Peter
tells us that prophets spoke of the grace we have received in our salvation by
and through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The first part of thisarticle considered how this story of salvation may be seen in the themes andpatterns of the stories of the exile, the liberation from Egypt, the Flood, andeven Creation. This second half will look at several prophesies of the Hebrew
Scripture (what Christians call the Old Testament), and how they also point to
Jesus.
1 Peter 1:10-12 (ESVUK)
Concerning
this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be
yours searched and enquired carefully, enquiring 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 preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven,
things into which angels long to look.
Our
story is all about Jesus. Our sin separated us from God, who loved us so much
that he paid the penalty himself, in Jesus. His death for our sin and his
resurrection made available to us his life so that by grace, through faith, we
could be restored to God.
Peter
is reminding his readers that people have been waiting a very long time for
this.
The full audio of this message, parts 1 and 2.
In The Garden
In the
beginning, our first story is of humanity in a garden, God’s place, ruled by
God’s good word. Adam and Eve, God’s first priests to Creation, disobeyed God’s
word. Though God said “let there be light” and light was, humanity dared say no
to the word of God. We were cursed, made mortal, given death in our own bodies,
cast from God’s presence, but given this hope:
Genesis 3:15 (ESV)
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your
offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall
bruise his heel.
The
offspring of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. And from that day
on, we looked.
Could
it be our son, Abel? Will he be the one to defeat the deceiver, the death that
now reigns in us? Is it Seth? Who will be the Chosen One to suffer, yet
ultimately defeat this curse?
Hebrews
2:14-15 (ESV)
Since
therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of
the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power
of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were
subject to lifelong slavery.
The
writer of Hebrews identified Jesus as the seed of the woman, the true human who
would defeat death, the curse for the sin that followed us after our rebellion.
In Romans, Paul tells us that the defeat of the accuser will be accomplished by
being crushed under our feet. We
share in the victory of our older brother, Jesus.
Romans
16:20 (ESV)
The
God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ be with you.
In The Wilderness
Moses told
the people in the wilderness even before they entered the Promised Land that
they would rebel. But he also said that God would give them a redeemer that
would set them free again, bring them into the new Promised Land. “The Lord
your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your
brothers—it is to him you shall listen” Moses says in Deuteronomy 18:15. And
this was fulfilled in Joshua, who shares his name with Jesus in the original
language. But just as Moses said, the people rebelled, and were scattered into
exile. Under the authority of Assyria, and Babylon, and Persia, and Rome, the
people asked, “Where is this prophet that will come, the one like Moses, who
will set us free?”
Just as in the days of Moses, Jesus was born as many children were being destroyed by the King. Like Moses, he was kept safe in Egypt. Like Moses, whose face shone for being in God’s presence, Jesus would be the very presence of god among his people. Like Moses, miracles would follow him. He is the new Moses, the new Joshua, our deliverer from slavery.
Just as in the days of Moses, Jesus was born as many children were being destroyed by the King. Like Moses, he was kept safe in Egypt. Like Moses, whose face shone for being in God’s presence, Jesus would be the very presence of god among his people. Like Moses, miracles would follow him. He is the new Moses, the new Joshua, our deliverer from slavery.
In Canaan
In
Genesis, Jacob, the man named Israel by God, prophesied over his son Judah,
that his descendants would have a throne and kingdom that would last forever
(Genesis 49:10). The people of Israel watched the tribe of Judah. “Which one
will be our king?” From Judah came David, who became Israel’s ideal king, a
shepherd, a poet, a worshipper, whom God called “after my own heart”. To David
God said:
1
Chronicles 17:11 (ESV)
When
your days are fulfilled to walk with your fathers, I will raise up your
offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom.
God
said David’s son would build his temple, and that the throne would never, ever
end in his family. And then his son, Solomon, built the temple. And then he
rebelled, and Israel and the kings followed after him in rebellion, and in the
exile, the throne of David ended.
In
exile, the people asked, “Where is our new Moses, the king from the tribe of
Judah, the Son of David whose throne will never end?”
Luke
1:26-33 (ESV)
In
the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named
Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of
David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings,
O favoured one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the
saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel
said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And
behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his
name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And
the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign
over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
Joseph
and Mary, descendants of David, in Galilee of the Gentiles, are promised a king
as a son, whose reign will never end.
In The Kingdom Of David
God
promised David that his body would never see corruption (Psalm 16:10). He fulfilled this again and again as he miraculously
protected him from death. But then, of course, he did die eventually, as Peter
pointed out in his sermon at Pentecost (Acts
2). But in Jesus’ resurrection he defeated death once for all, and reigns
forever.
In
Psalm 22, David prophesied the crucifixion, writing a near script for Matthew’s
account of Jesus’ death, beginning the Psalm with Jesus’ words, “My God, my
God, why have you forsaken me?”
In The Rebellion And Exile
Isaiah
7:14 (ESV)
Therefore
the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and
bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Like
Joshua fulfilled Moses’ prophecy, and Solomon fulfilled David’s prophecy, this
prophecy of Jesus was also fulfilled in its’ day. A woman who was once a
virgin, was married ceased to be one, and had a child. In that time, Isaiah’s
prophecy over Israel’s present king was fulfilled. But Jesus was not only named
Immanuel, God-with-us. Jesus was God, with us, born of Mary, a virgin.
Isaiah 50:6 (ESV)
I gave my back to those who strike,
and my cheeks to
those who pull out the beard;
I hid not my face
from disgrace and
spitting.
Jesus
could have stopped those who were beating him. He created them, their arms with
which they held the whip, the wood and leather from which the wood was made,
the breath they took between each strike, he gave them. Jesus gave them his
back. Jesus gave us his back.
In
Matthew (26:27), Jesus held up the
cup of wine at the last supper, and said, “this is my blood, poured out for
you.” He broke bread, and said “this is my body, broken for you.”
Isaiah
53:4 (ESV)
Surely
he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet
we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
He took
our sorrows.
He gave
his back.
And the
prophets searched diligently. Who will it be?
Micah 5:2 (ESV)
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
who are too little
to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to be
ruler in Israel,
whose coming forth is from of old,
from ancient days.
In
Matthew 5, the priests are asked where Jesus will be born. They don’t even need
to look. They know it will be in Bethlehem, David’s city, from the line of
David, because they were searching, looking, waiting. They knew.
Zechariah
12:10 (ESV)
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.
Revelation
1:7(ESV)
Behold,
he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who
pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so.
Amen.
In Every Story
Every
story in the Bible whispers the name of Jesus.
The
serpent lifted up in the wilderness by Moses in Numbers so that people could be
healed from snake venom is Jesus lifted up on a cross so that we may look to
him and be healed of our sin, as jesus tells Nicodemus in John 3.
In the
book of Ruth Jesus is the kinsmen redeemer.
At the
end of Malachi, Jesus is the sun of righteousness who will rise with healing in
his wings. The woman with issue of blood took this literally, and was healed
when she touched his robe’s tassels, his “wings” (Malachi 4).
Abraham’s
son, Isaac, was saved from being sacrificed on mount Moriah when God provided
Abraham a ram to take his son’s place (Genesis
22). In Jesus, God would offer all of us salvation from death by providing
the Son of God in our place.
On this very same mountain, King David threw himself down before God, begging for mercy on the nation that was being cursed for his sin. From the same mountain that God provided a ram in Isaac’s place, David offered himself to God to be cursed instead of his people (2 Samuel 24:17). Our High King places himself between us and the death we’ve earned by our sin, saving us by his willing death.
On this very same mountain, King David threw himself down before God, begging for mercy on the nation that was being cursed for his sin. From the same mountain that God provided a ram in Isaac’s place, David offered himself to God to be cursed instead of his people (2 Samuel 24:17). Our High King places himself between us and the death we’ve earned by our sin, saving us by his willing death.
David’s
son, Solomon, would build a temple to God on this same mountain. In that temple
would the people of God make sacrifices of innocent animals before God for
their sins, according to the Law of Moses as recorded in the Torah. In these
laws were sacrifices, festivals, and family traditions that all reminded God’s
people of redemption, of liberation, of forgiveness, and of God’s love for all
the world, for whom they were chosen to bless. Jesus became the perfect
expression of this law for God’s people. By his willing sacrifice, he delivered
all of Creation from the curse of death because of sin. He became God’s temple,
and the sacrifice, and God’s place, and God’s word, so that through him all the
world could be blessed (Romans 8).
And
there are many, many more stories.
Adam longed
to know Jesus.
Moses
longed to know Jesus.
David
longed to know Jesus.
Isaiah
longed to know Jesus.
1
Peter 1:10-12 (ESVUK)
Concerning
this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be
yours searched and enquired carefully, enquiring 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 preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven,
things into which angels long to look.
Isaiah
was writing for us.
What do
angels see that they have never yet seen? When angels see Peter, the early
church, and us, they see grace. Angels see sinners like us that God loves. They
know by experience God the Creator. But before Christ, they had never known God
the Saviour. For God so loves the world that he gave in a way the angels have
never experienced (John 3:16). The
Son of God loves you and gave himself for you, personally.
Galatians
2:20 (ESV)
I
have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who
lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of
God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Jesus
was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities (Isaiah 53). Though your sins are like
scarlet, Jesus will make them white as snow (Isaiah
1).
He gave
us his back. He gave us his body. He gave us his blood. Let us always praise
God together for our salvation, a privilege so great that generations wish they
could join us, and angels watch amazed as we share.
☠
This transcript was part of a sermon: Listen
Next Thursday: 1 Peter 2:11-12 - Aliens
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