An Exposition of 1 Peter, part 4: The Prophets Said it Would be Like This

1 Peter 1:10-12 “Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, 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. To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us 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—things which angels desire to look into.”

Introduction

The idea for the title of this section comes from a Chattanooga weatherman who predicted correctly a big snowstorm in March 13, 1993. It was the only snow of the season in an area that barely averages 4 inches of snow a year. It was a great shock to all that the city got 21 inches of snow that late in the season. The weatherman, Paul Barys would later advertise his forecasts with the words: “Paul said it would be like this.”

In the the text we just read, Peter had begun to teach the believers in the five Roman provinces in what is now Turkey that contrary to their expectations, persecution was a badge of election rather than a punishment. The believers there were to rejoice even in the times of trial as it was the means of perfecting their faith. What the Roman authorities meant for evil, God was using for good just like God used Pharaoh in the Old Testament to His glory.

Exposition of the Text

Concerning which salvation the prophets searched and made careful inquiry — the In the text we read, Peter now shifts to the prophecies of the Old Testament. The Scripture of the Church in the New Testament era was what we call the Old Testament. This would have been supplemented by some of the New Testament epistles of which most had been written. The Gospels of Mark and Matthew were probably written by this time. But the writings that already existed probably were not universally available. There may have been other written material, and there was the preaching and teaching of the Gospel. We do not know how much of the New Testament the churches to whom Peter addresses had. Since there were many churches, it is possible that different churches had different material. But it is probable that all had copies of the Old Testament in the Greek language called the Septuagint. Jews as well as Gentile converts would have been instructed from the Old Testament and as much material as was available of the new.

We know from the Gospels how important the Scriptures were to Jesus. We read in John 5:39-40 that the Old Testament pointed to Him. He challenged the listeners to search the Scripture with Jesus in mind. It i s not that the Pharisees and Scribes did not know the Scripture. They certainly did know what the Scripture said. They were aware that the Scripture was life itself and pointed the way to eternal life. However, they were not yet enlightened to what the Scripture meant. They would find eternal life in Jesus Christ and Him alone.

On the road to Emmaus we read that in Luke 24:27 that Jesus used the Scripture to show that it testified of the necessity of Jesus’ suffering as well as afterward to enter into His glory. The Old Testament testifies of the death and resurrection of Christ. To these two disciples, this testimony was presented before He revealed Himself alive by the breaking of bread. Shortly afterward in Luke 24:44-45 Jesus tells the eleven that the Scripture testified about Jesus.

I could quote many Scriptures in the New Testament about the foundational importance of the Old Testament in preaching Christ and the resurrection. I will mention just one of them. In 2 Timothy 3:15-16 Paul tells Timothy of the importance of the Scripture. It makes one wise unto salvation and is profitable for “doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness.” The Old Testament is God breathed.

So when Peter now points them towards the Old Testament Scripture, he notes that the prophets diligently searched and inquired of Scripture. They did more than just prophesy the Word of God to their generation. They searched the Scriptures they had at the time for salvation. They were searching for a time when the wolf shall lie down with the lamb (Is 11:6), when the swords would be beaten into plowshares and the spears into pruning hooks. (Isaiah 2:4) (Micah 4:3). They hoped for God’s grace and deliverance in their own time. Even though there were times of temporary relief given, the fulfillment would have to wait for another time for the Savior.

They instead prophesied concerning the grace you have received — Literally the Greek says “They concerning the unto you grace having prophesied.” The “unto you grace” preceding “having prophesied” gives additional emphasis to the idea that they prophesied to their behalf even more than they prophesied to those of even their own time. Much of what they prophesied would not be fulfilled until the time of Christ. The Church is then the beneficiary of the message of the Prophets.

Searching for how and at what time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did testify — We have already noted that all Scripture is God-breathed. We also read that the Holy Spirit is the inspirer of Scripture. Here we read that the prophesied through the Spirit of Christ which was in them. What one member of the Triune Godhead does or says is the work of the entire Trinity. Peter may be emphasizing the Spirit of Christ here because He wants to emphasize that the content of the prophecies in which they prophesied about Jesus came from Jesus Himself, who is the Word of God. this also teaches the pre-existence of Christ as well. The Spirit of Christ in the prophets before His incarnation testified through them of His own days on earth, His life, suffering, death, burial and resurrection. Jesus then becomes the fulfillment of His own prophecy. God knew the entire plan in advance, even from before the beginning of time, and the Old Testament was part of that plan.

The things concerning the sufferings of Christ and the glory which would come afterward — We have already seen that this is the same message the Emmaus disciples received from Jesus on the day He arose. The Old Testament testifies in general about Christ throughout, but special emphasis is placed upon His suffering and glorification here. We have noted that 1 Peter was written to address the sufferings the believers were facing in the churches he addresses. Christ suffered first, then entered into His glory. Peter told the churches that it was necessary that the believers there must suffer for a little while. But after this there would be glory. One must first embrace the theology of suffering before the theology of glory. The Kingdom of God is indeed in the believers, here and now. But is is expressed for a little while in suffering. The Kingdom of God in glory will follow afterward, not for a little while but eternity.

It was not unto themselves it was revealed, but unto you that they did minister — All too often, pastors are taught in seminary that they need to find out what the prophets were telling the people in their own generation. It is only after this that application can be made. One problem to this is that the original context may be sketchy, and the reconstruction upon which they true to divine the message involves a lot of imagination on one’s part. Another problem is that modern believers are treated as though the Scripture can only be heard indirectly, that the message is not primarily for people today. The best that can be done is that some practical inferences might be made. But this is erroneous. Here, Peter says that the prophets were ministering to the churches Peter was addressing and not to their own age. This is not to say that the prophets did not address people and situations in their own day. But inasmuch as they were prophesying by the Spirit of Christ of the time of Jesus, they were ministering to the believers there. By extension, these words speak directly to us also.

Which things have now been proclaimed by those who evangelized you — We don’t know who brought the Gospel to these churches. The Galatian churches may have been evangelized by Paul. Silvanus (Silas) who is mentioned at the end of the letter might have. What is important is that they received the proclamation of the Gospel. What is also important that the message of the Old Testament prophets was foundational to their message in addition to what they proclaimed about Jesus and how He fulfilled these promises. This is also demonstrated by the apostolic preaching of both Peter and Paul in the book of Acts. Citations of Old Testament Scripture is common in the epistles as it is in the gospels. this does not presuppose a Jewish audience who believed in the authority of Scripture as Paul uses the Old Testament Scripture when addressing Gentiles as well.

By the Holy Spirit sent from heaven— “From heaven” is a Hebraism which is properly “from God.” Jews were terrified of taking the name of the LORD in vain. This was originally expressed by their reading “adonai” (Lord) instead of Yahweh (YHVH) in the old Testament texts. They even shied away from “Elohim” (God). So they often substituted “from heaven” for “from God.” the Godhead sent the Holy Spirit to the believers which was expressed fully at the Day of Pentecost. (Acts 2:1-4). Peter played a specially prominent role in that He preached the following sermon to explain what had just happened. In His sermon, he quoted several Old Testament passages such as Joel 2:28-31 to support his interpretation of the events. True evangelism must be Spirit-filled and Spirit led. The Holy Spirit is the author of Scripture as well as the one who gives us the proper interpretation.

Application

Seeing that we live in very unsettled times, we can gain much though our study of 1 Peter. Here we are reminded that God had the sending of the Holy Spirit planned out just as the sending of His Son. There is no such thing as chance to God. Even the suffering of His people was known to God, Therefore we take heart. God sent out the seeds of the Gospel in advance through the voices of the prophets who prophesied in the Spirit of Christ. This way, when these things came to pass in Jesus Christ we understand: “The Prophets said it would be like this.”

The study of the Old Testament is vital in the church today. Unfortunately, its study is often neglected. Left to the individual believer, the Old Testament seems to be chaotic, a litany of violence, deceit, failure, adulteries, and the like. Too many churches today want to preach a simple gospel centered on a minimal gospel of accepting Jesus as their personal savior. Even most of the New Testament is considered to hard for believers to comprehend. Without the help of the Holy Spirit, this would be true. The world might look askance at the Bible, but this is not to be so with the believers.

If one turns the clock back 500 years, we would see an age of easy-believism. The common people were mostly ignorant. The words of the Mass were in Latin which they did not understand. When the priest lifted up the host and said “Hoc est corpus meam” (This is my body) the people understood hocus pokus. Most could not read. Except for a special few, possessing a Bible was punishable by death. There might have been a short homily in the native tongue. What few verses the people were taught were carefully selected. It was a time of despair. The common people were considered to be too stupid to understand the sublime truths of theology. This was a self-fulfilling prophecy as the people were kept ignorant by design.

But then something happened. At the time of writing this, we are coming up to October 31, a day we call “Halloween.” We today are mostly ignorant of even the original “All Hallows Eve” which is its Christian celebration. It was the evening before All Saint’s Day, a day in which the death of the martyrs of the church and other prominent Christians were celebrated. On this evening, a monk named Martin Luther nailed a document written in Latin called the “95 Theses” to the church door. Martin wanted to dispute some gross abuses concerning the Church’s sale of indulgences. From this the Protestant Reformation came to pass. Luther believed strongly in educating the peasants, both men and women. He translated the Scripture into German. The monasteries were turned into gardens of learning for children. They were taught to read and write from the Scriptures so that they could discern the truth of Scripture for themselves. This proves that the common people can and should learn the Scripture.

We live in a world where some in power want to erase history as well as the Bible from our memory. The antidote for this in the church is to teach the Scripture and our history. The world wants the peasants to leave their minds at the door, but this must not be the case for Christians. The Protestants of the Reformation had to do their work in times of severe persecution. But because they were learned in the Scripture, they were able to endure. We face times of persecution today. Let us do as they did. We need Spirit filled ministers with the vision to both evangelize as well as teach the people. Let the preachers quote Scripture which is breathed by the Holy Spirit often. Let the ministers be able to explain what is truly happening in the midst of this chaos.