Let me first say you deserve an immeasurable gratitude for allowing God to use you in explaining his word to his people.
Question about 1Peter 3:19-20
When I read the above verses I just get a bit confused. As you know that it speaks about Jesus Christ going and preaching to the Spirits that were imprisoned from the time of the flood.
1. I want to know why Jesus Christ had to preach to them hence preaching is mostly for bringing the truth to a sinner for the purpose of converting such a sinner?
2. Were those Spirits converted and entered the heaven, if your answer is yes then does that mean there is salvation beyond death..
3. Around Jesus’ death on the cross the bible also speaks about graves opening and people resurrected and went to the holy City…where and what is that holy City and what then happened to those people?
Peter said that the spirits to whom Jesus preached were the ones who disobeyed during Noah’s time. To me that could mean two things. First are those who perished in the flood. If so then the Lord would have preached a victory sermon, saying in effect that their imprisonment is justified because they didn’t get on the ark when they had the chance. He will say the same thing to surviving unbelievers at the end of the age. The Bible never offers even a hint of the possibility of a second chance after death, saying instead that it’s given for man to die once and then to face the judgment (Hebr. 9:27)
I think it also refers to the angels held in chains who according to Jude 6 abandoned their positions of authority (watchers?) and left their first estate. Genesis 6:1-4 says they married human women to produce the Nephilim, a primary cause of the flood. Peter mentioned these spirits again in 2 Peter 2:4 as being held in gloomy dungeons. To them Jesus would have asserted His authority. (Hebr. 1:3-7)
The people who came out of their graves at the time of the resurrection (Matt. 27:52-53) were the wave offering, or sample of the harvest. The city they went into was Jerusalem and then they ascended into heaven with the Lord.