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Ago we had a visitor at our church, Mark Beck. He recited 1st Peter to us in full and Mark not only recited 1st Peter, he spoke it as if the Apostle Peter himself were the one speaking the letter. When you think about it, the act of memorizing the Bible tells us that there is something very special about the Bible from any other book.
There are over 100 million books that have been written in the history of the world, but only with the Bible are people told to store it up in one's heart through memorization. Now I suppose Muslims memorize the Quran and other religions memorize their religious texts, but these are counterfeits, which means that they mimic the real thing and as they mimic biblical Christianity, they feel it is important to memorize what they believe is from God.
But Old Testament saints were the first ones instructed to store up the Word of God in one's heart. Deuteronomy 6 verses 5 through 9 describes the importance of bringing the Word of God wherever you go.
As that says, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise.
You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as front lints between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. And Psalm 119 verses 10 and 11 says, with my whole heart I seek you.
Let me not wander from your commandments. I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. So what other book are you told to memorize? You don't memorize the Lord of the Rings or the Chronicles of Narnia, the Grapes of Wrath, Charlotte's Web, the Tale of Two Cities, or even your favorite non-fiction Christian books.
You may remember a significant line or two in a book that impacted you, but it's not like the Bible where the believer stores it up in one's heart, verse after verse, to provide direction through this life.
The Bible is not like other books. There are many ways the Bible shows itself to be different. The call to memorize verses is just one of those ways. But here is another way. Another way we know the Bible stands alone.
It is the reality that the Bible tells the future. There's only one who knows the future, and that, of course, is God. It is true that men wrote the Bible, but to say that men alone wrote the Bible is false.
In Peter's second letter, in 2 Peter 1, verses 20 and 21, he wrote, no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man. But men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
One of the ways we know that the Bible is not merely a human book is this supernatural component that cannot be denied. The Bible tells history before it happens. Keith showed us that this morning in adult Sunday school.
So this morning as we continue our sermon series through 1 Peter, we are going to see Peter describe the supernatural act of foretelling that God enabled prophets from long ago to do, and the things that they told were the glories of God and His great plan for humanity.
So this time I encourage you to turn in a Bible with me to 1 Peter chapter 1. We'll be looking at verses 10 -12. If you do not have a Bible, we do have the red Bibles in the pews. This sermon is titled, Glory Told Beforehand.
I'm going to begin by reading these verses. 1 Peter 1, verses 10 -12. Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours, searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.
It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you and the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.
Here's our big idea, what this text is calling you to do. Understand that the prophets of old focus their attention on the Messiah's future work. Understand that the prophets of old focus their attention on the Messiah's future work.
We're going to see four ways how come out as we go through this. But before we jump in, let me give you a little recap of where we've been. Last week we looked at verses 3 -9. What we saw is that we are to understand that the Lord always works for the good of his people.
We saw this shown through four plans the Lord has for us as his people. He first prepares a place in heaven through our salvation. Secondly, he strengthens you to persevere to the end. Third, he refines you as he sends you through different trials.
And lastly, he fills you with joy as you go through the life of faith. The Lord, out of his great love for you, always works for the good of his people. Now this leads us to our text that we've already read, but now we're going to zero in on.
And I'm going to begin zeroing in on the first part of verse 10, where once again Peter writes, concerning the salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours. Okay, we'll stop right there.
The Apostle Peter starts off by bringing us back. He brings us back to the salvation described in the previous passage. In the previous passage, Peter described the finished work of Christ, that Jesus accomplished the salvation of anyone who would believe in him.
Once one believes in him, that person becomes born again and belongs to the Lord forever. The salvation accomplished by Jesus was a historical event that took place almost 2000 years ago. When scholars look at, you know, when was the exact year that Jesus died and rose again and ascended?
Some say it was 30 AD, some say it was 32, some say it was 33. But think about it. One of those dates is right. We're coming up on 2000 years, in less than a decade. It's incredible to think about that.
To us, this event is far in the past, but Peter describes something very interesting in these verses. What Peter writes in the remainder of verse 10 is this. He says that the prophets, they inquired carefully.
What Peter describes, what he's describing here is the prophets of the Old Testament, because of course at this point, the New Testament had not yet been written. There are dozens of prophets who prophesied in the Old Testament.
Some of the big names you're well aware of. Moses, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. These prophets predicted future events near and far to their time. They predicted events that were soon to occur to the people of Israel.
But what's so remarkable is that these prophets predicted events that were to happen centuries and even thousands of years to their future. Some Old Testament prophets predicted things that still haven't happened yet.
In the prophetic timeline, certain events are more important than others. The most significant prophecies of the Old Testament centered around a coming Messiah, the great deliverer of the people of Israel.
What Peter writes in verse 10 is that the prophets predicted the future grace that would be applied to the people of God. This grace would come when the Messiah came. What Jesus accomplished about 2 ,000 years ago through his suffering is described as the grace of God.
Ephesians 2 .8 describes this grace. Children learn this verse. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And it's not of your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
That was actually verse 9 as well. The only way that humanity can be made right with God was through the suffering of the Messiah. At the cross, Jesus, who is the Messiah, took our sins upon him and bore the holy wrath of his Father.
Jesus faced hell for you so that you never have to. Anyone who believes that he died for your sins and rose on your behalf is completely forgiven. So God provides the salvation through Jesus. This is God's amazing grace.
And this grace concerning the substitutionary and sacrificial death of Christ was predicted long ago in the Old Testament. So let's look at several of these prophecies. The first prophecy comes right at the beginning.
This is the first mention of Christ in the Bible. Genesis 3 .15, where Moses recorded the Lord saying, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.
This verse is describing Satan bruising the offspring of Eve. The primary offspring in mind is Jesus, the Messiah. And Jesus' heel would be bruised through his suffering at the cross. But to be bruised in the heel is far less severe than to receive a blow to the head.
This is why we wear helmets. You don't wear a helmet everywhere on your body. You don't really wear padding everywhere on your body because if you scrape your leg, no big deal. You hit your head, you might die.
This is what Jesus did at the cross. He delivered a death blow to Satan. His heel was bruised in this battle. But Jesus won the ultimate victory when he died and rose again. So Genesis 3 .15 was the first prophecy about the salvation for humanity accomplished through the Messiah's suffering.
The prophets continued to prophesy about this event concerning the Messiah throughout the Old Testament. King David was not only a king, he was also a prophet. And he wrote in Psalm 16 .10, you will not abandon my soul to Sheol or let your Holy One see corruption.
King David is not just talking about his own death, he is talking about the death of the Messiah. And he highlights that the Messiah will not decay because he will be raised from the dead. In fact, the one who wrote 1 Peter, the Apostle Peter, in the book of Acts, in Acts 2 verses 26 -32, tells his audience, which was a Jewish audience, that Psalm 16 .10 is describing the Messiah's resurrection from the dead.
So King David, long ago, predicted the grace that is to be yours as you believe in what Jesus accomplished. Now the most vivid description of the salvation that the Messiah would accomplish through his suffering comes from the prophet Isaiah.
He wrote on behalf of the Lord, and I already read this this morning in the call to worship, Isaiah 52 verses 13 -15, Isaiah writes and speaks, My servant shall act wisely, he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted.
As many were astonished at you, his appearance was so marred beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of children of mankind. So shall he sprinkle many nations. Then Isaiah continues in verses 3 -6,.
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and is one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.
Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
And then verse 10,. It was the will of the Lord to crush him, he has put him to grief. This is God's plan from the beginning. The Messiah must suffer, and what a vivid description of this in Isaiah 53, and actually started in 52.
Isaiah is predicting the grace that is to be yours as you believe in the suffering Messiah. Another place the suffering Messiah is clearly predicted is in Daniel 9 .26. This comes from Daniel 70 weeks, which is a very famous prophecy.
In Daniel 9 .26, Daniel wrote,. After the 62 weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. Now the Hebrew word Mashit means anointed one, and in English we translate this as Messiah.
And the cutting off and the description of him having nothing in Daniel 9 .26 is describing the crucifixion of the Messiah. The last place the suffering of the Messiah is clearly predicted is by the prophet Zechariah.
Now I mentioned all the big prophets that we know about. Zechariah is not considered a major prophet, but when it comes to details about the very end of the world, he is one of the best. He covers a ton of ground.
In Zechariah 12 .10, this is what he wrote. And by the way, he's not just writing this, he's proclaiming this to the people of Israel. Imagine him saying this,. And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and prayers for mercy, so that when you look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him as one weeps over a firstborn.
He's describing Israel's future salvation. The first time the Messiah came, they rejected him. And they rejected him not only by saying we reject you, they killed him. They hung him on a cross. They pierced him, as this verse says.
And in the future, they're going to receive him. So this is the salvation predicted. The grace that is to be yours of the suffering Messiah, this is predicted over and over again by Old Testament prophets.
And that's what Peter's saying here in verse 10. They talked about this long ago, and here it is. As Peter's writing to his audience, he's saying you have seen this. So in Romans 10 .13 says, Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
So understand that the prophets of old focused their attention on the Messiah's future work. And the first way how is by writing about God's future grace in Jesus. The second way how you are to understand the prophets of old focused their attention on the Messiah's future work is by wondering the specifics concerning his arrival.
By the way, this is on the back of that page you received when you came in. Now this grace that the Old Testament prophets wrote about interested them greatly. So Peter says this at the end of verse 10 and verse 11.
He says they inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. What Peter writes here is that the spirit of Christ was in them.
That is in the prophets. This statement by Peter tells us something about biblical prophecy and all the writers of scripture. What we need to understand is that these Old Testament prophets had writings that were entirely unique from anything we have ever written or spoken or anything we've ever read.
While it is true that Christians are led by the spirit, we are not led and influenced in the measure that they were. In the introduction I read 2 Peter 1 verses 20 -21 where Peter says no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation.
It comes from God. What Peter is describing is the doctrine of biblical inspiration. When we say that scripture is inspired, what we are saying is that as man wrote, God wrote. One way theologians have described it is that man was thinking God's thoughts after him.
In other words, God's thoughts are the author's thoughts. A true understanding of biblical inspiration is not dictation. He's holding a pen and he's going to guide every word. No, that's not biblical inspiration.
When you read the different books of the Bible, the author's personality is very much intact. When you read John, it's John. When you read Peter, it's Peter. When you read Paul, it's Paul. But something extraordinary is happening as they write.
Every word that they write is being guided by the Holy Spirit. This is why we say the Bible is without error. God makes no errors. So if you believe in the inspiration of scripture, every word is inspired.
Every word is exactly as God wanted it. And that's what Peter is saying here. They spoke the words of the Spirit as they proclaimed. Everything the prophets wrote were the words of God. But people can make the mistake of thinking that biblical prophets knew everything concerning what they wrote and spoke.
They were humans like us. What Peter tells us is that they would have had questions as they communicated these prophecies. Specifically, what Peter is saying is that these prophets had questions about the details concerning the Messiah.
But even though they had questions, these prophets understood far more than the corrupt Jewish leadership of the first century. The corrupt Jewish leadership did not believe in a Messiah that would suffer.
They looked at the passages in the Old Testament that described the Messiah reigning in power, and they thought that described the totality of who the Messiah was going to be. Even Jesus' disciples believed this.
We know this because when Jesus told them, I'm going to die and rise again, they're like, what are you talking about? This isn't what we were taught. We were taught that he would reign. Not that he would suffer, but the old prophets knew well, not only of the Messiah's power, but also his suffering.
As we have seen, Moses knew he would suffer. King David knew he would as well. Isaiah knew. Zechariah knew. We see it over and over again. Daniel knew. They all wrote about it. These prophets told of a suffering Messiah and one who would reign.
The first time the Messiah came was his humiliation. It was his suffering. The second time he came would be his glory, his power as he comes from heaven to destroy his enemies and to reign with his people.
Peter describes this power at the end of verse 11 where he writes that Christ must suffer and what follows are the subsequent glories. When we say the word subsequent, it means what comes after. After his suffering comes glory.
There are several ways that Christ was glorified after his humiliation as he was brutally murdered on the cross. The subsequent glories are everything that comes after. The first one was his resurrection.
Then the glory that followed that was his ascension to heaven where he now sits at the right hand of his father. Then what follows that is his grand return to this earth where he will reign in power. There is so much evil in this world.
But when he comes, he is going to bring all of this evil to a stop. Some of you saw Sounds of Freedom. It's all coming to a stop. Every wrong will be righted. He will reign. He will reign for a thousand years and then he will reign for all eternity.
The Old Testament prophets wrote about these glories along with the sufferings. So the Old Testament prophets, through the Spirit, predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.
So the prophets knew this much as they wrote, but there were details that they did not know. And Peter highlights that here. What didn't they know? Well, the end of verse 10 and the beginning of verse 11 tells us, they searched and inquired carefully asking the question, what person or time would all these events take place?
So they're asking, who is he and when is he coming? The first prophecy that Moses wrote down came 4 ,000 years before Christ came. Think about that. Moses wrote it 1 ,500 years before Christ came. But this prophecy was a long, long time ago.
Then David wrote 1 ,000 years before Christ came. The prophet Daniel wrote over 500 years before Christ came. Isaiah wrote 700 years before Christ. Zechariah wrote like 450 to 500 years before Christ came.
These prophets wondered, what's he going to be like? What's he going to look like? What's his name going to be? Isn't it interesting? The prophecy actually said he's not going to be good looking. Think about that.
When he walked into the room, you'd be like, oh, he's just a normal guy. But then you heard him talk. There's something different about this man. That was him. And then they asked the question, when is he coming?
When? Now, we, of course, do not ask about the identity of the Messiah right now. But we do ask the same question that they're asking. When? And it's not concerning his first coming, of course. It's concerning his second coming.
When is he coming? So we have something in common with the prophets. When is he going to come to this earth? He came the first time. When is he going to come again? Now, the Old Testament prophets did not even know there would be two comings.
They knew he would suffer. And they thought his reign and power would start right after his suffering. But, of course, new revelation came through Jesus where he informed his apostles and everyone that he would go to heaven for a time and then return to the earth to reign with his people.
In our day, we wonder how long before Israel's Messiah and our Messiah comes to reign in power. We live in 2023 and he still has not yet come back. For almost 2 ,000 years, the news of what he accomplished through his death and resurrection has gone out.
It is the responsibility of humanity to receive Jesus as their Messiah and Savior. But we must understand that the time may be short. These birth pains. We talked about birth pains. That is what Rachel is experiencing right now is birth pains.
Matthew 24, this is what Jesus says in Matthew 24 verse 8 when he talks about the signs of the second coming of Christ. It is like birth pains. They increase in frequency and intensity as the birth nears.
So do the signs of the end. I am not going to go through all the signs right now. We have gone through those before. You can go back and listen to Matthew 24. We go through all the signs. But it is like birth pains.
They increase in frequency and intensity. Look at the world we live in. What a wild place it is. It makes you realize the end may be very close. So understand that the prophets of old focused their attention on the Messiah's future work.
And the second way how is by wondering the specifics concerning his arrival. Now these last two points are shorter. Let's jump into those here. The second way how we are to understand that the prophets of old focused their attention on the Messiah's work is by realizing that his work would happen beyond their time.
Let's see this in verse 12. The beginning and middle of verse 12. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven.
So these prophets knew they were writing these glorious prophecies for future generations. And as Peter is writing to these believers in Asia Minor, he is telling them that these glorious plans of God that these prophets wrote about remarkably came to pass in their time.
These believers that Peter is writing to were not eyewitnesses to what Christ did. They lived too far north. Remember, they lived in modern day Turkey. But eyewitnesses came to them and shared the gospel through the power of the Holy Spirit.
And through that witness, they believed in the suffering Messiah. And Peter makes an interesting comment at the end of verse 12 when he says that the people who preached to these people in Asia Minor did so through the Spirit sent from heaven.
We see the Spirit's work in this passage. The Spirit is not only inspiring the words of the prophets, He's also empowering the message. So think about this in your life. When you share the gospel with someone, that is being done through the power of the Holy Spirit as you rely on Him.
And think of the other ways the Spirit works in your life. He gives you spiritual growth. As you read the Word of God, and as you ask for help, He strengthens you to grow in your walk with the Lord. So we see all the ways that the Spirit is working.
The same words that He inspired, He empowers these people to proclaim it, to proclaim it clearly, confidently, so that people will believe the message of what the Messiah did when He came. So understand, once again, that they focus their attention on the Messiah's future work.
And here's the third way how. The Messiah's work would happen beyond their time. They weren't just writing for their immediate audience. They were writing for future generations who would see these things happen in their time.
And Peter's readers saw it. And we are 2 ,000 years on the other side of this grand work that Jesus did when He went to the cross and rose again. And here's the fourth and final way how. You are to understand that the prophets of old focused their attention on the Messiah's future work.
And that is by standing amazed that humanity's redemption fascinates angels. Okay, now this is super interesting. As Peter says at the very end of this text, into which angels long to look. What do angels think about?
Well, we learn that here. Angels long to look into God's salvation in Christ that was described in the previous verses. Now the angels that are described here are those angels that never fell into sin.
The angels that fell into sin and followed Satan are demons. But these angels described in verse 12 are holy angels. I once heard a pastor say, and it hit me when he said it, there have been two falls in history.
One by angels and one by humans. For one, there is a redemption plan. There is a rescue plan. For the other, there is not. For humanity, we can be saved. We can be rescued from being doomed forever. Fallen angels are doomed forever.
In 2 Peter, it says they're being held in glooming dungeons prepared for the day of judgment. Remember when Jesus was there with all the pigs in the Gospel of Matthew? When they go into the pigs and drown the pigs?
Before they are sent away from the humans into the pigs, you know what they say to Jesus? Is it now time for you to torch us in hell? Has that day come? They know their future. And angels who never fell know their future too.
They're going to be in glory forever with God's people. But here's what's so amazing. Angels are fascinated in salvation. The salvation of humans because it's something they have never experienced. Think of something in your life that fascinates you because you've never experienced it.
That's what it's like for angels. They have never experienced what it's like to fall into sin, to be doomed for judgment in the future, but to have that avoided because you were rescued through God's work.
That's exactly how it is for humans. We are rescued through the work of Christ. Angels don't experience this. And they are fascinated. It's so interesting about angels is that we're fascinated with angels.
And we know humans, of course. We're all humans here. Maybe there's an undercover angel here. I don't know. It does say that they go undercover as humans. But we are humans. We are fascinated with them.
But you know what's interesting? They are very fascinated with us. We are God's image bearers. They are not. We experience redemption. They do not. And by the way, that is the reason we experience redemption.
We are the only thing in creation that is created in the image of God. We hold a special place in God's plan, unlike anything else. God became a man to save men. He didn't come to save angels. And it's remarkable to ponder that.
And the prophets ponder this. And we ponder this as well. So understand that the prophets of old focused their attention on the Messiah's future work. And in this text, we've seen four ways how. By writing about God's future grace in Jesus.
By wondering the specifics concerning his arrival. By realizing that the Messiah's work would happen beyond their time. And by standing amazed along with us that humanity's redemption fascinates angels.
These prophets were flawed men but they spoke the word of God. And because their writings were God's writings, what they wrote came to pass. And there's still more coming in the future. How incredible it is.
God's plans of redemption. He planned it from the beginning. Predicted it in detail through the prophets. And this glory is experienced by those who believe in the one to whom these ancient writings pointed.
And we live in such an amazing time of history. We can look back and we can look forward. And the most important thing you can do is to have a relationship with Jesus. If you're here today, you've never trusted in Christ, the Messiah, as Lord, Savior, and Treasure.
Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. You will not be doomed like those angels. Those fallen angels. Those demons. You will have a place reserved for you in heaven. When we talk about Susan, this isn't wishful thinking.
We know she's with the Lord. We know she was a genuine believer. We know that Christ paid for her sins. That His righteousness is her righteousness. And that's true of everyone here who knows Jesus as Lord, Savior, and Treasure.
Next time we're in Peter, we will be looking at the practical. As he writes about what God expects of His people on a day-to-day basis. So I look forward to looking at that with you. But at this time, let's bow our heads in prayer.
Father, thank You for Your precious Word. It is a treasure that we get to unfold week after week, and we get to read it whenever we want during the week. And what a gift it is to have this book, this supernatural book, that tells history and tells the story of life.
It tells us where we've come from and where we're going. And my prayer, Lord, is that everyone here would have that relationship with Jesus Christ, who paid it all at the cross and was raised glorious from the dead, and He will come again.
And it's in His name we pray. Amen.