This transcript was generated by whisper.ai. Welcome back for day five of our look through 1 Peter chapter 3. As we get to the last verses of this chapter, Peter returns to looking at Jesus again. He's already done that a couple of times in this book. He sort of is layering things. He tells us what to do and then he has us look at Jesus. He tells us what to do and then he has us look at Jesus. And as we said last week, that is not a bad model for how to live the life that Jesus has for you. You look at what he has for you to do, but then you look at him because he is our model. He is our strength. And as we look at what Peter has to say to us today about Jesus, he emphasizes the fact that as followers of Jesus, one of the differences that we have in our lives is that we have a different message. He began to talk about this yesterday as he talked about the hope that we have within us. We have the message of the good news. In a world where we are inundated with bad news from every media source possible all throughout the day, every single part of the day, the message we have to share is desperately needed. We have the message of good news. So how good is the good news? I want to look at this from an historical basis and a personal basis. From the broad view, but then also the personal view. First, let's look at the good news from an historical basis. What does it mean that this good news has come into our lives? Well, it means number one, Jesus died for our sins. Verse 18, "For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. " These are some of the most powerful verses about what Jesus did on the cross in all of the New Testament. Simple, but incredibly powerful. Jesus died once for all. He doesn't have to die on the cross again and again and again. He doesn't have to have a separate death on the cross for every single person. That one death on the cross paid the price so that anyone who trusts in the gift of forgiveness that he's offering through that death on the cross comes to faith, comes to forgiveness, comes to life. Peter here is looking back in one way to the entire Old Testament where they had to make sacrifices again and again and again and again for the sins of the people, Jesus once for all. And then he says the righteous for the unrighteous. Jesus is perfect. Jesus is righteous. He never sinned. I am not perfect. I am unrighteous. I have often sinned. The righteous one, the holy one, gave himself for me on that cross, gave himself for you on that cross. That means that he, in one sense, substituted himself for us. His death in dying for you represented your death. He died on that cross so that you would not have to die for eternity and be apart from God. Sometimes this is called the substitutionary atonement. The idea behind that is that Jesus was willing to take your place. If we walk through the Scripture, what does this mean? It means he was made sin for you, 2 Corinthians 5. 21. It means he bore your sin in his body on the cross. We look at that in 1 Peter 2. 24. It means he suffered once to bear the sins of others, Hebrews 9. 28. It means he was tortured for other's sin, Isaiah 53. 4-6. It means he was made a curse for you, Galatians 3. 13. He took all of that on himself that I deserved that you deserved so that we could have forgiveness. That's what history of the cross is all about. And number two in this history of good news, Christ was made alive by the Spirit. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, verse 18. He was resurrected by the power of God's Spirit. This is the event, the resurrection of Christ with the greatest historical impact. When you think about the history of what Jesus did, when you think about the history of the death on the cross and the resurrection of Christ, and the fact that we every one of our events today, every check that you write, every birthday that you have, every anniversary that you have, every event in our lives is dated based on this event. The fact that Jesus Christ gave his life for us and was resurrected from the dead. That's the historical significance of the resurrection of Christ, the death of Christ. Now as Peter walks through the history of this, the third thing that he says is then Christ went and preached to the spirits in prison. And these are the verses that of all verses in the New Testament might most make people scratch their heads a bit. Listen to beginning in verse 19 and down through verse 21. Not the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a good conscience towards God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now no doubt as I read those you're thinking, yeah, those are difficult verses to understand. Some people call these the most difficult, the hardest to understand verses in the New Testament. Jesus went and preached to the spirits in prison. What does this mean? Where did Jesus go? When did he go? To whom did he speak? What did he say? These are much discussed because they're difficult verses to understand. I can tell you what church fathers like Augustine thought, what reformers like Martin Luther or Calvin thought about this, or what John Piper thinks about what Calvin thought about what Augustine thought. As you look through this there's a lot of study to be done because so many people have commented on this. So in looking through all these studies there are three different views about what this means that Jesus went and preached to the spirits who were held in prison somehow from the days of Noah. There is first the pre-existent Jesus view, there's the descent into hell view, and there's the triumphal victorious proclamation view. The pre-existent Jesus view is that Jesus, this is not talking about Jesus at the time he died on the cross, this is talking about the days of Noah. And that when it says he went and preached to the spirits it means that he maybe through Noah or maybe through a pre-existent appearance went and preached to those who lived in the days of Noah and explained to them the gospel somehow, explained to them why they were missing out on the good news that instead of following God they were going to be destroyed by a flood. Now with each of these I could talk for 45, 50, 60 minutes and still have not nearly said enough. So I know I'm leaving a lot of holes in these, but that is that view. The second view is the descent into hell view, and that's the view that after Jesus died on the cross he somehow descended into hell, he spoke to the spirits who were disobedient in the days of Noah, he explained to them the good news somehow, as he explained to them the good news he was maybe explaining to them what they had missed, and then he led his people into heaven. That leads somewhat, that last part of that, to a third view that most commentators actually would teach today, and that is the victorious proclamation view, that Jesus proclaimed victory over the spiritual powers of darkness even as he ascended into heaven. Now each of these views, they are not totally explained by these verses. I like the third, but none of them completely answer the questions that are in these verses. Martin Luther may have had the best line of commentary on this passage. He said, "I still do not know for sure what the apostle meant. " I agree with that. I still don't know for sure what Peter is meaning here. But I will give you one big warning. Because we're not entirely sure, these verses, verses like this become favorite launching pads for false teachers. They take what you're not sure about, they add their own interpretation that will often include the wildest ideas, and then they say, "Well, you can be sure that I'm right because I said it. " Well, if I can't understand what Peter was saying, how can I be sure that what you're saying is sure? You don't have the power of the Holy Spirit like he did when he wrote this. There's a basic rule of Bible study, and that is that you understand unclear passages in the light of clear passages. So, for instance, for somebody to say that this clearly means we all get a second chance at salvation after we die. Jesus is going to come and preach to us in hell when it doesn't say that at all. They infer that somehow. That's to take all the clear passages in the New Testament that say we have to make our decision while we're on this earth, and we're going to be judged for the decisions we make on this earth when we get to eternity. That just unwrites all of those based on this one unclear passage. And so, back to what the truth is. Because Peter here is not wanting us to get caught up in "Was it the days of Noah? Was it a descendant of hell? " He wants us to get caught up into the fact that Jesus is alive. He's talking here about the power of the Spirit. By the Spirit's power he was resurrected, and by that same power he proclaimed, and by that same power he is triumphant. A fourth historical fact about the Good News is Jesus has gone into heaven. Verse 22. He's gone into heaven, and he's at God's right hand with angels and authorities and powers in submission to him. At God's right hand, all in submission to him for all eternity. That's where Jesus is right now. Now before we end, I just have to look at this for a few moments personally. Because these verses were not written for the sake of theological discussion. They were written to cause you, to cause me, to look at Jesus. To cause believers who need encouragement to be unselfish in our relationships. Even when others act with evil towards us, we can be unselfish and loving towards them because we look at Jesus. What did Jesus do for us, for me, for you, even when we were his enemies? One, Jesus died to bring you to God. That phrase that's used in this verse, "Bring you to God," is an interesting word. It was used of the person who would bring someone into the presence of a king. Would introduce them, bring them an introduction. Jesus has brought you into the presence of the king of kings. Jesus died to bring you to God. Jesus was resurrected to save you. He talks here about the ark. And he says, this ark is a picture actually of baptism. And he says, I'm not talking about water here. I'm talking about the spirit. I'm talking about the pledge of a good conscience towards God. One aspect of baptism, because this word "pledge" here was used of a legal document. Do you pledge to fulfill the terms of the contract? So one sense of baptism is like you're signing on the dotted line. You're putting your name to it. It is the picture of the fact that you're identifying with Christ. And he says here that the power of baptism is found in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is not some religious ritual. It's a personal declaration of your trust. It's a step of growth in Christ. Baptism doesn't make you a believer. It shows others that you're a believer. It is an outward expression of what has happened in your heart. And then number three, Peter reminds us here, the personal truth about you is that Jesus sits at God's right hand. In Romans we read that he is interceding for you at God's right hand. He's praying for you. Whenever you think you're all alone when you're facing an evil circumstance, remember you're never alone. Jesus is always with you. And Jesus is always praying with you. The Lord of lords is interceding for you. And so Jesus, right now I pray that you remind our hearts about how good the good news really is. You died for me so that I could have forgiveness. You were resurrected so that I could have life. You're sitting at God's right hand praying for me right now, concerned about everything that I'm facing. Thank you for the good news of your love. And whatever news I'm facing in the world today, my world or the world around me, I pray that this good news would shout louder. Because it is louder. It's louder. It is the most important news about me. It's the most important news in this world. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.