VALUED BY THE EXPERTS
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on October 3, 2018 under AM Bible Study |
AM Bible Study Group: October 3, 2018 from 1 Peter 1:10-12
Theme: A true value of our salvation is shown to us by how it was valued by the experts.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
Have you ever watched Antique Roadshow? It’s an extremely popular program on public television—watched regularly by millions across the country. It’s a show where everyday people, in various locations, bring valuables they possess—hand-me-downs that they inherited, or items that they found in a second-hand shop—to be evaluated by a group of highly-trained experts. It’s always interesting to see the things people bring. But the most fun of the show is to see the reactions—and even, at times, the tears of joy—when folks are told of the remarkable history and high ‘auction’ value of the item they brought. Most of the time, they came with no idea that the thing they brought was so rare and precious. It took the enthusiasm and excitement of an expert to convince them of its true value.
We also have a precious possession—something far more valuable than any item on earth could ever be. It is our salvation in Christ. We many not yet understand or appreciate the real worth of this precious possession of grace. We may feel frustrated by the ways that we have to suffer for our faith—and we may even wonder if it’s worth it all. But the apostle Peter—in 1 Peter 1:10-12—brings in some experts to testify to us of the true value of our salvation in Christ.
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This passage is part of a glorious beginning to Peter’s letter about our salvation. In it, he helps us to look at our salvation from three perspectives. In verses 3-5, he calls us to look ‘forward’ to our future glory in Christ. In verses 6-9, he calls us to look ‘downward’ to the present circumstances in which those glories sustain us. And in our passage this morning—in verses 10-12—he calls us to look ‘backward’ to see what has been affirmed to us about our salvation beforehand in the Old Testament prophetic scriptures.
We can sometimes best learn the value of a thing by the excitement shown toward it—and the esteem placed upon it—by those who know more about it than we do. Let’s look at this passage and see how three sets of experts valued our salvation.
Notice first …
1. HOW IT WAS STUDIED CAREFULLY BY THE OLD TESTAMENT PROPHETS (vv. 10-12a).
Notice first how they inquired and searched these things carefully. In verse 10, Peter wrote, “Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you …” “The grace” that came to us was described for us wonderfully in verses 3-5. But many centuries before Peter’s time, the Old Testament prophets wrote about this grace under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The things they wrote were not products of their own insights and creativity. Rather, as Peter wrote later in his second letter;
And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:19-21).
God used the unique personalities and experiences of the prophets in giving His message to us. They wrote in their own words; but the Spirit guided them so that they wrote what He wanted communicated to us. And what they wrote was so objective—so manifestly more than anything that would have come from their own minds—that they themselves were fascinated by it and wanted to inquire further into it. And just think! If they wanted to inquire deeper into it, shouldn’t we?
Then notice how they knew that the Holy Spirit was revealing these things to them. Peter said in verse 11 that they were, “searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.”
Sometimes, the message they were given must have mystified them greatly! They would have been told of the future glories of the promised Christ; but they would also have been made to understand that the glorious Redeemer and coming King was also a suffering Servant. How do these things go together? If we had time, we could explore some of the things that must have been mysterious to them—things found in such passages as Isaiah 53, and Psalm 16, and Psalm 22—things that we now know speak of the Son of God upon the cross. Peter tells us that they ‘searched’ these things and sought to understand what time and what manner they would occur. But they valued them as very much worth searching out; because they knew that they were not man-made insights, but were sure and certain truths revealed to them by the Spirit of God.
Finally, notice how they were made to know that they were ministering to us in these things. Peter says in verse 12, “To them, it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you …” It wasn’t, of course, that these things didn’t have anything to do with those Old Testament prophets. Those prophets were given these revelations within the context of their times and of the needs of the people in their day. But they were made to know that they also spoke as God’s spokesmen to our day—to us, who live in the distant future from them—in the times of the fulfillment of the things they saw from afar.
In Acts 3—in one of his sermons to his Jewish kinsmen about the resurrected Lord Jesus—Peter said;
“Yes, and all the prophets, from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days. You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities” (Acts 3:24-26).
Look at how our salvation was valued by those experts from the Old Testament age! They knew that it was God who was revealing these truths to them about our Savior Jesus Christ. They diligently investigated and studied the things that they were given to say—as best they could in their time. They gloried in them as words that had been given to them by the Holy Spirit; and they were made to understand that what they wrote was going to travel across the ages and speak directly to a people many centuries later—even to us today.
They rejoiced and marveled that they were given a message by the Holy Spirit, meant for a future generation, that they themselves desired longingly to investigate and study further. And if they valued these matters of our salvation so much, shouldn’t we also?
And then, Peter calls in another set of experts about our salvation. He tells us …
2. HOW IT WAS PREACHED BY THE APOSTLES (v. 12b).
After speaking of the Old Testament prophets, Peter—in verse 12—tells us that “they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven …” Just as the Holy Spirit empowered those Old Testament prophets, the same Holy Spirit empowered the apostles of our Lord to declare that same salvation to us—ensuring that what had been given to the prophets of old would reach us and be explained to us. Just before going to the cross, the Lord Jesus told these apostles;
“These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” (John 14:25-26).
The Holy Spirit came on Pentecost, and He empowered the apostles to declare the good news of Jesus to the world. One of those apostles is the man who wrote this letter to us. He once even had the privilege—along with James and John—of being up upon the mountain with the Lord Jesus when He was transfigured before their very eyes. In 2 Peter 1:16-19, Peter wrote concerning himself and the other apostles and said;
For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts … (2 Peter 1:16-19).
The great value that these apostles placed on the salvation that they preached to us—who were themselves eyewitness of our Lord and His glory; and who were willing to lay down their very lives for their testimony of Him—ought to further encourage us to value it as something very precious … and to stay true to it no matter what!
And as if those first two sets of experts were not enough to convince us of the glorious value of our salvation, Peter calls in yet one more set of experts; and tells us …
3. HOW IT IS LONGED OVER BY THE ANGELS (v. 12c).
He tells us at the end of verse 12 that these are “things which angels desire to look into.” Peter is most likely speaking here of the angels of God—the unfallen, ‘elect’ angels. They constantly adore God our Savior and behold Him in the glories of heaven. What a marvel and wonder of His grace it must have been to them that the Father would look down in mercy upon us who are far lower than them in present glory, send His own beloved Son to become one of us and redeem us by His blood, secure our future glorification by His resurrection, and then sit at the right hand of the Father to intercede for us and to destine us to become sharers of His glory in heaven forever! What a wondrous display of His grace it all must be to the angels—who can see these spiritual realities so much more clearly than we!
We who have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus are destined for far greater glory than that of the angels. The Bible tells us that we, one day, will even “judge” the angels (1 Corinthians 6:3). They have no jealousy or envy over our future destiny of being raised to a greater place of glory than them, because they rejoice in the wonder of God’s grace and worship Him with perfect love and joy. God has—to some degree—even granted us this great salvation for the blessing of those elect and holy angels;
that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:7).
They certainly are experts in the true value of our salvation! They gaze upon it in wonder! They “desire to look into it”.
But the holy angels aren’t the only ones who desire to look into it. The devil and his fallen angels also look into it with great interest—not with any sense of wonder at God’s mercy toward us, but rather with a sense of dread over their own future doom. The devil wars against our salvation because we are destined to exceed him and all his fallen angels in glory and power and authority—and eventually to become his judges! The apostle Paul once encouraged the Christians at Rome by telling them,
And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly (Romans 16:20).
No wonder the angels look into our salvation with great interest! They know what our salvation means to their own destiny with a far greater sense of clarity than we do! Even Satan and his angels, because of the dread they feel over their impending judgment—by the continual warfare they wage against the saints—through the ongoing hostility and opposition they show to the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ—even they thus testify, by their actions, of the great value of our salvation!
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So; the apostle Peter has given us an assessment of the value of our salvation in Christ from three groups of remarkable experts—the Old Testament prophets who spoke by the power of God regarding our salvation; the New Testament apostles who preached it to us by the power of the Holy Spirit; and the very angels of heaven who long to look deeply into the things God has done in and for us through Christ! You get a sense—don’t you?—that we don’t really think about the glories of our salvation enough or value it as highly as we should!
And as we read on in Peter’s letter, we discover that he had a very practical and pastoral reason for bringing in all these experts to convince us of the value of our salvation. He next goes on to tell his persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ;
Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ …” (v. 13).
When we see how our salvation has been so valued by the ‘experts’, we ourselves will be made far more willing—even in the hardest of times—to press on and endure with joy. What a precious treasure is ours in Christ! How grateful we should be that it is ours by God’s grace!
EA
