Predicted Glory

Sermon Transcript:

(transcribed with AI)

Promontory Community Church exists to make disciples of Jesus who know, live, and share the gospel for the glory of God.

Well, if you have a Bible with you, let me invite you to open it. You can find your way to the book of First Peter, and let me say a very happy Thanksgiving. It is good to be here together. Thank you for coming together. It feels like a day like today really should be every day for us, right? We should be thankful every single day, not just once a year. We have so much that we have to be thankful for. And yet I do think sometimes we don't always feel thankful. Is that fair? We know that there are all kinds of things we should be thankful for. We should be thankful for all the even just basic necessities of life. The fact that we woke up this morning, the fact that we had food to eat, that we could come here, that we had health enough to arrive. We should be thankful for all of those things, and yet so often we don't actually feel that thankful. Usually it's not until something is taken away that suddenly we realize how good a gift it was, right? You never realized how good it was to breathe through your nose until you had a cold and couldn't for a few days, and then suddenly you went, oh right, that was such a good thing. You're not truly thankful for the food that you have until you're really hungry, till you've gone without for a little while, and sometimes God does that to us. He takes things away so that we would actually recognize how much He has given. It's a good thing. It's part of how God shapes us.

But let me suggest that God actually does this in a number of different ways. We can learn to be thankful when things are removed, but we can also learn to be thankful in other ways. In fact, our kids actually give us a really good example of this. Any parent will know that this often happens — if you can remember back to being a kid and really wanting some kind of toy, asking for it for weeks and weeks leading up to Christmas or a birthday or whatever it might be, and finally you get it. And you're so excited. This is amazing. And then a week or two passes. Not that interesting anymore, right? Every parent knows the experience of going out, finding, buying that thing the kid's been asking for, only to find it discarded in some corner of the basement only a few weeks later, hardly ever played with. That is, until a friend comes over. Suddenly the friend comes over, they see that toy, they go, oh wow. And suddenly, once again, that is the most amazing thing your child has ever seen. It's the only thing they want to play with again.

We kind of laugh at that and think, oh kids, you're just wanting it because they want it, but there is something in our hearts that when we see others admire something, we also want that too. In fact, the same thing happens as adults, right? You get a new car, and for a little while it's very exciting. Oh look at this, this is really nice, I have a car now. And then eventually it begins to fade until you give someone a ride and they go, oh man, this is really nice. I mean this is a great car, and you start feeling it all over again. You're right, I do really like this. This is really nice, isn't it? Our hearts are actually attuned to what others appreciate as well, and that's not an accident. In fact, I'm going to argue that's how our faith works as well. This is why God says be in community with other people — it's how you actually encourage other people in their faith by showing the goodness of God. You make other people's hearts go, yeah, that is so good, isn't it?

In fact, I'm going to argue that's exactly what our passage this morning is all about. It's about seeing the witness of other people, looking into the salvation that we have in Jesus, and we are reminded just how incredible this privilege is that we can trust in Jesus. So if you have your Bibles open, I'll invite you to follow along with me. We're just going to read a few verses here in First Peter. It's our tradition to stand as we read God's word. If you're able to, would you stand with me?

1 Peter chapter 1, starting in verse 10. This is God's word.

Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

We are continuing on with this series in the book of First Peter, and if you have been with us for these past couple of weeks, you'll remember that Peter is writing this letter to a group of churches, and the very first thing that he is doing is calling them to praise God. And he's giving them all kinds of reasons for why they should. Why can we praise God? Well, he says, first, God is the one who has saved you. He has given this inheritance waiting for us in heaven. And in fact, he's even protecting us to bring us to that end. God actually is using all the trials that we go through for good, and so we can rejoice no matter what is going on because of everything that God has done. We can praise Him.

In fact, it was just a long list in one sense of all the things that we have to praise God for, and this morning he's actually just continuing that list. In Greek, verses 3 all the way down to verse 12 is one sentence — a real long sentence. It doesn't work in English, but in Greek you can do that. And so the whole thing is all based off of verse 3: blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Everything he's talking about here is for the praise of God, and he's calling everyone to praise God as well.

And so this morning he's really just giving another reason — his final reason why we can praise God. It's because we have the privilege to see and experience the grace of Jesus. Just like kids with a new toy, we can so often forget how amazingly blessed we are. And so the goal this morning is really just to remind one another of the superb goodness of Jesus Christ in the gospel that has been announced, even in seeing his sufferings, even as we can experience the glory that is yet coming.

So this morning we're just going to walk through this and see what are the reasons we have to worship God, and the first we see is in the good news that is announced to us. Look back at verse 10. Peter writes, concerning this salvation — now that is the salvation that he's been talking about this whole time — concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours. Let's pause there because this is a very long run-on sentence, so we'll just take a chunk at a time.

Peter is saying that the prophets in the Old Testament, as they wrote, they were writing about Jesus. Actually, the whole time as they were writing, they were showing us something about the grace that was to be ours in Jesus. And maybe that's already a bit of a shift in our thinking. Sometimes we have this idea, well, the Old Testament, that was God's first try, right? God started out with a plan, everything was broken, He figured, all right, I'm going to give you all a bunch of rules and I'll get angry when you're not doing it. Let's try that for a little while. That didn't work. OK, let's try something new — Jesus. But actually that's really not how we're meant to read the Bible at all. In fact, Peter's whole point here is that the Old Testament is showing us something of Jesus. And in fact, even the prophets in the Old Testament recognized that was the case, and they were looking for him.

Verse 10, he continues. He says they searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating. They were actually trying to figure out when is the Christ coming? Who will he be? Please remember, Christ is not Jesus' last name — that's a title, it means Messiah, it means anointed one, and the Bible has plenty to say about a coming Messiah. And so the prophets were looking for him. They were trying to figure out when is he actually going to come, what would he be like? They were writing down all this foreshadowing, and they're going, I want to see the real thing. I want to see what this is all leading to.

In fact, Jesus himself says the same thing in Matthew 13.

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.

In the Old Testament, the prophets were longing to see what Jesus would do. And so what were they expecting? Well, Peter continues, verse 11, says when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. Peter here is saying the Old Testament prophets expected two things of the Messiah. First is that he would suffer, and the second is that he would be glorified. If you're familiar with the Gospels, you'll know a lot of people at the time were just expecting the second one — they were just expecting things to go well, and they kind of often missed the suffering, and Jesus would often say, Didn't you read? Don't the scriptures tell you that he's going to suffer? In fact, that's exactly what Peter is saying. The prophets recognized that these things were happening.

Now we'll look at those two things in a moment, but just follow along with Peter, verse 12. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you. The Old Testament prophets recognized that what they were writing was not ultimately for them, but actually for us. Daniel is a great example of this. If you know anything about the book of Daniel, during the second half of that, things get real weird. An angel visits Daniel and starts showing him all kinds of visions and crazy things, and eventually at the end of the book, Daniel looks over at this angel and this is what he says.

I heard, but I did not understand. I said, O my lord, to this angel, what shall be the outcome of these things? And he said, Go your way, Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end.

Daniel gets all this and then he asks, OK, so what am I looking at here? When are these things going to happen? And he's told, Daniel, it's not for you. See, Daniel has to recognize that what he's been told is ultimately not going to be just for his edification, but actually for those yet to come. They were written down for the people of the Messiah.

See, I think this is what we need to recognize when we're reading the Old Testament. It's not that we should ignore the history or the people that the prophets or whoever was writing to — no, we should pay attention to what it all means, but we need to recognize the Old Testament on its own is not complete. It's meant to lead somewhere. It's sort of like a plane with only one wing — it's not really going to take off. It actually needs to show us what Jesus is like. The whole thing was written so we could see Jesus.

In fact, Paul says the same thing in the book of Romans.

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.

The Old Testament is not a bunch of outdated, outmoded ideas about God's first attempt. Rather, it is foreshadowing to show us what Jesus is like. It was written down for our benefit. Sometimes every once in a while people will say, well, it's not really for us. Yes it is. The Old Testament is written for Christians, and it's only in Jesus that it even makes sense at all.

And so here's the question we should then be asking: how does the Old Testament point us to Jesus? And Peter here says in verse 11 it points out two things. Certainly there's more, but he's focusing in on these two themes — first, the suffering of Christ, and second, the subsequent glories. And so if we're going to understand the incredible privilege we have as believers, we actually need to see what were the prophets longing for. What is it that they were desperately trying to see?

And so first we look at the sufferings of Christ. Verse 11 says that Christ will suffer. This is what Jesus was telling his disciples, but where did he get that? Where did that idea come from? And actually, as you start reading the Old Testament, you're going to realize it comes from the very beginning. Right in the beginning, Genesis 1, we have God creating the world, and he creates it perfect — no sin, no problem, Adam and Eve in the garden enjoying fellowship with God. That is until chapter 3. And now things go wrong. Didn't take long. God said, Don't eat of that tree. Satan comes and says, You sure? Why don't you try it? Adam and Eve eat the fruit. Sin enters the world. Everything God created is now distorted, twisted, even fractured. The curse of sin comes into God's world. But even before we can leave chapter 3, God has given us a promise that one day what has been destroyed will be put right.

Genesis 3:15, God says, speaking to Satan: I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.

God promises that one day the offspring of the woman — a child yet to come — would one day show up and crush the head of the serpent, that one day the consequences and the curse of sin will be taken away for good. Praise God. We have this promise, but notice already there what God is saying. His heel is going to get bruised. We're told right from the very beginning there will be a cost to pay. In order for God's redemption to go forward, there will be a cost that this chosen offspring in the future will one day pay.

As you continue through the story of the Bible, you begin to see more and more what that cost is going to look like. God begins to work with Abraham, gives him a promise through his offspring, through his son, and then God says, OK, Abraham, I want you to take your son and sacrifice him. God stops him before he even comes close to doing it. Why? Because God's giving a picture of what that cost is going to look like, what the chosen offspring will have to do for real. It's not Isaac — it's still one coming in the future.

As you continue with the story, you see the descendants of Abraham, the people of Israel, eventually end up in slavery in Egypt. And what will bring them out? Well, the final plague is the death of the firstborn son. And we see God provides a substitute. We begin to see the picture forming more and more as we continue the story. Again, God gives the law to Moses, gives them the perfect standard that they are to live up to, and suddenly it's very clear how very far away they are, and that the only way for sin to be dealt with in their life would be through sacrifice. In fact, God gives them this entire sacrificial system to show how costly it is to forgive sin.

Leviticus 17: For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I've given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.

Through this whole sacrificial system, God is teaching His people just how very difficult it is going to be in order to make atonement for sin, for the promise that was given to actually come through. The book of Hebrews nicely summarizes it for us.

Indeed under the law, almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin.

The cost to forgive sin is high. It is difficult. It requires actually someone to die in your place. And over and over again they were to learn that lesson through this system — it would be a challenge to deal with sin. And as the story continues, we just see the effects and the problems of sin growing more and more as God warns them over and over again of the problem of His wrath against sin, and now it is looking impossible for anything to actually deal with this problem. But God did not forget his promise. An offspring would come who would bear that cost. In fact, the prophet Isaiah begins to describe it in great detail for us.

Isaiah 53: They made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors.

This is perhaps one of the clearest pictures that we get of the suffering of Jesus anywhere in the Old Testament. We're even told that he was going to be laid down in a rich man's grave. In fact, we're told three main things that will come. First is that the Messiah, this offspring God promised, is going to suffer — he's going to face grief, anguish, bearing the sin of others while he himself has not sinned. Second, we're told this would happen to him according to God's will — it's not an accident, not a tragedy, but part of God's plan. And third, we are told that he will make his people righteous. Because of his sufferings to bear the sin of sinful people, the sinless sacrifice will make his people righteous before God.

Here is God's plan to deal with the curse of sin. And you can just imagine Isaiah getting this and starting to scratch his head and say, OK, but how is that going to happen? How is there even going to be someone ever born who has never sinned? We're all under Adam, we've all sinned, none of us are innocent, so where is this person ever going to come from? How is it that he is going to bear the sins of others? We can't even bear our own sin, let alone take someone else's. How is he going to do that? And then how is he at the same time going to be sacrificed unto death and yet be the intercessor? You're going to live to make intercession. How is that possible? You can imagine Isaiah just scratching his head over everything God has just told him. What is this going to look like? He's looking for Jesus. Jesus is the answer to all of those questions.

How could someone be born without sin? Well, because Jesus was not born under Adam's curse — he was a new creation, a new Adam, and Jesus lived a perfect life where all of us have failed. Jesus did not. He did not sin. And it was on the cross that he went to, not because of the crowds, not because of Pilate's cowardice, but because of God's plan. Jesus went to the cross and he bore our sin so he could actually reconcile us with God, so that he could bear the wrath of God against sin as the only way to be saved. Jesus went to the cross exactly as God had told Isaiah would happen, exactly the way that God had planned it from the beginning. His heel would be bruised, but the head of Satan would be crushed. Jesus suffered. He died. And he rose again. The questions Isaiah was asking are all found in Jesus Christ.

In fact, the prophet Zechariah again tells us it's going to happen.

And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only child and weep bitterly over him as one weeps over a firstborn.

The Messiah would be God Himself, yet pierced for our sins, and it is through that that God's grace and mercy would be poured out. See, the prophets have been longing all through this time, wondering how is God going to bring all of these threads together, and the answer is given to us in Jesus Christ. In his suffering, death, and resurrection we find the answer — this good news of God's grace.

But here's where we need to also recognize the prophets did not just say there would be suffering. In fact, they also promised that glory was coming — the subsequent glories, right, verse 11. They're looking for the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories, as in the glory that will come afterwards. And perhaps even more than answering the question of the suffering Messiah, the prophets were looking forward to this — the celebration of God's glory that was going to be revealed. And once again we see it all the way through the story, all the way back with Abraham. God makes a promise that through his offspring would come a blessing.

In Genesis 12 we read: I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

God promises a blessing for every family, for the entire world, and so when Jesus comes, he sends his disciples to the ends of the earth because the blessing of Jesus is for everyone.

God promises to David: When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

And Jesus is the offspring of David who will sit on the throne of God forever. How? He's already died and risen again. He will not die again. He is the one who will build God's house — the place of worship, not here on this earth, but an eternal one in heaven. God's promises all find their fulfillment in Jesus.

In fact, one of the greatest promises that God ever makes comes to the prophet Jeremiah, because he promises Jeremiah a new covenant is coming, and in fact it will be greater than anything they had ever seen.

Jeremiah 31: Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt — my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

God makes a promise to Jeremiah. A new covenant, a new agreement is going to come, and it will be different. God's people will be given a new heart, one that actually wants and longs to follow after Him, one in which they will actually know God — where they'll not have to say, have you ever heard of him, but every one of God's people shall know God — where sins will be forgiven completely, no more ongoing sacrifices every single day, completely forgiven, nothing left to do. Hear me: this is what we celebrate every time we take communion, the new covenant we have in Jesus. He's the one who transforms our hearts. He's the one who causes us to follow Him. It is through Him that our sins are forgiven — not just put off, not just delayed, but dealt with entirely. Our relationship with God is now one from the heart, and that is what Jeremiah was longing to see.

Remember his day? Nobody followed God. He kept preaching to a hard-hearted people who rejected him, who eventually put him to death. What was he longing for? He was longing for the day that would come when God would send His Holy Spirit to transform people's hearts. He was longing to see Jesus.

In fact, God promises even more. He promises Isaiah a day would come when all the effects of sin would be removed.

Violence shall no more be heard in your land, devastation or destruction within your borders. You shall call your walls salvation and your gates praise. The sun shall no more be your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light, but the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun shall no more go down, nor the moon withdraw itself, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended. Your people shall all be righteous. They shall possess the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I might be glorified.

God promises to Isaiah a day is still coming when all of the effects of sin will be wiped out. There is no more fighting. There is no more mourning. There is no more crying nor pain anymore. Revelation picks up this language. God Himself shall be our light. We shall dwell with Him forever securely, when all the people shall be righteous all the way through. Hear me — that's still what we are longing for. We join in the prophet's expectation of that day, but what the prophets expected, we have received the down payment of. We've already seen God at work in our hearts. We've already seen the work of sin's curse reversing through Jesus Christ.

See, over and over again, God was teaching the prophets, and the prophets were looking forward to what God was going to do in Jesus. Years and years, hundreds — in fact, generation after generation — waiting in anticipation for what you and I now experience. This is the joy we have. Everything they were longing to see and looking forward to is ours in Jesus Christ for all who believe. This is not something you need wait for any longer. This is ours in Jesus Christ. What we get to experience is what people have longed for, and now is ours.

In fact, Peter writes at the end of verse 12: in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news, the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. The Holy Spirit was anticipating what has now been announced to us in the preaching of the good news of Jesus. We get to receive what was promised. Here today, those are our promises for everyone who places their trust in Christ. These promises made thousands of years ago, announced and proclaimed so we might believe, that we could experience the grace of God to us. The prophets were longing to see it. It's ours — just like the kid who comes over and can't believe the amazing toys that their friend has, so the prophets are looking at what is ours in Christ and cannot believe what amazing grace has been given to us in Christ.

And even just to complete our amazement, it's not merely the prophets. Peter finishes with this little line: things into which the angels want to look. Peter is saying even the angels who stand in the presence of God and behold His glory are looking on what we have in Christ with longing. They are looking in awe of what Jesus has done — that even the heavenly hosts are captivated by the grace of God that you and I get to have. As far as we know, God has never made a promise like that to the angels. In fact, Hebrews even says, for surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. That's us. The forgiveness of Jesus is unique in all that God has done. It stands as the pinnacle of God's glory in creation. Everything that God created is leading to and focused on this one moment that we get to experience in Christ.

Please understand how incredible salvation truly is. This is what the prophets have been longing to see. This is what captivates the angels in heaven, and it is the glory of God displayed in Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, this is for you. This is what we have in Christ. The glory of God displayed in such vibrancy that all of creation reverberates with his glory. This is what you have in Christ. This is the salvation for all who would believe.

So what do we do with all of this? As we see the history of God's work laid down, as we see the generations who have longed to see what we now hold, let us with ever increasing magnitude give thanks and praise to our God. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The greatness of the salvation we have in Jesus — may it never lose its excitement in our hearts. Let us remind one another and see the witness of generations gone by looking with amazement at what we hold. Let our hearts see not only the prophets but even the angels, to inspire our hearts to worship God in thankfulness and praise. Let us rejoice in the good news of Jesus Christ.

Let's pray together. Our heavenly Father, Lord, we are thankful — today of all days we are thankful — for the grace of Jesus Christ, that we could not help ourselves, that we could not deal with our sin, that from the very beginning you had set this world in motion that we might see the goodness of Jesus Christ, that we could experience his grace and mercy in our lives. Father, I pray, would we always resound in praise for what you have done. Might we worship you all the more. Might we share the goodness of what you have done with those around us. Father, I pray, train our hearts to always rejoice in the goodness of Jesus Christ. We ask all these things in your name. Amen.