1 Peter 3:18-22 | You Are Not Alone

Sunday Morning | December 8, 2024 | John C. Majors | Louisville, KY

In this sermon from Pastor John's series 1 Peter: Finding Joy in Suffering, based on 1 Peter 3:18-22, believers are reminded of three reasons they are not alone in their suffering. First, Christ Himself suffered, as highlighted in 1 Timothy 3:16, enduring the ultimate pain to bring humanity to God. Second, Noah's story in Genesis 6:5 serves as an example of enduring faith in the midst of widespread wickedness and hardship. Finally, the message emphasizes that God is faithful to rescue those who trust Him, as seen in Hebrews 11:6-7 and James 1:21, offering hope and salvation to those who endure with steadfast faith. Together, these truths underscore the presence and faithfulness of God in the midst of suffering.

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Transcript

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Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. Well, it's great to be with you this morning while we are continuing our study of First Peter, we've been working through the book of First Peter with the theme of finding joy in suffering. And if you want to turn to First Peter chapter three, that's where we'll be today. Wrapping up chapter three. If you have a church Bible, that page number will be on the screen telling you where to look that up. If you don't have a Bible, we have those out in the lobby. You can run out any time. Grab one. Those are free for you to have. It'll be on page 955. There is a place in the South Pacific in the ocean that's considered the loneliest place on Earth. In fact, we'll put the image on the screen. It's called Point Nemo. It's not actually an island or anything. It's just a place in the ocean that they've identified. This is the furthest point from any other point of land anywhere in the world is right there, Point Nemo. You're thousands of miles from any other human in fact, if you're in Point Nemo, you're closer to someone passing overhead in a space station. You're closer to that human than anyone else. That's how isolated and lonely it is. That's where they try to direct all the space trash, any kind of satellite or space station that's fallen out of orbit. They try to make sure it lands there because it's least likely to hit anyone. And as we've been journeying through the book of First Peter, if you felt lonely at Point Nemo, there's a good likelihood that if you are suffering, you probably feel alone. A lot of times in life when you're struggling, when you're suffering, when you're going through something hard, you feel like, am I the only person dealing with this? Is there anybody else out there to help me? And by the way, where is God in the midst of this? In the midst of suffering, you can feel very alone. Here's what the passage today is about. You are not alone. Even in the midst of feeling alone, in the midst of suffering, in the midst of trying to find joy in the midst of suffering, you're not alone. We're going to see that in the passage today. First Peter three verses 18 through 22. You're going to see three reasons why you're not alone in the midst of the suffering. In fact, the reason why we can make that case for today's section follows on last week. We ended last week in verse 17. This sets up this section of verses we're going to look at. If you read back in verse 17, he makes the case to conclude last week's message. For it is better to suffer for doing good if that should be God's will, than for doing evil. Last week he makes the case. It can actually be good to suffer for doing good. It's better to do that than to suffer for doing evil. And it may even be God's will. How can he make that point? The whole point of that this week is to clarify that. You want to know why I can say it's better to suffer for doing good? I'm going to give you three reasons why you won't be alone in the midst of it. So let's look at these verses. We're going to look at today where we see these three reasons why you're not alone in the midst of your suffering. Verse 18. We're going to start with verse 18. For this first reason. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit. So you want to know why you're not alone in the midst of your suffering? Here's the first reason-- he says right here the reason why. Let me give you an example. Christ also suffered.

That's the first reason why: 4:03

Christ also suffered. Peter has often talked about Christ's sufferings in various places. In chapter two, he talked about how Christ suffered for us. As an example. And here he makes a couple other points about Christ's suffering. He uses a couple of key words. He says he he suffered once. If you look back in verse 18, suffered once for sins, meaning Christ’s death one time was enough for all your sins. Every time you sin, he doesn't have to go die again. Oh, they messed up. I better show up again. Die again. He saw he was that powerful. He died once, but also it was the righteous for the unrighteous. And in the original language is interesting. Righteous is singular. Unrighteous is plural. A theme we see in Romans five. One man died for many. His singular death was enough to cover all our sins. Now, first Peter two talked about how his death was, his suffering was, an example, but here it goes beyond that. He didn’t die just to be an example. Look at what it says here. He died once for our sins, righteous for the unrighteous,

--purpose: 5:19

that he might bring us to God. Jesus, when he died, he didn't just say, and you should die and suffer too. No, no, no. He said my death is going to bridge that huge gap between you and God that is caused by your sin. His death is what brings us closer to God. And so in his suffering, though, is the first reason why you're not alone in your suffering. Jesus has been there too. You're not the only one. Now there's someone else he brings up. It's interesting, though, about this passage. You know, the way this starts, it starts a little bit like a creed or a confession. There's different parts of Scripture that are like this that seem to be where the author is just declaring a bunch of truth statements about Christ to remind ourselves. This is kind of why we sing some of these songs. You hear the same statement over and over again, in a rhythmic way, to remind your own heart of the truth of who Christ is. A good example of this is over in first Timothy is just a few pages over from First Peter. The page number for that should be on the screen.

First Timothy 3: 6:29

16. You'll see an example of a of a bit of a creed or a confession about Christ. 16 it says he was manifested in the flesh. Vindicated by the spirit seen by the angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up into glory. You get these quick statements about Christ in a compact way that summarizes up a lot of what he did. Back to first Peter. Many people believe Peter was starting into some kind of confession or creed with this verse, because he talks about his death on our behalf, and also how he was made alive in the spirit. But what happens here is he's interrupted because verse 22, he's going to end up with his ascension into heaven. Kind of the same rhythm you would see with a confession, because I think-- can't be for sure. I'm not in Peter's head-- but I think he's also remembered of another example. Christ is a great example of someone who's been through suffering that you can relate to and not feel alone because of, but he gives another example. Look at verse 19, verse 19 and 20. He was made alive in the spirit in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey when God's patience waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons were brought safely through water. The second reason why you can know you're not alone in suffering is the second example he gives here. And that's because Noah suffered. And we're going to talk some about that. But first let me point out something that's pretty obvious about this passage. This is kind of confusing stuff. As I read through this and skimmed across it, you were probably going, what in the world is going on here? Spirits in prison formerly did not obey. Jesus proclaimed something to them while the ark was being prepared. What all is going on? If you feel confused by this, you're in good company. Let me just say, because every commentator I read said this is one of the hardest passages in the New Testament to understand. In fact, Martin Luther, let me read you exactly the words he used. This is a guy of extreme brilliance who spent a lot of time studying scripture. His words here were. This is a wonderful text, and more obscure perhaps, than any other in the New Testament, so that I do not know for certain just what he means. So if you feel confused by this, you're in good company. A lot of confusion about what this means. Let me first set the stage for what this might mean. First, let's just talk about why would he even bring up Noah to begin with. Christ's a great example of someone who suffered. Why Noah in this setting, in this context? Why would Peter be writing about Noah to bring up an example? I mean, we know he loves to quote the Old Testament we've talked about this week after week. Peter loves to quote the Old Testament. Certainly, that's part of the reason. One interesting thing is that Noah would have likely have been known as kind of a local regional hero at this time, even among pagan Roman society. We know this because of some of the coins. If you put up that first image of the four different coins, there's been a number of different coins, Roman coins found from this era that have on them. On one side you'll have. These are hard to see from there. Why don't you show the next one? You'll get a close up of one of them. The are of two of them on one sides. The Emperor on the other side is image of Noah and his wife. We do this with coins. By the way, if you have gotten a quarter over the last 20 years on one side is George Washington on the other side is one of the 50 states or one of the national parks, one of the local things that connect with that culture. The Romans often did this because they said, yes, we're in charge, but also we're honoring your culture as well. And so the interesting thing in this picture is if you zoom in, you get Noah. And that's supposed to the other thing there next to him, supposed to be the Ark. If you go to the next image, you'll see we're getting a little closer. That looks more like a car door to me personally. I don't know about you. I don't know why they'd be carrying a car door. Maybe roll down the window if they get hot. I've heard people do that, but for whatever reason, that's considered the Ark on a coin. Point being, Noah would have been known in that culture at that time. They would have known who he was. Even the pagans would have been aware of who Noah was. So he's referencing them just because, look, this is common knowledge that I can reference upon, but biblically also, when you try to think of people in Scripture, in the history of the world who have suffered because of their faith and being very alone, who can have experienced that more than Noah? You know, Noah, just try this today. Just go out in your front yard and start building a boat and declaring to the world that a global flood is coming and going to destroy everyone, and you should repent. You might have to buy up a few other houses around you to make that boat big enough. Everyone will think you are utterly insane. We probably will too. Even though we know what happens. We know the story. You're going to be very isolated socially. But not only that. I mean, if you go back to the book of Genesis, chapter six, verse five, Noah wasn't only isolated socially, the very beginning of the Bible, the part of the reason God, main reason God brought the flood is because of the whole climate. He wasn't just isolated socially, he was isolated spiritually, the whole spiritual climate. Verse five says this the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually he looked out across the world and saw just rampant evil everywhere among everyone except Noah and his family. And look, if you've ever felt alone at work, am I the only one here who wants to do the right thing? If you ever felt alone at school, more than likely. There's been times where you've wondered, does anybody else care anything at all about Christ? Maybe even your own family? You may have felt this at times. I feel like I'm standing alone to do the right thing. I feel like everybody's against me. Imagine how Noah felt. Everyone everywhere. Only evil continually. He was isolated socially. He was isolated spiritually. But at the end of the day, he was isolated physically. Once the flood came, there was no other place on earth to go. Everywhere was Point Nemo the most isolated family in the history. All of history. If you want to know what it feels like to be alone, if you want to know if anybody understands, if anybody can relate, it's going to be Noah. That's probably part of the reason why he brings up Noah to begin with. But what about all this other stuff here in terms of him saying things like Jesus in the spirit went proclaimed to the spirits in prison, who are the spirits in prison? What was Jesus doing there? What was he saying in the days of Noah? While the ark was being prepared? A lot of very confusing statements. Someone calculated what are all the different interpretations of this we could come up with if we took every phrase and all the different meanings that could be taken from each phrase, and they ended up with something like 180 different understandings of this verse. And I'm going to go through all of them, right, right now. No. They all kind of fall into three main buckets. I'm going to cover the first two very quickly just to tell you what some have seen here and have thought maybe this means one understanding that's often thought of here is that some have thought that Jesus actually himself went to hell at some point in time and preached to people who had been alive at the time of Noah, but rejected God and died to give him a second chance. I don't think that follows with the rest of Scripture, so I don't I don't hold to that view, but that's one view that's held. Another sees these spirits in prison as angels who have fallen, also spent time on earth, may have done other nefarious things while they were here and then. So when Jesus ascended to heaven, which he talks about in verse 22, he declared victory over them, just declaring to them, I am the one who is victorious here. That's another view to get there. I think there's a lot of jumps that have to be made looking at outside books of the Bible, like First Enoch, and it's hard to follow. Where I land follows along with what I think is some of the context of First Peter. You know how we determine the meaning of any passages. We look at what's around it, every word you understand by context. You understand the meaning of any word, by the words around it. The way you understand any passage of the Bible is what's going on around it. And we've already seen in first Peter this view that Jesus was working through people in the Old Testament. If you turn back to chapter one, I just remind you of verses ten and 11. Peter, open the book of First Peter talking about salvation, some of the glories of glories, of salvation, what Christ has done in our life. And look at what he says

in verse ten: 16:03

concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied-- prophets in the Old Testament, prophets long ago -- the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours. Here's what they did. They searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time. And here's the phrase, I want you to take note of the Spirit of Christ In them was indicating. When he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. So Peter has already made the case that Christ was talking through and to the prophets of the Old Testament. He was working through them to speak to the people they were around at the time. And so when we flip back to our passage here where he talks about Christ in the spirit, proclaiming to spirits in prison during the days of Noah, I think the point of this, and I'm talking at a really high level here, because we could spend the whole day getting deep in the weeds and all of this. But I think at a really high level, his main point is that in the same way Christ spoke through the prophets back in the days of old, he was speaking through Noah to the people in Noah's day and age. Just like by the way, Christ speaks through us today. If you're witnessing to someone else about Christ, Christ is speaking through you to them. And if you go back to the time of Noah, the whole time he's building that ark, we don't know exactly how long it took, but I'm guessing especially if he works at my pace on home projects. It took a really long time. There wouldn't be enough time in my lifetime to accomplish that, and I think the whole time he's doing that to everyone who's watching, to everyone who's ridiculing, repent, repent. Time is short. Repent. Don't wait any longer. Judgment is coming. Repent. Now the beautiful part of him bringing up Noah as well. One other thing he emphasizes here is the grace, the mercy, the patience of God. How is that not better displayed in the life of Moses? Moses. Noah. Common mistake. Noah. Turn to second Peter three nine. Just go over a page or two. Second Peter three nine. Because here's how this relates to us. If you're in the midst of suffering, if you're feeling alone, often times you wonder why. What could God be doing through this? How could he be working in anyone else's life through this? Why me? What are you doing? Look at second Peter three nine. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness in the midst of suffering. It feels really slow to me. He's not slow, not as we count slowness. But he is patient towards you. Why is he patient? Not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. Why does he let suffering continue in your life? I don't know fully. I can't know all the reasons, but one reason may be he may be using your suffering to reach someone else. And by the way, I got to say, I'm really glad he has been very patient with me. Anyone else glad that God was patient with you? Anyone else glad that he didn't just strike you down at any of the thousands of times he could have? Maybe he is using your suffering to show his patience to point someone else toward him. I remember I had a friend in college, had a group, different group of people I studied with. And this this one person. This girl had a friend. She had a family member, in fact, who his whole life had lived. What I think we all would consider a very rebellious, sinful life had done many wrong things, been evil towards so many people. But at the end of his life, God moved and he repented radically changed his life. Right at the very end. And she was so mad about that. She didn't like that at all. What kind of God would let a guy live that way his whole life? And all of a sudden at the end, have a get out of jail free card? What kind of God is that? she said. She was, she's like, look, I've done the right thing. I've tried to live my life right. And yet, yet he gets off. What kind of God would do that? I said, a patient, a loving, a merciful God. By the way, he had to show you that same patience and love and kindness. You didn't save yourself because you acted so much better than him. And by the way, I'm sure he would much rather have not done all that in hindsight and lived a very different life. We serve a patient God. One, it's not about what we've done. And of course, our hope is to not dishonor him, to not live in a way of rebellion against him. When we're in the midst of suffering and feeling alone, one of the ways we find joy is to know God is at work through this in someone's life. Somehow. I don't know how yet. I don't know what he's doing, but I guarantee somebody is watching. Somebody is seeing what he's doing. And so that's where he leads to the third part on this. The first was that Christ suffered. That's how you know you're not alone. The second Noah suffered and was very alone. More isolated than anyone ever. You're not alone. It may feel like you're alone. In fact, there's this whole pattern in Scripture of people feeling very alone. I mean, you probably remember the story of Elijah, where he had stood up to the prophets of Baal, but then he gets persecution and he flees and he's like, God, just take me. I know I'm the only one left. And what does God say to him? I got 7000 other prophets who haven't kneeled to Baal. You think you're alone? You're not. I really think that's part of the reason we come here together. You can't get this experience online. Or you walk in a room and there's not 7000 people here, but there's a few hundred others, and you go, I thought I was the only one. I'm not alone. Others are coming and saying, Christ matters in my life and I need him today. You're not alone. Jesus felt alone and forsaken. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And yet, how does the passage in, look at verse 22. He's gone into heaven. He's at the right hand of God with the angels. And authorities and powers having been subjected to him. He wasn't alone. He felt alone, but he ended up at the right hand of God. Not alone. Not alone at all. Christ suffered, Noah suffered. And then, number three, here's the third reason why you know you're not alone. God rescues. At the end of the day, he is the one who rescues those, even those who are very few and feel very alone. Look back at verse 21, look at 20 and 21 because it says, in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is just eight persons were brought safely through water, he rescues even a very few. But then Peter does something interesting here. He he he relates that whole episode of knowing the Ark to baptism, which is great today because we're going to do baptisms here in a few minutes. Perfect timing on the passage to cover. He relates this all to baptism. Look at what he says. Verse 21. Baptism corresponds to this. It now saves you not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Baptism, Noah's Ark. Obviously, both involve water. That's one obvious connection between the two. Noah's Ark though in that story the water was the judgment. Water is what destroyed the earth, and it was the ark that rescued them from the water. But here's the key distinction it wasn't the ark. It was God. And when you're baptized, it's not the water that saves you. It's not me or some other pastor because we're more holy or more special. Dunking you that saves you. It's not this church in particular that saves you. No, Christ saves you. That's what he says here. It's an appeal to Christ. It's not the removal of dirt. It's not the ceremony that saves you. It wasn't the ark that saves them. It was Noah's trust in God. And so when someone comes to be baptized, as we'll see here in just a minute, the first question you'll hear Colby, he'll be up in the baptismal today is the first question. You'll hear him ask them. And we always ask them a question. We ask them a couple of different questions. The first one is always this. Are you coming trusting in Christ alone for your salvation today? Are you trusting him alone? Nothing else. Not the ceremony, not your works? Are you trusting in him alone for your salvation today? Not the removal of dirt, not the ceremony? Trusting in him alone. It's the appeal to him. It's the pledge to him. And when they stand up there, here's what they're saying. They're saying two different things. God, I don't want to live the way I've lived anymore. And I need you to move in my life to make that happen. I can't do it on my own. Would you move in my life? I remember sitting in a church when we attended church in Little Rock, Arkansas. This would have been 5 or 6 years ago now. And I remember one Sunday morning, the pastor saying this. He had been talking about suffering in that message and the challenges we face. And he said, I want I want you to hear something very clear. And I was going through a pretty rough season at that moment. I don't know if it would be suffering for my faith, but man, I felt weighed down and overwhelmed. And he said, sometimes the temptation is to feel like because you are suffering, God is against you. God, why do you hate me? Why are you allowing this to happen? How much more can I take? I feel like Job here. What are you trying to do to me? But then the pastor said this. He said, I want you to hear that your suffering may be the very sign of God's pleasure in your life. Really? God's pleasure. It may be the sign of how much he trusts you. It may be the sign of how much he knows that you will bear up and be a testimony of him to the world. Part of me. I didn't really like hearing that. Honestly. Really. God, I don't, I don't, I'm good without the suffering. Honestly, if you want to take it away. And yet another part of it was a great comfort. It may be the very sign of his love for you and trust in you, and I don't know where that is for you. But as we watch these baptisms, I guarantee you the people who are standing up here, some of them watched suffering, and it may have been in some of your lives, and they saw Christ at work, and he will use that in someone's life as he used it today in their lives. In fact, we're going to turn now to the baptismal pit if Colby, if you would come down and introduce yourself and begin into the baptisms here in just a second.