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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Very often people

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accuse us Lutherans of being arrogant, and I suppose there are a couple of reasons for

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this.

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One of which is that we're arrogant.

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That causes most of the trouble.

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But another far less fair reason for that accusation is that we Lutherans are just so

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certain about everything.

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Now, to an extent that's true, we're at least certain about the things that we're

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certain about.

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We're certain that man is justified by grace alone through faith alone.

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We are certain, as we heard in our reading this morning, that as the scriptures tell

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us quite clearly, that baptism saves us.

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We are quite certain that when we commune, when we feast upon the sacrament, we receive

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Christ's body and blood upon our very tongues, in our mouths.

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So we're certain of all of these things because the word of God is clear.

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Lutherans refuse to yield our certainty over this clear word of God because other people

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insist on letting, while other people insist on letting their presuppositions mangle their

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understanding of that word.

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We refuse to yield our clear understanding for those who pretend the word is not clear.

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That's great.

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That's not arrogance.

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It's being wonderful.

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It's one of the best things about being a Lutheran.

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But when the scriptures don't give us a ton of clarity or detail about a certain

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doctrine, Lutherans are actually not an especially arrogant people, at least with regard to our

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confessional documents.

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And those moments were pretty great at essentially saying, let's not try to have a level of

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certainty here that the word of God doesn't give to us.

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And this is something we see in the formula of Concord's discussion of Christ's descent

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into hell, which basically says we're not going to divide ourselves by getting lost

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in the weeds here.

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Scripture doesn't tell us exactly in which manner Jesus descended into hell.

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It doesn't tell us precisely what Jesus did or said or to whom he said it.

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But the formula states it is enough if we know that Christ descended into hell, destroying

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hell for all believers and delivering them from the power of death and of the devil,

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from eternal condemnation and the jaws of hell.

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Now that strikes me as far more humble than the catechism of the Catholic Church, which

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boldly asserts that Christ descended into hell to quote, free the just who had gone

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before him, or the Heidelberg catechism, which quite confidently declares that Christ descending

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into hell was simply the creed referring to his suffering upon the cross.

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And so all of this brings us to our reading from 1 Peter.

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This verse, this shining proof text from the creed's assertion of the descent into hell.

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What does it mean?

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When Peter tells us that in death Jesus went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, what

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is he telling us?

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Which spirits?

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What kind of prison?

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What was the substance of his preaching?

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What was the result of it?

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Well, let's not get lost in the weeds trying to answer these unanswerable questions.

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Rather in a spirit of humility and joy, let's look at the broader point Peter is making

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and rejoice in the comfort it gives.

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Leading up to our text today, Peter has been telling us that no matter how much suffering

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we endure for the sake of the gospel, no matter how much we are crushed by a world of suffering,

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this world that seems to have power over us.

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Peter is telling us to rejoice because we have already won since we belong to Christ

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who has won on every level.

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And then Peter describes the various places and levels in which Jesus has won.

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When this wicked world, when the wicked of this world beat and pierced our Lord, our

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Lord was not conquered by this world of suffering, by the suffering they poured out upon him.

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Through his suffering, he conquered suffering.

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As the chief priests and scribes were seeking to remove Jesus from the land of the living,

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he used their evil as the very means through which he brought us to God, removing us from

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condemnation and placing us into the hands of his Father.

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Likewise, when our Lord was put into the grave, when he was made dead, he didn't die a loser's

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death.

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He died the death of a victor.

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He didn't go down to the lowest parts, as the Greek and Latin of the creed are literally

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translated.

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He didn't go down as a prisoner, but as one who had conquered the grave.

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He was not one who could not ward off the grave, but one who would come to boast of

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his triumph over it.

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He went down with a word of victory, proving that there was nowhere man could go where

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Christ's victorious, nail-pierced hands could not find him and rescue him.

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And all of this is finished up with those wonderful words from 1 Peter that we gloriously

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arrogant Lutherans refuse to abandon or pretend are not clear.

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These words about how baptism now saves us, how baptism delivers the fullness of Christ's

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victory to us.

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Just as the waters of the flood destroyed the wicked world and brought Noah and his

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family into new life, so the waters of baptism have destroyed our sins and welcomed us into

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a new world where heaven and earth and the depths below are all the eternal property

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of our victorious brother, Jesus Christ.

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Once you were a sinner, lost and condemned, fatherless and hopeless in a world of suffering,

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and once you added to that world of suffering, filling it with idolatry, your defiance, your

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anger and rage, your lust and greed, your malice and bitterness, your covetousness,

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once you hurled those transgressions at the very Son of God, through your bitterness and

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cruelty, through your selfishness, and certainly through your arrogance, you heaped vicious

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suffering upon God's only Son.

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But out of love for you, that Son of God conquered your suffering and claimed this world of suffering

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as his own, one that he would transform into the new life, the new world of peace.

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There at Calvary, Christ used the wounds you had opened with your sin to forgive your sins,

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to wash you clean, to heal you and to rescue you from the grave.

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There at the cross, Jesus forged from his blood-stained hands the Ark of Baptism, the

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Ark that would give you his victory by transporting your sins into the grave and by transporting

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you out of it.

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So then, from the grave, Jesus brought that Ark with him when he descended into hell.

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There Jesus spoke his word of victory, proclaiming that just as his father would not abandon

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his soul to Sheol, he would not abandon your soul to Sheol.

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There Jesus brought that Ark into the lowest places, promising you that when you enter

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the depths, you will not find yourself placed into a prison there.

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You will find yourself stepping safely onto the Ark, the same baptismal Ark that will

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transport you out of the grave and into Christ's eternal kingdom on the great and glorious

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day of his return.

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For those baptized into Christ, there is nowhere we can go, in heaven, on earth or below, where

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the victory of Jesus Christ won't follow us, because it preceded us.

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That's what we can know when we confess Christ's descent into hell.

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Let us boast of that always.

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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

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Amen.