Major Bible Themes
Craig Kaes · Jun 12, 2011
Major Bible Themes (2011), No. 24
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926237292041

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, so we've made it through a couple semi-controversial sections, ones that the Christians of different denominations battle over quite a lot. And we've made it safely into the angels, which is less controversial. However, I'm going to start off pretty early by disagreeing with Schaefer on something, so we'll see how we go with that. Schaefer, in this chapter, breaks things down to A couple different types of angels, the fallen ones, the unfallen ones. Unfallen ones are of course the holy ones that get to hang out with God. The fallen ones have decided, you know, Satan's a better sort of ally. And so we'll talk mostly about the unfallen angels, a little bit about the fallen ones, and then some about, you know, the ministry of the angels.

The word angel is angelos in the Greek. I didn't actually look up what the word is in Hebrew, but the meanings are similar in both cases. It simply means messenger, and it's a somewhat generic term. And so, when we read scripture and see the word Angelos, we can't immediately assume that this messenger is of this type and not that type. We have to look at surrounding scripture and understand what the context is around it.

So the three categories that it falls into, one is the special class of being that most people think of when they think of angels, which is being created by God. There's this other one that is the angel of the Lord, which is a very specific You know, expression, the angel of the Lord, which always means the pre-incarnate Christ, and is used in the Old Testament. And then the third category is just, you know, messengers. Guys here on this earth that are carrying a message from one place to another.

So we'll look at all three of those. But before we jump into here too terribly far, let's establish that the angels, what people typically think of when we hear angels, Let's establish that they're created beings, and then let's go right at Schaeffer and see what we think. And I'm open to being wrong, I just simply haven't seen it. Okay, so to establish that they're created beings, let's look at Psalms 148. And it says 2 through 5 here, but I think I'm going to back up to 1.

OK, so this is Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord from the heavens. Praise Him in the heights. Praise Him all His angels. Praise Him all His hosts. Praise Him sun and moon. Praise Him all stars of light. Praise Him highest heavens and the waters that are above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for He commanded and they were created. So we've got angels in verse 2, praise him all angels, and then in verse 5, let them praise the name of the Lord for he commanded and they were created.

So we've got angels as created beings. Then one other point I want to make while we're in this passage is Perhaps you recall when Vern was teaching this upstairs that in the Western world, we like to rhyme by having words that sound alike, whereas the Jews here in Hebrew, we're rhyming by having the same concept repeated multiple times. So as an example of this, In verse 1, we've got praise the Lord from the heavens, praise him in the heights. So heights and heavens, these are the same concept. And then skipping ahead to verse 3, we've got praise him sun and moon, but we've also got praise him all stars of light. So sun and moon, stars of light.

Backing up into verse 2, praise him all his angels, praise him all his hosts. So when we see hos in scripture, depending upon the context, we can say, okay, hos is angels. And interesting here, hos, the word in Hebrew actually translates to armies. So these are armies, which is actually pretty cool. So let me read to you just the opening statement that Schaeffer makes in the chapter on angels.

Which says, according to scripture, long before the creation of man, God created an innumerable company of beings described as angels. And so, long before the creation of man, we've got angels that are created. So, makes the question, okay, so when were the angels created?

So, we've just picked up a little bit about hosts, and so let's go to Genesis 2, 1. We're in the creation, we're past day six, thus the heavens and the earth were completed and all their hosts by the seventh day God had completed his work. So we know that by the end of day six, we've got angels. But that doesn't say, okay, angels were created 2,000 years before day six, or it doesn't say they were created on day five.

All we know is by day six, we've got angels. The other passage that is relevant is Exodus 20 11 Question yes, are you saying that angels did not exist prior to God creating the world? Creation actually the Word of God is about to say that so let's look at Exodus 20 verse 11 Because where do we find truth? The truth is in the Bible. That's right. Basic Sunday School. Okay.

So Exodus 20 verse 11 says, For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. So in six days the Lord made the heavens and all that were in them. So we know now that the angels were created in that initial six-day period. So Schaeffer's saying, long before man was created, we've got these angels. Okay, that's fine, but he's speaking in relative terms. Long is, you know, maybe a couple days. Right? Where does he get that? There's no scriptural reference in this chapter that speaks to that. So... You got me. Okay. Yeah, exactly.

And that's why I was picking on this, because I mean, I understand how creation works. It's a six-day process. And these are created beings, so they've got to have a start. There's got to be a start period, right? They didn't exist here. They do exist here. Somewhere between there, there's a starting point.

Everything's created in six days, so this doesn't jive with what he's starting out the chapter with. Well, you know, so many people don't believe it. I mean, I go run into people that say it's ridiculous. Six days, it's impossible. And I'm thinking, no, with God, everything is possible. You could do it in two minutes. Yeah, that's absolutely right.

And it makes me wonder if Schaeffer is one of these who believes in, like, the gap theory, or he thinks it's days, or... I guess that's what I was... I don't know what his theology is around that. I don't think he did. I think he thought that it was six 24-hour days. Okay. We can actually pin it down a little bit more when the angels were created, which is a fun process to go through, so let's go through it.

Let's jump over to Job 38.7. And here it's important to understand that the morning stars are in fact angels. So, starting in verse 4, and then I'm going to skip ahead. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy." So we've got very happy morning stars around about the time that the earth foundations were laid.

So this might actually predate the creation of man and I think it's actually referring to Genesis 1-9, this period. Then God said, let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place and let the dry land appear. And it was so. God called the dry land earth and gathered the waters. He called seas and God thought that it was good. And so we, we find out it was evening and morning, a third day. So I think the angels were there on day three. So definitely ahead of man, for sure, but it looks like angel creation beat man creation by, you know, three days plus or minus one. That's about the accuracy we can get. So not long, long before. Anyway, that's probably enough about that.

Innumerable company of beings. It's an interesting expression because both the verse in Hebrews and the one in Revelations actually gives a number. So that's Hebrews 12, 22. This is just speaking to, okay, answering this basic question, how many angels are there? I would assume that the amount that can fit on the head of a pen is somewhat less than that total number, but Scripture's pretty silent about that.

Okay, but you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels. And the word myriads there means ten thousand. So ten thousands of angels. It's a vague term. It's not trying to say, okay, there are There's one more than 9,999, but this is just 10,000 of angels. And the verse in Revelations in verse 5 there actually says myriads of myriads. So for the engineer in the room, you've got 10 to the 4th times 10 to the 4th. So you get about 10 to the 8th angels at least.

The point being simply that they're a whole mess of them. But they were created at one point in time. They don't reproduce, we don't have angels coming and going off the scene in this finite period of time, so there were a whole bunch created and that number is pretty constant throughout time. So the answer is, how many angels are there? A whole mess. That's all we know, just gobs.

Heavenly position above men. I'm not going to dig into these particular verses too terribly much. I think that we'll see it in a different place. And the easiest place to see that man clearly recognizes, you know, that the angels are something bigger, is what are the first words an angel ever says when he appears before a man?

Exactly. Don't be afraid. When both Gabriel and Michael appear to Daniel in both times, they're like, OK, calm down. And quite often, the next words out of their mouth are, don't worship me. Worship God. So it's clear. Man comes face to face with an angel and goes, holy cats, you're way bigger than I am. Now I'm intimidated, and the angel's job is to say, no, no, no, you're here to give a message from God, so you need to be able to listen, so calm down a little bit. So that's one class of being.

These are these created beings that are in the heavenlies with God right now. Interestingly, where are we positionally? also in the heavenlies with God right now, which is cool. It's something that we actually have in common with the angels. Though, interestingly, you'll find verses that say that the angels are standing up there, and where are we? We're seated, which is a little cooler.

Okay. It's allergy season. I apologize to everybody who's going to be listening to this later on tape. It's going to be disgusting. Okay. The angel of the Lord. So here's another use, and we covered this a little bit when we went over the Trinity and then Courtney I think hit it a couple weeks later. So I'm not going to spend a ton of time on it.

But what you should know is whenever you see the angel of the Lord, altogether that sort of key phrase that we're talking about, the pre-incarnate Christ, and it's really easy to see that that's exactly the case. So we'll dig into exactly two examples, and then we'll move on this morning. So example number one is Genesis 16, verse 7. And the question you should be trying to answer as we read through this passage is, how do we know that this is Christ?

Okay, now the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to shore. He said, Hagar, Sarai's maid, where have you come from and where are you going? And she said, I'm fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai. Then the angel of the Lord said to her, return to your mistress and submit yourself to her authority. Moreover, the angel of the Lord said to her, I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count.

How do we know that this is Christ? He's the only one that can promise something like descendants or anything like that because he's God. Yeah, exactly. So he's not saying, you know, God is going to greatly multiply your descendants. He's saying, I'm going to greatly multiply your descendants.

And just to drive the point absolutely home so that there's no wiggle room, let's look at Colossians 1.16.

But aren't these Muslims? Aren't these Muslims that are from Hagar? I don't have the answer to that. Mike, do you? It's not the Muslims are from Hagar, it's the Arabs are from Hagar. Okay. Yeah, they're horrible. What's that? They're horrible, so why would he even have created them? Well, why did he create Adam? Yeah. We're pretty horrible too. That's funny. Let's see. Are there any Arab believers? Got to think there are. So in fact, yeah, same situation as this. That Dr. Solomon that was here? Yeah, sure. A lot of Arab believers. Yeah. That fellow we had here last summer. Yeah, that's what might be.

Colossians 1.16 says, For by him, and this is speaking about Christ, For by him all things were created, both in the heavens and on the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things have been created through him and for him." So if somebody is saying, I will give you descendants, which speaks to created things, and we know that all created things were created by Christ, who's the I that's got to be Christ.

So just beating this dead horse even more. And let's look at one more passage so we can see. Genesis 22, and this is 11 through 15. So God has told Abraham, okay, I want you to go sacrifice your son Isaac. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham, And he said, here I am. He said, do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him. And by the way, you're asking yourself the question, how do I know this is Christ? OK. Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him.

For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me. How do we know that this is Christ? Speaks again in the first verse. Yeah, from me. Not from God, from me. So I think that's all I'll say about that one. So when you see The angel of the Lord in the Old Testament, it's always referring to the pre-incarnate Christ. His appearance here. So that takes us through two uses of the word angel. Use number three is just men.

And so let's look at Luke 7.24.

Luke 7.24 simply says, when the messengers of John had left, he began to speak to the crowds about John. Messengers there, Zongolos could just as easily be translated, when the angels of John, and clearly John does not have the angels of this work that we've covered in the first two categories.

So, these are just in. Interestingly, Schaeffer's interpretation of the angels of the seven churches in Revelations also falls into this category. There's some people don't think so, some people do think so. Fortunately, for us, it's not a point on which our eternal salvation hangs, and so I'll just note that Schaeffer does think, in fact, the angels of the seven churches in Revelations refer to people and not actual angels. So let's talk about angels in the first category in some more depth.

So these are the unfallen angels. We've got a few named individuals. Most of them are not named. The named ones seem to fill very particular roles, which is cool to see. Remember that angels, we've decided, are equivalent to hosts. Hosts are armies. So there actually is spiritual warfare going on between the fallen angels and the unfallen angels. And Michael seems to get involved with that quite a bit. So Michael is the head of all the angels, and his name actually means who is like God. But when we get to the unfallen angels, we'll find out how much less Michael is from God. Okay, so just a couple references.

I think I will skip straight to Daniel 12.1.

Now at that time, Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise and there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time. And at that time, your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued." So Michael's standing in the middle of this time of distress in times.

Backing up to 10, because it's clear that I should not have skipped that particular one. Do not be afraid, Daniel. For the time from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard. And I've come in response to your words. So Michael's starting right off with, OK, stop panicking. OK, now let's have a conversation.

But the prince of the kingdom of Persia, who is, it turns out, Satan, was withstanding me for twenty-one days. Then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia. Now I have come to give you an understanding of what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision pertains to days yet future. And I'm going to now pop over into Jude.

So here we've got Michael in battle with Satan and Jude 9. But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, the Lord rebuke you. So Michael, again, fighting with Satan, but doing so on unfair ground rather than having it, you know, let's have a fight among peers. It's like the Lord rebuke you.

And again, when we get to the fallen angels, we'll see how great the disparity is between there. When we talk about the last great battle, it's one that I like to try out in Sunday school because we teach kids through media, mostly, that Jesus Christ and Satan are on roughly equal fighting ground, and this whole world hangs in the balance, and how's it all going to work out? And I'd love to bring out that last battle to show clearly what the difference is between God and angels in terms of strength. So we'll look at that here in a little bit.

Okay, Gabriel. So Michael seems to be involved in most of the warring, which It's good. Gabriel gets the privilege of bringing all of the really good news and the important messages. So let's skip the Daniel references and jump straight into Luke, because it turns out Gabriel announces babies, which turns out to be a fun job, I'm sure.

So in Luke 1, 11 through 19, An angel of the Lord appeared to him standing to the right of the altar of incense. Zacharias was troubled when he saw the angel, and fear gripped him." Okay, see, pretty common. But the angel said to him, do not be afraid, Zacharias.

First words out of his mouth. Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John. So here comes Gabriel with very important news. Hey, guess what? You're going to have a baby and here's what it's name is going to be. And then a little while later, Gabriel appears on the scene again. This is still in Luke 1, starting in verse 26.

Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph of the descendants of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming in, he said to her greetings, favored one, the Lord is with you. She was very perplexed at this statement and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. The angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary.

For you have found favor with God, and behold, you will conceive in your womb, and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. And he will be great, and be called the Son of the Most High." So Gabriel gets to bring all the cool messages to man, which has got to be the best job. Okay.

We have the angels of different sorts. We have cherubim, seraphim. Gabriel and Michael Back in the Daniel passage, it talks that they came in the appearance of man. So man doesn't tend to have wings, so I've got to think we're wingless here. Difference between the standard class of the angels and cherubim and seraphim. Cherubims and seraphims both have wings.

Cherubim get to be on the Ark of the Covenant. and they get to embrace it with their wings, which is cool. So the cherubims are always in the position of defending God's holiness. So, for example, when Adam gets cast out of the garden, it's cherubim who are stationed at the garden to not allow man to come back in. And again, they've got that position on the Ark of the Covenant.

Cherubims and Seraphims, this might be good for Trivial Pursuit. I don't know if it'll be great for anything else. You guys know the difference between the two? No. Turns out Cherubims have two sets of wings, so they've got four wings, and Seraphims have three sets of wings, which gives them a total of six wings, so you can go impress all of your friends with that one.

But their role seems to be the same. Most angels are not given individual names. So we've pretty well run through the ones that have And if we were to look up in well, let's just do it first Timothy 521 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of his chosen angels to maintain these principles without bias, doing nothing in the spirit of partiality. So there's this sense of chosen angels, just as we're God's chosen, there are chosen angels and not, and I suspect it falls into the same sort of category, God knowing us in Christ makes us chosen and we've got some angels who have decided to go off with Satan and some who have decided to stay with God and the ones that stayed are chosen. That's my interpretation. Okay, let's move on.

So the fallen angels actually fall into two classes as well. So these are angels who decided, you know what, Satan's pretty groovy, I think I'm going to go with this guy and see how that works out for me. So the two categories, there are some who are bound, and there are some who are free. And the free ones, it turns out, are not free on all axes. They're still under some measure of control, and we can see that. So let's just Pick a couple of these verses.

I'm going to go with 2nd Peter 2.4 to see some bound ones. What was that again? 2nd Peter?

2nd Peter 2.4 be righteous.

So there are angels who have been cast into hell, committed to pits of And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, he has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day." So, they're kept in bonds under darkness. So, these are bound. So, not all of the angels that decided to go with Satan are free to run about right now. But it's clear that some are. But it's interesting, even those that are, are still subject to our Lord Jesus Christ. So, Mark 9. And this is... talking about... I'm sorry, Mark 5, chapter 9. Mark chapter 5. Okay, now we're cooking.

So, there's a man with unclean spirit, and Jesus was asking him, what is your name? And he said to him, my name is Legion, for we are many. And he began to implore him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now there was a large herd of swine feeding nearby in the mountain. The demons implored him, saying, send us into the swine so that we may enter them.

We have demons that are not bound under darkness. Clearly, they're up and about, running around on the earth, possessing folks. But even these who are free have to ask permission where they get to go and come. So it's freedom, much in the way that Trickster was free when they went on walks. They still sort of get led about and used by God.

Okay, so now the doom of Satan and his angels. This is the final battle, and this is the one that I really do like to trot out in Sunday school with the kids, because honestly, children who watch movies and TV, which is basically children, have it in their heads that there's this great spiritual war and we don't know who's going to come out on top and Christ and Satan, they're equals and it's going to be some huge battle because that sells movies and because frankly I think Satan has his hand firmly on Hollywood and Bollywood. So, let's see how it actually plays out. I'm going to go to Revelations 20 and start in verse 7 and set it up for you the way that I set it up for the kids. Okay, so this is the final battle.

When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison. and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war. The number of them is like the sand of the seashore." So we've got tons of people who are coming for Christ, right? and they came up on the broad plain of the hill and surrounded the camp and the saints and the beloved city. So all these people just coming around have the city completely surrounded and there's going to be this great battle. Are you ready for the battle? Here's the battle. And fire came down from heaven and devoured them at the end. Okay, so are we talking fair fight? No, we're not talking fair fight.

What about Satan? Well, it's this simple. The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are also and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Verify? Not at all. Not at all. So Satan and Michael are roughly equivalent peers. So you'll remember Michael's name is like unto God.

You can see clearly what the power dynamics are here. Like unto God means like, not having full characteristics. Just looking through the angels and their various ministries, it turns out they were present at creation. We got to see that one. They were there for the giving of the law, the birth of Christ, his temptation. His temptation is interesting because it...

Let's look at that one, but let's look at the ministry and spirits first. Hebrews 1, 13 and 14. So this is one of their primary functions. Hebrews chapter 1 verse 13 and 14. But to which of the angels has he ever said, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet? Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation? That's awesome. Right? So that's pretty cool that the angels are ministering spirits sent out to render service for our sake. So, very cool.

So taking that, going back to his temptation, Matthew 4.11. So this is immediately after the temptation of Christ. Then the devil left him, and behold, Angels came and began to minister to him. So, they take care of Jesus Christ. They were there in the Garden of Eden. They were there during the Resurrection. They were there during the Ascension. So, angels are present at all of these sorts of things. Ministering spirits sent forward for our sake.

It's the last thing I want to talk about a little bit. Verne made this point maybe a year or two ago, that the angels are watching us and seeing God's wonder revealed. They're learning about God's glory and God's plan by watching us, which is very interesting. Let's look through just a few verses. So let's establish that the angels are actually paying attention to what's going on on the earth and listening to what's being said.

So that's Luke 12, 8 and 9. And this is Jesus Christ speaking. And he says, And I say to you, everyone who confesses me before men, the Son of Man will confess him also before the angels of God. But he who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God." So confess before men will confess before the angels of God. So they're paying attention.

Ephesians 3.20, though, is the one that Vern latched on to make this point, and it's a good one.

So now to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think. To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery, which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things. so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places, which is the angels. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose. So the manifold wisdom of God might be now made known through the church, which is us, to the rulers and authorities in heaven, which is the angels. So they're watching what's going on down here with us to understand what God's great plan is. Which is kind of interesting to think about, you know? Angels watching me. Yeah. It is, really. It really is. I think angels love. I think that's what they want.

You think? the viruses that he has on the earth, which is us, and how his graces manifested towards us on a moment-by-moment basis and not on the basis of which they were judged, which was one test, pass or fail, no grace. Yeah, that's right. So I've got one more verse on this, which I think backs up what you just said. In the same way, this is Luke 15, 10, but I'll just read it to you. In the same way, that sounds like an airplane.

In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. So they get to see, oh, that person now believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. They're now saved. That was really cool. And so they learn about, I agree with you, the love and the grace of God by watching the church. So with that, let's close. Thank you for this time that we've had together that we've been able to spend in your word and just pull out some of the riches of it. Thank you for creating the angels and sending them to minister for our sake. It's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.