Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] We are going to turn our attention to First Peter Chapter 3. So we're going to First Peter 3, picking up where we left off last week. We stopped after verse seven. So we're going to be in first Peter 3, 8 through 22.
[00:00:18] First Peter 3, 8, 22.
[00:00:25] So you guys might notice that at the top of your page, I have the question, who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Who has. Who has heard of the show that I'm referencing?
[00:00:36] You guys know the show, right?
[00:00:39] So this is a game show, right? It's a game show. Contestants answer questions to win money.
[00:00:45] They can stop and keep some of the money, or maybe all the money they've earned to a certain point, or they can risk it and press on and try to get all the way to the million dollars. I don't know how many questions it is. Do you have a question? No. Okay.
[00:00:58] You know, they answer. They have lifelines. They have three.
[00:01:03] Yeah, they have Phone a Friend. That's one of the famous ones. You guys might have heard of this used in classroom settings. Do you have a question? Is it the one with the briefcases?
[00:01:13] There are not briefcases. That is Deal or no Deal. This is just trivia questions. So they're answering trivia questions anyway. So a guy named John Carpenter, he was the first person to ever win the show who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
[00:01:30] He made it to the Million Dollar Question, which was a feat in itself, and he had at least one, if not all three of his lifelines remaining.
[00:01:40] He stared at the final question.
[00:01:43] I only know this stuff because, by the way, my grandmother loved game shows and I would always watch them with her. So I have so many vivid memories of game shows. But he stared at this question and he requested to use his phone. A friend. Good thing he had it. He called his dad.
[00:02:00] When his dad picked up, he famously said, and maybe some of you have heard this story, famously said, I don't need your help. I just wanted to let you know I'm about to win a million dollars. Because he knew the answer. And he did indeed know the answer. He won a million dollars. That was in 1999 as well.
[00:02:15] So his call, and this is what I want to focus on today, his call was one of victory.
[00:02:20] It was not a call of desperation. It was victory. We'll see a victory call in this passage as well. This text again follows closely on the heels of last week's to the point where maybe the subtitle and division here is sometimes a little hindering. It's not a bad thing. But we want to remember, we're kind of reading this continuously as we go through.
[00:02:47] We kind of going back all the way to chapter two, verse 13 through 17, we see Peter address some commands to everyone, and then he singles out, if you remember, servants and wives and husbands. But now he kind of returns. He's kind of bracketing it off, and he returns to giving some commands to everyone. Just general application.
[00:03:07] Now he's still on the theme of suffering well by doing good works in faithfulness.
[00:03:13] Suffering well earns glory for God, and it wards off condemnation and judgment from the world.
[00:03:22] So Peter is still very much in line with the theme of first Peter, which is suffering now, but glory later. And we'll see him exhort these elect exiles to moral purity before turning again to the topic of suffering well, again he just keeps hitting on this.
[00:03:40] This passage will then conclude with a reflection on why we should and can and must suffer well.
[00:03:49] So the main idea of 1 Peter 3, 8, 22 is Christ suffered for sins.
[00:03:56] Christ suffered for sins so that we can be joined to him in his purity and his suffering. Christ suffered for sins so that we can be joined to him in his purity and in his suffering.
[00:04:11] Let's read this passage, verses 8 through 22, then we'll talk about it.
[00:04:17] Finally, all of you, you have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.
[00:04:26] Do not repay evil for evil, or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless.
[00:04:32] For to this you are called, that you may obtain a blessing.
[00:04:35] For whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit, Let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.
[00:04:56] Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?
[00:05:00] But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 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, having a good conscience, so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.
[00:05:29] For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil. 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 he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared to in which a few, that is eight persons were brought safely through water.
[00:05:59] 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, powers, having been subjected to him.
[00:06:19] So Christ suffered for sins so that we can be joined to him in his purity and his suffering.
[00:06:29] So I'm going to try to follow the rhythm of the text here. As Peter tells us to live holy lives in various ways, we want to consider what it would look like to suffer well so that we are left with a clear conscience and how we have lived each day. Finally, we'll think about the sufferings of Christ and how we can participate those sufferings. Now, that last section, you may have noticed, has a couple of potentially confusing verses, and I'll try to clear those things up as well. The point of the sermon are just applications from the text. So the first one is live in purity.
[00:07:06] Live in purity.
[00:07:09] So verse 8 starts, Peter starts with a list of virtues. That kind of form, I think, of a structure called a chiasm, which we talked about in Zechariah. If you forgot what that is, no worries. But we can kind of see. If you look, you see unity of mind is, in other words, harmony kind of corresponds to humble mind or humility, kind of at the end there. And then you see sympathy kind of mirroring tender hearts or compassion. And right in the center of them all is brotherly love.
[00:07:40] Love so central to the church is right there in the center. If our churches are to be lights in the dark world, we must be characterized by our love for one another.
[00:07:51] We can love by having sympathy where we suffer through difficulties with one another. And we can love by being compassionate towards one another.
[00:08:03] And we can love by seeking harmony and unity with one another through being humble. All of these are great ways that we we can love. Think of those virtues, just this list. Unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, tender heart, humble mind. Think of these and whether they characterize you.
[00:08:25] Continuing on how to love one another within the church and even in the world. Peter tells them not to repay evil for evil, pay evil for evil. He has in mind revenge.
[00:08:37] You might know this. He's talking about revenge.
[00:08:40] It's not Christianly. Peter says to seek revenge because we know that all vengeance belongs to the Lord. It is his for the taking, not for ours to exact.
[00:08:51] Instead, do the opposite of seek revenge. Though it can be very tempting to seek revenge, especially when you are legitimately wronged, Peter says to seek blessing for others, bless instead of curse.
[00:09:08] So I want us to think just for a moment, how can you be a blessing to others?
[00:09:12] Well, you can be a peacemaker.
[00:09:15] You can be a peacemaker.
[00:09:18] So we make peace. We don't stir drama, we don't gossip. You try to bring people together by again, loving others. Love others as you love yourself.
[00:09:31] Seek forgiveness when you're wronged or when you wrong, and forgive quickly when you are wronged. This is how we can be peacemakers, overlooking offenses and asking forgiveness of our own offenses.
[00:09:46] We can also bless others by being sympathetic. We've seen this, have sympathy in the text. We can be sympathetic. Don't ignore people when they suffer, and definitely don't say you're praying for them when you're not.
[00:10:04] Take these things seriously and suffer through with people. Be sympathetic.
[00:10:10] And then finally, be humble.
[00:10:13] Be humble.
[00:10:16] In sin, we naturally lift up ourselves.
[00:10:21] But in order to be truly exalted, we must approach Christ in a lowly manner. We must be humble.
[00:10:29] So we want to avoid pride and sin and be humble. And in so doing, we can be blessings to others.
[00:10:39] Peter then quotes Psalm 34, specifically verses 12 through 16, if you want to write that down. He quoted this psalm also in chapter two. So it seems like he's meditating on this specific psalm as he writes this letter.
[00:10:54] And I think he's doing it because it deals with suffering and how the Lord delivers those who are suffering.
[00:11:02] So you can kind of see Peter exercising what he's telling us to do. He's dwelling on the word, he's meditating on it. And you can kind of see it flow out through the pen onto the paper.
[00:11:15] Excuse me. Now, this psalm encourages those who are suffering to keep their tongues from evil, to do good, and to seek peace if they want to see good days.
[00:11:26] We see that in verse 10.
[00:11:30] Peter takes that psalm and applies it to the elect exiles lives.
[00:11:36] If you're in Christ, then you will have a transformed life. And that shows that you will one day see good days.
[00:11:44] This is eternal life. Eternal. You'll see good days. And because of that, because of what Christ has done, because he is the guarantee of this, we must live in purity, live transformed lives, because God does transform lives, so live in purity.
[00:12:02] Point number two, Suffer in good conscience.
[00:12:07] See the issue of conscience come up. Suffer in good conscience.
[00:12:12] So again, we are acknowledging that there is suffering now, but there will be glory for those in Christ later.
[00:12:19] If you are zealous for what is good in the ways mentioned above, even nonbelievers will typically get along with you. So, you know, if we are doing these things, we'll get along with mostly everybody who doesn't appreciate harmony, humility, sympathy, compassion, love.
[00:12:37] Everybody likes that, right?
[00:12:39] You will typically get along with everyone if you are truly living that way.
[00:12:45] But verse 14, even if you suffer because you're acting righteously, you'll actually be blessed.
[00:12:53] So in those cases where you are not appreciated, you suffer for doing what is right, you will be blessed.
[00:13:02] There's a blessed happiness reserved for you.
[00:13:07] Jesus himself said this when he was on earth. He said in Matthew 5:10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
[00:13:19] Such suffering is a blessing because one you get to follow in the example of the suffering Christ. We've talked about that in this letter. And also you will receive rewards in heaven. The kingdom of heaven belongs to you if you suffer for righteousness sake. Jesus says, what a wonderful promise to remember as you suffer for righteousness sake.
[00:13:44] So Peter can say then to those suffering exiles that they should have no fear of their persecutors. They have no reason to fear them. They must not be intimidated by them because they should honor Christ as holy, is what he says. They should honor Christ as holy. That's in verse 15 Peter when he says this, he's alluding to Isaiah. This is another verse you can write down. I'll read it. But Isaiah 8, 12, 13, which says, and do not hear what they fear.
[00:14:20] Do not be in dread, but the Lord of hosts. Him you shall honor as holy.
[00:14:26] Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.
[00:14:30] Their supreme fear must be Yahweh, the Lord.
[00:14:35] Not any person, not any group.
[00:14:38] No matter how intimidating or large or powerful, they must fear and dread the Lord more than any of those persecutors.
[00:14:48] Now, as an aside, I kind of want to point out here that Peter alludes to Isaiah 8, which is referencing the Lord with the all caps. This is Yahweh and Peter writes it down. Instead of Yahweh, he writes Christ so clearly. I just want to point out the New Testament claims that Jesus is Yahweh. He is one with the triune God. This is not the main point of the text, I just want to point out, because people in this world deny this. At most, they might say Jesus is a God. Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons say as much.
[00:15:24] But Peter is showing us that Jesus is the triune God. He is God the Son.
[00:15:31] Now, as for suffering, back to kind of the main point of the text. As we've seen in this letter, suffering helps to magnify Christ.
[00:15:40] Because as Christians suffer, when they maintain their hope and joy in suffering, it causes even their persecutors to. To ask questions, to notice, to think, to wonder why.
[00:15:55] How can they put up with this in a much smaller way than what these Christians were probably enduring? I remember some guys in my fraternity that tried to bully some of us out of sharing the gospel.
[00:16:11] And I do actually recall one brother saying cynically something like this to a friend of mine. I was there.
[00:16:17] He said something like, why do you keep this up every day I'm coming in here? Which is an exaggeration. If only it was every day. But he said, every day I'm coming in here. You guys are talking to somebody about all this.
[00:16:29] Well, what a great opportunity it was for my friend in verse 15, to make a defense for the hope that was in him.
[00:16:36] It is a wonderful opportunity to defend the hope that you say you believe. When people question you, when they persecute you for doing what is righteous.
[00:16:47] If you ever suffer persecution, don't let that pass, but use it as an opportunity for gospel ministry.
[00:16:53] Don't be silent. Tell them about your living hope. Don't keep it to yourself.
[00:17:00] Now, when we do this, you see, we must offer this reason for the hope that is in us with what?
[00:17:09] Gentleness and respect.
[00:17:11] We do this gently and respectfully.
[00:17:16] Now, I'm sure, you know, you guys have heard this verse before, that we want to make a defense for the hope that is in us. It's a great apologetics, evangelism verse. And that is. That is true.
[00:17:26] And it is often emphasized that we should do it with gentleness and respect.
[00:17:30] But I want us to think about this because we want to do this so that we can have a good conscience.
[00:17:37] You know, I would assess that this gentleness and respectfulness part is pretty important.
[00:17:43] It's crucial to the text.
[00:17:46] And I say this because I sense that some popular leaders and influencers, you know, Christian ones, are beloved by people, at least partly because they don't speak respectfully, they don't speak gently.
[00:18:02] Maybe they use loads of irony and sarcasm, insults, maybe even profanity, to ridicule the wicked. And make a defense of the gospel.
[00:18:12] You know, especially if you've become frustrated with our government and our culture, which I totally understand. It is easy to find satisfaction in reading and listening to guys that talk like that and stick it to the wicked world.
[00:18:30] I just want to say, students, resist that temptation. If that is you, which this has been me, I have been tempted to follow such people. Resist that.
[00:18:39] We're called to make a defense with gentleness and respect.
[00:18:44] But why?
[00:18:45] You know, people will ask why Jesus used stinging rebukes and even insults toward the Pharisees and Sadducees. Old Testament prophets like Ezekiel used rather dirty language to describe sinfulness.
[00:18:58] But Peter tells us why we should behave this way. Now, verse 16, he says, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.
[00:19:09] That's why.
[00:19:11] That's why we do it with gentleness and respect.
[00:19:14] It is good to suffer for doing good.
[00:19:17] As discussed last week, you get to follow the example of Christ when you suffer for doing good. He suffered unjustly.
[00:19:26] You know, this reminds me of even last week in the small group I sat in on, we talked about how there's no amount of suffering that you can endure in your whole entire life that is not nearly as bad as the punishment you do deserve for your sin.
[00:19:43] That's a good perspective that I wanted to share with everybody.
[00:19:46] Christ suffered unjustly.
[00:19:49] We can't suffer unjustly like Christ did.
[00:19:53] Therefore, suffering for righteousness is a blessing as you participate in the suffering of Christ and can witness about him as you suffer.
[00:20:03] And this then turns us to our third point, which is participate in Christ.
[00:20:11] Participate.
[00:20:14] And it's been a few minutes since we read these verses, so I'm actually going to read them again. Verses 18 through 22.
[00:20:22] Peter says, 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 he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 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 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, powers, having been subjected to him.
[00:21:06] So participate in Christ, you may suffer. And I bet you all have at least to some degree.
[00:21:18] But Christ also suffered.
[00:21:22] And he suffered for sins, not sins that he committed, for he committed none. He suffered for sins.
[00:21:30] And when Peter explains this, he says this wonderful phrase, the righteous for the unrighteous.
[00:21:38] This is what people have called the great exchange. The righteous for the unrighteous, Christ's life for yours, the righteous for the unrighteous. Christ died as a substitute. He stood in the place of sinners and suffered God's wrath against their sins, so that through faith you can receive his inheritance and, and his glory.
[00:22:05] So he suffered so that you can have glory.
[00:22:09] So as we think about suffering now, but glory coming later, remember this is because Christ suffered to give you glory. If you have faith in Him.
[00:22:18] He does this that he might bring us to God.
[00:22:23] It is not automatic, though.
[00:22:26] He doesn't die. And then we all get brought to God. The righteous for the unrighteous. You must trust in Him.
[00:22:31] You must choose to die to your sins.
[00:22:34] The sinful version of you is being crucified so that the holy version of you, made holy by the Spirit, can live in holiness, can be transformed and live in purity.
[00:22:46] Trusting in Jesus actually does change your life.
[00:22:50] It transforms you into the image of Jesus. You can begin to better reflect your Savior. Savior day by day by day by day.
[00:22:59] This is why I'm saying we must participate in Christ by being unified to him through faith and by suffering with him, by dying with him and raising with him to walk in newness of life.
[00:23:12] You should not treat his death as merely an event that saves people from hell. His death is also an invitation for you to come and die to your sin, to die with him, to suffer with him.
[00:23:26] Dying to yourself is victory.
[00:23:29] It is a joyful kind of death, not a sad death.
[00:23:34] Christ himself, when he died in the flesh, verse 19, says he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison.
[00:23:42] Now, this is where things might get a little confusing, so I'm going to try to explain.
[00:23:47] Is this where we get prison ministry?
[00:23:50] No, it's not. It is not where we get prison ministry. Now, you might find this surprising, but there is a lot of debate about these verses.
[00:23:58] My belief is that this is a victory proclamation. That's what Jesus is doing.
[00:24:03] Peter uses the term prison, which he seems to be getting from a passage in Revelation where the Greek term is translated as the abyss.
[00:24:12] The word's also used in another book, not in the Bible, but still a book that uses it as a place for the dead.
[00:24:21] So he's kind of using this word that we see in some other Literature.
[00:24:26] So the spirits in prison, I think, are probably the sinful angels who had relations with human women in Genesis 6.
[00:24:35] Now you can read that passage, Genesis 6.
[00:24:38] I think this because the word used almost always refers to angels rather than humans.
[00:24:44] And this happened just before the flood in Noah's day. That's why he's talking about the flood. The flood is not just kind of a random thing he tacks on. It kind of flows together.
[00:24:53] And the word for proclaimed here.
[00:24:56] This is not a gospel proclamation, a call to repent and believe to these spirits which could repent and believe. But it is a word that indicates more of a generic type of preaching and proclamation.
[00:25:09] There's a different word that more specifically means preaching the gospel. And Peter does use that word in other places, but not here.
[00:25:17] So it appears to me that he intentionally did not use that word because this wasn't a gospel proclamation like we would think of it. He wasn't giving these spirits a chance to repent and believe.
[00:25:30] There's nowhere in Scripture that indicates there's an opportunity after death to repent and believe in the gospel, either for angels or humans.
[00:25:39] Now this, again, this passage can be confusing. You might wonder, why are we talking about all this?
[00:25:45] It seems like he moves from talking about angels in prison to all of mankind being killed in a flood. What is the relevance to Christ's suffering? And then he talks about baptism.
[00:25:55] Well, the reason for this is simple enough.
[00:25:59] The judgment of humans and angels occurred at the same time. And the final judgment of humans and angels, including the devil, will happen together.
[00:26:09] So Christ goes or went and proclaimed victory, that death is defeated.
[00:26:17] It was finished. He declares that victory. And then we see in Revelation 1, 17 and 18, he says, I have the keys of death and Hades.
[00:26:28] He has the keys of death and Hades. He. He has declared victory over death. Jesus declares victory and snatches these metaphorical keys because he was defeated by him, death and hell were done for.
[00:26:43] And now we get into Noah and his family.
[00:26:46] What is the relevance here? God was certainly patient with the wicked humans and the sinful angels.
[00:26:52] He could have destroyed the earth immediately in the flood, but instead he waited for Noah to. To build the ark, waited for Noah to build the ark so that he and his family, Peter says eight persons were brought safely through water.
[00:27:10] Now, what we want to remember as we kind of think about baptism, is what does water mean?
[00:27:15] Water is a symbol of divine wrath and judgment.
[00:27:22] It's a symbol of divine wrath and judgment, especially considering the flood, which was actual divine wrath and judgment. But the righteous were Saved in the ark through the judgment waters of the flood.
[00:27:35] This is why some of the earliest Christian ark depicts Jesus with or as the ark, because they saw a correspondence between what the ark did and what Jesus does.
[00:27:47] So what is the right way to understand this?
[00:27:50] Well, first, baptism is fancy word, synecdoche. It's a synecdoche for salvation. Let me translate that. If you want to write just one word and you know how to spell that, you can write it. But what this means is that baptism is used as a term that refers to all of salvation.
[00:28:08] I think that's how it's being used here.
[00:28:11] What does it mean? It's used as a term for all of salvation. Well, it's like when I say, check out my new wheels.
[00:28:17] Well, I'm not just talking about my wheels, I'm talking about my whole car. Or the White House issued a statement. Well, is it the White House or is it the president and his staff that work in the White House?
[00:28:29] That's what it is. So baptism is referring to the whole of salvation.
[00:28:35] Second, what baptism makes visible is death to sin, death to sin, sin being destroyed by God's wrath in death, and then resurrection in Christ, death to sin, sin being destroyed by God's wrath in death, and then resurrection in Christ.
[00:28:58] We see this idea pop up elsewhere in Scripture. Romans 6, 3, 4 says, do you not know that all of us, speaking of Christians, all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death.
[00:29:12] We were buried therefore with them by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
[00:29:24] So in baptism we see the gospel.
[00:29:30] In baptism, we see the gospel literally, not metaphorically. We literally see the gospel. We visualize the death in immersion into water. The water itself reminds us of the flood waters, which were waters of judgment and wrath.
[00:29:49] In baptism, you're immersed into the waters of judgment, but then the baptizee is raised up out of the water and we see the glory of the resurrection in that.
[00:30:01] Third, baptism corresponds to the flood, that waters are judgment, and salvation comes through deliverance, either deliverance in the ark or deliverance in Christ.
[00:30:20] Does that make sense? I'll say that again.
[00:30:23] Baptism we see in verse 21 says, Baptism, which corresponds to this. He's saying baptism corresponds to the flood and that the waters represent judgment and salvation comes through deliverance.
[00:30:34] You must be in the deliverer, which in one case was the ark and now is in Christ. So as I mentioned, the floodwaters they point to the baptismal waters.
[00:30:45] Noah and his family were delivered through the ark. The ark itself was in the waters of judgment and brought Noah out alive.
[00:30:54] Jesus then, through his death and resurrection, is like the ark.
[00:30:59] Or more so, the ark is like Christ.
[00:31:03] Jesus entered into the waters of judgment and death.
[00:31:07] He declared victory over it while he was down there. And if you are in Christ, then he will deliver you through judgment and you will come out alive, alive eternally. This is how baptism corresponds to this.
[00:31:22] Fourth, the specific act being baptized serves as we read an appeal to God for a good conscience.
[00:31:31] In obeying Jesus and being baptized, you're making an appeal to God. Baptism is not an external bath. It is an appeal to God who cleanses you internally. He cleanses your heart. He washes your sin away. It is not an external bath. It is an appeal to God for a good conscience. That's what that means. And then finally, the resurrection and ascension of Christ seals the deal on what baptism corresponds to.
[00:31:58] The resurrection of Christ makes it possible for us to be raised with Him. But even more than that, he is exalted. We read at the right hand of God.
[00:32:11] Students, through faith, you can be united to Him.
[00:32:14] You can be baptized in his death. You can. You can be raised to walk in his life. You can be one with Christ in his inheritance. You can be one with him as you suffer. You can be one with him as you receive glory at the end of days.
[00:32:28] Again, let's think about the main point here. Join yourself to Christ through faith so that you can participate in his sufferings and therefore participate in his glory.
[00:32:40] You deserve judgment, we all deserve judgment.
[00:32:44] But you can be delivered through judgment. If you are in Christ.
[00:32:48] Christ is the only ark that can take you through the flood of God's wrath.
[00:32:53] So join yourself to him through faith, or else you'll drown.
[00:32:58] And many of you have.
[00:33:01] You have turned to Christ in faith, that is. But you have not participated in baptism.
[00:33:07] Students, that is a wonderful way to experience God's grace by depicting the gospel to the church.
[00:33:13] And when you see someone baptized, remember this.
[00:33:17] Don't just, you know, let it happen or even be think, oh, that's cool, or whatever. But think about this. The baptizer, you know, usually says something like buried with Christ to remind us of what we're seeing and then raised to walk in newness of life.
[00:33:32] Those are not empty words. It's not just a ritual that we follow. Those who want to be be in Christ cannot just check a box or pray a prayer. You need to die, be buried with Christ and then raised by him to walk in new life. You must walk then, a transformed life in purity, remembering that Christ suffered for sins so that we can be joined to him in his purity and in his suffering.
[00:34:01] Let's pray.
[00:34:04] Father, thank you for the word and for the sufferings of Christ. God, we pray that we would just reflect today on the great exchange, the righteous for the unrighteous. How we can be saved through faith when we die to sin and are raised to life because we're united to Christ.
[00:34:23] Lord, thank you for such wonderful grace that we can be united to your son, the Son whom you love.
[00:34:30] Lord, help us this week if we're suffering to suffer well, if we are questioned on our faith to gently and respectfully give a confident defense of it. Lord, help us to live in purity because we've been transformed. Or maybe God, call those in this room to yourself that have not responded. Convict them of their sin. Show them that they need a substitute. They're unrighteous and they need the righteousness of Christ.
[00:34:56] Nothing they are doing is helping. Nothing they are doing is making them actually any better in eternity. Lord, convict them of this that they may turn and repent and die with Christ and live with him. We pray all this in his name. Amen.
