In Jesus Holy Name September 29, 2013
Text: Daniel 6:16a, 19-22a
St. Michael and All Angels Redeemer
“Angels Are Not Just For Kids”
The date was September 25, 1995. The wife and mother of two was suffering from kidney failure for the past two years. She had been going to dialysis several times a week for just over a year. Her health was failing. She was in bed most of the time. Energy was failing. Friends had dropped by for a visit when the traveling nurse arrived to take her vitals during the regularly scheduled home visits.
While the friends were sitting near the bed and the nurse was taking her temperature, the 86 year old woman stopped everyone and said: “Look, there is an angel walking towards us…. Do you see him?” The nurse and visitors looked but saw nothing. Everyone was stunned. They knew she was not hallucinating because she had not been on any drugs.
The next morning, September 26, 1995, while preparing to leave the farm house for another dialysis treatment my mother, Irene, died. She was carried home to heaven.
James Steward in the film “It’s a Wonderful Life” had a guardian angel. Michael Landon came to earth to give heavenly advice in the show “Highway to Heaven”. George Washington is said to have seen an angel at Valley Forge.
The bible tells us that millions of angels are at God’s command and at our service. When Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane we are told that an angel came and strengthen him. Jesus himself told the disciples….”Do you not think that I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? Put away your swords.” (Matthew 26:53) The hosts of Heaven stand at attention ready to do God’s will at any moment of any hour of any day.
His angels are on call at all times. They don’t take vacation days. They don’t take sick days. They don’t take off for holidays. They never age and they are always ready and available to carry out God’s plans!
The angels of God are here to help us and they are prepared for any emergency, and Satan has no firepower that can match the heavy artillery of God!
In Genesis they guard the Garden of Eden with flashing swords. In Ezekiel they overpower the prophet with visions of multi-winged creatures who guard the Throne of God. Angels visited the home of Lot and took him and his family by the hand and lead them out of Sodom and Gomorrah. Angels closed the mouth of lions and protected Daniel. The angel Gabriel told Mary she would be the mother of the long expected Messiah. An angel warned Joseph in a dream to not divorce Mary and later warned him to leave Bethlehem.
Angels brought God’s message of hope to the childless Abraham and Sarah & Zechariah and Elizabeth. During the time of Moses an Angel of death was sent to all the homes in Egypt but passed over the homes of the Israelites who had blood on their door frames.
An Angel rolled the stone away from the tomb of Jesus and announced the “good news” that “I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here. He has risen from the dead. Come and see the place where he had been laid.” (Matthew)
Angels, angels, angels they are not just stories for kids. And believe me….children and adults do not, do not become angels when we die, despite the rhetoric at some funerals.
The Bible teaches us that God created angels. At one time no angels existed; there was nothing but the Holy Trinity, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul writes in Colossians 1:16 “For by him were all things created, things that are in Heaven, and that are in earth, both visible and invisible.”
Angels are indeed among the invisible things made by God, for “all things were created by Him, and for Him.”
With 273 verses in scripture dealing with angels, you have to wonder why most preachers don’t deal with the subject anymore. Angels aren’t soft, cloud-clothed babies floating around. They are God’s secret agents, and messengers, and also Warriors!
Our modern culture has reduced the mighty angels who wield God’s sword of Justice, who are messengers of God, to fearless doll shaped cherubs, made for those who to easily choke on God and His rules. Only in the New Age of Crystals could a culture invent an angel so mellow and sweet that he can be ignored.
One only need remember the poor village girl whose life was forever changed by the message of Gabriel.
Billy Graham in his book: Angels, Angels, Angels tells many stories of how God intervened in the lives of his people, even in the lives of his wife’s parents when they were missionaries in China. An Angel is a “messenger” of God. They do not have flesh and bones. They are spirits created by God and can become visible in human form if God deems it necessary. They do not possess a human soul.
Angels are not gods to be worshipped, nor to be consulted about life’s events as so often suggested in “New Age” writings. In the Book of Revelation after the angel had shown John all that was to take place at the return of Jesus and the final judgment, John writes: “I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing me these visions. But he said to me: Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers and all who keep the words of this book. Worship God!”
Angels were created by God and given free will, just like Adam and Eve. That’s why there are fallen angels, like Satan.
There is a mighty angelic conflict being fought--because Satan, and a multitude of other angels chose to rebel against God.
Isaiah 14:12-15
Authorized (King James) Version (AKJV)
12 How art thou fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning!
how art thou cut down to the ground,
which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thine heart,
I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God:
I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation,
in the sides of the north:
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will be like the most High.
15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell,
to the sides of the pit.
“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels.” [Who is the dragon?] Rev. 12:7
“And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. [4] And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.”
Rev. 12:3-6
Lucifer was his name at that time, and he was bright, beautiful, and full of wisdom. He had a position of authority over other angels. But he wanted more--the throne of God! And there’s been war ever since, raging in the heavenly realms and on earth.
We know that Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness. (Matthew Mark & Luke) The Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians “Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
The function of angels are to praise God and be his messengers in this world to the “church” and to the people of God. They carry the believer, like Lazarus to Abraham’s bosom. (Luke 16:22) They rejoice over every sinner who repents. (Luke 15:10) The proclaimed the birth of Jesus and sang to the shepherds. They proclaimed the message of our Lord’s resurrection.
Those who have opted to reduce “angels” to cherubs who float on clouds, or to turn them into “spirit guides” from whom we can get directions for life…..are simply deconstructing the biblical message. Those who have opted to live for themselves, making themselves their own “god”, will not find heaven but be cast into outer darkness with all the fallen angels, Satan and his demonic hosts.
God sent His Son to provide a way of salvation. His death puts away our sins. His resurrection destroys Him who holds people in the fear of death, that is Satan, and assures us of our resurrected body. He did not do this for angels….but for the descendants of Abraham. (Heb. 2:14-16)
When that final day comes it will be the job of angels to gather all the elect from the four corners of the earth. For our Lord will send his angels. The loud trumpet call of God will sound, the voice of the Archangel Michael, will blow the trumpet and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then after that, we who are still alive and are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.
Amen.
