Do you believe in angels? I believe in angels. We have a funny society that believes in ETs and UFOs and aliens, but boy, when it comes to angels, we don't believe any of that stuff. Well, I believe in angels and I believe that angels were there. I believe that when the plan was hatched to bring Christ to this earth, the angels wondered, what is going on and how is this going to involve us? And we're gonna see that today. God help us to believe what this book teaches because this book is a beehive of angelic activity. And more than you realize, you find angels all over this book. The Bible says that the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation. Welcome to Pulpit Power featuring Pastor Tony Skeving, Senior Pastor of Fargo Baptist Church in Fargo, North Dakota. Today's message was previously preached before a church audience. And now, here's Pastor Skeving. Let's take our Bibles please at this time and turn to the book of 1st Timothy and the third chapter 1st Timothy chapter 3. You know that it was I think 43 years ago this month that I preached my very first sermon and in all those decades I could probably count on one hand with fingers left over the subject that I'm going to be covering here today. We're going to be talking about angels. It's Christmas time, and what would Christmas be without angels? And I think many of us have seen the old black and white from the mid-40s called It's a Wonderful Life, and the theme of that movie involves an angel, remember, by the name of Clarence, and he's on assignment trying to earn his wings, and if he can get George Bailey to see that life isn't so bad and it's worth living and so on, he'll get his wings. And of course, people watch that by the millions going, okay, that's angelology, as it were, but It's not, folks. Great movie, but it doesn't work that way. And it's not biblical. You don't become an angel when you die and go to heaven, try and earn your wings. By the way, angels aren't women. For over 20 years, all the pictures I saw, angels were women. And ladies, no slam on you, but they're not women. Now, there was that fellow who said his wife might have been an angel because she was always up in the air harping about something. But no, that's not how it works, folks. And by the way, angels are not chubby little babies or cherubim kind of things flying around with harps, as it were. We're going to really find out what angels are all about today. And I think you're going to learn a lot in the process as I take you back to probably about 60 A.D. and we find the Apostle Paul, who's also a prophet, and he's writing here, 1 Timothy, and he has this to say, and it's a verse here that's just chucked full of powerful truth, but I want to pull one thing out of it, it's verse 16, 1 Timothy chapter 3, verse number 16 says, and without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up into glory. We're gonna be talking about who that God is in just a moment and how he was seen of angels as I talk about the fact angels had a ringside seat. Many have been to boxing matches, wrestling matches, you understand that expression, what it means to have a ringside seat, and there were the angels, they had a ringside seat to all of it. Well, take a look at that. But let's pray first. Father, we thank you now, dear Lord, for the opportunity to be in your house at this wonderful time of the year, on this very special occasion, assembled here with friends and family. And Father, we just thank you now for this book that we can open and learn from. And as we look at a plethora of scripture here today, help us to learn some truths surrounding that great advent, that great nativity, when angels witnessed something amazing. and help us to learn truth in the process and have spiritual needs met. We ask all this now in Jesus' name, amen. Well, Pastor Glenn Gunderson is the pastor or was the pastor for many years of the First Baptist Church in Pomona, California. They had a missionary out of that church. I think his name was Dick Ennis. And Dick Ennis was on the mission field in a third world country. He was way out in the bush and in the jungle. He is ministering to the people there and oftentimes he would make a trip on his bicycle into the village. It took him two days of driving a bicycle. He'd camp out overnight and go in there and he'd get some medical supplies. And so one time he was making that trip in and he stopped as he always did overnight to rest and continue on the next day. And he got into town the next day and he met a guy. He looked to be kind of a hoodlum or a gangster. And he said, you're that missionary, aren't you? And he said, I'm a missionary. And he said, you know, last night we saw you camped outside of town here some miles. And he said, me and my three buddies, we were going to rob you and kill you. He said, but who were those 26 armed soldiers sleeping around you there? He said, there are no armed soldiers sleeping around me last night. Oh, yes, there were. He said, I counted them. My friends counted them. There are 26 strong armed soldiers camped around you, and we decided not to rob and kill you. And so Dick Innes thought about that. He ended up on furlough back stateside that fall. He was at his home church. He was telling that story. And there was a deacon who raised his hand. He said, when was that, brother? And he gave him the Saturday that it was. And he said, wait a minute, I remember now. Of course, they're ahead on time in that part of the world. He said, it was a Saturday night there. It was a Saturday morning here. And I was just about to go out golfing when all of a sudden my heart was gripped with this great burden to pray for you. And so strong was that burden that I contacted men and asked them to contact men of the church and let's all pray for Brother Ennis. And they did. And so the missionary said, I'd be curious how many of you men ended up praying for me, please stand up. And 26 men stood up. You say, Pastor, do you believe in angels? I believe in angels. I believe they were angels. And as we talk about the Christmas story, folks, I don't think the Christmas story would be complete without bringing the angels into the picture here. Now, I don't want you to turn there. We'll be staying here in 1 Timothy 3, but I want you to just take in the Christmas story as told in Luke chapter 2, and I'm just gonna read to you a half a dozen verses. In verse 8, The Bible says, and they were in the same country, shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night and low. The angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord, and this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward men. Now, we find here the angels present at the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we know him as Jesus Christ, but folks, in eternity past, he was known as the Word, the Word. You say, is there a connection there to the Bible? I believe there is. Jesus Christ is the living Word. This book is the written Word. Jesus Christ is the Word personified, so in eternity past, he was known as the Word. And back yonder at some point, he created everything. Jesus Christ is the creator of absolutely everything, including the angels. But 2,000 years ago, the plan of the Trinity was such that man needed redemption, and Christ would come to this earth in a human body and be born in that stable in Bethlehem. So the angels saw him there for the first time. Their creator is small, and their creator is human, and their creator is frail, and he's fragile, and he's vulnerable, and he's mortal, and we find here the angels watching that. Do you believe in angels? I believe in angels. We have a funny society that believes in ETs and UFOs and aliens, but boy, when it comes to angels, we don't believe any of that stuff. Well, I believe in angels, and I believe that angels were there. I believe that when the plan was hatched to bring Christ to this earth, the angels wondered, what is going on, and how is this going to involve us? And we're gonna see that today. You're gonna learn a lot about angels today. Do you believe in angels? I believe in angels. God help us to believe what this book teaches because this book is a beehive of angelic activity. And more than you realize, you find angels all over this book. Now back in our text here in 1 Timothy chapter 3, Paul says in verse 16, and without controversy, that means without question, Great is the mystery of godliness, and it is. The realm of God is far beyond our comprehension. Great is the mystery of godliness. And then it says, capital G, God was manifest in the flesh. If you looked in a Greek concordance, you'd find the word there for God is theos. It's rendered God. Now, who is this talking about? Who's this God? Well, let's look at the resume, the description. It says, God, was manifest in the flesh. There we have a great clue, don't we? This has got to be the Lord Jesus Christ because in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead, what bodily God was manifest in the flesh. It goes on, he was justified in the spirit. By the way, we have the Trinity right in this verse here. Then it says here, he was seen of angels, seen angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and then received up into glory. Now as we look at the nativity and the birth of the Word, the eternal Word, Jesus Christ, we cannot overlook the connection between Christ and those angels that he created and what was going on for millenniums before the birth of Jesus Christ. Have you ever read Isaiah 6? I love that chapter. It talks about Isaiah saying, I saw God, Jehovah God, high and lifted up and mighty and the angels praising Him. Who was God that they were praising? Well, if Isaiah saw Him, it could only be one person, Jesus Christ. God the Father is a spirit. You don't see Him. If you're going to see God, it's got to be Jesus Christ. So who are those angels praising around that throne, sitting on that throne? It was the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we find out the angels weren't just connected with Christ here in Bethlehem. For millenniums before Bethlehem, they had already been adoring him and worshiping him in heaven. In fact, we find Jesus say this the night before He goes to the cross. He says, And now, O Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was. What glory? The same glory that Isaiah saw in Isaiah chapter 6. Jesus Christ being worshiped and glorified. As we talk about these angels having this ringside seat, we want to talk about, first of all, the galactic origin of the angels. Secondly, the God-given occupation of angels. And finally, we see the glorious observation of the angels. First of all, let's talk about their galactic origin. You know, as we talk about angels, there are some facts we need to understand about them. And the first fact, I think, is this. They are created beings. They're not eternal. They were not preexistent. They had a time when they were created by who? The one who created everything, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so angels were created by Christ. But the question is, when were they created? And that's a good question. Was it after man? Was it before man? And I think we have a clue to this in the book of Job. In the book of Job, we find Job questioning God, and, have you ever done that? Why'd God do this? Why'd God allow that? And so, bad stuff had happened to Job, he's questioning God, and God shows up. and he's gonna turn the tables. He's gonna question Job. And so he's using all of these thoughts about creation. Were you there when I did this? No. Were you there when I did that? No. Notice what he says here. In Job 38.4, he says, where was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare if thou hast understanding. When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy. You say, what's that talking about? Well, morning stars and sons of God are often a reference to angelic beings in the Bible and especially in this kind of a context. So it's inferring here that as God was creating, he was making the waters and the angels were going, ooh, and he's making the trees and they're going, oh, and they're oohing and aahing as he's doing it and they're shouting for joy. And it tells us here that the angels evidently had been created before the six-day creation. But Jesus Christ was the creator of it all. In Colossians 1.16 it says, for by Him were all things created, notice this, that are in heaven. Well, what's in heaven? The angels. And that are in the earth, visible and invisible. We find instances of angels invisible and visible in the Bible. And all things were created by Him. and for him. So angels were, I guess, not always preexistent in eternity past, but they had a beginning and they are different from men. They do live forever like we live forever, but men don't become angels like Clarence when they go to heaven, all right? And I've heard of funerals and I've heard of people saying, well, you know, what a great guy that was who died and God must've needed another angel in heaven and so on. And people hear that and they believe that, but it's not true. there's a difference between people and angels. Now secondly we find that angels saw the fall of Lucifer and in fact it was Lucifer who took a portion of heaven's angels with him, he was an anointed angel at that time and he took some of heaven's angels with him when he fell. And in Revelation 12 it makes reference I believe to this where John sees this great red dragon and his tail drew a third part of notice the stars of heaven, another reference to those angels, and it casts them to the earth. And this is where we deduce I guess that probably about one-third of heaven's angels went with Lucifer when he fell. And so angels witnessed that, the good angels did. Angels also witnessed the fall of mankind. God put Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden and He said, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat thereof, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Well, they took and they ate of that tree, and then God said, there's also the tree of life in that garden. If they eat of that, they're going to live forever, and that would be terrible in their sinful state. So in Genesis 3.24, it says, he drove out the man and he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden cherubim, angels, and a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life. That is to keep Adam and Eve away from that tree. And we find angels also involved in this. Next, I want to show you that angels are very powerful. They're not little pudgy baby cherubims. They are mighty, powerful angels. Men, as it were, a special angelic power. And they have this power. They have power to, I guess, take away the voice of Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, for nine months. They have power to kill 185,000 Assyrian soldiers outside of the city wall of Jerusalem. And so get from your mind those pictures of angels being these blonde women and chubby babies and all that kind of stuff. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, so often in the Bible, when an angel shows up, the first words out of his mouth are, fear not. Why would they say that? Because they're intimidating, they're powerful, and you fear them. Now, on that note, the next thing about angels we should know is that they cannot receive worship. They are not to be worshipped. In fact, Colossians 2.18 warns not to do this, and there are places in this world, Ethiopia and other places, where angels are worshipped. In Revelation 22, we find John the Apostle, a good guy, but he's overwhelmed with all the visions he's getting. He starts worshipping an angel and he's rebuked for that. And so angels are not to be worshipped. Now next, we find that angels actually are to protect us. fact we find the great prophet Elisha in the city of Dothan in the Old Testament and the enemy has encamped around the city and the assistant of Elisha is scared to death and God says open his eyes and the assistant looks out and he sees the hills are full of angels there to protect Elisha and his assistant. There was a a missionary by the name of John Patton. For many years, he ministered on the new Hebrides Islands. They're in the South Pacific. And there was one night when he and his wife and his family were inside the mission station there, and the natives there were hostile. They surrounded the place. They had their torches, and they had come to basically burn down the compound to kill John Patton and his wife. And they spent that night in prayer, begging God for protection, and by morning, they're all gone. A year later, the chief of that tribe was converted, and John Patton couldn't help himself. He said, I've got to ask you something. A year ago, you had come to kill us. What kept you from doing that? He said, well, who are all those men around the compound you had that night? And again, it's the same scenario. He said there were hundreds of them, and they were heavily armed. And there are times when missionaries tell stories like this of some type of angels there to protect them. And did you know the Bible kind of refers to what we might call guardian angels? We read in Hebrews 1.14, are they, these angels, not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation. Angels? are bidden by God to protect us. I think of times when I wondered if I wasn't being protected by angels. I've often said, when I get to heaven, I need to buy them lunch, because they bailed me out a few times. Now, let me say this next about angels. Angels are not always recognizable, and they don't always have wings, as it were. Hebrews 13.2 says, Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unaware." In other words, without knowing it. So, not all angels have wings, at least not all the time. They can appear very human in form. I think in Acts 1, when Christ ascended up to heaven, two men came by in white apparel, and they just looked like men. And I think also when the angel appeared to the parents of Samson, he just looked like a man. And so they can not always be recognizable. Sometimes they're very similar to people, but there are also some differences, as we've been talking about. Now, this I know about the fallen angels at least, they are going to be judged forever. And those who die lost without Christ are going to go out into a Christless eternity, the lake of fire, the Bible calls it hell. And originally that was not prepared for people. We find this, Jesus says this in Matthew 25, Then shall he say also unto them, Depart from me, ye cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for," notice the devil and his angels. And so that's what it was originally prepared for. So we've seen now their galactic origin, but secondly, Let's talk about their God-given occupation. Back to our text here, we find out it tells us the mystery of godliness is great. Jesus Christ, God, was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit. And then it mentions seeing of angels. It goes on and mentions some other things, but angels have an occupation, something that God has created them to do, and they are to do God's bidding. We would put it that way, whatever God wants done. And we find so many things throughout the Bible that they are sent forth from God to do. but they're also to assist mankind on this earth. And we find a number of examples of this in the Bible. I think of Genesis 16, where Hagar has been disrespectful to Sarah, and Sarah casts her out, and she's out there in the wilderness, and an angel shows up. says go back and submit to Sarah. And we find also Abraham later on visited by angels, angels on their way to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. They get there, they realize the city is wretched and and they are going to rain down fire upon it, but the nephew of Abraham lives there along with his family, Lot and his wife, and daughters are there, and so the angels have the assignment of getting them out. And they're tarrying, they're dilly-dallying, and in Genesis 19, it says, and while he, that is Lot, lingered, the men, these are angels, laid hold upon his hand and upon the hand of his wife and upon the hand of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful unto him, and they brought him forth and set him without the city. So the two angels take a person by the hand and each arm and they pull them out of the city and they're there to save their lives. We find that angels are assisting us on this earth. In Genesis chapter 32, Jacob returns after quite a stay away from the homeland. He's on his way back. You've probably never even caught this, but he sees this mighty host of angels on the way. And it's going to be scary that trip back, and that had to be very reassuring. You probably also never caught this, that as the Egyptians were going through the wilderness, and their front is to the Red Sea, their back is to the Egyptian army on their way to destroy them, there's this angel out in front of them that goes around to the back and protects them. You say, well, I thought that was that pillar of fire. It is, but there's also an angel there. and it's an age of protecting the Jewish people. We find that in Exodus 14, 19, it says, and the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them, and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face and stood behind them. And so they were doubly reinforced here. There was also a time when The prophet Elijah is on the run, he's tired, he's discouraged, he hasn't slept for a while, and he's hungry. And so he falls asleep. And in 1 Kings 19 it says, and as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, an angel touched him and said unto him, arise and eat. And so angels are real. Do you believe in angels? I believe in angels. They are all over the scriptures. In fact, if I could drag a little bit of archaeology into this and connect it with angels. A couple of years ago, I was in Israel. They had just at that time discovered the ring, the signature seal ring of King Hezekiah, son of Amaz. And they found it just south of the temple there. They were digging, and they found this ring. This is blown up, obviously. It's about the size of a dime. But it was the very ring of King Hezekiah. You say, what does King Hezekiah have to do with angels? Well, at that time, there was a world power by the name of Assyria. They had come up against Jerusalem. They had surrounded the city. They were starving the people out of the city. And Hezekiah prays and asks God for some assistance, and God gives it to him. In Isaiah 37, it says, then the angel of the Lord went forth and smote in the camp of the Assyrians 104 score and 5,000, that's 185,000 And when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses." This is how powerful one angel is. One angel against 185,000 in the Bible. Now, we could talk about a lot of instances, one being Daniel. Daniel, remember when he was thrown into the lion's den as a result of the princes that wanted him exterminated? And he passes the night in that lion's den. They have also, by the way, archaeologically found the remains of that lion's den. Morning comes around, and we read this in Daniel chapter 6, my God, Daniel says, has sent his what? Angel, and has shut the lion's mouths that they have not hurt me. We find angels in the book of Daniel. Later on, Daniel is praying, he's fasting, he's asking God what the future of his people Israel is going to be. And in Daniel 9, he says, yea, whilst I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, that's an angel. being caused to fly swiftly, touch me about the time of the evening oblation, about three o'clock in the afternoon. Gabriel taps him on the shoulder. He says, I've flown all the way here to give you a message from heaven. And by the way, remember when we were studying Daniel chapter nine, and we talked about Daniel's prayer taking about three minutes to pray and deducing from that, okay, apparently if he started flying about the moment Daniel started praying, it's about a three minute flight for an angel at least, from heaven to earth. I'd say that's flying swiftly, wouldn't you? You know, that reminds me what I think is the final assignment of our guardian angel. And I think that for the saved, it is to escort us to heaven. Because I don't know the way to heaven. I mean, I know it's through salvation in Christ, but I mean, the physical way of how to get there, it's like being lost someplace and saying, I don't know the way home. But we find this when the beggar Lazarus dies in Luke chapter 16. It says, and it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abram's bosom, or what is paradise at the time, or heaven. So you don't need to know the way there. You're going to have an angelic escort. Won't that be something? The moment you die, you look over and you're, who's this? And you're being escorted to heaven by an angel. That's going to be awesome. We find angels giving the Apostle John a tour of heaven in the book of the Revelation, and there's just so many ways where we find angels assisting men. And I wonder if some of us haven't got an inkling of some time when we've actually seen an angel or wondered, was that an angel? When my wife and I, nearly 40 years ago now, we're on our honeymoon, it was night, we were driving south on the L.A. freeway, and my little Subaru started on fire. Can you imagine your cars on fire on the L.A. freeway at night? I just hate when that happens, don't you? But, I mean, we pull over and, you know, you watch all the movie, boom, the thing's going to blow up. So, you know, we're running in slow motion, you know, really to dive. But we're just thinking, you know, this thing's going to explode. All of a sudden, this guy drives up and he was really wholesome looking. That's all I remember. With a fire extinguisher, he blew the thing out, got back in his car, see ya, and took off. I'm going, what just happened here? Was it an angel? We'll find out when we get to heaven. Now it's easy to forget about this incredible being and this incredible thing that God has created to work this way, but for whatever reason, God chose to create angels to do all this. We see the galactic origin of the angels, we see the God-given occupation of the angels, and then finally, Let's talk about the glorious observation of the angels, what they observed on the greatest day that they'd ever had at that time when they observed the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because our text here in 1 Timothy 3.16 mentions that God was manifest in the flesh, that's Christ when He took on a body, He came to this earth, justified in the Spirit, and then it says, Scene of angels, scene of angels. It had to be a glorious observation. By the way, did you know that angels are always squinting, if you will, to observe what's going on in God's creation? They're very curious, as far as I know. We read this in 1 Peter 1.12, it mentions which things the angels desire to look into. Angels are very curious what God is up to, and they're not much interested in who's dancing with the stars or who's on America's got talent and all the things that people are gaping at, oh, this is where it's at. You know, all that stuff's gonna burn up by the way the Bible teaches. But angels are curious in what is interesting to God and what God is up to and it's a much loftier observation. So I can only imagine that night that Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem in that stable. And here they are gazing at their creator. and worshiping their Creator. The most exciting thing on planet Earth that had ever happened on planet Earth was now in progress there. And they're in awe, and they're marveling at this, and they're squinting to see this, the incarnation, their boss, if you will, in the form of a baby. They're looking at the one who created them. And they're probably wondering, what is the eternal word up to? What is he doing here? What is the plan? This is incredible. This is astonishing. And they're wondering, how is this thing going to play out? How's this thing going to play out? I could only imagine that moment when, in heaven, the Son of God arose from his throne and he vanished. And next thing you know, he's being born of a virgin down on planet Earth. The Bible tells us in John 1.14, and the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us," John says, and we beheld his glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father. Folks, the night the Lord Jesus Christ was born, it was like heaven touching earth. God came down to the planet that he had made. Now let's back up. This whole angel thing with that nativity, it started with the heralding about nine months prior to this, a little more than that, of the heralding of the birth of John the Baptist. John the Baptist, greatest prophet ever to walk this earth, had also an angelic announcement, if you want to call it that. Zachariah, his dad, had been praying for a miracle. Him and Elizabeth, his wife, were up in years And they wanted a baby, and it just wasn't gonna happen at this point. But in Luke 1.13, it says, this angel said unto him, fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard. We know what he's praying for. And thy wife, Elizabeth, shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. Now, did Zacharias believe him? I mean, it was too good to believe. He thought, that couldn't be. And so here's this powerful angel said, okay, you don't believe me. In verse 19, the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel that stand in the presence of God and am sent to speak unto thee and to show thee these glad tidings. He said, because you didn't believe me, you're going to be mute now for the next nine months. And Zacharias wasn't until after the birth. Now, six months later after this event here, we find that Gabriel is on flight again, and this time, folks, it's his greatest assignment ever. What does he do? Well, he does that three-minute flight, maybe again, comes down to the earth once again, and in Luke 1.26, it says, and in the sixth month, The angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth. What's going on? Well, the Holy Ghost is going to touch the womb of a virgin girl and she's going to conceive and give birth to the Son of God. And how could that be? Joseph was not involved, and how could he believe something that was physically impossible, that his fiancée was going to have a baby, and so he's going to just kind of quietly cut ties with her at this point? But in Matthew 1 and in verse 20, it says, but while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream saying, Joseph, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. Nine months later, It would be angels that would announce the birth. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, would be born in a stable in Bethlehem, and we find that this one angel would announce it to the shepherds, as we read a moment ago, and then there'd be this host of the heavenly host, this bunch of angels here that are saying, glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth, goodwill toward men. Well, shortly after, we know that wicked King Herod wanted that baby boy dead. And in Matthew 2.13, once again, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream saying, arise and take the young child and his mother and flee into Egypt for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. Over and over and over again, we find angels active in the word of God. And so Joseph and Mary, they flee into Egypt and you say, well, how in the world are they gonna know it's safe to come back? Guess how? We read it in Matthew 2.19, but when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel, for they are dead, which sought the young child's life. We find it's an angel once again. Well, as Christ lives out his life, and especially during his ministry, we find a number of times when angels are ministering unto him, and ironically, these are beings that he created. And yet, as he starts out his ministry, and he's fasting 40 days in the wilderness there, we find out Satan comes along and tempts him. Now, we know that Adam and Eve failed miserably with the same one, dealing with Satan when it came to temptation. Here's the angels watching, wondering how their creator is going to fare in the midst of this, because after 40 days of not eating, he takes on the full brunt of the satanic attack, the full force, and he's victorious in it. And afterwards, we read this in Matthew 4.11. Then the devil leaveth him, and behold, angels came and ministered unto him. Well, time marched on and finally it came to the very night before the Lord Jesus Christ would go to the cross and the nails of Calvary and he'd spent that night praying. in the Garden of Gethsemane. By the way, if you look behind me here, you'll notice what they say is an olive tree, 2,000 years old. If you can imagine that, going back to the time of Christ. Maybe a sapling at the time of Christ. Maybe he prayed right by this. We don't know, but these are real things. And there in that garden, the Bible says he sweat drops the blood. We find that there was an angel there to strengthen him. And think of this angel, this created being, looking into the eyes of his creator and seeing agony and seeing despair. And you say, over what? Being crucified? I don't think so. I think it was agony over becoming sin, he who knew no sin. I think it was agony over being separated from the Father, something that had never taken place in eternity past. And there's the angel looking into the eyes of his creator and seeing that agony there. The Bible tells us in Luke 22, there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. What an honor that had to be. Well, they come, they arrest Jesus in that garden. Peter, he's cutting off ears, misunderstanding something Christ had said earlier about a sword. And in Matthew 26, 53, Jesus says to Peter, thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my father, and he shall presently give me more than 12 legions of angels. At that time, a Roman legion was about 6,000 men. And so you do the math here, you find about 72,000 angels. I did a little math myself. If one angel could kill 185,000 Assyrian soldiers, what could 72,000 do? It would be 13 billion. 13 billion of the enemy here, way more than we have in the world today. But there were those angels, and they watched in horror as the Roman soldiers weaved those thorns into a crown, thinking they wouldn't do that. They'd never do that, would they? They watched as they plucked the beard from the face of the Savior and spit back in His face. And I can only imagine how they would have given anything to intervene and step in and smite that crowd and annihilate that crowd and incinerate that crowd. But there was one hand, one hand holding them back. It was the hand of God the Father who said, this has to be. I love mankind. Mankind needs a Savior. Mankind is lost. Mankind has sinned, and I am just, and in my justice, sin must be punished, sin must be paid for, there must be a blood atonement. And by the way, that's the only way you can get to heaven. You cannot work your way to heaven. Getting baptized by water does not wash sin away, does not make you a child of God, does not punch your ticket to heaven. Jesus Christ had to go to that cross. He had to shed that blood. Because without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sins. There's no forgiveness of sins. Jesus Christ had to pay that price. There are so many sadly today trying to work their way to heaven if you could work your way to heaven Why did christ come to this earth and go through all of that to pay for your sins salvation is by grace It's free. It's the gift of god And when you come to a place in your life when you realize i'm a lost hopeless hell-bound sinner. I need a savior and in repentance you change your mind about your sin and in faith you turn to Christ and you call upon him and ask him to save you. The Bible calls that being born again and that's when you're justified before God. But God held back the angels because God is just. And he said, sin, sin must be paid for. And it had to be paid for. And so they drove the nails, tearing the flesh, the flesh of the Son of God, the very hands of the one who had spoke those angels into existence. And those angels watched in horror as their creator died on the cross. After they watched as he was buried, After that they watched as that grave was silent and still for three days until finally, finally the order came from heaven, from the voice of God the Father, go down there, open up that tomb. And in Matthew 28 2 it says, and behold there was a great earthquake for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it." That stone was probably about 8,000 pounds. I don't have time to show you that, but I just want to point out how powerful angels are. And we find out that the angel rolled the stone back, and then he sat upon it. You say, was he tired from his flight? No. He sat on it as a picture of defiance that death had been defeated, By the way, the guards fainted out of fear when they saw that angel. That's how intimidating angels are. And Jesus Christ was not in that grave. By the way, the angel didn't roll the stone away to let him out. He was already gone. The angel rolled the stone away to let people in and see that the tomb empty and Christ had risen from that dead. Now finally the day of Ascension comes about, 40 days pass and in Acts 1 10 Christ goes up to heaven and says, and while they look steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold two men stood by them in white apparel, angels once again, but that's not the end of angels. Nearly every chapter in the last book of the Bible, the Revelation, mentions angels. Have you noticed that? I mean, angels are sealing the 144,000. Angels are blowing trumpets of judgment. They're opening vials of judgment. They're announcing the fall of Babylon. It's angels. It's an angel that's binding Satan and casting him into that bottomless pit for the millennium. And it's angels that are rebuking John for worshiping him. Angels also will be very much involved in the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew 25, 31, Jesus says, when the son of man shall come in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. And for all eternity, you know what their assignment is? It's to praise the Lord Jesus Christ, to give Him glory. Revelation 5.11, John says, And I beheld, I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts and the elders and the number of them, 10,000 times 10,000, that's a bunch, and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing and throughout all eternity the angels will be praising the Lord. You know that Angels are mentioned somewhere around 300 times in the Bible, and we've just looked at a smattering of it today. But as we talk about the nativity today and the advent at this time of the year, I wanna show you one more verse from Hebrews 1.6. It says, and when he, God the Father, bringeth in the first begotten, Jesus Christ, into the world, he, God the Father, saith, and let all the angels of God worship Him. And they did, and they have been, and they will continue to do so. You know, angels really recognize the magnitude of who the Lord Jesus Christ is. God help us to do the same. All hail the power of Jesus' name, let what? Angels prostrate fall. You know, I grew up going to church every single Sunday for over 20 years, and yet I knew nothing about angels. I thought they were women. I thought they were chubby little babies with wings. I thought all the wrong stuff. You've learned more today about angels than I knew in over 20 years. But as we celebrate the birth of Christ at a very significant time of the year, Let's do what the angels did and that is magnify him and put the emphasis on him because they had a ringside seat. They had a ringside seat. You've been listening to Pastor Tony Skeving of the Fargo Baptist Church in Fargo, North Dakota. If you would like a CD of today's message, you can obtain one by sending a gift of $2 to Fargo Baptist Church, 3303 23rd Avenue South, Fargo, North Dakota, 58103. That address again, Fargo Baptist Church, 3303 23rd Avenue South Fargo, North Dakota 58103. We hope you'll join Pastor Skeving next time right here on Pulpit Power. Pulpit Power is a production of Heaven 88.7.