Pastor Skip Heitzig guides us through First and Second Peter in the series Rock Solid.

You know that you are not a number to God, you're a name. He knows your name. He calls you by name. "I call my sheep by name," the Bible says. God knows all about you. God knows all about your trouble, your suffering, whatever you might be going through, he knows and he cares. With that in mind, let's pray.

Lord, what a great position we have being part of your sheepfold. The cares, Lord, of this world that can choke out our own fruitfulness, are things that you really never intended us to carry for very long. And so, Father, at the beginning of this message we just want to place all of those cares and concerns on your able shoulders, asking you to carry them for us. Lord, help us to not be distracted in our thinking, that our hearts would be unencumbered as we encounter the truth of Scripture, that it could make its maximum impact in our lives. Thank you for your love for us, in Jesus' name, amen.

Ouch! It's a common expression of pain. Whenever you say that word, you're announcing to the world or to your world, the people around you, that you are experiencing some sort of suffering. So when you stub your toe, it's "Ouch!" When you hit your thumb with a hammer, "Ouch!" When you poke yourself in the eye, "Ouch!" When you get up in the middle of night and you walk into a wall or a door instead of the bedroom, "Ouch!" When you wake up from surgery, "Ouch!" Now, you may say other things besides that, but that's a typical expression of pain. It announces that we are sufferers. Because pain is a messenger that demands all of our attention, right?

When you're suffering, you think about little else except the pain you have and how to get rid of it. And then some pain isn't just episodic, it's chronic. It's not just an event or episode that comes and goes, there's some people that live with chronic pain. There's even an association called the American Association of Chronic Pain. And they tell us that every single year pain, pain in our country costs us 600 billion dollars. That averages out to 2,000 dollars per American person, 2,000 dollars. That includes the cost of health care due to pain, and lost productively like hours or days that a person would miss work.

And then there are people who feel pain more intensely than others. And studies have been done. Brain studies show that there is a correlation between the thickness of the brain's cortex and the ability to feel pain stimuli. If, basically, if the cortex of the brain is thinner, rather than thicker, that that person is going to feel pain more readily, more easily. Now, I have a hunch that everything I just said, you don't care about, if you're suffering, especially. If you are a person who is experiencing pain or suffering, you could care less about explanations or reasons for suffering. What you are more concerned about are resources while you're suffering.

And that's where Peter comes in. Peter is addressing a group of people, largely they are suffering because of what they're experiencing. They are undergoing persecution. Some are undergoing even physical pain, torture. And he gives them truth, and he gives them an example that is unlike any other example, and that is, Jesus Christ in the verses we're going to read. I don't know if you saw in the paper---my wife gave me this article this last week. Last Monday a man in Dayton, Ohio, was shot in the chest twice. Now, he survived. His name is Rickey Wagner. He's a bus driver.

And he got out of his bus, was working on something mechanical, had his jacket on, and a few young men ages fifteen to eighteen, about three of them, came up. And basically one of the messages Rickey heard was one of the kids said to the other, "You have to kill him if you want to join our gang." And so two shots were fired and then the kids ran. Rickey Wagner survived because he had underneath his coat a Bible. He had put it under his coat when he was inside the bus. He walked outside the bus working on something. His Bible was still underneath his coat, and so the Bible stopped the bullets.

God's Word stopped the bullets. [applause] I just can't help but think an iPad probably couldn't have done that as much as a real book. [laughter] Had to get that in. Now, I'm not going to suggest that God's truth is going to make you immune from problems and pain, but I am going suggest to you that God's truth can prevent the bullets of doubt as to the purpose and the reason. If there's any doubt in your mind, "Can there be anything good behind this at all," Peter would say, "God's truth can stop those bullets of doubt."

And he asks us here now to consider Jesus Christ who suffered immensely for us to prove to us here is somebody who's suffered, and look what good came out of it. So we begin in verse 18, First Peter chapter 3 verse 18, "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom he also went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.

"There is also an antitype which now saves us---baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to him." Now, I want to say that when I first read this passage---there's a few passages in the Bible, let me put this way, I don't get really excited about teaching. Number one, if they're very difficult passages to understand, and this ranks up there pretty high; and number two, when they promise suffering.

And both of those properties are incorporated right here in this text. So what I'm going to do in unraveling these verses for you is touch on four different things that marked the path of Jesus in his suffering. First, was his crucifixion; second, his resurrection; third, his proclamation; and fourth, his exaltation. Those four stages are mentioned here: Jesus' crucifixion shows purpose, his resurrection shows permanence, his proclamation shows planning, and his exaltation shows power. Let's quickly look at those and make application.

First of all, his crucifixion. Verse 18, "Christ also suffered." See, in verse 17 he says, "It is better, if in the will of God, to suffer for doing good," and then he points to Jesus, "For Christ also suffered." "He suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust," that is, he was just, we are unjust. He took our place. "That he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit." Now, if ever there was anyone who suffered unfairly for doing nothing wrong, but doing everything right, it was Jesus Christ.

He suffered and he died, and he doesn't just die, he died an excruciatingly painful death. In fact, I don't know if you know this or not, but the word "excruciating" literally means from the cross. It's a word that depicted the worst form of ancient torture and death, out of the cross, excruciating pain. The Romans did not invent crucifixion, the Persians did around 300 BC, but the Romans, they perfected it. It was designed to inflict maximum physical torture on the victim before they died. A person who was crucified usually lasted several days, not hours, days.

That's why the soldiers would often break the legs of the victim so that couldn't pull up or push up on the nails and take any more breaths. They would just die sooner rather than later. Jesus suffered that kind of death. But his suffering began before the cross, didn't it? And Peter was there when it happened. In the garden of Gethsemane Jesus sweat great drops of blood. Medical experts say that there are tiny capillaries that can burst up inside the sweat glands and the forehead called hematidrosis. It's a rare condition, but in extreme emotional conditions a person can actually sweat blood mixed with his sweat.

Jesus in the garden was then arrested and brought before trial. Not one trial, not two trials, but six trials. All of them illegal, done usually, most of them, in the middle of the night. He was wrongly accused. Then Pilate had him beaten with a flagellum, beaten, his back like raw hamburger, and then taken to the place called Golgotha where he was crucified for the sins of the world. So, Peter writing to a suffering group of people is saying, "Jesus your Savior also suffered and died in the flesh," meaning he physically died. He was actually crucified.

As much as we might suffer, here's a perspective check. We will never suffer like this. Most of us will never experience anything like what Jesus experienced. Oh, yeah, life can get bad. Yes, there can be pain. Yes, there can be chronic pain. Yes, there can be extreme episodes of pain, but nobody will suffer like this. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way: "In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood." You haven't given your life like Jesus did. And why did he do it? What good is in his suffering?

Well, the verse tells us, and look at it: "That he might bring us to God." That's the whole reason. That's the good behind the bad. That's the benefit behind the pain, the suffering, "that he might bring us to God." When Jesus died, what in the temple was ripped in two? Tell me. The veil was torn in two from top to bottom. The veil that kept people separated that said don't go any further, this God is holy, you are unholy, you cannot approach him. Now God is saying you can approach. Now the way is open. "I'm going to bring you to God the Father by what I did on the cross," and the veil was torn to prove it.

Here's the point: the very worst thing that did happen became the very best thing that could happen. Let me say that to you again. The very worst thing that did happen became the very best thing that could happen. What's the very worst thing that did happen? Killing God, the death of God. How's that for a rap sheet on the world? We killed God. It was a calamity. It was the very worst thing that happened, but actually it became the very best thing that could happen. It brought us to God. The death of Jesus Christ became the basis by which God can forgive sinful men and women and they can be made right with God. Yeah, world's greatest calamity---our greatest bounty.

I'm going to read to you a little piece from a philosopher from Yale University, Peter Kreeft, brilliant insight into this. He says: "Suppose you're the devil." I know it's going to be hard for some of you to do that. For some others of you, it might not be so hard. But, "Suppose you're the devil. You're the enemy of God and you want to kill him, but you cannot. However, he has this ridiculous weakness of creating and loving human beings, whom you can get at. Aha! Now, you've got hostages! So you simply come down into the world, corrupt humankind, and drag some of them to hell.

"When God sends prophets to enlighten them, you kill the prophets. Then, God does the most foolish thing of all---he sends his own Son and he plays by the rules of the world. You say to yourself, 'I can't believe he's that stupid! Love has addled his brains! All I have to do is inspire some of my agents---Herod, Pilate, Caiaphas, the Roman soldiers---and get him crucified.' And that is what you do. So, there he hangs on the cross---forsaken by man and seemingly forsaken by God, bleeding and crying, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' What do you feel now as the devil? You feel triumph and vindication!

"But of course you couldn't be more wrong. This is his supreme triumph and your supreme defeat. He struck his heel into your mouth and you bit it and that blood destroyed you." So here's Peter's point: suffering in the hand of a loving God can bring forth great benefit. And the best example is look at Jesus' crucifixion. His crucifixion shows purpose. There's a second phase to that journey of pain for Christ. Yes, he died on a cross, yes, he experienced crucifixion, but that led to something great---resurrection.

So let's look in verse 18 where it says, "Being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit." Now I want just want give you a little footnote. Hold on to it in your head. I'm going to get back to that little explanatory "made alive in the Spirit." I do not believe that refers to his resurrection even though it looks like that. But go down to verse 21, "There is also an antitype which now saves us---baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through"---here it is---"the resurrection of Jesus Christ." So Peter mentions his death, his crucifixion, and then his resurrection.

Jesus' crucifixion led to Jesus' resurrection, which makes him alive permanently. He'll never die again. The Bible says, "He always lives to make intercession for us." When Jesus was hanging on the cross, one of the last words he said were these: "It is finished." What was finished? Well, a lot of things were finished. Our redemption was finished, to name one. But something else was finished. I don't know if you've ever thought about this---his suffering, his pain was just about over. All of that horrible pain he was feeling in his body, that excruciating suffering was over.

He had been at the hands of men for six hours. They did to him whatever they wanted to do. They had arrested him, they yelled at him, they cursed at him, they beat him, and they killed him. He was forsaken by his disciples. He felt, at least momentarily, forsaken by the Father. All of that is about over. He will die, but he will be raised. And the resurrection changes the playing field, assures a permanence of life. Suffering led to death, but death led to resurrection. And resurrection ensures---not only for Jesus, but for all of us, the Bible says, that we'll live forever---permanence.

Paul puts it like this, Romans 8 verse 18, "I consider that the sufferings of this present age aren't even worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed in us." I don't know what you're going through in your life, but if you're a believer, take solace in this: this is the closest you'll ever get to hell. This is it. This is as bad as it gets. "Well, it's pretty bad." Okay, try to remember it, because you won't last---have that last very long. It's momentary, and compared to what's coming, you can't even compare it. Now, let me flip the coin: if you're not a believer, this is the closest you'll ever get to heaven.

As bad as it is now, it'll get a lot worse. If you're a believer, it's all uphill from here, if you know Jesus Christ. There's a permanence. In fact, you know, heaven is so great, it is so unlike our earthly experience that when the Bible wants to describe it, it often has to do so in negatives. To say, "Well, let me tell you heaven is like, it's not like here." Because you know here, you can relate to here, there you can't. So listen to it, this is Revelation 21, this is what you can expect in your resurrected body: "And God will wipe way every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying.

"There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." Just think about that. God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, there'll be no more crying, no Kleenex in heaven. You'll never go, "Sniff, sniff, I need to wipe my nose." Not there. This life is scarred by periods of tears. Can you think back and remember a few days in your life filled with tears? One that really stands out to me, the first one that is most memorable in my earlier years was my first day of kindergarten. I'm embarrassed to tell you this, but was the biggest crybaby in school. [laughter]

I wanted my mommy so badly, I cried all day long. Goofy, huh? Well, there were other days besides kindergarten that were more profound than that. The day my brother died was a day filled with tears for me. My father's funeral was a day of tears. Sitting at my mother's deathbed watching her take her last breath, that was a day of tears. Those are tears of loss. We all experience them before this life is over. But there are more tears than that. There are tears of loneliness, and misfortune, poverty, sympathy, persecution. And how about tears of regret, ever cry a few of those, regret?

Like the two teardrops that were floating together down the river of life, and one said to the other, "Who are you?" And the teardrop said, "I'm a teardrop from a woman who loved a man and lost him." And then quickly said, "And who are you?" to the other teardrop. And the other teardrop said, "I'm a teardrop from the woman who got him." [laughter] So either way you spin it there's, there's tears of regret in life. No more tears! John also says there will be no more death. You'll never go to a cemetery ever again. You'll never attend a funeral.

And if there's no more death, there will be no more conditions that bring death: no more disease, no more hospitals, no more doctors, no more dentists---it doesn't mean doctors and dentists won't be in heaven. I don't want to infer that at all. I'm being very careful not to say that, but you'll never have to see one to get treated. John even says there will be no more sorrow. You ever just have a bad day, a sorrowful day where it's just like Pigpen, the cloud follows you all day long. And so when you see each other and you part company, you usually say to them, "Have a good day." That's a nice wish, "Have a good day."

You'll never say that in heaven; you never need to. The stupidest thing you could say in heaven is, "Have a good day," because every day's a good day. There will be no more sorrow. And then it says there will be no more pain. H'm, no more pain, no more chronic pain, no more episodal pain, just gone. Think of how much aspirin we consume. "No more pain." You will have, you will have a perfect body. You'll have a perfect body. [applause] Now, I'm seeing some of, like, these really young, healthy folks going, "What do you mean? I already have a perfect body." [laughter] Just wait a few years, buddy. [laughter]

Jesus' crucifixion shows purpose. His resurrection shows permanence. Now here's a third as we go on this little pathway: Jesus' proclamation, his proclamation shows planning. I'm going to skim through some very difficult verses. Verse 19, "By whom he [Jesus] also went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were obedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. There is also an antitype which now saves us---baptism (not the removal of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ."

Now let me just tell you something. When Peter wrote those words, he had no idea they would become the most, some of the most difficult to understand in the New Testament. So he didn't write with all of the depth and wrangling that we sometimes read into it. I think it was much simpler for him. He was a fisherman. But they are difficult to understand. Martin Luther said of these words, "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 certainty just what Peter means."

I'm glad he said that. I'm glad he was honest to confess that, because better minds than mine have grappled with this. But let me point out a few things and I'll save the heavy lifting for next week. Notice it says in verse 18 that Jesus was put to death in the flesh, that means he physically died. It says, "But made alive by the Spirit." I mentioned that I don't believe that in that verse he's referring to resurrection. He is in verse 21, but not in that verse. I think if he wanted to say that Jesus physically resurrected, he would have said, "He died in the flesh and he was made alive in the flesh."

But he says, "He was put to death in the flesh and made alive by the Spirit." Now, not every translation says "by the Spirit," other translations say "in the Spirit." Now, listen carefully, I don't want to lose you on this. The word Spirit is capitalized in my Bible as if to refer to the Holy Spirit, but in the Greek language there are no capital letters or small letters, it's all the same text. There is no definite article in the Greek language. So, the best translation is "Being put to death in the flesh but made alive in Spirit." And I don't think he's referring to the Holy Spirit; he's referring to Jesus' own personal Spirit, that Jesus physically died and his body remained in the tomb for three days while his Spirit was very much alive.

And during that time between death and resurrection in verse 21, which he mentions, was a time of proclamation. He had a sermon to preach. He had an announcement to give. He had a proclamation to shout out. And who was it to? "The spirits in prison," Peter tells us. Now, who were they and what did he say to them? Well, let me first assure you that Jesus did not go to hell and preach the gospel to lost people to give them a second chance, as some misread the text. He didn't speak to people, he spoke to spirits.

And in the New Testament the word "spirits" refers either to angels or to demons, so that between the death of Christ on the cross, and his resurrection on the third day, he went to the spirit realm and visited them. We know in Acts, chapter 2, Peter again says Jesus went into Hades; not hell, Hades, the abode of the dead, the abode of the spirits. "You will not leave his soul in Hades, nor will you---nor will you allow the Holy One to see corruption." So Jesus for that time went and spoke a proclamation, a message to these spirits.

Now these spirits somehow, as you see here in Peter, relate to the preflood era, the antediluvian civilization era, the time of Noah. And if you know your text from Genesis 6, it says that "the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair," and there was some weird aberrant race that grew out of a cohabitation. Again, I want to do the heavy lifting on that at a later time. Peter doesn't tell us what they said or what Jesus said to them, he just delivered a message. I'm guessing that he gave an announcement of his victory.

It went something like this: "I just want all you demons who tried to stop this from happening to know that I just won the war against evil by dying for the sins of the world and conquering death by physical resurrection. I just wanted to bring you that announcement, because the party is over." When Jesus died on the cross, there must have been a party of sorts, a victory party in hell. "This is God's Son, we killed him, it's over." It says in First Corinthians 2, "None of the rulers of this age understood it; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory."

So in their little time of celebration Jesus shows up to make the proclamation that all the plans of the devil to stop the good work of God have been overturned and God had enacted his own greater, perfect plan that Jesus was victorious over the demonic plan. He made that proclamation. Now the point of Peter is that our suffering, whatever Satan uses to block our greater happiness and good, God has a purpose in it, and he made it by this proclamation. I heard about a man who he always went to a weekly prayer meeting, and he---during the week he'd blow it. He'd fall, he'd stumble, he'd sin.

And at the prayer meeting in this church at the end he would always say, "And, Lord, just remove the cobwebs from my life," meaning, you know, I blew it again so just, just clean it all out. Next week, you know, he'd live his life during the week, come back to the prayer meeting, "Lord, just clean the cobwebs out of my life." The next week, "Lord, I just want you to know I confess this and that, clean the cobwebs out of my life." Well, this one guy in the prayer meeting got so upset by this, because he knew how the guy was living.

So finally at another prayer meeting when the man said, "God, clean the cobwebs out of my life," the other man shouted out, "God, don't do it! Kill the spider, kill the spider." What Jesus basically announced is: "I've killed the spider. Satan does not have the kind of a power and grip he once had on the world, I made sure of it by what I did on cross." I'll go into more detail next time. Let's finish this out. Look at verse 22 for our fourth. This is now the exaltation. The final step in this journey is that Jesus he died, he was crucified, he made a proclamation, he made a---had a resurrection, but he left earth. He took off. He ascended into heaven.

Verse 22, "Who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers," those are other rankings of angelic beings, either demonic or good, "angels authorities and powers having been made subject to him." He's now the supreme authority. The term "right hand" means power and prestige. Most people are right handed. I'm sorry if you're a lefty. That's just in the Bible when it says right hand. It's not dissing you, it's just saying that's the power of prestige, the place of prestige and power, authority. So the right hand of God is the ultimate place of power and prestige.

Philippians 2, "God has highly exalted him and given him a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus Christ every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess, of all those in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth." Every single being he has authority over. He ascended, he's exalted, he's at God's right hand, and he's going to bring you with him. He's going to bring you with him. [applause] So, yes, yes, yes, Jesus suffered, and, yes, his suffering led to a painful death, but after crucifixion came proclamation, resurrection, and exaltation.

The whole point is that Jesus' suffering was leading somewhere, to glory, and so is yours, so is yours. We are an embattled minority in a hostile world, just like Noah and those eight that they were kept. And the point is that God will keep you, and your future is secure. Have you ever heard of the Nicene Creed, anybody here, Nicene Creed? I've heard of it. Am I the only one? Have you heard of the Nicene Creed or the Apostles' Creed? Okay. "I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth . . ." It's what most Christians are taught in Sunday school when you grow up. That's the core of what we believe.

The Nicene Creed is named after a council in the city of Nicaea around 325 AD. It was attended by 318 delegates. These 318 men, all of them, all of them, except for about twelve had either lost on eye, a hand, or were limping, they couldn't walk, because they had been tortured for Christ. They suffered. But here they are to vigorously defend doctrine, truth, forge what is biblical belief system to pass on to generations because they saw a reason for their "ouch." And that's what God has planned for us is---our sufferings aren't even worthy to be compared with that, not worthy to be compared.

The crucifixion shows purpose; the resurrection shows permanence; the proclamation, planning, all part of the plan; and his exaltation shows his ultimate power. What happened in the life of Christ happens for a follower of Christ. Your suffering is all for a reason. By the way, as we close, here's a thought I want to leave with you. You know what the ultimate reason for Jesus' "ouch" was? You, you. It says to "bring us to God." "The just in the place of the unjust, to bring us to God."

It's as if Jesus could look through the midst of time and see out into the future and see you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, all of us, and say, "Father, it's worth it. If I can bring them with me into glory, into heaven, then I'll do it. It's worth it. There's a reason for this ouch, this horrible, excruciating pain and suffering. I'll do it, if I can bring them with me." "For the joy that was set before him," the writer says, "he endured the cross." You are that joy.

Father, we're humbled by that thought. It takes us off guard that you love us like that. Lord, whatever we're suffering, we just want to push the pause button on that feeling for a moment and consider what Jesus went through, and consider how the very worst thing that did happen became the very best thing that could happen. Thank you that you included us, that you chose us. Thank you that we were the joy that was set before Jesus for him to endure that excruciating crucifixion. The Bible says that if we confess our sins, he will forgive them.

If we believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead and we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, we'll be saved. We don't have to go through the pain, the suffering, the death, the torture that he went through. He already did that, "the just for the unjust." What we have to do is believe, trust, commit, make confession with our mouth: "I agree with what you said, Lord, I agree with it, and I believe in my heart that you raised Jesus from the dead that we can be saved." As we close this message, I want you to know you can be saved.

And I don't care if you're a good and religious person, if you don't know Jesus on a personal level like this, where you have let him stand in your place, and you have trusted him to get you to heaven as a free gift of his grace, if you haven't received that from him, then you need to do that right now and right here and not wait a moment longer. What will it be? Will this earth be the closest you ever get to heaven, or will it be the closest you ever get to hell? Give your life to Christ or come back to him if you've wandered away from him. If you want to know the joy of forgiveness and see the Lord weave together all the elements of your life, good and bad, into a good purpose, then entrust your life to him today.

For more resources from Calvary Albuquerque and Skip Heitzig visit calvaryabq.org.