The Nature of Angels (2)

We have been looking at the doctrine of angels or what the Bible teaches about angels and we are looking last week, we started talking about the nature of angels, what they're like, how would we describe an angel and what does the scriptures say about who they are, what they're like and they're nature and so forth. And we started last week talking about their personality. Remember by personality we're talking about the essence of a person, the fact that the angels really are a person. Personality is what distinguishes them and us and God from things or animals and most people summarize the qualities of personality with these three characteristics, intellect, emotion and will, there are other things that could go into that. Most describe it that way. We talked last week about the description of angels' personality, what is it like, what are they characterized by and we began talking about their intellect. Do angels have intellect? Do angels think, are they self-determining and we saw that yes, angels do have intellect, they have a desire to learn more about salvation according to first Peter. We saw that they can communicate intelligently, they do so frequently in the Bible. We saw that even evil angels like Satan, Satan was described when he was first created before his fall, when he was a good angel, Satan was described as being one full of wisdom, perfect in wisdom and he abandoned that wisdom in his rebellion against God. And in demons they understand who Jesus is, they know his identity, they know his power, so they have knowledge quite clearly. But we also saw last week that their intelligence is limited, although they have great knowledge, they are not omniscient like God. In other words, they don't know all things. So we saw that again, they are wanting to learn more about what salvation is like as they observe the church, they learn more about what God has done for us. It indicates that they do not fully understand or know redemption, they also do not know the day or hour of Christ's coming we saw. And so their intelligence, although it is great, is limited. It is not perfect like God's, not full, not complete. Okay, that's where we left off last week. So let's begin there this week. They are also characterized by emotion. They do feel, they are self-conscious. And so let's just look at a couple of examples of the feelings of angels in the Bible. First of all, they respond with joy at God's power and creation. We saw that last time, but look at this verse again on the screen, Job 38, verse 7, while the morning stars, those are angels we saw in the context, angels sang together and all the angels shouted for joy. And when God made the earth that's being described there in Job 38, the angels sang with joy. So they have joy, they also have a deep sense of awe when they worship God. Let's turn to this passage in Isaiah 6, Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah's great vision of the glory and majesty of God when God called him into his ministry. Isaiah 6, verse 1 says, in the year that King Azaya died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were Sarah theme. Now we're going to see later in our study, we're going to identify some of these names for angels, Sarah theme and Cherubim are both names for angels in the Bible. So here's Isaiah seeing above him were Sarah theme. Each with six wings, with two wings, they covered their faces, with two, they covered their feet, with two, they were flying. And they were calling to one another, holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty, the whole earth is full of his glory, at the sound of their voices, the doorposts and thresholds, shook, and the temple was filled with smoke. And so they are around the throne of God, worshipping him, proclaiming his holiness, covering their faces, covering their feet in an evidence of humility and reverence and submission to God. They have a very deep sense of awe at the holiness of God. They are moved by that. And then one other evidence of joy on the part of angels is in Luke chapter 15 and verse 10, where they rejoice at the salvation of the lost. Jesus said in the same way, I tell you there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one center who repents. And so that rejoicing in the presence of the angels seems to include the angels, obviously. They rejoice when a lost person gets saved. So angels have emotion. They have a mind, they think, they have emotion, they feel. Thirdly, angels also have a will. So again, we're showing that they are persons, they have personality. So they have a will. They can choose. They have the ability to make moral choices, at least they did at one point. Here are a couple of evidences of their will. God appeals to the will of angels by commanding them to worship Christ. Look at this passage on the screen. Hebrews 1.6. And again, when God brings His firstborn into the world, He says, let all God's angels worship Him. So He commands the angels to worship His son Christ. So He's appealing to their will to obey Him and to worship Christ. Now originally, when all the angels were created, originally, they all did choose to obey God's will. But one angel led a rebellion. We're going to see this a little more detail later on when we get to the section of our study of angels, where we begin to talk about Satan and the demons. But let's go ahead and anticipate that a little bit. Isaiah 14. Since we're in Isaiah, turn over to chapter 14. This is a passage that describes in poetic language the fall of the king of Babylon. Back in verse 4, this is a taunt against the king of Babylon. But some languages used here that most Bible students believe goes beyond the king of Babylon to the power behind him, which is Satan himself. And notice the description of his fall, his rebellion against God, beginning in verse 12. Isaiah 14, verse 12. How you have fallen from heaven, mourning star, son of the dawn, you have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations, you said in your heart and notice, this is what if this passage is referring to Satan, and I believe it does at least imply that way, these are five I will statements that Satan made. I will ascend to the heavens. I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit and throne on the mount of assembly on the utmost heights of Mount Zathon. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds. I will make myself like the most high. With these five I wills, Satan rebels against God himself using his will to do that. And there were many other angels who chose to rebel with him. Revelation chapter 12 seems to indicate a third of the angels followed Satan in his rebellion because when Satan is finally completely cast out of heaven where he can no longer enter heaven to accuse the saints, that's in the middle of the tribulation time in Revelation 12 when that happens. And it says with his tail, he took a third of the stars of heaven, this dragon, the beast, the serpent, Satan. And so that seems to indicate a third of the angels followed him in his rebellion. So originally all angels exercised their will in choosing to love God and obey him, but some exercised their will in rebellion against God. So angels have wills. They have the ability to choose. Now most Bible scholars believe that once that initial choice was made to either follow God or to rebel against him, angels are now confirmed in that choice. And so the good angels will always remain good angels, evil angels, demons will always remain demons. And the reason why that is generally thought is because there is no indication in the Bible of any redemption for angels. No indication that Christ died for the angels. He died for people. Now Hebrews 2 makes it clear he died for mankind. He took flesh and blood to provide redemption for us, not the angels. And so angels once that choice was made seemed to be confirmed in that category of either good angels or bad angels. But they did initially have that choice to make. So really the reason for all that description of angels' personality is to establish the fact that angels are indeed persons. They are not just influences, ghosts, a force of nature, an extension of God's power. They really are individual personalities. Okay, that's the introduction kind of to the nature of angels what they're like. They are persons. Any question or comment there before we move on, Tommy? Possibly seems to be. I mean, we'll get to this further later. That seems to be described in Ezekiel 28. So we'll get to that a little bit later. But there's a lot that we don't really know. That seems to be implied in Ezekiel 28 that that would have been his responsibility. But there's not a whole lot of time between his creation and his fall. So what he would have been doing is a little difficult to know. By the time we get to Genesis 3, he's already fallen and he's tempting Adam and Eve. So not a whole lot of time there. But yeah, seems to be he would have been given a very important assignment of being the angel that was over the whole earth. We'll look at that a little more closely later. Anything else about the nature or personality of angels? Yes, they are persons just like us. We are individuals. They are two. Angels are individual persons or personalities. Not bad ones. Yes. I would say again by personality, we're not necessarily talking about personality in the sense that we think of we have a pleasant personality or an abrasive personality or something like that. We're talking about just they have intellect, emotion and will. They have those qualities of personhood and maybe personhood is a better word than personality. But they are individual beings like we are. And they seem to have different responsibilities, different ranks in God's work with different responsibilities over different areas. So I would assume that would probably imply different differences and the things they do and the way they look at things. But all the obedience to God. Walt? We're going to get to that next. Yeah, we're going to get to the very next thing we're going to talk about is that. So it does tie in with what was asking where we're going next. But we're going to see that they do not have bodies. So they do not need nourishment. Okay. So they don't need food. I know what some of you are thinking. Wait a second. Didn't a couple of angels eat with Abraham? They are able to, I'm jumping away ahead of myself. They are able to appear in human bodies at times. So let's go ahead and jump into that. The properties of angels, we've talked about the personnel. Let's talk about their properties. What kind of beings are they? What are they made of in a sense? Well, the first thing we want to establish is that angels are spirit beings. They are spirit beings. In other words, three questions that come up when you think about what angels are like in regard to whether or not they have a body or their spirit or so forth. What is, do they have a body? Do angels have a body? And the answer to that, in short, and we'll show it in scripture here, the answer in short is they do not have a material fleshly body like we do. Few verses that indicate that, first of all, Hebrews 1, 14, are not angels ministering, notice, next word, ministering spirits, sent to serve those who will inherit salvation. So angels are ministering spirits. They serve God, but they are spirits. And then another passage that lets us know that even demons are referred to as spirits. Luke chapter 8 verse 2, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases, very called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had come out. Notice the connection here between evil spirits and then later they are called demons. But again, the term spirits, they are spirit beings. And another verse later in that chapter, chapter 8 verse 30 of Luke says, Jesus asked him, this is the demon possessed man in the tombs, along the sea of Galilee. Jesus asked him, what is your name? Legion, he replied, because many demons had gone into him. A Roman legion was a group of 6,000 soldiers. So what seems to be indicated here is that 6,000 demons had gone into this man. They have to be spirit beings, right? To go into someone and take over the personality control, but 6,000 of them designated to one person would indicate, obviously, they are spirit beings. They are in a small area. So they do not have a body, but they do have spatial limitation, as the way I want to say it. In other words, they do have to move from one place to another. Remember we saw that last time in Daniel chapter 9 where Daniel was praying, and the angel shows up three weeks later and says, you know, God sent me to bring you your answer when you first started praying three weeks ago. And I was intercepted by the prince of the kingdom of Persia, a demon over the kingdom of Persia who was trying to keep him from getting to his assignment. And so he was moving from one location to another from heaven to earth and was intercepted, held up in a particular location and had to call on backup, Michael came and helped him defeat that angel and the evil angel only came on through. So they moved from one location to another and that's true of a spirit being. A spirit being does not mean that that being is all over the place all the time. They do, they're in one place at one time and they move from one place to another. The only being who is in all places at one time is God, right? He is omnipresent. He is in all places at the same time. But angels are not, they're not divine, they're not deity, they're created beings. And so even though there's spirit beings, they are in one place at one time. So they move from one place to the other. Now even though angels are spirit beings, it is possible for them to appear at times and will come to that in just a little bit. And that's why sometimes in the Bible you have them appearing in human form. But that is only for a particular purpose to do a particular task given to them by God, usually in relation to helping someone or communicating a message to someone in the Bible. But they are spirit beings, they do not have bodies unless God wants them to appear for particular reason, then they somehow assume a human body for a period of time. The second question soft and raised about angels is in regard to their properties, is what gender are they? And we really need to look at Matthew 22 to help answer this. So let's turn to this one, Matthew 22. We referenced this one briefly before and we'll come back to these same passages over and over again to point out different things about angels from them. Matthew 22, verse 28, Jesus is answering a problem posed to him by the sagicies of religious party in Israel, the more liberal group that did not believe in the resurrection or the supernatural. And so they pose what they feel is a question that will trip him up that has to do with the resurrection. And their purpose is to make the resurrection look ludicrous. And so they asking this famous question, verse 24, Moses told us if a man dies without having children, his brother, the widow would raise up offspring for him and that was in the law of Moses. Verse 25, another were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died since he had no children. He left his wife to his brother. The same thing happened to the second and the third brother right on down to the seventh, finally the woman died. Now then in the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven since all of them were married to her. So they raised this crazy scenario to try to make the whole idea of the resurrection look ludicrous. They think they presented a real ingenious problem for the Lord. Some of us in the DNA saw seven brides for seven brothers. This is seven brothers for one bride is what this one's entitled right here. So they are asking Jesus to solve this. What they think is an unsolvable puzzle and Jesus just cuts right through the absurdity of their argument. Verse 29, Jesus replied, you are an error because you do not know the scriptures or the power of God. Nothing like just saying it like it is right. Verse 30, at the resurrection, people will neither marry nor be given in marriage, but they will be like the angels in heaven, which indicates that angels do not marry, which seems to imply they do not procreate and probably that they are genderless, that they do not have gender, no marriage between angels. Now whenever they appear, they seem to appear in the form of men in the Bible. And kind of like that. You have to be careful with that. I mentioned that before here, didn't I? A couple of weeks ago that you would kind of expect that. For angels to appear as men and I got some frowns. So we back off that a little bit. But it just appears that when they do have a human body, they are given a human body to manifest themselves at times, they do appear as men and they are referred to as masculine with masculine pronouns. He, him, so forth. So that could be a generic use of the word the masculine pronouns, hard to tell. But what Jesus says seems to indicate that they have no gender, they do not marry, there is no procreation among angels, that kind of thing. There is a fixed number of angels. Okay, third question, then we will open it up for you to ask questions. Third question about them being spirit being is, well then how long do they live? How long do they live? And the answer to that is forever. They are immortal just like you and I are. You know, once you're born, once you're conceived, you will exist forever. You have not existed forever in the past, but you will exist forever in the future. When you die, you will go either to an eternal heaven or eventually an eternal hell. You will exist forever. Well, angels were created, but they also exist forever. Look at Luke chapter 20. This same passage in Luke's gospel, the same story, Luke records a little more that Jesus says in Luke chapter 20, verse 34, Jesus replied to people of this age, Mary, and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage and they can no longer die for they are like the angels. They are God's children since they are children of the resurrection. So Jesus also said on that occasion, not only that people who go to heaven in the resurrection don't marry, but they also don't die because they're like the angels indicating the angels also do not die. So their spirit beings, they do not have a body, they do not have male or female gender, although when they appear in human form, it seems to always be male. And then they will have their immortal once they're created, they'll live forever. All right, questions, comments, come in. We really don't know how many were created. There's no number given in the Bible. Now in the book of Revelation, it talks about myriads and myriads and thousands upon thousands, 10,000 times 10,000. There are numbers like that given of angels, which indicate there's a great, great multitude, but we don't have a specific number given to us the Bible. No, no, I understand. And it's a good question. Good angels who appear, single appear in their own body. Evil angels are more interested in controlling the body of another person. And that's what demon possession is all about. Now I'm going to save any teaching on demon possession till we get to that section of this study, but good angels seem to appear in their own form, not inhabiting. Yeah, they are spirit beings, but sometimes God does give them the ability and opportunity to appear as human. And we'll see some evidences of that. Yeah. Kishti. I'm not going to explain that. Not right now, we will later. Genesis 6, the sons of God and the daughters of men type situation. That's the most popular question about angels. And I don't, it's such a, we'll spend almost whole lesson on that. So I want to wait on that a little bit later. Great, great question, but let's wait on that one. Okay. Because that really has more to do with demons than maybe if it is even angels, I'm not convinced it is, but we'll get to that later. All right. Okay, let's talk a little bit about the special appearances. Angels make special appearances. So although they're spirit beings, they do make special appearances. God has given them the freedom to appear from time to time in human form. Now normally they are invisible. Just remind you once again of Colossians 116. We've used this first several times, but remember what it says about the creation of angels in him in Christ. All things were created things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, powers, rules or authorities and those those categories seem to be identifying the invisible and their ranks of angels. And so again, we'll look more at the ranks of angels a little bit later, but they do have although they're invisible typically, they can appear on occasion. Sometimes they appear in a dream or a vision. Like remember Joseph and Mary twice, it is said, well actually four times in Matthew 1 and 2, twice in chapter 1, twice in chapter 2, it is said that an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream. Four times it is said that he did that. So sometimes they appear in visions and dreams, Isaiah in the passage we read earlier in Isaiah 6 had a vision of the glory of God and in it he saw angels. But at other times they just seem to appear not in a dream or a vision, but literally they're beside you like at the garden tomb when Jesus was resurrected. The women actually saw an angel sitting on the stone and also inside the tomb there were two angels. So Ezekiel did have a vision of angels and that is a very interesting description in Ezekiel 1 and 2. But yeah, Ezekiel saw angels in a vision. So they do have the freedom to appear as God wants them to. Remember there are messengers of his, they do his bidding so they would appear when he wants them to to communicate something or do something. Yeah, Hebrews 13 says that about you can entertain angels on a wears. In other words God may allow an angel to appear in a human form and you may actually entertain Abraham as an example of that. We're going to see that passage in a little bit. And in that passage in Hebrews he's talking about ministering to strangers, ministering to people who have needs because you never know when you may be ministering to an angel in human form. Okay. All right. What forms do they have in their forms of appearance? What do they look like? What do they like when they appear? Let me say three things about this. Generally they appear in the form of men and we've talked about that before but let me just show you a few verses real quick on the screen. Mark 16.5. This is one of the descriptions of the resurrection. As they entered the tomb they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side and they were alarmed. Luke's account, Luke 24.4, while they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside him. This is two different descriptions of the encounter of the women of the tomb when they saw the angels inside the tomb. Mark only mentions one because one of them does the speaking but there were two angels inside the tomb. In Acts 1, verse 10, you remember at the ascension, as Jesus goes up to heaven in Acts 1, they, the disciples were looking intently up into the skies. He was going when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. So generally they appear in the form of a man. There's the appear in the form of an unusual man. Let me back up. When they appear as a man, sometimes it is so common that you can't tell them from an ordinary human being. And that's why the warning there in Hebrews 13, but let me mention Abraham. Abraham was in his tent one day. You remember in Genesis 18, you knew the story when he saw three men coming and he quickly got together the provisions he and Sarah did to entertain those three men. He has no clue that they are angels. They are just described as three men who come by. It was well known and still is today that Middle Eastern hospitality is very important. And so Abraham would not let them go by without entertaining them in his home. And so these three men come in and they are eating a meal and they give this prophecy to Abraham. About a year from now I will return. The one who is speaking is later identified as the Lord. This is an appearance of Christ actually before he came to earth as a baby. The Lord says, I will appear about this time next year and Sarah will have a son and Sarah is inside the tent and laughs to herself. And remember one of the angels spoke up and said, why did Sarah laugh inside the tent? And Sarah says, oh I didn't laugh and he says, yes you did. And so Abraham by now is beginning to figure out these are not ordinary men. And it's after that point that one of them is referred to as the Lord and the Lord stays behind and talks with Abraham and the other two go on to Sodom and Gomorrah to warn a lot. And they are described in chapter 19 as angels. Chapter 19 verse 1 of Genesis says the two angels entered Sodom. So sometimes when angels appear they are indistinguishable from a normal person. You can't, there is no glow, you know there is no halo, there is nothing that would set them apart from an ordinary person. Abraham thought they were just ordinary people. But sometimes as you see on the screen they do appear in the form of unusual men. A couple of examples of that, Daniel 10 verses 5 and 6. Daniel says, I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen with a belt of fine gold from youth as around his waist. His body was like topaz, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze and his voice like the sound of a multitude. I mean this is not an ordinary person. This is something unusual, a person of great splendor, supernatural splendor. Same thing is found in one of the angels that appeared to him, Matthew 28, 3. His appearance was like lightning, his clothes were white as snow. This is the guy that was on the stone that the soldiers actually saw. And he is described with supernatural appearance. So sometimes they appear as ordinary people, sometimes they can appear as unusual men. And then sometimes, thirdly, in heaven, some angels appear in the form of unusual living creatures in Revelation chapter 4, for instance. Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass. There's crystal in the center around the throne were four living creatures. And they were covered with eyes in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion. The second was like an ox. The third had a face like a man. The fourth was like a flying eagle. Each of the four living creatures had six wings, was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Amazing description. They in night they never stopped saying holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. Who was and isn't is to come. These are evidently angels around the throne of God crying holy, holy, holy, but their description is extremely unusual in chapter 10, verses 1 through 3 of Revelation. Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven. He was robed in a cloud with a rainbow above his head. His face was like the sun. His legs were like fiery pillars. Just imagine this in your mind. He was holding a little scroll which lay open to his hand. He planted his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land. So he was gigantic, enormous. And he gave a loud shout like the roar of a lion when he shouted the voices of the seven thunders spoke. So sometimes angels are described as looking like ordinary people. As they look like unusual men, sometimes they are given descriptions that are not even human like in heaven. So those are the forms of their appearance. Let me just say a word about the force of their appearance. Quite often their appearance has a forceful effect on people. In a couple of ways, sometimes it's emotional agitation. There's a great emotional response three times in the appearances of the angels in regard to the birth of Christ in Luke. Look at Luke 112 on the screen. When Zacharias saw him, remember he was serving in the temple, angel appears. When Zacharias saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. Everything happens in chapter 1, verse 29 with Mary. Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. And then remember the shepherds in chapter 2 verse 9, angel of the Lord appeared to them, the glory of the Lord shown around them, and they were terrified. So sometimes the appearance of angels, particularly when they come with this glorious splendor, is caused for great emotional agitation, fear, terror. And then sometimes there is even mental and physical weakness when a person sees an angel. Even to the point of a complete lack of composure on the part of some who see angels. Remember the soldiers that soon, Matthew 28 verse 4, the guards were so afraid of him, that this angel that appeared, that they shook and became like dead men. So complete lack of physical and mental composure. And then Daniel, chapter 10 verse 8, when Daniel sees an angel, so I was left alone gazing at this great vision. I had no strength left in my face turned deathly pale and I was helpless after this angel appears and communicates this vision to him. And then remember Balan? Remember Balan when he was donkey? That great story. When you were the donkey when you saw the angel would not proceed. He kept trying to go off to the side and finally just sat down in the road. And finally in number 2231, God gives name and the, Balan, excuse me, the ability to see the angel. The Lord opened Balan's eyes. He saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with his sword drawn in what's his response. He bowed low and fell face down. So obviously there are sometimes emotional responses, sometimes even physical responses to the appearance of angels. So amazing scenes in the Bible of angels and what they are like and the kind of reactions they produce in people who see them. Okay. Our time is up. Quick comment or question before we go if you have something you want to ask. Yes. If they, if they do appear as they do sometimes in the scriptures with this unusually great splendor, then that would be awe inspiring and terrifying. In fact, there are people twice, John twice in the book of Revelation falls down to worship an angel and the angel says, no, no, not me, your worship got alone. And so they are awe inspiring when they appear that way. Which verse was that, that last verse? The one with Vaelum, he saw the angel of the Lord. That probably was an appearance of Christ. We're going to look at that more carefully later, but that wording, the angel of the Lord is the reason I wanted to go back and see for sure. The angel of the Lord typically is a wording that is talking about Christ. I'd want to look at it a little more carefully because sometimes it will mention an angel and then it will go back and refer to him as the angel just referring to the angel a couple verses before. So I want to make sure about that. But typically that expression, the angel of the Lord is a reference to Christ. Today, we have no way of knowing. We have no way of knowing. We know that they did in Bible times, but the things they did to communicate or to minister, we do know God does not communicate new revelation through angels or any other means, dreams, visions, whatever, because his revelation is completed in his words. So we know he's not doing that. We also know that angels are called in Hebrews 114, ministering spirits, sent to minister to those who are the heirs of salvation. So they do minister to believers and when we get to the function and work of angels, we'll talk about different things they do. So I believe they do, they are sent by God to minister to us. Now whether or not we see them, I don't know. That's what's hard to know for sure. Okay. That's an interesting idea. There were some women leaders in the Old Testament, not a lot, but Deborah, Miriam, some, a few. And I might also say that even though most of the examples we looked at were Old Testament, there are some New Testament appearances of angels, particularly the Book of Acts in the Gospels too, but in the Book of Acts. You get to the epistles and so forth. You're not seeing angel appearances because those are more teaching letters. You do see the appearance of angels quite a bit in the Book of Acts and also in the Book of Revelation, but we just haven't looked at a lot of those yet. Our time is up. Thank you Father for the time together tonight in your words, always a joy to interact with your word and let it teach us. And we pray that we will be good students, but not only students to fill our heads, helping us to know more, but to use that in our lives. Most of all, to be able to be aware of false teaching so that we're not deceived, but also so that we stay close to you and we give gratitude to you, gratefulness to you for all the provisions you've made for us, and also that we are drawn closer to you. So to that end, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.