Trinity Baptist Church

 

These particular verses of scripture are some of the most difficult passages in all the Bible. I'm going to try to make it as understandable as I possibly can. 

 

Keep in mind, as we move through, that the bottom line of it all is Jesus wins. What these verses of scriptures are basically saying to us is that what our Lord Jesus Christ did when He came into this world is so far reaching in nature that every corner of the universe is affected by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and that Jesus absolutely conquered and that Jesus wins.

 

As we move through these verses if you will be looking for the crucifixion and if you will be looking for the resurrection and for the ascension of the Lord Jesus back to heaven, it will serve as a guideline to help you work through the difficulties of this passage.

 

 

Let me say to you first of all that Jesus wins because He conquered on the cross. That's what we find in these opening statements of verse 18. It says, "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." That is a reference to what Jesus did on the cross of Calvary. The message of those words right there is that Jesus wins because of the conquest He made on the cross.

 

You will notice that it tells us something here about the uniqueness of what Jesus did on the cross. These statements say to us that Jesus Christ, "Hath once suffered for sin, the just for the unjust." If you understand your Old Testament, if you have worked back through the Old Testament and know anything about the Old Testament system of sacrifices which all pointed to the coming of the Lord, you know that there had to be a repetition of sacrifices made. Those sacrifices had to be repeated over and over and over again. Yet, it is the statement of this verse of scripture and it is the statement of the New Testament that Jesus has "once suffered for sins."

 

From Hebrews 7 I want to show you how the New Testament emphasizes the "once for all" work that Jesus did on the cross. In verse 27 it say, "Who," that's talking about Jesus, "needeth not daily, as those high priests," that's talking about the people in the Old Testament, "to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins and then for the people's; for this he did once, when he offered up himself."

 

In chapter 9, verses 25 and 26, it says, "Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once, in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." 

 

Verse 28 says, "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many." The word "once" there means once for all. It means that He never had to redo it. Jesus never had to rewind and go over it again. 

 

The sacrifice of Jesus Christ was unique in that it was a one-time sacrifice. He died for our sins on the cross one time. 

He shed His blood on the cross one time and because of that He has put away our sins. He has paid the price for our sins. Jesus wins because of what He did in relationship to our sins. He, who was the just, according to Peter, "Suffered once for all for the just and unjust." He paid for our sins one time and for all.

 

Notice not only the uniqueness of what Jesus did on the cross for our salvation, but notice also what the work of Christ did for us on the cross. It says, "That he might bring us to God." Look at that statement. That's the effectiveness of what He did.

 

You know that according to the teachings of the Bible that when sin entered into the world it separated man from God. Because of our sins, we are separated from God. The Bible says that your iniquities have separated between you and God. Yet the Bible says that when Jesus died on that cross, He eliminated that separation. He brings us to God.

 

This is an interesting word here where it says, "That he might bring us to God." That particular word, which is translated here "bring us to God," was used in the New Testament time to describe a person who had an official function in the palace of the king. The function of this individual was to bring people into the presence of the king. It was his job to determine that they were able to come in and to introduce them to the king. They were introducers. 

 

What it's saying here is that when Jesus died on the cross, He became our introducer. Jesus is the one who made it possible for us to come into the presence of God. 

 

Jesus says in John 14, verse 6, says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." That means then that Jesus is our introducer. Jesus is the one who can bring you into the presence of God. 

 

There is no other way to meet God except through the Lord Jesus Christ. There aren't many ways to heaven. There is only one way to heaven and Jesus said, "I am that way."

 

Sometimes people say, "There are many ways to get to heaven. Everybody just picks his own way." Some people describe it like this. They say, "It's just like going out to the airport. There are many airlines that will take you to New York, and there are many flights that will get you to New York. It doesn't matter which airline or which flight you take. They're all going to New York." 

 

There's only one flaw in that illustration. We're not talking about how to go to New York. We're talking about how to go to heaven. Jesus said that there is only one airline that will get you to heaven and it is the Jesus Airline.

 

Peter begins by saying that Jesus wins because He conquered on the cross. The second thing he says in these verses is that Jesus wins because He conquered in the coffin.

 

You will remember that when Jesus died on the cross, the Bible says that they took His body down and they buried the body of the Lord Jesus Christ in a tomb. 

For three days and for three nights Jesus was in a tomb. He was in a coffin. 

 

Peter refers to this in the last part of verse 18. It says, "Being put to death in the flesh but quickened by the Spirit." What does that statement mean right there when it says, "Being put to death in the flesh but quickened by the Spirit?" In the King James Version you may have Spirit capitalized, which would make reference to the Holy Spirit.

 

I beg to differ with the translation at this particular point because I do not believe the reference here is to the Holy Spirit. I believe it is the reference to the spirit of Jesus, Himself. It is a reference to one of the two constituent parts of the humanity of Jesus.

 

When Jesus came into the world, the Bible says that He was made in all points like as we are, yet without sin, apart from human sin. This means that Jesus had a human nature. Jesus had a fleshly nature. Jesus had a spirit nature.

 

This statement is that when Jesus died, He was dead in the flesh, that is, as to His fleshly, His human nature, His body, but it says that He was made alive by the spirit, or that is, in relation to His human spirit. What that means is that when Jesus died on the cross His flesh died, but it means that His spirit was very much alive.

 

That's true with everybody.   Take a saved person. When a saved person dies their flesh dies, but their spirit is very much alive. In fact, the Bible says that for a believer to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. 

 

When you die as a saved person, your body may be dead, your flesh may be dead, but you're not dead. You're still in conscious existence. You go into the very presence of the Lord. You go to heaven.

 

The same thing is true with a lost person. When a lost person dies, they are not really dead. When they die, their flesh dies but their spirit is very much alive. According to the teachings of the Bible, when a lost person dies, though their body may be dead until the resurrection comes, their spirit is very much alive in conscious existence in hell.

 

What it is saying is that when Jesus died in relation to His flesh, His body was dead, but in relation to His spirit nature He was very much alive.

 

Follow this very carefully. This gets to be very interesting and pretty exciting if you will follow the thought. It says in the next verse, "By which," or literally "In which," that is, in which state or in which condition, in which circumstances. That is, dead so far as His body. Alive so far as His spirit is concerned. 

 

It says, "also he went." The word "went" means to take a journey, to take a literal journey. "And preached unto the spirits in prison." 

 

What in the world does that mean? It means that during that period of time that the physical body of Jesus was in the coffin, the Bible says that in His spiritual nature, Jesus took a journey. 

 

 

 

 

In fact, when you put a whole lot of Bible together, which I'm just going to kind of compact here, what you will find is that what the Bible teaches is that when Jesus died on the cross and He was buried in the tomb, during that three-day period of time, Jesus made a visit into the realm of death. 

 

He went into the realm of the righteous dead. According to the Bible, before the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, the righteous dead went to a place called Paradise. Do you remember what Jesus said to the thief on the cross? Jesus said to him, "Today you will be with me in Paradise." 

 

In Ephesians Jesus made a visit down into Paradise, that is, into the realm of the saved dead. In chapter 4, verses 8 and 9, it says, "Wherefore, he saith, When he," that's Jesus, "ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men." That's referring to His ascension. Then in verse 9 it says, "Now that he ascended," that is, Jesus who went back to heaven, "what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?" 

 

When Jesus died and was buried, according to the teachings of the Bible, Jesus went down into the realm of Paradise. It's as if He made an announcement to those believers, "I have paid for your sins on the cross. We're coming out of this tomb in three days." The Bible says that He led captivity captive, that is, all the righteous believers were carried by the Lord Jesus Christ from Paradise right into the presence of God. 

 

Do you know where Paradise is now? It's at the very throne of God in heaven. That's what Jesus did for the saved who had died before His resurrection.

But the Bible also teaches and Peter's the one who says that Jesus also made a visit into the realm where he calls it, "the spirits in prison." Jesus made a visit to the spirits in prison. This is getting interesting.

 

What is that a reference to? Who are the spirits in prison? In verse 20 it says, "Who," that is, the spirits in prison, "sometime were disobedient." There was a time when these spirits in prison were disobedient. "when once," and he tells us when that time was. "When once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing." Whatever happened, it happened during the days of Noah building up to the flood. 

 

In II Peter he picks this up. Chapter 2, verse 4, says, "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell." The word there is really "tartaros" which means a compartment of what we know as hell. "And delivered them into chains of darkness," that is, they are imprisoned, "to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah."   This is the time of the flood, the time of the ark.

 

Here were some disobedient spirits. They are fallen angels. The spirits in prison are fallen angels. You say, "Preacher, what's this all about?" 

 

The Bible teaches the existence of demons. There are some demons, according to the scriptures, which are loose on the earth and they are the emissaries of Satan. But the Bible in this passage also teaches that there are demons incarcerated. What they did was so dastardly and their intentions were so demonic that they were cast into a prison.

Let me make a reference here. In Genesis 6 the Bible talks about the time when the sons of God married the daughters of men. Most Bible teachers agree that the reference to the sons of God here is not to saved people but to fallen angels, to demonic spirits, and that these demonic spirits evidently took human form. They seduced woman and had sexual relations with them and produced a demon seed in the earth. So dastardly was their deed that they were placed in their spirits in prison. 

 

Right now, according to the teachings of the Bible, those spirits of prison are in there. Do you see what it says? This passage of scripture says that when Jesus was in the coffin, during that period of time, that Jesus, verse 19, "went and preached to those spirits in prison." You ask, "Was He trying to get them saved?" No. 

 

There are different words for preached. There is a word in the Bible that means to preach the gospel, to tell the good news about Jesus, to get people saved. But the word that is used for preach here is not that word to preach the gospel, to try to get people saved, like I'm trying to do today.

 

But it is a word that means to make an official announcement. It was a word that was used to refer to a herald of the king, an announcer of the king, who would make a proclamation and would declare the will of the king, an official proclamation. That's the word that is used here.

 

It says in verse 19, "In which condition Jesus went and he preached." He made an announcement to the spirits in prison. Can you imagine the day when Jesus went walking through Hell? 

How the demons incarcerated in hell must have cowered as the Lord Jesus Christ came walking through the regions of the doomed and the damned. Jesus made an announcement to those spirits in prison. 

 

I think His announcement was, "Your plan didn't work. You did not thwart God's great plan of redemption and salvation. I have paid the price on the cross. You killed Me on the cross, your emissaries. You thought you had won the victory. I'm in the tomb now, but I've good news for you. I'm coming out of here and three days from now you will know you lost the battle at the cross." Jesus wins in the coffin.

 

Now, he digresses.   It's almost like Simon Peter chases a rabbit. Now we know he doesn't because the Holy Spirit is leading him to write scripture. Preachers sometimes chase rabbits. They get off on different things.

 

Simon Peter digresses. He mentions the flood and then he digresses for a moment, and he talks a little bit about two beautiful pictures of salvation. This is another difficult passage. I'm going to try to unravel it for you.

 

Having mentioned the flood, Peter digresses and he gives two beautiful picture of salvation. He gives one picture from the Old Testament and one picture from the New Testament. 

 

The picture of salvation he uses from the Old Testament is the ark in the days of the flood. 

 

 

That's why he says in verse 20 that during the days of Noah the ark was preparing and he said, "in which few, that is eight souls, were saved by water." 

 

He's saying here that the ark is a picture of salvation. The Old Testament is a book that has a lot of pictures in it. It doesn't mean that things didn't happen, but it means that the things that did happen were pictures that teach spiritual truth. What he's saying is that in the Old Testament the ark was a picture of salvation.

 

He says that eight souls were saved and the King James says, "Were saved by water." There's a better way to translate that. They were saved "through" water. That is the preposition that is used there. They were saved through water. The water didn't save them. The water is not what saved Noah and his family.   The ark saved Noah and his family. The water was the judgment but it was the ark, which was the salvation, from the judgment. 

 

In the Old Testament the ark is a picture of salvation. When Jesus died on that cross, Jesus went through the waters of judgment for you and me. He becomes our ark. Everybody who comes to Jesus, everybody who receives Jesus as their personal Savior, is in the ark. It is the ark, it is Jesus, who saves us from our sins.

 

Now he goes to a New Testament illustration and he says likewise, "Baptism doth also now save us." There are groups, and I can understand why they would read it this way, who say that this teaches that the waters of baptism saved people.

 

 

You look at this passage of scripture and say, "What is he saying here?" Verse 21 says, "The like figure unto which even baptism doth also now save us." 

 

Do you have a parentheses in your Bible? You should. The next thing that is said is put in parentheses. He says, "Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God."

 

What he's saying is that he's not talking about the waters themselves. I'm not talking about the baptismal pool. All the baptismal pool does is give you a washing on the outside. He says that the baptism is "the answer of a good conscience toward God."

 

Salvation is something that happens on the inside. Baptism is something that happens on the outside. Something which happens on the outside cannot bring about a change on the inside. Salvation is a work of God on the inside of our heart. When we are baptized, we are giving an outward testimony to what has happened in us inwardly.

 

He makes it very clear that what he's not saying is that the waters of baptism save you. But right after the parentheses he says, "by the resurrection of Jesus Christ."

 

Every time a person is baptized, the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus is presented. It's pictured. You've seen a person baptized. This is the way I explain it to the boys and girls. I take this glass case and say, "Here's a person in the water." When they are baptized, they are lowered into the water. Then they come up out of the water. 

That's a picture of the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

 

Peter is saying that it is not the water itself that does the job. It's the reality that the picture represents, the reality of the death and the burial and the resurrection that saves. It's not the water that saves. It's Jesus that saves. The baptism, he says, is "the answer of a good conscience toward God."

 

The word "answer" is an interesting word. It was a legal word. It was a word that meant that you accepted the terms of a contract. It means that you agree to the contract and by your answer you were saying, "I will abide by the terms of the contract."

 

When you receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior there are wonderful privileges. You can go to God directly in prayer. What a privilege. You can study and read the Word of God. What a privilege. You can grow in the Lord. What a privilege. But there are also responsibilities attached to receiving God's great salvation. When you are baptized what you are saying is, "I accept the responsibilities of being a believer in the Lord." That gives you a good conscience before God.

 

I'm talking to somebody this morning who has had something that has been troubling you for a good long while. When you were a child or maybe a grown up, you were baptized but you really hadn't received Jesus as your Savior. You were baptized but you accepted Jesus Christ at some later time. Since that later time you have not followed the Lord in what we call "believer's baptism." You've got your baptism in the wrong place. It's troubled you.

 

I have talked to many people who have told that to me. They said, "Preacher, I was baptized as a child, but I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know what was going on. I have accepted Jesus as my Savior and it's always troubled me. I've had a troubled conscience about it." I have seen many of those people get their baptism on the right side of their salvation, and it's the answer of a good conscience toward God. 

 

I want to be baptized, not because it will save me, not because of the putting away of the filth of the flesh, not because of any outward circumstance, but because of an answer of a good conscience toward God."

 

 

Jesus wins. Jesus won on the cross. Jesus won in the coffin. Verse 22 says that He's gone into heaven and He's at the right hand of God. Jesus won through the clouds. It is a reference to the ascension of the Lord Jesus.

 

It simply means that Jesus Christ ascended back to the Father. After He was raised again from the dead, the Bible says that He is gone into heaven. That is the same word. He went on a journey into heaven. What a journey that was!

 

Those disciples on the Mount of Olives in Acts 1 saw Jesus as He took that journey. The cloud came and enveloped Him and carried Him away. "They brought His chariot from above to bear Him to His throne. Sang the triumphed word and said, '"The glorious work is done.'" 

 

Can you imagine how it was when Jesus got to the gates of heaven? Can you imagine how glorious it was? The psalmist in Psalm 24 depicts it when he says, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and the king of glory shall come in." He is gone into heaven and the Bible says that He is now on the right hand of God. Angels and authorities and powers are subject unto Him.

 

Jesus went back to heaven as absolute Lord. Jesus went back to heaven as our intercessor. Do you know what Jesus is doing in heaven right now? He's praying for us. Jesus Christ went back as absolute victor, absolute winner. 

 

Jesus wins. Jesus wins. He won on the cross. He won in the coffin. He won through the clouds.

 

Let me ask you a question. Have you won? 

 

Everybody likes to be a winner. If you want to be a winner you had better get on Jesus' side. Jesus ascended the high hills of heaven. Has He ascended the high hills of your heart?

 

I wonder this morning if you are willing to say, "Jesus, You are crowned in heaven. All hail the power of Jesus' name. Let angels prostrate fall. I crown You as Lord of Lords in my heart"?

 

Let's bow our heads in prayer.