1 Peter 3:18-22

1 Peter 3:18–22 KJV (WS)

18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: 19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; 20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. 21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: 22 Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.

Introduction

It is so easy to be affected by what goes on around us.

We are constantly inundated by bad news.

We are molested continually by evil.

It can make us quite pessimistic

It can make us cynical as well.

We can convince ourselves that we can see the future and it is bleak and dark.

When we succumb to this we fail to remember that our God has an extraordinary ability to make something out of what appears to be nothing.

God upends expectations..

One sacrifice versus millions.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

The blood of bulls and lambs was incapable of cleansing humanity from sin.

It didn’t matter how many sacrifices were made.

For centuries, millions of animals had been killed for the sins of the people.

And yet, Jesus comes on the scene, and with one single sacrifice, he paid the price of the sins of all the world.

Jesus did once what millions of sacrifices had failed to do.

We think more is better.

Jesus proved that once is enough to forgive all of humanity’s sin.

The unjust redeemed by the just.

Who can find a just man?

He is super rare.

Rarity usually equals value.

You would be hard-pressed to convince someone to give up something of great value to acquire something that was less valuable.

Who can find an unjust man?

He’s as common as could be.

He is full of faults and imperfections.

You would never trade the just for the unjust.

And yet that is just what God did to purchase us to himself.

Are you seeing what I’m talking about.

God constantly upends what we expect.

He defies our way of thinking for his own.

Jesus’ life shows us this.

So does his death.

The flesh killed; the spirit made alive.

The expectation is that once you’re dead, that’s it.

You don’t expect someone to revive once they’ve passed.

That’s just what Jesus did.

Lungs that were empty filled with air.

Blood that lay stagnant began to flow again.

Jesus was the just sacrifice that gave his life for us, but he was also the first fruits of the resurrection.

He that was dead became alive again.

He rose victorious over all of the enemies of God and by extension our enemies as well.

The corruption of the fallen overcome by the resurrection of the crucified.

Through the Spirit that raised him, he went and preached to a certain audience.

Peter does not tell us what Jesus announced to the spirits in prison.

There are three views as to what this verse is referring to.

Jesus preached to the dead in Hades.

No probation after death.

No missionary work in hell.

Jesus never visited hell.

He went to Hades which is not the same.

Hades was a temporary place.

Christians do not go here.

They go to heaven.

He preached through Noah during the time of Noah’s ministry.

Some say that Peter is contending that Jesus went in the Spirit to preach to Noah’s contemporaries.

Ironsides says that Jesus preached through Noah with the spirits of men.

He announced triumph over the fallen angels.

The pre-flood world was incredibly wicked.

These angels were involved.

Satan and his angels have only one mission.

They seek to oppose God and his work.

Jesus says that the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy.

This is the most commonly received option by modern scholars.

In early Christian literature, “Spirits” almost always referred to angelic spirits as opposed to human spirits.

This view would see Jesus announcing or proclaiming to the fallen angels in prison that their attempts had been overcome.

Their attempts to corrupt the human race had been defeated by the resurrected crucified one.

God knows how to bring success out of failure.

Early Christians were looking for Jesus’ return.

They knew it would be like the days of Noah when Jesus returned.

As they saw society decline around them, Peter knew they would be encouraged by Noah’s testimony of success.

Success? You might say.

Didn’t he preach for 120 years without a sing convert outside his own family?

Yes.

Weren’t there only 8 people that made it on the ark?

Yes.

But with those 8, God repopulated the whole earth.

Think too about the means by which they were saved.

Peter depicts the flood as a means of salvation rather than a method of punishment.

Noah was saved from and by the flood.

They were saved by water.

They were saved by the Ark.

They were saved by their faith.

They were saved by God.

Jesus rose from the dead on the same day of the year that the ark rested on the top of Mt. Ararat.

There is a strong connection between the salvation of Noah and the salvation of a Christian.

The success of the failure v. 2.0

Peter is careful to explain that this illustration does not imply salvation by baptism.

The act of faith is indicated in baptism rather than the physical cleansing.

Baptism is not about removing dirt; it’s about having a good conscience before God.

It is not the water saves but that of which baptism speaks.

Baptism is the action of one who has a clear conscience before God.

Baptism was was an act of conversion in Judaism.

Even Judaism insisted on sincerity of repentance for it to be efficacious.

So in Baptism the believer is saved in symbol.

The weak made strong.

Jesus, the one led as a lamb to the slaughter.

Jesus, the one who hung exposed between heaven and earth.

He is now at the right hand of God in heaven.

No one can lay a hand on him now.

Herod does not seek his death.

He is all powerful and full of glory.

There is none stronger.

There is none that can stand up to him now.

In his presence, the strong are made weak.

Angels, authorities and powers were/are the rulers over nations.

The heart of the king is in God’s hand.

Even the evil powers that were behind the rulers that were persecuting Christians had been subdued.

There is no power in this universe that can refuse to submit to Jesus.

He is the sovereign ruler of the universe.

Communists, Fascists, Socialists, and Capitalists are all subservient to Him.

Any power they have is temporary and must submit to Him.

Application

These verses are meant to encourage people who look at the world around them and think they know what’s going on.

They think that evil is on an unstoppable march to victory.

They think that things will never change.

They think that God’s people are failing.

Peter reminds them of God’s ability to subvert human knowledge and intuition.

We see it in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

We see it in the victory brought about in Noah’s life.

Though he brought so few with him into the ark.

Though the flood was a form of judgment, it was also a means of salvation.,

We see it in Baptism where we identify with the death and resurrection of the one in whom we’ve believed.

We see it in the power of a lamb exposing the weakness of the world’s rulers.

Things are not always as they seem to our finite eyes and minds.

God often has bigger things going on than what we can see.

God often has a plan to bring a victory we couldn’t have foreseen from a dark situation.

Peter’s readers needed to learn to trust God over their own understanding of life.

That need has not changed for Peter’s modern day reader.

We must learn to lean not our own understanding.

We must learn that his thoughts and ways are higher than ours.

No matter what is going on in the world around us, our God is in control and has a plan.

Conclusion

If we learn to trust God despite the issues around us, we can live above the fray.

We can experience victory and joy even as the world seems to fall apart.

We would not be the first generation of God’s people to find peace in a time of chaos.

My God is bigger than any trial.

Is yours?