Sermon Tone Analysis

Text: 1 Peter 3:18-22

Theme: Jesus is sovereign over the living and the dead.

Date: 10/23/2022 File Name: 1_Peter_11 Code: NT21-03

Peter culminates his section of his letter on the unjust suffering of believers with the example of how Christ’s unjust suffering achieved God’s triumphant purpose.

At the heart of the gospel is the fact that Jesus Christ, who was perfectly righteous, died for the utterly unrighteous.

Though believers can suffer mightily, we will never suffer like Jesus suffered.

Jesus triumphed through his undeserved suffering by providing redemption for the world.

In that one event, God’s redemptive work was accomplished, even though it was through the wickedness of men.

The mystery of divine providence is that God is absolutely sovereign, but His rule and predetermination is never apart from human responsibility.

As the Book of Proverbs reminds us, men may roll the dice, but God determines how they land!

(Proverbs 16:33).

Christ’s perfect example of suffering unjustly and by that unjust suffering accomplishing the Father’s will through his triumph on the cross is our example to follow.

Our suffering, even our unjust suffering is never without purpose.

We many not know why for years, and sometimes never, but ultimately God’s purposes for our suffering will be revealed.

God will be glorified, and we shall be rewarded.

To give them a richer understanding of the blessed outcome of the cross’s injustice, Peter urged his readers to consider four elements of the Lord’s victory:

His triumphant sin-bearing

His triumphant sermon

His triumphant salvation

His triumphant supremacy

I. HIS TRIUMPHANT SIN-BEARING

“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,” (1 Peter 3:18, ESV)

1. the two conjunctions at the beginning of vs. 18 for and also point us backward to the previous passage (3:13–17) and remind us that we ought not to be surprised or discouraged by suffering, since Christ triumphed in His suffering

a. even though He died an excruciating death, of a horrific nature kind Peter reminds his readers that they had “not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood”

2. throughout history there have been millions of martyrs for Christ

ILLUS.

The Center for the Study of Global Christianity estimates that worldwide 80-100,000 Christians are killed or executed for their faith.

a. though every century as witnessed hundreds of thousands of believers killed because of their faith, most believers will not die as martyrs

b. even so, their death remains “the wages of their sin” (Rom.

6:23)

1) all people die because they are sinful — man deserves to die

2) Jesus did not

3. Christ suffered in that He died for the sinner’s sins

a. that’s the big difference between Christ and us

1) we suffer and die because of our sin

2) Jesus suffered and died for our sin

A. SIN CAUSED THE SINLESS CHRIST’S DEATH

1, this is the supreme example of suffering for righteousness’ sake (v.

18), and Jesus willingly endured it on behalf of sinners

a. the Old Testament predicted it would happen

“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

(Isaiah 53:4–6, ESV)

b. the New Testament confirms that it happened

“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

(Romans 5:8–11, ESV)

2. earlier in this letter, Peter asserted that Christ “committed no sin” (1 Peter 2:22)

a. Jesus never had a single thought, word, or action that did not fully please God

1) he was perfectly holy

b. that is so beyond our experience

3. Jesus offered himself up as the perfect sacrifice — the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world

a. atonement was not a fallback position for God after Adam and Eve’s fall into sin

b. the perfectly righteous Christ gave himself for perfectly unrighteous sinners that he might bring us to God, and God intended it that way, before He spoke creation into existence

1) his sacrifice was once for all unlike the Jewish sacrificial system wherein the High Priest has to offer a sin offering every year for the nation

2) for the Jews that was a new concept — to atone for sin, they had slaughtered millions of animals over the centuries

3) but Jesus Christ's one sacrificial death ended that insufficient parade of animals to the altar and was sufficient for all and for all time

c. the effect of Christ’s sacrificial death fully satisfied God’s righteous judgment, and enables believers to enter God’s presence

1) it opens the way to the throne of God, introduces us to the Father, and reestablishes for us an intimate relationship with the Father that was lost in the Fall

a) the curtain has been torn asunder!

(Matthew 27:51)

d. the triumph in Christ’s death is expressed in the phrase that He might bring us to God

1) it’s what his death was all about

4. this is the heart of the Gospel and “Christianity 101"

II.

CHRIST’S TRIUMPHANT SERMON

“ ... being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 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.”

(1 Peter 3:18b–20, ESV)

1. well what is that all about???

a. vs. 19 begins one of the most difficult passages in the New Testament

1) personally, I think it’s a little amusing that Peter, writing of Paul’s letters in 2 Peter 3:16, would contend “ ...

There are some things in them that are hard to understand” could say that we a straight face after penning a passage like this

ILLUS.

One of my commentaries, speaking of the difficulty of this passage, says, “concurrence eludes us.”

The 16th century reformer, Martin Luther, wrote of this passage, “A wonderful text is this, and a more obscure passage perhaps than any other in the New Testament, so that I do not know for a certainty just what Peter means.”

Now, Luther was a pretty smart guy, and he’s confessing, “I have no idea what in the world Peter is talking about.”

That gives me some comfort!

2) nevertheless, since all Scripture is God breathed, and is profitable for us, there must be some truth in here that God is wanting us to understand

2. over the centuries there have been two essential interpretations of these verses with sub-variant interpretations of each

a. 1st, when Christ died and while his body was in the tomb, his spirit went to Hades and preached to imprisoned spirits declaring his victory over death, and affirming their judgement

b. 2nd, Christ preached to the disobedient prediluvians who refused to repent and believe and whose spirits are now in prison

1) how could Jesus have done that?

... the Spirit of Christ preached through Noah, just as he preached through the prophets of the Old Testament and the Apostles of the New Testament

2) in 2 Peter 2:5 the Apostle tells us that Noah was a preacher of righteousness

c. you can hold either view and be considered thoroughly orthodox

3. I prefer the first interpretation just because I like the idea of Jesus looking a bunch of rebellious fallen angels face-to-face and saying, “You all blew it.

You followed the wrong guy.”

A. JESUS HAS MADE HIS ENEMIES HIS FOOTSTOOL

“And to which of the angels has he ever said, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”?” (Hebrews 1:13, ESV)

1. the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ is a testament to our Lord’s absolute sovereignty over all peoples, nations, and events

ILLUS.

Abraham Kuyper was a 19th century university professor, churchman, journalist, and Prime Minister of the Netherlands.

In his famous speech opening the Free University in 1880, Kuyper said, “There’s not a square inch in the whole domain of human existence over which Christ, who is Lord over all, does not exclaim, ‘Mine’!”

This has become Kuyper’s most famous statement, at least in North America.

a. Christ is even sovereign over death, and hell and fallen angels

2. let me take a few minutes to explain the passage

a. being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit

1) unlike us, Christ has always been an eternal spirit

a) we become a living soul with a body, mind and spirit at our conception