Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried, he descended to the dead (Acts 2:22-39)

This week I go to speak on a few lines from the Apostles Creed as our church progresses through a series on it. Below is more or less my talk, plus a whole bunch of details that I decided to leave out as I thought the detail would be too distracting from the main point. Those extra bits are left in square brackets and so may not be as readable as I didn't tidy it all up. I wanted people to leave with the idea of hope in the face of death, and not some technical point that I had been wrestling with. Perhaps I still did preach a personal/hobby issue that I had been wrestling with. Hopefully, it was helpful for others. The 10am service is even up on YouTube already as well.

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This term we are looking at the foundational beliefs the church throughout history has agreed to. We are going through the Apostles Creed, one of the oldest creeds Christians have said to.

Today we are talking about suffering and death. And I know, no one wants to talk about that. Death is the great enemy that shall not be named in our society. We have world lockdowns trying to stop death. We get uncomfortable when we hear someone we know had died.

But it is ok. In time magazine in 2013 Google said they would solve death for us[1]…. It is the stuff of fairy tales that we can live forever. It’s the drinking from the fountain of youth, or the holy grail if you are Indiana Jones. It's being the lost boys in Peter Pan who never grow old.

Out society tells us that we need to try to make a life for ourselves, we earn a living and sit in living rooms ignoring the fact that what we have will end. Death doesn’t discriminate and doesn’t care how rich or well-adjusted you are. Even though we don’t talk about death, it is inescapable. It can come quickly, quietly, or painfully. And the question today is: How will you cope with your time comes?

So far in our series, we have looked at how God the Father is Almighty and Creator over everything, and that Jesus, the Son of God came to us as a human to save humanity.

Today we see how Jesus lives up to his name as saviour.

The real key and central part of Christianity isn’t a philosophy or way of life, but it is about the person of Jesus. We are relying not on a new perspective at looking at the world by trying to detach ourselves from problems, or we are not trying a new routine of living, but we believe real events that took place in the same real world we live in.

In our passage today we have the first Christian sermon. Here the essentials are dealt with, the core issues are said in its most unrefined stage before any school of thought has arisen and objected to anything, we get what is the raw essential. We see what notes the Apostles hit in this talk. And in this speech, we see the central issue is Jesus - His death and resurrection are hammered.

We can see in verses 22-24 a summary of what happened to Jesus, and then following on there is a bit of an expansion on how death didn’t now swallow up Jesus, which we will look at a little more. For now, verse 22-24 says:

“Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.

Here we have a quick summary of the life of Jesus.

One modern-day objection to what is left out of the Apostles Creed is that it skips over the life and ministry of Jesus. We go from Mary to Pilate. We should remember that the creeds are walking a line between being comprehensive and still being conscience[2].

Also, the creed doesn’t pre-date the Gospels, it comes after it. The Creed isn’t a replacement for the Bible but instead are some dot points of the Bible. The Gospels existed before the Creed and Christians were reading and learning from the Gospels all along.

Jesus being a miracle worker was a contentious issue, even for those who weren’t Christians, but not for the reasons we might have. Peter here tells his Jewish audience that Jesus did miracles, wonders and sings, as they well know. The issue for the first few centuries wasn’t if Jesus did miracles and if they were even possible, the issue was by what power did he do them. Even Jesus’ opponents couldn’t deny Jesus did healings and miracles. They had to come up with their own explanation. Peter says these miracles showed that Jesus was accredited by God.

So Peter speaks boldly to them of who Jesus is and the miracles they know about and then says that Jesus' death was part of God’s plan, even though wicked people were involved.

 

Suffered under Pontius Pilate

In the Apostles Creed, Pontius Pilate is named as the guy who Jesus suffered under. There are only three humans mentioned in the creed, Jesus, Mary and Pilate. Mary we aw last week was the Lord’s servant, but Pilate as Karl Barth said, enters the creed “like a dog into a nice room”[3].

It is a little strange that 2000 years later we are remembering a middle-tier Roman official. He was ruling over Israel which as a career path in the Roman government wasn’t that important. Israel was made up of these folk with a different religion from the Roman Empire. It would be strange that if we went forward 2000 years into the future, it's 4022 and people were talking about our history. Some had heard about Hitler, a couple about Martin Luther King, but everyone knew about Frank Brooking who was mayor of Camden in the 1990s[4].

But having Pilate here links this event in history. It is real, it is true. Pilate walked the same earth that we do. It is a historical anchor; this should remind us that the Gospel isn’t an idea it is a fact[5]. And like the reality of Pilate, so the suffering of Jesus was also real.

 

Was crucified, died and was buried

Jesus really was crucified; he really did die and he really was buried. Yes, Jesus was God, but also Jesus was a person and His human person did actually die.

Last Easter was the first time I made it to that Service of Shadows thing St Matts puts on. It is literally a dark service, with the room lit by some candles. The service takes you through the Gospel account of Jesus on the night of his crucifixion. Each candle represents one of the sufferings Jesus experiences. At each stage, a candle is blown out as the room gets darker and darker. The service steps through Jesus’ suffering starting from the agony He had within Himself in the garden, his arrest, betrayal, denial, accusations, mockery, crucifixion, humiliation, death and burial. In the end, there is no light, Jesus is dead and buried and we all head out into the night in silence.

It is a morbid service, but it is a good experience to sit and dwell on what Jesus went through that night. To our modern mind, the biggest thing about the cross we think would be the pain. I haven’t seen the Passion of the Christ, but I hear it is gory. I mock my mother who has seen it and yet forbade me to watch R-rated movies when I was even in my 20s. I hear in the Passion of the Christ that you see the Jesus figure get beaten up for a solid two hours. When it was at the movies, some people couldn’t finish their popcorn it was so violent.

What we might overlook in our modern mind is that the crucifixion also brought humiliation. In an honour/shame culture, to be condemned and publicly exposed and left to die was humiliating. You didn’t talk about crucifixion in polite conversation, and the Romans wouldn’t subject their own citizens to this type of death. One early anti-Christian graffiti from the second century is of Alexamenos worshipping his god. It’s a mockery. It’s a picture of a guy on the cross with a donkey head. It was crazy that anyone in Roman culture would speak highly of someone who was crucified, and unthinking that someone would worship them.

The Jews also thought anyone who was hung on a tree was cursed by God (Deut 21:23; Gal 3:13).

The Quran, which was written about 550 years after the crucifixion says that Jesus didn’t actually get crucified (Sura 4:157-158). It says someone else who looked like Jesus actually took his place and died for Jesus. Islam couldn’t handle the shame of such a death for someone so revered.

But it is the cross that the Christians culturally appropriated it to be not a symbol of shame but of salvation. With the cross, it was where our saviour was humiliated and died, and so as Christ's followers, we are also to take up our own cross, and live humble lives not for ourselves but for Christ and others. The cross turned humility into a virtual.

Forgiveness of sins

But is that the only reason why the Cross is so important? What happened in particular on the cross with Jesus that is worth mentioning in this Creed?

There are many ways we can answer this, especially coming out from the letter to the Romans. We could say it is about our Justification, freedom, and adoption, but in its simplest form, in Peter's sermon in Acts 2 and in the Apostles Creed, it simply says for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38). As Peter says, this was no accident. Jesus didn’t just get caught up in the political wheel and was crushed for opening His mouth at the wrong time. No, even though evil men were involved, it was all still part of God’s plan.

On the cross, our sins were forgiven. Jesus paid our debt for all our wrongs to God. Jesus took the punishment for us and so because of Him we can be forgiven. This is huge, and we will spend a week later this term on forgiveness. But for now, being forgiven is freeing. It can be life-changing.

Like someone on death row in prison suddenly being told that even though everyone knows they are guilty, the state has decided to forgive them, they can now go free. That would be insane, but also dramatically life-changing for that prisoner. No longer in a cell awaiting death, no longer with any punishment from the state. They are deemed right in the eyes of the law. They are now free to interact with society again.

This is the good news, the life-changing news that Christians talk on about. This is what we remember every time we do communion. This is the greatest message in all the world because through it we see the plans of God in saving people from destruction. Through it we see how much God loves us, through it, we see that there is hope for the future, even in the face of chronic and terminal illness, even in the face of disasters and rising COVID and interest rates. Through this message, lives are changed and people experience love and peace, even in circumstances not offering either.

 

Buried

And so, because of Jesus, our sins are forgiven. The wages of sin is death, and so to death, Jesus went for us. He really did die.

And Jesus was buried in a tomb. This is unusual for crucified people to be buried in tombs. Normally they would be tossed out somewhere away from the city and left to rot[6].

So Peters's message takes us to the tomb. The Creed goes from the womb to the tomb. With Mary and Pilate as witnesses. But Jesus’ identification with humans and his experience didn’t stop at death. He went further to where the soul goes afterwards.

 

Descended to the dead

The line “descended to the dead” in the Apostles Creed is probably the most controversial line today. It was added around the 4th century by Rufinus and its meaning of it has been much debated. But this isn’t a late addition of belief. Irenaeus, who was two people removed from the apostles said that Jesus went to the land of the dead to rescue and save the saints who had previously died[7].

I should be honest here at this point. For about the last 15 or so years up until Easter this year I had held a different position than what I am about to say. I was quite opposed to this line; I didn’t see its point or function or its Biblical warrant. Didn’t Jesus experience God’s wrath and hell on the cross? Why did Jesus need to go to the underworld at all? What’s with this?

I had mostly been influenced by Wayne Grudem in his Systematic Theology book. Now, Grudem’s Systematic is a good systematic - I’ve given out two copies of it in the past and probably still will hand it out to people. It is a good entry-level, easy-to-read systematic, but now I disagree with what he says on this topic. It was W. H. Griffith Thomas, The Principles of Theology that helped moved my view. It was about $90 on Google books, I got it for about $2 in the kindle store. And if you disagree, with either side, let’s do it respectfully, and maybe in 15 years' time I might change my view again.

I have been wrestling with this line for a little while as I am seeking ordination in the Anglican church and of their 39 articles of points of faith, the third one says in its entirety:

As Christ died for us, and was buried, so also is it to be believed, that he went down into Hell.

And so there doesn’t seem to be much wiggle room in that language. So I have been wrestling, to see if I sign a statement to say that I believe this. And today I think I can.

The Nicene Creed doesn’t have this line, but the Athanasius Creed does. In fact, the Nicene has the burial but not the descent, the Athanasian has the descent but not the burial. The Apostles have both[8]. So those who want to hold to the standard ecumenical positions of the creeds have to deal with this line of Jesus descended to the dead in two of them.

In our Acts passage, Peter spends some time quoting Psalm 16 and then explaining it. He makes the point that Jesus was not abandoned to the realm of the dead. And whatever that means, I think it means more than just being buried. The Creed already said Jesus was buried, I don’t think they added another line for redundancy.

The belief was that when you died, people didn’t go straight to heaven or hell; they were waiting for the final judgment. Instead, you would go to an abode, to the underworld to this place of the dead. This place was also considered down under the earth, at least conceptually, maybe not physically.

And the Bible uses language like this in a few palaces. In Philippians 2 when talking about the glories of the Lord it says all tongues on earth and even the ones under the earth will declare God’s praises. In Revelations [5:3] when looking for someone to open the scroll no one was found on earth or under the earth. These expressions are talking about all people living and the dead. Those who are living are on earth, those who are dead are under the earth.

[Some even think that even now Hell hasn’t been made yet, or that it is still empty as in Revelation 20[:14] it talks about how death and hades will be thrown into the lake of fire. That this second death is where people will be put on judgement day[9].]

In our Acts passage Peter quotes Psalm 16 and then says this is about Jesus:

“Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. (Acts 2:29-32)

Peter points out that David is still dead, David hasn't come back to life. You could even have visited David’s tomb in Jerusalem. Herod in their day had even upgraded the tomb to a marble monument that was probably near the pool of Siloam[10]. Previously, Herod did try and raid the tomb for riches and got fought back and two people died in the skirmish, so he might have felt bad about that[11].

Peter doesn’t say that you can visit Jesus’ tomb. He was killed and buried in the same town, about 2 months earlier but you could not visit his tomb. Jesus is no longer buried there because he was not left where the dead go. God did not abandon Him to that realm of the dead but came back to the realm of the living.

Jesus said that like Jonah was in the belly of the fish, He too was going to be in the belly of the earth for three days and three nights (Mat 12:40). In John's gospel, when Jesus rose from the dead and seeing Mary in the dawn light, he tells her “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. (John 20:17). The ascension marks the formal return of the Son to heaven, not any time before[12].

So Jesus follows the path, the whole path of human experience from birth, to death to beyond the grave.

Today you will be with me in Paradise

So yes, the theological elephant text in the room is Jesus on the cross telling the guy next to him “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” What is with that? I used to think this was the knockdown argument for saying Jesus didn’t go to the realm of the dead, but I think this Acts 2 passage is clearer than the Luke line.

But, to start off, whatever we say about the guy on the cross, we must remember that Luke wrote both Luke and Acts, whatever he means and has to say in both his book, should be seen as a unified unit. Not to mention that the Holy Spirit has inspired the text.

There are lots of rabbit holes here, but I think Jesus’ use of the word “today” in connection with salvation in Luke is more about how it is available immediately. I think there is a sense that “today” isn’t simply a 24-hour time, but an ongoing present, kinda like how in Hebrews 3 and 4 it uses the word “today” as a present period when people can repent.

There is also a technical discussion on where you put the comma in the line that Jesus said. It might be possible to put it after the word “today” and not before so that it reads:

“Truly I tell you today, you will be with me in paradise.”

But maybe we can talk about it more afterwards[13].

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[Luke has Jesus say the word “today” in two other passages. The first is in Luke 4[:18-19] where Jesus reads from the scroll that talks about how the Spirit of the Lord is on him and he has been sent to free the prisoner and give sight to the blind. Once Jesus reads this He says, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21).

Is it only that day when the scriptures were fulfilled? What about when Jesus was actually giving sight to the blind? On those days surely this text was also being fulfilled. The sense of “today” here seems to be some sort of ongoing present for salvation.

When Jesus visits Zacchaeus and Zacchaeus repents, Jesus says “Today salvation has come to this house” (Luke 19:9). Jesus hadn’t died for Zacchaeus but salvation is immediate in Luke’s Gospel[14]. We don’t need to split hairs really with how Zacchaeus is saved, salvation is still announced and can be trusted by faith right then and there.

Likewise, in the same vain, salvation is assured to the guy on the cross, that that day in its immediate form he will be saved.

And then there is the Greek, and I hate doing this, and full disclosure in doing this I am going against all major English translations, which could be a bad thing as those are translated by a panel of experts. But in the original Greek, there was no punctuation, there weren’t even spaces or lowercase letters. So the comma was put in later and it is possible to put it after the word “today” so that it looks like this:

“Truly I tell you today, you will be with me in paradise.”

There can be some objections, like isn’t “truly I tell you” an idiom so it makes sense to put the comma there? Luke has the phrase “truly I tell you” about 8 times in his Gospel and 7 out of 8 times the Greek word order is the same. But in this case, it is different[15]. Is it still a common idiom if the word order is different or can the next word belong in the clause?

When they did add in extra markings, one of the early copies, which is an important one - it’s one of two texts as to why we put the ending of Mark in italics - well that copy has a dot after the word “today”, perhaps indicating a pause[16].

Some people also try and reconcile the thief on the cross with Jesus in the realm of the dead, saying that when Jesus turned up there, he changed it from a drab waiting place into Paradise for those whom he saved[17].]
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I think, it is good news for us that Jesus went all the way through death, for by faith we Christians are linked now with Him. Our Lord satisfied every condition of being a human “for us and for our salvation”. His body was laid in a grave. His soul passed into that place where souls go. He has won us for God and satisfied every condition of human existence. We cannot be where He has not been. He bore our nature as living; He bore our nature as dead[18].

God knows, firsthand, the whole human experience, from life to death to life again, and He is willing to take us through it too.

 

So what?

Christians now have this hope, this looking ahead, beyond death with confidence, as Jesus has forgiven our sins, and walked through death, to lead us home.

So if you don’t have this hope, do what Peter says to his audience. Repent.

If you don’t follow or know Jesus as your king and saviour, you need to change your ways. Turn around what you are doing, change your mind on Jesus and follow Him. Jesus was not just a miracle worker, he didn’t just die a painful and shameful death. He beat death. He went where we will all go so that He can take us through it. If you are not with Jesus in life, He will not be with you in death, and He is the only one who knows the way out. The way out of that place we don’t talk about – death.

In the death and resurrection of Jesus, death itself was altered. And now, says Athanasius, “we no longer die as those condemned but as those who will arise”[19].

Back then, it was the Christians who flirted with death too much. In the Roman world, they would bury the dead far away from the city so the living wouldn’t be contaminated. But it was the Christians who placed the dead right in the centre of their public gatherings. Think of the Christian catacombs, and grave sites, they are all right next to old churches. Christians would worship next to the dead, for they had hope that the dead will not stay where they are.

Athanasius compared the Christian martyrs with children who play with a lion, he said: If you see children playing with a lion, don’t you know that the lion must be either dead or completely powerless? In the same way … when you see Christ’s believers playing with death and despising it, there can be no doubt that death has been destroyed by Christ and that its corruption has been dissolved and brought to an end[20].

Christianity is based on the historical fact that Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate, he really was crucified and died and descended to the realm of the dead. But God did not abandon Him there. Jesus came back.

On the cross, Jesus cried out that God had forsaken Him. On the cross, Jesus was taking the punishment of sins for the whole world, and because He did that, we can be forgiven.

On the cross everything was turned upside down. Where people saw the crucifixion of Jesus as a defeat, the Christians see it as a victory. Where some see an end, we see a new beginning. Death is serious: but not as serious as life[21].

The truth is that we are all going to die, whether we talk about it or not. Because of Jesus, we can have an unflinching acceptance of human mortality, along with a straightforward confidence in the ultimate triumph of life that has already happened in the person of Jesus[22].

When I was in my late teens/early 20s I read this fictional story, Byzantium by Stephen Lawhead. It's about a monk who gets selected to give a copy of the Bible to the emperor but gets kidnapped by Vikings. These Vikings in turn decide to make a raid on Byzantium but in the end, they get recruited by the emperor and then they get enslaved and tortured and forced to work in a gold mine. The main character Aiden even uncovers some conspiracy, and he takes justice into his own hands, killing someone only to realise the emperor was guilty and he just gave him a fall guy. At the end of the book, Aiden is back at his monastery disillusioned with his faith because of all the pain, suffering and injustice that he had experienced. Then his Viking friends come to his monastery looking for him, as they now want a church to be planted where they are.

This is too hard for Aiden to believe. After all they have seen and shared, why would the Vikings believe in this god? His friend the Viking replies

My people “pray to many gods who neither hear nor care… But I remember the day you told me about Jesus who came to live among the fisherfolk, and was nailed to a tree … and hung up to die.

And I remember thinking, this Hanging God is unlike any of the others; this god suffers, too, just like his people.

"I remember also that you told me he was a god of love and not revenge, so that anyone who calls on his name can join him in his great feasting hall.

I ask you now, does Odin do this for those who worship him? Does Thor suffer with us?"

…“Is that not good news?”[23]

This response caused a great internal struggle with the main character and for the next few pages, he talks to himself about why this Viking who experience the same things he did wants to embrace the faith while he is walking away from it. Near the end he says to himself:

Did you believe that God would shield you forever from the hurt and pain of this sin-riven world? That you would be spared the injustice and strife others were forced to endure? That disease would no longer afflict you, that you would live forever untouched by the tribulations of common humanity?

Fool! All these things Christ suffered, and more.

Aidan, you have been blind. You have beheld the truth, stared long upon it, yet failed to perceive so much as the smallest glimpse of all that was shown you. Sure, this is the heart of the great mystery: that God became man, shouldering the weight of suffering so that on the final day none could say, "Who are you to judge the world? What do you know of injustice? What do you know of torture, sickness, poverty? How dare you call yourself a righteous God! What do you know of death?"

He knows, Aidan, he knows![24]

Our God suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried, and he descended to the dead. He knows. He knows what it is like and he can guide us through it.

Almighty God,

you have given your only Son

to be for us both a sacrifice for sin,

and also an example of godly life:

give us grace that we may always thankfully receive the benefits of his sacrifice,

and also daily endeavour to follow the blessed steps of his most holy life;

through the same Jesus Christ our Lord,

who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever. Amen[25].

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[1] Google vs Death 

[2] Ligon Duncan on Why ‘No Creed But the Bible’ Is a Lousy Creed 

[3] Cited in Benjamin Myers, The Apostles Creed: A guide to the Ancient Catechism

[4] Roy Shiner and Peter Orr, The World Next Door used a similar example. I added Frank as I remember him at Camden Baptist church when I was there, he used to be the public, Satan Claus, on the main street.

[5] Benjamin Myers, The Apostles Creed: A guide to the Ancient Catechism

[6] Roy Shiner and Peter Orr, The World Next Door

[7] Irenaeus, Against Heresies 5.31.1–2. Cited in Michael Bird, What Christians Ought to Believe.

[8] W. H. Griffith Thomas, The Principles of Theology

[9] Michael Bird, What Christians Ought To Believe. I hadn’t heard this before and found it interesting. It does raise a few more questions in my mind.

[10] Darrell L. Block, Acts (BECNT)

[11] Darrell L. Block, Acts (BECNT)

[12] Michael F. Bird, What Christians Ought to Believe

[13] I cut all the below the night before as I didn’t think I could have held people’s attention with all this detail. My goal for the sermon wasn’t to overwhelm people with facts but to have hope in the face of death. Hopefully, this was the right call.

[14] Joel B. Green, Luke (NICNT)

[15] Ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι (Truly I say to you that) occurs in Luke 4:24, 12:37, 18:17 (no ὅτι), 18:29, 21:32; Ἀληθῶς λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι (Truly (adverb) I say to you that) occurs in Luke 12:44, 21:3; compared with: Ἀμήν σοι λέγω (Truly to you I say) in Luke 23:43.

Once λέγω δὲ ὑμῖν ἀληθῶς (I say now to you truthfully) is in Luke 9:27 but I don’t count that reference as it’s a little different with the “truthfully” even though in the English translations it looks the same

[16] Codex Vaticanus can be viewed online here. Below pictures are taken from page 1347, from the bottom of the first column.

[17] J. I. Packer, The Apostles Creed

[18] Westcott cited in W. H. Griffith Thomas, The Principles of Theology

[19] Benjamin Myers, The Apostles Creed: A guide to the Ancient Catechism

[20] Benjamin Myers, The Apostles Creed: A guide to the Ancient Catechism

[21] Benjamin Myers, The Apostles Creed: A guide to the Ancient Catechism

[22] Benjamin Myers, The Apostles Creed: A guide to the Ancient Catechism

[23] Stephen Lawhead, Byzantium

[24] Stephen Lawhead, Byzantium

[25] A prayer book for Australia