How Angels Assist Your Prayers - Revelation 8:1-5
Posted by Calvary Chapel Fremont at 12/5/2010 9:05 PM 
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: Pastor Tim Brown Calvary Chapel Fremont Angels Assist Revelation
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: Pastor Tim Brown Calvary Chapel Fremont Angels Assist Revelation
Pastor Tim Brown, Calvary Chapel Fremont, Sunday December 5, 2010
How Angels Assist Your Prayers
Revelation 8:1-5
The apostle John is on Patmos/in c6-19 has vision of last seven years of history
In C7 we had a great multitude from every nation/tribe/peoples/ tongue worshipping the Lord joined by all the angels/24 elders/ four living creatures. A glorious huge sound filled the heavens/ echoed off the glassy sea. Then the 7th seal was broken and a sudden hush followed.
1 This is a remarkable feat of discipline – 4:8 the four living creatures do not cease day and night to cry holy/24 elders cease from casting their crowns/myriads and myriads of angels grow silent. This must have been so hard for these to still see God and not be able to worship. This is like going to a 1st rate fireworks show and not oohing/awing.
This is the silence of:
* Anticipation - something’s about to happen. Remember the OJ trial – has the jury reached a verdict?
* Meditation – a Selah moment: psalmist has said something especially meaningful and wants us to think about it.
2 Seven angels - from here on, there are angels in just about every chapter of Revelation. Angels play a major role during the tribulation. Angels – 74 times in Revelation / rest of NT – 100 times / OT – 110 times. Angels are major players. Angels are never meant to be substitutes for God, but are servants of God. They do not seek your allegiance, but to assist you as you serve God.
5:7-8 The four living creatures/24 elders have golden bowls full of incense – which are the prayers of the saints.
* Prayers are heard/stored/rehearsed in heaven. They don’t go in one ear/out the other. Your prayers are so precious to God that He stores them – entrusts them to the 4/24. “Here, hang on to these and replay them to Me.” You cannot weary God w/ much praying.
* Your prayers are a fragrant aroma to God. They are pictured as incense. Is there a fragrant aroma coming from your life? Paul: pray w/o ceasing - burn with incense all the time.
3-5 The angel’s purpose was to reinforce the prayers of the saints. Our prayers need reinforcement – we don’t know how to pray as we should/when we know what to pray for we don’t always pray in confidence/ when we pray in confidence we sometimes don’t pray for the right thing. Even prayer warriors/intercessors need reinforcement.
To add reinforcement to the prayers of the saints the angel came to the altar/place symbolizing the sacrifice of Jesus. It was here that much incense/prayer was given him. Where did this incense come from? Whose prayer does it represent? The intercessions of Jesus Christ based upon His sacrificial death. It is His sacrificial death and not His victorious resurrection that enables Jesus to pray so effectively for us.
The angel didn’t go to the tomb where Christ was buried as a picture of the resurrection of Jesus. Prayer doesn’t flow from the place of victory, but from the place of sacrifice. Prayer doesn’t flow from wholeness, but from brokenness. Look at your own life – prayer is brokenness seeking wholeness/sin seeking forgiveness /death seeking resurrection. (Of course, much prayer is worship due to gaining what was sought).
Jesus was a whole burnt offering. The angel came to the place of death/blood/ashes to obtain reinforcement for the prayers of the saints. The altar/cross was a place of holocaust – whole burnt offering. The book of Leviticus tells us that the smoke of the burnt offering is a soothing aroma to God. Jesus lived/died pleasing the Lord. This is why prayer is like incense – prayer is a sacrifice/a life lived toward God/a life of dying to the flesh and living in the Spirit. Since Jesus was a whole burnt offering, a soothing aroma to God, His intercessions reinforce the prayers of the saints.
…who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Romans 8:34
Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. Hebrews 7:25
Jesus is interceding 4u/adding His prayers to yours. Intercede – Greek root: to obtain something. Jesus Christ given/risen/ glorified/enthroned is praying for you. What is He praying for? Romans 8:28-29, 26-27 – the Spirit is praying for this, too.
In fact, all creation longs for this - Romans 8:19-21. Jesus is praying that you/whole body of those 2b saved/creation itself will be brought to the full end of salvation – saved from penalty/power/ pollution/presence of sin. We pray that His kingdom would come/King would come/character of the King be formed in us. Jesus is praying for the same thing. His prayers reinforce ours.
It is not the merit of angels that is added, but the merits of Jesus. It’s not: “How many angels do you have praying for you?” “Well, I picked up four more this week on Angel-Facebook.” Our prayers are given a boost by the intercessions of Jesus Christ.
We don’t pray to angels, but to God.
* Angels don’t pray for us, but they are instrumental in bringing our prayers before God/instrumental in the answering of them. Angels don’t answer your prayers, Jesus does. They listen to Jesus. Don’t try and order your angels around.
Temple plan - From the altar of sacrifice in the courtyard the angel now goes to the altar of incense in the holy place and adds to it the incense he was given at the altar of sacrifice.
* In c5 the prayers of the saints were in the golden bowls of the 4/24, but now they are in the golden altar b4 the throne.
* Cf. Hebrews 9:1-5 The altar of incense was outside the veil in the holy place, but was spoken of as inside the veil in the Holy of Holies. Prayer brings you inside the veil/n2 His presence/b4 throne. When you pray, you see yourself as being outside the veil, but God considers you as inside.
5 This is the answer to the prayers
After the incense had risen b4 God, the angel returned to the altar of sacrifice/took fire from it/threw it to the earth – this is the opening scene in the next round of judgment.
* The prayers of the saints reinforced by the intercessions of Christ effect events upon the earth.
* We have prayed, “Thy kingdom come…”
Your prayers are precious to God.
* When you pray, somehow your prayers are stored in the golden bowls of 4/24 and serve as a pleasing aroma to God. Then your prayers are put in the golden altar b4 the throne of God.
* Prayer effects things upon the earth…
Jesus came that you might be b4 the throne of God…
EXPECTING ANGELIC ASSISTANCE
1. Why this sermon?
a. Ps. 111:2 Great are the works of the Lord, they are studied by all who delight in them.
b. I want to know His ways and desire to discern how He governs His universe.
2. Application
a. A stretching of your soul that battles a creeping secularism
1) Secularism squeezes the soul into believing that only what can be felt, seen, and heard is real. If I can’t see it, weight it, quantify it, measure it, or analyze it – it’s not real. Leads to a denial of man’s spiritual dimension.
* Post WWII celebration honoring Air Chief Marshall Lord Hugh Dowding. King and Prime Minister in attendance. Dowding told of airman who had been shot and either incapacitated or dead and the plane kept flying and fighting. Other pilots could see a figure operating the controls. His explanation: angels.
* “Well, that’s stretching my imagination a little bit.” I wonder if that’s not exactly what God’s trying to do. If your worldview and understanding of what God can and will do doesn’t include His deployment of the spiritual beings known as angels, then your view of God’s work is too cramped and needs to be stretched to fill out to proper Biblical dimensions and proportions. God’s work makes full use of His world, and angels are in His world and He uses them. There is no doubt in my mind that each person in this room has been helped by angels at one time or another.
2) If a belief in the assistance of angels stretches your soul – PTL.. It is being stretched into, not out of, shape.
* The care of the entire church is entrusted to angels, to assist each member as his needs requires. John Calvin
b. A growing expectation in your heart of angelic assistance. Ill. My ‘cat-like’ reflexes in avoiding another car in the fog. An angel helped me. Each one of you have been helped by angels. Angels are not unnecessary in the age of the Spirit’s indwelling. God can and does use angels in the life of the redeemed.
* W/o self-consciousness, awkwardness, apology, or even explanation, Paul said, “This night an angel of God stood by me…” May God give you eyes to see those who are standing by you.
c. A rising of your spirit in praise, wonder, and adoration. Come away w/ a wider panorama, a larger window, looking out on God’s landscape
If you believe in angels, great!. You’re headed in the right direction…keep going…to Jesus.
As glorious and magnificent as angels are, God didn’t send an angel to die for you.
As powerful as angels are, they can never rid your soul of the guilt and penalty of sin.
Startling realization: many non-Christians have a greater spiritual worldview than many Christians; a greater anticipation of supernatural intervention than many Christians; expect God to help more than many Christians do.
Quite a few non-Christians in our secular society are beginning to believe in the ministry of the invisible angels. It’s really strange, but many non-Christians believe more in the spiritual world than do Christians. Book titles at Super Crown book store (in the 90s)
* Guardians of Hope – Angel’s Guide to Personal Growth; The Angels W/in Us – Spiritual Guide to 22 Angels That Govern Our Lives; Angels – True Stories; A Tree Full of Angels; Touched by Angels; An Alphabet of Angels; Angels of Mercy; Creating w/ the Angels; The Angel’s Little Instruction Book; In Search of Angels; Angel Voices; There’s an Angel on Your Shoulder; The Angel Book; Ask Your Angels; Fallen Angels; Angels – An Endangered Species; Angels Among Us; An Angel to Watch Over Me - Children’s Encounters w/ Angels; A Book of Angels; A Dictionary of Angels; Angel Wisdom; Literary Angels; Angel Letters; A Gathering of Angels; Answers From Angels; Be An Angel – Heavenly Hints for the Angelic Acts From Your Guardian Spirits; Angels, The Mysterious Messengers; Angels in Our Midst
You may say: How tragic that so many are heading in the wrong direction. Not so. The problem isn’t that they’re headed in the wrong direction, but not far enough in the right direction.
Angels are a big business today because materialism/secularism have created a vast inner wasteland that longs for the living water of spiritual reality. People think angels can meet the spiritual needs that they have.
* Why does a secular society turn to angels and not to God? See problem, but not its depth – cold, not cancer. If you have cancer, will you go to a nurse or a doctor? Doctors are for surgery, nurses for therapy. Angels, as popularly portrayed, do not carry moral authority. They come with warm fuzzies and not stern warnings. They come w/ reassurance, not rebuke. They are a cosmic Sesame Street cast of characters. Angels don’t confront, they comfort and console. We need more than reassurance, we need redemption. We need more than a touch from an angel – we need a transformation from God. More than an angel’s hand on my shoulder, I need God’s Spirit in my soul.
To understand the role of angels here in R8, let’s do a quick survey of the Bible concerning angels.
ILLUSTRATING ANGELIC ASSISTANCE: OT
Genesis 19 – angels delivering Lot from Sodom
Genesis 21:14-17 – angel ministering to Hagar
Ex. 14:13,14,19 - angel moved between Israel and Egypt
Jud. 6:7,11 Israel cried and God sent an angel
2K19:35 Angel and 185,000 of Assyrian army
Ps. 91:11-13 This is not just Messianic. Jesus applied this to Himself, but this doesn’t exhaust its meaning. Jesus also applied to Himself that man should not live by bread alone. Not Messianic
Dan. 6:22 – angel shut the lion’s mouths
OT - we see glorious instances of angelic assistance. “But that’s the OT. Hasn’t the Holy Spirit rendered unnecessary the ministry of angels?” In NT, angelic assistance to believers is not unnecessary/uncommon.
ILLUSTRATING ANGELIC ASSISTANCE: NT
Mt. 18:10 their angels always behold the Father. I feel great liberty in praying that my children’s angels would minister to them.
Outside of Revelation, Acts sees most angels
A5:19 – angel opened prison door and apostles were free
* An angel delivered them, but they were taken w/ Jesus, not w/ angels. Someone who has had an encounter w/ an angel and is more taken w/ the angel than w/ Jesus and wants to follow the angel and not Jesus has had an encounter w/ a fallen angel.
* Angels are holy spirits and act like the Holy Spirit – they draw attention to Jesus. Angels that draw attention to themselves have Satan as their leader.
A8:26 Angel guiding Philip. Why not the Holy Spirit do this?
A10:1-3 Angel guiding Cornelius to Peter
A12:5-9 Peter in jail and angel assists his escape
A27:23 An angel of God stood before me…
NT - angelic assistance to believers is neither unique/ uncommon.
How Angels Assist Your Prayers
Revelation 8:1-5
The apostle John is on Patmos/in c6-19 has vision of last seven years of history
In C7 we had a great multitude from every nation/tribe/peoples/ tongue worshipping the Lord joined by all the angels/24 elders/ four living creatures. A glorious huge sound filled the heavens/ echoed off the glassy sea. Then the 7th seal was broken and a sudden hush followed.
1 This is a remarkable feat of discipline – 4:8 the four living creatures do not cease day and night to cry holy/24 elders cease from casting their crowns/myriads and myriads of angels grow silent. This must have been so hard for these to still see God and not be able to worship. This is like going to a 1st rate fireworks show and not oohing/awing.
This is the silence of:
* Anticipation - something’s about to happen. Remember the OJ trial – has the jury reached a verdict?
* Meditation – a Selah moment: psalmist has said something especially meaningful and wants us to think about it.
2 Seven angels - from here on, there are angels in just about every chapter of Revelation. Angels play a major role during the tribulation. Angels – 74 times in Revelation / rest of NT – 100 times / OT – 110 times. Angels are major players. Angels are never meant to be substitutes for God, but are servants of God. They do not seek your allegiance, but to assist you as you serve God.
5:7-8 The four living creatures/24 elders have golden bowls full of incense – which are the prayers of the saints.
* Prayers are heard/stored/rehearsed in heaven. They don’t go in one ear/out the other. Your prayers are so precious to God that He stores them – entrusts them to the 4/24. “Here, hang on to these and replay them to Me.” You cannot weary God w/ much praying.
* Your prayers are a fragrant aroma to God. They are pictured as incense. Is there a fragrant aroma coming from your life? Paul: pray w/o ceasing - burn with incense all the time.
3-5 The angel’s purpose was to reinforce the prayers of the saints. Our prayers need reinforcement – we don’t know how to pray as we should/when we know what to pray for we don’t always pray in confidence/ when we pray in confidence we sometimes don’t pray for the right thing. Even prayer warriors/intercessors need reinforcement.
To add reinforcement to the prayers of the saints the angel came to the altar/place symbolizing the sacrifice of Jesus. It was here that much incense/prayer was given him. Where did this incense come from? Whose prayer does it represent? The intercessions of Jesus Christ based upon His sacrificial death. It is His sacrificial death and not His victorious resurrection that enables Jesus to pray so effectively for us.
The angel didn’t go to the tomb where Christ was buried as a picture of the resurrection of Jesus. Prayer doesn’t flow from the place of victory, but from the place of sacrifice. Prayer doesn’t flow from wholeness, but from brokenness. Look at your own life – prayer is brokenness seeking wholeness/sin seeking forgiveness /death seeking resurrection. (Of course, much prayer is worship due to gaining what was sought).
Jesus was a whole burnt offering. The angel came to the place of death/blood/ashes to obtain reinforcement for the prayers of the saints. The altar/cross was a place of holocaust – whole burnt offering. The book of Leviticus tells us that the smoke of the burnt offering is a soothing aroma to God. Jesus lived/died pleasing the Lord. This is why prayer is like incense – prayer is a sacrifice/a life lived toward God/a life of dying to the flesh and living in the Spirit. Since Jesus was a whole burnt offering, a soothing aroma to God, His intercessions reinforce the prayers of the saints.
…who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Romans 8:34
Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. Hebrews 7:25
Jesus is interceding 4u/adding His prayers to yours. Intercede – Greek root: to obtain something. Jesus Christ given/risen/ glorified/enthroned is praying for you. What is He praying for? Romans 8:28-29, 26-27 – the Spirit is praying for this, too.
In fact, all creation longs for this - Romans 8:19-21. Jesus is praying that you/whole body of those 2b saved/creation itself will be brought to the full end of salvation – saved from penalty/power/ pollution/presence of sin. We pray that His kingdom would come/King would come/character of the King be formed in us. Jesus is praying for the same thing. His prayers reinforce ours.
It is not the merit of angels that is added, but the merits of Jesus. It’s not: “How many angels do you have praying for you?” “Well, I picked up four more this week on Angel-Facebook.” Our prayers are given a boost by the intercessions of Jesus Christ.
We don’t pray to angels, but to God.
* Angels don’t pray for us, but they are instrumental in bringing our prayers before God/instrumental in the answering of them. Angels don’t answer your prayers, Jesus does. They listen to Jesus. Don’t try and order your angels around.
Temple plan - From the altar of sacrifice in the courtyard the angel now goes to the altar of incense in the holy place and adds to it the incense he was given at the altar of sacrifice.
* In c5 the prayers of the saints were in the golden bowls of the 4/24, but now they are in the golden altar b4 the throne.
* Cf. Hebrews 9:1-5 The altar of incense was outside the veil in the holy place, but was spoken of as inside the veil in the Holy of Holies. Prayer brings you inside the veil/n2 His presence/b4 throne. When you pray, you see yourself as being outside the veil, but God considers you as inside.
5 This is the answer to the prayers
After the incense had risen b4 God, the angel returned to the altar of sacrifice/took fire from it/threw it to the earth – this is the opening scene in the next round of judgment.
* The prayers of the saints reinforced by the intercessions of Christ effect events upon the earth.
* We have prayed, “Thy kingdom come…”
Your prayers are precious to God.
* When you pray, somehow your prayers are stored in the golden bowls of 4/24 and serve as a pleasing aroma to God. Then your prayers are put in the golden altar b4 the throne of God.
* Prayer effects things upon the earth…
Jesus came that you might be b4 the throne of God…
EXPECTING ANGELIC ASSISTANCE
1. Why this sermon?
a. Ps. 111:2 Great are the works of the Lord, they are studied by all who delight in them.
b. I want to know His ways and desire to discern how He governs His universe.
2. Application
a. A stretching of your soul that battles a creeping secularism
1) Secularism squeezes the soul into believing that only what can be felt, seen, and heard is real. If I can’t see it, weight it, quantify it, measure it, or analyze it – it’s not real. Leads to a denial of man’s spiritual dimension.
* Post WWII celebration honoring Air Chief Marshall Lord Hugh Dowding. King and Prime Minister in attendance. Dowding told of airman who had been shot and either incapacitated or dead and the plane kept flying and fighting. Other pilots could see a figure operating the controls. His explanation: angels.
* “Well, that’s stretching my imagination a little bit.” I wonder if that’s not exactly what God’s trying to do. If your worldview and understanding of what God can and will do doesn’t include His deployment of the spiritual beings known as angels, then your view of God’s work is too cramped and needs to be stretched to fill out to proper Biblical dimensions and proportions. God’s work makes full use of His world, and angels are in His world and He uses them. There is no doubt in my mind that each person in this room has been helped by angels at one time or another.
2) If a belief in the assistance of angels stretches your soul – PTL.. It is being stretched into, not out of, shape.
* The care of the entire church is entrusted to angels, to assist each member as his needs requires. John Calvin
b. A growing expectation in your heart of angelic assistance. Ill. My ‘cat-like’ reflexes in avoiding another car in the fog. An angel helped me. Each one of you have been helped by angels. Angels are not unnecessary in the age of the Spirit’s indwelling. God can and does use angels in the life of the redeemed.
* W/o self-consciousness, awkwardness, apology, or even explanation, Paul said, “This night an angel of God stood by me…” May God give you eyes to see those who are standing by you.
c. A rising of your spirit in praise, wonder, and adoration. Come away w/ a wider panorama, a larger window, looking out on God’s landscape
If you believe in angels, great!. You’re headed in the right direction…keep going…to Jesus.
As glorious and magnificent as angels are, God didn’t send an angel to die for you.
As powerful as angels are, they can never rid your soul of the guilt and penalty of sin.
Startling realization: many non-Christians have a greater spiritual worldview than many Christians; a greater anticipation of supernatural intervention than many Christians; expect God to help more than many Christians do.
Quite a few non-Christians in our secular society are beginning to believe in the ministry of the invisible angels. It’s really strange, but many non-Christians believe more in the spiritual world than do Christians. Book titles at Super Crown book store (in the 90s)
* Guardians of Hope – Angel’s Guide to Personal Growth; The Angels W/in Us – Spiritual Guide to 22 Angels That Govern Our Lives; Angels – True Stories; A Tree Full of Angels; Touched by Angels; An Alphabet of Angels; Angels of Mercy; Creating w/ the Angels; The Angel’s Little Instruction Book; In Search of Angels; Angel Voices; There’s an Angel on Your Shoulder; The Angel Book; Ask Your Angels; Fallen Angels; Angels – An Endangered Species; Angels Among Us; An Angel to Watch Over Me - Children’s Encounters w/ Angels; A Book of Angels; A Dictionary of Angels; Angel Wisdom; Literary Angels; Angel Letters; A Gathering of Angels; Answers From Angels; Be An Angel – Heavenly Hints for the Angelic Acts From Your Guardian Spirits; Angels, The Mysterious Messengers; Angels in Our Midst
You may say: How tragic that so many are heading in the wrong direction. Not so. The problem isn’t that they’re headed in the wrong direction, but not far enough in the right direction.
Angels are a big business today because materialism/secularism have created a vast inner wasteland that longs for the living water of spiritual reality. People think angels can meet the spiritual needs that they have.
* Why does a secular society turn to angels and not to God? See problem, but not its depth – cold, not cancer. If you have cancer, will you go to a nurse or a doctor? Doctors are for surgery, nurses for therapy. Angels, as popularly portrayed, do not carry moral authority. They come with warm fuzzies and not stern warnings. They come w/ reassurance, not rebuke. They are a cosmic Sesame Street cast of characters. Angels don’t confront, they comfort and console. We need more than reassurance, we need redemption. We need more than a touch from an angel – we need a transformation from God. More than an angel’s hand on my shoulder, I need God’s Spirit in my soul.
To understand the role of angels here in R8, let’s do a quick survey of the Bible concerning angels.
ILLUSTRATING ANGELIC ASSISTANCE: OT
Genesis 19 – angels delivering Lot from Sodom
Genesis 21:14-17 – angel ministering to Hagar
Ex. 14:13,14,19 - angel moved between Israel and Egypt
Jud. 6:7,11 Israel cried and God sent an angel
2K19:35 Angel and 185,000 of Assyrian army
Ps. 91:11-13 This is not just Messianic. Jesus applied this to Himself, but this doesn’t exhaust its meaning. Jesus also applied to Himself that man should not live by bread alone. Not Messianic
Dan. 6:22 – angel shut the lion’s mouths
OT - we see glorious instances of angelic assistance. “But that’s the OT. Hasn’t the Holy Spirit rendered unnecessary the ministry of angels?” In NT, angelic assistance to believers is not unnecessary/uncommon.
ILLUSTRATING ANGELIC ASSISTANCE: NT
Mt. 18:10 their angels always behold the Father. I feel great liberty in praying that my children’s angels would minister to them.
Outside of Revelation, Acts sees most angels
A5:19 – angel opened prison door and apostles were free
* An angel delivered them, but they were taken w/ Jesus, not w/ angels. Someone who has had an encounter w/ an angel and is more taken w/ the angel than w/ Jesus and wants to follow the angel and not Jesus has had an encounter w/ a fallen angel.
* Angels are holy spirits and act like the Holy Spirit – they draw attention to Jesus. Angels that draw attention to themselves have Satan as their leader.
A8:26 Angel guiding Philip. Why not the Holy Spirit do this?
A10:1-3 Angel guiding Cornelius to Peter
A12:5-9 Peter in jail and angel assists his escape
A27:23 An angel of God stood before me…
NT - angelic assistance to believers is neither unique/ uncommon.
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