Touched by the Angels
18Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. 19He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.
Angels are making a comeback. And that’s not because the of the way the Anaheim Angels won the Baseball World series last Sunday. It seems we like stories about them…
The movie industry keep churning out stories of angels from Angels in the Outfield, to Nicholas Cage flick called City of Angels, Dogma starring Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, the classic Christmas season film – It’s a Wonderful Life. Popularity of long-running TV shows such as Touched by an Angel, a while back Michael Landon’s Highway to Heaven again shows that the public wants to hear stories about angels. The success of recent popular Christian novels such as Frank Perretti’s Piercing the Darkness, This Present Darkness, shows that the Christian public too is quite interested in these heavenly beings. However, we have to remember what we get, even in Christian novels is a work of fiction. Over the internet, there are many Urban legends about angelic visits. It seems the public will never tire of angels. We are fascinated, curious and awed by stories of angels, are we not?
Listen to this story…
The Rev. John G. Paton was a missionary in the New Hebrides Islands. One night hostile natives surrounded the mission station, intent on burning out the Patons and killing them. Paton and his wife prayed during that terror-filled night that God would deliver them. When daylight came they were amazed to see their attackers leave. A year later, the chief of the tribe was converted to Christ. Remembering what had happened, Paton asked the chief what had kept him from burning down the house and killing them. The chief replied in surprise, "Who were all those men with you there?" Paton knew no men were present--but the chief said he was afraid to attack because he had seen hundreds of big men in shining garments with drawn swords circling the mission station. Paton realized then that God must have sent his angels to protect them.
Whoa! I wonder… Could it be that my wife and I too have experienced angels as well? When my wife was involved in a car crash, two people came by and offered comfort and prayers and then vanished. Were they angels?
My suspicion is that we like these stories because it warms our hearts. To believe God’s looking out for us, he cares to send his angels to do something good for people. As we gather today in church, I believe many of us here would like to get the story straight about angels. So what does the Bible have to say about angels?
Rev. Billy Graham, noted evangelist, said this in 1975: “When I decided to preach a sermon on angels, I found practically nothing in my library… I soon discovered that little had been written on the subject in this century.” He also added: “I have never heard anyone preach a sermon on angels.” Hey me too, when I think about it! According to Millard J. Erickson, respected Evangelical Christian theologian , Barth, and I don’t mean Bart Simpson, but Karl Barth is the authority on the topic – and Barth himself said this topic of angels is “most remarkable and difficult of all.”
What we are about to find out together, might not be an exhaustive treatment of the topic… but these are things we need to know about angels.
So it seems we best strap on the seatbelt and here we go to discover more about angels…
1. Angels are created beings.
Praise him, all his angels,
praise him, all his heavenly hosts…
Let them praise the name of the LORD ,
for he commanded and they were CREATED. Ps.148:2,5
When we are asked where do angels come from? We can say “God made them”! Implications: they are then lower than God. They are not equals of God. They are dependent on God for their existence and they were created for His praise and His purposes. They have no power apart from what God gave them. Thus, they have limited powers.
This means no one should worship them. As Col 2:18 “Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions.” Maybe we have heard stories of angelic visits or encounters but do not let the sensational stories take your eye off God. We do not worship created things, but the Creator. Let us not lose our connection with God by chasing angels.
So we read in the Amplified Bible as Col 1:16 says:
16For it was in Him that ALL THINGS were CREATED, in heaven and on earth, things seen and things unseen, whether thrones, dominions, rulers, or authorities; all things were created and exist through Him [by His service, intervention] and in and for Him.
There is no way angels are equal to God. They are creatures.
2. Angels are spiritual beings.
Are not all angels ministering SPIRITS sent to serve those who will inherit salvation? Hebrews 1:14 (NIV). A rhetorical question asked in the bible.
We find that essentially they do not have bodies like humans. They do not age and get broken down like us. They are “spirits”, immaterial, of another plane of existence, a heavenly being. When they do appear as Millard Erickson noted, they have a man like appearance. More than likely, this is to help the fearful human. Can u imagine, if the angels appear and they look like some Star Trek alien? Won’t they be screaming their heads off? Many times the people who encountered them in the Bible have to be calmed by the angels. “Don’t be afraid” – is a popular phrase they use.
There ARE no explicit references in Bible that says they have wings or carry halos around their heads or appear in female form with a Roman toga. According to Mark 12:25, Jesus hinted that angels do not reproduce or able to be married, which again informs us that they do not have bodies like us.
Furthermore, as Billy Graham has noted in his study on Angels: “The Bible… teaches that angels are sexless.” Implication: the Hollywood movies such as the Brad Pitt flick called “Meet Joe Black” where an angel falls in love with a human, well, that’s just fantasy. Their main purpose is “ministry” to serve, not seeking out romance with people.
3. Angels are servants
Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to SERVE those who will inherit salvation? Hebrews 1:14 (NIV).
They are around to help us, as servants of the mighty God. They are to us God’s special messengers of His love. In fact the Hebrew term malak and the Gk. Word angelos has its basic meaning rooted in the word “messenger”. One the things they do is to carry God’s word to people such as we find in the Christmas story in Lk.1:26-28.
This is a great comfort to us, isn’t it? Especially for those of us undergoing hard times, we may not see it, but could there be angels helping us out, serving, clearing the way, in our time of need.
In the Bible we find stories of angelic protection such as Acts 5:17-19
the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. 18They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. 19But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out.
and Peter from prison in Acts 12:6-11.
6The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. 7Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. "Quick, get up!" he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.
8Then the angel said to him, "Put on your clothes and sandals." And Peter did so. "Wrap your cloak around you and follow me," the angel told him. 9Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision. 10They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.
11Then Peter came to himself and said, "Now I know without a doubt that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating.
4. Angels are numerous.
God made many of them, they are “thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand.” (Rev.5:11). In Luke 15:10, in parable of the lost coin Jesus said: “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." Can you imagine that scene? You saw the Anaheim Angels fans going bananas… The thousands upon ten thousands… can u hear the sound. I can only imagine! Implication: If they are many of them, and all of them can rejoice over one sinner, it shows that we can have confidence that every believer is well-looked after, and not just by a guardian angel but by thousands over one. Like this story in 2 Kings 6:14-17
Then he (King of Aram) sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city.
15 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. "Oh, my lord, what shall we do?" the servant asked.
16 "Don’t be afraid," the prophet answered. "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them."
17 And Elisha prayed, "O LORD , open his eyes so 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.
God’s help is always there. Our rallying cry ought to be - “Those who are with us are MORE than those who are with them." Yes, God will not leave us to fend on our own. He is our protector and He’s got an army of angels. As Psalm 91 says to us:
For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways;
12 they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
13 You will tread upon the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the great lion and the serpent.
14 "Because he loves me," says the LORD , "I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
15 He will call upon me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.
In other words, God is able to help us out anytime, when we call on Him, pray and we can expect Him to move His angels to do His will. Even Jesus understood the impact of an army of angels when he was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane just before His crucifixion in Matt. 26:53-54
Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? 54But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?"
But He chose to fulfill God’s will, obey His plan which include painful torturous suffering on the ugly Roman execution device called the cross. In the same way, when we ask God’s help think of the greater plan of God as well. Perhaps the reason why He has allowed us to undergo trials and not give us immediate deliverance is to fulfill His will to conform us, mold us, into His likeness, becoming more like Him in suffering (cf. Romans 8:28-31). Remember at anytime He can send His angels but when He chooses to withhold the army, perhaps we need to understand God has a bigger and more glorious purpose.
5. Angels are God’s avengers
The Book of revelation is filled with prophecies of angels administering justice to the wickedness of the earth. Such as in Rev 16:1
Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, "Go, pour out the seven bowls of God’s wrath on the earth."
The enemies of God will know holy justice and the angels will be there to deal with it. It was the angel of the Lord who stood between the people of Israel and Egyptian army in Ex.14. Hence, as the people whom God loves, the Bible reassures us that God will know what to do that will extend His purposes. If His will is to rescue us, He will, if He does not, He must have some other plan. God can send His angels at anytime to blow away any opposition. So call on Him. Depend on God and trust His timing. God will deal with all the evil, injustice, and enemies of His, wait and see. This calls for us to be patient as we endure the ups and downs of life. If u read the bible many faith filled people have asked for justice to show up…2 How long, O LORD , must I call for help,
but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, "Violence!"
but you do not save?
3 Why do you make me look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me;
there is strife, and conflict abounds.
4 Therefore the law is paralyzed,
and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
so that justice is perverted.
In Hab.3:16 ff.
16 I heard and my heart pounded,
my lips quivered at the sound;
decay crept into my bones,
and my legs trembled.
Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity
to come on the nation invading us.
17 Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD ,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.
19 The Sovereign LORD is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to go on the heights.
Holy justice will prevail! Victory is ours, as we trust God’s timing in the barren times. Does He enable us to go to the heights when it’s really rough?
6. There are evil angels.
“And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.” 2 Cor.11:14
Don’t be fooled by angelic appearances.
God has power over the evil angels…
God did not spare even the angels when they sinned; he threw them into hell, in gloomy caves and darkness until the judgment day. 2 Pet 2:4 (NLT)
41"Then he will say to those on his left, ’Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Matt 25:41
So don’t worry, God has power over Satan and his evil angels.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God loves you, and no angels or angel can take that away from you.
Conclusion:
Yes, there are angels. Be aware of the angel frenzy, that tells u to get acquainted with a personal angel, your spirit friend/ guide. They are evil spirits masquerading as good angels. So get far away from any form of angel worship.
There are angels out there! Perhaps one may be sitting with you, comforting you in your time of need, doing God’s will reminding you He has never forgotten you. Remember the angels who rejoiced over you, when you finally made the decision to have faith in Jesus Christ who died for your sins. I believe they are looking out for you too.
Perhaps God will permit you to peek into the supernatural and see an angel or armies of angels serving you, protecting you, just like the story in 2 Kings 6. They are numerous and all heaven can break loose any moment. Will you seek to trust God’s help? Shall we worship the Lord Jesus who loves us, even suffered for us, when He could have sought the armies of the heavenly hosts to get him out, yet He went through the whole ordeal of death on the cross? See that cross, people, not the angels and watch His deliverance!
