In his sermon titled 'Peter Preaches Christ at Pentecost,' Peter Allison explores the pivotal sermon delivered by the Apostle Peter during Pentecost. The sermon begins with a reference to the prophecy from Joel, emphasizing the miraculous events occurring as the fulfillment of God's word. Peter addresses the skepticism of those who dismissed the speaking in tongues as drunkenness, revealing these as works of the Holy Spirit. He identifies Jesus as 'Jesus of Nazareth,' highlighting the humility and humanity of Christ, and uses this to address cultural prejudices regarding Nazareth. Peter explains the divine purpose and foreknowledge of Jesus' crucifixion, asserting both the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of those who executed Jesus. He emphasizes that Jesus' miracles, performed through the Holy Spirit, authenticated His divine mission. The sermon delves into theological intricacies, including the doctrine of Sheol and the resurrection, illustrating Jesus' victory over death. By referencing Psalm 16, Peter underscores the assurance of resurrection for believers. The sermon concludes with a call to repentance and faith, assuring that those who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Acts chapter 2. We're going to go back a couple of verses and pick up our reading this morning at verse 19. Acts 2.19. Hear God's word. Acts 2.19, here God's word, I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor of smoke.

The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know. Him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death, whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it. For David says concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face.

For he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart rejoiced and my tongue was glad. Moreover, my flesh also will rest in hope. For you will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life.

You will make me full of joy in Your presence." May these statutes be our songs in our pilgrimage. Heavenly Father, we again thank You for the clarity and the beauty and the truth that is Your Word. We ask that You would sanctify us by it this morning. That You would Give to us faith as we hear it, that we may be able to obey it. And I ask that you would sanctify my sinful lips to proclaim the riches of your grace in Jesus Christ.

Amen. Peter continues his first sermon of this New World Order where in Christ has begun His Messianic reign. He began this sermon by identifying what was happening in front of them, this outbreak of tongues and people speaking in tongues, proclaiming the wonders of God in all these different languages. He identified that with what Joel had described in Joel 2, verses 28-32. And then he goes on to proclaim Christ to this audience.

And remember, he's speaking primarily to those who mocked the tongues, proclaiming that these were drunk. And that's what was going on. These who were proclaiming the wonderful works of God, these people that Peter is addressing, called that the babbling of drunks. And so they were attributing the blessed work of the Holy Spirit to drunks. Peter goes on to declare these people also guilty of the crucifixion of Christ, attributing Christ's death to their lawless hands.

But His purpose in all this is not just to shame them and condemn them, but to preach Christ to them and to bring them to repentance. And Peter includes the first part of verse 32 from Joel 2 in his quote from Joel, because it introduces Jesus Christ, the Savior that He wants to proclaim. That passage ends with, whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord, whoever calls on Jesus Christ will be saved. So who is this Jesus Christ who saves all those who call upon Him?

Well, that's what Peter's message is. The first thing that Peter says about Jesus is that He's of Nazareth. He is Jesus of Nazareth. It's where He grew up. It's where he was from.

But there's a certain element of shame in this location. You remember as the disciples are gathered together in the Gospels, when Philip found Nathaniel, and he said to him, we have found him of whom Moses is in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And remember Nathanael's response? He said, What good can come out of Nazareth? Can anything good come out of Nazareth?

And Philip's answer was, well, come and see. But see, Philip's immediate reaction was, well, that's a nothing town. That's just culturally at the bottom rung. What good could come out of there? The Messiah was to come out of Bethlehem, the city of David, the house of bread.

Nazareth is never mentioned in the Old Testament as being the location of any messiah, of anybody important. It's not even mentioned in the Old Testament by name, ever. It was a small village. There is a village there today not quite in the same spot, but close. And it's in a little bowl, somewhat of a bowl, a valley surrounded by hills.

It's not on a road that leads to anywhere. Here in Conroe, we're on a freeway, a major freeway that goes from the southern border of the United States far to the north and connects with other roads that go all the way up to Canada. So many people would come by Conroe, who have no interest in Conroe, but they would come by because they're going somewhere else and stop here. Well, Nazareth wasn't like that. It wasn't on a road anywhere.

The only reason you would go on the road to Nazareth is if you wanted to go see somebody in Nazareth, and it was a very small village. Not very many people there. The Galileans spoke a distinctive form of Aramaic that was considered to be the language of uneducated people, a dialect of uneducated people. It's even called Slevenly. Remember, Peter was identified as a Galilean by his accent when he was in the court of the high priest.

So it was distinctive. It kind of stood out. People knew you were from there. France says of the Galileans, and specifically Peter, his accent would immediately mark him out as, quote, not one of us, and of the communal prejudice of the supposedly superior culture of the capital city, and all the communal prejudice of the supposedly superior culture of the capital city, that's Jerusalem, would stand against His claim to be heard even as a prophet, let alone as a Messiah. A title which everyone knew belonged to Judea.

Inside of Bethlehem, the Messiah would come. So really, when Peter says that Jesus is from Nazareth, this is the opposite of name dropping, where you mention an important name in order to associate and connect yourself with that person, in order to be known as somebody who knows them or somebody who has access to them. You hope to elevate your social status by name dropping important names. This is just the opposite. He's naming a name that most people would want not to mention, would just ignore it as not something they would lead with.

But Peter says the first thing about Jesus is that He is of Nazareth. And so in identifying Jesus as being of Nazareth, Peter is proclaiming Christ's humility. And He is also Himself identifying with it. He is a man, secondly. Peter says, Jesus of Nazareth, amen.

Jesus was a man. He had a human nature just like us. This is also proclaiming Jesus' humility. Jesus humbled Himself, Paul said. He was in the form of God, who did not think it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond-servant and coming in the likeness of men." Jesus humbled Himself to add to His divine nature a human nature and being found in the appearance of a man.

He didn't show up in His divine glory, except on the Mount of transfiguration. He showed up in appearance as a helpless baby, and he grew up as a child who needed to grow and understand and learn things, and to be in submission to his father and mother. He had the limitations of a human nature, as far as what was seen. He had to take a human nature to himself so that he could die in our place, as our sacrifice. I don't know if it's ever been done in history, but I would think it has.

I didn't find any quick examples in a quick search, but suppose if someone has been condemned to prison or condemned to die, would the court accept the substitute of a pet dog? No. They might accept the substitute though of a person who was volunteering to step in and bear that penalty. So Christ had to have a human nature like ours to be our substitute. He's also a man attested by God through signs and wonders.

As a man, he was attested to by God through signs and wonders. Miracles, wonders, and signs. Signs and wonders are to attest to the authenticity of the person and their message. Signs and wonders are a seal to authenticate the message and the messenger. Nicodemus told Jesus, Rabbi, we know you are a teacher come from God, for no one could do these signs that you do unless God is with him.

Nechademus recognized these signs as authenticating the fact that he was the Son of God, from God. I should say He was authenticated as from God. Hebrews says, in Hebrews 2, Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard lest we drift away for if the words spoken through angels prove steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience receive the just reward, how shall we neglect so great a salvation which at first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him. God also bearing witness, both with signs and wonders, and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His will." The signs and wonders were from God through the Holy Spirit to attest to Jesus, the man, that He was from God. You know, just like God authenticated other men with His message.

Like Moses. God gave Moses signs to authenticate him as God's messenger, to authenticate his authority. God gave him this calling, go deliver my people out of Egypt, go confront Pharaoh. And Moses said, but suppose they don't listen to me. Suppose they don't listen to my voice.

Suppose they say, well, God hasn't appeared to you. Then what should I do? God didn't say, oh, don't worry about it, just go and trust Me. No, God immediately gives Him authenticating signs. Then it will be...

He gave him those two signs. Remember throwing down his stick? He immediately said, well, throw down your stick. Moses did it. He turned it into a snake.

God said, pick it up. He did. And it turned back into his rod. He said, put your hand in my coat, and it became leprous. And when he put it back in again, took it out, it was restored.

And so Moses has these authenticating signs. And then Moses was still not quite satisfied. He said, well then if they don't believe you, or heed the message of the first sign, God said then it will be that if they don't believe you or heed the message of the first sign, God said, then it will be that if they don't believe you or heed the message of the first sign, they might believe the second sign. But then He goes on to say, and it shall be if they don't believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, then He gave them a third sign to authenticate His message. See, the purpose of signs God gives to authenticate His prophets.

The disciples, for the same thing, God authenticated them by signs and wonders. They went out and they preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, confirming the Word through accompanying signs, Mark 16 says. Acts 14 says that Paul and Barnabas stayed a long time in Iconium, speaking boldly of the Lord who was bearing witness to the Word of His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. God authenticated these apostles, or Paul and Barnabas. And so Paul calls them in 1 Corinthians 12, 12, Paul calls them the miracles, or the signs of an apostle.

They're authenticating signs. And so God authenticated the man, Jesus Christ, by signs and wonders. But these are signs and wonders, notice, that are done by God. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did through Him in your midst. God did these signs and wonders.

Wasn't Jesus God, we would say? Well, Why would it say God would perform miracles through him? It's because Jesus performed His miracles through the power of the Holy Spirit, just like any other man who performed miracles performed them by the power of the Holy Spirit. Moses' miracles were done by the power of God's Spirit. Elijah's miracles were done by the Spirit of God.

They were not done in Elijah's own power. And so Jesus did not perform the miracles that He did by His own divine power as the second person of the Trinity. No, He performed the miracles that He did as a man by the power of the Holy Spirit. Because remember, He had to be made in all points even as we are. He had to be subjected in all points even as we are, which means He had to live through the power of the Holy Spirit.

He was like us so that He could make propitiation for us. Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people." See, Any miracles that any man has ever done are always done by the power of the Holy Spirit, and so Jesus' miracles were also done by the power of the Holy Spirit. Nicodemus was right. No mere man could do any of these miracles. Now, we read verses 19 and 20, because they speak about, Joel said there would be signs and wonders.

Joel speaks here about verse 19, signs and wonders. And Peter quotes this passage as saying, this is what is being fulfilled in your day. Now some people such as the Venerable Bede, who was an Irish pastor born in the 600s, he might be called a priest by some, but I believe he was married, and he was considered by some to be one of the great theological minds of the church. He wrote a number of commentaries. We don't have most of them, but we have some, and we have his one on Acts.

And he said, He says of this passage that the blood, the fire, and the vapor of smoke, which Peter quotes out of Joel, remember Peter is quoting Joel to say this is what's happening today in your midst. So I want to comment on this a minute. He saw this blood, fire, and vapor of smoke as references to Christ's blood flowing from His side after He died. The fire is coming from the Holy Spirit falling on them, and the vapor is something that follows the Holy Spirit like smoke follows fire. And so he said the sun being darkened happened at the crucifixion, but that the moon turned to blood was not something that would have been observed by the people of that day or at the Passover because that was on the fifteenth day of the month and so it was a full moon, and in a full moon the moon is hidden by day from the sight of, he says, was hidden by day from the sight of mortals by the interposition of the earth." So in a full moon, the moon sets at sunrise and it rises at sunset, so it's not visible during the day, whereas other times the moon is visible during the day, depending on the phase, part of the lunar cycle it's in.

So he didn't think that was fulfilled. But I think that these references here to the signs and wonders in heaven and the signs in the earth beneath, the blood, the fire and the vapor of smoke, the sun being turned into darkness and the moon into blood. I believe that these are references to the Day of the Lord. Because He says these things will happen before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. Now, in the New Testament, with the exception of this passage, the other few references to the day of the Lord are all, I believe, to the Second Coming.

But this is a passage that came out of the Old Testament. And in the Old Testament, the Day of the Lord is used many, many, many times. Many times. I could give you a number of examples that refer to a day of judgment. And it said that the day of the Lord is at hand, that it's near many times.

In other words, it's not a far-off judgment that's still thousands of years in the future. But it was a judgment that was near at hand, and many times it was speaking of the judgment on Babylon, or the judgment on Israel, the Babylonian judgment on Israel, or judgment on Assyria. So the day of the Lord in the Old Testament refers to a day of judgment. In the New Testament, it refers to also a day of judgment, but I believe usually it's the final judgment. But in this case, this is a quote out of Joel, and in this case I believe it is speaking about the judgment, the day of judgment that culminated around 70 AD in the destruction of Jerusalem.

And I think there is some proof for that. I'd just like to give you one passage in Revelation 6, which is for those of you that sat through the Revelation series by Pastor Kaiser, you'll be very familiar with this, but I believe this is a passage that refers to the time leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem. And John says there in Revelation 6, I looked when he opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake. So this would have been right before the 70 AD judgment. And the sun became black as sackcloth, and the moon became like blood.

And he describes the more terrifying signs and wonders, concluding with in verse 17, "'For the day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?' This is the only place that speaks of signs and wonders in heaven, the sun being darkened, and the moon being turned to blood. So I think this is a reference here. These signs and wonders are not necessarily the authenticating signs of Christ's humanity, Him as from God, but rather signs that accompanied His judgment on Jerusalem in 70 AD. But Joel is referring to this age, that time, that began at Pentecost and extending to the destruction of Jerusalem. To the destruction of Jerusalem.

Well, and so having proclaimed then who Jesus is, Peter then proclaims his death. Him, Christ, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death. First thing Peter says about this death of Jesus is that it is ordained by God. It was determined by God according to the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God." In other words, God sovereignly determined or ordained Christ's death. Referring to God, the Father, Romans 8 says, "...He who did not spare his own son but delivered Him up for us all." See, God ordains everything that comes to pass, even sins.

Revelation describes Christ as being slain from before the foundation of the world. All who dwell on earth will worship Him whose names have not been written in the book of life of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world." Now, he's slain from the foundation of the world because God ordained that He would be slain before the foundation of the world. And that ordination was so certain, because nothing that God ever ordains does not come to pass. Christ's death was so certain, because God ordained it, That it is as good as having happened. And so the Bible speaks of Christ's death as Christ had been slain from the foundation of the world.

It had to happen. God ordained it. But at the same time, Peter says that the men of Israel, that he was addressing that they were responsible for Christ's crucifixion and death. He said Christ was put to death by your Lawless hands. He's just accused His audience of the murder of the Son of God.

Lawless hands. It was an unjust death. And They were the ones who did it. They were guilty. Now, although God ordains even sins, decrees even the actions of sinful men, God is not the author of sin, and He doesn't tempt anyone to sin.

Other passages put God's sovereignty and human responsibility together. Think of 2 Chronicles 21 where Ezra says that Satan moved David to number Israel. And then 2 Samuel 24, which says that God moved David to number Israel because his anger was aroused against Israel. And in verse 10 of 2 Samuel 24, David's heart is convicted of his sin and he acknowledges his sin to the Lord saying, I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now I pray, O Lord, take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have done very foolishly." David accepted the full responsibility for his sin.

A sin that God had ordained and Satan had moved him to do it. Or another example is Pharaoh. The Bible says that God hardened Pharaoh's heart, and then a few verses later it will say that Pharaoh hardened His heart. You see, both are true. But even though God is ordaining these events, He is not the author of sin.

That means when we sin, we do so of our own free will. We can't say that somebody else made us do it. That Satan made us do it. Or that some person made us do it. Or, God forbid, that God did.

Some people have blasphemously accused God of that. But people sin by their own volition. As humans, we are free to do what we will or desire to do. Our will is free to make choices, and we do. And when we make those choices, We are deciding freely of our own volition.

See, to make man morally accountable for his sins, nothing more is needed than that a man acts with the full consent of his will and is not forced to act against his will. See, even our law recognizes that if somebody is forced to act against their will, that they are not guilty of what they did. If somebody takes your hand forcibly and makes your finger forcibly pull a trigger on a gun and kill somebody, even our state laws recognize that's not murder, that even though you did it, it was contrary to your will. See, James teaches that we are tempted when we are drawn away by our own desires and enticed. It's our own desire, our own will that we exercise.

And then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. See, sin begins in that desire. That's what makes us accountable for what we do. Sin arises from the desires in our heart. Now God not only can't be tempted, he doesn't have any desires to go act contrary to his will, but he doesn't tempt anyone.

God doesn't put a desire to act contrary to His own will in anyone's heart. But rather, we out of the corruption of our own heart desire to do and act contrary to God's law. So now you might ask, well then how can God be sovereign like this and ordain even the sins of men, but man is still responsible? It does seem hard to understand. And maybe we can't fully understand it.

But I'll give you an example. And many of you have probably heard this example, but probably not all. You know, IBM engineers made a computer, made several actually over the years, that could play chess and that computer that these men built could play chess against the greatest chess masters in the world, and it could beat them. Sometimes they'd lose, but a lot of times it could beat them as well. Now, the humans that wrote this code for this computer could not themselves, even collectively, win a chess game against the international grandmasters that their computer was playing against.

They couldn't do it. This computer that they built, though, could. So The computer is obviously making decisions independent of any human input into it. But as it's making those decisions, it's doing nothing but what has been ordained from beforehand, you could say, simply running the script that was in it. And so I give that as an example to say if humans, if we as limited humans can build something that is able to make decisions different from us, how much more can God not build humans who are able to act of their own will, of their own volition, and yet everything that they do is ordained by God because God ordains all of the circumstances and every single detail around everything that happens.

And when we, in the sinfulness of our heart, make choices in the context of all those circumstances, you see God is ordaining what happens to every little thing that happens. And yet we are still freely making decisions of our own will. And of course computers are not moral agents. They aren't morally responsible for what they do. The humans that are behind them are responsible for what they do.

But as humans, we are moral agents. So there are other aspects I think we need to remember is that when God ordains, for example, a murder and somebody is killed by the sin of another person, There is no injustice on God's part because there is no injustice to the person that was killed on God's part. There is injustice on the part of the human that killed them. That's wrong. They didn't deserve to die humanly speaking.

They weren't condemned by a court at law. But in God's sight, all of us deserve to die. And if God takes the life of somebody through the unjust action of another person, that's not an injustice on God's part, because we're all sinners, and we all deserve to die. If God takes the life of a saint in their sleep at 99 years of age, there's no injustice on God to do that. But it would be if Some person took it upon themselves to do that.

You see, so there is no injustice in any sin that is ordained by God. The third thing Peter speaks about is Christ's resurrection. He's died, put to death, whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be held by it." And then Peter quotes a text of Scripture. You notice how Peter is preaching from Scripture? He's not just talking about his own ideas, but he is going to the Scriptures and he's preaching the Scriptures.

And he goes here to Psalm 16. I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for He is at my right hand that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart rejoiced, my tongue was glad. Moreover, my flesh will rest in hope, for you will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will you allow your Holy One to seek corruption." He loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that Christ could be held by them. The pains of death uses the word for labor pains, the pains of birthing.

And He didn't leave Christ's soul in Hades. Now this can be confusing, I acknowledge. It's a confusion bit of our language. Because the Apostles Creed says that He descended into hell. Jesus said to the thief on the cross, today you will be with me in paradise.

And we know that his body was laid in a tomb. How are all these things true? Well, some of this is language. There are several doctrines in the Bible, doctrines taught in the Bible, that are identified by names that are not in the Bible. Or they are names that are in the Bible but mean something different in the Bible than how they are commonly used to describe a doctrine.

I'll give you an example. For example, we believe in the Trinity. And by that, we mean the doctrine or teaching that God is one God in three distinct persons. But the word Trinity is not anywhere in the Bible. Another example is the doctrine of reprobation.

The teaching that God ordains some people to everlasting torment and destruction. But the word reprobate is not in the Bible if you have a modern Bible. Or if you have an older Reformation-era version, The word reprobation or reprobate is in the Bible, but none of the passages where it's used in the Bible are teaching the doctrine of reprobation. Because the word simply means rejected or disqualified. And so that can be confusing.

If you want to study the doctrine of reprobation, then you get a Reformation era Bible and look up the word reprobation, you won't find the passages that speak on that doctrine. Well, the doctrine of hell is another example that's even more confusing because of the change in meaning of the English word hell. Hell is commonly used to speak of the doctrine of hell. Even when people are using it as a swear word. That is the everlasting torment of the damned in the lake of fire.

That's the doctrine of hell. And today we commonly use the word hell to refer to the lake of fire. But that's not what the word was always necessarily used for. It used to be commonly used to translate the Hebrew sheol and the Greek Hades. And those are not the lake of fire.

They're so different. Webster's 1828 dictionary, the second definition of hell is the place of the dead or of souls after death called in Hebrew sheol and by the Greek Hades. It's the place of souls after death in the Old Testament. So what do we know about shiol? Well, we know from the Bible that it is down in the depths of the earth.

There are almost all the passages that refer to Sheol speak of going down to Sheol. The Lord kills and make alive, He brings down to Sheol. 2 Kings 2, Do not let His gray hair go down to Sheol in peace. Do not hold Him guiltless, but bring His gray hair down to Sheol with blood. Job 7.9, as the cloud disappears and vanishes away, so he who goes down to Sheol.

Job 17, will they go down to the gates of Sheol? Job 21, They spend their days in wealth and in a moment go down to Sheol. In Numbers 16 and 17, where Korah dates in Ebirah, they go down, the earth opens up and they go down to Sheol. In their bodies. That's the difference.

Amos 2. Though they dig into Sheol, from there My hand will dig down into the earth. Psalm 33, O Lord, You brought My soul up from Sheol. To come out of Sheol means you have to go up. But secondly, not only is Sheol low, there is apparently more than one Sheol, or more than one place in Sheol, because there is a lowest Sheol.

Deuteronomy 32, 22, For a fire is kindled in my anger and shall burn to the lowest shield. It shall consume the earth with their increase and set on the foundations of the mountains. Or Isaiah 14. You shall be brought down to Sheol to the lowest depths of the pit." So there's a lowest Sheol, which means there has to be a Sheol that's not the lowest. It's a higher Sheol.

We also know that it is a place of wrath. The wicked shall be turned into sheol and all the nations that forget God." Psalm 9, "...as drought and heat consume the soul waters, so sheol consumes those who have sinned." Sheol consumes. Or Job 7, "...as the cloud disappears and vanishes, so he who goes down the shield does not come up. But the righteous, on the other hand, are delivered from shield. Psalm 30, which we just read, is delivered from shield.

For great is Your mercy toward me, You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol, for He shall receive me." Psalm 49, 15. The righteous are delivered out of Sheol. But there's also a sheol without wrath. Oh, that you would hide me in sheol, Job said, that you would conceal me until your wrath is passed, that you would appoint me at set time and remember me.

Job wanted to be hidden from God's wrath in Sheol. So you have a Sheol where there is God's wrath, and you have a Sheol where there isn't God's wrath. There's also a separation between these two places. Luke 16. I'm going to read this because this is a very descriptive passage about Sheol.

It's not a parable, right? There is a man named in a parable. It doesn't just say some beggar. It's a beggar that's named by name. There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, but there was a beggar named Lazarus full of sores who was laid at his gate.

And so it was the beggar died and was carried by angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried and being in torments in Hades." Now, Hades is a physical place. This man is in Hades. He's in torments. He lifts up his eyes and he saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom.

Notice he is looking up. So he's in the lowest shiel, and Lazarus and Abraham are in a shiel that is higher, because he has to look up. And he's in torment where he is, but Lazarus is not in torment. And he cries out, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham says, son, remember in your lifetime you received good things and likewise Lazarus' evil things.

But now he is comforted and you are tormented." So Lazarus is in paradise. He's being comforted in Sheol, but the rich man is in the lower Sheol and he's being tormented. And he says, besides all this, there is a great gulf fix so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from here pass down to you. In other words, Lazarus couldn't go there if he wanted to. He can't go there.

It's a gulf. But it's close enough that he could see up into Lazarus, up in the bosom of Abraham. And of course, you know, the rich man says he had five brothers and he wanted somebody to rise from the dead and testify, lest they also come to this place of torment. So we know there's a lowest, there's an upper, there's a gulf fixed between them, the lower is a place of torment, the upper is a place of paradise. Now Revelation 20 says that Hades and death are cast into the lake of fire.

And so all those whose souls are not rescued from Hades are cast into the lake of fire. Revelation 20, 13. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and death in Hades delivered up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one according to their works. Then death in Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

And anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. So what Peter says here, quoting David in Psalm 16, which is spoken of Christ, is that, You will not leave my soul in Hades. You will not leave my soul in Hades." He broke the bonds of death. Death could not be held, death could not hold him because he paid the penalty. He wasn't guilty.

The wrath of God had been satisfied and Death no longer had any hold on him. And so he is raised up out of Hades. He leads captives out of captivity. So that now in Revelation 12, Revelation 14, the Bible says that blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. From now on.

All the Old Testament saints went to paradise, shiel, upper shiel or lower shiel. But Christ has broken the bonds of death and and has. Taken all of the saints of that era into heaven. And so we when we die, we can go to heaven. We don't have time to look at some of the implications of that, but there are other passages that support this.

So Jesus did not remain in Hades. He's conquered death. And so, brothers and sisters, he has removed the sting of death. We no longer need to labor under the sting of death. He has broken the back of death.

Yes, it is a sorrow. Yes, it is a grief, but it's temporary. The separation that we experience when loved ones depart from us is temporary. And it is an enemy that Christ has defeated. And because He has defeated it, our bodies will also rest in hope until the resurrection.

And we can die in this hope. And remember, it is a sure and certain hope. Something that we may not see yet with our eyes, and yet it is a sure and certain hope that our bodies, because Christ's soul was not left in Hades, neither will we. Our bodies will not be left in the ground. And we can praise the Lord for that and comfort one another with that knowledge.

This is a great comfort in times of affliction, in times of persecution, in times where we face death, that God has removed the sting of death. He has defeated it. His soul cannot be held by death. Heavenly Father, we thank You for the truth of Your Word, for your Holy Spirit that brings it to us, brings to us its comforts, as well as its warnings. We ask that we might heed those warnings, but also that we might fully embrace the comfort and the consolation of your word and Or may you comfort us and strengthen us this morning in the knowledge that you have defeated death and that our and for it could not hold you.

It had no power over you. And thus, Lord, we rest in that same hope. Thank you, Father, for this comfort in Jesus' name. Amen.