ANGELS AMONG THEM
We get the impression from current popular literature that angels have nothing but good news and happiness to all people. This is not portrayed in the Bible. We read of angels being the messengers of good news and great benefit to believers. But for unbelievers who reject Christ and do not revere God, it is a completely different story. In the New Testament, angelic ministry to the unbeliever has a fourfold point of view.
ANGELS PROMOTE EVANGELISM
Philip, the evangelist, was sent by an angel to be a witness of the good news.
"Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. 'Do you understand what you are reading?' Philip asked, 'How can I,' he said, 'unless someone explains it to me?' So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture: 'He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.' The eunuch asked Philip, 'Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?' Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. " Acts 8:26-35
This is one of the ministries angels have to the unsaved -- to send them a witness. We see another example of this in Acts 10:1-8 when a Roman centurion needed Christ.
At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly.
One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, "Cornelius!"
Cornelius stared at him in fear. "What is it, Lord?" he asked.
The angel answered, "Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter. He is staying with Simon the tanner, whose house is by the sea."
When the angel who spoke to him had gone, Cornelius called two of his servants and a devout soldier who was one of his attendants. He told them everything that had happened and sent them to Joppa. Then,Cornelius was led by an angel to Peter. Interestingly, Cornelius was visited by an angel, while in verse 19, Peter was led by the Holy Spirit. The point is that the Lord loves sinners and does not want them to perish so he uses angels to bring the evangelist and sinner together.
God not only works at the right time but he also works with the right servant. Both are essential. God is able to use angels and people together to accomplish his purpose. In Cornelius' case, an angel was used to put a man in touch with a servant of the Lord so he could be saved.
Once we are saved, we become heirs of salvation and the ministry of angels changes. We talked about the ministry of angels to the saints in the first part of this series. Not only can angels act in bringing sinner and saint together for salvation but . . .
ANGELS ANNOUNCE JUDGMENT.
In Genesis 18, three men came to visit Abraham. Two of them were angels and the third, a Christophany (a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus, Himself). They announced to Abraham that the Lord was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.
"The outcry to the LORD against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it."
Abraham had a nephew in that city. His name was Lot.
Peter tells us that Lot was a righteous man distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men in Sodom (2 Peter 2:4-8). Because he was a righteous man, the Lord needed to deliver Lot out of Sodom before he could destroy those cities. Actually, this event speaks to Abraham then and to us today. When God finally judges the world, He must first take his own out of the world.
The two angels left for Sodom, and Abraham remained standing before the Lord. Then, a very wonderful thing happened - Abraham interceded with the Lord to spare the city. "If there are just ten righteous people found there". Save it. He wanted to make sure that Lot's whole household was included in his prayer. He began with fifty and stopped with ten. In the meantime, the two angels who had visited with Abraham had reached Sodom to rescue Lot and announce the impending judgment on the two cities. (Gen. 19:12-14)
It is obvious that Lot, though righteous, had lost his testimony. In gaining influence at the gate of the city (Gen. 19:1), he had lost power with God even before his own family. His sons-in-law thought he was joking about impending judgment on Sodom. He was so ambivalent about leaving Sodom that the two angels had to literally drag him, his wife and two daughters out of the city before the angels destroyed the cities. Lot's wife looked back and, lingering behind, she was covered over by the burning sulfur of God's judgment on the cities.
How this speaks to our nation today! The same sins are condoned here. Someone has said that if God spares the United States, He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah and the people before the flood.
Not only are angels involved in evangelism, and announce judgment:
ANGELS EXECUTE JUDGMENT!
2 Thessalonians 1:6-10
"God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you."
Case in point: Herod. (Acts 12:20-23) After the angel delivered Peter from prison and death, Herod had the guards killed for letting Peter get away. The Jewish historian, Josephus wrote that this scene took place during a festival honoring Claudius Caesar. The king wore a silver garment, and delivered a grandiose oration in honor of the occasion. We don't know what Herod said, but we do know why he said it. He wanted to impress the people. And he did! The people played on Herod's ego, lauded him as a god, and he loved every minute of it.
Instead of Peter being killed by the king, Herod was killed by Peter's God. Who knows, maybe the same angel who delivered Peter smote the King. Herod contracted a horrible disease of his bowels and died five days later according to Josephus. The angel brought judgment on Herod.
The Great Tribulation gives us another picture of angels involved in bringing judgment (Rev. 8:5 - 11:19)[Editors note: please take the time to read this passage].
Look at the trumpet judgments.
and vegetation is struck.The first angel sounds his trumpet
The second angel's trumpet strikes the seas.
The third angel's trumpet strikes the fresh waters.
This could involve atomic warfare or some other nuclear catastrophe that, after taking multitudes of lives, contaminates the waters and thus brings about the demise of many more natural things.
The fourth angel's trumpet strikes the heavens.
The fifth angel's trumpet brings demonic locusts from the bottomless pit.
The sixth angel's trumpet brings the second woe revealing an unprecedented armed assault from across the Euphrates River in present-day Iraq.
The seventh angel's trumpet proclaims the Kingdom of God with loud voices in heaven, which says: "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever." (See 2 Thess. 2:6-10).
ANGELS ARE REAPERS OF THE HARVEST
(Matthew 13: 37-43)
In Matthew 13, Jesus tells the parable of the wheat and the tares and interprets it to his disciples.
"The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age.
"The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. "Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear."
Remember, the parables of the kingdom describe the progress of the kingdom program while the King is absent. This parable teaches that in this present age Satan cannot uproot the plants (true Believers) so he plants counterfeit 'Christians' in among them.
In this parable, the good seed represents people converted through trusting the Word. The field is the world. Christ is sowing true believers in various places that they might be a witness and bear fruit. Wherever Christ sows a true believer, Satan comes along and sows a counterfeit. We must be aware of Satan's counterfeits. He has counterfeit 'Christians' who believe a counterfeit 'gospel.' He encourages a counterfeit 'righteousness,' even a counterfeit 'church.' At the end of the age, he will even produce a counterfeit 'Christ.'
We must be vigilant to make sure that Satan's angels do not get into the fellowship and do damage. It is when God's people go to sleep that Satan sends his evil messengers. Our task is not to pull up the false but to plant the true seed. We are not detectives but evangelists.
It is difficult to discern the true from the false but, at the end of the age, the angels will separate them. We are told that God will send his angels and they will weed out all the tares and they will throw them into a furnace of fire where they will be consumed. Angels are more than ministers to serve the heirs of salvation. They are also agents of judgment. Therefore, it is imperative that we examine ourselves whether we are in the faith.
Have you been genuinely saved by faith through the grace of God? May we all examine ourselves to determine whether we are in the faith. Paul sent such a warning to the Corinthian church.
"Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you -- unless, of course, you fail the test?" (2 Corinthians 13:5).
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Salvation is a matter of repentance and personal relationship with Christ. Only the individual can know personally whether he or she is in Christ. This is not a "hope so" relationship; it is a certainty for the believer.
"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (Romans 10:13)