Victory in Jesus

Our text is going to be verses 18 through 22, but I do want to back up and just read from verse 13 down because the text this evening is kind of just a continuation of what we looked at last week.

So the Bible says this in verse number 13,

And who is he that will harm you if you be followers of that which is good?

But and if you suffer for righteousness sake, happy are ye, and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled.

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you of the reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.

Having a good conscience that whereas they speak evil of you as evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.

For it is better if the will of God be so that you suffer for doing well than for evil doing.

Verse 18, here's where we're going to pick our text up this evening.

For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.

By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which sometimes were disobedient when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was a preparing,

wherein a few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.

The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God.

By the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone up into heaven and is on the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.

Last week, Peter kind of told us and really showed us how to live our life and how to respond when doing right costs us.

Because we're going to try to do the right thing as we live for the Lord, and sometimes it's not going to go how we think it should.

You do the right thing, you take a stand, you stand on the principles of the Word of God, and sometimes people are going to react the wrong way.

And we can either be controlled by fear, or we can trust in the Lord.

And Peter shows us how do we do that.

We sanctify God in our hearts.

We keep a clear conscience the way that we live our life, that faithfulness, sometimes faithfulness brings suffering.

But when we have a clear conscience before God, we understand we're doing what he's called us to do.

But that raises a question that he really answers in these closing verses.

He says, how can we have this confidence when doing right costs us when life gets hard?

And Peter's answer is super simple.

Look at Jesus.

Because he's writing to a people that are suffering.

But he says, I just want to remind you, Jesus suffered too, but suffering never wins.

Because Jesus defeated it.

We sang that song, Victory in Jesus.

That's not a catchy Baptist hymn we sing, and we sang sold and praise God.

No, that's a truth from the Word of God.

And he's writing to a people saying, listen, I know life is hard, but there is victory.

And it's found in Jesus Christ.

So that's what we're going to look at this evening.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer and ask him to help us.

Father, thank you for the time to open up your Word again.

What a privilege it is every time we have the opportunity to read it for ourselves,

to proclaim it from the pulpit, to hear it in the Sunday school class.

Lord, I pray you would help us to take these truths

and just be reminded of the wonderful victory that we have in you and through you.

It's not something we have to wait for one day.

It's not something that's just reserved for us in heaven,

but Lord, it is available right now, and we would live in that victory that you give.

Lord, I pray that you would help my thoughts and to guide my words.

And there's some difficult places here in this text to explain it with clarity.

Lord, I pray that it would be a help to us tonight.

We ask this in Christ's name.

Amen.

Thank you so much for standing.

You may be seated.

I loved the text this morning in the sense where Luke says,

this is what the text is about.

I wish that every text that you came to in Scripture said,

hey, you're about to read this, and I just want you to know this is what it's about.

So you can go into it kind of having a good, clear understanding of,

okay, this is what the author is meaning.

This is what the Holy Spirit wants to pull out.

And then there's texts like 1 Peter 3, 18 through 22.

It's not like that.

Maybe you were reading that, and I said a couple of things.

As I was reading, you think, well, I thought every time you get in the baptism,

well, you say this water doesn't save you.

And Peter says, baptism now also saves us.

So it's one of those texts that we come to, and it seems confusing,

and we may not agree with everything Martin Luther says,

but I loved with this when I was studying it.

You know, when you come to difficult passages,

I go to some commentaries, and I start looking at it,

and here's what they say.

I don't know what it's talking about.

Martin Luther said, a wonderful text this is,

a more obscure passage than almost any other in the New Testament,

so I do not know certainly what it means.

I'm like, what a blessing.

But I do think, I'm not smarter than Martin,

I'm not saying I'm smarter than Martin Luther,

but I think when we dig in,

I think sometimes we make the text more difficult than it is.

I think there's some great truths that we can find here,

and Peter's going to talk about some things that when we read it,

verse number 19, he talks about Christ preaching to the spirits in prison.

He's going to take us back to the days of Noah.

He's talking about baptism and saving us,

and if you're not careful, that verse right there

has taken some people on some wild goose chases

that really don't end up where it needs to.

So as we dive into this passage,

we're not going to belabor some of these

and go through all of the views that people have out there,

but what I want us to do is,

where Scripture is clear, we want to be clear.

We can't be dogmatic about things that we are,

the Scripture's not dogmatic about.

And sometimes we don't have to know everything.

I love talking about some of these things.

You get in here, and this has a lot of similarity to the book of Jude,

and everybody wants to know who the fallen angels are

and who these spirits are,

and there's all kinds of things out there.

But I don't want us to get so fascinated with the difficult parts

that we miss what's obvious.

Because Peter's showing some things,

and while there are some details in these verses

that we're going to try to do the very best we can,

Peter's main point is not difficult at all.

Here's his point.

Jesus wins.

That Jesus is victorious.

We see the very last verse.

He's on the throne.

That is where he was getting to,

that Christ suffered, but suffering wasn't the end of his story.

Jesus died, but that wasn't the end of the story.

He was put in the grave, but that wasn't the end of his story.

That Jesus Christ was and is and always will be on the throne.

And that is the thrust, that is the main idea of this text.

And he wanted these believers to be encouraged

because they were experiencing suffering,

and they were being mistreated for their faith.

And he tells us there in verse number 17,

if you're going to suffer, and you will in this world,

if we live for Christ, we will suffer.

I mean, we don't like to hear that,

but Paul said all that live godly shall suffer persecution.

And Peter reminds us in verse 17,

as it kind of jumps us into our text tonight,

if you're going to suffer, suffer for the right reasons.

Do it because you're living for Christ

and taking a stand on his truth.

So as we come to the text that we're focused on here this evening,

Peter isn't abandoning this subject of suffering

and giving them some theology lecture.

No, in fact, he's doing the exact opposite.

He's saying because this is a reality in your life,

because these are things that you face,

and he knew where their suffering was heading,

because no one suffered more unjustly than Jesus Christ did.

Nobody suffered like Christ,

and the suffering, though, that he went through wasn't final.

It didn't have the final word.

And as Christians, that's still our hope.

Because when doing right costs us,

sometimes the faithfulness that we have

and we strive for in our life,

it's not going to make things easier.

That doesn't seem super popular,

and saying it out loud, I'm like,

man, I wish that wasn't true.

But the reality is sometimes we're going to live for Christ.

You're going to go to school and try to live for Christ.

You're going to go to work and try to live for Christ.

And it might make things a lot harder.

But it's okay.

Because we're not suffering because of wrongdoing.

We're suffering for the sake of Christ.

And that's what he's reminding us here.

So when we look at Jesus,

we see that there is hope

and there is a way to get through the difficulties that we face.

And so our big idea is because of Jesus,

it was victorious through his suffering,

we can trust him in our own suffering,

in our own difficulties in life.

So we want to look at this text this evening

and answer this question.

What does Peter show us about the victory of Jesus Christ?

Well, what can we see in this victory

that Jesus bought for us on the cross of Calvary?

Well, the first thing we see is found in verse number 18.

His death brought us to God.

It is death brought us to God.

Verse 18 says there at the very beginning,

For Christ also hath once suffered for sins.

That word also really,

as we read the previous text that we looked at last week,

it connects it.

That Peter's going back and looking at that truth

and here's what he's saying kind of at the beginning of verse 18.

I know what you're going through.

Jesus understands what is taking place

and he knows what it's like to suffer.

But I do want to remind us this.

There's an enormous difference

between the suffering of Jesus and our suffering.

The suffering that we went through

is mainly because we live in a broken, sinful world.

But Jesus wasn't suffering for his sins.

He wasn't on the cross because he deserved it.

He was there to pay the price of our sins.

He was there to pay a debt that we could not pay.

Peter's already alluded to that in chapter 2.

He told us,

He who did no sin,

neither was there guile found in his mouth.

And he's reiterating this fact over and over again

that Jesus was completely innocent.

He was completely righteous.

And yet he suffered greatly.

The Bible tells us there in verse number 18,

the just for the unjust.

I mean, that's the gospel right there.

That's Calvary.

We deserve the judgment.

We were unjust.

We were dead in our trespasses and sin.

And Jesus took it on himself.

He paid that price.

And Paul tells us that in the book of 2 Corinthians

that he was made sin for us

who knew no sin,

that we might be made the righteousness of God.

Here's what he's saying.

He did that so you could have hope,

so you could have joy,

you could have peace.

But notice that one little word there

at the beginning of verse number 18,

once.

Listen, Jesus' sacrifice

does not need to be repeated.

It's good for all time.

It doesn't need to be improved.

It is in no way needed to be

supplemented by what we do.

Now, we serve Christ,

and we love him,

and we do things for him,

but we're not doing that

to kind of get us over the finish line.

No, Jesus did that.

We cannot work our way to heaven.

He did it all.

And Jesus didn't make a down payment

on your salvation and say,

hey, I got you started now.

Finish it out.

Praise the Lord for that.

Because we couldn't afford it,

and we couldn't obtain it.

And when he cried from the cross,

it is finished.

That's exactly what he meant.

Hebrews 10 verse number 12 says this,

but this man, talking about Jesus,

after he had offered one sacrifice,

four sins, forever,

sat down on the right hand of God.

He came and completed the task.

That was his mission,

to seek and to save

and to put his blood there on the altar

for our sins.

And Peter wanted them to get a hold of this

and not run past this truth

because here's what it does for us.

It means that our confidence in God

is not based on our performance.

Because let's just be real,

sometimes as Christians,

we have a good week,

a good month,

a good couple months together,

and we think,

man, I'm doing pretty good.

But if you're like me,

in my Christian life,

sometimes we crash and burn.

I'm thankful that's not based on

when he's looking at my performance

or anybody have a yearly review at work?

You're like, man,

I hope they don't look at those two months.

I was good the rest of the months.

It was real bad right there.

Listen, I'm thankful that's not how God looks at us.

In fact, when he looks at us,

he sees his son,

that we're robed in his righteousness.

Our confidence in God

is not based in how religious we are.

It's not something within me.

Our confidence is simply

in the finished work of Jesus Christ.

That's what Peter says.

For Christ has once suffered.

He has once paid for the sins.

And he tells us why he did that,

that he might bring us to God.

It gives us that certainty

that we are forgiven.

It gives us that certainty of eternal life.

And heaven is our home

if we place our faith and trust in him.

But Peter goes even deeper.

It wasn't just what Jesus did

to bring us to God.

Why he did it.

Because our sins had separated us from God.

Our sins had separated that fellowship.

The Bible tells us in Isaiah chapter 59,

Isaiah 59 · chapter mention

but your iniquities have separated

between you and your God.

The payment had to be made.

See, the greatest problem created by sin

wasn't just the fact that we were

on our way to hell.

That's a big problem.

But really, the greatest problem

was we were separated from God.

I mean, we think of hell often.

We think, man, it's a horrible place

and it is.

And we think the worst thing

may be the fire and the torment.

That's going to be pretty bad.

But here's what it is.

You are separated from God.

That's what sin does.

It separates you.

But Jesus knew that.

And he came.

He was the lamb that was slain

before the foundation of the world.

And he came to reconcile us.

He came and bought our life

that we are purchased by his blood.

And because he bore our sins,

he satisfied the judgment of God.

And he opened the way.

That's why he said,

I am the way and the truth and the life.

No man cometh unto the Father but by me.

See, Christianity isn't just about

getting something from God.

Here's what it really is.

It's getting God.

It's not just,

oh, get out of hell free card

and have some joy and peace in your life.

No, it's about knowing him.

That having a personal relationship

with the creator,

that we get to know him

and to call him our father.

We get to enjoy him now.

And guess what?

We get to enjoy him forever.

That he's invited us.

There's a nameplate

and a chair at the table for me.

Listen, I don't have to sit

at the little kid's table anymore.

Hopefully I'm not at the little kid's table

in heaven.

Actually, the little kid's table

is a lot more fun at Thanksgiving,

by the way.

Yeah, there's not all the kind of politics

and all kinds of things

going on over there.

I mean, we're talking about squishies

and all kinds of fun stuff

at the little kid's table.

See, what Peter's reminding us here

in verse number 18

is Jesus didn't just rescue us

from something.

He brought us to someone.

He brought us to God.

Sometimes we're thankful.

I'm thankful he rescued me,

but it's so much more than that.

It's so much better than that.

And really,

why he's reminding us of this

is because when we think about that,

when we think about all that Christ did

and what he suffered for us,

it really should change the way

that we understand suffering

and how we view what we walk through

and how we view the difficulties

and the trial in our own life.

And Peter was bringing them to this point

because we have seen

in these first three chapters,

I mean, they're going through it.

He said, listen,

I know you're going through it,

but let me remind you,

Jesus went through something much worse

than anything you can think of

because he loves you.

And it reminds us

that there is a hope that we can have.

See, because of the work of Jesus Christ

on the cross of Calvary,

suffering cannot take the greatest thing I possess.

It cannot.

I mean, people can reject you

and you still have God.

I mean, people,

circumstances can change all over the place.

I mean, they can be up and down

every single day,

but you still have God.

I mean, you can lose things.

You can lose someone very dear to you.

They can pass on

or whatever it might be,

but you still have God

and you have hope if they know Christ.

And even death itself

cannot separate you from him.

I'm reminded what Paul told us there

at the end of Romans.

I mean, you ever having a bad day,

you're going through it,

read Romans,

the very last part of Romans chapter eight.

Nothing can separate us

from the love of God.

You know what that is?

That's real victory.

That's victory that lasts.

That's not victory based

on all these worldly things.

Look at the last phrase

of verse number 18.

The Bible tells us this,

being put to death in the flesh,

but quickened by the Spirit.

Peter just reminds them,

hey, they killed Jesus.

Now, we know he laid down his life,

but he died.

But he's not there anymore.

That he was quickened by the Spirit.

His enemies thought the cross

was his ultimate defeat

and they viewed it

as a horrible symbol.

But you know what?

We're so thankful

for the cross of Calvary now

because Jesus took something

that was so awful

and turned it into something

so beautiful.

And we can look at the cross

every time

and every time we see it,

we should be thankful

for the price that he paid.

Even the disciples thought

the grave was the end.

Like, what are we going to do now?

Mary went to the grave

and she was distraught

and she saw who she's supposed

to be the gardener.

She said, just tell me where he is.

Where did they carry him away?

And he said, Mary.

The grave wasn't the end.

It became the doorway

to his resurrection.

And he's just reminding these believers,

and they knew this,

that the cross,

Jesus didn't lose the battle.

No, the cross proved he won the battle.

That he won the victory.

And at the beginning of verse number 19,

Peter shows us

just how far that victory reaches.

And he shows us a couple examples

here in these next few verses.

And this is kind of the part of the text

where you think,

what is he saying here?

Verse number 19,

but which also he went

and preached unto the spirits in prison.

Now, we read that

and automatically I'm thinking,

who are these spirits?

Where did he go?

What did he preach?

What is going on right here?

We're really faithful Bible students

over the years,

and there's going to be

differing opinions.

They look at these verses

in several different ways.

Some believe Peter is describing Christ

by the Spirit,

preaching through Noah

to the wicked generation,

which we see him talk about Noah

there in verse number 20.

That Jesus was speaking through Noah

as he preached.

He was a preacher of righteousness

for 120 years

as he was building the ark.

Another very common held belief

is these spirits in prison

refer to the fallen angelic beings

associated with the rebellion

and the wickedness

surrounding the days of Noah.

You look at Genesis chapter 6

Genesis 6 · chapter mention

and you've ever heard of the Nephilim?

It's a rabbit hole.

You can get down it really, really deep,

but that's kind of what's taking place

and that following his death

and his resurrection,

Christ proclaimed his victory over them.

And there's other interpretations as well,

but I just want us to remember

as we were going to say

a few things about it,

Peter didn't write

to give these suffering Christians

an interpretive puzzle.

Like, figure this one out.

That's not what he's saying.

Here's what he's saying.

Hey, you have hope

because of what Jesus did.

My personal opinion is

the interpretation here

and we find here in verse 19 and 20

seems to fit the language

and the context

of the spirits in prison

are the fallen angels.

Are these beings

that we see in Genesis chapter number 6

that were connected

to the terrible wickedness

in Noah's day?

When you read Genesis 6,

they said that wickedness was,

every thought of the man

was continually wicked.

And these specific fallen beings,

they caused a lot of problems.

We don't know exactly what it is.

There's a lot of different opinions.

That's another sermon

for another time.

But Peter uses this similar language

here in chapter number 2,

verse number 4,

in 2 Peter, excuse me,

here's what he said.

For if God spared not

the angels that sin,

but cast them down to hell

and delivered them

into chains of darkness

to be reserved unto judgment.

Quite a while back,

we preached through the book of Jude

and Jude speaks very similarly

of these angels as well.

He says this,

these angels who kept not

their first estate,

God has reserved them

an everlasting change

under darkness

unto the day of judgment.

So I think what Peter

is wanting us to see here

and we're going somewhere,

so hang on with me.

I know this is kind of

a little difficult

to articulate.

But I believe what Peter

is telling us

is that Christ proclaimed

his victory

over these defeated

spiritual powers.

See, because they thought

they had the victory.

Even on the cross,

they thought they had won

and they are always,

since the beginning of time,

we see it all the way

in the book of Genesis,

all the way up

until the book of Revelation,

where God is going to throw them

in the lake of fire.

Praise the Lord for that day.

But they are trying

to win the battle.

They know they've lost now.

When Jesus rose from the grave,

their sentence was sealed.

But they are looking

for this victory

and Peter is saying,

I don't want us

to misunderstand,

that Jesus didn't preach

to them and offer them

a second chance.

That's not what's taking place.

The word preached is this,

it means proclamation,

to proclaim,

to herald.

This isn't a second chance

after death.

No, here's what Jesus is doing.

This is what Peter is saying,

that Jesus,

this is a declaration of victory.

That all of these evil spirits,

all of these fallen angels,

because they're real,

by the way.

I know we get weirded out

sometimes and we talk

about angels and demons,

they're real.

We're not battling

what we see.

No, we're in a spiritual battle.

That has been that way

since the beginning.

Satan had done his worst.

Sin tried to do its worst.

Death had done its worst.

But Jesus still won.

That's what Peter is saying here.

Evil has never been

outside of God's control.

He doesn't look at these

wicked fallen angels

that fell from heaven

when Satan fell

and think,

man, I don't know what to do.

I don't know.

They're out of control.

No, they did some things

on this earth.

We don't know what it is.

Maybe one day in heaven

we'll know.

But God says,

because they did that,

they're being punished

even now.

They're being reserved

until the day of judgment.

And so that's what Peter does

in verse number 20.

He takes us back to Noah's day

and he reminds us,

he says,

which sometimes we're disobedient.

This is the reason

they're in prison.

When once the long-suffering

of God waited

in the days of Noah

while the ark

was a preparing,

wherein a few,

that is eight souls,

were saved by water.

So he takes the reader back

and says,

listen,

you remember the days of Noah?

You remember the account?

The earth was filled

with violence.

Humanity had rebelled

completely against God.

And put yourself

in Noah's shoes.

I mean,

Noah had to,

from his perspective,

had to think,

we're losing this battle

big time.

I mean,

Noah's preaching,

can you imagine preaching

for 120 years

and nobody listens to you?

I mean,

that would be awful.

He's there

and the Bible tells us

there's only a few people

that enter the ark.

How many?

Eight people.

Out of all the people

that heard Noah preach

over and over

and they'd come by

and they'd mock him

and say,

why are you building a boat, man?

We live in the desert.

What's going on here?

And he had to keep wondering,

Lord,

it just seems like

we're not doing anything.

We're not making any progress.

And at eight people,

Noah certainly didn't have

the majority.

He didn't seem like

he was on the winning side.

But Peter's reminding

these people

that are spread abroad

and all over Galatia

and really on the run

and been displaced

from their homes.

He wanted them

to understand this.

Never mistake being outnumbered

for being defeated.

Because they had to feel

like they're losing.

I don't know about you,

but sometimes in life

it feels like we're losing.

I mean,

we see this all throughout Scripture.

We see the psalmist says,

why do the heathen rage?

Why do they just get

to do whatever they want?

He says,

I'm looking all around

and it seems

they have all the cars

and all the houses

and all the money

and they have no problems

and we're over here

trying to serve God

and we don't have

any of those things.

But then the psalmist

reminds himself

when God shows up

everything's going to change.

And that's kind of

where Peter's taken them.

He wanted them

to understand that

yes,

the Roman world

around them

it seemed enormous

and Christianity

seemed so small.

And that's why

he took them back

to Noah's day.

It's kind of like this,

hey,

we've seen this before.

We've seen this

kind of situation

where it seemed like

all the world

was against us

but guess what?

God showed up.

God made it known.

See,

there was a day

when Noah looked

like a fool

until the rain came.

Then they were trying

to get in the boat

but God had already

closed the door.

There was a day

when evil appeared

to be winning

until God judged it.

That's kind of

what he's reminding them there.

That Jesus' victory

on the cross

it brought judgment,

it brought vindication

for those that

faithfully served God.

That Noah

wasn't this crazy man

just standing out

preaching to a bunch

of people

that weren't listening

and he's just telling us

and telling these believers,

listen,

Christianity,

we cannot measure

the truth

by the popularity.

Because the closer

we get to the return

of Christ,

I think we're seeing it

in our own life

and culture,

the truth of the word

of God

is getting less

and less popular.

But it doesn't change

the truth

of the word of God.

We can't water it down.

We can't say,

well, you know,

that's just an old book.

No, it's a timeless book.

It's settled in heaven forever.

God knows what he's doing

and really,

this is nothing new.

Like Peter told these people,

we've seen this before

but God's going to show up.

See, God has never needed

a majority

to accomplish his purposes.

Peter's readers

needed to know that.

And I would imagine

we probably need to know that too

and just be reminded of that.

God didn't call us

to be the biggest

and the best

and the greatest.

He just called us

to be faithful

and let him handle it.

And that brings Peter

to another picture

from Noah's day,

the flood.

And through this picture,

he kind of shows baptism.

Look at verse number 21.

The like figure

whereunto even baptism

doth also now save us,

not the putting away

of the filth of the flesh,

but the answer

of a good conscience

towards God

by the resurrection

of Jesus Christ.

Think, Peter,

what in the world

are you saying right here?

I mean,

does Peter mean

that the physical act

of baptism

washes our sins away

because that's what

it looks like?

Absolutely not.

That is not

what he is saying.

In fact,

Peter immediately tells us

that's not what he means

in that very next,

in the parentheses.

He's saying

that that's not

what it is

but here's what

he wants us to understand.

Peter is teaching

that getting into water

does not save.

He's not teaching that.

I say it every single time

and I know

you get tired of it maybe

but I'm going to say it

every single time

because I don't want

people to think,

oh, I've been baptized

because maybe you've asked

somebody,

you know the Lord

is your Savior?

I've been baptized.

It's not what I ask.

Do you know the Lord

is your Savior?

Baptism is just

an outward picture

of an inward

transformation in our life.

baptism cannot wash

sin from the heart.

Water can wash our body.

Only Jesus can cleanse

the soul.

But that's why

there's a very important

little phrase

at the beginning,

the like figure.

What he's doing

is he's referring

to the flood

and he's using it

as a picture

and the waters

represented God's judgment

against sin.

And yet,

Noah and his family

passed safely

through the judgment.

Why?

Because they were

in Christ.

That's what the ark is.

The ark is a picture

of Christ.

That when you

enter into Christ,

that's why Peter

and Paul

and all of these

New Testament writers,

they keep saying

that phrase,

in Christ.

In Christ.

When you're in Christ,

guess what?

You're protected.

You're saved.

Why?

He has the victory.

That's what Noah was.

He was protected

because he trusted

in Christ.

And Peter sees

this illustration

of the believer's salvation.

Just as baptism

becomes the outward picture

of an inward identification

with Jesus Christ

and his death

and his burial

and his resurrection.

He wants us

to see that here.

Romans 6, 4.

Therefore,

we are also buried

with him

by baptism into death.

That as Christ

was raised up

from the dead

by the glory

of God the Father.

That's what baptism is.

We are buried in Christ

and we are raised

to walk in newness of life.

It pictures our death

and the burial

and our resurrection

and now we're a new person.

We're a new creature.

And when somebody

follows Christ

and believers baptism,

they are publicly identifying

with what Jesus

has already done.

They're saying,

I have victory

in Jesus Christ.

He's my Savior

and I'm going to follow him

the rest of my life.

So I just want to make

this very clear

like Peter is saying.

Baptism is important.

I'm in no way

downgrading baptism.

It's important.

It's commanded.

In fact,

it's the first step

of obedience.

That every believer

in Jesus Christ

should be baptized.

And if you haven't been

scripturally baptized,

here's what Peter says.

Get it done.

God wants us to do that.

But baptism isn't the Savior.

Jesus is.

The sign of baptism

doesn't save you.

The Savior does.

It's just this outward picture

that our hope rests

in a living Savior.

Because if Jesus stayed dead,

we have no gospel.

If Jesus stayed dead,

death won.

If Christ didn't raise

from the dead,

Paul said,

of all men,

we're most miserable.

We might as well

pack up and go home

and do something else.

But Jesus is not dead.

That he was risen

from the dead.

And so Peter's message

to these suffering Christians

isn't hang in there, guys.

I mean,

hold on until Jesus comes.

That's not what he's saying.

No, his message

is much greater than that.

His message is this,

that Jesus has already

passed through the suffering

and come out victorious

on the other side.

And so can you.

Because if you're in Christ,

just like Noah was in the ark,

listen,

the floods may come

and the difficulties

are going to be there,

but you're safe.

You're secure.

You're in the one

that gives victory.

And if you belong to him,

his victory

determines your future.

I'm not going to heaven one day

because I'm a good person.

I'm going to heaven one day

because Jesus Christ

saved my wicked soul.

I mean,

that's really what

Peter's reminding us.

I mean,

suffering can hurt you.

Peter does not deny that

in this book at all.

Suffering hurts.

Life hurts.

But what he's saying right here

is it cannot destroy your hope.

The world may

and tries to oppose the church,

oppose the scriptures,

oppose God,

but they cannot defeat him.

He's already walked out of the grave.

He's alive and well today.

And apart from Christ,

my conscience testifies against me.

That's what Peter's saying.

I know I've sinned.

I know that I've fallen short

of the glory of God.

I know I cannot make myself righteous.

But he's reminding us

in these verses,

because of the death

and the resurrection

of Jesus Christ,

I'm forgiven.

I can stand with confidence

before God.

Not because of what I've done,

but because of what he's done for me.

And so Peter has taken us

from his suffering

to Jesus' death

to his resurrection,

but victory doesn't end

with an empty tomb.

Here's what he wants us

to know as well,

that our Savior ascended

in victory.

Look at verse number 22.

The Bible tells us,

who is gone into heaven

and is on the right hand

of God.

See, the Jesus who suffered

and was crucified

and was buried

and rose again,

he's in heaven.

And we see this.

The grave could not hold him.

Death could not defeat him.

And after the resurrection,

Jesus went back

just as he said he would.

And I think sometimes

we don't give the ascension

of Jesus the attention

it deserves.

It's just as important

as part of the story.

We talk about his birth,

and rightfully so.

You better get your Christmas

shopping done, by the way.

It's already coming.

But I'm thankful

for when we come

and we get to preach

on the Christmas story

and the birth of Christ,

and we talk about his life,

and we're going through

the Gospel of Luke,

and Easter comes around,

and we're thankful

for his death

and his resurrection.

And rightly so.

We should be.

But the story doesn't end

with Jesus just standing

outside of a tomb.

No, it ends there

in the book of Acts

where Jesus is ascended

into heaven,

and the angels say,

hey, why are you

standing there gazing?

This same Jesus,

who you saw go up,

he's coming back

in like manner.

But that ascension,

really what it shows us

is this.

It confirms the one

who rose from the grave

is really alive.

That he ascended in victory.

He wasn't hanging out.

He wasn't like

trying to get out of Dodge.

No, he came,

and he did what he said

he was going to do,

and now he's going to go

sit down at the right hand

of God the Father.

That's what Peter is saying,

that his humiliation is over,

the suffering is over,

the rejection's over,

the king has gone home,

but the king is coming back.

That he's still in control.

And that's what we see

the very last thing

that Peter wants to remind us,

that the angels

and authorities

and powers

being made subject unto him.

Here's a wonderful thing.

Jesus reigns over all.

Everything is a shadow under him.

There is nothing.

Really, that's the destination

of this whole passage

is he starts with suffering

and death

and all of these things,

but it ends at a throne.

And one day,

it's going to end all there.

The entire humanity,

we see that the great and small

will stand before the throne.

Because Jesus is on it.

And throughout Scripture,

the right hand

is a place of honor

and authority and power.

Sorry, all you left-handers.

You're already weird

and the Bible confirms it.

My wife's left-handed

in case you didn't know that.

So that was mainly aimed at her,

but then I look,

she's in the nursery,

so whatever it might be there.

But Peter's language,

it kind of echoes Psalm 110, verse 1.

Psalms 110:1

The Lord said unto my Lord,

Sit thou at my right hand

until I make thine enemies

thy footstool.

Listen, Jesus isn't in heaven

recovering from what happened on earth.

I was giving Brother Jared a hard time

when I texted him yesterday

when it was his birthday.

I'm like, hey, you feel 40?

He's like, I do feel 40.

It's like, I'm recovering, man.

It's like, you know,

every year you get a little bit older,

you've got to recover

from certain things.

Jesus isn't recovering from anything.

He's reigning.

He's ruling.

We look at our world around us

and we think, man,

this thing's falling apart.

Let me just remind you,

he's still in control.

But the Bible tells us

that by him all things consist.

It has the idea.

He's still holding it together.

Everything is still going

according to plan.

Jesus hasn't lost control

in trying to figure out

how to get it back on the rails.

No, it's going to get worse and worse

as the days progress,

but it just reminds us

he's coming back again.

And when he comes again,

he's not coming as a suffering Savior.

He is coming as the King of Kings

and the Lord of Lords

because that's who he is.

And that's what he tells us here.

That he has no equal.

That he has no rival.

That he is above everything

and everything is subject to him.

And what a great encouragement

for these early readers.

The government seemed to have

all the power.

The persecution was real in their life.

The culture that they lived in

seemed to care nothing about them

and really would just be better off

if the Christians were out of their way

and they could live life

how they wanted to.

And it would have been very easy

for them to look around

and get discouraged

and to look around and think,

man, I chose the wrong side.

I'm on the losing side.

Here's what Peter says.

Stop looking down here.

Why don't you look a little bit higher?

Because Rome is not actually

the one that's on the throne.

Your persecutors aren't on the throne.

The powers of darkness

aren't on the throne.

Jesus is on the throne.

And he is still ruling and reigning.

Our confidence in this life

isn't that everything's going to work out

the way that we want.

Here's our confidence in life.

Jesus Christ is Lord.

That's the confidence that we have.

And nothing can change that.

Nothing's going to change how that goes.

I love what Paul says

in the book of Philippians.

Philippians chapter 2, man,

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

it just is an amazing portion of Scripture.

But he says that in the name of Jesus,

every knee should bow.

Of things in heaven and things in earth

and things under the earth.

And that every tongue should confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord

to the glory of God the Father.

We look at our world today,

it doesn't seem like that's going that direction,

but it is.

That one day,

that every knee's going to bow,

every tongue's going to confess,

that all the people say there is no God,

they'll stand before him one day.

I'm so thankful that

I did it on this side.

I'm thankful that when I see the Lord,

I'm not going to be trembling

because I'm scared of what's going to happen.

I'm going to be trembling because of who he is.

And I'll fall down on my face

and worship him because he is worthy.

Because he is all what he has done for us.

See, one day, Peter's reminding them,

everybody's going to know what you already know.

Jesus is Lord.

So why should we abandon truth

because culture changes?

Why should we compromise

because obedience becomes uncomfortable?

Why should we lose hope

when suffering comes into our life?

He says we don't have to.

The king has already won.

The king is on the throne.

The king has changed your life.

Here in these five verses,

Peter takes us from the suffering

to the death,

to the resurrection,

to the ascension,

to the exaltation of Jesus Christ.

And he says,

listen,

suffering is real in your life.

But it's not the end of the story.

Because Jesus' life proves that.

And if you belong to Jesus Christ tonight,

your story is connected to his story.

That we are to be seated

in heavenly places with Christ Jesus.

In fact,

we're already seated there.

Whatever Jesus has,

the Bible says that we're not just heirs,

we're joint heirs with Christ.

That everything that belongs to Christ

belongs to us.

I mean,

you talk about something you don't deserve,

that's all of us.

None of us deserve it.

Heaven's the only place where it's not fair.

Everybody there,

none of us deserve any of that.

We didn't say,

well, you know,

this is fair,

I deserve this.

Nope.

Hell's the only place where it's fair.

Because that's what we deserve.

But Jesus invites us in.

See,

whatever happens between here and glory,

suffering doesn't get the final word.

Jesus does.

That's why we can come to a funeral

and see a loved one

that's gone on before us

and it hurts

and we grieve

and we cry

and we sometimes ask,

Lord, why?

But death doesn't get the final word.

Jesus tells us in the book of Revelation chapter one,

he has the keys to death,

hell,

and the grave.

He's victorious.

See,

Peter wasn't telling these believers,

hey,

everything, guys,

is about to get easier.

I just came to the book of Jeremiah

in my personal reading time.

Man,

they had some bad prophets

around Jeremiah's time.

Jeremiah keeps telling them,

hey,

you're about to go into captivity.

Another prophet says,

hey, guys,

don't listen to Jeremiah,

everything's good.

It's not good.

Life is hard.

Peter's not saying,

hey, man,

I just want to write this little book to you

because everything's about to get better.

He said,

no,

I want to write this little book to you

to just remind you of something.

Jesus is Lord.

I know you're facing that,

and I know you're facing this,

but you know what's going to help you?

Jesus is Lord.

He cares about you.

See,

here's what I want to leave us with tonight.

We're done.

Because Jesus is victorious,

suffering doesn't get the final word.

So whatever comes your way,

keep your eyes on the throne.

Jesus always wins.