The Righteous for the Unrighteous
1 Peter 3:18-22
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Chet Phillips. I'm one of the pastors here. We are in our series. We've been walking through our Misfits series where we're just going through the book of 1 Peter. And we've been studying each passage as we come to it and just walking straight through the book.
And what we've been trying to see is Peter was writing to a group of believers in the Roman Empire where they were just kind of a minority. They were mostly non-Jewish believers, so they didn't have a huge background when it came to the Bible. But they had placed faith in Jesus, and he's just writing to them saying, Hey, you're going to look different. You're not going to quite fit in now with your culture. And just trying to help them see what that means. To not be angry at culture, to not be mad at the city around them, but to love, to serve, to submit to authority, to suffer for the name of Jesus, and to suffer when people mocked them and reviled them, and to not return that, but to just be gracious and loving.
So that's kind of the letter he's been writing, and we've been walking through it. Now, when we come to this passage today, one of the things we like about just studying straight through books of the Bible is that you get the context, so you kind of see what came after. You kind of know where you are as you walk through it. The other thing that we like is that it doesn't allow us to skip things that would otherwise we just probably wouldn't just pull out to teach. The passage we're looking at today is possibly the most confusing passage in the entire Bible. There are commentaries that are just kind of like, nah.
Like, I don't really know what this is saying. Like, there's just, if you look, like, I've spent some time reading some different thinkers, theologians, people who write commentaries, and they're all over the place with how you could understand this. They don't agree with each other. There are parts where they kind of, some of them will just say, here are your options, and that's kind of what we're going to do today. And so as we walk through this passage, I don't want us to miss the main things that Peter is saying, because all that, the part is confusing is an illustration he's giving. And so he, they say that if you make an illustration and you have to explain your illustration, you have to explain your analogy, you didn't do a good job with it.
And that's kind of the case we have here. And I think some of it has to do with our cultural distance. Maybe they understood what he was talking about. We do not know what he's talking about. There are some options. And so I get myself in trouble this way.
I make up analogies all the time on the spot, and sometimes it's helpful. But every once in a while, I'll just throw one out in the middle of a discussion, trying to prove a point. And then, like, you get way too focused on the analogy. So it's like, people are like, yeah, but who, wait, okay, so I'm a tree? It's like, well, you're not, like, but what about, like, in the fall when all the leaves fall off? It's like, okay, quit thinking about the tree.
I was just trying to make a point, and the tree illustration was terrible. Let's move on from there. And so that's kind of what's happened here. Paul, Peter gives an illustration that we can get really focused on and miss the point of what he's saying. And so we're going to kind of try to pay attention to the main things. We will address that section.
And when we get there, we're going to do something a little bit differently than we usually do. We're going to talk a little bit about how to even just handle confusing passages. So instead of just walking through, usually we just read it and talk about what it means. Since we really don't know what it means, we're going to talk a little bit about what do we do with passages that we don't know what they're talking about? Just kind of coach us up so that in our own personal reading, we're a little more prepared, and then we'll kind of talk about our options. So let's pray, and then we'll be in 1 Peter 3.
It's on page 657, if your Bible looks like this. And we'll start in verse 18. But we're going to pray, and then we'll hop in. God, we just thank you for the opportunity that we had to get up early on the first day of the week and to gather as your people to learn more about you and to sing, God, hopefully not just singing, but reminding ourselves of what is true, reminding ourselves of what you've done for us, and genuinely worshiping you. And so, God, we praise you for the opportunity, and we pray, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would lead us today as we study your word. In Jesus' name, amen.
Okay, so, again, the section that's confusing is a little bit later. He says some absolutely breathtaking things about the gospel, and so that's where we're going to start first, and this is really his main point. So he just uses the confusing thing to illustrate his point, which makes it not very helpful. But here's his main point, 18. That is why we planted a church. That is why Peter wrote this letter.
That's why the church exists. If you are here and it's your first time hanging out, maybe your friend talked you into coming, or you're just kind of checking out this whole Jesus thing, that's it. That is the point. That's the point of the Bible. That's the point of why we gather together. That's why you will see grown people singing to Jesus.
That as far as our culture is understanding, it was a Jewish guy who died 2,000 years ago. That is why you will see people change their lives to follow him. It's that sentence right there. That's the point. So if you're just kind of zoning in on this Jesus thing, just hanging out for the first time, just trying to check out what this is about, that's what it's about.
And so we're going to walk back through that one verse a couple of times to really help us understand what Peter just said. Because it is the point. It is what the Bible is about. It is why we gather together this morning. For Christ, that's Jesus, also suffered. Once for sins.
Okay. We know about suffering for sin, right? You lie and you get caught. You steal, you get caught. You cheat, you get caught. You run your mouth and you get punched in your mouth.
Like we know about suffering for sin. Like we understand that sin leads to difficulty, trouble, suffering, pain, that it does. That the things that we complain about is sin. The reason that racism is such an issue and causes such pain is that it's sin. We know that sin causes suffering. And so what it says is that Jesus suffered for sin.
But then his suffering, it's about to tell us, is wholly different from ours. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous. The righteous for the unrighteous. And we don't use those words very much. It could be the just for the unjust. The good for the bad.
The righteous just means that has right standing. Has good standing. It's actually, it could be a legal term. So we use the terms guilty and not guilty. So if you go to court, you committed a crime.
The evidence is overwhelming. And you would be guilty. The judge, if he's a good judge, will declare you guilty. Or the jury, if it's a good jury, will declare you guilty. And if you get off, like if you, the evidence isn't overwhelming or you didn't commit the crime, all they declare you is not guilty. Which is just to say, you don't believe you're innocent.
You just couldn't prove that you're guilty. So not guilty. But the word here, righteous and unrighteous, actually means innocent. Blameless. Pure. Holy.
Which holy means set apart, completely other good. And so what this says is that the righteous, the good, the holy, the blameless, the pure, the upright. It's talking about Jesus. Jesus is the one human who walked on the face of the earth, who deserves honor, who deserves praise, who deserves for people to bow to him, to follow him, who deserves to be king of everything, who can walk into the throne room of the eternal, magnificent, living God, and be welcomed. That's what righteous means. That he would stand in God's court before God's bench of judgment and be declared innocent, welcomed, blameless, faultless.
The righteous, Jesus, for the unrighteous. Unrighteous means guilty. The evidence is overwhelming. It means bad and wicked and weak and dirty. It means those who have lied, who have stolen, who have cheated, who are addicted to pornography, who have spent their entire life, every second of every day, trying to get people to just notice them and appreciate them and to love them. It means the selfish.
It means the petty. It means the angry. It means the small. The ones that would walk into God's courtroom before the throne room of the king and would be declared guilty and deserving of punishment and pain and death. That Jesus, the righteous, died for the unrighteous. And this is why we're here today.
That's what the church is. This is a beautiful gathering of the unrighteous. That what we brought to the table was nothing but our own sin. That what we bring before God is not our morality, our religion, our good behavior. We're not here to check off boxes so that at the end of our days we can stand before God and say, look! Look at all that we did for you.
Look at all the things I did in your name. Look at all the times that I served you. Look at all the times that I stood in that group of people early in the morning and sang songs and waved my hands. Look at it. Look at the stuff I did. You owe me.
Look at all the times I wanted to sin and didn't. Look at all the times I just sat at my house on a Saturday and behaved myself. You owe me. No. This is a gathering of the people who have sin, who have pain, who have brokenness. You see, the Bible says that the God of the universe created the world to be good.
To exist. That humans were to exist in a relationship with Him and in good relationships with other humans. That humans were to exist in a good relationship with Him and in good relationships with other humans. And that humanity rebelled. And we wanted to be the center of everything. And from this comes selfishness, racism, bigotry, hatred, theft, anger, murder, bitterness, pettiness, the desire to be esteemed as more important than other people.
That humanity is messed up, unrighteous, and when we enter into the courtroom of God, we would be declared guilty. And so what Peter just said should blow our minds. Christ also suffered, took pain, took punishment, took death, took wounds, took blows, nailed to a cross, once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous. People will tell you that if they've been to the Grand Canyon, you'll have people tell you that they just stood on the edge of this giant hole in the earth and they could not speak. That they stood over this canyon and just had no words because it blew the synapses in their brain because they did not know they could see something this big or this beautiful.
People who grew up in the middle of the United States and the first time as an adult they get to stand and see the ocean. They've seen pictures of it, they've seen it in movies, and they stand and see the ocean and there's just this, it's different than I thought. It's more captivating than I thought. There's a, when astronauts go into space and they see the earth for the first time and it's just this tiny ball hanging in the midst of nothing. And they talk about how small and how frail and how weak they realize how, how infinitely unimportant humanity is. Because everything we worry about and fight for is often the distance on this tiny little speck of rock floating through this vast nothingness that we can't even measure and every time we try to it gets bigger.
That's how we ought to feel when we look at this scripture. When we see this text, we ought to see and be so overwhelmed by what that says. That the righteous suffered for the unrighteous. It should, the weight of that should bear down on us with such beauty and such magnificence that we can't even think straight. If we stood in a courtroom for the Boston bomber and the families were arrayed around the room waiting for the sentence to come through and the judge gets the sentence from the jury and he says, I declare you guilty. Take him away.
And if one of the fathers of one of the children that had been crippled or killed in that bombing stood up and said, I'll take his sentence. Let him go free. And the judge said, I accept your deal and looked at the bomber and said, you're free to go. Immediately, we feel this sense of that's not right. That's not fair. That's messed up.
That shouldn't happen. And we read this text about the God of the universe suffering on our behalf and we have the potential to just walk right over it. When we are so small that if one worm can pile up more dirt or more dung, he feels better and superior to all the other worms and if he humbles himself just a little bit, he feels like all the other worms should notice it. He feels like everyone should praise him for his humility and we have the eternal, magnificent, glorious, holy, blameless, upright, loving, generous, gracious, righteous, beautiful God of the universe who humbles himself, lives perfectly as we ought to have, loves perfectly and dies perfectly in our place for our sin.
The righteous for the unrighteous. And we gather here today because we are unrighteous, unrighteous, not because we deserve something, not because we're moral, not because we're religious, not because we're good. We are here today to declare definitively that we need Jesus. That we need someone righteous to step into our place and here's what happens when the righteous died for the unrighteous. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. Jesus Christ who could walk into the throne room of God, who could stand before the judgment bench of the great high king, the eternal, glorious God who spoke the world into existence.
Jesus Christ who could walk in and be welcomed and favored and loved as a son, swapped places with us, who could only walk in in front of God and be declared guilty and have blame and weight weighed down on us because we have actively partaken in the rebellion of his good creation. We have actively been a part of making the world worse through our own selfishness, through our own pettiness, through our own abuse, through our own anger, through our own small-minded weakness, through our own dirtiness, we have actively participated in making his creation worse. And we who could only walk in and be declared guilty, Jesus Christ swapped places with us so that the great high king of the universe declared Jesus guilty and he suffered so that we can walk, and we read it earlier, with boldness into the throne room of grace. You see, the throne room of the king of the universe to Christians is a throne room of grace where it used to be a throne room of judgment, where we used to have had to walk in and been declared unrighteous.
We get to be declared righteous because Jesus Christ swapped places with us and that is why we are here this morning. And that is why we exist as a church. And that is why we go out of our way to love and to serve others and to go out of our way to gather in groups and to have more people invited in because we're not inviting them to come behave. We're not inviting them to come be good. We're not inviting them to come act like us and be like us so that God can love them. We're inviting them to be numbered with the unrighteous and to have someone who is righteous take their place so that the God of the universe suffered so that we don't have to.
He was abused so that abusers could be welcomed. He was hated so that we could be loved. He was cast out so that we could be brought in. Jesus Christ suffered as the righteous for the unrighteous that he might bring us to God. Don't miss that. God it's difficult for us to even imagine the disparity between us and God.
It is unfathomable how humble he was in being made unrighteous for our sake. 2 Corinthians 5.21 says that God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God so that those who are unrighteous can stand before God and be blameless and holy and welcomed and loved. And that's good news. If it was something else we wouldn't be here. I sure wouldn't be. If the invitation was come be good come behave come be religious come memorize some stuff come prove your worth the invitation is come you who are unrighteous you who are small you who are weak you who are broken who don't have it all together come gather together as my people because I paid your debt.
Come gather together in joy and in love be welcomed as a child of the king because your debt has been paid. And that's what we get to celebrate today. Okay. So Peter just said something completely and utterly glorious and captivating and breathtaking and then he illustrates it with something completely obscure and confusing. Transitioned right into some point that maybe made sense to his original hearers and we in the United States in the 21st century have no clue what he's talking about. So here's what we're going to do.
We're going to read it. I'm going to point out to you why it is confusing. Then we're going to talk a little bit about how to handle confusing passages. Then we're going to talk about some of the options that we have what Peter could be saying. And then we're going to finish out with what his illustration was intending to to make and the main point again so that we don't forget. 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 in which or as such or by whom it can be translated a couple different ways in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison because they formally 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 baptism which now 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.
In which a few that is eight persons were brought safely through water baptism which now 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. Okay so the most confusing parts here that could kind of go either way and there's a lot of little options of how this could play out are being put to death in the flesh but made alive
In the spirit in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison because they formally did not obey when God's patience waited in the days of Noah. So it could be because it could also be when when they formally did not obey. Okay spirits in prison Jesus died in the flesh and then in the spirit went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison and so there's a lot of questions about
Who the spirits in prison are. I feel like Peter probably when people die and they go to heaven and they meet Peter like Peter oh my goodness you're Peter this is so great I got one question for you and he's like spirits in prison yes I just assume he's got eternity he can take the time to explain what he was intending when he said that but we don't know so that's kind of
The confusing part of this and there's some different options that we have but first when it comes to confusing passages because if you read your Bible there are confusing passages there are things that we don't understand there are things that we didn't really know what he meant when they said it like you read stuff and it's just confusing so here are basic steps for I just read something that's confusing in the Bible step one pray
God through the Holy Spirit authored scripture and if you're a Christian and you're reading the Bible the Holy Spirit is in you leading you so just take a second time out and pray I do this a good bit where I'm just like Lord that was confusing I have no clue what you meant I'm going to read it again if you want me to know help me understand if not good talk I'm moving on and so that's an okay thing to do don't be completely
Sold out on what you if you pray and read it again don't be completely that's exactly what it was because but just pray ask ask for wisdom and clarity second thing ask what is the cultural context all that means is who's writing to whom are they writing what are they writing about because it matters
Peter is writing to a group of Christians in Rome after the death burial and resurrection of Jesus which is different from the prophet Isaiah which is different from Ezekiel which is different from some of the writers of the Psalms it's a different context it's a different group of people it's a different time in history so just know a little bit about who who are we writing to is this to Christians
Is this to not Christians is this to people who need to know about Jesus people who don't know about Jesus is this to just write down some history so know a little bit about the context we're going to talk a little bit about our context here in a minute know the immediate context which just means don't just look at that one verse read what comes before it and what comes after it so we do this all the time
In political debates they'll be like this guy said this really inflammatory thing but then if you actually hear what he said before it or afterwards you're like oh less inflammatory although it sounded really offensive to women the first time made more sense in context and then you got some people in the political realm like George Bush that even in context
You don't know what he was talking about and he did say practice their love with women and it's just like this was weird why did you say that regardless of the context but you want to read what comes before it what comes after it you want to understand what he's talking about how it fits in the context of that passage that chapter that whole book and then you just want to know what you want to ask what does the rest
Of scripture say so this has helped by reading the bible more but okay a couple of things he says in this passage that Jesus went and proclaimed to spirits in prison that can't be that he gave a second chance of salvation to people who are already dead because there are multiple places in the bible where that is obviously not the case it says that baptism now saves you
It can't be that being dunked in water now saves you if that were the case we would always have the baptismal set up and we would trick people and we would bring them here and then five of us would grab them and slam their head in the water and we'd be like you'll thank us later now hang around we got ice cream afterwards like we would it can't be that
Because the bible is really clear in other places that that's not the case and he even clarifies it some in the passage so what's the rest of the bible say and then lastly you want to ask what do other people say now pay careful attention that does not say what does the internet say I realize it's other people typing things into the internet
That isn't just helpful so don't just google it don't go to yahoo answers when you have a bible question like it's helpful to have a handful of people that you trust now yeah you can absolutely use the internet because there's some really good resources if you have some questions about some good ones where they're
Pretty faithful people there's some different ones like the gospel coalition you can go to desiring God which is John piper macarthur's got some stuff where you just got some free commentaries of people who are pretty faithful read the bible a lot and then read a couple of them just to kind of see
What are other people saying so if you come to a really hard conclusion on something it's helpful to then look a little bit and see what other people say okay so we're going to kind of walk through this process today so first thing is to
Pray and so we'll pray again just to practice God we thank you that we get to study your word together and we pray Lord that you just give us wisdom and clarity as we study through this and help this be
Helpful as we study your word that we might all grow together in Jesus name amen cultural context one of the only things I think is helpful is peter's writing to christians in asia minor
He's going to he talks about noah they knew that story so much so such a popular story that even within about a hundred years of peter's writing there is a coin that has caesar on one side
And noah and his wife and an ark on the other side it's a very popular story and so peter it wasn't necessarily popular in that they knew the actual Genesis account but the story
Was popular because it had come kind of down through history to them because it was an actual event and they told this story and they had different point he's taking
Their already known knowledge to make a point kind of like I'll be talking to people sometimes we're talking about people have questions about satan periodically we'll actually get to
Study more about him in a couple weeks because Peter brings him up one of the things I'll say to people is that Satan and
Jesus is not like the dark side versus the light side it's not Luke versus Vader it's way people already know 100 200 years
From now people are going to be like Vader Bambi Godzilla what on earth is he talking about and some of you are like Star Wars
Will never die take it easy but there's this level of what point is he making and so he's tapping into something they already
Knew that we actually just because we're not in the cultural context don't know what he's talking about Noah so he's just kind of
Saying hey you're being faithful in the midst of a culture that's not you're a minority and people think you're crazy let me make
This point so that's kind of the context he's talking about suffering for doing well for being right and so that's kind of the
Immediate context and then as we go through we'll talk about some other places in the the I'm going to give us two options
That I think are okay the more I've studied it the more I've begun to like one over the other but we'll kind of
Look at two of them and then in our groups we're going to look at more of a bunch of smart people who say really
Good stuff except for Calvin who's very smart says some of the most confusing things about it and so Martin Luther even who helped
Start the reformation when he comes to this passage what he says I'll read this quote because Martin Luther is really smart and he translated the Bible
Into German from Latin and so he's a highly intelligent person this is what he says a wonderful text is this and a more
Obscure passage perhaps than any other in the New Testament so that I do not could be this if someone else thought it was
This that would be okay too and then moves right along like he does exactly what we're going to do today which is could
Be this could be that let's go to the main point so okay here's one of the options it could be okay so we're
Going to go through and just kind of teach it as this option and we'll go back and teach it again 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 it could be that Jesus Christ died on Friday on good Friday and then was made alive in the
Spirit prior to his resurrection on Sunday made alive in the spirit in which so in the spirit prior to his bodily resurrection went
And proclaimed to the spirits in prison that could be shield which would be the old testament kind of holding place for people who
Died and it was kind of split into two parts the pit and paradise but it was a place for those who hell has
Not been created yet that shows up in Revelation the eternal fire the lake of fire that's later there's actually Hades or Sheol which
Is a holding place a prison a pit and paradise Jesus mentions it in Luke where he talks about the parable of Lazarus and
The rich man so there's some sort of connection but they can't cross over but they can talk to each other it's also called
Abraham's side so it's this place where faithful people who had trusted that God would provide a way for their sin in the Old
Testament were held not in the presence of God because their sin had not yet been paid for and Jesus goes and proclaims the
Gospel and his victory over those who are held in prison which spirits could be demons or people could be just demons could be
Just fallen angels could be just people could be both proclaims his victory and then takes the people to God's side which would make
Sense of Colossians where it says he led a host of captives so he took the people who had been being held to the
Presence of God when he rose so their sin has been paid for now he proclaims the gospel takes him with there some issues
With that but that could be a faithful understanding of what he says the other option which I have started liking more is this
In which so by the spirit so he was put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit in which he
Went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison because which could also be when when they formerly did not obey when God's patience waited
In the days of Noah and then he immediately goes into talking about the days of Noah so here's what it could be and
This makes sense with some of the other things Peter says it could be that he is saying that Jesus Christ through the Holy
Spirit proclaimed through Noah to Noah's contemporaries and so he's just illustrating Noah and saying that it was Jesus who spoke through Noah in
Noah's day which makes sense lines up with what he says in chapter one where he says Noah was a herald of righteousness which
Means that he proclaimed the good news and so what he's saying is that it would be like if I said that's what I
Told Mike who's in prison back when he wouldn't listen to nobody when we was on the streets together that's kind of what he's
Saying it's like they're in prison now but he told them then when they wouldn't listen back when they were disobedient so they're there
Now he's telling you who he's talking about but he's saying that Jesus Christ spoke through Noah then and then what he's saying is
The same spirit that spoke through Jesus the same spirit that was in Noah is also in you church and you get to be
A minority like Noah was and proclaim the gospel like Noah did in the midst moving on from the confusing part if you're still
Confused so is everybody else in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison because they formally 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 baptism which corresponds to this so baptism which kind of lines up with Noah now saves you not as a removal of
Dirt from the body so he says not just by getting wet but that's why we don't trick people into dunking but which would
Be easier if we were Methodist because you probably could just squirt them in the face but we have to get them all the
Way wet sorry but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ so what he's saying is
That your baptism where you were baptized and you said that I've placed my faith in Jesus in the resurrection is similar to Noah
Who got in the ark placing his faith in God so here's the illustration he's making Noah seemed like a weirdo had to have and that was
A main part of the story the way they told it was that he was telling people a flood is coming and they were
Saying good talking to you weirdo similar to your friends who say the only people who know about this the government don't want you
To know about it FEMA don't want you know about it NASA don't want you to know about it the only the internet really
Just the internets good talking to you weirdo similar to that here's what here's what Noah was saying to people God told me to
Build an ark what's an ark it's like a big boat bigger it's like a boat bigger there's no water around here there's going
To be lots of it see them mountains yep won't be able to see them they're going to be gone okay what are you going to
Do with the ark put lots of animals on it my wife and boys can I get on the ark nope maybe I don't know
We can ask God he's going to build the ark what are going to do with animals keep them why because they drowned otherwise these
Are the conversations he had to be having and he was a herald of righteousness so what he was saying was there's a flood coming get
Ready and people were like quit weirdo what are you going to do in the ark float around does it have oars no does it have
A sail no you going anywhere nowhere to go there won't be any land what are you going to do if you're hungry I
Reckon I ought to bring some extra animals that's a good thought I'll ask how long are going to be up there not a
Clue flood going to go away probably these are the and he's he's being faithful by looking like a complete weirdo to his culture
And what Peter's saying is hey God saved eight people out of the entire population of the earth and those eight people look like
Weirdos and you're Christians in the midst of this culture that ask you all these questions why on earth are you doing that you sound
Like my grandma you're doing what with your money you got bills to pay hold a second because you love Jesus you're not allowed
To touch your girlfriend Jesus sounds terrible wait wait wait wait you're going to stay in this Job that's terrible that you hate because you've built relationships
With people and you want to tell them about Jesus you got a Job for a promotion but you're not moving why you're doing
What with your life you're doing what with your major you and Peter is writing to them and saying you look like weirdos and
Sometimes that's what God's doing he's grabbing a small bunch of weirdos because that's his plan and your baptism where you were covered in
Water and you appealed to God through the resurrection is now your hope and so what you say to people as a Christian people
Looked at Noah and said you're doing what because of what I'm building a giant wooden thing that's going to float because all the water
Is coming I've said this to you three times you're doing what you're confessing sin because of what because 2000 years ago God became
A human and he died on a cross but he didn't stay the fact that there is a tomb that does not have a
Body in it Peter saying you look weird you sound weird your decisions are weird and God is faithful and good and your hope
In Jesus is the same as Noah's hope in the ark you know what was beautiful about the ark they climbed on the ark
God closed the door they had no rows no sails they were to float until God changed the circumstances everybody on earth has something
That they're placing their hope in Christians have all climbed into the resurrection 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 who has gone
Into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels authorities and powers having been subjected to him Christians have all said
My only hope is in the resurrection that the God of the universe who was righteous died for me who was unrighteous and that
He rose from the grave and now I have hope and life and that's what I'm banking everything on my only appeal is to
The resurrection my only hope is in the fact that Jesus Christ died and didn't stay dead I'm not hoping in my morality I'm
Not hoping in my religion I'm not hoping in my ability to keep it together I'm not hoping in my ability to be good
Or to love well or to serve well I am unrighteous Jesus is righteous and when I was baptized I placed all of my
Hope in the resurrection that he rose again and stands before the king on my behalf so that I have hope and I don't
Have oars I don't have a sail I'm floating around hoping only in Jesus that's it I saw recently because of this Kim Davis
Stuff in Kentucky there was a meme it was a picture of her face and off to the side it had all this stuff
That she's done so it because Jesus and what they were saying was the people who made it was look at how terrible this
Person is and everything is okay because of Jesus and I thought what a beautiful proclamation of the gospel you could put my face on
That meme and you could list out all this nonsense and at the bottom you could say that's okay because Jesus that is why
We're here that is the hope that we have that there was one person who was good and he was murdered for it and
Every other person deserves to be destroyed and we have hope and life and joy if we place our faith in him and in the
Midst of looking crazy we don't have to care because our hope is in Jesus and only Jesus forever Isaac Matt and Raz are going to come
Back up and we're going to praise Jesus because our hope is forever in the resurrection and if you're here today and you have
Not placed your faith in Jesus we would invite you to have a meme that's your face written in eternity that has a giant
List of all of the things that make you unrighteous and at the bottom say but that's okay because Jesus we would invite you to be numbered
With the unrighteous who have been made righteous solely by the blood of Jesus and have hope eternally because he lives eternally that's the hope that we have that's why we're here today
That the magnificent glorious eternal king swapped places with worms that brag about how much dirt they own that he took our punishment so that we could have a place at the table with the God
Of the universe that Jesus Christ suffered once for sins the righteous for the unrighteous that he might bring us to God and if you're a Christian today
Remember your only hope is not in your Job your only hope is not in how well your marriage works out your only hope is not in your kids it's not in success it's not
In money it's not in being comfortable it's not being able to retire when you're 50 your hope is forever grounded in the resurrection of Jesus
That you have climbed into the resurrection God has shut the door and we get to float with no ability to control anything other than have our hope set firmly in Jesus and people are going to think you're weird
And that's normal and we invite you to come be messed up with us to be broken with us to be weak with us and to place all of our faith in Jesus Father
We thank you God I thank you that we can't even wrap our minds around that one small verse but God I thank you that
That's what the Bible is about I thank you that that's the news that is proclaimed by you not come behave not come be
This type of person not come earn it but come rest and come hope and come rest fully and forever in the resurrection that
Your sin has been paid for and God I thank you that that changes our hearts God I thank you that you died for
The unrighteous otherwise none of us would be welcomed in I thank you that that means we can't out send you and we can't out run
You and that we don't have to keep it together because you died for the unrighteous so we're forever welcome because when we sin and when
We fall short and when we're weak and when we go back to that thing we've run back to for the millionth time we're still just unrighteous
And the unrighteous that you God the holy and good God died for we thank you we praise you in Jesus name amen