Sermon Text:

This morning we continue working our way passage by passage through 1 Peter. This is a deep and challenging letter, but every week I am amazed how powerfully God’s word speaks to our circumstances. These are eternal truths given to challenge us, encourage us, and provide a foundation for us to build our lives upon. Throughout the week I pray we are continuing to remind and encourage each other with what the Holy Spirit is revealing to us in these pages.

Previously, Peter said believers shouldn’t become intimidated or fearful because of suffering, but should continue to focus on Jesus. Jesus was exalted through his suffering and God promises that our suffering will also result in blessing and glory. God keeps his promises. His Word is trustworthy. When things don’t make sense to us, we need to rest in knowing that God is in control. I like the way pastor Bryan Chappell puts it. He said,

“Were we with Joseph, we would have prayed for his rescue from his brothers’ 

plot to sell him into slavery. Had we been with Mary and Martha, we would have asked God not to let Lazarus die the first time. Were we at the foot of the cross, we would have cried for God to send his angels to the rescue. In each case, the Lord knew better how to accomplish his will for his ultimate purposes.”

The lord may put us in uncomfortable situations but he has good reasons for it and we know he is working all things for our good and his glory. We know he loves us because Jesus is proof of that. In our text this morning, Peter anchors the believer's trust in God’s promises in what God has done in Jesus Christ.

The main point of our passage this morning, and the main point of this message is that 

Believers can be certain the troubles of the present age are temporary because Jesus Christ has triumphed over evil.

Let me say that again. Believers can be certain the troubles of the present age are temporary because Jesus Christ has triumphed over evil.

We begin with verse 18,

18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, 

This is a summary of the gospel. The word gospel means “good news” and this is good news. Jesus came to bring us to God. We were separated from God because we have all sinned. Sin is a rejection of God and his laws. It is a rejection of him. At its root, sin is the desire to enjoy the world God created, without him. This is evil and we have all done it, which means every one of us is unrighteous.

To be unrighteous means, we are not right. We are un-right. We are not right with God and not as we should be. The bad news is that since this unrighteousness comes from us we do not have the ability to fix it. Having sin in our hearts is like having oil on our hands, we will spread it around to everything we touch.

But here is the good news. God sent his son as a savior. Jesus, who is divine, came as a man and lived a perfect life without any sin. He is perfectly righteous. Normally, it doesn't help us much if we mess something up and then the next guy does it perfectly. But that is the good news, he didn’t just live a perfect life. He died so he could exchange his perfection for our sin. Jesus, the righteous, suffered for us the unrighteous, to bring us to God. 

He paid the price for the sins of all those who would ever put their faith in him as their lord and savior. He suffered and was killed, experiencing the full wrath of God’s justice against sin on the cross. The curse that should have fallen on us was placed upon him. Then three days later, he rose from the dead proving that the justice of God was satisfied.

As the song says, Jesus paid it all. The holy one suffered so that the sins that separated believers from God would be removed. Since we had no righteousness of our own, he freely and graciously gave us his perfect righteousness which we receive by faith. 

By faith God accepts us not based on what we have done, but on what Jesus has done for us. If we put our faith in Jesus alone to save us then our sins are washed away and there is nothing in the universe that can separate us anymore from the love of God. We can rejoice knowing that if we are in Christ, the Father could no more reject us than he could reject his Son.

When we are united to Jesus by faith every sin we have ever committed and every sin we are ever going to commit is under that blood! Before the throne of God above, we have a strong and perfect plea! By faith, my sin and my unrighteousness were nailed with him to the cross and my life is hidden in him. On that great day, when my name is called, I need not be afraid because it will be Jesus Christ who stands to testify for me.

What about you? 

Paul says in Romans 8:1–2,

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 

Come to him in faith and be sure. Hebrews 7:25 says,

25 …he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.  

Maybe you think your sins are too bad or your heart is too dark. Maybe you think you need to do something first to get right before you come. Listen. It doesn’t say he died for the holy, it doesn’t say he died for the good. It says the righteous for the unrighteous. Jesus died for sinners. God sent his son to save the guilty. So bring all your guilt and shame to the cross and exchange it for peace with God.

In Matthew 11:28–29 Jesus says,

28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

It doesn’t matter what you have or haven’t done. If you know you are a sinner who needs grace, this invitation is for you. John 3:16 says, 

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 

And in John 6:37 Jesus says,

37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

This is good news for sinners. This is why grace is amazing!

We know that Jesus can keep these promises because not only did he die for us, but because he rose again. Peter says Christ also suffered once for sins …

being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 

This refers to his resurrection. Although Jesus suffered death in the body, he was raised by the power of the Spirit. Romans 8:11 says,

11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.  

His resurrection proves he can and will keep his promise to bring us to God. It proves we can trust the message Peter has been giving, that we can trust God even in suffering and when there is opposition to us because of our faith. We know we will be raised to glory because Jesus, who took our sins upon himself, was raised to glory. His resurrection proves that if we have him, we already have victory over sin and death.

When we get to verses 19 and 20 we run into some things that are much harder to understand. Peter says Jesus was made alive in the Spirit and then he says,

19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. 

This is difficult to interpret and raises a lot of questions. I have studied it multiple times and must confess that I am not completely certain what exactly Peter is talking about. Of course, it isn’t great when that is the case and you are supposed to preach on the passage. I was thinking about how best to handle this and then I read Martin Luther’s comments on these verses and I felt a little better. 

Luther says,

A wonderful text is this, and a more obscure passage perhaps than any other in the New Testament, so that I do not know for a certainty just what Peter means. 

I am not sure if that helps you, but it made me feel better! I share this only to say that this is a very difficult text. The good news is that the overall meaning of our passage is clear even if we do not understand every detail of what Peter says. Let me very briefly address the difficulty before we move on.  An ancient and still popular interpretation is that there was a time between the death of Jesus and his resurrection when he went into sheol to rescue the souls of Old Testament believers who were imprisoned there. For several reasons we don’t have time to get into today, I don't think that is right.

A better possibility is that this is describing Jesus proclaiming victory over evil angels that are held in prison. This view is popular among modern scholars.

Verse 22 talks about angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to Jesus. Other Bible passages, such as Jude 6 talk about angels being kept in chains. An ancient understanding of Genesis 6, where it says the sons of God entered into the daughters of men, was that the sons of god were heavenly beings who sired children with human women and this is why those angels were imprisoned and their offspring wiped out in the flood. This incident in Genesis 6 comes right before the events of the flood so it is possible that is what Peter is talking about.

Of course, that isn’t the only way to interpret those passages and another possibility is that Peter refers to the Spirit of Christ preaching through Noah to those who lived while Noah was building the ark. If that is right, these spirits were previously disobedient in the time of Noah and are now in prison. Back in chapter 1 verse 10 and 11 Peter said the prophets of old were inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating and Noah certainly could be counted among those prophets.

Both of these views have strengths and weaknesses and I tend to switch back and forth between them. When we come to something like this we don’t fully understand what we want to do is look for what truths are clear and begin with those.  Sort of like driving in the snow. You might not be able to see exactly where every line is on the road, but you can head the right direction if you follow the tracks. It is often the case, as it is here, that you can still follow the main idea even if you don’t understand every single detail.

At the beginning of verse 21 Peter says that the salvation of Noah’s family from the judgment of the flood corresponds to baptism. In other words, there is something in the experience of Noah and the flood that foreshadows something in the experience of believers in their baptism. 

Remember, Peter is writing to believers who are living in a world growing increasingly hostile to their faith. Christians were a minority surrounded by people who did not understand or appreciate their faith and way of life. Christians then, and often still, are the subject of ridicule and even harassment for what they believe. Peter is encouraging these believers, and us, to persevere. To trust in God’s word rather than the wisdom of the world.

Think about how Noah perfectly illustrates this. Imagine this brother, pleading with people to escape judgment and faithfully building the ark despite nobody taking him seriously. Imagine how foolish he looked all those years as he toiled away, lovingly pointing those who laughed at him to the way of escape! Do you think Noah had to deal with some nonsense or what? 

But the day came when it began to rain and it wasn’t funny anymore. The wisdom of the world was proved to be foolishness and God’s word was shown to be true. 

So, here is the point. A small number of people, surrounded by a world of unrighteousness, were rescued by God because they had faith. They trusted God’s word and so they were brought safely through the waters of judgment. Then Peter says,

21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.  

Peter says, baptism now saves you. If you’ve read much of your Bible, this should catch your attention. That doesn’t sound right does it? But these are God’s holy and inspired words and God does not contradict himself, so how can this be? Thankfully, Peter tells us what he means and it is one of the clearest verses on baptism in the Bible and it fits perfectly with what the Bible teaches elsewhere, that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone.

Peter says baptism corresponds to “this” meaning it resembles what he has just been talking about which is that by faith a small number of people were rescued by God from out of a world of wickedness and brought safely through the waters of judgment. 

He then explains what he means by saying that baptism saves in connection to this by telling us three things. First, he tells us how it doesn’t save us, not as a removal of dirt from the body. He tells us what the water of baptism does do, it is an appeal to God for a good conscience. Then he tells us how or on what basis this is done. It is through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Peter is highlighting the similarities between what God does in saving Noah and what God is doing in saving believers who have been identified with Jesus through their baptism. The flood was a judgment and in the same way the waters of baptism represent judgment and death. In Mark 10 and Matthew 20 Jesus refers to his death as a baptism. When we are plunged under the water in baptism it symbolizes that we have died with him. Romans 6:3-4 says,

3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.  

To go below the water testifies that the sinner we were has died. To come up out of the water testifies that we have been born again, raised with Jesus to walk in the newness of life. Therefore, baptism is expressing an inward experience of new birth through an outward sign.

Peter seems to have sensed his words could be easily misunderstood because he immediately clarifies that the act or ritual of baptism does not save. He says, 21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body or literally the flesh.

There is nothing magical in the water or the words said. There are false and erroneous teachings out there that the act of baptism causes us to be born again, or causes us to receive the Holy Spirit or forgiveness of sins. Peter says no. It is not a mechanical thing. The outward act without the inward reality doesn’t do anything.

We see this clearly in how Peter describes what baptism actually is. He says  it is not about the removal of dirt from the flesh, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience. It is an appeal to God. It is a proclamation or a testimony that appeals to the promises of God. It is not itself a cleansing, but a testimony and demonstration of a believer's faith in Jesus as their lord and savior. The key element in focus here is faith. If you are baptized without faith, you are just taking a bath with your clothes on.

As an expression of faith, it saves in the sense that it is the communication of the saving faith of the believer. It is in our baptism that our internal spiritual reality is communicated to the world that we identify with Jesus and have been added to his church. The pattern in the New Testament is that one believes and then testifies to their belief through baptism. Baptism is therefore a proclamation in physical symbols of a deeper spiritual reality.

It is sort of like a wedding ring. During the marriage ceremony, the bride and the groom place a ring on each other’s fingers and say “with this ring I marry you”. From then on, the ring identifies them as being married. Of course, it is not really the ring that makes them married. The ring has no legal significance. Putting a ring on or off doesn’t change your marital status. 

But the ring is a symbol of the union and communicates it to others. It is a symbol so closely connected to the event that we often speak of them interchangeably. This is how it is with faith and baptism. Baptism is a symbol of faith. 

But we are also not saved by faith in our faith. There are a lot of folks running around with tons of faith who will not be saved because saving faith requires that the faith is in something that has the power to save. Some  false teachers speak of faith as if it is a magic power. People are told by faith and they have the power to speak whatever reality they want into existence.

Listen friends, the Bible teaches that it is what we put our faith in, not our faith itself, that is powerful. We are saved through faith, but it is Jesus Christ, not the faith that does the saving. Faith is like the cord on a lamp. In order for a lamp to light up it needs to be plugged in, but the cord doesn’t have any power, rather the cord connects the lamp to the source of the power. That is how faith works. Our faith does not give us any power itself, but it connects us to Jesus Christ in whom is all power and wisdom.

Peter says that baptism saves believers, not as an outward act, but because it is an expression of our union to Jesus through faith. He says baptism is

an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.  

Baptism is an expression of our faith that we are forgiven and have new life because of the resurrection of Jesus. Another way to say that is that baptism is an expression of faith in the promises of God to save us based on the work of Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus proves that God has accepted his sacrifice on behalf of all those who have put their faith in him. It is the resurrection of Jesus that gives us hope, joy, and peace because it is the living Christ in whom we put our trust for salvation. 

Romans 4:25 says that Jesus was 25 …delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Brothers and sisters, when we share the gospel don’t leave Jesus on the cross. Yes, he suffered and bled. Yes, he died in our place, but we have hope and confidence because he lives and is seated at the right hand of majesty where he intercedes for his people and he is coming again to bring them to glory.

Peter says, Jesus has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him. 

What an amazing truth and what an amazing foundation for the lessons God has been teaching us through this letter. Yes, we live in a fallen world and we may even suffer for a short time but Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of God. That means he is in the place of honor, ruling with the Father. He has been exalted over all things and all powers and authority subjected to him. 

I meet anxious believers and I understand. When we focus our attention on the craziness of this world and all its worries it is no wonder we are distressed. If we focus our attention on our own weakness and shortcomings, it is no wonder we are downcast. Peter’s message to us this morning is we need not be worried, anxious, or upset. While on this earth God’s kingdom may appear small and besieged on all sides, but God’s word never fails. His promises are forever and are proved in Jesus Christ.

This is both deep theology and a very practical truth. It is the truth we proclaim in our baptism. When the devil accuses us and lays your sins before us, we can remind him that the penalty of sin is death, and we have already died with Christ. When that voice whispers in our ear that we are not worth anything, we can say yes, but Jesus died for me and I now have his life. When our enemy tempts us to doubt whether God will keep his promises we can ask him what power on heaven or earth could possibly prevent him from doing so since our Lord has been exalted and all powers and authorities are made subject to him?

Remember our main point? 

Believers can be certain the troubles of the present age are temporary because Jesus Christ has triumphed over evil.

Peter is writing to believers who are facing opposition in a fallen world. He is writing to encourage us to be Christlike in whatever situation we find ourselves in. Our lord has conquered sin and death and is coming again. Therefore, we should not be discouraged. This good news empowers us to love unlike anything in the world, to live unlike anything in the world and if necessary even to die unlike anything in the world, because he did, and we are united to him. 

If you have trusted Jesus as your savior then he gave his life to bring you to God. That means he will continue the good work he began in you and there is nothing in heaven or on earth that will ever be able to separate you from him. I want to leave you this morning with the words of the apostle Paul as he reflected on these same truths in Romans 8:35–39,

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.