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Holy Saturday | Holy Week Day 7
2 Playsin 1 day
Holy Saturday is the quiet day — the day between the cross and the empty tomb. In this episode, I walk through what we know about this often-overlooked day, including the intriguing phrase from the Apostles' Creed about Jesus descending to the grave. The theme for today: prepare your heart, because Sunday is coming.
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Transcript
Introduction to Holy Saturday Series
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello friends and welcome back to Verity Podcast's Holy Week series. Today is Holy Saturday, the day between Good Friday when Jesus was crucified and the day of his resurrection, which we call Easter.
00:00:17
Speaker
Now, many people don't know what happened on Holy Saturday. All is quiet. Jesus is in the tomb. We know that um Luke 23 tells us that Jesus' female disciples went home to prepare spices for Jesus' body, probably late on Friday, since Saturday Jewish Sabbath and work would have been prohibited. So as Jesus lays in the grave that was donated to him, since he wouldn't have had one,
00:00:43
Speaker
um Everyone is mourning. They think all is lost. Their rabbi, their teacher, he's dead.
Theological Insights: Descending to Hell
00:00:52
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This is not ending the way anybody thought it would end.
00:00:56
Speaker
Now, here's something interesting. In the Apostles' Creed, which is the oldest statement of faith in Christianity, goes back to the first century, there's an intriguing phrase which says, Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.
00:01:13
Speaker
He descended unto hell. So, did Jesus actually descend to hell during his three days in the tomb? Now, if you've never heard of this idea, it's called the harrowing of hell.
00:01:26
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And it's based on 1 Peter 4, 6, which says, For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.
00:01:41
Speaker
So over the course of church history, there have different perspectives on this. But the harrowing of hell teaches that um Jesus descended into Abraham's bosom.
00:01:52
Speaker
Luke 16 talks about this. Or Sheol, which is the grave, to bring the gospel to the dead Old Testament saints. So Revelation 20 talks about how the lake of fire, final judgment, and Hades or Sheol are different places. So Hades or Sheol refers to the grave. It doesn't mean hell. Hell is the lake of fire or final judgment. So Apostles' Creed uses the word hell for Sheol, and this often means um confuses people, and it's the movement of Hebrew into English. um But it's not talking about Jesus going to literal hell, like the the place of judgment, but descending to the
Harrowing of Hell in Art and Belief
00:02:32
Speaker
grave. And so specific denominations believe that when Jesus descended to the grave, he preached the gospel to the dead Old Testament saints, fulfilling their faith in God and bringing them out of the grave or Abraham's bosom into eternity. with God.
00:02:51
Speaker
So a lot of people ask, is it like purgatory? Not really, because there's no purification happening in that place. They're simply resting and waiting for the fulfillment of the Messiah. Of course, not all Christian traditions believe this, but it is a very interesting and it was a very fundamental viewpoint. You'll see a lot of art pieces from the Middle Ages and later Renaissance period that depict the harrowing of hell, where Jesus is entering these doors and rescuing people. And usually Abraham is pictured there as well. So you can look those up if you want to learn more about it.
Spiritual Preparation for Easter
00:03:26
Speaker
um This is what many believe happened on Holy Saturday. But at the very minimum, this is a day to really sit and to think about the resurrection that's coming.
00:03:41
Speaker
This is a day to prepare your heart for the hope of Sunday. Now, as we are moving towards Resurrection Day, Lent is drawing to a close. So the fast of the last six weeks would be would be ending. And during the early church period in the fourth century, there would be a vigil that would start on Holy Saturday around midnight going into um Resurrection Day. And my church doesn't do this, but I think it would be just so neat to, if it did, to get to gather with your church family at midnight. Some churches will do, Catholic churches do a midnight mass or Easter vigil um to go into that special resurrection day. And so today, the theme that I would encourage you um to think about is is to prepare your heart for resurrection.
00:04:34
Speaker
To think about What is the hope of the resurrection? And if you need a reminding, head over to 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul talks about the resurrection. And he says, these are all the reasons that this is so important, that without the resurrection, we have no hope. We're going to learn more about that tomorrow, Resurrection Day. um But for now, prepare your heart because Sunday is coming.