Sermon -- TRIDUUM: Easter Dawn (April 5, 2026)

BAPTISM NOW SAVES YOU.

1 PETER 3:17-22

In the name + of Jesus.

M:       Alleluia!  Christ is risen!

C:        He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

     “He descended into hell.  On the third day he rose again from the dead” (Apostles’ Creed).  The Apostles’ Creed seems to reverse the order of events.  St. Peter wrote that Jesus “was put to death in flesh but was made alive in spirit, in which he also went and made an announcement to the spirits in prison” (1 Peter 3:18-19).  So, the descent into hell occurred after Jesus had risen from the dead.  If he were still dead, how could he proclaim victory?  But Jesus Christ is risen.  He is the conqueror, the one who holds authority over death and hell. 

     Jesus descended into hell before he appeared to anyone on Easter day—and that seems to be the point of the Apostles’ Creeds order of events.  His suffering was finished on Good Friday.  He had taken his Sabbath rest in the grave.  He rose and descended into hell.  He went to the devil’s home turf.  He preached to the spirits and proved himself the victor.  Then he departed since neither death nor hell nor the devil has any hold on him.

     Although the spirits in prison include all who have despised and denied God’s promises, St. Peter focused only on those from the days of Noah.  Those who had rejected God’s word and dismissed it with mockery were forced to acknowledge that their condemnation was deserved.  By contrast, Noah took God’s word seriously and built the ark in which he and his family were saved.  The Flood destroyed all the wicked.  The same waters scrubbed the world clean and produced a new creation—not yet perfected, but renewed.  The Flood also up lifted Noah and his family above that destruction so that they were saved. 

     St. Peter, then, draws this analogy: “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” (1 Peter 3:21).  Just as the Flood drowned the wicked and lifted up the ark above the destruction, so the waters of baptism have done for you.  Baptism now saves you.  It wipes out all unrighteousness.  It purifies you from sin.  Through baptism, you have been brought into the ark of the Holy Christian Church.  That is why this part of the church building is called the nave.  “Nave” comes from the Latin word for boat or ark.  It is where you find the deliverance from a damning judgment.  Baptism extinguishes the hellfire that awaits the guilty. 

     Some Christians protest that baptism does not save.  They want to correct you and say, “Baptism does not save; Jesus does.”  But that is like saying, “Food does not sustain you; nutrition does.”  But how does God provide that nutrition to you?  Through food.  Likewise, St. Peter connects baptism to Jesus’ resurrection.  Jesus’ resurrection bestows new life.  How does the Lord deliver that new life to you?  Through holy baptism.  Baptism now saves you—not a symbolic washing, but “the guarantee of a good conscience before God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 3:21).  Baptism is “the washing of rebirth and the renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).  It makes you a new creation—not yet perfect, but renewed.  The resurrection and perfection and glory will come at the resurrection of all flesh.  Death will be done.  The Church will be delivered.  For, Jesus lives.

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.