1 Peter 1:10-12

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 107:1-3
• Hymn — Marvelous Grace of Our Loving Lord (#465)
• Prayer of Invocation
• Hymn — Rock of Ages (#499)
• Prayer Requests
• Pastoral Prayer
• Scripture Reading — 1 Peter 1:10-12
• Sermon
• Benediction

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Sermon Title: The Prophets, the Spirit, and the Church

Scripture: 1 Peter 1:10-12

I. The Prophets Searched and Inquired Concerning Salvation in Christ

A. Peter draws attention back to the full complex of salvation described in 1 Peter 1:3-9, calling it "grace" — God's unmerited (even demerited) favor toward sinners in Christ

• Every aspect of redemption is of grace; these Christians in Asia Minor are undeserving recipients of what the prophets foretold

B. The prophets searched and inquired tirelessly (like Bereans) to understand what they had been given to prophesy

• They inquired about the manner and time — how and when the grace would be revealed (the KJV rendering "what manner of time" is preferred)
• The prophecies made clear a Messiah was coming, but how and when remained hazy in the age of types and shadows

C. The New Testament concept of mysterion (mystery) explains this haziness

• Mystery = that which was hidden in the age of preparation but is now revealed in Christ
• Luke 8:10 — Jesus grants his disciples knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom
• Romans 16:25-27 — the mystery kept secret for long ages is now disclosed through the gospel
• Old Testament prophecies come into clear focus because Christ has come

D. We now know more than the prophets understood — even more than the angels

• 1 Peter 1:12 — angels long to look into these things
• Ephesians 3:10 — through the church the manifold wisdom of God is made known to rulers and authorities in heavenly places

E. Reading the Old Testament apart from Christ is to remain in haziness

• 2 Corinthians 3 — Paul says the Jews of his day still have a veil over their eyes when they read Moses, because they do not read him through Christ
• Christ is the Yes and Amen; Colossians 1:15-16 — all creation and redemptive history finds its apex in him

II. The Prophets Were Inspired by the Spirit of Christ

A. The predictions are attributed not to the prophets but to the Spirit — and specifically the Spirit of Christ

• The prophecies are God-inspired, not merely human predictions
• Each prophet's personality and style shows through, but the words are the Spirit's

B. Distinction between inspiration and illumination

• Inspiration: the Spirit working in the prophets to produce exactly what God intended — a closed canon
• Illumination: the Spirit bringing greater clarity to believers today as they study the inspired Word; we are never inspired, but we are illumined

C. "Spirit of Christ" implies the pre-existent Son at work in the Old Testament

• This relates to the filioque clause — the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son
• The Western church affirms this in the Nicene Creed; it was the cause of the Great Schism with the Eastern Orthodox Church in AD 1054

D. The sufferings (plural in Greek — intensifying the suffering) predicted by the Spirit

• Isaiah 52:14 — the physical disfigurement of Christ
• Isaiah 53:10 — the deeper suffering: the Father's wrath crushing him as a sin offering
• The cup Christ shuddered at in Gethsemane was not Rome's or the Jews' cup but the Father's holy wrath poured out on him

E. The glories (also plural — equally intense) follow the sufferings

• The triune God's plan has always been centered on the sufferings of God in the flesh
• The heresy of Marcion (2nd century) wrongly separated the "cruel" Old Testament God from the loving New Testament God; Peter refutes this — the Spirit of Christ himself was predicting these sufferings in the Old Covenant
• Everything in redemptive history flows from the eternal plan to come down in the Son and be crushed by his own wrath for his people

III. The Prophets Were Serving the Church of Christ

A. It was revealed to the prophets that they were serving not themselves but the church (1 Peter 1:12)

B. This theme runs throughout the New Testament

1. 1 Corinthians 10:11 — Israel's wilderness experiences were written down for the instruction of the church, "on whom the end of the ages has come"
2. Romans 4:22-25 — Abraham's faith was recorded not for his sake alone but for ours, who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord
3. Hebrews 11:39-40 — the Old Testament saints of the Hall of Faith did not receive what was promised; God provided something better for us, so that "apart from us they should not be made perfect"

C. The church is not Plan B — she is Plan A

• Israel's experiences, Israel's saints, Israel's prophets — all written down for the instruction of the church
• God's redemptive promises find their perfection and completion in Christ and the church purchased by his blood
• The mystery hidden in ages past is now revealed: these things have been written for us — Jews and Gentiles united to Christ — who now hold an imperishable and eternal inheritance in him