Where Did Jesus Go?

A recent sermon by my Pastor raised more questions for me than it answered. The question asked was: Do you know what happened to Jesus body, soul and spirit after he was taken from the Cross? I thought that it was going to be easy to answer that, as all believers in Jesus know that Jesus body went into the tomb, his soul and spirit went to heaven! Make up your mind first -- then read on to see what my Pastor and the Bible says happened to Jesus, and why it happened. Biblical proof from the Old Testament will be given that it was going to happen, and Biblical proof will show that it really happened!

Pastor said that Jesus went to hell? I was wide awake when he said this and was as surprised, as some others in the congregation were, to hear this. Pastor then read from the Bible, Matthew 12:40 Jesus said, "for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

The Pastor then went on to say that according to the Old Testament of the Bible, hell consisted of three compartments, a righteous one, known as "Abraham's bosom," a second compartment for the unrighteous, and the third, which was called "Tatarus" for the fallen angels. Pastor then went on to explain the story of Lazarus the begger and the rich man as told in Luke 16:23-24, which xplained Abraham's bosom.

When Jesus was on the cross there were two thieves with him. One was a believer and the other was an unbeliever. When they died Jesus and the thieves went directly to hell, but only the believer went to Abraham's bosom, while Jesus and the unbeliever went directly to the bottomless pit.

But why did Jesus go to the bottomless pit? Because Satan lived there and Jesus had to take authority over Satan by retrieving the keys of death and hell from Satan who had taken them when Adam sinned. This is explained in the Bible in Hebrews 2:14 "For as much as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, Jesus also himself took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil."

Thousands of years before, King David said (and it was repeated in Acts 2: 24-31-32) that Christ would sit on the throne, that he would be resurrected, that his soul and flesh would not remain in Hades, and that Jesus would be raised up.

Pastor said that if Satan knew that Jesus was going to die and go to hell to take authority away from him he never would have let Jesus die on the cross!

After Jesus had retrieved the keys to death and hell he returned up to the tomb where he met Mary in Gethsemane, and said to her, "touch me not." (Please read John 20:17 for details -- Jesus still had the sin of the world in him.) Jesus then went up into Heaven, sprinkled his blood on the redemption seat, thus relieving all who believe in Jesus of their sins, which assures all of us who believe in Jesus, a life after our death!