1Peter 3:17-22
Like Our Jesus
In the last message, I reminded you that Peter’s purpose in this
epistle was to teach the believers how to respond to suffering. So
far, Peter has given at least 13 command or encouragements. I also
reminded you how Peter used the life of Jesus to encourage the
believers. Tonight’s text is such a reference.
I. \\#18\\ A Truth Plainly Given - Christ Suffered
A. \\#17\\ Peter was still encouraging the believers concerning
suffering as he had done in the previous verses. He did this
by pointing to the suffering of Jesus.
1. Face suffering together.
2. Face suffering without evil.
3. Face suffering with answers.
B. \\#18\\ Christ suffered.
1. Jesus "once" suffered.
a. The idea that He suffered once is not to give the
idea that He ONLY suffered one time, for as long as
Jesus was in flesh, He suffered as all human beings
would.
b. The "once" is to give us the idea that He took
everyone’s sin upon Him—the whole world—and all at
once, He suffered for them all.
c. The idea of the word, I believe, is to emphasize the
intensity of Jesus’ suffering.
2. Jesus suffered for "sin", the just for the unjust," being
put to death in the flesh.
a. This is the story of the cross.
b. It summaries:
(1) The reason we need salvation, SIN.
(2) The purpose of the cross, SUBSTITUTION.
(3) The price of the payment, DEATH.
3. Jesus was quickened by the Holy Spirit.
a. It is not just the death of the Sacrifice that makes
salvation story.
b. It is also the resurrection of the Savior.
(1) Without the resurrection, we might not be damned
but neither would we have life.
(a) I suppose we would die and be placed into
some kind of lifeless existence, and I
suppose that is what would have happened to
Jesus as well.
(2) It is the resurrection of Jesus that gave
Jesus His glorified body. What would He
have done without it?
(3) It is the resurrection of Jesus which gives
us:
i. A fresh start in this life.
ii. A glorified body in eternity.
iii. The opportunity to serve God without
sin throughout eternity.
C. So far, most of us are fairly familiar with the things spoken,
but then Peter reveals a thing not so familiar things.
D. At the same time, Peter moved away a step from his purpose in
this section.
1. Peter’s primary purpose was to teach the believers’ how to
respond to suffering.
2. His secondary purpose was to comfort the believers in
their suffering, which he was doing.
3. But he is about to move a step away from both of these
purposes to do some teaching.
II. \\#19-20\\ A Truth Once Removed - Christ went to prison to
preach.
A. This is a hard passage to understand since there is so little
information.
1. I believe Peter made a statement that pre-supposes we
would know what he meant.
2. I believe this goes along with a thought that Paul gave,
but we cannot know that for certain.
Eph 4:8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up
on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts
unto men.
9 Now that he ascended, what is it but that he
also descended first into the lower parts of the
earth?
10 He that descended is the same also that
ascended up far above all heavens, that he might
fill all things.
a. Note that both events occurred around the same time,
between Jesus’ death and His ascension.
(1) 1Peter 1:18 "being put to death…, but quickened
by the Spirit."
(2) Eph 4:9 "he ascended… also descended first" -
Sometime before Jesus’ ascension to heaven.
(a) The ascension here does not have to refer to
Jesus’ last ascension \\#Acts 1:-9-11\\.
(b) It could be, and I think is, a reference to
His first ascension which was made soon
after His resurrection.
John 20:17 Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not;
for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go
to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto
my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and
your God.
i. That took place while Mary was outside
the tomb weeping.
Matthew 28:9 And as they went to tell his
disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All
hail. And they came and held him by the feet,
and worshipped him.
ii. That took place just a short time
later when Jesus appeared to all the
women who had come with Mary. (They
must have stopped for some time and
needed some encouragement to go share
what they had seen!)
b. Both have something to do with those who have been
"locked" away.
(1) \\#19\\ Peter refers to "spirits in prison."
(2) Eph 4:9 - Paul seems to refer to Abraham’s Bosom,
"the lower part of the earth."
3. Some take offense that Abraham’s Bosom would have to be
regarded as a prison for this to be the same event; but
in one sense, it was.
a. The word "prison" means to a place to be held or
watched and can mean a cage or prison.
b. While Abraham’s Bosom was not a prison for bad people,
it was a place where the saints were kept.
c. They could not travel to heaven, to earth, or to hell
on the other side of the "gulf."
Luke 16:25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that
thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things,
and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is
comforted, and thou art tormented.
26 And beside all this, between us and you there
is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would
pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they
pass to us, that would come from thence.
d. One has not made an error when they call a place where
they are confined a "prison."
4. \\#20\\ Seems to make it clear that some of those Jesus
preached to lived at the time of the flood and were
disobedient at that time.
1Peter 3:20 Which sometime were disobedient,
when once the longsuffering of God waited in the
days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing,
wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by
water.
a. From the context, I would assume the disobedient were
those who rejected God and His salvation via the ark.
b. This would mean that at least some of those Jesus
preached to were, by our terminology, lost.
c. It would also indicate that some of the group that
Jesus preached to lived on the earth around Noah’s
time.
d. I would speculate that Peter was indicating that all
of the lost people since the world began were being
informed about what Jesus had done.
B. If these two passages go together, then we have more details.
1. The place Jesus went would be Abraham’s Bosom, the place
where the saints once went when they died.
2. The time would be sometime after Jesus’ resurrection and
before His ascension. (I believe His first ascension.)
3. Jesus went there for two reasons:
a. "preached unto the spirits" - To deliver a message.
(1) I suppose it is possible that this where the
Catholics got their purgatory.
(a) Their problem was and is that they created—
as doctrine—beliefs which, at the best,
cannot be proven and at the worse, violate
other Bible passages.
(b) Then they added more supposition to it.
(c) There is no reason to believe that Jesus
preached to the lost so that they could be
saved.
(d) Nor is there any reason to believe ANY
person who dies without having trusted
Jesus as their Savior will get any second
chances.
Heb 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to
die, but after this the judgment:
(2) I personally believe that Jesus told both sides
(hell \\#20\\ and Abraham’s Bosom) what He had
done but that no opportunities to be saved were
given.
(a) I also believe that after His message was
delivered, Jesus lead the captives out
of Abraham’s Bosom to heaven \\#Eph 4:8\\.
(b) As far as I know, my beliefs do not violate
other Scriptures and fit within what the
Bible reveals.
(c) HOWEVER, what I believe may NOT be correct.
(3) The truth is there is NOT ENOUGH INFORMATION to
know for certain what Peter meant in this verse.
b. \\#Eph 4:8\\ To led "captivity captive."
(1) In its simplest language, that means to set the
prisoners free.
(2) The prisoners would be the saved who were in
Abraham’s Bosom.
(3) Their freedom would be in going to heaven.
III. \\#20-22\\ A Truth Twice Removed - The Ark Is a Figure of
Salvation
A. Peter moved even a bit further from his primary topic,
responding to suffering to tell us that God provided a
picture in the Old Testament of Christ’s salvation.
B. Baptism
1. \\#21\\ Look at what Peter said.
a. He called it a "like figure."
b. Peter did not say that baptism saves or even helps in
salvation.
c. He used two terms to say it is a similar picture of
salvation.
(1) FIGURE - A figure is a representation, an image
of an object, or a incomplete copy of an object.
(a) We are photography crazy today.
(b) AnnaClaire had her first birthday and 6
people took pictures. Everyone with a
picture took home a figure of AC, but only
Joy and Adam took AnnaClaire home.
(c) If someone falls off a cliff and you throw
them a picture of a rope, you did not help
them.
(2) LIKE - Like means the figure is close to the
original but it is not exact.
(a) Peter was saying that baptism is not even an
exact representation of the salvation. It
is just close.
(b) Apparently Joy and Andrea look some alike.
On more than one occasion, someone came up
to one and began talking thinking they were
speaking to the other. It got so bad, Adam
will not walk in a room near Andrea unless
JoyAnna is there too. One of them turned
facial recognition on their phone, the
other one picked up the phone and it
released the lock out.
(c) But no matter how much they look alike, they
are two completely different ladies.
d. So Peter did not say baptism is salvation. He said it
is like of like a picture of salvation.
2. \\#20\\ Look at what Peter said and what happened.
1Peter 3:20 "eight souls were saved by water."
a. I call this a difficult passage to understand? Why?
(1) Not because I disagree with those who say baptism
is part of salvation.
(2) Because I do not understand how the water saved
Noah and the people.
(3) As I understand the event, the water did not
save the people. It killed the people.
i. I am not trying to correct the Bible. I am
trying to understand what Peter said.
ii. I don’t think I am the only one that does
not understand this passage. I have never
heard anyone explain it.
iii. The best I have heard was one fellow said
it was the water that lifted the ark up.
aa. I agree with that and I understand
that.
bb. But if there was no water, there would
have been no need for the ark.
b. I do not think I am pushing the text to say that it
was the ark that saved the people and the water that
killed them.
(1) If you had the opportunity to go back in time and
stand in the water or in the ark, which would
you choose?
(2) I think Peter is telling us that the ark saved.
i. Notice \\#20\\ without a few of the words.
1Peter 3:20 …the ark was a preparing where
few, that is, eight souls were saved…."
ii. It is a dangerous thing to leave out words
and those who are advocating for baptism
has part of salvation could do the same
thing to prove their point of view.
iii. However, for other reasons, I believe that
Peter was saying that the ark did the
saving.
iv. Yet, I cannot prove what I believe here and
will not try.
v. All I can say is that this is a difficult
Bible passage to understand and move on.
3. \\#20\\ Notice that Peter de-emphasized baptism’s role in
salvation.
1Peter 3:21 …(not the putting away of the filth
of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience
toward God,)
a. Peter was saying that baptism did not wash away the
filth of the flesh (neither physical or spiritual
dirt), but it gives us a good conscience toward God.
b. That is, I believe, what baptism does.
(1) Baptism gives us a physical and public moment in
time when we buried the old man and started our
new lives.
(2) People need that singular point in time.
(a) Why?
(b) It helps us accept the fact that there was a
point in time when they ceased to be who we
were and began to be a new creature in
Christ.
(3) I have said salvation occurs at a specific point
in time but it is a process to get to that
point.
(4) Some people do not know the exact moment their
salvation occurred because they are not sure when
they actually came to the realization that they
believed AND repented.
(5) However, they can pinpoint to the minute when
they were baptized.
(6) Peter is telling us that baptism settles our
minds and hearts. It clears our conscience.
4. What do I think? Several thoughts:
a. On some things, people are just not going to agree,
but we can still be kind.
b. I think it is dangerous to build a major doctrine on
Bible verses you do not understand. "If you can’t
explain to me how the flood waters saved Noah and his
family, maybe you shouldn’t argue with me that
baptism saves a soul."
c. I think there is plenty of clear Scripture to teach
us:
(1) Salvation is by grace and not of our works.
Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith;
and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of
God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
(2) That IF baptism is mentioned with salvation, it
is AFTER salvation.
(a) Not mentioned:
Luke 23:43 And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say
unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in
paradise.
(b) Mentioned after salvation:
Acts 10:44 While Peter yet spake these words,
the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the
word.
45 And they of the circumcision which believed
were astonished, as many as came with Peter,
because that on the Gentiles also was poured out
the gift of the Holy Ghost.
46 For they heard them speak with tongues, and
magnify God. Then answered Peter,
47 Can any man forbid water, that these should
not be baptized, which have received the Holy
Ghost as well as we?
either of these last two truths are Peter’s main point. His main
point is that if Jesus suffered, we can suffer. I understand that it
is not desirable, but sin is here and suffering is part of our
lives. Let’s ask God to give us the strength to bear it like Jesus.
<OutlineIndex> <Close Window>
