Series: 1 Peter
Title: The Sufferings and Glory of Christ
Text: 1 Peter 1: 10-16
Date: February 10, 2011
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
When a sinner is sanctified by the Spirit of God, he is brought into submission to God. When the Spirit of God purges the conscious, the soul is purified from the dead religious works by which we thought we could make ourselves holy, and by which we thought we could make others holy.
The peaceable fruit yielded within a sinner by the Father's chastening hand is that the believer is made a partaker of God's holiness. That is, by the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, the Lord sanctifies us OUT OF OUR FORMER WAY, into Christ Jesus who is our perfection of holiness. Our souls are purified in obeying Christ the Way, the Life and the Truth.
When the believer experiences this power, when we are made partakers of his holiness, we are made partakers of the divine nature. The Spirit of Christ is in the believer--the spirit which delights to do things in submission to how it pleases God to do them. God's way is for his children be in submission to him, by being in submission to those Christ has given to have the rule over us, live as peaceably as he enables us, as we bear witness to the truth that by Christ's one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Through this gospel, the glory belongs to Christ to sanctify his children in their hearts by the Spirit through the washing of the water by the word.
Therefore, towards our brethren, and toward sinners who are yet without Christ, with this new submissive spirit, as we are led of the Spirit of God, we follow God's way. We repent from our former ignorance, our former vain way of trying to chasten men into obedience by our power. As much as we may be offended at the errors of those who contend against God by contending against us, as obedient children, as much as possible, we endure it peacefully knowing that God alone is able to make a sinner stand in this Way of holiness. Rather than turning back to our former vain way, we follow after Christ who is the Way of holiness.
We have been made to know by the experience of God's abundant mercy and power, that except God work this work of separating a sinner from the vanity of his mind, into Christ the Way of holiness, man simply will not see God. This Way of submission to God's way is the good work which God hath before ordained that each of his children shall walk in--and he shall bring each of his children to walk in this good work.
So by his power we walk in this way, the way of peace and holiness with all, for there is no other way that sinners will be brought to see the Lord. That is what we know and believe and is stated plainly in: Hebrews 12:14: Follow peace with all [men], and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.
This is the message of Peter's 1st epistle.
1 Peter 1: 13: Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 14: As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: 15: But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; 16: Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
From chapter 1: 10 through chapter 2: 11, Peter exhorts the believer to continue in this holy way, which holy God, with the holy calling, has called you and turn not back to your former unholy way. (Read v18--note: your vain conversation by tradition from your fathers)
We will look more at these things in upcoming messages.
Proposition: Tonight, I want us to see that the glory in working this work belongs to Christ because he has finished the work God gave him to do by his sufferings.
In verses 10-11, Peter says, the prophets were told of these "sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow" by the Spirit of Christ. They wanted to know when he was coming and entering into his glory. But it was revealed unto them, that it would not be in their day but that Christ would suffer and enter into his glory in these last days.
By Christ's suffering he finished the work of justifying his people. He has perfected forever them that are sanctified by his one offering. Christ has entered into his glory--the glory of being head over his church--as prophet, priest and king--to wash his children with the word through the gospel, bringing us into obedience to Christ.
I. THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST
Isaiah 53: 5: The CHATISEMENT OF OUR PEACE WAS UPON CHRIST, AND WITH HIS STRIPES, WE ARE HEALED.
Chastisement means just what we associate with chastening: correction, discipline, rebuke. Peace means: complete, sound. When all the iniquities of God the Father’s children were laid on Christ Jesus he bore the chastening, disciplining, rebuking, correcting, binding of God’s mighty hand.
All the justice his elect owed because of our disobedience was satisfied when Christ was made sin in our place and bore the stripes from his Father’s rod of divine judgment in his own body. At the same time, his perfect obedience unto death has made his children perfectly holy in him.
When God turns his child from their former ignorance to behold that the stripes Christ bore is his peace—his complete soundness—that sinner has his conscious purged by the blood of Christ from his former vanity and he enters the Way of holiness--washed clean.
In Psalm 89, David is a type of Christ. His seed are all the elect of God given to Christ. Christ is the King and he is the everlasting Father (the last Adam) of all those chosen of God in Christ Jesus.
Psalm 89: 30: If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; 31: If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; 32: Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes
Note what was just said: The Father says he will visit THEIR transgression with the rod, and THEIR iniquity with stripes. How so? In the next verse he tells us--note how the personal pronoun changes:
Psalm 89: 33: Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take FROM HIM, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.
The chastisement—the rod for the transgressions of his people, the stripes due to the children for their unholy transgressions—was inflicted upon Christ Jesus on the cross, justly by God when Christ was made sin for us. Nevertheless, God did not suffer Christ to utterly perish, for the word of his covenant was to raise him to an everlasting throne in glory. So he entered into his glory.
II. THE GLORY CHRIST HAS ENTERED INTO
1 Peter 1: 10: Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: 11: Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.12: Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister
Who moved the prophets to believe and to write and to prophecy? Who moved the apostles to believe and to preach him?
· V11: The Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify
· Noah was a preacher of "Righteousness"--preacher of Christ the Righteous. He preached Christ by the Spirit of Christ--1 Peter 3: 19: By the which, Christ went and preached {while Noah was preparing the ark} unto the spirits in prison.
· Abraham saw his day
· Moses saw Christ in the burning bush
It was revealed unto them that Christ would suffer and enter into his glory not in their day but in these last days.
1 Peter 1: 12: Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven;
We see HIS GLORY manifest on the day of Pentecost. On the day of Pentecost, Peter preached this:
Acts 2: 22 Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: 23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: 24: Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it…. 32: This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. 33: Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. 34: For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, 35: Until I make thy foes thy footstool. 36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
This is the glory that followed Christ's suffering--the glory of ruling in the midst of the congregation--in his church. He does so through the gospel which declares Christ is the one who has entered into his glory and does this work--that is what Peter is doing, because it pleased the Father to do it this way and it is the covenant of the Father to his Son. Christ does this through the Spirit by whom Peter was brought to obey and understand and preach this. The glory of being Head of his church and filling all his children with the Holy Spirit, by his own power, belongs to Christ.
Ephesians 1: 18: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, 19 And what [is] the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, 20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set [him] at his own right hand in the heavenly [places], 21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: 22 And hath put all [things] under his feet, and gave him [to be] the head over all [things] to the church, 23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
Ephesians 4: 10: He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)
Ephesians 5: 25: Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 26: That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, 27: That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
Matthew 11:27: All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.
Back to Acts 2: 37--Peter said, He hath shed forth this which you now see and here. Next we see what happens when he washes his children by the word, through the Holy Spirit, sanctifying us into this Way of holiness.
Acts 2: 37: Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? 38: Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. 39: For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. 40: And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.
Illustration: Knowledge, apart from this work of the Spirit purging the conscious from dead works, will only puff up, like a balloon. But what does a needle do to a balloon? It leaves it broken and contrite. So it when a sinner is pricked in the heart. Christ effectually brings his children into the way of holy obedience.
Hebrews 5: 7:…in the days of his flesh….8: Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. 9: And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;
Though Christ is the Son of God, though he thought it not robbery to be equal with God, he made himself of no reputation but took upon him the form of a servant. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself unto death, even the death of the cross. The pinnacle bright shining holiness is when Christ was willfully made sin for his people, so that in perfect accordance with his justice, God would be just in pouring out his wrath on Christ and in perfect accordance with holy justice God would be just to show mercy to those whom God justified in Christ Jesus.
When it says he “learned” obedience—it means he experienced it. He is the Apostle and High Priest of our profession. He knows how to teach his children obedience.
In Hebrews 12: 10 Why does the Lord, our everlasting Father, the last Adam, correct his children, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
Application: Read: Hebrews 12: 12-14.
In like manner as Christ suffered, he makes us to bear the cross. He makes us one with his Spirit, willing to lift up our hands though all oppose us--keep our mouth shut though we be crucified by those who oppose us and be as peaceable as he will enable us--not turning again to vain works to effect obedience--as he endured this cross for the joy set before him, we do it for the joy of knowing that through the truth of his word, he shall bring others to obedience, even by the same power which he made us whole.
That is what Peter is teaching by the same Spirit.
1 Peter 1: 13: Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
Not only is this speaking of the salvation that is to come when Christ returns. But the grace that is to be brought as Christ reveals himself in the hearts of his redeemed through this same gospel--even as it happened at Pentecost.
1 Peter 1: 14: As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: 15: But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; 16: Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
AMEN!