Crucified, Dead, and Buried

This morning we continue in our study of the Apostles Creed, and as we’ve done each time, let’s begin by reciting it together. Lately, we’ve been considering what the creed says about the works of Jesus, and today we come to the phrase, “crucified, dead, and buried.” We have before us what is known as “the passion of the Christ” – the cruel reality of his painful death at the hands of Roman and Jewish authorities by the worst torture device the Romans had in their arsenal. Anyone who considers the cruelty of the cross should be amazed at how this ancient method of torture could become a symbol of grace and beauty. The cross is plastered everywhere in our society, from roadside displays to graveyards to jewelry. The only reason that this symbol of torture became a thing of beauty is because of one man, Jesus Christ.  And, at the time that the Apostles Creed was developed, crosses were still used for torture, not beauty. So, there are some very important reasons that this creed states clearly that Jesus was crucified, that he died, and that he was buried. This morning I want to consider two points from this statement: the cross of Christ is evidence, and the cross is essential.

First, consider the fact that the cross of Christ is evidence of the truthfulness of the Gospel message. I’ve recently made this point, that Christianity is unlike any other religion in one important sense. Christianity is rooted in historical truth claims – we claim that our Lord Jesus lived in a specific time and place, under the rule of real people like Pontius Pilate, that he actually healed people, that he actually had disciples who could testify to him, and that he actually died on a cross, was buried in Joseph’s grave, and rose again on the third day. Now, this is a dangerous place for a religion to be. You see, as long as a religion speaks of morality, it can’t be disproven. As long as a religion speaks of metaphysics and spirituality, it can’t be debunked. But, when a religion says, “this thing happened in space and time and it means something – in fact, it proves something”, then that religion runs the real risk of being disproven. All of Christianity – the rituals, the church buildings and budgets, the traditions, all of it – hangs on this single thread – Jesus was crucified, dead, and buried, and on the third day rose again. Satan knows this, and throughout the history of the church, he has focused much of his energy on cutting this one thread. At the end of the first century, a group of false teachers arose in the church who were influenced by the Greek philosophy of Neo-Platonism. These Gnostics (as they were called) believed in secret knowledge that only the truly enlightened could know (“gnostic” means “to know”). They taught that the material world is evil, created by other forces besides God, and that our souls are effectively trapped in this world. In an effort to destroy the true church, they infiltrated the ranks of pastors and began to spread their false doctrine. They even produced what are now known as the Gnostic Gospels – written long after the four Gospels of the NT and telling a very different story. There are two lies about the life and death of Jesus that the Gnostics spread, and the Apostles Creed takes these lies head on.

First, because the Gnostics believed that the material world is evil, they rejected the possibility that Jesus could have been born in the flesh, that he could have suffered human pains, or that he could have been killed at the hands of the Romans. So, they taught that either Jesus simply appeared to die on the cross, or that he wasn’t even there (that someone else, like Judas, died in his place). In modern times, we find similar efforts to discredit the actual death of Jesus. Some atheists, for example, deny that Jesus even existed. These atheists will even go so far as to suggest that the 120 followers of Jesus were under a mass dilution - possibly caused by mushrooms – and they simply hallucinated this Jesus. These lies about Jesus are just ludicrous for two reasons. For one, outside sources – even hostile sources – affirm the life of Jesus. One of the best examples of this is the Jews. What better argument could the Jews of Jesus’ day had to this new religion than to say, “Hey guys, yall are just high!” But they didn’t. Ancient Jewish sources refer to Jesus as a sorcerer and deceiver, which proves that Jesus was a real human and that he worked miracles. But, we have a better reason than that. We have eye-witness testimony from his own disciples. The disciple John begins his first epistle by saying, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands…” John, combating the false teachings of Gnosticism in his day, says, “Look guys, I saw him, I lived with him, I touched him and heard him preach.” Jesus was not a spirit that the Apostles followed or a hallucination they tripped out on. He is the real, flesh-and-blood, son of God. And, this real son of God died on the cross and was buried in a tomb.

Second, later Gnostics popularized the belief that Jesus didn’t die on the cross, but rather he escaped by some conspiracy of the Apostles and went on to have a family. This view has gained popularity recently with Dan Brown’s book and subsequent movie, The DaVinci Code. Modern atheists join the Gnostics in this conspiracy theory to suggest that Jesus didn’t die on the cross, but rather he swooned, recovered while in the tomb, rolled a 2000-pound stone away, and met up with his disciples to propagate the belief that he had risen from the dead. In either form, this lie is ridiculous! For one, the physical abuse that Jesus suffered prior to and on the cross would have killed anyone. Jesus received 39 lashings with a cat-of-nine-tails that would have ripped most of the skin from his back. He would have likely bled to death just from this. But, then he was nailed to a cross which was designed to suffocate its victims to death. Because he hung from his arms on the nails driven through his hands, he couldn’t breathe. In order to breathe, he would have to push up from the nail in his feet so that his diaphragm could expand to get air. The beating and suffocation were enough to kill him, as the Roman soldier (trained in the art of death) recognized. But even still, the soldier drove a spear through his heart, guaranteeing that Jesus was dead. Every bit of the eye-witness testimony points to the real, terrible death of Jesus Christ.

This lie is also ridiculous because it ignores the faithful witness of the apostles, who were willing to suffer tortures and executions of their own for the truth. Why would anyone be willing to die for a lie? If James knew that Jesus had simply swooned and then later recovered, why would he faithfully witness to Jesus’ death and resurrection and be thrown from the roof of the temple for it? If Jesus had faked his death, why would Nathanael stand by his testimony at threat of being skinned alive? All of the apostles faced similar fates, and none recanted or confessed some grand conspiracy.

Now that we’ve seen the evidences of the cross, consider that the cross of Jesus Christ is essential. To see that, look with me at Col. 2:13-15. According to Paul, there are two benefits we have through the cross of Christ. First, in verse 13 and 14 Paul says that through the cross we have the forgiveness of our sins. He says that Jesus canceled the record of our debt. Understand, every one of us has a debt of sin that we cannot pay. As Rom. 6:23 says, “the wages of sin is death.” We all deserve death and hell because of the wages we have earned through our sin. But, Jesus died as a substitutionary sacrifice for us, and in so doing, he cancelled our debt.

Second, in verse 15, Paul says that Jesus disarmed and shamed the rulers and authorities by triumphing over them on the cross. There is a great story behind the story of Scripture. From the very beginning, in Satan’s temptation of Adam and Eve, evil spiritual forces (rulers and authorities) have ruled mankind. In fact, this is the great drama of Adam and Eve’s deception in the garden – they submitted to the rule of Satan over the rule of God. The Lord tells Cain this same thing in Genesis 4 (“sin is crouching at the door, and its desire is to rule over you”). The pagan nations were ruled by wicked kings, and standing behind those kings were evil spirits they worshiped as gods. So, the Bible sees humanity as enslaved to sin and the devil, and the devil is often referred to as the “ruler of this world.” At the cross, this great story-behind-the-story came to the fore. Satan used every power at his disposal, from the religious leaders to the political rulers to the military authorities, to once and for all destroy the will of God by destroying his Son. This Messiah would not rule, if Satan had anything to do with it. This Savior would not deliver his people if the devil had a say. So, through his human pawns, he had the Son of God beaten, mocked, shamed, tortured, and killed. And in it all, he walked right into the trap of God’s plan. The priests thought they were handing over a blasphemer, but they were offering a lamb for sacrifice. The scholars thought they were putting down a pretender to the throne of David, but then Pilate officially declared him, in writing, to be the king of the Jews. The Roman authorities thought they had put to death another criminal, even sealing his grave and guarding it, but on the third day, the tomb was empty and the guards speechless. All the authorities of earth and hell did their worst, and even in that they could not defeat the Son of God.

Friend, Jesus was crucified, he died, and he was buried so that you might be forgiven and set free from the bondage of sin and the devil. The only way to escape the judgment of God that is still to come on the world is through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Won’t you turn in faith and repentance today?

Brothers and sisters, we are set free from sin and Satan through Jesus Christ. Because of that, we are able to live in righteousness. We have new life, so now may we go live our new life for Christ.