Acts 17:22- to establish a foundation of common ground with an audience. Paul looks around and notes religious adherence in temples and statues and plaques. For a while, our temple to commerce was the mall, but they are falling by the wayside , it seems. Sports stadium is a clear temple and ballpark village. We used to gather around the national hearth, the TV and watch Ed Sullivan on Sunday night and speak of it around the water cooler.We do share things: cell phones, internet access. The uniqueness of the Athenian sermon within the book of Acts allows it to emphasize this point: you don't need to quote the Bible or recite the history of Israel in order to explain the gospel. Sometimes poetry, natural theology, and human experience provide an excellent starting point. Certainly, all people face death. . In part, one learns it as one goes along. All organizations develop some of their own language to speak about its concerns. Can it be any surprise that we have specialized language to speak of the divine? At the other side, to what degree is it a real obstacle for folks?
I Pet. 3:13, AKMAdam 3:18 to 3:22 emphasizes with fourfold repetition God's determination to bring people to safety: by preserving humanity through the ark, by Jesus' self-giving on the cross, by the effects of baptism, and by Jesus' ministry to the dead. No people have been excluded from God's saving grace--not even the dead. -it is a boundary situation between Calvary and Easter-In the abode of the dead, Jesus is bringing to life. Calvin comments, “And surely no more terrible abyss can be conceived than to feel yourself forsaken and estranged from God, and when you call upon him, not to be heard.” In other words, hell in the Creed is defined by the cross of Jesus Christ. Hell is godforsakenness. To enter into this state is what it means to descend into hell.By descending into hell, God in the person of Jesus Christ places the worst that can befall human beings within the redeeming embrace of the cross.cannot be confessed independently of Jesus Christ. It is inextricably linked to his name. He did not evade hell. He entered into it. Hell is now defined by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He determines it. He holds its keys. He “made it” to hell and back. And because he did, and thereby did for all what they could not do for themselves, we can firmly hope that all will “make it” together with him. That Jesus Descended into Hell . “What the coming judgment eternally rejects may be said to be not the creature ‘made in the likeness of God’…but the creature as cursed or accursed by all that stands in opposition, including self-opposition, to the creature’s own good.” Christ “descended into hell” is thus “the sum of our redemption.” There is absolutely no possibility for us and for all creation that is beyond the reach of the Triune God’s unfathomable, unquenchable, and irresistible love (James kay)
John 14:15 so often we feel as if it is all up to us, and we are like the lawman in High Noon where no one will stand with us.paraclete stand alongside you advocate helper counsellor-of counsel-I will not leave you desolate or orphaned-the is the abiding presence of Christ with us-note well this is a community gift, not individual gift giving this is for everyone and is not limited to those who demonstrate certain charismatic gifts who who recite certain phrases-no second class status for the christian. Spirit reminders and dementia’s amnesia as giving cues in a stage whisper.(see long’s whispering the lyrics and Jimmy in the Sacks story)Even in death god is with us.
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