Chapter 9

AN ANGEL STRENGTHENED HIM

Jesus and Angels

I know a man personally who has had more encounters with angels than anyone in history. In the course of his lifetime, angels both good and evil have appeared to him many times. He has conversed with angels, argued with them, silenced a few and claimed on one occasion to have several thousand at his disposal. He knows more about angels than any other human being — not because he has read all the books on angels but because he created them! The man's name, of course, is Jesus.

   In an earlier chapter I made a point that I need to reemphasize in this context: Jesus is the Creator, Lord and Sustainer of the angels. Paul in Colossians 1:15-17 says:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven

Page 92

and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Jesus not only brought all the angels into existence. He also sustains those angels by his power, just as he sustains us and just as he holds the entire universe together.

   Since we are centuries removed from the birth of Christianity, we usually don't question Jesus' superiority over the angels. Knowing this, the writer of the letter to Hebrew Christians spends several opening paragraphs emphasizing the fact that Jesus is far more exalted than any angel. He notes that God actually commands the angels to worship Jesus: "And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, 'Let all God's angels worship him' " (Hebrews 1:6).

   Before Jesus became a man, the angels worshiped him as their Creator. And when God brought Jesus into the world as a man, the angels were commanded to worship and adore him no less. Even in human flesh as a tiny baby, Jesus was the sovereign Lord, God the Son.

   God's command and Jesus' position as Creator made the next fact about Jesus' relationship to the angels almost unbelievable. When Jesus became human, he was made lower than the angels for a time. The writer of Hebrews speaks again:

It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. But there is a place where someone has testified:

"What is man that you are mindful of him,

   the son of man that you care for him?

You made him a little lower than the angels [or, "You made him for a little while lower than the angels"; NIV margin];

Page 93

you crowned him with glory and honor and put everything under his feet."

In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. (Hebrews 2:5-9)

What a wonderful blessing it is to be a human being! We were created to be crowned with glory and honor. Unfortunately that hasn't happened yet. At the present time not all things are subject to us. Right now we are lower than the angels in terms of glory and honor. God is at the top of the "glory" scale, angels are next, and somewhere below them comes humanity.

   A friend of mine was the leader of an engineering division within one of the Big Three automakers. Because of restructuring, he found himself in a different unit at the bottom of the engineering ladder. It takes a lot of humility to handle a change like that gracefully.

   Jesus was in the "deity range" on the scale of glory. But in order to identify with us and in order to redeem us, Jesus became fully human. He didn't come to earth as an angel or as a glorified human being. (Sorry — Jesus had no halo!) He came as a mortal human just like us. In the realm of his humanity, Jesus was made lower than the angels for a little while. He didn't cease to be God, but he identified fully with us in his humanity.

   I do not think that you and I have begun to grasp the price Jesus paid just to become human. He paid the price of our sin on the cross, and that was a wonderful gift. But he paid a great price in humbling himself to become a man, and he did it all willingly, voluntarily. For the sheer joy of seeing us brought to glory with him, the Lord and Creator of the angels

Page 94

lived for thirty-three years as a man, lower than the very beings he had created.

   We also know that eventually Jesus was exalted above the angels once again:

The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs. (Hebrews 1:3-4)

Jesus died on the cross, and three days later he rose from the dead. Forty days later he ascended into heaven, where he sat down at the Father's right hand. In his humanity Jesus was exalted above the angels. As the God-man, not just as God but the eternal God-man, Jesus was elevated to the place above the angels that we will occupy some day as redeemed, glorified human beings.

   Because Jesus had such intimate contact with angels before and after his ministry, we would expect that during his earthly ministry angels would be actively involved with everything he did. As we survey the Gospel records, that is exactly what we find.

Joyous Hosts at His Birth

The gospel story begins with two miraculous births, and the angel who announced them both was Gabriel, "an angel of the Lord." He was sent to Zechariah, a priest in Israel, to tell him that his wife (who was barren) would produce a marvelous son. Their son, John, would be the forerunner of the promised Messiah (Luke 1:11-20). Six months later Gabriel was sent to a virgin woman named Mary who lived in Nazareth. He told her that she would conceive a child miraculously and bear a son who would be the Son of the Most High (Luke 1:26-38).

Page 95

A short time after that an angel (perhaps Gabriel again) appeared to Joseph in a dream to assure him that Mary had not been unfaithful to him and that the child conceived in her was of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:20-23).

   When the time came, an angel of the Lord appeared to shepherds outside Bethlehem to announce Jesus' birth to them. As they heard the joyous news, the shepherds saw a multitude of the heavenly host join that one angel in praising God (Luke 2:9-14). After the birth Joseph again saw an angel in a dream. This time the angel warned him to flee to Egypt to escape Herod's murderous plot to kill Jesus. After Herod's death, the angel came yet again to Joseph in a dream and told him to return to Galilee (Matthew 2:13-20).

Strengthening Agents During His Ministry

The next recorded encounter Jesus had with angels came almost thirty years later, when the Spirit led him into the wilderness to be tempted by an evil angel, the devil himself (Matthew 4:1; Luke 4:1-2). Three times Satan came to Jesus, and each time Jesus rebuked him. After the temptation holy angels came and ministered to Jesus (Matthew 4:11; Mark 1:13).

   Angels exercised a protective ministry over Jesus throughout his life. During Satan's attempt to disqualify Jesus as the Son of God, Satan took him to the pinnacle of the temple and challenged Jesus to throw himself down. Satan even quoted Psalm 91:11-12, Scripture that assured Jesus' safety:

He [God] will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. (Matthew 4:6)

Jesus responded not by doubting God's promise but by pointing out also from Scripture (Deuteronomy 6:16) the stupidity of putting God and his Word to the test just because the devil dares you to do it.

Page 96

   A statement Jesus made in the garden of Gethsemane gives us some idea of the extent of the angels' protective ministry over Jesus. When the crowd came to arrest Jesus, Peter took out a sword, swung it over his head like a fishing pole and cut off the ear of the high priest's slave. Jesus rebuked Peter with this:

Put your sword back in its place . . . Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen this way? (Matthew 26:52-54)

A Roman legion was six thousand men. Jesus said that at his word more than 72,000 angels would come instantly to his aid. That's a lot of firepower! Jesus had abundant angelic protection at his disposal, but he never called them. If he had called them that night, God's Word promising human redemption never would have been fulfilled.

   As Jesus prayed in the garden earlier that evening, he had talked to one of those angels. Luke tells us that an angel from heaven appeared to Jesus, strengthening him for the ordeal ahead (Luke 22:43). But through the humiliation of his arrest and the agony of the cross, no angel came to Jesus' aid. He bore the full fury of God's wrath all alone. He drank the cup that the Father gave him to the bitter dregs.

Demonic Forces During His Ministry

While holy angels ministered to Jesus, evil angels were arrayed in force against him. We've already noted the confirmation between Jesus and Satan in the wilderness, but Satan's work as Jesus' adversary didn't end there. Twice we are told that Satan entered into Judas the betrayer (Luke 22:3; John 13:27). Jesus even saw Satan's hand behind Simon Peter's suggestion that Jesus should avoid his approaching death (Matthew 16:23; Mark 8:33).

Page 97

"Get behind me, Satan!" Jesus said. "You are a stumbling block to me." He knew that Satan would try to get Peter's faith to fail, and he prayed to keep that from happening (Luke 22:31-32). Jesus also knew that Satan's final defeat was certain. In the initial ministry of the seventy-two disciples, Jesus saw a foreshadowing of Satan's conquest — "I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven" (Luke 10:18). And even with the cross ahead of him, Jesus declared that "the prince of this world now stands condemned" (John 16:11).

   One of the most serious charges leveled against Jesus by his human enemies was that his miracles were performed by Satan's power. The reality of Jesus' miracles was not questioned, only their source. People accused, "It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons." Jesus responded, "If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand?" (Matthew 12:24, 26). Then Jesus clearly stated his source of power: "But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you" (v. 28). Knowing that the Pharisees disbelieved his claim, Jesus warned that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is an unforgivable sin (v. 32).

   Satan's angels also play a dramatic part in Jesus' ministry. The Gospels are filled with accounts of the conflict between Jesus and demons. Jesus and the New Testament writers saw no difference between a demon's activity and Satan's activity. Luke, the physician, records Jesus' healing of a woman "who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years" (13:11). When the synagogue ruler rebuked Jesus for healing on the Sabbath day, Jesus shot back,

You hypocrites! Doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham,

Page 98

whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her? (13:15-16, italics mine).

Jesus and his disciples encountered various "unclean" or "wicked" spirits who were under Satan's power (Mark 1:23, NIV note; Matthew 12:45). Many times the Gospel writers describe demons by the effects they produce. Matthew describes a "demon-possessed man who was blind and mute" (Matthew 12:22). We read of a boy "possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech" (Mark 9:17). Mark ascribes the uncontrolled violence and extreme strength of the Gerasene man to the "legion" of demons that possessed him (Mark 5:1-5, 9). Most of modern psychology may reject demonic influence as superstition, but Jesus and his apostles had no trouble attributing some physical sicknesses or emotional oppression directly to demonic activity.

   Perhaps the most startling aspect of Jesus' confrontations with demonic forces was the way they immediately recognized his position and power. Mark says that Jesus would not allow demons to speak "because they knew who he was" (Mark 1:34). The demons in the Gerasene man recognized Jesus even "from a distance." The man ran to Jesus and knelt, screaming, "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?" (Mark 5:7). In another encounter early in his ministry, Jesus came face to face in a synagogue with a man possessed by a demon, who said, "I know who you are — the Holy One of God!" (Luke 4:33-34). Jesus shouted, "Be quiet!" What the demons said about Jesus was true, but Jesus told them to be quiet because he didn't want unsolicited testimonials from demons.

   Jesus said that one crucial aspect of his messianic ministry was to set captives free (Luke 4:18). He certainly accomplished that by freeing people held in the grip of evil angelic forces.

Page 99

The demons had no alternative but to yield to Christ's superior power.

   Jesus extended this power by giving his followers authority over demons. He first sent out the twelve to preach and to work miracles, including healing the demon-possessed (Luke 9:1). Then he sent out the seventy-two to do the same; they returned from their mission, rejoicing that even the demons were subject to them (Luke 10:17). The name of Jesus had the power to overcome any wicked foe.

   And Jesus' name still has that power! An elder in the church I pastor spent his B.C. (before Christ) years in the grip of drugs and the immoral lifestyle so prevalent in our culture. Then one day he heard the gospel and believed in Christ. Some faithful believers followed their evangelistic ministry with a ministry of deliverance as they rebuked the demons who were actively oppressing this man. Through a direct battle with the forces of evil, these folks called on the Lord Jesus to set this captive free. Just as in the days of the New Testament, Jesus' name and authority prevailed.

Heralds at His Resurrection

On the first day of the week after Jesus' death and burial, angels went to his tomb with a message. When a group of women, who planned to anoint the body with spices, drew near,

there was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards [at the tomb] were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. (Matthew 28:2-4)

The same angel addressed the women and told them that Jesus had risen from the dead (vv. 5-7). In Mark's account the angel is described as "a young man dressed in a white robe"

Page 100

(Mark 16:5). Luke's more detailed report says that the women saw "two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning" (Luke 24:4). The two men Jesus met on the road to Emmaus later that resurrection day confirmed that the women reported seeing more than one angel at the empty tomb — they saw "a vision of angels" (Luke 24:23). John and Peter, two of Jesus' followers, came to the tomb shortly after the women, but they did not encounter any angels (John 20:3-9). Mary Magdalene then returned in sorrow and unbelief to the tomb. She bent down to peer into the tomb and saw "two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot" (John 20:10-12).

Warriors at His Return

When Jesus ascended into heaven forty days later, "two men dressed in white" stood by the disciples, who were gazing up into heaven. The angels said, "Why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus ... will come back" (Acts 1:10-11). When he returns, angels will play a prominent role in the events surrounding his coming.

   At the rapture of the church, those of us who are "in Christ" will hear a shout and the voice of the archangel (1 Thessalonians 4:16). We aren't told what the archangel will say, but maybe he will say what an angel said to the apostle John in Revelation 4:1, "Come up here!"

   When Christ returns to earth in his glory to destroy his enemies and the enemies of his people, angels will come with him. Paul in 2 Thessalonians 1:7 says, "The Lord Jesus [will be] revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels." The book of Revelation, which unfolds the details of Christ's return, uses the word angel sixty-one times — the most of any New Testament book.

   When he was on earth, Jesus knew what angels would do

Page 101

at his return (Mark 8:38). He told a series of parables one day and then interpreted them for his disciples. In the parable of the field sown with both good seed and bad, Jesus said:

The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.

As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 13:37-42)

The parable of the net full of all kinds of fish imparts the same truth. When the fishermen pulled the net to shore, they sorted the fish. Jesus explained the meaning of the parable like this:

This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 13:49-50)

Angels will not only separate out the wicked and unbelieving when Jesus returns, but also gather God's believing remnant, the elect, into the joys of Christ's kingdom.

And he [the Son of Man] will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. (Matthew 24:31; see also Mark 13:27)

Jesus and the Angel of the Lord

A remarkable being punctuates the pages of the Old Testament on several occasions. At critical times in the history of God's people, key individuals were visited by a powerful and

Page 102

wonderful person — the angel of the Lord. As we read the accounts of the appearances of the angel of the Lord, however, we are forced to conclude that this being was more than just a normal angel of God.

   Two facts become clear from a study of the biblical text. First, this angel is identified as "the Lord" or even as "God." Second, though the angel is identified as the Lord, he is also distinguished from another person called "the Lord" — an implication at least of plural persons within the being of God.¹

   One of the best-known appearances of the angel of the Lord recorded in Scripture is his encounter with Moses on Mount Horeb.

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. (Exodus 3:1-2)

This angel made an astonishing claim: "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." Moses' response was to hide his face, "because he was afraid to look at God" (v. 6).

   When the angel of the Lord appeared to Manoah's wife in the days of the judges, he told her that she would bear a son. When she in turn told her husband about the encounter, she said, "A man of God came to me. He looked like an angel of God, very awesome." Manoah prayed and asked God to send the man again. When the angel came again and then departed in the flame of the sacrificial fire, Manoah realized that the man had been the angel of the Lord. He exclaimed, "We are doomed to die . . . We have seen God!" (Judges 13:1-22).

   Abraham encountered this same divine being. As he drew back the knife to kill his son, Isaac, as a sacrifice, "the angel of the Lord called out" and told Abraham not to harm the boy.

Page 103

The angel added, "Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son" (Genesis 22:12).

   The visions of the prophet Zechariah show most clearly the distinction between the angel of the Lord and another referred to as "the Lord." Acting as an intercessor for the people of Judah, the angel of the Lord addresses "the Lord Almighty" and asks for mercy on Judah (Zechariah 1:11-12). In a later vision Zechariah sees the angel of the Lord defending Israel's high priest, Joshua, against the accusations of Satan in the presence of the Lord (Zechariah 3:1-2).

   These observations about the angel of the Lord have led most biblical scholars to conclude that "the angel of the Lord" in the Old Testament was a preincarnate manifestation of the Lord Jesus. He was called an angel because he functioned as the Father's messenger, but he is clearly deity himself. Furthermore, when we come to the New Testament, we encounter "an angel of the Lord" several times (Matthew 1:20; Acts 8:26; 12:7) but never "the angel of the Lord."

   For a number of months I visited a dear woman of God who was slowly dying. Often when we were alone in her hospital room, Berneice would say, "Read the psalm you always read. I love the 'angel part.' " When she died, I read Psalm 34 at her funeral: "The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them" (v. 7). That is certainly true of the Lord Jesus for those who know him personally by faith. His presence surrounds us; his power sustains us; his protection secures us against any foe.

Chapter Ten  ||  Table of Contents