AD Better Than BC

“AD Better Than BC”

(1 Peter 1:10-12)

Series: Strength Through Adversity

Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD

Henderson’s First Baptist Church, Henderson

Take your Bibles and join me this morning in 1Peter, chapter 1 (page 814; YouVersion).

If you’re visiting with us we have begun a study of 1Peter, a small letter, the first of two epistles written by the Apostle Peter. He wrote this letter in about the year AD 63 and is writing to Christians undergoing persecution for their faith. These Christians are scattered about five Roman provinces in what is today modern Turkey, you read of that there in verse 1. He refers to these Christians as pilgrims or sojourners, temporary residents in a land through which they are journeying-on as they make their way to heaven. In this sense, they are much like us. We are pilgrims, or sojourners, temporary residents in this land through which we journey before we die and go on to our heavenly home.

Peter has been writing about salvation, the doctrine of salvation, in verses 3-12. We have noted previously that this sentence about salvation in verses 3-12 is actually one long, run-on sentence in the original Greek. It is as though Peter is getting carried away here writing about our great salvation. And that remains the main point for us this morning as we focus now on the last few things Peter says in this long digression about salvation in verses 10-12.

Peter’s main point to us this morning is that we should be amazed, really be amazed at the greatness of our salvation. That’s the main point in these verses we will read in just a moment, verses 10-12. A paraphrase of verses 10-12 would be: Christian, be really amazed at the greatness of your salvation! Listen for that as we read.

Stand in honor of the reading of the Word of God.

10 Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you,

11 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.

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 through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things which angels desire to look into.

Pray.

Introduction:

Probably few of us have never at some point in our lives entertained the notion of time travel. In fact, given the number of books and movies on this subject, it would seem quite the opposite: will we ever be able to travel through time? Some of us have ideas about where we would go, what era of history. Some would like to travel into the future and others wish to back into time, maybe wishing to correct earlier mistakes of world history or earlier mistakes of their personal history.

One of my favorite recent stories about my youngest son, Nicholas, has to do with this notion of time travel. In the past few years, Nicholas became increasingly more interested in the world around him and, like many teenagers, began to appreciate social interaction with others. Previously, he enjoyed just keeping to himself and doing his own thing. But in later years he had grown to regret his earlier, introverted ways. And so one day, in a moment of philosophical reflection, Nicholas said, “I wish I could go back in time and slap my young self!” Maybe you can relate to that.

Peter says in these verses that that there were Old Testament prophets of the past who looked into the future. And as they prophesied about events that would come, we get the sense that they longed to see the fulfillment of the things they proclaimed, namely the fulfillment of all of the Old Testament prophecies about the coming of Christ and His work on the cross to accomplish our salvation.

The Old Testament prophets lived in the era before Christ–BC. They proclaimed prophesies about the coming of Christ and the years of Christ–AD, anno domini, the year of the Lord. Of course, our calendars reflect these two eras: BC–before Christ, AD–the year of our Lord. And Peter indicates to us in verses 10-12 that it is far better for us to be living in AD than BC. AD Better Than BC, and Peter tells us why.

Let’s study these verses together and then I want to give you two questions to take home today. But before the two questions, let’s take a closer look at verses 10-12.

10 Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you,

Remember the context here: Peter has been writing about salvation since as far back as verse 3 where he said that God, according to His abundant mercy, has “begotten us again to a living hope.” God has given us new life in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we saw last time that Peter teaches us to remember our salvation when we go through difficult and dark days. When you struggle, remember your salvation. Remember that you are a pilgrim, sojourning on through this temporary land; this land is not your final destination. So when you struggle, remember your salvation. If you will remember your salvation when the going gets tough then you can “Rejoice AND Suffer” at the same time.

This remains the same point this morning, it’s just that Peter expounds a little bit more now on the greatness of our salvation. We can get through anything when we think about the amazing greatness of our salvation. And we should be marveling at our salvation not just when the going gets tough, but frequently throughout each and every day.

So Peter goes on now to stress more of the greatness of this salvation, again verse 10 and following:

10 Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you,

11 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.

Peter is writing about Old Testament prophets, prophets living several hundred years before Christ. Peter says that these folks in the Old Testament were prophesying by way of–verse 11–“the Spirit of Christ who was in them.” Christ who was in them even before the incarnation. Remember that the Son of God has always been. There’s never been a time the Son was not. The Second Person of the Trinity has always been. By way of the Holy Spirit, the pre-existent Christ was within the Old Testament prophets indicating when He would come to do His work of salvation upon the cross.

He spoke through prophets such as Isaiah in Isaiah 53 who prophesied of the sufferings of Christ when he wrote in Isaiah 53:5, “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed.” Isaiah was writing, says Peter in verse 10, “of this salvation.” He was prophesying, last part of verse 10, “of the grace that would come to you” through the work of Christ.

When David was prophesying in Psalm 22, David was also foretelling of the grace that would come to us through the sufferings of Christ. A thousand years before Christ David is prophesying in Psalm 22 and, speaking for Christ at His crucifixion, says in Psalm 22:16, “They pierced My hands and My feet.” This is a remarkable prophecy for at least two reasons: first not only was it prophesied 1,000 years before Christ, but secondly, it was prophesied hundreds of years before crucifixion had even been invented as a means of execution.

And again, Peter’s point is that we who live in the AD world are better off than those who lived in the BC world. We Christians are blessed to be living in a time when the predictions of these prophets have come to pass.

It’s very much like what Jesus said to His disciples after telling the parable of the sower in Matthew 13. He said to them in Matthew 13:16-17, “Blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.” AD better than BC.

So, “To them (the prophets) it was revealed that, not to themselves (BC) but to us (AD) 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.”

In other words, the prophets were talking about this great salvation that would come through the sufferings of Christ. These prophets were reporting things that would come not to themselves in the BC era, but to us in the AD era.

Now, we need to pause for a moment and remember that people living in both eras are saved the same way. People living during the times of the Old Testament are saved the same way people are saved in the New Testament. All are saved through faith in the redemptive work of Christ upon the cross. Old Testament believers looked forward to the Messiah who would come; we by looking back to the cross look back to the Messiah who has come. The difference, of course, is that we know His name to be Jesus of Nazareth. The Old Testament prophets didn’t know the coming Messiah by name as do we today.

These prophets of the Old Testament–verse 10–“inquired and searched carefully” as they “prophesied of the grace that would come to you.” They–verse 11–“searched (the) manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating.” They were like, “I wonder who the Messiah will be?! I wonder when, exactly, He will come?!”

When our family went on vacation this past summer we bought a jigsaw puzzle of some thousand pieces or so. We had it there on the table where we were staying and each day one or more of us would sit down for a few minutes and locate a piece and fit it into the other pieces. It remained on the table this way for several days as we did other things, as well. I felt sure we’d get the whole thing put together before we checked out at the end of our stay, but it remained unfinished. There was this puzzle, better than halfway put together, but unfinished. That’s the way it was for the prophets of the Old Testament, BC. These prophets each prophesied about the coming Christ, by speaking their prophesies, their predictions, they were fitting a piece into the jigsaw puzzle. But at the end of their days, the puzzle remained unfinished. They didn’t know the name of their Messiah. They didn’t know of His teachings, and so forth. But when we get into the New Testament, the pieces are now all fitted together and the picture is complete. His name is Jesus. He is Savior and Lord.

These are things, Peter says at the end of verse 12, “things which angels desire to look into.” These things about our salvation in Christ cause the angels to scratch their heads in wonder and amazement as they gaze upon the splendor and the riches of our salvation.

Now, this brings us to the two questions I want to ask you and I pray the Holy Spirit will lead you to answer these questions honestly. First:

**Two Questions we Must Answer:

1) Do I Treasure my Salvation?

(I Believe Grace has Invaded Me)

In verse 10 Peter refers to our salvation by a phrase there at the end of the verse 10, he says these Old Testament prophets prophesied, “of the grace that would come to you.” Literally, the Greek says that this is a grace that comes “unto” us or “toward” us. It is a grace that we do not go after, but rather it comes to us. It is a grace that “invades” us.

This is the sense of understanding that drove John Newton to write the words:

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me;

I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.

Grace invaded me. I once was without that grace–I was a wretch, lost, and blind–and grace sought me out–grace invaded me–and found me. So I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see.

Grace has invaded us. In other words, we did nothing on our own here. We did not deserve salvation. We could not earn our salvation, we could not be good enough for salvation, we were simply blind, lost wretches. And grace invaded us and saved us through faith in Christ. If we believe grace disturbed us, awakened us, re-birthed us, invaded us, then we will sing with John Newton of an “Amazing” kind of grace and we will forever treasure our salvation.

Peter writes in the last part of verse 12 that the things of our salvation are, “things which angels desire to look into.” That word “desire” means passion, if not obsession. Angels are obsessed with our salvation.

Angels scratch their heads in wonder at the salvation of mankind. See, angels are not humans and, therefore, these angles do not sin. They do not, therefore, know what it is like to experience redemption. They don’t know what it’s like to be lost and found, to be blind and then see.

By the way, this is a reminder to us that salvation is more than Intellectual grasping of information. These angels were able to understand the Gospel in an intellectual sense. In fact, angels are probably much smarter than human beings. They can grasp the Gospel in an intellectual sense, yet they do not know salvation. Salvation is not just grasping intellectual information, it is receiving, experiencing, owning this salvation with one’s being.

Angels “desire to look into” this salvation, present tense. It’s not like the angels were only back there with the Old Testament prophets long ago desiring to look into this salvation. They are right now, present tense, desiring to look into this salvation.

Do you see the application? If this is the way the angels are right now as they think about the things of our salvation, how much more should we? Do you really treasure your salvation? One paraphrase of verse 12 has, “Do you realize how fortunate you are? Angels would have given anything to be in on this!” (The Message)

Think of how little some of us marvel at our salvation. We can go entire days not even thinking of our salvation, just taking it for granted. Could it be that this is because we may have never experienced salvation?

The way to treasure our salvation is to remember that grace has invaded us. Remember our definition of grace? The popular definition of grace is: “God’s unmerited favor.” We said that’s not quite it. A more helpful definition of grace is, “God’s unmerited favor upon people who deserve nothing but His wrath.” That’s grace.

Elyse Fitzpatrick wrote a book published by Crossway last year entitled, Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus (Crossway: 2011). I like that title. Listen to a selection from the book. She writes:

The primary reason the majority of kids from Christian homes stray from the faith is that they never really heard it or had it to begin with …. Scratch the surface of the faith of the young people around you and you’ll find a disturbing deficiency of understanding of even the most basic tenets of Christianity.

This is illustrated by a conversation I recently had with a young woman in her early twenties who had been raised in a Christian home and had attended church for most of her life. After assuring me that she was, indeed, saved, I asked her, “What does it mean to be a Christian?”

She replied, “It means that you ask Jesus into your heart.”

“Yes, all right, but what does that mean?”

“It means that you ask Jesus to forgive you.”

“Okay, but what do you ask him to forgive you for?”

“Bad things? I guess you ask him to forgive you for bad things, the sins you do.”

“Like what?”

A deer in the headlights stared back at me. I thought I’d try a different tack.

“Why would Jesus forgive you?”

She fidgeted. “Um, because you ask him?”

[I asked], “What do you think God wants you to know?”

She beamed. “He wants me to know that I should love myself and that there’s nothing I can’t do if I think I can.”

“And what does God want from you?” I asked.

“He wants me to do good stuff …. You know, be nice to others and don’t hang around with bad people.”

Fitzpatrick writes, “We’ve transformed the holy, terrifying, magnificent, and loving God of the Bible into Santa and his elves. And instead of transmitting the gloriously liberating and life-changing truths of the gospel, we have taught our children that what God wants from them is morality. We have told them that being good (at least outwardly) is the be-all and end-all of their faith. This isn’t the gospel; we’re not handing down Christianity.

Grace is not God’s giving to us because He owes us. Grace is God’s giving to us when we deserve the absolute opposite. It’s like the difference between your giving money to someone who is in need and giving money to someone who has hurt you. Anyone can give money to someone in need. That’s not really grace. But when you give money to someone who has kicked you, hurt you, spit in your face, well that’s grace.

See we are by nature sinners who are rebelling against the King. By our sin we have hurt God, kicked God, and spit in God’s face and yet He comes to us, His grace invades us, and He saves us through the cross of Christ.

“Do you realize how fortunate you are? Angels would have given anything to be in on this!”

Do I Treasure my Salvation? Second question:

2) Do I Treasure the Scriptures?

(I Believe the Bible is Nutrition for My Soul)

Just as angels desire to look into the things of our salvation so should we desire to look into everything concerning our salvation. In order to do this, we must look into God’s Word, the Bible. We must be students of the Bible, treasuring the Scriptures, believing the Bible to be nutrition for our soul.

In the next chapter Peter will say in 1 Peter 2:2, “as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.”

The way we grow as a Christian is to desire the pure milk of the word and to drink the pure milk of the word so that we may grow, nutrition for our soul.

Verse 10 says, “Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully.” The words, “searched carefully” translates a Greek word that occurs only here in the New Testament, but over 30 times in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, as well as in the writings early historians and it “most often refers to searching through something like a house, a tent, a city, or a country in order to find some person or thing (Grudem).”

That’s the way the Old Testament prophets searched the Scriptures looking for information about this salvation you and I enjoy. They searched the Scriptures the way a person turned the house upside down to look for a lost piece of jewelry. John Wesley said they were, “Like miners searching after precious ore.”

Do you see the value of treasuring the Scriptures? The Scriptures tell us about salvation and this salvation, this grace that would come to us, is found in the entirety of Scripture. Without a comprehensive understanding of the Scriptures we remain lost in obscurity and darkness.

This is the sense in which Jesus finds the two on the Road to Emmaus shortly after His resurrection. Remember how Jesus came upon these two guys in Luke 24? They have their heads down, they are dispirited and dejected. Jesus asks them, “Why are you so sad?” They said, in essence, “Well we thought Jesus had come to redeem us and instead He died on a cross.”

The irony of that statement! We thought He had come to redeem us, to save us, and instead He died on a cross. But, of course, we know that this is precisely how Jesus would redeem us, would save us. That’s why Jesus gave them that Bible lesson from the Old Testament:

Luke 24:44-46:

44 Then He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.”

45 And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.

46 Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day,

Peace comes to us when we read and study the Scriptures. Without careful and regular study of the Scriptures we become like those two guys walking throughout life with their heads down. You want to go through life that way? You can. Or you can treasure the Scriptures, become a student of the Word, desire the pure milk of the Word that you may grow thereby.

A study commissioned by the American Bible Society, conducted by Barna Research this year reveals that the average American household has over four Bibles in the house. And nearly 80 percent of those surveyed believed that they were knowledgeable about the Bible. But less than half of those people were able to identify the first five books of the Bible.

In pastoral counseling I ask people about their spiritual disciplines. Tell me about your daily Bible reading? The answers are predictable. We’ve got to treasure the Scriptures if we’re going to treasure our salvation. The Bible is nutrition for the soul.

Recently I received this email from one of our senior adults who accepted the challenge to memorize Romans 11:33-36 from a few Sunday nights ago. She writes:

“I haven’t memorized anything since Mark Antony’s speech to the Romans! Your challenge for us to memorize Romans 11 was the best kind of exercise for me. I should do more such exercises — and the physical kind, too. As I said the lines over and over, I thought about each word and what it meant…So much is said in so few words…These past couple of weeks when I’ve been stressed here or on the road, I’ve found myself mentally going to those verses. I feel I own those verses now. They are mine, and I’m going to look for an opportunity to use them on my cousins sometime in the next 2 weeks.”

Do you treasure the Scriptures? Do you treasure your salvation?

Stand for prayer.

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