Participants: Tom Shepherd & Deyvy Rodriguez
Series Code: PBOTB
Program Code: PBOTB00013A
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00:21 Hello and welcome to "Books of the Book."
00:23 A program that dives deep into the word of God, 00:26 I'm Deyvy Rodriguez and with us is Dr. Tom Shepherd. 00:29 He is a professor of New Testament 00:31 at the Theological Seminary at Andrews University. 00:35 We've been talking about being treated wrongfully 00:37 for doing what's right. 00:39 So join us as we continue studying together 00:41 the books of 1 and 2 Peter. 00:43 Dr. Shepherd, welcome. Thank you. 00:45 I've been learning a little more about you, 00:47 as we study here and I also learn that you are a musician. 00:51 Is that right? That's true. 00:53 Music was always an important part of my life. 00:56 As a child, we played music together, 00:59 played French horn, learned a little bit piano, 01:01 singing groups different things like that. 01:04 But it was until when my-- much later, 01:09 when my daughter said she wanted to take up the violin, 01:13 my wife and I, so we were kind of like, 01:15 "Well, I don't know," 01:17 and finally we said to her, "look, 01:19 if you raise the money for it, we will purchase the violin, 01:25 you'll pay for the violin and we'll pay for lessons." 01:28 And she-- go getter that she is, 01:30 she did that and so then she'd been playing 01:34 and you know, working on violin for about a year 01:37 and I said, "I want to do something with my daughter." 01:39 So I said what--shall I do, I'll take up the cello 01:42 and I didn't realize how much fun it would be, 01:45 it would become a passion, I started string quartets, 01:49 I've been touring around different places, 01:51 still do music programs, we have a program 01:53 at the Seminary called Classical Seminary 01:56 that we put on twice a year and just a great joy, 01:59 music is a wonderful blessing from God. 02:01 Wonderful and I'm sure that's a pastime 02:03 when you're not teaching? Yes. Okay. 02:06 Well, we're studying the books of 1 Peter 02:09 and we are picking up on 3:13-22 we're studying today. 02:15 And give us a little review 02:18 on what we've been studying on previous programs. 02:21 All right, well, this is very important, 02:23 this whole passage starts in verse 13 02:26 and it goes through verse 22. 02:28 What we're gonna study today is verses 18-22, 5 verses 02:33 that have some real challenges in there for many people. 02:38 And one of the difficulties is if these verses are separated 02:44 from their context from what goes before. 02:47 So in verse 13-17 we recall that, 02:51 he talked about the Christians 02:54 being faithful and giving a faithful witness, 02:58 a defense for their faith whenever they're asked. 03:01 And that there would be people around them 03:02 who would not appreciate that, 03:04 and who would prosecute them as a result. 03:07 But that they should not be afraid to give their witness 03:11 and they should share it freely with people, 03:14 keeping in mind being gentle, being reverent 03:18 and being conscious of God and of, 03:21 you know, his whole perspective on life. 03:24 We talked a little bit about 03:26 a little pattern of witnessing called tagging 03:29 and how it's a very low key kind of a way. 03:32 I'd like to add one more thing 03:33 on to that actually that's kind of interesting 03:36 and that is concept that those aspects of our faith 03:42 that are unique, that are different, 03:46 are actually God's arrows 03:49 or shall we say God's windows to open the light, 03:52 to let the light into other peoples lives. 03:55 I know some young people who were studying 03:57 at a major university in the United States. 04:01 And Adventist young people 04:04 but amongst those who were not of the Adventist faith. 04:08 And these young people became known for those 04:11 who wouldn't come to lab on Saturday, 04:14 who would keep the Sabbath 04:16 and this actually became quite a reference point 04:21 where people would take note of them. 04:25 Another Christian talking to them 04:27 it was, kind of, moaning a little bit. 04:29 They hadn't done enough and what strikes me about it all 04:33 is that this unique quality of our faith 04:36 that we keep the Sabbath, 04:37 is an opener, it's actually a tag. 04:41 When you--they say, "Why do you go to church on Saturday?" 04:44 Or "Why don't you eat meat?" 04:46 Or "Why don't you drink alcohol with us?" 04:49 But these are actually God's doors 04:51 for you to go and give a witness to them. 04:55 Some people are-- they kind of shy 04:57 away from our particular characteristics. 04:59 No, we shouldn't at all. 05:00 The way we dress, the way we act, the way we speak, 05:04 these are all ways of sharing our faith with others. 05:06 And that gives people the curiosity 05:08 to probe questions on our faith? Yes. 05:10 As you said earlier, this is a window to share 05:13 and witness to others. 05:15 Why don't we read verse 18 then? 05:17 I think it's a great idea. 05:19 "For Christ also suffered once for sins, 05:21 the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God, 05:25 being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit." 05:30 Okay, so how did this-- Keep going. 05:31 Let's read the whole passage, all the way through verse 22. 05:34 "By whom he went and preached to the spirits in prison, 05:38 who formerly were disobedient, when once the divine 05:41 longsuffering waited in the days of Noah 05:44 while the Ark was being prepared in which a few, 05:47 that is eight souls were saved through water. 05:50 There is also antitype which now saves us baptism, 05:54 not the renewal of the filth of the flesh, 05:57 but the answer of a good conscience toward God, 06:01 through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 06:03 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, 06:07 angels and authorities 06:08 and powers having been made subject to Him." 06:13 So verse 18, how does Peter link this verse 06:17 with what is going on before? 06:20 All right. This is a very crucial question. 06:23 And it's--too many times, these verses, 06:27 verses 18-22 are not properly set 06:30 within their setting in verse 13-18 06:33 Verse 13-17 is all about the faithful witness, 06:38 being faithful when you're persecuted 06:40 and not giving up, you know, make sure-- 06:42 and that you give the proper witness to Christ. 06:46 So verse 18 begins with the word "for." 06:53 "For Christ also suffered once for sins, 06:57 the righteous for the unrighteous," all right. 06:59 So verses 18-20, are a support for the points 07:07 that are made in verses 13-17. 07:10 It's very, very important, so I want to say it again. 07:13 Verse 18 and onward are clearly support 07:19 for what the apostle has been saying in verses 13-17. 07:24 So the point in verses 13-17 07:27 was to be a fearless witness for Christ, to do good 07:32 and be willing to suffer for it is as a Christian, 07:37 it's better to do good and to suffer 07:40 than to do what is wrong. 07:42 So verse 18 now, returns to the sufferings of Christ, 07:47 to redeem us, the just for the unjust, it says. 07:52 So up to this point, we would say 07:56 that we follow in the steps of Jesus. Okay? 07:59 His righteous death brought us to God 08:02 and our righteous witness helps bring others to God. 08:05 We're following the steps of Jesus. 08:07 This is the pattern that we've already been seeing 08:09 take place in previous chapters 08:13 where in chapter 2, the servants are supposed to follow 08:18 in the example of Jesus 08:19 and the wives are supposed to also follow 08:23 in the same kind of pattern and they become examples of-- 08:25 there's this whole thing about following the example of Jesus. 08:28 So when you talk about suffering and then it says, 08:31 "For Christ also suffered once for sins, 08:33 the righteous for the unrighteous 08:35 that He might bring us to God." 08:38 That sounds all very fine, logical, no problem so far. 08:43 All right. It looks good. 08:48 Now, let's read verses, the following verses, 08:52 verses 8-20-- Let's just start with just verse 18 and 19. 08:57 Just two, those two verses-- Let's reread those verses. 08:59 "For Christ also suffered once for sins, 09:03 the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God, 09:06 be made put to death in the flesh 09:08 but made alive by the spirit, by whom also he went 09:14 and preached to the spirits in prison, 09:16 who formerly were disobedient when once that divine 09:20 long suffering waited in the days of Noah, 09:23 while the Ark was being prepared in which a few, 09:26 that is eight souls were saved through water." All right. 09:29 Stop right there. That is enough. 09:32 These three verses, especially verse 19, 09:34 there's been a lot of ink spilled in scholarship. 09:38 You know, describing and discussing 09:40 and talking about what in the world, 09:42 is this all talking about. 09:44 So we want to, kind of, go slowly through this 09:49 to get an understanding of what he's saying. 09:53 The first point we notice is in verse 18. All right. 09:57 So Christ suffered, and let me kind of ask this in questions 10:02 and we'll sort of walk through it. 10:04 Christ suffered, when did He suffer? 10:07 At the cross. 10:08 At the cross, we call it His passion 10:11 and so the experience bringing Him up to cross 10:14 and He suffers on the cross. 10:17 He said "Christ suffered once for sins, 10:20 the righteous for the unrighteous." 10:22 Here the words "Christ suffered for sins," 10:25 it reminds us of what happened 10:28 and we talked about in chapter 2, 10:29 we said there was a big surprise and we said that. 10:34 The big surprise was, this was the only place 10:36 in the New Testament that talked about 10:38 "Christ suffered for you, Christ suffered for sins." 10:42 Actually, when we gave that presentation, 10:43 I said there were two surprises, 10:45 probably very careful listeners will say I only mentioned one. 10:49 The other surprise actually in chapter 2 was that, 10:52 that is the very first place in the book of 1 Peter 10:55 that talks about something that Christ did. 10:58 So it kind of like it really focuses your attention 11:01 to get in there and see that "Christ suffered for you" 11:05 is the key to this whole understanding this whole book. 11:07 All right, so he is coming back to that again. 11:09 "He suffered that He might bring us to God," 11:12 all right, "He was put to death in the flesh," 11:16 when did that happen? 11:19 At the cross. At the cross. Okay. 11:22 "But made alive," my text says here, 11:25 "but made alive in the spirit." When did that happen? 11:29 The resurrection. The resurrection. 11:31 Now yours reads a little differently. 11:33 It says, "Made alive..." Made alive by the spirit. 11:37 By the spirit. Yes. 11:39 This could be, now, 11:40 here's two different ways of thinking of this, 11:43 made alive by the spirit. 11:45 What spirit are we talking about here? 11:46 The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit. All right. 11:47 So this is God through the Holy Spirit 11:49 raising Christ to life. Okay. 11:51 If we say, He's made alive in the spirit. 11:56 No, people start to say, "what do you mean by that." 12:00 Well, there's two different ways you could go even in that path. 12:03 You could say, in the spirit means, 12:06 as a spiritual being, you know, he was like 12:09 not a physical being anymore, he was a spiritual being, 12:13 just a spirit or you could say in the spiritual realm. 12:18 So made alive is in the flesh 12:21 and then he is in the spiritual realm. 12:23 He is in the world here and then he is in the world 12:26 of the spiritual realm afterwards. 12:28 So either way it's-- we do have lots of testimony 12:33 in the New Testament that when Jesus rose from the dead, 12:36 He was a physical being. 12:38 He was changed, but he was a physical being 12:41 and they recognized who He was. 12:43 Thomas didn't believe, you know, and Jesus says, 12:46 "Come and bring your finger here and see my hands 12:49 and put your hand in my side and see that I'm real." 12:52 He ate food in front of them, 12:53 He talked with them, He was a physical being. 12:56 So to say He was simply a spiritual being 12:59 probably doesn't cut it, you know. 13:00 So either we have to say He's made alive 13:02 by the spirit, that is by the Holy Spirit. 13:04 Or we have to say, He's made alive 13:07 in the spiritual realm, in this spirit world 13:11 where there are spiritual powers and spiritual forces, 13:15 such as the Apostle Paul talks about 13:17 our battle that's not against flesh and blood 13:19 but against spiritual powers in heavenly places. 13:22 So Christ is raised from the dead 13:25 and this is the setting in which he says. 13:28 So we're already-- we can clearly see here, 13:30 we have Christ suffered, 13:32 He died on the cross and He rose again. 13:35 It sounds like the gospel story, 13:37 just the way that the pattern has gone on. 13:39 And over and over, the New Testament 13:40 presents this idea about the resurrection. 13:43 Well, we're just diving into verse 18, 19, 20, 21, 22. 13:49 So we'll come back to this after a break 13:50 and look some more about these fascinating verses 13:54 and try to decipher 13:55 just exactly what Peter is trying to tell us. |
Revised 2014-12-17