Courage in Christ's Victory

Good morning, church. It's good to see you this morning. Would you turn with me to 1 Peter chapter

1 Peter 3:18–22

3, verses 18 through 22. We'll have it on the screen as I read it in just a minute, but let

me encourage you to have it open as we walk through this text together. It's on page 955

in the Pew Bible, if you'd like to follow along there. If you're new to reading the Bible,

the big numbers are the chapters and the small numbers are the verses. So 1 Peter chapter 3,

1 Peter 3:18–22

verses 18 through 22. Actually, let me start reading in verse 17 so we can kind of catch the

flow of Peter's thought. All right, let me read this for us, starting in verse 17.

For it's better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil.

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, 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. Baptism, which corresponds to this, 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, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers

having been subjected to him. All right, let's pray. Father, help us to understand what on a first reading

feels like a challenging text to understand, and help us not just to understand it, but to apply it to our

lives today. Through your Holy Spirit, and in the name of Jesus, we ask this. Amen. Amen. So, I want to

begin with a quote from Maya Angelou. Maya Angelou said, courage is the most important of all the virtues,

because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently. Courage is the most

important of all the virtues, because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently.

This made me think of going to the climbing gym. If you've ever been climbing or gone to a climbing gym,

you know that it takes kind of a fair number of skills, a fair number of virtues, as it were, to kind of work

your way up the wall. But what can happen is that when you get pretty high up on the wall, is that you can get

afraid. You're high up, you're stuck, and then your courage runs away. And then in the midst of the fear,

it's like everything you knew, all the skills that you worked on, all the virtues just go out the window

and you freeze. And maybe, maybe you even fall. And I think life can be like that. You know, we want to

live a certain way. We want to be truthful, loving, honest, compassionate, bold. But when pressures or

trials come, we get afraid. And then we freeze. And maybe we don't live the way that we set out to live.

We struggle to keep our grip on the wall. And maybe we even fall.

And so, we need courage. Courage could just be one of the most important of all the virtues,

because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently.

But, where does courage come from? How do we get it? Where do we get the confidence, the resolve,

the grit to live how we know we should live? In particular, Peter, remember, is writing to

Christians who are facing trials and suffering in their Christian life. More and more, they find

themselves on the margins of society. Where do they get the courage to keep on following Christ,

even and especially when it's hard, when it's against the grain, when it seems like you've got

a lot to lose? Where do we get the courage to keep following Christ in the midst of suffering?

Well, that's what 1 Peter chapter 3, verses 18 to 22, are all about. We're going to face trials and

1 Peter 3:18–22

opposition and even suffering for our allegiance to Christ. And Peter says, here's where the courage

comes from. Here's why and how you can stick with it, even when the fears and hardships come,

even when you feel beleaguered and battered by a hostile world around you, when it feels like

suffering and evil might have the last word. Peter says, take heart, Christian, in your suffering,

have courage. Why? Have courage because Christ suffered for you and rose in victory.

Now, there are a lot of exegetical and interpretive tangles in the text before us, and we'll do our

best to try to comb some of those tangles out as we go. But we don't want to miss the big idea of

what Peter's saying here, and that big idea is clear. Christ died and rose again. He ascended in victory.

He's seated at the Father's right hand with angels and authorities and power subjected to him.

In other words, Christ has triumphed over evil. And if Christ has triumphed through suffering,

then all those who are united to Christ, even though they suffer, will share his victory too.

His victory is our courage. So let's look a little closer at how Peter unpacks the victory of Christ in

this passage so that we too might grow in courage. So first, Peter shows us Christ's victory over sin.

Christ's victory over sin. This is verse 18. We see this right off the bat. Look again at verse 18.

He says, 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. Now, as we saw, the immediate

context of this verse is the suffering that Christians will face for their allegiance to Christ.

And Peter wants us to not give up in the face of that suffering, but to keep bearing witness to Christ

in gentleness and respect. But here in verse 18, he shows us how. He says, Christian, don't be afraid to

suffer for doing good. Have courage. Why? Because Christ also suffered, he says. But Peter is saying

more here than simply that Christ can sympathize with us in our suffering, although that is a great

truth, right? But what Peter is saying here is something more. He's saying that Jesus came and did

what no one else can do. He defeated our sin. Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the

unrighteous. Now, how is it that Christ's death can be effective to take away our sins?

That's what four sins means, after all, that Christ's death is a sin offering, paying the penalty for

our sins. How can that be? How can the death of Jesus so long ago take away your sin and my sin?

Well, because it's as Peter says, it's because Christ is truly the righteous one. He was without sin,

and therefore he had no guilt of his own to pay for. And so he could be the substitute for us,

the unrighteous ones. On the cross, Jesus was enacting the great exchange. He, the righteous one,

was standing in the place of the unrighteous ones, dying the death their sins deserved,

so that we, the unrighteous ones, could come and stand in the place of the righteous one. Do you see?

The righteous for the unrighteous. Look at what Jesus's death accomplished. Christ also suffered

once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.

I wonder if you've ever been invited to a party or an event of some kind, and you've just felt really

out of place. You just, you look around at what the people are wearing or what they're talking about,

and you just think, oh my goodness, I do not belong here. I am so out of place.

Well, friends, the reality is, is that in the presence of a holy God,

we don't belong there. None of us belong there. Not with all of our sin, not in the presence of God.

Psalm 15 talks about who, who can come into God's presence. David writes in Psalm 15, he says,

O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? And then David says,

he who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart, and who does not

slander with his tongue, and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his

friend, in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord, who swears to

his own hurt and does not change, who does not put out his money at interest, and does not take a bribe

against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved. That's who gets to go to the party with God.

And you think, oh goodness, how can I possibly meet those standards? Not me, not you, but Christ can.

Christ is a righteous one, and he puts his arm around us, and he says, what's true of me is true of you now.

Your sins have been paid for by my death, and your moral record has been filled out by my life,

so now you do belong at the party. When the host of the party comes and says, no, no, no, you're with me.

You belong here now. Changes everything.

Because of what Christ has done, you belong in the presence of God. He says, you're with me now.

Once we were far off, but now we've been brought near by the blood of Christ.

And then Peter says, did you notice this little word? Peter says, Christ died once. Once. Now we could

preach a whole sermon on that word, because when Peter says once, he means that the death of Christ

was so sufficient, so complete to cover all the sins of everyone who would ever repent and believe in him,

that nothing ever, ever needs to be added or repeated to the work of Christ, to the death of Christ.

Christ died once for all time, and it's done.

And what a great comfort that is when we face suffering and we need courage.

Because when we suffer, we can start to believe the lies that maybe we're suffering because God is angry at us.

Or maybe we're suffering because we've done something wrong.

Or maybe we're suffering because God just doesn't care.

But Peter speaks to our troubled hearts so in need of courage,

he speaks this powerful word once.

Once.

For all time, all your sins, past, present, and future,

Christ suffered once.

The righteous one for you, the unrighteous, to bring you to God.

So if you are facing trials, Christian,

know this and have courage.

Christ has won the victory over your sin once and for all.

In your suffering, God is not angry at you.

You haven't done something wrong as you face opposition and trial.

No, Christ died for your sins.

He's brought you to God.

Have courage.

But Christ's victory doesn't stop there.

After all, our trials and our suffering come, right, so often,

because we live in a world that is so often hostile to God and God's people.

So we need courage to face,

we need courage in the face of this very real hostility.

And the longer you live in the world,

the more you realize, as the Apostle Paul says,

that our struggle isn't against flesh and blood,

but against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

In other words, there's a very real spiritual battle going on.

Evil, you see, is, according to the Bible,

evil sort of compounded in the world, right?

Evil in the world isn't just sort of the individual moral choices of people,

or what the Bible will call at times the flesh or our sinful nature.

And evil in the world isn't just the structural or ingrained evil of cultures and societies,

what the Bible sometimes calls the world.

Those two are very real,

our individual choices and structural evil,

both very real, both talked about in Scripture.

But there's also a very real spiritual component to the evil that we experience.

That along with the world and along with the flesh,

our sinful nature,

along with corporate structural sin and personal individual sin,

there's also cosmic hostility to God.

Satan and his evil forces waging war against God and God's creation.

Now, I get it.

A belief in demons can strike us modern people sometimes as a bit primitive, right?

Are we really going back there?

But, you know, when you think about it,

is it really so hard to believe

when you square up to the horrendous evil in the world,

is it really so hard to believe that something like a force or a power

exploits human sinfulness like a fan on the flame

to make it all the more sinful and evil?

How can we witness genocide or sex trafficking

or how can we read the history of lynching in our own country

and find it so hard to believe

that evil is much deeper and greater and cosmic

than the sum of its merely human parts?

It turns out the Bible isn't primitive or irrational in its account of evil,

but actually more robust and more brutally honest

than we moderns often ever dare to be.

But what Peter tells us here in our passage

gives us courage.

Gives us courage even in the face of evil spiritual forces.

Why?

Have courage, he says,

because Christ has won the victory

not just over sin,

but over the spiritual forces of evil as well.

Let's pick up at the end of verse 18

and then read verse 19.

Christ, Peter says,

was put to death in the flesh

but made alive in the spirit

in which he went and proclaimed

to the spirits in prison

because they formerly did not obey.

Okay, now,

verse 19 is perhaps

one of the most difficult verses

in the whole New Testament

to interpret.

The usually quite confident

Martin Luther wrote

when he was commenting on 1 Peter,

he said,

this is a strange text

and certainly a more obscure passage

than any other in the New Testament.

I still don't know for sure

what the apostle meant.

There's Martin Luther on verse 19.

Now, okay,

we don't have time to dissect

all the different interpretations

of verse 19,

but I want to briefly point out

kind of the three most common approaches

and then show you the one

I think kind of makes the most sense

within the context

of the whole passage

and we'll go from there.

But it is worth noting,

you know,

it's worth noting

as we come to a tricky passage

like this one

that these hard-to-interpret passages

in the New Testament

are a good reminder to us

to be humble before God's word

and with one another.

I think sometimes

God inspired passages like this

to remind us

that we don't know everything

and there are some things

that we simply won't figure out

in this life.

Ultimately, God is God

and only He has perfect knowledge.

But, you know,

I think these unclear passages

also give us

a richer appreciation

of the fact

that so much of the Bible

is clear,

that the main message

of the Bible

is something

that all of us

can hear and understand.

You know,

so these handful

of tricky passages

like verse 19,

they don't just keep us humble,

they also remind us

that God is so often

so abundantly gracious

to give us

of a revelation of Himself

that is much,

much more often than not

accessible

and knowable.

God isn't hiding from us.

He wants us to know Him

and love Him

and trust Him

through His word.

So, anyway,

so we're going to stay humble

as we come to verse 19.

And like I said,

there are three main lines

of interpretation.

None of them

are without their difficulties.

One, however,

I think is pretty unlikely

to be right.

And the other two,

I think,

are more plausible.

And I'll tell you

which one of those two

I think fits best

with the details

of the passage.

So, okay.

So, the first interpretation

of verse 19

that I think is pretty unlikely

is that after Christ's death

and before His resurrection,

Jesus descends into hell

and preaches to the spirits

of those sinners

who perished in the flood

during the time of Noah.

Okay, that's kind of

the first view.

And that view was made popular

by origin in the third century.

Now, why do I think

this view is the most unlikely one?

Well, I think it's unlikely first

because at the end

of verse 18,

Peter says that Jesus

was put to death in the flesh

and made alive in the Spirit.

Or a better translation

would be that He was made alive

by the Spirit.

Christ was made alive

by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And that verb,

made alive,

in the New Testament

almost always refers

to bodily resurrection.

Okay?

So, if verse 18

is talking about

the bodily resurrection of Jesus,

how after His death

He was made alive

by the Spirit,

then verse 19

can't be talking about

some activity

that Jesus did

between His death

and resurrection,

like descending to the dead.

Verse 19 is something

Jesus does

after His bodily resurrection,

not before.

Now, the other reason

why I think verse 19

isn't talking about

Jesus descending

to sort of dead humans

is because the phrase

spirits in prison

is a phrase

that the New Testament

never uses anywhere else

to talk about

deceased human souls

in the afterlife

or in hell.

Rather,

the only spirits

that are talked about

as being bound in chains

or thrown in prison

are evil spirits

awaiting God's judgment.

Okay,

so I think that first view

that Jesus sort of descends

to dead humans

I think is pretty unlikely.

Two other views, though.

And the second view

I think is a bit more plausible.

And this was put forward

by Augustine,

and then Aquinas

kind of picked it up

in the Middle Ages.

And this view says

that what Peter's talking

about here

is that Christ,

through the Spirit,

preached to the people

who were alive

in Noah's day,

but who now,

in Peter's day,

are dead and in prison.

Right?

So this view

would take the end

of verse 18 and 19

to say something

essentially like

Christ was made alive

by the Spirit,

and by that same Spirit,

Christ went back

in Noah's day

to preach to the people

who are now,

in our day,

spirits in prison.

Okay?

Now, like I said,

that view's actually

pretty plausible.

After all,

Peter says back

in chapter 1,

verse 11,

that the Spirit of Christ

was the one

working through the prophets.

And in 2 Peter,

Peter's second letter,

chapter 2, verse 5,

he calls Noah

a preacher of righteousness.

So it's not implausible

to think that what Peter's

doing here is saying

Christ,

through the Spirit,

back in Noah's day,

was preaching

to those who are now dead.

Okay.

That second view

could work.

But I think

a third view

is a bit simpler,

and it makes

a bit more sense

of the overall flow

of the passage.

And this third view

is the one

that most New Testament

scholars actually

take today.

And that view says this,

after Christ's bodily

resurrection by the Spirit,

as he ascended on high,

he proclaimed his victory

over the evil spirits

that God had been

restraining in judgment.

2 Peter 2, verse 4,

2 Peter 2:4

and Jude 6

talk about fallen angels

being kept in chains

until the final judgment.

And I think that's

the sort of thing

Peter has in mind here,

that Christ,

after his resurrection,

ascending on high,

proclaims his victory

over even the cosmic forces

in the world.

Now, one question

to ask of this view

is that,

is,

is,

in what way

are these evil spirits

that Jesus is apparently

proclaiming his victory to

connected to Noah's flood?

Peter makes that connection

in verse 20.

And what most commentators

would point out

is that,

that many texts

in Jewish,

many Jewish texts

in Peter's day

would have read

the Genesis account

of the flood

and the evil

leading up to the flood

as sort of involving

the actions

of evil spirits

or fallen angels.

So that's why

in Peter's mind

there's this connection

between Christ's triumph

over the evil powers

connecting that back

to this particular episode

of particular evil

in human history

in the flood.

Now, like I said,

none of these three readings

is perfect.

You can be a member

at Trinity

and you can hold

any of them if you want.

That's totally fine,

right?

But, you know,

no matter what we make

of verse 19,

when we look at the end

of our passage

at verse 22,

we can be sure

that no matter

what verse 19 means,

Peter's very sure

that Christ

in his ascension

certainly triumphed

over the evil forces

of the world

and put them

in subjection.

Angels,

authorities,

powers,

all of those things

are describing

that sort of cosmic rebellion

that Christ has now

put under his feet

in his triumph,

in his ascension.

Now,

do you see what this means

for Christians

who are facing suffering?

It means that no matter

what this world throws

at Christians,

no matter what the forces

of evil might conspire

against the church,

they cannot

and will not have

the final word.

Christ has already

proclaimed his victory

over them

when he ascended

to the right hand of God.

Yes,

evil might still be active,

evil might still be

putting up a fight,

but they're ultimately

a defeated foe.

So this means

that we need not shrink back

from suffering

when it comes.

We can meet it

with courage

because we know

that our enemy

is a defeated foe.

I mean,

isn't it our tendency

to kind of avoid

suffering at all costs?

This is especially true

for our culture

and our time in history

because our happiness

so often is so wrapped up

in the things of this life,

right?

Our happiness is kind of

wrapped up in material comforts

or in physical

or earthly pleasure.

So suffering is something

that we just try to avoid

at all costs.

But if we don't have

the courage

to face suffering,

as Maya Angelou said,

without courage,

we can't do any

of the other virtues

consistently.

We can't live

with integrity

or compassion

or truthfulness

or justice

if we avoid suffering

at all costs,

right?

I mean, look,

if you're going to be

someone who speaks

the truth,

if you're going to tell

the truth,

it's going to cost you

at times

in this world,

isn't it?

If you're going to act

with compassion,

it's going to cost you

at times

in a fallen world.

If you're going

to do justice,

it's going to cost you

at times

in a fallen world.

Any virtue,

any act of Christlikeness

is going to bring on

trial,

suffering,

hardship,

so you have to be able

to face it with courage

and not just run away.

And if you see

what Peter is saying here,

that Christ has won

the victory

even over the evil powers

in the universe,

and through him

we will share

in that victory one day,

well,

then you've got it.

Because if that's true

of Christ,

and if that's true

of you in Christ,

then ultimately

suffering cannot

take from you

what is most important.

Whatever evil

might befall you,

Christ has conquered it

and promised

to make all things new,

to restore 100-fold

what you've lost.

After all,

what is loss

of earthly reputation

when the glory

of heaven awaits?

What is the loss

of earthly wealth

or comfort

when the new creation

beckons?

What even is the loss

of our life

when God promises

to raise us up again

with Christ,

imperishable,

incorruptible in glory?

You see,

even death

has lost its sting

in the victory

of Christ's resurrection

and ascension.

You know the song

we sing often

at Trinity here,

no guilt in life,

no fear in death.

This is the power

of Christ in me.

From life's first

cry to final breath,

Jesus commands

my destiny.

No power of hell,

no scheme of man

can ever pluck me

from his hand

till he returns

or calls me home.

Here in the power

of Christ I'll stand.

That's what Peter

is saying here.

So we have courage.

We have courage

in Christ's victory,

in his victory

over sin

and in his victory

over evil.

But lastly,

Peter is going to show us

how we can have courage

because of Christ's victory

over judgment.

Let's pick up

where we loft off

in verse 20

and read through verse 21.

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.

Baptism,

which corresponds

to this,

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.

Okay,

so after Peter

proclaims Christ's victory

over evil forces,

he remembers Noah

saved through the waters

of God's judgment.

Now consider how similar

Noah's story

so often feels

to the church's experience.

Think about it.

Noah and his family

were sort of a minority

surrounded by a hostile world.

Well man,

that must have resonated

a lot with Peter's audience.

They felt like a minority

in a hostile world.

Noah was righteous

in the midst of a world

that was kind of

going its own way.

And Peter exhorts us

to be righteous

in the midst of unbelievers.

Noah witnessed boldly

to those around him

by believing in God

and building an ark,

right?

And Peter's encouraging us

to be bold witnesses

for Christ.

Noah realized

that judgment

was soon to come

upon the world

and Peter's been reminding us,

right,

that the day of the Lord

is coming.

God's judgment

is also coming.

At the time of Noah,

God patiently waited

for unbelievers

to repent

before his judgment came

and so also now

God patiently waits,

holding out the forgiveness

of sins

to all who believe.

Noah was finally saved

with a few others

and Peter encourages us

that though perhaps few,

we too will certainly

be saved.

Now,

what is it

that assures us

of this rescue,

of this salvation?

Noah and his family

entered the ark

and God rescued them

through the waters

of judgment.

But Peter says

that was just a prefiguring.

That was just a type

of the greater rescue

from judgment.

Christ would go down

into the judgment

of death itself

and would rise again victorious.

But how do we

participate

in this great rescue

from judgment?

How do we get into

this even greater ark,

as it were,

of Christ's resurrection

so that we might

be carried safely

through the waters

of judgment?

Peter says,

here's how.

Baptism.

Now,

what does Peter mean

when he says

baptism saves you?

Is Peter denying

that we're saved

by faith alone?

Well,

no.

He's not denying

that we're saved

by faith alone.

Clearly,

in 1 Peter,

we've read again

and again and again

that we are saved

by obeying the gospel.

That is,

by repenting

of our sins

and by trusting

in Christ alone

as our Savior

and as our Lord.

But,

for Peter

and for all

the early Christians,

conversion

and baptism

always went

hand in hand.

Let me give you

an illustration.

In the church

that I grew up in,

there would be

an invitation

at the end

of every service

to receive Christ.

Christ.

So,

anyone who wanted

to become a Christian

would be invited

to walk down the aisle

to the front

of the sanctuary

and the pastor

would explain

the gospel to them

and they would be led

through a prayer

to receive Christ.

Now,

this act of

walking the aisle

in some churches

became so closely

associated

with conversion

that

when you ask someone

if they had

walked the aisle,

right,

what you were really

asking them was

had they come

to faith in Christ?

Were they converted?

Were they born again?

Right?

So,

walking the aisle

became a way

of talking about conversion

because they were

so closely associated,

right?

Walking the aisle

was part of that

conversion experience

so the part

was being used

to refer to the whole.

Now,

of course,

walking the aisle

in and of itself

didn't literally

save someone,

right?

But,

if you had experienced

conversion in that church

and that church tradition,

if you were indeed saved,

you had most likely

walked the aisle.

You see what I'm saying?

Because the two

went hand in hand.

Now,

I think

something similar

is going on

in 1 Peter here.

When Peter says

baptism saves you,

he's using

baptism

as a part

to refer to

the whole

experience of conversion.

Because in the New Testament,

conversion

and baptism

went hand in hand.

If someone

had placed

their faith

in Christ,

they subsequently

got baptized.

A non-baptized

Christian

was practically

an oxymoron,

right?

It's a bit

like a wedding ring

if you think

about it that way.

In our culture,

a couple says

vows to each other,

they exchange rings,

the pastor pronounces

them husband and wife.

Now,

do the rings

make someone

married?

No,

right?

It's your public

vows that make

you married.

But,

wouldn't it be

odd,

in our culture

anyway,

if married people

were walking

around without

wearing wedding

rings?

Right?

That would be

kind of strange.

Like,

you're married,

right?

Yeah.

Where's your ring?

I left it at home.

Why?

Right?

The two just

always go together.

That's my point.

And it was the same

for conversion

and baptism

in the New Testament.

The two

always went

together.

Now,

I think we can

know that we're

on the right

track here

because of how

Peter clarifies

what he means

in verse 21.

He says,

baptism doesn't

save you

because it

washes dirt

off of your

body.

That is,

baptism by its

mere physical

act isn't

some magical

thing that

makes you a

Christian.

Rather,

baptism involves

an appeal to

God for a

clean conscience.

Baptism,

in other words,

is the outward

symbol of the

inward

reality,

the inward

prayer of the

heart to God

asking God

for the

forgiveness of

sins and a

new heart,

a clean

conscience.

In other words,

baptism is the

visible,

physical expression

of saving faith

in the heart.

And why is

this faith

expressed in

baptism

effective to

save us?

because it

is faith in

the risen

Lord Jesus.

That's why.

As Peter says,

an appeal to

God for a

clean conscience

through the

resurrection of

Jesus Christ.

So then,

baptism is the

sort of visible,

physical sign of

our union with

Christ through

faith.

And think about

that.

Just as through

faith we have

died and risen

with Christ,

so in

baptism we

go down

into the

water,

symbolizing our

death with

Christ,

and then we

come up again,

symbolizing our

rising with

Christ,

out of judgment

and death and

into the new

creation of his

resurrection life.

So baptism

then is for

our comfort

and strength

and encouragement.

It marks us

as belonging

to Christ

visibly,

publicly,

It's like an

ancient seal

sort of stamping

on us in a

physical way

saying all the

promises that

are ours through

faith are true.

So friend,

let me just say,

if you've placed

your faith in

Christ and you've

not been baptized,

don't delay.

Don't you see

what comfort and

what strength and

what joy God

holds out to you

in this physical

expression?

Jesus commands

you to be baptized,

yes, but it's

for your good

so that you can

experience this

deep assurance

that comes through

having your

union with Christ

displayed in this

beautiful way.

So if you'd like

to be baptized,

come talk to me

right after the

service and we'll

discuss what the

next steps are.

You know, don't let

the fear of getting

up in front of

people stop you.

You know, that's

what a lot of people

think when they're

like, I don't want

to get baptized,

I've got to get up

there and give a

speech, right?

But Jesus is going

to be with you

every step of the

way.

Now, if you have

been baptized, what

Peter's saying here

is, look upon your

baptism and all that

it means and have

courage.

Have courage even in

suffering.

Why?

Because no matter what

suffering comes our

way, we've already

been through the worst

judgment and come out

clean on the other

side.

right?

The world can throw

its worst at us, but

we've already died and

come to life again in

Christ.

Just like Noah came

through the flood and

landed in a new

creation.

Our baptism proclaims

that we've entered a

new world, the new

creation where Christ is

king.

Let the storms rage,

Peter says.

What can they do to

us?

Can they take our

lives?

But our lives have

already, our lives are

already in the hands of

another.

We've already laid it

down and Christ has

taken it up again.

The waters of baptism,

the going down, and the

coming up again have

shown it to be true.

We are united to Christ,

the victor.

There's a great old

Easter hymn that goes,

Jesus lives and so

shall I.

Death thy sting is gone

forever.

He who deigned for me to

die lives the bands of

death to sever.

He shall raise me with

the just.

Jesus is my hope and

trust.

Jesus lives and reigns

supreme and his kingdom

still remaining.

I shall also be with

him ever living, ever

reigning.

God has promised, be it

must.

Jesus is my hope and

trust.

Jesus lives and death is

now, but my entrance into

glory.

Courage then, my soul, for

thou hast a crown of life

before thee.

Thou shalt find thy hopes

were just.

Jesus is the Christian's

trust.

Here's where we find

courage, friends.

Courage when sin and

evil and judgment are

looming.

Courage when trials and

suffering mount.

Jesus lives and so shall

I.

God's word promises it.

God's spirit seals it.

Our baptism proclaims it.

Jesus' suffering has led

to victory.

And so too shall ours.

Let's pray together.

Father in heaven, we take

a moment now to just pause

and be quiet before you and

pray that your spirit would

come and impress again upon

our minds and upon our

hearts the great reality of

Christ risen and reigning.

O Father, by your spirit, fill

our hearts with the courage

that comes from knowing that

we are united to a risen

Savior.

We pray this in his name.

Amen.