Going to Hell for All the Right Reasons

Who’s in hell? Who’s in the prison? According to the text, the fallen angels, and those persons of the antediluvian age who did not listen to the preaching of Noah. But I think that they represent a microcosmic reflection of a macrocosmic reality of people who refuse to hear the gospel. The way one winds up in Hades is by rejecting the person of Jesus Christ. You may believe in Buddha, you may believe in Confucius, you may believe in all the other idol gods, but there’s no other name given among humans whereby we must be saved other than the name of Jesus (Acts 4:12)!

Why did Jesus go to the prison? Jesus went to the prison in order to say to disobedient spirits, "I won." The forecast for us is that the battle is already over. We are victorious. He went there to say that what was written in Matthew 16:18, "On this rock I shall build my church and the gates of hell shall not withstand it" is accomplished. The gates are not an offensive weapon. Gates are a defensive instrument! It’s the church that’s on the offense! And the gates of hell cannot prevail or withstand the approach of the church.

Jesus is saying to those in the headquarters of Hades, "Your time of authority is up." He’s saying in 1 Corinthians 15:25 that "I must reign until I have put every enemy under My feet, and the last enemy is death." He will say to death, "O death where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory? For the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. Thanks be to God for giving us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 15:55-57).

Paul said in that wonderful Christological hymn in Philippians 2:5-11, that Jesus Christ, who was in the image of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God but had a "kenosis" experience. He emptied Himself, condescended, became a servant and was obedient to death, even to the death on a cross. But God had now highly exalted Him and given Him a name that’s above every name, that "at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, on earth, and under the earth."

The songwriter wrote, "When Christ shall come with shouts of acclamation, to take me home, what joy shall fill my heart? Then I shall bow in humble adoration, and there proclaim, ‘My God how great Thou art!’" Every knee shall bow to the lordship of Christ.

During the Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippin era, the Chicago Bulls were my favorite team. They were playing the championship game. I was at church that night. However, I had the game taped at home. I said to myself, I hope no one happens to come to pick up some worshiper and yells out the winner of the game. I wanted to really live with the suspense. Before I could get in my car after the conclusion of the evening service, however, someone blurted out, "The Bulls won! The Bulls won!"