Angels - Part 2

This is from a transcript of a sermon preached by Dr. Jack Graham on June 12, 2016

Take your Bibles and turn to Psalm 91… Psalm 91 and this is the second part of our message on angels. “Angels – Part 2” was the best that I could come up with for you from South Louisiana Part Deux. It’s the second part of this message.

The study of angels is not a fringe topic. It is a faith subject. Certainly not fringe in relationship to the Bible. There are nearly 300 references to angels in the Bible from beginning to the end—Genesis to Revelation, and into eternity. Angels, when you turn the pages of the Bible you can almost hear the sounds of angel wings as angels show up again and again and again in the scriptures from Adam and Eve. Just think about the people who met angels in the Bible. Adam and Eve, and Abraham and Hagar and Jacob and, of course, the prophets, Elisha and Elijah. Moses had a conversation with an angel. There is the great King David. We’ll be reading the words of David inspired by the Holy Spirit in just a moment. Daniel because an angel shut the mouths of those lions.

And in the New Testament, Mary and Joseph and Jesus Himself who spoke so often of the angels and is the Creator of the angel forces. The apostles Peter and John and Philip and the Apostle Paul himself who encountered angels on his missionary journeys. And when you get to the end of the Book there are many angels in the Revelation that are executing God’s judgment and celebrating Jesus around the throne of God. No, this is not a fringe topic at all.

Now that’s not to say there’s not some fringe fantastic kinds of expressions of angels in our day. I woke up this morning thinking about a song from the sixties, 1960 Mark Dinning, Teen Angel. How many of you remember that song? Okay, you’re officially old, alright? I remember that song! It’s about a railroad track and an accident and a boy friend and a girl friend, and the girl friend dies and goes to heaven and then he sings Teen Angel… “Teen Angel, can you hear me?” And then there’s a … woooo! You know that word? Alright, you got the wooo part! Alright, we’re just going to do this, just because I want to. You got the wooo part, I’ll help you. “Teen angel, [wooo]” No, that’s not on pitch. It goes “Teen angel, [wooo] can you hear me? Teen angel, can you see me? Are you somewhere up above and are you still my own true love?” I’m trying to get a part… I’m trying to get a part in the Gift of Christmas, so that’s my tryout! I want to fly with the angels actually one of the days in the Gift of Christmas… I think I do anyway.

No, there’s a lot of fun songs and fanciful things regarding angels, but angels are real. Angels and the reality of the unseen world all around us. And in Psalm 91, verses 11 and 12 it says, “For He will command His angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways, and on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against the stone.” Yes, angels are present in the lives of believers. Angels are protecting us, providing for us, prevailing in our behalf in spiritual warfare, fighting our battles, defeating our enemies. Angels often appear in times of distress and times of danger, darkness and even death.

One of my favorite angel stories in the Bible happens and described in 2 Kings, chapter 6 when Elisha the prophet and his servant are living in Dothan and the Syrian army comes against them. The servant wakes up and is frightened. He’s in a panic because they are facing this army and it looks like certain doom and disaster. And that’s when the great prophet Elisha prayed in verses 16 and 17, he said: “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. Then Elisha prayed and said, ‘Oh, Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.’ So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” God sent… The Lord of angel armies sent these angel beings to protect his prophet and his servants and the people of Israel.

Yes, there is an unseen world all around us. Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not real. There are many things that we cannot see that are real. Energy, laws of logic, laws of gravity, black holes in the universe; many unseen things are real. The Scripture says, “As we look not to the things…” This is 2 Corinthians 4:18, “…not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal!” And that means that the unseen realities, including angels, all around us… all around us. And we should set out affections, the Scripture says, not on things of earth… this is Colossians 3: 1 and 2: “But set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” We need to elevate our thinking, and that would include angel beings.