INTRODUCTION
A. BIBLE INTERPRETATION
1. Much of Bible is Easy to Understand but occasionally we get bumped into confusion.
2. Today is one of those bumps!
3. We may not solve the confusion today, … to get the practical help -- to encourage Christians in difficult days.
B. WHAT DID JESUS DO FOR YOU?
Today we will be talking about all that Jesus has done for us. Think about it – now – before we get started. WHAT DID JESUS DO FOR YOU? Think for a moment – Reflect on your own – What DID Jesus do For You?
SOME SENSITIVE TEXT TODAY. Don’t get so caught up -- that you miss the point.
C. OUR TEXT: 1 PETER 3:17-22
1. Peter is Still Talking About the Subject of Suffering – READ VERSE 17
a) Suffering from sin is a no-brainer. The Biblical LAW OF REAPING what one SOWES
READ GAL. 6:7-8
b) But what about when one Suffers for doing Good – For doing God’s Will?
READ AGAIN 2.20-21
Just as Christ suffered for doing good, so we too, should count \it a privilege to do the SAME considering all HE HAS DONE FOR US!
WHAT DID JESUS DO FOR YOU?
READ VERSES 18-22
THREE THINGS THAT CHRIST DID FOR US:
I. JESUS DIED FOR YOUR SINS (3.18)
In Vs. 18, About His Death, we are told:
A. His Death Was Sacrificial & Final. 2 Parts to this: ‘Christ died for sins once for all…’
1) ‘Christ died for sins’: Not HIS sins but OUR sins. Not HIS missing the mark but OUR missing the mark.
2) ‘once for all’: Christ’s Sacrifice was final
- don’t know that we can really grasp the significance of this b/c (the OT era)
Hebrews 7:27 (NIV)
27 Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.
B. His Death was Substitutionary - ‘righteous for the unrighteous’
He took our place – he bore our shame – he became our sickness (sin is a sickness)
ILLUSTRATION: THE GREEN MILE Tom Hanks – Paul Edgecomb; Michael Duncan – John Coffey
Coffey had the ability to reach inside and remove one’s sickness. Hanks had a kidney infection/stone. Coffee reached out and touched him and was able to literally take on that sickness and remove it from Hanks.
The warden’s wife had a tumor in the brain and was terminal – she was very close to death. Hanks and his Guards took Coffey to the Warden’s house where upon Coffee proceeded to touch the warden’s wife and remove the tumor from her placing it within himself.
EXACTLY what CHRIST DID FOR US. He reached down and touched us -- the SICKNESS OF OUR SINS UPON HIMSELF.
Why? SO WE COULD CLEAN AND PRESENTABLE!
C. His Death Was a Reconciling Death – ‘…that He might bring you to God’
The verb that is translated ‘bring’ is the picture of the presentation of a sacrifice.
God could not look upon sin nor be associated with it. Christ, once for all, became our sacrifice, our substitution, our sin, and our presenter all at the same time IN ORDER THAT we might BE PRESENTED TO GOD.
II. JESUS DECLARED HIS VICTORY OVER THE CROSS (3.19-20a)
Verse 19 is said to be the MOST CONTROVERSIAL PASSAGE in the Bible. It has umpteen variations and interpretations. In fact, the Roman Catholics use this verse to find support for the doctrine of purgatory. ONE COMMENTATOR noted that there are 9 GRK words in verse 19 cause disagreements.
I AM PROBABLY NOT GOING TO SOLVE OR SETTLE DOWN CENTURIES OF DEBATES BY INDIVIDUALS MUCH MORE LEARNED THAN I. My job is the APPLICATION TO YOUR LIVES AS CHRISTIANS!
When dealing with problem texts, we need to follow a couple of ground rules:
1) Problem verses should NOT be the basis for a NEW or UNSUPPORTED doctrine.
2) NEVER focus on the mysterious to the point of neglecting the main teaching (which is what scared me most today).
The difficulty is understanding what Peter means in Vs. 19 when he said:
‘through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison’
Peter seems to indicate that sometime between His death and His Resurrection, Jesus ‘preached’ a special message to the ‘spirits in prison’.
3 QUESTIONS: - WHO were these spirits? –WHEN did Christ preach? -WHAT does Christ preach?
1) WHO were these spirits ? - ‘went and preached to the spirits in prison’ – (19)
a) Some believe that the crucifixion and resurrection, Christ went to the realm of the dead – to ‘hell’ or ‘hades’ & preached to the ‘spirits in prison’ – (all the people who had lived before him who had died and gone to hell).
b) Some believe these are fallen angels who had sinned by marrying human women before the flood (taken from Gen. 6.2,4).
c) Still others say that Christ was preaching to all those who had repented before they died in the Flood. Christ, between his death and resurrection, announced salvation to those who had been waiting for their salvation during this time.
2) WHEN did Christ preach? –
This view takes Christ’s reference to Noah literally -- the “spirits” were humans (those that Noah preached to for 120 years while building the ark). 20)‘God waited patiently’ for any to repent, but none did. These unbelievers were the ‘spirits’ who were imprisoned by their sin.
This view says that just as Noah and his family faced persecution, so Peter’s readers would suffer the same.
3) WHAT does Christ preach?
-- this word ‘preach’ actually means ‘to announce a proclamation’. Christ simply made a proclamation of his finished work to the fallen angels mentioned several times in the OT – including Gen. 6.
The ‘prison’ was an abyss -- a kind of storage place for the evil angels. Many scholars favor this view because 2 Peter 2.4-5 and Jude 6 link the angels that sinned with the Judgment of the Flood were cast into hell, literally Tartarus, a place of confinement prior to judgment.
This view holds that ‘tartarus’ is this prison mentioned. So the view here is that sometime after Christ was resurrected, he made a proclamation to these angels.
CONSIDER ONE QUESTION: “WHAT POINT WOULD IT MAKE THAT PETER GO INTO THESE DETAILS WHEN TALKING ABOUT THE SUFFERINGS OF THESE CHURCHES? NONE
IN LIGHT OF THIS, CONSIDER ONE MORE VIEW.
1) ‘he went and preached’ – God/Christ through God’s Spirit, preached through the ministry of Noah for 120 years.
2) ‘spirits in prison’ – God speaks and calls to the heart (the spirit). Those whom God is calling are sick in sin (in prison).
When we delve in sin, our hearts (spirits) are trapped (in prison), the bondage of sin because of our affliction.
3) This same Spirit that condemned the people to whom Noah preached is the same Spirit that will condemn these of Peter’s day. GOD’S PATIENCE ENDS AT SOME POINT.
Genesis 6:3 (NIV)
3 Then the Lord said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years."
III. JESUS DELIVERS US FROM SUFFERING(20b-22)
People have used this verse to defend the doctrine that people are saved by being baptized in water AND that if one is NOT baptized, then he/she is NOT save. BOTH ARE HORRIBLY OUT OF CONTEXT.
Peter goes out of the way to make sure we understand that baptism in itself does not save you.
Noah was NOT saved by water but because he had enough faith to be in the Ark. Peter explains that BAPTISM does not have any saving ability or cleansing effect on the flesh, but that it is the ‘pledge of a good conscience’.
‘it saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ’ – explain Baptism of the Holy Spirit
APPLICATION
1) In Acts 1.9 ‘you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses’
We’ve talked b/fore about this difficult passage. The disciples were to be made instruments in the establishment of the kingdom of Christ; WHY? TO DO HIS WORK.
2) Sometimes, that work included suffering. (remember everyone of the disciples (but one) died some form of horrible death. But we can rest in confidence that while there will be times of suffering, we WILL BE DELIVERED. We may not see that deliverance now – but it will be in God’s timing!
CLOSE ON 1 PETER 5.8-10
SUMMARY
So WHAT DID JESUS DO FOR YOU?
1) Jesus Laid Aside His Diety Because of His Love For You & I
2) He came to this sick earth and walked as a man, lived as a man – so he could relate to you
3) He died a HORRIBLE, PAINFUL, CRUEL, AND DISGRACEFUL DEATH - WHY?
4) SO YOU AND I WOULD HAVE A WAY TO THE FATHER!
THAT’S WHAT JESUS DID FOR YOU!
BUT 1 MORE QUESTION: WHAT DID YOU DO FOR HIM?
And when you get faced with that awkward situation: and you are flinching long enough to question which way to go – you know that feeling I’m talking about. ‘Which Side of the Fence to Go On’ b/c one may cause some discomfort, some inconvenience, or even some suffering, REMEMBER all CHRIST ENDURED FOR YOU!
BETTER YET, REMEMBER THAT IT WAS YOUR SIN THAT CAUSED HIM TO PAY SUCH A PRICE:
In Mel Gibson’s Movie, “The Passion of Christ” there is an obscure detail in the crucifixion scene that probably goes unnoticed by most people, but it is a detail that says so much.
When Jesus is being placed on the cross, the camera comes close to watch as a large spike is positioned in the middle of Jesus’ hand. Then, a mallet comes into focus, and a rugged hand swings it to drive the spike. Those are all things you expect to see.
But there is something you don’t see. You never see the face of the one who drives that nail. You never get a glimpse into the eyes, or heart of the one who so assuredly pounds away until the spike has passed through Jesus’ flesh and comes to rest in the wood of the cross.
You might be interested to know that the person who plays that role in the movie is the director himself, Mel Gibson. But why does he never show the face of the one who put Jesus on the cross? Why does he not give us the identity of the one who had the gall to put the Son of God to death?
He didn’t show us that face because that face was his. It was ours. We are the ones who put Jesus to death. It wasn’t the Romans. It wasn’t the Jews. It was our sin that nailed Jesus to the cross.
Colossians 2:13-14 says: “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. “
