Before, I talked about Noah, a preacher of righteousness. Today, I continue talking about preaching in a way that involves Jesus, Noah, and Noah’s generation.
He [Jesus] went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
1 Peter 3:19
Jesus’ preaching
I want you to understand that, like other preachers, Jesus was a herald, speaking the messages of God. Jesus being God, however, had a slightly different type of preaching.
Repentance
Jesus continued preaching a message similar to John the Baptist’s message:
Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Matthew 4:17
SImilarly, after John was imprisoned, Jesus preached the Kingdom of God and repentance.
After that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, 15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
Mark 1:14-15
Jesus, the fulfillment
Jesus’ preaching differs because He fulfills prophecy. He preaches as the fulfillment of the promises of God. In
This regard, Jesus acts not as an Old Testament prophet, speaking of the one to come (Jesus had come). Rather that foretelling coming events, Jesus is the event.
Furthermore, what Jesus speaks quickly, if not instantaneously, comes to pass.
Consider Jesus’ reading of the scripture in Luke 4:17-19:
[Luk 4:17-19 KJV] 17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, 18 The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
Luke 4:17-19
Afterward, Jesus declares the fulfilment of the scripture He had read:
He began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
Luke 4:21
Jesus declares the Messianic Age, which centers on Him.
Creative Power
Unlike other preachers, Jesus’ preaching has creative power. Kittel
When Jesus proclaims the year of Jubilee, prison doors were opened, and debts were wiped out.
Also, as Kittel says,
The preaching of Jesus is such a blast of the trumpet [of Jubilee]. Its result is that the Word proclaimed becomes a reality. For the divine Word is a creative force. It gives what it declares.
TDNT 3:706-707
Unusual Preaching
Now I’m getting close to discussing the topic of today’s message: The spirits in prison.
After the crucifixion, Jesus continued to preach. In fact, He went on a mission that I suspect many people do not understand.
First, let’s look at 1 Peter 3:18, a verse we can easily understand:
Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
1 Peter 3:18
In this setting, we understand Christ’s suffering and the purpose of that suffering.
Spirits in Prison
Our text, however, related to 1 Peter 3:18, adds facts that seem difficult to interpret:
[He [Jesus] went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
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.
1 Peter 3:19-20
God waited for humanity to come to repentance while Noah was building the ark. When the flood came, they all perished. However, the spirits of these disobedient people were sent to a special type of prison where they stayed at least until the crucifixion, after which, before the resurrection, Jesus went to preach to them.
Exegesis 1 Peter 3:19
I base the following exegesis on Bengel, as quoted by Kittel (3:707-708).
Who are the πνευματα (spirits) (G4151)?
Disobedient people who died in the flood were the spirits sent to prison. Note that these exclude the fallen angels and their descendants who God judged in the flood.
Look at these “spirits.”
- They were disobedient while God waited for the completion of Noah’s Ark.
- The Ark did not save the “spirits.”
- They exemplify the fact that baptism cannot save us.
What is meant by φυλακή (prison) (G5438)?
When did the πορευθεὶς (journey) (G4198) take place?
Who is the preacher?
Noah preached to the people before they died in the flood (2 Peter 2:5).
Jesus preached to the spirits in prison. Notice that:
- Jesus suffered once for sins.
- The Just One suffered in place of the unjust.
- Jesus’ preached to bring us to God.
What is the content of the preaching?
Jesus preached the Gospel. Undoubtedly, some of the “spirits” believed, but others did not believe, just as He does to those abiding on the Earth.
