Louie Giglio - The One who Split the Gates of Hades
I love the series «Um Anno Domini». It’s about B.C. and A.D., focusing on the one who split history. We will discuss this in terms of the calendar in our eve gatherings; I’m really pumped about that. However, these last few weeks, I don’t know about you, but I am absolutely loving this journey. Jesus split the veil of humanity, God becoming one of us. God tore the veil in the temple from top to bottom so that we could enter into a relationship with a holy God—Amen!
Today, we’re looking at something else that God split, and I believe it is possibly the greatest thing of all. We see it at the beginning of the Christmas narrative in Matthew’s account in verse 18. Notice what it says about the birth of our Savior: «This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph, her husband, was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,"—can I just pause there really fast? You may have already made up your mind. You may have already made your plan. You may have already thought through your options and come to your decision, but it’s very likely that God is going to appear to you with another idea, another direction, a better outcome for your life.
The angel said to him, «Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.» All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: «The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel,» which means «God with us.» When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him. He took Mary home as his wife, but he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son, and he gave him the name Jesus. Why? Because he would save his people from their sin.
At the drop, Christmas was about God defeating our greatest enemy, and the greatest enemy of your life is sin, and the casualty of sin, which is spiritual death—separation from Almighty God forever—unless there is a remedy, someone who has the power to defeat death and offer life. That’s what Christmas has been about from the very first moment, and that’s why we sing, «Hark, the herald angels sing.»
We were walking down a sidewalk a few nights ago, and there was a Salvation Army quartet of guys out on the sidewalk singing. They were singing «Hark, the herald,» and a little group of people gathered around. I don’t think all the people were necessarily Jesus followers or people of the way, but they loved that song—it’s very familiar, it’s festive, it’s very Christmas. Everyone was standing around with their phones on, taking pictures of these guys as they sang. I thought everyone gets involved in this song, but it’s a very complicated and deep theological treatise, right from the beginning.
If I were to start it and say, «Hark, the herald angels sing,» could anybody sing along? Glory! Okay, did anybody take it? Was it a whisper? Is it a very quiet zone? People were sitting very quietly. These guys were robust on the sidewalk! It’s the most polite Christmas song in history. We didn’t want to wake the baby.
Now, the second verse—anyone know it? You’re like, «Bro, we were struggling on that one.» The second verse is unbelievable. If I may, I think the lyrics will come up: «Christ, by highest heaven adored; Christ, the everlasting Lord. Late in time, behold him come; offspring of a virgin’s womb! Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see; hail the incarnate Deity. Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel.»
Anyone who said where the «Amen» goes? The third verse: «Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace!» Notice all the exclamation points! «Hail the Son of righteousness! Light and life to all He brings, risen with healing in His wings. Mild, He lays His glory by; born that man no more may die; born to raise the sons of earth; born to give them second birth.»
Now, this is the one that’s in the million-dollar pyramid thing: for a million dollars, can anyone name one line from the fourth verse of «Hark the Herald Angels Sing»? No? «Come, Desire of nations, come! Fix in us Thy humble home; rise, the woman’s conquering seed.» You didn’t see that coming, did you? «Hark, the herald…rise, rise, rise up out of the manger!»
«Adam’s likeness now efface; stamp’d thine image in its place; final Adam from above; reinstate us in Thy love.» As soon as we walked past this quartet, this song got into my heart and mind as songs do occasionally, and I just can’t get them out. I’ve not been able to get this song out of my mind since that night, and I keep coming back to a line in the song, in the third stanza, and it is this line—maybe my favorite line of any Christmas song of all time—"Born that man no more may die.»
When the angels announced the birth of Jesus, what they were announcing was a mission, and the mission was that Christ was coming to defeat death. His birth was about His death, and we cannot celebrate His birth without celebrating His death because His birth was about defeating death. He arrived on the scene to make sure that He would be in human flesh, incarnate. He would tear the veil of the temple so there’d be a new relationship with a holy God, so that He then could die on a cross and put a stake through the heart of death once and for all. This is what He is splitting today. He’s splitting the gates of hell, and He is leading us out into everlasting life. Are you with me?
We see it at the cross. This is the eyewitness account of His death in Matthew 27: «From noon until three in the afternoon, darkness came over all the land. About three in the afternoon, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? '» When some of those standing there heard this, they said, «He’s calling Elijah.» Immediately, one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. The rest said, «Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.» Clueless, right? God is changing history and eternity, and people are clueless.
Then verse 50: «And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice,"—another eyewitness account tells us he cried out, «It is finished.» It says here in Matthew 27, «He gave up His spirit.» So in flesh and blood, gasping and bleeding, the Son of God dies. The instant that He dies, it sets off a chain of events throughout the spiritual world and a chain of events throughout the natural world. In the instant that He dies, a cataclysmic event takes place that sets in motion dominoes of significance that are still falling into this room right now.
His death was so catalytic that, in that moment, the entire earth shook. Look how Matthew records it: «At that moment, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.» We talked about that last week with Dr. Mark. «The earth shook; the rocks split.» So there’s our word. The one who split history also split the rocks, and the word for torn in the veil and split in the rocks is the same word.
In verse 52, something else happened: «The tombs broke open, and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life.» At His death—at the death of Jesus—rocks split, tombs opened, and people came to life. As Jesus was raised from the dead, He goes on to say, «They came to life,» and after the resurrection, «They went into the holy city and appeared to many people.»
So after the resurrection, it’s not just that there’s one person walking around that everybody knows had died. There are a bunch of people walking around that people knew had died—because dominoes are falling. A series of events has been set in motion; a chain reaction is occurring because of the significance of the death of the holy Son of God. When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified. And they should have been terrified!
This person splits history, this person splits humanity, this person splits the veil in the Holy of Holies, and now He’s splitting rocks and splitting tombs, and they’re terrified. But their exclamation is spot on: «Surely he was the Son of God.» In other words, it all added up for them in a heartbeat. This is not some ordinary crucifixion; this is not some ordinary criminal; this is not run-of-the-mill average day’s work for us. Something is going on here that has never happened before, and we are starting to clue into the fact that this is the Son of God, God in human skin, God gasping for breath, and then God dying.
Why? So that He could put to death death! The two big implications that we see in Matthew’s account of the cross: Number one, there’s a spiritual implication. And what does that mean? It means that the instant that He died, our debt was canceled. The instant He died, our guilt was removed, and the instant He died, a way was made. When that veil was torn from top down, it was God saying, «There is now a way where there was no way.»
Not like «If you work at it, you’ll figure out a way.» Or «If you try hard enough, you might come up with a way.» No! There is no way to get past this veil. If you go past this veil into the Holy of Holies, you die. And all of a sudden, from heaven to earth, God split the veil and said, «I just made a way for you to come into the Holy of Holies.»
How is that possible? The Hebrews writer explained it. Look at what he said in Hebrews 10: «Since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain that Jesus opened for us through the curtain,"—the curtain that was torn from top down—is through His flesh. So then it says a little bit later, «Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.»
So what was ripped physically in the Holy of Holies was symbolic of the fact that when they put nails through Jesus' wrists and feet and a spear in His side, it was the ripping of His flesh that opened a way for us to come into a relationship with God. It wasn’t the ripping of a curtain so that now we could walk into a physical space; it was the ripping of the curtain of the flesh of the Son of God so that now, through His blood, we could walk in with full confidence into a relationship with a holy God.
The second implication is physical. The physical implication is that our bodies, even though we will die in Christ, are going to be raised. The implication is that the grave is not our final resting place. You may put me in one, but I do not plan on staying there. You may seal me down in a vault, but I don’t plan on staying there in spirit. I mean my body isn’t staying in the vault! Jesus' death instantly split open tombs, and people who had died were now walking—the walking dead!
He said, «There was a spiritual implication to what just happened: You can now come into the holy place with a holy God.» And there’s a physical implication: «Your body is not going to end up in a grave; your body is going to end up raised up and made brand new with me.» It is finished; the final payment is done. People are walking! And on Friday, He split the curtain; on Friday He split the rocks, but on the third day, He split the rock and came out of the tomb and opened the gates of hell once and for all for whoever wants to walk free.
You now may leave. That’s why it’s called *Anno Domini*, the Year of the Lord’s Favor. And that’s what God wants us to get our hearts around today as we celebrate Christmas. He wants us to see the baby. He wants us to be amazed at the manger. He wants us to be mystified by the incarnation. He wants us to feel all the feels, but He also wants us to understand that this baby is a warrior, and He has come to set the captive free.
When John saw Him on the Lord’s Day, when he was in the Spirit, taken up into heaven— we’ve read this description so many times, but it stuns me every time. He says, «I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me, and when I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to His feet, and with a golden sash around His chest. The hair on His head was white like wool, as white as snow. His eyes were like blazing fire; His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of rushing waters.»
In His right hand, He held seven stars, and coming out of His mouth was a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun, shining in all its brilliance. When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though dead. This is an important awareness for all of us. This is John. This is the disciple; this is a Gospel writer; this is an eyewitness; this is a friend; this is a brother. He didn’t go, «Whoa, that’s a pretty wild transformation!» He didn’t go, «Hey, it’s been a long time. Good to see my bro!» No! He completely collapsed as though dead in the presence of his closest friend, who now was ascended into radiant glory. And Jesus put His right hand on him and said, «Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One. I was dead, and now look, I am alive forever and ever.»
I stopped at the end. You’re like, «Well, why do you bother with conjunctions?» Because why do you need a conjunction at the end of that sentence? I mean, what more is there to say? «I was dead, but now I am alive forever and ever. I am the Living One! I was dead; you saw me dead. But I am now alive, and I’m alive forevermore!» What more is there to say? Why is there an end after that? Because Jesus didn’t just come to prove that He could beat death; He came to beat death so that then you could beat death.
And He says—and there’s more! —"I hold the keys of death and Hades.» Jesus has got the keys to set you free! You ever seen somebody posting on Instagram about buying a house? That’s usually first-time home buyers, and they’re real excited, and we’re all excited for them. Normally, there’s a realtor involved, and they’re standing on the front porch, and it’s «Here’s our new home, and we’re at 127 Happy Avenue or wherever they’ve moved into.» Oftentimes, in the photo, someone will be holding the keys to the house: «We’ve got the keys to the house!» All that happened because there was a closing. There was a legal transaction. There was a payment. It was notarized, it was signed, it was sealed, it was transferred, and now ownership has taken place.
What Jesus is trying to communicate to us through the revelation is that a transaction has happened; a legal event took place. There was a closing, a payment, and it was notarized, signed, and sealed, and now there’s been a transfer. There’s new ownership; I’ve got the keys!
I don’t carry keys; I’m against keys in general. Does anybody have keys? Okay, thank you! Yes, a very extraordinary group of keys! Thank you for that, I appreciate it. Trust me, because now I have the keys to your car! I can go take that. It’s a GMC? I’ll look for it. I have keys to your house, so I can go in there: your office, your garage, your old house, your storage closet, your mailbox—wow, I’m pretty much getting anything you’ve got!
That’s exactly what Jesus is trying to get across: «I’ve got the keys! I went down there, and I got the keys to everything!» He’s got the keys locked up. I love the tone of this; it’s not a flex. It’s not like that moment at Caesarea Philippi when He says to Peter, «On this rock, I’ll build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.» We all feel like we have to flex; we’re all going after the gates of hell: «Come on, let’s go take the gates of hell!»
Jesus said, «Here’s how we’re going to take the gates of hell: I’m going to go down there, and I’m going to defeat it all. I’m going to be raised up to everlasting life; I’m going to be the living one. And while I’m down there, I’m going to get the keys to everything, and I’m going to come back with the keys and let you know I’ve got all the keys!»
He’s got the keys—keys to what? Well, He’s got the keys to spiritual life; that would be the master key. I don’t know which one of these is the mack daddy on yours; I’m going to go with that one. Probably I’ve got the key of all keys—the big one—and it is the key that opens hell and lets you out of the wrath of God, out of an eternity separated from God by your own foolish, sinful choices and lets you into forgiveness and grace and mercy and a relationship with God forever. I’ve got that key!
Anyone need that key? You’re like, «I’ve been looking for that key!» Jesus’s got it! It’s the key to spiritual and ultimately physical eternal life. When Jesus showed up, when His friend Lazarus had died, He said to Lazarus' sister these words in John 11: «I am the resurrection and the life.» In other words, what He’s really saying is, «I am the key; I have the key, and I am the key.» He said, «He who believes in me will live even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.» And then He said to Martha, «Do you believe this?» And that’s what He’s saying to you today: «Do you believe there’s been a closing, a legal transaction? A payment has been notarized; it’s been signed, it’s been sealed; something’s been transferred; there’s new ownership!»
«I’ve got the key.» The key that I have is the key to your forgiveness and your eternal future with the God who loves you. I have the key to that! I can set you free so that He can proclaim over us today who believe in Him, «Death is swallowed up in victory!» That’s the way Paul wrote it in Corinthians. He said, «Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed.» Can you say «changed» with me? «Changed!»
How? «In a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: 'Death has been swallowed up in victory.'»
Why? Because Jesus knew sin was at the crux of the issue. «Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?» The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. Meaning, without the key, it doesn’t matter how good you are, how hard you try, or what path you get on or what frequency you try to tap into. Without the cross and the key, we are stuck in a prison called our own sinful separation from the holiness of God.
But I’m telling you, Paul comes with this great benediction: «But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.» He is the key to everlasting life! He even said it before He did anything in His ministry. He called on the prophet and said, «The Spirit of the Lord is on me because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim *Anno Domini*! To proclaim the Year of the Lord’s Favor.»
And I’m telling you right now, today is the day of salvation. 2021 is the Year of the Lord’s Favor! Salvation is here. The key is here. Jesus is here! He is not dead but very much alive, and He’s holding the keys right now to death and Hades. Anyone who wants spiritual life, Jesus is the key! He’s got the key right now! He has got the key to spiritual and everlasting life and a physical resurrection where your body comes up out of the dust, out of the brokenness, out of the ashes, out of the grave, out of the coffin, out of the urn, out of wherever it was scattered, and it comes back and it’s now put on with imperishable in a flash.
It’s a brand new you with a body fit for heaven—everlasting, everlasting life! But the second key, I think it’s all these other ones. Who knows what this one goes to, but you probably do! I’m not sure what this little guy goes to, but I bet you do! And Jesus is saying to you today, «Merry Christmas! I got the keys! If anybody needs to be set free, I’ve got the keys. I’ve got the keys to your addiction! I got them! I went down and got them. That cell you’ve been locked in? I got that key! I’ve got the keys to your habit! I went and got that key! I have it! I’ve got the keys to the curse that’s been over your life! I got it! I have the key to the secret!
I have the key to the pattern. I have the key to the way of thinking. I have the key to the past! I got the keys! As amazing as it is that Jesus' flesh was torn, that was the way made, there would be people in this gathering right now who don’t feel worthy to step into the presence in a relationship with God. You’re still behind bars: shame, guilt, my past, my mistakes, all my dead ends, all my fits and starts and failures. And you’re still behind bars when a holy God says, „I’ve already unlocked that door. All you have to do is walk through it. It was made for you by the blood of Jesus.“
I think so many of us are going to sing the songs of Christmas one more time, and we’re going to huddle around the fire with our family, and we’re going to feel something and share something and open something and sing something and say something, and we’re going to do it all behind the bars of whatever cell we’ve gotten locked into when Jesus is trying to say, „I’ve got the keys!“
It wasn’t nuclear when He split the gates of hell; it was just epic and supernatural! You know, Brad preached a while back and told this story, but when he was navigating with me years ago at an event in Tennessee in Gatlinburg, we came home late. We were living in Alpharetta at the time, and I think we got to our house about 1 a.m. Sure enough, we get up the driveway, and I started looking around for my stuff—and no keys to my house. And this is not unusual; that’s why I had Brad there with me in the first place.
I was digging through everything; I don’t have the keys! Sometimes we’ve left a key in some seasons under this little place near the front door, so I went and checked that place. No key there. Shelly’s in the house, and I texted her: „Babe, is there any way you’re up?“ „No.“ I didn’t want to bang on a window and scare her. I didn’t want to rattle the door and scare her. I didn’t want to do that thing. So Brad says, „Hey, there’s a key at our office.“ We used to work at an old house in downtown Alpharetta called Passion House, and my sister had a key to our house in her desk drawer.
He said, „I think Gina’s got a key in the desk drawer. Let’s go check it out.“ So we get back in the car, we drive the ten minutes to Passion House, and he uses his key; we go in, we go to my sister’s desk, and we rummage through the drawer. We can’t find the key to our house anywhere! So now we’re like, „I don’t know what we’re going to do. We could sleep here at the office or I could send you home. I don’t know what’s going to happen.“
Let’s go one more time and check the door, so we drive back to the house, and we’ve got a walk-out basement, and we’ve got doors in the back, of course, that go onto a patio. We’ve got a side door that goes into the garage under the driveway. We’ve got a lot of windows, and so we’re poking around as quietly as we can, checking doors, hoping the neighbors aren’t out. Finally, we end up back on the front porch, and we have these big double doors on the front of the house.
I’m just standing there; I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to startle Shelly, but I feel like I’m going to have to bang on the door or start ringing the doorbell. I just rested my hand on the latch—the little thing above the door handle—and just pressed it down with my thumb, and just opened my front door! I don’t know what that says about the Giglios, but come on over! And I said, „I mean, it was about as simple as this because by now, you know, another hour’s gone by. I said, 'Hey, it’s a great night. Thanks for everything. I’ll see you at church tomorrow! '“ Just walked in, closed the door.
That’s what Jesus is trying to say to you today: „The front door is open!“ And it wasn’t nuclear; it wasn’t some Marvel Guardians of the Galaxy throwdown. It wasn’t you or me smashing into the gates of hell. It was just the Son of God going down into the depths of the earth, demonstrating superiority and authority and saying, „Thank you! I will take the keys. I’m taking all the keys, and I’m going to set the people free because the Spirit of the Lord is on me, and He has anointed me to set the captive free.“
Split humanity! The incarnation made a way! Split the veil! Set you free! Split the gates of hell, and you don’t have to spend one more Christmas behind a prison bar. The door’s open!