This morning, we're going to look at a passage of scripture that has been one that's been on my heart for a while, and one that I hope will be of help to you as we delve into the scriptures as to what this passage is saying to us today, 2024. Before we do that, I want to read the passage, and then we will So, if you don't have your Bible already open to 1 Peter chapter 3, you can do so now. 1 Peter 3, we're going to look at a few verses, the last portion of this chapter. but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once the divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. from the flesh, but the answer 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, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject." Lord, we come to you today thankful that your words are true, thankful that your words are pure, thankful that they give us everything we need for life and goodness. Lord, we come before you realizing our great need, that Lord, without these life-giving words, without this revelation, we would not know you, we would not know your gospel, we would not We would know none of that without the revelation we have in scripture. We're thankful that you have so sovereignly and prominentially given us this precious book that we can open up and explore and learn for ourselves what it is saying. I pray that the word of God might pierce our hearts today. Use your word in such a way that we understand. of this passage, what Peter is speaking of here to admonish us, to bring us closer to Christ's likeness. And even for those who are maybe in this room today and do not know the Lord as Savior, it may bring Even though her family demanded strict adherence to the tenets of the Muslim faith, Terry could not help, as a young girl, but be curious about the Bible and Christianity. She was so curious, in fact, she ordered for herself a Bible curriculum that she completed on her own, and she even visited several churches under the guise of doing religious studies for her classes at school. The more she learned, the more she became convinced that the Christian God was real. Now mind you, she wasn't saved yet, but she was getting closer and closer to the truth. Unfortunately, trouble came for Tara. At every turn, the more that she pursued this interest in Christianity, the pastor of the church that she visited frequently And then, to top things off, this really set her dad over the edge. He found her in her room reading the Bible. Now when her dad found that out, he accused her of being a Christian and renouncing her Muslim faith. He flat out told her, you are no longer my daughter. That he and Tara's brother beat her mercilessly as she sobbed in pain. Tara's father then threatened her with an early arranged marriage. He said, either you get married, or we will die. Tara knew that she could not stay with her family anymore. And the first chance she got, she fled from her family, fled from her home, all that she knew, took a bus to the furthest town she could get a bus to. When she arrived, the first church that she could find that was associated with the Salvation Army, She was trying to find help from them, trying to see if she could be hidden or be taken to another family somewhere. This church, amazingly, put her in touch with a man who looked strikingly like her father. That's because this man they put her in touch with was her uncle. An uncle she knew nothing about, who had become a believer in years past, and was basically estranged from the family. The father wanted nothing to do with him anymore. And of all things, she goes to the same village that he's at, and she gets to stay with him. It was during this time, while living with her uncle, that Tara came to a full understanding of who Jesus was, and she soon trusted in Jesus for her salvation alone. why they would be so ostracized, why they would be so hated, why their family would be completely antagonistic to them. While we comfortably sit in church every Sunday, we pray, we sing, we open the scriptures, we study the Bible together, we fellowship without fear of any retribution from anyone. While we do that, there are so many souls hungry for the truth, and they struggle to find a church in their village, they struggle to find a Bible to suffer so patiently, to endure all these hardships, to go through all of this grief while just trying to pursue Christ and to seek a close walk with Him. What many of them have discovered, just like Terrell, is that there is blessing on the other side of suffering. After great loss, there is great gain. Now, Peter illustrates this truth for us in the passage that we're looking at today. And as he likes to do, Peter doesn't necessarily point us to Old Testament prophets or current examples of Christians who are suffering. No, no, no. Instead, he points us to the premier, the chief example of suffering righteously, the Lord Jesus Christ. In the closing verses of chapter 3, we are going to see today that to suffer righteously. Just like Jesus, who experienced victory on the other side of his death, of his passion, of his suffering, so too, Christians can have that same expectation, that on the other side of pain and grief and hostility in this world, there is the hope of blessing that comes from God. There are some foreigners in the Church that try to teach today that God only wants prosperity and blessing and joy for us throughout our whole earthly sojourn. But we know nothing could be farther from the truth. Christ calls us to suffer as He did. We can suffer with the knowledge that, like Jesus, we will know the joy and victory in the future, when our suffering is past. Now, this matter of suffering righteously is a central theme in Peter's first epistle. He's teaching us how we can walk with God and we can be his witnesses in a world that is hostile to us. In a world that hates Jesus and the message of the cross. to live as Daniel did in Babylon. How do I live righteously while the culture around me, the world that I live in, day in and day out, is totally against what I believe? God's people have always been the minority in a worldly culture, but it's incumbent on us to still live as God wants us to live while sharing his message of love and hope and salvation through Christ in a compelling way. Now despite the Christian ethic to want to walk in love, as Peter admonishes us, he also knows that the world, lots of people out there, are not going to change the Bible says, we may still suffer persecution. And should we find ourselves in that situation, Peter admonishes us, be ready. Be ready, in verse 15, to get a defense for your faith. Be ready to share an answer for why you believe in God. He also tells us to maintain a clear conscience by still doing good even though there is a depraved culture out there that opposes our Lord and Savior. And that brings us to verse 18. Immediately we see that Peter is connecting our suffering with Jesus' suffering. He says, for Christ also suffered once for sins. of body and soul. From the crown of thorns placed on his head to the nails that pierced his wrists and his feet, all of that physical pain and excruciating agony that he endured, it parallels the soul-crushing weight of sin that He suffered uniquely as the Lamb of God. He suffered as our substitute in our place. He was the just Savior. And we are unjust, unrighteous sinners. Now why would Jesus do this for us? Why would He suffer in that way for people who want nothing to do with His love, who don't deserve any of that grace and mercy? I'll tell you why. Peter tells us why. His death made way for lost and depraved mortals to have eternal fellowship with a holy and immortal God. We call this reconciliation. Jesus is our one and only mediator. He's our high priest who connects sinful man with a holy God. Jesus brought these two warring and opposing parties together. He bridged that unbridgeable gap. The rest of the verse lays out here the path of victory that Jesus followed. So, from the cross, to resurrection, and then finally to his ascension. That's really the course that Peter is charting. That's why I call this message the path of victory. a short time later, ascended to the Father's right hand and being fully glorified, fully exalted. In other words, the suffering of Calvary paved the way for Jesus to win the ultimate victory. Though he was put to death in the body, in the flesh, as the verse 18 tells us, he was made alive by the Spirit. What does that mean? It's a contrast. He did experience physical pain, and he did really die in his body, but then he was gloriously made alive by the power of the Holy Spirit, by his life-giving power. Now, if you're a believer in the Roots today, you're familiar with this story of redemption. If you're here today and you want to know more about this amazing gift Jesus offers, then please don't leave here without talking to someone who can share that good news with you, that message of the need for salvation. And for believers, this story of Jesus' suffering is a reminder that He's not ignorant of what we go through. He is very keenly aware of what is happening in your life right now. He knows those of you struggling to find work. He knows parents who might feel like failures with their kids. He knows marriages that Look to him as someone who suffered in a righteous way, someone who still trusted God with his life, with his faith, with his future, even when he was at his lowest. Your high priest fully empathizes with you, and he will help you in your hour of need. Now, verse 18 is very familiar territory to us. If we only get to verse 19, we get to a bit more Even the famous Martin Luther admitted he was at a total loss for how to interpret this particular verse. As you read it, verse 19, it's short. You read it, but you're not quite sure you know, you can't quite follow the train of thought that Peter is taking us on here. But then to top that all off, this feeling of unsurety is compounded by the come up later on in the passage, things like Noah in the ark, being saved through water, being the anti-type of baptism. This is a really strange and unusual collection of ideas here. What is Peter exactly trying to say? How do we make sense of it? Well, I do not claim to have want to say that what Peter is really getting at here is Jesus proclaiming his victory. We're going to see exactly what that's referring to here in just a moment. Basically, there's a number of ways that Bible scholars and teachers have tried to interpret And for a couple of them, I'll share with you why they're probably not what this passage is actually talking about. Now, maybe you've looked at this before, and you may disagree. That's OK. I'm willing to be corrected. But as far as my study and my own look at this passage, this is what I've come to in terms of understanding what Peter is trying to say here. So I'm putting my cards out there, fully admitting I I think pretty clear what Peter is trying to say and the direction he's pointing us to in this particular text. So three interpretations of what this passage is saying. Hopefully you can read all of those. I tried to hold the ones we'll focus on. The first one we'll call Christ preached through Noah. So let's read verse 19 before we dive in. Peter says in verse 19, by whom, also he, that's Jesus, talk about Noah Wright who formerly was disobedient when once the divine long-suffering waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared in which a few, that is eight souls, were saved through water. Noah. So for those who may not know, for those who need a refresher, it's the story of Noah. God tells him, I'm going to judge the world with a flood, build an ark to save you and your family. Now, the ark was a vehicle of salvation, a means of rescue from the floodwaters that were going to come. And anybody who wanted to be rescued from the flood could have gone in. Does anybody take Noah up on that offer? No. We know that he spent those years building the ark and preparing it and telling everyone, it's going to rain, it's going to flood, and yet nobody paid attention to him. And yet by faith he built that ark, Hebrews tells us. Now, what this position is saying is that Peter is teaching us Jesus was actually there in spirit, through Noah, speaking to those people, and telling the people of Noah's day, hey, you need to be saved, you need to be rescued from the floods that are coming, so come on on the ark. That's the belief, that's the position. Now the problem with this interpretation is that Peter is making a connection between Christ's preaching, right, he says Jesus went and preached, That activity, that event, is immediately connected to Christ's resurrection and ascension. Because he just said, a few words before, Jesus was made alive by the Spirit. So why would he bring up the resurrection and then all of a sudden go back thousands and thousands of years Whatever Christ's preaching is talking about, it has to do something with being made alive by the Spirit, with His resurrection. This explanation fails to do that. It's also odd that Peter would refer to the lost people of Noah's day as spirits in prison. Can you think of anywhere in the Bible, anywhere in the New Testament, where unsaved people, unbelievers are called spirits in prison? seem like that's what's going on here, that Peter is telling us Christ preached through Noah by the Spirit. There's a second position that is also quite popular. This is typically known as Jesus descended into hell, or he descended into Hades. It's a Greek word for hell. It's often used in the Bible. The basic idea is this. This is the timeline that this position takes, right? And there's a three-day gap between his death and his resurrection. There's three days between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. What is Jesus doing during that time? Well, many believers think that they know what happens because Peter is telling us right here. They believe that from this passage, Jesus goes down into hell and actually preaches to the lost people that are in hell, particularly the people of Noah's day, the people who died in the flood. Again, very interesting, but this is the belief, right? Jesus is going down into hell and he's speaking to these people and trying to tell them something, preach to them, right? What is he preaching exactly? Well, there's two basic ideas. One is that he's just proclaiming his victory. He's saying, whoa, I died on the cross, I'm gonna rise again from the dead very soon, so I'm just letting you know, proclaiming this is what's gonna happen. Another view, which is probably one of the more unbiblical takes on this passage, is that Jesus is actually giving these people of Noah's day, who are confined in hell right now, he's giving them a second chance to repent. And he's going to give them another opportunity to turn back from their sin and turn to Christ. Okay, so this is the idea. And actually, believe it or not, this view, this position, is enshrined in one of the most famous creeds of the early church, the Apostles' Creed. Maybe you're familiar with this if you know other Protestant denominations that like to use creeds. The Apostles' Creed is one that's well known. This is kind of like a, it's a creed, it's more or less a catechism of basic Christian beliefs. I believe in God the Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord, who was crucified, died, was buried, he descended into heaven, and on the third day, he rose again from the dead. Now there's some complexity as to how that phrase, he descended into hell, got into the creed, became a part of it, but there are many Protestant churches that say that creed every Sunday. And this is what they're saying, they're proclaiming it because of what they believe 1 Peter is talking about. The context is very clear. Jesus or somebody else is saying that the Lord after he died was put into the grave. That's also another translation of Hades. It can mean hell. It can mean the place we think of, right? A place you go after you die. Why not all lost people that are in hell? Why not give everybody in hell a second chance? But even beyond that, we know that this goes against the clear teaching of scripture. There is only one opportunity we have to repent and to be saved, and that's with the life we have right now. There's no second chance in the afterlife. There's no additional opportunity. Jesus himself said, repent or else you will all likewise perish. That doesn't hit us hard. If there's another opportunity to repent beyond the grave, there isn't. And so that interpretation of this passage seems very unlikely. So now we come to the third interpretation, which I believe Now, in this passage, it seems clear enough, Peter is making a reference to another Old Testament passage, Genesis chapter 6, one that some of you may know as well, that refers to these sons of God, these sons of God that had sexual relations with that might be a strange passage to you and me, something we're unfamiliar with. These were very familiar accounts, very normal stories for Jewish people that were in Peter's audience to know very well. I mean, it would be like knowing your nursery rhymes or Shakespeare's plays, things that are just part of the culture, things that we know very well. For Jewish people, this all made sense to them. This was something they heard a lot, they knew a lot about, because not only was it in the Bible, it was in other Jewish writings. of God that's talked about in Genesis 6, they were actually fallen angels who committed this evil act that had these relations with human women, and so they were consequently punished by God and actually imprisoned. And we know that Peter actually brings this up later on in 2 Peter 2, verse 4. This is in his second letter. But he cast them down to hell, and he delivered them into chains of darkness. That sounds like prison, to be reserved for judgment. So what does this have to do? If that's the case, if that's what Peter's referencing, what in the world does it have to do with Christ resurrecting, ascending? What's the connection? Well, this position claims, after Christ's death, after his resurrection, when he ascended to the Father's right hand. He proclaims his newly won victory to these imprisoned spirits. This makes sense because between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, that space of time between his death and his coming back to life, there was no victory won yet. Jesus had not been brought back to life at that point. He had not ascended. So that middle ground, those space of three days, there's no victory to proclaim. But once he resurrects, once he rises again, and once he is seated at the Father's right hand, now the victory is complete. Now his triumph over all the forces of darkness and evil, it's complete. It's done. He is seated at the right hand of God, and he remains there, glorified and exalted. He triumphed over these dark forces, and he received all authority over them, just as the following verses show us. Colossians 2, verse 15, tells us this. Having disarmed principalities and powers, those are fallen angels, demonic spirits. for what they really are. Triumphing over them in it. It's victory that He's proclaiming to them, that He won. He won, and there is no way that they can take that victory away from Him. Matthew 28, verse 18, Jesus tells His disciples, before you Why is it so critical that Jesus is right? Going back earlier on to verse 20, they were disobedient in the past. They had this sinful cohabitation with these women in Genesis 6. And furthermore, God showed great long-suffering. He showed great patience, not only with the people of Noah's day, but even with these demonic hosts who had done this evil thing. He gave them a span of time no longer on the table. If this still seems strange, to bring up all of these things, this obscure passage in Genesis and evil demonic spirits, trust me, you're not alone. It makes sense and it's clarified the more you read and study the passage. I will grant that. But if you take a look at the arc of the story that Peter is trying It clarifies things, I believe. When Jesus is suffering, he's at his lowest, right? He's hit rock bottom. I mean, he's lost his reputation, he's lost all semblance of glory, or majesty, or honor, or anything that he had, he doesn't have. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. We don't face all of that here in the West, but we face some of it. And more of it is going to come, no doubt. The world hates Christians because Satan controls it. But after we suffer in this life, we can be confident that we will enjoy the same victory that Christ achieved. We will receive, one day, glorified bodies. No more sickness, no more pain, no more broken bodies, no more hurting wounds. We will receive paradise forever, all because of Christ, and because of the triumph that He won. There's one more critical point that Peter draws from this passage. He brings up Noah, right? I talked about him a little bit already. Noah lived at a time, again, this is many, many years in ancient history, a long time ago. Or if you're familiar, it's a Sunday school story, we all know it. Noah lived at a time where he and his family were the righteous line of work. I mean, literally, nobody else under this following God and just of God in the flood. Even though they were the minority, they were delivered. They were rescued. So they might not have been the most popular. They might have not had the most people calling over to their house. They might not have been the most prominent people in the community. But when judgment time came, they were spared. They were rescued. In the same way, Christians today and the West is so Christianized. Some of those elements are still there, and we praise God for the freedoms we have. But increasingly, in our secular culture, we are more and more divided. I'm not talking just about numbers. I'm even talking about just influence, and the positions that our culture is turning to, you know, totally illogical comes, though we are a minority, though we might not be the most popular people in the world, we will be scared if we have trust in Christ for salvation. Jesus delivers us from the wrath to come. We have not only Christ's victory, but also this final reckoning of evil to look forward to in the future. So not only do the righteous remnant get to experience the triumph that Christ and turns that conversation over to Genesis, to God's patience with sin during Noah's time, there's one final transition, Peter makes. And he introduces this at the close of the passage. This is that the floodwaters, the waters of the flood of Noah's day, are parallel to baptism. This also seems strange to us. This is another part of the passage that we scratch our heads. We wonder, what is Peter getting at here? What is he talking about? It seems like a side comparison. We know that baptism is not a means of salvation. It's faith in Christ. That's how I get saved. Baptism has nothing to do with that. Also, the waters of the flood that Peter references here at the end of verse 20, right? Eight souls were saved through water. Wait a second. I thought those eight people, Noah's family, were saved by the ark. also carried that ark along for all that time. They were out on that boat. And it destroyed all the unrighteous who rejected God's one means of salvation. So we could say, in that sense, Noah and his family were saved, rescued through the water. Now, how does that relate to baptism? Because Peter is drawing this connection between the two things, between Noah's family being saved by water and the significance of baptism is what it shows us about Christ and his death. Baptism, as you are going into the water as a pastor or whoever is baptizing, puts someone into the water and immerses them completely in, is a picture of death. It is a picture of what Christ went through. And we see this very plainly in Romans chapter six, where Paul says, do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ, into death. You see how all these ideas are being connected? Death, baptism, it's all being drawn on the same parallel line. So baptism, while it doesn't save you, it is a visible indication that the believer is united He carried that ark. It saved Noah and his family and brought them to safely dry ground eventually. So baptism pictures for us salvation through the resurrection of Jesus. We see that very plainly at the end of verse 21, right? So he says, There's no reason you should be doing that. Because only by being saved, by trusting in the finished work of Christ, especially in His coming back to life, that doesn't make any sense. And again, Paul brings this to bear for us in Romans chapter 6, verses 4 and 5. Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, we also should walk in His midst of life. Dunked into the water, it is a picture of Christ's death, being overcome by the waters. But when you're brought out of the water, it is a picture of life. And if you've been part of a baptism service here at the Baptist Church before, or perhaps at other churches, there are many pastors who will say it this way. As they are dunking the new believer into the water, they say, buried with him in the likeness of his death, and as I say, bring him up out of the water, raised in the likeness of his resurrection. That's what we're talking about. When do we say that? of the flesh, it in no way removes sin. People talk about the solving of baptism. Oh, I need to get baptized so my sins can be cleansed and removed. No, friend. Baptism does no such thing. No water from that tub is going to wash away your sins. No water from a river or a pool or a sprinkling from a Catholic priest is going to wash away your sins. The Bible teaches that nowhere, and this verse use the word pledge. The idea is this, baptism is the believer's means of appealing to God for a clear conscience. So by receiving baptism, I'm going to give you an example of that. I can testify to that reality in my own life. Even though I believe as a young person I was saved, about five or six years old, my walk with God was not very serious at that point. It's hard for a kid that age to have a serious walk with God. It's possible, but it's very difficult. I just didn't take my faith that seriously. That's why around that time in my elementary years, I was making multiple professions of faith. even though I had already done it the week before, or a month before, or something. Because I just wasn't sure. I didn't know. But it was when I came to my middle school years, my parents asked me, you know, Christian, do you think it's time you considered baptism? You're old enough now. You should share your testimony. Do you think it's time for you to do that? And I wasn't against the idea, but it wasn't like I was super motivated to do it either. This is very clear to me, this watershed moment where, in my younger years, my faith was not serious to me. But after taking that step of baptism, for whatever reason, I started reading my Bible more, praying more faithfully. I witnessed my friends at school, and my walk with God was just closer than what it had been. God used that step of baptism to put me on the right track, to get me in line with his will. So even though I was unaware of that happening, baptism served as this pledge to God of a good conscience toward him, that I wanted to live differently as a Christian. Indeed, we can say you should not just get saved, baptized, and then live any way you want. Peter closes with the Savior's exaltation at the Father's right hand, verse 22. To the same Jesus who died and rose again, he receives this new position of authority over every level of the spiritual realm. Angels and authorities and powers. We don't know how all that works, how they're organized up there or down there. But Jesus is head over all of them. He's superior over all of them. And all of them are subjected to him. So the demonic cults, they do not do anything. They don't lift a finger without his approval, without his allowing it. That means that believers need not fear any retribution, any persecution, because we know that it already passed the father's front desk. He already approved it. He already allowed it. And that is a great comfort to us. Now let's close here. But it was necessary to bring God and man together. His suffering was not the end of the story, but he rises again, he ascends to the Father's right hand, and he triumphs over evil and declares his victory over all the demonic hosts. Now, like our Lord, we will suffer unjustly at the hands of unbelievers. And as members of a righteous minority, we're going to be delivered from suffering and experience his judgment. But like Noah's flood, that same judgment is going to come for unbelievers, for the people who have persecuted the church, the people who have opposed God and his gospel. And only those saved by the death and resurrection of Christ will be spared. So here's how we close. If you have not yet received the gift of eternal life that Jesus offers, obligation to be baptized as an appeal to God for a clear conscience. If you understand the significance of baptism, and you want this good conscience toward God, and you know it's just something hanging over you, and you haven't done it yet for whatever reason, just stop. Stop giving me excuses. You can talk to the pastor himself about it. He'd be glad to talk more with you and plan that time for you. Not to save you, but as a pledge, as an appeal to God for a right conscience. As you suffer for Christ, be confident that Christ has rescued you from the outpouring of His wrath. Like Noah, you might be a minority. You might be the only Christian in your office, young people in your classroom. You might be the only Christian in your family. Your siblings, your parents, they know nothing of the salvation of Christ. to what we know, to our faith. We will make fun of that. Our values are going to be ridiculed. We'll be charged as hateful and bigots and all these things. But beyond the painful process, God is preparing this abundant gift for His children. As the day of judgment comes for the persecutors, just know that the day of victory is coming for the persecuted, for the people who have suffered for the sake of His name. I want to return here to Terry's story. You remember from our story in the beginning that she was staying with her uncle at the time, a believer. She got saved while staying with him. Now, unfortunately, after staying with him only for a couple of months, there was a cousin who visited this uncle, and he happened to see Tara and recognize her. Because here she was, a former Muslim, who had turned to Jesus. And boy, that testimony was very powerful. And so many turned to Jesus because of her. She was 18 years old at the time, because of her story. She did experience many setbacks in the coming years, including being arrested by the Pakistani government. supposed Christians who ratted her out to the authorities. And she was even forced into marriage with a Muslim man by a government rehab center. Even though church members mistreated her, betrayed her, she never lost her passion to serve the Lord, to share her story. She continued leading people to Christ, and she even organized secret baptisms for Pakistanis and even immigrants to the country from all around Asia who were passing through, and they shouted about amazing testimony. She found godly people along the way from health care to safety. And even under incredible circumstances, I can't get into the story now, she married a godly Christian man who serves alongside her to this day. She's still watching her back and being careful, and she's constantly on the run. But Tara knows, as we should know, that there is victory on the other side as a suffragette. We will see some of that in this life.