Hope Beyond the Creeds: Focusing Fully on Jesus Christ, Part 2

In most churches today, the well-crafted words of the Apostles' Creed have been pushed aside and forgotten.

It's not because churches disagree with it, but more likely it's because the Apostles' Creed is somewhat mysterious. Today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll continues a message he started yesterday, in which he draws a parallel between this ancient proclamation and a somewhat challenging message. Let's listen carefully as Chuck unravels this complex portion of scripture for us. The best exemplified blessing following unjust suffering, Christ. And that's why Peter at verse 18 says for Christ died for sins, the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God. The blessing that followed Christ's unjust suffering was our salvation.

He says he was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit. Verse 19, whom also went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison who were once disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark in which a few, that is, eight persons were brought safely through water. In Genesis 6, and I think it's verse 5, there is the statement that God was grieved that he even made man because of the extent of depravity.

When the flood came, they were placed in a special place, which is described here as a prison. Let me show you a couple of verses that help illustrate this. One is in Peter's second letter, chapter 2, verse 4. He's describing false prophets and wicked times and he gets to 2.4 and he says, for if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell, there's that word, and committed them to pits of darkness reserved for judgment, and he goes on to describe Noah and his time in the flood. That's one reference to these angels who sinned having been cast into hell. One more, and that's that little book of Jude just before the revelation.

Only one chapter. Locate verse 6. And angels, that would be fallen angels, who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, he, capital H, incorrectly so, the Lord has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day. Another reference, there are a few more, a little more obscure than the two I've read to you, but especially wanted you to see the passage in Peter and this one in Jude. These fallen angels, which I have called demons, in their perversion have been judged.

I personally believe they are set aside in judgment awaiting the final day when they will be cast with their ruler, Satan himself, into the lake of fire, the place that was originally created for him and his demons. Now back to 1 Peter chapter 3. What is the proclamation? Well, it is very helpful for you to know that this is not the word for declaring the gospel. This is a word for simply making a proclamation.

Caruso, you can think of the Italian singer, it will help you remember, Caruso. This is a word for a herald who makes a proclamation that the king has made this particular decision or is declaring this edict. It is a proclamation of any kind, it is not necessarily a good news proclamation. That would be saying or giving the gospel, but that's not this word. This is a word for heralding a statement.

So all of this put together, I come up with this conclusion. I believe verses 19 and 20 describe the time after Jesus died, his body was taken down and placed in a grave, but his inner being, his soul and spirit descended into the shadowy depths of the earth, into the place of Tartarus where these wicked spirits were kept. And he proclaimed to them his victorious death over sin and his power over the enemy, Satan himself. It was his declaration to them that caused them to realize their work had been in vain.

All of their attempts to, may I say it, sabotage the cross to keep it from happening were null and void. And he went to that place to declare to them his victory at Calvary. Go back to this passage, will you? He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison who once were disobedient when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah. I can't let that passage go by without leaning forward and saying to anyone listening right now that if you are without Jesus Christ it is the patience of God that allows you to keep living. It is the patience of God that gives you breath for tomorrow's dawn. You live as an unjust, unrighteous individual who if you died this moment would have no merit to give you favor in the eyes of God. No human righteousness will cause God to say, ah, welcome into my eternal home. For you or for me to get to glory eternally we must come through the merits of Jesus Christ.

That proclamation is now made to all who will listen and all who will believe. You are now, like verse 20, disobedient and because of the patience of God who keeps waiting in this day as he did in the days of Noah during the construction of the ark then and during the building of the church now. You are watching without knowing it, you are watching the building of an ark. It happens to be an invisible ark.

It happens to be a building that is wrapping around the world. It is the church of Jesus Christ. The body of Christ is being built. Unless you are in the Lord Jesus Christ you're not a part of that body. And the patience of God waits for you to believe.

He waits for you. Now in those days only a few believed as in this day. Notice in verse 20 only eight persons were brought safely through the water.

That brings us now to the second question in verse 21 where we read verse 21, baptism now saves you. You know when you first read that you go, whoa, let me look at that. Surely I need to read that out of the mirror.

I'm reading that wrong. That's not exactly what it says but it is. And it troubles many of us.

Why does it say that? The whole reason I have taken the time to build a context for this verse is so that you won't go astray in your interpretation. Be careful by the way when someone who hopes to destroy or weaken your faith pinpoints a particular verse or a statement out of a verse and says, aha, see there, look at what the Bible says. And then lifts out of context this one line that seems so destructive to your faith. Every passage has a context and taken out of its context it can be made to say anything. Every cult, every religious cult I know anything about will quote verses from the Bible to support their position. Wrenched from context and misstated I might add.

So in context what does this mean? Well I think we must first of all understand that the flood is in the apostles mind. He has said so in verse 20. It was the flood that brought death and destruction to those who didn't believe.

It was also the water that brought deliverance to those who did. Namely eight of them. Noah's family. Noah, Mrs. Noah, their three sons and their wives. Were the only eight in all that era who believed.

Imagine that. Multiple, multiple millions of people, only eight got in the ark. Along with the animals only eight human beings believed. Now it was the ark floating on the water that got them through it. All of this was a beautiful picture to the early church and the ark was not infrequently used to describe salvation. It is our ark. The cross is our ark. It is our way of life.

It is the way to get through the death like world about us. And baptism came in as a beautiful expression or picture of the waters of death. In fact Paul picks up the idea in Romans chapter 6. So again, hold your place, go back to the book of Romans and stop at chapter 6. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase?

May it never be. How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death. In order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father we too might walk in newness of life.

I keep looking at those two verses I just read, those last two verses. When a person is baptized he is making a proclamation without words. He is standing or she is standing in water which is a picture of death. When that individual is immersed in the water that person is picturing death and burial. When the person is brought up out of the water it is a picture of being raised into a new kind of life.

Baptism is an illustration of this marvelous deliverance that has been ours through the provision of Christ. We go into the water a picture of death. We go under the water a picture of burial. We come up out of the water in our immersion, coming up out of the water we picture, we illustrate, we portray in vivid fashion a new kind of life. We went down dry, we came up wet.

We went into death with the Lord Jesus, we come out of death as he did in resurrection. It is a marvelous picture of what has happened to us in our salvation. Now back to Peter. Look again at verse 21. Corresponding to that.

To what? To the beautiful illustration of the ark causing deliverance for those people. Baptism in the same way symbolizes that.

In fact, look at the parenthesis which is in my Bible, the New American Standard Version, a hyphen, a dash on the page. Parenthesis, not the removal of dirt from the flesh. Baptism doesn't do that either literally or symbolically.

He states it. Not the removal of dirt from flesh. It does not cleanse you as a bath does, nor does it cleanse you within, but indeed it is an appeal to God for a good conscience. That which saves is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ illustrated beautifully in baptism as we come out of the water that is through illustrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The Living Bible has a fine paraphrase of what I've just read. That by the way is what baptism pictures for us. In baptism we show that we have been saved from death and doom by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Not because our bodies are washed clean by water, but because in being baptized we are turning to God and asking him to cleanse our hearts from sin. Now you understand why in a baptismal service we will have each candidate speak of his or her faith in Jesus Christ.

Because there is nothing in the waters of baptism that will give cleansing of the flesh. But the water does illustrate beautifully what has already happened in the life of the redeemed. And it reminds me of the Lord's table where we serve the elements on a regular basis in our church.

We have a piece of bread and we have a little cup of juice. And as we serve this to all the saints who are in attendance and in worship, we say this represents his body. This represents his blood. The Lord Jesus gave that cup, that piece of bread and said this is my body.

Take and eat. This is my blood. Could not have been literal body or literal blood because he was alive with his own body and blood intact. This represents my body and my blood. In the same way with baptism, the same way with the Lord's table, these things represent that which has saved us. It is really through the resurrection of Jesus Christ that our salvation has been made secure. Let me mention a couple of very practical principles as we wrap our thoughts up here.

The first has to do with these statements I made earlier in the message. When unjust suffering seems unbearable, remember the crucifixion. I know you've heard that before and it may not be an original thought to anyone who hears me right now, but it will be a comfort. When unjust suffering seems unbearable, remember the crucifixion.

I don't know what it is. It isn't magical. It is mystical. It is in fact phenomenal how focusing on the Lord Jesus Christ's body hanging on the cross as a payment for sin, it is amazing what that does to help alleviate the pain in my life. About the time I start thinking my suffering is terribly unjust and I turn my attention to his, it does a lot to solve any sense of bitterness or resentment. When the unjust suffering seems unbearable, remember the crucifixion.

Here's a second thought. When the fear of death steals your peace, remember the resurrection. When the fear of death steals your peace, remember the resurrection. I believe in God the Father Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord, conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried, descended into hell on the third day, rose again from the dead.

He ascended into heaven and sits on the right hand of God from whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. You know the most significant part of the Creed? The first two words, I believe. Otherwise, it's just a statement someone came up with and a body of prelates, bright, godly, religious-minded men honed that statement so that it puts in simple form the salient features of our faith. But you know, that's their statement. But do I believe it? That's the question.

Do you believe it? Let's think about that. I'd like you to bow your heads. I'd like to deliberately pause and help you pause long enough to focus on it.

Eyes closed, sitting quietly and listening. I want you to remove yourself from your present world where you are probably rather healthy, relatively happy, fairly well taken care of, not too many worries about tomorrow. I want you to catapult yourself to the last day of your life, last day, perhaps even last hours. You don't know when it will come. It could come as you drive on that freeway or that highway tomorrow. It could come next month as you're in the plane that goes down. It could come next year when it is discovered that your body carries a disease that's terminal. It's going to come, your last day.

Imagine death, the end of life. Believe me, your concern right there at that epical moment will not be an understanding of some naughty passage of Scripture. It will have to do with your standing before the living God and telling him what you believe.

You see, that's why Jesus Christ is always relevant. This message of salvation is so pertinent to life because you're not really ready to live until you're ready to die. My invitation to you is a firm one and it's based on the confidence of Scripture. Get into the ark. Be one of the eight. Get into the ark.

You're surrounded in this world by literally millions of people who have made the wisest decision they could make in life. Submit your will to God. Accept the fact that Christ did indeed die for you. And I invite you to come to him. Father, thank you for the truth of your word, for its clarity and its simplicity.

And, Lord, it is so exact there isn't any wobble room. We do believe. We freely and willingly and happily believe. With great relief, our Father, we state we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ who died for us. We believe he suffered unjustly and yet his payment was sufficient to wash away our sins. And now that he has been raised and ascended, our Father, we believe in confidence that he is alive and is coming again. Give us a sense of peace when we face death. Give us a sense of hope when we suffer unjustly because of Christ's crucifixion, proclamation, resurrection, and exaltation. I pray in his wonderful name. Amen.

Amen. Yes, we do believe with the utmost confidence that Jesus is alive and coming again, and that's what gives us hope beyond the creeds. You're listening to Insight for Living and another message in Chuck Swindoll's series called Hope Again. He's prepared a special comment for our radio family, so please stay with us. If you'd like to learn more about this ministry, visit us online at insightworld.org. Well, here at Insight for Living, we're asking God to stir in the hearts of his people to replenish our reserves. Even though we've been broadcasting Chuck Swindoll's messages since 1979, we're still receiving a steady stream of feedback from our listening family. Every comment assures us that God's word is active and alive, and it changes lives.

In that respect, we believe our most impactful days are ahead. Let me encourage you with the kind of comments that fuel our enthusiasm. This young person wrote to us to say, Well, this listener expressed his gratitude to Chuck, but it really belongs to those who partner with us.

Thanks so much for participating with your gift. Here's Chuck. Thanks, Bill. When Jesus warned us that life would bring trials and tribulations, he wasn't kidding, was he? Most of us have endured tough seasons that prove his assertion. When we ignore their gravity, tribulations can take us to desperate places. For instance, our doubts seem to escalate when our suffering is prolonged. Furthermore, an extended season of pain and suffering creates a pathway that leads to hopelessness. And nothing is more devastating than losing hope. You see, the human heart craves hope. In fact, frankly, we die without it. For these reasons and many more, we take great pleasure in sharing the life-giving hope of Jesus Christ. And friends like you proclaim that hope with us. Well, right now, we're coming near the conclusion of another ministry year.

We will close our financial books on June 30th. So today, it's imperative that I communicate the critical importance of your role. Insightful living would not be heard beyond our own studios without friends like you. I'm the Bible teacher, but you're the one who gives flight to our daily program.

Financially speaking, Insightful Living Ministries has endured a rough year. So today, I'm asking all who rely on this ministry to go above and beyond so that we can keep sharing the hope of Jesus Christ to a world that's desperately in need of it. Your gift today will lead suffering people to realize that God has not abandoned them. In fact, your partnership may cause them to realize that truth, then look up and smile for the first time in a very long time. Please join me in telling the world those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary.

They will walk and not faint. Thanks so much for responding soon. And here's how to respond to Chuck Swindoll. If you're listening in the United States, call 800-772-8888. That's 800-772-8888. You can also give a donation online at Insight.org. . I'm Bill Meyer. Join us again next time when Chuck continues our study in 1 Peter called Hope Again on Insight for Living. . .