All right, let's get into the word this morning.
If you have your Bibles, go ahead and turn over
to 1 Peter, 1 Peter chapter three. We are making
our way through 1 Peter in this letter to exiles
and strangers. And Peter is instructing them
now in the second half of the book on how to
live the practical conduct of what it means to
live out the gospel in everyday life, especially
as those who are exiles and strangers, meaning
that we are in a world and in a place that is
not our ultimate home, not our ultimate place,
and doesn't necessarily always share our values
or our systems or the way the kingdom of God
works. But we get to experience a level of the
kingdom of God together as well as we live out
the kingdom in the ways that Peter is laying
out for us. And so 1 Peter chapter 3, we're going
to start in verse 8, and I'm going to go ahead
and read all the way to the end of the chapter.
So if you have your Bibles, follow along. It
should also be up here on the board as well.
Finally, all of you be like -minded and sympathetic.
Love one another and be compassionate and humble.
not paying back evil for evil or insult for insult,
but on the contrary, giving a blessing since
you were called for this so that you may inherit
a blessing. For the one who wants to love life
and to see good days, let him keep his tongue
from evil and his lips from speaking deceit and
let him turn away from evil and do what is good.
Let him seek peace and pursue it because 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 what is evil.
Who then will harm you if you are devoted to
what is good? But even if you should suffer for
righteousness, you are blessed. Do not fear them
or be intimidated, but in your hearts regard
Christ the Lord as holy, ready at any time to
give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason
for the hope that is in you. Yet do this with
gentleness and reverence, keeping a clear conscience,
so that when you are accused, those who disparage
your good conduct in Christ will 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 for sins once for all,
the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might
bring you to God. He was put to death in the
flesh, but made alive by the Spirit, in which
he also went and made proclamation to the spirits
in prison, who in the past were disobedient,
when God patiently waited in the days of Noah
while the ark was being prepared. In it, a few,
that is eight people, were saved through water.
Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves
you, not as the removal of dirt from the body,
but the pledge of a good conscience toward God
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who
has gone into heaven and is at the right hand
of God with angels, authorities, and powers subject
to him. This is God's word. Have you ever been
mocked or hated? Or maybe misrepresented or misunderstood,
not for doing something wrong, not because you
were ornery or rude, but for doing something
right or because you held a certain belief. Maybe
it was a moment that you shared your convictions
and got labeled as judgmental. Or maybe it was
a relationship where someone rolled their eyes
when you mentioned your faith. Or maybe it's
just that quiet tension that you feel when your
values don't line up with the world's values
and the pressure is always pushing back on you.
Anyone feel that? It's tempting in those moments
to respond just like everyone else does, to return
insult for insult, or to go silent and avoid
conflict. There's usually... With everyone, you
fall into one of those two categories, right?
Fight or flight, right? Someone comes at you
and accuses you of something or someone disparages
you and you either sling an insult back to one
-up them, right? Any one -uppers in here? Yeah?
Some of you are lying by keeping your hand down.
We got some one -uppers in here. Anyone go silent
and avoid conflict? Get out of there, run away,
find a room somewhere, get away from conflict,
right? Everyone else responds the same way, one
of two ways, insult for insult, go silent, avoid
conflict, or compromise just a little bit in
order to fit in and ride under the radar. But
Peter, writing to Christians who were mocked,
who were slandered and marginalized, he tells
us that there's another way, a better way, a
Jesus -shaped way. One that doesn't mirror the
mess around us and one that doesn't muzzle the
message and one that doesn't miss the meaning
of suffering. Because we don't just suffer like
Christ, we are told that we suffer with Jesus
and he has already won and that is a great promise.
And so we're going to walk through Peter's encouragement
here to exiles today, and we're going to receive
it for ourselves. And if you take notes, go ahead
and write down. And I encourage you, if you can,
take notes. We also have the Church Center app.
You can take notes right in the app, and they'll
save on there. The first point is don't mirror
the mess. Don't mirror the mess. I don't know
about you guys, but there are these things called
shorts on social media. Instagram, YouTube, everyone
started doing it. They're kind of following suit
from TikTok. And there are these short little
videos. And you start to scroll through and watch.
And if you stop for two seconds on a video, the
algorithm. calculates that you must like that
video a little bit more than the previous video.
And then you scroll through a few more and then
you stop for a little longer on that one. And
what it does is it starts to calculate what your
tastes are and it starts to feed you exactly
what you want. And pretty soon you get caught
in this feedback loop. It's intentionally designed
because the whole point of these apps is to keep
you on there as long as possible. You are the
product. Keep you on there as long as possible
so they can rack up the advertising dollars.
That's the way it works. There's a business run
there. But what's interesting about these algorithms
is you can learn a whole lot about yourself and
your interests from these algorithms. So for
some reason, my algorithm on Facebook, if I swap
over to the videos, what you'll find, first and
foremost, is a whole lot of police videos where
people are running from police officers. So I
don't know how much time I spend on that, but
it must be a whole lot because it's like, I'm
going to keep feeding you these like traffic
stops gone wrong, you know, one after the other,
after the other. But probably my second one on
there that you'll find is confrontations that
escalate in airports. It's really specific, right?
Confrontations that escalate out and go out of
hand in airports. And maybe some of you guys
have seen these videos. These are like train
wrecks that you shouldn't watch. You should turn
away. But they just suck you into these ticket
counter meltdowns that happen. And by the end
of it, someone is on the ground. Someone's getting
tased. And I'm like, next. And then I get another
one, right? And it's all centered around someone,
you know, someone has their boarding pass and
it won't scan properly. Or someone is getting
bumped from a flight. And they're already frustrated,
right? And then the agent doesn't give them the
pleasantries that they were hoping for, right?
So they're frustrated. The agent kind of gives
them a dry response. And so what does the traveler
do? The traveler raises their voice. And then
the agent snaps back at them, right? And then
pretty soon there's yelling and there's pointing
and threats and security is involved. The tasers
are flying everywhere, right? And all of it over
the seat on an airplane. And here's the thing.
Things in these confrontations, they don't start
at level 10. They escalate. What you have is
you have two people who start mirroring each
other. Each person's tone, just one level above
the last. And that's what we do, isn't it? You
roll your eyes at me, and so I roll mine harder.
I have a young, my youngest son, when he was
a little kid, he would roll his eyes because
I would, one of my favorite things with the boys
is just to annoy them with dad jokes. So I'll
look them up on my phone and just be like, hey,
boys, and tell a dad joke. And they'll be like,
dad, come on. And when he was younger, even when
he was a lot younger, he would get annoyed. But
he would roll his eyes. But I don't know if you've
ever seen a kid try to roll their eyes. They
roll their eyes, but they also roll their head,
right? It's like, dad, dad, come on, right? It's
like, you roll your eyes. I'm going to roll my
eyes harder. You post about me, I'm gonna post
louder, more frequently. You hurt me, I'll hurt
you back. Maybe not in the same way, but I wanna
make sure that my hurt lands. We mirror each
other. And some Christians mirror the mess around
them. They react to the outrage of the day. The
mess gets louder, so the Christian gets louder.
And Peter instructs the churches to live a different
way. First, in how you treat one another, brothers
and sisters. And second, how you interact with
the mess of the evil and the insults of the world.
And he starts that section by saying, be like
-minded and sympathetic. Love one another and
be compassionate and humble. And what does this
mean? Well, like -minded. is where he starts.
And like -minded can sound like he's saying,
hey, we need to all be the same. We need to have
all the same opinions, preferences. We need to
dress the same. We need to talk the same. We
need to be all the same. And that's not what
he's saying. He's not talking about unified in
our sameness. What he's talking about is just
like your body has different parts and every
part is uniquely different from the other ones
and they have a special function and a special
use. Just like you have different parts of the
body, you also have the same DNA that is the
master plan that is controlling all the parts
of the body. The same master plan is running
through it all. And so the people of God, though
different parts and different functions, have
the same spirit and the same word working a common
master plan for the glory of God. This is what
it means to be like -minded. In 1 Corinthians
chapter 2, Paul says that believers, all who
have received the Holy Spirit, have the mind
of Christ. We all have the mind of Christ together
as the body. We have the mind of Christ if we
are in Christ. And he goes on to say in Philippians
chapter 2, that if then there is any encouragement
in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any
fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection
and mercy, make my joy complete by thinking the
same way. Having the same love, united in spirit
and intent on one purpose. Do nothing out of
selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility
consider others as more important than yourself.
Everyone should not look to his own interests,
but rather to the interests of others. Peter
says, don't mirror the mess. But instead, have
the mind of Christ, the attitude of Christ, the
humility of Christ, showing the love of Christ.
And the greatest challenge to us, to our love
for one another, even within the context of a
church, is when we are wronged. Amen? When we
feel wronged, it's really hard to love. And Peter,
he quotes from Psalm 34. Right there in the middle
of passage 10, verse 10 through 12. And he says,
the one who wants to love life and to see good
days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his
lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away
from evil and do what is good. Let him seek peace
and pursue it because 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 what is evil. Doing good is difficult.
especially in the face of evil and insults. In
fact, doing evil oftentimes has a more immediate
reward than doing good does. With evil, you can
snap back at someone and immediately see the
injury you caused and immediately get a feedback
that you landed that one. But with good, oftentimes
you don't see the result of it, sometimes for
a very long time as it works in the background.
Sometimes the good that we do as believers, we
will never see in this life. Someone who watches
your life from afar, someone who is influenced
by your kindness that you thought was just regular
day and you just moved on and their life was
influenced and changed. You may never see the
result of that, but often with our insults and
our evil, we can pretty much see the result right
away. But verse 12 tells us that the righteous
who live in a right relationship with God, the
righteous, that the Lord turns his eyes to them
and the Lord opens his ears to their prayers.
How many want the eyes of the Lord looking on
you and your prayers to be heard by the Lord?
This is good, yes? He says, the righteous, those
who keep their tongue from evil and their lips
from deceit, those who turn away from evil and
do what is good, who seek peace and pursue it,
the eyes of the Lord are on them and his ears
are open to their prayer. God sees and watches
over. God actively cares for the righteous. This
isn't some distant observation of an absent God.
It implies favor and protection. An involvement,
intimate awareness. God is watching with the
intent to bless. You want a blessing from the
Lord? Do what is right. He hears. He's attentive
and responsive to the prayers of the righteous.
And this is relational nearness. The father leans
in when his righteous children pray. The father
leans in to hear the prayers. But it ends by
saying, but the face of the Lord is against those
who do what is evil. In other words, God is actively,
not passively, God is actively opposed to evildoers.
The idea of the face in the Old Testament often
represented God's presence and his favor. In
Numbers, we learned the prayer that many of you
have prayed probably before, which is the prayer
that God would make his face to shine upon us.
God, make your face to shine upon us. What is
that saying? It's talking about the presence
and the favor of God to rest upon us. And there
is a blessing for obedience and there is a blessing
for right relationship and there is divine resistance
and distance for unbelief, intentional disobedience
and unfaithfulness. Remember earlier, we talked
about husbands and wives and it said that if
husbands, if you don't live with your wives in
an understanding way, And understanding how your
position you can use to dominate her. Instead,
you should see her as an heir to the glory and
the grace of salvation. And you should do all
this. Why? Do you guys remember where it ended?
Otherwise, your prayers will be hindered. If
you mistreat, if you act in a way that is not
right, that is not commanded by God, in a way
that is not in right relationship with God and
with her, your prayers will be hindered. And
here he's saying, The Lord turns his face against
those who do what is evil. Don't be a people
under judgment and divine opposition. Be a people
who instead have the mind of Christ, who love
one another, who bless instead of curse, and
who live humbly. He ends with saying, be humble.
What does that mean? And I'll say this, if you
get nothing else today, listen up for the next
few minutes right here. What does humble mean?
It means self -forgetfulness. Self -forgetfulness.
Humble does not mean self -loathing. Humble is
not represented by saying, oh, I'm stupid or
I suck or I'm worthless. That is not humility.
Humility is self -forgetfulness. Tim Keller says
it this way. The essence of gospel humility is
not thinking more of yourself, an elevated view,
and not thinking less of yourself, a disparaging
view. The essence of gospel humility is thinking
of yourself less. That's the essence of gospel
humility. Gospel humility frees you from obsessing
over yourself, your performance, your reputation,
your conference, your preferences. When you stop
constantly thinking, how am I doing? How am I
being treated? What do people think of me? You're
finally free to focus on other people. A lot
of conflict and a lot of strife would be avoided
if we just lived with simple gospel humility.
Thinking of myself less. How many times in a
church setting like this have you heard, oh,
no one said hi to me. No one's very nice to me.
Or no one asked me out to lunch. It's been a
while. Or why doesn't anyone go out of their
way to encourage me? I see all these groups of
people encouraging one another and excited and
no one goes out of their way to encourage me.
And I think gospel humility says, stop thinking
of yourself so much. And it flips every one of
those questions around to, did you go out of
your way to say hi to someone? Who did you invite
out to lunch today or over to your house? Did
you come ready and prepared this morning and
every morning we gather together to share a word
of encouragement, to spur someone on to love
and good deeds, to deliver that to someone so
that they would be encouraged and built up? Did
you do that? Gospel humility brings us to that
set of questions, not the first one. Why didn't
anyone do that? No one ever does. Are you looking
out for you or are you thinking of yourself less
and others more and more? How often have we observed
someone's actions or words and we just assume
their motive? We jump to a conclusion, assume
their motive. They said this or that because
they must think this or that. But gospel humility
and gospel love takes the most charitable perspective.
on someone else's motives and attitudes and actions.
Do you guys get that point, the charitable perspective?
When someone says something and my first inclination
is to assume that they have a bad motive, I am
to stop. Gospel humility and gospel love says
I am to slow down and to begin to think of the
most charitable reason why they said or did what
they did. In other words, I'm to give them the
benefit of the doubt and assume that they didn't
mean malice or hurt, but they actually were trying
to do something good. I'm to give them that,
and the only time I'm to take that back is if
there's insurmountable evidence adding up over
time. But over and over again, my posture, my
disposition is to give them the most charitable
perspective of what they did. That's gospel humility.
You know why? Because it doesn't hold your own
opinion in the highest regard. When we make assumptions
about someone's motives or someone's attitude
or the reason someone did something, that part
of the person that you actually can't see or
know, When you make those assumptions, you elevate
your opinion to a high place. You put it in a
high regard over that person. Gospel humility
says, bring that down. Sister, brother, bring
that down. Down low. Give them the benefit of
the doubt. Give them the most charitable explanation
for why they did what they did. Be a people who
don't mirror the mess. But instead, live the
Jesus -shaped life that we're called to. Number
two, don't muzzle the message. I don't know if
you know this, but suffering for righteousness
is a legit thing. Not just for them back then
in the first century. But it's a real life thing
today, suffering for righteousness. Why? Because
righteousness isn't just about what we do. It's
also about the affections of our heart. Do we
love Jesus? Do we love his word? Do we treasure
what is right in God's eyes? Do we value human
flourishing and want to see the kingdom of God
invade homes and neighborhoods and families and
cities? Do we want that? Because if we want that,
the kingdom is otherworldly. It's not like this
world. And that means at times the kingdom values
will conflict with this world and we will encounter
suffering for doing what is right, for speaking
what is right, for preaching and declaring what
is right. You will encounter suffering. When
Peter says that we should always be ready to
give a defense, this is his way of saying, accusations
going to come and you need to be prepared to
respond to that accusation. What are some modern
accusations of wrongdoing that Christians are
regularly accused of? I'll just name a couple
of them that are immediately come to mind. Christians
are often accused of being intolerant. And tolerance
is the religion of the day. Tolerance and the
idea that everyone is entitled to define themselves
according to themselves however they want is
the religion of the day. It's the religion that
says, hey, I am the locus, the center of reality,
and I get to choose my reality and shape it.
And if you don't accept my reality that I have
shaped, you are intolerant. And this is a self.
God -centered way of life instead of a God -shaped,
Jesus -shaped, God -centered way of life. And
Christians who gather and pray and earnestly
look at their life and allow the Spirit to change
them are trying to move and live this godly life,
this God -centered life, and that necessarily
means that it's going to push back against the
prevailing religion of the day. It's going to
be in opposition to it. And you as a Christian,
if you are to hold what you believe and what
the scripture tells you is God's will for mankind
and what human flourishing looks like and what
his intention is so that we might flourish as
a people, that's going to be in opposition to
what the world holds. And Christians will be
labeled intolerant. Just the claim that Jesus
is the only way. is a heresy in today's religion,
the religion out there. Because in a pluralistic
society, there are many ways to God. And to hold
the biblical truth that Jesus is the only way
is intolerance. To claim a historical biblical
sexual ethic is intolerance in today's religion.
To say that God has created humanity in a way,
he defined it, he's the center of it. God has
created humanity in a way, and we are to orient
around his truth, not our self -defining. That
is bigotry in today's society. Whatever it is
that we're opposing, whatever it is that we stand
for, whatever it is that you might preach, it
will be labeled not just a simple disagreement,
but hatred. You hate them. Or harmful. You want
to harm them. And Peter says to us that we have
to be ready. Christians must be ready to clarify
that their convictions Their convictions related
to Jesus is the only way. Their convictions related
to the prevailing religion of the day, the self
-centeredness. Their convictions related to the
biblical sexual ethic, which is a part of that
religion today. Their convictions are founded
not in the desire for self -righteousness to
lord it over someone, but in a true desire, a
conviction to love God and love our neighbor.
If you truly believe that God's design is best
because God knows best, then you keep going back
to it and going, anything living, anyone living
less than God's design, anyone who's living outside
of it is not experiencing the flourishing that
they're intended to experience. And not only
that, they very well might be in disobedience
to God and therefore his face might be against
them and they're not experiencing the blessing
and favor of God. And the heart of a Christian
shouldn't be to stand in self -righteousness
over them, but to plead and to beg and to go
before the Lord in prayer and to weep tears to
say, come and experience the life that you can
have in Christ, the life that is truly oriented
around God and not yourself. It's motivated by
love and not self -righteousness. And it's motivated
on the reality that nothing about how any of
us lived, if you are in Christ, nothing about
how any of us lived when we were outside of Christ
was life -giving. Any of us in this room, I could
go around, it doesn't matter what your sin or
the way that you were living and contrary to
God's will and way, we could all go around and
say, yeah, that didn't give me life. Yeah, that
didn't give me hope. I wasn't flourishing over
there. I didn't feel the face of God shining
upon me over there. In fact, I came to a breaking
point and that's when I turned and I needed God.
And then he shone on me when I repented and I
turned my face to him and I began to follow him.
That's when I experienced his favor. All of us
have that same testimony and we're just repeating
that. We want others to understand that come
into the light, come into God's way, understand
that he has a better plan than the one that centers
around myself. That's just one of a prevalent
accusation of wrongdoing that a Christian might
encounter. And Peter says Christians must be
ready to respond. You need to be ready to respond
to that because you may be accused of that. Hypocrisy
would be another one. And there's many others
that you could go down the line. Holding a Christian,
a biblical worldview will get you into all kinds
of mess today. And Peter says, be ready to give
a defense. But when you give that defense, when
you're talking to people who are in opposition
to you, he says that how you make that defense,
the way that you communicate that defense is
equally important. He says, yet do this with
gentleness and reverence, keeping a clear conscience
so that when you are accused, those who disparage
you. Your good conduct in Christ will be put
to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing
good, if that should be God's will, than for
doing evil. What is Peter instructing here? He's
saying, because even accusation, even accusation
is a gospel opportunity. That's not our typical
posture, is it? An accusation or a pushback against
us, we usually could jump into defensive mode,
don't we? Like, I've got to defend Jesus. Like,
somehow he needs me. master apologist to defend
him. Like, Jesus, don't worry. You hired the
right lawyer. I got you. We jump into that mode.
Instead, Peter says, whoa, whoa, how you do this
is going to matter all the more. How you conduct
yourself, but also how you make this defense.
It matters because what you need to understand
is it's not just a dispute or a conflict. It's
a gospel opportunity. Right there in the middle
of the accusation. Right there when you feel
most defense of this is a gospel opportunity,
if you'll view it from this perspective. And
if you'll understand that when you respond, you
need to do it in gentleness. What is gentleness?
A spirit that is calm. A spirit that is calm
and patient. That is not harsh. That is not aggressive,
even under pressure. You weren't... If you're
a note taker right now, I want to see pens moving.
Okay, ready? Get ready. You are not trying to
win an argument. You are trying to win a person.
If someone comes against you and accuses you
of wrongdoing, accuses you in your belief in
God and you're centering around him, that something
about what you're doing is wrong because it is
wrongdoing in the eyes of the prevailing religions
of the day. But if they accuse you of it, your
first reaction is going to be defensiveness.
And Peter says, no, no, no. You're not trying
to win an argument. You're trying to win a person
and that changes how you do it, right? And the
second way he says is reverence. Reverence is
important. And that's not about timidity, but
this deep awareness of God's presence when you
speak. Note takers, get the pen ready again.
Here you go. The first one was, you are not trying
to win an argument, you are trying to win a person.
Reverence, well, when you speak for Jesus, you're
standing on holy ground. Be careful. If you're
going to mount a defense for why you have the
hope that you have, and you're going to speak
for Jesus, you're standing on holy ground. Watch
your mouth. Watch your attitude. Watch your aggression.
And do it with a clear conscience. Don't just
say the right things. Don't have all the right
answers. But live in a way that doesn't betray
your faith. And then above all, in verse 15,
Peter reminds us, his listeners, that when we
suffer for doing what is right, even unjustly,
that in your hearts you're to regard Christ the
Lord as holy. And this means that even when we're
suffering, even when we're accused, we're called
to have reverence for Christ as Lord. believing
that Christ, not our human opponent, is truly
in control of all events. And to have such reverence
in our heart is to maintain a continually deep
-seated inward confidence in Christ as the reigning
king, that he is on his throne now and everything
is okay. The final point, if you're taking notes,
don't miss the meaning. Don't miss the meaning.
Don't mirror the mess. Don't muzzle the message
and don't miss the meaning. Right here in 18
to 22, this is the final point. 18 to 22, this
is somewhat of a confusing passage. If you're
kind of a Bible nerd and you're reading it, you're
going, this is weird. Like we're talking about
Jesus preaching to spirits in prisons. We're
talking about Noah suddenly, like he's transported
into the New Testament and then we're shooting
over to baptism. Like what's happening here?
And I don't want us to get lost in the weeds
and miss the main idea. So I'll give you the
main idea. Jesus Christ has won. And everything,
every being, every story, every symbol of the
Old Testament now points to his finished work.
That's the point. Jesus Christ is victorious.
And so under this point, if you're taking notes,
A, Christ suffered for you. Verse 18 is the anchor.
For Christ also suffered for sins once for all,
the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might
bring you to God. This is the gospel diluted
right there in one verse. Christ suffered. He
suffered a violent, unjust death for sins, not
his own. 2 Corinthians says, God made him who
knew no sin to become sin so that in him we could
become the righteousness of God. Christ suffered
a violent, unjust death for sins that were not
his own, but he did it once for all. It's finished,
never to be repeated. The righteous for the unrighteous.
This is substitution language. This is the atonement.
He made payment for us. Why? That he might bring
you to God. And the great joy of the gospel is
not just forgiveness. Forgiveness of sins is
awesome. And it's not just freedom. Freedom from
what holds us and binds us. That is awesome.
But you know what the big thing, the apex, the
climax of it all is? Fellowship with God. See,
these other things, forgiveness of sins and freedom
from our sins, these are what we're standing
in the way. They're not the end all be all. The
end all be all is fellowship with God. He did
all that to bring us to God. Not just forgiveness,
not just freedom, but fellowship and reconciliation
and access to the Father. And Peter says, don't
miss the meaning of the text. Everything Jesus
did was to bridge the gap between a holy God
and unholy people, and he made a way for us.
B, if you take notes, B, Christ's victory is
universal. Peter continues and he says that he
put to death in the flesh, he was put to death
in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit in
which he also went and made proclamation to the
spirits of prison. This is the weird, crazy one
that a lot of commentators have tried to write
down. What does this mean? Think through. What
does it mean that he went and preached? made
proclamation to spirits in prison. And here's
what I don't think it means. Some people have
thought this in the past. Some people have written
about it. I don't think it means this. It doesn't
mean that Jesus gave a second chance after death
to some people who had died in unbelief. That's
what it doesn't mean. When it says he went and
preached to the spirits in prison, it doesn't
mean he went and found some people who died in
their unbelief. Hadn't followed God, hadn't committed
their way to God. He found them and he preached
the message to them and gave them a second chance
at salvation. I don't believe that's it at all.
What's actually happening? We think of preach
and we always think of positive, but that's why
I think CSB using proclamation is actually a
really good word because what Jesus is doing
is after his resurrection, he went and proclaimed
his victory over every rebellious power. Whether
spiritual beings or demonic forces or those who
oppose God in Noah's day, it was the cosmic victory
march that God went on. Think of a victorious
king who's returning from battle and shouting
to every stronghold along the way, I win, death
is defeated. I win, death loses. I win, sin loses.
I win, evil loses. This is what his proclamation
was. It's like you thought you got away, you
didn't get away with it. And Peter reaches back
to Noah's story because just like the ark saved
a few through the floodwaters, it was actually
a symbol and a sign pointing forward to Jesus
who would save those who trust in him through
the waters of judgment and death. And baptism
now saves you, not as the removal of dirt from
the body, but the pledge of a good conscience
toward God through the resurrection of Jesus
Christ. He uses the imagery of baptism because
he's introduced the idea of the ark. And remember,
Noah and his family got into the ark, and the
ark was closed up. And the ark, then the rains
began to come, and the floods came up, and the
people who were in the ark were safe. They were
safe from all of the floods. What were the floods
there from? The floods were judgment on the earth
for the sinfulness of humanity. Judgment was
pronounced. And those who were in the ark were
safe. And Peter says, hey, that whole imagery
of Noah, it was actually pointing forward to
Jesus. Jesus is the ark. And everyone who is
in Jesus, when the floodwaters of judgment come,
they're safe. And he will deliver them to a land
and prosper with a blessing. Baptism points to
that. Baptism is the sign of that. Baptism isn't
some magic water. It's not about a physical bath.
It's about a spiritual reality. Baptism is the
external expression of an internal faith, a pledge
and a commitment of loyalty to Christ Jesus.
It's you and I saying, my old life is buried
and my new life is yours. And truly, it is a
whole new life in Christ. But it's only effective
because of the resurrection. Baptism points to
the union with Christ. You died with him. You
rise with him. You live with him. And so finally,
I'll say, Peter ends by saying, who has gone,
Jesus, who has gone into heaven and is at the
right hand of God with angels, authorities, and
powers subject to him. This is where Peter wants
to land the plane. Jesus is not in the grave.
Jesus isn't still hanging on the cross and he's
not distant or indifferent. He's on the throne
ruling today and every angel, every demon, every
ruler, every force, they all answer to him, praise
God. And church, Peter is saying, don't get distracted.
By these hard to understand verses or miss the
point that Jesus wins and in him, so do you.
Baptism tells a better story than just water
in some ceremony. It tells the story of rescue
through judgment, new life through death and
victory through Christ. And just as the ark bore
Noah through the judgment waters, so Christ bears
us through the flood of sin and death. And that
ark pointed forward to Jesus, the only safe shelter
in the storms of God's judgment. Don't miss the
meaning and don't miss the Savior. Don't mirror
the mess. Don't muzzle the message. And don't
miss the meaning.