Grace To You: Sufferings And Glories

A. Opening illustration: “A good piece of chocolate is like a good piece of music. It contains something memorable that stays on your mind for the entire day.” -food technologist Darin Sukha, Smithsonian Magazine, “the Son of Man came to save people from their suicidal love affair with possessions (and every other idol) and to lead them into a kind of impossible obedience that displays the infinite worth of Jesus.”

B. Background to passage: Peter has been expounding on the salvation that these suffering churches and believers possess as his primary means of encouragement to them (which is the purpose of the book). He closes out this first bastion of strength and endurance in suffering by demonstrating how wonderful the salvation and the grace of God that was intended for us is demonstrated. This is not so much about the depth of the gospel, which Peter has already mentioned, but about the excitement that it should bring to the lives of believers to help them overcome suffering.

C. Main thought: The magnificent, marvelous, matchless grace of the gospel intended for us

1) The Prophets Searched It (v. 10)

a. Peter speaks of the prophets who constantly searched for answers. They examined their own writings and oracles to take was they did understand about the mystery of the promised Messiah. The idea is strong, powerful, careful examination and may have looked as though they had caught a scent of something and were in hot pursuit. They had seen a glimpse of this message of this coming King, and they wanted to know the when, how, where, etc. They wanted to know who the Messiah would be, and when He would come. They wanted to know how He would bring the Gentiles to salvation. About the New Covenant. Out of all the things that the OT prophets had to go over (oracles of judgment, visions and dreams of God, histories of God work, etc), they desired most to know about salvation that God would provide through the Messiah by grace. Jesus and the cross, the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.

b. Mat 13:17 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. Also, examples of Daniel, Isaiah, Hab

c. Illustration: "It cost God nothing, as far as we know, to create nice things, but to convert our rebellious wills, it cost Him crucifixion." C.S. Lewis

d. The prophets who only had pinholes to see through were excited, how much more so should we who have the hindsight and knowledge of all the prophecies. We have seen the blanks filled in between the prophecies. We now know all the fulfillments and the prophecies yet to be fulfilled. We have a full written word detailing these things. Yet, we yawn. I did a Facebook post trying to get people to guess what food the article above was talking about. I got answers like bacon, mushrooms, tacos, pizza, and coffee. I think coffee connoisseurs are is not what most of us are. We doctor it, or drink it many ways, and it’s not to say that we don’t enjoy it, but it’s either habit or necessity. We drink coffee to help us wake up, shake off the drowsiness of the night or day. We use it to get rid of the yawn. It would be incredibly missed, but for what reason? We act as though it is simply an idea or a historical fact or a set of car keys, a wallet, or phone that we are comfortable with or that we have misplaced. However, it is a person, a relationship, a treasure that we seek. We know not the intricacies of the sufferings and the glories of the grace meant to be ours. Many of us don’t care. Excitement about what Christ has done is long gone. We must ask God for a spirit of hunger for him. We must repent of our apathetic approach to the gospel of our salvation. It’s the best news ever. It’s the greatest day of your life. It’s the best news of all the days of our lives. Repent from indifference toward the study of the Word. Repent from our laziness in prayer. Repent from our boredom with respect to the church.

2) The Spirit of Christ Inspired It (v. 11)

a. Notice is was the Spirit that kept on giving more details to the prophets. The predictions, while written down by the prophets, were inspired by or indicated by the Spirit. Two theological truths come from this: (1) the trinitarian reference to the Spirit. This is not a different Spirit from the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of God. This phraseology is also used in Romans 8:9 with all three references. We are to understand that the Spirit is a witness to Christ in the OT as well as the new. (2) The truth that the Spirit inspired, here “predicted,” is an important one to our theology. Inerrancy comes from an inerrant God.