Prophets, Angels, and Privileged Christians - 1 Peter 1:10-12

What if the most astonishing thing in your week isn’t a headline or a highlight reel, but the miracle you’ve started to overlook—grace? We return to 1 Peter and reawaken a sense of holy awe at the salvation we didn’t earn, can’t improve, and won’t lose, because the God who began this work will carry it to glory. We talk about what it means to live as elect exiles with a living hope, not as spectators of a distant story, but as people standing in grace today.

We trace a single, unbroken line through Scripture: prophets who searched and spoke by the Spirit of Christ were serving you. From the promised snake-crusher to the ram on Moriah, from Passover blood on wood to the torn curtain, from manna to the bronze serpent and the rock of living water—Jesus stands at the center. Along the way we clear the fog: the Spirit in the prophets is the Spirit of Christ; the Old Testament doesn’t just hint at him, it hums with his arrival. Then we bring the story home. The gospel arrived in your life because someone was sent—a parent, a friend, a pastor, a stranger—and God used their words to open your eyes. Remembering who came to us renews why we go to others.

And we lift our gaze to heaven’s reaction. Angels long to look into this grace and erupt in joy over one sinner who repents. If heaven won’t yawn at salvation, why should we? We end with gratitude, communion, and a call to hold fast: stand in grace, fight spiritual apathy, and let your hope in Christ’s return shape your courage and kindness right now. If this conversation rekindled your wonder, share it with a friend, subscribe for more, and leave a review with one line: what renewed your awe today?

Transcript

Prayer And Framing The Series

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Thank you. Hey, if you have a copy of God's Word, go ahead and pull it out and open it up or turn it on. And would you meet me in the book of First Peter, toward the back of your Bible, one of the last few books that is in your Bible? And we're going to go back to chapter one. We made it uh up through part of chapter three, but we're going to go back to chapter one. There were some sections that we intentionally skipped, and I want to go and highlight. Uh verses 10 through 12 is one of those sections. I'm going to ask you this morning to begin with a word of prayer, personal prayer. I know we've prayed a lot, but the Lord Jesus said his house would be a house of prayer. And would you pray to the Lord that he would teach you by his spirit in his word? Would you go to the Lord with me? Lord, teach us we pray. Our prayer, God, is that you would make us more like your Son so that the world might see through us Jesus Christ. We pray, Lord, that as we open up your word, that we would marvel, that our heart would leap for joy at what you have accomplished for us. That we need not worry or fear, that we do not put our hope elsewhere, that you will, as you promised, one day return and make all things new. It is this hope that is alive, as alive as your son Jesus is, that motivates our mission and keeps joy in our heart. In your name we pray, and for your glory we aim. Everybody said, Amen. We've been going through the book of 1 Peter for quite some time now. I think, if I'm not mistaken, this is week eight. We've been walking through this letter of Peter's to elect exiles of the dispersion. These are Jew and Gentile believers spread abroad who are beginning to face and will continue to face more and more persecution. He tells them at the very beginning of the book that they have a hope that is as alive as Jesus. Because Jesus rose out of his grave. We will one day resurrect when he returns. That's how he begins the book. And he ends the book very similarly. Jesus will return. You have a hope that still exists in front of you. Serve the Lord faithfully. As elect exiles, elect by virtue of our faith in Christ, we are Christ's people, his one people. And exiles, while we have the hope of Christ, we are still in some ways homeless here. We await our future home. So how are we to live in the meantime? Well, the message of 1 Peter answers that question. And it is that we are to be holy witnesses in a hostile world. If we're to go back to chapter 1, which we are this morning, I just want us to see, and I think the Lord would have us see, Peter's message, inspired by God's Spirit, how blessed we are. How blessed we are. And you begin to just rehearse in your mind all the things that the Lord has provided for you, and you, I am blessed. Have you ever stopped to think about that? Consider the time that you exist as a believer with all of God's story. Christ has come for you. He has been revealed as the Messiah from the Old Testament. He has accomplished what God promised he would accomplish, bearing your sin, the guilt of your sin in your place. The words of the prophets foretold have now been fulfilled. You also have the Holy Spirit indwelling in you, a promise that was made through the prophet Joel and the prophet Jeremiah, so that you might understand and know what God has spoken, so that you might be equipped for his service, so that you might be equipped with gifts to serve others, so that you might be empowered for his mission, so that you might be kept until he returns. You live in a very privileged time in salvation history. Have you stopped for a moment? How blessed you are. You have the witness and the work of billions of Christians before you. And according to Pew Research in Barna, there's about 2.6 million Christians, billion Christians, I'm sorry, with a B billion Christians on the face of this earth right now. The witness and the work of other Christians around you. That was not the case for all of the history of the Bible. Have you stopped to think how blessed you really are? Peter would have us stop and think. God would have us stop and think. Verse 10. Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or what time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories, the cross and the crown. It was revealed to them, those prophets, 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 Spirit sent from heaven. Things into which angels long to look. Believer, you are blessed. Do not forget the significance of your salvation. There are four things I want to point out to you in what will be a shorter message than the last few weeks. Last few weeks we talked about what it means that women are weaker vessels from chapter three and a warning for men and husbands. And the week before that, we looked at how do we understand our role and responsibility in submission to our government. I just want this morning to see how blessed we are in Christ. The first of four points. The grace of God is yours. The prophets prophesied about God's grace to come. But there was a particular grace still yet to come that they had put their faith in, which was, as the Old Testament tells us, counts them as the righteous people of God. They were his people by their faith in future grace to come. Grace could be defined simply, and it has been defined simply, as unmerited or unearned favor, the favor of God that you did not earn, attain, or achieve. It's in the scriptures an attribute of God seen in his persistent loving kindness poured out on his wicked creatures. Persistent loving kindness toward his rebellious creatures. The story of God is the story of the grace of God from the beginning in the garden to the end in glory. Consider with me. By his grace, God chose to save when Adam chose to sin. By his grace, God chose Abraham, an otherwise random pagan man to bless, and through whom to bless others. By his grace, Deuteronomy 7.7 tells us that God chose Israel, not the most significant of all people, but the fewest of all people, to make his mouthpiece. By his grace, God chose you. Believer, yeah, you, me, a person otherwise headed to hell. Had he not stopped you and saved you by the blood of his own son and by a bringer of that message of salvation in your life. Like this is the grace of God right here. That the God of the universe verse would look down upon hopelessly sinful men and women, and instead of destroying them with his righteous and just wrath, offering his son to live a perfect life, die a sinner's death, so that sinners who have not lived a perfect life might place their faith and trust in him, turning from their sin and receive life they do not deserve. Jesus died the death we deserve for the sin that we committed to give us life we don't. That's the good news of the gospel. It's a gift of grace, not to those who could prove themselves faithful, but for those of faith in the one who has proven faithful. The great preacher Jonathan Edwards used to say, Grace is seen in that you contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary. Hear me in the room with a smile on my face. You deserve nothing. Yet in Christ Heaven given everything. Grace is God freely offering you and I what we did not earn and what we could not achieve. The book of Ephesians tells us this was the plan of God all along, to offer salvation to unworthy creatures, so that all of heaven and earth might marvel at how just gracious He is. Ephesians 2, verse 7, He saved you so that He might put on display His kindness, His immeasurable kindness, for all the earth and all of heaven to see. God did not have to create human beings like you and I. That's his grace. God did not have to give you taste buds to enjoy a meal. You don't need to enjoy a meal to be fed. That's his grace. God did not have to give you nerves to feel. That's his grace. God did not have to give you a conscience so that we wouldn't be robots and could rationalize and realize. That's his grace. God did not have to give us a partner, flesh of our flesh, bone of our bone. That's his grace. God did not have to keep you alive after you sinned against him. That's his grace. God did not have to plan to redeem people that rebelled against him. That's his grace. God didn't have to keep us when we kept rebelling. That's his grace. God did not have to send his son to bear our sin. That's his grace. God did not have to send his spirit to free us from the law. That's his grace. God didn't have to write his work and cause it to be effective for your salvation. That's his grace. God didn't have to choose the weak of the world like you and I. That's his grace. God didn't have to put people in my life who would share the gospel with me so that I might know him. That's his grace. God didn't have to open my eyes to his beauty and my heart to his word. That's his grace. God did not have to save me. That's his grace. The apostle Peter reminds us in the verses before our text that God caused us to be born again. He caused us to be born again. He broke our stony heart and gave us a heart of flesh. He regenerated us, opened our eyes to his gospel so that we might receive it with joy. And get this, the apostle tell Peter tells us it is God who powerfully is guarding us for an imperishable heavenly future. So here's the thing: grace is not just what got you here. God's grace does not end at your conversion. God's grace is going to keep us until we get home with him. In fact, the Bible teaches us that God's grace is actually our present reality. It's what it teaches. Consider with me, Paul, in the book of Romans, where he says, we stand in the grace of God. Like positionally before him, we exist there. Peter at the end of his letter in chapter 5 says that we are heirs of his grace, and that this, the whole message of the letter, is the grace of God, so stand there and don't go anywhere else. God does not have to return to rid the world of disease, sickness, sorrow, sadness, and strife and sin. To resurrect our bodies to live with him. That's his grace. And it's yours. Not only is it yours, but it was talked about by prophets who God inspired who were writing to you. Number two, the words of the prophets were a work of God for you. Have you ever thought about that? That's what Peter says. They were working, yes, for God, but they were serving you. Do you have Bible in your hand? On your phone? On your shelf? God used prophets to serve you so that you might know him in his word. And you can open it wherever you go. 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. So before we get on to our main point, let's stop here for a moment just to talk theologically. Because our passage tells us something about God. Our passage tells us that the spirit that was inspiring the prophets was the spirit of Christ. You'd immediately think, well, the Holy Spirit, right? Yes. The spirit of who? Our text says Christ. You say, well, Christ wasn't in the Old Testament, was he? Well, absolutely. Jesus was not made two thousand years ago. He's the eternally existent second person of the triune Godhead. And he inspired the prophets to write the things about him that he would do. Jesus is God. It was his spirit inspiring these prophets. We learn that because the New Testament understands God's Holy Spirit to be Christ's Holy Spirit or the Spirit of Christ. For example, in the book of Acts, chapter 16, if I'm not mistaken, verses 6 and 7, Paul is with Silas and now Timothy, and they are attempting to take the gospel to Asia and Bithynia, yet they are prohibited from both. We don't really know the circumstances that prohibited them, other than it says Paul was prohibited to go into Asia by the Holy Spirit, and was kept from going into Bithynia by the Spirit of Christ. Used synonymously. And so some of them may have even wondered, is this going to be in my time? And yet it was revealed to them it was for a time to come. You see, the Spirit of Jesus rested upon the Old Testament prophets to point them to Jesus' future work. And the Spirit of Christ rests upon us, preachers of the Word of God, not just me preaching here, but us all going and sharing the Word of God to speak of Christ's past work. So now to our main point, in number two. The prophets of the Old Testament prophesied about Christ's death and resurrection to come, longing themselves for salvation, yet not knowing when or how he would come. And I want to talk to you about how they did that. How they did that. Christ's crucifixion and his resurrection for the salvation of men and women like you and I is the grace of God prayed for and prophesied about for thousands of years. Now come to fruition. In Luke chapter 24, there were two disciples of Jesus on their way to Emmaus. Christ had ministered to multitudes, and yet was killed. He died upon a rugged cross. He prophesied he would. Three days later, he resurrected from that very grave, proving he was in fact the Son of God. Two disciples on their way to Emmaus, after Jesus had resurrected, but had not yet seen the resurrected Christ, are met by a man, yes, the man Jesus Christ. And yet, in some way, they're unable to understand it's Jesus. His face is hidden from them by the power of God's Spirit. I don't know what that means, I don't know how it looks, but it was hidden from them. And Jesus calls them, and he can do that because he's Jesus, fools. Because they were slow of heart and mind to understand all that the prophets, yes, even Moses, had spoken. And Jesus takes them to the writings of Moses, the first five books of the Bible, and the rest of the Old Testament, to teach them it was about him. Do you get that? Not just a few verses from Isaiah, the whole Old Testament, Moses and the prophets. Moses wrote the first five books. So the book of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, who's it ultimately about? Well, Jesus says, Him. So let me show you that. What God would mean when he says the prophets long for, looked for, and wrote about the suffering and resurrection of Jesus. Think for a moment about Jesus, the snake crusher. In Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, you have Adam and Eve bearing the consequences of their sin, or at least hearing the consequences of their sin. And there's a consequence given to the serpent that tempted them. And that consequence was that though he would bruise the heel of one born of a woman, one born of a woman, the promised seed would crush his head. Jesus is that serpent crusher, the one who will put an end to the wiles of the snake. Consider with me Genesis chapter 22. In Genesis chapter 22, God having chosen Abraham, a seemingly random pagan man, to have that promised seed come from his lineage. He tells him to take his son, his one and only son. I should mention, that's mentioned three times in the text, his one and only son, up to the top of a mountain, Mount Moriah, the mountain that was known throughout the Old Testament for what would take place as where the Lord provides. The same mountain that a few thousand years later Jesus would hang upon a cross on top of. Abraham is called to take his son, his one and only son, who is bearing wood up that mountain, the very wood he will be strapped upon to be a sacrifice in obedience to God. Abraham thinking surely God can raise him from the dead. Before Abraham is stopped from sacrificing his son because there is a ram caught in a thicket like thorns around his head to take the place. So he can go home safe with his dad. Oh yeah. The Old Testament's about Jesus. You keep on. The slain lamb, where God called many in Israel to put lamb's blood on top of wood as the only thing that would separate them from the wrath of God, so they'd be safe through wrath on the other side to sing in a land reserved for them. Oh, isn't that our story? What about the temple curtain? What gave access to the priests into the presence of God? Hebrews says, Christ is our temple curtain. Through him we have access, as all of us priests, before the Father to pray anytime we want. The mercy seat, a certain portion of the temple where a sacrifice was offered covering the law of God and mercy was freely given. The bread from heaven, Jesus said, I am the bread of life, you live by me. The bronze serpent hung upon a pole, so that all who look upon that bronze serpent hanging upon a tree would be saved from their demise brought by their sin. The rock of living water that would provide sustenance to people in a wilderness. Oh yeah. The Old Testament is about Jesus. What about the prophecies of other individual prophets? That Jesus would be born of a virgin, Isaiah 7.14, that he'd be born in Bethlehem, Micah 5.2, that he would one day, as a baby, be with his family fleeing Herod in Egypt, Hosea 11:1, during Herod's heinous murder of infants, Jeremiah 31, 15. What about Jesus' ministry in Capernaum? Isaiah 9, his healing of the sick, Isaiah 53, his destination to die, Isaiah 53. Peter says, those guys longed to see what you see. Longed to know what you know, to read what you read. Matthew thirteen, Jesus said in his ministry on earth, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see and did not see it, to hear what you hear and did not hear it. And here's what the prophets longed to see. The grace of God displayed at the cross of Christ. That Jesus again would die an undeserved death, paying the penalty of sin we owed, and he didn't, in order to freely give life to those who do not deserve it, and that Jesus would resurrect in glory so that all who trust in him will one day too. They long for it, and you look at it in your Bible. Peter is saying to us, do not take this for granted. Don't be bored with amazing grace. This is yours. They were serving you. Number three. God sent believers to you, so you would be saved. God sent believers to you, so you would be saved. The prophets prophesied, but preachers in your life have preached as they had in the life of Peter's recipients. Peter says, These things have come to you because someone came to you. The message of the gospel has been delivered. Now, the Bible tells us that all people ought to know that there is a creator, God, looking at creation. That it is logical, and to suppress that logical truth is sin. We suppress the truth of God for a lie. General revelation. God has generally revealed himself in his creation. But in order to have a saving relationship with God, it must be through Christ. And in order to know who Christ is, you have to have special revelation. Someone is specially brought to you to teach you about. Who Jesus is, that you might believe in Jesus and have a relationship with God through him. This is why Romans chapter 10 says, How will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? So think for just a moment in your seat, how blessed you are that someone was sent to you. Oh, could I encourage you, just where you are, can I encourage you to think about who has been sent by God's hand to you that you might hear about God's work? Maybe it was your mom or your dad. Maybe you grew up in a church. Maybe your parents dropped you off. Maybe you attended a VBS. Maybe since then you've wandered from the faith, but God, by his kindness, has convicted you of sin and brought you back into his church. Maybe a friend shared the gospel with you in college or in high school. These are divine workers on God's behalf. They were just fulfilling the missionary task given to all of us. They were sent by God, whether they knew it or not, to you, so that you might know him forever. Take a moment and just in your mind, would you thank God for your mom? For that church, for your friend, for your dad. For your brother or your sister, for your cousin, for someone who knocked on your door or invited you to church. The reason you are a part of God's church is because a part of God's church came to you. Our text would encourage us, so would the rest of Scripture. That's not by accident. God sent them. Number four, and finally, one of the most interesting things in this text of Scripture, one of those things you're like, I want to know what the preacher's going to say about that. The things in which angels long to look. God's gracious salvation to you is the sort of thing into which angels long to look. There is a book written by a Christian author. I don't know much about the author, so I don't want to take this, I don't want you to take this as an endorsement. But he's been around for a very long time. His name's Philip Yancey, and he wrote a story of his family attending or traveling to, I should say, Yellowstone National Park. At Yellowstone National Park, which I've not visited before, they went to a restaurant. And outside of that restaurant was uh the great geyser Old Faithful. And apparently Old Faithful can uh is kind of timed and how often it will spring up. And so if you're in the restaurant, you have a visual of Old Faithful uh as this countdown clock that is exists in the restaurant counts down, everyone's eyes begin to look at the geyser that is about to spring up. Everybody's eyes, he says. Little kids are going to the window. Everybody wants to see. Oh, let's see this magical moment that is near unexplainable. Maybe you can explain it by science, but who put all the things there to even cause it to erupt? And Philippiancy writes, he says, and I looked around the room, and the wait staff didn't look. They continued to fill glasses. The bus boys continued to grab plates. As if something incredible was not happening right outside. Why? Well, because it was no longer impressive to them. Not if they were to think about it for a moment, would it not be impressive? But over time it lost its luster. Their appreciation dulled. Do not, Christian, lose your fascination, your awe of God saving people by the power of his Spirit who trust in Christ. Do not lose excitement when thinking about what God did in your life. There are things, all sorts of things, that catch our attention every week and every day that heaven says, Oh, but salvation? The servants of heaven are peering through the clouds to see. This is God telling us how heaven celebrates God's rescuing of sinners. Luke chapter 15, very well-known parable, parable of the prodigal son, starts with two other parables, parable of the lost coin, parable of the lost sheep. And in all three of those parables, what we see is that those who were lost and are now found are to be celebrated because that was God's work. And Luke 15 tells us that angels, pardon my vocabulary, go crazy over one sinner who repents. The moment of your conversion was like a geyser moment for the angels. I mean, imagine like angels on the edge of their seat, like you waiting to see if Tennessee's gonna beat Arkansas, which they should have done and thankfully did, to get maybe a game-winning touchdown in another game. Will God save him? Will God save her? Won't he do it? Won't he do it? So hear me just pastorally. Don't ever become unimpressed with God's grace in your life. Don't grow bored of his salvation. Fight spiritual apathy until you die, reminding yourself of the love of God for you. Believer, you have the privilege of the knowledge prophets only had in part and angels longed to see. So have you ever stopped to thank God for how blessed you are? Have you ever considered how great his grace is in your life? Oh, I hope so. And I hope it causes your heart to sing. Would you pray and thank him with me? God in heaven, we speak to you. The maker of heaven and earth, the savior of sinners, the keeper of a scroll, Jesus. I was the only one worthy to hold it. The one who will vindicate your church and keep us till the end. We think of our salvation and we thank you. We love you and live to serve you because you loved us and you live to sacrifice yourself for us. Help us to join in that heavenly chorus, salvation being the bringer of utmost joy in our lives. We thank you that you would consider us people who, while not worthy, people to offer salvation to, to save, to use, to give you glory. God, we gather because of Christ your Son. As we partake of your meal, help us to remember your cross and wait for your return. God, we love you. We thank you for loving us. It's for your glory and by your grace that we live.