The Greatest Angel in the Bible
Notes
Transcript
INTRODUCTION
I want to talk to you tonight about the greatest angel in all the Bible. I think some of you already know who that is, but maybe after this lesson, you may rethink the answer you would give to that question.
(ILL) have you ever had one of those experiences…I didn’t realize who I was talking to…Applebees many years ago…I was eating lunch by myself watching a football game on the TV…an older guy walked up to me…how is the game going…I shrugged him off, its ok…he left…someone said - did you know that was Bud Adams…owner of Titans…I could have impressed him with my football knowledge which isn’t much and maybe I could have gotten a job with the Titans…I didn't realize who I was talking to. Now I guarantee you, if I had realized who I was talking to, I would have given him a different answer. Now the fact that I did not know what was going on the game is irrelevant. I would have made something up and impressed him with my superior knowledge of the game of football so that he might offer me a job and my career might gone on a totally new path. Now you know that I don't really know a whole lot about football, but actually these days, the less you know about football, the higher up in the Titan organization, you actually go
But you see, I didn't know who I was talking to.
a lot of the characters in the Bible had such encounters, especially those who had conversations with the greatest angel of all, An angel referred to many times in the Old Testament by the phrase, the angel of the Lord.
Now don't be confused because sometimes in the Bible, you read an angel from the Lord, but that's not what I'm talking about tonight.
I'm talking about a specific angel referred to many times in the Old Testament with the phrase, the angel of the Lord.
Sometimes also called my presence or captain of the host of the Lord…the greatest angel of all.
6 CHARACTERS WHO MET THE ANGEL OF THE LORD
#1 HAGAR
The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur.
The first time the angel of the Lord shows up in the Bible is in Genesis 16, the story of Hagar.
Abraham has taken Sarah's handmaiden at her request, slept with her. She has born a son.
Sarah has become jealous, mistreated Hagar. Hagar has run out into the desert and is in desperate shape.
Hagar refers to this particular angel as God.
#2 ABRAHAM
GEN. 18 two chapters later. Abraham and Sarai are in their tent. They're still childless. And the Bible says that three men appeared at the tent and Abraham showed them hospitality.
And these men, especially one in particular, predicted the birth of a child.
And later, Abraham had a conversation with this man about the future of Sodom and Gomorrah.
The other two men go on down to Sodom and Gomorrah, and when you get to chapter 19, it's very very clear those two men are actually angels.
So we must assume that third person was also, although it's called the Lord, he looked just like the other two men.
Was this the angel of the Lord?I can't be for sure, but I can know for sure that Abraham did have an encounter with the angel of the Lord in chapter 22. Now that's the famous story of Abraham offering Isaac at the Lord's command. Let's start reading in verse 11. He's raised up the knife. He's about to slay Isaac.
But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”
Now notice that the angel of the Lord swore by himself. He promised to personally bless Abraham, and he repeated the covenant prediction of promise that God had made to Abraham back in chapter 12. Isn't that interesting?
#3 JACOB
Jacob, Abraham's grandson in GEN 31. He has been off in a distant land with his father-in-law, Laban, and there's tension growing between the house of Laban and the house of Jacob.
And so Jacob gets his two wives, Leah and Rachel, the daughters of Laban, and he says this to them,
The angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob.’ I answered, ‘Here I am.’ And he said, ‘Look up and see that all the male goats mating with the flock are streaked, speckled or spotted, for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you. I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and where you made a vow to me. Now leave this land at once and go back to your native land.’ ”
Then in the next chapter, you have a story of a Jacob going back to that land and the night before he was to meet with Esau, he had much trepidation.
And he goes down by a brook and it says he meets a man there and he wrestles all night with that man.
But then it also says he wrestled with God. Now what's going on there?
Well, let Jacob himself explain it in Genesis 48. When he's a very old man, Joseph brings his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim to him for a blessing.
Then he blessed Joseph and said,
“May the God before whom my fathers
Abraham and Isaac walked faithfully,
the God who has been my shepherd
all my life to this day,
the Angel who has delivered me from all harm
—may he bless these boys.
May they be called by my name
and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac,
and may they increase greatly
on the earth.”
Notice, Jacob uses two metaphors for God. He calls God a shepherd and he calls him an angel.
In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel;
as a man he struggled with God.
He struggled with the angel and overcame him;
he wept and begged for his favor.
He found him at Bethel
and talked with him there—
Now, is the biblical witness ascribing deity to an angel?
Because one of the earliest things we learned and said in this study is that angels are creatures.
They're not to be worshiped. They are made by God, created by God. They worship God. They are not God.
And yet we've seen at least three passages now that seem to ascribe deity to the angel of the Lord.
#4 MOSES
Moses and the burning bush passage,
There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”
When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
And Moses said, “Here I am.”
“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
Now notice, the angel of the Lord is not claiming to speak for God. He is claiming to speak as God.
#5 GIDEON
When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”
“Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”
Seems pretty clear there that in one verse, it's called the angel of the Lord and in another verse, it's called the Lord himself. Now, are there four members of the Trinity?
Is there God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and God the angel?
#6 MANOAH AND HIS WIFE
Then Manoah took a young goat, together with the grain offering, and sacrificed it on a rock to the Lord. And the Lord did an amazing thing while Manoah and his wife watched: As the flame blazed up from the altar toward heaven, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame. Seeing this, Manoah and his wife fell with their faces to the ground. When the angel of the Lord did not show himself again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realized that it was the angel of the Lord.
“We are doomed to die!” he said to his wife. “We have seen God!”
Samson’s parents - Manoah and his wife
And you remember his parents were Manoah and Manoah's wife and the angel of the Lord first appears to the wife and she says, I think he was an angel, but he looked like a man.
The husband says, Next time he shows up, come get me. He showed up. She came and got him.
Now, I'll go ahead and tell you now so you can save your time from texting me…one should not be dogmatic about such mysteries.
But I have personally come to a firm conclusion about these rather confusing texts, and here it is.
My conclusion is…
THE ANGEL OF THE LORD IS THE PRE-INCARNATE CHRIST
Now this is not the explicit declaration of scripture. I think it's an implicit deduction.
I do not believe that the angel of the Lord could be a creature angel for two reasons.
THE ANGEL OF THE LORD IS NOT A NORMAL CREATED ANGEL
#1 THIS ANGEL IS DEITY
#2 THE ANGEL ACCEPTS WORSHIP
And no creature angel that is holy would ever do such a thing.
Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind.
At this I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers and sisters who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For it is the Spirit of prophecy who bears testimony to Jesus.”
No holy creature angel would ever accept the worship of a man, but the angel of the Lord does.
I believe the angel of the Lord is in fact a member of the Trinity.
You say, why Christ though?
WHY IS THE ANGEL OF THE LORD A MANIFESTATION OF CHRIST?
#1 - SOMETIMES CALLED GOD BUT NEVER YAHWEH
Then the angel of the Lord said, “Lord Almighty, how long will you withhold mercy from Jerusalem and from the towns of Judah, which you have been angry with these seventy years?” So the Lord spoke kind and comforting words to the angel who talked with me.
See, I happen to believe that there are many indications in the Old Testament of the Godhead, of the trinity.
The Lord says to my lord:
“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet.”
Remember how Jesus used that verse against his critics when he would say he was the Christ and he would say, how come David could say, if the Messiah is supposed to be a son, how come he called him lord? I
you have indications in the Old Testament of of the the community of God. God the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.
#2 - CHRIST IS THE ONLY VISIBLE MEMBER OF THE TRINITY
I believe Christ is the only visible member of the Trinity.
I don't believe this is Yahweh in angel form because the scripture says no one has ever seen God.In fact, the Bible says you see God, you die.
I don't believe it's the Holy Spirit. Now I know of a time when the Holy Spirit appeared as a dove, and I know of a time when he appeared as fire in ACTS 2, but I can't think of a single time in the Bible the Holy Spirit ever appears in the form of a man or in the form of an angel.
#3 - AFTER THE BIRTH OF CHRIST THE ANGEL OF THE LORD NEVER APPEARS AGAIN
I believe the one that we call the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords was once also before Bethlehem, the angel of angels. He was the greatest angel of all.
And that the Lord Jesus, many times, would appear to men to bring them revelation as the angel of the Lord.
Now that's my conclusion. Now let me say, well, that's that's interesting. I hadn't thought about that before, but what does it matter? Let me tell you three things real quick this this reveals about God.
WHY DOES THIS MATTER? WHAT DOES THIS REVEAL ABOUT GOD?
#1 OUR GOD INITIATES
If you go back and read all those stories about the angel of the Lord, those appearances were not sought, they were not requested, but they were sovereignly ordained.
In all of God's dealings with man, God makes the first move.
God is always moving toward us before we ever think to move toward Him.
In all their distress he too was distressed,
and the angel of his presence saved them.
In his love and mercy he redeemed them;
he lifted them up and carried them
all the days of old.
You know why we love God? The Bible says it real clear. We love God because He loved us first.
He's always been the initiator in this relationship between heaven and earth.
#2 OUR GOD COMMUNICATES
God refuses to keep His distance from His creation.
It's His nature to reveal Himself, to make himself known. And here's the thing about God.
God has such an incredible passion to be known by us who are creatures that he humbles himself so that he can speak to us at a level that we can understand.
He does it through his scripture. And I don't say that to denigrate the scripture. The scripture is holy and awesome and wonderful, but it's put into the words of men. It's God trying to communicate the divine mind into the words of men so men can grasp it.
By the way, I don't think when we get to heaven, we're gonna need the language of the creature anymore.
I think we're gonna be able to commune with the mind of God in a much more superior way than we can grasp right now.
And of course, He did it ultimately at Bethlehem. God condescended and he took on the form of a man. Why?
(ILL) The best explanation of the incarnation I ever heard was from a baseball manager, Joe Torre, famous manager of the Yankees. He was asked one time, you know, why don't you manage the team from the press box? If you could sit up there in the press box, you could see the whole field and see everything going on. Why don't you manage the team from the press box? And Joe Torre said, upstairs you cannot look in their eyes.
See, our God has such a passionate desire to get through to us.
He's always finding a way to look us in the eye.
#3 OUR GOD INCARNATES
What we're considering tonight separates Christianity from all other religions.
There are places in the world tonight where if I stood up and taught that in times past, the holy God condescended to take the form of an angel or the form of a man so that he could reveal himself to us, I'd be arrested.
There are countries in the world tonight where if I taught that God ever spoke to us in a form where we didn't realize who we were talking to, I'd be called a blasphemer and could be stoned to death.
This is one of the most radical, in fact, perhaps the most startling claim of Christianity.
We're the only religion in the world that says God wants so much to tell us He loves us. He will come into a form beneath himself to get the point across.
I believe the second person of the Godhead appeared in the Old Testament as an angel to bring revelation to men, and I believe the second person of the Godhead appeared in the New Testament as a man to bring redemption to men.
why didn't Jesus just come as the angel of the Lord in the New Testament? I'll tell you why. He couldn't purchase our salvation as an angel. He had to be made a little lower than the angels to redeem us.
Not to give us revelation, but to redeem us, He couldn't come in the form of an angel.
HEBREWS 2:9, 14-18
But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
I want to argue the word became flesh is the most startling claim in history. Maybe even more startling than He is risen.
You know, there's a lot of things we believe about Jesus that seem bizarre. He walked on water. He healed the sick. He left the tomb. But the real question was that carpenter from Nazareth actually God in the flesh.
Because if He's God, He can walk on the water that He made. He can heal the body He created. And if He's God, the eternal one, He can certainly walk out of a tomb. The question is, and it's why we ask every single person before they're baptized. The question is, was Jesus the Son of God?
(ILL) As usual, Max Lucado puts it well. The omnipotent in one instant made himself breakable. He who had been spirit became pierceable. He who was larger than the universe became an embryo, and he who sustains the world with a word chose to be dependent upon the nourishment of a young girl. God as a fetus. Holiness sleeping in a womb. The creator of life being created. God was given eyebrows, elbows, two kidneys, and a spleen. He stretched against the walls and floated in the amniotic fluids of his mother. God had come near. He came not as a flash of light or as an unapproachable conqueror, but as one whose first cries were heard by a peasant girl and a sleepy carpenter. The hands that first held him were unmanicured, calloused, and dirty. No silk, no ivory, no height, no party, no hoopla. Were it not for the shepherds, there would have been no reception. And were it not for a group of stargazers, there would have been no gifts. Angels watched as Mary changed God's diaper. The universe watched with wonder as the Almighty learned to walk. Children played in the street with Him and had the synagogue leader in Nazareth known who was listening to his sermons. Jesus may have had pimples. He may have been tone deaf. Perhaps a girl down the street had a crush on him or vice versa. It could be that His knees were bony. One thing's for sure. He was, while completely divine, completely human.
