20 - Angels - Holy and Unholy, Part 2

Well, welcome to the Striving for Eternity Academy's School of Systematic Theology. We are glad to have you with us again for another lesson as we go through a study of angels. Now, we have done many different theological topics throughout these many weeks, and I'm just amazed that the one that I thought would have the least controversy and the least discussion seemed to have the most on Facebook.

So don't quite know why that is. Now, I will say this, there are some who made comments about the length of the last class, and so I now have, look at the size of that. Can you read those numbers? Yikes, someone's really trying to tell me something.

I guess some people don't want me to end late. Hmm. Alright. Well, then we better get started. Alright, so first off, we would like to welcome some new students with us, some students who have enrolled, and we hope that you have gotten your syllabuses and you can enroll going to somewhere down there, that website down there.

What you get when you do enroll is you'll get one of the syllabuses, which we are in book number one of the School of Systematic Theology, and we are starting off tonight, we're actually continuing I should say tonight, with the lesson 14, so if you turn to lesson 14 on holy and evil angels.

Creation, Nature, and the Organization of Angels

Now as a quick review, so that we know where we were, and we looked at the creation of angels, where I gave the most brilliant explanation of when they were created, I said, I don't know. I know, you're shocked.

Sometime before day six of creation. Day one, two, three, four, five, I don't know which one, but they saw creation because they sang at the sight of it. So we know that they were created sometime before that.

So we looked at the creation of angels. We also saw their nature, and so we had seen that. We're starting into the lesson on holy angels, and that's where we are today. We are discussing holy angels. Oop, got caught drinking.

What's this? Oh, this is, it says, Anglican Diocese of the South? Must have gone to the Super Bowl outreach and tried to be converted to Anglicanism from an Anglican. All that incense doesn't make the coffee taste any better, but that's alright.

But if we are talking on angels, might as well talk on incense, right? So anyway, that's an inside joke for anyone who isn't at the Super Bowl outreach. Well, you should be. There's another one next year in New York.

Good excuse to come to New York in winter. Wait, it's never a good excuse to come to New York, especially in winter, but this is a good one. You'd be evangelizing. All right, back to holy angels. So we are looking at holy angels, and the first thing we want to look at with that is we want to look at their organization, their organization, and there's some things in here that when we look at their organization, first off, we see that there is an organization to them.

Angels have organization. We don't have tons of details of that, but what we do see is the fact, and that's your blank there in your syllabus, the fact of their organization, and it's seen in Colossians 1 .16.

So let's turn there. Colossians 1 .16 says, For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.

And it is understood that when we look at this, if you see the thrones and dominions and rulers and authorities, these are references, many believe, to different hierarchies or organizations of angels.

Let's also take a look at Ephesians 1 .20 and 21. Really, we want to focus on 21, but let's look at just 21 for this. Well, we'll read what we have. That he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand of the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named.

And above every, sorry, not only of this age, but also of the age to come. Now, this is seen when it talks about these authorities as speaking of angels. All right. So one of the things that we see there, there is some other places we can look and we're going to see some of these passages.

I don't want to, you'll go through every single passage that we have, and that's actually one of the advantages of the syllabus is you'll get all of the, some of the passages, I should say. Not all of the passages deal with angels, but you'll have many passages there that we don't go over in class, and you also have them right there at your fingertips.

But you can look at things like when we see that Satan was, and we're going to see this next time, in next week's lesson, is that Satan was one of the highest angels in the hierarchy, in the organization.

We know that Michael is called the archangel. So there is some hierarchy in there that Michael is maybe, he was below Satan, but he was above the other angels. We're going to see some that there's some levels as we're going to see with Seraphim and things like that.

So one of the things we first want to see when we look at their organization, though, is the fact that their number is said to be innumerable, innumerable. That's your blank there. In other words, too many to count, okay?

So when you ask the question, how many angels can dance on the head of a pin? Who cares? We don't even know how many angels there are. But let's take a look at a passage of Scripture, Hebrews 12 and verse 22.

It says, but you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to, what's that word? Oh, innumerable angels in a festival, all right? So when you get somebody who writes a book, yes, someone's done this, and they try to argue that they know the number of angels that there are, either you're a liar or God's a liar.

I'll go with you're the liar, just saying. I'm not going to be the one to call God a liar, all right? So we see that they do have organization. We see that we can't count their numbers. Another indication to their organization is the mention, and I kind of already hinted to this, but the mention of an archangel, an archangel, that's your blank there.

And his name is, class, shout it out. I didn't hear you. Oh, that's right, there was someone said Michael, Michael the archangel. Let's take a look at a passage that deals with Michael the archangel. Very good.

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with a voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet, and the dead in Christ will rise first. There's another passage, and that is this one in Jude 9, Jude 9.

But when the archangel Michael contended with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, the Lord rebuke you. There it is again.

Sorry. Some of you may become Anglicans now. All right, so what do we see? One of the things that you see there actually in Jude 9, it's an interesting passage. We have a video that so many people comment on, on open air preaching with a demon possessed heckler.

And what everyone always seems to want to tell me is that I should cast out the demon. Well, if Michael the archangel doesn't sit there and tell Satan what to do, why would I? Just saying. I don't believe that we have, I believe that the apostles had that.

I believe that some people throughout time did. I don't know that any passage that says we still have that today. And actually, I would look at Jude 9 to say that we don't, because if Michael doesn't do it, I don't know that I'm going to try it.

Another is in Revelation 12. And what we see here is that we see the archangel commands other angels. Commands, that's your blank now. War arose in heaven, and Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.

So you see that there is some fighting that was going on, and there was some commanding that was going on. So if Michael did some, gave commands to other angels, yet he would not give commands to Satan, that shows there's some hierarchy.

Even though Satan may have fallen, it seems, and I say seems because we don't know this for sure, but it seems that Satan may have been a higher authority than Michael, and even in his fallen state, Michael would not command Satan what to do.

But he does command other angels that would be underneath him. That shows some of their, the hierarchy. Next, if you look in your syllabus, we have not only their organization, but their distinctions.

Names and Distinctions of Angels

Their distinctions. And there is no way that I am going to go through every single passage of scripture that you have in your syllabus with their distinctions. Because, well, we'd be here all night and you'd yell that I went over class time.

Wow, alright, we wouldn't want to be late, would we? Yeah, got big clocks to make sure that doesn't happen. Thanks. But let's take a look at some of these. If you have your syllabus, you can look along with me in your syllabus.

But we have some of their distinctions and we can see them in both their general and their specific names. Alright, so some of the general names for angels are things like sons of God. Now, I want to note there, when you see that, you'll see that it is plural.

Okay? Sons of God, not son of God. Who is the son of God? Well, he just celebrated his resurrection and so that would be Jesus. He's the son of God. The sons of God, plural, is a reference to angels in a general sense.

Okay? We also see the sons of the mighty. Alright? This is, again, son of is the idea of identification but this is in a general sense referring to a class of people or, in this case specifically, angels.

A host of heaven, we see it very often, angels are called the host of heaven. And so we see that. We also see the morning stars. Morning stars is another reference that we see in Job. Holy ones is another reference in Psalm 89.

You'll see ministering spirits. You see that in the New Testament. God's host is a reference. And also the watchers. Those are all general names. Now, let's deal with some specific names. Some specific names we have is Michael.

Now, Michael is called the archangel. And there's a question that came up in the chatroom. Is he the only archangel? I don't know. Don't know if there's more than one. I think that was the question. Is there more than one archangel?

I think that there's been some books that I've read that some people try to make an argument that Satan was an archangel. Some that try to say that both Michael and Gabriel are archangels. But the only one that I know for sure was Michael.

So that would be who I would say. I don't know if Gabriel was. But Gabriel is a specific name of another angel that we have in both Daniel chapter 9 and Luke 1. I don't know if any passage says he's an archangel though.

We have a specific class of angels called seraphim. We have another group that are called cherubim. So we know of them by specific terms. We have another one of the angel of the abyss and the angel of fire which seem to be specific to a person.

Now we'll answer a question that came into the chatroom just because even though it's more really a lesson for next week when we talk about demons and sometimes what comes up with that is demon possession but since I happen to mention something about possession with the demon possessed heckler in the video that we have I might as well just address the question now.

And that is can good angels possess people? Well next week's class we'll go into it probably a little bit more but just suffice it to say I would say no because demons possess people in a desire to do things sinful to try to control people.

We have no case that we know of in scripture where good angels are ever possessing people. Now if you do have someone who is demon possessed what is the solution to that? Do you cast out the demon? My solution, give them the gospel.

Why? Because if the Holy Spirit enters that person greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Holy Spirit comes in, demon must leave. Just saying. But let's move on with that to some more.

The Ministries of Angels in Relation to God, Christ, Believers, Nations, and Unbelievers

So after looking at their designation let's take a look at their ministries. Look at their ministries. So what are some of the ministries of angels? So we have some different ministries one of which we see that their ministry is in connection with God and that's your blank there in your syllabus in connection with God.

Well let's take a look at some of those and we first see the first one that we see that they are the first ministry they are involved with is praise. Praise. Look at this in Psalm 38. Oh what were its bases shrunk or who laid the cornerstone when the morning stars now remember that's a reference to angels sang together and all the sons of God remember that's another one reference to angels shouted for joy.

And what are they doing? They are praising God. And that's what we see there. So we see that they are praising God. So that is one thing that we see that angels do in connection with God they praise another would be that they worship Isaiah chapter 6 and you see in that passage that they worship God verses well you can look at the specifically verses 2 and 3.

We won't look at that right now. But we can also see that they were involved in service. Genesis 19 Revelation 19 you see that they were involved in service to God. So three areas that we see that they have a ministry connection with God.

It is praise it is worship and it is service. And that's what we're going to be doing for all of eternity. Praising God. Worshipping God and serving God. And we're going to enjoy it immensely those of us who know and love the Lord.

Alright. So let's move on. We also see that they have a ministry in connection with Jesus Christ. A ministry in connection with Jesus Christ. Let's put this up. This is a little bit of a longer passage.

So I don't know if we're going to have the time to read this whole thing. But Luke 1. So let's this is basically in reference you see Gabriel the angel where he came you see him announcing and that's the first blank there is that we see angels announced the birth of Christ.

So we see in connection with Christ in Luke 1, Gabriel an angel was announcing the birth of Christ. Second, after the temptation of Christ, angels ministered to him. Angels ministered to him. In Matthew 4, and that's your blank there, ministered to him.

The devil left him and behold angels came and were ministering to him. So what we see there is that not only did they announce his birth but they ministered to him and then we also see another way is that during his prayer in Gethsemane, in the garden just prior to his crucifixion, they strengthened him.

They strengthened him. Let's take a look at that passage in Luke 22 and verse 43 and it says and there appeared to him an angel from heaven and what are they doing? It says they're strengthening.

Him. So they're strengthening him. We also see.

In relation to Christ that not only did they strengthen him but the angels announced his resurrection which just having celebrated resurrection Sunday not Easter. Easter is what the world may call it but I don't.

Let's call it what it really is. The celebration of the resurrection of the living Lord, the risen Lord. Let the unbelievers have to deal with the biblical terms. We see in Matthew 28 verse 6 that the angels announced his resurrection.

We also see that angels were also present at the ascension of Christ in Acts 1 10. They were there at the ascension of Christ. Let's look at that verse we have here. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold two men and those two men are seen as angels, two men stood by in white robes.

So we see here that these were angels that announced his ascension as he rose. And in the future, in reference, in connection with Christ, in the future all angels will be present both at the rapture that's 1 Thessalonians 4 16 and the return of Christ, Matthew 25 31.

Now for those who don't think there will be a rapture, well, I'm sorry. Scripture says so. Actually, I don't think anyone doesn't believe in that. It's just the timing of it. But let's take a quick look at it.

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel and with the sound of a trumpet of God and the death in Christ will rise first. Now hold that up for a second because this actually may be a passage.

Not only does this talk about the future connection, but do you see it says the voice of an archangel? So I don't know whether this is a reference to the fact there may be more than one archangel. I don't know.

One thing I would need to do to verify that would be to look it up in the Greek and see how that's worded in the Greek to see if it's an archangel as if it's in a plural. So, what we have though is that we do see that there will be angels in connection in the future ministry of Christ.

Next we see in the ministry connected with believers. With believers. Okay? And in here what we see is that we will, we see that this is where we get into questions. And your blank by the way there is believers.

Their ministry, angels ministry in connection to believers. Now, here's where some people get into some funny things. Some people will look at passages such as in Matthew 18 where it talks about their angels and people start thinking that we have guardian angels or somehow there's, we have angels that are watching over us.

And you can look at Hebrews 11 where it talks about a cloud of witnesses speaking of angels that are watching us. And so, some will get into a question of the questions of do we have, you and I have guardian angels?

I don't know. I mean, Matthew 18 does refer to their angels meaning believers angels as if we do have angels maybe assigned to us. But I just don't know that we do. I don't know if they're assigned to us like for our whole life or just a time period.

Now, let's look at that for a second. Ponder that. When people that get into demonic things and they sit there and say they know something is true, they do a Ouija board as I did as a kid. We'll get into that maybe more next week and I'll describe some of that.

And you have the Ouija board know things that how could anyone know? Well, angels are watching us and they're always around us. We just don't see them. If we do have an angel assigned to us our whole life and if we have a demon assigned to us our whole life or if they just choose some way to be watching over us, they would know things that happened in our life.

So that may be a thing that could be. I don't know. So the thing that we're going to look at that maybe a little bit more next week when we get into some of the issues of possession and stuff like that.

But we do want to look this week of how angels minister to believers. So one way that angels have, angels have a general ministry of aiding believers. And you see that in Hebrews 1 14. Let's bring that one up.

And it says are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who inherit salvation? So who are those who inherit salvation? Well that is those that are believers. And so what do they do?

They're aiding us. They're sent out to serve for our sake. So that's what they do. Angels seem to be involved with answering prayer. You ever think about that? Now sometimes it's very specific such as in Daniel's case.

Daniel's praying for several days and an angel comes and we even have his name Gabriel. And we have him coming to Daniel and answering. Now we don't always have that. So let's look at some ways. Now there are some times where we have angels that answered prayer such as Peter in Acts 12.

Peter's he's sitting in a prison cell and I do we have that? Alright let's I love this passage because it just cracks me up in a sense. Now Herod was about to bring him out on that very night. Peter was sleeping between two soldiers.

So he's sleeping between two soldiers. He's bound with chains and what does it say? And the century before the door was guarding the prison. So I mean Peter must be a pretty bad dude right? They got him chained on either side to guards.

He's sleeping. He's chained to two guards. There's a century right outside. So he's imprisoned, chained to two guards so he can't pick up and walk away. There's a century right outside and look what happens.

And behold an angel of the Lord stood next to him and the light shone in the cell and he struck Peter on the side and he woke up and said get up quickly the chains fell off his hands. Now if you keep reading the passage actually it says they walked out and Peter didn't even realize like he thought he was still asleep.

He thought he was seeing a vision until he got outside of the outer guard. So he went through he walked right past the two guards that were sleeping that he was chained to. The chains fell off. He walks right outside with the angel right past the century out past the outer guard and then he's like oh wait where am I?

I mean I just crack up at that. Now not all of us are going to have God send angels to answer prayers like that. And so we shouldn't go looking for things like that. Alright? But God can do that. He could send angels.

They do have in the past answered prayers that way. In Revelation we see them answering the prayers of John. We also see next is that they observe Christians in their worship. They observe Christians in their worship.

Let's look at 1 Peter and 1 Peter 1 12. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven things which angels long to look.

Now when you look at that you see the angels long to look. In other words when you and I worship God and I hope this sinks in with you. When you and I have the privilege of worshiping God the angels are watching in wonder.

Angels can't believe it. An angel cannot understand what it means to be redeemed because holy angels can never be redeemed because they've never violated God's law. Unholy angels can never be redeemed because they are forever in the state they're in.

You and I are redeemed. Christ did not come back as an angel. He came as a man. He came as a human. And angels can't understand that. They look with wonder. They look on when we worship God and it's something they cannot experience.

When you go to church don't sit there and think how bad your church is complaining about it not being as perfect as you wish it would be and looking for the negative in your church. But think about the fact that as negative as you may think it is the angels look on in wonder.

They're amazed. They can't believe the things that they get to see. Isn't it a puzzlement that we would complain about it? That we'd be like, well, you know, my pastor doesn't support this or that or whatever it is.

Get over it. The angels already are.

They're amazed at it. So, um, let's take a look.

Let's keep going then. So they look on in amazement. Alright. Another thing is that angels rejoice in evangelistic efforts. And we see that in Luke 15. In Luke 15 10. It says, just so I tell you there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

So in other words, if you go out and you evangelize and you're complaining because you've been evangelizing day in and day out and day and you're not seeing any fruit, quote unquote. In other words, you're not seeing anyone get saved.

Although you may have no idea who got saved after they walked away from you and you don't meet them again until heaven. But the reality is if one sinner repents, the angels are rejoicing in heaven. They're watching the evangelistic efforts and watching what God does in the heart of an enemy of his when he regenerates that heart and gives a creature new life.

And they sing with joy. Maybe we should be singing more joyfully about evangelistic efforts. Don't you think? Just a thought. I mean, if it's good enough for the angels, maybe it's good enough for you and I.

Angels seem to have a ministry to the righteous at death. Alright? They seem to have a ministry of, and we looked at this already in Jude chapter 9, but if you see here, we read that Michael the Archangel had something to do with the body of Moses.

Alright? So, we're not quite sure what that looked like. Alright? I don't know. What was the contention like? I just don't know. I'm sorry. But we do know that there was some discussion over that. There's also angels were active in the giving of revelation.

The giving of revelation. Alright? And so we see that. What was that? Alright. We see next, so we saw that they have, angels have their ministry in connection with God, in connection with Christ, in connection with believers.

I hope that's you and I. Well, I hope that's you. I know it's I. You may hope that it's me. Because you don't know my heart. But I don't know yours so it's okay. Alright. So, their next is that they have a ministry in connection with nations.

With nations. And that's your next blank there. With nations. Let's take a look at a couple passages here and we'll look at Daniel 12. Michael seems to have some special relationship here with Israel.

At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who is in charge of your.

People. Now,.

Your people here, if you look, is a reference to Israel. So you see, Michael is the prince who has charge over your people. So he seems to have charge over the nation of Israel. Okay? So it seems that he has some sort of relationship there.

Alright? Some sort of special relationship this one angel. Angels are also active in the gathering of the elect in the millennium. If you believe in a millennium, that is. But in Matthew 24 and verse 31, you see that passage there.

And it says, and he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they, so this is the they, is the angels will gather his elect, those are believers, from the four winds and the, from one end of heaven to the other.

So, angels are involved in collecting or bringing people into what I would say is the millennial kingdom. If you don't believe in a millennium, well then you're not going to think that refers to a millennial kingdom.

But whatever it does refer to in your mind, that would be what it is. Now, you know, well we'll get into millennium in a far later time. So, let's go on to the last one that we have under the holy angels, and that is their connection, the ministry and connection with unbelievers.

Unbelievers. We'll look at this, that is your blank there, their ministry and connection with unbelievers. So, we saw their ministry and connection with God, we saw their ministry and connection with Christ, we saw their ministry and connection with believers, we saw their ministry and connection with nations, and now we see their ministry and connection with unbelievers.

And we see there is that God God will be involved in the connection of the judgment of God. That's your blank there, the judgment of God. God will be involved with the judgment of God as well, but angels will be involved with the judgment of God.

You can just read Revelation chapters 8, 9, and 10, and no, I am not going to read all three chapters because I would go over class time, and then we'd realize that this timer that keeps, you know, that they put right here in front of me so that I would see it really big would be over time, so we're not going to go over time.

Yeah, okay. But we will look next week. There's a question in the chat room, what does the verse mean in Psalm 91 verse 11, for he shall give his angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways, and we are going to answer that next class, all right?

We'll answer that next class. So we see that angels are involved with the future judgment of God. We also see when it comes to the unbelievers that angels will act as reapers in the end of the age, and you can see that in the book of Matthew.

In Matthew 13, I'm just going to rattle off a bunch of verses for you, okay? But Matthew 13, 39. Matthew 13, 49. Matthew 13, 50. Matthew 25, 31, all the way to verse 33. If you look at those, you'll see that angels are involved at the end times of the reaping and the sowing, all right?

So, we're going to end up just stopping there, even though we don't have much left in the lesson when we talk about some of the fallen angels. But I do want to try to, well, let's see if we can get through this.

The Demise, Description, and Devices of Fallen Angels

We do have, let's see, 11 minutes that says, cool. Well, let's take a look at fallen angels, all right? Fallen angels. Let's take a real quick look at their demise. Their demise, all right? So, first thing we see, that they appeared to fall at the same time as Satan.

That's your blank there. They seem to fall at the same time as Satan. All angels who did not fall were confirmed in holiness, okay? So, one of the things I want you to see here is that you had angels at some certain time, we don't quite know when that is, but some fell, they disobeyed, and they were forever in that state, all right?

And they can't change that state. Those that did not fall were confirmed in a state of holiness. That's your blank there, okay? So, they all seem to appear at the same time. How did that happen? I mean, how did Satan convince the angels to fall?

Did he fall first? And then, we don't quite know, but one thing I would say is that if you take a look at Adam and Eve, and you see that Eve ate of the fruit, and then sometime later, Adam ate of the fruit, but the curse of the fall didn't occur until Adam had eaten the fruit, okay?

So, there was some time where Eve was able to convince Adam. That same time could exist between the angels when you first had Satan maybe convincing the other angels. There could have been that same time gap.

We don't know. Scripture doesn't talk about it, but that would be an argument that I would use, that there could have been a time gap for Satan to convince the other angels, but whatever the moment was that they were confirmed in that state forever, okay?

So, let's go on. We see not only their demise, but their description, their description. And we see this, their description, they're described as being spirit beings. They're also described as being intelligent beings, and you can look at those passages up that are in your syllabus and see those verses for that.

So, let us then look at their devices. They have iPhones and iPads, right? They get out their iP…. No, they don't. They don't get out their iPhones, do they? No, that's not the device we're talking about.

We're talking about their ploys, their ways of doing things, their tricks, their schemes. And if you look in your syllabus there, they are agents of Satan. They are agents of Satan. And no, you guys that have Androids, I mean, get real.

You know, get an iPhone, all right? Get into the 20th century. No, I'm just teasing. I like tweaking those Android users. What we see there is that they are agents of Android. I mean, Satan. Sorry, that was a slip there.

All those people saying Apple's evil. They probably are. Now, next you see that while attempting to thwart the plans of God, these fallen angels actually execute the plans of God. We see that in the discipline of believers, 1 Corinthians 5, 5.