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August 30, 2020
Jason Meyer (Downtown Campus) | 1 Peter 3:18-22
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.—1 Peter 3:18–22
This morning we are aligning our arrows against the idol of fear and anxiety—an unholy unrest within you. Why does this happen? The year 2020 feels big. You look at all the losses you have experienced. Loss of health, loss of job, loss of peace. Everything can feel like a fight. Social media, conflicts at home, battle for holiness.
You look at all that could still be coming. And you can’t quite say, “It is well with my soul.” You find that your heart and soul and mind have a steady, unwelcome sense of unease and unrest.
What do you do? If 2020 seems big, you need to look again at Christ. Christ is bigger than anything that 2020 could throw at you.
Here is a word picture from C.S. Lewis in the Chronicles of Narnia series book Prince Caspian:
“Aslan,” said Lucy, “you’re bigger.”
“That is because you are older, little one,” answered he.
“Not because you are?”
“I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.”
What a profound picture of what the Spirit does in sanctification. Jesus becomes bigger in our sight, better to our spiritual taste buds. We gather today with the prayer that Jesus will be bigger! Not because he will grow (no, that is blasphemy—he is already unlimited—all authority belongs to him). We pray Jesus will be bigger, not because he will grow, but because we will grow.
Introduction
In the midst of your suffering, see and savor Christ’s suffering and victory for you.
We know that is what Peter is doing with these five verses because of the structural sandwich here. Look at how last week’s passage ended.
For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.—1 Peter 3:17
Now look at how this week’s passage begins:
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.—1 Peter 3:18
Now look ahead to next week’s passage:
Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.—1 Peter 4:1
In other words, in your suffering, you must so see and savor Christ’s example that it saturates you, so that it becomes part of you and you are armed with it. It is not in some mental closet somewhere, but you are armed with it—strapped on, ready to go, at your fingertips, loaded for bear.
Peter looks at his suffering flock and does not want them to be unarmed. How will they be armed? With a stockpile of money or power or influence or intelligence or survival savvy? But the weapons of their warfare are not worldly. They do not fight suffering with worldly weapons like money, power, influence, intelligence, or savvy.
They are to rest in the victory of Jesus in their suffering. They know that suffering can’t have the final word for them because it did not have the final word for him. They are armed with the full truth of what he has done. They must so see and savor what he has done that it becomes an essential part of them. His story becomes their story. They are armed with it as an identity.
Main Point: Believers must arm themselves in their suffering with the full truth of what Jesus has done in his journey from suffering to glory and all authority.
Outline
Arm Yourselves as You See the Journey of Jesus From Suffering to Glory
Application: Our Appeal Through the Resurrection of Christ (v. 21)
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.
Notice the explicit connection between our suffering and Christ’s suffering.
He is trying to show the connection between the believers’ suffering and Jesus’ suffering. Suffering is God’s will. He has good purposes in it and will bring good out of it. How do we know that? Because Christ also suffered and God had good purposes in it and he brought ultimate good out of it. Believers should not fear suffering because it is part of God’s will on the path from suffering to glory (our eschatological inheritance). Believers know this truth because they see the path Jesus took.
Notice the prepositional phrase: “for sins.” Out of the 54 times this preposition appears with this noun, 44 refer to a sin offering or sacrifice for sin. (Tom Schreiner, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, Jude, p. 181)
He suffered “once,” which is a reference to his “once for all” definitive and distinctive suffering. Believers do not suffer for the sins of others even though they follow Jesus in the path of suffering. Jesus suffered once and for all as a sin offering.
How did he suffer? “The righteous for the unrighteous.”
In other words, Christ suffered as our substitute. Peter says that he suffered in the place of the unrighteous. The emphasis here is on the uniqueness of his suffering. Christ alone suffered for the unrighteous—in their place, a vicarious sacrifice. The righteous in the place of the unrighteous.
Peter emphasizes the sinlessness of Jesus because he could not be an atoning sacrifice if he was stained with sin. His sinlessness is the basis for the sufficiency of the sacrifice. He could be a sacrifice for sins because he is the Lamb without blemish or spot (1 Peter 1:19). He is the righteous one and he never sinned, nor was deceit found in his mouth (1 Peter 2:22).
The accomplishment of the cross is atonement: “That he might bring us to God” (v. 18).
The word bring is a reference to opening up access to God. We see the noun form in Romans 5:2 and Ephesians 2:
Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand.—Romans 5:2
... Having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. … reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross .… For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.—Ephesians 2:12–13, 16, 18
So that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.—Ephesians 3:10–12
This is the truth of penal substitutionary atonement. Penal means he suffered the punishment for sin. Substitutionary means he suffered the punishment for our sins in our place. Atonement means that he accomplished perfect reconciliation. The wrath of God was completely swallowed up and sin was perfectly judged. He received the penalty for our sin and we received his perfect righteousness. Sometimes people say the shorthand of atonement is “at-one-ment.” He brought us to God.
We were without hope and without God in the world. Our sins have separated us from a holy God. No one is a child of God apart from Christ—we are all children of wrath—with a fury of a fire and fearful expectation of judgment. We were on the path toward eternal suffering.
Jesus suffered to save us from eternal suffering. He suffered to bring us heavenly bliss. But the greatest gift of salvation is himself. We were reconciled to God. He brought us to God. We are at one. Brought into his family as his children. Citizens of heaven and children of the Father. There is no greater gift.
But the good news gets even better. Jesus suffered and died for us, but he is our living hope because he did not stay dead. He rose from the dead and announced his victory. Look at the second part of the journey Peter highlights.
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
What happened after the cross? Jesus went on a journey. Where did he go and what did he do?
One scholar did his dissertation on these verses and said that there are 180 interpretations. That is one dissertation I am glad I did not write. Many commentaries give you the main options. Rather than give all the options, I am going to tell you how I read it and why—and if it matters, you should know that this is the view of most evangelical scholars and commentators.
There is a contrast in this text between two participles: being put to death and being made alive. These are two reference points in what Jesus did. Being put to death is an obvious reference to his crucifixion. Being made alive is a reference to his resurrection. This verb refers to the resurrection multiple times (John 5:21; Romans 4:17; 8:11; 1 Corinthians 15:22, 36, 45). Jesus suffered and was put to death. But his suffering is not the end of the story. Jesus was put to death in the body, but he was made alive by the Holy Spirit. This is the same truth we see in 1 Timothy 3:16 and Romans 1:4—Jesus’ resurrection and vindication took place by the Holy Spirit.
Now we have the next participle. In his resurrection body he went somewhere. The text does not explicitly say where he went. That part is wrapped up in what he went to do. Peter says he made proclamation to the spirits in prison.
Everywhere in the New Testament where we find the plural for spirits, it refers to angelic beings (angels or demons) except once where Hebrews refers to the spirits of people made perfect in heaven.
Who are these angelic beings who were disobedient in the days of Noah? There are some cross-references that will help here.
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; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly [the if clause continues and builds up to the “then” clause in verse 9] then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment.—1 Peter 2:4–5, 9
Jude 6 speaks of the same event in a very similar way.
And 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.
We also have a couple of additional clues. The same word for went appears in verse 19 and verse 22. They are both natural terms referring to his resurrection and ascension—they seem to be a progression of exaltation. The same object is also in view in verse 19 and 22: angelic beings and authorities.
So let us add up the cumulative clues. We have ...
In other words, Jesus’ resurrection is his vindication by the Spirit. As part of his vindication and victory, Jesus went and proclaimed his victory over these disobedient fallen angels. Right before the flood in Genesis 6, we have a story of fallen angels. Genesis even has the same three terms for the fall in Genesis 3 and the fall of Genesis 6 (Eve saw that the fruit was good/beautiful and she took; angels saw the daughters of men were beautiful and they took).
Genesis 1–2 gives us the creation story and Genesis 6 gives us the de-creation story. God saw the wickedness of the hearts of man—they were only evil all the time.
The spread of sin seems complete throughout the world. Every part of creation is fallen and filled with wickedness. It is the same in Peter’s day. Evil surrounds these believers. People are hostile toward them, the demonic forces are working against them, but believers get to overhear the message of victory that Jesus proclaimed to the fallen angels. The outcome is secure. The demons have lost. Christ has conquered. Judgment is coming.
Just as the flood did not destroy all humanity, but some were saved, so God made a way to save a people from his wrath and final judgment. I guarantee that demons cannot forget that victory speech. We must not forget either.
Application: Our Appeal Through the Resurrection of Christ (1 Peter 3:21)
Peter looks at what was happening in the days of Noah. It was epically, cosmically bad. Wickedness had spread everywhere (even the angels participated in wickedness). It looked like darkness and chaos had won the day. But God was patient. He was ready to forgive. He made a way of salvation (the ark). And he waited. Only eight people were willing to receive the ark of salvation, but God still saved all eight of them. Even in the midst of spreading darkness and coming judgment (the waters of death), God’s mercy still shone as eight people were saved.
Peter is saying that it looks dark today. Thick darkness is spreading, eternal judgment is coming, but—praise God—he is still rich in mercy and perfect patience and he has provided a better way of salvation today. Jesus is the ark.
In fact, the text is very emphatic. Peter says that baptism in water “corresponds” to the ark. The word is antitupos from which we get the word antitype. The symbolism at work here is not a random analogy or an interesting parallel that Peter made up. The correspondence is between prototype and antitype. In other words, there is first a picture and we await the coming of the reality to which the picture points that is its fulfillment.
It is typology: A divinely intended pattern is at work running through history that will find its anticipated point of fulfillment. And the fulfillment is always greater (escalation, crescendo, bigger) than the initial picture. In other words, “It’s not so much that the story of Noah is reenacted in our baptism. It’s more that our baptism was pre-enacted in the story of Noah. Noah is the set up, and baptism is the punchline.” (Tim Chester, Truth We Can Touch, p. 28)
What does it mean that eight people “were brought safely through water” (1 Peter 3:20). The word through is a little ambiguous in English. It does not mean that they were saved by the water. No, they needed to be saved from the judgment waters. Noah and the other seven were saved from the water by the ark.
In the same way, the judgment of God’s wrath is coming. We can only be saved from the waters of God’s judgment, by being in Christ—running to and resting in all that Jesus has done as the ark of atonement. We run to Jesus and the door is shut and we are safe from the flood of wrath and judgment coming upon the world.
Let us remember what happened in the baptism of Jesus. People who thought they were already God’s people (the Jews) were asked to submit to a baptism of repentance. That is, they all got in the water and confessed that they were sinners.
Jesus also was baptized. He did not have any sins to confess. John the Baptist was shocked by Jesus’ request to be baptized. John said that Jesus should be baptizing him. Jesus was the sinless one and John the Baptist was not! But Jesus went in that water of judgment with all of those sins as a substitute. It was a symbol for what he had come to do.
That is why Peter can say, “baptism now saves you” (v. 20). He can say it without flinching. This water of judgment symbolizes baptism which now saves you. What does he mean? He does not mean that the act of baptism saves you magically or automatically. He emphatically shuts that sheep gate in verse 21: “Not a removal of dirt from the body.” In other words, the physical act does not save.
What does save? “An appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (v. 21). The word for appeal is a request or appeal that believers can make for a good conscience on the basis of Christ’s work (death and resurrection).
Believers at baptism ask God—on the basis of the death and resurrection of Christ—to cleanse their consciences and forgive their sins.[1]
In other words, this verse is remarkably similar to another verse that talks about gaining access to God based on the work of Christ. Listen to Hebrews 10:19–22.
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
We make an appeal in baptism, saying, “Cleanse my conscience from all my sin through the death and resurrection of Christ. I believe that I am saved only by what he has done. He alone can bring me through the waters of judgment. This is my only hope.”
In other words, baptism is the promise of the gospel in physical form. The promise has become three-dimensional. You see the promise physically enacted. You see it. You feel the water. You physically enact the promise because you believe the promise. We do not put our faith in baptism. We put our faith in Jesus—his death and resurrection has decisively and definitively dealt with the problem of sin and judgment.
Tim Chester is helpful here once again as he draws upon the Puritan Stephen Charnock. “The gospel sacraments seal the gospel promises, as a ring confirms the covenant of marriage.” In a wedding, the bride and the groom exchange vows and then exchange rings: “With this ring I thee wed.” The exchanging of rings does not make the marriage in the ultimate sense, but in the symbolic sense. Baptism saves you means much the same thing as the exchange of rings makes you married.
But this happens in a context, right? If a man secretly slips a ring on a woman on the street that does not make them married. In the same way, if someone falls into the baptistery, he or she is not baptized and suddenly united to Christ.
The exchange of rings happens in a certain context (exchanging vows and commitments of marriage). The rings symbolize that covenant commitment. In the same way, baptism only saves when someone responds with faith to the promises embodied in baptism (by faith, you have entered Jesus, the greater ark, who saves you from a greater judgment).
What if you have not been baptized? Here is what I will say and I am drawing upon something Tim Chester said here. Let’s say you were in a wedding ceremony and you have already taken your vows. Now here comes the moment to exchange the rings. He freezes when he remembers that he left them at his house in all the rush to get to the church. Does that mean the wedding is off and the marriage is invalid? No. They are still married. But there is something missing and it must be rectified quickly.
In the same way, perhaps you have not been baptized by immersion as a believer. Does that mean you are not a believer? Does it mean that you are not heaven-bound and that your faith is invalid? No. But something is missing. And I call you to rectify that as soon as you can.
Here is the celebratory point I want to make—with the prayer that Jesus will become bigger. Do you see the judgment coming? Do you feel the darkness spreading? As the storm rages around you, the ark is ready! Do not delay. Run to the ark of Christ’s salvation. Rest there—safe from the waters of death and judgment.
Don’t be deceived today. God is not mocked. He will never excuse evil. A just and holy God will and must judge all evil (whether human or angelic). Judgment is coming. With all the uncertainty of 2020, humanity needs to hear the one future certainty of judgment.
God will not excuse evil, but he will forgive. The cross is the only way. Sin receives its due penalty either at the cross or in hell. There is no other way.
Jesus has defeated death and demons and the dark domain. He announces the defeat and overthrow of the fallen angels. He leads them in triumphal procession. They have lost. Christ has purchased his people and they will not be lost. Darkness will not win.
Do you feel the world is broken? Do you feel the shadows deepen? But do you know that all the dark won’t stop the light from getting through? ... The lion of Judah who conquered the grave, he is David’s root and the Lamb who died to ransom the slave! ... He is worthy![2]
Is he bigger in your eyes than 2020? He is the Lord of years and the potentate of all time—the Lord of every year. It all bows before him as Maker and Sustainer and your Redeemer. He is the one who will make all things new when he comes again.
You may feel like a total mess in 2020. It might feel like you don’t have a single victory. Rather, you are way more aware of your losses and your fears of what you could lose. You will feel ill-equipped and unarmed if you focus only on your losses.
Our hope and our trust and our identity is in him. Our identity is not in the intensity of our faith. Our identity is not in the act of our faith, but the object of our faith.
Conclusion: Baptism as a Naming Ceremony and Identity Formation
Sinclair Ferguson tells the story of a doctoral student from South Asia.
I knew him as “Timothy.” But one day, when I felt I had come to know him well enough, I asked him, “Timothy, what’s your real name? He smiled and said, “Timothy.” I smiled back, knowing he would see that I wasn’t convinced this was the whole truth! “Come on, tell me, what is your real name?” Again, he replied, “Timothy.” So I tried a different maneuver. “What is the name your parents registered for you?” This time he responded with his native Asian name. Despite feeling we were in the endgame of a little chess match and that somehow he had a secret move up his sleeve, I said, “So that’s your real name!” “No,” he said—and then theologically checkmated me! “‘Timothy’ is my real name. That’s the name I was given when I was baptized.” (Ferguson, in Foreword to Tim Chester’s book, Truth We Can Touch, pp. 9–10)
Ferguson, the noted theologian, said that he learned a great lesson that day. The name Timothy received at his new birth and baptism was more important than the name he received at his physical birth. Now, we know that changing his name had not changed his heart. That happened in the new birth. Baptism does not save—as if salvation is the physical removal of dirt from the body. Rather, baptism was a constant reminder and reinforcement of his identity in Christ. Ferguson said that what made Timothy unique is that unlike so many believers today, he understood that his baptism had ongoing significance for him every day of his life.
But you do not need a new name when you get baptized because it has already happened. Jesus taught that baptism is a naming ceremony because we were baptized in the singular name of the Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). This name is a constant reminder of your identity—who you are, or rather Whose you are. We also must celebrate the moment when, “Ash was redeemed, only beauty remained, and my orphan heart was given a name.”
But we are not ready for that closing song yet. We have one more part of the journey to see and savor and celebrate.
… Who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.
The resurrected Jesus became the ascended Jesus as he journeyed to heaven. He is there now enthroned at the right hand of God (allusion to Psalm 110:1). He has all authority over angels, authorities, and powers. They are subject to him. He rules over them all.
Every being—whether cosmic or earthly that has some rule or dominion or authority—is under the overarching rule of Christ. He is sovereign over disease and death, cancer and criticism, sickness and slander, persecution and politics, the economy and the end times. He is sovereign over Wall Street and the White House and your house. This is true for every life in every stage of life in every situation this life and this year could throw at you.
And we do not see it all directly and clearly and obviously. But one day we will. The faith will be sight. Lord hasten that day. Kings will bow and adore and nations kneel down before him. And every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. One day, they will all bow. He will no longer be mocked as a fairy tale or a fable and you will not be called a fool because of your faith.
No power of hell, no scheme of man
can ever pluck me from his hand.
’Til he returns or calls me home.
Here in the power of Christ I stand.[3]
My Savior displayed on a criminal’s cross
Darkness rejoiced as though heaven had lost
But then Jesus arose with my freedom in hand
That’s when death was arrested and my life began. [4]
_______
[1] Thomas R. Schreiner, 1, 2 Peter, Jude, The New American Commentary, vol. 37 (Nashville: Broadman & Holman), pp. 196–197).
[2] From “Is He Worthy?” by Andrew Peterson
[3] From “In Christ Alone,” by Getty/Townend
[4] From “Death Was Arrested,” by Balltzglier/Kersh/Taylor Smith/Coker
Main Point: Believers must arm themselves in their suffering with the full of truth of what Jesus has done in his journey from suffering to glory and all authority.
Outline
Arm Yourselves With the Journey and Victory of Christ:
Application: Our Appeal Through the Resurrection of Christ (1 Peter 3:21; Baptism)
Discussion Questions
Application Questions
Prayer Focus
Pray for a grace that we would grow and that Jesus would be bigger in our sight as we run to Jesus and rest in his victory.