Sermon Text: 1 Peter 3:18-22 (EHV)
18 Because Christ also suffered once for sins in our place, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in flesh but was made alive in spirit, 19 in which he also went and made an announcement to the spirits in prison. 20 These spirits disobeyed long ago, when God’s patience was waiting in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In this ark a few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water. 21 And corresponding to that, baptism now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the body but the guarantee of a good conscience before God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 22 He went to heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.
Sermon Theme: Baptism Saves Us!
- Not by Our Act of Obedience
- Is baptism a “sacrifice” on our part (something we do in obedience to God)?
- Or is it a “sacrament” (a “sacred act” in which God does something for us)?
- What miraculous things does God do for us—even for infants—in baptism?
(see Titus 3:4-7 from our Scripture reading earlier)
- But by What Jesus has Done for Us
- What does Peter point to as the reason “baptism now saves you”? (v. 21)