Angels and Demons Pt 1

Charlie Kirk ( Turning Point ) and kids in church

Religious persecution is and always has been a constant ever since the fall of man.

And this is a tragedy on so many levels

But it’s up to the we as the church to make sure, that even in the midst of chaos and persecution that the Gospel goes forward.

Acts 4 Peter and John

What was there response? THEY PRAYED FOR BOLDNESS.

a-they didn’t change their strategy

b-they didn’t quit or complain

c- they didn’t ask God to cast judgement on them or declare their hate for them

d-they prayed for boldness to continue to speak (to continue the dialogue- like Charlie )

e-they stayed engaged but with love by healing them, showing compassion to them

WE DO NOT REDUCE OUR STANDARDS TO AVOID PERSECUTION

BUT WE RESPOND WITH LOVE AND GRACE WITH THE HELP OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

THIS IS THE EXAMPLE OF JESUS!!!!!

This is our 1st message of our Angels and Demons series.

And here’s a rundown of what we’ll be talking about over the next 6 weeks.

Today-Week 1 Foundation, Origin Story

Next week- Angels …..

a-their rolls and duties

Week 3- Demons…..

a- Demon possession ( when, where and how )

b-their limitations

Week 4- The churches roll…..

a-The red car syndrome ( its a cognitive bias that something you just learned seems to be everywhere ) you know you just bought a new car and now it seems like everyone has the same car

b- the focus of the church

Week 5-The real fight

a-who are we fighting

b-weapons of the fight

Week 6 Gifts for the call

a- what the church has access to

b-practicality

But to get to that point we have to start with the foundation… THE ORIGIN STORY and thats where we are today.

Now this is not going to be one of those get you fired up messages.

This is a teaching message.

But it’s important we have a general knowledge, the foundation.

What usually happens when culture, or Hollywood or government starts speaking about things that pertain to the Bible, there’s a good chance they’re not going to be exactly accurate.

So it’s important that we as the church are informed to speak truth and give understanding.

You wouldn’t open your medicine cabinet and just grab a random bottle of pills because your stomachs upset and gulp down a couple without knowing what it’s purpose was or how may to take or its side affects… I hope

It’s the same with Angels and Demons. Our culture today seems to have a lot to say on these subjects and its vital we as the church know the truth and can communicate it clearly. IF WE DON’T ……

We’re going to read 2 short scriptures

STAND IN HONOR OF HIS WORD

Hebrews 1:14 “14 Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?”

Psalm 103:20–21 “20 Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word! 21 Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers, who do his will!”

PRAY

The Start

We must be completely clear on this!

There is a supernatural realm around us that is active and impactful BUT the worship of God, the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus and the working out of the will of God on earth are the main goals….. whether it’s angels or humans…..

It’s when we make other things our focus that we begin to make other things idols in our life… even if we have the best intentions.

SO LET’S TALK ABOUT ANGELS

Here’s a quote…

“Everything Scripture says concerning angels is in connection with something else as the main theme. There are no pages or passages whose central purpose is to spell out a doctrine of angels.” Dr. David Jeremiah………….

As we’ll see there are no duties or assignments that are designated to angels. Their purpose is to minister to God and to do His will.

Who are Angels and where did they come from?

Angels are created beings. They are not infinite in the way God is.

There was a start date

Angels were created before the earth because it seems they were part of creation.

Job 38:1–7 “1 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: 2 “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? 3 Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. 4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. 5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? 6 On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, 7 when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”

God is having a conversation with Job… not really a conversation……He’s giving Job the what for........ Hey you weren’t there at the beginning.

The words “ Morning Stars “ in v-7 refers to angels who celebrated of the wonder of creation. They were giving Him praise!

We don’t know exactly when angels were created but we do know they were there at creation…

We know angels show up early in the old testament

Genesis 3:24 “24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.”

Because of their sin, Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden.

The cherubim was a guardian of the entrance into the garden of eden.

So we see angels being obedient to God ( serving God ) to make sure Eden was not found…….. Lets go to ……

Ezekiel 28:13–14 “13 You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle; and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created they were prepared. 14 You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked.”

Here we read of Lucifers presence in the Garden of Eden before the fall….. and before he tempted Eve.We get a description of his beauty and the responsibility God had entrusted to him.

We also see angels showing up early in the New Testament.

Matthew 1:20 “20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”

We remember the story of Mary and Joeseph. She was betrothed to Joeseph and when he found out she was with child his first thought was to divorce her quietly. It was an angel that appeared to him reassuring him the child in her was from the Holy Spirit.

It is believed that angels were created before the world was created………….BUT

they weren’t always there…ONLY GOD HAS ALWAYS BEEN.

John 1:1–3 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

So we see from the very beginning even before creation it was God and Him only. Angels were there at creation, we see them early in the Old Testament and in the New Testament playing active roles serving God.

Angels are to minister to God and to do His Will

OK now we have to talk about demons

Satan and Demons

Flip Kids story …….. if were honest there are things we as adults don’t understand that makes us anxious as well. Lord Business

Satan is a fallen angel

Isaiah 14:12–15 “12 “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! 13 You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ 15 But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit.”

We read earlier lucifer was an angel, a beautiful angel before his fall… read v-12

Ezekiel 28:16–18 “16 In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence in your midst, and you sinned; so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God, and I destroyed you, O guardian cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. 17 Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I exposed you before kings, to feast their eyes on you. 18 By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your trade you profaned your sanctuaries; so I brought fire out from your midst; it consumed you, and I turned you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all who saw you.”

So here we see God casting judgement on him because of his pride, his admiration of his own beauty.

Elaborate on trade. This is a side note here but I want you to hear how God refers to the magnitude of our sin. When we sin, we are trading our righteousness for sin.

Lucifer’s rebellion happened somewhere between Genesis 1:31 “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”

where God pronounces that what he created was very good and here in

Genesis 3:1 “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”” this is where he appears in the garden of Eden and we know how that turned out

We also know that satans fall is not all that happened… he took a 1/3 of the angels with him

Revelation 12:3–4 “3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. 4 His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it.”

In v-4 it says a “third of the stars of heaven” refers to the fallen angels that he took with him.

Revelation 12:7–9 “7 Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, 8 but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”

So this is how we get satan and demons here on earth… their origin story.

What Angels Do and Don’t Do

Angels worship God continually

Revelation 5:11–12 “11 Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”” …greek origin 10,000

Isaiah 6:1–3 “1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!””

We see in Johns account in Revelation and Isaiahs prophecy the angels worshipping God.

Angels Do the will of God

Psalm 103:20–21 “20 Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word! 21 Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers, who do his will!”

Scripture tells us Jesus in the garden. Elijah fled Jezebel, laid under a bush and went to sleep. The angel came and woke him and had prepared a meal… 2 times Daniel in the lions den. God sent a angel to shut the mouths of the lions.

Angels provide strength and protection

Acts 27:22–25 “22 Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. 23 For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, 24 and he said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.’ 25 So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told.”

Paul was on his journey to Rome as a prisoner. They encountered storms for days. They had gone without food and had thrown anything that wasn’t needed overboard. The men of the ship were sure they were all going to die…. BUT

Angels are not genies in a bottle…. we shouldn’t be praying to angels to fulfill our wishes. They’re not here for us…unless its directed by God and Him alone.

Angels do not automatically protect us from everything…..it’s the will of God that is worked out in our life and only He knows what that is.

Angels are not to be worshiped… we shouldn’t be praying to them or worshipping them. Remember we ALL were created to worship Him!

Angels do not deviate from God’s will…. so there’s no rogue angel out there saying “ yeah I’m going to do this my way” We already saw how that worked out.

What Demons Do and Don’t Do

Satan and his demons are singularly focused on destroying God’s people and his plan.

1 Peter 5:8–9 “8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.”

Seeking someone….its doesn’t say choosing everyone to devour.

The roaring lion is a perfect analogy. …A lion doesn’t usually go after the strongest one … he goes after the infant or weaker prey……RESIST him!

BAND COME UP

Satan and his demons tempt us…..WE ARE NOT TEMPTED BY GOD!!!! He will allow us to walk thru things to grow our faith but not by tempting us.

Matthew 4:1–3 “1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.””

1 Chronicles 21:1 “1 Then Satan stood against Israel and incited David to number Israel.” …..We’re not sure why the census displease God… some commentaries say it was Davids pride to know his military strength or maybe the fact of him conducting the census in the wrong manner.

David was tempted by the devil to do a census… not by God, and he did it and it didn’t turn out well.

This is why when we “feel “ like we heard from God… we make sure we test everything thru scripture. If it doesn’t line up with Gods Word… it wasn’t God that was talking to you! This so important!

Satan and his demons masquerade as good….they impersonate!

2 Corinthians 11:14–15 “14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15 So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.”

This goes back to what I just said. What we have to do as a church…Paul is saying if “ anyone “ comes teaching anything else ( they might be nice people, they may be friendly. They may even feel like they’re for you. But if they’re teaching anything other than the Gospel then its not good. **** Use 2 Peter

So what are satan and demons capable of…

Satan and demons are not the equal but opposite of God.

They are not omnipresent, everywhere at the same time

They are not all omniscient, all knowing

They are not omnipotent, all powerful

Remember……..Satan and his demons are ultimately defeated! We know how it turns out, the end of the story.

STAND TO YOUR FEET.

WE DON’T WORSHIP ANGELS AND WE’RE NOT AFRAID OF DEMONS! AMEN

God has given us the victory… and he uses angels to help His plan come forward, to strengthen us, to direct us at times…. and we should be thankful for that.

There’s movement in a realm… that we can’t see, that benefits us.

On the flip side…. theres no part of the devil or demonic activity that we should be running around afraid of of chasing after. REMEMBER we read earlier.

1 Peter 5:8–9 “8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him

Resist the devil and he will flee…. take every thought captive.

As believers we’re not subject to satan or his demons……… we’re filled with and empowered through His Spirit in us! The same power that raised Jesus from the grave!

ANGELS OR SATAN OR DEMONS SHOULD NEVER BE OUR FOCUS

It’s our worship and adoration God, the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus and allowing the Holy Spirit to work our Gods will out in our lives……. THATS OUR FOCUS