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Now let's dive into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. I will forever be grateful to a man by the name of Dave Ellen for saving. The life of my son. Many years ago, When my son was Just a little kid and It was in the wintertime. It had just snowed.
He and a buddy went over to a golf course not far away, and they took a sled and they went down this l big hill. And the contest was to see how far they could go and who would get the farthest.
Well, my son won the contest by taking it all the way down the hill and onto a lake on the golf course, frozen over lake. The ice broke. He was immersed in the water, if you know how hypothermia sets in, does so very quickly, and he could not get out of that lake. Dave Ellen friend of mine Was running his dog up on that hill and saw what was happening and came down and threw out a dog leash and pulled him out to safety. And he told my son to run home.
Well, I didn't know that part of the story. I just know he was sledding, and I saw him come up the drive. Actually, I heard him. Come up the drive. You could hear it outside.
He was so cold, and we got him warmed up. But I didn't know the whole story. I just knew that he was playing and he fell on the ice.
Well, years later. We are in Israel with a team of people from the church going on a tour and. We're having lunch at a local pizza joint. And I'm there with my wife and my son Nate and Dave Ellen, who saved him, but Nate had no recollection that was the guy. He just knew some guy saved him, and his wife, Cheryl, and we're all talking and talking about the scariest moments in our lives.
Nate goes, you know, the scariest moment of my life is when I fell. Through ice on a lake on a golf course. And I thought I was going to die. And Dave Ellen, who was at lunch, said, do you ever tell your parents the rest of the story, Nate? And he didn't even know what to say.
Remember the guy who saved you through that dog leash out? That was me. Nate's eyes got real big.
Now, I didn't know this story. I said, Well, tell us this whole story here. I didn't get all this when he was quite young.
So I got the full scoop. And that's what we have here. In the book of Peter, 1 Peter chapter 1, he gives them the full... Scoop. of their salvation.
Saving a life is wonderful. But saving an eternal soul is even more wonderful. And it's that salvation that's on Peter's mind as he writes the next few verses of 1 Peter 1. You see, his audience has been suffering oppression and persecution and trials. And if you know anything about suffering, it causes your eyes to look downward.
You are weighed down. You are looking not at the hopeful horizon, but at the painful path. And you need the encouragement to look up. And get your thoughts refocused into the right place. And essentially, Peter does that.
in these verses. He has a theme, a recurrent theme in this book.
So far, the word salvation appears three times. It's the focus, it's the highlight of the book so far. Look at verse 5: who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Verse 9, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. And now in verse 10, of this salvation The prophets have inquired and searched carefully.
Salvation. There is not A more assuring More comforting word. In all of language, than the word salvation. It appears 400 times in scripture. Saved, saving.
Salvation. 400 times. It has a broad scope of meaning. It can mean anything from being saved physically from harm's way to being saved eternally. from sin and death.
And hell. And just as I that day in Jerusalem learned the full Scoop of the story of how my son was saved.
So Peter gives to them. The scoop on their eternal salvation. You'll notice in verse 10 of this salvation, the prophets. have inquired and searched carefully. who prophesied of the grace that would come to you.
searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the suffering of Christ and the glories that would follow. To them, it was revealed, 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.
When Paul wrote to Timothy, he said, Timothy, God desires all men to be saved. That's God's great desire. It's God's great hope is that people would come to salvation. But we run the risk of losing our gratitude. For salvation, the simplest, most basic component of the Christian life.
And we run the danger of Not realizing just how good we have it. Just what a great deal we have been given. When you said yes to Jesus Christ, or should I say, when God said yes to you. That's salvation. I've told you before that when I first came to Christ, I was watching Dr.
Billy Graham on television, and I turned it off after hearing the gospel, and I went into my room. And I immediately thought, okay, let me get this right. You gave your son your best, you gave all. to this world. In exchange, you want me.
You want me to give you my life.
So you gave Jesus, you want me to give you this broken life. And I just thought, excuse me, but God, you're getting a bum deal. This is not great in terms of what you're getting out of this deal. But then I immediately thought, but I'm getting like a killer deal. And I'd be stupid to pass this up.
And I think from time to time we need to stop and realize what it means to be a saved man or a saved woman. what our salvation means to us. What Peter tells them is not only do you have salvation, let me tell you how great it is. Let me tell you a little bit more about what you may not be realizing.
Sort of like an insurance policy. You know, most of us have insurance policies. uh for life or for home or for automobiles. Um Most of us don't read the insurance policies, I've discovered. Have you discovered that?
You just know you have one. You don't read the fine print until you have to make a claim. And you want to find out if you're going to get reimbursed because you've got to dish some money out. Does what happened Is it covered in the insurance policy? And then you find out: oh, yes, they cover everything except what you need at that point.
Yes, we cover everything for your car except your drivetrain that fell out on the road two miles back. We don't cover that.
So Peter says, not only do you have a great insurance policy, this one comes from heaven. It's been going on a long time and it's so great that even the angels are checking it out. They marvel at it. They ponder it.
So that's how these verses... Divide up. Verse 10, 11, and 12. The prophets predicted it. Preachers proclaim it.
Angels ponder it. And that's what we're going to unpack today as we go through it. First of all, prophets. The prophets predicted it. Verse 10: Of this salvation, the prophets have inquired.
That's the Old Testament prophets, by the way. They've inquired and searched carefully. Who prophesied or predicted of the grace that would come to you, 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.
Who were the prophets? Prophets were spokesmen. They were spokesmen for God. Look at them like. Field agents, field reps.
They represent a God. by giving a message from God to a group of people. It's like they came and they said, and now a word from our Creator. And they gave a message.
Something that God wanted people to hear. And their messages centered on Two things. They proclaimed God's word. And they predicted Future events. They proclaim God's word, they predicted future events, and all of it was anticipating salvation.
Think of the prophets like archers. You know the guys with the bows and the arrows? And the prophets shot arrows of truth up into the air. But they didn't know exactly where those arrows would land.
So Isaiah shot up his arrows, and Daniel shot up a few arrows, and Zechariah and Zephaniah. Daniel shot up some arrows. They pulled back on the prophetic bow strings and outlaunched that prophetic missile of truth high into the sky till it disappeared into the sky over the horizon. And they wondered, where's it going? Where is it going to land?
Did you know? That about 330 predictions were made. About what Jesus Christ would do, who he would be, where he would be born, what would happen to him, about 330. Arrows were launched into the sky over a 1600-year period. And all of those arrows fell on one person.
Jesus Christ. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig Weekend Edition. Every day, your generosity helps reach more people with God's Word, changing lives through clear, practical Bible teaching. And this month, as you grow in your own faith and leadership, we want to thank you with a powerful new resource, The Making of a Biblical Leader, a Practical Guide to Leading Others by Robert L. Furrow.
This inspiring book, featuring chapters from Skip and Lenya Heitzig, Gary Hamrick, Daniel Fusco, and others, shows how to lead with integrity, humility, and a servant's heart following Christ's example. Request your copy when you give $50 or more to support Connect with Skiff Heidzig. Call 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com/slash offer.
Now, let's return to today's teaching. Here's just a sampling. Trust me, I wouldn't try to go through all 330. It'd be a great study, but it'd take us like 330 days to do it.
So here's just a sampling of some of the predictions they made. They predicted he would be born of a virgin, Isaiah 7:14. That he would be born in Bethlehem, Micah 5, verse 2. That he would be born into the tribe of Judah, Genesis 49, 10. That his ministry would begin in Galilee, Isaiah chapter 9, verse 1.
They predicted he would work miracles, Isaiah 35, verse 5 and 6, that he would enter Jerusalem on a donkey, Zechariah 9:9. that he would be betrayed by a friend, Psalm forty one nine. That he would be sold for thirty pieces of silver, Zechariah 11:12. They predicted he would be wounded and bruised, Isaiah 53, 5, that his hands and feet would be pierced, Psalm 22, 16. They predicted he would be crucified between two thieves.
Isaiah 53, 12. They predicted that his garments would be torn. And those around would cast lots for them. Psalm 22, 18. They further predicted his bones would not be broken.
Psalm 34:10. That his side would be pierced, Zechariah 12.10. They predicted he would be buried in a rich man's tomb, Isaiah 53, verse 9. Then they predicted that he would rise from the dead. Psalm sixteen, verse ten.
Now that's just 16 predictions. Sixteen arrows shot up. That's to say nothing of all the glories that would follow, the millennial glories that would follow. Isaiah the prophet, Daniel the prophet, Ezekiel. They all speak of The millennial kingdom, the reign of Christ upon the earth.
Now, let me remind you of something. The sheer odds The sheer odds of any one person in history fulfilling 330 predictions. It's crazy. The idea that all of those prophecies, all of those arrows would fall on one person, the odds against that are astronomical. I mean, there are certain things humanly impossible to prearrange.
You didn't arrange where you were going to be born. Who your mother would be, what tribe you would come from, or town you would be born in, etc. I have a little book in my library. I pull it out from time to time called Science Speaks by Dr. Peter Stoner.
Peter Stoner was the Emeritus Professor at Westmont College in Science and Applied Mathematics. And he did a book all about this. Calculating the odds of one man in history fulfilling the predictions made about Christ that he indeed fulfilled.
So, for example, he says in his book, If you were to take eight. Just eight of the predictions. I gave you 16. For one man in history. To fulfill eight things foretold about him before he was born, for him to actually see those things come to pass.
The odds of that would be one in 10. to the seventeenth power. To visualize that. Said Stoner, you could take the state of Texas and fill it two feet deep. Full of silver dollars.
If you could do that, you'd be a very rich person, but let's just suppose you could do that. You fill the state of Texas two feet thick full of silver dollars. You pre-mark one. You send a man in blindfolded. The odds of him selecting the one silver dollar you have pre-marked is one in 10 to the 17th power.
And Stoner even got more elaborate. He said the odds of one man in history fulfilling 16, we just gave you 16 of the predictions made about Jesus Christ that he fulfilled would be 1 in 10 to the 45th. Power. And again, whenever you have numbers, you've got to visualize it because it's like, yeah, whatever, that's a number.
So.
So This is what it would be like. If you could get enough silver dollars. To make a ball.
So big. That from the center of that ball to the circumference edge of that ball. would be thirty times the distance the Earth is presently from the Sun, which is ninety three million miles.
So ninety three million miles times thirty is the distance from the center of your silver dollar ball to the edge. You pre-mark a silver dollar, send somebody in that Globe. The odds that he could find the silver dollar is 1 in 10 to the 45th power. Then Stoner went on to say, What about 48 predictions? And it gets so crazy that he has to use electrons, not silver dollars, because there's just no way you could do that.
Now here's what I want you to know. There are 25 books in the world, thereabouts, that claim to be scripture. All of them have one important ingredient absent from them. All of them Except for one. Have something missing.
Prophecy. Predictive prophecy. The Quran doesn't have it. The Upanishads of the Hindus don't have it. The writings of Confucius They don't have it?
They're absent from them. The Bible has predicted prophecy.
So the prophets made all of these crazy predictions. The problem is They didn't understand everything they wrote. In fact, I would even say they understood very little of what they wrote. They shot the arrows out. And they were looking like, now where's that going to land?
Example, in Isaiah chapter 6, God commissions Isaiah to go proclaim To a nation, the desolations that will come. And Isaiah asks a question: how long, O Lord? The prophet Habakkuk says the same thing. When the predictions are made about Judah and Jerusalem, oh Lord, how long? We studied the prophet Daniel for months.
Daniel didn't understand everything. Daniel 7 says, I was grieved in my spirit. Within my body, because this vision troubled me, and he had to ask the angel who was standing by him what these things meant.
So these prophets predicted these things. And then they looked at what was written. to try to figure out what it all meant. And there were two basic things that we're trying to understand. Notice what it says.
Searching what, verse 11. 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.
Now, some translations say, searching what person or what time. Basically, those were the two things they wanted to know. Who am I writing about? When will these things happen? What's the timing and the circumstances around the coming of the Messiah?
I mean Imagine Isaiah the prophet. Writing what he wrote.
Okay, so listen to how this sounds. Isaiah 7:14. Behold, A virgin shall conceive and bear a son. Here you go. Uh what does that mean, God?
I'm sure God would have to say, don't worry about it. You wouldn't believe it if I told you. And so it was with Jeremiah. and Ezekiel and Daniel and Micah and Zechariah and the rest of them. I mean, it's like 25 men.
All trying to put together one of those 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzles. You know, every one of them has a few of the pieces. But none of them have all the pieces, and no one has the... Picture on the front cover of the box. Add to that.
Most of these guys didn't know each other and lived hundreds of years apart. That's what being an Old Testament prophet was like. David had a few of the pieces, Moses had a few of the pieces, Isaiah had a few of the pieces, Daniel had a few of the pieces, Zechariah had a few of the pieces, but no one prophet had them all. But when all of those pieces were put together, The picture on the front of the box It was Jesus Christ. And so Jesus walks from Jerusalem toward Emmaus with two of his disciples.
And they're bummed out because they don't know why Jesus died on that cross and they don't think He's alive from the dead, He happens to be right next to them. And in revealing himself to these two apostles, Jesus says these words: O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have written. Ought not Christ to have suffered, and enter into his glory. And then Luke says: Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in the scripture all things concerning himself. On one occasion, Jesus even said to his disciples, Many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see and did not see it.
And to hear what you hear and have not heard it. Folks, that's why we study all the Bible. If you ever wonder, why do you study the Old Testament?
So we can understand the New Testament. Because you've got a whole bunch of predictions made in the Old Testament. You got to know where they're going. Those arrows were shot up. Where are they going to land?
In the New Testament. But if you just read the New Testament, it's like you go to a field with a bunch of arrows and you ask, where did these things come from? Got to read the Old Testament. That's where they shot those things off at.
So, as one scholar put it so beautifully, the new is in the old contained. The old is in the new explained. That is, the New Testament is in the Old Testament contained. The Old Testament is in the New Testament. Explained.
You need both. To see who and when those arrows were shot and how they were fulfilled in Christ. Look at verse 12. To them, that is to those prophets he's still speaking about, it was revealed that not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things. which have now been reported to you.
At some point, those prophets began to understand that what they were writing about was going to be fulfilled At a distant time, far into the future. It wasn't going to happen. In their time.
Some things they predicted did, but much of it was going to happen beyond their time. And Peter is saying to his audience: You're the audience, you're it, you're the recipients. Thanks for joining us today on Connect with Skip Heidzig. Before we go, remember that your generosity helps share God's word around the world, bringing truth and hope to people who need Jesus. And this month, we'll send you The Making of a Biblical Leader, a practical guide to leading others by Robert L.
Furrow as our thanks for your gift. With chapters from Skip and Lanya Heitzig and other trusted pastors, this book will equip you to lead with integrity and purpose in 2026 and beyond. Give now at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. We'll see you next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's Word here on Connect the Skip-Heitzig Weekend Edition. Make a connection!
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