In the sermon 'Christ Our Comfort in Suffering,' Trent Moody delves into 1 Peter 3:18-22, emphasizing Christ as the ultimate source of comfort in times of suffering. The sermon highlights that Christ suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God, securing eternal redemption. It reassures believers that suffering for righteousness is not pointless, as Christ's suffering was purposeful and resulted in our salvation. The 'spirits in prison' are interpreted as wicked people from Noah's time, with Christ's spirit preaching through Noah. Baptism is described as an antitype, symbolizing salvation rather than an act that cleanses sin. The resurrection and ascension of Christ are presented as sources of hope and comfort, affirming our eternal security and justification. Believers are encouraged to rejoice in their suffering, knowing they are in the company of Christ, Noah, the apostles, and all who suffer for righteousness' sake.

Alright, go ahead and open your Bibles to the book of 1 Peter chapter 3. 1 Peter chapter 3. We're going to be looking at verses 18 through the end of the chapter in verse 22. And that song I picked because of what it leads us to, that is our only hope in life and in death. Christ is our only hope.

The Word of God says in the book of 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 18, these following things. 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 also he went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient when once the divine long-suffering 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 anotype which now saves us. Baptism. Not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards 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. Let's ask God's blessing upon this. Our Father again we pray and ask your help. Lord as we are taught in your word apart from Christ we can do nothing and so Lord we come before you with nothing in our hands but we come with a word of God that is quick and powerful.

We come with a word of God that is the very words from your heart for your people and I pray oh God that it would be a comfort to ourselves. Lord in times of suffering and grief and persecution and trials and tribulations and whatever we may find ourselves, Father, I pray that we can think about what Peter told the people that he was writing to and what you are telling us today, and that it would be a comfort to our souls, that Christ is our hope in life and death, no matter what we face. To live as Christ and to die is gain. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.

So the title of this message this afternoon is Christ our comfort in suffering. Christ our comfort in suffering. As we again come back to the book of 1 Peter and just bringing you back into the context of what 1 Peter is all about. He is writing this epistle to bring great encouragement to these who are experiencing challenges in their life. Both physical challenges that being dispersed out of what they were familiar with from their homes and lands and they are experiencing persecution because of their faith.

He's preparing them for that even though they're now experiencing it. They will experience more and we are really given this promise in the sense that all those who live godly shall suffer persecution. It's not going to be a strange thing. In fact, Peter tells us later on, think it not a strange thing concerning the fiery trial, which is the triune, as though some strange thing happened to you. But then he tells us to rejoice.

So this is something that is going to be common for all of God's people that we will face in some form or fashion persecution and suffering. And in doing that, I'm kind of picking up here in the middle of a thought And just in the last time that we were together, we were talking about suffering for right and for wrong, and how it is good in the eyes of God. And it could be the will of God that we suffer, and it is the will of God that if we suffer, we suffer for righteousness sake. We should not suffer as a murderer, we should not suffer as a slanderer, we should not suffer as these other things. We are to suffer for righteousness sake and when we do that and we suffer we need to understand we are blessed.

That's what Peter tells us. We're blessed when that happens. And not only are we blessed but we're in really good company. And that's where I want to pick up this morning. We're in good company because verse 18, for Christ also suffered.

Brothers and sisters, that is one of the most encouraging things when we experience sufferings and trials and difficulties, when we realize that our elder brother, the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Glory, also suffered. You're not alone. We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize. We have a high priest who knows. He understands.

Christ was not exempt from suffering. The Scripture says that He was made perfect through suffering. Not that He lacked perfection, but completeness of His ministry and what He was called to do. He experienced suffering. Suffering beyond anything that we can even understand.

Not just the physical suffering that he experienced, but the anguish of soul that he experienced. Beyond anything that we are even able to comprehend, he suffered. So we're in good company for Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God. I want you to understand the sufficiency of Christ's suffering. Think about this, it's a little word that is easy to read over but it has a huge impact.

He says, for Christ also suffered once for sins. Why is this important? Well, the book of Hebrews is full of that term, once. That tells us a huge amount of information and I'm going to read some scripture and that's basically what I'm going to do on this first part. I'm going to read to you these once statements in the book of Hebrews.

Hebrews 9 verses 11-15. The writer of Hebrews says this, But Christ came as high priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, not with the blood of bulls and goats and calves, but with his own blood, he entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled the unclean sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. And for this reason he is the mediator of the new covenant by means of death for the redemption of the transgression under the first covenant that those who are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance. What great encouragement.

He suffered once for all. He secured for us eternal redemption. One of the most surest passages that we have of eternal security is that when Christ suffered upon the cross, it was not for a temporary redemption, it was for an eternal redemption. It was one that we could put all of our hope in, all of our trust in. Everything that we believe is based upon Christ, upon His death, burial, and resurrection.

And He secured for us eternal redemption. This is a comfort for us because Christ suffered and when we suffer we know that we are like Him in that sense and suffering for righteousness because our Savior suffered but His suffering was for a purpose and He did it once. It was so much better than the old sacrificial system which was only pointing to what He was going to do. It was pointing to Christ. Again Hebrews chapter 9 verse 22 to 28.

Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence, he had, let's see, excuse me, into the presence of God for us Not that he should offer himself often as the high priest enters in the most holy place every year with blood of another He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world. But now, once at the end of the ages, he has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this is the judgment. So Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many.

To those who eagerly wait for him, he will appear a second time apart from sin for salvation. Jesus Christ, for Christ also suffered once for sins, which secured our eternal redemption. This is comfort in suffering. Hebrews 10, 1 through 10, for the law, having a shadow of the good things to come and not the very image of the things can never with these same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered.

For the worshippers once purified would have had no more consciousness of sin. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Therefore when he came into the world he said, Sacrifice and offerings you did not desire, but a body you have prepared for me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you had no pleasure and then I said behold I have come in the volume of the book it is written of me to do your will O God previously saying sacrifice and offerings burnt offerings and offerings for sin you did not desire, nor had pleasure in them, which are offered according to the law.

Then he said, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God. He takes away the first that he may establish the second. By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Once for all. This is the work of our Savior.

It was more than sufficient for our sins. This is the Savior that we have. So what does this have to do with us being comforted through Christ's suffering? And I want to get to that. I want us to understand the purpose of His suffering.

He tells us very plainly here, and it should be a comfort to us in understanding that the King and glorious King of all creation suffered for sins. What was the purpose of it? What was the end of it? And I believe that will give us comfort in understanding when we suffer for righteousness sake to give us that consolation that we can count it all joy to suffer for Christ's sake. So the purpose of Christ's suffering, look at what he says, for Christ also suffered once for sins the just, for the unjust that he might bring us to God.

That was the purpose of his suffering for sin not because of personal sin but because of my sin and because of your sin. The just for the unjust. Matthew Poole says this, this is another argument for patience under suffering. That Christ by his suffering has taken away the guilt and freed us from the punishment of sin. So that our sufferings, though they may be not only by way of trial, but of correction, yet are not properly penal or vindictive.

Get that. You may suffer. You may suffer for trial. You may suffer for correction. But you're not suffering for the penalty of your sin.

That's already been done once for all in Christ. Christ did that. Because Christ has suffered for our sin, how much more bearable then are our sufferings? It's not for sin. It's not for the penalty of sin.

It may be for correction knowing that they are only temporary and not for the punishment of our sins but for either correction as a child of God or because we are identified with Christ. Did you know that being identified with Christ will cause you suffering? It will cause you persecution in some form. It will cause a trial in some form or fashion in your life when you're identified with Christ. He suffered, and think of the difference of our suffering compared to Christ's suffering.

He suffered as the just for the unjust. But when we suffer for righteousness sake, we are suffering as the unjust because of the just. Does that make sense? He suffered sinlessly. The just for the unjust.

But when we suffer, we are unjust. We deserve every bit and more. But we have the privilege because when we suffer for righteousness sake, we suffer, we deserve it, but we suffer because of Him who suffered for us. What a privilege. That's why The apostles counted it a privilege to be counted worthy to suffer for the name of Christ.

A privilege to suffer for Him who suffered for me because He was just and I was not. And look at this outcome, to bring us to God. What better thing could there be? Christ suffered to bring us to God. That was the outcome of His suffering.

This was the purpose and result of it. His death on the cross so that we could be reconciled with God. What great end was worked out through the sufferings and death of Christ. This is Peter's point. He wants to encourage the reader that suffering is not pointless.

Suffering is not pointless. When Christ suffered it was for a purpose and when you suffer it is for a purpose and look at what it worked our salvation to bring us to God. He suffered to bring us to God. What great outcome that we have the benefit of experiencing the joy of our salvation through the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. This should be a comfort to us in His suffering.

But not only through His suffering, but we see this in verse 19. Let me finish the verse 18. Being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit. And that's how this worked, our great salvation that we have. And then verse 19, we see not only a comfort in suffering that Christ suffered and we suffer, we find comfort in that, not only through suffering but also, and forgive me for the alliteration, but through the sermons of Christ.

It says that he preached. So look at this, verse 19, by whom also, now look we have to connect these two dots here the last part of verse 18 but made alive by the Spirit by whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who formerly were disobedient when once the divine long-suffering waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared. Now, in this, this is one of those passages that brings us some controversy and many different views upon it. And so I don't want us to get hung up too much on that because we will get off of the main context of what Peter's trying to say, but we are going to hit it. Unfortunately, not unfortunately, but there are preachers that I know who preach topically for this very reason.

They don't have to hit the hard ones. But we're going to hit it. So here's what it says, Who are these people by whom he went and preached to the spirits in prison? Who are these? So the hearers of this sermon that Christ preached I believe are one of two things and there again there are many views surrounding this but I believe these two will get us the closest to the truth.

First of all, some would say that these are wicked angels. They would base that upon 2 Peter 2, 4, for if God did not spare the angels who sinned but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved for judgment. The other view would be that this is speaking about wicked men, those who formerly were disobedient. And again, there are a few different views regarding this verse, but I don't want this verse to steal the show in the sense of grabbing our attention away from what Peter's main point is because of the mystery that is surrounding the meaning of this verse. So these two views I'll mention quickly and try not to get bogged down, but try to focus upon the main point of what Peter's saying.

Who are these spirits in prison? Number one, these spirits in prison could be wicked fallen angels from the time of Noah, mentioned again in 2 Peter 2, 4. The second option, the spirits in prison are wicked people who lived during the time of Noah and were destroyed by the flood. From a simple reading it seems both are an option. What we know about who they are this is what it says, who formerly were disobedient when once the divine long suffering waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared.

And now I'm going to share my view. I believe that this verse speaks of wicked people who lived during the time of Noah. Why? Because there is no mention of angels in this immediate context and remember Peter is speaking to a group of suffering people for the purpose of encouraging them by this letter in their sufferings. The term spirit can and does refer to both angels and people and so the way this sentence continues to flow is that these spirits are compared to what he says in just a moment, a few that is eight souls were saved through water.

So he's kind of comparing these two things by whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who formerly were disobedient when once the divine long-suffering waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared in which a few, that is eight souls, were saved through water." And so my understanding of this is as follows. So these, for a few reasons, I believe that this is referring to wicked people who lived and then died at the time of the flood and they are contrasted to those few souls who were saved. Now, the other challenging part, did Christ go to hell and preach to imprisoned spirits? My view is no. And here's my reason.

My first reason is a question. Why? What would significantly make these people different of all the billions of people who have died? What would cause, what would be the purpose in it of Christ preaching to these only who died in the flood? Now I'm not going to be dogmatic on this but this is my view.

So I cannot think of a good answer to that question. There are untold billions of wicked spirits in prison in the sense, why these? My view is that Peter is saying this, verse 18, Christ was made alive by the Spirit by whom also he went and preached. It was by the Spirit he went and preached. So I believe that the descriptor to the spirits in prison is telling us where they are now and they were those who were formerly disobedient.

The preaching I believe was through Noah when once the divine long-suffering waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared. This makes the most sense to me and goes along with what Peter says in 2nd Peter chapter 2 verse 5 when Peter says, and did not spare the ancient world but saved Noah one of eight people a preacher of righteousness bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly. So Noah was a preacher of righteousness. Now Matthew Henry notes, because they were dead and disembodied when the apostle speaks of them, therefore he properly calls them spirits now in prison. Not that they were in prison when Christ preached to them specifically through Noah.

They were those who were disobedient. They received the preaching, if you will, of righteousness through Noah. Where did this preaching get inspired by? The Spirit of Christ moving him to preach to these people. Matthew Pull, and I'm going to show you something else in just a moment that would help support this, Matthew Pull says, and preached by Noah inspired by him, speaking about the Spirit of Christ, that he might be a preacher of righteousness to warn a wicked generation of approaching judgment and exhort them to repentance.

Now this is not unusual to speak of the Spirit of Christ preaching through another. 1 Peter 1 11 which we've already covered speaks of Old Testament prophets in this way. They speaking this regarding them searching the Old Testament prophets searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. So we have this example here for us regarding Old Testament prophets that they were searching and that the Spirit of Christ was in them signifying and testifying towards the sufferings of Christ. So it seems reasonable to me and the most clear, sometimes the best interpretation of scripture is the clear interpretation of scripture in that Christ, the Spirit of Christ, preached through Noah to these people.

Why? That's where we'll get to in just a moment. With all this said, I believe that the purpose of this is to show that we have great consolation and comfort and company in our sufferings for righteousness. Noah, the preacher of righteousness, suffered for righteousness sake. He preached to all of those and how many were saved?

Very few. Eight. Yet look at the deliverance of God through that. Look at what God did. He spared Noah and his wife and his sons and their wives through the judgment of God.

And all the others perished. And though not mentioned here, the Apostles suffered for righteousness sake and see the result of the birth of the church in the New Testament and how God blessed that. And Christ suffered for righteousness sake of which we have already spoken the result of that is our salvation that we are brought to God and look at the deliverance of God and the great deliverance of God in the work of salvation likewise we will suffer and may it only be for righteousness sake. Knowing that the same Spirit that was in Noah and the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead and the same Spirit that preached through the Apostles is the same Spirit that is with you and in you during your times of suffering and trial. Ephesians 1 19 says this, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the workings of his mighty power, which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this age but also in that which is to come therefore be greatly encouraged dear brothers and sisters When you suffer for righteousness sake you are in great company.

You are in great company. Jameson Fawcett Brown notes this. It gives great encouragement to the believers. So the same Spirit of Christ enabled Noah amidst the reproaches and trials to preach to the disobedient spirits fast bound in wrath, that spirit in you can enable you also to suffer patiently now looking for the resurrection deliverance. Be encouraged.

I believe that part of the encouragement is found in the fact that only eight souls were saved, even though we may be few, Christ is with us. Christ considered it such, It was such an honor for Noah and his family. Dear brothers, it is such an honor for us to be in that sense, preachers of righteousness, that we would live righteous lives and if be the will of the Lord that we suffer for righteousness sake." You see, I believe this encouragement is like what Matthew Henry says. He says, the way of the most or the many a people is neither the best, the wisest, nor the safest way to follow. Better to follow the eight in the ark than the eight millions drowned by the flood and damned to hell.

I'm glad I'm among the few. By the grace of Christ, he has made us his children. And he tells us it will be few, in which eight souls were saved from the judgment to come. You are the chosen of God, You are the blessed of God. And so we need to be encouraged because through the working of God, He has enabled us and given us the privilege to suffer for His name.

Find great comfort and encouragement. You're in good company. You're in the company of Christ. You're in the company of Noah. You're in the company of the Apostles.

You're in company of your brothers and sisters who love the Lord Jesus Christ. And lastly, this comfort, Christ is our comfort in suffering in the sense of the salvation of Christ and obviously what I mean by that is the salvation that Christ brings to us so let's look at this symbol just for a moment he says there is also an anotype which now saves us, baptism. Not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God. Now an anotype is something that is represented by a symbol. So baptism is something that represents salvation.

Now some people get off on their understanding regarding baptism. I've had discussions with those who believe in what's called baptismal regeneration and this verse has a lot to do with it. They read it at face value and don't just consider what it actually says. It's not here to confuse us. It's here to be clarifying.

The teaching is clear. Peter tells us plainly that baptism is an anotype and if you will it is a earthly expression of a spiritual reality. Peter also makes it clear that the waters of baptism do not save us in this next statement, not the removal of the filth of the flesh. So when we when we baptize someone in this water that's not what saves you, it's not the removal of the filth of the flesh that does it. But he says but the answer of a good conscience towards God.

Another clarifier is that it was not the waters of the flood that saved Noah. It is an anotype, he says. He says there is also an anotype regarding, he says, we're saved through water. There's also an anotype which now saves us. Baptism, not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God.

Noah and his family were not saved by the flood waters. They were saved from them. In what? The ark. The ark of Christ.

Christ is that picture for us. Because look at what he says next. Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's how we are saved. It's not through getting wet in a baptismal pool.

This clarifier for us, baptism has more than one symbol attached to it. Not only does the water and the immersion teach us about our death and burial and resurrection, but it also teaches us that baptism is an identifier. That's really what he's talking about here and I'll show you what I mean. An example is found in 1st Corinthians 10 verse 1. He says, Paul writes, "...Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all of our fathers were under the cloud all passed through the sea all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

Moses was not baptizing the Israelites in the Red Sea as they crossed it. They were identified with Moses by faith in crossing the Red Sea. They were given this blessing of protection and guidance by the cloud, the Shekinah glory of God, this cloud that overshadowed them and delivered through the sea. And so in the same manner those who are identified with Christ, those who have the answer of a good conscience towards God, those who have been purified through faith in Christ, specifically through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You see, it is because of the resurrection of Christ that we are justified.

That was proof of our justification. When he was raised, we were justified. Because in God's economy here, this was the proof to all of creation that I have accepted the sacrifice of my son. And he raised him from the dead. Philippians 3.10 says, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death if by any means I may obtain to the resurrection from the dead." All of Christianity hangs on the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

It is our hope. That's what 1st Peter tells us in verse 3, 1st Peter 1-3, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. This is the comfort, this is the consolation in our sufferings is that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Your suffering, as Paul would say, is temporary. It's not to be compared with the glories that shall be revealed in us.

It is a glorious thing. But not only through, He throws abundance upon abundance of encouragement upon us. Not only through the resurrection, but through the ascension of Christ to sit at the right hand of the Father. He doesn't want you to go around all down because you're suffering. He wants you to be encouraged in that, knowing that you are counted worthy to suffer for Christ.

Look at what he says, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God. Note, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him. Think of that. Brothers and sisters, we have also as this great comfort the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. This same Christ who suffered for us is the one who rose for us and is the same one who ascends for us and is the same one who is interceding for us and is the same one who will return for us so that we might be where He is.

This is the Christ that we are connected with through the power of His Holy Spirit. He is at the right hand of the Father, and notice what He says, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to him. All of creation is subject to Christ. What do we have to fear? What do we have to fear?

There is not one moment that is not in the tender care of your Father and Christ is at his right hand, a permanent fixture of our justification sitting at the right hand of the Father. Not only that, but also the one who has all authority. All authority in heaven and on earth. The authority of Christ. If all things are made subject to him, what shall we fear?

And I will conclude with this passage Romans 8, 31 through 39. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with him also freely give us all things.

Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died and furthermore is also risen. Who is even at the right hand of God who also makes intercession for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written, for your sakes we are killed all day long we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us for I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. I love that passage of Scripture. He names all of these things and just in case He left something out, nor any other created thing shall separate you from the love of Christ which is in Christ Jesus.

Praise be to God. So Christ is our comfort in times of suffering. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you. What great consolation, what great comfort you give us.

Oh Lord, to know that our Lord suffered for us and died for us and what great result it was for us. And Lord, that you have given us your true promise. If God is for us, who can be against us? Nothing shall separate us from your love. None of these things or we are so thankful.

Make us a fearless people Lord. Never to be fearless of you but fearless of all that men could do to us. Oh Lord help us, forgive us of our sin, strengthen us in Christ and use us for your glory. We pray in Christ's name, amen.