Does 1 Peter 1 Teach that Angels are in Awe Humans?

Do angels watch us from day to day? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Well, hi, this is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. You can call us right now with your question at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2600. You can also post your question on our Facebook or Instagram account, and you can email us anytime at questions-at-core-christianity.com. First up today, here's an email from one of our listeners. This is from John, and Adriel, he says, to define those words that we use over and over again that we can just sort of take for granted, and certainly there's no word that's more important than the word gospel. What is the gospel?

The first thing I would want to say to you is that it's good news. It's the announcement of good news. In fact, you see this in places like Isaiah chapter 52, where actually that word gospel in the Greek translation of the Old Testament is used.

It was a proclamation. You think of when somebody brings good news to you that leads to rejoicing, to singing, and in particular, the good news that we're thinking about is the good news of salvation for the people of God, the announcement of deliverance, the reign of God, and the rescue of God's people. It has to do with what God did in time, in history, for us.

It's not something that we do or live even. We are not the gospel. You are not the gospel.

You don't live the gospel, if you will. Our lives are an implication of what God accomplished in the gospel for his people. A great passage of scripture for you to go to as you think about the gospel and understanding it correctly is 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

There the apostle Paul makes it absolutely clear. He says, I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. Now right there, the gospel message has to do with salvation.

In fact, in Romans chapter 1, Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. I know it's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. So it's this announcement of good news that relates to your personal salvation, your faith in Jesus Christ. And he goes on there in verse 3 of 1 Corinthians 15, For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas and then to the twelve. In other words, the gospel message centers around Jesus's redemptive work, that he lived and then he died for your sins, for our sins, in accordance with the holy scriptures, and that he didn't just stay dead, but that he conquered death. He rose again from the dead, just as the scriptures said on the third day, and then he appeared to the disciples and ascended into heaven.

This happened. This is a historical reality, and it demands something from each and every one of us. God calls all people everywhere to repent in light of the fact that he has conquered death, and he commands all people everywhere to embrace this good news, the good news that your sins can be washed away, that you can have a personal relationship with God in the hope of eternal life, the resurrection of the body through not what you do, but what God has done. That is the gospel, and that really is core Christianity as well.

What a great explanation. Thank you so much for that, Adriel. That's something that all of us need to really have prepared when we're talking to a non-believer, maybe somebody in our family or a friend or in our workplace that asks us, well, what's this whole Christianity thing about? We point them back to the gospel, so thanks for that.

This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Our phone lines are open. If you have a question about the Bible, the Christian life, doctrine, or theology, feel free to give us a call. We'll be taking calls for the next 20 minutes or so. 833-THECORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. And today we'd like to invite you to join a special group of people we call our inner core and also tell you about a special event for inner core members that's coming up next month. Yeah, if you benefit from the answers we give on the show, we'd like to invite you to become a member of the inner core. As an inner core member, you'll receive a signed copy of the book, Core Christianity, Finding Yourself in God's Story by our founder, Michael Horton, exclusive updates and bonus content from the team. When you join the inner core in the month of March, we'll send you an invitation to join us on a live virtual meeting with me, some of the members of the core team, and other inner core members on Wednesday, April 13th at 8 p.m. Eastern time, 5 p.m. Pacific. This meeting will be an opportunity for you to ask me questions about the Bible and the Christian life, as well as ask any questions about the Core Christianity mission and organization. If you're an inner core member already, please be on the lookout for an invitation in your email.

This is going to be so cool. That virtual meeting with Adriel sent for April 13th, 8 p.m. Eastern time, 5 p.m. Pacific. And just a reminder, you can become an inner core member by signing up with a recurring donation of $25 a month or more, and your support allows us to continue sharing the gospel and answering those tough questions about the Christian faith for people all around the world through our live radio broadcasts, our web articles, our Bible studies. To join in that video call, head over to corechristianity.com forward slash inner core and sign up. That's corechristianity.com forward slash inner core.

Well, let's go to a voicemail from one of our listeners. This one is from Nicholas. My question is with regards to angels and how it is that they perceive humanity. I cannot remember for the life of me where I've heard this idea from whether it was on the radio or I read it in a book, not necessarily the Bible, but I had come across this idea that angels look at humans in wonder, and they find us to be amusing to a degree. And I was discussing this with somebody, and they asked what my source was on it, and I could not find it for the life of me. So I'm hoping that you might be able to shed some light on this, Pastor Adriel, either refute it or commend it and potentially show me where I can possibly find this type of resource.

Thank you so much, and God bless you guys all. Hey, Nicholas, thank you for that question. I think the passage of scripture that you are alluding to is found in the book of First Peter. I'm going to begin reading in verse 10 down to verse 12, and we'll see what it says. First Peter says 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 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. He's talking about the prophets in the Old Testament filled with the Spirit of Christ prophesying about the suffering of Jesus, which Peter's audience have heard about this. They've heard the gospel. They've received it. They've received the testimony of the prophets, and he says, look, those prophets, the Spirit of God revealed to them that they weren't serving themselves.

They were serving you. And let me just say that that's us, brothers and sisters. Those of us who believe in Jesus Christ have received his grace under what the Bible calls the New Covenant.

Those prophets in the Old Testament were serving us with those prophecies that they gave. And then Peter adds this line there in verse 12, things into which angels long to look. Now that word look there is actually a really strong word in the original language. It means to stoop down and look, to stoop sideways even.

You think of sort of rubber necking, right? You see something that just catches your attention, maybe something amazing, maybe something beautiful, and you just can't help but take your eyes off of it. And here it seems like Peter is saying that's what the angels do when it comes to the experience that we have of God's grace and mercy. You think of what Jesus himself said. When one sinner repents, when one sinner turns to God, it's as if there's a celebration in heaven, rejoicing, the angels of God throwing a party. And so we could say, I think, according to the teaching of scripture, that yes, angels are observing, watching, and even serving the people of God. This is what the author of the Hebrews says in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 14, referring to angels. Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?

And let me just say this to top it all off. It isn't so much that they're interested in us particularly. I think what they're marveling at, what they're looking at, is the grace of God that we get to experience. The mercy of God towards sinners, the goodness of God, things into which angels long to look. They're just captivated by not, you know, how I'm going to do my hair today or whatever. They're captivated by the glory of God and the goodness of God in his kindness towards humanity. Thank you for that question.

That is beautiful. By the way, I went to a Hallmark card store the other day, and there were lots of pictures of little cherubs, and I thought, that's not really what angels look like. Yeah, we just don't know, Bill. Maybe. Who knows?

No. Yeah, you're probably right. Those little baby angels. No, that's not the picture that you get in the scripture. I think they're big and powerful, and they have flaming swords. I think that's what I like to think of angels.

Well, certainly. That's the angel I want watching out for me. Don't send me the baby angel, you know, with the tiny wings.

Give me the warrior angel with the flaming sword and, you know, eagle wings. I'll take that. Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. If you have a call, a question about the Bible or the Christian life, you're welcome to call us right now. 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. By the way, some of the radio stations that air our program aired on a tape delayed basis. So if you're not listening at 11 30 a.m. Pacific time, 12 30 Mountain, 1 30 Central or 2 30 Eastern, that means you're hearing a recorded program.

So the time to call us live in the studio is just that 11 30 a.m. Pacific each day. So write that down and call us if you'd like to talk to Adriel personally. Let's go to David in Albuquerque, New Mexico. David, how are you and what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Hello. Yes, I'm doing fine.

Thank you. Adriel, my question is about Isaiah chapter 6. I was wondering if you could tell us if Isaiah chapter 6, is it entirely a vision?

That's part one of the question. I guess the other part of it would be if it is all a vision, what exactly is a vision or would this have been taken literally that he actually saw the Lord, but then the other question I was going to ask you in part of this was the Lord that he saw seated on the throne. Would that have been necessarily Christ that he saw, the second person of the Trinity, or would that have just been emblematic or a personification of God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit?

All right, I love this question. There's a few passages of scripture that we're going to be getting into here. The very first one is Isaiah 6, which you've brought up.

Now I do take Isaiah chapter 6 to be a vision specifically, and of course Isaiah begins by saying, Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings.

With two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. Here, through this vision that Isaiah receives, he's brought up into the very throne room of God, the council of God, if you will, and this was a prerequisite, David, for being a prophet. In fact, one of the things that God said about the false prophets in the book of Jeremiah, in Jeremiah chapter 23, is that they never stood in his council. They really had not heard his word, Jeremiah chapter 23, verse 18. For who among them has stood in the council of the Lord to see and to hear his word, or who has paid attention to his word and listened? And so this is something that God did for the true prophets in Israel.

He brought them into his council to receive his word so that they might be sent from the throne room of God to deliver the message of God to the people of God, and that's precisely what Isaiah does and did throughout the book of Isaiah. So I do think that this was a vision that he experienced, and with regard to the second part of your question, well, did Isaiah see Jesus? When the text says that he saw the Lord, I think what we want to do is, the best interpreter of scripture is the scripture itself. So do we have any insights from other places in the Bible that help us clear this up?

Well, the answer is yes. In the Gospel of John, in John chapter 12, John says something, or records something very, very interesting. So he's talking about that scene, and beginning in verse 39, this is a rebuke from Jesus, quoting Isaiah. He says, therefore they could not believe, for again Isaiah said, again John 12, 39, he has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they see with their eyes and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them. Then he says this, Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him.

Nevertheless, many, even of the authorities, believed in him. Now, who is the him there? It's Jesus.

But for fear of the Pharisees, they did not confess it so that they would not be put out of the synagogue. And so here in this text, in John chapter 12, it seems as though John is telling us that Isaiah, when he saw the Lord seated on the throne, this glorious vision, he saw Jesus, the glory of Jesus. I have no problem saying that, and I think that that's supported by this text in John chapter 12. God bless you, David.

Thank you for that question. Great answer, and a challenging book for all of us, Isaiah from the Old Testament. There's a lot of things in there that I think need some interpretation, so thank you for that, Adriel. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

Let's go to Elizabeth calling in from Illinois. Elizabeth, what's your question for Adriel? Hello. Hey, good afternoon, Pastor Adriel. So I have a question for you. One of the professors at my college, at my Bible college, let us know that he is a practicing magician, and he's big into, like, Houdini, and I was just wondering, is that biblical?

Hey, thank you for that question, Elizabeth. Is it biblical to practice? Just to follow up with you, I'm assuming he's doing, like, card tricks and those kinds of things? Yes.

Okay. Yeah, I mean, I think that this can be harmless. I don't think this is, you know, I wouldn't say that that's not biblical if it's all in good fun. Now, the reality is there are people who can use, you know, magic and those kinds of things to deceive others. People are easily led astray.

So I guess I would just say, you know, what exactly is going on there? And I suspect, it sounds to me like maybe it's more of a party trick kind of a thing, and he enjoys that, and people have a good laugh, but it's not something that contradicts or goes against anything in Scripture. Where I would have an issue is, and I've seen this at times before as well, you know, someone who's practicing magic, and they're making themselves out to be someone great, someone with this, you know, supernatural power, and in that way leading people astray. And of course, there have been magicians who have done that. Even in Scripture, there's a guy sometimes referred to as Simon the Sorcerer in the Book of Acts who would do all sorts of magic tricks and try to lead people astray, and he actually, you know, is confronted by the teaching of the apostles, and they call him to repentance, in particular because he's making himself out to be someone great, someone powerful, someone who has this secret divine power. And so, if that's what's going on, well, there's a serious issue, and there needs to be repentance, but if it's just, hey, I like to, you know, get together with friends and do card tricks and make everybody laugh, and of course everyone knows this is not, you know, some secret power that I'm using, then I don't think there's any harm in it, Elizabeth.

Thank you for your question. God bless. You know, a couple years ago, I actually saw a Christian magician who used his magic, his party tricks, as you said, to really point people to Christ and God's creation. I thought that was really a creative way, especially with children, to help them understand, you know, God's incredible power and majesty, and it was all pointing back to our Heavenly Father, which I thought was really well done. Yeah, that's great.

You know, if I'm honest, I often will try to do magic tricks for my kids, you know, make a coin disappear kind of a thing, but I'm terrible at it, so they find it in the other hand or on the ground or whatever, but I have tricked them once or twice, and we have a good laugh about that. So that's great. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Just a reminder, you can email us. We are questions anytime, questions at CoreChristianity.com, or you can leave us a voicemail 24 hours a day with your question, 833-843-2673. That's 833, the Core.

Here's a voicemail from one of our listeners named Brian. Interesting question I've got, a lot of people I don't think realize that the Dead Sea in Israel is the lowest part of the level of land on the planet Earth. It's like, I think it's 1200 feet below sea level. And I don't think a lot of people realize that the salt content of the Dead Sea is between 30 and 35 percent, and usually sea water is between 8 and 10 percent. Question in common is, is it true that where the Dead Sea is located that the reason it's so filled with salt, not so much because it doesn't have an outward going tributary that it once had before, but because when God passed judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah and rained fire and brimstone down and destroyed the city, that's where the remains of Sodom and Gomorrah are located in the Dead Sea.

Yeah, very thoughtful question, and there's much to say. So the text of scripture is Genesis chapter 19 where God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah, verse 23. The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar, then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah, sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities and all the valley and all the inhabitants of the cities and what grew on the ground.

But Lot's wife behind him looked back and she became a pillar of salt. And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord, and he looked down towards Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley, and he looked and behold the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace. So it was that when the Lord destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived. Now, there have been a number of people who have said, well, we think we've discovered the location of Sodom and Gomorrah. I don't know if the Dead Sea, I mean, I'm sure that's been suggested before, just last year, a number of agencies came out saying that there was a new archaeological discovery. A Smithsonian magazine reported on it, it was called the destruction of Tel El Hamam, a Bronze Age city in the Jordan Valley that was just decimated by some sort of explosion. And so there are some people who said, well, it looks like we got this historical evidence for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

And one of the things I love about this is we find these things over and over again. Oftentimes you'll see these stories in the Bible. In the Old Testament and the New Testament we'll say, well, we don't really know if there's anything historical to corroborate or evidence for this. And then we'll make these discoveries, which really is wonderful.

In fact, that one came out the day after I think I preached on the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, which I thought was a big bummer because it would have been just an awesome sermon illustration. All that to say, we're not entirely sure. We don't know with 100% certainty where exactly that was. What is interesting in the text is you have this situation where Lot's wife looks back and she becomes a pillar of salt. Now, I've always wondered about that.

Maybe you have as well. Why a pillar of salt? Well, one of the things that's interesting is salt is often in scripture in the Old Testament, a picture of barrenness.

When a land would be destroyed, it would be salted. You see this throughout the Old Testament in places like Deuteronomy 29, verse 23, Judges 9, verse 45, salt keeping things from growing. So here you have Lot's wife as this picture of perpetual barrenness. And you contrast that with what we see in the previous chapter of the book of Genesis, in Genesis chapter 18, where God had made this wonderful promise to Sarah, the promise of offspring, in other words, not being barren.

So you have these two images here. Sarah, the one who is no longer barren with the promise of God, and Lot's wife, who is perpetually barren, if you will, under the judgment of God for her unwillingness to flee, to fix her eyes on the Lord and to flee from the city. So I think there's something there, a sort of thematic thing there, with the language of salt and Sodom and Gomorrah.

And I know that this really happened. This is history that we're reading. Whether or not it's the Dead Sea or this other site that was more recently discovered, we're not sure, but we trust what the Word of God says and we receive what it says for us today. And ultimately, that picture, the picture of Sodom and Gomorrah, is a reminder of the fact that God takes sin seriously. That's how it's referred to in the New Testament as well, in 2 Peter and elsewhere, in Jude, where it talks about the judgment that came upon Sodom and Gomorrah. God takes sin seriously, and what an important reminder for each and every one of us. Those sins that we can oftentimes minimize or just think, oh, that's not a big deal.

No, God, brothers and sisters, will judge sin. But the good news is there's forgiveness with him through Jesus Christ. The hope of the Gospel, as I was talking about earlier, and I pray that you have that, that you know that, that you've received that. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-the-core. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.