Helping Angels

1. Read: Hebrews 1:14

2. About the Text:

1) “Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?”

2) Angels are spirits that serve those who will inherit salvation.

3) We do not know everything that they do in this world.

4) We know that they are present.

3. About the Topic:

1) Popularity of Subject

a. 2008 study Baylor University: 55% “Yes” to: “I was protected from harm by a guardian angel” (Biema).

b. Pew Research Center: “nearly seven-in-ten Americans (68%) believe that angels and demons are active in the world” (Pew 12).

2) What is the Bible’s teaching regarding the role of Angels?

a. Hebrew “mal’akh,” and Greek “angelos,”¬“messenger.”

b. An “angel” is a messenger.

a) Messenger of God (e.g. Genesis 19:1);

b) Messenger of Satan (e.g. Matthew 25:41, Revelation 12:9).

c. Sometimes the Angel is God Himself (e.g. Exodus 3:2, 14:19).

d. The word “angel” carries no inherent notion of “good.”

e. “Thorn in the flesh” as an “angelos satana,” or “angel of Satan” (2 Corinthians 12:7).

f. Created beings (Psalm 148:2, 5), spirits, ministering to God and man (Hebrews 1:14).

4. What kind of angels are we talking about?

1) We’ve talked about the Divine Angel—God Himself—who has worked in the Old Testament with the patriarchs and Israel.

2) Today we begin looking at angels who were created to benefit or help God or man in carrying out God’s will.

5. Ref. to S, T, P, O, and A.

1. Read Genesis 19:15-26.

2. These are the same angels that punished the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

3. They were sent to help Lot and his family escape.

1) They woke them up.

2) They led them by the hand.

3) They gave them instructions about what to do.

4) They gave them a safe refuge.

4. Even with all of this help, Lot’s wife looked back.

5. They did not help them in a way that overruled their free will.

6. Even with angelic help, we still have a choice to make.

7. “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the Lord” (Proverbs 1:28-29).

1. Read 1 Kings 19:1-8.

2. This was after Elijah’s execution of the prophets of Baal.

3. Elijah fled to the wilderness because Jezebel was looking to kill him.

4. Elijah prayed for death.

5. It was not God’s purpose for Elijah to die.

6. God sent an angel to give him food.

7. Twice, the angel commanded him to “Arise and eat” (1 Kings 19:5, 7).

8. This angel served to fulfill God’s purposes, not Elijah’s.

9. Angels not available to man simply to fulfill the whims of the moment.

10. “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us” (1 John 5:14).

1. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow down.

2. “If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.” (Daniel 3:17-18).

3. God sent what Nebuchadnezzar characterized as an angel.

4. “Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying, ‘Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, who sent His Angel and delivered His servants who trusted in Him, and they have frustrated the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they should not serve nor worship any god except their own God!’” (Daniel 3:28).

5. This angel protected these men from the fiery furnace.

6. “The fire had no power upon their bodies, nor was the hair of their head singed, neither were their hosen changed, nor had the smell of fire passed on them” (Daniel 3:27).

7. However, even if God had decided not to protect them, they still would not have bowed.

8. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had already made up their minds about serving God.

9. The angel wasn’t sent to convince them.

10. Paul said, “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8).

1. All the king’s men made a law: no one was to pray (Daniel 6:7).

2. Daniel knew that one ought to obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29).

3. He continued praying at his regularly appointed times.

4. His enemies saw him doing this and reported him to the king.

5. Daniel was cast into the den of lions but the king found Daniel alive.

6. Daniel said, “My God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths, so that they have not hurt me, because I was found innocent before Him; and also, O king, I have done no wrong before you.” (Daniel 6:22).

7. “So now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death” (Phil.1:20).

8. No angelic guarantee of safety, though God may so provide if consistent with His will.

1. We learn some great lessons from these angel stories in the Bible.

1) God expects us to choose to do right even when He sends angelic assistance.

2) God’s angels will carry out the will of God even if our desire is contrary to it.

3) God expects men to be persuaded by His word, not necessarily angelic help.

4) God doesn’t promise angelic safety to the faithful, though sometimes he does give it.

2. Invitation