The Glory Of The Story - 1 Peter 1:10-12 Series

The prophets searched Scripture to find out what kind of era it would be when the Messiah would suffer and then be glorified. But they were told that it was not for them to know. We get to participate in this glorious kingdom in the Church (why would a Christian prefer the world to the Church?). The angels are preoccupied with our salvation but not hell (probably because they see the glory of God, so forgiveness is more outrageous than hell). The Spirit is preoccupied because of the glory of His plan (a ruined redeemed creation is better than one that was never ruined).

1 Peter 1:10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11 trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.

Introduction

Today is the seventh sermon on the book of 1 Peter, and we still have not gotten to a single command. The first imperative in the book will not come until next week, when we hit verse 13. All these first twelve verses that we have been studying have just been a celebration of the wonders of our salvation. It is one, giant sentence where Peter says, “Praise God who has given us new birth into a living hope and into a glorious inheritance. It’s an inheritance that is so marvelous that it brings us inexpressible and glorious joy just to contemplate it – even though we are going through all kinds of terrible suffering. All that suffering does is prove and strengthen our faith, which gives us even greater access to the wonders of this amazing salvation.” And even after all that, Peter still isn’t done. Before he gets to that first command he wants to say a few more things about the glorious wonders of how amazing this grace really is. And he does it in a very intriguing way. He is going to show us how three different parties were fascinated and preoccupied with this salvation. The first is the Old Testament prophets.

Why Were the Prophets So Fascinated? A Dying Deliverer

10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care

Searched what? Their own writings and the writing of the other prophets. In other words – the Old Testament Scriptures. They searched the Scriptures to attempt to find answers about this amazing salvation.

Sometimes people use this passage to try to suggest that the prophets did not understand their own writings. They scribbled something down, looked at it, and could not make heads or tails out of it. Or they thought they were writing about their day, and it turned out it was a prophecy of the Messiah and they did not even know it. That is not what Peter says. They understood perfectly what they had written. The prophets knew that what they were writing was the Word of God, and that it was coming from the Holy Spirit. They knew when they were writing about the Messiah, and they knew that portions of what they were writing was for a later generation. The only thing they did not know was the time and circumstances of the fulfillment.

10 … searched intently and with the greatest care 11 trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ …It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you…

God was showing them portions of the end of the novel and they were saying, “We want to know what happens in the surrounding chapters.”

The Glory of the Story

It is important to understand that the Bible is not just a giant collection of random religious sayings. It has a very definite story line with a clear beginning and a plot and a clear conclusion. It covers the whole life span of this world. And it does not just describe the history, but it reveals the meaning and purpose of everything that happens. It is all going somewhere, and the Holy Spirit showed the prophets some snapshots of the end of this glorious story. And they were blown away. They wanted to know the circumstances in which those snapshots would take place – especially since some of the snapshots seem contradictory.