1 Peter 3:18-22
The book of 1 Peter is a somewhat troubling book.
Much like the 10th chapter of Matthew.
Peter is writing to those who are suffering for their faith.
Not only has he shown them that their suffering is intended
Not only has he shown them that their suffering isn’t over
Peter has told them to persevere through it.
1 Peter 3:13-17 “Who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. AND DO NOT FEAR THEIR INTIMIDATION, AND DO NOT BE TROUBLED, 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; and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong.”
DID PETER ACTUALLY SAY WHAT I THINK HE JUST SAID?
Did he actually say, “it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong”?
Suppose you’re suffering and Peter looks down at your situation and says, “at least you aren’t suffering for doing something wrong.”
That doesn’t seem to help.
Yet God’s word says it is better.
It is a biblical fact, that as a Christian, you either are, or will Suffer for the gospel at the hand of sinners.
But take hope! This is not the end,
The Christian life does not end in defeat, it ends in victory!
Adrian Rogers football analogy
If there is no enemy, there is no victory.
Consider the 144,000
Revelation 14:1-5 “Then I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder, and the voice which I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps. And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders; and no one could learn the song except the one hundred and forty-four thousand who had been purchased from the earth. These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they have kept themselves chaste. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been purchased from among men as first fruits to God and to the Lamb. And no lie was found in their mouth; they are blameless.”
You cannot have victory if there is no enemy, you can only have practice.
“it is better…that you suffer for doing what is right than for doing what is wrong”
And there is no greater example of this than Jesus.
Which is why Peter starts off this text with the word “for”.
He is using the suffering of Jesus as the ultimate example.
Many times in our lives, we see suffering as defeat,
Yet the darkest day of suffering in all of Christianity
Proved to be the day that demons everywhere would love to forget.
Certainly Satan schemed,
His demons became excited,
They would kill the King.
It didn’t take long to seduce a few willing Pharisees,
And just like that the greatest assassination of all time was underway.
But little did they know, the day they had long anticipated
Would become the day the demons trembled.
James said it like this.
James 2:19 “You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.”
So this morning, we look at the suffering of Jesus,
How His suffering was actually turned to great victory over His foes.
And may we learn that our suffering will not end in defeat,
But is also leading to glorious victory!
As the devil and his demons fulfilled their plan to kill the Christ,
We see four effects that they did not expect.
#1 HE SPOILED THEIR CAUSE
1 Peter 3:18a
You and I both know what the enemy must have had in mind.
It was the same thing the Pharisees had in mind.
Matthew 21:38 “But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.”
Instead of allowing the Son to rule over them, they desired to rule in His place.
Psalms 2:1-3 “Why are the nations in an uproar And the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand And the rulers take counsel together Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, “Let us tear their fetters apart And cast away their cords from us!”
They didn’t want Him to rule.
And Satan didn’t want Him to deliver God’s people.
For centuries, Satan had been oppressing the people of God.
He used Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Media / Persia, Greece, and now Rome.
He didn’t want God’s people to be freed.
Their idea was simple. Let’s foil His plan, lets kill Him.
Their first clue that this was a bad idea
Should have been their ineptness at carrying out the task.
There is no greater proof in the Bible that God is sovereign Than the death of Jesus.
They could not kill Him until He was ready.
Herod tried and failed
His hometown tried and failed
The Pharisees tried on numerous occasions and failed.
We just kept seeing this phrase in Scripture
John 7:30 “So they were seeking to seize Him; and no man laid his hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come.”
TURN TO THE GOSPEL OF MARK
READ MARK 11:18
READ MARK 12:12
There is two accounts of when they wanted to kill Jesus and couldn’t.
We see the same during Jesus arrest.
READ MARK 14:48-49
John 18:2-11 “Now Judas also, who was betraying Him, knew the place, for Jesus had often met there with His disciples. Judas then, having received the Roman cohort and officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, came there with lanterns and torches and weapons. So Jesus, knowing all the things that were coming upon Him, went forth and said to them, “Whom do you seek?” They answered Him, “Jesus the Nazarene.” He said to them, “I am He.” And Judas also, who was betraying Him, was standing with them. So when He said to them, “I am He,” they drew back and fell to the ground. Therefore He again asked them, ” Whom do you seek?” And they said, “Jesus the Nazarene.” Jesus answered, “I told you that I am He; so if you seek Me, let these go their way,” to fulfill the word which He spoke, “Of those whom You have given Me I lost not one.” Simon Peter then, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off his right ear; and the slave’s name was Malchus. So Jesus said to Peter, “Put the sword into the sheath; the cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?”
The arrest is also proof that they couldn’t kill Him when He wasn’t ready.
HOW ABOUT HIS TRIAL?
READ MARK 14:53-65
They couldn’t even condemn Him.
If He had stayed silent, they had no grounds on which to kill Him.
They couldn’t do anything until He was ready.
You say that proves nothing.
Assassination attempts get foiled all the time
But consider this.
READ MARK 14:1-2
They wanted Him dead, but there was one time they had determined that they did not want to kill Him. This time they had determined was off limits.
READ MARK 15:22-39
That is exactly when they killed Him.
And not only this, but He died precisely at 3:00pm,
The time when the first lamb of the Passover would be slain.
(“His hour”)
You tell me who was in control of His death. It wasn’t the enemy.
This should have been the demons first clue that something was wrong.
But they went ahead and killed Him,
The only problem was He spoiled their cause.
He couldn’t just die and that be the end of it.
He died and made a way for all man to get to God.
“For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God.”
Can’t you see Satan scratching his head as he witnesses thousands upon thousands finally being redeemed to God only because Jesus had now paid their sin debt.
“that was stupid”.
The demons had a great plan, the only problem was Jesus spoiled their cause.
#2 HE SPOKE THEIR CONDEMNATION
1 Peter 3:18b-20a
Now once again, lets bear in mind that they wanted to kill Him.
It will go down in history as the worst job ever of killing someone.
For “having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit”
All they accomplished was to kill His body.
His spirit was alive and well.
And this live spirit dropped down where they were.
“in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark,”
Now lets talk quickly about these spirits that Peter mentions.
Genesis 6:1-8 “Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.”
Nephilim. Comes from a word that means “to fall”, it gives the idea of an evil person that falls upon another for the cause of evil.
They were skilled, dangerous, destroyers.
You see them mentioned one other place in the Bible.
Numbers 13:31-33 “But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.” So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. “There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
“the sons of God”.
These are not humans or they would be called “the sons of man”
Job 1:6 “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them.”
They were inhabiting human bodies, and procreating with the women. The purpose was to create and unredeemable half demonic / half human race.
The offspring of these relations where producing people who were evil in comparison to the Nephilim.
Genesis 6:4 “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.”
Now because of this heinous crime, God decreed that in 120 years,
After Noah built the ark, He would destroy the whole shebang.
He sent the great flood, and preserved only Noah.
And these evil demons, Peter tells us where thrown into prison,
Unable to roam the earth.
Now picture the scene. If they could overthrow God, if they could kill His Son, if they could ensnare Jesus with them, what choice would God have but to free them.
It was a perfect plan. WRONG!
For when Jesus died, His spirit dropped into their prison.
Picture it:
• The demons encircle Him with an arrogant grin…
• He takes off the crown of thorns and flings into the head of one…
• He breaks the cross over one knee and hurls it to the ground…
• He says, “I Am God” and every demon hits the floor!
You see the word for “proclamation” is not EUNGALIZO (“to evangelize”)
It is KERUSSO (“to herald”)
It is to announce a King.
He stepped into hell and put the demons on their face,
And this must have been very startling
Because after all, they invited Him.
It reminds us of a vitally important truth.
Satan is not god in hell, the demons aren’t his jailors.
Jesus is God in hell, and the holy angels are the jailors.
Revelation 14:9-11 “Then another angel, a third one, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. “And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.”
That is why Psalm 2 says God laughs at those who reject Jesus.
He sees ahead and knows that they can reject Him as savior,
But they can never reject Him as Lord.
Philippians 2:8-11 “Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
They thought they would make Him suffer and kill Him,
In return He spoiled their plan and spoke their condemnation.
#3 HE SAVED THEIR CAPTIVES
1 Peter 3:20b-21
Drawing from the illustration of Noah and the ark,
Peter reminds of another way they failed.
It was the desire of Satan to condemn every man
So that they would be forced to worship him.
But by traveling through death, Jesus became the typological ark that carries His followers safely through the judgment.
That is why Peter says.
“corresponding to that, baptism now saves you”
He isn’t talking about water baptism, which is why he says, “not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience”
Peter is talking about all those who would be baptized into Christ.
All those who would partake of His death.
All those who would enter His ark.
Romans 6:3-5 “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,”
Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”
Satan just knew if he killed the Savior then salvation would be void.
But it was the death of the Savior that brought salvation.
Hebrews 2:14-15 “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”
Romans 8:1-3 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,”
It was the death and resurrection of Jesus that brought salvation.
He took our sin upon that cross just as Peter said in verse 18, “the just for the unjust”
He went where we should have gone down into prison.
He stole the keys and burst out the other side
Making salvation possible to all who would
Die to themselves and totally yield their lives to Him.
He spoiled their cause, He spoke their condemnation, He saved their captives.
#4 HE SUBJECTED THEIR CONVERTS
1 Peter 3:22
Notice what Peter says.
Jesus ascended to heaven, “after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.”
He dropped into hell and put hell on its knees
He burst out of death and put an end to its power
And now all are under His subjection.
1 Corinthians 15:25-28 “For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death. For HE HAS PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET. But when He says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him. When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.”
It doesn’t matter if we are talking about the demons (angels)
The kings they control (authorities)
Or the power they exercise (power)
Jesus reigns over all.
CAN YOU SEE THE VICTORY IN SUFFERING?
Satan brought about the ultimate suffering in Jesus, it produced the ultimate victory.
The day they thought would be a day worth celebrating
Actually became the day when demons trembled.
That is what Peter wants you to know suffering Christian.
“it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right, rather than for doing what is wrong.”
1 Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”
There is no greater victory than that which is found in Jesus Christ.
He proved His power by winning the victory through weakness.
“We in our foolishness thought we were wise, He played the fool and He opened our eyes, We in our weakness believed we were strong, He became helpless to show we were wrong. So we follow God’s own fool, For only the foolish can tell, Believe the unbelievable, Come be a fool as well.”
That’s your invitation this morning as well.
Come be a fool.
You can try your best to gain victory through your own efforts,
But victory only comes through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Have you ever come to Jesus?
There is victory in no one else.
Acts 4:10-12 “let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead — by this name this man stands here before you in good health. “He is the STONE WHICH WAS REJECTED by you, THE BUILDERS, but WHICH BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone. “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”
I’m about to pray, you come and give your life to Jesus.
