Matthew-064

 

Review: Warning not to stumble Jesus’ disciples reveals God’s love

Today, we continue our study in the Word of God in the teaching of our Lord Jesus in Matthew chapter 18. In the previous message, we saw that the Lord Jesus revealed to us in a most striking way that God loves us, each one of Jesus’ disciples who are called the “little ones.” In verse 1 it says, “At that time, the disciples came to Jesus” and the whole conversation is addressed to his disciples. It is always important when studying the Lord Jesus’ teaching to know to whom these words are addressed to. Sometimes, they are addressed to the Pharisees, sometimes to the Sadducees, sometimes to the people in general. But other parts are addressed particularly to the disciples, to those who had left everything to follow him. We see from this passage that the Lord Jesus was saying to his disciples that they must take exceeding care not to stumble a disciple, that is, cause each other to stumble such that they fall away from God.

That is what stumbling means. God cares for each one of the Lord Jesus’ disciples so deeply that anyone—even if it is another disciple other than his—who causes one of Jesus’ disciples to stumble and fall away from God, he says here that it would be better if you tied a great millstone around your neck and jumped into the deepest sea. Even that would be nothing as terrible as to what God will do to you, if you cause such a person to fall away from the faith on the Day of Judgment

 

Another aspect of God’s love for Christ’s disciples

Today, we look at another section, and I said that these are two parts of the same teaching, because in this section that we are looking at today, the Lord Jesus is going to express God’s love for Christ’s disciples in another aspect. Let us read Matthew 18:5-10.

As we saw last week, “one such child” refers to a person who, although he is not a child, puts away all his arrogance and humbles himself to become as a little child.

Then, there are two corrections on the translation of two words. First, I have already explained that the translation should have been “It is inevitable for temptations to come”; “necessary” is not a good translation. The world is so full of sin that it is inevitable that temp­tations to fall away from God will come. Secondly, what is translated as “to sin” should have been “to stumble.”

“Their angels always behold the face of my Father.” What a remark­able statement! The average Christian today knows almost nothing about angels. After all, he knows almost nothing about anything that is spiritual. Therefore, it is not surprising he also knows nothing about angels. Today, I want to show you what Scriptures have to teach about angels and what this reveals to us of God’s love.

The angels play a most significant part in God’s work of salvation for his people, the Lord Jesus’ disciples, as we shall see. In this age of darkness, of spiritual warfare, in which all the powers of evil seem to press against us in order to make us stumble, to tempt us to fall into sin and to fall away from God, we can thank God for the angels. The angels are fighting on our side, and it’s most important for us to know something about angels. Perhaps up to now you know almost nothing about angels.

 

Typical Christian mistaken notions about angels

1. God’s Holy Spirit has come, so angels are redundant

The words of Watchman Nee are very typical of the quite unin­structed, mistaken notion among Christians about angels. This is what Watchman Nee says in his commentary on Matthew:

This statement is very far from the truth. I quote this not in order to discredit Watchman Nee, but just to show how typical even among pastors and Christian leaders, there is ignorance concerning the very important ministry of angels.

The notion that because the Holy Spirit, as Watchman Nee says, is now indwelling us, there is really not much need for the ministry of angels is very much mistaken on several counts. Firstly, it’s not true to Scriptural teaching as we will see. Secondly, there is in no way any conflict between the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the ministry of angels. The indwelling of the Spirit in no way makes the ministry of angels unnecessary. It is logically as well as scripturally false for Watchman Nee to think like this, as we shall see.

 

2. God can do all, he doesn’t need servants

It’s also false because there is the mistaken notion that if God is present doing something, he really doesn’t need anybody else to do anything. That is, if the Holy Spirit is working, we don’t need angels. If God can do everything, or more or less everything, then why does God need servants at all? The principle that is overlooked and fails to be correctly understood is: God always works through his servants, whether they be angels or men. I make this an absolute statement. It’s also a most encouraging thing to realize that because God is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient, it doesn’t mean that he doesn’t need you and any agents to act on his behalf, that He makes us all redundant, that he does everything, so we might as well fold our hands and just be spectators, which is what most Christians have already become. They don’t need any encouragement along that line because that is really to reduce the church to a pitiful situation!

No, never get the mistaken notion that because God is omnipotent, he chooses to do everything without his angels, or his servants. I cannot overstress that this is a most mistaken notion! For anyone who knows the Word of God, will know that precisely because God is perfect in his wisdom and omnipotence, he chooses to work through his servants, his people, and angels are among his servants as we shall also see.

“Because the Holy Spirit indwells us, the angels really have nothing to do” is a very surprising statement for Watchman Nee to make because all you have to do is take out a concordance to look at the New Testament and see how the word “angel” is used, which obviously Watchman Nee did not do. Pastors and Christian teachers especially, should all do this, and so should all Christians.

 

Angels are most active in the life and work of the church

Do you know how many times in the New Testament “angels” are mentioned? This is another good quiz question! You will discover the word “angels” are referred to 170 times in the New Testament. So it’s not a very statistically insignificant matter. It’s quite mistaken to think that because God’s Holy Spirit has come, angels have noth­ing more to do, so they are redundant. All we have to do is to look at the Book of Acts, and see how many times angels are referred to there.

Within the few chapters of Acts, you will discover that angels are referred to 21 times after Pentecost, after the coming of the Holy Spirit. And they are not referred to in some theoretical context but always as actively doing something. They are either bringing a mes­sage to one of God’s servants such as Paul, or they are releasing the apostles from prison, or they are directing Philip to do something. The angels are actively engaged in the life and work of the church. It’s amazing how ignorant we are concerning this most important matter, that angels are most active in the life and work of the church.

So you can see that the statement is patently false, that when the Holy Spirit comes, the angels are redundant. On the contrary, they are exceedingly active throughout the Book of Acts. I don’t have time to go through all these references in Acts now, but it would be most enlightening for you just to read those references to see how important a role the angels played in the life and activity of the church. We need all the spiritual help we can get as a church in these days, and thanks be to God that he has provided the angels! Someone has said angels are God’s agents on special assignment, God’s secret service agents on behalf of the church, as it were. Well, that is a very dramatic way to put it, but there is some truth in that.

 

7 characteristics of angels

1. Different kinds and ranks of angels: Cherubim rank first

When we study the references to the angels in the church, we will also notice one thing, that there are different kinds and different ranks of angels in the Bible. It’s surprising in the light of the vast amount of information about angels in the Bible, that the average person knows almost nothing about angels. There are many kinds of angels and they are of higher ranks and lower ranks, and this point is important for understanding the Lord Jesus’ teaching in this passage.

One kind of angel is called the cherub, and “cherubim” is the Hebrew plural for the singular “cherub.” It would also be all right to say “cherubs,” but the “im” at the end is simply the Hebrew plural. When you look at the Old Testament, you will find that the “cherubim” or the “cherubs” are frequently mentioned. In fact, just this one particu­lar order of angels, the “cherubim” is mentioned 90 times in the Old Testament!

Now the word “cherub” probably comes from a Hebrew root which means to be great or mighty, or gracious; that is, they are the order of mighty angels. Usually, the mighty are in a position to be gracious, that is, to confer grace and blessing upon others. When you look in the Old Testament, the cherubim are always very close to the throne of God. In fact, in passages such as 1 Samuel 4:4, they are said to constitute the throne of God, as it were. God always appears above the cherubim, the cherubs. In the holiest place in the tabernacle, there were two man-made giant cherubim facing each other, beside and above the mercy seat. They simply symbolized the presence of God. When the high priest went into the holiest place in the taber­nacle, God’s presence would appear above these great cherubim with outstretched wings, symbolizing the presence of God.

We are told in the Old Testament, that the cherubim were associated with the closest worship of God. The figures of the cherubim were woven even into the veil in the temple because they symbolized the angels closest to the presence of God. Notice the connection of the cherubim with this passage about how to be great and little. Greatness doesn’t consist of putting yourself forward, but like this cherubim, humbly worshipping and adoring God and serving him.

 

Seraphim

There is another group of angels called “seraphim.” “Seraph” is a word which means to be on fire, the burning one. Would to God that all his disciples, all his servants were burning ones, for that is the way to be in God’s eyes. Now the seraphim are mentioned in Isaiah 6:2-3, where Isaiah the prophet had a vision of God as he was worshipping in the temple. He saw the seraphim, these mighty angels of God, worshipping in God’s presence.

 

Archangels

As already mentioned, there are different ranks of angels. There are angels of the higher and lower ranks, and we know the name at least of one of them namely, Michael. Michael is described in the New Testament, in Jude 9 as the archangel Michael. An archangel simply means a chief angel, the leader of the angels. “Arch” is from the Greek word, arks, to be chief. And we know the name of at least one of them namely, Michael.

Michael is described in the New Testament in Jude 9 as “the archangel Michael,” and he has “his angels” in Revelation 12:7. The very name Michael comes from the Hebrew, Mikael, which means “who is like God?” Mi is who, ka is like, El is God. His very name is a name of worship: Who is like God, to be worshipped and praised and adored? It shows that the very character of angels was one that directed all glory towards God, whose glory they have the privilege to behold. They never took any glory to themselves.

The seraphim in Isaiah are said to even cover their faces with their wings. The wings symbolized their speed of movement, their power and mobility. These mighty spiritual beings are worshipping and adoring God constantly day and night as we read in the Scriptures and especially in Revelation. Their whole delight is to worship him, the source of all power and glory and praise, indeed the source of all life.

Now the Jewish rabbis recognize that the ordinary angel very seldom had access to God’s presence. They did not constantly have the privilege of beholding God, but only the highest angels like the cherubim, the seraphim, archangels, and angels like Gabriel.

The angel Gabriel is mentioned in Luke 1:19 when he delivered God’s message directly from God to Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist. He said, “I am Gabriel who stands in God’s presence.” In Luke 1:26, he was also “sent from God” to Nazareth to announce to Mary that she would become mother of the Son of God, the Messiah, Jesus. He is one of the group of angels who could stand and serve in God’s presence, one of the highest order of angels.

 

2. God sends angels of the highest order to take care of us

The fact that only the highest angels like the cherubim, the seraphim, and angels like Michael and Gabriel could always have the privilege to behold God’s face is very important for understanding Matthew 18:10, “their angels do always behold the face of my Father in heaven.” In other words, the Lord Jesus is saying, “The angels who attend to my disciples are of the highest order of angels. They are the kind of angels who have the privilege of unrestricted access to God’s presence.”

God so loves us, the Lord Jesus’ disciples! Think about it. It brings such joy to my heart! God so loves you and me, humble, worthless disciples that we are, that he assigns the angels of the highest rank to attend to our interests, and to constantly appear in his presence concerning us and our welfare. It is so wonderful to understand what the Lord Jesus is saying here!

Did you ever know how dear you are, how close your interest is to God’s heart, as a disciple of the Lord Jesus? I don’t have the right to tell you this, but the Lord Jesus is telling us this. He said that if you are one of these little ones who stop thinking that you are some great and mighty person, who lives in the imagination of your vain glorying, and you become as a little child, humbling yourself to be a nobody in God’s presence, then you become one of the Lord Jesus’ precious disciples in this world. And God assigns his angels of the highest order to attend to you. That is tremendous! How many times we had occasion to experience that God’s hand was on us, he was watching over us, as Jacob has said in Genesis 48:16, “the angel who redeemed me from all evil.”

 

3. Angels are witnesses to the ministry of a servant of God in the church

We need to go on to consider what the Scripture has to say about angels and what their task is. How important the ministry of angels is even to the apostle Paul can be seen. Let me give you one example of this in 1 Timothy 5:21, just so that you get an idea of how Paul considers the ministry of angels. Certainly, this is nothing unimpor­tant or redundant for him. In 1Timothy 5:21, he is giving instructions to his own spiritual child and disciple, Timothy,

Notice this remarkable statement. Most of us would have simply stopped at the point, “I charge you in the presence of God and of Jesus Christ,” but not Paul. He charges Timothy in God’s presence, in the presence of Christ and of all the elect angels. You can see that the angels are very important for the church, otherwise mentioning angels is irrelevant. It is most striking that they are even mentioned as being witnesses to the charge that Paul gives to Timothy. In other words, he is laying the heavy responsibility upon this servant of God to do his task before God, before Christ and before the holy angels of God.

 

4. Angels rank higher than man at present

For this reason, we need to continue to understand many things about angels. We have already discovered that there are different kinds of angels, different ranks of angels. Hebrews 2:7 also tells us that at this present time, God made man lower than the angels. So this gives us reason to consider that the angels rank at this present time, above man. The words “at this present time” are important because we shall see that the order will change around in due time, because Paul goes on to instruct us in 1 Corinthians 6:3,

The day will come when the angels will actually be below us if, a very important “if,” we prove to be faithful disciples in this present age.

Life in this world is probation time. You can say that we are all on probation; that God’s eye is going over the earth, looking through human beings, and looking through the church, as he sees and tests what is the quality of every man. As Paul says, God is going to test the quality of every man by fire to see if you make it according to God’s standard. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:3, that these people are the “saints,” the disciples who will judge the angels. To “judge” means that you become a ruler over the angels. Judging was the work of kings and princes in those days. You never have an inferior judging a superior. The judge was by definition of superior rank in those days. He was usually a king or a prince. And as we read in Revelation 20:6, God has made us to be kings and priests of God and of Christ. That is a privilege that is granted to those who overcome, who prove themselves to be faithful in the struggle against evil, who, depending upon God’s sufficient grace in the battle against evil, prove to be conquerors, overcomers. They will judge angels. They will reign with Christ.

 

5. Angels are sons of God

God is not going to throw this kind of privilege around easily and cheaply because the angels are also very dear to him. The angels are also called “sons of God” in the Bible. Remember that well. We are not the only ones called “sons of God.” The angels are dear to God too. They are also called “sons of God.” (cf. Job 1:6, 2:1)

 

6. Like us, angels can make moral choices to obey or disobey God

There is another thing we need to understand about angels. Angels are very much like us, they have the freedom of moral choice. They are not computerized automatons on which God presses various buttons, and every time God presses a button they lift one arm, and they open their mouth when God presses another button. Angels are personalities with intelligence. In fact, the Bible speaks in one case of “the wisdom of angels.” (2 Sam. 14:20) They are said to have great wisdom and great intelligence, and on top of that, they are able to make decisions and moral choices just as we do.

However, precisely because they are able to make moral choices, then like human beings, they can also disobey God. They can also fall into sin. That is the price of having moral choice. If you take away moral choice, you reduce everyone to automatons. The only way you can prevent anybody from sinning at all is to reduce him to a machine. A machine can do nothing but whatever you tell it to do. But if you give a person freedom of choice in moral matters, if you give him the ability to make moral choices, then he may just say no to you sometime.

 

Being holy, God does not spare disobedient angels

Now, the angels are quite capable to disobeying God. It is very important to understand that they obey out of their own free choice, and that is why they are dear to God. They also possess the ability to disobey. That is the Scriptural teaching, for example, 2 Peter 2:4 says, “when the angels sinned against God, God did not spare them.” God did not spare those angels who disobeyed him, who chose evil rather than good, who sinned against him. God’s judgment against them was final and irrevocable. Their destruction was certain.

Peter is saying this to show how kind God has been to us, how kind God has been to you. God did not give even the angels, who are of a higher order than we are at this present time, higher privileges. God did not spare them when they sinned. But God had pity upon us. God gave us a chance to repent! Remember well: God was especially merciful to those who least deserved his mercy. We read the same thing in Jude 6:

God is a God of holiness. He will not tolerate evil. He doesn’t close his eyes if you do something wrong and say, “Okay, let’s forget about it.” But God in His mercy has given you and me in these days, a chance to repent. Peter says, “You’d better seize that chance because even the angels didn’t have that chance! God has given you a chance not to be missed! If you miss that chance, don’t ever say that God has not given you such a chance. That chance, we are told, was something that even the angels would have longed for but was not given to them.

It is said in 1 Peter 1:12, that the angels longed to look into these things but they were not to see them.

The Bible tells us so much about angels, and now we know so much about them. There are different ranks, different orders, that there are chief angels, and certainly, two chief angels by the name of Gabriel and Michael whom we know. We also know now that they are beings of high intelligence and wisdom. They obey God freely because they have the capacity to make moral choices.

 

7. An order of angels who have disobeyed God: Satan and his angels

We also learn from Scripture that there is an order of angels who have disobeyed God and have turned away from him. These angels are mentioned in Matthew 25:41 as “the devil and his angels,” that section of angels who have chosen to turn away from God, to follow after evil and Satan, just like human beings have done. There, we are told that the eternal fire is reserved for Satan and his angels. God did not make hell for human beings. But if we choose to identify ourselves with evil, with sin, and with Satan, we have also chosen to go into the eternal fire where Satan and his angels go. Let us consider what privilege God has given us in giving us this opportunity to repent. Let us never be so foolish as to miss it!

 

7 services of the angels

Let us return to the Lord Jesus’ teaching in this particular passage, which emphasizes God’s incredible love to us. God has sent his angels to be our servants for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation; they serve God in in attending to us (cf. Heb. 1:14). Those are remarkable words: these mighty beings are assigned by God to look after us! What exactly do they do in relation to us? When we look at the Old and the New Testaments, we will see the things that angels do, and I will divide this into seven points.

 

1. Angels protect us

The first task of the angels is that they are assigned to protect us. That is where you get the term, “guardian angels” from. Every true servant of God should be well instructed in his allies, the angels, who fight on his side against evil.

 

God’s angels protected Elisha

You will find that in the Old Testament as well as in the New, the angels are assigned to our protection. One of the most beautiful accounts in the Old Testament is in 2 Kings 6:8-23, about this great prophet and servant of God, Elisha. Unlike most Christians today, he was not at all ignorant about the ministry of angels. One day, as he and his disciple woke up in the morning and looked out of the house, what did they see? They saw the Syrian army surrounding the whole town! Why? The Syrian king was fed up with Elisha, the prophet of God. And why was he so angry with Elisha? This prophet of God seemed to know every secret that he had in his mind. Every time the Syrians planned a war strategy against Israel, it seemed that Elisha was sitting in the room somewhere, because he knew exactly what they were going to do. So he would go to the king of Israel and say, “The Syrians are going to do this and that, you’d better get ready.”

So when the Syrians came to attack Israel with their secret plan, they found the Israelites waiting for them. They said, “How do these people know what we were going to do?” So they retreat in haste and confusion and they devise another secret plan to attack Israel. Then, they arrive on the scene and find the Israelites are waiting for them again! They said, “What is this? Is there some fellow in this council who is selling all our secrets to the Israelites?” Then someone said, “No, it’s because Israel has a great prophet of God called Elisha, and somehow, he knows about everything we discuss here. He is a prophet. He knows about it.” So the Syrian king said, “We’ve got to go after this man, Elisha!” Having done their homework, they discov­ered that Elisha was in a certain little town. So the king sent horses and chariots and a great army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city.

When Elisha wakes up one morning, he finds the Syrian army waiting for him! His poor disciple, Gehazi, wakes up, sees all these helmets and shields and war chariots out there, and he is frightened out of his wits! He cries out to Elisha, “What are we going to do? The Syrian army has come for us!” What he cannot understand is Elisha’s incredible calm.

“Oh yeah? Oh!”

“What are we going to do? Aren’t you frightened?”

Elisha says, “No.”

“Why aren’t you afraid?”

Elisha said, “Don’t you know that those who are for us are far greater in number than those who are against us?”

By this time, the disciple was beyond comprehension. He couldn’t see any soldiers of Israel around. And he said, “You don’t mean me, do you? I’m not going to defend you against the Syrian army!”

Elisha said, “Yahweh God, please open his eyes that he may see.”

So God opened this disciple’s eyes (he is called “the servant” as a disciple is a servant). When he looked out outside he could see that everywhere all around are these soldiers of God and fiery chariots! The angels of God were round about them, exactly as Zechariah 2:5 says, “He shall be to you as a wall of fire round about you.” He saw that the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha! What could the Syrian army do? Nothing, if God did not permit it!

This is the beauty, that when you are the disciple of the Lord Jesus, nothing can happen to you without God’s permission. That is why when Satan wanted to harm Job, or to give him trouble, he had to ask God for permission, “Can I harm him?” It’s a very humbling expe­rience! Without God’s permission, you cannot be touched.

 

My experience of the protection of angels

Time and again, I’ve faced situations where I narrowly avoided death or serious injury, even just in the past few months! It’s just incredible how, as Jacob (also known as Israel) said, “The angel who has redeemed me from all evil” (Gen. 48:16).

I was coming down on Highway 20 and for no apparent reason, the car going side by side with me just suddenly skidded and spun around! Suddenly, I saw this car come flying straight at us, and somehow, I managed to evade him. You know that on a highway, there is not much room to go anywhere. He ended up with his nose facing the other way. So badly did he skid!

Another time, also on Highway 20, another fellow suddenly cut out and was going to crash into us. Again, at the last minute, somehow, he missed us and we managed to evade him.

I am just talking about recent events, not to go back a long way in history. Yet another time, I was in Pincourt when I came up to a crossing where there are stop signs on all four sides. The normal rule is that whoever arrives at the stop sign first goes across. I came up to the stop sign on my side first, and looking to the right, I saw quite far away, one of these buses which are used for training sessions by drivers-in-training. It was still some distance away, so it was my right to go first. Just as I was going to step on the accelerator, for some reason that I don’t understand, God said, “Stop! Don’t move! Just stay still!” And I stopped.

And do you know what happened? That bus flew right through the stop sign, and half way through the crossing, he suddenly realized there was a stop sign, and he slammed on the brakes so that smoke from the wheels was flying out! Imagine, had I gone forward, I would be hit with the weight of a speeding bus! I would be reduced to one very crushed-up mess! It’s incredible! How do you understand these things? Such is God’s amazing mercy and kindness! I could go on. I’m sure you have many examples of how God has amazingly protected you, and as you look back, you wonder how it is.

As we so often love to sing Psalm 91:11-12,

These verses are not less precious because Satan tried to quote that to the Lord Jesus out of context to misuse it. You almost hesitate to use them because Satan quoted them. Perhaps that is exactly what he wanted us to feel: “You better not quote them anymore because Satan quoted them once!” No, this must not happen!

 

Jesus said God could send 12 legions of angels to protect him

One of the first and most important functions of angels was to protect God’s servants, and this time, Jesus. When Peter saw guards from the Sanhedrin and other people coming to arrest the Lord Jesus, he pulled out his sword and said, “What?! Do you dare to touch my lord?” For one moment, he was brave, and he forgot all about his courage afterwards. But at least for that moment, he was brave. He rushed at the first fellow and slammed his sword down on him. Fortunately, this fellow was obviously wearing some kind of helmet, and the sword slid off the helmet and took his ear off instead. And what did the Lord Jesus say? “Peter, do you think I really need your protection? Don’t you think that I could call my Father and ask him for twelve legions of angels? The whole heavenly army of tens of thousands of angels would be here to defend me if I asked my Father for help! Peter, put your sword away.” You can see that the Lord Jesus always lived in this confidence that the angels were there. Notice, he did not say, “My Father will protect me.” He said, “My Father will send his angels to my protection. I don’t need your help.”

Do you have this kind of confidence? Can you look upon life just as Elisha looked upon it? Or even above all, even how the Lord Jesus looks upon it? What confidence, what joy that we have that God’s heavenly soldiers, these mighty angels, the ones of the highest orders who have access to his presence are assigned to your care and to my care! Many times, when you sit in an airplane, you are a bit nervous, thinking, “I wonder if this plane is going to fall out of the sky like those other ones!” Underneath are the everlasting arms. Those who trust in the Lord don’t fear such things.

 

2. Angels are assigned to battle against the forces of evil

Secondly, the angels are assigned to battle against evil. We are not the only ones who have to fight against evil. Thanks be to God we can get all the help that we need! The angels are fighting against the forces of evil. We see that very strikingly in Daniel 10:13, 21 as also in Revelation 12:7, where Michael the chief angel is fighting against Satan and his angels, and he casts them out of heaven. It is so wonderful in the battle against evil! I have given you one example each in the Old and New Testaments, of the spiritual forces that are fighting against evil. Among them are numbered the glorious angels of God.

 

3. Carry out God’s judgment

The third thing we can notice is that the angels have a place in execu­ting the judgment of God. Their task is not all mercy, sometimes, it is judgment. In the battle against evil, sometimes, judgment has to be exercised. 2 Samuel 24:16 for example, tells of this great destroying angel who went through Israel, and thousands fell by his sword. If one angel could virtually wipe out Israel, what would twelve legions of angels do? I dare not imagine! The power of these angels is well beyond anything human beings can contend with!

I honestly cannot understand Christians who are afraid of the dark, scared of ghosts. I confess to you that when someone told our little girl, I-Ling some ghost stories, she was terrified and had nightmares. I must confess I was feeling quite angry about this. I don’t see why any Christian is scared of any number of ghosts! Not a thousand ghosts could terrify me! Who is afraid of ghosts or evil spirits? As long as you walk in righteousness, who is afraid of any of these things? As the Psalmist said, “Of whom shall I be afraid? For Yahweh is my rock and my salvation!” (Ps. 27:1) Of whom shall I be afraid? I’m not scared of anyone because how great is the power of the mighty angels of God!

Angels have incredible power and have very great wisdom. That is very comforting because if there is only power and no wisdom, we get a bit scared. I don’t know if they have enough wisdom to know what to do. Power itself can be a bit dangerous because the angel will do all the wrong things. But thanks be to God, his angels also have great wisdom, and 2 Samuel 14:20 is an example.

 

4. Angels will separate good from bad disciples at the close of the age

Their fourth task is in connection with the work of judgment. In the New Testament, we find that angels have a great task to do at the end of the age. The Lord Jesus speaks of the angels in Matthew 13:27, 30 and 39 where they are concerned with reaping, bringing in the harvest at the end of the age, and they separate between the wheat and the darnel.

Notice how many jobs the angels have, and at the end of this age, they will come in and hopefully, gather you among the wheat! If they don’t gather you among the wheat, you will be among the darnel that is assigned to be burned in the furnace! The angels will separate the one from the other. Those who already have their angels assigned to their care will surely be granted by God’s grace, a place among the wheat. So the angels have this important function of separating between the good and the bad at the close of this age. That is seen also in Matthew 24:31 for example.

 

5. Angels lead people

The fifth point is that the angels have the task of leading people, especially disciples. They lead people in many and various ways. In the Old Testament for example, they brought Lot and his family out of Sodom. You read in Genesis 19:17ff that two angels went into Sodom and took Lot—who is called righteous in 2 Peter 2:7—and his family out of Sodom before Sodom was destroyed. You find also in Exodus 23:23, an angel, who is called “my angel” was assigned to lead the Israelites through the wilderness. It was some great angel.

In the New Testament, in Acts 12:7-9, Peter was led out of prison by an angel. This is another example of the activity of angels. Once released from jail, you could unwittingly find yourself in another cell if you wander into the wrong area without knowing the way out. In those days, prisons were intricate places, often with labyrinthine layouts and underground dungeons.

 

6. Angels deliver messages to people

The sixth thing is that the angels were given the task of delivering messages to various people. This was one of their very common functions. For example, messages were delivered by angels to Joseph in the New Testament commanding him to take Mary as his wife, and later to protect the Lord Jesus. The angel Gabriel delivered a message to Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, and to Mary that she would become the mother of Jesus, the Son of God. In Revelation 17:7, an angel explained to the apostle John “the mystery of the woman and of the beast” so that he could understand. In Acts 27:23, an angel also delivers a message to Paul.

 

7. Angels serve people in the most practical and remarkable ways

The seventh and final point is that angels serve people in the most practical and remarkable ways. Sometimes, it was delivering the apostles from jail. In fact, they were delivered from jail twice by the angels, for example, in Acts 5:19 and 12:7.

As well, angels protected people for example, in Daniel 6:22, an angel shut the mouths of the lions so that they could not harm Daniel. Angels served various people in the most remarkable ways.

In the temptation of the Lord Jesus in Matthew Chapter 4 and in Luke Chapter 4, he had been fasting in the wilderness for a period of forty days and forty nights, and he was very hungry at the end of it. And Satan tried to tempt him, but the Lord Jesus resisted the temptation. How beautifully does the period of temptation close because we are told that angels came and ministered to the Lord Jesus! What would “minister” in this case mean? At this time, what the Lord Jesus most urgently needed was food, and certainly to minister to him was to provide him with the food that he needed. In the wilderness, there was nowhere to get any food. He had refused to turn the stones into bread, but now the angels provided him with much-needed food.

I wonder if any of you have read the remarkable book concerning the revival in Indonesia. There are several books about the revival in Indonesia and one of those entitled, The Revival in Indonesia, was written by a very skeptical German person called Kurt Koch. In that book, he describes an instance of the ministry of angels which I would like to share with you as we close.

As the great revival was spreading through Indonesia, the Christian workers were going from one place to another counseling, teaching, helping the local Christians. And when they came to this town, they found that there was nothing to eat although they were very tired and very hungry.

Therefore, the elders of the church in this town got together with this group of Christian workers to pray earnestly about the food situation. When they had prayed, Kurt Koch, a very skeptical person, goes on to describe that suddenly, a table covered with food of every kind appeared before them! They looked on in utter amazement at this great table loaded with food, and this food was served to them by the hands that were evidently the hands of angels! Now they wondered whether they were dreaming or whether this was reality. When they took this food and put it in their mouth and chewed it, they discovered this was real food! Obviously, those hands that distributed the food were the hands of angels! Now this is something truly remarkable!

What is more remarkable is that this table appearing with all this food happened not once, not twice but eight times! And the number of people present to witness and to experience this ministry of angels provided by the power of God, were fifty people. There were fifty witnesses to this amazing ministry of angels!

 

Isn’t it wonderful to know that God sends angels to take care of us!

God is the living God! How little the church knows God today! How little do we know what Jesus said in Matthew 6:33!

When God provided for his servants, he did not give them one banana each and one glass of water, but as these fifty people testi­fied, the table was loaded with good things and the angels minis­tered this food to the servants of God. Fifty people were present for eight different occasions! What mighty things God will do to those who walk with him! Blessed is the man who trusts in God, whose hope is in God!

Now having looked at the whole teaching concerning the work of angels in the New and the Old Testaments, can you see how beauti­fully and gloriously true are the Lord Jesus’ words here? The Lord Jesus says in Matthew 18:10,

Blessed is the man who knows his God! Do all these things sound like fairy tales to you? But those who walk with God can tell you these kinds of things time and again, as indeed I can share many of these things. How wonderful it is to know God! Know that you are so precious to him when you are the Lord Jesus’ disciple, that he has assigned angels of the highest order to attend to your welfare. Oh, how great is God’s love!

Let us close in prayer.