Christ Our Conqueror

Well please turn with me in your Bible to 1 Peter 3.  We are going to be studying today verses 19 to 22, 1 Peter 3:18-22.  I don’t know if you’ve been reading ahead or not in your Bibles as we’ve been making our way through 1 Peter, but if you have, then you realize we’re coming up to a stumper today.  I was thinking actually I put kind of the, ya know, with the help of the pastors I sort of slotted all of us into these passages and I’ve been scratching my head all week thinking, why did I put myself here.  Many other passages in 1 Peter that would be easier to preach on than this one.  One writer I read this week said this is probably the most difficult passage in the New Testament.  Martin Luther, when he was thinking about this passage he said, “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.”  Well, if Luther isn’t exactly sure what Peter means, than we ought to approach this text at least with a great amount of humility saying, alright this is what I think it means.  Others have thought other things about this passage, I’ve really just been praying this, Lord just help me be faithful to what this text says in my best understanding of it.  So actually, before we read, let’s pray, let’s pray for indeed God’s help as we study.

So, Father, as we come to this passage, we pray that you would open our eyes, that we indeed would behold you.  More than solving the mysteries of this text we pray that we would receive and believe the wonders of your gospel and cast our trust in our hope upon you Lord Jesus our conquering King.  We pray this in your name.  Amen.

Let’s read together God’s Word. 

¹⁸ 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, ¹⁹ 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. ²¹ 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, ²² who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

Well dear people of God a few weeks ago I was watching with interest the British Open and particularly following Scottie Scheffler who by the way belongs, I understand, to a PCA church in Dallas so, ya know, be cheering for Scottie in the future in all of these PGA events, but because the final round was occurring during the morning service, just after the morning service, I recorded that final round, wanted to see how the tournament ended, hoping of course that Scottie was going to win, but I have to tell you, I couldn’t help myself.  When the service was over Sheri and I were driving home, I whipped out my phone and had to see if Scottie won or not, right, I couldn’t wait to watch it, I wanted to know the end and then as I saw that he won I watched the tournament later that day.  Ya know, this is what we call, of course, a spoiler alert, right.  So, you’re reading a book, and somebody tells you the ending.  Not what I was hoping for.  You’re watching a murder mystery, and somebody tells you who done it.  You’re recording a game, and somebody tells you about the last minute touchdown that happened to win the game and you’re like, I didn’t wanna know the end, right, I wanted to watch it, I wanted the suspense, I wanted the anticipation and all of that is blown when you know what the end is.  Now friends, that’s not always true because in fact, sometimes knowing the end is good, right.  Sometimes knowing the end doesn’t spoil things.  Sometimes knowing the end actually makes everything better.  So, here’s another spoiler alert, we know how history is going to end, we know who wins, we know who is on the throne, we know who is Lord and King and that is the Lord Jesus Christ, He is sovereign over all things.  And people of Got, that’s what Peter reminds us of in this text.  For all the confusing parts of this passage there is a strong simple theme and that is this, Jesus is our conqueror, Jesus is victorious, Jesus is the victor, He is Lord over all of His enemies and ours.  I want you to just notice a couple of things before we actually get into the meat of the sermon.  A couple of ways that this comes out.  The first way is you can see it in the movement of this passage.  If you look at a very first verse, verse 18, you’ll see Christ suffering for Christ also suffered it says, but what happens by the time you get to the end of the passage in the last verse, verse 22, Jesus is no longer suffering, but here now he has gone into heaven and He is at the right hand of God.  What a change from suffering to reining, that’s the movement of this text.  Or if you even look at the broader context of what Peter has been doing in this letter, you might remember that Peter has been carrying along the theme of submission or subjection.  So, in chapter 2:13 he says, “Be subject to the governing authorities.”  And then in chapter 2:18, “Servants be subject to your masters.”  Chapter 3:1, where we were at last week, “Wives be subject to your husbands”, and then he throws a word for husbands as well, “But be subject, be subject, be subject.”  But what happens at the end of our passage, again verse 22.  It’s not about us being subject, but now it is angels, authorities, and powers all having been subjected to Christ.  I think you can see how this passage moves along and what Peter is doing in his letter, where he is driving, he’s driving to the reign of Jesus as our victorious conquering king and think about what an encouragement that would have been for the very first readers of this book, and for us.  Readers who are suffering, persecuted, lost their jobs, kicked out of their homes, thrown to the lions, lit up like candles.  Peter says, I don’t want you to forget this, that Jesus is triumphant.  You might feel like you’re losing, you might feel defeated, but Jesus your Lord is triumphant, He is Lord over every power and so remain faithful to Him.  People of God I think we need that word too.  When we’re feeling as Christians like a marginalized minority our believes are pushed out to the edge, they’re ignored, they’re despised, people are telling us to be quiet and shut up about what we believe, we have to remember Christ has and will conquer. 

So, there are four things in this text that I see about Christ our conquering king.  Four things that are said about Jesus here, we’re just gonna work our way down verse by verse.  Here’s the first.  Peter reminds us that Christ is our substitute.  He is our conqueror because he is our substitute.  This is what he says in verse 18.  “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous that he might bring us to God.”  Peter begins with suffering, he begins with Christ suffering because what he is trying to do is connect the suffering that he has been describing for these early Christians to the sufferings of Jesus, and he does that through the simple word “for” at the beginning of verse 18.  So, he says in verse 17, the verse before this, “It is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil, for Christ also suffered.”  In your sufferings, Peter is saying, remember Christ also suffered.  If He suffered, you’re going to suffer.  Earlier in this book he reminded us that the sufferings of Christ are an example for us to follow.  That’s what he says in chapter 2:21, “Christ suffered leaving you an example, so Christ is the model that we’re to follow in our suffering.” 

But here is something different, Christ is suffering here as he describes it, verse 18, not as an example, but it is Christ as a sacrifice, and you see that’s what makes His suffering unique and fundamentally different than ours.  We might follow Him as an example in suffering, but when we think about Christ suffering as a sacrifice, that puts His sufferings on a whole different plane than ours.  His sufferings are redemptive, His sufferings are saving, and you see that just in the phrases and the word that Peter uses here in verse 18.  So, he tells us that Christ suffered once.  His sufferings are not to be repeated; Christ did not suffer over and over and over and over again.  He suffered once, He gave His life once, His suffering fully accomplished our salvation and doesn’t need to happen again.  Once for all times.  And what a contrast this is to the sacrifices of the Old Testament.  It’s a point, in fact, the writer of the Hebrews makes a number of different times, where he reminds us that the priests had to go into the holy place, the most holy place every year with blood that was not his own, sprinkling it on the mercy’s feet, so here’s the day of atonement one year, it comes around again the next year and over and over and over and over again the priest is offering sacrifices.  And then the writer of Hebrews says in chapter 9:26, “But as it is, He, Christ, appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”  He suffered once.  It’s captured in those simple Words of Jesus from the cross, “It is finished.”  No more, nothing else needs to be done, atonement is complete.  He suffered once; he suffered once for our sins. 

Friends, our problem is not ignorance, our problem is not a lack of education, our problem is not disorders in our life, we don’t need more self-esteem, our problem Peter says right here is our sin.  We have broken the law of God, we have violated His will, and we need an answer for that.  Peters says that is why Christ suffered, for sins, and not His, but ours.  He says that in that little phrase, “It was the righteous for the unrighteous, the innocent for the guilty, He took our place.”  Some have called it the great exchange, the great swap as it were that our sins were laid on Christ, He took them on himself and His righteousness given to us, the righteous for the unrighteous, the perfect one for guilty sinners, for you and I.  In all of this Peter says to bring us to God.  That is great news.  To bring us to a restored relationship with our father.  Their sins, they don’t stand in the way anymore, they’re not a barrier between us and God.  We are no longer enemies, but children.  No longer separated but reconciled.  Friends when I read this part of the verse, these phrases that we’ve been talking about, I say to myself what a great summary of the gospel, just a few words, but so much captured in these words.  If you’re looking for an elevator speech of the gospel, ya know I’ve got one minute with somebody on the elevator I’ve gotta share with them the gospel, I think you’ve got it right here.  Just go line by line, word by word and you have what you need to tell somebody about the good news of what Christ has done for us.  And you see this is the path by which Christ conquered, this is the path by which He is our reigning victorious Lord, His sacrifice is perfect, atoning, never to be repeated, paid in full, stamped across the debt that we owe to God because of our sin.  What a reminder when we’re suffering, that the father loves us enough that He gave us His son, that when we’re suffering it is not payment for our sin.  I had a brother ask me that this last week, why am I going through so much, what have I done wrong, sort of like, ya know, you’ve failed here, God’s gonna send you this and you did this wrong, and He will send you that.  He knows the truth.  Our sufferings are not payment for our sin, that is done, it is finished.  Instead, the father is refining, the father is shaping us for glory.  Christ our substitute.

Second Christ is our salvation, and this really gets us into the hardest part of the passage.  What Peter is doing here is simply this, I think, giving us an illustration of God’s saving power in the story of Noah and his family.  We come to the end of verse 18 and we’ve got that phrase, “Christ suffered in order to bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.”  Put to death in the flesh I think is simple for us to understand, it’s simply a reference to Christ’s physical death, to his crucifixion, and then made alive, we understand that as well, a reference to Christ’s resurrection.  But then you come to that little phrase, “made alive in the spirit”, what does that mean?  Some believe that what Peter is talking about is that Jesus was made alive in the spiritual realm, there was a spiritual transformation that happened to Christ in His resurrection.  He was different, wasn’t He, he was bodily different, and He passed through doors and things like that, so raised bodily and yet some sort of spiritual transformation that occurred.  Others think that this was simply a reference to the Holy Spirit.  In fact, if you look at your Bibles the ESV has a note at the bottom of the page you actually see four notes that are related to this passage on the bottom of the page, which tells you this is a hard passage if you have all these notes referring to this passage, but you see one note there says “Or the Spirit in whom” and spirit there is capitalized so this may be a reference to the Holy Spirit, and when we read in the spirit he was made alive in the spirit, Christ was raised by the power of the Holy Spirit.  I don’t think these two options are all that far apart, probably tend to think the latter, raised by the power of the Holy Spirit, Spirit ought to be capitalized, but either say it shapes the next part of this passage because look where Peter goes in verse 19.  He says, “In which”, or if you’re taking the Holy Spirit, in whom, “He went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison because they formerly did not obey when God’s patience waited in the day step-off Noah while the ark was being built.”  So the question in this verse of course, or the questions that arises, who are these spirits and when did Christ preach to them? 

Again, there are various views.  People take different positions on what this could be referring to so some would say that what Peter is talking about is Christ going to hell to preach to the spirits of people who sinned and perished at the time of Noah.  So, these people lived at the time of Noah, and they failed to believe, and Christ goes to hell to preach to their spirits as they are in prison, as they have gone to hell and he announces their doom.  Another view is that Christ went to hell after His resurrection, at his ascension to preach to fallen angels, proclaiming His victory over them and their judgement.  So, second is to preach to these fallen angels after His resurrection at the time of His ascension.  And then there are a few, I don’t think there’s very many and I think particularly this view really lacks scriptural support, but if you would say Christ went to hell between His death and resurrection to preach to those who disobey, giving them a second chance at salvation.  So, he goes to hell between his death and resurrection, preaches the gospel hoping that they come to believe or are saved. 

Well, there’s one other view and this would be where I lean.  It’s the view of Agustine, maybe this is important, it’s also I think the view of Kevin.  You can read about this in his book, Daily Doctrine actually.  But here’s the view that just as Christ was raised by the spirit, so by the spirit he preached through Noah to the people of Noah’s day who did not believe and therefore are now in a prison of judgement or hell.  Let me just put it a little different way.  Christ in other words did not literally go to hell to preach to human spirits or angels, but what this is referring to is that Christ preached through Noah during the light time of Noah, to those who are now in prison because of their unbelief.  Say it again, Christ did not literally go to hell to preach to human spirits or angels, but Christ preached through Noah, during Noah’s lifetime, to those who are now in prison because of their unbelief.

Now I think there are a couple of supporting passages in Peter’s writings that would give credence to this view.  One passage is found in 1 Peter 1:11 where Peter had talked about, we studied this a few weeks ago, where Peter talks about the spirit of Christ was working through the profits, predicting the sufferings of Christ, and the subsequent glories.  So, the spirit of Christ was preaching through the profits back in the Old Testament and Peter, I think, is saying something similar here, the spirit of Christ was preaching through Noah.  Noah was preaching and the spirit of Christ was preaching through him to the people of His day. 

Another passage is found in 2 Peter 2:5 where Peter says, “God did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness with seven others.”  You can kind of see the connection.  There’s talking about Noah and how Noah was saved here.  In 2 Peter 2:5 he brings up the story of Noah again, but the important part about the comparison to that passage is that when Peter calls Noah a herald of righteousness that word herald is the very same word that is used in our text about Christ preaching.  Christ preached; Noah preached.  Christ preached through Noah, the preacher of righteousness.  Now that may seem very complicated, I hope it is somewhat understandable, but people of God I think this interpretation that I’ve laid out before you I think fits with the point that Peter is trying to make because I was asking myself the question, I think we ought to ask ourselves this question, why would Peter talk about Noah or how would the story of Noah help the suffering Christians of Peter’s day who are first reading this letter or hearing this letter.  And I think in this way, we have to remember as Peter says here that the days of Noah were days of God’s patience.  God had announced a flood, and it was years, perhaps maybe even up to 120 years until the flood waters came and every year that passed was a year of God giving more time to repent and believe, to listen to the preaching of Noah, to hear his message, to come and to believe and trust in God and His promises.  Noah after all is called a preacher of righteousness and that means that he was calling the people of his day to repent, to turn from their sin, to turn to God, to take refuge in God from the coming judgement, to flee from their sin, to believe in God’s promise as a way of escape and not only did he preach this, but he demonstrated it, right, because as he is building the ark that too is a testimony to all the people who around him flee from the judgment to come find refuge in God, flee to the ark as it were.  Like that one pastor put it, he said every time he nailed a board the pound of the hammer said the flood is coming, but there’s a way of salvation.  Just imagine that every time he is wailing away, bam, bam, bam, it’s saying to all the people around him, flee from the wrath of God to come, there is a way of escape. 

I want you to notice what Peter highlights in this 19^th verse.  What he highlights at the very end of the verse is that there were a few, that is eight persons who were brought safely through water.  Noah preached and no one listened.  Do you get that?  Noah is preaching away, Noah is building away and there is no one, but him, his wife, his sons, and their wives who found refuge in the ark, who fled to the ark, they didn’t listen to him, they kept saying, Noah you’re crazy, Noah we don’t believe you, Noah what re you talking about?  Why do you think Peter bothers to tell us the number of persons who entered the ark, and then why does he bother to even give more emphasis to it by saying it was only a few, just eight persons, why does he bother to give us that fact?  I think for this reason, don’t you think that that would have settled on these early suffering Christians?  You’re only a few.  There’s hardly any of you who trust Christ, you’re just a small number, the whole world may seem to be against you, you’ve been witnessing for Christ and nobody’s been listening to you, and you’re suffering and you’re dying, and you’re being persecuted for your faith yet there’s hardly any of you but God will save you, God is there for you, God will rescue you, hold fast to Him, run to Him for refuge, God will deliver you just as He did Noah and his family.  Christ was preaching through Noah.  Nobody listened.  Only a few were saved.  What a comfort to these early Christians.  Christ our salvation, third Christ our surety.  

Takes us to verse 21, another tough verse.  Baptism which corresponds to this, to the flood, now saved 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.  Peter says baptism corresponds to the flood; baptism mirrors the flood.  We’re like, alright, how’s that.  Well, I think there’s a few ways.  First of all, of course both the flood and baptism are about water.  That’s the most simple comparison, but more than that in the food and baptism water is a means, a sign of judgement and deliverance.  The waters of the flood brought judgement on the unbelieving world in Noah’s day.  But in doing so they also became the say the way that Noah and his family were delivered from the evil age in which they lived.  Peter says they were brought safely through water and friends isn’t it also true in baptism water is a sign of both judgement and deliverance as it points us to Christ.  Because of water of baptism point to the judgement that Jesus endured for us, that He was plunged under the flood of God’s wrath and judgement in His death.  Remember that Peter overheard James and John just before Jesus’ crucifixion when they were saying to Jesus, ya know, hey Jesus do for us whatever we ask of you.  One of us wants to sit on your right, one of us wants to sit on your left and the Bible tells us all the rest of the disciples are like, what are these guys talking about?  Peter was there, right?  And do you remember how Jesus described his death to James and John, He said, are you able to drink the cup I drink, are you able to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized.  Another words, Jesus is saying His death is like baptism, it’s about to be flooded over by the wrath of God on the cross.  But of course, Jesus also came up out of the waters because he was raised, made alive, and baptism points to this doesn’t it, it points to our union with Christ in His death and in His resurrection, in judgement and deliverance like the flood.  It’s a picture.

And then there’s one other comparison I see, just as the waters of the flood separated Noah and his family from the rest of the world so also baptism sets us apart.  In fact, we say it is a sign of our initiation into the covenant community, we are set apart from the world, initiated into the family of God, separating sign.  Friends, there’s maybe a simpler explanation than all those comparisons.  If you notice Peter’s words here, he says, baptism now saves you.  Well, that’s a stumper too isn’t it?  Wait a second, I thought the blood of Christ saves.  What are you doing Peter, are you doing something like the Galatian heresy where the Galatian church said, you know it’s faith plus circumcision.  Is it faith plus baptism.  We know of course Peter isn’t doing that.  Peter isn’t telling us that baptism has a saving power to it.  That’s why he goes on to say it is not as a removal of dirt from the body.  Peter is saying baptism isn’t like washing your hands, shake a bunch of hands at church today, gotta a whole bunch of germs on your hands, you go to the bathroom, water washes it away doesn’t it, it’s effective, it takes care of the germs, but Peter says it is not, baptism is not like that, it is not like the removal of dirt from the body, we don’t sprinkle a child or baptize an adult and that water washes sin away, poof, magic, your sins are gone.  That’s not how it works Peter is saying, instead he simply is saying that as in the flood Noah had to believe the promise of God, find his refuge in Him, go inside the ark to be saved and so to escape the flood.  So, in baptism we need to believe in the way of escape from the floods of God’s judgement against our sin, that way of escape being Christ.  Noah and his family, they heard the promise of God, a flood is coming, judgement is coming, there is a way to escape, go to the ark and in baptism God calls us also to believe in the way of escape from the floods against our sin and to flee to Christ.  That is why I think Peter says, baptism doesn’t save like water washes dirt from the body, but notice what he says here, “It is an appeal to God for a good conscience.”  It is about appealing in faith to the cleansing and saving blood of Christ and His resurrection.

Baptism itself, the act of baptism, it doesn’t save, but it tells us to put our hope and our trust and our faith in Christ and then it is a sign, it is the picture of what Christ does that he washes our sins away.  You see Christ is our conquerer because Christ is our surety.  The word surety simply means guarantee or pledge and in baptism we pledge ourselves to God, we act in faith, we must believe His promises, we must get inside the ark, but in baptism God also pledges himself to us.  That’s what’s maybe distinctive about what we believe about baptism that God pledges himself to us, he says, I will be your God, I will give you every blessing that comes along with belonging to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit because I’m your God, you will be my people.  It’s interesting in the flood story, isn’t it, that not only did Noah, and his family enter the ark, but Genesis 7:16 says “God shut them in, he sealed them in a safe place.”  Baptism is a sign and a seal. Isn’t it?  Of the covenant of grace that God makes with us and we respond with this appeal to a good conscience, this appeal of faith and the cleansing and saving blood of Christ.  I wonder when we’re going through sufferings and trials, or I even wonder about the early church when they were going through sufferings and trials if we ever think about God’s promises in baptism.  You get a cancer diagnosis, the doctor tells you you have dementia, you walk out of the office without a job and a host of other things.  I don’t know where all this is going, but God has promised to be my God.  God has said you are mine and I am yours, you are a part of my people, remember you were baptized, there is where God said it and pledged this to you.  One encouragement for suffering Christians.

And then finally, very briefly, God is our sovereign.  This takes us to the last verse, verse 22, “Jesus he has gone into heaven, he is at the right hand of God with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to Him.”  You have here the resurrection, the ascension, the reign of Christ, his exultation as Lord and king.  Jesus is sitting at the right hand, this place of all power, all authority and he’s ruling over all angels, all authorities, all powers, every being in the heavens and the earth, Jesus is Lord over them all.  I love the verse that comes from Revelation 4:2 when John says, “At once I was in the spirit, and behold a throne stood in heaven”, the verse doesn’t actually stop there, “I saw a throne standing in heaven”, and then John ends, “With one seated on the throne.”  A throne, that’s great, but even better a throne and it’s occupied, there’s someone on the throne.  That’s what we need to know don’t we people of God, that’s what the early church needed to know, there’s somebody on the throne, the throne is not empty, we’re suffering, we’re dying, we’re being persecuted, we’re going through trials and troubles and hardships, we need to know there’s somebody on the throne.  It is not empty, it is, ya know, it’s not like the CEO is gone, no, Jesus is in charge, Jesus is on the throne.  Nero was not Lord; Pontius Pilate is not Lord.  If we’re a Christian, ya know today maybe you’re living in an oppressive place, the dictator is not Lord, a harassing local government is not on the throne, the schoolboard is not sovereign.  Jesus reigns.  And while we subject ourselves to authorities all of them are subject to Him.  Praise God, praise God.  And so you see the message that Peter is trying to bring in these hard verses complicated, difficult to understand verses, what he is saying to us this morning is this, persevere, stand strong in your faith, live for God, trust God, be faithful, witness for Him, risk for Him, live for Him, go out on a limb for Him, make known that you’re a follower of Him and know that Christ has conquered and He will save our substitute, our salvation, our surety, our sovereign Lord.  Let’s pray together.

Oh God, we thank you for all that this hard passage reveals to us about Jesus.  The early Christians needed to know these things about Christ, we need to know them about Christ as we try to live for Christ and sometimes face opposition, as we try to live for Jesus and maybe face some subtle forms of persecution.  When we think about our brothers and sisters around the world who live under oppressive governments, where it’s very, very costly to live for Christ we need to be reminded of these truths that Jesus you are our conquering king and so give us hope and strength that you’re God who saves, you’re a God who keeps and we pray these things in Jesus’ name.  Amen.