Angels: God's Servants
Biblical Sermon Outline
By Pastor Ron Jones, www.titusinstitute.com
I. The nature of angels
A. Angels are spirit beings created by God before He created man.
Col.1:16
Jesus Christ created angels and they are subject to him.
Job.2:1
Luke 15:10
Angels are not to be worshipped. God is far above angels and the only being
worthy of worship.
B. Angels are spirit beings and do not have bodies or other material substance.
Heb.1:13-14
As spirits they do not have material substance, therefore, they do not possess bodies or wings or anything else that is material or physical.
Lu.24:37
They are not human spirits of people who have died. They are separate beings from humans.
2 Cor.5:8-9 Christians go immediately into the presence of Christ.
Heb.9:27 Non-Christians go to Hades to await judgment.
C. When angels appear to human beings on earth (as opposed to humans seeing them in heaven in a vision) they always appear as men without wings.
They can appear as ordinary men.
Gen.18:21-22
Gen.19:1
They can appear as men with a dazzling appearance
Dan.10:4-9
Mat.28:2-4
Angels are without sex. As spirits, they have no sex because they have no bodies.
Angels never appear as women or children.
And angels never appear as a sort of in-between the sexes person, a feminine
man as is often depicted in pictures. They appear as men when they appear
on earth.
II. The power of angels
A. Angels are extremely powerful, but not infinitely powerful as God is.
They have struck people blind, shut the mouths of lions, executed God's judgment.
Gen.19
Dan.6:22
2 Ki.19:35
B. Angels are swift in flight.
Angels are extremely fast, but cannot be in two places at the same time, since only God is omnipresent - everywhere at the same time.
Dan.9:20-23
C. Angels are spirits and do not have material substance, but do appear in visions with wings.
When angels are seen in a vision in heaven, they appear in various forms, with various numbers of wings. These appearances are symbolic, bringing out certain truths God wanted taught by their appearance.
Seraphim, angels with other specific duties, appear with six wings each.
Isa.6:2
Michael is an archangel and may be one of several.
Jude 1:9
Dan.10:9, 13
Cherubim, angels with specific duties, appear in various ways.
1 Ki.6:23-28
Ezek.10:1-21
Rev.4:6-8
D. God created millions of angels.
Rev.5:11
Heb.12:22
Rev.12:3-9 seems to suggest that Satan and a third of the angels rebelled against God which leaves two-thirds of the angels left to minister God's plan. So good holy angels outnumber evil angels 2 to 1.
E. God doesn’t need angels to fight his battles, but chooses to glorify himself through angels.
III. The strategic ministry of angels in our lives
A. Angels minister to believers
Heb.1:14 “Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to those who inherit salvation?”
“Those who inherit salvation” are believers.
B. Angels do not usually reveal themselves when they minister to us.
Heb.1:14 “ministering spirits”
Angels are spirits who are invisible who operate in the spirit realm which
is invisible.
C. When angels do reveal themselves and appear in the Scriptures, it is to guide those who have significant roles in redemptive history.
Note:
In the OT and the NT, when angels do appear and reveal themselves it is
during a time when God is giving his revelation to key figures who were
to write down his Word and work in the nation of Israel to accomplish God’s
plan of giving revelation to the world.
1. The Lord and two angels appear to Abraham to whom God chose to make his covenantal promises to redeem the world.
Gen.18:1-22
2. An angel appeared to the apostle Paul to give him a message from God when he was on a ship at sea.
Acts 27:23-24
D. Angels do not normally reveal themselves to believers to whom they minister.
God does not appear to us either, but we believe in his existence and work in our lives. That is what faith is all about.
Heb.11:1
We live by faith. Therefore, we should not try to look for physical evidence of God’s work or the presence of angels working in our lives.
Satan and his demons can disguise themselves as angels of light and appear to humans. They will do this with unbelievers to deceive them. They also desire to confuse believers with stories of these false encounters with holy angels.
2 Cor.11:13
It is so important to base our understanding of angels on what the Scriptures
say, not on human experience which can be confusing and deceptive.
C. Angels primarily minister to us by protecting us from danger so that we might accomplish God's plan for us.
In a fallen world with all of its physical dangers, God uses his angels to protect us so that he might accomplish his purposes for our lives.
Ps.91:1-12
Acts 12:4-11
Are there guardian angels? Do believers have guardian angels?
As we have seen, the ministry of angels is to guard believers so there are guardian angels.
Mat.18:1-10 “little ones” = “believers,” not “children”
Does each believer have his or her own guardian angel, one assigned specifically to him or her?
All believers have guardian angels, but the text does not indicate whether each believer has a specific angel assigned to him or not.
Using a football metaphor, the text does not indicate if God uses a “zone
defense” or a “man to man” defense.
D. Angels do not need to protect us from Satan and demons. God protects us with the Holy Spirit in us.
All Satan can do is tempt us to sin by lying to us. That is all.
What we have to do is resist him by standing firm in our faith.
Jas 4:7
We don't have to pray for angelic hosts to bind him or knock him out, we need to pray that we would trust God and stand firm in our faith.
We don’t need angels to fight Satan; we have the Holy Spirit in us who does that through us as we trust God.
1 Jn.4: 4 "The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in
the world."
E. Angels do not act as our spirit guides in our everyday lives.
Rom. 8:9
God through the Holy Spirit leads us in our everyday lives.
Conclusion:
God has a plan for us to accomplish the Great Commission and has sent angels to protect us so that we might accomplish it.
