Awe-filled Endurance

Will you please open your Bible and turn with me to ? This morning we are going to be looking at only 3 verses, verses 10-12 of . If you don’t have a Bible you can follow along by looking at the screens in front of you. Please read along with me as I read

Read . Pray.

What keeps a person from completely giving up with things get difficult? What will help someone move forward when things are hard and challenging? We face challenges with regularity, so what keeps us moving forward? As a Christian, when you face the accusation, persecution, and scorn, what helps you persevere?

We know that God’s Word points us in several directions where we can find fuel for our endurance. Already in this letter of 1 Peter we have discovered a few. In verses 1-2 we saw that our position as outsiders in this world is by a divine call, which should sustain us. In verses 3-5 we saw that we have been born again, by God, to a salvation that we will fully inherit in the last time, which should sustain us. And then last week we saw that we can even have joy in our sufferings because we know that God is working in us through them to prove the genuineness of our faith, which should sustain us.

Each of these is critical for Peter and the audience of his letter. They were living in a world that was hostile to followers of Jesus Christ and therefore they were the objects of persecution and suffering because of their allegiance to Jesus Christ. They needed gas in their tanks and Peter wrote the encouragements of verses 1-9 to fuel their endurance and fuel their joy.

Peter’s words were not only for them. They are for us. Peter’s words are for people like you and me who are living in a world of growing hostility toward Christianity. A world that mocks Christians and postures themselves as morally superior to Christians. Peter’s words are for Christians who may be losing hope, or are losing joy as they live in such a world. Is this the posture of your heart? You’re not losing hope, but you sure are losing joy. Your posture isn’t joy in God, it’s bitterness toward the world. How can you live today, in a world that is against you, and not grow bitter and angry but be humbly and joyful? THIS is the mark of Christianity!

Do you remember verse 8?

1 Peter 1:8 ESV

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,

Church, God doesn’t just want us to survive in this hostile world. He wants us to rejoice in the midst of it! With eyes full of faith in our Savior, we should rejoice! So, where else does Peter point us to fuel this joy? In verses 10-12, Peter points us to the glory of our salvation. He points us to the amazing nature of our salvation that should fill you and I with awe and fuel our endurance in this present age. How will you endure? With awe at your salvation! We don’t endure begrudgingly. We don’t endure with our heads hanging low, with frowns on our faces, and anger in our hearts. No, we live as exiles in this world with joy and a sense of awe.

Do you know what one of my biggest fears for myself is? That I will lose a sense of awe at my salvation. Have you? Have you become so familiar with being a Christian that you’re no longer amazed at how you became one? Are you bored by someone telling the story of how they were saved? Are you bored by your own story? This shouldn’t be the case! And if it is the case, when we face opposition and hostility in the world for our faith, we will shrink. We will hide. Or we will get bitter.

This passage is intended by God to be a cure for the sickness of bored and bitter Christianity. This passage, I pray, will produce in us a joy-filled awe at our salvation and declare to us that we can endure in this world by being amazed at our salvation. This is the message of 1 Peter 1:10-12:

Endure in this world by being amazed at your salvation!

As we look at this passage there are three groups that we are going to look at to stir our amazement over our salvation. These verses point us to (1) prophets, (2) people, and (3) angels. By looking at these three groups I trust you will be amazed by what God has done.

The first group we see are prophets. This passage tells us that prophets inquired about your salvation.

Prophets Inquired About Your Salvation

Did you notice this in verses 10-11? Read them again

1 Peter 1:10–11 ESV

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.

This passage tells us that long before God sent His Son to the earth, He was at work through the prophets to declare his coming. The Holy Spirit was at work through the prophets, inspiring them to write and declare the news of a coming one - a true Messiah that could forgive us from our sins. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Jonah, and on and on we can go, were inspired by the Spirit of God to tell of the coming of the Son of God. Isaiah was inspired to write of His coming this way:

Isaiah 53:5–6 ESV

But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

This was declared hundreds of years before Christ came! Notice in verse 10, though, that this grace that Isaiah prophesied about was a personal grace. Again in verse 10 Peter said,

1 Peter 1:10 ESV

Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully,

Though Peter has this audience in mind it necessarily applies to you as well. The grace that is yours today, that caused you to be born again to a living hope, that purchased you from your sins through blood of Jesus Christ, was prophesied about long ago! And those prophets that announced it, longed to see it. They inquired about it. Yes, they announced it, and they asked about it! They wanted to know “when?!” They wanted to see it.

And in their inquiry, what were they told? Look at verse 12 again:

1 Peter 1:12 ESV

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 preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

They were serving not themselves, but they were serving you. They were serving me. Isaiah told us about it, but he was not alive to see it. He was called to serve us. What Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Isaiah longed for, you have seen. They were serving you. Do you realize how amazing it is to be saved? Are you amazed at what God has done for you?? Isaiah would be. Ezekiel would be. How great it is to be living on this side of the cross. We, unlike prophets and saints before, do not look to the shadow but we get the substance. We don’t wait in anticipation but we live in the time of fulfillment!

Jesus told his disciples how blessed we are to live in such a time:

Matthew 13:16–17 ESV

But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. 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.

Do you realize how blessed you are!? Isaiah wrote for you. He did it so that you would read it and be amazed at what God has done. That you would be confident of Jesus’ sacrifice for you. So that you would have joy and be filled with awe at your salvation.

Endure in this world by being amazed at your salvation!

The second person we see in this passage is the Holy Spirit. We are reminded that the Holy Spirit declared the gospel to us.

The Holy Spirit Declared The Gospel Of Your Salvation

We can be filled with joy and awe because the gospel was announced to us by the Holy Spirit. Look at verse 12:

1 Peter 1:12 ESV

Beginning with the Apostles and now carried on throughout the world today, the gospel is being preached. The gospel that announces the fulfillment of the prophecies of old is being shared today in millions of churches. It is being preached on the radio and internet. The gospel is being shared by friends over coffee.

As this preaching is taking place, something is being announced. What is it? Peter says it is the good news. The good news that you, despite you awful condition as a sinner and rebel against God, can be forgiven of all your sins. The good news that tells us that though we were in this awful condition God, being rich in mercy, sent his Son to this earth for one purpose. He came to fulfill the prophets words and be pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. Jesus came so that by his wounds, you may be healed. This is good news and news that has been announced to you. This is the news that has arrested the hearts of all Christians, broken us and made us new.

Did you notice who announced this news to you? Yes, in verse 12 Peter says it was announced through those who preached the gospel to you. But did you noticed that the good news was announced to you by the Holy Spirit. The same Spirit that inspired the prophets to declare the news of a coming Messiah was at work through the people who preached the gospel to you.

Are you bored with your salvation? Are you bored by another person’s story of their salvation? Remember that someone, when you were lost and running away from God, preached the gospel to you. Can you think back through your life and remember all the people that shared the gospel with you? Of course you can’t! But think of those that come to mind: parents, friends, pastors announced the good news to you. Church, this is the means of salvation that God has ordained, he works through our announcement of the good news to draw people to salvation.

But notice who is at work behind these announcements of this good news: the Holy Spirit is working! The Holy Spirit sent from Heaven announced to you, through the preachers before you, the good news that saved you. God has sent the Holy Spirit to announce salvation to you.

This is amazing! The Spirit of God was sent from Heaven for this purpose, that when the gospel is proclaimed those who are announcing the good news are empowered by the Spirit and at work in your soul to transform you from darkness to light, death to life, and into a new creature!

Endure in this world by being amazed at your salvation!

Last, we see a third group in this passage. We have seen prophets and we have seen the Holy Spirit. Last, we see angels. Angels marvel at your salvation.

Angels Marvel At Your Salvation

Angels! Yes, those heavenly glorious and power being that are created by God and (save those fallen angels following our enemy) are without sin. They marvel at our salvation. They gaze at our salvation. They watch intently to what is going on and what is happening. This is what Peter means in verse 12:

1 Peter 1:12 ESV

If not marveled at by you, your salvation is marveled at by angels. They long to look into it. They are amazed at what God has done in you and is doing around the world. They rejoice when sinners repent:

Luke 15:10 ESV

Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Angels marvel at your salvation and so should you! You are in a more privileged position than angels! God has worked in you to reveal the mystery of God, the salvation of man through Jesus Christ, and to proclaim this wisdom to rulers and authorities in Heaven.

Ephesians 3:8–10 ESV

To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

Though suffering as an exile, we can endure by beholding our salvation. Consider all that God has done for you and rejoice with inexpressible joy as you face the battles of life in this fallen world.