(audience chattering) (audience cheering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) - You guys ready? I got no idea how to do this. (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) - Good evening, everyone.

We're gonna go ahead and get started with Bible study. So why don't we just take a couple of minutes to just quiet our hearts before we get into a time of praise. (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) (audience chattering) Father, we thank you for allowing us to gather tonight.

We come before you as sinners who are unworthy of your love. And we're so thankful for the grace that you've shown us through the death and resurrection of your son, Jesus Christ. We pray that we're reminded of how undeserving we are, that you would humble our hearts, and that we also just recognize who are coming before in prayer, that our view of you would be one out of reverence, seeing how almighty you are compared to how small we are, that would that cause us to give you praise and worship in every aspect of our lives.

And as we come before you in praise, that you'd be honored through the songs that we sing. So we love you and pray all this in your name, amen. Why don't we all stand for a time of praise? (gentle music) ♪ Who, O Lord ♪ ♪ Who, O Lord, could save themselves ♪ ♪ Their own soul could heal ♪ ♪ Our shame was deeper than the sea ♪ ♪ Your grace is deeper still ♪ ♪ Who, O Lord ♪ ♪ Who, O Lord, could save themselves ♪ ♪ Their own soul could heal ♪ ♪ Our shame was deeper than the sea ♪ ♪ Your grace is deeper still ♪ ♪ 'Cause you alone can rescue ♪ ♪ You alone can save ♪ ♪ And you alone can lift us from the grave ♪ ♪ 'Cause you came down to find us ♪ ♪ Let us out of death ♪ ♪ To you alone belongs the highest praise ♪ ♪ You, O Lord ♪ ♪ You, O Lord, have made a way ♪ ♪ The great divide you healed ♪ ♪ For when our hearts are far away ♪ ♪ Your love went further still ♪ ♪ Yes, your love goes further still ♪ ♪ 'Cause you alone can rescue ♪ ♪ You alone can save ♪ ♪ 'Cause you alone can lift us from the grave ♪ ♪ 'Cause you came down to find us ♪ ♪ Let us out of death ♪ ♪ To you alone belongs the highest praise ♪ We lift up our eyes.

♪ We lift up our eyes, lift up our eyes ♪ ♪ You're the giver of life ♪ ♪ We lift up our eyes, lift up our eyes ♪ ♪ You're the giver of life ♪ ♪ We lift up our eyes, lift up our eyes ♪ ♪ You're the giver of life ♪ ♪ We lift up our eyes, lift up our eyes ♪ ♪ You're the giver of life ♪ ♪ And you alone can rescue ♪ ♪ You alone can save ♪ ♪ You alone can lift us from the grave ♪ ♪ 'Cause you came down to find us ♪ ♪ Let us out of death ♪ ♪ To you alone belongs the highest praise ♪ ♪ 'Cause you alone can rescue ♪ ♪ You alone can save ♪ ♪ 'Cause you alone can lift us from the grave ♪ ♪ 'Cause you came down to find us ♪ ♪ Let us out of death ♪ ♪ To you alone belongs the highest praise ♪ ♪ To you alone belongs the highest praise ♪ ♪ To you alone belongs the highest praise ♪ (gentle music) ♪ By grace alone ♪ ♪ By grace alone somehow I stand ♪ ♪ Where even angels fear to tread ♪ ♪ Invited by redeeming love ♪ ♪ Before the throne of God above ♪ ♪ He pulls me close with nail scarred hands ♪ ♪ Into his everlasting arms ♪ (gentle music) - When condemnation grips.

♪ When condemnation grips my heart ♪ ♪ And Satan tempts me to despair ♪ ♪ I hear the voice that scatters fear ♪ ♪ The great I am, the Lord is here ♪ ♪ Oh praise the one who fights for me ♪ ♪ And shields my soul eternally ♪ ♪ Boldly I approach your throne ♪ ♪ Blameless now I'm running home ♪ ♪ By your blood I come ♪ ♪ Welcomed as your own ♪ ♪ Into the arms of majesty ♪ (gentle music) ♪ I hold the pride that risen sun ♪ ♪ More beauty than this world has known ♪ ♪ I'm face to face with love himself ♪ ♪ His perfect spotless righteousness ♪ ♪ A thousand years, a thousand tongues ♪ ♪ Are not enough to sing his praise ♪ (gentle music) ♪ Boldly I approach your throne ♪ ♪ Blameless now I'm running home ♪ ♪ By your blood I come ♪ ♪ Welcomed as your own ♪ ♪ Into the arms of majesty ♪ (gentle music) ♪ Boldly I approach your throne ♪ ♪ Blameless now I'm running home ♪ ♪ By your blood I come ♪ ♪ Welcomed as your own ♪ ♪ Into the arms of majesty ♪ ♪ By your blood ♪ ♪ By your blood I come ♪ ♪ Welcomed as your own ♪ ♪ Into the arms of majesty ♪ - Amen, you may be seated.

(bell ringing) All right, we're gonna start. Can you just join with me in prayer? Father, we approach your throne not with foolish confidence, but because of the work of Christ and only because his blood has covered our sins if we profess allegiance and faith to him. The Lord, though we are dead to sin, we're still dying.

And before we approach your throne, we wanna confess, Father, that we really aren't worthy to really study your word and ask for your blessing outside of your grace. And Lord, it is our confession that some of us in the name of your grace have been reckless with this study, just haphazardly preparing so that our small group members would be appeased.

Lord, I'm sure there are some in here who are very attached to their sins. And yet will still come and treat this as an academic exercise. Lord, tonight, help us not to be combative or arrogant in any way, shape, or form, but that every single one of us would come here broken, longing to draw near to you, and that we would all leave here more humbled.

And with a challenging text like this, Father, we know that we are to worship through it, and yet with all the different things that we're gonna discuss tonight, it's hard to give it our hearts. It's difficult to draw near to you in worship through this passage when we get lost in all the details.

So I pray for your grace. And it's your kindness that leads us to repentance. So I pray that you would be oh so kind. Lord, you wiped away all the sinners on this earth with a flood, and you were just in doing so. And we are living in a time of grace.

So I pray that this teaching would cause us to have wisdom, to number our days, that we might grow in that wisdom. Lord, I pray that you would really protect and just guide our discussion and our time tonight. And would this exercise only cause us to seek you more.

Father, you've said that we will seek you and find you if we seek you with all of our hearts, no matter what the circumstance that we're in. So even in this exercise, I pray that a search to know Christ more intimately would be in every single one of us.

And we pray for your protection and grace. In Jesus' name we pray. We're gonna do something a little differently tonight. You guys know we usually have a time of discussion and then a 20, 25 minute time of teaching, but we're gonna do the teaching portion first to make sure we hedge in some of the discussions that we're gonna have.

This is actually one of the most challenging texts in all the New Testament to interpret. And so we're gonna dive in. Okay, we're not gonna shy away. But let me read the passage to you first. And I'm including up to chapter four, verse two, for additional context. All right?

It reads, "For it is better, if God should will it so, "that you suffer for doing what is right "rather than for doing what is wrong. "For Christ also died for sins once for all, "the just for the unjust, "so that he might bring us to God, "having been put to death in the flesh, "but made alive in the spirit.

"In which also he went and made proclamation "to the spirits now in prison, "who once were disobedient, "when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, "during the construction of the ark, "in which a few, that is, eight persons, "were brought safely through the water. "Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you, "not the removal of dirt from the flesh, "but an appeal to God for a good conscience "through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, "who is at the right hand of God, "having gone into heaven after angels and authorities "and powers have been subjected to him.

"Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, "arm yourselves also with the same purpose, "because he who has suffered in the flesh "has ceased from sin, "so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh, "no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God." This is a very meaty text, and I wanna basically lead with a couple just heroes in the faith and what they said about this passage, okay?

Martin Luther, the reformer, he wrote, "A wonderful text is this, "and a more obscure passage, perhaps, "than any other in the New Testament, "so that I do not know for a certainty "just what Peter means." And this was a man who prayed, who spent a lot of his time pouring into scripture.

And the late R.C. Sproul, who passed away a few years back, and one of the smartest men to ever have walked the planet, in my opinion, this is what he says. "This is a text about which I am open "to correction and reproof, "and I will be quick to ask the apostle, "when I see him in glory, what he meant," by these very enigmatic words.

No doubt he's already asked him. He had passed away a few years back. Now, I'm gonna read one more. "There's a lot of views on this passage." And this is what John MacArthur said last month at the Shepherds Conference. Okay, he says this. "There is no virtue in having many views.

"The more views means that more people are wrong." Now, this is not an easy passage, and the way we're gonna tackle it is we're gonna try to look at it, and then try to land on a conclusion, not start with a conclusion, and then just piece arguments in together.

Arrogant people do that. They'll say, "I am a this person," without having studied the scriptures. "Oh, I ascribe to that," without actually having looked at the scriptures. They usually read one book, or like a book, read a couple articles, and go, "I'm there, I side with that," because that person was just articulate.

But these men's words are not living and active. They're not sharper than any two-edged sword. It's God's word, right? So what we need to do is humbly ask God to bring the scriptures alive to us, searching for a definitive conclusion for this, and yet have a humble posture, okay?

Not come up with a view, and then boom. Oh, like, "I have a view, "and this is why my view is correct, "and these are the verses that are gonna back that up." Okay, that's ad absolute arrogance. So there have traditionally been like four-ish views to this passage, but I'm not gonna talk about those at all, all right, because that's not gonna be helpful, because human nature, you're gonna wanna lean toward one, and you're gonna tend to isagy.

You guys following this? So I'm gonna walk you through the passage, and try to humbly tell you my thoughts on certain questions, so that you guys aren't really like going all over the place, okay? So I'm gonna be sharing a lot about what I think it can't mean, all right?

But before we do this, whenever we come to a difficult passage in the scriptures, and there's a few really difficult ones throughout history where scholars have debated, and argued, and have come to no conclusion. So when we come to a difficult passage, here are some things that we should not do, all right?

These are thoughts that we should not have. The first one is, texts like these, because they do not affect major doctrines, are unimportant. Especially you guys who aren't into books, or who aren't into discussing theology, who are more like, "Tell me what to do, "and let me shine the light of Christ." Great, your zeal is godly and awesome, but you need to know everything that the Lord has to say, right?

So Deuteronomy 4, Proverbs 30 says, "Do not add to his words, or take away from them." He's gonna prove you a liar. Matthew 5, 18, Jesus says, "I did not come to abolish the law. "Heaven and earth will pass away, "but my words will not pass away." Until, like, it's all fulfilled, not one jot or tittle, which are the smallest characters in the Hebrew language, none of them are gonna be gone.

Everything in the scriptures is there for a purpose, right? And all scripture is God-breathed, and useful for teaching, correcting, rebuking, and training in righteousness, so that you and I may be equipped for every good work, including this. You guys follow? So you can't treat a difficult passage and be like, "Eh, I don't need to study this, this is not important," and just gloss over it.

So that's one thing we can't do. Also, you have a defeatist attitude, there is no one way to interpret this text, is also folly. There is a conclusion. It's God's conclusion. You guys agree with that? What God meant is the right way. Okay, now for us, it's a little bit of a challenge to discern that, but the Holy Spirit has inspired all the scriptures.

Second Peter 3.16 say the unregenerate and the wicked, they're the ones who distort the scriptures, to make it kind of fit their meaning. So we need to ask God for wisdom, and he will gladly give it, and he will lead us into truth. So we're not supposed to think that, oh, there are many opinions on this, and they're all valid, incorrect.

You might not be correct, but that should not be because of laziness, or lack of diligence in terms of getting into the scriptures. The third thing is, okay, there is one way, but it's beyond me, because I'm not seminary trained. I don't know the Bible. I need a seminary degree to properly interpret this text.

No, you do not. Okay, Luke 24, 45, the disciples were with Jesus for three years, and they still didn't get it, until after his resurrection, Jesus opened their minds to understand the scriptures. Okay, and these were unlearned, untrained men. John 16, 13, the spirit himself will guide you into all truth.

And there's a thing called the doctrine of perspicuity, which basically says the Bible is meant to be read. It's a plain book, and any normal person can understand its meaning through illumination of the Holy Spirit. Okay, so if you are a child of God, you can understand this. You guys follow?

Okay, don't have an insecurity or inferiority complex, 'cause inferiority complex and insecurity is just wounded pride. So you need to pursue. Now, the latter two are more like just ingest, but things that you guys should pay attention to also. If someone disagrees with my interpretation of this text, he is an ignoramus and is influenced by Satan himself to cause division in the church.

Some people actually, they talk like this. How could you think that, right? Knowledge puffs up, but what does love do? It always edifies, it always builds up. So if someone disagrees with you, be okay with that and pursue knowledge together, 'cause there is one faith, one Lord, one baptism, right?

One God and Father of all. And Ephesians 4 says we need to make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. A lot of that takes work. If you guys are married, would you guys say marriage is easy or it's work? You guys probably say it's a lot of work, 'cause you're getting two sinners to try to get them like-minded and try to get them to be one.

It's actually not an easy thing. So same thing. We can have differing opinions on a passage, on a text, but we all need to pursue the right answer, okay? Last one, I should get lost in the details and the minutiae of the text and thereby veer off from the main point and context altogether.

After all, rabbit trails are super fun. Some people love this. They like to pursue conspiracy theories. They love to pursue random factoids in the scriptures. Like sometimes it means what it means. You don't need to try to find a symbolic meaning of the thing, all right? So when we come to a hard passage like today's, your attitude should be none of these.

It really should be a zeal for what is good, which includes pursuing knowledge of the truth for excellence in handling of the scriptures, and yet with humility before the Lord and before one another. You guys follow? Now, this is one of the most challenging texts in all the scriptures.

So bigger picture. I wanted to organize it visually so that we're not sidetracked. So I look at this as kind of almost a baptism illustration. So the first, verse 17 and what is prior to that is describing, in my words, more of a unity to Christ, united to Christ in his death by suffering, okay?

And then what follows is united to Christ in his resurrection also by the will of God. And you'll see why I did that. So united to Christ in his death, united to Christ in his resurrection, and if you've been at one of our baptisms, that's what we say, right?

Do you believe that when you go into the water, you're being united to Christ in his death, and when you're coming out of the water, united to Christ in his resurrection? I do, ploosh, right? So that's how we usually do baptism. So the blue is that. The red bolded words are just significant, grammatical and theological words that I would wanna keep track of, especially like corresponding to that.

That drives me nuts. I'm like, I don't know what that is. So I was trying to figure out what that exactly is. Not conclusive yet, okay? But these red words are very important, and then the chapter four, verse one, which isn't part of our study today, but therefores are very important.

Why? Because you always wanna ask, what's the therefore therefore? Okay, there's an application that's sought, all right? So those are the important words. The purple bold, what I saw, was there's a lot of suffering in death talk. Some of your translations will actually say death. Most of them will say suffer, okay?

Scholars believe suffer is the more accurate one. So there's a lot of suffer, die for sin, death in the flesh, removal of dirt from the flesh, suffer in the flesh, suffered in the flesh, rest of the time in the flesh, living for the will of God. So there's all of this flesh needs to die motif, okay?

The blue highlights are result, I couldn't figure out a different word, so I just put results of the resurrection. So Christ's death and resurrection, what did that do for his people? One, it brought us to God. Second, there was a proclamation that was made, and we're gonna be looking at that.

The also he went, that went is not a verb, if you actually look at the original language, okay? But the made proclamation is a verb. So that also happened, and we've also been saved because of the resurrection of Christ from the dead. So that's kind of what I'm receiving through this.

And the green, it talks about the will of God. 1 Peter is one of the most will of God centered books in the New Testament. And from the very beginning, chapter one, verse six, what does he say? In this you greatly rejoice, even though for a while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, right?

So these are all according to the will of God. God will ordain suffering in your life for his glory. True or false? That's not out of his control. God will ordain hardship in our lives to discipline and train us, true or false? Yeah, okay? So that is very important in 1 Peter, and I see this in terms of God's will is perfect.

He makes no mistakes. He is sovereign overall. And that middle entire section is a proof of that. Okay, authorities, angels, power is all subjected to him. All right? Yellow highlight is the one command in this whole section. If I just left it at today's passage, we wouldn't have had this command.

But I wanted to include it so that you see how it's connected before we get lost in Noah's flood. All right? So the main imperative is arm yourselves with the same purpose. That drove me nuts 'cause I'm like, what is the purpose? Right, there's a lot of purpose language in here too.

So it's a little bit of a challenge, but we're supposed to arm ourselves with the same purpose. And then the third column and on, those are all subordinate ideas. So this is how I visually make sure I set up my hedges so I'm not veering off, okay? So what I'm reading, mostly, we're gonna look at chapter three, verses 19 to 20.

I'm gonna read it again for you. In which also he went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, who once were disobedient when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah during the construction of the ark in which a few, that is eight persons, were brought safely through the water and corresponding to that baptism now.

Okay, so the four questions that are of significance today, 'cause depending on how I answer these four questions, it's gonna lead me to interpretive conclusions. So these are my four questions. Who are the spirits? Second, what is this prison? Third, when did Christ preach, proclaim? Because it actually doesn't say in the passage.

It doesn't say explicitly when that happened, okay? And then what did Christ preach and proclaim? Did he preach good news to people in hell? Did he preach to Noah and through Noah? Like, what is this? What did he preach? Okay, so those are the questions that kind of come to mind.

And before we look at these questions in depth, I want us to look at the Noah context, okay, in Genesis 6. I'm just gonna read this for you 'cause this is pertinent to some of the conclusions you may draw. Now it came about, and this is after chapter four and five are genealogies, okay?

Chapter four and five, full of genealogies, right before the flood. Okay, now here's chapter six. Now it came about when men began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.

Then the Lord said, "My spirit shall not strive "with man forever because he also is flesh. "Nevertheless, his days shall be 120 years." The Nephilim were on the earth in those days and also afterward, numbers 13, when the sons of God came into the daughters of men and they bore children to them.

Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. I think it was worse than how we are today, okay? It's pretty bad.

The Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth and he was grieved in his heart and the Lord said, "I will blot out man whom I have created "from the face of the land, from man to animals, "to creeping things and to birds of the sky, "for I am sorry that I have made them." But Noah, that's a huge but.

That's a very important grammatical word, but Noah, okay? But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, not perfect, righteous man, blameless in his time and Noah walked with God. The only other person prior to this where it said he walked with God was Enoch.

So Noah was a stud, all right? So that's the context and there's all kinds of questions that scholars debate on just this passage too, all right? So the first question is who are these spirits? And the Greek word here for spirit is pneuma, okay? So here are some options that I can conclude in my head.

Okay, so they're departed souls of righteous believers of the Old Testament, okay? They're trapped in some form of limbo state. But my mind kind of immediately almost wants to discount that because usually righteous people are never called disobedient in the scriptures, okay? But that's an option. Another option is departed souls of ungodly and evil people who are in hell and these were these guys in Noah's day.

All right, 'cause 2 Peter 2 says they're trapped in the prison waiting for judgment, okay? Third, some people say it's the loss of national Israel, the walking dead of Jesus' day, held prisoner by their unbelief. The blue is kind of what I would lean toward, all right? They're angelic spirits in hell and they're bound demons partly because 2 Peter also describes them that way or so I feel, but mostly because 1 Peter 3.22 talks about it and also a lot because pneuma is always used as a demon or a spirit, always cast out, right?

These pneuma. So for me, it's difficult to find any place outside of there's one verse in Hebrews 12 which is qualified where a human being is called a spirit. So that's, but again, my argument has holes, all right? But that's what I will loosely ascribe to. Does that make sense?

So the blue is kind of the conclusion that I'm landing on to the best of my ability. Second question, what is this prison? Is it some sort of limbo state? It's a position held by the Catholics completely rejected by the Protestants. Is this some kind of intermediary state? It's like kind of the edge outside parts of hell where people who did not hear the gospel proper actually kind of are waiting for a final judgment.

Is that what that is, prison? Can it be sin and blindness? Because if I'm thinking that Jesus, when he proclaimed the liberty to the captives, okay, and that you would have to ascribe to the, well, if people are trapped in their unbelief in Jesus' current day, then I would have to say the prison is unbelief.

Or as most people will conclude, it's some kind of a bottomless pit or hell, okay, where Satan himself is bound. So then the question is, did Jesus go to hell with some kind of preaching assignment? It's a little uncomfortable to think that, right? If this prison is hell, did Jesus go in there with some kind of preaching task?

Where was Jesus' spirit between Good Friday and Easter Sunday? Is this where he was? But then while he's receiving the full brunt of the wrath of holy, holy, holy God, was he preaching? There's questions. In response to the Gnostic teachings that were in the early church, the early church fathers came up with a Trinitarian doctrine or a creed where every believer, when they were getting baptized, would actually recite it.

It would go something like this. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord. You got, what is that? Anybody know what that is? That's the Apostles' Creed. And some of you guys might have grown up in a church where that creed was read, but that originally started as something that was recited at every baptism, but even the Apostles' Creed changed over the years because of these questions.

I'm gonna compare the original form, which is what's called the Old Roman form. The earliest writings we find by a guy named Bishop Marcellus of Acheron. That's the first record. There is no descended into hell there. But if you look at Sirmium's account later in 8359, Jesus descends into hell, and that becomes a doctrine.

Today, depending on what church you go to, some churches leave it out, some churches leave it in. And actually, I think from my understanding, all Catholics have that in there. Okay, so this is a very interesting doctrine. Where was Jesus between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, and did he go to this prison which was hell?

Because it's not like this is all over the scriptures. So that, when you're looking at this, it should feel a little uncomfortable, right? You don't wanna get this wrong. So the two questions that we already covered that I just kinda walked you through briefly is, who are the spirits?

What is this prison? The next two questions are in terms of what he preached. So the next question is, when did Christ preach, and when did Christ, or make a proclamation? Some people will say that he preached as the Spirit of the Lord, 'cause he had done that before in different times in the Old Testament, where he's preaching through Noah.

For 100-ish years, he's preaching through Noah to those wicked, wicked people, giving them opportunities to repent. But just from the verse structure, I reject that, because, well, it says he went participle, and then in verse 22, he had gone. So there's physical movement. But when did Jesus preach this, then?

If he did not move at all, and he's just preaching through Noah. So that's one conclusion you can draw. Another conclusion you can draw is that, after his resurrection, during the time when he was there, he was making proclamation before the ascension to people still in bondage to their sin.

But that's like, but what does that have to do with Noah? For me, I will loosely ascribe to, he made this proclamation sometime between his death and resurrection, between Friday and Sunday. But the text doesn't tell me when that happened. There is no when this happened in the text.

So it's another challenge. I feel super uncomfortable teaching right now. Hopefully, you guys feel super uncomfortable thinking through these things, 'cause you don't wanna get it wrong. And what did he preach and proclaim? So the word here is keruso, which is a proclamation. It's a heralding of sorts. It's a hear ye, hear ye, right?

A king's herald will go into a city saying, hear ye, hear ye, these are the new decrees from said king. Or, hey, everybody, I am here on behalf of the king to tell you that we had victory over there in Carthage. That's what a heralding proclamation is. A lot of times, this is confusing, because in next week's passage, in chapter four, verse six, he uses the word euangelizo, which is to preach the good news.

So, Najareth, if you can understand why this is very, it can be a little bit problematic in terms of the interpretation. Here is a proclamation. Next week's passage, there's a preaching of good news. Are the people the one and the same? Are they different groups? So that's another tension that's gonna be there when we look at next week's study.

So did he preach the gospel message to those in prison? Because theologically, my mind goes to, did he ever give anybody who's already in hell a second chance? (audience members murmuring) Do you guys understand that question? Like, has he ever preached, has anyone from hell, biblically, been converted into heaven?

This would be a strange assignment for Jesus to do that. Or, as most modern-day scholars would lead to believe, is that he's declaring triumph. He's declaring triumph over sin, over death, over hell, demons, and Satan himself. He came to destroy the work of Satan, and the work of Satan was destroyed.

So that's what he's proclaiming. But that interpretation, you would have to hold a little bit loosely. Okay? And the flood in Noah's time, it wiped out everybody. Right? Did it wipe out sin? It did not. Was sin defeated at the flood? No, it wasn't. Because you see, pretty much, in Genesis 8 and 9, there's all kinds of sin amongst these eight people.

There's drunkenness, there's all kinds of shame. So people are that corrupt, even these righteous people, these eight. All right? So, this is a passage where it's a little bit, you wanna tread very carefully as to what all this means. So, who are the prisoners? Or who are the spirits?

What is this prison? What did, when did Christ preach and proclaim? What did Christ preach and proclaim? These are all questions that have been baffling people for years. So if you're here like, I got the right answer. Yeah, the Lord be with you. Okay? Now, I'm gonna look at, we've talked about in the past, when you have a passage that can be sensitive, whether it's women issues, or Christians to government issues, and all kinds of these things, that you don't wanna just look at one verse in isolation.

You also wanna see what else is being said in the New Testament. And so, I'm gonna just look at 2 Peter to broaden the context a little, to see if there are things that we can glean from in here. I don't have any particular conclusions, but this is 2 Peter 2, four to five.

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness reserved for judgment, and he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly, also he continues toward the end, know this first of all, that in the last days, mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, where is the promise of his coming?

Ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation. For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God, the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water.

But by his word, the present heavens and earth are being reserved now for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord, one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.

The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. Now for me, it helped, and then it didn't, to read this, 'cause it's like, okay, I have more info, but it doesn't necessarily lead me to a set conclusion.

I have a leaning, right? So in order not to get just lost, just in the details, okay? Here are the main takeaways from the passage on the whole, including next, I was gonna put all the way to chapter four, verse seven, but I figured that was too much text, but it's gonna continue to next week.

The suffering of believers is attributed to the will of God. That's something we can glean from this section. You guys get that? If you suffer, God meant it. Okay? But it's a whole lot better to suffer for doing right than for doing wrong. Okay? But God, there's nothing out of his control.

He wills suffering. The second truth, even though Jesus suffered according to the will of God, he was ultimately vindicated by God. So he's got everything in control. Sin has been defeated. Third takeaway, believers like Noah are the righteous minority living in a scornful, hostile, unbelieving world. You will suffer because you're out of place, because the world hates you, because the darkness hates the light, because Satan hates you and wants you destroyed.

He is disgusted by every single one of us. So we're living in that. Another takeaway from the six verses is believers like Jesus and Noah will be vindicated by God. And it made me think of Philippians 2.10, but just for the whole passage, for context. For this reason also, God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

So hopefully I didn't make it more confusing. My hope was that it brings a little bit of clarity as to the hedges of how we're supposed to handle this text. But like I've said before, this is a challenging text. So hold to your conclusions lightly and with humility, but with zeal.

I don't know what that looks like, but do the best that you can to do that, okay? So this is for next Wednesday. It's gonna be a little less tricky, but still it's gonna continue. Chapters four, verses one through six. After that, the interpretive things become a little bit less taxing.

So after next week, it becomes a little bit less in terms of, like, this is meant, my brain can't handle this. But the application for next week is, are you living according to the will of God or according to the lust of the flesh? And that's something that I challenge you to think through and prepare.

I mean, it's not necessarily you're gonna have to share it with everybody, but think through this. Because if this is just an academic exercise, this is a little bit of a, I don't wanna say a waste, but you're not gleaning as much as you ought. And for today, the rest of the time, I'm gonna give you guys to discuss, all right?

And I'm not gonna come back up. So it's just gonna be, you're gonna discuss, and then you're gonna share, and then you're gonna pray, and you're gonna say hallelujah, and then go home, driving safely, all right? So the first two are the same, but the third question, in what ways, since your baptism into Christ's death and resurrection, in what ways, okay, this is grammatically bad.

In what ways, since your baptism into Christ's death and resurrection, has your faith impacted your relationships, your life goals, and your day-to-day interactions with the hostile Christian world? You guys understand what I mean, right? Okay, I seriously was prepping this until like 547. The second one, is there suffering currently in your life?

In what ways can your group members pray for you, keep you accountable, and help you persevere? And those are the questions that hopefully should fill up the bulk of the remainder of our time. All right, let me pray for us. Lord, we need you to walk us through these truths, and you've said, Lord, if any of us lacks wisdom, that we should ask, and that you will give generously, and without reproach, that we must believe without doubting.

So help us not to be like those who are driven and tossed by the surf of the wind, but help us to be those who are anchored in Christ, zealous for the truth, and yet humble before one another, and especially before this text. And we pray that your spirit would guide us into all truth this evening, which ultimately is, we were made by you and for you to love and serve you.

And so would you help us to be fueled and fed by the study of your word tonight? In Jesus' name we pray. (audience chattering) (thumping) (thumping) (thumping) (thumping) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter) (audience chatter)