Sermon – 1 Peter 3:18-22 – Jesus Suffered for Our Sins

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Sermon – 1 Peter 3:18-22 – Jesus Suffered for Our Sins

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

Lent 1

February 26, 2012

Today is the first Sunday of Lent. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and lasts for forty days leading us up to Easter. The cross is at the center of our attention during this period. We journey with Jesus toward his death, burial and resurrection experiencing his love, suffering and death. Therefore Lent is a somber time. It is a time for reflection on the meaning of Christ's passion. Why did Jesus suffer? Why was Jesus raised on the cross? Why did Jesus have to die? Of course we all have parallel questions to these. Why do we suffer? Why do we have crosses to bear? Why do we have to die? These are basic questions of our own existence. Lent is a time to look at scripture and try to answer them with God's help. So let's get started with prayer.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

1 Peter 3:18-22 ¹⁸ For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, ¹⁹ in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, ²⁰ who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. ²¹ And baptism, which this prefigured, 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, ²² who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.

When I was growing up my Roman Catholic friends would give something up for Lent. It was always something they liked, like ice cream or chocolate. I remember asking a friend why he did this. And he replied that Jesus died for our sins so we are not suppose to be happy. We are to suffer too.

Peter was writing to suffering churches. Christians had been baptized into hope of resurrection from the dead. They looked forward to their new lives in Christ. But the baptism, which was the source of their hope was also the source of their suffering. Their families and friends were angry because they didn't understand their devotion to Jesus Christ. People called Christians atheist because they refused to worship the Roman gods. Because of this the new Christians were persecuted, treated like aliens and exiles in their own land. It the midst of this suffering the Apostle Peter wrote them a letter to help. He explained in the letter that suffering is expected for Christians. We suffer just as Jesus suffered.

But why did Jesus have to suffer? Why was he mocked and beaten? Why was a crown of thorns placed on his head? Why did he have to carry his cross through the streets? How can we make sense of the Son of God going through things like this? These were questions facing the early church. The apostles were witnesses to what had happened. Their stories about Jesus were being told. But people wanted to know why these things had happened. So the writers of the books of the New Testament searched scripture and prayerfully asked the Holy Spirit for explanations to answer all the questions people had about Jesus and what happened in his life, death and resurrection.

The Apostle Peter wondered why Christ had suffered. Peter had been a witness to it all. He was the leader of a small group of twelve who had followed Jesus, listened to his teaching and gradually came to know that Jesus was far more than a teacher or prophet or even messiah; Jesus is the Son of God. So the visions of Jesus suffering during that last week of his life must have haunted Peter's dreams. So he tried to understand what this was all about. Eventually he realized that Jesus suffered for us. He suffered to bring us to God.

We are so tainted by sin that bringing ourselves to God is out of the question. We can't do it. We might take a step toward God but then take two steps backwards into sin. Try as we might it never works. If we are to get to God we need help. We have to be carried to God by someone else. The good news is that Jesus is there to carry us to God. But to do this Jesus must first get into the sinful muck we find ourselves stuck in. And so Jesus had to suffer to find us where we are to pick us up and carry us to God.

Peter wondered how all this happens. How does Jesus carry us to God? When does this occur? Peter realized that all of this has something to do with baptism. It is in baptism that a believer's new life begins. So Jesus must be present at our baptism to catch us as our old lives perish, and resurrect us to new life in Jesus Christ. It works this way. When we pass under the baptismal waters, and it doesn't matter if the water is sprinkled or it you are submerged into Pitts Creek, when we go under the water our old selves die, we drown. We are no more. But Jesus is there with us, under the water, rescuing us, saving us, and bringing us to God. We emerge from the baptismal water, reborn into new life as followers of Jesus Christ, as Christians.

Peter's understanding of baptism was based on his reading of the story of Noah the book of Genesis. In Noah's time God sent rain for forty days and forty nights. The world was flooded. All evil perished. But God saved the righteous by having Noah build an ark, a large boat which held his family and two of every creature on earth. God saved this remnant from the flood to start new life on earth. And just as God sent Noah's ark to bring people to new life so to does God send Jesus Christ to save us from the drowning waters of baptism into new life.

But as Peter thought about this he became concerned about something else. What about all those people who died in Noah's flood. Why did God not save them? To answer this question Peter turned to a popular book of his day, a book not in the Bible. This is the book of First Enoch.

The story of Enoch begins in Genesis chapter 5. Enoch was the son of Jared, the great grandfather of Noah, and lived for 365 years. But he never died. He is one of two people in the Old Testament, along with Elijah, who never tasted death. He was taken straight to heaven by God. Over the centuries elaborate stories were developed speculating on what Enoch was doing in heaven. One of these stories, well known in New Testament times, was the story of Enoch visiting fallen angels. These were angels who had sinned by having children with humans and were imprisoned for their crimes deep beneath the earth. The story is that God sent Enoch to visit these fallen angels to bring them back to God. Peter thought, just as Enoch was sent to save the fallen angels, in the same way Jesus was sent by God to save those who had perished in the flood of Noah's time. And so just as Jesus saves us when we pass though the baptismal waters bringing us from death to life, so too did Jesus save those who drowned in Noah's day. Jesus must have visited hell to redeem the people Satan had imprisoned and bring them to God.

And this brings us to the Apostle's creed. There is a curious phrase in the Apostle's creed. We say it every week, but you may have wondered about it. The phrase I am talking about is, “he descended into hell.'' Why would Jesus go to hell?, you might ask. It doesn't make any sense. Many churches have erased this line from the creed. Theologians have been confused by this phrase for centuries. But I think that it is really good news. It means that Christ will go anywhere he has to redeem sinners and bring them to God. Christ suffered to bring us to God in our baptisms. While in the tomb he went into the depths of hell to bring as many as he could to God. This shows the great love and compassion Christ has for all of us. He will go anywhere, even to hell, to bring us to God.

In our lives we all experience suffering. As we get older we suffer from aches and pains. We suffer from illness. We suffer when our kids can't find jobs. We suffer when we can't pay our bills. We suffer when our lives don't go as planned, interrupted by surprises. Suffering is a fact of life. But whenever we are suffering we need to remember that Christ suffered too. Whatever pain you experience Christ also experienced it. And remember that Christ experienced his suffering coming to save you. Christ descended into your suffering to bring you God where all suffering ceases. This is really good news, and the hope of your baptism, because in your baptism your old life of sin died away and Christ lifted you up to new life, free from sin.

So this Lent do not be somber. Don't give something up to make yourself suffer. You will experience plenty of suffering without giving something up for Lent. Lent is not a time to be unhappy. Rather we should be joyful celebrating the hope that our suffering will end, and that our baptismal hope of resurrection to new life will be realized. So smile and be happy filled with joy that Jesus suffered to bring you to God.

Lord Jesus, we thank you so much for giving us this baptismal hope of new life in you. We thank you for saving us through the waters of baptism and bringing us to God. We know that you suffered greatly for us and remember your suffering in our own suffering. We thank you for being with us and understanding what we go through. For the great gift of our baptismal hope we praise you. Amen.