Holiness in an unholy world... (12)
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Setting captives free...
Setting captives free...
This morning, I’d like to speak to you about a topic that is a little obscure. My goal is to bring us to the place that we know that there is salvation in no other name than Jesus and that Jesus sets captives free.
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.
Sometimes there are verses of Scripture that Bible Scholars will present a possible theory of what the writers were meaning. I’m not sure that we as Christians should major on the minors, but I think we should hold tightly to what we can know with certainty. We also need to realize that not everything that we may have been taught growing up is held by everybody else.
That said, I want to start with certainty.
Christ suffered once for sins...
Christ suffered once for sins...
We have two sections in our Bibles, the Old Testament and the New Testament.
Testament means covenant. The Old Covenant is the covenant that God made with Moses. It’s the Law. We might think of the Ten Commandments: GIVeS F/M MASLE
With the Old Covenant came the sacrifices: Every year the Passover lamb needed to be sacrificed to remind the people of Israel that they had came out of slavery in Egypt.
One day a year the High Priest could go into the Most Holy Place. This was in the Tabernacle. There was a curtain that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place. Behind the curtain was the Ark of the Covenant, the images of the Cherubim, and the Mercy Seat. Aaron’s staff, the Ten Commandments, and some Manna were in the Ark of the Covenant.
Once a year the High Priest could go in and sprinkle a bull’s blood on the Mercy Seat to make Atonement for the people. He was also to offer a Sin offering. Two male goats were chosen. One was to be sacrificed for sin and they would place their hands on the other and send it our into the wilderness. This was called the Scapegoat. It would carry the sin out of the community.
This took place every year. Jesus suffered once for sins. The righteous for the unrighteous to bring us to God. Jesus cannot die again for sin. His sacrifice once, paid for all sin that has ever been committed or will ever be committed.
Should we keep on sinning?
Should we keep on sinning?
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
On the 8th of July 1741, Jonathan Edwards stood in a pulpit and preached a sermon that caused much conviction and anguish. Edwards was by no means a Hell fire and Brimstone preacher, but this sermon is one that gripped the hearts of the people in his audience, Here’s an small excerpt,
“God has laid himself under no obligation, by any promise to keep any natural man out of hell one moment. God certainly has made no promises either of eternal life, or of any deliverance or preservation from eternal death, but what are contained in the covenant of grace, the promises that are given in Christ, in whom all the promises are yea and amen. But surely they have no interest in the promises of the covenant of grace who are not the children of the covenant, who do not believe in any of the promises, and have no interest in the Mediator of the covenant.
So that, whatever some have imagined and pretended about promises made to natural men’s earnest seeking and knocking, it is plain and manifest, that whatever pains a natural man takes in religion, whatever prayers he makes, till he believes in Christ, God is under no manner of obligation to keep him a moment from eternal destruction.” (Blue Letter Bible)
God’s desire is that none should perish but that all should come to repentance. His desire is that we come to faith in Jesus finished work on the cross and that we walk in newness of life.
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,
He was put to death in His body, but was made alive in the Spirit.
He proclaimed to the spirits...
He proclaimed to the spirits...
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.
Chances are that if this wasn’t part of my Scripture today, I would try to leave this for some theologian. There are several schools of thought to what this means. I’ll explain them. This isn’t salvific so you might hold a different view than me. It’s not essential to our faith in Christ.
Who and when?
Who and when?
This speaks of the people that lived during the time of Noah.
What do we know about the time of Noah? We know that the people of Noah’s day were wicked. Genesis 6:5-8
The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.
The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.
So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”
But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
Noah spent 120 years building an ark. At this time, two animals of every kind came into the ark as well as seven of every clean animal. When it was time, the animals came in as well as Noah and his family. Then there was a cataclysmic flood that destroyed all man kind.
One school of thought is that over the course of the 120 years, the spirit of Christ was in Noah as he preached to the people of his day by both word and deed.
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;
if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others;
Noah was a preacher of righteousness. We too need to preach the righteousness of God by our words as well as our actions.
A second school of thought: Jesus went to the place of the dead, Sheol, paradise, Abraham’s bosom and proclaimed to those in prison: fallen angels and unbelievers whose spirits were imprisoned.
In this theory, there is no evidence that there was any freedom for these imprisoned spirits. Jesus didn’t enter hell, He just proclaimed His victory.
Let’s take a quick look at the place of the dead.
The Rich man and Lazarus
The Rich man and Lazarus
If we look at the story Jesus told of the rich man and Lazarus, it talks about a restful place as well as a gulf of fire.
“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day.
At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores
and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
“The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried.
In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.
So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’
“But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.
And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’
A third school of thought is this. When Jesus died on the cross, He went into the place of the dead and preached to those who had died before Christ. 1 Peter 3:20 talks about those who were disobedient in Noah’s day. These people weren’t in hell because they hadn’t had a chance to reject Jesus.
Therefore He says: “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men.”
I would say that many of us would be in this camp, where we believe that Jesus brought those that would receive Him from the place of the dead. He led captivity captive. He brought freedom to all who would believe. We think it would seem pointless to preach the victory accomplished on the cross without bringing salvation.
He set the captives free, and
He set the captives free, and
He still sets captives free.
He still sets captives free.
In Luke 4:18-119, Jesus quoted from Isaiah 61, this is what He said,
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
We can look at story after story in the New Testament about how Jesus brought freedom to those who were oppressed. He came to destroy the works of the devil.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
If this is true. if Jesus is still the same yesterday, today and forever, He can still bring freedom today. Christ died once for sin, the righteous for the unrighteous to bring us to God.
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,
because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.
For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh,
in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
If you need freedom Christ can bring freedom. He is the way, the truth and the life. You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. There is no chain that Jesus cannot break.
Baptism
Baptism
Peter speaks of baptism. Baptism is an outward symbol of a work that is going on inside of us. Baptism does not save you. Baptism will not get you into heaven.
1 Peter 3:20 (NIV)
In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water,
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,
When we are saved, when we give our lives to Christ, we make a pledge that we believe that only Jesus can save us from our sins.
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
In Baptism we declare publicly that we have decided to follow Jesus. It’s no longer us who lives, that’s our sinful nature, but Christ in us.
Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.
Our position because of Jesus’ position...
Our position because of Jesus’ position...
1 Peter 3:21 says, “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.
Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father. Angels, authorities and powers are subject to HIm
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
We need to put on the full armor of God. We are covered over with His blood. No weapon formed against you will prosper.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Jesus made it very clear that He had all power and authority. Matthew 28:18
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
This is what He wants from us. Matthew 28:19-20
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Because of Jesus’ victory, because of His power and authority, we too have been given the power and authority to make disciples. We can bring the message of life and freedom that Jesus has given to us.
Amen.