Still air, very quiet in the dark. There was no whispered prayers, nor voice lamenting Him. In the dark of that tomb there was only Messiah — dead.
Jesus’ body lay dormant, no signs of life from Him. There was no pulse, no breath, no fluttering of His eyes. Truly, the Son of Man had been killed — natural result of being crucified.
If a device had existed to confirm His deceased state, it would have. His body, His truly human body, had truly been killed — but mystery of mysteries, His Spirit did depart.
For you and I, there’s no choice to live or die. Our arrival into Sheol is not a journey we make; we’re taken. But the Lord Jesus travelled there — to a certain place, by His intention.
Matthew says Christ yielded up His Spirit.
Mark says Jesus breathed His last.
Luke quoted Psalm 31, verse 5.
John quotes “Tetelestai!”
What happened when Jesus died?
Yet there is more to know if we have hearts to understand.
Follow the line of thought as we examine the active “sleep” of the GodMan.
What does hatred sound like?
Do you imagine screams of rage?
What does hatred sound like?
A silent tomb for three days
The Flood of floods, the flood to end all floods
God was grieved at heart
Man’s heart was only evil, truly bad by blood
So God determined to end them all
Every living thing
Man’s corruption was truly bitter gall
A third of holy angels became unholy at the Fall
Following their master
The crafty, wicked serpent had deceived them all
The demons now had mission, corrupt though it be
Destroy the sons of Adam
Corrupt God’s promise to the woman Eve
Two types of “sons of God” are seen in Genesis chapter 6
On one hand the Messiah’s line of Seth
On the other, angels corrupted by Satan’s politics
But there is only One begotten, One truest Son of God
So Seth’s line became polluted
When demons entered women to produce their evil fraud
Angels cannot produce any offspring of their own
But they can taint a person
When, by possession, a child is conceived and grown
These sins are what grieved God’s heart
Man hated Imago Dei
Almighty God hated what demons did impart
Sowing to the flesh can only reap corruption
And demons sowed with Man
All flesh would perish in God’s judgement eruption
Yet there was a man whom God chose to be saved
He was one who found God’s favour
Type and shadow of the rest to come, Noah was his name
Noah was a man who was blessed by God in faith
Alone in his generation
His rest was God’s salvation as he lead the group of eight
1st Peter chapter three, verses 13 through 22
The flow of thought has apex
In the Apostle’s Flood of comfort truth
In context of that judgement and of the salvation
Peter brings comfort by his words
The wicked: punished; the righteous: preservation
Jesus, when He died, went somewhere as a Spirit
By intention, He chose the prison
Where pre-flood demons are chained within the pit
Those demons who sought to corrupt Messiah’s line
Who corrupted all humanity
Whose perverse plan corrupted the pre-flood flesh of Man
It’s a mystery to behold, that those spirits were imprisoned
Where is it told how or when?
Nonetheless they failed because Jesus, He is risen
When the Lord Jesus went, He went to speak the word
Victory
The proclamation of Christ was the fulfillment of the Lord
What did Jesus say to rebellious demonic beings?
Exact words are not recorded
A message was heralded of which demons can’t agree
The message related to the Flood and to its baneful
This proclamation was to the fallen
He was made, for a little while, lower than the angels
Yet the little while was ending as Jesus body lay
Though in Spirit, still fully God, fully Man
The resurrection of Christ would be in three days
What does hatred sound like?
Do you imagine screams of rage?
What does hatred sound like?
A silent tomb for three days
Those creatures in the prison are no friend of Jesus Christ
They incited God to destroy the Earth
They are accountable, incarcerated enemies of eternal Life
Do we believe that they met Jesus with any sort of joy?
Didn’t God put them in prison?
So it shall be for all flesh or spirit of all Satan employs
So though the tomb lay silent, Christ in death was not
The dark prison heard His message
And though they are in chains, a spirit cannot rot
Try to imagine what else hatred sounds like
The context is still the tomb
Remember the cause of Christ’s crucifixion spikes
God hates your sin, and He hates it in totality
Loathe is too small a word
Psalm 5:5 says God “hates all who do iniquity”
Psalm 11:5 speaks to those violence in their blood
God very Soul hates them
Fire, brimstone, and burning wind is the portion of their cup
So you say that you’ve never shed another’s blood
But remember Noah’s lesson
Only those with faith escaped God’s flood
In Romans chapter 3 you see the corruption of all men
All are bound in wickedness
Because violence is of the heart and we all give it “amen”
In Matthew chapter 5 Jesus explains all sins
Murder, lies, adultery
Corruption of the heart is where every sin begins
So, what does hatred sound like?
Do you imagine screams of rage?
What does hatred sound like?
A silent tomb for three days
God hates sin more than any other thing
So He slew His Son
That the sons of God may be redeemed
As His body lay in silence, in darkness of the tomb
God’s hatred of sin was moving
He proclaimed a message by which sinners are exhumed
The Saturday between His death and resurrection is a day we feel we have little to say. Yet Jesus was doing something — proclaiming a message to evil spirits.
Though His body was still and silent, the Lord Jesus was on the move. Fully God, Fully Man, even in death — always our Federal Head.
So when Christians sleep and they are also silent in the grave, they emulate the Savior. His death spoke a message — our deaths with do the same.
His message was His victory. From greater to the lesser: even destruction of the world cannot not stop God’s promises — and those who sought destruction, will destruction reap.
That’s what happened when Jesus died.
