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The Mystery of Salvation (Pt 2)

Jonathan Sarr
1 Peter 1:10-12
2009-11-22
one28 Sunday worship

INTRODUCTION

 

We pick up this morning where we left off last Wednesday evening, and that is in the middle of a very interesting paragraph in 1 Peter, specifically chapter 1, verses 10-12. 

 

We opened Wednesday’s study by looking briefly at the teaching of Christ in the Sermon on the Mount that we are not to worry about the cares of this world, since there is nothing that we need that God is not aware of.  And while the circumstances of Jesus’ audience in Matthew chapter 6 and the readers of Peter’s first letter are very different, I think the principle is thoroughly biblical.  Many of Jesus’ hearers were poverty stricken, not knowing where their next meal would come from.  But they were not in imminent danger like Peter’s audience.  People around them were likely suffering and even dying, and Peter wrote to them in their time of despair, “Focus on your salvation!”

 

I say this because it is an argument from the lesser to the greater.  Whether our worries relate to our next meal or the very loss of our lives, our focus should be on eternal things. 

 

Peter was undoubtedly in the audience at the Sermon on the Mount, and he got that picture eventually.  He may have made some regrettable decisions in the few short years that followed until Christ’s resurrection, but he definitely got it eventually.  And I can’t help but think that this principle of seeking first God’s Kingdom and His righteousness colors his writing in 1 Peter. 

 

To anticipate eagerly the life to come and to live in light of our eternal inheritance in Christ is to seek first His Kingdom.  Peter’s learning of the lesson (whether he applied it or not) when the circumstances were relatively easy equipped him to live for Christ when things got really tough.

 

That is my prayer for us this morning.  I would pray that we would get this now, while it is easy, so that when times get tough, our faith in Him will be unshaken and we will be able to focus on our salvation and God’s Kingdom and our eternal inheritance while the world around us crumbles away.  Do you get that?  Don’t miss the opportunity to apply these principles to your heart now, because if we don’t learn them now, we MAY be able to apply them when we need them…but then we may not.

Last time we considered the inquiry of the prophets who wanted to understand all that they were talking about in their prophesies, so together we looked at the QUESTIONS of 1 Peter 1:10-11.  Today I want to look at the ANSWERS in verse 12.

 

Read with me 1 Peter 1:3-12.  READ 1 PETER 1:3-12.

 

I.              THE QUESTIONS (vv. 10-11)

 

The prophets’ questions related to what they themselves were saying.  They searched their own writings and pleaded with God to help them to make sense of all they wrote.  A Suffering Servant would die to atone for sins (Isaiah 53).  The Son would reign mightily and crush His enemies in His righteous fury against sin (Psalm 2).  The King of Glory, the Messiah – a Man – would enter heaven triumphantly (Psalm 24), and the list goes on. This likely made at least some sense to the readers of Peter’s letter because they had an understanding of Christ’s death on the cross and His atoning for sins, and were learning from Peter what His second coming would be like (he even teaches them explicitly in his second letter).

 

But you can’t blame the prophets for wanting to know how this would all work together, for wanting to understand “the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.”  Perhaps what is most convicting, though, is the remarkable faith of many of the prophets in spite of their very limited understanding and the limits of revelation.  They had greater faith than most of us, and we have the whole of revelation. 

 

So what is the Spirit’s response to their inquiries?

 

II.           THE ANSWERS (v. 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.

 

Here they finally get an answer to their question.  This was what they had been waiting for, but it must have been really anticlimactic, if not a little disappointing.  It was revealed to them by God that they were serving a later generation, and that their prophetic message was not for them. 

 

“No!” says Peter to his readers. “Their message was for YOU! YOU now have a personal relationship with that Suffering Servant of Isaiah’s prophecy, and Isaiah would envy you.” 

 

And we mentioned before, if that is the position of Peter’s audience relative to the Old Testament prophets, how much more so should we be in amazement and awe of the greatness of God’s work in salvation who have the complete revelation of the Word?  We have not just the completed prophetic works, but the completed New Testament writings, too!  How many first century believers would have killed to have been in our position? 

 

Peter spoke with firsthand authority, as did the other apostles.  He had read the Old Testament prophesies and walked with Christ, and boldly delivered the gospel message as it pertained to both of them.  So from the lips of our epistle’s author, let’s get a clearer picture of what this looks like. 

 

In the first recorded apostolic sermon, in Acts 2, Peter reminds his Jewish audience of the prophecies concerning Christ, His coming, His death and His victory over death, and the clarity of having the full revelation has a dramatic impact on his hearers.  Turn there for a moment, and we’ll get a clearer idea as to Peter’s experience and frame of reference as he wrote 1 Peter 1:10-12. 

 

Note that from verses 17-21 he establishes a framework and credibility among his hearers by referring specifically to the Old Testament prophesy that was being fulfilled in their midst.  Then he jumps right to Christ in verse 22.  READ ACTS 2:22-24.  Then he moves back to David and Psalm 16, giving more Old Testament prophecy to prove and confirm what has happened.  This message would be incomplete without verses 36-39.  READ 2:36-39.  And he kept going, but it’s not recorded for us hear for us as to exactly what he said. 

 

Here’s the point.  This is the perfect example of what Peter is getting at in 1 Peter 1:10-12.  The Old Testament revelation gave a clear promise of a coming, suffering yet glorious Messiah.  Men could believe in Him and be saved.  But in the New Testament, Christ comes and clarifies the message, actually making payment for sins  and offering salvation to the world.  As it was prophesied, so it happened.  He came and died according to “the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God,” (Acts 2:23), and He gloriously arose, having conquered death and finished the work of payment for sins.  Meanwhile, the same Spirit of Christ – the Holy Spirit – inspired the prophesies of the Old Testament, came onto the believers at Pentecost, and inspired the apostolic gospel.  It is completely harmonious, as it is the same who inspires every word, beginning to end. 

 

And while the prophets were very faithful servants, it was not intended that they should have the fullness of revelation.  We are the ones who are spoiled, reaping what we did not sow, while the prophets remained in the dark…but they know now.  J

 

So then, the full message did not stop with the prophets.  Rather, the same Spirit of Christ continued to deliver it through the apostles, or “those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven.”   Theirs was a glorious, Spirit-inspired and COMPLETE message of salvation. 

 

This was a message of one Messiah and two comings to earth: once as the Suffering Savior to atone for our sins, and again as the Sovereign Ruler to establish His millennial kingdom.  If the prophets would even hear that sentence, they could say, “Oh!  NOW I get it!  Wow!  Praise God!”

 

And what about the angels? 

 

We often wonder what angels know and do.  Scripture does lend some clarity on this, but we do know that they are created for the worship of God.  They find their delight and satisfaction in doing this, and the story of redemptive history, the Church, the sending of the Messiah, Satan, hell, judgment, Millennial glory, all of these things show off God and inform the angels’ worship.  The salvation of fallen man, then, is something with which the angels are absolutely fascinated. 

 

Again, since they are created for the worship of God, they are continually interested in what God is doing.  The redemption of sinful man shows off God’s mercy and justice and wrath against sin in a very powerful way to educate those who would worship God: the angels. 

 

And there are a number of things that they can never know by experience.  For instance, elect angels (not demons) don’t need saving since they’ve never sinned.  Neither do they suffer condemnation.  They have never had a sinful impulse.  Because they’ve never sinned, they’ve never experienced the sweet grace of forgiveness.  They’ve never needed to be humbled. They’ve never been washed of their sins.  They’ve never had the righteousness of another undeservedly applied to them. 

 

No angel has ever experienced the joys of salvation, or the tender sweetness of repentance and restoration.  They are the students in the classroom of heaven and we are the object lessons to help inform their worship of God. 

 

Given that their existence is ultimately for the glorification of God, they have a holy and intense curiosity about these things.  The doctrine of salvation teaches us much about the person of God:  He is gracious and compassionate.  He is faithful to carry out what He has promised.  He loves us with a particular love, to the point that He would lower Himself to serve His fallen creation.  When we embrace Christ and the gospel, God is glorified as these things are on display for the angels…and for us. 

 

Since angels cannot relate to any of these things experientially, they study these things with great care and curiosity.  The angels cannot relate to the measure of grace that we receive in salvation, and they never will. 

 

So can’t you just envision the angels huddled together, looking into the windows of the fallen world and saying, “Holy smokes!  Look at that, Gabriel!  God just saved Jonathan!  Can you believe it after what he did last week?  God applied Christ’s righteousness to him and Christ was glad to atone for His sin!  Why?  God is truly gracious.  And did you SEE what the Father did to Jesus for that same sin?  He must also be just and wrathful toward sin….  And can you believe that Jonathan is taking it for granted?”  I mean, I imagine that fascinated conversations like that are going on all the time in heaven. 

 

Understand, then, that it is far better to be a redeemed human than an angel. 

 

There is something that we do have in common with the angels, though:  we were made to worship the Living God.  Peter would have us to do this rightly, and he would have us be informed in our worship by our meditation on His grace given to us in salvation, and the glories that await us in heaven.

 

Remember the message of your salvation.  Remember the “sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.”  Peter’s audience was in danger for their lives because of their identification with Christ.  A constant big picture look at the purposes of God and His faithfulness as demonstrated in salvation will help to realign our perspective and help us to focus on what is true and of greatest importance.

 

CONCLUSION and QUESTIONS FOR SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION

 

1.    If you were one of the inquiring prophets, would you find an answer like this to be a satisfying one?

2.    What would your life look like if you focused on your salvation as much as you should?

3.    What difference does it make to meditate regularly on your salvation?

4.    Have you ever been envious of angels or Old Testament prophets?  How is our current situation better than theirs?

5.    How would the angels’ observation of your life inform their worship of God?

6.    If you could have lunch with the prophet Isaiah, what questions do you think he would ask you?  Would you have the answers?  How would you be changed afterward?

7.    How does meditation and celebration of our salvation prepare us for action?