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Did Jesus Preach to the Dead? What 1 Peter 3 Actually Says · Relish: a Christian podcast

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  Jesus saved us. So what happened to all of the souls who died before Jesus died for our sins?
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  Oh, excellent question. At
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  that point then, how did all those people who died respond to the cross?
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  I mean, so that means that the same gospel that saved you and I was given to
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  those who lived before the cross.
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  Relish. Pleasing or zestful flavor. A quantity just sufficient to flavor,
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  to be pleased or gratified by, enjoy.
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  We are hoping that what we bring to your table today might add some spice to your life.
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  Welcome back to another episode of Relish. I'm Rowan Miller.
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  This is Pastor Don Patterson. Don, how are you doing today?
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  I'm doing all right. I am. That's good.
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  Yeah, given my age, I'm doing really good.
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  Yeah, these are still... I have a birthday coming up, so. Oh,
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  yeah. Yeah. We're doing the age thing, you know.
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  There's another year older. Really? Yeah. Yeah. That'll be fun.
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  Yeah. Given the alternative, it certainly is.
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  All righty. Well, this episode is still questions from Hillcrest.
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  Oh, wow. I don't know how many this is now, but we've, uh, you guys really did
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  bless us with questions and they've been good questions.
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  But I'm going to start off with this one. This is for you.
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  Do you feel like you're part of a church community? If so, what draws you to
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  it? Yeah, I feel like I do.
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  What makes me feel that way is you come to church in the morning and people
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  know you by your first name and even as...
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  Someone who's younger than them and still can, on a first name basis with them
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  and talk to them and they know about me and they'll tell me when they see me
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  in the paper or anything like that.
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  And just like serving alongside them in whatever it is, Bible school. Cool.
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  Yeah. Things like that. Yeah. And if anybody's interested in,
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  you know, doing this as a discussion starter in a group, this is Faith Journey Questions.
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  And they come out from, you can get them through Lifeway, I believe.
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  And yeah, they've been good discussion starters.
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  Yeah. Gets the episode flowing.
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  Gets us started. Well, at least we give you an opportunity to answer some questions
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  instead of me being the only one answering questions. Not all just on, yeah. Not all just on.
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  It's something we should spread around like peanut butter.
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  Make it good all over. Yeah. I do like some peanut butter. Yeah. It's good stuff.
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  All righty. I think we might've covered this before, but this was another one.
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  The kids said, the kids had a lively discussion about this. So.
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  That was a subtext to the question. It came after the. Lively discussion about it.
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  Yeah. It's a lively discussion, but it's a question to be answered. Jesus. saved us.
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  So what happened to all of the souls who died before Jesus died for our sins?
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  Oh, excellent question. Oh, yes. Well.
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  I'll just bracket this off. This is where Don sees scripture.
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  And so as we look in the Old Testament, we know that there was a place of the dead. We see that in,
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  First Samuel 24, I think, when we see Samuel being called back up and before,
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  because Saul had a question, he wanted to ask Samuel and then Samuel was ticked
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  off that he got called up.
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  So we know that he existed in some way before that.
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  And the witch of Endor called him up at Saul's command.
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  So the souls were there. I see that consistent throughout the Old Testament,
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  that there was a place for the souls of the dead.
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  When we get to Jesus, we see him using a, like Lazarus and the rich man,
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  that there's a place of the dead.
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  And that one is where the rich man was that was hot.
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  And he just wanted to drink a water, just a drip of water, if he could just.
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  And here is Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham, in a preferred spot.
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  And Jesus uses that illustration.
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  And there's a chasm between those two.
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  Uh, so evidently this place of the dead had two places, uh, a positive and negative.
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  Uh, now whether Jesus was referring to that in the past, yeah, I think maybe he was.
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  What I identify with is that upon the death of Jesus Christ.
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  A schism was brought to history a separation if you will because upon that cross
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  he died for our sins enough blood was shed upon the cross for the sins of every
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  eternal soul at that point then how did all those people who died,
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  respond to the cross I mean was there a spot and so I go to 2 Peter excuse me, maybe it's 1 Peter.
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  It's alluded to in,
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  Ephesians 4 9-11,
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  1 Peter it's alluded to in Ephesians 4 9-11, so we know Paul is sort of thinking
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  in this way as well and he actually,
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  reflects on an Old Testament scripture about the salvation of these people. Let's see.
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  It is, that would be Ephesians 4.
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  But to each one, grace has been given by the Christ who has apportioned it.
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  That's why it says, when he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.
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  And that comes from.
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  Well hmm,
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  8J oh excuse me,
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  Psalm 68 18 so that passage comes from Psalm 68 18 it's brought in by Paul saying
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  that there's this When he ascended on high It also means he descended to the
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  lower regions And brought this group up So that when we get to,
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  1 Peter chapter 3 And he alludes to Uh.
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  Noah, okay, in verse 19, and let me just read the passage.
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  For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous.
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  So it's a singular event to bring you to God.
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  He was put to death in the body, but made alive in the spirit,
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  through whom he also went and preached to the spirits in prison, which would be,
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  has been, I would say that's in hell or in that pre,
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  the souls that are captured by death, who disobeyed long ago when God waited
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  patiently in the days of Noah in the time the ark was built.
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  And in it, only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water.
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  And this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also. Not the removal of
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  dirt from the body, but a pledge of a good conscience towards God.
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  It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who's gone into heaven and
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  is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers in submission
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  to him. That's a powerful submission.
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  That's a powerful resurrection.
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  So that it indicates then in verse 19 that Jesus actually went to those imprisoned souls.
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  And let's say they're imprisoned by death.
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  So that as you go on, you look in chapter 4, verse 6, for this reason,
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  the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead so that they might be
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  judged according to men in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the Spirit.
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  Which says that the cross of Jesus Christ and our belief in the cross of Jesus
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  Christ and how it separates us from sin.
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  Makes all the difference in the world. So that means that all those people who
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  had died before the cross of Jesus Christ, through Jesus ministering,
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  it says he preached it, preached the spirits in prison.
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  Jesus preached the gospel in the realm of the dead.
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  So that everybody who responded to the gospel could go with him to heaven.
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  Just like we do, looking at 1 Corinthians 5.
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  So that means that the same gospel that saved you and I was given to those who lived before the cross.
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  To me, that makes the cross the
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  most notable piece of history because it unites the past and the present,
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  and helps us understand that the blood of Jesus Christ was for the forgiveness of our sins.
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  It forgives of all sins.
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  And those who accept it, and then that's the critical piece.
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  We must accept the gift from the giver.
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  It's still a gift. There's enough blood shed upon the cross that every sin could be covered.
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  If we lay it before him. That's why even in spiritual warfare,
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  we bind whatever spirit it is, and we put it at the base of the cross of Jesus
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  Christ and allow Christ to deal with that demon how he sees best.
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  That cross is so important because it divides the past.
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  The sin of the past and our hope in the future.
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  So what that does is it levels the playing field, past and present and future.
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  That way they are judged on the same basis that you and I are judged.
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  And to me, that makes a great deal of difference because we think linear.
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  And so we often think of Jesus, Okay, Jesus, 0 AD, or 33 AD, death.
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  And so now we're all Christian. We have all the opportunities to see the gospel
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  and respond to the gospel.
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  All those poor souls in the Old Testament.
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  And what Peter seems to be referring to is they were given that same opportunity
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  to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ right from his lips.
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  I mean, first person.
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  Part of the ascension then that we see in Mark, that Jesus says,
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  oh, don't touch me, I haven't ascended yet.
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  Oh, yeah. That plays into that ascension part would be, he's getting ready to
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  leave all these captives, spiritual captives from hell and death into heaven.
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  And don't hold me back. Don't hold me back. I got to get this done kind of thing.
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  Rather than it being, don't touch me. You make me dirty.
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  It's not that. It's I got a mission here.
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  And yes, go ahead and tell the disciples, I'll meet them at Galilee.
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  But right now, I got to be about this.
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  So it helps us look into that resurrection story and say, oh,
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  okay, why was he just appeared to these few?
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  Why didn't he just go right to the disciples right away? Well,
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  he had some agenda to take care of.
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  That's okay be careful that is
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  don looking at the scriptures in
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  the first person and saying i this is the way i see it playing out so uh don't
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  go to your preacher and say you've got to believe this because don says it so
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  be careful yeah yeah that when it says um in first peter 3 20,
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  just towards the end of the verse in it a few that is
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  eight people were saved through water so like
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  does that mean only eight of the people that he preached to were believed him
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  or is that just that that's referring to noah on the ark and the family that
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  was there okay and so yeah they were saved literally saved yeah uh from drowning
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  because of the ark that noah had built uh,
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  it leaves you wondering if more had listened if more would have been saved yeah.
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  Yeah but he peter is is really making that segue saying then uh baptism is important
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  because this symbolizes baptism that now saves you not the removal of dirt from
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  the body because baptism in itself says bath, take a bath.
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  But he's putting it into perspective, not the removal of dirt from the body,
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  but the pledge of a good conscience toward God.
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  And that's part of the.
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  Good conscience towards God decision without, well, Mr. Rational,
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  without some rational thought behind it, right?
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  And thinking, okay, this is what I'm doing.
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  This is a commitment I'm making.
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  Yeah. Very good. Good question, guys. I bet you did have a lively discussion over that.
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  Yeah. Well, you can take those scriptures and take them to Corbin and see what he does with them.
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  Sorry, Corbin.
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  Get nothing done in Bible class. Oh, no, no, no, not that day you're not.
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  All righty. Do you have a devotional recommendation?
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  I guess in middle school or high school kid. Yeah. Around that age. Yeah.
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  Devotional recommendation for middle school, high school. Oh man, there's a lot out there.
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  I have not, okay. I haven't read a lot of others, the other than ones I use.
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  And the ones I use are the Daily Bread comes out. It's very short,
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  simple, has a good story with it.
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  So the story helps us make application of the scripture and then it has scripture text in it.
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  Charlene and I use that. Charlene reads the scripture, and then I try to do
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  book, chapter, and verse where the scripture comes from.
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  So it's a good way to quiz each other.
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  The other one we use is Dr. David Jeremiah, and it's new and fresh every day.
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  What I like about what David does
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  or his team, maybe he doesn't do it personally, is he keeps it up to date.
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  And often those devotionals uh
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  we get them online yeah uh are very uh
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  in tune with the current news okay and interpreting the daily the current events
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  so i like dr david jeremiah's uh daily devotional those are the two we use and
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  uh then if you don't have a daily devotional.
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  And of course, I'm trying to press people to get into the Word more.
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  Read a chapter of the Bible. And don't just read it through and do it quick.
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  Read a chapter of the Bible and say, draw one piece out for your day.
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  And I usually sit back and reflect and say, okay, when I read those verses,
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  what's the piece that maybe got my most attention?
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  Or created a question, and then go back and look at that verse and what does
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  that mean and what's the context and what did Paul or Peter or John or what did they mean by it?
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  And when you get to the Gospels, what did Jesus mean by it?
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  And I find that a provocative way of getting into the word.
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  What's interesting is so many times, since we do two devotionals and a chapter
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  each day, how many times the devotional and the chapter reading coincide. Oh, really?
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  It's as if God's part of the, of even that part of our day.
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  Right. Of trying to get a message across to us, speak to us.
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  It also many times has a scripture reading that I think of later in the day
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  in application to a certain situation we're in.
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  Oh, I read that this morning. And it's as if God, the great designer,
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  even is willing to design things.
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  Our interaction with his word. Imagine that. Yeah.
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  So, uh, I, I would, those are my suggestions because those are the ones I do.
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  Uh, uh, very simple. Everybody's got their own Bible, right?
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  Yep. And I'm a nudger. I'm a nudger towards having a written text.
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  I know everybody has it on their phone. God bless you.
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  It's nice to have that. I even use my phone. I've got Greek and Hebrew on my
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  phone. And so I use my phone that way.
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  And that's all well and good, but you can't make marks in it.
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  And I don't know the guys.
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  Guys are visual thinkers. I mean, we visualize our photo.
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  The photo part of our mind is more active so that when you're going through
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  scripture, oh, you asked me a question and my mind goes to the scripture,
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  I can picture it on the page.
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  Okay. Because I've got, well, I've got the colorful, colorful pages.
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  And that helps me,
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  Recite it. It helps me memorize it. And so I just nudge you to get a book,
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  the Bible, that you can, and I've got nice ones upstairs. I've got nice Bibles.
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  But this is my working Bible.
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  Get you a working Bible, one that you're not afraid to mark in and invest in
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  it because that'll make it part of who you are. Right.
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  And I think that's a really good way to be devoted to the Word. Yeah.
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  Do you mark up your Bible? Not much, no. Not that one, okay. Not this one.
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  But I just find that, you know, when we talk about it being a devotional,
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  it's basically how we're devoted to the Word.
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  Yeah. And if we're going to be people of the word, children of the word,
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  then the word needs to be in us.
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  And the key piece is, how are you going to get it in?
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  Into your head, into your heart, into your life. And that's where devotional starts.
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  So no matter how you do it, do the devotional. It fits with you. Yeah.
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  Thank you very much, Don. Hope you guys enjoyed it.
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  And I hope we answered the question. yeah we did we didn't get too many questions
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  done i think we'll have enough for another,
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  yeah you guys did great it was wonderful it was good to be out there we enjoy
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  interacting with hillcrest and and the other school too yeah if any other school
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  wants to have us come we'll we'll do that uh but it was good yeah thank you
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  guys so much for listening maybe share it with somebody if they would be interested,
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  but yeah, that'd be great.
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  We'll see you guys next time. Lord willing.
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  Thank you for joining us for this podcast. Feel free to become part of this
• 21:51
  ministry by sharing it with others.
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  Our goal is to help each other grow deeper in our understanding of who God is
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  and His calling to us in our daily lives.
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  Thank you again for joining us and may God bless your day.