Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into [1 Pet. 1:12].

Now the apostles are saying, “We are preaching the same thing that the prophets did.” The only difference was that the prophets could not make the distinction between Christ’s suffering and glory while the apostles were in the position of being able to understand the distinction.
“Which things the angels desire to look into.” It is my opinion that the angels, God’s created intelligences, are standing up yonder looking at you and me wondering why we don’t get busy and give out this tremendous message today. They desire to do it themselves. They would love to come and proclaim it to the world. You recall that the angel Gabriel came and made the announcement to Mary and later to Joseph that Jesus was to be born. Also, he came to tell Zacharias that he was going to have a son, named John, who would be the forerunner of the Messiah. I am sure that Gabriel would love to come down again and say to me as I make my radio broadcast, “Move over, McGee, you are not putting enough into it. This thing is lots more wonderful than you are making it!” Although he would like to come down, God won’t let him. He says to Gabriel, “No, I’ve got to use that poor instrument, McGee.” Today he is using human instruments to get out His Word,



because we are not living in the day of the ministry of angels. We are living in the day of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. As children of God we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit—“… if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Rom. 8:9). If you are Christ’s, you are indwelt by the Spirit of God.
Now, do you think that an angel could do something for you that the Spirit of God could not do? No. We are living in the day of the ministry of the Holy Spirit, the day of grace, when the Spirit of God takes the things of Christ and reveals them unto us. What are we to do in light of this?


McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible commentary: The Epistles (1 Peter) (electronic ed., Vol. 54, pp. 33–34). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

1 Pe 1:12 to us they were ministering. The OT prophets who wrote of the coming of salvation (vv. 10, 11) knew it was a future Savior who would come, and thus they were really writing for those who are on this side of the cross. those who have preached the gospel. The NT apostles and preachers of the gospel had the privilege of proclaiming that the prophecies written by the OT prophets had come to pass (cf. 2 Cor. 6:1, 2).

MacArthur, J., Jr. (Ed.). (1997). The MacArthur Study Bible (electronic ed., p. 1940). Nashville, TN: Word Pub.