog set for some friends of ours. I wasn't there when Jessica agreed to do this. I'm not blaming her.

Perhaps the guy held a gun to her head and forced her to agree to this nonsense. I don't know. I wasn't there. All I know is I get a text, hey, we're gonna watch so and so's dog for a couple days. Which, by the way, a couple to some people means two days.

For other people, it means 10. And so she agreed to watch this dog for a couple of days. I show up, I beat the family there to the house. They had texted me on the way and said, hey, just so you know, our dog suffers with a little bit of separation anxiety. Now, I don't have a dog.

So I was thinking, oh, they have separation anxiety. That means they're going to be a little melancholy. They'll probably want to do a lot of cuddling on the couch, whatever. They're just so. In my mind, my expectations are a little fo.

Fo. It's just Going to be sitting right here, and I'm going to be. Turns out this is a bat straight from the bowels of hell is what this is. I open the door and this dog runs inside my house. And not on a leash, using the bathroom with every step.

It's up on my couch, it's running around in circles. It runs down the hallway into the kitchen. And I didn't know a little dog had such a large bladder, but this thing had stopped by the 7 11, drank a big Gulp. It was amazing the amount of liquid this little pooch could hold. Amazing.

Not to mention, that's also when I learned that little dogs no cursive. Because it was just like writing words all. All over. For the next 10 days, this dog did something to our house every day. I hate dogs.

Don't ask me to watch your dog because the answer is no. But Pastor, he loves it. I don't care. I ain't doing it. I ain't doing it.

I'm doing it. Hate dogs.

Saying yes without knowing all the details leaves us in a state of resentment, right? And yet we do it all the time. We do it all the time. We are quick to say yes without understanding the terms of the agreement. For example, the last time you downloaded an app, I know you didn't read the terms and conditions.

You scroll to the bottom of the page and you check the little box that says I agree. You don't even know what you're agree to. You probably just donated your organs to some scientists in Sweden. I don't know. But we're in a hurry.

Nobody cares about the consequences of a contract or if we could use biblical language, a covenant. Because in our culture there's so many contracts, so many covenants that are so wordy and wordy and wordy. We tend to just skip to the part that gives us what we want without understanding understanding what we're agreeing to. In the Old Testament, they left nothing for chance. Their lives depended on mutual understanding and agreement.

Upon this, we are making an agreement. Should you break our agreement, it will cost you something. This is why, if you're reading the Bible through this year, you've probably already came to several passages where two men or patriarchs of their tribe or their family were talking. And one of the men, while he was conversing with the other man, walked over and put his hand on the other man's inner thigh. Now, I don't know about you in Martinsburg.

That's weird. Don't do that. You try that to me, social distancing Right. A man will walk over, put his hand on the other man's inner thigh, as to say, as we're talking about disagreement, should you go back on what we agree to, I will cut your artery and watch you bleed out there. It was significant.

What are we agreeing to? And if one of us should break the agreement, what is it going to cost us? It is into that world and cultural understanding, we find the context of Today's text. Genesis 15. God is about to make an agreement with a man by the name of Abram.

Later, his name will be changed to Abraham. So when you hear me say Abram or Abraham, it's the same guy. God is about to make an agreement with Abram. To say this, hey, millions of people around the world, they're all worshiping their false gods, their pagan gods. I want to use you as a walking illustration throughout all time, space and eternity that I'm not like their pagan gods.

I'm not like them, that I'm a merciful God, I'm a benevolent God, I'm a kind God, I'm a protective God, I'm a providing type of God. And so upon your lineage, Abraham, I want to build a covenant or a contract. I want to shower you with blessings and favor, with land and legacy and lineage. So beautiful, so impactful. One day, the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior of the world, the Redeemer of all mankind, through your lineage, he will come.

Theologians call it the Abrahamic Covenant. And in many regards, the rest of the Bible after Genesis 15 is unfolding. The consequences of this narrative that we're about to read. So this is highly important to us, understanding the Bible. Elbow the person next to you and say, buck.

Buck up, buck up. Come on, let them know, buck up, buck up, buck up.

In this particular time, in order to write a contract, it was important that both sides understood the depth of the consequences. So many times they would take animals and they would slice them in half, they would cut them apart and they would create two roles. Body parts over here, body parts over here. To symbolize the totality of the agreement, both parties would walk through the center of the carcasses as to say, if one of us should go back on this agreement, it will be unto us as it was done unto these animals in this particular day and age. In Genesis 15, the context was this people were Bedouin, which means that they would raise a livestock and they would move to different territories, allowing their livestock to graze the the earth.

Their wealth wasn't tied up in banks and money and stocks. It was tied up in livestock. And so, and so the wealthier you were was predicated on the livestock you had. Families would stay together, forming tribes. The more tribe tribal individuals you had, the more livestock you needed for survival and trade and bargaining.

So as you can imagine throughout time, different tribes looking for the same plot of ground or seeing someone else's livestock, they would, they would clash and then wars would break out or battles. They had an unwritten rule back then that if you would, if you would go to battle against another tribe and you were to defeat them, you would annihilate everybody in their tribe. You would never take a chance that a kid would grow up and seek revenge and seeker and tear your tribe apart. So they would annihilate everyone, men, women and children. But every once in a while, you would come across a benevolent tribal leader, a tribal leader with a kind heart.

And instead of annihilating everyone, he, he, he created a contract that would allow or make allowance for someone to live. But he was still worried about the threat of repercussions or vengeance. And so they would take the slain bodies of the male warriors or the women or the animals. They would decapitate them, heads and limbs over here, the full body of the carcass over here. He would draw a line in the sand.

He would hold the. The captors or the captives next to him, and he would say, look at the pile of carcasses on your left and look at the carcasses on your right.

I hold your life in my hands. I can do unto you that which I please. But out of the kindness of my own heart, I will allow you an opportunity to live. If. And here's the contract.

If you promise, vow to accept our culture, agree to our way of living, and obey our rules. If you agree to these terms, then you can walk in between the two roles. Symbolizing this contract is in blood. If, however, you walk through the path of blood and you renege on the contract, you sin against us, you rebel against us, it shall be done unto you that which was done to these people or animals. It was a severe illustration of what it cost you to break the covenant.

Genesis 15. God comes down to establish a covenant with Abram. I want to bless your life. Let's look at it. So the Lord said to him, abram, bring me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.

Abram bought all of these to him. He cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite of each other. See what he's doing? He's establishing a covenant. The birds, however, he did not cut in half.

They just piled up. The birds on the left and on the right. Verse 11. Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses. But Abraham Abram drove them away.

Nothing can distract us from the significance of this moment. Verse 12. As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. Abram immediately recognizes the gravity of the moment. He's standing at the mouth of two rolls.

Carcasses over here, carcasses over there. God wants to bless him and to favor him, but he's asking him to sign the covenant, the contract, by walking through the rolls and signifying God, I'm on your side. I'm allowing you to adopt me, and I agree to your terms and conditions. The problem is Abram knows his own depravity. He knows his own humanity.

He knows his own inconsistency. He knows once I take a step and agree to following God, sooner or later I'm gonna make a mistake. Sooner or later, my addictions and my patterns of life are going to catch up to me. Sooner or later, I will betray my own good intentions. In this moment.

If I walk, I die.

And so he stands covered in dreadful darkness. The text says, verse 17.

When the sun had set and darkness had fallen. So he stands there for quite a while. A smoking fire pot and a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. We know from other Old Testament events. These are symbols of God's very presence.

And it says, on that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram. God is saying this Abram, if you walk and you sin, you die. But if I sign the contract, I walk. And when you sin, I'll die.

This is what theologians call the unilateral covenant, meaning that the covenant was created before the details were ever written. Before the temple, before the tabernacle, before the law of Moses, before the Ten Commandments. God said, I know humanity will sooner or later mess up. They're going to sin, they're going to rebel. No one can live a perfect life.

Sooner or later, sin is going to creep inside their very soul. And when they do, let me go ahead and sign the contract early and on their behalf. When they sin, they I die. I just want to remind somebody. The creed reminds us.

No matter where you've been in life, God doesn't love you because you are worthy of being lovable. He loved you when you weren't on your worst day. He was still on his best day thinking about you calling you unto himself. I love you so much. Nothing will ever separate us, not even covenants and contracts of your past.

He was crucified, died, and was buried. It's not describing defeat. It's describing when history finally caught up to a covenant that God made before you even existed. Notice the creeds of language here. He was crucified, he died, was buried.

And then the text says he descended to the dead. And on the third day, he rose. He was crucified, he died, he was buried, and he descended, went down into the realm of the dead.

He came all the way down. The question is, what did he do in hell for those three days? There's a lot of speculation, there's a lot of controversy. There's a lot of arguments. But again, we're not looking at what church tradition says.

We're looking at what did the apostles believe and teach. What did they believe and why did they believe it? And what did him descending into hell have to do with our lives today? One more time, elbow the person next to you and say everything. Come on.

Let them know everything. First Peter. First Peter. Talking about when Jesus descended into hell, says Christ went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison. Now, some people have interpreted that to mean that he went there to proclaim the gospel in hopes that Old Testament individuals would recognize their need for Jesus and therefore get out of hell and go to heaven.

The problem with that is that that view would be inconsistent with the totality of what Scripture teach. The Bible says that it is appointed unto man once that they die, and after they die, boom. They stand before judgment. When the text says that Jesus descended into the depths of hell to proclaim to the spirits in prison, it's not talking about humanity. It's talking about every demonic spirit that would stand up against the knowledge of us knowing Christ, every demonic influence that has hovered over the face of the earth trying to distract you from your heavenly father.

Furthermore, when Peter uses the word Christ proclaimed to the spirits, the word for proclaim is not proclamation of the gospel. It is the same word in Greek where a king would send a messenger or a herald to declare an announcement. The war is over. The enemy has been defeated. The king has come.

Same Greek word. Ha ha. Jesus descended into hell doing what? He's not waging war. It's not a WWE match with him and Satan.

Give me the keys. You can't have them. Give me the keys. You can't have them. Who do you think you are, the Rock of Ages?

Yahweh? Yeah. No, they're not Wrestling. The Bible says the cross was the final victory. On the cross, Jesus said, it's finished.

What is finished? The war is finished. So Jesus descends not as a battleground, but to proclaim on an announcement board, hell has been defeated. Sin has been defeated. The war is over.

A king is now invaded. Every shadow of darkness that rests on earth and under the earth, there's not a place in your life too dark that Jesus won't go. There's not a shadow too thick that Jesus himself cannot go and reclaim that territory not as a tourist, but as an invading king. What you doing here? Get out of here.

I own this place. Jesus himself descended into the worst parts of all of humanity to proclaim freedom to the captives. Paul gives us a bit of a clearer picture of what Jesus did. He says in Colossians 2:15, Christ, what is he doing in hell for three days? Are you ready for this?

I love this. I love this. This gets me giddy on the inside. Christ disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame.

It's the idea in the Greek language of a conquering king returning home. He's up front riding on a stallion with a crown on his head, and behind him, the humiliated soldiers of the defeated foe have to walk in shame with their head held like we have just been overcome. It's the same Greek idiom, understanding that Jesus descends into hell and now all of hell itself has to walk in shame behind him as their bars begin to snap and the chains begin to break and their darkness is lit up from the inside. Why? Because an invading king has arrived with a triumphal message.

The war is over. Hell has lost. Jesus is king and I'm here. It's the pinnacle of our faith. So when we talk about Jesus descending into hell, this isn't faith filler language in some creed, it's an announcement board.

Whatever darkness has overrode peace and joy in your life, it has been invaded by a conquering king named Jesus.

And then the text says, on the third day, he rose again. He rose again. So when the creed announces his resurrection, it's not limited to a historic event. He was dead. Now he's alive.

Let's celebrate. There's something more going on to it than that. It's not just an announcing a historic event. It's actually an invitation of participation. The resurrection is an invitation of participation.

The Bible calls Jesus the second Adam in the same way God created the heavens and the earth and Adam was the first man. Adam means humanity. It was a mark of a new creation now the resurrection points to Jesus. Is the second Adam the marker of a new creation? Are you ready?

A new anthropology, A new way to be human. A way of being human that you're not bound by your toughest desires or your greatest addictions or your limiting doubt. It's a new way to be human. Free from pride and arrogance and fear and hardships. Not hardships of life, but internal.

Internal hardships because of sin and the damage and the destruction that it brings upon our life. The New Testament describes believers with resurrection language. For those of us that are in Christ. We've asked Christ to forgive us of our sins. The Bible says, says things like this.

You have been raised back to life in Christ. You are now alive in Christ. The Bible calls you a new creation. Jesus, talking to a man by the name of Nicodemus said, born again. You see, it's resurrection language that you have been invited to live different now because Christ lives in you.

Do you know the Bible says that the same power that raised Jesus from the grave.

Lives in you?

You can live again in freedom and hope and triumph.

Christ entered death and defeated it and walked out on the other side holding the keys. And he invites humanity to follow him to where he is. Where is he now? The right hand of God. All of that to say this.

Jesus went all the way down so we could come all the way up, mirror him on earth and be with him for all of eternity. How then might we apply what we just unders understood to, to Tuesdays of living? Let me give you number one on the screen. Stop treating sin on like a mistake and start seeing it as covenant breaking. Leave it up there on the screen just for, just for a second.

Here's what I mean by that. If we're not careful, we'll grow so comfortable with the Word or the vocab word sin that we simply reduce it down to bad habits. But sin is not just bad habits. It is the very barrier between us and God. And so we don't want to treat sin as something that's casual.

We want to be reminded it was covenant breaking. It cost Jesus his life so we could keep ours. Paul says it this way. Do I just keep on sinning because the grace of God is greater? No.

To understand the grace of God means to recognize this cost Jesus his life. So let me invite him in and invade the dark areas of my life to invade that territory and break sin once and for all off my grasp. I don't want to just be casual with sin. I want to put sin to death because Sin is trying to destroy me. The second application point would look like this.

Quit living like your darkest place is abandoned by God.

There are some moments in your life that are riddled with complexity and hurt and trauma and wounds. Things that should have never happened to you. We can agree on that.

But what the creed is inviting us into is to explore what it was would look like to invite God to descend into those places too and light it up from the inside. What did David say? David said, I am convinced of this. Nothing can separate us from God, neither height nor depth.

Nothing can separate us from the love of God. What does it look like? God? This happened.

But you signed the contract.

You descended into hell to proclaim victory. And so with that kind of triumph, I speak into this reality. There's coming a day where God shall redeem every tear from her eye and pluck every finger thorn from our side, and we shall be around the throne of God forever.

Third applicational point would look like this. Live like. Resurrection is not just a future event, but it is a present invitation. So as people of God, we're not just hoping for when he comes back to earth. Oh, I just gotta bide my time till he comes back.

I just gotta make it till he comes. We do eagerly wait his arrival, but at the same time we possess the same freedom and courage and joy and peace and the fruits of the Spirit that He gives us now on this earth. So the best really is yet to come. But with Christ, the now ain't bad either. What.

What would it look like for you to spend the rest of this week? Just try it for a week. If it doesn't look work, then go back to living like it. Like you are right now. But what would it look like for the next seven days for you to live like resurrection?

Power has invaded your graveyard where you see the world different, you see yourself different, you see other people different, you see God different, you see freedom different, you see hope different, you see peace different. You see. You see the sunrise different. The start of a new day. And you put the sun to bed the close of the night, reminding us that he is still there.

What would it look like? The same power that raised Jesus from the grave lives in me. And he wants to crown today with his goodness and his favor, his presence and his peace. Let me live today in response to that reality. How might your world change?

It will stand up with me as we recite this one last time.

Are you ready? Put it back on the screen. The Creed. And now, with that in mind, that we have a covenant keeping type of God I believe that he was crucified we'll start here. I believe in God the Father Almighty Creator of heaven and earth I believe in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.

He suffered under Pontius Pilate he was crucified, died and was buried. He descended to the dead but on the third day he rose again Put your hands together and let the celebrate we have a covenant keeping type of God Stretch your hands towards heaven now. May the Lord bless you and keep you tomorrow morning in the days that follow May his face shine upon you May may His countenance glow and shine about you May uncommon favor and blessings rest upon your life free you from that which limits your life riddled by sin and pain and hardships and may the same power that raised Jesus from the grave now live inside of you and set you free in Jesus name God bless.