1 Peter 3:18-22
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits— to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.
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TRANSCRIPT
 
Hey, welcome to The Centre podcast. We're a church based in Dural, Sydney, who loves Jesus. And so want to make him the center of our lives, community and world. We pray that you, blessed by this word and that it reveals God's love for you in a new way.
so this morning's message was born out of being incredibly bored, waiting for Rachel's operation at Hornsby Hospital.
So this is what happens when you're sitting in the cafe of the the. Yeah, hospital cafeteria is I start to go on searches and today and the topic that I want to search on was the connection between Noah's flood and Jesus baptism and the Holy Spirit and just for a bit of just for fun, how that connects him with the book of Revelation.
Now, I've heard whispers. I know that people here want me to do a series on the book of revelation, and I haven't felt that calling yet. But today. Today you'll get a little sampler, of what I guess I'm teaching on revelation. Now, if that all sounds very confusing, I have a little diagram on the screen about what we're going to be looking at, and so you can just read that there to kind of get your head around everything.
But hopefully I do my job properly and teach this in a way that's clear to you. So it's not super overwhelming. So you can see how Noah's flood and the the spirit hovering over the waters and how the dove that Noah released, how that connects in with the baptism of Jesus in cleansing us, how it connects in with the book of revelation, in the theme of Noah's flood and God overcoming evil to bring about good and a new creation, and then landing the sermon on one Peter, and those words that that Peter gave, which are exhortation to the church.
Now one of the things we have Noah's flood is that it shares with a lot of other ancient cultures. The story of this idea of a global catastrophic flood, it's really quite profound that if you look at Babylonian literature, in some Chinese literature, kind of literature, we see that this idea of a catastrophic global flood is just universal across human history.
It's been passed down, I guess, from the sons of Noah. But if you compare, the Genesis flood compared to, say, the Babylonian, story in the Babylonian story, the reason for the flood wasn't because of the sinfulness of humanity. It's also because humans were too loud and the gods just want to shut them up. So they send this flood to wipe them out.
But here in the Genesis creation narrative, the flood at its core is because of sin. Sin has defiled God's holy, holy world, and he needs to eradicate that to bring about new creation. There is this diagram here on the screen. It's probably really, really helpful to understand. Now we have to remember the Bible is not a modern scientific textbook.
The ancients saw the world very, very differently, if you see on that diagram there. So on the on the second day of creation talks about God separating the waters. You might remember that you got the parting of the waters for the water in the sky and in the sea. And so the ancients had this view like in that diagram there of a dime.
And so if you got chaotic waters, God has separated those waters. And kind of in this space here there is live. How you can translate that word is the waters above the firmament, windows of heaven and the waters below. And so what's happening in the flood of Noah is that God is taking away the barrier separating chaos, as it says in Genesis 711, in the 600 years of Noah's life, on the 17th day of the second month, on that day, all the springs of the great day, so you can see it there, the waters below and the flood gates of heavens were open that firmament.
So basically how the ancients understood as God accredit this, this dome. And now he's taken away the protection upon that and chaos comes in. This is what it causes. The catastrophic nature of the flood. And so now the world is back in its pre creation, full. And we know that the devastation of flood, we think back to tarry a few weeks ago.
Now you saw the footage on the news. We see the destruction of landslides. We know that floods are not something that good. And if we just look at our world, we actually say that the world is held on by a fine tooth comb. I think it's what I love about how the ancients saw the world was that God had just separated the waters from the waters as a space.
That's this tiny little space that can so easily fall apart, even though we don't see the world as it. So when I say it's not scientifically accurate, I think it's a helpful reminder. The world is held on by this fine tooth comb. Essentially, it's just God's grace as we know the end of the story with the sign of the rainbow.
It's not because humans are righteous or are. It's because of God's grace and mercy that the world can continue on. Now, one of the interesting parallels between Noah's flood and creation is the use of the word ruach. Does anyone remember? We learned the word ruach back in our first session together with Ezekiel. So anyone remember what Ruach means?
So I want to be brave and call out what it means spirit. And what else can it mean? What's another word? Wind. Yeah. So spirit and wind. Now we have to remember in English we make, the trans like us make an interpretive decision because the word is just. We walk though the Spirit of God hovering over the waters.
That's just ruach. The wind that blows over the waters on the flood narrative. That's also rock. That's right there on the screen there. And so what we're supposed to do is we're supposed to read the flood narrative. I think, wow, it's really because of God's grace and mercy that we are able to be here today, that that creation continue news on, but also meant to be reminded of the creation narrative.
Just as God separated the waters from the waters to create life, he can take that away and bring the world back to its pre creation form. So now with the flood over, essentially re separating the waters from the waters, life can continue and life is this precious, precious gift and sort of tying in there is the idea of the walk, the spirit just as the spirit was there at creation.
The spirit is there at Noah's flood. And then obviously from Genesis chapter eight, from 22, we're told that Noah builds an altar to the Lord, takes the clay, animals sacrifice him. The Lord smells the pleasing aroma. Which which is a fun little fact is that Noah is Newark means comfort, the pleasing aroma is tying off that riffing of Noah's name.
Noah brings comfort to the curse ground. He brings that comfort by his obedience in building an ark and by offering the sacrifice. And then as we wait on there, never again will I curse the ground, because the humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood, and never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done.
As long as the earth endures seed time and harvest cold and hate, and summer and winter, day and night will never cease. That's of the 10,000 faith summary of Noah's Flood. I said before that the spirit is intersecting in that. Just highlighting. Back to that creation narrative of the waters of the Spirit of God hovering over the waters.
Now, this is where we kind of get a little bit deeper into the idea of God's Spirit and Jesus. In Genesis chapter six, verse four. So we know about the the sinfulness of humans, but in Genesis six four, and I would advise you to listen, to bear to better. And I would go into this a lot deeper than I am now.
But notice what it says in Genesis six. Is that God's kind of describing, well, you know, this thing, the state of humanity, we're told here, my spirit will not contend with humans forever. Can we guess what word that is? Haber Rock? Yeah. My spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal. There's a bit of debate about this there that I will be 120, and so I won't go into that now.
But the purpose of out this morning, part of the flood narrative is the sinfulness of humanity. And part of that curse, God saying, My spirit, my rock, my breath will not be with people forever. Now, as part of this preparing for Pentecost, maybe we should call it prepared for Pentecost. Now, Pentecost is over has been to kind of teach us that in order to have life, we need the spirit.
Just like in Ezekiel's valley of dry bones, it's the spirit who blows into these dead bones to give life. So now here's part of the curse of of Noah's flood is God's removing his spirits from people because of their wickedness. And I've got there just another psalm just to remind us of that when it says when you hide your face, they are terrified.
When you take away their breath, they die and return to dust. When you send your spirit, they are created and you renew the face of the ground. So if you kind of lost track of where I'm going with this, the idea is that God takes the world back to its pre creation form. Just as the spirit was hovering over the waters.
So the rock is hovering over the face of the waters and Noah's flood. Part of the reason for the flood is sinfulness. And part of the curse of that is God removing his spirit from people. That makes sense. I say some thumbs up, say some not. Okay, we'll continue now, after all that, when we're in a, you know, a biblical storm, we get to Jesus.
When we get to Jesus baptism, we have a stack of different images that are going on. But there's there's one thing that every single gospel author does is recounts the moment that when Jesus coming out of the waters that should be up there on the screen, what are we told at the moment? When Jesus was baptized, he went out of the water.
At that moment, heaven was open and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him in Mark, just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the spirit descending on him like a dove. Again in Luke heaven was open. Then the Holy Spirit descended on him bodily in a body, in bodily form, like a dove.
And then in John I saw the spirit come down from heaven as the dove, and remain on him. We kind of get the pen. And I've said this before, when, when a biblical author wants to repeat something, and when something so important he repeats it. And so the fact that all four gospels recount that at the moment of Jesus baptism, the spirit comes down like, dove.
Yeah. I've just spent a whole lot of time talking about Noah's flood. There's a really important animal in that flood. Can anyone think of what that animal is? The dove. Okay, you see where I'm getting with this? So a lot of scholars here have noticed that, the moment of Jesus baptism, it's meant to allude us back to Noah's flood.
That's. Oh, wait, read all that out there. But it's actually. And this will be another been to conversation. So if you now listen to this interests you, I recommend it because there's some cool stuff about The Raven and the dove. But just to say briefly, the dove comes back with an olive branch. Now, this is also quite fascinating is that olive branches produce olive oil, and olive oil is often used as a symbol of the Holy Spirit.
But there's some cool little facts there. And if you think Mitch is kind of making this stuff up, where are you getting this from? This has been the interpretation of the early church. This is really the days of Jesus. And I have a great quote up here from Cyril of Jerusalem, who is probably my favorite early church father.
And he says he some say that just as salvation came in the time of Noah by the wood and the water, and there was the beginning of a new creation. And as the dove came back to Noah in the evening with an olive branch, so they say, the Holy Spirit came down on the true Noah. The author of the new creation.
When the spiritual dove came down on him in his baptism, to show that who that he he it is who, by the wood of the cross confers salvation on believers, and who towards the evening by his death gave the world the grace of salvation, summarized that early church sure, Noah's Ark and the wood being what they call a typology, a type.
So make that represented something deeper. The ark represented the cross of what Jesus would accomplish, just as the dove came out with new life with the branch. So Jesus, by being baptized and having the spirit come upon him like a dove, gives us new creation. There are all just these wonderful images coming together. This is what just excites me so much.
And this is why it's very dangerous to be left alone in a hospital cafeteria, bored out of my brains, because this is where we head down. But it's probably okay. It's some Old Testament stuff. Let's just reread our passage from one Peter again, just to remind us. So Peter here is writing to Christians, probably Gentile Christians, who are being persecuted.
And so here he is, is just reminding him of the importance of baptism and what that means for Jesus and, for that, for their lives, as followers of Jesus. So he says, if the cross also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous to bring you to God, he was put to death in the body, but made alive in the spirit.
After being made alive, he went down and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits. And if you want to learn about me, more about that. Listen to banter to those who were disobedient long ago, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built in only a few people ate and all was saved, through water.
And this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also, not the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a clean conscience towards God. It says he, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, was gone into heaven. And as a God's right hand with angels, authorities, and powers in submission to him. What Peter does is he's taking a really common Jewish understanding was that Noah's life and Noah's flood is the model for the faithful, righteous believer waiting for God's judgment on the wicked and to come through that.
But we know in the book of Genesis, but there's other writings that the Book of Enoch and other Jewish writings which describe Noah as preaching for for that time, as he was building up preaching to a generation that wouldn't listen to him. And so the Jews saw themselves as like, we need to be like Noah, remain faithful, just keep on persevering.
They might not be writing about that. We may not see the judgment that that God has promised, but we need to just keep on building the ark, so to speak. Remain faithful. And Peter's tapping into that imagery, encouraging Christians, hey, be like Noah. Remember that that flood, that now is the reminder of baptism, that baptism that you went in the water that you've just identified yourself with Jesus.
Jesus is alive by the spirit. Jesus who now gives the spirit to you. That's what you need to do. Be like Noah, keep on persevering. And there is one book in Scripture which really draws upon this. Can you guess what's his book of revelation here? We got we got here finally. And so this comes from an author called Richard Balcombe.
If you're interested. His book is called The Theology of the Book of Revelation. And so here in revelation chapter 11, which is there on the screen, this is this is the song of the 24 elders. Now, revelation 11 is a really simple passage which no one has ever thought about. There's been no conflict about it. It's really simple.
We're introduced to the idea of two witnesses who preach and shoot fire from their mouths, and after preaching and proclaiming they killed and off the three and a half days they resurrected, there's this big earthquake in the city of Jerusalem. And then after that, we're told that the seventh trumpet is blown. Now, in revelation, we've got seven seals, seven trumpets, seven balls, the seventh one of each of those.
Something climactic happens. And so here with the, seventh trumpet blowing, blowing in revelation 11, we're told that 25 to say the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and His Messiah, and he will reign forever and ever. And they bow down. They begin to praise God, and then his praise with these words which are up here on the screen, which says, we give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the one who is, who was because you've taken your great power and have begun to reign.
The nations were angry and your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead and for rewarding your servants, the prophets, and your people who Revere your name, both great and small, and for destroying those who destroy the earth. Now on this earth, that just seems like, I guess, any kind of normal hymn of praise given to God.
This is one of the great things about living in the 21st century, but access to the best scholarship in the world. And Richard Balcombe, he is not going to say that ending process and for destroying those who destroy the earth. In his commentary, he's like, oh, hang on, that destroying, destroying, going to destroy both them. And yeah, yeah, that reminds us a lot of Genesis chapter six.
And so while Greek and Hebrew, obviously very different languages in in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, that's so that, that, that construction, that sentence I'm surely going to destroy. But, oh, can I go back? So. Oh, thanks. Okay. Yep. And for destroying those who destroy the Earth. The construction of that is really similar in the Greek version of Genesis.
And so remember how that whole Noah's flood is a type of Christians to to persevere, to be like Noah, to be like, no, don't give up. Don't give up. Just keep persevering just like Noah, because judgment will come and God will save and deliver you from that. That's what's happening here. John is echoing the flood judgment as a pattern for final judgment for us, actually.
Okay, go to the next slide. I didn't realize there it is, just right there. I didn't realize I had it there. There's a wonderful pattern there. John's echoing the flood judgment. He's reminding Christians who are suffering, who are being persecuted. God is going to destroy the destroyers. God is going to wipe away these enemies. You need to persevere.
So. So in Genesis six, God destroys the earth because of humanity's wickedness. His spirit won't contend with people. Now, through Christ, God's Spirit will contend with people forever. So in in the covenant with Noah, we the sign of the rainbow. In the Hebrew language, there's no word for rainbow. Like we have an English. It's just an ashes by.
And so if you have a short a bow, you know, you shoot the up like that. And so if you imagine the rainbow so like that and an arrow sticking to it, it's like God's placed almost like a self curse upon himself. The the imaginary, the imaginary arrow from the bow is pointing up to heaven in that promise to never destroy the world again.
There is grace, there is mercy, and that's revealed in the cross of Jesus Christ. And going back to creation, Noah's flood. The sea represented evil. It's no accident that in revelation 13 or which is ripping off Daniel chapter seven, the sea is the place where the beast comes from. The sea is the place of evil, chaos, the sea is the source of the beast, the dragon, the harlot, or all these horrible, terrible evils in the world.
God promised he'd never destroy the world again. You know what revelation 21 one says, when there's a new heavens on us, something is missing. And what's that, friends? Now see? Exactly. That's the point. Is that the seas full of able, the seas full of chaos. God's going to remove that, friends, be like Noah. And I'll quote Balcomb. Just from some of his commentary here.
He says the judgment of the old creation and the inauguration of the new is not so much a second flood as the final removal of the threat of another flood, a new creation. God makes his creation eternally secure from any threat of destructive evil. In this way, revelation portrays God as faithful to know, covenant, and indeed surpassing. In in his faithfulness to his creation, first by destroying the destroyers of the earth.
Finally, by taking creation beyond the threat of evil, then I'll be sitting there completely bamboozling God. I have no idea what you've just been talking about, Mitch. I've got now a summary there on the screen. There you go. I can have a grade of that. And just to process that. So going right back to creation, the Spirit of God, the rock hovers over the waters with the flood we have.
The spirit is withdrawn from people. The Ruach blows over the waters. Judgment through the water. The dove returns an olive leaf, symbolizing new life. We get with Jesus. The spirit descends on Jesus like a dove, and Jesus is in the Jordan River. Alluding back to the flood narrative in revelation 1118, God promises to destroy the destroyers of the earth.
Just meant to remind us, That's what he did in Genesis chapter six. He's going to do it again and then finish up in revelation 21 one. The sea is no more, no more chaos, no more evil, and no more destruction. Let's give you some tools to walk away with that this week. This comes from an article I found really helpful by Katie Massa, a New Testament scholar.
It's called In the Days of Noah. She uses some fancy German words, the Euronext and the index, which just means the beginning and end of the flood tradition. In one Peter three and four. And so as I've kind of been trying to hop on of it, is that Peter is riffing off those Jewish ideas of Noah's flood and being persevering in the midst of an evil generation.
And so Peter here in that that narrative about describing, about the baptism of Noah and the flood and all that link together, he is equating Noah's context and adapting it for the believers in Peter's context. I have another table there, up there. And so, just as Noah was declared righteous in a corrupt age, Christ is also righteous and we Christians are righteous because of him.
The flood was morally corrupt and Peter's, I guess, society, the Gentile world was morally corrupt. Noah preached the ungodly. We believers must bear witness to the gospel gently and respectfully. And there was that time before the flood. There's a we know there's a bit of debate about that, but the point is that there was a market here where God told him to build.
He was the moment was flood similar to Jesus. We know that Jesus is resurrected and there will be a moment where evil will be eradicated.
And I just have another table on here is that and this is verse from one Peter really just hammers home. I guess that whole Noah theme about being righteous in the midst of wickedness. One Peter chapter two, verse 12, we're told, keep your conduct amongst the Gentiles honorable. So when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God.
On the day of visitation. I won't go on to rating on that. You can just look at that on the screen so that like comparing Noah example and now example. And so friends, I guess the toolbox for us today is patience. Patience. Are you embodying Noah as wonderful as it is to go through that? And I got my God fired up, sitting there researching all this stuff and teaching you all to you, ultimately walking away from this is patience.
Patience in the promises of God. Really easy to say, really hard to do. Patience in the midst of an uncertain world. Patience to keep on trusting God. Patience to to be like Noah. And so I guess if you're struggling today to follow the Lord, to keep on being patient, to trust in him, look to the example of Noah.
Read over Genesis, read over one Peter, look at Jesus baptism and remind yourself of all of these images. That's so. That's what the New Testament authors saw, is that the Old Testament was given to us to help be an example for us in our day and age. And as one wonderful practice that, saying nations used to do was imagine if Scripture where you would read a passage, close your eyes, and just enter into that story.
A third who I toolbox for the day learn patience. But Jesus said and done and embody Noah. Become like a Noah. If you're struggling to do, read Genesis 628. Imagine yourself on the ark. Imagine yourself living in a wicked society. The rabbis taught that Noah's generation was the wicked, his generation to ever exist. Then reflect upon Jesus what he's done, what by pouring the spirit out upon us.
We now have life. We have wholeness. A God is going to destroy evil friends, do you have faithful obedience? Even when the skies look clear? I hope that was a blessing to you today. I'm going to pray over us now and invite the band back. While we do that. So let's pray together now. Our father, we thank you for the wonderful tapestry of your word, how to speak so richly and powerfully in so many ways.
And looking at the flood narrative of Noah. Lord, look how it points to creation, to Jesus, to your eradicating evil. Pray today, Lord, specially in the world that we're in, where there is so much chaos and carnage and just feels like evil is winning. To be reminded, Lord, to be like Noah. They were just in those days of waiting for the flood to come.
We thank you that ultimately we are safe, that we have our own ark which is through Jesus Christ, that gives us life, that gives us wholeness, that gives us hope. I pray today that we haven't just filled our heads, Lord, but filled our hearts and understanding your word better. And to live as your hands and feet, and to be beacons of hope in a world that needs hope.
I pray this now in the name of Jesus, Amen.
Thanks so much for joining us. Don't forget to write and subscribe to help others discover this channel. Check out the description if you want to find out more or get in touch with us at The Centre. But in the meantime, praying for God's hand over you as you continue to step into everything Jesus has in store for your life.
Be blessed.

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