I invite you to turn in your Bibles to the book of 1 Peter. 1 Peter, we're going to be considering verses 10, 11, and 12 of chapter 1 of 1 Peter. But I'm going to begin my reading at verse 8. 1 Peter chapter 1, beginning at verse 8. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 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. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you, and the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. Well, if I had the chance to title this sermon for you this morning, I would title it A Post-Christmas Sermon. A Post-Christmas Sermon. Jesus says to his disciples in Matthew 13, blessed are your eyes that see and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men long to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. People of God, we are included this morning in that blessing. We stand on this Sunday morning, a day after we celebrated Christmas, we stand in a position of privilege. We stand in a position that many longed to stand in. We, like the disciples, have heard. We have seen, scripturally speaking, what many prophets and righteous men desire to see and hear. Remember the righteous and devout man, Simeon, recorded in Luke chapter 2, where the text says that he was waiting for the consolation of the Lord, and the Holy Spirit was upon him and had revealed to him that he would not see death until he had seen the Lord's Christ. After seeing the baby Jesus, Simeon says, Sovereign Lord, As you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace, for my eyes have seen your salvation. That's the salvation that Peter is speaking of. That's the salvation. You see, on this side of the first Christmas, we stand as those who have seen and heard the culmination of the plan of God. The plan of the history of redemption. And this plan reached its climax in the person and work of Jesus Christ, his birth included. That's what we celebrate on Christmas morning, isn't it? That's why we celebrate Christmas. It's a celebration of the one who was promised from old. The one who was promised by God in the Old Testament. The one who would be born to save his people from their sins. And Jesus is the focal point of all human history. He's the focal point. And how privileged we are to know that, to stand on this side of that historical event, that monumental event, that world-altering event of history. And so we are indeed a privileged people, privileged as Peter describes here. We're privileged to have been able to celebrate Christmas. And that's what I want to focus on with you this morning. That we are a privileged people because the only reason we could ever celebrate Christmas was because we are privileged to do so. To look back to all the promises and prophecies that were given of the one to come and to now look at the fulfillment in Christ of all those prophecies from his birth to his death upon the cross to his resurrection ascension and his glory into heaven and so we indeed are a privileged people and I want to focus on our privileged position by focusing on two things that Paul brings up in this passage first the promised grace the promised grace, and second, the proclaimed gospel. The promised grace and the proclaimed gospel. Peter speaks of the promised grace which was to come to us in verse 10 when he says, concerning this salvation, the prophets who spoke of the grace that was to come to you searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing. The first thing that we noticed, the first reason why we are privileged is because we know the grace that was promised. We know that promised grace, don't we? Children, if you are like my children, then you probably like to tell secrets and you probably like to know secrets. You probably like to know as much as you can. You want to be in the know, right? Now, maybe you knew this past Christmas what your siblings received for Christmas. Maybe you kept that to yourself. That was a privileged thing to have known that, right? Well, we are a privileged people because we know of the grace that was promised to God's people. The greatest message ever told, the message of the Savior to come, the message of Jesus Christ, about how God would graciously save his people through his chosen Savior. That message we are privileged to know. See, we receive the full and complete revelation of God's plan of salvation, the promise of his grace that he would pour out upon his people. Now, what is grace? What is grace? Well, it's been put to me this way. Mercy is not receiving what you deserve. Mercy is not receiving what you deserve, while grace is receiving what you do not deserve. Mercy is receiving what you do not deserve. Because of our sin, we deserve punishment. We deserve the wrath of God. And he would be right and just to punish us for our sins. But God is merciful. But God is not only merciful, he's also gracious. And so he not only doesn't punish us, but he provides a way of escape from that punishment for us. He provides the Lord Jesus Christ. He provides a Savior for us. And that Savior lives for us, and he dies for us, and he provides us with salvation. Provides us with the forgiveness of our sins. That's grace. That's the amazing grace that we so often sing when we sing that song. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. And this grace was prophesied in the Old Testament in the form of the promise of the Savior. And today we have the full revelation of that promised grace, fulfilled in Christ. The full revelation of promised grace in the Old Testament. And this should deeply, deeply encourage us as God's people. It should encourage us, especially in light of what the saints of old had. Peter tells us here that the prophets of old, they searched the scriptures, they searched the promises, but they had an incomplete picture of God's plan. Now, children, you know how difficult it is to trust in something when you don't fully understand what it is that you are called to trust in. At our family devotions, my children will often say to me, Dad, I don't understand. I don't understand. We were recently having devotions, and the issue of the Trinity came to mind. You can imagine my children saying, I don't understand. I don't understand. I tried to explain that to them the best that I could, but eventually I was left to say, you're going to just have to trust Dad on this. You're going to have to trust Dad. You're going to have to trust the word of God. You're going to have to trust what your dad is teaching you and bringing to you. And that's difficult to do, isn't it? See, that's what the saints of old had. That's how they must have felt. They had an incomplete understanding. Their picture was incomplete. Now, they certainly had the prophetic announcements and those prophecies and promises all pointed to Christ. But they only had part of the picture. See, God's gracious plan to redeem his people was kind of like a puzzle with missing pieces, so to speak. You can remember a time in my life when I enjoyed doing puzzles, when I had more time to do so. Well, imagine doing a puzzle. I imagine some of you enjoy doing puzzles. Imagine doing a puzzle with missing pieces. How difficult that is, right? How difficult. That must have been the way that the prophets of old felt. They were dealing with some missing pieces when it came to the redemptive plan of God. When comparing what the prophets had to what we have, John Calvin says, God's goodness towards us shines forth still more clearly because much more is made known to us than what all the prophets attained by their long and careful inquiries. Imagine for a moment. Imagine being more privileged than the prophet Isaiah. The prophet Isaiah, who himself wrote Isaiah 53, Surely he has bore our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteem him stricken and smitten by God and afflicted. 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. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Imagine that. We're a more privileged people than the prophet Isaiah. We who stand this side of the first Christmas. Peter here uses two similar words in verses 10 and 11 to really impress this truth upon us when he speaks of concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out what person or time the Spirit was indicating. This is what the prophets of old had to do. The Old Testament saints inquire, search diligently to find out. Now, I'm not saying that these Christians of old, these believers of old did not have salvation they certainly did but you see when we read scripture we have the full revelation of scripture don't we we today have the fuller sense of what they long to know again this doesn't mean that they did not know that there was a messiah to come they were looking for that messiah to come they knew of him they trusted in god's promises and God credited that to them as righteousness. They looked forward to the fulfillment of the promise, a Messiah to come, just as we today look back at the fulfillment of that. And the prophecies of the Messiah are found throughout all of Scripture. It's important for us to realize God's gracious promises, his grace described throughout the pages of Scripture are everywhere. In fact, that's generally what the Old Testament is about. It's about God's gracious promise of a Savior to come. The Old Testament is about promise. So the prophets had these promises. But here is where we are privileged. We have the fulfillment. We know the grace, the person, the work of Jesus Christ. Allow me to illustrate this for you with some passages. Genesis 3, verse 15, the announcement of the Messiah is immediately promised after the fall. This is called the Proto-Evangelium, first mention of the gospel, the good news. God, in the midst of announcing judgment and curse after Adam and Eve disobeyed him, announces the promise of the Savior. God here reveals the plan of salvation when he says, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. This is the promise of the grace to come through the Lord Jesus Christ, isn't it? This is what the prophets had to inquire and diligently look into. They did not know the details of this promise. They didn't know how it would be fulfilled. We, on the other hand, we know, don't we? Fulfillment is what we celebrated yesterday. It's what we celebrate every Lord's Day, Jesus Christ, the Lord. Matthew 1, 21 records the fulfillment of God's promise when the angel speaking to Joseph concerning Mary says, She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. The promise of the one who would be the seed of the woman, which the prophets knew, is fully revealed to us in the form of Mary's son. Another place we can turn to see the gospel in the Old Testament and what the prophets must have diligently looked into and what we have in fulfillment is Isaiah 7. Isaiah 7, 14, which says, Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall call his name Emmanuel. We who stand on this side of the first Christmas know the fulfillment of that promise, don't we? The angel in Matthew 1 quotes that exact passage in Isaiah. The virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is translated God with us. We who are privileged to celebrate the advent of Jesus Christ, the incarnate one, we know this Emmanuel. We know this God is with us. we have the privilege of knowing that God himself was the one who came down from heaven, humbly taking on the form of a servant, the form of a man. God himself is the Messiah, the Redeemer of his people, born in a manger. That's what we celebrate on Christmas. That's what we celebrated yesterday. One last scripture to illustrate the fulfillment of what prophets searched and what we now know. 2 Samuel 7, 12, where the Lord, speaking through Nathan the prophet, says to David, When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you. Who will come from your body, and I will establish my kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish a throne of his kingdom forever. Initially, upon hearing these words, we may think of them being fulfilled in the life of Solomon, David's son. But we, who are privileged of knowing the grace that was promised, we know better, don't we? For the angel said in Luke 1 to Mary, Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son, and shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. It's Jesus, the Christ, the son of David, who fulfills this prophecy and all the prophecies. Jesus is the king of the Jews, but even more he is the king of kings the lord of lords he is the king of all the world and he will indeed rule and reign forever he's ruling and reigning right now at the right hand of god the father with these passages before us we see what the prophets were promised what we have in fulfillment the wonderful promised grace in the old testament the promise of the Messiah who was to come. We have the promise or the privilege of knowing these truths, of knowing these fulfillments. See, Christmas means more than just presents, right? It means more than all the decorations, more than the songs that we enjoy singing. Christmas is more than just getting together with friends and family. Christmas is about promises which have been fulfilled. Christmas is about God fulfilling his promises to his people. God, our God, is a God who keeps his promises. He's not slow in keeping his promises as some may describe him to be. Yes, he keeps his promises in his timing. But nevertheless, he keeps all of his promises. And this should be an encouragement to us as his people. Because he will continue to keep all of his promises to us. Promises like he will always be with us. He will never forsake us or leave us. He has given his own son to prove that point. He will take care of us. He will provide us with everything that we need in life. And then that ultimate promise that we are so given to doubt at various times in our lives. He will forgive us of our sins. he will forgive us. He will cast our sins as far as the east is from the west. He will never again remember our sins because of Jesus Christ. That's the promise of the gospel. That's the promise of the grace that was promised, the prophets looked into, which we are privileged to know. Well, we are not only privileged to celebrate Christmas, the birth of Christ, because we know the fulfillment of promised grace. We also are because that grace is ultimately about the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news. And that leads us to our second point this morning. Peter reveals in verse 12 that the searching and inquiring that the prophets did was a ministering of the gospel to us. He says in verse 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. We're a privileged people this morning because we have this proclaimed gospel. Children, what's better than getting a gift on Christmas morning? Can you imagine what's better than getting a gift on christmas morning it's actually giving a gift on christmas morning giving a gift is better than receiving a gift on christmas morning it might be difficult for you to imagine that now but if you recall with me briefly as you opened up your gifts yesterday morning did you notice the face of your parents did you notice the face of your parents how your parents lit up with joy. They took joy in your joy by giving you gifts and watching you enjoy receiving those gifts. In a sense, this is what Peter is speaking of in verse 12. The prophets who inquired and searched, they didn't do so for themselves, but for us. They did so so that we would receive the news that they inquired into. And what is that news? The good news of Jesus Christ. The gospel news. Now this shouldn't sound passé or obvious to us, for the gospel is the very reason that we celebrate Christmas, isn't it? The message of Christmas is the message of the gospel. It's the good news of Jesus Christ coming to save sinners. The message of the gospel is the good tidings that we describe in Christmas. We celebrated this past Christmas the advent of Christ, the coming of Christ. Jesus who came into the world to save us from our sins. Jesus who apart from him we were dead in our sins and transgressions. Apart from him we were totally depraved. Apart from him we were at odds with God, enemies with the Lord. See, God is righteous. God is righteous, and he will not allow anyone or anything unrighteous to stand in his presence. Oftentimes, people can make God out to be something like a Santa Claus, can't we? Make God out to be a jolly old fellow with a big gray beard who calls us to climb up on his lap and tell us or tell him what it is that we desire. But that's not God. God is not the Santa Claus. He's righteous. He's holy. He's just. And no one could stand in his presence, let alone describe him as some Santa. He's God Almighty, and we must relate to him on his terms, not ours, on his terms. We must relate to him as people who are righteous. We must be righteous in order to have a relationship with the righteous God. Now, if we're honest with ourselves, we know that no one is righteous. The Bible impresses that upon us over and over and over. No one is righteous. No, not one. All have turned from the Lord. Well, here is where the good news of Jesus Christ comes in. God, out of his mercy and grace, provided righteousness for us in Jesus Christ. The one who was born in the manger, who would grow up, would live a perfect and holy, righteous life. He would obey all the commandments that his heavenly Father laid before him as luke tells us he will be holy and the bible teaches us that his perfect righteousness can be our righteousness if we acknowledge our sin trust in him by faith that's the message of christmas that's the the hopeful message that we have the message of christ that christ came the savior came to save sinners from their sin. That's how truth is that many want Christmas, but they reject the message of Christmas, don't they? Let's face it, people love Christmas. They love the tradition. They love the family time. They love the gift giving. People can maybe even embrace the message of the gift of the Savior of the world. But what people struggle to embrace during Christmas is their own personal need for that Savior. People can accept Christmas when Christmas is disconnected from the very reason that God gave us that gift of a Savior. But the good news is only good news when we acknowledge first the bad news, our need for that Savior, that we are sinners who can only be saved by the grace of God and that we need to acknowledge that and trust in Him. The good news of the Savior coming to save his people is saving them from their sins, from their unrighteousness, from their transgression of his laws. My wife and I were recently driving through a neighborhood with our children looking at Christmas lights. We like to do that during Christmas time. I imagine some of you like to do that as well. Well, we came to a house that had all these lights, and they had also, along with these lights, they had all these peace signs in their yard. Peace signs everywhere. And so I looked a little closer to see if there was any hint why they would be expressing these peace signs. I found none. I found none. No mention of the peacemaker on Christmas. That's how the world likes Christmas. They like the celebration. They like the joy, the glee, the cheer, but don't mention the need of a Savior. People love Christmas, they love the peace, but they can't accept the message of their need of Jesus Christ, the one who brings that peace. That shouldn't be the case for us here this morning, should it? We celebrate Christmas because of the message of Christmas, the message of the gospel. We need to recognize that when we speak of the advent of Christ, the birth of Jesus Christ. We speak of the message of the gospel. We speak of the reason why he has come, what he came to do, what the Savior saves us from. We speak of the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ from our sins and from the wrath that our sins deserve. You see, we should never separate Christmas from Easter. We should never separate the birth of Christ from the reason why he came to live for us, to die for us. That's the message of Christmas. That's the full message of Christmas. It's the message of the gospel. And however much the world and our culture around us wants to forget about that, there's no way of having Christmas without the message of Christ. The good news is what we as God's people celebrate. And this message is a powerful message. It's a comforting message. It's a comforting message for those who trust in Christ by faith. You see, the people that Peter is writing to in this passage here were the people who were greatly suffering for their faith. And Peter writes these words to them to encourage them to see that though they suffer they are ultimately a privileged people people who have been blessed by god they're in a privileged position to know the messiah the christ the one who was born on christmas day same applies to us this morning christmas is supposed to be a comforting time It's not always comforting for all of us, is it? It may be a time where we mourn again the loss of a dear one. For some of us, it reminds us of a general loneliness that we have. We find ourselves by ourselves. But you see, we are never by ourselves. God is always with us because of Christ. And because of Christ, we can know that although we do mourn, we don't mourn as those without hope. We know that our loved ones are right now at the foot of Jesus Christ where they will worship him for all eternity. And one day, their physical bodies will be resurrected again, united with them. And we too will be with them for all eternity. We are indeed a privileged people, knowing the wonders of the grace of God, Knowing the good news of the gospel and what it is that we have been saved from. And so as we celebrated Christmas yesterday, as God's people, we get to celebrate Christmas every day, don't we? We celebrate Christmas today again as those who have come to know the wonders of God's grace. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for the gift of your son, Jesus Christ. We thank you that he was born of the virgin, that he was born and took on human flesh, Lord, came to this earth, lived the perfect life that we could not live, and then he died, given up that life upon a cross, Lord, paying the penalty of our sins. We thank you for the salvation, the redemption that we receive in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Father, make us a people who are joyful every day of the year, not only on Christmas Day. Make us a people who celebrate all the wonders of what you have done for us in Jesus Christ. And we will be sure to give you all the praise and all the glory. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Thank you.