Invite you to turn to 1st Peter chapter 3. 1st Peter chapter 3. I believe in expositional preaching, which means you, you go through entire books of the bible. I I think the the advantage of that preaching is that really it's the only way to preach the whole counsel of God, is by preaching book through book, and preaching through them in their entirety. That way you don't raise the subjects, you allow God to raise the subjects.
Jeffrey Heine:He raises the topics that he wants you to address. And when you do pre expositionally, there are times that you you go through texts that you never would normally read, or normally preach on, but God has that word for us. The disadvantage of expository preaching is that you have to preach through text you never would have chosen. Texts like this one in 1st Peter. I never, and I mean never, would have chosen to preach from this text.
Jeffrey Heine:This is one of those texts you come across and you're reading in your quiet time or whatever like, ye. And you just you just kinda, you know, we'll we'll never fear this. You jump over and you get to move on. But if you're preaching expositionally and you come through this, you're like, Oh, great. I get to preach on this.
Jeffrey Heine:I I almost did not preach through first Peter, because I had this text in mind, and I I did not know what I would say. But having said that, we believe this is God's word. This is his inspired word, his God breathed word, that these words are not here by accident, and they are for our instruction. And so I want us to dig in. So we're gonna begin reading chapter 3 verse 17.
Jeffrey Heine:For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will than for doing evil. 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 formally 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 8 persons, were brought safely through the water.
Jeffrey Heine: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. Pray with me. Lord, I ask that you would give clarity to this text. We would hear from you, and not from me.
Jeffrey Heine:Lord, I'm convinced that you have a word for us. Nobody here came just to hear me speak. We didn't come just to see friends. We have come to encounter you, to hear from you through your word, and I pray that would happen. May my words fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore, but Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us.
Jeffrey Heine:We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. When looking at this text, Martin Luther, he he wrote about it, and he he says these words, Here's a wonderful text this is, and a more obscure passage perhaps than any other in the testament. I do not know for certainty just what Peter means. I cannot understand it.
Jeffrey Heine:I cannot explain it. There has never been anyone who has explained it. End of quote. One of the most dogmatic, scholars and commentators that I know, I was reading his commentary on this. And the guy has has never been wrong in his mind.
Jeffrey Heine:Alright. He he always is very emphatic, and so he is writing about this. And after he writes his section the The the Greek alone in this text is so difficult. It leads to to numerous different translations, and every translation leads to a different interpretation that one of the scholars that I was reading his work, and he broke it down into a 180 different interpretations from this text. A 180.
Jeffrey Heine:So I thought we would go through them 1 by 1. Alright? We're just gonna take a vote, throw a dart, you know, we'll do something. There are a lot of interpretations that you could go through, and it's certainly helpful to work through a number of these issues. But what I want us to do is, not lose sight of the forest because of the trees.
Jeffrey Heine:Kind of a general rule of interpretation of scripture is, is if you can't figure out what an an obscure verse means, take a take a step back until you're on solid ground. Because scripture is very clear about a lot of things, and and from that solid ground, you begin to work in. And so that's what I want us to do. I want us to get on solid ground. I want us to look at, the the basic thrust of this passage.
Jeffrey Heine:I want us to look at the forest, and then we will look down at some of the trees. One of the main themes of this letter is suffering. We've seen that throughout 1st Peter, and this theme is really the lens in which you need to see this text with. We've talked about it numerous times, but persecution at this time within the church or at the churches is gaining steam. And and so Peter is writing to to this people who are being persecuted or suffering, and he's trying to give them a sense of what's going on.
Jeffrey Heine:And giving them a lens in which they can view this, so they can interpret this, and and telling them to hold fast and strong. God is using this suffering to purify them. He's using this suffering as a way of proclaiming the gospel. Look at verse 17 and 18. You see the themes of suffering there.
Jeffrey Heine:For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will than for doing evil. For Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. Now Peter has come a long way in his views of suffering. He's changed a whole lot. Do you remember when Peter first encounter Jesus's words on suffering?
Jeffrey Heine:Back in Matthew, turn turn to Matthew 16. Let's just take a little bit to read this section about when when Peter first encountered Jesus's words and a theology of suffering. Matthew chapter 16, begin reading in verse 15 or verse 13. Matthew 16 verse 13. Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do people say that the son of man is?
Jeffrey Heine:And they said, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. And he said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. Jesus answered him, blessed are you, Simon Barjona. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven.
Jeffrey Heine:And I tell you, you are Peter. And on this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Alright. So we could stop right there.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus tells Peter at this point, after Peter gives us great answer as to who Jesus is. He says, Peter, you are going to be the leader of the church. And this church is gonna march against the very gates of hell itself. The the gates of hell are not gonna be able to prevail or to stand up against the church. And what Jesus is describing here is not a defensive position that the church has got its walls up, and and and hell is trying to lay siege to the church.
Jeffrey Heine:But hell's never gonna tear us down. That's not the picture Jesus gives. It's the opposite. It says, the church is marching towards the gates of Hades. And when we get there, the gates of Hades will fall.
Jeffrey Heine:The church is going to storm into Satan's kingdom. And he's saying that the reason that this is gonna be so is because Jesus is handing Peter the keys. These keys to the kingdom. Keys to opening up both heaven and earth. There's a lot of questions there.
Jeffrey Heine:That's a that's a sermon in itself. You know, what what exactly are those keys? I think you get the answer right after that. The keys are the gospel message itself. That's that's the keys that that unlock the kingdom.
Jeffrey Heine:You see this when you pick up reading, look at verse 21. From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the 3rd day be raised. So Jesus just explains to Peter, I'm gonna build my church on you. You're gonna be the rock, gonna be this leader in the church. You're going to storm hell.
Jeffrey Heine:It cannot prevail against you because I've given you keys. And then right after this, he tells Peter the gospel. And if you look, it says, from that time Jesus began to preach these things. That he's gonna have to suffer. He's gonna have to die.
Jeffrey Heine:He's going to rise again. That's how the gates of Hades are gonna be storm. We get Peter's response in verse 22. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, far be it from you, Lord. This shall never happen to you.
Jeffrey Heine:But he turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan. You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. Then Jesus told his disciples, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. So Peter hears Jesus's words, and hears Jesus talking about the suffering, and he's like, no no way.
Jeffrey Heine:Look how strong the language is. I cringe when I read this. In verse 22, it says, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Peter is rebuking Jesus. It's strong language here.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, this this is kind of what Peter's doing. He's like, hey Jesus, we need to have a talk. He brings, you know, Jesus to the side, away from the disciples. And I'm like, what are you talking about? This whole suffering thing.
Jeffrey Heine:We believe you're the Messiah. God is not gonna have his people suffer. He's certainly not gonna have his Messiah suffer. That's crazy talk. Jesus snapped out of that.
Jeffrey Heine:No more of that. As the newly appointed leader of your church, We we can't have this. Nobody's gonna follow us. So he rebukes Jesus, the patience Jesus has with us. And Jesus responds by calling him Satan.
Jeffrey Heine:So it goes from like the highest point in Peter's life. Blessed are you, you know, we're gonna build my church on you, and to the next words are Satan. Okay? It's it's a big high and it's a big fall. Yeah, but Jesus doesn't say, Peter calm down.
Jeffrey Heine:Peter calm down. Instead he says, get behind me Satan. All you could think about is yourself, and you're opposed to God. And then Jesus gathers all of his disciples together, and he says, you know what? All of you must suffer.
Jeffrey Heine:I'm going to the cross, and all of you gotta pick up your cross and follow me. You wanna follow me is the path of suffering. So that is Peter's introduction to a theology of suffering. Jesus says that he's gonna have to suffer, That his church is going to suffer, and to think otherwise is satanic. Comes from the pit of hell itself.
Jeffrey Heine:So to think thoughts like, you know, now that I'm a Christian, I've been promised a great life. I've been promised prosperity. I've been promised good health, a good job. I've I've been promised that things are gonna go my way. That thought there is from the pit of hell.
Jeffrey Heine:It is satanic, and that's Jesus's words. If you believe that, if that's a part of your theology, then the church will never kick down the gates of Hades. So this has shaped Peter and his understanding that suffering is an integral part of the Christian life, and it is through suffering that we storm the gates of hell. It is through the proclamation of the gospel, our suffering Messiah, and his resurrection. That as we suffer, Christ raises us up as well.
Jeffrey Heine:So Peter's coming a long way. I you could say he's done a 180 degree turn from where he initially his first thoughts on suffering. And that's why when he gets to this letter, suffering is such a theme, because he has been shaped by these words, because he's been converted to believing these things. And so the topic of suffering is how you need to see this entire section of scripture that we just read. However, for the first time in Peter's letter, he doesn't just leave it at suffering, but he really develops the theme of resurrection, victory, and ascension.
Jeffrey Heine:This is the 3rd time that Jesus is mentioned in this letter to Peter, or this in this letter from Peter. The first time is in chapter 1 verses 18, when Peter says, we have been ransomed by the blood of Jesus. And what he's trying to communicate there is, listen, you've been bought at such greater price, live a holy life. Consider the sacrifice of Jesus, and let that be a fuel for you living a life that is holy to God. The second time Jesus has mentioned it is in chapter 2 verses 21, where Jesus, where Peter says, Jesus suffered, giving us an example to follow.
Jeffrey Heine:We're to follow him in this suffering. Here, when Peter introduces Jesus to us the 3rd time, He talks about suffering, but he emphasizes the victory of Jesus that is gained both through and over the suffering that hit him. Peter is encouraging this this church by by lifting up their eyes and pointing to Jesus. And he's saying, I know you're in pain. I know you're hurting, but you know what?
Jeffrey Heine:Christ is victorious. Take heart. Christ is ruling. Yes, we suffer. Yes, he suffered.
Jeffrey Heine:But he rose, and he has ascended. Take heart in that. We win. No matter what your eyes are telling you, no matter what you're feeling, know that we win because Christ is 1. And so he's he's encouraging them in this way.
Jeffrey Heine:And it's important that we come to this, and we understand this flow. That the flow starts off with suffering, but it ends with Christ glory on his throne. If we understand that throne, that thrust, that flow, now we're gonna understand the words that come, those difficult words that come, that lead us there. That's the movement of the text. Suffering to resurrection.
Jeffrey Heine:Persecution to glory. Let's look how he gets there. Peter, he explains this in a way I would not have. Alright? That's why he's an apostle.
Jeffrey Heine:I'm not. I wouldn't have chosen this way, but but he did. He he chose the examples he used. He wants to use the story of Noah to encourage the church. Look at verse 18.
Jeffrey Heine:For Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. So far, we're we're pretty clear. 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 formally did not obey when God's patience waited in the days of Noah. Peter Peter mainly, he wants to talk about Noah, because there's a lot of parallels with what the church is going through and what Noah went through. But in getting there, he says some confusing things.
Jeffrey Heine:There are a lot of questions here. Mainly, where did Jesus go? When did he go? To whom did he speak? What did he say?
Jeffrey Heine:A lot of times I I write sermons by just starting off by writing questions, and boy, you just I mean, you're you just gotta stop after a while as you're going through this. There's some major questions. And rather than running through the 180 different interpretations, let me give you just a few of the main ones. One interpretation of this text here is that, when Jesus was in the grave, he descended into hell. Where he preached to spirits who were in prison.
Jeffrey Heine:Another word for hell. From the time of Noah. So he didn't preach to all the spirits just to a certain group of spirits that were there. And now, the problem with this interpretation is that, for starters, nowhere does it actually say that Jesus descended into hell. We actually say that in our in the Apostle's Creed, that we do.
Jeffrey Heine:A lot of additions don't have that line in it. The the Apostle's Creed is very early, except for that line, which was first introduced in the 400, and it was introduced as a way of replacing he was buried. It meant the exact same thing, that he he descended into Sheol, or he was put in the ground, and so it it that meant he was buried. And, it wasn't really adopted to be part of the creed until around 6 100 AD, much later. And then they they kept both in there.
Jeffrey Heine:They kept he was buried, and then they have he descended into hell. But they did not mean by that that he went down into hell as we would think of it. What they mean by that is he was buried, or if he experienced hell, it was on the cross. They're not talking about this passage here from first Peter, which doesn't say he descended into hell. Now that's that's one of the problems.
Jeffrey Heine:Another problem with this also is that, the text doesn't tell us that Jesus went to prison in between his death and his resurrection. Actually, if you follow the order, it seems that Jesus went to this prison after the resurrection, not in between his death and his resurrection. 3rd, it it just kinda seems odd that Jesus would go to such a narrow group of people. These spirits were only alive during the time of Noah. Another possible interpretation, it's similar to the first.
Jeffrey Heine:These are kind of the major minor interpretations. There are no major interpretations. There's only minor ones because nobody there's no consensus view. And let me just run through, you know, just a couple, maybe 2 or 3. So a second interpretation, it's similar to the first, and it sees these spirits here as another way of saying our souls.
Jeffrey Heine:That these aren't like angelic spirits, these are our souls. The souls of people. And what is happening here is that Jesus is going to a particular group of souls, and he's preaching the gospel to them. Essentially, he's giving them a second chance at salvation. The problem with this view is, well, we don't know what Jesus preached.
Jeffrey Heine:He did preach the gospel to them. He could have been proclaiming triumph over his enemies. We we don't know what he was preaching. And a more serious problem is scripture is very clear that there are no second chances after death. Hebrews 9 says that, man dies only once and then there's judgment.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus who talked more about hell than heaven, and Luke 16 is one of the famous places he talks about hell with the rich man in hell, and Lazarus who is in paradise. And he says, there's a giant chasm separating the 2, and that chasm cannot be crossed. You cannot go from one to the other. And really, it goes against the whole thrust of scripture, in which we are called to to evangelize the world, to share our faith, and we're called to do it with an urgency because there are no second chances after this life. So I don't think that's what Peter's talking about here.
Jeffrey Heine:The view that I take from this text, it's the same one that Saint Augustine had. And that's that you should read verse 19, not as he proclaimed to the spirits in prison, but as he proclaimed to the spirits now in prison. These spirits were people who were alive during the time of Noah, but have since died and are now in prison or in hell. So they weren't so there's a difference. It's not that they're they're they proclaimed as spirits in prison.
Jeffrey Heine:They are spirits who are now in prison, but they lived during the time of Noah. And this probably has you scratching your heads for 3, 4, 5 possible reasons, like this is really hard. Why are we digging into this? Once again, expositional preaching. We're gonna go through this.
Jeffrey Heine:But probably one of the the main things is, like, you know, I saw the Russell Crowe movie, you know. And this is really not what happened with that movie and Noah. You know, there there wasn't a Christ coming and preaching to people during the time of Noah. And I would say, no. You got to understand what preaching is.
Jeffrey Heine:That Jesus did come and preach to the people who were alive during Noah's time. Because Jesus preaches to people through preachers. You see this, in Ephesians 217, which we read, Jesus came and preached peace to those far off, and peace to you who were near. Now we know Jesus never went to Ephesus. Never walked there.
Jeffrey Heine:And yet Paul says, Jesus came and preached to you. And what he is saying is, when he came and proclaimed And And so Noah, during during his life, was preaching. Peter actually talks about this in his second letter. He says that Peter preached righteousness. So we know Peter, or we know he said Noah preached righteousness.
Jeffrey Heine:So we know Noah was a preacher, and I think what is being argued here is that when he was preaching, the spirit of Jesus was preaching through him to these people who refuse to repent. So the same spirit that raised Jesus from the grave is the same spirit that went into Noah and proclaimed truth to the people during that time. But Peter's main point, don't forget. Alright. Those are the those are the trees.
Jeffrey Heine:Take a step back. His his main point is he wants to get to Noah, because he wants to talk about how Noah's situation is so similar to theirs. Noah is surrounded by evil people. Can you imagine the slanders that came Noah's way? Can you imagine how much his children were made fun of for what he was doing?
Jeffrey Heine:He was being persecuted from every side. All the gossip that would have gone on behind his back, and yet Noah obeyed the Lord. Noah proclaimed righteousness. He was faithful, And only a small number of people, 8 to be exact, were saved during this time. While everybody else was destroyed, and and what a comfort to the small church that Peter is talking to.
Jeffrey Heine:He's like, I know the whole world seems to be against you, and is persecuting you. But but stay strong, stay true, keep keep preaching and believing the gospel. And even though you're small in number, God will save you. He hasn't forgotten about you. And I want you to look carefully at verse 20.
Jeffrey Heine:Peter says that these 8 people were brought safely through the water. Now this word through in Greek is is dia, and it can mean from or it can mean through. So Peter is either saying here that Noah was saved from the floodwaters, or he is saying that Noah was saved through or because of the floodwaters. That the waters themselves are actually what saved him. So he was either saved from the flood, or the flood itself is what saved him.
Jeffrey Heine:You can interpret that either way, and I would say you should interpret it both ways. Both Noah and his family had to be saved from the flood. Judgment was coming. Water was coming, and it was gonna drown everybody. They had to be saved from it, but God actually used that flood to save them from the evil world.
Jeffrey Heine:As long as they clung to the ark. They were saved from the waters, and they were saved through the waters. Both. And I think Peter is saying that that's just the same way we should view suffering. God's gonna save you from the suffering, but he's also gonna save you through the suffering if you cling to Jesus just as Noah clung to the ark.
Jeffrey Heine:He's gonna use suffering in your life to purify you, to make you more like him. The flood can be seen as baptism, if you will. Not something you have to be frightened of. It's a baptism. And Peter makes this connection in verse 21.
Jeffrey Heine: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. Once again, I wouldn't have said this like Peter says this, baptism now saves you because Peter is he knows that you were justified by faith. He knows this. He's not saying that baptism is your ticket to heaven.
Jeffrey Heine:You get baptized, you're saved. That's not what Peter is saying, because that goes against so many scriptures. Romans 105 says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. You just you you believe, you confess, you're saved. And Peter understands that, and which is why he he adds quickly when he's talking about baptism.
Jeffrey Heine:He's not talking about the removal of dirt from the flesh. He's not talking about taking a bath. He's not actually talking about the act of baptism. What he's talking about is the appeal to God. Or in other words, he's talking about trusting the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:He's talking about trusting the Lord is what saves you. Okay. I've thrown a lot. Let's summarize where we are up to this point. If it was a smaller room, I would just point to people and say, you summarize where we are to this point, But I'll go ahead.
Jeffrey Heine:Alright. General theme, suffering to glory. That's where we're moving, suffering to glory. And so as as Peter begins unpacking this, He's saying, just as Jesus was preached to the people who were alive, or Jesus was preaching to people who were alive during the time of Noah, and they didn't believe, and they reviled him, and all this. You know what?
Jeffrey Heine:He was vindicated. He was right, and Noah was saved, suffering to glory. So this is kind of like a baptism that flood was. In which the floodwaters come, and they don't drown you. They don't sink you.
Jeffrey Heine:You're you're saved by it. Why? Because it's an act of faith. It's an act of trust. It's not the removal of dirt.
Jeffrey Heine:It's it's it's an appeal to God. Trust God as the floodwaters come. You'll be saved both from it and through it. That's where we are at this point. And, this leads us to the final section in which he explains exactly how all of this is possible.
Jeffrey Heine:He says, at the end of verse 21, 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. This is where this entire section, this entire letter has been leading is to this last line here. This this word subjected here, it should ring some bells. We've hit this word subjected a number of times before. Earlier in chapter 3, Peter tells us that we need to be subjected to every human institution.
Jeffrey Heine:We need to be subjected to governors, subjected to emperors, subjected to all of our leaders who have authority over us. Then he says, slaves, you're to be subject to your masters. Even if they're evil. Wives are then told to be subject or submissive. It's the same word to their husbands, Even if they are not believers.
Jeffrey Heine:If they don't share their faith, or even understand their faith, that they are to be subjected to them. And so over and over again, as we've been going through this letter, Peter is saying, you need to be subjected to these people. You need to be subjected to this institution. You need to be subjected to all of these evil things. And he tells you, don't fight back.
Jeffrey Heine:Endure these things patiently. You're told to love in the midst of hate. You're told to bless in the midst of persecution. You're to deal with everybody with a gentleness and a respect. Despite the fact that they hate you, and they want you dead.
Jeffrey Heine:Be subjected to them, even when they treat you like the scum of the earth. And let me tell you, if you are enduring that kind of persecution and suffering, no matter how strong you are, there becomes this kind of cloud, this this fog, and you just you kinda can't see Jesus after a while. When you're told repeatedly to do all of these things, and you're just being beaten, and you're being beaten, and you're being beaten down, Subjecting yourselves to all of these different powers. And so here, Peter reminds us. He says, yes, we're to subject ourselves to all of these evil evil forces.
Jeffrey Heine:But remember, they are all subjected to Jesus. Every one of them. Christ is sitting on the throne, and all angels, all authorities, all powers are now subjected to him. He rules over them all. He rules at at home.
Jeffrey Heine:He rules in your marriage that you think it gets falling apart. He he rules over your job, in which your boss treats you like dirt. He rules over this country, even as laws are being passed that go against maybe biblical morals, or restrict our freedoms. He rules over these things. They are subjected to him.
Jeffrey Heine:And though we might not see it, Peter says, by faith, climb in the ark. Climb to Jesus. Climb on Christ, and you are both delivered from and through our suffering. You serve a Jesus who reigns. I pray those words would wash over us and encourage our souls.
Jeffrey Heine:Pray with me. Lord, there's the potential for confusion. Don't let us miss what you are actively now saying to us, and that is that you reign. And let us cling to you just as Noah clung to the ark. You are our hope, and you are our salvation.
Jeffrey Heine:We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.