This morning we are continuing our look at the angelic
world. Having completed a study of "Our Greatest Enemy:
Satan," we are now looking at "God’s Holy Angels."
Billy Graham, in his book Angels: God’s Secret Agents, tells of several accounts where people received help from angels. He writes:
Dr. S.W. Mitchell, a celebrated Philadelphia neurologist, had gone to bed after an exceptionally tiring day. Suddenly he was awakened by someone knocking on his door. Opening it he found a little girl, poorly dressed and deeply upset. She told him her mother was very sick and asked him if he would please come with her. It was a bitterly cold, snowy night, but though he was bone tired, Dr. Mitchell dressed and followed the girl. As Reader’s Digest reports the story, he found the mother desperately ill with pneumonia. After arranging for medical care, he complimented the sick woman on the intelligence and persistence of her little daughter. The woman looked at him strangely and then said, "My daughter died a month ago." She added, "Her shoes and coat are in the clothes closet there." Dr. Mitchell, amazed and perplexed, went to the closet and opened the door. There hung the very coat worn by the little girl who had brought him to tend to her mother. It was warm and dry and could not possibly have been out in the wintry night.
Could the doctor have been called in the hour of desperate need by an angel who appeared as this woman’s young daughter? Was this the work of God’s angels on behalf of the sick woman?
The Reverend John G. Paton, a missionary in the New Hebrides Islands, tells a thrilling story involving the protective care of angels. Hostile natives surrounded his mission headquarters one night, intent on burning the Patons out and killing them. John Paton and his wife prayed all during that terror-filled night that God would deliver them. When daylight came they were amazed to see the attackers unaccountably leave. They thanked God for delivering them. A year later, the chief of the tribe was converted to Jesus Christ, and Mr. Paton, remembering what had happened, asked the chief what had kept him and his men from burning down the house and killing them. The chief replied in surprise, "Who were all those men you had with you there?" The missionary answered, "There were no men there; just my wife and I." The chief argued that they had seen many men standing guard-- hundreds of big men in shining garments with drawn swords in their hands. They seemed to circle the mission station so that the natives were afraid to attack. Only then did Mr. Paton realize that God had sent His angels to protect them. The chief agreed that there was no other explanation.
Could it be that God had sent a legion of angels to protect His servants, whose lives were being endangered?
During World War II, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker was shot down over the Pacific ocean. For weeks nothing was heard of him. The newspapers reported his disappearance and across the country thousands of people prayed. Mayor LaGuardia asked the whole city of New York to pray for him. Then he returned. The Sunday papers headlined the news, and in an article, Captain Rickenbacker himself told what had happened. "And this part I would hesitate to tell," he wrote, "except that there were six witnesses who saw it with me. A gull came out of nowhere, and lighted on my head--I reached up my hand very gently--I killed him and then we divided him equally among us. We ate every bit, even the little bones. Nothing ever tasted so good." Years later I asked him to tell me the story personally, because it was through this experience that he came to know Christ. He said, "I have no explanation except that God sent one of His angels to rescue us." (pp.3-4).
Could it be that God dispatched His angels to
Captain Rickenbacker, Reverend Paton and Dr. Mitchell?
The Existence of Angels
"The existence of angels is uniformly presented in Scripture. Thirty four books of the Bible make reference to angels (seventeen in the Old Testament; seventeen in the New Testament. (Paul Enns, The Moody Handbook of Theology. p.288).
Jesus was Helped by Angels Following His Temptation
Mat.4:11 - "Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him."
Jesus Referred to the Resurrected State as Comparable to Angels
Mat.22:29-30 - "Jesus answered and said to them, ’You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels of God in heaven."
Jesus Taught that the Angels Would Gather the Nations at the Time of His Return
Mat.25:31,32 - "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from goats."
John MacArthur,
"Throughout the Old Testament, angels are presented as personal beings who are messengers and ministers of God. If all those references to angels were removed, we would be left with inexplicable events and gaping holes in the narrative. There would be far many problems without solutions. If angels didn’t exist, we would have to accuse God of error since the Old Testament is full of references to His sending angels to do His bidding. Angels are an inextricable part of the New Testament as well. Who announced the birth of Christ (Luke 2:8-14)? Who told the shepherds where to go (Luke 2:8-12)? Who came to Jesus at His temptation and ministered to Him after He fasted forty days (Mat.4:11)? Who went to Christ’s tomb and announced His resurrection (Mat.28:2-7)? Who is coming to gather the elect from the four corners of the world (Mat.24:31)? Who freed Peter and John from jail (Acts 5:19)? Angels. If those supernatural beings didn’t exist, accounts of their marvelous interventions would be reduced to lies; spiritual warfare would be nonexistent; Christ’s temptation would be meaningless; and the book of Revelation would be reduced to chapter headings since angels appear on virtually every page" (God, Satan, and Angels, pp.131-132).
The Definitions of Angels
"There are a number of different words used in Scripture to define angelic beings."
Angel
Heb.malak, "messenger" (Kittle). "It may refer to a human messenger (1 Kings 19:2) or a divine messenger (Gen.28:12). The basic meaning of the word is ’one who is sent.’ The word is found 103 times in the Old Testament" (Ibid., Enns, p.287).
Gr.angelos, "messenger" "It occurs 179 times in the New Testament, as ’angel’ and 6 times as ’messenger’ referring to men" (Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon).
Sons of God
They are ’sons of God’ (bene elohim) "in their unfallen estate they are God’s Son’s by His creation" (Ibid., Enns, p.287). (Genesis 6:2,4; Job 1:6; Job 2:1)
Morning Stars
Job 38:7 - "When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy."
Hosts (Ps.103:20-21)
Ps.148:2 - "Praise Him, all His angels! Praise Him all His hosts."
Luke 2:13 calls them "heavenly hosts"
Ministers
Ps.104:4 - "Who makes His angels spirits, His ministers a flame of fire."
Heb.1:14 - "Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?"
Chief Princes
Daniel 10:13 - "But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia."
Angels are God’s messengers, a product of His creation, that shine as the stars of heaven and gather as His hosts. They are ministers "sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation." And they operate in rank.
The Number of Angels
A Multitude
Luke 2:13 - "And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God."
Twelve Legions
Mat.26:53 - "Or do you think that I can now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?"
A Roman legion consisted of 6,000 soldiers backed by another 6,000 men equalling from 72,000 to 144,000 soldiers.
One angel was enough - 2 Kings 19:35 says that one angel killed 185,000 Assyrians.
More than Believers
Mat.18:10 - "Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven."
Hundreds of Millions
Rev.5:11 - "Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands."
An Innumerable Company
Heb.12:22 - "But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels."
The Nature of Angels
They were Created
"With an instantaneous command, millions of creatures came into existence" (Ibid., MacArthur, p.134).
Ps.148:1-5
Ezek.28:13 of Lucifer God said, "You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: the sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created."
Col.1:16 - For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him."
They are Persons
They have Intellect
Ezek.28:12 - Lucifer, in his original state, was "full of wisdom."
Mat.28:5 - following the resurrection of Jesus, "the angel answered and said to the woman, ’Do not be afraid, for I know (Gr.eido, "understand") that you seek Jesus who was crucified."
They have Emotion
joy - Luke 15:10 - "There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."
worship - Heb.1:6 - "But when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says: ’Let the angels of God worship Him."
They have will
Jude 6 - "And the angels who did not keep their proper domain but left their own habitation, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day."
They are Spirits
"Angels belong to the class of spirit beings, that is, they are generally understood as immaterial and incorporeal beings. They certainly do not have a material, fleshly body such as humans have" (C. Fred Dickason, Angels Elect & Evil, p.33).
Their Immaterial Composition
Heb.1:7 - "And of the angels He says: ’Who makes His angels spirits and His ministers a flame of fire." (quote from Ps.104:4)
Heb.1:14 - "Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?"
Their Spatial Limitations (Daniel 9:21-22;10:12-14)
Their Visual Manifestations
"When God chooses to let angels appear before human beings, they always appear as men...In every case the masculine pronoun is used to speak of them.
They appear as men (Daniel 10:4-5,16; Gen.19:1)
They sometimes take on a dazzling appearance - Mat.28:3 - "His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow."
How people are affected by angels
mental turmoil - Luke 1:29
panic and terror - Luke 1:12
great fear - Luke 2:9
fell down as dead men - Mat.28:4
Conclusion
We have angels that minister to us. Many times we can be aided by angels and not know it. Heb.13:2 - "Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels." Angels are not to be worshiped. Rev.19:10 - "And I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, ’See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." Rev.22:8-9 - "Now I, John, saw and heard these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things. Then he said to me, ’See that you do not do that. For I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God."
