Pastor Tim Brown, Calvary Chapel Fremont, Sunday December 6, 2009

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Jesus is speaking through you

1 Peter 3:18-22

Martin Luther: This is a wonderful passage and more obscure perhaps than any other in the NT, so I don’t know for a certainty just what Peter means.  So, if you walk out of here this morning not knowing what this passage really means, you’re in good company!

Context is everything.  If you don’t know the context of a particular thing, you can really mess up.  Context: the set of circumstances/facts that surround a particular event/situation…  What if you were 2C me enter a bar and an hour later see me stumble out?  Would you assume the worst or that maybe a sister in the church called and asked me to go talk to her husband at that bar and that I tripped on the threshold on my way out?  Context is everything.  

What’s the context here?  V17 – and then v18 tells us that this is what happened to Jesus.  His unjust suffering didn’t stop Him from loving God nor prevent Him from fulfilling His ministry.  Though people may stop your forward progress, they can’t stop your upward progress.  Joseph suffered unjustly/continued to grow.  Though people may stymie your will, they can’t stop God’s will.  God fulfilled His will in/through those who came against Jesus.  When UR walking in the will of God, God will use difficult circumstances/people to bring His will to pass in your life.  There is something unfolding in my life that I think is unfair and I have noticed an anger smoldering in me.  This thing is stopping my forward progress.  But the Lord has spoken so clearly to my heart and has told me that it can’t hinder my upward progress.  God is using this thing to work something into my life.  

Peter is encouraging the church that even though she is being persecuted/suffering unjustly, God will use this to bring glory to Himself.  Cf. 2:9.  Here’s your purpose, Peter says, to proclaim the excellencies of God.  In your suffering, serve God.

We normally have only one Biblical lens we use when looking at difficult circumstances - Ja. 1:2-4.  In trouble, all we think of is how God is going to bless us/bring good things our way.  When we go through hard times we think that God is using this to bless us – and this is certainly a part of the truth.  Another perspective is that when we go through hard times God wants to use this as a setting where we bless Him.  We’re looking for the goodies and God’s looking for the glory.  All we think about is God blessing us and not us blessing God.  

The sufferings of Jesus didn’t hinder His ministry/message – helped.  His sufferings didn’t end His usefulness, but expanded it.  Peter: suffering gives UA platform/audience for blessing God that you didn’t have B4.  Suffering brings UN2 places/B4 people that otherwise you wouldn’t be.  E.g., if all Jesus did was to live an exemplary life/teach on virtue, He would be an important figure today.  We would maybe even have an organized group of those who follow His virtuous example/teaching on integrity.  

But if He wasn’t crucified/risen – no hope/help for sinners.  In fact, His virtuous life would discourage many.  The sufferings of Jesus accomplished what could not have been done w/o them.  Your sufferings bring you unique opportunities to proclaim His excellencies.  Whatever else the passage means, it means that God will use your suffering to bring Him glory. That’s the context - 

The issues where commentators differ are at least these:

1. Who are the spirits in prison? unbelievers who have died | OT believers who have died | fallen angels

2. What did Christ preach? second chance for repentance | completion of redemptive work | final condemnation | righteousness and repentance

3. When did He preach? in Noah’s day | between death/resurrection | post resurrection

These five views have been the most commonly held:

View 1: When Noah was building the ark, Christ “in spirit” was in Noah preaching repentance/righteousness through him to unbelievers who were on the earth then but are now “spirits in prison”.

View 2: After Christ died, he went and preached to people in hell, offering them a second chance of salvation.

View 3: After Christ died, he went and preached to people in hell, proclaiming to them that he had triumphed over them and their condemnation was final.

View 4: After Christ died, he proclaimed release to people who had repented just before they died in the flood, and led them out of their imprisonment into heaven.

View 5: After Christ died (or: after he rose but before he ascended into heaven), he travelled to hell and proclaimed triumph over the fallen angels who had sinned by marrying human women before the flood.1  Do UC why ML said he was uncertain as to the meaning?

I think View 1 makes the most sense in light of the context… Christ was speaking through Noah as He is speaking through us.  If Jesus is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the earth (Rev. 13:8) then He is the Son risen from the foundation of the earth.  Jesus spoke thru Noah/Jesus speaks thru you.  In your suffering – powerfully used by God.  

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we  beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.  2 Corinthians 5:8

For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.    Matthew 10:20

When you are telling someone about Jesus, Jesus is speaking through you.  The outcome of your sharing w/ them isn’t dependent upon your flawless logic/exhaustive Biblical knowledge/flowing eloquence.  You can leave the outcome w/ the Lord.  I listened to someone’s testimony the other day where, for an hour, they laid out to someone all the reasons they were agnostic as to God/antagonistic to Christ.  The person who was sharing Christ merely said to him, “You need Jesus”, and the man just broke.  

If Jesus was speaking through Noah, the spirits now in prison were those who disbelieved in Noah’s day.  The context points to the flood of Noah in which time God was angry with human beings.  

Who are ”the spirits in prison”. They are those who: formerly disobeyed in the days of Noah when the patience of God was waiting during the building of the ark.  1P3 speaks not of those who disobeyed long before the flood, but of those who disobeyed precisely “when the ark was being built.”  The mention of only eight being saved points to a preaching to sinners who need repentance… The “angelic” interpretation doesn’t work - there is no statement in the OT/NT that fallen angels ever have a chance to repent  …2 

If Peter is referring to Christ appealing to Noah’s generation to get right w/ God, it was a message of judgment/salvation/repentance.

    * God is sending a judgment
    * God has provided a way of escape (an ark)
    * God commands repentance

Christ preached the same message He gives us to preach.

    * Judgment is coming
    * God has provided a way of escape
    * Repent and get right with God - baptism

Noah and his family were saved from water by the ark.  The water that would have killed them lifted them up.  We are baptized into the death of Christ by which death we are saved.  Baptism is important – Jesus preached it/apostles practiced it/epistles teach it.

In NT a person was not baptized because they did not want to become a Christian…the rejection of baptism was a rejection of God’s plan of salvation.  To reject baptism was to reject the gospel message preached by Peter, Paul, and the other apostles who spoke of the need of baptism. 3

I apologize 2U4 not giving baptism the emphasis that Jesus/ apostles gave to it.  They thought it important enough to example/ practice/teach it w/ great regularity.  

The picture of baptism presents another truth – because Noah/ family were in the ark, they didn’t need to fear the water coming down upon them/up out of the earth.  The water bore them along.  If URN Christ, no need to fear the waters of trouble – they will carry you along.  

Christ’s sufferings didn’t hinder His work, they expanded it.  God has ordained that what you are going through gives you a greater testimony and larger audience for the gospel.  Will you let Jesus speak through you?

Acts 16 – Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved… immediately he was baptized.