Pastor Tim Brown, Calvary Chapel Fremont, Sunday December 12, 2010

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      How Angels Assist You

      Revelation 8:3-5

After WW2 there was a celebration honoring Air Chief Marshall Lord Hugh Dowding.  King and Prime Minister in attendance.  Dowding told of airman who had been shot/ 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 needs to be done.  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.         Hebrews 1:13-14

    * The care of the entire church is entrusted to angels, to assist each member as his needs requires.  John Calvin (no starry-eyed mystic)

If a belief in the assistance of angels stretches your soul – PTL. It is being stretched into, not out of, shape.  In our passage, angels assist bringing your prayers to God.  To further understand their role let’s do a quick survey of the Bible concerning angels.

many angel stories in the ot

Genesis 19  angels delivered Lot from Sodom

Genesis 21  angel ministered to Hagar

Exodus 14  angel moved between Israel and Egypt

Judges 6 Israel cried and God sent an angel

2 Kings 19 Angel and 185,000 of Assyrian army

Psalm 91:11-13

Daniel 6:22 – angel shut the lion’s mouths

OT - many 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.

many angel stories in the nt

Matthew 18  Their angels always behold the Father.  I feel great liberty to pray that my children’s angels would minister to them.

Outside of Revelation, Acts sees most angels

Acts 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 will be directed by the angel to follow Jesus.  If not, this is 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.

Acts 8 Angel guided Philip.  Why not the Holy Spirit do this?

Acts  10  Angel guided Cornelius to Peter

Acts 12  Peter in jail and angel assisted his escape

Acts 26  An angel of God stood before me…

NT - angelic assistance to believers is neither unique/uncommon.  Many times the Holy Spirit ministers/angels ministers.  Angels don’t indwell you as the Spirit does.  Angels are never substitutes for God, but servants of God.  They do not seek your allegiance, but to assist you as you serve God.  Angels are in love w/ Jesus and want u2 love Him, too.

angels today/popular culture

Angels are popular today, but not as much so as in the 1990s.  Our culture had a love affair w/ angels in the 1990s.  Quite a few non-Christians in our secular society began to believe in the ministry of these invisible spiritual beings.  Angels were a big business because materialism/secularism created a vast inner wasteland that longed for the living water of spiritual reality.  People turned to angels in the belief that they could somehow meet their spiritual needs.   

Also, people turned to angels because they didn’t want to turn to Christ.  The angels of the 1990s came w/ warm fuzzies/affirming messages/no call to repentance and holiness.  The angels of the 90s gave us a heaven w/o all the fuss of a holy God.  Angels, as popularly portrayed, do not carry moral authority.

Angels were quite popular in the 1990s.  Book titles at Super Crown (1994)

    * 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 – (28 titles)

Borders bookstore this week: Fallen Angels Among Us; Book of Angels; Archangels 101 – how to connect closely to archangels; Spirit Guide: Angel Guidance – contact your invisible helpers; The Miracles of the Archangel Michael; My Guardian Angel; Angel Words; Realms of the Earth Angels; Angel Bible – (nine titles)

From 28 to 9 titles/from the new age section to the paranormal section.  A couple of these books were published before 2000, but the ones published in this decade were all by a single person – Doreen Virtue (single-handedly bringing back the angel genre).

I also counted 28 books that had the word ghost in their title.  I don’t remember seeing any ghost books in the 90s – I’m sure there were some, but they didn’t dominate.  All 28 titles were published in this decade.  In fact, one, Real Monsters/Gruesome Critters/ Beasts from the Dark Side had a copyright date of 2011.  It is truly a book ahead of its time!  At first, I thought it was a book about our elders!

It sure looks like the angel genre has turned darker.  The new age section has given way to the paranormal section.    We have gone from touched by an angel to bitten by a fallen angel/from angels that comfort to ghosts that terrify.  Of the 50 best ghost movies, 80% were made from 2000 on.  Why has the popular interest turned from angels to ghosts/New Age to the paranormal?  Why has  interest in the supernatural been drawn into darker realms?

Moses turned aside to see the burning bush – he turned aside to see a what and had an encounter w/ a who.  Behind every what is a who.  Behind the supernatural is the spiritual.   

Satan can manifest himself as an angel of light (2C11:14), but once he has won your attention, what he truly is, is seen.  There are countless stories of those who have given place to spirit guides who are driven into the dark places of depression/despair/suicide.  It’s like that man you married, he was so sweet/attentive during your courting days – and then something happened!   

What began as light turned to darkness.  This is the story of the 1st time Satan showed up.  As he promised illumination to Adam/ Eve, he plunged them into darkness.  A holy angel will never attempt to draw you to himself, but to God.  An angel that doesn’t direct your attention to God, who affirms you in your sin/comforts you in your unrighteousness – is a demon.  If your spiritual journey takes you no further than angels, you’ve stopped too soon.  If you’re on your way to San Francisco and have stopped in Fremont, you’ve stopped too soon.

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.   

Why does a secular society turn to angels and not to God?  See problem, but not its depth.  If you have cancer, you’ll go to the doctor.  If you have a nasty cold, you’ll call the advice nurse.  Doctors are for surgery, nurses for therapy.  Angels, for the most part, come with warm fuzzies and not stern warnings.  They come w/ reassurance, not rebuke.  Angels don’t confront, they comfort/ console.  But you need more than reassurance, you need redemption/more than a touch from an angel – you need a transformation from God/more than an angel’s hand on your shoulder, you need God’s Spirit in my soul.  I need Jesus – the creator of the angels.
 
angels today/the church  Why this sermon?   

Great are the works of the Lord, they are studied by all who delight in them.  Ps. 111:2   

I want to know His ways/discern how He governs universe.  I want this sermon to result in -  

A stretching of your soul that battles a creeping secularism

Secularism squeezes the soul into believing that only what can be felt/seen/heard is real.  If I can’t see/weigh/quantify/measure/ analyze it – it’s not real.  Leads to a denial of spiritual dimension.

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/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.

Don’t look for them, they’re looking out for you.

A rising of your spirit in praise/wonder/adoration.  Come away w/ a wider panorama/larger window looking out on God’s landscape

    * If you believe in angels, great! - 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.
    * C4-5  Angels are worshipping Jesus – you should, too.