1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1. We will look at verses 10 through 12 tonight, but we'll read the entirety of the chapter. 1 Peter 1. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the pilgrims of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace be multiplied.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his abundant mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honour and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom, having not seen, you love, though now you do not see him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Of this salvation, the prophets have inquired and searched carefully who prophesied of the grace that would come to you. Searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who is in them was indicating when he testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.
To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things which angels desire to look into. gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts as in your ignorance, but as he who called you as holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, be holy, for I am holy. And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was ordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who through him believe in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth, through the Spirit, in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, through the word of God, which lives and abides forever. Because all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever. Now this is the word which, by the gospel, was preached to you." Well, let us pray.
Opening Prayer
Our Father, we come before You, and Lord, we acknowledge that we need You. We need the power of Your Holy Spirit tonight to be among us, Lord, and we ask that You would be pleased to bless us in that way, to help to expose the glorious message that is contained in this passage of Scripture that we hope to look at tonight, and that You would be pleased to bless it to the souls of each one of us here, Lord, that it would be a means to bring glory to your name, and a means to edify your people here, and a means to bring sinners into salvation through your Son, the Lord Jesus. So, Lord, we ask for your blessing, and we pray this in Christ's name. Amen.
Sorry, one second.
Introduction and Context
So, I've been preaching through the book of 1 Peter, primarily in Vernon Church, but also here have been working through some of the similar sermons, not all of them. So it's very important when we're working in series here that when it's several weeks in between, sometimes we kind of forget what we looked at last time. And it's always important to kind of understand the context here. So just by way of a very quick review, when we find ourselves in this chapter here of 1 Peter, Peter is preaching to the pilgrims of the dispersion that he calls them here.
These ones who have been, they're feeling displaced, they're suffering in various ways, he calls them pilgrims. And he's reaching out to them, and his intention is for them to shift their focus from their circumstances, from where they find themselves, the various trials that they're going through, and to focus rather on the heavenly realities and what he calls what he calls salvation in in several instances here, and everything contained within that, that we are in Christ, we are citizens of heaven, we're bound for glory. So if you're in verse, the beginning there, at the introduction, verse one and two, he gives us, he really highlights the sovereignty of God. Speaking of election there and how the salvation, their salvation was wrought out by the triune God, that according to the foreknowledge of God, the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, and because of the obedience and sprinkling of the blood Jesus Christ that was how they were they were to be saved so that's his first his first in his introduction there to get their minds thinking rightly there and then he and then he goes on in verse 3 reminding them of the of the abundant mercy of God that this this salvation come proceeds from a God who is abundantly merciful that he is a God of infinite love and an infinite mercy that that proceeds from him and and and That is why we can be saved.
And then he brings them into the forefront, the inheritance that we as believers have in the future too, that we can look forward to that. One day we will receive this inheritance, an inheritance that he calls here is says here is incorruptible, undefiled, and that does not fade away. And we looked at that as that it's incorruptible. So it's not corrupted by sin.
It's not like this world that we find ourselves in now. Everything is corrupted by sin. And also that it's undefiled. Undefiled, that there's nothing that is unclean.
There's no evil. There's no evil forces, nothing that can that can defile this inheritance that we are headed for, and that it does not fade away. It's not something that is subject to the change of time. So it's everything that is different than where we find ourselves now in this earth, in this temporal world.
Everything is polluted by sin. It's defiled by evil. And it's subject to change. Things fade away.
Things come and go. So he's saying, look, we can focus. Look at what we have coming. And then in verses six through nine, he speaks about how because of this, because of when we think of these things, we can greatly rejoice.
Even though we're going through various trials, if our focus is on these things, understanding that this earth is not the be-all, end-all, but we are headed for glory, this is what we have in store for us, then we can have this joy inexpressible that he says here, joy inexpressible and full of glory. And again, that comes by focusing on this great salvation and on the captain of our salvation that the writer of Hebrews calls him, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Prophets Ministering to a Future Generation
So now when we come to verses 10 through 12 here, he's He hasn't changed what he's trying to do there. He still wants to comfort them and really highlight this salvation. But he comes at it from a different perspective now. In the previous verses, it was a lot of what we have in the future, the hope of glory. and also just focusing on God, who God is, that type of thing.
But now he's coming at it from another perspective, and he wants to magnify it, to just highlight how great this salvation is, how awesome it is. And he does so by showing what importance this was to the Old Testament prophets and to the New Testament apostles who delivered this message, to them and then also even to the angels, in fact, the angels that are desiring to look into this redemption here. So he basically is going to highlight for them how this salvation that they're experiencing is something that has been wrought out by God through all of history, and here they are. They have this salvation that has been culminated in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Old Testament Prophets
So then that so first so first here then we'll look at the Old Testament prophets that That these that these men here that it was this was the the subject the salvation was the subject of of intense Scrutiny by these by these Old Testament prophets here. Holy men of old he calls them them later on in the book. So So so he starts up by saying then in verse 10 of this salvation now, he's obviously speaking of everything He's he's just talked about So not just specifically, you know, the fact that they are saved, but what's all included in that. He uses the terms, you know, inheritance and hope and the living hope there.
Those are all the same thing, everything that he's talking about. This so great a salvation here. And he says that they inquired and they searched, they inquired and searched carefully about this.
What the Prophets Knew and Did Not Know
So I think there's a common misconception here with this passage is that is that the Old Testament prophets, they didn't know what they were writing, that they wrote down through inspiration, they wrote down, but then they didn't understand what it was. Now, we have to be careful, because when we think of inspiration, inspiration was not a dictation. God did not say, you know, they didn't listen, hear something, and write it down, and then have to go and read it and study it. Now, there are instances where they do receive visions and express things from the Lord, and I think Daniel, there's an example in Daniel where they have to go back and, you know, the Lord said, write this down, what exactly was that?
But generally speaking, the Holy Spirit used these men, and their characters, their cognition, and what they wrote down was not, they understood what they were writing about. So they knew that this revelation that Peter is talking about here, this revelation that they had was of a saviour, was of a king, Savior King who would who would come and and and one who would save them from their enemies, you know So it's it's not that they didn't know that they were speaking about the Messiah and they and they were trying to understand that they've they fully Understood that that they were speaking of the Messiah and it's not it's not that they were questioning the truthfulness of the message either the the You know, they were they had the they had the Holy Spirit. They knew that God was speaking through them It was very clear. That's why they they prefaced so much of their of the prophecies and of their instructions with, thus saith the Lord, or the word of the Lord came to me.
So they understood that the Lord was speaking. So this is not questioning the truthfulness of their message. It's not questioning the content of their message, of their revelation. But they're seeking to understand the fuller meaning behind this message, because they did not have a complete revelation of all of this.
It wasn't until the coming of Christ And the subsequent explanation of that message by the apostles who were endowed with the Holy Spirit, who Peter says here that they were the ones who took this message and explained and preached it to them. It wasn't until then that this fuller understanding was achieved. In the London Baptist Confession, chapter 7, verse 3, it's very helpful there that That paragraph says, or part of the paragraph says, this covenant, speaking of the covenant of grace and salvation, this covenant is revealed in the gospel, first of all to Adam in the promise of salvation by the seed of the woman, and afterwards by farther steps until the full discovery thereof was completed in the New Testament. So the full discovery was completed in the New Testament.
So now these prophets were seeking to understand what what is this they were they were studying it they were trying to learn but they didn't they weren't um it was not given to them and later it we'll see here that it says that they they it was revealed to them that this was something in the future that was going to happen the grace that was going to be come to us so and that's what he says here next that they prophesied they prophesied of the grace that would come to you so peter makes this distinction here now between between what we have received and what and what they have received not in terms of Not in terms of salvation, it's not that they didn't receive grace and we do. Important to keep that in mind as we go through here. The Old Testament prophets were saved by faith, to be sure. So he's not speaking of the grace in that regard, but it's like the confession says, it's the full discovery of this grace that was completed in the New Testament.
Christ as Fulfillment of Prophecy
Turn to Matthew chapter 13 for a minute, Matthew 13. verse 16 and 17. Jesus says, But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For assuredly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. So they had this desire to see, but they were not given this fuller understanding of what they were speaking about.
But we have that. The grace has come to you, and we know that that is because of the Lord Jesus Christ, that Christ is the one who fulfills the Old Testament, and the one that it all makes sense, it all comes together in our Lord Jesus Christ, that he is the one that, in all the circumstances around him, that explain all these various prophecies and various things that these Old Testament prophets were speaking of. So for example, we think of Psalm 65 verse 3, David says, as for our transgression, you will provide atonement for them. So they have this revelation that God will provide atonement for them, but it's in the New Testament, that's where we see Jesus crying out, it is finished, paid in full, as he dies on the cross, that atonement there being paid.
Isaiah 53 prophesies and it gives a lot of detail in Isaiah 53 of this suffering servant of Yahweh. He would suffer, he would be crushed for our iniquities, he would be crushed by Yahweh himself as his soul was made an offering for sin. And then when we come to the New Testament, Romans 3 tells us here, we see that the man, Christ Jesus, being set forth by God as a propitiation, Propitiation is the payment to satisfy divine wrath, the propitiation by His blood to bring about our redemption. So Christ is the one who answers that, Christ is the one who gives us that fuller understanding of all the Old Testament, what the Old Testament pointed forward to.
Turn to 2 Corinthians for a minute, 2 Corinthians chapter 3. 2 Corinthians 3 verse 12 through 14. Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech, unlike Moses who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. but their minds were blinded. For until this day, the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. Even to this day, when Moses has read, a veil lies on their heart.
Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we have all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transferred into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit So very, very, very clear here that we see that Christ is the answer to all of these, to all of these, the Old Testament. We think of in Moses, Moses received this revelation from the Lord in Exodus 34 where the Lord says, says that he's a God who's abundant in mercy and a God who's abundant and forgives all sin and transgression and iniquity.
And then the second half of the verse, he says, but by no means will clear the guilty. Well, that leaves us with a big problem. But Christ is the answer to that problem there. So the veil is taken away in Christ.
When one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. So we can see then very clearly how that New Testament gives us the complete picture of this salvation. But these Old Testament prophets here, as Peter says, they were seeking to learn more about it because it was a matter of such importance to them. So it says here that they were searching what, or what manner of time.
So some translations say who, or what kind of person, and what manner of time. And again, they understood that they were speaking of a saviour king. They understood that there was one who would come from the seat of David, and one who would be a king forever, and that he would be the saviour. But they were trying to understand, what kind of a person would this be?
What kind of a person would be a king, yet one whom God would crush as an atonement for sin, but yet his soul would not be left in Hades. He would be raised from the dead, as David says in Psalm 10. What kind of a person could that be? And what would be the circumstances surrounding his arrival?
When would he come? You know, these things, they were trying to understand this. But they weren't given that information. It tells us here that it was revealed to them that rather it was going to be, it was to us.
These things would come to us in their future. So they didn't understand that. But we know that it was in the fullness of time. God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who were under the law.
So they were trying to understand, when would that time be? Well, it was the fullness of time, Paul says, God's time. Now there's definitely some practical application for us in this as well with these prophets here, thinking of them studying and learning and wanting to know more about who this Messiah was here. I've talked often about this need for us to be studying, to be learning more about this salvation.
That's how we are As Peter has been teaching in the previous verses here, that's how we get through sufferings, and that's how we can deal with sufferings in our life, with joy and with peace, by knowing who our God is. And this is, again here, just another reminder to look at these Old Testament prophets here. and to follow their example, studying. I love the quote by Charles Hodge. He says that the gospel is so simple that a child can understand it, yet so profound that studies by the wisest theologians will never exhaust its glories.
And I think that is just a beautiful quote because it's so true. We, like these prophets here, they didn't have the full revelation, but we have this fuller revelation, as the Confession says, the full discovery of it in our Bible. So we ought to be studying, learning more about who our Savior is. So now that, you know, we have the full discovery of it, but that doesn't mean that we have Because we have the New Testament and we have these things explained to us by these apostles, that doesn't mean that once we've read through the New Testament, then we've got it all figured out.
That's why I quoted Hodge there. There's no way to exhaust the glories that are contained within the Word in regards to the Gospel. So we are to continue to learn. We have to strive to continue to learn about our Savior.
Because the full revelation of Christ is not here yet. Peter says that all this stuff will be, this hope, this inheritance that we have, it's all coming at the revelation of Jesus Christ. here that he says in verse seven at the end, the revelation of Jesus Christ. That's when we see Christ face to face and we don't, and it's no more, we don't walk by faith anymore, we walk by sight because we will see him face to face. But until then, we are still walking by faith and therefore to bolster our faith, to grow our faith, we ought to study and learn more about who our savior is.
I think this morning, Pastor, again mentioned that the church, Yeah, the Church, the Bride of Christ, looks at the Bridegroom, looks at Christ as the chief among 10,000 and, escaping me now, but, what's that? That's right, altogether lovely, thanks. But that is how we ought to look at our Savior and have that desire to learn more about Him. So the more we learn, the more we study the Word and learn, the more we can look forward to in anticipation to the future, to the revelation of Jesus Christ and seeing him face to face.
And then again, the more that will help us to get through the various trials, various difficulties that we will encounter in our lives here. So then in verse 12 here, it says that it was revealed that not to themselves, but to us, they were ministering. So they knew that these things that they were prophesying about, it was revealed to them that this was going to come in the future, in their future. So they had this, an eschatological approach then, as they were studying, as they were making these careful searches here, understanding then, okay, this is in the future. to the future for that fulfillment of what they have been speaking of here.
One man says that they were aware that they were speaking of a Messiah, but who the man should be who would hold that office, or what period in their history he would arise, they longed to know. They foresaw a Christ, but could not foresee Jesus, and they could give their Christ no definite position in history. So that's what they understood, that he was in the future, but they understood he was the Messiah, but they didn't know that he would be Jesus and when he would come. Now, Peter says that these things that they have been prophesying about, they're fulfilled now in our era.
He says we have the full discovery of this salvation, this so great salvation here. We think of Simeon and Luke. chapter 2, Simeon was waiting in the temple. Now, he had received divine revelation from God that he would see the Christ, that he would see the Messiah. And he says here, as he picks up the baby Jesus, he says, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation.
So here he is. He's the Messiah. He's here. He's the savior of the world, the fulfillment of the Old Testament.
He's arrived. And that's what Peter wants them to understand, that they're in this same era. Christ has come. Christ has fulfilled this Old Testament, and they're recipients of this salvation here.
And now this solidifies, of course, the Christian message as well. This was not a new thing, that Jesus of Nazareth comes onto the scene and, you know, claims to be the Christ, whatever, and the group follows him. It was not a novel thing. This was what the Old Testament was speaking about.
So it solidified that message there. You know, Jesus, in John chapter 5, verse 39, he says, you search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, but these are they which testify of me. So Jesus making it very clear that the Scriptures were speaking about him. But how could they be speaking about Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth?
Well, it was because what Peter says here, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when he testified. So again, just realizing that their message, that the message here was of divine origin, that the Spirit of Christ was the one who enabled these and inspired these men to write this message, the message that the Christ was coming and that he would be in the future there. So affirming that message as a message of divine origin. And now the same spirit who we'll see later on here that is in verse 12 is the one who is delivering the gospel message through the apostles and the New Testament preachers.
That same Holy Spirit now has gone out to bring that message through these men to the world.
Sufferings and Glory: Christ and His Church
But it says here that they testified beforehand of the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. So we have to remember again here what Peter's doing. He's wanting to strengthen their faith and comfort them as they're going through the midst of all these various trials that they're going through now. And he does something very interesting with the way that he words this part here, with the sufferings of Christ.
What he actually says here, he says the sufferings into Christ, or even more literally, we would say the into Christ sufferings. Or we perhaps could go as far as to say the with Christ And I believe that's the idea conveyed there, and that preposition of in Christ, the preposition contains the idea of being placed in and being with. And some people look at, some commentators, I should say, look at that as a, translate it as the until Christ sufferings, and with the idea, and it can be used that way, perhaps, that preposition, but with the idea that suffering until Christ returns, but I think the idea here that Peter wants to convey is that you are with Christ, suffering because you are in Christ. And I have John Calvin on my side to support that.
Kelvin here, he says, this then, speaking of the sufferings, the sufferings, what our Bible says, of Christ, these sufferings is not to be confined to the person of Christ, but a beginning is to be made with the head, so that the members may in due order follow. As Paul also teaches us, that we must be conformed to him who is the firstborn among his brethren. In short, Peter does not speak of what is peculiar to Christ, but of the universal state of the church. So, I think Kelvin here acknowledges that, yes, he is speaking of Christ's sufferings, for sure, that Christ did partake of sufferings, but yet that it's not limited to that, that he's also referencing their sufferings as well, that they are experiencing these sufferings because they are in Christ, or they are with Christ.
And later in the book, in chapter 4, verse 13, he says that they are partakers of Christ's sufferings there. So understanding that not only is he speaking of the fact that Christ will suffer, but more so that they are suffering as part of that, that Christ as the head, as Kelvin says here, What did Kelvin say here? The beginning is to be made with the head. So Christ was the one who suffered as our head.
Well, the members, the body of that are in due order to follow, Kelvin says here, so that we will suffer because Christ suffered. And then also, too, that as Christ entered glory after he suffered, then so too will we enter glory after we have suffered. And we can be assured of that because that's based on the sure promises of God as found in Scripture.
The Pattern of Suffering and Glory
So sufferings and glory. Christ suffered, entered glory, so too will we suffer and enter glory. And he says here that the Old Testament prophets, they testified about this. And we find that they experienced that as well.
They understood this idea of sufferings and glory. I think Job, for example, Job suffered terribly. We're very familiar with that. And in Job chapter 19, he says, have pity on me, my friends, for the hand of God has struck me.
So he's suffering. But then he goes on to say, for I know that my Redeemer lives, and he shall stand at last on the earth, and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold." That's glory. So Job understands sufferings and glory. And we can think of Psalm 23 as well.
You know, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, that's suffering. And then he goes on and he finishes the psalm that I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. So that's glory. We see that all through the Old Testament, that pattern of the understood, sufferings and glory.
In James 5, he says, take, my brethren, the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering, affliction, and of patience. So this was not a new phenomenon that his audience was experiencing, Peter's audience here, but this was the pattern. what would happen to the people of God, because that was the message that was contained in the Old Testament, that sufferings and glory. Now we have, Peter's saying, we have a clear understanding of why. It's because we are in Christ, because we are with Christ, that Christ went through sufferings, ahead of us, to secure glory for us.
Now, we obviously don't experience the same type of suffering as Christ did, to be sure, you know, or the same amount, especially when we think of the sufferings, you know, Christ suffering on the cross. But that's not his, you know, his Christ suffering the wrath of God. He did so, so we don't have to. That was specifically the purpose of the cross.
So he's not He's not saying, you know, you're gonna suffer those same things, of course not, but the idea that Christ suffers and enter glory, we will suffer and enter glory there. Excuse me. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
So Christ is our head, what he has gone through, and so too will we go through on our on our journey to glory, sufferings and then glory. Now, we have to understand here that, as Peter said as well, he says it's a, you know, you have suffered, you've been grieved by various trials, he says here. So now when we speak of, you know, suffering is inevitable, and we heard a lot about that this morning, you know, suffering, we all suffer in various ways. So, you know, I don't want to, we don't want to that we're going to, you know, something is bound to, horrible to happen, but just the reality that suffering does happen in this lower world and that, you know, it's a variety of suffering that we experience, but yet that is what God has laid out for us there.
So just don't want to scare you or worry you that we're all destined to have some sort of a horrible suffering in our life because of because of this concept. That's not what Peter's getting at here. Like he said, he calls it various sufferings for that purpose. And then he goes on here, he says, in verse 12, to them it was revealed, so we sort of dealt with that already, that it was revealed to them that the Messiah, the Savior, King of whom they were prophesying, he's not going to come in their lifetime, but he's going to be sometime in the future.
And now this message that they've received, that Peter's audience has received here, this is the same message that was preached to them by these apostles and preachers in in the New Testament era now. So now everything has been fulfilled. The new covenant that Jeremiah and the other prophets foretold, that new covenant is here. That covenant has been ratified.
All the terms have been met by the work of the man Christ Jesus. And that salvation is here. God has come, Emmanuel, God in the flesh, met the terms of that covenant and now And now we can experience this salvation because of that. Now turn to Hebrews 9 for a minute.
Hebrews chapter 9, verse 11. Verse 11 through 15. But Christ came as the high priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, he entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
And for this reason, he is the mediator of the new covenant, by means of death for the redemption of the transgression under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance." And they're so very, very, very clearly seeing that Christ is the one who has come. He's fulfilled all that, and now salvation is possible because of what Christ has done. And then he says here that these things which have now been reported, to you. So these are the, these things, these are what the Old Testament, or what, sorry, what these New Testament preachers, apostles, are going and teaching them.
They're these things that have been reported among you. These are all the things concerning the Lord Jesus, concerning what He did, how He came and fulfilled this covenant. They're these, all the things that the Old Testament prophets foretold. Think of Jesus on the road to Emmaus, speaking to these to these two men there in Luke chapter 24.
He says to them, he says, you old fools and slow of heart to believe. And he says, ought not the Christ to have suffered? Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
So these were, and through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit, he says here. So all these things that surrounding the Lord Jesus Christ, these are the things that he has, that they have preached to them and taught them. All these things that were taught, that were prophesied by the Old Testament there. Now he says they've been preached, They've been preached by the Holy Spirit.
Those who preach the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit. Now, many commentators would think that this is a reference to Pentecost. And of course, it very well could be that they receive the Holy Spirit from heaven there at Pentecost. And whether it's specifically referring to Pentecost or not, either way, it's the fact that these men were equipped by the Holy Spirit to explain to the people all the things concerning this man, Jesus of Nazareth.
All these things around him, what had happened to this man, Jesus. This was exactly what the Old Testament had prophesied about what would happen to the Messiah, and that this man was, in fact, was the Christ, that he was the Christ whom he had claimed. This story, all these happenings here, it was Christ. And we have the Holy Spirit coming upon these men in order to rightly teach and rightly explain this to them.
Turn to Acts chapter 2 for a minute. Acts chapter 2, we'll see a prime example of that there. Peter standing up and speaking there in Acts chapter 2. We'll just begin at verse 22.
First, in verse 14, he explains these things in regards to Pentecost and all the happenings that were there. And then he goes on to explain now about Jesus of Nazareth. Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know, him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death, whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it." And he goes on, and he works all through here.
He continues to rehash sort of all the account of the work and of the crucifixion of the Christ here. And if you drop down to verse 30 again, he says, Speaking of david now david being a prophet knowing that god had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body According to the flesh he would raise up the christ to sit on his throne So peter's saying, you know, look david understood that that that that and david foretold of the christ who would come from From his body the fruit of his body as the as the king There and he goes on then that um He, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore, being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear." And then he continues on, we can drop down to verse 36, Briefly there, he says, therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.
So very clearly explaining that all this stuff that happened to this man, Jesus of Nazareth, this was in fact, this was what was going to happen to the Christ. And this, he is in fact the Christ. He's come. He has brought in salvation.
And we see that more often in Acts as well. In chapter three, he says the same, in verse 18 of Acts, he says, which God foretold by the mouth of all his prophets that the Christ would suffer, he has thus fulfilled." Again, speaking of the Lord Jesus there. So, in Acts 7, Stephen goes through the whole history of the nation of Israel with that intent to show them that, look it, this Christ was the one that was prophesied, that he would come. He wasn't even allowed to finish his sermon because they were so convicted by what by the fact that, just like he says, just like your fathers killed all the prophets who prophesied of this Christ, you know, you killed him, and they just couldn't take that.
So they killed him before he could finish. So we have these men gifted by the Holy Spirit to give us this fuller explanation and to bring that message to to these pilgrims of the dispersion, this message. And not only just their testimony as they went around preaching, but then also as they start writing epistles to the letters, epistles that now we find in our canon of scripture, epistles that are inspired by the Holy Spirit. Now they have a divinely inspired interpretation of the Old Testament as well in explaining who Christ was, what manner of who it was, what manner of person, what manner of time.
Well, it's now. It was when Christ was here, when Jesus of Nazareth was here. He's the Christ. It's been fulfilled.
Richard Barcello says that the New Testament is the infallible interpretation of Jesus in relation to the Old Testament. So we have an infallible interpretation of what these Old Testament prophets were inquiring and were searching carefully about and what they were prophesying about. An infallible interpretation of it in our New Testament. So now Peter says then to these suffering believers, he says that you are recipients of something that has been anticipated since Genesis 3.15, since the fall of man. that all of redemptive history so far had been pointing to this One who would come, and now He's come, and He's fulfilled it all there.
So that God in His sovereignty orchestrated all of history to bring about these events that He prophesied about, and to bring about this moment, this climax of salvation with the coming of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. into this world and bringing about redemption through Him. Jesus who took on flesh, the Son of God took on flesh for us men and for our salvation. And Peter wants them to realize, he's saying here, you are the recipients of this, this great salvation. It's truly amazing how God has brought it out, and you get to be the recipients of that.
And another thing that Peter doesn't really draw it out here, but I think it sort of just follows, is that in order for them, just to help them have an appreciation for this salvation and the gospel message there, is that, you know, he talks about how the gospel was preached to them by these men who were filled with the Holy Spirit. It's that it was a, because it's a message that's so, so wonderful that these men were willing to submit themselves to all sorts of suffering in order to bring this message to the ends of the earth, as they had been commanded to. So, you know, that they were, Paul says the gospel is the power of God unto salvation and that message of the gospel that the men were willing to die to bring that message. It should help them to realize just the value, the magnitude of their salvation.
These men could have stayed in Jerusalem. They received the Holy Spirit. They could have stayed there, but rather they obeyed what Christ had told them to do, was to wait there until they had the Holy Spirit, and then to go and bring this message to the uttermost parts of the world. So they followed that, they suffered much for the cause of bringing this message, this message of so great a salvation to these people.
The Angels' Desire to Look Into Salvation
And then he goes on here, he says here, the things which angels desire to look into. So again, this salvation or salvation is something so great. Redemption is so great that even the angels, they take interest in it and they want to watch the proceedings. What is this?
To look into, here he says. It gives us sort of the idea of a bending over and looking down, watching it. And I think it sort of reminds us of the Ark in the Old Testament in the temple there. On the Ark was the two angels looking over, bending over, looking at the mercy seat on the Ark.
The mercy seat was sprinkled with blood signifying the atonement for sin so that mercy and grace could be given. And again, that's obviously pointing forward to the atonement made by the death of Christ to atone for sin so that grace could be given there. And the word indicates this perpetual desire to watch this, to continue to watch, to watch this redemption play out in history. As redemptive history plays out, the angels are watching this and they're amazed by it.
It's the salvation of man there. Because the angels don't experience redemption for themselves. We understand that there's fallen angels, Satan and his angels, there are fallen angels. and they cannot be redeemed. They are destined for eternal punishment.
And we also know that there are elect angels in 1 Timothy. Paul talks about elect angels there. And these angels, they're elect, but they have not been redeemed. Rather, they're put into some sort of a state where they are not able to sin.
So, you know, but they didn't need saving because they never saved and they've never sinned and they've been prevented from sinning. So therefore they don't need to be redeemed from anything. But now, so therefore they watch the redemption of man play out because redemption really is amazing. And that's why Jesus says in Luke 15, he says that there's much rejoicing Heaven among the angels every time a sinner repents and is saved it's because because redemption because salvation is Is so amazing grace is so amazing there
Redemptive History and the Amazement of Angels
so if we think we just we think of redemptive history God God creator he creates a He creates man in his own image, the crown jewel, we would say, of his creation, in his own image. And he tells that man, he says, to not eat of this tree. And in the day that you eat of this tree, you will surely die, he says. And then man, instead of obeying God, listens to the serpent and eats of the tree.
But on that day, they didn't surely die. Yes, we understand they died spiritually in the sense of their nature became fully corrupted by sin, but they did not immediately die that day. Rather, an animal died, and God used the skins of those animals, animal, whatever it was, to clothe Adam and Eve and make them presentable, so to speak. So that's how it starts out.
And then we have the promise given, that one day of the seed of the woman, someone who would come, who would undo all of the work of sin and what the devil had done and redeem mankind. And then throughout history we have the promises to Abraham, that in his family all the seed of the earth would be blessed. All nations of the earth would be blessed by someone from his seed and promises made to David that it would be a king from his lineage who would sit on the throne forever. And we have a continual revelation of redemption.
And then when we come to the New Testament, to the arrival of Christ on the scene, and suddenly it's the Son of God himself who comes down, takes on humanity, and becomes a man in order to redeem Man, it's no wonder the angels are amazed. And now we see Christ, He fulfills everything in the Old Testament, brings about the salvation of mankind, of His people. And again, and then the promise goes out to all of man. The promise is given, or the call is given to all who believe in the Lord Jesus will be saved, will be able to experience this great salvation.
It's really a wonderful, amazing, amazing message that we find in the scriptures there, and the angels look into this and they're amazed by what is happening and that same call would go out now as well that all who believe in the Lord Jesus will be saved. You will experience this great salvation and in Hebrews Hebrews chapter 2, it says, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? So if you're here this evening and you have not come to Christ, have not trusted in Him, do not neglect it, do not reject it, do not delay, do not turn away, but rather believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will have this great salvation that that Peter talks about here. He doesn't use those words.
That comes from the writer of Hebrews, but yet that's the idea. This is that we are to be amazed by this salvation that we get to be recipients of.
Application
So that concludes our exposition. Just by way of a few practical applications, then, again, just that we take example from these Old Testament prophets as far as when it comes to studying, to learning, to growing in our faith because we have this fuller revelation, this fuller discovery that our confession says in our New Testaments. But yet we are still walking by faith. We have not yet experienced the full revelation of Jesus Christ that Peter speaks of that is coming in our future when we see him.
So we're walking by faith, but we can strengthen that faith by a diligent and careful study of the Word of God. And remember, that's Peter's whole point in this book here, is that in order to strengthen them, strengthen their faith by pointing them to the realities of this great salvation that they are part of. But we may not be necessarily experiencing you know, such difficulties right now, in the here and now, but this is preemptive. This is a way where, you know, by when these things may come in our future, and it will happen, you know, we're all going to experience loss and suffering and pain in many different ways, but yet if we are, you know, we don't wait till we're experiencing them, but yet beforehand that we are studying, we are learning, We're resting our minds on these things so that as we do experience suffering, we are able to go through that suffering with this joy inexpressible and full of glory that Peter says here.
And then again, just to understand the pattern of sufferings and glory, that this is a reality, that we will suffer. You know, what Peter says in chapter 4, he says, think it not strange concerning the fiery trials that you're experiencing. So don't be surprised when sufferings come. That's the pattern that has been, that the Old Testament prophets spoke about our Christ experience and that we as being in Christ experience as well.
Sufferings on our way to glory. John Kelvin here says, the Church of Christ has been from the beginning so constituted that the cross has been the way to victory and death a passage to life. So just the idea of sufferings and glory. And then lastly, again, just like I mentioned, just to be amazed at our salvation, that it is, you know, to ponder these things, to study the gospel and learn more of Christ, and then in that, God is glorified and we are edified, and then we will know that joy unspeakable and full of glory.
So, let us close in a word of prayer.
Closing Prayer
Lord, we do thank you for this passage of Scripture, and we thank you for your Word. Lord, we thank you that we have these passages like this that point us again to this great salvation that we can be part of, that we can be recipients of. Lord, it is humbling, and yet it is so Encouraging and we are so thankful for that lord. We're so thankful that we have We have been rescued from from the kingdom of darkness and that we have been Brought into your kingdom the kingdom of the son of your love and we are so thankful for that lord and our hearts are greatly encouraged by passages like this that tell that that speak and speak so So highly of our salvation and that caused us to be amazed by our salvation So lord, I do pray that that we would be Our hearts would be filled with the love for our Savior, with the love for you, and that we would leave here with that joy unspeakable and full of glory and praising our Savior all the day long.
Lord, I pray that for each one of us here, and I do pray if there are any here tonight, Lord, who do not know you as Savior, that they would not delay, they would not hesitate, they would not neglect so great a salvation. So Lord, we do pray that you would revive the hearts of those who who do not know You. Lord, we pray Your blessing on us as we go our separate ways in this week. Watch over each one of us.
Bless us, Lord. Help us to do all things for Your honour and glory, to live in light of this great salvation and have a desire to bring glory to You in all that we do. So, Lord, we pray this all in the name of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus. Amen.
We'll close with a time of meditation.