December 22nd

Today's reading from the One Year Bible Chronological Reading Plan is 1 Peter 2:4-5:11

So many things jumped out at me today. I'll briefly go over a couple of them....

1 Peter 2 talks about the church as a living, spiritual house with Christ as our foundation and each believer as one stone. One stone alone is nothing. But numerous stones together can build a wall, or a building or a beautiful house of God! We are so interdependent on one another and yet so often we forget this. We try to go it alone. Some people skip church and watch a good service on TV and think it's enough. It's not enough! We need each other. We need to encourage each other, learn from each other, hold each other accountable and work together with God as our foundation.

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1 Peter 4:3-5 For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do - living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you. But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

I think these verses, especially v4 are excellent ones for teenage believers who are perhaps struggling with resisting temptations to follow the crowd, to continue to hang out with friends who have chosen the wrong path, to minimize and justify sin in order to be accepted.

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1 Peter 3:18-22 is a tricky passage to understand and so I went to see what John MacArthur had to say on the topic of where and who exactly Jesus was preaching to after His physical death. Of course he did not disappoint. ;)

In his sermon The Triumph Of Christ's Suffering Part 2, MacArthur says......
when Jesus body was dead, His spirit was alive and He went down where they [demons] were bound and He announced His triumph over them. So you have at the cross an unjust suffering. You have at the cross a terrible persecution. And in the midst of it all, a triumphant sin bearing and a triumphant sermon. And Jesus in the midst of His suffering triumphs over sin and triumphs over Satan, hell, demons and death at the very same time. Isn't that a marvelous triumph? And Peter wants us to understand that when we suffer, we may triumph as well.

Very interesting stuff in that sermon, if you have the time to read it.

Tomorrow's passage: 1 Peter 5:12-14, 2 Peter 1-3