Good morning! As you know, we’ve gone back to Online Only for a while. Covid-19 cases are increasing rapidly. Emergency resources are being stretched thin. I’ve heard people needing emergency medical attention have been turned away from local hospitals. I’ve heard one third of Firefighters are quarantined. To our knowledge, nobody has been infected “at” Lakeside. However at Lakeside, we’ve got staff and volunteers who are in quarantine and/or personally infected. This thing is working its way through our church, be vigilante and prayerful!
This morning we’re in Week 11 of our Standing Firm series. As we look at 1 Peter 3:18-22, 4:1-6 were getting down to the CORE of what the Christian life is all about. This morning we are concerned with two key themes. First, what is the gospel of the Jesus Christ? Second, what should our response to the gospel be?
First, What is the Gospel?
Who was Jesus Christ? Who is Jesus Christ? We can take these verses phrase by phrase and sketch out a gospel portrait of Jesus. Starting in 1 Peter 3:18-19 (CSB) we read: “For Christ suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit…” The gospel fact that endears Jesus to us, is that in Christ, God Himself suffered for sins once for all.
Last week Eric talked about being “like-minded, sympathetic, loving one another, being compassionate and humble.” (see 1 Peter 3:8). It reminded me that we generally take one of three postures toward other people.
(1) One posture is “Antipathy.” Antipathy means a lack of passion or concern, cold-indifference. You know, a majority of people imagine that God is cold and indifferent. He is present, He isn’t aware, He isn’t listening, He doesn’t answer.
(2) Another posture is “Empathy.” Empathy implies a measure of awareness, wisdom, and understanding. This week I spoke to four people I’d never met before. Each person bore their soul, and shared their struggles. I listened intently, I asked questions, I offered encouragement and counsel. But still, I stood apart from them. Afterwards we each went out own way.
(3) But a third posture is “Sympathy.” And sympathy is all about entering into another’s suffering, suffering with, suffering through, suffering alongside.
1 Peter 3:18 tells us that Jesus, though being God, though being Holy and Righteous and God, though being justified to stand apart from us (or at a distance), instead came and suffered for our sins. He came to bring us back God. He suffered to the extent of not just taking on our flesh and blood humanity, and not just suffering, but being put to death in his body!
Jesus sympathizes with our suffering and death, but more than this, conquered sin and death. Peter says in 1 Peter 3:18 (CSB) that Jesus was “made alive by the Spirit.” 1 Peter 3:19-20a (CSB) tell us how Jesus also, “in [the Spirit] . . . went and made proclamation to the spirits in prison 20 who in the past were disobedient, when God patiently waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared.” Not only did Jesus achieve an earthly, worldly victory—he achieved a cosmic victory. Jesus descends to the darkest depths to announce his victory over death to the evil spirits that existed from the days of Noah, indeed perhaps even Adam.
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1 Peter 1:18-21 (CSB), “For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was revealed in these last times for you. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”
- 1 Peter 2:9-10 (CSB), “. . .[He] called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
- 1 Peter 2:21 (CSB), “… Christ also suffered for you…”
- 1 Peter 2:22 (CSB), “He did not commit sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.”
- 1 Peter 2:24-25 (CSB), “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but you have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”
- I love 1 Peter 3:12 (CSB). Our sympathetic Lord and God Jesus . “… the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do what is evil.”
Jesus suffered for sin, righteous for unrighteous. He died for us. He was buried. He was raised by the Spirit of God. He proclaimed victory over darkness. But he also ascended. He is alive. He reigns from on high. Jesus’ eye is upon us, his ears attune to our prayers. He is truly with us. These are the gospel facts.
But just as implicit in this gospel is God’s expectation of us! Look at 1 Peter 3:18, Jesus suffered that he “might” bring us to God. Look at 1 Peter 2:24, Jesus suffered that we “might” live for righteousness. For all the expectations we have of God—and we have many. What expectations does God have of us?
Second, what should our response to the gospel be?
God’s expectation of us can be boiled down into a single powerful response—baptism.
When the Apostle Paul talks about baptism in Romans 6, he emphasizes how baptism “in itself” visually proclaims the same gospel facts Peter just extolled. Romans 6:3-5 (CSB) says, “Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection.”
But there is something more to baptism than just telling the Gospel Story. Jesus suffered that he might bring us to God. We often celebrate baptism, because in baptism, we see a person returning to their God! But what if there is more. Jesus suffered not just to bring us to God, but that we might live for righteousness! In Romans 6:6 (CSB) Paul says, “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin.” Romans 6:10 (CSB), “So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
Baptism doesn’t just change our relationship to God, it changes our relationship to sin! In baptism a change occurs. We’re no longer living principally ruled by sin… we’ve become principally ruled by righteousness!
Here is what Peter says. 1 Peter 3:20-22 (CSB) says, “God patiently waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared. In it a few—that is, eight people—were saved through water. 21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you (not as the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a good conscience toward God) 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 subject to him.”
Most people draw a hard separation between Faith and Baptism. They say, “I am saved by faith, not baptism.” In other words, “I am saved by nodding yes to the gospel facts.” But notice what Peter says baptism is! Baptism is “the pledge of a good conscience toward God.” This is consistent with Paul. In baptism, you are consciously switching your allegiance. You are no longer ruled by sin, but God! You are no longer under the control or reign of your flesh. You are under the reign of the one who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels, authorities, and power subject to him! Baptism is submission.
You know James tells us even the demons belief in God and shutter. If your idea of faith is only knowing gospel facts, the demons may have greater knowledge and better theology than even you! Whether, Paul, Peter or James—their testimony is consistent. What sets us apart from Demons isn’t knowledge, it is “submission.” There is no more treacherous place to stand then to say, “I believe, but I will not also submit.”
Now let's look at 1 Peter 4:1-6 (CSB): “Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same understanding—because the one who suffers in the flesh is finished with sin— 2 in order to live the remaining time in the flesh no longer for human desires, but for God’s will.”
There we have it again. Christ suffered so that we would be “finished” with sin. That we would no longer live for human desires, but for God’s will. There is a sense in which baptism is an initiating act—but there is a sense in which baptism is our ongoing pledge of allegiance to live this shared with God.
In 1 Peter 3:20 (CSB) Peter mentions Gods patience during the days of Noah. Noah wasn’t just a man of faith, he was a preacher and practitioner of righteousness. While the inclinations of everyone around him only became evil all the time, here was Noah obeying the command of God, patiently building the ark. Through the Ark, Noah and his family would escape certain judgment through water, and be saved. It’s interesting that in Corinthians Paul likens baptism to Israel’s crossing of the Red Sea. Israel was baptized in the Red Sea and into Moses, escaping certain death in Egypt. Noah was saved escaping certain judgement. So what about the Christian?
1 Peter 4:3-6 (CSB), “3 For there has already been enough time spent in doing what the Gentiles choose to do: carrying on in unrestrained behavior, evil desires, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and lawless idolatry.” Sounds like the days of Noah doesn’t it! “4 They are surprised that you don’t join them in the same flood of wild living—and they slander you.” Come on Noah, let’s eat, drink and be merry cause tomorrow we die. What are you doing building that stupid ark! Forty years they tormented Noah. “5 They will give an account to the one who stands ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 For this reason the gospel was also preached to those who are now dead, so that, although they might be judged in the flesh according to human standards, they might live in the spirit according to God’s standards.”
Notice again v. 5. Why is the gospel preached? 1 Peter 3:18, Jesus suffered that he “might” bring us to God. Look at 1 Peter 2:24, Jesus suffered that we “might” live for righteousness. 1 Peter 4:5, the gospel is preached that we might “live in the spirit according to God’s standards.”
Hebrews 11:7 (CSB), “By faith Noah, after he was warned about what was not yet seen and motivated by godly fear, built an ark to deliver his family. By faith he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”
God doesn’t ask us to build ark. Read 1 Peter 1:13-21.