About this sermon
1. The parallel between the prophet Jonah in the belly of the great fish, and the Lord Jesus Christ in the state of death (v. 40).
2. Christ’s burial and continuation in the state of death for a time anticipated His resurrection (v 40).
3. Our Lord’s resurrection from the state of death ought to lead sinners to repentance (vv. 41-42).
Sermon transcript
Congregation, please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word. As we continue our Foundations of Faith series, this morning we consider a passage from Matthew’s Gospel. My focus will especially be on Matthew 12 verse 40, but I’m going to read, but we’ll focus as well on the broader section, Matthew 12, 38 to 42, but let me begin reading at verse 33. So Matthew chapter 12, beginning at verse 33 and reading through verse 42. Dear friends, let us hear with reverence and awe the Word of our God. The Lord Jesus says this, Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you speak good when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him saying, Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you. But he answered them, an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the Prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it.
For they repent at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it. For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. Your friends, the grass-withers, the flower-fades, that the word of our God endures forever. Let’s seek the Lord’s blessing upon the preaching of His Word. Our Lord and Father in heaven, sovereign and eternal God, we thank you that you have spoken to us, that you have given to us a trustworthy divine revelation in the Holy Scriptures. We thank you for your God-breathed, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word. It is indeed a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. We ask that by your spirit, you would open our minds and hearts to understand this portion of your Word and its relevance to us today.
We would ask that you would be gracious unto me, your unworthy servant, that I might speak forth only that which is faithful in your sight in accordance with your Word. So set a guard over my lips, Lord God, and set a guard over our hearts that we might receive your Word in truth and faith. We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said. Amen. You may be seated. The title of my sermon this morning is Foundations of Faith. He descended into hell. And if you have your sermon outlined, there are a number of keywords that the children can be listening for in my sermon today. Well, dear ones, as we return to our Foundations of Faith series, a series which is being guided by that Bible-based creed of the church known as the Apostles Creed, we come this morning to an affirmation in the creed that has been disputed by many, rejected by some, and interpreted in a number of different ways throughout church history.
Namely, the affirmation found in the second cradle, the second section, the second I believe section of the Apostles Creed. This affirmation that we’re considering today is that our Lord Jesus Christ descended into hell. This affirmation that our Lord descended into hell comes right after the affirmation in the creed that says that Christ was crucified, dead, and buried. And so in the structure of the Apostles Creed, it would seem that this affirmation that he descended into hell envisions something that happened to Christ after his death. Now, it’s been pointed out that the English term hell is sometimes used in certain English translations of the Bible, not only to refer specifically to the place of eternal punishment for the unrepentant wicked, though the Bible does indeed teach that there is such a place of punishment, and it is rightly described by the word hell.
But friends, sometimes in certain English translations, the English word hell is also used to refer more generically to the state or abode of the dead, whether those dead, those departed souls be the souls of the wicked or the souls of the redeemed. For example, the English word for hell is sometimes used to translate the Hebrew word shayol. And shayol is the Hebrew word for the abode of the dead, and doesn’t necessarily speak to whether those dead are the wicked dead or the redeemed dead. Now friends, at this point, let me reassure you about something. Let me reassure you that it’s not my intention this morning to bore you with a lengthy lecture on the various ways that this affirmation that he descended into hell has been understood throughout church history. But I do want to mention briefly three major interpretations that have been held in church history about this affirmation of the creed.
One very popular and very common view held by influential theologians such as St. Thomas Aquinas could be labeled as the nether world view. The great reformer John Calvin describes this view in his institutes in the following words. Calvin writes that according to this view, quote, Christ descended to the souls of the patriarchs who had died under the law to announce redemption as accomplished and to free them from the prison they were where they were confined. Now this view seeks to address that mysterious question of well what happened to the souls of Old Testament saints? What happened to the souls of true believers who lived before the coming of Christ? Did they go to paradise? Did they were they kind of in a state of limbo? And this nether world view is the idea that they went to this kind of shadowy existence, this kind of limbo awaiting the announcement of the coming of the Messiah and his accomplishment of redemption.
So according to this view, after Christ died he went and announced to the souls of the redeemed in Shae’ol that that indeed he had accomplished their redemption and he released their souls to go with him into paradise. Another major view is that the phrase he descended into hell is to be understood as a confession of the truth that our Lord Jesus Christ suffered the penalty of hell on the cross of Calvary as he bore the father’s wrath against our sins. So we might call this the hell on the cross view. This was the view held by John Calvin himself and this understanding is also reflected in the great reformed catechism, the Heidelberg catechism and it’s answered a question 44. And friends certainly the word of God does indeed teach that our Lord Jesus Christ took upon himself the hellish wrath and curse of God when he died on the cross as our sin bearer, our substitute as he paid the penalty for our sins.
However, another way to understand this phrase that he descended into hell is what we might call the state of the dead view. This is the view reflected in our own Westminster larger catechism in answer to question number 50. If you’d like to refer to that, it’s found in the back of your sultar hymnal on page 945 in the back of your sultar hymnal, the larger catechism. The question is this, wherein consisted Christ’s humiliation after his death. Again, that question has in view our Lord’s estate of humiliation and that that estate of humiliation continued after his death. Where in consisted Christ’s humiliation after his death? The Bible based answer to that question is this, Christ’s humiliation after his death consisted in his being buried and continuing in the state of the dead and under the power of death till the third day, which has been otherwise expressed in these words, he descended into hell.
This state of the dead view highlights our Lord’s continuing in a state of death for a time as the final stage of our Lord’s estate of humiliation, which would be followed on the third day, of course, by his glorious triumphant resurrection from the dead, the resurrection of Christ being the first stage in our Lord’s estate of exaltation. Now, the significance of this particular view, and there’s truth in all of these different approaches or understandings of the phrase he descended into hell, but this particular state of the dead view underscores the fact that our Lord’s continuing in the state of the dead for a time, was an important part of his saving work for us. And thus, Jesus remaining in an intermediate state during that time of his entombment was vital to our eternal hope, comfort, and salvation.
One of the proof texts supporting the answer to this large catechism question is verse 40 of our text for this Lord’s day morning. And so friends, it is to this passage of God’s word that I would now have us turn our attention. And as we turn our attention to Matthew chapter 12, verse 40, I want you to notice the parallel between the prophet Jonah in the belly of the great fish, on the one hand, and the Lord Jesus Christ in the state of death. This is the first point, first major point on your sermon outline. Consider friends, the parallel between the prophet Jonah in the belly of the great fish and the Lord Jesus Christ in the state of death. It says in verse 40, for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Friends, Jonah’s experience of being swallowed up by a great fish, and by the way, as an aside, the Bible never says it’s a whale. It may have been a whale, some have thought it, and well, maybe it was a whale shark, or perhaps even a great white shark. We don’t know, it doesn’t say, but it was a big fish. So Jonah’s experience of being swallowed up by a great fish and remaining in the belly of that fish four time was a type and a picture of our Lord Jesus being swallowed up in death, in being buried, and in continuing, remaining under the power of death four times, just as Jonah remained and was miraculously preserved by God in the belly of that fish for a time. You know, it’s interesting that in Jonah chapter 2 verse 2, Jonah records as part of his prayer to the Lord from the belly of the fish the following words.
Jonah chapter 2 verse 2, record Jonah as saying this, I called out to the Lord out of my distress and he answered me, out of the belly of Shaeol I cried and you heard my voice. Oh, wait a minute, he’s crying out to the Lord from the belly of this great fish, but actually as he describes it poetically in this prayer, he says out of the belly of Shaeol, Shaeol the abode of the dead I cried out to the Lord. Jonah’s experience in the the belly of the fish was a type, a picture of Shaeol the state of the dead. After all, without God’s miraculous preservation of his life in the fish and without the Lord eventually inducing the fish to vomit Jonah up onto the dry land, Jonah would have been as good as dead.
But we see the parallel there between the prophet Jonah in the belly of the great fish and the Lord Jesus Christ in the state of death. Now let’s back up just a bit and seek to understand our passage for this morning in its context. Our passage for this Lord’s day morning occurs within a larger section of Matthew’s gospel where our Lord Jesus is encountering conflict and opposition from various Jewish religious leaders and devotees of his day such as the Pharisees. And this was very common in the gospel accounts. Jesus often butted heads with the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes and so forth of his day. Now earlier in this chapter Matthew had recorded our Lord’s teaching on blasphemy against the Holy Spirit as Jesus responds to the Pharisees accusation that he casts out demons by bellsable, the Prince of Demons.
In other words by Satan, bellsable was just another name for Satan rather than casting out demons by the power of the Spirit of God. If you go back to verse 24 of this chapter it says, but when the Pharisees heard it, when they heard of Jesus casting out demons showing power over the demonic realm as the conquering Messiah, it says, but when the Pharise heard it, they said, it is only by bellsable the Prince of Demons that this man casts out demons and then follows this blasphemous accusation against Jesus. Our Lord’s reply, his response to that and thus his teaching on the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. And then friends in this section immediately preceding our passage for today, a section that I also included in the scripture reading for this morning, Jesus is recorded to have given teaching on the fruit of our speech, probably still thinking of the speech that led to such blasphemy in claiming that he cast out demons by the power of bellsable.
And Jesus uses the illustration of trees and the quality of their fruit to illustrate the truth as recorded in verse 34 that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. And what Jesus seems to be implying here in this teaching is that his enemies made their blasphemous claims against him because their hearts were hardened and set in evil. This may be the reason why verse 38 tells us that the scribes and the Pharisees pressed him to perform an authenticating sign for them. I mean Jesus had already done many miracles in in front of multiple eyewitnesses. Why then do they come to him and ask for him to perform a sign? Well, it may very well be that they were quite offended by what Jesus had been saying about the evil fruit of their lips and that they wanted to try to trap him in his words.
And so that leads us to verse 38. It says then some of the scribes remember the scribes were basically the Bible scholars of that time. Some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him saying teacher that they address him with this respectful term. They at least pretend respect and civility as they approach him. They say teacher, we wish to see a sign from you. Again, while these scribes and Pharisees pretend to address Jesus respectfully by addressing him as teacher, it seems quite clear in the context here that they’re not making their request in good faith or because they are sincerely seeking the truth. Even though Jesus had performed many miraculous works in the presence of multiple eyewitnesses, as I said, it appears once again that they are seeking a miraculous sign from our Lord because they want to use that somehow to discredit him.
Dr. D. A. Carson in his commentary on Matthew points out and I quote him, he says a quote sign was usually some miraculous token to be quickly fulfilled or fulfilled quickly or at once to confirm a prophecy. The Jews were not asking for just another miracle since they had already persuaded themselves that at least some of those Jesus had performed were of demonic agency. They were asking for a quote sign performed on command to remove what seemed to them to be the ambiguity of Jesus’s miracles. In other words, they wanted to dictate to Jesus the terms by which they would accept his claims. And of course, our Lord Jesus refused. We are the clay. God is the potter. We as the clay have no right to sit in judgment over our divine potter or to say, well, you’ve got to prove yourself to me.
By my standards, no, God doesn’t do that. And of course, the Lord Jesus again, he refused their request for Jesus did not do miracles on demand. Jesus would often heal when folks would come to him with a humble request for healing. But they, these scribes and Pharisees were in essence demanding Jesus prove himself, authenticate himself according to their standards and Jesus refuses. Indeed, he rebukes them as an evil and adulterous generation. As it says in verse 39, Jesus responds to their pretended request in verse 38 by saying, an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to you except the sign of the prophet Jonah. And that will segue into our main text for today, verse 40. And by the way, when Jesus calls them an adulterous generation, it’s interesting if you’re familiar with the Old Testament prophets, oftentimes in the Old Testament prophetic books, when God through the prophet is rebuking the unfaithfulness and apostasy and covenant breaking of his people, he will often describe that unfaithfulness and apostasy as adultery.
It’s a spiritual adultery. It is an unfaithfulness to the Lord, a covenant breaking against the Lord. And so it is in this sense that Jesus rebukes his generation as an evil and adulterous generation seeking for a sign. Jesus goes on to say in verse 40, he’s just mentioned the sign of the prophet Jonah. And Jonah himself was the sign as he came out from the fish. And I often wonder what Jonah must have looked like after having been in the fish for that time. I imagine he didn’t look or smell very good. That would have been quite a sign as he goes into Nineveh and proclaims repentance to them. Jonah himself was the sign as Jesus in his resurrected glory would likewise be a sign. And it says this in verse 40, for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man.
That’s a messianic title. Jesus’ favorite self designation. So will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Now some would say wait a minute pastor put on the breaks here. Jesus says that he would be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Well wait a minute Jesus died on Friday, good Friday afternoon and then was buried by the evening in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. So he died partway through the day on Friday. He was all day in the tomb. Well he was in the tomb part of Friday, all day Saturday and part of the day on Sunday morning. So how can he say that he’s going to be in the tomb three days and three nights. But friends this is what we call idiomatic language here.
This is not to be understood in an overly literalistic way as if Jesus was saying that he was going to be in the tomb for a full literal 72 hours. You see in Jewish reckoning a part of the day was reckoned as the whole. And so this expression seems to have been as one Bible commentator puts it, a Semitic idiom and need not be supposed to contradict the resurrection on the third day. It’s an idiomatic saying that he’s going to be three days in the heart of the earth. Not necessarily a full 72 hours but by Jewish reckoning he was in the tomb for three days. Part of Friday, all day Saturday and the early part of Sunday morning prior to his resurrection from the dead. Well dear ones, the point of all of this up to this point, our Lord not only lived for us by his active obedience praise God he did that for us, marinating a righteousness which we could never merit for ourselves.
Jesus not only died for us though praise God he did. He took the wrath and curse of God upon himself on the cross as he paid the penalty for our sin. Jesus however not only lived for us and died for us and rose for us that we might be raised to newness of life in union with him. Jesus was also buried for us and Jesus continued for a time in the state of the dead for us and for our salvation. Christ continuing under the state of death Christ descending into hell in the sense of descending into the state of the dead and remaining in that state for a time gives us hope as we face the intermediate state between our death and the future resurrection from the dead. This gives us gospel hope beloved. We were united to him not only in his life and his death and resurrection.
We were united to him in his state of death. This gives us gospel hope because as and now we’re moving on to the second main point in your sermon outline. This gives us gospel hope because Christ’s burial and continuation in the state of death for a time anticipated his resurrection. Christ’s burial and continuation in the state of death for a time anticipated his resurrection. This is implied in verse 40 where Jesus says for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. But what happens after that time in the heart of the earth? We know the story up from the grave he arose victorious over sin and death and hell.
The prophet Jonah’s time in the belly of the great fish was a prelude to his safe re-emergence onto dry land. As the great fish could not hold Jonah down but instead by Yahweh’s command we’re told in Jonah 2 verse 10 the great fish vomited Jonah out upon the dry land. That was like a resurrection from the dead for Jonah metaphorically speaking. So likewise the grave could not keep our Lord Jesus in the state of death into which he had descended but in instead he burst forth from the tomb on the third day. Though our Lord had indeed descended into hell descended into the state of death for a time. As Saint Peter the Apostle had proclaimed in his Pentecost sermon in Acts chapter 2 24. Peter says God raised him up. God the Father raised him up loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
Jesus voluntarily submitted to the power of death for a time but it was not possible for the eternal divine son of God incarnate the word made flesh to remain under the power of death for he rose from the dead and his entombment during that brief time between Good Friday and Easter Sunday morning that brief time in the tomb anticipated his bursting forth in glorious day the day of his resurrection. My friends Christ’s continuance in the state of death for a time between his death and resurrection is a pledge and assurance to those of us who are united to him by faith. It’s a pledge and assurance to us that should our Lord Terry before we die should Jesus not return before we see physical death. We need not fear the intermediate state. We need not fear death for just as Christ’s body emerged from his intermediate state into resurrection victory so our bodies will be raised in incorruptible resurrection glory on that final day when our Lord Jesus returns in glory.
But this is only the case for those who by faith are united to Christ. Dear listener are you united to Christ spiritually and savingly by faith? You say well what does that mean? That means this are you trusting in Jesus who is crucified for sinners like me and you crucified for the forgiveness of our sins and raised from the dead for our justification and that whoever believes in him might not perish but have everlasting life. Are you trusting Christ as your Savior from sin only by the call of the word and spirit of God are you able to rest in him embrace him trust him for your salvation from sin and if you are trusting in him you can be assured that you need not for your death. If you’re not trusting in him God in the gospel calls you this day to repent to turn around from your sin to Christ and receive and rest upon him and him alone as your Lord and Savior and if you do the Bible says you will be saved.
Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. But this leads me to my final point briefly based on verses 41 and 42. Friends our Lord’s resurrection from the state of death ought to lead sinners to repentance. Our Lord’s resurrection from the state of death ought to lead sinners to repentance. Since Jesus has been talking about Jonah and the men of Nineveh that he preached to he says in verse 41 the men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment meaning the judgment day with this generation and condemn it for they were pendant at the preaching of Jonah and behold that means pay attention something greater than Jonah is here. Jonah was a prophet of God but something greater than a prophet was with that generation. Earlier in the chapter at the beginning of the chapter Jesus had talked in his dispute with the Pharisees over the issue of the Sabbath.
Jesus says in chapter 12 verse 6 I tell you something greater than the temple is here. So Jesus is greater than the temple in his pre and its priesthood. Why? Because Jesus is our great high priest. Jesus is greater than the prophet Jonah because Jesus is the ultimate prophet with a capital P the messianic prophet and then verse 42 he gives another illustration using Solomon he says the queen of the south will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Remember that great old covenant king Solomon king Solomon she came to hear the wisdom of Solomon and behold something greater than Solomon is here. Just as Jonah’s re-emergence from the great fish led to the repentance of the Ninevites so Jesus is Emergence his resurrection from the state of death on the third day ought to lead us to Repentance, you know in their preaching of the gospel of the resurrected Christ the apostles often stressed this connection Between the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the gospel call to repentance for example Just briefly in Acts chapter 17 verses 30 and 31 As Paul is the apostle is preaching to the philosophers At Athens at the area of pagus as g as Paul is preaching The gospel to them and and calling them to repentance.
He says this in verse 30 Acts 17 30 the times of ignorance God overlooked but now he commands all people everywhere. That’s all inclusive He commands all people everywhere to repent why verse 31 because he has fixed a day on Which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed and of this he has given assurance to all by doing What by raising him from the dead? the call to repentance Naturally flows out of the historical event of our Lord’s resurrection Dear ones the Lord Jesus Christ is much greater than the Prophet Jonah or the great King Solomon Much greater than even the temple and its priesthood itself in Contrast to these Old Testament Persons and figures and types Jesus is the great Messianic prophet priest and king predicted and foreshadowed in the Old Testament scriptures in light of this Let us brothers and sisters as a church Let us press home upon the consciences of the lost the claims of Jesus Christ Christ who while he had Descended into hell descended into the state of the dead nevertheless He emerged victorious over the grave by his resurrection from the dead and let us call them to repentance and faith Reminding them that our resurrected Lord will one day be the judge of the living and the dead His resurrection the historical event of his resurrection demonstrates it But it finally let us also make sure that we ourselves Have repented and embraced the risen Lord Jesus as our very own Lord and Savior May God in his sovereign mercy and grace call you dear sinner to faith in Christ today May you rest in him and may you know that eternal hope that This passage calls us to amen let us pray Our Lord and Father in heaven We thank you that Jesus though he descended into hell descended into the state of the dead for us Has emerged victorious as the resurrected Glorified Lord and we thank you that through faith in him we can look forward to one day being resurrected Into bodies incorruptible we pray that you would help us to live faithful lives in light of these glorious gospel truths We pray these things through Christ our Lord and all of God’s people said amen as We respond to what we’ve heard from the preached word.
Let’s rise and sing together him 367 up from the grave he arose 367
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