The Spoils of Christ's Victory - Brandon Scalf

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Ephesians 4:7-10 Main Points:

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All right, everyone, grab your Bibles and turn with me to Ephesians chapter 4.
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Ephesians chapter 4, and as you're doing that, make sure to buckle in.
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This is going to be a wild ride. Ephesians chapter 4, and we will be looking specifically at verses 7 through 10.
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The title of today's message is The Spoils of Christ's Victory.
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If you would, please stand with me for the honoring and reading of God's holy, infallible, and all -sufficient
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Word. For the sake of context, I will begin reading in verse 1.
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Therefore, I, the prisoner in the Lord, exhort you to walk worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, being diligent to keep the unity of the
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Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling, one
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Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.
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But to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.
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Therefore, it says, when he ascended on high, he led captive a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.
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Now, this expression, he ascended, what does it mean except that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth.
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He who descended is himself also he who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.
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The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Amen. Amen. Please have a seat.
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And as is our custom, get your eyes back on the text, specifically verse seven.
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It is probably obvious to everyone in this room that history is littered with stories of great leaders doing great things and triumphing over their opposers, their perceived enemies.
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I mean, a cursory glance at history would show us men such as Alexander the
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Great, who conquered kingdoms, the mighty Roman Empire that seemed unbeatable for many, many decades.
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And of course, there's Winston Churchill and our very own George Washington.
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It is mesmerizing to learn about these men and the things that they did as they triumphed over all odds, they triumphed over their enemies.
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But as we look at today's text, we are going to be reminded that there is no greater triumph in the history of the universe than the victory of Jesus Christ over Satan, sin, death, and hell.
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It is a conquest, a campaign, if you will, that is completely unparalleled.
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The son of God and his descent into the depths of hell, proclaiming his sovereign victory over the forces of darkness is something that is going to or should cause us to stand in complete and utter awe.
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And the thing that you need to understand about this is this is not merely a historical event that we're about to study.
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It is a cosmic proclamation that forever altered your destiny, my destiny, and every destiny of those who bear the name of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. This proclaiming his sovereign victory over the forces of darkness and victory over our darkness.
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And so as we look at Ephesians chapter four, verses seven through 10, Paul, the man who's been writing the letter since we began studying it is going to present
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Christ, if it's not clear already, as the victorious king who descends into the depths, ascends to the highest heaven, and distributes the spoils of his victory to his people, his church, individuals in the body.
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He's going to show us that every grace, every gift, every drop, and every measure of spiritual help that we possess is directly linked to the triumph of Christ over Satan, sin, death, and hell.
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And so as we examine this passage, I want you to stand in awe of the extraordinary grace given to each and every believer for the building up of the church, which is
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Christ's body, the victory of her head, Christ himself, and the cosmic dimensions of his glorious exaltation.
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And so to that end, the first thing that I want you to note as we look back at our theme verses is the measure of Christ's gift, the measure of Christ's gift.
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And what's going to happen is he's going to give us a description followed by a validation coupled with an interpretation.
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But here we are first looking at the description piece.
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What is it that Paul is trying to get across, and why does it matter?
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He says here, beginning in verse 7, but very important word, to each one of us, the grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.
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The first thing to take notice of is a shift that is happening exegetically, a shift that is happening in Paul's argument.
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Namely, a shift from the oneness to the diversity that is found in the body.
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As we discussed last week and every other week before that, we are aiming at something.
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Paul is trying to get the Ephesians to think through and be equipped for keeping the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace.
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Now, this unity that exists is in the spirit. It's not something that we can create or manufacture. It's something simply that we acknowledge, participate in, love, cherish, and protect with grit.
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It's not something we can destroy because it's rooted in God himself, but it is something that we can spit on, ignore, and neglect, and in so doing, harm the body around us.
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But it is true. We are, in fact, unified, and we are unified because, as we looked at over the course of the last several weeks, unity is grounded in God himself, the triune
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God who exists as Father, Son, and Spirit. And there has been this repetitive thing being repeated over and over and over again, a chorus, if you will, and that is this, that we are to be unified because we are one, because we are one, because we are one.
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Not only are we one, but God is one. And there is one Lord, there is one Father, and there is one
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Spirit. One, one, one, one, one. But here, we see this word here, but.
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But signals a contradiction of sorts, not a contradiction in fact, but a contradiction in presentation.
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In other words, there's an alternative truth that is going to be presented, and that truth doesn't stand at odds with the truth previously discussed, but it expands upon it and clarifies it.
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And so what is that thing? What is this transition? Well, quite simply, the transition is this.
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Though God is one, and we are one body, and we are unified, we are also a very diverse community, a wildly diverse community.
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In fact, the grace that is given to each of us is varied, and it is diverse, right?
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Look, but, and this is coming off the tail end of the ones, the one
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Lord, the one faith, the one baptism, the one body, the one Spirit, the one God and Father of all, verse 7, but to each one of us, grace was given.
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Each one of us, Paul includes himself in this. He's not standing above them, lording it over them.
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He's not simply saying, this is true of you, and what's true of me is over here. No, no, he has given grace in diverse manner according to his measure to every single believer that exists.
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But this teaches us, and what you should be thinking about, is that though we are one, we are diverse.
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Though we are one, we are many. The reality is, we are graced with different gifts to serve the body.
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That's what it says here, right? That we have, verse 7, each one of us, grace, and that grace was given, and it was given by Christ.
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It was given by Christ, through the work of Christ, according to Christ's decision, and for the glory of Christ.
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And this grace from here on out will be talked about as a gift, and though that's not particularly present in the text, the idea of a gift is, in fact, here.
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It's a gift that you've been given because it's a gift that Christ received, right?
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At the end here, in verse 7, we are given grace according to the measure of Christ's gift.
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Christ has been given some gifts, and he is giving out of his treasury gifts to you.
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This is why, for instance, Thomas Watson has famously said, grace is not obtained by merit, but dispensed from the treasury of Christ.
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Not to mention, if you continue to go on throughout chapter 4, you will find the reason that these graces, or gifts, have been given.
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Here, it's going to focus on the individual for the building up of the body of Christ, but in verse 12, it's going to begin talking about, or verse 11, rather, it's going to begin talking about the offices that are given as gifts to the church, the apostles, the prophets, and the pastors and teachers.
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And there's this qualifier as to what it's for, for the equipping of the saints, verse 12, for the work of the service to the building up of the body of Christ.
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And then again, in verse 16, it talks about us being a body, being joined and held together by whatever joint supplies, according to the properly measured working of each individual part.
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And this causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
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So here's the big idea. You are in one body. God is one, and yet you are gifted with a diverse gift to serve the body, to make sure that it's built up in love and equipped to live out the
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Christian life. To live out the Christian life.
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Now, this word grace, we've seen already in the book of Ephesians. We have seen that it is talked about as essentially unmerited favor.
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God's aim aimed at you. Before the foundations of the world, he has sought you down and saved you by grace alone through the instrument of faith alone.
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But here, this word grace takes on a new meaning. As I have said, it is,
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I'm going to call it a gift, as many commentators and pastors have done throughout the ages.
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But more specifically, it is a, in context, a particular enablement given to each believer to empower them to minister to one another.
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Here's the big idea. You have been given gifts, every single one of you, to minister to one another.
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This is a church full of ministers, or at least it should be.
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That is God's design for his church. Now, does that mean that every single one of you hold the office of elder?
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No, that's not what I'm saying. What I am saying is that you are the ones who minister to one another.
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You're the ones who do the work of ministry. Mind -blowing concept.
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Many churches don't understand this. Many pastors do not preach this, and many congregations demand of their pastor the opposite of this.
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But as we look down, I want you to see this again, looking at verse 11, that Jesus gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ.
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So apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor -teachers are given as offices of the church to train the ministers of the church to minister to one another.
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Do you hear what I'm saying? So it's imperative that you understand that you have been graced with a particular enablement that is going to empower you to do that, and it's going to look different for everyone.
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This is why Romans chapter 12, somewhat of a parallel passage, says in verses 4 and 5, for just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another.
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We have varied gifts. We've been graced with a particular thing so that we might help minister to one another in the body.
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It says here, to each one, or you could say to all. No one's exempt.
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Everybody is graced with something that the body needs.
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Grace given to all means you can't be passive church pew sitters.
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If it's true that God has blessed you individually with a gift to help one another, to minister to one another, then you don't just get to check your boxes and sit on the pews and say,
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I did this. I did my weekly duty. No.
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If Christ has given you a gift to serve the body, you use it.
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And God has designed for you to use it, and he has only given you that specific gift with your specific qualities, so no one's going to fill it if you don't show up.
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Grace given to all also means that there are no unneeded members. Now, this should go without saying, but it's true, and it must be said lest we think otherwise.
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Guys, understand this. We need you. We need every single person sitting in these pews right now.
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God gave you a gift that was designed to help us, and if you don't use that, it's not getting done, and the body suffers.
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To each one, to everyone, this grace was given, so this grace is wildly diverse, but this grace is also sovereignly distributed.
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Now, this is also something that we must take seriously. He goes on to say, not only is each one of us graced with this empowering gift to serve the body, to minister to one another, but it was given, in verse 7 here, according to the measure of Christ's gift.
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Now, this word measure here is important. It's the Greek word metron, which is where we get the word meter.
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It means quantity or type. So, what this is communicating is not only does
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Christ grace every believer with a gift to serve the body, but also the amount and effectiveness of that gift, the measure of that gift.
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Much like he gives faith and the measure therein, he gives this grace to serve the body in the same way.
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It's important to consider. It's important to consider because in that, we find the reality that you are more both needed and unique than you think you are.
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Your gift that has been graced to you is essentially a spiritual fingerprint.
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There's no one else like you that does what you do because God has given that to you, and how that works is up to God.
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First Corinthians 12, another parallel passage, says it like this in verse 4. Now, there are a variety of gifts, diverse, but the same
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Spirit, and there are varied ministries, and the same
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Lord, and there are varieties of workings, but the same
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God who works everything and every one. But to each one is given the manifestation of the
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Spirit for what is profitable. And then he's, of course, going to list what some of those things look like.
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This is not an exhaustive list, but it's a list that helps us understand that God is specifically giving us gifts to use, and he's giving us those gifts in proportion to where we providentially are for the building up of the body of Christ.
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And it is profitable, it is helpful, and it is needed. It says here, to one is given the word of wisdom through the
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Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to someone else faith by the same
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Spirit, and to another gifts healing by the one Spirit, and to another the workings of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another distinguishing of spirits, to some else various kinds of tongues, and to another the translation of tongues.
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But one in the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individual just as he wills.
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Did you catch that? Just as he wills. For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is
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Christ. For also by one Spirit we're all baptized into one. So the thing that you should be concluding at this juncture is that unity does not equal uniformity.
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That a church is its most healthy when there is diversity happening, and when we all don't look the same, think the same, and care about all of the same things, except for the things that we should be caring about that are the same things, which are the things that Paul's already talked about.
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We have to be unified in doctrine. We have to be unified in what we understand about God, and who he is, and his
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Trinitarian nature. We need to be completely bought into the reality of what the gospel teaches.
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These are non -negotiables. But outside of that, we need to understand that we are, in fact, different.
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It would be a horrible thing if everybody came to this church and started talking like me, dressing like me, acting like me, and trying to do the same things that I'm doing.
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This church would fall on its face tomorrow. But what beauty is it when everyone comes to church, not looking to be served, but to serve, and to minister to one another in their difference, in their differences.
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You know, too many people actually come to church, and they're looking for a church. They're trying to find a church, and they come to church, and they're like, you know what?
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Overall, I loved what was going on there. The preaching was good. I loved that the sacraments were there.
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The liturgy was really helping me understand better why we do what we do. The people were so kind and so loving.
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But you know, I don't know if I'm going to fit in around there. I don't know if I'm, you know, that vibe.
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You know, I don't know if those people are my people. Yes, they are your people. And don't you think that that's exactly what
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Paul was dressing when he was talking about the unification of the Jewish people and the Gentiles who couldn't have been more different?
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We need people who are different. We need people who think differently, whose heart beats for different things, and who are gifted, according to Christ's measures, to do those things.
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Christ decides who gets what gift, and this measure piece is teaching us that not only is that true, but how much of that gift we get.
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Now, as we contemplate everything we've said thus far, I hope it's apparent to you that this means, all of this, everything that I've said up to this point, is that these gifts are uniquely yours, and they're gifts.
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Now, you're thinking, why did you spend all week studying that? That seems pretty self -evident. What I mean by that is this.
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Christ assigned you a gift. He didn't assign you a value. He assigned you a gift.
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He did not assign you a value. So when it's talking about grace and giftedness that he has given you out of his treasury, it's not talking about how important you are, and it's not talking about how important you're not.
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When we think about gifts in this way, it should drive us to humility and contentment, understanding that grace is measured by Christ.
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There are going to be people who do things, and you notice that they do them well, and your response should not be jealousy or envy.
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The position that they hold in the church should not drive you to comparison or pride.
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It goes both ways. The sword cuts two ways, as it were. Nobody who stands up in front of this pulpit, for instance, should think himself better than any man.
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No man who serves the table is a better man than anyone else, and no one who does anything is a better man or better woman than anyone else.
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Not only that, but they might do what you're gifted to do better. Sorry, that just happens.
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There are people who are gifted with a better intellect. There are people who are gifted with more resources.
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There are people who are gifted with a mechanical type brain and not an artistic type brain.
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There are people who are going to be more hospitable, more loving, and more kind than you, and it's not as though we shouldn't strive to be better in all of these ways, but God gives the measure, and so you ought not use that as a way to sin against your brother or sin against your
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God by saying, you didn't give me enough. You didn't know what you were doing when you gave me the gift to serve the church, and it's easy for preachers to get in that realm, right?
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Because there are so many gifted preachers. Actually, they're very few. You just think there's a lot because of the internet, and they're kind of curated, and they're put at the top, and they're at all the conferences, and as a preacher, you start watching these things, listening to these things, and you start realizing, man, they are phenomenal.
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They are great. I work hard, and I'll never preach like this guy.
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Well, of course, we strive. We try to do our best to honor the
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Lord, but the reality is
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God has gifted us the way he has chosen to, so when we see things like that, we go, or should go, good.
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Good. Because here's what I know. This is what the Bible teaches about me, about you, about everyone who bears the name of Christ underneath the universal church.
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You are precisely who Heritage needs. You are precisely who your family needs, and you are precisely who the city of Tulsa needs, no matter what, so long as you are in Christ.
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Think about it this way. Think about a tool belt. You are a part of Christ's tool belt to sanctify one another, to point to Christ, to push back darkness in the world, but a tool belt is not filled with all the same tools.
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I was generously gifted with a tool set not too long ago, and I was not surprised when
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I opened it, and I saw that there were a bunch of different tools, some of which
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I had no idea what they were. Why?
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Because each tool that is in a tool belt or in a toolbox is specifically suited to the task at hand.
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It has a specific purpose. There's a hammer to hit things with.
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There's a chisel to chisel things with. There's screws, which
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I guess technically isn't a tool, that are hit to hold things together.
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They're different things for different reasons on purpose, but they all serve the same purpose of constructing or fixing whatever it is that those tools are working on.
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So in the same way, Christ's gifts to his individuals in the church are perfectly measured to equip each one of us in our sphere for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body.
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So you are more needed than you think you are, and you are less important than you think you are, and you're more important than you think you are, and you need to rest in who
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God has made you to be and not try to be somebody else.
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That's the key here as well. First Corinthians chapter 12, 21 puts it this way.
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The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you. Or again, the head to the feet,
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I have no need of you. Nobody else, as I said, is more important than anybody else.
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Nobody has a more important gift. And not only that, but we ought not, of course, as I have said, be jealous, be driven to comparison, or to be prideful in the gift that God has given us.
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But we also cannot say we don't need the other gifts.
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It would be foolish, be stupid. We'd be cutting ourselves off from the lifeblood of what it means to be
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Jesus' church. Some of us are going to be heads. Of course, underneath the headship of Christ, he's the head.
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Some of us are going to be hearts and lungs. Some of us are going to be elbows. Some of us are going to be knees.
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Some of us are going to be toenails. Sorry, but it's true. But they all serve a purpose, and they're all needed.
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And without them, we suffer. We suffer.
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So what are you? What are you?
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What are your giftings? And I mean, what are they really? Not what would you like to do, but what has
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God gifted you to do? What disposition has he given you? And in what ways can you start serving the church now?
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Right? Because this is what Christians do. They don't just come to church. They are the church. What are you?
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Here's the reality. God gave himself to you in Christ, and he divvies out gifts for his glory and the good of those around you in his body.
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So figure out what it is and use it. And very practically, if you don't know what it is, get involved in community.
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Get involved in the church, and then come ask your pastors or come ask some people around you.
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You know, what is it that I'm good at? We can tell you real quick. You're so encouraging.
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You're so helpful. And you will find that over time, as you give yourself more and more to the people around you, that the
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Lord will make it clear where he wants you, and he will make it clear where he does not want you. And there's no shame in not being where you thought you needed to be, but found out that you weren't gifted to do it.
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The second thing that we want to look at as we examine this text is the extent of Christ's victory.
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So we've seen the measure of Christ's gift, now let's look at the extent of Christ's victory.
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In verse 8, Paul continues on, and he's going to show us where he got what he got, right?
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Because Paul is much like us in heritage, or we should say we're much like him, modeling him.
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And that is, he is a Bible guy. What he's going to say is going to be pulled from Scripture.
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He doesn't just have wild ideas. He doesn't just have things that he is saying so that he can sound smart or attempt to be helpful, apart from the revealed
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Word of God. And so he's going to say, I've said something probably astonishing.
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I have said that though God is one, though we are in one body, though there is one Lord and one
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Spirit and one Father, there are many of us, and we have each individually been gifted to help one another.
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So let me show you where I got that. Ephesians 4 .8,
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he says, Therefore it says, when he ascended on high, he led captive a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.
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If you are using a Legacy Standard Bible or a New American Standard Bible, you will see that this part of Scripture that I just read you, this stanza, is in all caps.
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And what that means is it's a quotation of sorts pulled from the Old Testament.
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Here, Paul is validating his claim. He's validating his claim that Jesus does in fact give grace out of his treasury according to the gift that he was given.
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This much is plain by the end of verse 8. He gave gifts to men.
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But of course, he says some other things here, which causes us to ask, what does that have to do with what he's saying?
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And where is this coming from? Well, this is a quotation or a type of allusion that is coming from Psalm chapter 68, specifically verse 18.
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Now, this is where you need those seatbelts. It's going to start ramping up from here. The passage that is quoted here, verse 18, is interesting, and it's interesting because Paul says something different than what the author says in this psalm.
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Let me show you what I mean. Psalm 68, 18 says, you have ascended on high, you have lived captives, captive your captives, you have received gifts among men, even among the rebellious also, the
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Yah God may dwell there. Now, I don't know if you were paying attention or if you remember what verse 8 is saying, but there's more than a few issues there.
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But even if that isn't weird or hard enough to understand, if we back up, almost every commentator that I read this week and every commentator that those commentators read before I showed up to read them all assert that Psalm 68 is maybe one of the hardest psalms to interpret.
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So, he's taking us back to a psalm that is notoriously hard to interpret on its own, and then he's going to change the words and make it even more complicated.
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So, we are going to look at it, and we are going to see,
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I hope, what he's saying. It's not as complicated as it seems, but it is interesting because on the surface, it doesn't seem as though Paul is playing in accordance with our hermeneutical principles.
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He's not paying attention to Western idea and thought, but he is no doubt quoting the
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Bible. Therefore, it says. He's claiming this is what Psalm 68 is saying. And what have
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I said, children? Children, look at me. If we see what we think is a problem in the
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Bible, what are we to assume? Do you remember what
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I say? We're to assume the problems with us, not the scripture, because it is
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God -briefed. It is profitable for all things, and it is clear. And so, we have to start asking some questions and making some educated assertions.
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Now, in this one verse alone, there are six changes that exist from the Septuagint alone.
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That is the Greek Bible that was translated from the Hebrew and Aramaic into the language that the apostles could understand if they weren't privy to the
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Hebrew language or the churches to whom they ministered. I don't have time to get into all of them, nor are they all equally as important.
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And so, I wanted to still them down for the sake of time to the two most important changes that we have to grapple with if we're going to understand what's being said here.
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Firstly, there is this change, and this should be obvious, from the second person singular, you ascend, to the third person singular, he ascend.
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Not only that, but the second one being that he has changed the action from receiving gifts from the people, that is, his defeated foes, to the giving of gifts to believers.
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If we go back and we look at Psalm 68, 18, for example, it says, you have ascended on high, you have led captives, your captors, you have received gifts among men, even among the rebellious also.
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Now, go back to verse 8 of our text, in Ephesians, when he ascended on high, he led captive, a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.
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Now, there are a couple ways that people have tried to understand this. The first being that Paul was quoting an
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Old Testament textual tradition known as the Targum, or closely related to that, that he was simply borrowing the interpretation of the
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Midrash, basically a Jewish commentary on the scriptures in life.
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But this is not a good option or a good route to take, and the reason for that is because Paul would not have seen either the
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Targum or the Midrash as being equal to scripture. The second, of course, which is more believable but still falls flat, is that Paul altered the text to bring about some sort of fuller meaning.
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Now, I'm not saying that there isn't fuller meaning to be found in New Testament texts, but I am saying that when you say the opposite of something, you're not bringing about fuller meaning.
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You're saying it's something different, and that is completely different.
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The most likely way that we should interpret this, or the most faithful way,
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I would say, is to look at it this way. Paul is not interested in quoting, and he's not interested in quoting because he wants you to understand what the psalm is saying, and he wants you to understand what the psalm is saying without repeating the whole psalm, because the psalm is very long.
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If you flip to it, you will see it generally covers two pages, and that's with a small, you know, eight -point font.
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Paul is trying to get at the heart of the matter, and so what he's doing is he's interpreting the psalm, giving a summary of it, and applying it to who he believes that it ought to be applied to, namely,
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Christ Jesus. So what he's done is he's looked at the psalm, and he has given it its meaning, saying this is about Christ.
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He's put on his Christ, his messianic glasses, his redemptive historical lenses, and he's giving it to us to see with.
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And so what is happening in the psalm? Well, if you go through it, you will see that it is essentially showing us what happened in ancient times when kings won battles, or they won war campaigns, or whatever the case may be, but it's doing so by pointing to God and what he has done.
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In Israel, if a king or some great military captain waged a successful warfare, when he came back to his own country, there was always this victory type of parade, a procession.
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The conquered kings and princes and military chieftains and captains were all made to walk in the procession in their chains.
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In other words, the conqueror was leading captivity captive.
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So as you look at this psalm, you see that God has triumphantly waged war against his enemies, and he has protected his people even from death, and he is ascending upon a hill, namely
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Mount Zion, where it is famously seen to be the pinnacle of the establishment of God's people.
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It represented high places of power and respectability, and it was as if he was like one of these kings, that he was parading the men who didn't die in war, but now have become the slaves, have now become the captors.
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That was one of the most humiliating things that would happen to a country when they were defeated. All of those men who were in high places of leadership were now being walked through with handcuffs, and they were now the captives.
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Not only that, but what happened in war back then is you plundered all of your enemies.
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You took what was theirs, and you claimed it as your own. Now you had gifts, and you had gifts to give it to people.
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That is what imagery is happening in Psalm 68, and it's pointing to Christ that he subdued sin and death.
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He subdued his enemies, right? And that he gave the gifts of his spoils.
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Now, to be sure, there is quite a few different ways that this has even been interpreted, and by this I mean not necessarily verse 18 in total, or not even verse 8 and verse 4 in total, but this idea of him leading captives, a host of captives, right?
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Because what is happening is Paul is saying, I'm talking about Jesus. That Psalm was talking about Jesus, and so some people have said that this enemy, this one who has been taken captive, is
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Satan. It's sin. It's death. And it's hell.
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Others have said, which I think is a fine interpretation if you want to go this route.
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I don't think it does justice to the text, but you wouldn't be the first person to hold this view, and that is this, that the captives are people who have been captives of Satan, sin, and death, and who are now taken captive by Christ in redemption.
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I don't think that's untrue, but I don't think that's what's being got at here. Paul is wanting people to understand that Christ, right, verse 14 of chapter 2, has reconciled the
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Jew and the Gentile people into one body through the cross, having put to death the enmity.
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He has graced you with salvation and given you a new heart because you were governed by your flesh and underneath the power of the prince of the power of air.
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He came, and this moment, when he came to earth to destroy
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Satan, sin, death, and hell on the cross for you.
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This is why Colossians 2 15 says, having disarmed the rulers and authorities, he made a public display of them, having triumphed over them in him.
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The point that Paul is trying to make here in the promotion of this
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Psalm, this specific verse, is that Christ, he is the ascended victor that Psalm 68 is speaking of, and he, because of that, has the right to give gifts because he has been given the gifts from plundering
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Satan and his demons. For if Christ had been defeated, he would yet be in his grave, and spiritual gifts would be useless to those whom he could not redeem.
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You see how option two undercuts the reality of what is actually happening in this text and also in the accomplishing of the gospel.
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He would yet be in his grave, and it would be a failure.
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On the other hand, Christ does not receive gifts from his defeated foes.
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As Psalm 68 says, for such would be useless to God and his children because we don't need enemy's gifts, we need
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God's gifts. So those who were held in their bondage have been freed and have obtained the gifts of the
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Spirit from their victorious Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who won them for them.
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Now, Paul, and this is my next point, is going to show us the depths of Christ's descent.
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The depths of Christ's descent. Now, Paul made an assertion.
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Christ has gifted specific graces to each individual for the building up of the body, for the equipping of the saints for service.
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And then he validated it by saying, I got this from scripture.
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And now he's going to say, and this is how I got what I got. You need that second seat belt, because Paul's going to say something that's going to challenge maybe the way we think about what
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Christ did. In other words, he's going to interpret his validating scripture so that we can understand how great
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Christ is, how beautiful Christ is, and how much work
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Christ has done. Look with me at verse 9.
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Now, Paul begins by saying, now this expression, he ascended, what does it mean except that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth?
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He who descended is him, verse 10, himself also he ascended far above all the heavens so that he might fill all things.
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Now, you will notice if you are using a Legacy Standard Bible, and if you're not, why not, right?
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There is some parentheses around these two verses. Don't let this confuse you with those brackets that oftentimes exist as well.
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Brackets means that it's something that they don't believe is in the original manuscript, and so the
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Legacy Standard Bible will let you know that. But here we have parentheses, and the reason for that is because the translators believe this to be because it is a parenthetical statement.
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It is something that is off to the side of the argument, but is very important to the argument. Have you ever been writing an email, for example, and you're trying to say something, but there's something you want to say inside of that thing that you're saying to clarify what it is you're saying?
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That's the proper way to use a parentheses. But I know that we live in a weird world where AI is writing everything now for us, so I'm not sure
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I want to make sure that was clear. So, Paul is saying something here that we need to pay attention to that will help us understand the flow of his argument.
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Paul says this, that the expression, he ascended, what does it mean except that he also descended?
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Paul's argument here is this, that the meaning of Christ's ascension presupposes his former descent.
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The reality that he ascended proves the reality that he descended.
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And you're thinking, so what? You're thinking, what does that have to do with Psalm 68? You're thinking, what does that have to do with anything?
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And why is Paul saying that? Well, because Psalm 68 is the only place in scripture, as far as I can tell, and many other commentators can tell, where it talks about God ascending to anything.
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God doesn't ascend because he's there. Amen? Right? God is always in heaven.
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And so there are many places in scripture where it says that God came down and did this, God leaned in and did this, or whatever the case may be, depending on what translation you're using.
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But to go up is a very ungodly thing to do, not morally, but it's just something that God doesn't do.
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But Christ did. Christ ascended. You've heard of the doctrine of Christ's ascension.
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We've already talked about it, remember, as we looked at Ephesians chapter 1, how we have been united to Christ, both in his resurrection and his ascension.
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That's actually in chapter 2, but in verse 1, it speaks about his own ascending and the power that was given to him to do just that in verse 19, 20, and 21.
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So Paul is, contrary to every single argument made by a liberal scholar, claiming that Jesus is
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God. Not only is he claiming that Jesus is God, he's claiming that Jesus is the
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God of Psalm 68, and he's claiming that Jesus is also the
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God who somehow descended, who came to earth, right?
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The God -man. That's who Jesus is. He's fully God, truly God, and fully man, and truly man.
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And he came to earth to live the life that we should have lived, to die the death that we deserve to die, absorbing the wrath of God on our behalf, so that we might be the righteousness of God in him.
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But he did that for everyone as well, in the past, who looked to him by faith.
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But I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm getting ahead of myself. So how did he ascend?
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Or descend, rather? Because that's Paul's argument. He ascended, that means he must have at one time descended.
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So where did he descend to? Where did he come? Well, there are a few different ways to interpret this, but I want you to keep something in mind before I read on.
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He says, what does it mean except that he also descended, verse 9, that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth?
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The lower parts of the earth, what is that? What is Paul getting at?
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Well, as I said, there is a ton of ways that this has been interpreted throughout church history.
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Pretty much one way, up until about the time of John Calvin -ish, and then after John Calvin, a slightly different approach was taken by many reformed
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Christians, but certainly not all. Wouldn't that be awesome, just like as an aside, here's my parenthetical statement, just to be so influential in teaching the
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Word of God that somehow when you think something different, it changes the course of history? I mean, that's just, if that's not scary, it's awesome, right?
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It's one of the two. Like, he's such a towering intellect and preacher of God's Word that it transitioned the way that people had thought about this.
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But when it says here that he descended into lower parts of the earth, there are many people who say, for instance, post -Calvin, that this was simply him dying, that he rested in the grave, and that his death on the cross was metaphorically him experiencing the wrath of God, that he suffered hell in that way, but he never went to hell.
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Now, I say that, but I also want to remind you, before Pastor Corey prayed for our time together, he read something to you, and that thing that he read to you was the
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Apostles' Creed, which is an orthodox creed that essentially, you know, if we don't buy, we may not be a
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Christian. And there's an interesting phrase in there that when it's talking about what
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Christ has done and what we believe about him, it says that he descended into hell, or in the
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Greek, Hades. And the question becomes, what in the world do you do with that? What does it mean that Jesus went to hell?
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Like, you know, you don't have to raise your hand, but you've probably never thought about that at great length.
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And it's a hard thing to consider. It's a hard thing to wade through.
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I'm going to level with you. I changed my position on this about six times this week, trying to get to the bottom of what's being said here.
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Many people just take this phrase, the lower parts of the earth, literally to be the grave that he died, like Calvin.
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Others, the incarnation. Simply that Jesus came to earth from heaven and put on flesh.
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Others think it's speaking about the crucifixion and burial, while others think that he actually went to hell or Hades.
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Which one is it? No certainty in this room.
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All right. So here's the deal. I'm going to tell you what I think. I'm going to tell you what
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I think the creed is teaching, and I'm going to tell you why I believe it's teaching that.
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But what I want to say, as well, is there are greater men than me who have disagreed.
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And so if you find yourself at odds, first of all, don't. But if you do, then you're in good company.
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But if you are going to disagree with me, you need to find a way to make the creed make sense.
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Because it's right. This is what we've been believing for thousands of years.
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To answer this question, we have to think about the Old Testament world in which Jesus lived. We have to think about the
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Old Testament, which means we have to read the Old Testament. And there are a lot of things that I could say, but there are two specific things that I want to draw to your attention that might help us answer this question.
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The first one is the sign of Jonah. I want you to consider with me the sign of Jonah.
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What do I mean by that? I mean what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 12, verses 39 and 40.
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Jesus says an evil and adulterous generation eagerly seeks for a sign.
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So the Pharisees and people were asking, hey, if you really are the son of God, if you really are the king of the
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Jews, if you really are the Messiah, then why don't you give us a sign? And Jesus says, only perverse people, adulterous generation who hate
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God ask for a sign. And I'll give you a sign, he says, and yet no sign will be given to it but.
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So he's not going to do what he's not going to do what they want him to do. He's going to do what he wants to do.
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And what he wants to do is give them this, the sign of Jonah. So yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah, the prophet.
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For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
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How many people take that to mean Jesus' grave? Some people take that to mean
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Jerusalem, depending on how much preterist you have in your system. That's too much preterist.
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What he's doing here, I believe, is he's pointing to the reality that there's something beneath the earth and that's where he's going.
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He's not talking about dirt. He's not talking about this grave. He's talking about Sheol. Over and over in the
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Bible, it talks about this place called Sheol. And it is where the dead go.
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It is where the dead are. And it is not just the grave, it's under the grave.
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We know this because Jesus also points to this reality. It's all over the Old Testament, but it's in the
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New Testament as well. In Philippians chapter 2 verses 10 through 11, which should be very familiar to you, that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow.
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Amen, amen, amen, right? Of those who are in heaven, amen. And on earth, amen, right?
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Amen. Now here's what's interesting. And under the earth. What's going on there?
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That every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So underneath the earth are going to be people who bow the knee to King Jesus.
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So anyway, enough of the buildup. Jesus went to Sheol.
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Jesus went to Hades. And he went to do it to overthrow, to unlock those who were captured, and to proclaim, it is finished.
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Well, you might be thinking, well, how in the world do you get so much of that from this set of words?
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Well, Peter helps us understand this as well. In 1 Peter chapter 3 verses 18 and 19, he says, for Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, so that he might bring you to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but being made alive in the
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Spirit, in which also he went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison.
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Who are the spirits now in prison that he's talking about? It's the Old Testament saints.
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It's the Old Testament saints. Sheol, according to the Bible, is the place where the dead go.
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It is split into at least three parts, the first being for the righteous or paradise.
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It has been referred to in the New Testament as Abraham's bosom. There's the second tier, which is
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Hades. That's for the unrighteous and the abyss, where there is potentially, depending on how you read certain texts, where the demons are being held, awaiting their torture and demise.
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And Jesus goes to proclaim, according to 1
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Peter chapter 3, to the spirits who are in prison, to those who are in Sheol, to those who have looked to Jesus Christ in faith but yet had not been taken to heaven.
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Now, this is met with many objections. One objection is, for instance, the thief on the cross.
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They're saying, how can Jesus, after he did his work on the cross, after he said it is finished, then descend into Sheol in his soul and set the
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Old Testament captives free? How can he do that when he tells the thief to his right, today
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I will see you in paradise? Because paradise was
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Abraham's bosom. He was going to Sheol to get the Old Testament saints out.
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Which is why Hebrews chapter 10 verse 14 says, for by one offering he has perfected for all times those who are being sanctified.
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You see, Jesus formally covenanted the new covenant by coming here in the flesh and dying as a substitute for sinners.
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And that needed to happen in space and time before space and time people who inhabited this place could be taken with him to heaven.
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Well, that's not fair. Didn't he say it's finished as well? Of course, he also said it was finished and we're still awaiting the consummation of all things.
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And so those people were waiting for the consummation of him, having been given the name above every other name, having been given the keys of death and Hades.
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Do you remember last Sunday evening service, right? Revelation chapter 1 verse 17 and 18.
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Jesus tells John not to fear because he's the first and the last, the living one, the one who was dead, but behold, the one who is alive forever and ever.
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And he now holds the keys of death and Hades. And so he goes after dying on the cross to, firstly, paradise, to the first tier of Sheol where the righteous are.
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He did not go to suffer hellfire. He did not go to suffer hellfire.
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He went to proclaim, not preach, right? This is not purgatory. They're not getting a second chance.
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These are men and women who have already believed in the coming Messiah, who have been a part of the new covenant by faith.
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And so it's as if Jesus is running into that place. He's running into hell and he grabs hold of, which terms are being used synonymously here, but he went to Sheol.
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And before he gets to those who are in hell for denying the
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Messiah, for living unrighteously, he opens up the doors.
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And he says, I have stood victorious over Satan, sin, death, and hell, and you are no longer bound to be anywhere near this place.
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Come with me. Victory has been won and it is sure.
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Jesus Christ ascended not to languish, but to liberate. Sam Rinehan has expated on this by saying, not to suffer, but to subdue, not to preach, but to proclaim victory.
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And then he walked into the darkest parts of Sheol to proclaim that very same reality as the victor, not as the victim.
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This is why Psalm 16, verse 10 says, for example, speaking of this coming reality, for you will not forsake my soul to Sheol.
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This is, of course, has been applied to Christ in the New Testament. You will not give your
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Holy One over to seek corruption. The implication here is he is going to Sheol. He is going to ravage and proclaim his victorious message through every single tear, but he will not be held there because death could no longer hold him because of the finished work that he had accomplished for us and on behalf of, and for the glory of, the
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Father. And so you have, lastly, the height of Christ's exaltation.
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It doesn't end there. He then ascends. He then ascends.
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Look with me again at our theme verses, specifically at verse 10.
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He descended into the lower parts of the earth, that is Sheol, to proclaim his victory over Satan, sin, death, and hell.
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But he who descended, verse 10, is himself also he who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.
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All the heavens? Is he just being hyperbolic? No. Remember, Paul talks about the three layers of heaven.
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Now, what does he mean by that? It's another sermon for another day. But what
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Paul's trying to do here, and what you should be paying attention to, is look at the depths to which he went to save a people and to be victorious and triumph over everything, to get the gifts that have been given to him that he would give to his church, and look how far he's gone up.
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Because of that, to rule and reign as cosmic king. Nobody has been humiliated like Christ and gone as far as Christ, and nobody is ever going to, and is as exalted as this
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Christ. When it says here that he is above all the heavens, it's saying he reigns from the highest heavens.
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When it says that he is filling all things, it means that he is filling all things with his sovereign rule, his sovereign authority, as it extends from the cosmos to the church.
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Yet he intimately fills his church with his presence and power, and partly, in part, by giving gifts to his children to minister to one another.
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It's a beautiful reality. Remember in chapter two, or in chapter one rather, in verse 22, it says that God put all things in subjection under Jesus' feet and gave him as head over all things to the church.
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He gave him cosmic rule and authority in the heavenly places, right? And he did so so that he could be there and be over and be the head of his body, which is the church.
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Here's the question you got to ask yourself. Do I see that Christ in that way? Do I love that Christ who did that, who died the death you deserve to die?
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And who didn't just go in the ground, but went to Sheol and grabbed those Old Testament saints that were waiting on him to come?
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Hebrews chapter 11, the very last verse, tells us that they didn't get what was promised to them, but they were waiting for us.
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Now some of these things start to make a little more sense. They were waiting for us in Sheol.
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They were waiting for us to be saved, to be covenanted with him. And now they're in heaven and they are the great cloud of witnesses looking around at us and are giving us examples of how we ought to run our race.
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And so in conclusion, I hope as we close, and though I wish I had always more time, that it is at least irrefutably clear, and I'm happy to have more conversations about this after the service, that Christ's descent into Sheol was no death blow to the
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Lord Jesus Christ. There's no defeat, but a declaration of his absolute victory over Satan, sin, death, and hell for you and for those gifts, the plunder, if you will, and that the depths of his descent serve not to make him look weird, not to make him look weak or small, but to magnify the depths of his descention and the heights of his exaltation.
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And so, saints of Christ's church, remember that Jesus reigns now far above the heavens, filling all things with his sovereign and church -helping power, and he has given to you gifts from his throne to minister to one another on his behalf.
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And he has been and continues to bestow the spoils, which are those gifts, of his conquest upon every single person that is in his church, and this grace is gifted to equip you to serve him and one another.
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We who were once captives of sin are now soldiers in his victorious army, endowed with the grace necessary to fight the good fight of faith.
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So live like the church with boldness, with the knowledge of the descended and ascended one who conquers all things.
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But friends, if you do not know Jesus, if you have not bowed your knee to him, if you do not love him, if you do not see him as this victorious
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Christ who has saved us, there's something that you should know. Hell is impossible to escape, and heaven is impossible to get into.
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Hell is impossible to escape, and heaven is impossible to get into.
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If you stand in the path of the wrath of God, if you are still dead in your transgressions and sins, if you have not bowed your knee to this one who has triumphed over Satan, sin, death, and hell, then that is your destiny.
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You will suffer not away from the presence of Christ, but in his presence where he is pouring down upon you wrath for all eternity.
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And I don't say that to try to shock you. I'm not a shock jock. I don't say that simply to scare you, although I hope it does, but to remind you that that is your end.
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But there is good news. Christ, because of his victory over Satan, sin, and death, because of his triumphant work, he has broken the gates of Hades, and he opens wide the gates of heaven for anyone who would throw themselves at his feet and renounce their former
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Lord Satan. Trust in this
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Jesus, because he has the power of death and Hades.
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He has the power to grow and sanctify us, and he has the power to grow his church and to keep us, because of this reality, in the spirit and the bond of peace.
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Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you. We thank you for your gifts, and we ask that you would help us to use them in light of everything that we have just heard.
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Christ did the unthinkable, the unbelievable, that he might have the authority to give us the gifts that he has given us for one another.
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Let us not throw them down as if they were meaningless. Let us not throw them down as if Christ did not suffer greatly to obtain them, as if they weren't
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Christ's own spoils. You remind us,
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Lord, continually that we are endowed with the spoils of your victory.