08.01.17 - When God's People Suffer P. 2
1 Peter • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 55:19
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· 55 viewsGod’s people suffer because Jesus suffered, yet the good news is is that Jesus has been exalted and we reign and are exalted with Him.
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Introduction
Introduction
How should God’s people respond when we have done what is right?
Peter in verse 13, helps us by asking rhetorically who would harm us if we are doing good? The truth is that we suffer BECAUSE we are willing and eager to do good! Christians suffer even while doing good! Christians will indeed endure undeserved suffering!
You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
If you do suffer, and you will, you are blessed in your suffering. Peter uses the very same Greek word that Jesus used in Matthew 5:3 .
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Peter advises his readers not to be afraid. Once again he quotes Isaiah to know how to respond.
But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. “And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.”
“Do not say, ‘A conspiracy,’
Concerning all that this people call a conspiracy,
Nor be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.
Instead of worrying about those that would do you harm, Peter suggested that his readers would have “reverence for the Lord Jesus Christ and honor Him.” (revere the Lord. - Sanctify the Lord) He adds that it must be done from your hearts. Honor Him completely and wholeheartedly.
He also adds that his readers are to be ready at all times to answer anyone and explain the hope that is in you. Be prepared.
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;
This is that you ought to be ready to make a defense.
Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You are permitted to speak for yourself.”
So Paul stretched out his hand and answered for himself:
He tells his readers to be gentle in their response and keep a clear conscience. In other words, do it in such a way that you have no guilt.
having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.
He closes this section by recalling his words in chapter 2:19-20.
For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully. For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God.
For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.
Peter then reflects on Jesus as an example of undeserved suffering.
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit,
J. M. E. Ross is quoted as saying that Verse 18 is one of the shortest and simplest, and yet one of the richest summaries given in the New Testament of the meaning of the Cross of Jesus.”
He reflects on three aspects of Christ and His redemptive work.
Christ sacrifice is all-sufficient! Christ died for sins once and for all as a final sacrifice.
2. Christ sacrifice is substitutionary! A righteous Christ died for unrighteous people!
3. Christ sacrifice was a reconciling settlement! The divine purpose of His sacrificial death was to bring people to God.
4. Christ resurrection and life was energized by the Spirit!
For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.
The New American Commentary: 1, 2 Peter, Jude (2) Christ’s Suffering as the Pathway to Exaltation (3:18–22)
Luther wrote, “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.”
1. He preached to the spirits that were imprisoned.
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.
There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
The New American Commentary: 1, 2 Peter, Jude (2) Christ’s Suffering as the Pathway to Exaltation (3:18–22)
the majority view among scholars today is that the text describes Christ’s proclamation of victory and judgment over the evil angels. These evil angels, according to Gen 6:1–4, had sexual relations with women and were imprisoned because of their sin. The point of the passage, then, is not that Christ descended into hell but, as in 3:22, his victory over evil angelic powers.
Peter is referring to the victory our Savior has over demonically evil angelic spirits after His death and resurrection.
Verse 19 proclaims Christ’s victory over demonic spirits after his death and resurrection.
The word “spirits refers to angels. Evil angels in this context!
The notion that spirits are imprisoned works along with Satan’s imprisonment in Rev. 20:7.
Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison
3. Genesis 6:1-4 may possibly provide the reason for the punishment of these “spirits” that are referred to by Peter. It suggests that these spirits were punished because of their having sexual relations with the women of Noah’s day, and before.
Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.
And the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day;
For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment;
Verse 20 suggests that God during that period of time was patient. His patience has been seen throughout the Word of God… Notice Romans 2:4
Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
Or Acts 17:30
Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent,
God’s judgement on all living kind is great. The flood literally took out all living creatures. However, Noah and his company found favor with God. Noah was brought safely through the flood and God saved them through the waters.
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.
The water in that day did two specific things.
The flood was the means judgement was issued on the sinful unbelievers of Noah’s day.
The flood was the means that Noah and his entire company was saved.
Peter now makes a clear illustration of baptism. He reminds us that those who were submerged under the water died. Paul now makes the same reference in Romans 6:3-5
Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
Jesus even alluded to his coming death with James and John as a baptism. Mark 10:38-39
But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”
They said to Him, “We are able.”
So Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink the cup that I drink, and with the baptism I am baptized with you will be baptized;
However, with Jesus Christ, we are delivered to life through baptism. We are saved through the waters.
When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.
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.
There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
3. And lastly, His resurrection and exaltation.
who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him.