Sermon on Lord’s Day 16 Q&A 44⤒🔗

44. Q. Why is there added: He descended into hell?
A. In my greatest sorrows and temptations I may be assured and comforted that my Lord Jesus Christ, by His unspeakable anguish, pain, terror, and agony, which He endured throughout all His sufferings[1] but especially on the cross, has delivered me from the anguish and torment of hell.[2]
[1] Ps. 18:5, 6; 116:3; Matt. 26:36-46; 27:45, 46; Heb. 5:7-10. [2] Is. 53.

Singing: (Psalms and Hymns are from the "Book of Praise" Anglo Genevan Psalter)

Votum
Sing: Psalm 9:6,7
Law
Sing: Psalm 88:1,2
Prayer
Scripture reading: Matthew 27:45-50
Reading of Catechism: Lord’s Day 16 Q&A 44
Sermon
Sing: Psalm 37:16
Lord’s Supper Form
Sing: Hymn 1A
To table: sing: Psalm 4:3
At table: Romans 8:31-35a  - Hymn 27:1
Romans 8:35b-37 - Hymn 27:3
Romans 8:38,39 - Hymn 27:4
Prayer
Announcements/Collections
Sing: Psalm 27:1,6
Benediction

Beloved Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Sunday-by-Sunday we confess with the Apostles’ Creed that our Lord Jesus Christ "descended into hell." The statement appears in the Creed after references to His suffering, crucifixion, death and burial, and so we automatically conclude that Jesus "descended into hell" after His death.

This conclusion, however, is wrong. Jesus told one of the criminals crucified with Him that "today you will be with Me in Paradise" (Luke 23:43). The point is clear: Jesus expects both the criminal and Himself to be in Paradise, heaven, "today", ie, when they die. Similarly, just before Jesus died He prayed this: "Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit" (vs 46). Surely that does not mean that Jesus expected to go to hell when He died! No, congregation, when Jesus died His spirit was "immediately" taken up to God in heaven (cf Lord’s Day 22).

When, then, did Jesus ‘descend into hell’? To understand the phrase we need to come to grips with the Bible’s presentation of ‘hell’. The Bible uses some graphic adjectives to describe what ‘hell’ is like. I think of words like fire, torment, gnashing of teeth, weeping, anguish. Hell, obviously, is a terrible place. But what makes hell so terrible? It is this: hell is where God’s favor is gone. Hell: that’s where God’s judgment is poured out over you in full measure. And it’s a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God, for there is no escape from His fury. It’s that fury that causes the torment, the gnashing of teeth, the weeping and the anguish that characterize hell.

Now the question is: when did Jesus experience such hell? When did the judgment of God fall upon Him so that He tasted the anguish and torment of hell? This, brothers and sisters, was specifically in the darkest moments of the cross. I refer to Mt 27:45f: "Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is, ‘My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?’" God is light, but when darkness settled over the land from high noon till 3 PM, God was gone – or, better said, God’s favor was gone from Jesus and His wrath poured out on Him instead. After three hours of deepest night, after three hours of being rejected by God, after three hours of experiencing the eternal judgment of God, Jesus cried out the depths of His anguish: "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" He was rejected, cast off, with no favor left for Him but judgment alone, and that is hell.

The big question is now: so what? How does the fact that Christ experienced this hell on the cross benefit you and me? The answer is this: we don’t have to go to hell. Everyone who repents of sin, who is united to Christ by faith, escapes the eternal judgment of God, escapes hell. Given the terrible words the Bible uses to describe hell, this benefit is relief indeed.

But when, congregation, may we expect to escape hell? Must our thoughts now travel to the day when we shall die – in the assurance that on that day we shall go to heaven and not to hell? Is that the extent of the benefit of Christ’s time in hell?

No, beloved, it is not. Christ’s hellish suffering benefits us now! For: what is life like? We all now: life is not a straight line, where every day we feel just the same. Life has moments of great happiness and pleasure, and life equally has moments of great despair and grief. Those moments of despair and grief can be so dark that, to our feeling, God’s favor is gone, He doesn’t care about us, doesn’t hear our prayer, leaves us all alone. I’m sure we can all relate that those kinds of days, can relate to the anguish and the inner pain and the torment and the crying of such days. They hurt. We can relate to Heman’s prayer in Ps 88: "But to You I have cried out, O Lord, And in the morning my prayer comes before You. Lord, why do You cast off my soul? Why do You hide Your face from me?" (vss 13f). We find it so terrible: God’s favor is gone, we experience only His wrath….

Here now, congregation, is the benefit of Christ’s suffering the anguish of hell. He suffered the wrath of God, He experienced the absence of God’s favor, so that we might never suffer that agony. Left alone and forsaken: never! Certainly, we’ll have moments that we feel God has rejected us, feel all alone, forsaken. But our feelings are warped with the fall into sin, and so can never be the measure of reality. It’s specifically when we feel so rejected that the gospel of Christ’s hellish agony comforts us greatly: He was rejected so that we may never be rejected! That is the point of Question & Answer 44: "In my greatest sorrows and temptations I may be assured and comforted that my Lord Jesus Christ … has delivered me from the anguish and torment of hell." Today God will not leave me nor forsake me! Today His face will shine on me always – whether I feel it to be that way or not. Precisely in those moments of deepest anguish and trouble, this is the gospel to which I may cling! Christ tasted hell for me, so that I need never taste hell, neither in this life nor the life to come.

Now we go to the table of the Lord. What does the Lord teach us at His table? This: Christ’s suffering, including His hellish agony, was for us. That is: Christ assures us that in our moments of "greatest sorrows and temptations" God will never forsake us – no matter how we feel. That’s gospel!  Amen.