Christ’s Triumphant Suffering

I want to read 1 Peter 3:18-22, and then we’re going to go back and unpack it phrase by phrase. In verse 18, Peter says, “For Christ also hath once suffered”—in the Greek it’s, once and for all suffered—“for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened”—or made alive—“by the Spirit: 19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; 20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. 21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ”—referring to Christ—“Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.”

In the book of 1 Peter we saw that Peter is encouraging us to stand in God’s grace. The first area he wanted to stand in is our salvation, that we were chosen by God and that we are to stand in salvation. The second section was to stand in submission, and we are to be submitted in the home and in the state and in the church. In the third area that we’re in right now, to the end of the book, is that we’re to stand in our suffering. That’s the primary focus of 1 Peter is we’re to stand by God’s grace in the midst of persecution and opposition and suffering. Jesus said, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” We’re going to be persecuted if we live righteously, and we’re to stand in God’s grace.

They were suffering not because or their sin, but they were suffering because of their righteous behavior—they were doing what was righteous, living a beautiful life—and they were being opposed by the unbelieving world. I want you to notice a couple places, 1 Peter 3:14, where Peter says, “But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake”—notice that phrase—“happy”—or blessed—“are ye.” Then, notice verse 17, he says, “For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.” In verse 14, he makes it clear that they’re suffering for righteousness’ sake, that brings blessing; and then they were doing well, they were doing what is right, and they were suffering for it. These Christians were suffering in the will of God, by doing the work of God. We can be in the will of God and still get opposition and persecution and suffering.

Peter wants to encourage them, as well as the Holy Spirit wants to encourage us, that we can live righteously, suffer triumphantly. Peter sets forth the triumphant suffering of Christ as an example to show us that, like Christ, our suffering will lead to triumph. In Christ, we are victorious. Jesus said, “In the world ye shall have [persecution]: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” So, we are in Christ victorious and triumphant even though we face persecution and opposition.

This is a real kind of easy note-taking sermon, and I want to encourage you to write these five points down. Peter gives us five ways that Christ was triumphant in His death by crucifixion—five facets of Christ’s death on the cross that convey His triumphant work. Write them down. First, Christ triumphed in His crucifixion. In the very simple fact that Jesus was crucified, that is the triumphant work of Christ on the cross. I want you to notice this in verse 18, “For Christ also hath once suffered”—stop right there. Jesus actually died on the cross by suffering crucifixion. When it says there that “Christ also hath once suffered for sins,” it’s trying to convey the concept of His physical crucifixion on the cross.

How did Jesus triumph in His crucifixion? Let me give you four ways under this heading. First, in its sufficiency. When Jesus died on the cross, the reason that death on the cross was triumphant was because it was sufficient. Look at verse 18 again. Peter says, “For Christ also hath once,”—there’s the key word—“suffered”—or died. Once is actually the concept of once and for all.

I want you to notice that Jesus actually died. He didn’t swoon. We’re approaching Easter, and sometimes people trying to explain away the resurrection of Jesus Christ do so by saying that He didn’t actually die, that He just swooned. He just passed out. That He was put in the grave still alive and that He just revived and reappeared to His disciples, but didn’t actually die and come back to life. The Bible over and over and over again is very clear that Jesus Christ died on the cross, and we’re gong to see, for our sins.

The concept of “once and for all” is the point I want to make because that conveys its sufficiency—Jesus died once and for all. Why does that show His sufficiency? Because in the Old Testament, whenever they had to offer a sacrifice for their sins, they had to do it over and over and over and over and over again. Every year at the Passover, they had to offer a lamb to sacrifice for their sins. Why? Because their sins weren’t completely done away with. It wasn’t sufficient. The book of Hebrews makes that clear. Jesus only died once and for all because His death was efficacious or effective. When Jesus died on the cross, it actually had an effect of being able to take away our sins, not like the old covenant where the sacrifice had to be repeated every year. Jesus, on the cross, when He died, cried—you know the words, right?—“It is finished.” It was the word tetelestai, which is the phrase meaning “paid in full.”

Whenever you finished paying a debt that you owed, they would actually stamp “tetelestai” on your receipt, “paid in full.” You know when you have a bill, and you finally pay off the balance of your bill, or you pay off your mortgage, and you get that notice in the mail, “It’s paid in full,” it feels so good, right? Tetelestai. Whenever a farmer would be out plowing his field and would finish the day’s work in plowing his field, you know what he would say at the end of the day when he was done? “Tetelestai.” When a painter was painting a picture, and he would put the finishing touches on the picture on the canvas, put down his brush as he would get back and say, “Tetelestai,” it is finished. Jesus, when He hung on the cross to show that it was done, said, “Tetelestai,” or paid in full. It is finished.

First, Christ’s death on the cross was triumphant because it was sufficient. Secondly, it was satisfactory or it satisfied God’s demands. Notice verse 18. It says, Jesus died for sins, “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins,” so you’ll want to underline “once suffered” and the phrase “for sins.” Literally, it’s concerning or relating to sins. When Jesus died on the cross, He demonstrated the love of God. As a matter of fact, I love the concept that in the cross of Christ all of God’s attributes were displayed or demonstrated—His mercy, His compassion, His righteousness, His justice. All of that is seen in the cross, but Jesus didn’t just die on the cross to demonstrate or display the love of God, He did do that; He actually died for the purpose of atoning for sin.

Sometimes people look at the cross and say, “Look at that, how much God loves us, Jesus died for us,” and they don’t stop to think He died for our sins. That’s the whole reason why Jesus died on the cross—concerning our sin. Jesus died to pay sins’ penalty.

This is what is called the death of Christ as a—listen carefully—propitiation. It’s a biblical word, “propitiation.” What that means is that Jesus died on the cross to satisfy the demands of God the Father’s holy, righteous judgment and law. When Jesus died on the cross, He didn’t just die for sinners, He died for the Father because God is holy, righteous and just, and His law was broken and had to be paid for, it had to be satisfied. For God to forgive guilty sinners and maintain His righteousness and His holiness, He had to have a penalty paid for in the law. Jesus was the propitiation. He was the satisfaction and He was the propitiation for our sins. Sometimes we forget that, that Jesus died to satisfy.

If I get a speeding ticket—God forbid that I would get a speeding ticket—and the fine was $1000. If I paid the $1000., then the judge would say, “Propitiated,” the law is satisfied. We’ve all broken God’s law, we’ve all fallen short of God’s standards, so God’s righteousness needed to be propitiated. This isn’t that He’s appeasing His wrath or His anger, it’s His holy righteous law that needed to be satisfied. God had to justify the unjust but still remain just in doing that, as Paul explains in the book of Romans. He was the satisfaction, He died for our sins as our propitiation.

Here’s the third way that the death of Jesus Christ was triumphant, it was substitutionary. You hear me mention this quite often, it was substitutionary. Look at the text, verse 18. It says, “ . . . the just for the unjust.” You guys are half asleep tonight. It’s okay if you talk. You can respond, the ushers won’t take you out. “ . . . the just for the unjust,” right? Time to wake up. Are you still kind of spaced out from daylight savings? It’s time to go to bed? “ . . . the just for the unjust.” I want you to notice that phrase, the righteous for the unrighteous—the holy for the unholy, the pure for the impure, the strong for the weak, the innocent for the guilty, the king for the subject, the prince for the pauper, the shepherd for the sheep, and the list could go on. “ . . . the just for the unjust,” the righteous for the unrighteous. So, holy God dying in the place of sinful man.

Listen to 2 Corinthians 5:21 where Paul says these words. He says, “For he”—that is, God the Father—“hath made him”—that is, Christ—“to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” That’s the explanation, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin,” notice that both our Peter passage and this 2 Corinthians 5:21 passage affirms the impeccability of Christ or that Christ was sinless. He was the righteous One for the unrighteous. He was not a sinner. He was the innocent for the guilty. He was the righteousness of God that was dying for the unrighteous, “ . . . that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”

Here’s the fourth, the death of Jesus Christ was triumphant because it was reconciliatory or it was a work of reconciling sinners to God. Verse 18, look at the phrase, “ . . . that he might bring us to God.” So, verse 18, “Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.” This is what’s called reconciliation, and God’s always the One who takes the action to reconcile sinners to Himself. We do not reconcile ourselves to God, God reconciles us to Himself. We are estranged from God. We are separated from God. We’re living in rebellion to God, so the death of Christ was a rescue mission. It was a reconciliation where God was reaching out in Christ to bring us back to God. We were separated from God, and now we’re being reconciled through the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross; which, by the way, means there when it says in verse 18, “ . . . bring us to God,” that’s that He gives and provides access for us to God.

You know you cannot get to God apart from Jesus Christ. Remember Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man”—and that means no one, isn’t that profound—“cometh unto the Father, but by me.” The only way to get to heaven is through Jesus Christ, “ . . . the way, the truth, and the life.”

Remember when Jesus died on the cross, not only did He cry, “Tetelestai,” it is finished, but the veil of the temple was ripped from top to the bottom as though God reached down and just tore that veil. There was the darkness, there was the earthquake, there was the rocks that were rent. There were the dead in the city of Jerusalem that came out of their graves and were seen walking around the city. It’s so heavy that in the temple the veil, which is about 18 inches thick, that separated the holy place from the holy of holies where the presence of God dwelt, and only the priest could go through that once a year on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. That veil was torn from the top to the bottom, and Hebrews makes if very clear that that was signifying something. What was is signifying? That the way to God was now open and available. That anyone, through the blood of Jesus Christ or the victorious, triumphant cross of Christ, could now have access to God the Father through the veil that was torn, which also represents the veil of His flesh in His crucifixion that was torn for us to have access to God.

Write down Ephesians 2:18 where Paul says, “For through him we both”—that is, Jew and Gentile—“have access by one Spirit unto the Father.” Through Christ, Jew and Gentile have a way back to God or access back to God.

First, verse 18, we see that Christ triumphed in His cross or crucifixion, but here’s the second, if you’re writing it down, Christ triumphed in His proclamation, verses 19-21. He says, “By which also he went and preached”—kērýssō, means to herald or proclaim—“unto the spirits in prison; 20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water”—that is, they were saved through the ark and through the flood, the water—“The like figure”—or picture or type—“whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

Anyone that’s familiar with their Bible and studied the New Testament or studied 1 Peter knows that this is a very difficult passage. Very rarely do I come to a passage like this that I have to openly admit, and when I was younger, I didn’t like to do that, but the older I get, the longer I study the Bible, the more I realize I don’t know. As old as I’m getting now, but not very far down the road, I’m not going to know anything. But, I solemnly confess that I’m not sure and don’t know for sure the right interpretation of these verses. You say, “Well, why are we here tonight then?” No preacher, no pastor, no Bible teacher is omniscient—don’t know all things.

There are sometimes verses or Scriptures that we have to put in a file, “Wait for further information.” I’ve been waiting for further information for 52 years on this verse, and I’ve taught it so many times. I’m going to give you the two views that I think are most likely. There’s actually a lot of views, many views, and all of them have their difficulties or have their problems, and all of them have questions that are unanswered, but the overarching truth—listen to me, I’m getting ahead of myself, but I want you to understand this—the overarching truth is still in the context is that Jesus, when He died on the cross—was buried, resurrected, and ascended and was glorified—was victorious and triumphant. He’s writing to suffering Christians and wants to encourage them through Christ’s example that we’re in Christ—in Christ we will be victorious, even in our suffering. I wanted to make that clear.

What is going on here, from verses 19-21, where the text starts off so glorious…now, I missed something when I was starting tonight that I want to go back to real quickly. Verses 18-22 deal with the statement or doctrine; 1 Peter 4:1-6 are an exhortation based on that statement of doctrine. The text is a unit from 1 Peter 3:18 down to 1 Peter 4:6, so you should read from 1 Peter 3:18 all the way to 1 Peter 4:1-6. In 1 Peter 3:18-22 there’s an affirmation of Christ’s victory over evil. In 1 Peter 4:1-6, it shows how Christians share in that victory. We’ll get that next time we get into 1 Peter 4:1-6.

In this section, it seems like sometimes that Peter just threw this in there. He starts off talking in verse 18 about Christ dying for our sins, “ . . . being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit,” and when he says that “ . . . by the Spirit,” all of the sudden he says, “By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison,” and then starts talking about when they “ . . . were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah,” verse 20 “while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.” Then it really gets challenging. He says, “The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us,”—but notice in parenthesis—“(not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ,” and then he ends it in verse 22, “Who is gone into heaven,” so we have His death and His resurrection, now we have His ascension, verse 22, “and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.”

We could spend a long time wrestling with all the different views and interpreting this passage. Let me cut to the chase and tell you two things, first of all, that I’m convinced are not taught by this passage. First, it’s not teaching that there is a second chance after death. Jesus didn’t preach to anybody in hell who died out of disobedience there and was unsaved and giving them a second chance. That’s inconsistent with the clear teaching of the New Testament.

Whenever you have a difficult passage that’s a little challenging to interpret and a little obscure, you never take the unclear passage and have it trump the clear teaching of the rest of the Bible. You don’t get rid of the clear teaching of the Bible in thinking that this unclear passage contradicts it, it’s gotta be a misunderstanding of how you interpret it or how it fits together. The Bible does not teach, nor does this passage teach, that they were given a second chance. Sometimes you’ll find people say that this is a reference to purgatory, but I don’t believe that’s what’s being taught. I don’t believe that’s biblical or scriptural or that purgatory is what’s being conveyed here in this text at all.

The second thing I don’t believe is being taught here is that it’s not teaching that baptism can save us. Again, the clear teaching of the Bible is that “ . . . by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves,” I believe that “that not of yourselves” is your salvation. Your salvation is by grace through faith. Salvation is not of yourself, so it’s not your religious deeds. It’s not baptism. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works,”—which would be baptism—“lest any man should boast.” All through Romans and Galatians, and all through the New Testament, it’s very clear that we’re not saved by baptism. We’re saved by faith alone, through grace alone, in Christ alone. Those are two things that I would point out that are certainly not being taught in the text.

Two commonly accepted interpretations, and I hope I won’t thoroughly confuse you, but here’s the first. The first is that it’s describing how Christ, between His death and His resurrection and ascension, went into Hades and preached, verse 19, kērýssō, or proclaimed, the victory of His work on the cross. I believe that this is a possible interpretation, and I don’t believe that it’s necessarily unscriptural or unbiblical, and I think that Luke 16, we’re going to get there in many, many months, but when we get to Luke 16 on Sunday morning, we’re going to read a story that you’re all familiar with. I do believe it’s a story, not a parable. In a parable, Jesus never named anyone. Lazarus is named in this story.

The rich man and Lazarus dies. There were two men, the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man “ . . . fared sumptuously”—or luxuriously—“every day.” He had a big house, nice clothes, lots of food, lots of money, big account, and he was just a rich dude. He “ . . . fared sumptuously every day.” At his gate of his big, fancy palace, there was a poor man. His name was Lazarus. This is not the same Lazarus as the Mary, Martha, and Lazarus—two sisters and their brother—who Jesus raised from the dead. This is a different Lazarus. The name “Lazarus” means God help us. The poor man, Lazarus, begged for crumbs “ . . . which fell from the rich man’s table,”—right?—“ . . . the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom.” You have an old black spiritual, “Rock My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham”. He went to Abraham’s bosom.

“ . . . the rich man also died,” and went where? It says hell in your English translation Bible, it’s the word “Hades.” This is the underworld where everyone before the cross went when they died. But remember how the rich man prayed? It’s funny. He didn’t pray while he was on earth, but he prayed when he was in hell. “And he cried and said, Father Abraham . . . send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.” It’s interesting, the rich man became the beggar and the beggar became the rich man after death.

“And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf”—catch this, between Lazarus and the rich man—“so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.” Which indicates in that story that your eternal destiny is fixed once you die. There’s no second chance. Those who were in Hades could not go from the side of torment over to the side of paradise. Remember when Jesus died on the cross, and He told the thief, “Today, you will be with Me,”—where?—“in paradise.” He could’ve been referring to that place—paradise, Abraham’s bosom. It’s possible that what this is trying to describe is what’s described in Ephesians 4:8-11, where it describes, “(Now that he ascended . . . descended first into the lower parts of the earth,” and “ . . . he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.”

It seems as though the picture is that when Jesus died, He went into Hades and, again, which side we do not know, but most likely, the side of Abraham’s bosom; and He proclaimed or He preached to them His finished work on the cross, then He took them to heaven as He rose up and went back to heaven. So that when you die now as a Christian, you don’t go to Abraham’s bosom, you go immediately to be with the Lord, 2 Corinthians 5, “ . . . to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” He emptied the side of Abraham’s bosom. But before the cross, the sins could only be covered temporarily. It couldn’t be forgiven or done away with. Or He could’ve proclaimed to those that were in Hades in torment that He died on the cross, but it wouldn’t mean their salvation. He wasn’t giving them a second opportunity to be saved.

Notice in verse 19 it says, “By which,” we don’t know at the end of verse 18 when it says, “ . . . quickened by the Spirit,” it’s actually “ . . . being put to death in the flesh,” it’s emphasizing His physical suffering and death on the cross, “ . . . but quickened”—or made alive—“by the,”—literally—“Spirit,” we don’t know if that “Spirit” should be capitalized Holy Spirit or that’s His human spirit, or thirdly, whether or not it means the sphere of the spiritual. So, there’s a lot of questions we can’t answer, quite know, or understand, but I believe that’s a possibility. It doesn’t convey a second chance, it just conveys that Christ proclaimed His finished work on the cross, and then as Ephesians 4 says, “ . . . he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men,” His ascension to the church.

Here’s the second interpretation, and, as I said, there’s a whole list that can be given; that is, that it’s describing what happened in the actual days of Noah. This is why Noah is brought into the picture, that it was the Spirit of Christ who preached through Noah, which is the Holy Spirit, to the unbelieving generation before the flood. It could be that it’s referring to Jesus preaching to those who were actually there in the days of Noah, and that they rebelled against the preaching of Noah, but the Spirit of Christ was speaking through Noah.

Now, the story of Noah and the ark is a historical truth. It’s not a fictitious, made-up fairy tale. For one hundred years, Noah built that big boat out in the desert, never seeing rain, but I think the first thing he built was a pulpit. As the crowds would gather around laughing, mocking, jeering at Noah, that he would put down his hammer, saw, and chisel, and he’d step over to his pulpit and would begin to preach to that unbelieving generation, “There’s going to be a flood. God’s going to judge the earth. Turn to God. Trust God.” For a hundred years, can you imagine enduring a hundred years of persecution and opposition and mocking? And then, when the end finally came, only eight souls were saved, notice at the end of verse 20, “ . . . wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved . . . .” He preached for a hundred years, and only his family came to salvation.

They entered into the ark, they passed through the flood or the waters, and that’s a picture of baptism, and they were saved. Again, there’s a lot of facets to that that are challenging and hard to understand, but that’s another view that’s pretty commonly accepted as to what Peter’s speaking of.

Here’s the thing that Peter’s trying to convey. He’s trying to convey that Jesus triumphed in the cross, in His death, burial, and victorious resurrection, that He conquered over the wicked, over the ungodly, over Satan, over principalities and powers; and we are in Christ, and we conquer with Him in Christ because of our position with Him.

Again, I point out that only eight souls were saved, which means in the days of Noah the majority is not always right. The majority is not always right; and the ark, by the way, in verse 21, when it uses the word “figure,” it’s the word týpos where we get our word “type.” It means a picture. The ark was actually a picture of Jesus Christ. Do you know how many doors there were to get into the ark? One, only one door, and the only way to get in the ark was to go through that one door. When they got in the ark, the Bible says God actually shut the door, and then the wrath of God poured out with the flood. It’s a picture of Jesus, our ark of safety. We flee to Christ, we run to Him and believe; we are spared the wrath of God, the judgment of God. Jesus took our punishment, took our penalty, and then they passed through the waters which Peter indicates is a picture or type of salvation or the baptism which symbolizes our salvation.

Peter tells us that this “ . . . baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ,” from the dead. You know when you’re being baptized, it’s a statement. It’s a confession that you believe in Jesus, that you’ve trusted Jesus, that you are identified with Jesus. I wish that we could get more Christians to understand that baptism isn’t just getting wet, you’re not washing away your sins, it’s a picture of you being in Christ—buried, dead, risen, ascended with Him.

When you go under the water…this is why I believe that baptism should be total immersion. It’s not necessary. If you want to be sprinkled, be sprinkled. I don’t care. Baptism—listen carefully—conveys figuratively identification with. When you baptize a piece of cloth in purple dye, to get it to be purple, that purple dye permeated the cloth and it became purple, so it was identified with the dye. So, báptisma doesn’t just mean immersion or to be dipped in water, it means more so identification with. When you’re baptized unto Christ, which, by the way, actually happens to you spiritually the moment you are born again or regenerated, not only are you forgiven, not only are you justified, not only are you indwelt, but you are also taken out of Adam and you are placed in Christ; and in Christ, you are in Christ forever.

In Christ you are justified, so you are totally identified with Christ in His death on the cross—you died with Christ, you were buried with Christ, you rose with Christ, you ascended with Christ—and you’re seated with Christ in heavenly places positionally. This was what he’s trying to convey in order to encourage the suffering saints. Just as Jesus was victorious in His persecution, so we are in Christ.

You’ve heard me say it before, and I’ll say it again. One of the most important New Testament concepts for you to understand was Paul’s favorite expression, “in Christ,” or “in Christ Jesus.” That, as a Christian, you are “in Christ.” “In Christ,” His victory is yours, His death is yours, His resurrection is yours, His exaltation is yours. You are victorious, triumphant “in Christ.” What a glorious truth that is!

Baptism is a picture of being buried, risen with Christ. I’ve had people say when I’m baptizing, “Hold me down a long time. I got a lot to bury.” I say, “Okay, I’ll just swish you around under water.” When you come out of the water, it’s a picture of your identification with Christ in His victorious, triumphant resurrection.

Here’s the third, Christ triumphed in His resurrection. I want you to see this in verse 21 of our text, 1 Peter 3:21. Notice the phrase, “(not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,)”—and then he uses that phrase—“by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” So, we have His death and now His resurrection. The resurrection of Christ means that He is God in flesh. The resurrection of Jesus Christ means that I have His pardon, my sins can be forgiven. The resurrection of Jesus Christ means that I have His presence, “ . . . lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.”

Fourthly, it also means I have His pattern—I love this—even as Jesus rose from the dead, do you know that He is the prototype. He’s the picture, the pattern, of our resurrection. The Bible teaches that when a Christian dies, they go immediately to heaven to be with Christ. But one day, when the rapture takes place, our bodies will be resurrected and transformed, metamorphosed, 1 Corinthians 15, and then we will be reunited with our soul and spirit and we’ll have a glorified body in heaven for all eternity. There is taught in the Bible a literal, physical, bodily resurrection of the dead. And, not to complicate the issue too much, even unbelievers will be physically, literally, bodily resurrected to condemnation and judgment before the Great White Throne and then cast into the lake of fire which is the second death or Gehenna or hell.

For us as believers, we’re going to go straight to be with the Lord in heaven. Our bodies will be resurrected. This is why Paul, writing to the believers in Thessalonica, who thought their Christian friends who had died would miss the Lord’s coming, he said, “But I would not . . . that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 14 For if we believe the Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain . . . shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” So, “ . . . the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then,” the living saints will be translated, but we’re all “ . . . caught up together . . . to meet the Lord in the air.” That’s His promise, that He would resurrect us and take us to heaven.

Here’s the fourth, Christ triumphed in His ascension, verse 22, the first part of that verse. Notice in verse 22, referring to Jesus, “Who is gone into heaven,” He’s gone into heaven. His ascension and exaltation mark the end of His humiliation on earth. You know, it’s kind of cool, after Jesus died on the cross, no sinful hands ever again touched His body. He was taken down by loving hands, His body was prepped, put in the grave, and then He came out of the grave in a glorified, eternal body. Amen? And, only believers touched Him and saw Him and ate with Him.

Do you know where Jesus is right now? He is actually exalted at the right hand of God the Father. This is why this is an encouragement to those who are suffering and being persecuted, in some cases even being put to death or executed for their faith. Jesus Christ is exalted in heaven. The first Christian martyr, Stephen, when the stones were hitting his body and he was being put to death, looked up into heaven and saw Jesus in glory standing at the right hand of the Father. Jesus is in heaven, so His triumphant exaltation, Jesus is in heaven.

Put this alongside Philippians 2, “That . . . every knee should bow . . . every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father,” or the description in Revelation 1 of Christ seen after His exaltation. Jesus Christ is coming back. Amen?

So, we have His triumphant ascension. Fifth, we have His triumphant exaltation, verse 22, “Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.” Again, keep in mind, he’s saying this to encourage suffering Christians. Jesus “ . . . is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.” Jesus Christ is coming back. Jesus is not only our example of suffering triumphantly, but all who are joined to Him by faith will share in His victory and His glory. When the outlook is bad, remember the uplook. Amen?

I want to close with a verse. I think they’re going to put it on the screen, John 16:33. Jesus said these words, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me”—notice that phrase, ‘in me’—“ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” Amen?