From a message preached on 1 Peter Chapter 3 Verses 15 to 22 by Dr J Stewart Gillespie
A difficult section but 3 threads of truth we will follow through the section which will help us to understand it.
There is present in this section 3 principles, by which God administers the universe.
The Principle of:
The Power of Christs Resurrection
The Patience of Gods Judgement
The Pre-eminence of Gods Son
The Power of Christs Resurrection
Power to Sanctify (v15)
“Sanctify the Lord Christ in your hearts”
The resurrected Christ is the sole object of affection and reason for the hope
The reality of resurrection that allows relationship (2:1-2) and brings hope (3:15)
Power to Subdue (v19)
Power to Save (v21)
The Patience of Gods Judgement
Very important principle, what do I mean? God doesn’t judge today, what I do today!
God waits patiently – He may judge tomorrow what I do today, it may take 3 days for Gods verdict to be passed (v18), it may take 100 yrs for God to judge what I do (v20), it may take 2000 yrs (v19) – but God judges. He is not in a rush.
When God judges, His judgement is final!
In every sphere His judgement is final:
Over Christ (v18)
Over the world (v20)
Over the angels (v19)
Over me (v16) – I await Gods Judgement, I await Gods verdict.
It is a thought Peter will take up later on in 4:17.
The Pre-eminence of Gods Son
To my heart (v15)
Over a lost world (v18) – mans verdict and Gods verdict
Over rebellious angles (v19)
Over all things (v22)
These 3 principles we must always bear in mind, in dealing with the difficulties of the Christian path.
We might forget for example:
The principle of the Patience of Gods Judgement
When we are up against evil (v9), railing (v9), suffering (v13), false accusation (v16)
There we are living for God, yet things go against us!
We despair! But we have forgotten that God does not always judge today what is done today?
As they nailed the Saviour to the cross at Calvary it seemed as though man had the upper hand and that all was lost, but as Christ suffered for sins (v18) a work was being finished, a work that was: expiatory, substitutionary, reconciliatory, sacrificial, victorious!
With God it was not over till it was over and then God gave His verdict!
It is not the first time that this principle had been forgotten.
It had been forgotten in the days of Noah, “longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah” (v20).
Interesting word “waited” = expectant waiting, cf. Jo5:3 “waiting for the moving of the water” – same word, the people were not sitting back on a deck chair by the pool of Bethesda, on the off chance something might happen but awaiting with real anticipation, waiting with expectancy.
God was waiting in the days of Noah, on what?
On a man finishing an ark – a man building, on a man gathering a people, and then God finally closing the door. Once the ark was built and the people gathered, the door was shut! The wrath of God was poured out on this world.
Not often that God waited upon a man – but He did in the days of Noah, He did too in the days of Joshua (Joshua 10:14), God waits too in this day of Grace.
Upon what does God wait? He is waiting on a man:
Building – Peter has already told us this (2:4-5), as the Saviour told Peter; “I will build my church…”
Gathering – a people for Himself, “a peculiar people” (2:9), a people “out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation,” (Rev5:9).
Shutting a Door – the one whose words we love to remember, and whose words I love to preach: “I will open a door and no man will shut it” and who also said words which we very rarely preach: “and shutteth, and no man openeth.” Peter will perhaps touch upon that in 4:17.
God waits you see , waits with anticipation, waits with expectation, “for the ark that was preparing.”
As God waited in those days, instead of men taking it as an opportunity for repentance they took it as time for license (Gen6:5) – they forgot that principle, what principle:
The principle of the Patience of Gods Judgement
Not only did man forget the principle but the angels forgot it too, in the midst of all of that sin, the angels looked down, not only did they look down, but according to Gen 6 some of them came down.
They entertained that little suspicion that perhaps God had lost control! Maybe God had gone soft on sin! Maybe God could not or would not judge the man whom He had uniquely created in His image, I don’t know what the argument went like, but you can imagine it! They took the attitude, if you can’t beat them join them! So they did. Joined them in sin, joined them in judgement!
The one who is pre-eminent above and over all angels, He suffered rebellion in heaven (Col1:15-16) from angels, some who decided to leave their first estate (Jude1:6), they forgot:
The principle of the Patience of Gods Judgement.
God had not forgotten His principles upon which He administers the universe:
The Power of Christs Resurrection
The Patience of Gods Judgement
The Pre-eminence of Gods Son
This is the one whose headship they had rebelled against but God has raised Him from the dead far above all principality and powers and might and dominion and every name that is named (Eph1:21).
v21 – Noahs passage in the ark is “the like figure whereunto baptism doth also now save us”
Whatever we might take from this verse, note Peter is careful to point out where the power does not lie; namely in the water, “not the putting away of the filth of the flesh,” and where the power does lie: “by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
The “like figure” – in other words, the ark is to Noahs salvation what baptism is to mine.
When was Noah saved? When he got into the ark?
Let me ask why did God wait for 100 years on Noah finishing the ark? Just a coincidence the ark was finished and the last soul was in and the door was shut when the floods came? Not at all!
Gen5:32; 6:8-9 – at least 100 years before Noah got in the ark, Noah was saved, that’s why God waited in Noah finishing the ark!
It wasn’t the ark that saved Noah, anymore than it was the ark that brought the flood
It would have been a very strange thing if he hadn’t have got into the ark!
The ark was the evidence of his salvation, the outward demonstration of Gods protection, the power of salvation was Gods!
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