Jesus

by Leonard Sweet

  54. As quoted in Albert Edward Thompson, The Life of A. B. Simpson (New York: Christian Alliance Publishing Co., 1920), 196.

  55. Ps. 138.6.

  56. Isa. 65:5 NLT.

  57. Ex. 30:6; 37:25–28. Exodus 30:6 even may mean that the altar of incense was within the veil, or within the Holy of Holies itself (ref. Heb. 9:4).

  58. Henry David Thoreau, Walden: A Fully Annotated Edition, ed. Jeffrey S. Cramer (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004), 71.

  59. “Ivory Palaces,” words and music by Henry Barraclough, 1915.

  60. Mark 15:20.

  61. “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34 kjv).

  62. Matt. 26:30; Mark 14:26.

  63. Ps. 116:16. The “Last Supper” in view here is regarded by Catholics to be the “first Mass.”

  64. Versitis is a metaphorical disease to describe the act of approaching the Bible with a scissors mentality, cutting apart verses to build doctrines and justify church practices. A coining of this phrase can be found in Leonard Sweet, Viral: How Social Media Is Poised to Ignite Revival (Colorado Springs: WaterBrook, 2012). For a further detailed explanation of the problem and how it emerged, see Frank Viola and George Barna, Pagan Christianity: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices (Carol Stream, IL: BarnaBooks, 2008), chap. 11; and for a suggested solution, see Viola, The Untold Story of the New Testament Church (see intro., n. 80).

  65. Mark 15:24 NLT.

  66. Psalm 69:20–21: “If only one person would show some pity. . . . But instead . . . they offer me sour wine for my thirst” (nlt); Psalm 34:20: “The Lord protects the bones of the righteous; not one of them is broken!” (nlt); Psalm 31:5: “I entrust my spirit into your hand” (NLT).

  67. Luke 23:36.

  68. Matt. 27:54.

  69. Ps. 22:15 NIV.

  70. Ps. 22:31 NIV.

  71. Heb. 9:11–12 nlt; 10:19–20 NIV. According to Hebrews, the curtain that divided the holy place from the Holy of Holies depicted the Lord’s own body. Once His body was torn, the curtain was torn as well, and “the way into the Holiest of All” (Heb. 9:8) was made available.

  Chapter 14: The Atonement and the Harrowing of Hell

  1. Bruce, Jesus, Lord & Savior, 114 (see chap. 2, n. 146).

  2. N. T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God, vol. 2 of Christian Origins and the Question of God, 370ff., 405ff.; James Edward Talmage and Walter Kasper, Jesus the Christ (n.p.: Valde Books, 2009), 117; Raymond E. Brown, The Death of the Messiah: From Gethsemane to the Grave: A Commentary on the Passion Narratives in the Four Gospels, vol. 1 (n.p.: Yale Univerity Press, 1998), 460; Witherington, The Christology of Jesus, 117–18; Klyne R. Snodgrass, “The Temple Incident,” in Bock and Webb, eds., Key Events in the Life of the Historical Jesus, chap. 10, pp. 429–80 (see intro., n. 3).

  3. 1 Thess. 2:15–16; Luke 11:40–51; Acts 7:51–53.

  4. Col. 2:13; Heb. 9:28; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 3:5.

  5. Col. 2:20; Gal. 6:14.

  6. Col. 1:20; 2 Cor. 5:17.

  7. Eph. 2:15–16; Gal. 3:10–13; Rom. 7:1ff.

  8. Rom. 6:6; 8:3.

  9. John 12:31–32; Col. 2:15; Heb. 2:14; 1 John 3:8.

  10. Matt. 27:39–40.

  11. Matt. 4:3.

  12. 2 Cor. 5:21.

  13. 1 Cor. 15:26; Rom. 5:12; 2 Tim. 1:10.

  14. Nee, A Table in the Wilderness: Daily Meditations, May 12 (see chap. 2, n. 184).

  15. McKnight, The King Jesus Gospel, 51 (see intro., n. 39).

  16. Col. 1:20.

  17. Eph. 2:13–15.

  18. Phil. 4:7.

  19. Isa. 11:6.

  20. Grenz, Theology for the Community of God, 339–40 (see chap. 1, n. 25).

  21. Luke 24:25–27.

  22. 1 Peter 1:10–11.

  23. 1 Cor. 15:3–4. See also Acts 3:18, 24; 17:2–3; 26:22–23.

  24. Heb. 9:22.

  25. Rev. 3:18.

  26. Heb. 9:22. See also Ephesians 1:7.

  27. Lev. 17:11, 14.

  28. Gen. 6–8; 1 Peter 3:20ff.; 2 Peter 2:5ff.

  29. 1 Cor. 5:7.

  30. Joseph Ratzinger, Jesus of Nazareth, Part Two, Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection (San Francisco: Ignatius, 2011), 108. On pages 106–15, Ratzinger discusses the debate among scholars concerning when Jesus took the Lord’s Supper and the time of His trial.

  31. Romans 10:6–8 compares Israel’s salvation with today as an analogy. Israel didn’t descend into the sea to save themselves or go up to receive the Torah—it was God’s gift. The same is true with believers today. Christ descended into death and rose again to save us. In 1 Corinthians 10:1ff., Paul compared Israel’s redemption with ours, including an analogy with Israel being brought through the sea. In Exodus 20, before God gave the commandments, He prefaced His words with grace: I am the LORD who redeemed you . . . God acted and then invited our obedience. We are saved by grace through faith. (We credit Craig Keener for these thoughts.)

  32. Col. 1:13.

  33. 1 Cor. 10:4.

  34. Num. 20:7–12.

  35. Heb. 6:6 KJV.

  36. Ex. 15:23–25. Scripture says that Jesus was put to death on a “tree” (Acts 13:29; 1 Peter 2:24; Gal. 3:13).

  37. The best study of the serpent is a recent one by a Princeton professor. James H. Charlesworth, The Good and Evil Serpent: How a Universal Symbol Became Christianized (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010).

  38. Eph. 6:12 KJV.

  39. Heb. 2:14.

  40. Col. 2:15 KJV.

  41. Wright, Simply Jesus, 188 (see intro., n. 6).

  42. Lucado, God Came Near, xiii (see chap. 4, n. 43).

  43. Jerusalem finds its origins in the ancient Canaanite site of Salem, the city of the priest-king Melchizedeck (Gen. 14:18). Salem was called “Jebus” until David conquered it and made it “Jerusalem,” the capital of Israel (2 Sam. 5:6–10; 1 Chron. 11:4–9). For details on the five stages of David’s journey from the cave of Adullam to the founding of Jerusalem, see “A City Whose Builder and Maker Is God” by Frank Viola, audio message, at http://ptmin.podbean.com.

  44. Lev. 1:1–17; 6:8–13; Heb. 10:1–8; 9:14.

  45. Lev. 2:1–16; 6:14–23.

  46. John 6:35, 48–51; 12:24.

  47. Lev. 3:1–17; 7:11–38; Eph. 2:13–17; Col. 1:20–21; 2 Cor. 5:21.

  48. Lev. 4:1–35; 6:24–30; Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20.

  49. Lev. 5:1–6:7; 7:1–10; 1 John 1:7–9; 2:1–2; Heb. 9:14.

  50. For details, see Scot McKnight’s A Community Called Atonement and N. T. Wright’s Simply Jesus, 184–89.

  51. Richard B. Hays, The Conversion of the Imagination: Paul as Interpreter of Israel’s Scripture (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005), 106.

  52. Matt. 12:40 NIV.

  53. Acts 2:27 KJV.

  54. Acts 2:31 KJV.

  55. 1 Peter 3:18–19 niv; see also 4:6.

  56. Eph. 4:8–9 updated NIV. “Lower, earthly regions” has traditionally been interpreted to mean “hell,” or the abode of the dead. And this interpretation is not extinct. See F. F. Bruce, The Epistles to the Colossians, Philemon, and to the Ephesians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984), 344–45; and Clinton Arnold, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, bk. 10, Ephesians (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010), 254.

  57. The understanding that Jesus descended into hell is firmly rooted in the early Christian tradition. As far as post-apostolic writers go, Christ’s descent into hell is first found in Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho, trans. Thomas B. Falls, ed. Michael Slusser (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2003), 112 (chap. 72). From Irenaeus on, it became a common theme in patristic writings. Many modern scholars believe that hades simply refers to the grave while premodern scholars view it as the abode of the dead. Neither interpretation can be proven. Both are plausible and within the realm of Christian orthodoxy. For more, see F. Buchsel’s argument in Gerhard Kittel, ed., Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. 3, trans. Geof
frey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1966), 641–42.

  58. John 13:36.

  59. It should be understood that we are not universalists. God’s judgment is real, and Scripture attests to it abundantly. But Jesus has made provision through His atoning work to save all who repent and believe in Him.

  60. George Mackay Brown, “The Harrowing of Hell,” in Northern Lights (London: John Murray, 1999), 24.

  61. “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence” is the title of a hymn from the Liturgy of St. James, 4th century; translated by Gerard Moultrie in 1864.

  62. Alan Lewis, Between Cross and Resurrection: A Theology of Holy Saturday (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003), 3.

  63. See the Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church (New York: Church Publishing, 2001), 18.

  64. “St. John Chrysostom’s Easter Sermon,” http://anglicansonline.org/special/Easter/chrysostom_easter/html.

  65. The New Testament Apocrypha, ed. M. R. James (Berkeley, Apocryphile, 2004), 124. Reprint of The Apocryphal New Testament: Being the Apocryphal Gospels, Epistles, and Apocalypses: With Other Narratives and Fragments, trans. M. R. James (Oxford, Eng.: Clarendon Press, 1924), 124.

  66. Ps. 24:8.

  67. Leonard Sweet, “Hell-Busters and Heaven-Raisers” [sermon, n.p., n.d.].

  68. Ps. 139:8.

  69. Here is an excerpt from an ancient Greek homily for Holy Saturday:

  Something strange is happening—there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.

  He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives, Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the sight of him Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: ’My Lord be with you all.’ Christ answered him, ’And with your spirit.’ He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying, ’Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light . . .

  ’I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated.’”

  Liturgy of the Hours: According to the Roman Rite, trans. International Committee on English in the Liturgy (New York: Catholic Book Pub. Co., 1976), 2: 496–97.

  70. Daniel O’Leary, “Human Touch of Easter,” The Tablet, March 24, 2007, 9. See also Daniel O’Leary, “Caught Between Earth and Heaven,” The Tablet, April 15, 2006, 11.

  71. Luke 3:6.

  72. Rev. 21:1.

  73. Also see Alan E. Lewis, Between Cross and Resurrection for further discussion.

  74. O’Leary, “Caught Between Earth and Heaven,” 11.

  Chapter 15: The Resurrection, Ascension, and Pentecost

  1. U. A. Fanthorpe, “BC/AD,” in her Standing To (Liskeard, Cornwall, UK: Harry Chambers/Peterloo Poets, 1982), 56. See also Journey with Jesus (webzine), http://danclendenin.com/PoemsAndPrayers/UA_Fanthorpe_BC_AD.shtml.

  2. Quoted in Daniel Hillel, Rivers of Eden: the Struggle for Water and the Quest for Peace in the Middle East (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 296.

  3. These are the phrases of first-century historians Josephus and Philo.

  4. John 20:8.

  5. Charles Wesley, “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing,” 1739 (music by Felix Mendelsohn), http://popularhymns.com/hark_the_herald_angels_sing.php.

  6. John 20:13.

  7. Matt. 28:6.

  8. This is the argument of William Placher, Mark: Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2010), 246.

  9. The Church Hymnary, 3rd edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973), 256.

  10. Luke 2:17.

  11. Matt. 28:10.

  12. Ex. 25:20, 22. See also Roger Wagner, “Art and Faith,” in Public Life and the Place of the Church: Reflections to Honour the Bishop of Oxford, comp. Michael W. Brierley (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2006), 130.

  13. Col. 1:15.

  14. The word raised and the phrase raised up are used repeatedly in connection with Jesus’ resurrection (Acts 2:32–33; 5:30–31; Rom. 4:25; 6:4; 10:9; 1 Cor. 6:14; 15:4; Mark 16:6; Luke 24:34, for example).

  15. Col. 1:18.

  16. John 20:22.

  17. Rom. 8:29ff.; Heb. 2:10.

  18. Col. 3:11.

  19. See Frank Viola, Epic Jesus: The Christ You Never Knew, eBook (Gainesville, FL: Present Testimony Ministry, 2011). Also available at http://www.ptmin.org/epicjesus.

  20. Compare John 20 with Acts 2.

  21. For an exhaustive treatment of the resurrection of Jesus in all of its multidimensional grandeur, see N. T. Wright’s classic work The Resurrection of the Son of God, vol. 3 of Christian Origins and the Question of God (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2003), as well as Dunn’s Jesus Remembered, chap. 18 (see intro., n. 3).

  22. 1 Tim. 3:16 NIV.

  23. Gen. 1:26–28.

  24. Rom. 1:4. See also Acts 13:33.

  25. Acts 2:24–28 NIV.

  26. Acts 2:31 NIV.

  27. Gen. 1:9–13.

  28. Gen. 6–9; 1 Peter 3:20; 2 Peter 2:5.

  29. Heb. 11:19 NIV.

  30. Num. 17:8.

  31. Ex. 23:16ff.; 1 Cor. 15:23.

  32. Rom. 8:29ff; 1 Cor. 15:1ff.

  33. 1 Cor. 15:4.

  34. Hos. 6:1–2 KJV.

  35. Acts 1:3.

  36. John 20:30.

  37. Acts 1:3 NIV.

  38. Luke 24:15–32; Acts 1:3.

  39. For a discussion on the significance of Jesus’ pattern of appearing and disappearing after His resurrection, see Frank Viola’s blog post “A Vanishing God,” at http://frankviola.org.

  40. 1 Cor. 15:6.

  41. John 20:19; Col. 1:27; Rom. 8:9–11.

  42. 2 Cor. 5:16.

  43. Matt. 28:17.

  44. 1 Peter 1:8; John 20:29.

  45. Acts 1:3. For Paul’s limiting the time Jesus appeared in bodily form, see 1 Corinthians 15:8.

  46. John 17:5; also see John 7:39.

  47. 2 Kings 2:9–13.

  48. Ps. 110:1.

  49. Acts 2:33 NKJV.

  50. John 7:39 NKJV.

  51. It cannot be emphasized too much that the “seated” Son is a significant detail. In Hebrews 10:11–13 the author noted that the Levitical priests continued to stand and serve the Lord with their ineffectual sacrifices, day after day. But since their sacrifices could never “take away sins,” they were trapped in a circle of failure, serving without end or results. Christ’s once-and-for-all sacrifice accomplished the destruction of the hold of sin and death, and so Christ “sat down at the right hand of God” (Heb. 10:12). There is also the historic privilege of the House of David to “sit” before the Lord, as found in 2 Samuel 7:18.

  52. For a fuller treatment on the spiritual and practical implications of the ascension of Jesus, see N. T. Wright’s Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church (New York: HarperCollins, 2008), chap. 7; and Douglas Farrow’s volume, Ascension and Ecclesia (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1999).

  53. Herbert McCabe, “A Sermon for Easter,” in God Still Matters, ed. Brian Davies (New York: Continuum, 2002), 227.

  54. Isa. 49:16 NIV.

  55. Acts 20:28.

  56. Personal communication with Leonard Sweet. Used with permission.

  57. 1 Cor. 15:3–4; emphasis added.

  58. Matt. 22:43–44 NIV.

/>   59. The Emmaus road story is told only by Luke (24:13–35).

  60. Origen took this identification of Cleopas (husband of “Mary the wife of Clopas” in John 19:25) for granted, and thus claimed the unnamed disciple walking with Cleopas was his son, Symeon. See Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, 43 (see intro., n. 73).

  61. Luke 24:16 NIV.

  62. Luke 24:18.

  63. Luke 24:19.

  64. Ibid.

  65. Luke 24:25.

  66. Luke 24:27 NIV.

  67. SERT is a phrase used by Leonard Sweet, but the four components (Scripture, Experience, Reason, Tradition) are known as the “Wesleyan Quadrilateral.”