Victory in Suffering
Notes
Transcript
13 Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?
14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled,
15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
16 having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.
17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.
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.
v. 13 - rhetorical question; we often feel like there is harm waiting for us; serving the Lord will effect us; but this affliction is only temporary and will not cause us eternal harm
v. 14 - answers his own question; even if you do suffer, you will be blessed; but not just any suffering; for righteousness sake; plenty of ways we can suffer apart from righteousness
sometimes you suffer because you do dumb things; not because of doing something righteous
Our sin will make us suffer in this life; consequences for sinful actions; cannot claim to be suffering because of righteousness when you are in sin
What are ways you can suffer for righteousness sake?
We are told to not fear or be trouble by them; fear can be all consuming, especially in the midst of suffering
fear not; heard that it is in the bible 365 times (not sure if that is accurate)
v. 15; be not troubled but honor Jesus as holy instead; fear of man and honor for Christ are in direct competition with each other; Peter denied Jesus 3 times because of fear of man
caving in vs standing firm; we try to teach children not to give into peer pressure, but bowing to fear of man is peer pressure
instead, we must be ready to defend our faith; easier said than done; could be seen as 2 different things
1) apologetics; friendly debate with ultimate goal of evangelism 2)boldness to our persecutors
there is a time for each but in context, Peter is pointing to persecution
What makes us able to defend this is our hope that is in us; this is the key; without hope there is no defense
v. 16 - good conscience, knowing that you have a faithful defense; those who revile you will look dumb for persecuting you
They will be put to shame for doing it; maybe not immediate but will happen; could be the ultimate judgment; the suffering that they will endure will be far greater than the temporary suffering we will endure
v. 17 - better to suffer for good than for evil; make a stand for you faith, no matter the cost; much better than denying Christ; sometimes suffering is God’s will; persecution in the global church is very high (China)
Peter continues with suffering; v.18 - Jesus suffered; how does our suffering compare to Jesus?
he suffered once(temporary) for sin; the righteous for the unrighteous
substitutionary atonement; Jesus went to the cross in our place; punished for our sins; innocent in place of the guilty;
his journey was not merely to the cross but through the cross - commentary
put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit; we may be judge by our flesh but our sentence would not carry over to the spirit
v. 18 is a very clear verse about what Jesus did on the cross. Now we are at some of the most unclear verses in all of the NT; Martin Luther even said that this is a wonderful verse but he has no idea what Peter was saying
So I am going to try my best to unpack this. read v. 18-22
What I am seeing here is victory. Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, angels, authorities, and powers are subject to him. They are subject to him because there is this relation of the subjection going back to the proclamation (v.19) to the spirits in prison. Perhaps these spirits were put in prison because of their disobedience in the days of Noah. Genesis 6 refers to beings known as the sons of God that took the daughters of man as wives. This led to disobedience and then to the flood.
God’s patience waited while the ark was being built. God chose 8 people to be on the boat, Noahs family.
I think this is a very plausible interpretation of this scripture. Now I want to look at what we do know from what Peter says in these verses.
v. 21 - the flood is a picture of baptism; God carrying us from sin to a new life, from death to life, through the resurrection of Jesus
v 22 - Jesus is in heaven waiting; he has authority
app. - Jesus is victor over death and sits in authority. We must remember this when we face suffering. The suffering that we face is temporary and one day we will be in Heaven where there is no suffering
Questions
1. How does knowing that Jesus has defeated the devil and demons help you to face suffering?
2. How have these verses changed the way that you look at suffering today?
3. How would your life, conduct, and words be different if you had no fear because you know that you cannot lose God’s love for you?
