1 Peter 1:10-12 Gospel Treasure
Good morning! We are picking up our study in 1 Peter again with chapter 1, verses 10-12, page 1014 in the pew Bibles.
Last week, if you remember, I asked the question: do you know what you’ve got? When it comes to salvation, when it comes to faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and adoption into God’s eternal family, do you truly understand and appreciate the great treasure you have in the gospel?
This is exactly Peter’s point in our text this morning.
Let’s pray.
Before we get to Peter, I’d like to look at two quick verses from the Gospels, specifically Matthew and John.
In Matthew 13:16, 17, Jesus is speaking to His disciples and explaining to them why He spoke in parables to the people and how the people were fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah by hearing and not hearing and seeing yet not seeing. He said to them, “…blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”
Peter echoes this thought in our text.
But the other side of the coin is John 20:29 in response to the confession of Thomas the doubter, Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
This group of believers mentioned by Jesus includes people who believed in Him long before He came without seeing Him as well as those of us who believe after He came without seeing Him.
Those of us that believe are blessed, whether they believed looking forward to His first coming, or believed after Hi first coming and are looking forward to His second coming.
This is sounding complicated, let’s look at the text, it’s really quite simple.
Backing up to 1 Peter 1:8
8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11 inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. 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 preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.
“This salvation,” has been Peter’s topic so far in this letter. And if Peter’s original intent in writing this letter was to encourage the church to stand up under trial, to be encouraged in the face of difficulties, then reminding them of the treasure that we have in the gospel, “this salvation,” is a great way to do it! It’s a reminder that we all need.
So let’s look at a few different aspects of this salvation through faith in Jesus that, I think, will deepen our appreciation for the great gift that we have been given.
The first aspect of this great salvation is that Christ Himself predicted it. I say, “Christ,” instead of Jesus because it was the Spirit of Christ that revealed it to the prophets long ago.
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11 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 Christ Himself, the Eternal Second Person of the Trinity, the Divine Son of God speaking to and through the prophets long ago about His suffering and the glories that followed. The plan was in place from eternity past and Christ Himself revealed it to the prophets, Christ was active long before Bethlehem, He is on every page of the Bible, in the Old Testament as well as the New, from Genesis to Revelation.
Do you understand the significance of this truth?
Simply put, you have been loved for endless ages!
Christ Himself predicted the grace that was to belong to the Church through His own sufferings and the glories that follow, and the prophets longed to see the day.
Imagine Isaiah writing the words of Isaiah 53:5-6,
5 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. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Imagine him writing those words, inspired by the Spirit of Christ, and wondering, who? When? How long, O Lord!?
“…blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”
The prophets, “searched and inquired carefully,” these words literally mean that the prophets diligently mined the Word of God like miners digging for precious metals, they examined it from every angle, plumbing its depths. They longed to see how the salvation that had been spoken to them by Christ would work out, they longed to see it with their own eyes, but it would be over 400 years from the last words of any prophet before it would come to pass.
Verse 12 says, It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you,
The Word of God was given to the prophets by the Spirit of Christ not just for them but for us!
The scholars differ but it is generally agreed that there are between 200-400 different predictions of the coming of Christ, His sufferings and subsequent glories. 200-400 different prophecies all fulfilled in Jesus!
It was revealed to the prophets that they were not serving themselves, but us.
John Calvin said about this thought, “What else then was this, but that they spread the table, that others might afterwards feed on the provisions laid on it.”
The prophets set the table but Christ Himself was the meal, and we, the church, are all eating at that table.
JP Lange asks, “Why were those things revealed to the prophets seeing as that they were not permitted to realize their fulfillment? It wasn’t done for their sake but for ours, and thus they minister to us.”
The patient endurance of the prophets as they looked forward to the deliverance of the grace of God in salvation through faith in Christ and their diligent search for the truth in the words that were given to them ought to serve as great examples and encouragement to us.
Calvin also said, “…if their patience was so great, surely we shall be twice and thrice ungrateful if the fruition of the grace denied to them will not sustain us under all the evils which are to be endured.”
The grace that is ours in Christ, our salvation, was predicted by the Spirit of Christ, longed for by the prophets, they served the church through their writings and study of it, and even the angels long to look into it.
12 It was revealed to [the prophets] that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.
Our salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, our redemption and justification, are things into which angels long to look.
“To look into” in Greek is literally, “to bend over so as to look deeply into and see to the bottom of a thing.”
It’s not that the angels are prevented from understanding our redemption but that they are onlookers. As ones that never sinned redemption is not necessary for them like it is for us. But they love to watch God’s plan of redemption play out, you’ve got to believe that they are rooting for us!
So in considering our salvation, Christ Himself predicted it, the prophets longed to see it, the prophets served the church in it, the angels love to look into it, and it is the Holy Spirit that brings it.
12 It was revealed to [the prophets] that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven
It is the Holy Spirit that brings the salvation through the preaching of the Good News.
He brought it through the Apostles, He brought it through the Evangelists, and He brings it through me and through you every time we share our faith and share the Good News that salvation is available through faith in Jesus Christ.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11 inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. 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 preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.
Starke wrote in closing, “Would you give this consolation for an empire? If the hope be living, the inheritance is sure, the crown that never fades, the treasure that none can steal. Abide the heat. How short is suffering—how long the glittering eternity! Heavenly life God will give above, evermore my heart shall praise Him!”
Amen.
