1 Peter 1:10-12

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I think you can sign up through the website under the events section.

And we'd love to.

And you by signing up, you're not saying, hey, I'm going to become a member.

It's a learning process.

You decide after the process is over.

Is this a church that I want to be committed to or not?

You can turn in your Bibles to 1 Peter.

We're going to continue our study in 1 Peter.

And we'll read this in just a second.

We've been going through this letter that's written by the Apostle Peter for the last few weeks.

We're going to go all the way through 1 Peter together as a church.

This morning we're just going to be focused in on verse 10, 11, and 12 from chapter 1.

But in our reading, we will read the whole benediction that is there from verses 3 through 12.

This is what we're going to read is a statement of praise.

Peter leads this church or these series of churches, house churches, where this letter would be read in a statement of praise.

That's what a benediction is.

And the first, the last two weeks, we've been kind of looking at what God's done for the believer in the past and then what the believer is anticipating in the future.

Last week, Tony talked about a Christ-consumed life, and this morning we will finish off this benediction and look at how the Spirit of Christ was bearing witness to the gospel through the prophets.

So let's stand together and we will read verses 3 through 12.

Let's stand.

I know we've during COVID we've gotten out of a lot of our old rhythms and routines, but we're going to begin to kind of get back into them.

And one of them is that we we stand to honor God's word versus honoring my words, where we sit down, is the idea, right?

So starting in verse 3.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, because of his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.

You are being guarded by God's power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

You're rejoicing in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you are suffering grief in various trials, so that the proven character of your faith, more valuable than gold, which through though perishable, is refined by fire, may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Though you have not seen him, you love him.

Though not seeing him now, you believe in him, and you rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy, because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that would come to you searched and carefully investigated.

They inquired into what time or what circumstances the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating when he testified in advance to the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.

It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you.

These things have now been announced to you through those who preach the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven.

Angels longed to catch a glimpse of these things.

Let's pray together.

God, we thank you for this text.

We ask right now that you would speak into our lives by your Spirit.

We give you just this time, and we ask that, Lord, our attention would be upon, would just be primed, uh, ready to hear from you.

Um, Lord, there are many things that can distract us in this room, and we lived a distractionful life.

And God, would you just allow us just the grace to connect with you, not even listening necessarily to me, but having ears to hear, which you would speak to us this morning.

We ask for that blessed work in Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

So this section that we're looking at, it carries on the heels of a phrase at the end of verse 9, where Paul said that, or Peter said, he talked about the salvation of your soul.

So if you go back a verse, you see that Peter talks about how Jesus is saving our souls.

And so in the verses that we are looking at, these three verses here, we have a number of different characters that are being referred to.

Peter says again, concerning, concerning this salvation, we have prophets who are prophesying about the grace that would come to you.

So right there we have prophets that predated the time of Peter, and then we have Peter referring to the modern reader.

Then if we go a little bit further, we see that these prophets, they're inquiring into what time or what circumstances the Spirit of Christ, there's another person in the text, the Spirit of Christ, who was in these prophets, was indicating, testified in advance to the suffering of Christ and the glories that would follow.

So here's Jesus in the text in verse 11.

And then verse 12, it was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, the modern reader who Peter was writing to.

These things have now been announced to you through those who preached the gospel.

So there's another person that's mentioned, the preachers, those who would pre had preached the gospel to these regions around Turkey.

And it was by the Holy Spirit that was sent, they did the preaching by the Holy Spirit that was sent from heaven.

And then look at the angels are even mentioned here in verse 12.

This whole text really kind of turns on this action of these prophets who are wondering, what am I prophesying about?

Who is this?

How is this going to unfold?

Imagine, and when we're talking about prophets here for Peter, uh the Peter, as we've talked about in the past few weeks, is Peter's a Hebrew writer, a reader of the text.

Peter loves the Bible.

The more I'm studying 1 Peter, the more you get a guy in Peter who just is in love with Scripture.

He is just saturated with Scripture.

And to the Hebrew writer being Peter, when he talks about prophets, he's thinking of the broad sense of a prophet, like Moses was a prophet, Samuel was a prophet, David acted in a prophetic way.

So it's this is not just prophets in the sense of Isaiah or Jeremiah, but this is the idea that God was speaking through these characters, these biblical characters, going all the way back to the book of Genesis.

These individuals, being these Old Testament characters, they participated, or these prophets, they participated in a mini-drama.

Think of even Joseph, the last character that we studied as a church.

Joseph had these dreams, right?

Joseph had these crazy dreams about the stars bowing down to him and these sheaves of grain bowing down to him.

And there must have been in Joseph this wondering: when is this going to happen?

What is this going to look like?

Now, Joseph was probably, he personalized it because it was a prophetic dream about himself.

But even in the character of Joseph, he himself, Joseph himself anticipated Christ.

Moses.

Moses is hearing from the Lord.

He's doing this mighty work that leads to this incredible deliverance for the people.

But there is in all of that a sense of so much more.

So much more.

The language that Peter uses is that this is the spirit of Christ that is in them, testifying to suffering and subsequent glory.

And so they're wondering what, when, and how, or, you know, they've got questions.

Just think of Isaiah 11.

I don't have the text, but if you look at Isaiah 11, he's prophesying, Isaiah the prophet is prophesying through the reign, the latter reign of some of the kings of Judah.

And there's all kinds of sin going on in the nation of Israel.

And in Isaiah chapter 11, he's given this prophecy about the root of Jesse.

Isaiah 11 · chapter mention

A shoot, it says.

In Isaiah 11, it says, Then a shoot will grow from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.

The spirit of the Lord will rest on him.

So all of a sudden, this branch that comes out of the stump of Jesse is personalized, and it says the spirit of the Lord will rest on him.

It'll be the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength.

Imagine Isaiah having been given by the Spirit of God that word and those images.

No doubt, if you are, if you are Isaiah, you're wondering like, what is this?

What is this?

How is this going to happen?

Then you get into Isaiah 53, which you're familiar with.

And in Isaiah 53, you have the suffering servant, right?

We have this individual who goes through tremendous suffering.

And the question that we're all asking is, who is suffering?

That would have been Isaiah.

Or you think of the prophet Jeremiah.

Jeremiah is such a unique prophet.

We have so much about him, but Jeremiah 31 is the prophecy about the new covenant.

And you'll remember that Israel was relating to God based off of a number of covenants.

You have the Adamic covenant, you have the Noahic covenant, you have the Abrahamic covenant, the Davidic covenant, and then you have the covenant under Moses.

And so Israel's operating and trusting in God based off of those covenants.

But then Jeremiah comes along and God gives him this word that there's going to be a new covenant.

Jeremiah 31, 31.

It says, it says this: Look, the days are coming.

This is the Lord's declar declaration, well, then I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, speaking of the covenant given through Moses.

My covenant that they broke, even though I am their master, the Lord's declaration is instead, this is the covenant I will make in the house of Israel after those days.

The Lord's declaration.

No longer will they teach their neighbor or their brother saying, Know the Lord, for they will all know me from the least to the greatest of them.

This is the Lord's declaration.

For I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin.

So Jeremiah the prophet, imagine him getting that prophetic word, and he's wondering, when is this going to happen?

It must have been just such a weird thing to be a prophet.

And so Peter is saying that these prophets, they're hearing from the Lord contemporary words, they're speaking truthfully to their culture, but they're also being given words about the Messiah, and they're wondering when is this going to take place?

In Matthew 13, 17, Jesus says something kind of similar about these prophets.

He says, For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see the things you see, but didn't see them, to hear the things you hear, but didn't hear them.

The prophets were longing.

Do you see that there?

They wanted to see the things that the disciples were seeing.

Nick, would you mind turning on the air conditioning for us?

Because I'm gonna bake.

I don't know about you guys, but it's gonna get it's a hot day.

It's gonna get warm in here.

Warmer than it is.

In verse 12 from 1 Peter chapter 1, the prophets are wondering, and they get an answer, it says.

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but instead they were serving the modern reader.

Peter says that there was, you can imagine Jeremiah or Isaiah or Moses or a Joseph kind of in angst.

And what God somehow reveals to them is you are serving, not yourself, you are serving this future audience.

You're serving this future audience.

After Jesus' resurrection, he appeared to two men on the road to Emmaus.

And we don't have time to go through the whole thing, but in Luke 24, 24, we're going to just pick up right here in the story.

Some of those who are with us, this is the two guys are talking to Jesus on the road to Emmaus, and they're saying, Those who were with us went to the tomb and they found it just as the women had said, but they didn't see him.

Jesus said to the two men on the road to Emmaus, How foolish you are, and how slow to speak and believe all that the prophets have spoken.

Wasn't it necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and enter into his glory?

Then, beginning with Moses and the prophets, he interpreted for them the things concerning himself in the scriptures.

They came near to the village, and I just want to fast forward here.

They say they invite him to dinner, they eat dinner together, but in verse 32, they reflect on Jesus' words.

They say, weren't our hearts burning within us while he was talking with us on the road, explaining the scriptures to us.

They were given contemporary commentary on their culture, but they were also foretelling of the Messiah, and they as themselves as their own characters were in a place of angst, wondering what was going to happen.

With on the road to Emmaus, Jesus is able to open up the scriptures and say, from Moses to the prophets, I want you to see all of this testifies of me.

All of this testifies to me.

So what does all this mean?

Right?

So we've got these three verses.

We've got prophets who are in angst and find out this is a future, I'm prophesying for the benefit of a future audience.

Why is all this being said?

Well, if you go back to verse 10, Peter says, concerning, now concerning the salvation, concerning the salvation, Peter is giving a context to the salvation which the modern reader is enjoying.

Peter is essentially saying this you are special.

You may not have seen the Messiah.

Remember, that was in last week's context.

You haven't seen Jesus, you haven't seen the Messiah.

You live in Turkey, you're Gentiles, you didn't witness his crucifixion, you didn't witness his resurrection, but you haven't seen him, but you love him, but your spiritual experience is unique.

The prophets, the Old Testament prophets, they wanted to know what you know.

They inquired carefully to see who would bring about this grace, who would do the suffering, who would experience the glory.

Even the angels long to look on these things, but you, Gentile Christians in Turkey, have this special spiritual experience where they were foretelling of something for you.

You recall that these are Christians who are going through difficult things, right?

They've been ostracized socially because they want to identify with Christ.

They've taken the call of discipleship seriously.

They've heard a gospel message that where it was not like, hey, take on this lifestyle and just let it be an addition to the normal life you live.

No, being a follower of Jesus was costly.

And these people in these churches that were reading Peter's letter, they're hearing from Peter, they were seeing and hearing Peter speaking into their pain and suffering, and they're hearing about these Old Testament prophets who longed for their moment, and yet it was their moment.

And Peter is trying to say, you have received a special, a special anointing, a special moment.

Peter is also explaining the mechanations, I love that word, the mechanations of God's unfolding redemptive plan.

God didn't just show up with Joseph or with Moses or with David and do something on the spot.

But God would reveal himself in the life of Joseph and Moses and David and Jeremiah and Isaiah.

He would reveal himself in their moment, but there was this overlap where it anticipated the Messiah.

God did save the day countless times.

I mean, look what God did on behalf of Joseph.

Sometimes you look at the life of Joseph, you look at David, and you're like, God, I want you to fight the giants in my life.

I want you to rescue me from the pit that I'm in, like Joseph.

But God didn't just save the day there, but he anticipated the redemptive work through Christ.

He foreshadowed Christ.

Even with Adam and Eve, they fall in the garden, they disobey God.

Genesis 3.

Shame comes upon them.

They realize I'm naked, I'm exposed, I'm different.

You're a female, I'm a male, we're both naked, this isn't good.

They're hiding from each other, right?

There's shame over their life.

And God comes and he confronts them on their sin, but then he provides a covering for them.

He covers them and he says, I am not just going to cover you in this moment, but there's going to come a day where the seed of the woman is going to crush the heel, or it's going to crush the head of the serpent.

I mean, that's that is the first act, redemptive act in human history.

And it just continues on through the Old Testament.

It is this beautiful unfolding of God's redemptive work.

And there is in the minds, you would imagine, in Adam and Eve, this when and how is this going to take place?

How do we apply this to our life?

We've been we have to keep in mind, again, that this letter is written to a group that he nicknamed, Peter nicknamed these Christians elect exiles.

You've been chosen to be sojourners.

That was up in verses 1, 2, and 3, right?

You've been chosen as elect exiles who are suffering for your faith.

You're being tested.

And Peter's leading them through this benediction, this song of praise to God.

It were as if he's giving these Christians who are suffering a mental exercise and saying, let's frame up your thinking in this way.

Sometimes that is what we need when we are going through a fiery trial.

We need someone to help us think through stuff, right?

Help us think through this.

And that's what this benediction is.

It's a template of like, here, think about God's work and your place within it.

When you're going through suffering, You can be tempted to question your self-worth and the personalized attention of God.

When you're going through suffering, think back, or maybe it's right now, when you're going through suffering, you're tempted to question your self-worth and this the um personalized attention of God.

You may think, well, I had this coming.

I knew in the depths of my heart I was a screw up.

I remember back when I was in kindergarten and I couldn't get an A on a test, and I knew that my life was gonna just end in ruin, and here it comes, right?

That's kind of how we can think about our trials, our suffering.

It was only a matter of time until I was exposed.

Or you go through something difficult and you think, well, I'm so small.

God's last lost track of me in this big world.

Like I'm like a little kid lost in a grocery store and like walked away from his mom, and there's nobody to care for me.

This trial, it's just another proof that my life doesn't really matter.

Those are the kind of voices you hear when you're going through difficult things.

You hear things that you're just not good enough for God's rescue, that you deserve this, that this was inevitably gonna happen, that God doesn't have his eye upon you.

Now, our world knows that this is the case.

And um and so there's a whole self-esteem movement that where you need to kind of combat this idea and realize, no, you are special.

If you've got to go read a um a secular view on self-esteem, the idea that you're special is gonna be rooted in um your uniqueness.

You know, nobody else has DNA like you, nobody else has your story.

And and there are people that have unique experiences.

Typically, we turn them into heroes, like you know, like a Bill Gates or a sports athlete who has an incredible uh talent.

And um, and then we try to mirror, we try to take those heroes and say everybody can be like that.

You just have to really amplify your uniqueness.

That's kind of the secular way to um deal with um uh a low self-esteem in the midst of difficulty in life.

Or maybe you'll hear something of like, hey, you've got untapped potential, you just need to recognize uh all that potential that you haven't um utilized yet.

Or maybe it's like you need to feel better about yourself because look at um look at all the good things that you've done, look at your positive contributions to society.

And Peter is has a theological um way of framing this up.

It's funny, I as I was preparing this message, I realized that while there is a secular kind of sermon on suffering and self-esteem, every once in a while our secular culture kind of allows um uh there's crossover, right?

And so sometimes they come out in movies.

So for our kids that are in the room, we have a little clip here, okay?

And for the adults, this is one minute long, all right?

But I was I was struck.

I was struck by how much this one-minute clip overlays the uh P Peter's experience, all right?

Let's see if we can get this to play.

You're the one that's not.

You're the first one.

You found the piece of resistance, and the prophecy states that you're the most important, most talented, most interesting, and most extraordinary person in the universe.

That's you, right?

Um yes.

That's me.

Great.

You drive.

What?

Uh thank you for uh letting me indulge myself.

Here's the reality.

Here's so there's a little bit of overlap between that clip and what Peter's saying.

One of the things that I like is when um she says you're special, and he's like, uh yeah, right.

Because we know.

The reality that we know that's different from that is that we are not the special, but that we have Jesus, who was the one who was special on our behalf.

He was the fulfillment of prophecy, he was the one whom prophecy pointed to, but you know, in a in a funny, goofy way, we are able to map on to our life what Christ did on our behalf as we go through suffering.

It's funny how this guy, they're running away, right, from the bad guys in this in this in the clip.

We're going through junk.

Satan is is after us.

And these these poor people who had um not poor people, they're wealthy in Christ, but they're suffering deeply in Turkey, they are they're clinging to the Lord in their place of suffering.

They're asking the Lord for his help.

If we go back into 1 Peter 10, 11, and 12, Peter says that you have been given grace.

These prophets in the past, they prophesied about how you would be a recipient of grace.

God's prophets, they wanted to understand what you have actually understood.

And even the angels long to look into this thing that you are experienced.

We'll close with this.

Satan wants to disconnect you from God's redemptive plan.

Hear that very clearly because I want to preach the gospel to you this morning, but I also want to awaken you to Satan's preaching in your life.

Satan's preaching at you all week, and he wants to disconnect you from God's redemptive plan.

He wants to tell you that you are the exception to the rule.

Everyone else is special, but your suffering just proves that you are not woven into the design of God's redemption.

God is speaking through Peter to remind you and I that you are participating in a special time in history.

You're actually experiencing the fulfillment of prophecy.

If you're suffering, and if you're not today, you will soon, probably, because we all, that's the that's a human experience.

Peter says, Hey, I want to just elaborate a bit on your salvation.

This salvation of your souls, it let me let me give you context for your life.

You are living at a moment where our heroes anticipated and lived a life that spoke to the moment you're living in.

And man, I don't know about you, but but when I'm going through it, I I need to know.

I need to know that no, I my life is woven into God's redemptive plan.

That God hasn't given up on me.

And that Satan's not gonna win to separate me from God's redemptive plan in my life.

And so for you and I, I just would I would encourage you to go back as we continue through this, Peter's gonna keep discipling us on how to think through suffering.

Um, and some of you guys have gone through really difficult stuff.

You know, I know I know a bit of your story, and and it's it's not like just thinking these things is gonna make everything better, but but Peter is, he's decided, he wants to disciple you and I to help us along on how to go through this.

I know some of you are making difficult decisions at work, you're taking a stand for Jesus, and it's costly.

It's costly.

And just just know that you're just like a like this rug here, you're a thread, you're a part of that beautiful tapestry of what God is doing.

It's his redemptive plan in the world.

And there you're the envy, you're the envy of angels, the fact that you live and are the recipient of this redemptive salvation work.

We're gonna take um communion together.

I'm gonna have Nick come up and um Nick come up and read or play his piano, which we're very grateful that he plays his piano.

He plays his computer in his piano.

And um, the guys, if you could um pass out communion, and if you're online with us, grab um some communion elements.

We'll sing this song um as elements are being passed out, and then I'm gonna read to you again from Jeremiah thirty-one, this new covenant.