Sunday 2 May https://youtu.be/6ErfkuVyiWE
I Peter chapter 3 verses 18-22 Called to Obey God’s Ways
In last week’s introduction we talked about words and some difficulties with their meaning. The verses we are looking at today are difficult to understand but it is not just us that find it difficult. Bible scholars do too. The task of explaining and learning something from these verses then falls to me so that we can find ways to act upon what we will learn, for God’s word never returns to Him empty.
We looked at verse 18 last time, ‘Christ died once for our sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, the He might bring us to God’. I hope that this has become much clearer for you now. If not, have a listen to last week’s sermon on our website.
Let’s venture into the other verses now. In verse 19 the Spirits ‘in prison’ are spirits which are NOT spirits of people. When the Greek word ‘pneumata’ used here by itself, it means spiritual beings like angels. Angels fall into two camps:
So, the ones in verse 19 are the bad ones, because ‘they did not obey’ and submit to Christ. (Look up Genesis 6 verses 1 – 4 and Revelation 12 verses 7-9 for more details)
Angels, just like humans, can choose to obey or disobey God and His rules that are the best paths for us to travel along. Peter mentions it again in 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 4.
So, we are being told that Jesus went to these bad or fallen angels and told them something. Most likely it was that He is alive, despite the evil plans of their leader Satan. There is no sense that He is preaching to them, just proclamation verse 19.
Clearly, He, Jesus has won, and that their disobedience was their choice to be on the losing side, evil and death are defeated. This is what Jesus was doing between His death on Good Friday and His resurrection on the Sunday.
Still on the theme of disobedience, Peter moves onto God’s protection of Noah and his family who were saved because they were obedient and had faith in God while those who were disobedient perished in God’s judgement under the flood. Now God was very disappointed in humanity at the time of Noah. Genesis says, ‘they were greatly wicked at that time’. We looked at sin last week and deduce that sin has consequences and that a price needs to be paid OR God’s judgement will fall. Verse 20 says, ‘God waited patiently in the days of Noah’.
God is longsuffering, always hoping humanity will repent and turn from disobedience to Him and His ways, to obedience and blessing, but our sinful nature often rules us and enslaves us in disobedience towards God. God does not delight in issuing His judgement but He does abhor evil and sin.
In the story of the Flood, Noah was the one man who was deemed righteous through his faith in God. So much so, that God made a legal agreement, a Covenant’ to save Noah and his family and the creatures that entered the ark – and of course the things that lived in the water.
Next Peter says Noah and his family were ‘saved through water and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also, not removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God’.
Water then symbolises the judgement of God in the flood and the salvation God offers, as it saves those who were in the Ark and kept away from the judgement by that same water.
As Peter now links the flood event to baptism, this is where there is confusion and differing opinions in theology among Christians. It does not make any sense that by being baptised you are automatically saved, though some people would claim this. Peter though qualifies his words by saying ‘not the removal of dirt but the pledge of a clear conscience towards God’. Water can of course clean away dirt on the outside but it cannot wash away sin on the inside. Nor can it give us a good conscience.
Baptism then is a Christian ritual that is a covenant sign of God’s grace. In this covenant, God has made us the offer and set the conditions. We can have an obedient relationship with God. If we keep our side of the legal deal, then our consciences will be made clean.
However, the central Gospel message is that we need to repent of our disobedience towards God and invite the completed work of ‘Christ (who) also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death’ verse 18 and ‘It save you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ’ verse 21.
So, it is not the baptism that saves people in itself, but what it symbolises that is significant i.e. the death and resurrection of Jesus the righteous one for the unrighteous, us.
Baptism is then a sign and a declaration of intent to obey god. The baptised one is offered to God for their faith in God, in obedience, just like Noah, his wife and their three sons and wives, on the Ark. From then on, a new life is to be lived, following God’s ways, turning away from evil and sin.
In baptism, we are acknowledging that we are sinners and that there is nothing we can do to earn forgiveness. Yet, because of Christ’s unfinished work, we can ask to be made righteous in God’s sight as we decide to set out in obedience to follow God’s ways.
As the Holy Spirit enters into the space vacated by our sin, we become a child of the living God. Our sin is paid for by Christ, we are forgiven and we are clean and guiltless.
The question for us concerns temptation.
Are you aware when you are tempted to disobey God? If so, do you spot the trap and take avoiding action sometimes or always? Once we are cleansed, our conscience helps us to avoid piling more sin onto our Saviour.
Finally in verse 22 Jesus has done all that was required while He was here on earth. After the resurrection and ascension, He has returned to heaven to sit at the right hand of God. There our God rules with sovereign authority over all – angels, authorities etc. All will submit to Him. Every knee will bow. Paul writes about this in Ephesians chapter 1 and we will finish with his words from verses 18 to 23.
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
In last week’s introduction we talked about words and some difficulties with their meaning. The verses we are looking at today are difficult to understand but it is not just us that find it difficult. Bible scholars do too. The task of explaining and learning something from these verses then falls to me so that we can find ways to act upon what we will learn, for God’s word never returns to Him empty.
We looked at verse 18 last time, ‘Christ died once for our sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, the He might bring us to God’. I hope that this has become much clearer for you now. If not, have a listen to last week’s sermon on our website.
Let’s venture into the other verses now. In verse 19 the Spirits ‘in prison’ are spirits which are NOT spirits of people. When the Greek word ‘pneumata’ used here by itself, it means spiritual beings like angels. Angels fall into two camps:
- the good ones and
- the bad ones.
So, the ones in verse 19 are the bad ones, because ‘they did not obey’ and submit to Christ. (Look up Genesis 6 verses 1 – 4 and Revelation 12 verses 7-9 for more details)
Angels, just like humans, can choose to obey or disobey God and His rules that are the best paths for us to travel along. Peter mentions it again in 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 4.
So, we are being told that Jesus went to these bad or fallen angels and told them something. Most likely it was that He is alive, despite the evil plans of their leader Satan. There is no sense that He is preaching to them, just proclamation verse 19.
Clearly, He, Jesus has won, and that their disobedience was their choice to be on the losing side, evil and death are defeated. This is what Jesus was doing between His death on Good Friday and His resurrection on the Sunday.
Still on the theme of disobedience, Peter moves onto God’s protection of Noah and his family who were saved because they were obedient and had faith in God while those who were disobedient perished in God’s judgement under the flood. Now God was very disappointed in humanity at the time of Noah. Genesis says, ‘they were greatly wicked at that time’. We looked at sin last week and deduce that sin has consequences and that a price needs to be paid OR God’s judgement will fall. Verse 20 says, ‘God waited patiently in the days of Noah’.
God is longsuffering, always hoping humanity will repent and turn from disobedience to Him and His ways, to obedience and blessing, but our sinful nature often rules us and enslaves us in disobedience towards God. God does not delight in issuing His judgement but He does abhor evil and sin.
In the story of the Flood, Noah was the one man who was deemed righteous through his faith in God. So much so, that God made a legal agreement, a Covenant’ to save Noah and his family and the creatures that entered the ark – and of course the things that lived in the water.
Next Peter says Noah and his family were ‘saved through water and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also, not removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God’.
Water then symbolises the judgement of God in the flood and the salvation God offers, as it saves those who were in the Ark and kept away from the judgement by that same water.
As Peter now links the flood event to baptism, this is where there is confusion and differing opinions in theology among Christians. It does not make any sense that by being baptised you are automatically saved, though some people would claim this. Peter though qualifies his words by saying ‘not the removal of dirt but the pledge of a clear conscience towards God’. Water can of course clean away dirt on the outside but it cannot wash away sin on the inside. Nor can it give us a good conscience.
Baptism then is a Christian ritual that is a covenant sign of God’s grace. In this covenant, God has made us the offer and set the conditions. We can have an obedient relationship with God. If we keep our side of the legal deal, then our consciences will be made clean.
However, the central Gospel message is that we need to repent of our disobedience towards God and invite the completed work of ‘Christ (who) also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death’ verse 18 and ‘It save you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ’ verse 21.
So, it is not the baptism that saves people in itself, but what it symbolises that is significant i.e. the death and resurrection of Jesus the righteous one for the unrighteous, us.
Baptism is then a sign and a declaration of intent to obey god. The baptised one is offered to God for their faith in God, in obedience, just like Noah, his wife and their three sons and wives, on the Ark. From then on, a new life is to be lived, following God’s ways, turning away from evil and sin.
In baptism, we are acknowledging that we are sinners and that there is nothing we can do to earn forgiveness. Yet, because of Christ’s unfinished work, we can ask to be made righteous in God’s sight as we decide to set out in obedience to follow God’s ways.
As the Holy Spirit enters into the space vacated by our sin, we become a child of the living God. Our sin is paid for by Christ, we are forgiven and we are clean and guiltless.
The question for us concerns temptation.
Are you aware when you are tempted to disobey God? If so, do you spot the trap and take avoiding action sometimes or always? Once we are cleansed, our conscience helps us to avoid piling more sin onto our Saviour.
Finally in verse 22 Jesus has done all that was required while He was here on earth. After the resurrection and ascension, He has returned to heaven to sit at the right hand of God. There our God rules with sovereign authority over all – angels, authorities etc. All will submit to Him. Every knee will bow. Paul writes about this in Ephesians chapter 1 and we will finish with his words from verses 18 to 23.
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.