Bentley Baptist Church Sermons
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Bentley Baptist Church Sermons
Baptism Unpacked
1Peter 3.18-22 | Ps Alex Huggett | 2.2.2025
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So in a few minutes we are going to have the joy of baptising Stafford and Abraham Baptism why do we perform such a strange ritual? Baptists are known for being a bit particular about how we do baptism. It's kind of in our name. Baptism. It's kind of in our name and our passage this morning raises questions. Says baptism saves you. Do I really need to be baptized, especially if I already follow Jesus? And why on earth has Alex picked one of the most difficult to understand passages in the whole New Testament to preach about this? Answer the second question. Probably because he's a bit stupid, but let's unpack it and find out.
Speaker 1:So Peter writes, for Christ also suffered for sins once for all the righteous, for the unrighteous that he might bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh. So we talk about the gospel good news, the good news of the gospel, the good news of Jesus, begins with some bad news, and the bad news is that humanity has rejected God's good way and chosen our own paths, which so often lead to evil and wrongdoing. We look at the world and we see a mess, and this is what the Bible calls sin and unrighteousness. And because of our sin and unrighteousness we are alienated from God, we're separated from him no way into heaven or his good life. But the good news is that God loves us and because he loves us, jesus, the son of God, who was righteous and without sin, so the righteous one, suffered and died in our place so that we could be reconciled with God and enjoy his good life. That's the basics. I'm sure most of you know that. If you don't, I'd love to talk to you more about it later. The cross was not only God's way of reconciling us with himself, however. It was also God's way of gaining victory over evil and death. We thought about that.
Speaker 1:Peter writes that Jesus was made alive by the spirit, in which he also went and made proclamation to the spirits in prison who in the past were disobedient when God patiently waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared. Now, what has Noah got to do with Jesus and what are these spirits in prison he's talking about Now? There's actually a lot of debate over this and what Peter means here, but I think he's most likely referring to Genesis 6, 1 to 4, and a book called First Enoch. Don't try looking it up in your Bible. It's not there, but it was evidently popular at the time, and so Genesis 6, 1 to 4 says this Hang on to your hats.
Speaker 1:When mankind began to multiply on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful and they took any they chose as wives for themselves. And the Lord said my spirit will not remain with mankind forever because they are corrupt. Their days will be 120 years. The Nephilim were on the earth both in those days and afterwards, when the sons of God came to the daughters of mankind who bore children to them. They were the powerful men of old, the famous men. Well, people have tried to interpret this in all kinds of ways, but most scholars today and for what it's worth I agree with them think the best way to understand this is also the weirdest. So in the Bible, sons of God nearly always refers to angels. So what we seem to have here is a story about fallen angels, the sons of God that slept with human women, the daughters of men who then gave birth to their offspring. These Nephilim Now the Nephilim are thought to have been a race of hybrid human-demon giants. You can actually read about them later in the Old Testament as well. It's sort of tied up with part of Israel's conquest of Canaan. So whoever said the Bible is boring, it's full of wonderful, weird stuff.
Speaker 1:So the book of Enoch I mentioned this book of 1 Enoch. Well, that picked up this idea and ran with it. Have any of you seen the Noah movie with Russell Crowe and did you look at that movie and think what on earth have they been smoking? It looks nothing like what I read in the Bible. Large parts of it don't. It's not the interpretation of Genesis I would have made. Well, actually, that movie draws on some of the themes from 1 Enoch, which is why it's almost unrecognisable compared to the Bible.
Speaker 1:So 1 Enoch, just to cut it really short, says that because of their evil, god consigned these fallen angels, these sons of God, to a hellish prison. Now, how literally do you take all this story? I really don't know. Some people think it's literal, some people think it's literal, some people think it's just a kind of parable. But either way, the point still stands. You see, peter writes that after his death, jesus was made alive by the Spirit, that is, he was resurrected from the dead and by the Spirit he made proclamation to these imprisoned spirits. And so what's the proclamation he's making? Some people think that he literally went to hell and preached to them, but I think probably what Peter's saying here is that by his resurrection, the fact that he has risen, is the proclamation that is made to these spirits. What's that proclamation that Jesus makes by his resurrection? That God has won. God rescued humanity from you, evil angels, and the evil you have inflicted on the world, and God's judgment on you is just. And so that's why Peter wraps up this passage. We're reading in verse 22 with this Christ has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities and powers subject to him. God has won over evil and death, and that is good news for you and me.
Speaker 1:Well, back in Genesis we read that humanity and not just in this story, but overall humanity really didn't need the help of fallen angels to mess things up. We were doing quite well, corrupting ourselves and, in fact, the whole world. So by the time of Noah, it describes what is literally hell on earth. I mean, you've got demons running around and just weird stuff happening, and so the very soil, the dirt, was corrupted by bloodshed and sin. And what's the solution? A deep clean.
Speaker 1:So in the great flood, god cleansed the earth of humanity's vile sins and basically started again. But he rescued Noah and his family in the ark. So Peter says in it that's the ark, a few, that is eight people, were saved through water. Now the Bible just, incidentally, makes it clear that God would have let anyone else in on the ark who wanted to have a ride, but they refused. So the ark was Noah's and his family's salvation and through Noah and Mrs Noah, the salvation of all humanity. And this is where Peter brings us to baptism.
Speaker 1:Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a good conscience towards God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Baptism, which corresponds to the flood, now saves you through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Flood now saves you through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So in the ark, noah and his family were saved through water.
Speaker 1:Peter says Now we are saved through water in baptism. How does that correspond? See, noah wasn't saved by water, he was saved through water in the ark, which raises the question where's the ark that gets us through the flood? Well, peter says baptism saves us, not by washing our bodies clean, but essentially by washing our consciences clean through Jesus' resurrection. And so Jesus is our ark.
Speaker 1:Peter says that baptism corresponds to the flood. How so Well, the flood was a judgment for sin, but it also cleansed the world from sin. You remember? It needed a deep clean. In the same way, baptism is a kind of judgment on our sin and cleanses us from it. It's not the water that cleanses us. The water is just a sign. It's a sign of the judgment and cleansing Christ accomplished through his death and resurrection. The water didn't save Noah. The ark saved him from the water. And so for us, the water of baptism doesn't save us. Christ does. Jesus is our ark. Jesus is our ark, and so salvation is not a matter of external ritual but of the heart. He says it's a pledge of a good conscience. And yet, on the other hand, peter says that in some way baptism does save us. How so? It's not the mechanism of salvation, it's not the being sprinkled with water, and as if magically, water can save us. We're saved by Jesus' death and resurrection, but baptism is the way we receive that salvation. Peter says it's a pledge of a good conscience before God. Now he could mean that I make a pledge to God or that I'm receiving God's pledge to me. Either way, baptism is the way this pledge is conferred. So consider this In terms of baptism having the power to save you.
Speaker 1:Traffic lights Traffic lights have the power to save you. Do you agree that traffic light has absolutely no power? You can drive straight through it and there's nothing that traffic light will do. Might be something the other oncoming car will do, but the traffic light will do nothing, and yet that traffic light has the power to save your life. Baptisms a little bit like that.
Speaker 1:Or consider a contract when you enter into a contract, you usually have to sign something. Your signature is a sign of your commitment. It's your yes to the terms of the contract. Why do we sign and not just say yes? Why isn't a handshake or something good enough, or just a verbal agreement? Well, it makes it concrete and it provides evidence that we can turn to if there's a dispute. And, in the same way, baptism is a way we say yes to Jesus.
Speaker 1:Well, some say baptism doesn't save you and you don't need to be baptised to be saved. And, as I've said, it's true that baptism is not magic. We're saved by trusting in Jesus, and without faith, baptism is meaningless. And so Romans 10, 9, verse 9 says if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead you will be saved. God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. And yet we also read in Romans Romans 6, verse 3, that we're baptised into Jesus' death and rise with him into new life.
Speaker 1:In Matthew 3.15, christ the righteous one said he had to be baptized to fulfill all righteousness. Now, if Christ the righteous one had to be baptized to fulfill all righteousness, how much more do we who are unrighteous? In Acts 2.38, the apostle Peter preached repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And in Acts 22, verse 16, ananias says to Paul to be baptized and wash away your sins. Isn't that interesting? So I still maintain baptism doesn't save you, jesus does.
Speaker 1:Salvation consists of confessing Jesus as Lord, believing in his death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins, turning from sin and self to God and being baptized. Now, baptism is of no effect without faith, but it is a sign and a pledge of faith to God. And not to mention, it's commanded by Jesus in Matthew. Here's the long and the short of it, if that's gone over your head. Jesus suffered for our sins so that we can be reconciled with God and share in his victory over sin and evil. And in baptism we say yes to God.
Speaker 1:Baptism is the way God has given us to become Christian, and this morning Abraham and Stafford will say yes to Jesus as they're baptised. They're making the pledge of a good conscience before God that saves them through Christ's resurrection. So my question for you this morning is what about you? Will you believe and be baptised? If you haven't been, will you confess Christ as Lord and Saviour and repent of your sins? Friends, if you don't know Jesus or you haven't been baptised, can I urge you to do so? Give your life to God and be baptised that he can give you eternal life. And if you'd like to do that, I'm not going to invite you, unless you're desperate to jump in the pool this morning, though I probably wouldn't stop you, but come and talk to us about that. We've got more baptism services planned for the year in the not-too-distant future.