Freshbrook Church Podcast | 14Jun26 | Living Hope | Mike Rabbitt

Good morning, church.

Our first Bible reading is taken from First Peter 3 from verse 8 to 22.

If you have the Bible, the church Bible, you can open to page 1219.

First Peter 3 from verse 8 to 22.

And I read, finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.

Do not repair evil with evil or insult with insult.

On the contrary, repair evil with blessing, because to this you are called, so that you may inherit a blessing.

For whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speak.

They must turn from evil and do good.

They must seek peace and pursue it.

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their prayer.

But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.

Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good?

But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed.

Do not fear their threats.

Do not be frightened.

But in your heart you have Christ as Lord, always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.

But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of your slander.

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

For Christ also suffered once for sin, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.

He was put to death in the body, but made alive in the spirit.

After made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirit, to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, while the act was built.

In it, only few people, eight in numbers, eight in all we are saved through water.

And this water symbolizes baptism.

The land saves you also.

Not the removal of death from the body, but the pledge of a clear conscience towards God.

It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven, and is at God's right hand with angels, authorities, and power in submission to him.

This is the word of the Lord.

We start.

Then the Lord said, My spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal.

Their days will be hundred and twenty years.

The Nephilim were on earth in those days, and also afterwards, when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children with them, they were the heroes of old men of renown.

The Lord saw how great the wickedness of human race had become on earth, and every inclination of the thoughts of human heart was only evil all the time.

The Lord regretted that he made human beings on earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.

So the Lord said, I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race that I have created, and with them the animals, the birds, and the creatures that move along the ground.

For I regret that I have made them, but no one found favour in the eyes of the Lord.

Thank you.

Good morning.

So I've got the pleasure of taking us through those verses this morning.

Shall we pray?

Lord and Henry Father, help us have attentive ears, clear ears to listen to what you have to say to us this morning.

And we pray this in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

So Jesus' disciple Peter wrote this book of one Peter, and he wrote it to God's elect.

That is, Christians in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

But you know, he also wrote it for us in Freshbrook Church this morning, so it's relevant to us.

You may find it useful to have your Bibles open actually, because I will be going systematically through these verses one by one to help us uh hear what God has to say to us.

So let's start with the verses eight and nine.

Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.

Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult.

On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called, so that you may inherit a blessing.

So Peter starts this section with the word finally.

And the final section occupies the rest of the book, but we're only going to consider up to the end of chapter three this morning.

Peter tells us to live in harmony.

And remember, Peter's writing to Christians.

So this is about Christians living in harmony with one another.

Maybe you're familiar with musical harmony.

Perhaps we'll have an example of musical harmony this morning.

So if this row can sing to do, this row can sing me, me, and this everybody else, so, so.

Can we sing together then?

Do me so it sounds alright, doesn't it?

So that's musical harmony.

So Peter describes how we should live together in harmony under a master composer, that is Jesus, metaphorically in tune with each other, perhaps slightly more in tune with each other than we just managed to demonstrate there.

Anyway, harmony doesn't just happen.

Peter describes that it is something that we have to work at to achieve.

And in general terms, to live in harmony, Peter describes that we should exhibit the same attitude and behavior of Jesus.

And Peter tells us that we should be sympathetic towards one another, we should love each other as brothers and sisters, we should be compassionate, and that we should be humble.

We maintain harmony when we demonstrate the attitudes of compassion, which is helping people who are unable to help themselves, and we heard about night shelter this morning.

Helping people without judgment.

And then Peter talks about being sympathetic, which is taking an interest in and praying for people who are struggling.

Again, without judgment.

And then he tells us to love each other, sharing our gifts, practicing hospitality.

And then he asks us to be humble, which is about considering others more than ourselves.

And there are lots of people in Freshbrook Church who model these behaviors very well from my own experience.

Now Peter wrote this book during a time when Christians were being persecuted for their faith.

And he told them not to repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but to repay them with a blessing.

We are to leave judgment to God.

This is not natural.

When someone does something evil against us, our natural inclination is to retaliate.

Justice needs to be served, surely.

And when somebody badmouths us, our natural inclination is to fire back.

But Peter tells us not to do this.

He tells us to respond with a blessing.

We must resist the temptation to get our own back.

When we act in the opposite way and show kindness, we follow the way of Jesus and we overcome evil with good.

So I've got a couple of illustrations for this.

A sergeant in the Scottish regiment frequently bullied a private who had converted to Christianity.

And one night the sergeant came back to the barracks, drunk, wet, and tired.

The private quietly knelt by his bed to pray.

Angered, the sergeant violently threw his mudcaked boots at the private, hitting him on the head.

The private calmly set the boots aside and continued to pray.

The next morning, the sergeant found his boots beautifully cleaned and polished by the private.

And this unexpected loving response broke the sergeant's heart and led to his own conversion.

In our own home group, we are going through the Romans course at the moment, and this week we heard another good example about a lady who was a devoted follower of Jesus.

And during the week she made clothes for emergency appeals at her own expense.

On Sundays, she walked miles to lead Sunday school sessions for children in different churches.

And then one day, when she was in her 80s with her eyesight failing, two thugs broke into her home in broad daylight and robbed her at knife point.

After they had gone, she called a friend to explain what had happened.

Her instinctive response to such a traumatic experience was to say, This is very difficult for me.

I already have a very long prayer list, and now I've got two more people to add to it.

And from that day on, she prayed for those men who had attacked her.

The two men were caught and imprisoned, and in prison, one of them started attending the chapel service, heard the gospel, and by the grace of God, that man became a devoted follower of Jesus Christ.

Now Peter tells us that we are called to this.

It's not optional.

God calls us to be compassionate, sympathetic, loving, humble, and not vengeful.

He calls us to repay evil with blessing so that we may inherit blessing.

And then let's go on to verses 10 and 12.

For whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech.

They must turn from evil and do good.

They must seek peace and pursue it, for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their prayer.

But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, which is Psalm 34, verses 12 to 16.

Psalms 34:12–16

If you want to love life and see good days, he says, refrain your tongue from evil, refrain from deceitful speech, turn away from evil and do good.

Seek peace, pursue it.

If we want the blessing of God, we have to consciously be working on these things, and we are called to a life which is glorifying to God and honouring of other people.

And if we want to inherit a blessing, we need to be a blessing.

Let's read verses thirteen to seventeen.

Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good?

But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed.

Do not fear their threats, do not be frightened, but in your heart revere Christ as Lord.

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.

But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

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

So the word suffer appears multiple times in this section.

And in fact, the word suffer appears 17 times in the book of one Peter.

And this is a major theme of the book.

Peter wrote this book during a time when Christians were being persecuted and martyred like never before.

Between the years 64 and 67 AD, Christians were blamed for Rome burning by Emperor Nero and were martyred because of it.

They were dying in their tens of thousands.

They were being rounded up, persecuted, and killed for their faith.

And that is the context for this passage and why suffering is such a strong theme of the book.

So he was writing to Christians whose lives were under threat.

And he told them not to be afraid of the threat, not to be troubled by it, to set apart Christ as Lord in their hearts to holy living.

And even in the face of such suffering, to the point where their life may have been required of them, they were to set apart Christ in their heart and live holy lives.

Now, today in Freshbrook, England, we are not under the threat of death for our faith like these early Christians were.

We don't really suffer for what is right.

And I think the worst response we can get today for our faith is ridicule.

But even that is relatively rare.

However, there are many countries around the world where Christians are persecuted for their faith today.

And the worst countries being North Korea, Somalia, Yemen, Sudan, Eritrea, Syria, Nigeria, Pakistan, Libya, in Iran.

They're just the worst countries.

Persecution happens all over the world.

So this book is relevant to a lot of people.

But nevertheless, verse 15 is certainly relevant to us.

And Peter says that we should always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks us to give the reason for the hope that we have.

And that phrase, to give an answer, is one word in the Greek, which is apologia.

And we get the word apologetics from it.

Apologetics is the discipline of defending a belief.

And there are three things that are necessary for you and I if we are ready, if we are to be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks us to give the reason for the hope that we have.

And the first is that we should be a good example.

Is your life?

Is my life a good example of Jesus?

People will only ask us if they notice something different about us.

Is there something about your life that gives reason for people to ask you?

And the only reason that people would want to ask you is if they notice something different about you.

So the first key, if you want to be a good witness for Jesus, if you want to have an evangelistic impact in other people's lives, start with being a good example.

If other people see something attractive about you, something that is different from the life they are living, they may be inclined to ask you about it.

For example, how come when you receive that bad news, you seem to be at peace?

How come you seem to be able to deal with things in your marriage that my wife and I aren't able to deal with?

And hopefully you are living a life that is a good example of Jesus.

St.

Francis of Assisi said, preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words.

So that's the example part.

But then we should also be prepared to use words.

The second thing that is important for us to defend our faith is explanation.

Are you able to explain what you believe?

If someone is going to ask you, you have to be ready to actually share something, and that's the explanation part.

For example, if you're doing some volunteering work, helping people who are unable to help themselves, such as in Night Shelter, and somebody asks you why you do it, you could say something along these lines.

When Jesus was alive on earth, he was compassionate to those who are unable to help themselves.

The Bible tells me that as a follower of Jesus, I should also be compassionate.

Although he didn't deserve it, Jesus was put on a cross to die.

And when he died, he took the punishment I should have had for my sins.

And because of it, I am forgiven by God.

I am loved by him.

The Bible also tells me that since I have accepted Jesus as my Savior by faith, I have eternal life.

It's a free gift from God.

So that wasn't really a shattering at all, was it?

It wasn't complicated, it was actually pretty simple.

And we should be able to explain adequately what we believe and why we believe it.

And then the third thing, which goes hand in hand with the first two, is that you should be careful to express yourselves with gentleness, respect, and with a good conscience.

So as you express yourself, you need to make sure you don't come across as arrogant or judgmental.

And Peter calls all of us to be a good example, to be prepared, to give an answer to those who ask us.

And when we do it, we explain it, and we should make sure we do that with gentleness and make sure that we do it with respect.

And we should also make sure that we have a good conscience, which is meaning that there is no hypocrisy in what we say or do.

So that the person who's talking to us might know Jesus themselves.

And then Peter adds, If they speak maliciously against you, they will feel ashamed of their conduct as they compare their conduct with yours.

So that's the first seventeen verses.

And then it gets a little bit trickier.

So the context for the remainder of the chapter is verse 17, when Peter says, It is better if it is God's will to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.

Let's read verses 18 and 19.

It says, For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous to bring you to God.

He was put to death in the body, but made alive in the spirit.

After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits, to those who were being disobedient long ago, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.

The greatest example of suffering and how great things can come through suffering is Jesus.

He suffered once for sins, once for all.

And this man was bound to a stake to die by burning.

He was being burnt, yet he was calm and quiet until his legs had been burned away.

And the bystanders looked to see his helpless body, eventually all as black as coal, with the man still calm and quiet.

But they were surprised when two words came out of the carcass which said, Sweet Jesus, and then he died.

That saint had the sweet presence of Jesus to help him through his terrible suffering.

Now, Jesus' suffering began before the cross in the Garden of Gethsemane when he sweated out great drops of blood due to an extreme emotional response.

Jesus was then arrested and taken to several illegal trials.

He was wrongly accused, he was beaten before being taken to Golgotha, where he was crucified.

And on the cross, Jesus endured excruciating pain.

Unlike the man martyred for his faith in the previous incident, He did not have the sweet presence of the Father helping him.

Instead, he had to endure the full wrath of God and the judgment of the God who had forsaken him as he took the punishment due for the sins of the world on him.

And as much as we suffer, we will never suffer like Jesus did.

As much as the Christians receiving the book of One Peter suffered, they would never suffer like Jesus did.

But the very worst thing that did happen, the suffering and death of God, became the very best thing that did happen.

It brought us to God.

The death of Jesus Christ became the basis from which God forgives sins and the basis from which people are made right with God.

Peter then describes what happened to Jesus during the three days that his body lay in the tomb.

He did this as he wanted to expand on describing the good that came from Jesus' suffering so that we might continue to do good and be a witness for Jesus.

And Peter probably knew about it firsthand from Jesus himself, told to him after Jesus' resurrection.

And Peter refers to the spirit of Jesus going to preach to the spirits in prison, to spirits being held captive.

When Jesus died, his body separated from his spirit, and he was made alive by the spirit.

And his spirit went to visit the spirits being held captive in prison.

Peter refers to a time before Noah, before the flood, which is described for us in Genesis 6, which has been read to us this morning.

So let's go there to see what these spirits did and find out why they were being held captive in Hades and find out why Jesus went to preach to them.

Now, Jesus preaching to them doesn't mean that he offered the gospel to them.

That would mean that after death they had a second chance for salvation, which is inconsistent with the rest of Scripture.

Rather, that Jesus proclaimed to them his victory over sin and death and Satan.

So let's go back to Genesis chapter 6, because it explains a lot about why Jesus went to visit these spirits captive.

Genesis 6 · chapter mention

So, when human beings began to increase in number on the earth, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they choose, they chose.

Then the Lord said, My spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal.

Their days will be a hundred and twenty years.

The Nephilim won the earth in those days, and also afterwards, when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them.

They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all of the time.

The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.

Unfortunately, the meaning of these verses is not particularly self-evident, and they have raised questions which have been discussed for years.

And the question is, who are the sons of God?

In Genesis chapter 6.

Genesis 6 · chapter mention

There are other couple of other scriptures that are useful to us.

For example, 2 Peter chapter 2, verses 4 and 5, it says, For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment, if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others, dot dot dot.

2 Peter 2:4

So he mentions about angels being held captive in prison there.

And there is also a verse in Jude, Jude verse 6, which says, And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority, but abandoned their proper dwelling, these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great day.

And all of these passages are related.

So the sons of God in Genesis chapter 6 most likely refers to angels, as this interpretation then makes sense of the two Peter and Jude verses.

Genesis 6 · chapter mention

God created the angels, and the angels of Genesis 6 were clearly male by the title given to them, which is Sons of God.

And to help us come to this conclusion that they are angels is the contents of a book called One Enoch, written by Jewish writers prior to the time of Jesus.

And in that book it says, And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied, that in those days were born to them beautiful and comely daughters.

And the angels, the children of heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another, Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men, and beget us children.

They were in all two hundred.

They took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go into them and defile themselves with them, and they taught them charms and enchantments, and they became pregnant, and they bare great giants, and there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they were led astray, and they became corrupt in all their ways.

So one Enoch is not in the Bible.

Its interpretation of Genesis six is not inspired.

It could be wrong in many places, and undoubtedly is.

Nevertheless, it helps us interpret Genesis 6, which also describes the result of an angel human union as the Nephilim.

And Numbers 13, 33 describes the Nephilim as giants.

Genesis 6 refers to them as heroes of old, which is the origin of stories of half human, half-divine figures present in ancient mythologies.

The stories of Homer, for example, are embellished, but probably reflect memories of these ancient figures of the pre-flood period.

Now I'm going to spell it out.

Genesis 6 refers to demonic activity, which was an attempt by Satan to pervert the human race.

And I'd like us to consider what Satan had been trying to do before going back to 1 Peter chapter 3.

1 Peter 3 · chapter mention

Going right back to the Garden of Eden, Satan was there when the promise of a deliverer was given.

And he heard God say, I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers.

He will crush your head and you will strike his heel.

He thought that Cain, the woman's offspring, was the deliverer, and plotted to turn him into a murderer.

And he succeeded.

He corrupted Cain by getting him to murder Abel, thereby eliminating one of Eve's children and rendering the other unfit to be the Savior.

But Satan had failed, as Cain wasn't the deliverer.

God simply continued on his unruffled way to develop the godly line through which the deliverer would be born.

What was Satan to do?

He conceived the plan of corrupting the entire human race by the intermarriage between demons and humans, which we've just read about.

The Savior could not be born of a demon-possessed mother.

So if Satan could succeed in infecting the entire human race, the deliverer would not come.

The flood came instead.

The flood was an act of the marvelous grace of God.

And through it, God preserved the human race intact, uncontaminated by Satan's attempt at demonic perversion.

And God actually provided for our salvation through keeping open the way for the deliverer to come.

If Satan had succeeded, Jesus could not have been born, and the human race as a whole would have been lost.

But by destroying the contaminated race and saving uncontaminated Noah and his immediate uncontaminated family, and by binding the demons who participated in this great sin in Hades until the final judgment, God made the salvation to be achieved by Christ both sure and possible.

Now, Satan has continued his work in trying to thwart God's plan.

For example, when God sent prophets, he had them killed.

And when God foolishly sent his own son Jesus into the world, Satan worked to ensure that Jesus, the deliverer, was crucified.

The deliverer hung on the cross, forsaken by man, and seemingly forsaken by God.

And Jesus cried, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Satan felt triumph and vindication.

But he couldn't have been more wrong.

This was in fact God's supreme triumph and Satan's supreme defeat through the power of God.

Jesus defeated death and came back to life.

And the salvation of people and their eternal life, which is what Satan was trying to prevent, comes through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, with all that background, I want us to go back to 1 Peter chapter 3 now and take a look at what Jesus preached to the captive spirits.

1 Peter 3 · chapter mention

So this is 18B to the end.

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.

He was put to death in the body, but made alive in the spirit.

After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits, to those who were disobedient long ago, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.

In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water.

And this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also.

Not the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a clear conscience towards God.

It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God's right hand, with angels, authorities, and powers in submission to him.

Now, when you're speaking to someone, it's good to speak in a way that they would understand that they are able to understand it.

And these spirits only knew the history of the earth up to the time when they were made captive.

And Jesus used this captive, this context, when he preached to them.

And Peter most likely relays a brief summary of what Jesus preached to them here, changing the emphasis a bit to recognize that the audience, what he writes, is us this morning, Christians.

And in Noah's day, God saw how great man's wickedness on earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.

And as we have heard, the great magnitude of man's wickedness had been caused by the acts of these fallen angels who he was preaching to.

And in judgment, God sent the flood.

But in his grace, God preserved the human race when he saved Noah and his family through the ark.

And in this description here that Peter uses, the water of the flood is called a symbol of baptism.

Now, during baptism, water is used to symbolically wash away sins, not the removal of dirt from the body, leading to a clear conscience before God, as Peter describes it.

And going under the water represents the burial of the old self, while emerging from it symbolizes being raised to a new life in Christ.

And if in effect, the water of the flood washed away the sins of the world.

Eventually the flood water receded, leading to a new world and a fresh start for Noah and his family.

And the new world that Noah lived in as a symbol of the new life that God saved people have in Jesus through the resurrection of Jesus.

And in this way, Jesus described his victory over sin and death to the captive spirits.

There was nothing that Satan could do about it.

And by his suffering, Jesus had triumphed over sin and death and Satan.

And the act of putting Jesus on the cross that Satan was directly responsible for had led directly to God's victory.

Now verse 21 is a little bit confusing unless you think it through.

It says, This water symbolizes baptism.

Now we've covered that bit, but Peter adds that now saves you also.

Now this verse doesn't imply that the act of baptism is necessary for salvation.

The water in Noah's day, which Peter describes as symbolizing baptism, did not save Noah and his family.

God did.

The boat that God provided them, provided, kept them safe.

Salvation was from God.

Likewise, the act of baptism doesn't save.

Salvation is from God through faith in Jesus Christ.

You can't add anything to what Jesus has done by dying on the cross and being raised to life, defeating death.

It's faith in Jesus alone that saves.

It's not faith plus baptism.

It's not faith plus good works.

It's faith in Christ alone that saves you.

And the act of baptism is simply a symbol that identifies the person being baptized with the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Now you'll be pleased to know we've come to the end.

I would like to sum up and apply it.

Satan is still hatching his plans today, trying to thwart the work of God in saving people through the finished work of Jesus.

I'd just like to read you Ephesians chapter 6, verse 12.

Ephesians 6:12

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

You should fear Satan.

But as a consequence, draw near to Jesus who has defeated him.

And consistent with this verse in Ephesians, Peter finishes chapter three of 1 Peter by emphasizing the completeness of Jesus' work in his death and resurrection.

That all angels and authorities and powers are in submission to him now that he has been exalted to the right hand of God the Father.

If you suffer or are ridiculed for your faith for doing good, don't stop doing it.

Out of Jesus, great suffering came incredible good.

The victory of Jesus over sin and death should help motivate us to tell others about Jesus.

Amen.

Shall we just pray together?

Lord, I want to thank you that you've saved me.

I want to thank you that you've saved many here in the congregation this morning.

That you saved us through dying on the cross, taking the punishment for our sins on his shoulders when he did so.

And Lord, that he gave us eternal life when he raised from the death by your power.

Lord, I want to thank you that Jesus' suffering was worth it.

It was worth it for me, and it was worth it for many here this morning.

And I just want to praise you this morning because of what Jesus has done for us.

And we just thank you in his wonderful name.

Amen.