Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
CONTENTS
(1)They worship him
INTRODUCTION
Great Unity
Matt 2:13
13
Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to
Joseph in a dream, saying, "Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to
Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to
destroy Him."
(6) They ministered to Him in the wilderness
Matt 4:11
11
Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.
(7) They ministered to Him in the garden
Luke 22:43
43
Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him.
(8) They rolled away the tombstone
Matt 28:2
2
And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord
descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat
on it.
(9) They announced His resurrection
Matt 28:5-6
5
But the angel answered and said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know
that you seek Jesus who was crucified.
6
"He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the
Lord lay.
(10) They predicted His second coming
Acts 1:10-11
10
And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two
men stood by them in white apparel,
11
who also said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven?
This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like
manner as you saw Him go into heaven."
7
and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is
revealed from heaven with His mighty angels,
8
in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on
those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(12)They are in total subjection to Him
1 Pet 3:22
22
who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and
authorities and powers having been made subject to Him.
Just as they had worshipped Him before He became a man, they were commanded to
worship Him as He became a man. We read in Hebrews (1:6) "But when He again brings
the firstborn into the world, He says: "Let all the angels of God worship Him".
When Paul wrote his first letter to Timothy, in a summary statement of our Lord's life on
earth he included the angels in that statement:
"And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:
God was manifested in the flesh,
Justified in the Spirit,
Seen by angels,
Preached among the Gentiles,
Believed on in the world,
Received up in glory" (I Timothy 3:16)
ANGELS IN THE LIFE OF JESUS
There are at least seven major events in the earthly life of our Lord when the angels were
involved with Him.
1. ANGELS ANTICIPATED HIS COMING
Six months before the angel Gabriel was sent to tell Mary about the birth of Jesus, he was
dispatched to a priest named Zacharias. The purpose of that angelic visit was to
announce to Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth that they, after many years of childlessness,
were going to have a son. That son would be called John the Baptist, and he would be the
forerunner of Jesus Christ. This was a preview or an anticipation of the coming of the
Messiah. An angel was entrusted with this most important message.
2. ANGELS ANNOUNCED HIS BIRTH
The angels, and particularly Gabriel, were given the responsibility of communicating the
coming of Christ to the earth, first of all to Mary. Six months after Zacharias was told
about John's birth, Gabriel appeared to Mary and told her she was to give birth to a Child.
This Child would be the long-awaited Messiah and Savior of the world. Mary was told
but Joseph wasn't! He seems to have gone through some real stress before an angel got
around to telling him of the miracle of this birth.
The coming of the world's Savior was introduced to our world by a messenger from
heaven. The name of Jesus was first spoken here by an angel. But since His name means
"Salvation of God", even the highest angel could not understand what he was saying.
Salvation was not for angels, it was for people.
Next came the announcement to the shepherds. Quite a picture--ordinary common folk
all of a sudden being presented with a host of angels! It must have been something like a
jet breaking the sound barrier right above them!
After the birth, angels continued to show concern for Jesus and His family. They warned
His parents about Herod's cruel plan to destroy the new King by killing all the children
two years old and younger. The angel instructed Jeseph to take his family and flee to
Egypt. And it was an angel who told Joseph when it was safe to return to Israel with his
family.
3. ANGELS ASSISTED HIM AFTER HIS TEMPTATION
The next recorded encounter Jesus had with the angels took place almost 30 years later.
He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil. He fasted 40
days and 40 nights and then faced temptations from Satan. When the Devil left, the
angels ministered to Jesus. Note that it was after He was tempted. Jesus waged the battle
with the enemy by himself. "Ministered" is a word that carries with it the idea of
"spreading a table". Elijah had enjoyed this ministering too.
4. ANGELS ATTENDED TO HIM AT GETHSEMANE
When Jesus had withdawn from the disciples and was left alone with Peter, James, and
John, we are told He began to enter into a time of obvious agony. Mark 14:33-34 say that
Jesus was sad and troubled and told the disciples, "I am so sad that I feel as if I am
dying". He then asked them to stay awake with Him, but they went to sleep. This is
where Jesus is described as "being in great pain and praying so sincerely that His sweat
fell to the ground like drops of blood." And this is the point that an angel from heaven
came to strengthen Him. The word "strengthen" here means "to invigorate," "cause to be
strong," "to make firm." While only one angel came to minister to Jesus at Gethsemane,
Jesus reminded those who had come to arrest Him that He could have summoned twelve
legions of angels if He had chosen to. (Matt. 26:53) A Roman legion was 6,000 men.
Jesus said at His word more than 72,000 angels would be sent to His aid. But, He died
alone
to take the full death penalty that you and I deserved.
5. ANGELS AFFIRMED HIS RESURRECTION
It was an angel who rolled away the stone from the mouth of Jesus' grave. It was an
angel who appeared to the two Marys who arrived at Jesus' tomb early on Resurrection
Day. And it was two angels Mary saw when she looked into the tomb. (John 20:12)
6. ANGELS ASSOCIATED WITH HIM IN HIS ASCENSION
Luke 24:51 (carried up into heaven) (Acts 1:10-11)
through their presence everywhere and reporting back to him that He is able to know all
our ways. Rev. 3:5 follows on in the context of the Angels and Jesus uniting to declare
our verdict at the judgment: "I will confess his name before my Father, and before His
Angels". It is possible to show that the Angels are described as the "fellows" of Christ by
a careful comparison of Zech. 3:4 and 8, where the dedication of the High Priest
ceremony is performed on Christ (in vision) by His "fellows" or Angels. Although it is
not mentioned in Zech. 3, that ceremony included anointing. Thus Heb. 1:9 describes
Jesus as being anointed "above thy fellows" in the context of proving His superiority to
the Angels- i. e. His fellows. He speaks of how He personally will send fire on the land of
Israel (Lk. 12:49), and yet in Revelation it is the Angels who pour out fire upon the landHe is directly manifested through their work. Note too how the Lord, straight after His
resurrection, repeats verbatim the Angels words to Mary: Woman, why are you
weeping? (Jn. 20:13,15). Likewise, when He appears to the women in Mt. 28:9,10, He
repeats the Angels words of Mt. 28:5,7. This indicates the unity which He felt with them
especially after His resurrection. When the Angel brought Peter forth out of the prison,
Acts 12:17 records this as the Lord (Jesus) doing so (RV).
Yet the Angels are not to be seen as equal to Christ. Even in his mortality he had power
over them to some degree. His authoritative "Peace, be still" was probably primarily
addressed to the Angels controlling the natural elements. The reference to Angels
'ministering' to Him after the temptations suggests their inferiority. Thus He could
summon twelve legions of Angels at the time of His greatest passion
There are evident links between John 1 and Genesis 1; God (the Angels) made the world
in Gen. 1; and in Jn. 1 the word does the same with regard to the new creation, thus
suggesting that Christ has exactly mirrored the role of the Angels in regard to the natural
creation. Adam and Eve heard "The voice of the Lord God (i. e. an Angel) walking in the
garden", implying that this voice had a corporeal manifestation; i. e. there was an Angel
almost called "The voice of the Lord". This would seem to be Christ's personal Angel,
seeing He was called "The word made flesh" in John 1. His closeness to them is shown
by the parable of the lost coin; when the woman "hath found it, she calleth her friends
and her neighbours together . . . likewise. . . there is joy in the presence of the Angels of
God over one sinner that repenteth" (Lk. 15:9,10); here Jesus likens Himself to the
woman rejoicing over her lost coin in His joy at our repentance, thus making the Angels
have the same relationship to Him as friends and close neighbours.
It seems that Jesus has His own personal Angels- He returns "with all His holy Angels";
the Angel of the altar (Christ) would also appear to be specifically connected with Him
(Rev. 16:7), perhaps marshalling these Angels for Christ. So close are Christ and the
Angels and such His respect and love for them, that it seems that Jesus will even feel
ashamed or embarrassed before them when He comes to consider one of the unworthy at
the day of judgement- Luke 12:8 implies that the same feeling of embarrassment and
shame which the unworthy have now when backing out of preaching will be felt by Jesus
when He looks on them at the judgement. And it is quite possible that one of the things
which motivated our Lord to continue hanging on the cross was the thought of praising
God in the midst of the Angels at His ascension: "My praise shall be of Thee in the great
congregation (of Angels?): I will pay my vows before them that fear Him".
John 1:50,51 give another picture of the Angels' role in the ministry of Jesus: "Jesus
answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree,
believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these. And He saith unto them, Verily,
Verily I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see Heaven open, and the Angels of God
ascending and descending upon the Son of man". The allusion to Jacob's vision of Gen.
28:18 is clear. That vision was to show Jacob the extent of Angelic care of Him- and this
was repeated for Jesus. However, the context of v. 50 is that Nathanael marvelled at
Jesus' knowledge. Jesus seems to be saying that they would see even greater spiritual
revelation ("Heaven open") because of the ministry of the Angels to Him, ministering
spiritual knowledge to Jesus to communicate to His disciples. This would imply that apart
from directly ministering spiritual revelation to Jesus, the Angels also imparted specific
'physical' knowledge to Jesus- e. g. about Nathanael under the fig tree.
Angels And The Cross
The lamb killed in Eden to provide skins was a type of Christ (Rev. 13:8); and the strong
hints that the actions of God in Genesis were nearly all performed by Angels that we have
seen previously, suggests that in the type the sacrifice of Christ on the cross was also coordinated by the Angels. "Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man
that is my fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts" (Zech. 13:7). "Lord of Hosts" is definitely an
Angelic title; thus this verse indicates that not only is Christ the Angels' "fellow", but that
they arranged for the 'sword' of death to awake against him. The Messianic Ps. 38:2
describes Christ reflecting on the agony of the cross: "Thy hand (an Angelic phrase)
presseth me sore".
Angelic involvement in the crucifixion may help explain the confusing change of
pronouns which must be apparent to any serious student of Isaiah 53. The first six verses
appear to be an account of the Jewish and Christian believer's feelings about the Lord's
sacrifice, and use the pronouns "We. . our". Verses 7-13 are in the first person: "For the
transgression of My people was he stricken. . . therefore will I divide him a portion" (Is.
53:8,12). "My people" suggests that the speaker here is Michael, the Angel of Israel.