He Preached Unto The Spirits in Prison

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces the theme of suffering for Christ, a central theme in 1 Peter, and then acknowledges the extreme difficulty of the sermon's main text, 1 Peter 3:18-22, citing…

Martin quotes Luther's blunt assessment of 1 Peter 3:18-22 as 'a wonderful text... and a more obscure passage, perhaps, than any other in the New Testament,' highlighting its difficulty.

And he sets forth, and he says, He sets forth the Lord Jesus in those areas in which there is a similarity between the sufferings of Christ and the sufferings of His people. And then he focuses on those unique aspects of the sufferings of Christ on the behalf of His people. And it is in that setting that we come to our text this morning, verse 18c, the words beginning, being put to death, in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, that aforetime were disobedient, when the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ar...

5:38 - 6:55 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces the theme of suffering for Christ, a central theme in 1 Peter, and then acknowledges the extreme difficulty of the sermon's main text, 1 Peter 3:18-22, citing…

Martin recounts a conversation with a contemporary pastor who, after wrestling with the passage, decided he 'couldn't preach it' and instead gave his adult class all possible interpretations, illustrating the passage's interpretive challenge.

Then Luther went on to say, It appears to teach thus and thus, and then went on and made a feeble attempt to explain it, and passed on to things that were more clear in the book of 1 Peter. I was talking with a contemporary pastor who recently finished expounding 1 and 2 Peter, and I was fascinated and said, Brother, I'm wrestling with this most typical passage. What conclusions? Did you come to?

7:15 - 7:41 Read in full sermon

The point: Ensure interpretations are suitable to the pastoral context and purpose of the author.

Martin humorously expresses his deep gratitude and 'love' for Dr. Wayne Grudem's appendix in his 1 Peter commentary, which provided persuasive argumentation for his chosen interpretation.

So any position that does not flow with the contextual purpose of the author cannot be the right one. And so I'm going to offer an interpretation. It is not one for which I'm ready to spill my blood, but it is one that, to my judgment, does no violence to the language of the text, introduces no doctrines contrary to the overall teaching of the word of God, and is the most suitable to the overall context and purpose of Peter in writing this part of the epistle. And in coming to this position, I am unashamed in saying I have a debt that I cannot repay to Dr. Wayne Grudem, in his commentary on 1 ...

11:53 - 12:55 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin begins the exposition by focusing on the contrast in 1 Peter 3:18: Christ was 'put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit.' He clarifies that 'made alive'…

Martin uses Tevye's 'on the one hand... but on the other hand' deliberation from 'Fiddler on the Roof' to illustrate the 'men-death' contrasting statement in the Greek text of 1 Peter 3:18.

And in the original, it is a men-death statement. It is on the one hand and on the other. This is Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof weighing weighty issues in his family life. And he mumbles to himself on the one hand and he brings forward what he's thinking and then he says, but on the other hand.

15:05 - 15:30 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not remain wedded to your sins or in a state of vulnerability to God's wrath; repent while God's long-suffering still waits.

Martin uses the vivid, horrifying image of 'tens of thousands of bloated bodies floating on the face of the deep' after the flood to impress upon the unconverted the severity of God's judgment and the even greater horror of eternal judgment.

Why remain in the place where that generation was? Knew not until the flood came and took them all away. I could not fix my mind long upon what the scene must have been like. With tens of thousands of bloated bodies floating on the face of the deep.

55:17 - 55:42 Read in full sermon