Grosey's Messages

1 Peter 3: 13 Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled,15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,16 having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil. 18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison,20 because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of  God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

The news that hit Christians this week in Sydney was the public failure of Brian Houston. Anxiety tablets + booze + sex = public failure

Rather than gloat and say "there I told you so" we each ought to carefully examine ourselves and see that the same causes of failure can also attack and undermine us.

So what is the takeaway here? It is what Peter is talking about in 1 Peter.

Trials cause anxiety.  1Peter 1:⁶ In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,⁷ so that the tested genuineness of your faith---more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire---may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2 trial of persecution at work.  Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme,¹⁴ or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.¹⁵ For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.¹⁶ Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.¹⁷ Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor. ¹⁸ Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust.¹⁹ For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.²⁰ For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.²¹ For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.²² He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.²³ When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

1 Peter 3 trial and persecution in the home.  Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.

13Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? 14But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. "Do not fear their threatsb; do not be frightened."c 15But in your hearts 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, 16keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. 17For it is better, if it is God's will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil

All produce care and stress.  1 Peter 5 cast your cares upon Him because He cares for you.

So we learn from the current events that there are some poor ways to face stress.

You could blame the anxiety pills.  You could blame the drink culture of our society.  You could blame mid life crises and blame anxiety as a source of uncontrollable desires. But understating and underreporting is not helpful.

So, how do we deal biblically with these pressures?

Peter tells us that we should focus on those aspects of the gospel that lift our souls beyond the anxieties of our current circumstances.

1. The Triumph of His CRUCIFIXION  (18)

2. The Triumph of His PROCLAMATION  (19,20)

3. The Triumph of His RESURRECTION  (21)

Peter makes an analogy between the cleansing water of the days of Noah and the water used in baptism in Peter's own day. The same waters that buried the earth in judgment and death also lifted eight humans (and the animals) to safety.

The burial under water of all those rebelling (and persecuting Noah), and the raising  up in the ark of those who trusted in the Lord, was a fitting picture of what it meant to be united to Christ in His death and resurrection. And on top of that analogy, Peter draws in the picture of baptism as a dying to sin (1Peter 2:24) and a resurrection to new birth and a living hope, as a picture of what the resurrection of the Lord Jesus does in a believers' life. They have died to sin and been raised from spiritual death to being born again to a living hope through the resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the dead (1Peter 1:3)

Membership in the ark and association with Noah could be a picture a type of the union with the dying and rising victorious Christ. To complete the analogy, Peter points his readers to their own act of association with Christ: water baptism.

Baptism is a Pattern, the ark is a type. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus is the antitype. Baptism is the portrayal of that antitype in the life of a believer.

Swindoll writes "After Christ came and revealed God's plan hidden to past ages (Eph. 3:9), the apostles began to see foreshadowing patterns in the Old Testament that vividly illustrated New Testament truths. The Old Testament image is called the "type," and the New Testament correspondence is called the "antitype." For example, Paul said that the things in the Old Testament "happened as examples (typos) for us" (1 Cor. 10:6), and specifically that Adam serves as a typos of Christ." So how does "the water" of Noah's day correspond to the way baptism "saves" believers in the New Testament? The waters of the flood were actually the means of judging the sinful human race, allowing Noah and his family to escape from that wicked world to begin a new life after the floodwaters receded. In the same way, the water of baptism represents a break from the old, sinful lifestyle and a new beginning as a believer in Christ. In the Bible, water baptism provides a vivid picture of our response to the gospel and the salvation it brings. The water of baptism, like the flood waters, portrays death, the penalty for sin. It is a magnificent object lesson, a sermon without words. The believer's descent into the water represents death and burial with Christ. The believer's ascent from the water illustrates the resurrection into a new kind of life."

Baptism is a Picture, of death burial and resurrection.

Romans 6:3-4—"Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life."

Calvin's Institutes say "For inasmuch as it is appointed to elevate, nourish, and confirm our faith, we are to receive it as from the hand of its author, being firmly persuaded that it is himself who speaks to us by means of the sign; that it is himself who washes and purifies us, and effaces the remembrance of our faults; that it is himself who makes us the partakers of his death, destroys the kingdom of Satan, subdues the power of concupiscence, nay, makes us one with himself, that being clothed with him we may be accounted the children of God. These things I say, we ought to feel as truly and certainly in our mind as we see our body washed, immersed, and surrounded with water. (John Calvin Institutes).. Whether the person baptised is to be wholly immersed, and that whether once or thrice, or whether he is only to be sprinkled with water, is not of the least consequence: churches should be at liberty to adopt either according to the diversity of climates, although it is evident that the term baptise means to immerse, and that this was the form used by the primitive Church.

Peter also says that "baptism also does now save us," (1 Peter 3: 21.)  For he did not mean to intimate that our ablution and salvation are perfected by water, or that water possesses in itself the virtue of purifying, regenerating, and renewing; nor does he mean that it is the cause of salvation, but only that the knowledge and certainty of such gifts are perceived in this sacrament. This the words themselves evidently show. For Paul connects together the word of life and baptism of water, as if he had said, by the gospel the message of our ablution and sanctification is announced; by baptism this message is sealed. And Peter immediately subjoins, that that baptism is " not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God, which is of faith." …So that we cannot have a better argument to refute the hallucination of those who ascribe the whole to the virtue of water than we derive from the very meaning of baptism, which leads us away as well from the visible element which is presented to our eye, as from all other means, that it may fix our minds on Christ alone. … And as the twig derives substance and nourishment from the root to which it is attached, so those who receive baptism with true faith truly feel the efficacy of Christ's death in the mortification of their flesh, and the efficacy of his resurrection in the quickening of the Spirit (Rom. 6:8)."

Baptism is a Public Confession.  Swindoll writes "Peter's explanation of how water baptism really functions is a little more difficult to translate. Just look at a few examples of the diversity of interpretations:  "an appeal to God for a good conscience" (NASB)  "the answer of a good conscience toward God" (NKJV)

 "a response to God from a clean conscience" (NLT)  "the pledge of a good conscience to God" (NET)

The understanding of this second half of the phrase that makes most sense in light of the Bible's whole teaching about the function of baptism seems to be "the pledge to God from a good conscience." That is, Peter views baptism as an outward ceremony—much like a wedding ceremony—that includes a public confession and commitment to live the new life redeemed from sin. The water of baptism does not cause a person to have new life or a good conscience, but it is the response to God based on a conscience that has already been purified by the Holy Spirit through faith. This "good conscience" comes with new life because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Pet. 3:21)."

Or rather Baptism is like a wedding ring. The ring doesn't make you married, the wedding vows make you married. The rings are the reminder of those wedding vows. They are the outward testimony, the appeal of a good conscience, that says: I trust in and rely upon the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ to be for my salvation.  A vow is a testimony, an appeal, a confession of our faith in Christ. So, just as Jesus Christ proclaimed His triumph over sin and death through His own suffering and death on the cross, believers proclaim their triumph over sin and death through water baptism. The water of baptism itself does not save a person or cleanse the conscience. These are the works of the Holy Spirit.

Calvin writes:  "Baptism serves as our confession before men, in as much as it is a mark by which we openly declare that we wish to be ranked among the people of God, by which we testify that we concur with all Christians in the worship of one God, and in one religion; by which, in short, we publicly assert our faith, … by the very circumstance of having been baptised in his name, they had devoted themselves to him, had sworn and bound themselves in allegiance to him before men, so that they could no longer confess any other than Christ alone. (John Calvin Institutes)

So Christ's victory over sin provided for us victory over sin.

When facing trials Be Convictional

You signed on for this when you confessed and professed your faith when you became a member of the church. You signed on for the church's trials.

When facing trials Be Courageous.

4. The Triumph of His ASCENSION  (22)

Luke 22:69—"But from now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God."

Acts 1:9—"And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight."

Rev. 1:17 "Fear not, I am the first and the last,18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades."              Christ's Victory over all powers...look at verse 22.  who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.

 Christ victory was so complete that he ascended to heaven to the highest place of honor. He bled and died on a cross in humiliation, and was exalted to the right hand of God. In keeping with that most exalted position, all angels and authorities and powers were subjected to him. The entire spiritual world is under Christ's rule. There is nothing that happens apart from Christ's purpose or permission.

That is the ultimate and complete victory we have in Christ Jesus, who is not only our great example, but also our hope and our salvation. With Jesus set apart as Lord of our lives, no matter what we face here on earth, we know we have victory through Him.

 Peter promises Christians not only perseverance in times of struggle and persecution and sufferings, but more than that--victory.

Psalm 68: 18 You ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train and receiving gifts among men, even among the rebellious, that the LORD God may dwell there.

31 Nobles shall come from Egypt; Cush shall hasten to stretch out her hands to God. 32 O kingdoms of the earth, sing to God; sing praises to the Lord, Selah

33 to him who rides in the heavens, the ancient heavens; behold, he sends out his voice, his mighty voice. 3 Ascribe power to God, whose majesty is over Israel, and whose power is in the skies. 35 Awesome is God from his sanctuary; the God of Israel---he is the one who gives power and strength to his people. Blessed be God!

Because The Lord Jesus Is Ascended on high.. go to the nations.

Our commission is to preach the gospel of salvation by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ throughout the whole world and leave the conquest of the world to Jesus. This is because he alone is King. Indeed he is the King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev. 19:16). He is in complete control of all things. He will reign in power. All nations will come to him, and before him every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:10-11).

Because The Lord Jesus Is Ascended on high be assured of the gifts and ministries to do the job. Ephesians 4:7,8 "It is the power of God alone that will draw the people: "Summon your power, O God; show us your strength, O God, as you have done before" (v. 28). This is sound Bible theology. "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him," said Jesus (John 6:44). And "You did not choose me, but I chose you" (John 15:16). Do you believe that? Do you believe that salvation is by the power and grace of God alone? If we really did believe it, we would pray for God's power to be seen in our evangelism much more than we do. In fact, we would pray exactly as the psalmist does here, saying something like, "Summon your power, O God; show us your strength, O God, as you have done before." God has worked powerfully before—in the very early church, at the time of the Reformation, and in some phases of the modern missionary movement. Why not again? Why not now?" James M Boice Psalm 68

Because The Lord Jesus Is Ascended on high do not be fearful of anything or anyone!  God's choice of small things. There is an important biblical principle here, which is that God is not impressed by greatness, as we think of it, but rather chooses the weak and lowly things of this world as vehicles for his great acts in order that the glory for what is accomplished might go to himself. Magnificat, which speaks of God lifting up the humble and filling the hungry with good things.