Peculiar People: Victory Through Suffering

Intro

Good morning, would you please turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Peter 3:18-22.

We are continuing our series on the book of 1 Peter, called Peculiar People,

and learning how we as Christians,

are to be different from the world,

in who we are, in how we live, and in what we hope for.

Our passage this morning continues Peter’s teaching on how we as Christians,

are to approach opposition, persecution and suffering.

Last week we saw that God blesses those who suffer for righteousness sake.

That the people of God can face opposition, persecution, and even death without fear,

because God has promised to bless those who suffer for the sake of Christ.

That in itself is a strong encouragement to endure suffering and persecution.

But in our passage this morning Peter ties suffering not just to blessing, but to victory.

I hope you have your bibles and a notebook handy, because this one is a doozy.

1 Peter 3:18-22

Exposition

Now, you may have noticed that in this passage there are some things that are hard to understand.

This passage is famous for being one of the most difficult to interpret in the New Testament.

We will get to the controversial material in this passage, you’ll no doubt find it interesting and challenging.

But as we look at this passage I want you to remember that all of what Peter writes here serves a purpose.

And that is to encourage and strengthen Christians to persevere in the face of opposition, persecution and suffering.

Christ’s Suffering (v. 18)

Peter begins our passage by first pointing to the suffering of Christ and what was accomplished through it.

He says in v. 18,

1 Peter 3:18 ESV

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,

A) Suffering

Remember Peter’s original audience in Asia minor is undergoing opposition and persecution at the time he is writing this.

They are suffering for the sake of Christ.

But Peter reminds them that Christ also suffered.

It’s interesting that though Peter here in our passage is referring to the death of Christ,

instead of using the word “died”, he uses the word “suffered”.

Peter does this to connect what Jesus went through, to what his readers are going through.

Our Lord and saviour knows intimately what it is to suffer.

After Peter’s confession of Jesus as the, “the Christ of God,” in Luke 9,

Jesus foretold what he would endure as the christ, the messiah.

He told his disciples in v. 22 Luke 9:22

Luke 9:22 ESV

saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”

And all of this was accomplished:

Christ suffered and died, but on the third day he was raised to life again.

Point 1: Jesus Suffered

Which brings me to my first point this morning, and it is a simple one:

Jesus Suffered.

Jesus endured suffering at the hands of those who hated him.

Then he succumbed to death by being nailed to a Roman cross:

the most painful and humiliating way to be killed ever devised by the mind of man.

So Jesus knows better than most what suffering is like.

In fact we as his people become more like him when we endure suffering for his sake.

The Apostle Paul in Philippians 3:10 describes suffering for Christ, as “sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.”

Jesus suffered, and died, and when his people endure things like he endured, they become more like him.

This is no doubt a comfort to those who endure suffering in his name.

And an important thing for God’s people to remember.

But the most important thing to remember is that Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection was accomplished for a purpose.

B) Penal Substitution

The purpose for which Christ Suffered and died is given to us here in v. 18 of our passage:

1 Peter 3:18 (ESV)

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

This is what has come to be known as penal substitutionary atonement.

Don’t worry I’ll break that down for those who are unfamiliar with it.

Penal substitutionary atonement is the doctrine that states:

that in his one time suffering and death on the cross, Christ paid the penalty (penal),

as our substitute (substitutionary),

that we might have our sins atoned for (paid for) (atonement).

We see these three words all represented here in v. 18.

1 Peter 3:18 (ESV)

“For Christ also suffered once for sins” (penal), “the righteous for the unrighteous” (substitutionary), “that he might bring us to God” (atonement).

This was the purpose of Jesus suffering and death.

That he might take our place as our substitute,

suffer and die to pay the penalty for our sin,

and through this atoning work on the cross bring us to God as his redeemed people.

Put to Death/Made alive

But Jesus work did not end at his suffering and death.

On the third day Jesus rose from the dead, just as he told his disciples he would.

Peter tells us the same in our passage at the end of v. 18

1 Peter 3:18 (ESV)

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

Now Peter here is not saying that only his spirit was resurrected, leaving behind a dead body.

That would be inconsistent with the witnesses who found the empty tomb as we see in the gospels.

Now Peter could be referring to Jesus being raised by the Holy Spirit,

this interpretation is consistent with what we read in Romans 8:11, where the Apostle Paul writes:

Romans 8:11 ESV

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.

But I think the better way to understand this passage is that Peter is referring to the nature of Christ’s resurrected body.

Jesus was put to death physically in the flesh, but he was raised in a glorified, spiritual body.

The Apostle Paul talks about what our resurrected bodies will be like in 1 Corinthians 15,

highlighting the difference between the natural body and the resurrected body.

I’ll let you take the time to explore that passage on your own, it’s fascinating but we don’t have time for detailed look this morning.

But Paul essentially tells us that the resurrected, glorified body is to the natural body, as a grown flower is to a seed.

I think thats incredibly beautiful, and exciting!

Right now you are like a seed, and you are sown into the ground when you are buried after your die,

but what you will become at the resurrection, if you are in Christ, is as different as a flower is to a seed!

The same thing, but resurrected, full grown, glorified.

He says in 1 Corinthians 15:42-44,

1 Corinthians 15:42–44 ESV

So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

This is the kind of body that Jesus was resurrected to.

In Colossians 1:18 Jesus is called “the firstborn of the dead,”

Meaning that he is the first to be resurrected to this kind of body, physically alive but operating in the sphere of the spirit.

And 1 Corinthians 15:23 tells us that “Christ [is] the first,” who is resurrected to this kind of body,

“then at his coming those who belong to Christ,” will be resurrected to the same kind of existence.

I don’t know about you but I find that very exciting,

that like Christ, I will be resurrected with a body that is glorified, imperishable,

a physical body that operates in the spiritual sphere of existence. [mind blown]

Deep Weird (vv. 19-20)

And it was in this resurrected, glorified, spiritual body that Christ did what Peter says next in our passage in v. 19-20.

1 Peter 3:19–20 (ESV)

“in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey,”

Now we have been talking in this series about how we as the people of God are peculiar, we are weird.

And compared to the world we believe in some admittedly weird stuff.

We believe that God became a man,

that he lived a perfect life,

that he died in our place for our sins,

and that he rose from the dead.

That is true, but its also weird.

But now we enter into into some Biblical teaching that you might call “deep weird”.

A) The Options

Now there are all sorts of interpretations of this passage.

There are some who believe that Jesus was speaking to dead human spirits in sheol, that is the waiting place of the dead in the old testament.

Others believe Jesus is speaking to demons who are imprisoned.

There are some who believe the message was the gospel to save those who were imprisoned.

Others believe that the message was a declaration of his victory.

No matter what, for we who live in a secularist, materialist culture,

a culture that believes that all that exists are the things we can see, touch and feel,

all of this is undoubtedly weird.

But lets take some time to go through this, not only because I think you’ll find it very interesting,

but especially because Peter is making an important point in this verse, as we will see in a moment.

B) The Questions

Again our passage says in vv. 19-20

1 Peter 3:19–20 (ESV)

“he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey,”

When it comes to this passage we have four questions we need to ask ourselves.

When did this happen?

Who are these spirits?

Where are they?

And what did Jesus say to them?

1. When

First of all when did this happen?

Often times when people refer to this passage, they assume that Jesus speaks to the spirits in prison while his body is in the tomb.

But look carefully at the passage starting at v. 18,

1 Peter 3:18–19 (ESV)

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, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison,

The event we are talking about clearly takes place after his resurrection.

Jesus went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, in his resurrected and glorified body.

So this event could not have taken place before the resurrection.

One passage that could give us a further clue as to when this happened is Ephesians 4:8 where the Apostle Paul quotes from Psalm 68. He writes,

Ephesians 4:8 ESV

Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.”

In this passage Paul says that at his ascension Jesus led a host of captives.

The image that Paul wants us to have is that of a conquering king,

with those whom he has conquered being led in captivity behind him.

The Psalm that Paul is quoting from, Psalm 68, is all about God triumphing over his enemies.

But this psalm is not just speaking about the human enemies of God.

In the Psalm special attention is given to “the mount of Bashan,” which is Mount Hermon,

a mountain associated in that passage and throughout the scriptures with the worship of idols, and with fallen angels and demons.

2. Who

Which takes us to the second question we need to ask of our passage, “Who are the Spirits in prison in v. 19?”

The word that is translated as spirits here in our passage is, “πνεύμασιν”,

and this word is almost always used to refer to angelic beings in the New Testament.

This interpretation that the spirits in prison are fallen angels is also consistent with what we read in Jude 6.

Where we are told that,

Jude 6 (ESV)

“the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day—”

Our passage this morning is also not the only time Peter mentions these fallen angels.

In 2 Peter 2:4 we read,

2 Peter 2:4 ESV

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;

Without opening up a whole other can of worms,

many theologians agree that the angels that Peter and Jude are referring to,

are the fallen angels, the “Sons of God” spoken of at the beginning of the flood narrative in Genesis 6.

This is also the interpretation that was common in Old Testament times and has been common throughout church history.

Again, we don’t have time to get into all of that,

but I believe it is clear that these spirits are fallen angels.

3. Where

This passage in 2 Peter also gives us a chance to answer the question of where these spirits are imprisoned.

Once again the passage in 2 Peter 2:4 says,

2 Peter 2:4 ESV

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;

The word in 2 Peter 2:4 that is commonly translated as “hell” as I have here in the ESV, is actually “Tartarus”.

Peter is using a word that his greek audience was familiar with from greek mythology, to refer to a deep abyssal prison where evil spirits are kept.

And in both the passage from Jude and our passage in 1 Peter refer to the Spirits in prison, rather than the spirit’s in hell.

So we ought to think of the place that the spirits are imprisoned in as a dark abyss,

and not the lake of fire that we read about in the later chapters of Revelation.

Though we are told in Revelation that they will end up there.

4. What

And finally, what did Jesus proclaim to these spirits in prison?

Well I can say with confidence that it wasn’t the gospel.

There is a once common belief that our passage refers to Jesus preaching the gospel to dead human spirits in order to save them.

That interpretation makes no sense to the context of our passage,

but it also is inconsistent with the rest of the scriptures.

Nowhere do we see that those who have died have another chance at salvation.

The sense that the passage gives us is one of proclaiming victory, not preaching the gospel.

Jesus did not go to the Spirits in prison to preach the gospel.

But rather, Jesus proclaimed his victory over them.

Point 2: Jesus’s Suffering Won the Victory

This brings me to my second point this morning, and that is this: that,

2. Through his suffering, Jesus won the victory.

Jesus, through his suffering, his death, and his resurrection won the victory over all the forces of evil, seen and unseen.

Colossians 2:15 tells us that through his death and resurrection Jesus,

Colossians 2:15 (ESV)

“disarmed the rulers and authorities [these are spiritual beings] and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.”

Peter writes something similar in the last verse of our passage, in v. 22

Where he says that Jesus,

1 Peter 3:22 (ESV)

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

Through his suffering, Jesus has won the victory over the principalities and powers, fallen angels and demons.

Two Ditches

Now, were going to get to why all this matters in a few moments,

but first I want to point out two ditches we can fall into.

This Is Not Important

The first ditch we can fall into is a very common attitude amongst Evangelical Christians nowadays,

and that is thinking that what Jesus accomplished in the spiritual realm is not important.

Especially when we look into some of this deep weird stuff,

there are many people who think, “This is too weird for me, I just need to know Jesus, or I just need to preach the gospel, and that’s enough.”

The problem with this attitude is that this is part of the Gospel.

Jesus’ death burial and resurrection impacted all of creation,

the parts of the cosmos that are seen, and the parts that are unseen.

And I’ll tell you as someone who is enjoys learning, this is a very frustrating attitude to have to deal with in the church.

There are many people, especially young people, who want to know the deep things of the scriptures.

And so often, when they ask questions at church about the spiritual aspects of the creation,

or the difficult things in the Bible, they are told that these things are not important.

To say that these things are not important, just because we don’t understand them completely,

or because they don’t fit into our false materialist framework for the world,

will make those who want to know, look anyplace but the church for answers.

These deep weird things were important enough that they are included throughout the scriptures.

And really the only reason we consider them weird,

is because many Christians have bought into a false materialistic vision for the world, and have added God and Jesus to it.

That’s the first ditch that people can fall into.

That these more mysterious parts of the biblical story are not important.

This is the most important thing.

The other ditch is often a result of not having these questions answered biblically at church;

and that is thinking that these more mysterious parts of the story are the most important parts.

People are always looking for hidden knowledge, and secret sauce to understanding the “true meaning” of the scriptures.

This is what drives strange pseudo-biblical content on t.v., the internet, and in the publishing industry.

People want the secrets that unlock everything.

But there is no secret sauce, nothing is hidden.

All of it is there for you in the word of God to explore and understand.

There are deep things, and answers to big questions available for all of us.

But we always need to elevate what is of first importance.

See, Jesus’ victory over the fallen angelic beings is an important part of the story,

but it isn’t the most important part of the story.

Salvation (v.20)

The most important part of the biblical story is alluded to in v. 20 of our passage,

where Peter speaks about,

1 Peter 3:20 (ESV)

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.

During the time when those spirits were disobedient, the salvation of humanity from the judgment of the earth was being prepared: Noah’s Ark.

Through this example, Peter is pointing to the most important part of the biblical story:

the salvation of humanity.

In the days of the flood, God used the ark to bring about the salvation of Noah and his family,

but an even greater salvation has been brought to us.

Point 3: Jesus’ Suffering Won Our Salvation

Which brings me to my final point this morning about Jesus’ suffering:

3. Jesus’s suffering won our salvation.

Just like eight people were saved by the ark,

we are saved by Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection.

This is the most important part of the biblical story!

Paul says this very thing in 1 Corinthians 15: 1-5,

1 Corinthians 15:1–5 (ESV)

“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.”

Jesus through his suffering, death, and resurrection, won us salvation from sin and death, and granted us eternal life in him!

Baptism (v.21)

Symbol

Peter goes on to show how our salvation from death in Christ is symbolized, in v. 21 of our passage. He says,

1 Peter 3:21 ESV

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,

Peter is tying the waters of baptism to the waters of Noah’s flood,

he says here that baptism is a type, a symbol, it corresponds to the flood waters.

Just as the flood waters brought death to the wicked,

the waters of baptism symbolize death.

When someone is lowered into the waters of baptism, it symbolizes their death.

But just as Noah and his family were brought through the deadly flood waters in the ark,

if we are in Christ you and I will be brought through death, and resurrected to eternal life.

This is why we tend not to leave the people getting baptized down in the water.

We draw them back up symbolizing their resurrected life in Christ.

Salvation

Now even though Peter seems to say here that, “Baptism saves you,”

he does not mean that the rite or act of water baptism secures your salvation.

He makes that clear by saying that it is, “an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

What he is describing here is repentance and faith -

appealing to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

This is repentance and faith, and even in the passage they precede ( they come before) the act of baptism.

The act of water baptism is the sign, the physical expression, that repentance and faith has occurred in the life of a believer,

that through Christ, they have received salvation.

The most important part of the biblical story.

Application

If you remember at the beginning of the message (and I understand if you don’t) I said that all of what Peter writes here serves a purpose.

Even the deep weird things in this passage served this purpose.

And that is to encourage and strengthen Christians to persevere in the face of opposition, persecution and suffering.

And this is how he encouraged them.

1. Jesus Suffered

First of all Jesus suffered.

Jesus suffered, and died.

When Christ’s people endure suffering like he did, they become more like him.

This no doubt drives his people to persevere, that they might become more and more like Christ.

2. Jesus’ Suffering Won the Victory

Secondly Jesus, through his suffering, won the victory over all the forces of evil, seen and unseen.

He defeated the principalities and powers, the fallen angels and the demons.

To people who were being persecuted by Greek and Roman pagans who worshipped these demons,

this mattered a great deal.

Not all that we consider myth is mythical.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:20, “That what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons”

Though there was every pressure from the culture, even violent pressure,

to give in and worship these false pagan gods,

God’s people could stand firm, because Christ had conquered.

But his victory over the demons matters to us too.

In many places in the world confrontations with evil sprits are not uncommon.

And I would argue, they’re becoming more common in our own culture,

as a result of the growing popularity of witchcraft and drug use.

But we need not ever fear the powers of darkness, because we are in Christ, and Christ has conquered all of them.

3. Jesus’ suffering Won Our Salvation

Finally Jesus, through his suffering, won our salvation.

Even if a believer were to face martyrdom for their faith in Christ,

they would be able to face their death,

confident that, in the end, Christ would raise them back to life,

brought from death to life in a glorified, imperishable body.

Conclusion

Jesus suffered, and through his suffering he won the victory over the powers of darkness, and won salvation for mankind.

And because of that we can walk confidently in Christ, even through opposition, persecution, and suffering.