Suffering and Rewards

25 years ago, I was getting ready to go to Moody Bible Institute

The goal, if you are a student at Moody is to graduate with a double major

A bible major

And whatever major your field of study is

Usually a student would take all four years of their time at Moody to get in all of their Bible and theology classes which comprised their Bible major

But for aviation students, we only had two years at the Chicago campus before we went to the aviation school in TN to complete our training

So we had to pack all of our Bible and Theology classes into two years

Which meant that as freshmen and sophomores, we were often in Bible and Theology classes with juniors and seniors

So wise and intellectual these 21 and 22 year old’s were!

You would hear them sitting around discussing deep theological concepts and words like

Harmartiology (the study of sin and the affect of sin and all that)

Pneumatology (the study of the Holy Spirit)

And they would tackle deep and puzzling passages of Scripture and try to explain these things to each other

And one of those passages was this one in front of us today.

This is one of those passages that, frankly, I haven’t really been looking forward to because

There is just some really puzzling stuff in here!

And a lot of really smart people have taken stabs at trying to go into depth at explaining it.

So, I can promise you that I won’t be able to answer all the questions that are out there about this passage, and you may leave here with some questions that you didn’t know you had

But maybe today will be a start for all of us to dig deeper and discover new truths from His Word

But here we go.

1 Peter 3:18-22 “18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 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. 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.”

The suffering and reward of the cross

Again, I’m going to ask you to put on your thinking caps.

We are going to learn a new term this morning. in our passage, Peter is presenting a concept that theologians today call the “Vicarious Atonement”

Vicarious—Means “in the place of”

In the church of England, the person that you would most likely see standing in front of the congregation on Sunday morning, they call The Vicar

While he acts as a pastor to the local congregation, he is, in fact, a representative of the Bishop

And his title comes from this word “Vicarious”

Meaning in the place of

Atonement—means “The bringing together of two estranged parties, individuals or groups.” People who have been separated by disagreements or whatever. To reconcile them

So, what Peter wants us to understand is this concept that Christ is our representative. And He suffered for us so that we might have atonement—being reconciled to The Father

The Reason that we should be prepared to suffer. The first thing that we see in this passage is the word “for”

Last Sunday we talked about suffering for the sake of righteousness and how important it is that we understand what we are called to

And in our paragraph this Sunday, Peter is going to give us the reason that we should be prepared to suffer for the sake of righteousness

He says, “For”, or “Because, Christ also suffered.

Jesus possesses first hand knowledge of unjust suffering. He does not require something of His followers that He knows nothing about

Heb. 4:15 says that Jesus was tempted in the same way that we are tempted.

And here we learn that in our suffering we need to remember that Jesus also suffered

But Jesus suffered and so we can expect suffering

How did He suffer?

He suffered once for sins.

His suffering was for our sins: the righteous for the unrighteous

We were unrighteous, but He was righteous

And He suffered as a righteous man, for us

Heb. 9:22 “22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”

So, there had to be the shedding of blood, and it had to be the blood of someone sinless, that is, Jesus

And He did it once.

Unlike In the OT, people used to have to offer sacrifices over and over again for their own sins

Every year, for centuries, the High Priest had to enter the Holy of Holies and make atonement for all the people

Atonement—to bring the people back into fellowship with God

Because ever year, the blood of the sacrifice that was offered the previous year was NOT effective anymore

And so, a new sacrifice had to be made

But Jesus did it once.

His sacrifice was effective

It was complete the first time around.

Because it was the perfect sacrifice

Question: Do you believe this? Do you really believe this?

Do you believe that Christ suffered and died for your sin, for my sin?

Have you accepted the atonement. in other words, have you been reconciled to the Father?

If not, the opportunity is in front of you.

But you know, It is possible for even Christians to live in such a way that says, “I don’t know if I really do believe it” [that Christ’s sacrifice was enough]

It’s possible for us to live with such a burden of guilt over our sin and our imperfections and inability to “be better” that we work harder and harder to please God

But this statement that Christ died once for sins is so profound. For unbelievers and believers

Because what it means is that we can’t do anything else besides have faith in what He has done

Our reward for Christ’s sufferings

To bring us to God

To make us right before our Holy God

The point of Jesus’ mission on this earth was To provide a way of reconciliation between sinful man and Holy God..

The reward of Christ

Verse 22

I would like to suggest that verse 22 continues the thought that was started in verse 18

That Jesus, although He suffered in the flesh,

And now He has received His reward

that is, He had gone to heaven, He is at the right hand of God, He has been put in charge over all the angels and powers and authorities

So, our reward for the sufferings of Christ is that we have been brought to God.

The reward for Christ is that He has been given charge over all the angels and principalities and every authority structure that there is

The reward of the grave

Now we get into the most challenging part of this passage

And I’m going to do my best with it, but I encourage you to investigate farther

What makes this passage so hard is that Peter is dealing with things that are unseen

The life, the death, the resurrection of Christ, are all historically verifiable.

But now we are reading things that we kind of have to take by faith

That is, what did Jesus do between the time He died and the time that He was resurrected.

Peter peels away the veil and gives us a brief look

So, read in vs. 18 that Jesus was made alive in the Spirit

1 Peter 3:19-21 “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. 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,”

So, Jesus in the spirit, either by the power of the Holy Spirit, or in His spirit form

Went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison

Where is this prison and who are these spirits?

Well, to grasp this a little bit better, we have to kind of strip away our understanding of what happens when you die, and try put ourselves into the understanding of a Jew in ancient Palestine

The Jews of this day didn’t have a concept of heaven and hell like we do. Rather, they believed that when a person died, they went to a place called Hades (Greek) or Sheol (Hebrew).—the place of the dead

Everyone, good or evil went to this place

If you had been a righteous person, you went to part of Hades that was a place of rest and comfort

If you had been a wicked person, you went to a part of Hades that was a place of torment

This is illustrated in Jesus’s story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16

I have heard many Bible teachers say that they believe that Jesus was telling a real story about real people.

It was not just an example that he thought of in His head

But you remember that the rich man, being wicked, and Lazarus, being righteous, were both in Hades. They could see each other, although one was being tormented, and the other was being comforted in Abrahams bosom.

This is what Jews understood death to look like

So, I believe that the prison which Peter is speaking of here is Hades

The spirit of Christ, being still alive, went to Hades, the place of the dead, and proclaimed to the spirits in prison or those that were in torment in Hades

Who are the spirits?

Well, apparently they are the spirits of those who were alive in the days of Noah.

Noah, as we know, wasn’t just a boat builder. He was also a preacher

in 2 Peter 2, Noah is called a “herald” or a “proclaimer” of righteousness.

So, in the 120 years that it took for him and his sons to build the ark, he was also proclaiming “righteousness”.

That is, proclaiming a message of repentance to those who would listen

But most people, as we know, did not listen. In fact, out of all who were alive on the earth, only 8 people listened and entered the ark, the place of salvation

The people who did not listen and did not enter the place of safety, died.

Their spirits went to Hades, presumably to the place of torments to await final judgement.

Jesus went and proclaimed to them

What did he proclaim?

Peter doesn’t say here what He said, word for word

However, based on the message of salvation in the previous verses, I believe it would be safe to say that Jesus proclaimed to these spirits a message of salvation and judgement

And even though it must have broken His heart, I believe he proclaimed to them that God’s ultimate plan of salvation had indeed been fulfilled and that the rebellious spirits final end was determined…eternal punishment

There was no more chance for salvation

Our takeaway: At some point, it will be too late. There will be no more chances for salvation

But, not only did he proclaim to the disobedient spirits in prison, but He also proclaimed to those who were righteous

And to them, he proclaimed freedom

Ephesians 4:8-10 “8 Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” 9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? 10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)”

So, Jesus, after he died, descended into the place of the dead and He did two things:

He proclaimed a message of salvation and final judgement to the spirits in prison

And he gave freedom to those “captives” that were righteous and gave gifts to them

Our takeaway: Christ’s suffering has bought us freedom!

Baptism

1 Peter 3:20-21 “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. 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,”

He says, Baptism saves you.

What? I thought we were saved through faith in the finished work of Christ. What is he talking about?

Well, I don’t believe that Peter is saying that we are “made righteous” by baptism. We are not reconciled to God through baptism

But he makes this comparison

The water of the flood in Noah’s day was both a means of judgement and salvation

The water judged those who were disobedient

But that water was also the means of salvation for those who were righteous

Noah and his family had to pass through the water in order to be saved

Noah and his family exercised faith in the salvation work of God

In comparison, our baptism is part of the process of salvation

Not that it saves us, Peter is quick to clarify

“It’s not the removal of dirt from the body”

It’s not that which cleanses our hearts and makes us clean before God

But it is the “appeal” of a good conscience before God

Appeal—pledge

It is our statement saying that we identify with the sufferings, the death and resurrection of Jesus

We die to our old way of living, we rise to a new life

It is our statement saying that “I have received your forgiveness and cleansing and I have trusted in your death and resurrection as my atonement sacrifice”

Now, I make this pledge in a public way. My conscience is clean before you.

Are you still with me? Anybody asleep?

One of the things they tell people who are learning to preach is, if you have to explain your illustration, you should probably pick a different illustration.

I kind of wish that Peter had followed that advice.

His points are not that complicated, but the way he lays it out certainly is

So maybe you feel like you have gotten lost in the tall weeds over the past half hour or so.

Let’s see if we can zoom out a bit and get some takeaways

Jesus understands suffering

He also suffered

Jesus suffered once and only once

His sacrifice was sufficient the first time around

There is a reward for Christ’s suffering

Reward for us—being made right with God

Reward for Christ—All power and authority

His death proclaimed both judgement to the disobedient and freedom to the righteous

Baptism is important for us because it is a statement of a good conscience before God

A statement that his suffering was not in vane

Taht we identify with his death and resurrection and accept and believe it.

…Being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.

So, his flesh, His body, died and was buried

However, His spirit did not die. It was made alive

And in the spirit, it says that he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison

Questions:

Who were these spirits?

What did Jesus proclaim to them

Well, again, I don’t know that I will be able to answer this satisfactorily

But these spirits apparently were from the time of Noah

What was it about the time of Noah?

It was when God first pronounced Judgement on this earth.