Advent, Pt. 4, Angels - Love
Angels & God’s Love
Advent, Pt. 4, Angels – Love
By Pastor Dan Kennedy
© December 20, 2015
It seems, in this 21st Century, people have a hard time comprehending the reality of angelic beings. Our generation seems to have its own understanding of angels… some of which is embedded in our minds by a complex mix of folklore, movie fiction, mysticism, superstition, spiritual deception and latent Biblical truth.
An angel came to the Virgin Mary and separately to her espoused husband, Joseph, to tell them to not be afraid of the supernatural uniqueness of Christ’s birth – a “virgin birth”, the primary sign from God (Isaiah 7:14) regarding the authentication of the Messiah’s birth.
Luke 1:30–38
30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”
34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. 37 For nothing is impossible with God.”
38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.
Angels were present again when they announced the birth of Christ to the Shepherds:
Luke 2:8–15
The Shepherds and the Angels
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 of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ 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,
and on earth peace to men 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.”
· What are Angels like?
· What makes angels different from human beings?
· And for what purpose were angels created?
What are Angels like?
· There are so many myriads of angels they cannot be counted!
Revelation 5:11
11 Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders.
Innumerable
Thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousands…another translation says “myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands” of angels [10,000 x 10,000 is 100 million] stood before His Throne (see also Daniel 7:10). Hebrews 12:22 in the ESV speaks of “innumerable angels in festal gathering”.
· Angels are Powerful Celestial Beings called “the Glorious Ones” (doxa) [1]
Angels reflect the Glory of God their Creator, in Whose Presence they dwell, in splendor, might and brightness; in magnificence, excellence, dignity and grace. The word “glorious” is a word from which we may have gotten the word doxology.
King David expressed the glory of God very well as he and the leaders of Israel gathered the finest of everything in preparation for the building of the first Temple, to be built by David’s son, Solomon.
1 Chronicles 29:10–13
10 David praised the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly, saying,
“Praise be to you, O Lord,
God of our father Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.
11 Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power
and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,
for everything in heaven and earth is yours.
Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom;
you are exalted as head over all.
12 Wealth and honor come from you;
you are the ruler of all things.
In your hands are strength and power
to exalt and give strength to all.
13 Now, our God, we give you thanks,
and praise your glorious name.”
Since God’s Throne is infused with glory, majesty, power and splendor, those whom God created to serve and worship Him in His Splendor reflect the glory of His Dwelling Place!
Mankind, who are made lower than the angels (Ps. 8:4,5; Heb. 2:7,9), in their foolish arrogance have sometimes spoken derogatory slander toward anyone even against powerful fallen angelic beings. Michael the archangel, when disputing with the devil about the body of Moses would only respond, “The Lord rebuke you” (2 Peter 2:10-11, Jude 8-10). What does this teach us?
· What makes angels different from human beings, and for what purpose were angels created?
Angels are Powerful Spiritual beings, created specifically to be fully attuned to celestial realms with the power, authority, spiritual body and ability to worship God in His Presence and to accomplish God’s will and do His bidding on earth and throughout the universe.
But Angels were also created with an ability to choose who they would worship, because the Scripture records allegorically that when Satan (the dragon) fell, he swept one third of the angels (stars) with him (Rev. 12:3-4; see also Is. 14:12-15).
Angels will also be held accountable and judged …and God’s Children will be the judges! (1 Corinthians 6:3)
Angels seem to have been created as eternal beings.
Humans Beings have been Created with an earthly, biodegradable, corruptible Body, but an eternal Soul and Spirit – from the time of birth.
1 Thessalonians 5:23
23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
· It is obvious that each human has a visible, terminal, physical Body;
· We obviously have a conscious but unseen eternal Soul – a mind, emotions and will;
· We also have an unseen eternal Spirit (closely associated with our soul, Heb. 4:12) – that can interrelate with spiritual dynamics - the power of knowing, desiring, deciding, and acting in relationship to God. This is obvious around the world as a vast majority of all human beings affirm a spiritual dynamic with one or more religions and spiritual forces. Only a relatively small percentage of people in the world officially disassociate themselves from, a “faith” or “religion”.
Every culture known to mankind has held elements of deep spiritual beliefs, even superseding those “official,” modern, politically self-centered ideologies of godlessness, that include only their fallible, terminal selves as omnipotent, and not their Eternal Creator.
This worldwide continual association with spiritual dynamics reveals the certainty of spiritual powers…both for good and evil.
All spiritual powers are closely associated with powerful angelic beings (some wishing themselves to be god) – most of the time invisible to human beings, but profoundly evident in the history of the world and deeply embedded in human psyches.
Angels Worship God and Rejoice around His Throne
Revelation 5:11–14
11 Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. 12 In a loud voice they sang:
“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and praise!”
· “Bless the Lord, you his angels” (Ps. 103:20);
· “Praise Him, all his angels” (Ps. 148:2);
· At the creation the sons of God shouted for joy (Job 38:7);
· A multitude of the heavenly host were praising God at Jesus’ birth (Luke 2:13);
· And again, when he brings the firstborn (Jesus) into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him” (Heb. 1:6).
Angels Do God’s Bidding
· An Angel came to Mary and to Joseph, confirming the virgin birth of Jesus
· An Angelic host came to the shepherds proclaiming the Messiah’s Birth
· An Angel told Joseph in a dream to leave Bethlehem and go to Egypt
· Angels ministered to Jesus in the wilderness at His temptation
Angels are Ministers and Messengers sent by God
· To warn (Balaam, Numbers 22:22–35)
· To encourage (Jesus, after His temptation, Matthew 4:11)
· To reveal (John, Revelation 2-3)
· To guard (the Tree of Life, Genesis 4:24)
· To destroy (The Destroyer – The Passover, etc., Ex. 12:29-30; Heb. 11:28; Is. 37:36)
· To lead (Lot, Genesis 19)
· To protect (Daniel in the lion’s den, Dan. 6:22)
· To carry to Heaven (Lazarus, Luke 16:22)
· To minister to God’s Children
Hebrews 1:14
14 Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?
If there is good and evil in the world, and if the vast majority of the world, from the beginning of the known history of the world, worship or believe in spiritual deities; and, if there are events that transpire that could not happen without the presence of spiritual dynamics; then, is there the possibility of angelic presence in our world?
If there is angelic presence in our world; then, is there not a God who created us all, who is over all, and to whom we are accountable?
God’s Love
The world has its own understanding of God’s Love…this too is embedded by a mix of tradition, folklore, mysticism, superstition, deception, and Biblical information.
God’s Love is Summed up Biblically in John 3:16
John 3:16
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Jesus Christ was supernaturally born, and we celebrate His wonderful birth at Christmas, but His birth was just the beginning of His supernatural life and willing death.
• Birth and life, for His recognition as the Messiah
• Death for the forgiveness of our sins
• Hope for a life in relationship with God
• And His Resurrection for the Hope for a life that is eternal, together with Jesus Christ!
Isaiah 9:6–7
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.
[1] 1518 Δόξα: Swanson, J. (1997). Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Greek (New Testament) (electronic ed.). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc.