The Wonder of Our Great Salvation
1 Peter 1:10-12
Introduction
A man accompanied his friend home for dinner and was impressed by the way he entered his house, asked his wife how her day went, and told her she looked pretty.
Then, after they embraced, she served dinner.
After they ate, the husband complimented his wife on the meal and thanked her for it. When the two fellows were alone, the visitor asked, "Why do you treat your wife so well?"
"Because she deserves it, and it makes our marriage happier," replied the host. Impressed, the visitor decided to adopt the idea.
Arriving home, he embraced his wife and said, "You look wonderful!"
For good measure he added, "Sweetheart, I’m the luckiest guy in the world."
His wife burst into tears.
Bewildered, he asked her, "What in the world’s the matter?"
She wept, "What a day! Billy fought at school. The refrigerator quit and spoiled the groceries. And now you’ve come home drunk!"
This lady didn’t understand her husbands behavior, because she had been taken for granted for too long. Many of us take our great salvation for granted that we don’t understand, we don’t Wonder at it, we are not Amazed by it.
Are you amazed by your salvation, so often we are guilty of taking it for granted? The apostle Peter in writing to these persecuted believers who has we have seen are scattered throughout five Roman provinces, wants them to understand how great this salvation that they have really is. Today we will learn what our salvation entails so we are no longer guilty of taking it for granted.
Read Scriptures: 1 Peter 1:10-12
I. Salvation is a Personal Experience of God’s Grace.
Vs. 10 “Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care,”
Grace as we have seen in this book previously is God’s favor showered on us—we who don’t deserve His favor, Grace is the mercy and love that God gives to us who at sometimes we ignore Him, we neglect Him, we curse Him, we disbelieve Him, we fail to love Him.
This list includes all of us, because as Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God.” We are all imperfect, we all have the perishable seed, the seed of corruption in our bodies that causes us to age, deteriorate, and move rapidly toward the grave.
But this is the grace of God: A way has been provided for us to be counted perfect—a way for us to be delivered from death and live forever. How? By God’s grace. The grace of God is the message of God’s eternal salvation through Jesus Christ. We can be saved from God’s wrath and judgment on sin by the Grace of God through Jesus. It requires a personal experience, not through anyone else, but you must experience it for yourself in order to satisfy God’s wrath on sin.
II. Salvation is accomplished by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Vs. 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.”
The Holy Spirit told the prophets that God was going to save mankind by doing two great things.
1. God would send Messiah into the world to die for our transgressions. The Messiah would take the guilt of our sin, (don’t miss that, “take the guilt on himself”) on himself, and bear the punishment and judgment of our guilt.
2. God would raise up the Messiah from the dead and exalt Him to the throne of God Himself. The resurrection proves everything that Jesus taught to be true about himself. This very act of raising himself from the dead set Him apart from any other person claiming to be divine.
III. Our Salvation is proclaimed in the Gospel.
Vs. 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.”
The word gospel means good news or good tidings. It is the great and glorious message of God’s salvation, of the death of Jesus Christ who died for our sins and was raised again for our justification. It is the gospel that if we truly believe in Jesus Christ, then…
God counts our faith as the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Therefore we are able to stand before God has righteous, as acceptable to Him.
God counts us as having already died in the death of Jesus Christ. Therefore, having already died in Christ, we never have to die. We will never taste or experience death. When it is time for us to depart from this world, in the blink of an eye God will transfer us into Heaven and into His very presence.
This is the Gospel, the good news of God’s eternal Salvation. Our duty is very clear in this life, we must believe the gospel, and commit everything that we are to Jesus Christ the Lord and begin to follow Him.
The Wonder of our Salvation is just this: God has loves us and speaks to us. He has loves us so much that He sent His Son into the world to die for us and to save us.
IV. Our Salvation is so Great that the Angels are Amazed.
Vs. 12 “Even angels long to look into these things.”
Angels are not able to experience salvation, because they are of the spiritual world.
A question that I used to get a lot when I taught youth Sunday school, is “If the angels that followed satan would repent would God allow them back into heaven?” The answer is no. Because they are spiritual beings that were cast down. They don’t have the capacity to repent, only human beings do while we are alive on this earth. It is the same as a person who lives a life without Christ and dies they go to hell, once they get to hell it does not matter how much that person repents they can never get to heaven once they die and go to hell.
But what God is doing with Salvation is so astounding and glorious that the angels stand in stark amazement at God’s workings. Are you still amazed by your salvation, are have you grown so used to it, you take it for granted and you are no longer amazed.
No believer should ever treat the gospel of salvation lightly. It is so astounding and amazing that it demands our greatest effort in studying (shame on you if you are a believer and you don’t study the word of God), in witnessing (shame on us when we have opportunity to tell what Jesus has done for us and we don’t), in praying (we have access to the very throne of God as believers, shame on us when don’t take advantage of that access).
Conclusion
The angels are amazed at Salvation, are you still amazed, are do you take it for granted. Maybe you have never experienced God’s salvation through His son Jesus Christ, you can be saved today.
(Thanks sermoncentral contributors, preachers sermon and outline bible)
