The ministry of the angels

Sermon for St. Michael & All Angels

Revelation 12:7-12  +  Matthew 18:1-11

Only once before have we celebrated the Feast of St. Michael here, six years ago today, when it also fell on a Sunday. The back of your service folder has a nice little 16^th century explanation of why the Church has set aside this day. It lists four main reasons: (1) to review the Scriptural teaching about angels—both good and bad; (2) to consider the benefits of God’s use of the angels in ministering to us; (3) to give thanks to God for the service of the angels; (4) to pray that God would continue to grant us their protection. Our prayers and hymns today fulfill the 3^rd and the 4^th reasons. God willing, the sermon will address the 1^st and 2^nd reasons.

As the saying goes, “Out of sight, out of mind.” If you’re not looking at it, you’re not thinking about it. It isn’t always the case, of course, but it holds true well enough. There is a whole world of invisible spirit-creatures surrounding us at all times. Some of them are sent by God to protect, defend, and watch over us; others are there creating mischief in the church, in the home, and in society. But we don’t tend to think of this spiritual host very often, because to us it’s entirely invisible. That’s why we need Jesus, who sees both realms perfectly—the earthly and the heavenly—to shed some light on it for us. Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven.

“Their angels.” The angels of the little ones. This is where the idea of guardian angels comes from. Jesus implies that the little ones have their own angel or angels assigned to them, and that those angels are zealous for the protection of the little ones. Whether or not that personal angelic guardianship extends into adulthood, we aren’t told. But we are told in Scripture about some of the things that the angels do for all of God’s people.

Let’s take a step back and let the rest of Scripture shed some more light on the angelic race and their ministry.

Angels were created by God sometime during the six days of creation. Moses writes, In six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them. And St. Paul specifies that God made all these things through Christ: For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.

Angels were created good. They were created as rational, thinking beings, as we are, but without flesh and bones as we have. They are greater in power and might than we are, as Peter writes, and yet they were created to serve—to minister to—human beings. What that ministry would have looked like if Adam and Eve hadn’t fallen into sin is anyone’s guess. We never got a chance to find out, did we?

Maybe it was their ministry to mankind that offended some of the angels. Maybe they grew proud of their beauty and their awesome power. Scripture doesn’t tell us what caused a number of the angels, led by the devil or Satan, to rebel against God soon after the creation was finished. Clearly God gave them a choice. He gave them free will, to serve Him in love or not to serve Him. And so, in their free will, some of the angels did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, as Jude writes. And it says in 2 Peter that God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for the judgment of the great day. In fact, hell itself is the everlasting fire that was originally prepared for the devil and his angels, not for mankind.

And yet, mankind sided with the evil angels—with the demons, as we now refer to them. You know how the devil came to Adam and Eve in the form of the serpent in the Garden of Eden, how he lied about God and about the commandment God had given not to eat from that one tree, how he deceived the woman and turned both her and her husband to the side of the demons.

But God, in His mercy, turned them back to His side as He put enmity between the devil and the woman, between his seed and hers. He promised that a Savior would be born one day, the Seed of the woman to crush the serpent’s head. As John writes, For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.

We saw Jesus doing battle against the devil during the 40 days of His temptation in the wilderness. We also saw it every time Jesus cast out a demon. We saw it as Jesus wrestled with the Jewish leaders. We saw it as He willingly drank the cup His Father had prepared for Him, suffering shame and death on the cross to redeem us from sin, death, and the devil. And now we see Jesus still doing battle against the devil every time the Word of Christ brings someone to faith. As Paul writes, He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

The devil has to leave believers alone, in the sense that he can’t control us or accuse us before God. But the devil and his demons are still at work in the sons of disobedience. They’re at work in the governments of the world, turning them toward all kinds of evil, as we witness day in and day out among so many politicians, instigating war and bloodshed and chaos. They’re at work in the homes of unbelievers, fostering all kinds of discord, abuse, and despair. They’re at work in the Church, sowing error and false doctrine through hypocrites who pretend to speak for God when, in fact, they speak for the demons, as Paul says that they teach doctrines of demons. In all these areas Peter warns Christians, Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith.

Meanwhile, the majority of the angels have remained with God, ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, according to Revelation—a very large number, perfect in righteousness and holiness, worshiping God together with us, devoted to serving God, which means also serving the believers among mankind. They are all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation.

How do they minister? How do they serve? We probably won’t know the vast majority of their service for us in this life until after this life. We know at least two angels by name, Gabriel who appeared to Daniel, and again to Zacharias and to Mary, and Michael, who is called “one of the chief princes” and “the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people.” We know that angels announced the birth of Christ to the shepherds and the resurrection of Christ to the believing women. They ministered to Christ in His state of humiliation and rescued Peter from prison. We know that they often appeared in the Old Testament to bring special messages to the people of God, to rescue the people of God from harm, like the angels who rescued Lot and his family, who held the mouths of the lions shut for Daniel. They defended the people of God against their enemies, like the angels who surrounded Jacob as he went to confront his brother Esau, or as the company of angels whom the prophet Elisha saw encamped around him and his servant. He comforted his servant, those who are with us are more than those who are with them.

We know, in general, that The angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him and delivers them. We know that He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. Even as the demons are at work in society, in the home, and in the Church, so, too, the good angels are also ministering to God in all those places, holding back the darkness, in keeping with God’s commands.

If we could see how the demons fight against our race, and especially against Christ and His people, we would be much more afraid to sin than we now are, because to sin is to give the demons a little victory in the battle. But to repent is to give the angels a victory, as Jesus Himself says, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. And if we could see how God sends the angels to fight for us and to defend us, we would be much more ready to give praise and thanks to God at all times.

May God use this brief review of the doctrine of the angels to keep them before your eyes, so that you do watch out for the devil and so that you do appreciate the angels’ ministry to you. We have so many reasons to give thanks to God, including the benefit of St. Michael and all angels. Let us pray that He would continue to send them, until they perform for us their final ministry of carrying our souls to Abraham’s bosom, as they did for the beggar Lazarus, until the Last Day, when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him. Amen.