Chapter one, and you may be wondering why I'm continuing in preaching through first Peter, this being a Christmas Sunday and maybe some expectation of a Christmas message. Well, providentially, I didn't have to change course at all because this passage has very much to do with the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, as many of us are thinking of that in these weeks, hearing hymns and songs on the radio and thinking about various celebrations. And yet what an important passage this is in thinking about the advent of Christ. And the title of my message this morning is Christmas in the Old Testament. Hear the word of the Lord with me. Concerning this salvation, verse 10, 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. In 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. A Luke chapter two may be the winner for the chapter in the Bible that has been heard by more people than any other chapter. Think about it. At Christmas time every year, nearly every church in the world has some sort of Christmas service. And in almost every one of those services, Luke chapter two is read aloud. And then think of the millions of families sitting around their Christmas tree on Christmas Eve or Christmas morn, also reading Luke two. If you ask most people what Luke chapter two is, they will respond with the description of that passage as the Christmas story. Many people read the gospel accounts of Jesus birth as if it is the beginning of the story of Jesus. But that is far from the truth, even as we will discover in our text before us this morning. In fact, reading about Jesus in the gospel accounts is a little bit like starting a book at the final turning point of the story when everything is being tied together, leading up to the conclusion. There are three major points I want to I want you to see in our text here in first Peter that we just read first, that Jesus could be found by saints in the Old Testament. Secondly, the Holy Spirit pointed them to Christ as they searched. And finally, that Christ was proclaimed for our benefit and comfort. First, as we see in verse 10, notice with me again in the text that Jesus could be found by Old Testament saints. Concerning this salvation that we have been talking about and expounding over the past couple of weeks in 1 Peter, concerning this great salvation that has been given to us by God, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired Carefully. Peter uses these two very similar verbs here is a ta'o, which means to search for something and look for something and a raona'o, which means to search, inquire, examine, Trying to find something out. Two very similar terms. When Peter brings them together, they are very powerful in their description. To search and inquire something carefully. The idea that popped into my head as I thought about that term. Some of you may be old enough to remember one of the greatest television shows of all time about a detective called Columbo. If you're too young to know who Columbo is, you can go to YouTube and just put in Columbo and you can see some of the classic themes or scenes from that television show. Now, the great thing about Columbo is that he really knew how to ask all kinds of questions. One of the classic things about that detective was that he would come into a room and you remember he would start asking all kinds of questions. And then he would sort of ease out of the room. And just when you thought he was leaving, he would stop and bang himself on the head and turn around and come back into the room. And he would say, oh, yeah, one more thing. And take the person by surprise. They thought they had gotten away with it, but he was a great detective. What made him a great detective? That he searched out the matter very carefully. He inquired very diligently about the crime, and this is what made him so good. He asked lots of good questions. That's what makes a great investigative reporter. That's exactly the idea that Peter gives us here about the prophets of old. They searched and inquired carefully about the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. and his grace to us. Now, this is quite an amazing picture when you think about it. The prophets of old were so enamored with the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ that Peter tells us they diligently researched and studied to understand the fullness of the times and the coming of Christ. Now this is important because the picture that many people have of Old Testament prophets, particularly some of the major prophets, is that they were basically ignorant men who sat around in some cave or on some mountaintop with their legs crossed, waiting for God to put all of the pictures, the pieces of the picture together for them through some extended and comprehensive audible message. Well, that is the picture of some so-called prophets like Muhammad, who was off in some cave and supposedly received this audible message from God. In fact, Muslims believe that he was illiterate, so therefore he must be a true prophet because he heard all of these words for God. That's the idea that many people have in their mind of what a prophet is. But that's not the picture that Peter paints at all. The prophets who look forward to Christ didn't sit around and wait for God to tell them when and where the person of Christ would come, but rather they did what? They carefully searched. They searched what? They searched the scriptures. They searched that which had been given to them, the writings, the Bible. They searched the scripture to see if these things were so like those noble Bereans. They searched the scripture with a gospel light. They were looking, diligently searching for clues and images and even explicit appearances of the pre-incarnate Christ. And then by inspiration of the spirit, as we will see, they pointed forward to Christ. They spoke of him. Look with me, if you would, you can keep your place there in first Peter. Look at Luke, chapter two, verses eight through eleven. Luke, chapter two, verses eight through eleven. In the same region, there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flock by night, and an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, Fear not, for I behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day notice in the city of David. Bethlehem, a savior who is Christ the Lord. Now, the fact that the angels here mentioned the city of David is tying this advent of Christ, this coming of Christ, of course, with the covenant that God made with David. And that fact, for many of us who live in this New Testament era, might be old hat. We recognize that. We hear that, that he was born in the city of David, and we don't really think that much about the significance of that fact. We might, for example, think back to 2 Samuel 7, where God made that covenant with David. And he said, I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house when your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers. I will raise up your offspring after you who shall come from your body and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. The first reference, of course, that God had in mind in giving this was his son Solomon, who built a house for God. But the final reference, of course, is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Davidic son who establishes his kingdom and reigns on his throne forever. We certainly would go back in our minds and thinking about this Davidic theme of Christ being that king which inherits the throne of David. We would go back in our minds to Isaiah chapter nine verses six through seven from which this passage in Luke two is a direct quote for unto us a child is born to us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder. And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting, Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end. On the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. How many of us, though, having read that New Testament passage in the story of Christmas, the Christmas story in Luke two, would go back in our minds to Genesis chapter three, And verse 15, which we heard read earlier this morning, Genesis 315 has been called the Proto Evangelion. It is the first preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We heard the law read this morning and in the reading of the law, we heard the first gospel message being preached by God himself. And that verse which in which God is speaking to directly to Lucifer, to Satan. And he says, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. The phrase that is used there, that he shall bruise your head, is a phrase which invokes a royal conflict. This is royal language speaking of kings and armies and conflict and battle. While prophesying concerning the coming of Christ in Genesis 49, Jacob said of his son Judah, Judah, your brothers shall praise you. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your father's sons shall bow down to you. Judah is a lion's welt. From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He couches, he lies down as a lion, and as a lion, who dares rouse him up? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. And so we see that all of these prophecies are tied together in scripture. This prophecy concerning Judah is not a new concept, but rather goes all the way back to that gospel preached in advance that Christ, the seed of the woman who is to come, will crush the head of Satan. We have this picture in scripture of this royal conflict. This great battle, this cosmic battle that takes place. And we're able, when we think of it in those terms, to tie together all of the scriptures, to look at all that God has given from beginning to last and to see the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. For example, look at another example of this in Psalm 72. Turn over there with me to Psalm 72, and let's look at a few verses in that. Psalm 72, look at verses 1 through 4, and then I'll skip down and read verses 12 through 20. This is a Psalm of Solomon, David's son, the king. And here he says, Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the royal son. May he judge your people with righteousness and your poor with justice. Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people and the hills in righteousness. May he that is the king defend the cause of the poor of the people. Give deliverance to the children of the needy and crush the oppressor. Now skip down with me to verse 12, for he delivers the needy when he calls the poor and him who has no helper. He has pity on the weak and the needy and saves the lives of the needy from oppression and violence. He redeems their life and precious is their blood in his sight. Long may he live. May gold of Sheba be given to him. May prayer be made for him continually and blessings invoked for him all the day. May there be abundance of grain in the land. On the tops of the mountains may it wave. May its fruit be like Lebanon and may people blossom in the cities like the grass of the fields. May his name endure forever. His fame continue as long as the sun. May people be blessed in him. All nations call him blessed. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things. Blessed be his glorious name forever. May the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and amen. Why is this so important to us? It's important to us because we ought to learn from the prophets of old how to read our Bibles. Go back with me to first Peter. We ought to learn how to study scripture. Not only should we not be afraid to look for Christ in the Old Testament, we ought to do so with diligent and careful inquiry. Seeking to understand the fullness of the grace of God that has been given to us in Christ Jesus, our Savior and Lord. The prophets of old have given us a pattern as how we ought to study scripture to make careful search and inquiry for the Lord Jesus Christ. Secondly, we see, as Peter points out in verse 11 of our text, that it was the Holy Spirit who, in fact, was pointing forward to Christ in the Old Testament. Peter points this out, points out that the prophets were inquiring what person or time. Notice, he says, the spirit of Christ within them. The spirit of Christ within who? Whom? The Old Testament prophets. The spirit of Christ was indicating when they predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. And I believe it's rather revealing here that Peter calls the Holy Spirit the spirit of Christ. Now, this exact phrase is only used one other time in the New Testament used by Paul in Romans 8, 9, where Paul says, however, you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. Now, it's also used two other times. One in Acts 16.7, where Paul, telling of his account on his travels, tells how the spirit of Jesus prevented them from going to Bithynia. And then also in Philippians 1.19, where Paul says, I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the spirit of Jesus Christ. Now, one thing that is clear in all of these passages is that the triune God has one purpose. Particularly in these verses, we see clearly that the work of the Spirit cannot be separated from the work of Christ. So then, if all of Scripture, as we believe, as the Spirit testifies in Scripture, is inspired or breathed out, by the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Christ Jesus. We can only conclude that the primary goal of the Spirit of Christ inspiring Old Testament writers was to point to the person and work of Christ. This is why Peter and Paul use this term. They call it the Spirit of Christ, and particularly Peter in speaking of the prophecies concerning Christ in the Old Testament. The Spirit of God points to one person alone, and that is to the Lord Jesus Christ, to his person and his redemptive work. This is exactly what Peter says, it was the spirit of Christ in them. Christ was speaking through the spirit to the Old Testament saints concerning himself. The wonderful work of salvation from creation to new creation by way of redemption. And that work is accomplished by Christ alone and for Christ alone. We often point to the error of Pentecostals. When we see that many times in their theology of the Spirit, they wrongly emphasize the primary role of the Holy Spirit is to do a work in us. That the primary work of the Spirit is to enliven us, or as someone mentioned in Sunday school, to heal us or whatever. But as Jesus proclaimed in John 15, That when the spirit comes, speaking of his permanent indwelling of his church and his people, Jesus said he'll do what? He'll testify concerning me. That's the role of the spirit of God in scripture. The main purpose of the spirit in his work in the Trinity is to point to the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's true, Christ said, of the New Testament and the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost. But I would assert that it is also true of the work of the Spirit in the Old Testament in pointing to the work that would be fulfilled physically by the Lord Jesus. In fact, I would say that we have a tendency to make exactly the same error When we read the Old Testament scriptures inspired by the spirit of Christ, but then hold back from seeing the full glory of Christ until we get to the Christmas story. We make the same error when we don't see the work of the spirit in the Old Testament as revealing Christ in all that was taught. And delivered. We must have eyes and pray that the spirit would give us eyes. As the Lord Jesus himself did by the work of the spirit on that road to Emmaus, you remember, after his resurrection, as they were walking along, those disciples who were with Christ didn't recognize him and their eyes were closed so that they wouldn't recognize him until what the Lord Jesus himself opened their eyes by the power of his spirit. And he did so by the means of scripture, beginning with Moses and all of the prophets, beginning with the law and prophets. That is all of scripture. He showed them himself. He showed them how important it is when we interpret scripture not to read the scripture statically, that the scriptures are not just narratives, they're not just poems, they're not just songs. They're not just whatever genre they might be in the Old Testament. When we read the Old Testament, we ought to pray that God's spirit, as Christ did on that road to Emmaus, would also open our eyes so that we could see the glories of Christ, because the scripture is about Christ. All that has been written has been written to reveal The work of the son of God in creation and redemption. And I would pray and ask you also to pray that Christ would grant to us his church today. Eyes to behold him. Ears to listen to him. Hearts to love him. Our precious and beloved savior. The rock out of which we were hewn. The quarry out of which we were taken. Just as Eve was made from the side of Adam, we also have been made from the blood which flowed from the side of our Lord Jesus Christ. We've been made in his image, having been forgiven of our sins. We've been made in the image of the precious Savior. See, the Christmas story is not about just about a little baby being born in a manger. It is about that. It speaks of his humanity and his condescension and his grace. But it's not simply about baby Jesus, meek and mild. It's about Christ, the second Adam, proclaimed all the way back to Genesis 315, portrayed in all of the events of history, displayed in all of the worship of God's people, placarded in all of the poetry and all of the songs, which is the word of Christ. This is why John's gospel is so important to us, because John's gospel tells us that in the beginning was the word and the word became flesh. Hebrews tells us the word of God is living. It's alive and active and sharper than any two edged sword. dividing as deep as the bone and marrow and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. The word of God is alive. Why? Because Christ is alive, because Christ is the living word. And the only way that we understand scripture is to understand it through that lens, that Christ himself is the word which has been given to us from first to last and the word which is carried forth by the spirit, by the breath of God. So we understand the Christmas story from that lens that Christ himself is the word which is spoken of in all of Scripture. Of course, we don't minimize the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, for as John also says, the word became flesh and tabernacled among us, dwelled among us. This selfsame Christ, with all of his glory that has been displayed from creation, became one of us so that he alone could redeem us by his obedience and by his blood from the curse of our sin against a holy God. Well, finally, in verse 12, we see that Christ was proclaimed for our benefit and comfort. It was revealed to them, notice that they were serving not themselves, but you in 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. I don't think I know how blessed I am and how blessed any of us are that we have our Bibles that have been so graciously given to us by God. There are many books, many little booklets that have been written with many psalms in them and many other things, many scriptures with titles of these little books often given as scriptures for your comfort or something like that. Notice what Peter says here. That the prophets who spoke of Christ by the spirit of Christ were not serving themselves, but you who have been given your Bibles by the writing and ministry of the apostles and the preservation of God. What does it mean that they were not serving themselves? It means simply that they did not and would not live to see the day of Christ when he would come as Paul put in first Timothy 316 by common confession. Great is the mystery of godliness. He was revealed in the flesh, vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. Old Testament saints didn't live to see that. They didn't live to see the day of Christ. We live on the other side of the cross. And so we take it for granted that Christ has come in the flesh. Yet what Peter tells us here is that these things have been given for our comfort. It was revealed to them they were not serving themselves, but you in these 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. At this Advent season, my prayer for you and for myself is that we would think seriously about the comfort of this good news that has been proclaimed to us. The comfort that we have received from hearing the law of the gospel. That we hear the law of God proclaimed to us each week. But we also hear the gospel, the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has come in the flesh. And in thinking about that great comfort that we receive in the gospel, We ought to consider that these things were portrayed and predicted and written down for our benefit, even by the saints of old, these Old Testament prophets. So that when we search the scriptures, we find an increased comfort, a greater comfort in seeing Christ and savoring Christ in all of the word that has been given to us. Not just in the Christmas story itself. All that we have of Christ from Genesis to Revelation ought to be of great and glorious significance to us. All that is revealed of Christ, Peter says, causes the jaws of angels to drop. Things into which angels long to look. They cannot fully understand the significance of this because they are themselves are not human. They themselves cannot be redeemed from their sin. And so they look at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and stare and wonder. We look at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in all of his word, and we also that that ought to be the question. that is posed in our minds, do we also, like the angels, look and wonder, having experienced sin, having known alienation from God, having sinned against our holy God and knowing by the Spirit's work in us, having pierced our consciences, knowing what it is like to declare our independence from God, to be haters of God, knowing how holy God is and that we have violated His holiness and thought, word and deed every day of our lives. Knowing that, how much greater ought the awe and wonder be when we see Christ revealed before us, when we see Him placarded before us in all of Scripture. My prayer is that the Lord would reveal to us and give us a greater hunger like the prophets of old to search out with careful search and inquiry. See the Lord Jesus Christ in all of his glory, he has been exalted to the right hand of the father. Proclaimed among the nations believed on in the world. Taken up in glory, let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, bow before you and we recognize that because of our own sin and because of our own limitations of being in this sinful flesh and because, Lord, we, I believe, have been taught in some cases to think wrongly about the revelation of Jesus Christ. I pray, God, that you would give us this same spirit of Christ that was given to the prophets of old, that we would learn to see him in creation as the word by which the worlds were created. And we would learn to see him in the history of redemption at the very center of worship, the very Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world, that we would see him in all of the poetry and the narrative which leads forward to him, which focuses our hearts and our attention upon his great work of salvation. Oh God, we thank you that you have finally and completely revealed Christ to us in his coming, that he became flesh and dwelt among us so that today we may come with Christ and only through Christ into your presence. and worship you in spirit and in truth, because Christ, our one and only mediator, has accomplished on our behalf that which we could not do. We thank you for shedding his blood on the cross that our sins might be forgiven, that all of our sin might be imputed to him and his righteousness to Oh, God, as we walk now in the newness of his life and his resurrection, I pray that he would become more sweet to us and that we would learn to love him and seek him in all of your word and that he might grow in our thinking and in experimentally in our lives as we seek to obey you, as we seek to be conformed to your word and your will. God, may we learn to love Christ and may all that we see of him become more precious to us each day. We thank you in Jesus name. Amen.