September 5, 2004
First Church of the Brethren
H. Kevin Derr
1 Peter 1:10-12
“Prophets and the Gospel”
10Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11trying 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. 12It 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.
As I have mentioned before there were no clear distinctions between where the synagogue ended and where the church began. The only distinction that marked the difference was Jesus. The church, be they Jewish or Gentile named Jesus as the Christ, their savior and understood that God had raised him from the dead and as a result the believer knew forgiveness, and new birth, and a living hope. The synagogue did not make this confession of faith. Yet, they worship the same God, read the same scriptures, and in many cases sang the same songs and worshiped in a similar style.
The prophets quoted in the Synagogue were the same prophets quoted in the Church. There was only one difference, the Church understood that many of the prophecies spoke of Jesus of Nazareth who is the Messiah. In this passage, Peter reminds the church that the information about Jesus is not new, but was spoken of long ago. These prophets inquired diligently, they did their best to understand what was to happen and how it was to come to be that a savior would come. They did not do this on their own, they did not investigate just under their own volition, their own intellect and their own ability. They were guided, aided and enabled by the Spirit of the Christ who was pointing them to the realities of a suffering savior.
This friends was a major stumbling block, not only for Jews then, but also for Muslims, and many secular people now. Some have called Jesus’ death on the cross the worst example of child abuse, still others will argue that Jesus was a prophet and man of God, and God would never allow one of his prophets to suffer such humiliation. Yet, many of God’s prophets have suffered death and humiliation, many of God’s children have known pain, suffering and death, they have been martyred on many occasions. Yet, the image of a suffering savior is not one that much of humanity is comfortable with, for a variety of reasons. No matter how hard it is for us to address the notion of a suffering savior we are faced with it time and time again in the scriptures. And Peter points us to it one more time, and so we must come face to face with the death of an innocent that we might have life.
Prayer
I. In the last portion of 1 Peter we looked at the new birth, the living hope, our salvation known
with inexpressible and glorious joy. Today we will continue to examine that salvation. Peter
will help us to realize just what a gift we have received.
A. Peter writes, 10Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that
was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care,
1. Our salvation, the grace that has come to us as Peter said, was not just
something that was taken lightly. It was of great interest to prophets who came
before the Christ.
A. Some will argue that these prophets were Christian prophets who were
active in the congregations that Peter was writing to in Asia Minor.
B. It seems that this is not likely. While it does remain a possibility, there
is no sense that the people receiving the letter know the prophets,
except through reputation.
2. These prophets not included in the grace that came to the church, the wanted to
know about it, they wanted to understand it, they searched intently and with
great diligence, but they themselves did not know the salvation we have
received.
3. What Peter is telling the church is that this which we have received, our
salvation is not something to be taken highly, the prophets of long ago, look to
know this salvation, to understand, but they did not experience as we have.
B. You know how it is, when you have something, after the novelty wears off, after the
newness is gone, we begin to just assume it is like that for everyone.
1. There is a statistic that suggests that after 10 years of being a believer the
majority of your friends are believers.
2. So, if you and your friends are believers, what do you start to think, most
people are or have at least had exposure to the church.
A. Yet, the majority of people under 30 years old did not grow up in the
church
B. The younger you are, the less likely that you are to have had a church
background.
C. Peter wants to remind his readers just how precious gift that they have received, to jog
the memory and have them take account of what God had done in their lives. You
can really only appreciate something after you realize just how much things have
changed.
II. These prophets were on a mission to understand the coming salvation, they wanted to
comprehend what was to be. The had some ideas, they had received some revelation from
God, but they wanted to know and understand more. We would do well to imitate their
hunger for the good things of God, to comprehend, not what the future will receive but want
has been freely given to us.
A. Peter describes the prophets this way, 11trying 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.
1. They wanted to know the time and circumstances, they wanted to know the
when, why and how these things would come to be.
2. Peter says the Spirit of Christ was pointing them to a realization:
A. That the Christ would suffer and die
B. And that there would be glories to follow
1. The resurrection, the ascension, the Christ seated at the right
had of the Living God?
2. But more likely that people would receive forgiveness, new
birth, salvation of both Jew and Gentile
B. Peter continues with these words, 12It 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.
1. We have this tendency to think that everything we do revolves around us, that
the world exists for our pleasure and wants.
2. We do this with a lot of things, we often think worship is about what we like,
what we want, what is meaningful to us
A. Worship is about God, what honors God, not what we like or find
enjoyable
B. Our faith is not just about us, but about the body of Christ, our Spiritual
gifts are not given to us so that we might be important, but rather that
the body of Christ may be built up.
C. Our lives in Christ are meant to be a blessing to the world, to those who
are outside the church, we are to take the role of the good Samaritan.
D. We are to love our neighbors as ourselves.
3. Here Peter tells us that the prophets did not look into these things, the
suffering of the Christ and the glories to come for their own benefit.
A. They did not serve themselves but us.
B. How much of what we do as believers is really self-serving?
A. How much of what we do is about us?
B. How much of what we complain about is not really about things
of faith, but rather about what we want.
C. It is easy for us in the west to think of our faith as about us, and what
we do as believers as about us. But it is not, what we do as believers is
about the Son of the Living God, about the Christ.
D. We often do things for our own benefit, for our own standing but our
faith is ultimately not about us, but about God and neighbor.
A. How have you and I followed the example of these prophets,
how often have we worked for the benefit of others and not for
our own benefit.
B. Even much of our church work can easily be about “us” and not
about others. We want our church to succeed, not to grow the
kingdom of God. We want the kind of music we like, not to
worship God.
C. I’d ask that this week that you take time to examine your
motives in church life.
4. We often like to think that faith is our imitative. Yet, it is always something
that is begun by the Father, through the Spirit. Peter continues to encourage us
through the example of the prophets of long ago. He writes, 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.
A. It was not even the prophets that had the honor of tell the people that
Peter was writing to, it was another group.
1. The prophets carefully and intently looked into the things of
Christ
2. But it was not they who had the chance to share the gospel with
you, with them or with me.
3. How often do we work for the spiritual benefit of others, others
we will never meet or know?
B. Again, this was not their design, it was not their plan, it was God’s.
We like to take credit for successes, but not failures, we like to get the
honor of a job done well, but rarely are we willing to work for
someone else to get the credit.
1. But this is the example of the prophets. They did the work, and
yet never had the chance to see the results, to proclaim the truth
they knew and understood, they could only wait.
2. Later, at God’s direction, others proclaimed the message which
they had come to understand, to know and they wanted to see it
come to be, yet they could only wait.
C. Ultimately the gospel comes to us not by human plans or design, but by
the will of God as express through the Holy Spirit. If you and I are
obedient to the Holy Spirit we will find that we are moving beyond our
comfort zones, we are experiencing a direction that is at times
unsettling and even startling. Yet, it is not humans that we must obey
but rather the Spirit of the Christ who directed the Prophets so long
ago.
III. We often do not realize what we have, what has been given to us. Peter tells us that Even
angels long to look into these things. It tells us a few things that are worth noting. Angels
like humans are not privy to all of the plans of the father, they like us are required to do the
will of God, to be obedient servants.
A. Likely, just as man people do not understand the gift of God, angels do not either.
1. I suppose though, it is not necessary for us to understand things to use them and
enjoy them.
2. How much of the microwave do you need to understand in order to find it a
useful household item?
A. How to turn it on and how many minutes to reheat the leftovers,
beyond that not much is necessary.
B. Faith is not much different. While it is important that we understand
what God has done, it is more important for you and I to be obedient
and faithful than filled with knowledge.
