Angels
Supernatural Part 4
If you have your Bibles with you,
turn to Hebrews, chapter 13.
Today is the fourth week of our study called “Supernatural”.
If you are just joining us,
let me kind of review where we’ve been.
In the first week of our study,
we recognized the fact that
though we live in a very real, physical world,
there is an equally real and incredibly important spiritual world,
where there is a spiritual battle
going on all the time.
We learned that we don’t battle
against other people,
or against flesh and blood,
but against the powers and the principalities
of the spiritual world.
The second week, we looked at the reality of the Holy Spirit,
who He is and what His role is
in the life of those who are
followers of Jesus Christ.
Last week we looked at the reality of demonic forces,
how they do the work of our spiritual enemy,
who’s mission is to steal, kill, and destroy.
Today, we want to look at
God’s spiritual beings, known as angels,
because many people today don’t understand
who angels are, what they do,
and how they affect our lives, today.
A,woman was walking down the street one day, and she heard a voice yell, “Stop! if you take one more step you will be kiIIed!
The woman stopped, and seconds later a brick fell and landed in her path.
A minute or two after that, she was getting ready to cross the street when the same voice shouted
“Halt! Don’t cross the street now!
That moment an out-of-control beer truck careened around the corner and didn’t even slow down as it ran the red light.
By this time the woman was, shaking,
and she asked out loud, “Who are you?”
The voice replied “I’m your guardian angel..”
The woman said, my guardian angel! Well in that case, you’ve got some explaining to do.
The angel said, Okay, what do you want to know.
The woman said.
Well, first of all, “Where were you on my wedding day?”
Many of us get our, our beliefs about angels
from television shows or movies.
For example, how many of you used to watch the show,
“Touched By An Angel”?
Because of that, we all know that angels are actually
women with British accents.
Anybody ever watch “Angels In The Outfield”?
We all hope that Johnny Gomes, has some of those helping him out this year.
And how about the movie, Michael? Anybody see that?
Many people think that’s the most theologically correct
movie about angels.
Because of course we have John Travolta,
playing the angel “Michael”
… who drinks beer
chain smokes,
and picks up women.
Okay, I was joking about it being Biblically accurate.
Its obviously not.
Then we have everyone’s favorite Christmas movie,
shown forty bazillion times each year,
“It’s A Wonderful Life”.
Anyone love “It’s A Wonderful Life”?
Some of you hate it,
but that’s because you need Jesus,
Whats the angels name in that movie? Clarence,
And what happens every time a bell rings?
An angel gets its wings,
See, you are all experts on angels.
Maybe you’ve gotten a greeting card
with a little naked, bald-headed baby angel
playing a harp on a cloud.
So, some people think that angels are actually naked babies with no hair,
playing a harp on a cloud,
I want to lay that one to rest,
that is not what angels are like,
thank goodness.
Then there’s the common belief, that
if one of your relatives dies,
then they go to Heaven and become an angel,
and maybe they’re even your guardian angel.
Now, I know that’s a common belief,
because I’ve talked to our children’s pastor Carol, about this,
and she is continually surprised
at how many of your kids believe that.
You know, grandma passes away,
and you tell your kids,
“Well, grandma’s an angel in heaven now,
and she’s watching over you.”
Now, lets stop for a second,
have you really thought that one through?
I don’t know about you,
but there’s times in my life
when I don’t want grandma watching over me.
It’s just, there some natural parts of life,
when it just wouldn’t be right for Grandma to watch.
Sorry, grandma, I’ll see you in heaven,
but you can’t watch me now.
Thankfully, that’s just not true.
Grandma does not become an angel,
and she’s not your guardian angel, either,
so don’t tell your kids that anymore,
tell them Grandma is waiting for you in heaven,
you’ll see her there,
but she’s not an angel.
What we need to understand is,
according to scripture,
angels are God’s servants.
They are supernatural beings
created by God
and for God’s glory.
They do the work of God,
Now, what’s interesting is,
although they’re very likely
here in this room right now,
because in the spirit world,
there are most likely angels all around us.
What’s hard for most of us to grasp
is that there are times
when angels actually show up
looking like human beings.
We see this happen many times in the Bible,
For example in Genesis 18
Abraham was just out hanging out by a tree.
Three guys show up and, he goes,
“Hey, what’s going on?”
These were spiritual beings from Heaven,
but Abraham thought they were regular guys,
so he hollers into the tent.
“Hey, Sarah, we’ve got some company here.
Why don’t you put on a pot of chili,.
Let’s feed these guys,”
He didn’t even realize
who was in front of him.
The very next chapter,
Genesis 19,
something similar happened.
A man named Lot, in Sodom,
meets two strangers one day.
and he thought they were travelling through,
and they had no place to spend the night,
and so he invited them.
“Hey, you guys want to stay with me?
Well, I’ll take care of you for the night.”
He didn’t realize that
right there in front of him
were two angels from God.
And apparently this happens on a regular basis, even today,
because we’re told in
Hebrews 13:2.
“Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.”
We’re going to look at two questions this morning,
Who are angels,
and what do they do?
First,
Who are angels?
Angels are basically three things.
Angels are worshippers.
Over and over again in the bible,
you find angels worshipping God
or worshipping Jesus Christ.
In fact, scripture says this in Hebrews 1:6,
When God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, "Let all God's angels worship him."
Angels worship God,
and they worship Jesus.
In fact, scripture says this in
Revelation 5:11-12
Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand.
Now from this right here,
we know there are a lot of angels,
10,000 x 10,000 is a hundred million,
so there’s not just a few,
there’s a whole bunch.
They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they were saying:"Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!"
Angels are worshippers.
Angels are also warriors.
They’re fierce warriors,
battling on behalf of God.
Scripture says this in
Revelation 12:7,
And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.
Whenever you see angels
fighting a war in the bible,
it mentions Michael as the head of the army,
he’s the top warrior angel.
Now, what’s even more important to know,
is that angels are fighting for us,
for believers.
There’s a great story about that in 2 Kings 6
At that time in history
the most powerful king in the Middle East
was the king of Aram.
And the king of Aram was at war with Israel,
trying to take over the country,
at the time of this story he was really angry,
because it seemed like
someone was leaking his secret battle plans
to the army of Israel.
Whenever he would go to attack,
Israel always seemed to be one step ahead of them,
and completely prepared.
And the king of Aram couldn’t figure it out.
He got so frustrated that he told his bodyguards,
“I want you to find out who’s the traitor,
who’s leaking information to Israel.”
And one of his advisers said,
Oh king,
“There’s nobody leaking information to Israel.
It’s that trouble maker, Elisha.”
Elisha is a prophet of God
and God is telling him the plans that you make,
and then he tells your plans to Israel.”
In fact, Elisha even knows the things,
that you whisper in your bedroom at night.
Now you can imagine.
this made the king a little bit unhappy,
The king said, Okay,
“I want you to find out where that Elisha guy is
And I want you to kill him.”
Well the army of Aram found out
that Elisha and his servant
had gone to the city of Dothan in Israel.
So they sent the army
with all the horses and chariots
and they surrounded the city.
We’ll pick up the story in
2 Kings 6:15-17
with Elishas servant
When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city.
Now this servant of Elisha is no dummy,
He knows why that army is there
they want to kill him and his master, Elisha,
and he figures out real quick
that this does not look good.
So he runs as fast as he can
and gets Elisha,
and shows him the armies out there,
and he begins to whine in fear.
What are we gonna do?
We’re going to die.
The city is surrounded
What are we going to do?”
Elisha’s response is interesting
“Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered.
“Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
Now, I can imagine the servant saying,
“Oh really!”
One—two…
Elisha! What are you living in a dream world?
What are you talking about?
And Elisha prayed, "Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see." Then the Lord opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
If God did the same thing for us right now,
if he opened our eyes to see the spiritual,
what do you thing we’d see all around us.
In case you haven’t figured it out yet,
There’s a whole other dimension in this world
that most people have no clue about.
We tend to think that if I can’t see it,
it aint there.
If I can’t Hear it, touch it,
taste it or smell it
Then it doesn’t exist.
But nothing could be farther from the truth.
In fact,
Let’s do a little experiment.
I’d like for you lift your arm
And smell your wrist.
Go along with me for a second…
Now, what did you smell?
Well, some of the women here
may have smelled perfume.
But men, what did you smell?
Probably, nothing, right?
Ladies sometimes put on perfume so they smell pretty.
Men typically don’t,
because they don’t care.
But here’s the reality,
We all stink!
Maybe that’s not a very nice way to put it,
but we really do.
We don’t notice that we stink.
because we don’t smell much of anything
but that’s only because our perception is poor.
Our sense of smell is poor.
Some of you men are hunters.
When you hunt,
do you want to be down wind or up wind,
from the animal?
Down Wind! Why?
Because if you’re upwind,
the game you’re hunting will smell you.
Why? Because you stink!
We don’t notice it,
because its beyond our perception.
But it is not beyond the perception
of the animal kingdom.
A dog’s nose is 10,000 times
more powerful than yours or mine.
so a dog is aware of things
that we simply aren’t.
Same thing with the spiritual world.
the spiritual world is very real,
but its also very difficult for us to perceive.
The Bible says
its like we see through a glass darkly,
we don’t get a clear view of spiritual things.
But to say that something doesn’t exist
simply because I can’t perceive it
is really pretty foolish.
Its like saying, I don’t stink,
because I can’t smell my wrist.
Angels are usually beyond our perception.
We normally can’t see them,
or hear, or smell, or touch them.
our perception in that area is very poor,
But they are all around us.
Because angels were created
by God and for God.
They are worshippers.
They are warriors.
Angels are also messengers.
Over and over and over again in scripture,
when you see an angel show up,
they come with a message from God
and for God’s people.
Whenever the message is extremely important,
in other words, when its about Jesus,
you always see the angel Gabriel
delivering the message.
He brings messages to Daniel,
and to the father of John the Baptist,
and to Mary.
Gabriel is clearly the highest ranking messenger.
But there’s other messenger angels
who bring messages to Gideon,
Hagar, Jacob,
Zechariah,
and a bunch of others.
And there’s nothing in the Bible
that says they stopped doing this,
they’re still delivering messages today.
Though we may not realize it
when it happens.
When I was growing up
my father used to talk about the time
an angel gave him a message.
I wish that I could go ask him for more of the details
about his story,
but He passed away years ago,
But he used to be extremely active
working in a ministry
that supported missions work,
He’d work all day at his secular job,
and then he’d put in a lot time and energy,
on nights and weekends on this,
and he said that at one point
he was really tired and discouraged,
and he was as at church,
and this guy he’d never seen before
came up to him and said,
the Lord really appreciates the work you’re doing,
and then the guy just turned around
and walked away.
And my father said,
he stood there for a minute thinking,
who was that guy,
and how would he know what I’ve been doing
to serve God?
And he couldn’t figure it out,
so he went after the guy to ask him,
but the guy had disappeared.
He looked all over the building
Then he asked some other people
No one knew who the guy was,
they’d never seen him before.
So my father was absolutely convinced
it had to be an angel sent to encourage him.
Because Angels are worshippers.
Angels are warriors.
And angels are messengers.
Now, let’s look at,
“What Do Angels Do?”
How can they actually benefit us
in our daily lives?
Number one,
Angels often give you direction.
Angels can guide you,
and give you direction.
We all know the story of how
Mary became pregnant by the Holy Spirit.
But when she tells her fiancé, Joseph,
he gets a little bit upset.
She’s going, Well, it’s from the Holy Spirit,
and he’s thinking, “Yeah, right! Whatever!
I saw the way that guy was looking at you in the market,
“No, no, really, Joseph,
God got me pregnant.”
“Sure. I’m really going to tell my buddies that?
And so, he did what any other guy would do,
and he planned to break things off with her,
but God sent an angel
to give Joseph directions.
Matthew 1:20,
An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.’
There’s another example
in the Old Testament.
Numbers 22:21,
Sort of a funny story.
Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey and went with the Moabite officials. But God was very angry when he went, and the angel of the Lord stood in the road to oppose him. Balaam was riding on his donkey, and his two servants were with him. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand, it turned off the road into a field.
This guy Balaam, was going in the wrong direction,
doing something God didn’t want him to do,
so God sent an angel to re-direct him.
Only Balaam can’t see this angel,
but the donkey can.
The donkey sees this fierce angel, in the road
and decides, “I don’t want any of that.”
So little donkey veers off this way,
And Balaam is not happy.
He got off his donkey and he beat the tar …
“Bad donkey, bad donkey, bad donkey.”
Then he gets on the donkey again.
and a little farther down the road
the angel showed up a second time
at a narrow part of the road,
and blocked the donkey,
so the donkey goes off to the side,
and jams Balaams foot against a cliff face.
Again, Balaam’s furious.
He gets off and just starts whipping the donkey …
“Bad donkey, bad donkey, bad donkey, bad donkey.”
He gets on the donkey again.
A little farther down the road,
donkey again sees this big, fierce angel
with his sword in his hand,
The donkey thinks,
Nope, I’m not going there.
and he just lays down, right there on the road,
and Balaam’s madder than spit.
Gets off another time
and is just beating the snot out of this
poor, cute, little innocent donkey,
And apparently,
God felt sorry for the little donkey,
because God did something that’s pretty cool.
He gave the donkey the ability to speak.
So, the donkey says,
“Balaam, I thought we were buddies.
Haven’t I been your faithful little donkey for all these years?”
Now, what’s crazy is,
Balaam just starts talking back,
Now if it was me,
and I heard the donkey start to talk,
I might have jumped about a foot in the air,
and said, my donkey is talking.
Either somebody slipped something into my canteen,
and I’m hearing voices,
or this is pretty amazing,
because I’ve never seen a donkey talk before,
except on Shrek.
But Balaam just starts talking back to the donkey.
and then, all of a sudden,
scripture says that
God opened up Balaam’s eyes,
and then he could finally see the angel.
And he can see the big sword,
and now he’s going, oops.
Sorry donkey.
and then it says,
he actually bowed down before the angel,
and then the angel spoke to him.
Now, it’s interesting what the angel said.
The angel said basically,
“Balaam, if you’d gone any further,
I was going to kill you,
but not the donkey.”
You see,
Everybody liked the little donkey.
Even the angel felt sorry for the donkey.
Now, if Balaam had been riding on a cat … [laugh] …
I’m thinking, things would have turned out different.
But anyway,
Balaam got re-directed by this angel.
You ever have a time
when you are just set on doing something.
You just got to do it, got to do it, got to do it, got to do it,
but then you keep hitting roadblocks?
You ever had that happen?
I have.
Have you ever thought that, maybe
its an angel of the Lord
re-directing you off of the wrong path
onto the right path.
And we’re getting angry,
because things seem to be going all wrong,
we’re beating the cute little donkey,
when its really an angel trying to re-direct us.
Balaam couldn’t see it till his eyes were opened,
and maybe you can’t see it,
but you’re being directed.
Angels do a lot of things.
And one of the things they do,
is give us direction.
Angels protect you from danger.
VIDEO
Angels can direct you.
Angels can protect you,
Angels can also minister to you.
They can minister God’s
love
and healing
and power to you.
Hebrews 1:14,
“Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who inherit salvation?”
They are ministering spirits.
One time Jesus went forty days
without eating any food,
then Satan shows up
and tempts Him three different times,
and by the end of it he was
physically and spiritually,
totally exhausted.
And then what happened?
Matthew 4:11,
“Then the devil left him and, behold, angels came and, ministered to Him.”
This word that is translated as ministered
in the Greek language
is the word diakoneo (dee-ak-on-eh’-o),
and, it means
to be an attendant.
to wait upon.
to help as you would a friend.
That’s what this angel did.
It ministered to Jesus as to a friend.
That’s one of the jobs of angels.
When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane,
just hours before His death on the cross,
He knew what was coming.
and so He prayed out to God.
“God, if there is any other way, any way at all,
let this suffering be taken from Me.”
He was in agony,
knowing what was to come.
It says that,
being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.
That how intense it was.
And then, it says,
Luke 22:43
An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.
At those times when you really need help,
Angels can strengthen you,
that’s what they do.
Maybe you’re facing a challenge in your marriage,
where you just think,
“I can’t face another day like this,
but then somehow, you can.
you find new strength and energy
to keep on going.
Maybe it was because an angel of the Lord came
and gave you strength and hope.
Maybe you’re facing a temptation
where you think,
“I just can’t overcome this sin,”
but God sends a ministering angel
that gives you the strength
to overcome the temptation.
Maybe you have a vision to do something,
that God wants,
but you don’t see how it’s going to happen,
because you just don’t have the strength,
its too much for you,
but an angel comes
and gives you strength to keep going.
Maybe you’re exhausted physically
or burned out spiritually,
and you feel like giving up,
until God sends an angel
to minister to you and give you strength.
I don’t know what it’ll look like in your life,
but here’s what I do know.
I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that
we live in a physical world,
but there is an equally real
and even more important, spiritual world
where the forces of darkness
battle against the forces of light,
where the kingdom of God
battles against the plans of the evil one.
A spiritual world where we battle,
not against people,
not against flesh and blood,
but against the principalities and the powers
of this dark world.
And the great news is this.
We don’t have to fight this war,
hoping that one day we will ultimately win the victory.
No, the great news is,
Jesus has already won the ultimate victory.
Now its simply a matter of,
how many people are going to be able,
to share in that victory.
We already know who wins,
We fight from a position of strength.
We fight from victory, not for victory.
Its just a matter of, how many can we share it with.
And the good news is this,
If you are a disciple of Jesus,
if you are a follower of His,
then greater is the One who is in you
than the evil one who is in this world.
You are powerful in this war,
when you depend on Christ,
and trust him.
You have angels fighting on your side,
You have the Holy Spirit himself living in you,
guiding encouraging, and empowering you,
There is nothing that can win against you,
when you’re trusting in Christ.
You are the victor.
Let’s pray together.
“Father, we thank You for all that You’ve done, all the things in the spiritual realm that we don’t even understand. God, we thank You that You are the ultimate winner of the spiritual war, and that in the end, God, Your kingdom will come and Your Will, will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”
I know that there are many of us here that right now would say, “I need a supernatural touch from God.” Maybe you feel like you’ve drifted away from God, and you need a supernatural touch to bring you back. Or maybe you have a health problem where you need a supernatural touch, or maybe someone you love needs a supernatural touch from God.
Maybe you need the supernatural strength of God in order to resist some temptation, or in order to draw near to God. Maybe you need the power of the Holy Spirit to guide and direct you in decisions you need to make. Maybe you need his angels to minister to you and strengthen you in some area.
I’d like us to simply admit that to God. If you’d say this morning that, Yes,
I need a supernatural touch from God.” Would you say that to God by lifting up your hands now? Just lift them high, to tell God, I need a supernatural touch from you.
“God, we thank You and praise You that You are a supernatural God, that You are all-knowing and You are all powerful, and You are always with us, and that God, You understand the details of every situation that we’re facing. And so God, we pray and ask that You would work supernaturally in our lives. God, that You would give each of us the strength and the power of the Holy Spirit, to be our guide and our encourager and our strength and power. God, I pray that You would give us the ability to use the word of God to fight off the evil one. God, we pray for protection, that You would put your angels around us, and protect us from all harm. God we pray that You’ll give us the ability to raise our children in a way that is right and Godly.
God, we pray for physical healing. We pray for marriages, God. We pray for supernatural hope. God, we pray for miracles in a way that only You can do. And God, we thank You ahead of time for the supernatural things you’re going to do among us. We believe You’re a good and loving and awesome God, and when You do act, God, we’re going to give You all the honor and all the praise, and we’ll tell everyone, “This is what God did. This is God’s work. We serve a supernatural God.”
God, touch us with a supernatural touch in whatever area we need. In the name of Your Son, Jesus.
