Naylor Community Christian Church
Naylor, Georgia
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Luke 2:1-20
Luke
1:1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken
of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while
Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to
register.
4
So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to
Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of
David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to
him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the
baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him
in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available
for them.
8
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over
their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory
of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said
to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for
all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he
is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby
wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
13
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising
God and saying,
14
“Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his
favor rests.”
15
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one
another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the
Lord has told us about.”
16
So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in
the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had
been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what
the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and
pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising
God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had
been told.
-- this morning marks the start of
the Season of Advent in the Christian Church -- this is the beginning of the
church year for most of the churches in the western world, starting on the
fourth Sunday before Christmas -- the Season of Advent gets its name from the
Latin word "adventus," which means "coming" or
"arrival" -- it is a period of waiting and anticipation for the
coming of Christ
-- the first Advent occurred over
2000 years ago when Jesus was born in a manger on Christmas morning -- and just
like the Jewish people had waited thousands of years for the coming of the
Messiah -- we are waiting and anticipating the second Advent of Christ -- the
second coming of Christ to this world at the end of the age
-- therefore, the Season of Advent
focuses on celebrating the coming of Christ at Christmas and looking forward to
Christ's return
-- this year, as we begin to turn
our hearts and minds towards the celebration of Christmas, I thought we might
take some time and look at some of the people and places in the Christmas story
that we don’t always talk about -- usually, our focus is on Mary and Joseph and
the baby -- but there are many more who were involved in the story of Christ’s
first advent -- starting with the angels, who appeared to the shepherds in the
fields outside of Bethlehem on that first Christmas night
-- the Bible is filled with story
after story about angels and their interaction with God's people -- all the way
from the Book of Genesis through the Book of Revelation -- and we have talked
about angels in our Bible studies, especially the study of Revelation, but the
majority of people still don't understand who angels are or what they do
-- and because of that, we tend to
get our beliefs about angels from the culture -- from the pictures and images
that we see at Christmas in our churches and in our nativity sets -- and from
movies and songs such as "It's a Wonderful Life" with Jimmy Stewart
and the hymns that we sing in church
-- someone once asked some children what
they knew about angels, and their responses were both entertaining and
enlightening
-- Gregory, age 5, commented, “I
only know the names of two angels: Hark and Harold”
-- Molly, age 8, said that she hears
angels all the time in her dreams and, “I’m sticking with that no matter how
many people tell me I’m crazy”
-- Olive, age 9, commenting on pictures
of angels the interviewer showed her said, “Everybody's got it all wrong.
Angels don't wear halos anymore. I forget why, but scientists are working on it”
-- Henry, age 8, had direct
experiences with angels -- he said, “My guardian angel helps me with math, but
he's not much good for science.”
-- Jared, age 8, explained that
angels live in cloud houses made by God and His Son, who is a very good
carpenter
-- and finally, Sarah, age 7, had
this question -- “What I don’t get about angels is why, when someone is in
love, they shoot arrows at them”
-- and while these are humorous
little comments from kids about angels, they’re not far off the mark when it
comes to the general public’s understanding of what angels are and what they do
-- the reason why they were created by God in the first place
-- so, as we begin this Advent
Season together, I want us to look at what the Bible tells us about angels so
we can answer the three main questions about them:
-- first, where do angels come from?
-- how are they made?
-- second, what do angels do? --
what is their purpose?
-- and, third, are there different
kinds of angels, and if so, what are they?
II. Where do angels come from?
-- so, where do angels come from?
-- I mentioned a moment ago the
movie, "It's a Wonderful Life" -- I’m assuming that everyone in here
has seen that movie at some point and is familiar with the story of George
Bailey as played by Jimmy Stewart -- it is a Christmas classic and always a
good movie to watch this time of the year
-- do you remember the character
Clarence Oddbody from that movie? -- Clarence Oddbody, Angel, Second Class
-- remember what Clarence told
George Bailey about becoming an angel? -- he said that an angel is person who
has died and has to earn their wings -- that's why he was sent to earth --
Joseph, the head angel, sends Clarence to earth to help George out so that
Clarence might earn his wings -- at one point in the movie, a bell rings and
Clarence remarks, "every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings"
-- this movie is responsible for a
lot of our beliefs about where angels come from -- we see the same thing in
other movies and hear it in our songs
-- in Kenny Chesney’s song,
"Everybody wants to go to heaven," the chorus says, "Everybody
wants to go to heaven -- Get their wings and fly around -- Everybody want to go
to heaven -- But nobody want to go now"
-- very similar to what Clarence
told George in the movie, "It's a Wonderful Life" -- and very similar
to what most people believe today
-- you would be surprised at how
many people -- even in the church -- believe that angels are made this way --
that angels are people who have died and who have gone to heaven -- and once we
get to heaven, we are turned into angels and given our wings and our halo and
our harp
-- I can't tell you how many times
I've heard people say at funerals -- especially at the funeral of a child --
"God just needed another angel" -- I don't know about you, but that's
not an encouraging thought to me
-- I heard Greg Laurie talk about
this one time in a sermon -- he said, "Can you think of anything more
horrible to tell a grieving parent than that?" -- think about the image
that gives us of God -- God's sitting there in heaven and looks around and
says, "You know, we need another angel up here -- somebody send a bus down
there and run over Tommy"
-- everyone here probably already
know this, but let me make this clear -- the Bible tells us that angels are not
people who died and went to heaven -- angels are not humans -- they never were
and they never will be
-- and when we die in Christ, we
will go to heaven to be with Him -- not as angels -- but as humans given a new
immortal and imperishable body
-- so, if angels aren't people who
have died and been given wings -- then who are they? -- angels are spirits --
created beings who exist in a spiritual dimension that touches, but is
separate, from our own existence -- in other words, they are special creations
of God who exist in the spiritual realm but who can interact with us here on
earth
-- the Bible's focus is on man -- on
man's creation and fall and redemption through Christ Jesus -- so, it doesn’t
go into a lot of detail about the other spiritual beings that God created
-- we won't find a place in there
where it specifically says, "God created the angels on such and such a
date" -- but we do know from Scripture that God created the angels and
that they were already present with God when He created the heavens and the
earth in Genesis Chapter 1 and put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden
-- in Colossians 1:16, we read,
"For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth,
visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all
things were created by him and for him."
-- in Nehemiah 9:6 it says,
"You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens,
and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all
that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven
worship you."
-- and in Job 38:4-7, we read that
the angels shouted for joy while God laid out the foundations of the earth --
that means that they were already in existence and living with God in the
spiritual realm before He created the heavens and the earth
-- we don't know how many angels God
created -- in Matthew 26, when Jesus was being arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane,
He told Peter to put up his sword -- Jesus said that if He needed rescue, He
could call on 12 legions of angels -- a legion was around 6,000 people -- so 12
legions would have been 72,000 angels
-- other places in Scripture, such
as Hebrews 12:22 and Revelation 5:11, refer to thousands upon thousands and ten
thousand times ten thousand angels existing in the spiritual realm
II. Different Kinds of Angels
-- so, angels are spirit beings who
were created before the beginning of the earth -- the term, “angel,” is a
generalized term that applies to all the spiritual beings that God created -- and,
contrary to what most people believes, there are many different kinds of angels
that we have learned about through Scripture and through our interaction with
them
-- in the Bible, we read of five
different types of angels, but when we get to heaven, we may find out that
there are more than that -- these may only be the ones that God created to
interact with us -- so, don’t take this as an all-encompassing look at angels
1.
The first type of angels that we know of are simply called, “angels” -- but
you’ll recognize them based on the context of the scriptural passage you are
reading
-- angels are the messengers of God
-- they are God's spiritual workforce -- angels are the most common type of
created spiritual being -- Gabriel is this type of angel -- in fact, he is the
only angel of this type that we know by name from the Bible
-- if you were to ask someone to
describe what an angel looks like, what would be the one characteristic they
would mention -- wings, right? -- well, despite our nativity sets and pictures
in our books and Bibles, this type of angel is never portrayed in the Bible or
mentioned as having wings
-- look back at the passage here in
Luke -- Luke tells us that the angels just appeared in the sky -- nowhere does
he say they have wings -- in fact, you're not going to find anywhere in
Scripture that tells you that angels have wings
-- when the angels appeared to Mary
and the other women in the empty tomb on Easter morning, they are described as “men
in clothes that gleamed like lightning” -- the same thing in the Book of Acts
-- after Jesus ascended into heaven and the disciples were standing there
staring up into the sky, “two men dressed in white” stood beside them
-- these are all instances of angels
appearing to humans, and they are never described as having wings
-- I think we probably interact with
angels in human form more often that we realize -- as it says 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.” -- or, as we hear it more
commonly, we may have entertained angels unaware -- not angels in their
underwear, as some kids have heard it
-- so, the most common form of
angels are the messengers of God, who appear to us as men in shining clothes
and who never have wings
2. The second type of angel that we read
about in the Bible are the cherubs or cherubim -- contrary to what we see on
Valentine's Day, cherubs aren't chubby little babies with wings who fly around
with bows and arrows and shoot people with arrows to make them fall in love
with each other -- cherubs are a special type of angels
-- they are four-sided angels with a
face on each side of their body -- lion, man, eagle, and "cherub"
faces -- they are mentioned 90 times in the Old Testament -- after Adam and Eve
were forced out of the garden of Eden, God placed cherubs in the garden to
guard the tree of life
-- in Ezekiel Chapters 1 and 10, the
prophet Ezekiel tells us that he saw cherubim under God's throne -- according
to these accounts, cherubim have human-like hands but feet like hooves and
whirling, fiery wheels covered in eyes went with them when they moved
-- here's something that you might
not have known -- in Ezekiel Chapter 28, we read of the fall of Satan -- listen
to Ezekiel 28:14-16 -- "You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I
ordained you. -- You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery
stones. -- You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till
wickedness was found in you. -- Through your widespread trade you were filled
with violence, and you sinned. -- So, I drove you in disgrace from the mount of
God, and I expelled you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones."
-- Satan was created as a cherub --
does that change your image of him? -- how about your image of cherubs in
general?
3.
The third type of angels are seraphs or seraphim -- these are the ones
that we looked at when we studied the Book of Revelation, and the only other
place we see them described for us in the Book of Isaiah
-- as Kim has said, seraphim are kind
of scary -- they are so different from anything that we know and understand -- seraphim
are six-winged angels covered with eyes and with a single face -- they are
described as having either the face of a lion, a calf, a man, or an eagle
-- the references to them in
Scripture are always associated with the throne of God, and it seems like they serve
God by protecting the throne and leading the worship of God by crying out, “Holy,
Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty -- Who was and is and is to come”
4. The fourth type of angel that we
know about is the Archangel -- the word "Archangel" literally means
"angel-ruler." -- the
Archangel is apparently the ruler of the angels -- according to 1 Thessalonians
4:16, there is only one archangel because it says that Jesus will return “with
a loud command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the
trumpet call of God” -- the text says “the” archangel, implying there is only
one
-- we assume from Scripture that the
archangel is Michael, because in Revelation 12, we read that Michael is the
leader of God's angel army -- in Revelation Chapter 12, we read that Michael
and his angels fought against Satan and his angels
-- Michael is also known as the
prince of Israel -- so, it appears that he has been given special
responsibility to minister to and protect the Jewish people
5.
The last type of angels that we see in the Bible are the demons -- these
are fallen angels -- angels who chose to disobey God and follow Satan in his
rebellion -- we know that Satan was a cherub, but we do not know about the
other demons -- it is likely that the majority of them were regular angels
because these seem to be the most numerous of the angels that God created --
but there may have been other cherubim or even Seraphim that followed Satan and
became opposed to God and His rule
-- since we’re talking about angels,
let me point out one more thing -- we mentioned this the other day when we were
in the Book of Job -- throughout the Old Testament, you will run across the
term, “the Angel of the Lord” -- when you see that phrase, keep in mind that
this is not an angel, but what we call a theophany -- the preincarnate
appearance of Christ
-- Jesus is not a created being --
He is the second person of the Trinity -- God Himself -- and He has always
existed in union with the other members of the Trinity -- the Father -- the Son
-- and the Holy Spirit
-- through Him all things were made,
which means that all the angels and all the spiritual beings that were created
by God were made through Christ -- He has always existed as God in the heavenly
realm
-- at Christmas, we celebrate the Advent
of Christ -- the coming of God in the flesh -- when the second person of the
Trinity came to earth in the form of a baby -- fully God and fully human -- but
this was not His first appearance on earth
-- various times in the Old
Testament, Christ would appear to people as the Angel of the Lord -- the very
presence of God appearing to them in physical form
-- in John 6:46, Jesus told His
disciples that "No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God;
only he has seen the Father." -- so, when God appeared in physical form in
the Old Testament, He did so as Christ
-- for instance, in Genesis 18:1, it
says that Yahweh appeared to Abraham -- now, since Jesus said no one had seen
the Father -- this means that Abraham saw Jesus -- this was a theophany -- a
visit by the Angel of the Lord
-- I know this doesn't have anything
to do with angels, but I just wanted to make sure that you understood the
phrase, "The Angel of the Lord," in case you ran across it in
scripture
III. What do angels do?
-- so, what is the purpose of
angels? -- why did God create them and why does God have so many angels?
-- look back at verse 8 here in this
passage
Luke
1:8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch
over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the
glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel
said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great
joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to
you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find
a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
13
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising
God and saying,
14
“Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his
favor rests.”
-- this is the passage that inspired
the great Christmas hymns, "Angels We Have Heard on High," and “Hark,
the Herald Angels Sing” -- and it points us to the three main functions of
angels
-- first, they are messengers of God
-- the word "angel" actually means "messenger" -- they are
servants of God -- sent by Him to speak His purpose and His plans and His
message to creation -- in other words, they proclaim the word of God
-- Luke records here that after
Jesus was born, an angel appeared to the shepherds out in the fields near
Bethlehem to tell them that the Savior had been born -- the shepherds had no
idea that anything extraordinary had happened -- they had no idea that the
Messiah had arrived -- so God sent His messengers to earth to tell them what
had happened so they could be the first evangelists at Christmas
-- this is what one of the most
famous angels in the Bible is known for -- the angel Gabriel -- Gabriel seems
to be God's special messenger -- he first appears in the Old Testament to
Daniel on two separate occasions when he comes in answer to Daniel's prayer to explain
a vision that God had given Daniel
-- and we see him twice here in the Christmas
narrative in Luke Chapter 1 -- first, he appears to Zechariah in the temple to
tell him that Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth would have a son called John who
would usher in the coming of the Messiah -- then, he appears to Mary and tells
her that she has been chosen to bear the Messiah -- that she will be overcome
by the presence of the Holy Spirit and will be pregnant with Jesus even though
she is a virgin
-- and, even though he is not mentioned
by name, I believe Gabriel was probably the angel who appeared to Joseph in a
dream in Matthew chapter 1 to tell him to take Mary home as his wife, because
what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit
-- these are just examples to point
out the first purpose of the angels, which is to serve as God's messengers
-- secondly, angels are God's
worship leaders -- they exist to praise God and to bring glory to Him -- it
used to be common for churches to sing the Doxology hymn together on Sunday
mornings, although this practice is less common today -- but in the Doxology,
we sing the words, “Praise Him above ye heavenly host" -- the heavenly
host are the angels of God who gather around the throne and praise Him
-- just like here in this passage --
after the angel finishes delivering his message to the shepherds, Luke says
that a great company of the heavenly host appear with angel -- praising God and
singing glory to His name
-- in Isaiah Chapter 6 and
Revelation Chapter 4, we read about the angels who surround the throne of God
and call out praises to Him constantly -- John says "day and night"
they never stop praising God
-- the angels lead worship -- they
join with us and sing unending hymns of praise to God for what He has done --
as it says in Hebrews 1:6, "Let all God's angels worship Him"
-- I truly believe that the angels
join with us in praise when we come before God and worship Him in our hearts --
years ago, I was in a church service and there was a mother with a toddler in
her arms -- it was a special moment -- we were all united and singing praise to
God -- and the baby started looking up at the ceiling of the church and
pointing around him -- I believe that he saw something that the rest of us didn’t
-- I believe he saw angels gathered to worship with us in praise to God
-- finally, the Bible tells us that
angels minister to people -- Hebrews 1:14 tells us that angels are ministering
spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation -- what does it mean to
minister to someone? -- it means to attend to the wants and needs of others
-- after Jesus had been tempted in
the wilderness, we read that the angels came and ministered to Him -- in the
same way, God sends His angels to minister to us -- to attend to our needs and
our wants -- primarily our spiritual well-being but also our physical needs and
wants
-- we've all heard of guardian
angels -- there's ample evidence in the Bible and in our lives today of angels
protecting people from physical harm -- for instance, in the Book of Acts, when
Peter was in jail, an angel opened the cell door and led him to freedom
-- more than likely, you have had
angels protect you and minister to you, as well -- you just probably weren't
aware of it -- as I mentioned earlier, the writer of Hebrews tells us in
Hebrews 13:2 that we may have entertained angels unaware -- in other words, we
may have crossed paths with angels who were there ministering to us, but we
just didn't know it -- maybe they were invisible and hidden from our eyes or
maybe they took the form of a person
-- let me share with you a story
that happened to a friend of mine
-- my friend is a pastor -- and
early in his ministry, he was struggling -- his church was struggling -- his
marriage was struggling -- and because he was bivocational at the time, he was
struggling with balancing a secular job and the demands of ministry
-- he was giving it his all, but it
seemed like his all was not enough -- he would preach and teach and nothing
would happen -- the church would not grow -- no visitors came -- and the people
didn’t respond to the messages God gave him -- he told me that he was
considering quitting
-- but on this particular Sunday, a
stranger showed up -- the stranger took a seat near the back of the church and
participated in the worship -- there was nothing special about him at all -- nothing
to draw anyone’s attention -- but still, he caught my friend’s attention simply
because he was someone new
-- every Sunday, my friend had a
moment for people to share praises and prayer requests, just like we do -- and
as he asked people to share what God had been doing in their lives, this
stranger stood up -- my friend asked him if he had something to share -- and he
said he did
-- he said he knew that my friend
was struggling -- that he knew my friend was about to give up -- but that he
had been sent -- and he used the word “sent” -- he had been sent to remind him
that he was called of God -- that God hadn’t given up on him and that he had a
purpose to fulfill in his life and his ministry
-- he told him to hang in there --
to lean on the Lord -- and to trust in Him -- and he told him that his ministry
would blossom and that, in the future, the church would grow and God would use
him in a mighty way -- and then he sat down
-- after the service, my friend went
to the back of the church to greet the people as they left -- and he said he
couldn’t find the stranger -- he just wasn’t there and never came through the
door
-- the strangest thing, he said, was
that they recorded their service on tape -- that tells you how long ago this
was -- and every time the stranger had spoken in the service, all the tape
recorded was static -- the words of the stranger were not recorded
-- I have no doubt that this was an
angelic visit -- that God sent an angel to my friend to minister to him on that
day -- just when he needed it -- and he does the same thing in our lives, too
-- maybe not in such dramatic ways, but in just the right way and at the right
time when we need it
-- that's one of the reasons why God
created angels -- and this ministering aspect of their presence is still felt
today
-- before we close, let me share
with you one more thing related to the purpose of angels in our lives today --
something that we don’t fully understand
-- if you turn over to Ephesians 6:12
or listen as I read this verse, we learn something about the organization of
angels on earth -- Ephesians 6:12 -- “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.”
-- in this verse, Paul is reminding
us that we have spiritual enemies arrayed against us -- the demons -- fallen
angels, cherubim, and possibly seraphim -- who come against us as the enemies
of God
-- and he tells us here that they
are arrayed against us in some type of organized structure -- you have rulers,
authorities, powers, and then the spiritual forces as a whole -- it seems like
Satan has organized his demons in some way with ranks and authorities, similar
to the way a military organizes its troops
-- when I read Frank Peretti’s book,
“This Present Darkness,” which is a Christian fiction story that uses this
demonic organization as part of its plot -- now, do not take Peretti’s book as a
source book for angels or demon facts, but it does show, in a fictionalized
account, how the demons are structured in ranks of power -- and seeing that
written out as a story opened my eyes to what Paul was referring to here in
this passage
-- it appears that the same
organizational structure may also be in place with the angels -- we know that
Michael, as the Archangel, is the leader of all the angels -- but in addition
to that, it appears from scripture that God has arrayed angels with differing
levels of authority and has even given some angels the responsibility to
oversee geographic areas
-- Michael Heiser, in his book, “The
Unseen Realm,” has picked up on this concept recently and has caused quite a
stir in the theological world with his premise that God has set up spiritual
councils to accomplish God’s will and spiritual leaders over geographic areas
-- I don’t agree with a lot of what
Heiser teaches in this area, but I do think he is right in this regard -- if
you look at Daniel Chapter 10, we read of Daniel being visited by an angel who
comes in response to a prayer -- this is probably Garbriel, because the Bible
says that he had come to Daniel twice before, but here in Daniel 10, it doesn’t
give the angel’s name
-- the angel says in Daniel 10:13
that he was sent by God as soon as Daniel prayed, but the “prince of the
Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days.
Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was
detained there with the king of Persia.”
-- it is obvious from the text that
the king of Persia was not a human -- he was a spiritual being -- probably a
demon, that was appointed by Satan to rule the nation of Persia for Satan’s
purposes
-- Michael, who this angel describes
as “one of the chief princes” of God, had to come and rescue this angel sent by
God to Daniel from the prince of Persia
-- so, it appears that both angels
and demons have been arrayed in some type of structure or organization that
includes the authority over geographic areas -- the Bible talks about these
geographic areas as being nations or “peoples,” which may be races of people,
such as the Jews
-- there’s not a lot in the Bible
about this, but there is enough to give us a glimpse into this organizational
structure -- so, it may be that there are guardian angels, not just for people,
but for nations or people-groups -- the only appointment of this type that we
know of from the Bible is that Michael is the prince of the Jewish people and
he is also the leader of the angels in Revelation 12 who fights against Satan
and his demons
IV. Closing
-- as we close today, let me share
with you that I'm not a big fan of angel pictures or the images of angels that
we see in our popular media -- I think most of them are unbiblical
-- but there is one picture that I
do like a lot -- it is called "Watchers in the Night" by Thomas
Blackshear -- even though it shows an angel with wings, it portrays him as a
strong protector -- holding a spear in one hand and a light in the other as he
keeps watch over a sleeping child -- the spear to protect and guard -- the
light to represent God's word and message for the world
-- this is the image of angels that
we see from the Bible -- not Clarence Oddbody from "It's a Wonderful
Life" -- and certainly not the feminine angels and chubby-cheeked cherubs
that we see in our pictures and movies and read about in our books
-- if I had to define angels in one
word -- if I was looking for a way to sum up this entire teaching on angels -- there
are two words that I would consider
-- first, “Minister” -- for as we
just talked about, angels are God’s ministering spirits sent to serve us in our
need
-- but secondly, I would choose the
word, "Warrior" based on Psalm 91:11, "For He will command His
angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways"
-- angels are God's warriors -- His
servants -- who are sent to guard us and protect us and minister to us as they
proclaim His message and lead His praise in heaven and on earth
-- I hope this primer on angels has
helped you get a more biblical understanding of who angels are and of what they
do as you begin to prepare your homes and your hearts to celebrate Christ this
Christmas
-- let's pray
No comments:
Post a Comment