Sermon Tone Analysis

UPCOMING STUFF

Angel Tree sign up on your way out

GIVING - thank you! New classroom at front of Education Building.

A new building to help store food for the 80 families we serve food every other week.

Almost $17,000 given to help pay for a new digital sign.

Next Sunday - a short teaching series on Advent from a Latin term for “coming” or “arrival”.

We will also vote on budget.

Ladies Tea Next Sunday @ 2pm sign up on your way out

QR Code for today’s visual notes

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I hope that you have enjoyed this week and had much to GIVE THANKS to God for.

Of course THANKSGIVING should be more than a few days to enjoy meals and loved-ones.

THANKSGIVING should be a lifestyle for the follower of Jesus.

We should be people who practice Thanksgiving Beyond Thanksgiving.

While holidays can be difficult for those who miss loved-ones, followers of Jesus must remember that we have MUCH to be thankful for!

For example, 2 weeks ago we concluded our study with these powerful words that should lead us to some thankful thoughts:

1 Peter 3:17–18 (NIV)

For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.

He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.

Even when we suffer while doing good, we should never forget to remember that this is what Jesus did for us!

The righteous One suffered to make payment for our sins.

He exchanged His righteousness for our unrighteousness (2 Cor 5:21).

Jesus sacrificed His life to bring you to God.

But His life didn’t end in suffering!

Jesus was made alive in the Spirit.

Jesus rose to life!

Our King is risen - giving proof that His promises to resurrect us one day are trustworthy and true!

Then Peter gives us insight into something that Jesus did in the spiritual realm.

1 Peter 3:19–20a (NIV)

After being made alive, He went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits—to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.

There’s much debate as to what this means and I have had to wrestle this down and change my view on what this means.

And while this is an interesting passage to pick apart, but not something we should divide over.

One commentator says, “We need to be humble about conclusions to passages that are ‘clearly unclear.’”

*

*Scot McKnight, 1 Peter, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996), 218.

Of this unusual passage Karen Jobes writes:

“The exegetical questions basically come down to these: Where did Christ go?

When did he go?

To whom did he speak?

What did he say?

Different answers to each of these questions can be found, resulting in a labyrinth of exegetical options, each of which has no clearly overwhelming claim to certainty, [with one] calculating 180 different exegetical combinations, in theory.”*

*Karen H. Jobes, 1 Peter, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2005), pp.

237, 239.

So while we might disagree with others on the details of what Peter means, we must agree on the ultimate point of this passage - Peter encourages followers of Jesus to remain faithful and be vindicated before their enemies just as Jesus was.*

*Scot McKnight, 1 Peter, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996), 216–217.

Let’s do just a little theological exploratory surgery on this passage.

Who are the imprisoned spirits?

Are they PEOPLE or not?

I don’t think so and here’s why.

These “spirits” seem to be angels who disobeyed God in the days of Noah.

* In fact, the plural term spirits (pneumata) is almost always used of angels rather than human beings (Mt 8:16; Mk 1:27; Lk 4:36; Acts 5:16).

Further, Peter mentions this concept again in his second letter where he refers to the imprisoned as “angels”.

2 Peter 2:4 (NIV)

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment;

So too, Jude - the half brother of Jesus - gives the same insight, writing...

Jude 6 (NIV)

And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these He has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.

Evidently these are angels who

possessed human men during the time of Noah (angels are called “sons of God” in Gen 6:1-4),

married human women,

and had children that were deeply influenced by their now demonic disobedience to God.

And just what is Jesus doing when he “made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits” (1 Pet 3:19)?

First, let me tell you what Jesus WASN’T doing.

Jesus wasn’t going to hell to give people a second chance to respond to God’s offer of forgiveness.

Once people die, the are no more chances.

People don’t get prayed out or paid out of the fictitious place that Catholics call purgatory.

And neither does God eventually just let people out of hell and transfer them to heaven.

Neither did Jesus go to finish the work of paying for our sins - that was FINISHED at the CROSS!

There was no battle in hell against Satan and demons.

Contrary to what many think…they don’t rule hell.

Satan and demons will be bound and punished there forever.

So what WAS Jesus doing the?

I agree with Paul Himes who writes that the risen Jesus proclaimed a cosmic “in-your-face” to those demons who once tried to foil God’s plans in Noah’s lifetime.*

* Paul A. Himes, 1 Peter, ed.

Douglas Mangum, Elizabeth Vince, and Abigail Salinger, Lexham Research Commentaries (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2017), 1 Pe 3:19–22.

It was the ungodly influence of these disobedient angels prior to the building of the ark that helped lead to worldwide wickedness of mankind, which - in turn - caused God to destroy every person on the planet with only 8 exceptions.

1 Peter 3:20b-22 (NIV)

In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water,

If you remember the rest of the story, then you remember that while Noah’s family was saved from God’s wrath every other person on the planet was drowned.

And to be sure, there is a FUTURE DAY coming when God will once again bring judgement on those who refuse to repent.

If that day were TODAY, would you be judged GUITY or INNOCENT?

Are you putting your trust in your good works or the good work of Jesus?

What’s that got to do with the people in Noah’s day, the flood, and the ark - you ask.

You ask great questions!

Peter draws a parallel between Noah’s family, his ancient audience, and us.

Just as Noah and his family entered the ark they died to their old way of life and re-emerged in a brand new post-world flood, so all who follow Jesus die to their old lives (symbolized by going under the water in baptism) and are saved in Christ, reemerging as new creations in whom the old has passed and the new has come (2 Cor 5:17).

So Peter continues:

1 Peter 3:21-22 (NIV)

and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God.

It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to Him.

The baptism that now saves you is not by a religious ritual that washes away dirt from the body.

Physical baptism doesn’t save anybody.

People are saved by the pledge of a clear conscience toward God - that is - we are saved by turning from our sin and trusting that the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus forgives us and gives us new life [portray baptism]!

And Jesus - the One who submitted and suffered on Earth - is the One who is now large and in charge over every authority...in heaven and on earth.

And just as Jesus was justified before His enemies, so will His faithful followers be justified before their enemies.

In this way Peter encourages the beleaguered believers who “were in danger of being lost in the fog, unable to see the victorious and distant shore” to stay in the boat and keep rowing.*

* David R. Helm, 1 & 2 Peter and Jude: Sharing Christ’s Sufferings, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2008), 121–122.

When we struggle with the tough times that will come, we must remember that we have been forgiven much by our risen King!

As the old hymn says, “And life is worth the living, just because He lives.”

Aren’t you THANKFUL for God’s forgiveness in your life?

If so, then let’s practice ThanksGIVING beyond Thanksgiving and...

BIG TRUTH: Thank God for His gifts by giving them to others