An Angelic Festival of Worship (Hebrews 12:22-24) | Worship Service

And welcome to Kootenai Church.

Would you please stand as we open up our service this morning with a reading out of Psalm 9.

In verses 9 to 14 says, Yahweh also will be a stronghold for the oppressed,

a stronghold in times of distress.

And those who know your name will put their trust in you.

For you, O Yahweh, have not forsaken those who seek you.

Sing praises to Yahweh who abides in Zion.

Declare among the peoples his acts.

For he who requires blood remembers them.

He does not forget the cry of the afflicted.

Be gracious to me, O Yahweh.

See my affliction from those who hate me.

You who lift me up from the gates of death, that I may recount all your praises,

that in the gates of the daughter of Zion I may rejoice in your salvation.

Let's sing together Psalm 9, Wholehearted Thanksgiving.

Wholehearted

Thanksgiving

to thee,

O thy

joy.

To

Jehovah

and

Jehovah

thy

joy.

Amen. You may be seated.

We have a full house today.

So apparently everybody heard about the potluck that we're having after the service today.

And if you are new here and you didn't know about that, you can pretend that you knew all along and that you paid a little something to be part of it and join

us after the service.

Immediately after our service, we're going to tear down a couple of rows back here in this section.

So we would just ask everybody to sort of exit the building, go out, make your way out onto the lawn so we can set up the

food tables in here.

And then we will have somebody go out, probably me, and pray.

And then you'll come back through the line and then head outside to eat.

And I think that was all that I needed to announce.

One last thing before our Scripture reading.

We have some missionaries who are visiting us that our church has supported for 40 years.

When you see him, you're going to say, yeah, he does look like he has been on the mission field for 40 years.

And I've known him since I was a teenager and they came up and were part of vacation Bible school on

occasion.

And we're here for Sunday school and visited our church from years ago.

There we go.

All right.

So with that, it's Marty and Jeanette Wendell, and they have recently transitioned to a new kind

of ministry, a different phase of their ministry, which you do when you've been supported for 40 years.

And their table is out in the foyer.

So I would encourage you to go out there and visit them.

And I think that Marty and Jeanette are probably going to be new faces and a new ministry to many of you who are here.

But Marty, will you come up here now and share with us, please?

Good morning.

That gentleman you saw running up here, that was a practice run for the EMTs when I die of old age in the pulpit.

I score him a nine out of 10.

He'd have got 10 out of 10 if he'd have been screaming as he ran up here.

Every time I think of Kootenai Community Church, I think of the following verses.

I thank my God every time I remember you.

In all of my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel

from the first day until now.

It has been 40 years.

I am 42 years old, for those of you that are asking.

And ever since they started meeting in the basement of that little white church and then moved to the school and then came here,

it's been remarkable to see how God has blessed you from the first day until now.

The growth that I see here is, in my mind, the reflection of faithfulness to God and

his word and faithfulness by the pastors who have led this ministry

forward since its beginning in 1979, I believe the church was started as a Sunday school.

So, Pastor Jim, thank you.

Thank you, too, for your prayer and financial support with us in missions beginning in Latin America and now expanding to over

five continents.

We've participated with you in prayer and financial giving and in 2015, Katie Kenney

came and worked at one of our camps in Ireland.

So if you feel like going to Ireland, we still have plenty of room there and in probably 45

other countries where we're doing camping.

Bible -centered ministries, or BCM, began 87 years ago as the Bible Club movement,

focused on teaching the Bible to children in home clubs and in camps.

While still maintaining that focus, our activities have grown to include evangelism and

discipleship of all ages, church planning and leadership development.

You will often hear us say in our organization, we are reaching children and strengthening the

church.

Jeanette and I have been with BCM now for more than 17 years.

We came to BCM and I came as the international president of the organization and Jeanette

has been working in communications and also as the editor of the BCM World Magazine,

a digital magazine about the happenings of BCM globally.

In April of this year, after a successful year -long search,

Dr. Rick Rhodes was installed as the seventh president of BCM International.

So what lies ahead for us?

People say, are you retiring?

I say, not yet, we're retooling.

As president emeritus, which does sound like I have one foot in the grave.

As president emeritus, I will be assuming the role of advisor to the president, traveling with him

during this transition period.

And then I will continue doing international teaching, keynote speaking

and the development and mentoring of leaders internationally.

Jeanette will continue as editor of the BCM World Magazine in communications and training writers

globally.

She currently has 24 titles that are published.

If you stop at the table in the back, you'll see a few of those titles.

Let me just give an unabashed advertisement.

The books you see there are for sale and all of the proceeds will be going to the

BCM efforts by our BCM missionaries in disaster relief for the Ukraine.

They're now in day 561 since this resurgence of that

conflict.

So that's where the proceeds for those books will go.

So for further information, stop in the foyer.

You also say, okay, we've heard about BCM, but tell me a little bit more.

And the way I'm gonna do that so I don't cut into the preaching time is we have a little two and a half

to three minute video that will give you an overview.

So watch the video.

If you have any more questions, stop and see us in the back.

And

now

will

you

please

turn

your

Bibles

to Psalm 68.

So we would encourage you to take the time to meet Marty and Jeanette if you have not and to stop by the table out there,

sign up for their informational newsletters that they send out.

Psalm 68.

We're gonna read the first 19 verses of this Psalm.

For the choir director, a Psalm of David, a song.

Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered and let those who hate him flee before him.

As smoke is driven away, so drive them away.

As wax melts before the fire, so let the wicked perish before God.

And let the righteous be glad, let them exult before God.

Yes, let them rejoice with gladness.

Sing to God, sing praises to his name.

Lift up a song for him who rides through the deserts, whose name is the Lord, and exult before him.

A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows is God in his holy habitation.

God makes a home for the lonely.

He leads out the prisoners into prosperity.

Only the rebellious dwell in a parched land.

Oh God, when you went forth before your people, when you marched through the wilderness, the earth

quaked.

The heavens also dropped rain at the presence of God.

Sinai itself quaked at the presence of God, the God of Israel.

You shed abroad a plentiful rain, oh God.

You confirmed your inheritance when it was parched.

Your creatures settled in it.

You provided in your goodness for the poor, oh God.

The Lord gives the command.

The women who proclaim the good tidings are a great host.

Kings of armies flee, they flee, and she who remains at home will divide the spoil.

When you lie down among the sheepfolds, you're like the wings of a dove covered with silver and its pinions with glistening

gold.

When the Almighty scattered the kings there, it was snowing in Zelman.

A mountain of God is the mountain of Bashan, a mountain of many peaks is the mountain of Bashan.

Why do you look with envy, oh mountains, with many peaks, at the mountain which God has desired for his abode?

Surely the Lord will dwell there forever.

The chariots of God are myriads, thousands upon thousands.

The Lord is among them as at Sinai in holiness.

You have ascended on high.

You have led captive your captives.

You have received gifts among men, even among the rebellious also, that the Lord God may dwell there.

Blessed be the Lord who daily bears our burden, the God who is our salvation.

You stand with me as we pray.

Let's bow our heads.

Our Father, you are a God of salvation and deliverances.

You are mighty and holy and righteous and altogether true.

You are glorious in all of your perfections and beautiful in your holiness.

And we thank you that you have desired and worked to bring a people to yourself,

to make us holy, not just in our standing before you, but ultimately in all of our conduct, and then to secure us

in that holiness, to dwell in your abode with you forever and ever.

We anticipate that with great expectation, with longing and loving hearts.

We thank you for the grace that you have worked to bring us salvation, to bring us to salvation.

And we thank you for securing our redemption through the purchase of the life and the death and the

burial and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We thank you for your great mercy.

We thank you for this reminder this morning that you are extending that mercy around the world as you continue to

bless the work of your servants and bringing the gospel to the nations.

And we know that someday on that great day, when we are gathered into your presence, that we will be gathered with

brothers and sisters from around the world, from all of the nations, whom you are making glad in yourself.

You will bring them all to yourself on that great day, and you will be praised by every tribe and

by every tongue and by every kindred on the face of the planet.

And we will join with them in everlasting song and everlasting rejoicing.

And we pray that you would continue that work.

And we pray that you would hurry to gather in all your chosen ones so that that last day may come and we may rejoice

with you everlastingly.

We praise you for your great goodness and ask your blessing upon our worship service.

And we pray that we would, as we sing the sentiments of our hearts, that we would sing in a way that is worthy of your

great holiness and your great majesty.

And may your name be made great, not just among the nations, but here amongst us as well.

We ask in the name of Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Let

us love and sing and wonder Let us praise the

Savior's name He has touched the Lord's love

on earth He has quenched Mount Sinai's flame He has

washed us with his blood He has washed us

with his blood He has washed us with his

blood He has brought us nigh to God Let

us love God, pity

his grace

and God with his blood.

♪ ♪ He has washed us with his blood.

He has washed us with his blood He presents

our souls to God.

First

temptation threatens hearts

for the love of

salvation.

He

has brought us with him, us home to

God.

Grace and

justice, joy that he stores Our trust

is justice,

us with him has secured our way to

God.

Of

the saints, they

trusted him before us Now their praises

fill the sky.

♪ ♪ He has washed us with thy blood.

♪ ♪ Thou hast washed us with thy blood.

Mountains were

brought forth For days of spring and

summer filled the earth Neverland, we

dwell beneath the stars in ancient skies.

A thousand years are nothing in your sight Perfect love,

wisdom

of your plan Joy

and tragedy collide And loss

reminds us life is but a sigh Days

are held within your, your

perfect So

satisfying us in our numbered

days.

Establish every

effort

while

we

wait

in favor

This morning comes out of Isaiah 40, verses 12 to 17.

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and encompassed the heavens by the span

and calculated the dust of the earth by the measure and weighed the mountains in a balance and the

hills in a pair of scales?

Who has encompassed the spirit of Yahweh or as his counselor has informed

him, with whom did he take counsel and who gave him understanding

and who taught him in the path of justice and taught him knowledge and made him know the way of

understanding?

Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket and are counted as a speck of

dust on the scales.

Behold, he lifts up the coastlands like fine dust.

Even Lebanon is not enough to burn nor its beasts enough for a burnt offering.

All the nations are as nothing before him.

They are counted by him as non -existent and utterly formless.

To whom then will you liken God?

Or what likeness will you compare with him?

We're going to end our music this morning by singing Behold Our God.

God

has held the oceans in his hands Who

has numbered every grain of sand.

Kings and nations tremble at his voice

All creation rises to rejoin.

Behold, seated

on his throne Come let us adore

Has given counsel to the Lord

Of his words Who can teach the one who

knows all things.

All his wondrous deeds

Has felt the nails upon his hands

The guilt of sinful man

Return to the grace of the

Savior.

All

God's

people said, Amen.

Turn now please in your Bibles to the book of Hebrews, to chapter 12.

Hebrews chapter 12.

While you're doing that, I want to clarify something I said earlier in the announcement.

Sometimes words form in my head that sound one way and come out my mouth and then I reflect upon it and think, that

didn't quite come out like I intended it.

When I mentioned pretending as if you knew about the potluck in time to register and joining us, I wasn't in

any way trying to be snarky.

I was just simply saying that even if you're brand new here and you had no idea that other people registered for that and

we weren't necessarily planning on you being here, we sort of planned on you being here a little bit anyway, so please join us

afterwards and don't feel like you've got to leave.

That was better?

Well, there's a whole sermon ahead of us, so we'll see how this goes.

Hebrews chapter 12, we're going to begin reading at verse 22, verses 22 through 24, and then we'll pray together.

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and

to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in

heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,

and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks better than the blood of

Abel.

Let's pray together.

Our Father, it is our desire today that as we look at Your Word, that You would speak to our hearts and to our minds.

We pray that You would remove from us all of the distractions of this world and of

our day -to -day lives and occupations, that we may give this time to reflecting upon the great

blessings that You have poured out upon an undeserving and ill -deserving people.

And so we pray that our time spent here meditating upon these truths may encourage our hearts and strengthen us to

live holy and resolute lives in the midst of a hostile world, and that You would fix our attention on the glories that is to

come, and our time with You and what You have in store for us for all of eternity.

We ask this in Christ's name.

Amen.

If there is a lot of confusion among believers and unbelievers about the nature and character of our

eternal home, heaven, and there is, then certainly there is also a lot of confusion among

believers and unbelievers regarding the beings with whom we will spend eternity, namely

angels.

I find it fascinating that we live in a culture that, in some cases, utterly denies the realities of

any kind of spiritual realm beyond the one that we can see with our eyes and hear and feel,

and yet we also live in a culture that seems fascinated with beings outside of our realm,

alien visitations and life from other planets, and even in religious circles, a

fascination with angelic beings.

And so there is a lot of confusion, not just about the nature of heaven, but also the nature of those with whom we will share

heaven.

And last week, we moved the ball a little bit, as it were, in trying to clear up some of the confusion about our eternal

destiny, the heaven that is to come and where we will spend it, eternity.

And this week, we're going to try and clear up a little bit of confusion regarding angels.

In the passage before us that is our focus this morning, the top of this list of inhabitants in

heaven is angels.

You'll notice it in verse 22, and then verses 23 and 24 also have to do with all of the

other persons or things that belong to the heavenly city that is mentioned in verse 22.

Verse 22 describes heaven as Mount Zion, the city of the living God, a heavenly

Jerusalem, and then the rest of verse 22, the myriads of angels, and then verses 23 and 24

describe those beings which inhabit heaven.

Notice the list there, beginning in verse 22, the myriads of angels, to the general assembly and

church of the firstborn, God, the judge of all, the spirits of the righteous made

perfect, and Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant.

And today, we're going to look at angels.

We're going to talk about the nature of angels and what this passage tells us about our eventual

assembly there with the angels.

Now, you might wish that I had chosen to do more than just one of the next things in this list today,

but when you drove up, you saw the big smoker that's out on the lawn and you know that there's a potluck to come, so you are going to be

thankful that I only chose one of these instead of more than one of these.

So even if we get out a little bit early, it'll be a blessing because what rests ahead of us is a foretaste of

heaven.

I'm not saying that there's going to be meat in heaven, but I'm not denying that there's going to be meat in heaven either.

I have some verses I'm working on, and I think my next book is going to be about meat in heaven.

I suggested last week that one of the fruits, the 12 fruits from the tree of life, could taste like bacon.

And one of the kids came up and said, if heaven is going to be filled with all the things that I love, and I love meat, then explain to me how

it is that I'm going to enjoy heaven.

How can heaven not have what I love here?

Meat.

That's going to be the subject of my next book probably.

Let's look first now at the nature of angels and our future with them.

Verse 22, heaven is described in those three phrases, Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the

heavenly Jerusalem.

And then it seems quite natural for the author to take up the subject of the angelic host that are in heaven

now and are among us even now, and the angelic host with whom we will spend eternity.

It is an interesting phrase that he uses, an interesting way of describing what we have been brought to or what we come

to.

He says, we have come as if a past tense reality, we've already come to heaven.

Do you notice that?

We have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and yet you and I have not come to those things

yet, have we?

Because we're still here, so we haven't realized that, and yet the author describes this list of things to which we have

come as if we've already been brought there and we're already experiencing it.

And yet we have not already been brought there in a literal sense that we are experiencing it yet,

but he describes it as if we have and we are.

I think that is because our participation in these things, our

enjoyment of these things, our being grouped in with these things, is so certain and fixed in the

mind of God because of what Christ has done in securing these things through His death, burial, and resurrection on

our behalf that the author can describe us as having already been brought to these things.

You have been brought to Christ, and if you have been brought to Christ, you have been brought to everything that encompasses Him.

You have already been brought to your entire heavenly inheritance.

It's already yours.

It is already secured.

It is already certain.

So certain that Paul can speak of our glorification as if it is a past tense event in Romans

8.

Because in the mind of God, He has already done everything that is necessary to bring you to this.

So, while you have been brought to this, you're not yet experiencing that.

That is a reality.

And so there is a sense in which we have been brought to it, and there is a sense in which we will be brought to it.

That's why the author of Hebrews, in chapter 13, verse 14, look over there if you have a moment, chapter 13, verse 14, for

here we do not have a lasting city.

What's the lasting city?

The heavenly Jerusalem, the city of God.

But we are seeking the city which is to come.

You have been brought to this, but you're still seeking it.

So there is a both and, and a yes, we enjoy it, and we're part of it, and it's ours,

but we don't yet apprehend it.

We don't yet experience it.

So in many ways, we are just like Abraham.

We have been promised this.

The enjoyment of it is absolutely fixed and certain, and yet we're still living in tents here in this

world, waiting for that city, that heavenly dwelling that is to come.

And part of that possession involves angels.

And I will have to confess to you that when I think about heaven, and when I think about the realities of heaven, and going there

after this life, I don't often think about the angelic hosts that will inhabit that great place

with us.

I think of you.

I think of my family.

I think of my wife.

I think of my friends.

I think of people that have passed on.

I think of other people who are already there.

One great saint who, within the last couple of weeks, even passed and went to his eternal reward.

So I think about heaven.

I think of what he is experiencing there, and seeing there, and rejoicing in there.

But I really don't think of the reality of angels being part of that eternal picture, and

maybe just because I don't commune with them very often, if at all, here.

And so I don't think in terms of their place with us in heaven.

And yet it seems quite natural for the author to speak of angels since we associate angels with heaven.

We associate angels with heaven.

And angels are not going to go out of existence when the new heaven and the new earth is created.

Angels are going to have a place there with us, in that eternal dwelling.

And I think the description here tells us a little bit about what we can anticipate.

So we should consider the nature of angels.

And I would love to, at this point, take six or seven or eight or twelve weeks and do like a series on the nature of

angels, because I think it would be fascinating and helpful.

I'm not going to do that.

I want to give you a brief theological sketch of angelic beings, and then mostly focus on why

they're mentioned here and what the significance of their mention here is in terms of that eternal city and our eternal dwelling.

Angels are created beings.

Wayne Grudem, in his Systematic Theology, defines angels this way.

It's a very simple, straightforward definition.

I would only add one word to what I'm about to give you from Wayne Grudem.

But he says,.

Angels are created spiritual beings with moral judgment and high intelligence, but without

physical bodies.

Angels are created spiritual beings with moral judgment and high intelligence,

but without physical bodies.

I would only add one word to that definition, and it would be the word powerful.

They're powerful.

They're created beings.

They're spiritual beings.

They are moral beings.

They are intelligent beings.

And they are powerful beings, but they do not have physical bodies.

Angels are not omniscient.

Angels are not omnipresent.

Angels do not have the qualities that God has that makes Him God.

Jesus said that hell is created for the devil and his angels, so we know that there was a myriad of angels who were created

sometime before the earth and the present universe was created, and that a third of those angels fell

and rebelled, and Satan is their leader.

And so Jesus speaks of hell being a place that is created and reserved for the devil and his angels.

Matthew 25, verse 41.

You and I don't become angels when we die.

And that is one of the mystiques, the cultural sort of ideas that floats around in people's heads, that after you die,

you become like an angel second class, and then if you come back and you help somebody else out, then you become angel first

class, and every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings.

That might be what makes a life wonderful, but it's not at all true in terms of Scripture.

So that is part of the mystique that we have in our head or in our minds that culture teaches us, that

those who are angels now were once human beings.

They are a different created category entirely, without physical bodies, though they do manifest

themselves in Scripture in physical form from time to time, and I think that that has implications for the world to come, and I

hope I don't forget to mention that a little later on.

But they are created beings.

They are beings able to communicate.

This to me is fascinating.

They are intelligent, rational beings that if you could have one manifest

himself to you, you would be able to have an intelligent, rational conversation with

that spiritual beings.

You and I are not used to being able to have rational, intelligent conversations with any other created

things, but angels are rational and intelligent, highly intelligent.

So you could have a full conversation with an angel.

They are spiritual beings, so they do not have a permanent physical form.

They do appear physically in Scripture as men.

It is my speculation or suggestion, possibly, that angels in the new

heavens and the new earth will be given a permanent spiritual form.

That would seem to make sense with an ability to worship and to gather and to interact in a physical creation that they will

live in and dwell with us there.

We will be able, in the new heavens and the new earth, to see angelic beings.

Either we will be able to permanently see spiritual entities without physical form, or they will take permanently a

physical form, and we will be able to converse with them.

We will be able to worship with them and fellowship with them.

Angels are present in this current creation, I think, around us,

probably far more than we tend to think or realize.

There is that incident, you remember, 2 Kings 6, where Elisha, the servant, is in the city, and

the foreign armies surround the city, and the servant comes to Elisha and says, Master, what are we going to do now?

And Elisha says, No, you don't need to worry about it.

Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.

And the servant is like, wait, wait, wait.

It's like those with us.

It's you and me.

It's us.

We're in this little city.

We're surrounded by an invading army.

And then Elisha prays that the Lord would open the eyes of his servant, and the servant's eyes are open, and he sees the chariots and the

myriads of angels that were around him at that very moment.

So, if God were to grant us an ability now to see the dimension that does not

exist, we would be able to see the angelic beings that I think join us every Sunday for our

worship services.

And that are with us throughout the course of our lives.

Not as guardian angels like one person assigned to keep you alive for the rest of your life.

That's not what angelic beings do.

They have a work.

They're specifically given a certain work that they're engaged in concerning us, but we don't

have guardian angels in the sense that we think of guardian angels.

But we do have angelic beings that can go between heaven, the present heaven, and this creation, and

even interact in this creation in ways that we cannot comprehend.

And I think that they are around God's people constantly, including when we worship.

We should consider the number of angels.

There's nothing in Scripture that fixes the number of angels and says there's X number of millions of them, but the language that Scripture

uses to describe angelic beings indicates that it is a vast number that's far

more than you and I would want to have to count.

Jude chapter 14, it was also about these men that Enoch in the seventh generation from Adam prophesied, saying, Behold, the Lord

came with many thousands of His holy ones.

Revelation 5, 11.

And the number of them was myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands.

The word myriad was a word that would use to describe the number 10 ,000, which in the ancient world was the highest number

that they could ever conceive of in their mind, just 10 ,000.

That was the top number for them.

Obviously, they didn't have a government spending money like ours does, because we can contemplate billions and trillions

of dollars, and we just throw that around.

But back in the ancient times, it was 10 ,000 times 10 ,000.

You want to talk about an astronomical, mind -boggling amount of beings, you would describe them as myriads.

That's tens of thousands times tens of thousands.

Myriads upon myriads, thousands of myriads of angels.

Thousands of 10 ,000s of angels.

So the number suggests something that is immense to our imagination.

The language describes an innumerable or countless host.

We should also consider the variety of angels.

We know in Scripture that there are at least archangels, seraphim, and cherubim.

Now there are other names or words that are used to describe angels that suggest to me that there are other

species of angels or kinds of angels, if we could use that language.

Words like elohim and living creatures and princes and morning stars and watchers.

God is a creative God.

So when you think of angels, do you think of just like a cookie cutter approach to creating angels?

Where God just, they're all the same and we get to heaven, you're not going to be able to tell, you know, Joe from John.

They're going to be so close that you won't be able to tell the difference between them or between one type of angel or another type of

angel.

There are angels who are permanently assigned to hover around the throne of God and to just sing

day after day, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and who

is and who is to come.

That is their constant refrain.

That's one kind of angel.

So cherubim and seraphim and archangels.

And I would go even further.

I would venture to say that if you think that this world is filled with demonstrations

of God's creativity and His diversity among humankind, wait until you see

what God's diversity looks like among the angelic kind.

I wouldn't be surprised if every angel were different.

A different look.

A different design.

Look at God's creation just among dogs and cats.

The variety that exists in that one created kind.

And do you think that all the personality of angels is the same?

Do angels have personality?

I understand that we use the term personality to describe persons.

Persons have personality.

But your dog has a personality, doesn't it?

Your cat?

I've owned a number of dogs in my lifetime.

All of them have different personalities.

I understand that they're not persons, but they have a certain way of comporting themselves, certain characteristics that are unique.

Do you think that all of the angels talk the same, think the same, look the same, act the same?

Or do you think that there might be diversity even amongst the angelic hosts?

This is my speculation because I've never met an angel.

And my guess is that there are probably angels who are listening to this right now.

So if that's the case, I don't mean to slander you in any way.

But it is my speculation that amongst the angels, you're probably going to have all kinds of varieties of

personalities amongst those intelligent, communicative, rational, thinking beings.

You're probably going to have more cerebral angels who like to read up on Reformation history and they like the Puritans and

they liked hanging out.

That was kind of their little niche.

That was their thing.

Then you're going to have the funny angels with a great sense of humor always playing tricks on us and enjoying joking around about things

and talking about things.

You're going to have angels interested in animals and angels interested in botany and angels interested in human beings and periods of

history and cultures and things that we develop and a new heavens and a new earth with all that we have to explore.

They're going to find joy and delight in all of those things as well.

So they are intelligent and rational beings and their work is to serve God and His people, to

bring messages to God's servants.

We see this in Scripture.

To physically protect sometimes God's servants from danger.

Sometimes God protects His people just Himself sovereignly by what He does in His providence.

Other times God assigns angels to protect His people like in 2 Kings 6 that I mentioned earlier.

Some angels are assigned to constant and unceasing worship.

Angels appear in Scripture to watch over us, to observe the church and its leadership and our conduct

within the church.

They join us for our worship and they see us though we do not see them.

And I think there are two implications of this that I just want you to think about in this next week.

Two implications of this.

When you are alone and you sin and you think nobody sees it,

there may be hundreds of angels.

Watching you at that moment.

Rational, logical, thinking, communicative beings with whom you will spend

eternity worshiping, conversing, and fellowshipping.

Now that's a bit of a make you sit up straight and take notice consideration.

At the same time, that deed that you do all alone that is a good thing

to serve somebody else, to sacrifice, to put sin to death, to say no to temptation, to do the

right thing and you think that nobody notices.

I think there are hundreds of angels who observe that and they rejoice and these are people, sorry,

these are angelic beings with whom you will converse and fellowship and worship for all of eternity.

Just the reference to this reminds us that everything we do is on display

amongst the heavenly realm and we have fellow worshipping creatures and beings who will join us in heaven

for all of eternity who will have observed our entire lives and we will be able to have intelligent,

rational conversations.

With them.

About the things that God did.

Just keep that in mind.

Now, the significance of their mention here, I think that there are two connections to our context

which are very significant and I don't want you to miss these.

Two points of connection.

First, the mention of the coming paradise of God, the holy city, the heavenly city of Jerusalem,

Mount Zion, that future reality should remind us that what's being described in Revelation 21

and 22 is a paradise that God has prepared for those who are His.

We have come from a paradise and we are going back to a paradise.

The nature of these two paradises is slightly different but we have been exiled from a paradise and we are going

back to a paradise.

The very first mention of angels actually is in Genesis 3.

So,.

This is after the fall of man, so he drove man out and at the east of the garden of Eden he stationed the cherubim and the

flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.

So the very first mention of an angel in scripture is the mention that an angel was stationed at the entrance of the

garden to guard the way to the tree of life so that man, who had been because of his sin and rebellion exiled from

paradise kicked out of the presence of God where God walked with him in the cool of the day at one point and man had

unfettered and unhindered fellowship with God in the garden.

Because of his sin he has been exiled from that.

Paradise has been lost.

And the angel was stationed at the entrance of that paradise guarding the way to the tree of life so that no man could come back and

eat of that tree.

And that angel was a symbol, a signal, that we had been exiled, that we had lost everything.

And now that symbol, that angel was a symbol of terror and judgment and wrath and that if we approached

and tried to go back into that garden where God dwelt with man prior that he would be judged and he would be executed

for his sin.

So that angel suddenly became now an object or a symbol of terror and dread.

And then you see angels again at Mount Sinai.

So remember, we have talked about Mount Sinai verses 18 through verse 21.

Angels were present at Sinai as well.

So now it's interesting that he would mention angels being present in the New Jerusalem having just contrasted

this Mount Zion with Mount Sinai.

Angels were present at the giving of the law.

And we don't read this here in this passage, but other places in Scripture.

So for instance, in Acts 7 verse 53, you who received the law as ordained by angels and yet did

not keep it.

See, even there it's describing the law being given having been ordained through angels.

Other passages like Galatians 3 .19 are even more clear.

Why the law then?

It was added because of transgressions.

Having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator.

There was a mediator between God and man.

So that terror that we describe in verses 18 through 21, the fear and the terror at Mount Sinai with the judgment

and the condemnation and the law, there were angelic beings who were present for all of that.

Deuteronomy 33 verse 2, the Lord came from Sinai and dawned on them from Seir.

He shone forth from Mount Paran and He came from the midst of 10 ,000 holy ones.

At His right hand there was flashing lightning for them.

Psalm 68 verse 17, the chariots of God are myriads, thousands upon thousands.

The Lord is among them as at Sinai in holiness.

So there were angels present at the giving of the law.

Remember verse 18 and 19 describe the blazing fire, the darkness, the gloom, the whirlwind.

Verse 19 talks about the blast of the trumpet.

Who do you think was blowing the trumpets?

It wasn't Moses and Aaron.

It wasn't the people of Israel.

Those trumpets were being blown by angelic hosts.

So this just adds to the terror of that event at Sinai.

It's enough that God would be there and that He would thunder with His voice and give the law and that there would be fire

and smoke and gloom and darkness and everything that was associated with that, that the people would look upon those

visible physical phenomena of God's presence and be struck with terror in their hearts.

But then imagine 10 ,000 upon 10 ,000 of angels blowing trumpets and hovering around Mount

Sinai as well while the law is being given.

That would just add to the terror of that event.

And here's the good news and this is the connection to the context here.

Angelic hosts are no longer like that for us.

They're no longer like that for us.

In the new paradise, the angelic hosts will also guard the way to the tree of life because Revelation

21 verse 12 says that the New Jerusalem has a great high wall with twelve gates and at the twelve gates twelve angels

and names were written on them which are the name of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel.

So there will be angelic hosts at the gates in the New Jerusalem but they will not be there to keep you and I from the tree of life.

They will be there welcoming us into the New Jerusalem.

You see,.

Our approach to angels, our relationship with angels has changed because of what

Christ has done.

So now we are fellow citizens of the New Jerusalem.

They're with us there and welcoming us in and rather than cutting us off and guarding us from the tree of life and

making it so paradise is cut off from us, now they stand at the entrances of the twelve entrances of the New Jerusalem

and they will welcome us in.

That's yet another contrast with Sinai.

In the garden, angels guarded the entrance to keep us out and in the new paradise, angels will guard the entrance to welcome us in.

And they will be there as a reminder that that path which was once cut off from us, now because of what Christ has

done, the Lamb, who is at the center of the New Jerusalem, because of what He has done, you and I can walk freely now and

partake of the tree of life.

Then there's a phrase here in verse 23 that describes the gathering that we shall have.

It says, to the general assembly and the church of the firstborn.

The phrase general assembly does not describe the church of the firstborn.

The phrase general assembly is intended to describe the gathering of the angels.

That phrase, the N -A -S -B, the phrase general assembly, the N -A -S -B -B does not do it justice.

Not at all.

And I'll tell you why.

Because the idea of a general assembly, that doesn't sound fun at all,.

Does it?

That doesn't sound inviting or enjoyable.

Oh, I have come to the general assembly of people.

That sounds stuffy, cold, no fellowship there, just a

gathering or a collection of nameless and faithless peoples.

But that is not what is being described here.

The words describe the angels and not the church.

It is the angels in general assembly.

You say,.

Well, that doesn't sound much better.

Well, the words general assembly there actually describe a festival or a feast.

The E -S -V translates this verse, innumerable angels in festal gathering.

The N -I -V, thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly.

This is the word, though it is only used once in the New Testament and it's here.

It is the Greek word that was used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament to describe the feasts and the festivals

and the joyful gathering assemblies that God commanded His people to participate in in

Old Testament Israel.

They were to gather together and enjoy these festivals of celebrating the goodness of God.

And so in the Old Testament, this word was used to describe those prescribed festival gatherings,

joyful assemblies of the people.

It's used that way in Amos 5 verse 21 where God says, I hate and I reject your festivals, nor do I

delight in your solemn assemblies.

They would get together and they would be joyful, they would be filled with joy, there would be all kinds of celebration, but

because they were gathering in the wrong way, because they were gathering for the wrong purposes and doing the wrong things, God says, I reject and

I hate your festival gatherings.

But yet God had commanded them to do it, but when Israel, with their sin, came and approached God in that way, God

says, I reject them.

So it is not just a general assembly, it is a heavenly,

joyful, festive, festival, celebration gathering.

That's what we've been brought to.

Not just angels, like we're going to be in terror, but angels having a big party where God is

at the center of it.

It is an angelic festival, an angelic festival of worship where God's people get to gather

together with angelic beings who have a lot of practice worshiping God, because they've been doing it for thousands of

years, and we get to step into their presence.

We have been gathered together with those angelic beings as part of a festival

worship service, a festival gathering.

It's festivity.

It's joy and a celebration.

You and I will have a lot to celebrate.

God's justice over His enemies, which we sing about Sunday after Sunday.

His triumph of grace on His people.

Our freedom from sin, the banishment of death, the triumphs of Christ through His people and for His people.

A new creation that you and I will get to explore and develop and enjoy, and it will never be spoiled.

You see, what the author is describing here that you and I get to anticipate and look forward to with great expectation is

being brought into the presence of angelic hosts and having one eternal celebration.

One eternal celebration.

A celebration that never ends, that is inside of that city, the holy Jerusalem.

You and I get to come and we get to go.

We get to participate.

We get to bring others.

We get to visit it.

We get to participate in it.

We get to go in and out of that city and enjoy all of those blessings.

And this is a reminder that every celebration that you and I enjoy here in this world is a foretaste of one that

is to come.

Every party, every get -together, every gathering with saints, every celebration,

every experience of delight, every experience of satisfaction, every experience of joy, every experience of happiness

and fulfillment, that is merely a glimpse of what God has in store for those who are His.

And you get to enjoy all of that with angelic beings.

But here's the difference between then and now.

That celebration will never be spoiled by sin.

This is significant.

This, I think, is the most appealing thing about heaven for me is the absence of sin and sinfulness.

Because we will be able to participate in a celebration like that and we will never have to wonder, did I say something

wrong to that person?

You ever leave a celebration and you think, you know, halfway through that thing, so -and -so, their attitude towards me just

totally changed.

Did I say something wrong?

Did I say something offensive?

Did I stay too long?

Did I leave too early?

Did I monopolize the conversation again?

I mean, they started talking about my favorite sport and for 40 years, I just sat there and talked about that.

And we never went beyond that.

Did I bring up a bad memory?

Did I say something offensive?

Did I cut somebody else off?

You'll never have to have any celebration spoiled by sin.

You will be able to gather for worship and no service will ever be interrupted.

The pastor will not say something that is embarrassing or stupid.

The worship leader will never annoy you.

Nothing will ever spoil that.

There will be nothing to defile it.

Nothing negative that you and I associate with gathering together.

Did I eat too much?

Did I drink too much?

Did I laugh too much?

Did I talk too much?

Or did I not do those things enough?

Did I not say thank you when I showed up?

Did I not say thank you.

Before I left?

You don't have to worry.

About any of that.

You and I are being gathered together with angelic hosts for a festival celebration.

That's the New Jerusalem.

And every glimpse of that that we get here in this world, including the barbecue which is to come,

should remind you of the joys and the delights that we get to have for thousands upon thousands of years in the New Jerusalem and

in the new creation.

What a rich blessing that you and I have been given that the terror of Sinai has been

removed because of the death of Christ and that the expulsion from the paradise has been

reversed.

The terror is gone and the paradise lost has been secured and regained for us.

Friends, these things that we are describing in this passage, when I speak about heaven and the angelic hosts that are there and

you're gathering to them, if you are in Jesus Christ, these things are as certain to you.

They are more certain than anything else that you have ever experienced or anticipated in this life.

Absolutely and perfectly secured for you by the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

He died to take away your sin.

He died to pay the price that you deserve for your rebellion against him.

He died to restore to you the paradise that was lost in Adam as the head of our

race, as our new Adam, as our new representative.

He has given back to his people everything that was lost in the fall and then some.

We get not just that creation back, we get that creation resurrected and renewed and made new and

never to be spoiled by sin again.

That's what has been restored to us.

That is what we look forward to.

A heavenly city, a new Jerusalem, Mount Zion, and this time a mountain covered with angels, yes,

but no longer terrifying us, now welcoming us, fellowshipping with us, conversing with us,

celebrating with us, and telling back and forth, us with them and with each other, all of the glories of our God

because he has done these things.

That's what we get to expect.

Let's pray.

Our Father, we thank you for your great grace.

The fact that we can gather together and rejoice in our salvation, to rejoice together in the hope that we have because of

what Christ has done.

Father, these things are just harbingers of what is to come for us.

Every worship service, every celebration, every joy and delight is a token of the blessing that you have promised to us

because of Christ.

So it is our heart's desire that any who are here who do not know Christ, that they would see their need for him, understand their sin, and that

they would be granted repentance and faith to turn from their sin and believe savingly upon him for everlasting life.

We pray that nobody who is here who is hearing these words may miss this eternal kingdom and all that is being described here.

But be pleased, we pray, to gather in your people that Christ may have the full reward for all of his sufferings

and we pray that you would hasten that day when we get to stand before you and rejoice together and celebrate

everlastingly our great salvation and the creation that is to come.

We thank you in the name of Christ our Lord and all God's people said,.

Amen.

Will you please stand?

Tell me the story of Jesus

right on my heart.

Tell me the story.

Sing as they welcome.

Most proud.

May the God of hope fill you with joy and peace in believing so that you will abound in hope

by the power of the Holy Spirit.

You're dismissed.