The purpose in gathering together this morning is to worship God, who eternally exists in Three Persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit! Worship is giving worth to someone or something! As we sing, as we pray, as we study His Word, we are to give worth to the Triune God! Of course, the ultimate sign of worship is actually doing what God says. And so, let us worship God by not only giving worth to His Words but commit to taking action in what He says. Read along with me 1 Peter 3:15-22…..
We actually took a glimpse of this passage last week as we noted instructions for us from v3 on. This morning, in preparation for Communion, I started with v15: it is the main instruction for us.
v15a: In our hearts revere Christ as Lord. What does this mean?
Let’s first of all look at other translation of this verse:
ESV: but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
NASB, NKJV, NRSV: but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence
Let us memorize 1 Peter 3:15a but let us get a better understanding of it.
1. Where does it all start? God gave us brains so we can read, listen, remember, and think. But even if we read and memorize the entire Bible and know all the original Hebrew and Greek of Scriptures, they would be meaningless to God if we don’t place them in our hearts! Because God always looks in our hearts, we must always check what’s going on in our hearts! I will bring this up again later as we learn more from this passage; and you have heard me say this before, but we all need reminders because we are all like sheep who go astray; Always do a throne check of your heart! (slide) Who is sitting in the throne of our hearts right now?
It starts with our hearts then….
2. Revere (honor) Jesus Christ as Holy Lord!
What does holy mean?? – to set apart, to sanctify
What does Lord mean?? – Master!
And so, the simple question for us is, “Do we always revere, honor, set apart Jesus Christ as Master in our hearts?”
If we are really honest with God, the answer of course to this question is, no, we don’t always set Christ as Master in our hearts; we allow other people and things get ahead of Jesus Christ; even coffee or Facebook.
Does God understand our wandering hearts? Through grace, the answer is yes, God understands us because we can read how He treats us! You know this is another reason for us to really read and study the Bible; Many Christians are complacent because they are complacent about reading God’s Word and learning more about His love!
Think about this for a moment: God knows everything about us but yet He chooses to speak to us about what we are to do! God understands us and He wrote 1 Peter to instruct us Christians in spite of who we are! In spite of who we are, God loves us! If God didn’t care about us, He would take away Scriptures and just leave us lost.
God not only continues to encourage us by telling us what to do but also gives us the reasons! This is what we see in our passage! God tells us to revere in our hearts Jesus Christ as Holy Lord then He tells us why!
God actually tells us in the second part of v15 to be ready to explain why Jesus Christ is our Lord to us. But God warns us how we are to share – with gentleness and respect. Why does God have to tell us this when it’s the truth???
Christians are called to do good to others. Our sinful natures can lead us to boasting and pride which is ungodly. The truth about Jesus Christ is to be shared but not forced on people! Jesus is to be shared with love!
What are we to share and why should we revere Jesus Christ as Holy Lord in our own hearts?
Look again at v18: Jesus Christ was perfect, always right, but He suffered and died for the unrighteous (every person in the world – you and me)!
According to v18, why did Jesus allow himself to suffer and die?
Jesus took the pain and suffering to death to bring people back to God!
What is significant about the statement “to bring people back to God” ???
If Jesus Christ, who is righteous because He is God, did not become a human being on earth and died, no person can come back to God!
Now, look again at the end of v18….
What does made alive in the Spirit mean? Verse 19 helps us understand doesn’t it? Jesus was made alive in the Spirit then He spoke to other spirits. 2 Corinthians 5:8 is also a help to us, which states, “to be absent from the body is to be present in the Lord!” When a human being dies, the physical body awaits resurrection, but the spirit of a dead person goes somewhere.
And so, when Jesus’ physical body died, His spirit left the body and Jesus proclaimed Himself to the spirits of disobedient people of long ago.
Who were these spirits of long ago?
v20: spirits of disobedient people during Noah’s time were imprisoned!
How long did it take Noah to build the ark before the worldwide flood??
God was patient for 120 years to disobedient people before sending the flood! God only saved 8 people. Why were the 8 people saved??
Only those who believed in God regarding the flood and the ark were saved!
Now v21 can be confusing - NIV…. and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God, It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
We can spend a lot of time on this verse but let me just suggest a couple of major thoughts. First of all, many Christians will actually tell us we will be confused because we are reading the NIV not from God’s ONLY Bible, the King James Version. So, we better take a look at that translation….
1 Peter 3:19-21 KJV
By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
Now it’s really clear, right??
Here’s the point, there will be times when our English will not give us the complete meaning of a Biblical text no matter the translation; Why? The original writings of the New Testament was in Greek and that language is so much more meaningful; for example when we see the word baptism, what do you think of??
To our English, baptism refers to a rite with water; while the Greek may simply mean to be submerged.
Also, the New Testament was written 2000 years ago; what people were accustomed to back then is not the same as what we are accustomed to today; they would not understand when we say “let’s just get some fast food”; similarly, they would have figure of speeches we will not fully understand. We note in v20 that 8 people were saved through water; but were not millions drowned by water? There’s a figure of speech there.
I really spent too much time on this already and we can spend more hours and still not come to a consensus of the true meaning of v21. This is the reason why we have so many English translations of the Bible; and remember that direct translations are the closest we can get to the originals and commentary Bibles pulls us away from the originals. Let me conclude by noting that in context, God has given us what we need!
Like we noted earlier, nothing is really meaningful unless we place it in our hearts, not just in our heads! What is Jesus in your heart telling you about this verse? And more importantly, look again at how God ended v21…..
It is not about a physical cleansing by water, and salvation is by the resurrection of Jesus Christ! The concept of Noah and his family being saved was through water with the ark. The concept of us being saved is through Jesus with His death and resurrection! Romans 6:4 is a help to us here, which states, We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
I’d be happy to talk to anyone who has other questions about this passage; but let us conclude.
What can we say about Jesus Christ in v22?
Jesus is now in heaven at the right hand of God and every creature submits to Him!
Before obeying the Word of God by celebrating with Communion, let us note two major applications to our lives from our passage this morning:
1. Do I know what to tell people about Jesus Christ?
Am I sharing Jesus Christ to others with gentleness and respect?
2. Do a Throne Check of the heart regularly? Who is really my master?
Every creature in heaven submits to Jesus Christ. When we allow other things or another person becomes our Master, we are really not living in the
