1 Peter 3:8-22
Notes
Transcript
Scripture Intro:
Scripture Intro:
Five “Solas” of the Reformation
Sola Scriptura
Sola Christus
Sola Fide
Sola Gratia
Soli Deo Gloria
Sola Scriptura: The Bible is the sole authority for Christians in faith, doctrine, and practice.
Sola Gratia: Salvation is a gift from God, not a result of human merit.
Sola Fide: Salvation is found in faith in Jesus Christ alone.
Solus Christus: Salvation is found in Christ alone.
Soli Deo Gloria: Salvation is a work of God for His glory.
We reason with read Scripture at the beginning of a sermon...
we have no other authority.
Bible is the only rule of faith and practice.
It is also the reason that we purposefully stand for the reading of the passage prior to the sermon...
The Bible is primary,
not the preacher.
The Word is God’s word to us,
So we submit ourselves to it.
Sola Scriptura
Scripture Reading (“Please stand…”)
Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.
Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.
For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit;
let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it.
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled,
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,
having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.
For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.
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, 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.
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,
who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.
Pray...
Intro:
Intro:
At the end of the 1400’s,
it was clear that the church was in need of profound reformation.
Corruption was rampant.
Education among the clergy in theology and Biblical knowledge was declining rapidly.
Justo Gonzalez writes,
“The religious conscience of Europe was divided within itself, torn between trust in a church that had been its spiritual [guide] for generations, and the patent failures of that church.”
Reformers like John Wyclife and John Huss were calling the church
back to faithfulness to the Word of God.
In 1505, a 22-year-old Martin Luther joined the Augustinian monastery at Erfurt.
He decided to become a priest.
When he was serving his first Communion,
he felt an overwhelming sense of terror...
that he was holding and serving the Body of Christ.
(Gonzalez) “That feeling of terror then became increasingly frequent,
for he felt unworthy of God’s love,
and he was not convinced that he was doing enough to be saved.”
“Luther has an overpowering sense of his own sinfulness,
and the more he sought to overcome it
the more he became aware of sin’s sway over him.”
“His spiritual advisor recommended the reading of the great teachers of mysticism.”
“The mystics affirmed that all one had to do was to love God,
and the rest would follow as a result of that love.”
“But he soon discovered that loving God was not an easy matter...
Eventually, Luther came to the terrifying conclusion
that what he felt for God was not love, but hatred!”
He went on to teach theology and prepare lectures on the Bible.
A few years into his teaching,
he began to lecture on Paul’s Epistle to the Romans.
As Luther tells the story,
“the great discovery followed a long struggle and bitter anguish,
for Romans 1:17 begins by declaring that, in the gospel,
“the righteousness of God is revealed.”
“According to this text, the gospel is the revelation of the righteousness— the justice— of God. But it was precisely the justice of God that Luther found unbearable. How could such a message be gospel, good news? For Luther good news would have been that God... doesn not judge sinners. But Romans 1:17, the good news and the justice of God are inseparably linked. Luther hated the very phrase “the justice of God”, and spent day and night seeking to understand the relationship between the two parts of that single verse, which, after declaring that in the gospel “the justice of God is revealed,” affirms that “the righteous shall live by faith.”
“The answer was surprising. Luther came to the conclusion… that the justice or righteousness of the righteous is not their own, but God’s. The righteousness of God is that which is given to those who live by faith.”
It means that justification (being counted as righteous) and salvation are the work of God, a free gift to sinners.
Luther wrote about the experience,
“I felt that I had been born anew and that the gates of heaven had been opened. The whole of Scripture gained a new meaning. And from that point on the phrase ‘the justice of God’ no longer filled me with hatred, but rather became unspeakably sweet by virtue of a great love.”
Initially, he didn’t seem to be aware of the
“radical contradiction between his discovery and the entire penitential system”
that was accepted in that day.
While teaching at the University of Wittenberg,
he published 97 theses to spur on debate
about the gospel compared to what was being taught.
To his surprise, these statements and the debate that ensued on campus...
gained little interested beyond the university.
Then, Luther wrote what we call “the 95 Theses”...
This time he attacked indulgences,
not the understanding of the Gospel (by faith).
“With little awareness of what he was doing, or whom he was attacking, Luther had spoken against plans for profit designed by very powerful leaders.”
Pope Leo X (10th)...
authorized the sale of indulgences...
in hopes that he could finish building the Basilica of Saint Peter.
Indulgences were a way to reduce the time someone wold spend in purgatory...
which is in itself not a Biblical truth.
The man in charge of th sale of indulgences in Germany (where Luther was from)...
John Tetzel,
willing to make scandalous claims in order to help sell indulgences.
Indulgences made the sinner “cleaner than when coming our of baptism”
“cleaner than Adam before the Fall”
“the cross of the seller of indulgences has as much power as the cross of Christ”
And the most famous,
“as soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs.”
So Luther 95 Theses were written with a bit of righteous indignation.
He published them on October 31, 1517...
which is commonly called the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.
Hence, Reformation Day.
Copies were spread throughout Germany.
Soon, Pope Leo and Emperor Maximillian were both enraged.
Sola Christus
Sola Christus
Life (v. 18, righteous)
Death (v. 18, suffered, put to death in the flesh)
Resurrection (v. 18, made alive), (v. 21, resurrection)
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,
1 Peter 3:21–22 (ESV)
… through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.
Ascension (v. 22, gone into heaven at the right hand of God)
the resurrection is intimately connected with the ascension.
Victory (v. 22, subjected to him)
in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison,
“he went and procliamed to the spirits in prison”
basically two different interpretations of the passage. Just two.
The one is, when Jesus died and was in the grave, there was some prison someplace where a bunch of spirits were imprisoned. They were spirits of the people who died in the flood and they had been disobedient to Noah’s preaching, referring back to the story about this in Genesis 9. While Jesus was in the grave, before he was resurrected, he went and he preached to those spirits.
There are all kinds of problems with that. There is no other reference to anything like this anywhere else. Here’s what the problems are: it could almost make sense if it said that all of the spirits of the people who died before Jesus came were all sort of locked up in some kind of netherworld and Jesus came and preached the gospel to them so they could hear the gospel. That would almost make sense, but that’s not what it says. It says there was a particular group who was in prison.…
The other...
The other interpretation, which is a better one (but who knows?) was first put forward by Augustine, and if anybody cares, you can get a commentary on 1 Peter by a man named Wayne Grudem. Wayne Grudem says the translation is difficult here, and actually what we should be translating this text as saying is: “He went and preached to those who are now spirits in prison and who formerly disobeyed.” Wayne Grudem says, and Augustine said, what it’s really trying to say is Jesus preached during the disobedience.
Jesus went and preached to people while they were disobedient not afterward. In other words, he went and preached to people who were being disobedient who are now spirits in prison. How could Jesus have done that? Simple. Paul says in Ephesians 2:17 to the Ephesians, “[Christ] came and preached peace to you …” We know Christ has never been to Ephesus. Well, then what does Paul mean? He means Christ preaches through the people who preach. Probably what this means is Jesus preached to them through Noah.…
2 Peter 2:5 says Noah was “… a herald of righteousness …”
Sola Fide
Sola Fide
“reason for the hope”
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,
Sola Gratia
Sola Gratia
“baptism… now saves you”
Sacramental Union
The reality and the sign that signifies it are spoken of as if they were the same thing.
The word through is the Greek word, dia, from which we get our word diameter. It means through, but it can mean either from or by. It could mean they were saved from the water, out of the midst of the water, or it could mean they were saved by the water. Which is it? Because of the ark, it’s both. They got on the ark to be saved from the water, and yet because they were in the ark, the water actually saved them from itself.
The church in Luther’s day...
The Roman Catholic church today.
Baptism is what saves you.
ILL. Luther at the Diet of Worms (1521)
“Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason, for I do not trust either in the Pope or in counsels alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradict themselves. I'm bound to the Scriptures I have quoted, and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot, and I will not retract anything since it is neither safe nor right to go against my conscience. I cannot do otherwise. Here I stand. May God help me. Amen.”
Soli Deo Gloria
Soli Deo Gloria
Peter’s purpose in writing the book is to talk about how the dynamic of Christ’s life can be reenacted in ours.
The beauty of the Christian life...
“is not that we escape troubles, but that we have something within us” (someone)
that transforms us.
v. 8-12
Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.
Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.
For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit;
let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it.
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
“for the glory of God”
But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled,
ILL. John Calvin, Geneva Seminary
“Calvin’s School of Death”
Life expectancy for graduates
1 to 1.5 years.
Longing for their countrymen to know Christ.
“For the Glory of God”
Close in Prayer
Close in Prayer
Closing Song:
Closing Song:
“A Mighty Fortress is Our God”
He is our refuge and strength.
An ever-present help in trouble.
Singing about the battle between the evil one and the Lord Jesus Christ.
“On earth is not his equal” - Satan
But our hope is in the Lord.
(1 Pet 3:22) “with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.”
Benediction:
Benediction:
Reason for the hope that is in us??
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
According to his great mercy,
he has caused us to be born again to a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading,
kept in heaven for you