Archive for October, 2009

“For all the Saints”

October 31, 2009 at 4:12 pm · Filed under Christian living, New Testament, The Church ·Tagged , , ,

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 “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus”. ( Ephesians 1:1)

What kind of picture does the word “saint” conjure up in your mind? Is it a plaster statue of the Madonna? Is it a picture in a stained-glass window? One little girl was asked what a saint was. She replied: “Someone with light shining through them.” That girl was thinking of the light shining through the figures of saints in the stained-glass windows in her church. But you know, it’s not a bad answer, is it? A saint is a person through whom the light of God shines. But should we restrict this term for particularly famous or holy persons, renowned for their good deeds, or the simplicity of their life? Should we only use it of people like Mother Teresa and Francis of Assisi? Should it be reserved for those who practiced great austerity and asceticism – people like Saint David who lived on herbs and cold water and spent hours up to his neck in icy cold water while he prayed.

Today is All Saints Day – a day of great importance to Anglicans, and even more so to Roman Catholics. But what does it mean to Non-conformists like us? What is a “saint” in Biblical terms?

Our text makes it plain and clears away any misconceptions: “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus”. ( Ephesians 1:1)

 

 

A Saint is a Christian Believer

A saint is not just a particularly special, or holy, or famous Christian. A saint is anyone who is faithful in Christ Jesus. The Greek word used for “faithful” also means “believing” – so we could also say a Saint is a Believer in Jesus Christ. Paul writes to all the believers in Ephesus and calls them “saints”.

We find this view of sainthood in the other New Testament Epistles:

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, …. to all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints. (Romans 1: 7)

To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, (1 Corinthians 1:2)

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God in Corinth, together with all the saints throughout Achaia. (2 Corinthians 1;1)

To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi. (Philippians 1:1 )

From these and other texts we see that:

  • A saint is faithful and believing
  • A saint is holy and sanctified
  • A saint is called by God

A saint is not a special Christian, but any true Christian. This one of the great truths rediscovered at the Reformation – we are all saints, and our sins are forgiven by the grace of God alone.

 

 

Mediaeval misconceptions

In the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic church developed a particular doctrine of sainthood which still persists today in some circles. The idea was that some people were so holy that when they died they went straight to Heaven instead of going to Purgatory.

(Of course, the doctrine of Purgatory is not found in the Bible. We are all sinners but our sins are cleansed by the blood of Christ. We will not need to spend centuries in Purgatory to atone for our sins before we will be allowed into Heaven.)

Anyway, back to the saints. These particularly holy people were thought to be much closer to God than the rest of us. And, just as you might ask another Christian to pray for you, so you might ask one of the “Saints” – even after their death – to intercede on your behalf. Obviously if you believed the Saint was already in heaven then you would think that he or she was much closer to God.

So people were encouraged by the Church to ask the Saints to plead on their behalf before the throne of God. To this day many people pray to the Saints. Some even write letters to them (which seems to me a bit like children writing letters to Santa Claus!)

Now none of this has any Biblical justification – for we are all saints anyway, if we are faithful to Jesus. We all have direct access to God through his Son.

(And there is no such place as Purgatory. Protestants hold varied views about what happens in the “intermediate state” ( the time between death and the final judgement) but none believe in Purgatory. Some hold the view that the soul goes immediately to Heaven to be united with a new resurrection body after the Last Judgement. Others think that death is like a “sleep of the soul” – we shall rest in the Lord, and on the Day of Resurrection be raised up with new bodies. If you hold the first view, then it is just possible that you might think you could pray to the Saints – to communicate with the souls of the departed in Heaven and ask them to intercede on your behalf.

But remember, in both the Old and New Testaments, God has warned us of the danger of spiritualism. We are not, in any way, to attempt to communicate with the dead. To my mind praying to the Saints comes perilously close to this.)

But I digress – all believers are saints, and share in the privilege of belonging to Gods people. What then can we say of God’s saints?

 

 

Faithful and believing

As I said earlier, the same Greek word ( pistis) is used for both “faithful” and “believing”. So we can say of God that he is faithful, he is reliable, he is our Rock in whom we trust. And you can say that the believer, in trusting in Christ, also becomes faithful to him. In other words, becomes more like God. So we have a mutual relationship of trust and love. If we are true Christians, then our relationship with God is based on personal trust in Jesus. It’s not just knowing the facts about Jesus, but knowing him as Saviour.

 

 

Holy and sanctified

“Holy” means “set apart” – like God himself. A saint is “set apart” from sin, from all that is anti-God, from hatred, from greed, from impurity. A saint is one who seeks to live by God’s laws.

“Well,” you may say, “we all fail don’t we, which one of us can claim to be without sin?”

We all fail, yes, but we can all be cleansed by the Blood of Christ. After all, a saint is simply a sinner who has repented and asked for God’s forgiveness. A saint is a sinner who has been made new, born again.

 

 

Called by God

A saint is called of God. Have you heard the call of God? Have you heard a call to personal repentance and faith in Jesus? You can be a nominal Christian because you were brought up in the Church, or because your parents were Christian, or because you are a church member. But that doesn’t make you a saint – a Christian in the true sense. One becomes a Christian, or a saint, when one hears the call of God and responds to it.

Perhaps some might say, “I have never heard the call of God.” Then I would say, “You are hearing it now, through this sermon!” Everyone here, in this church has heard, or is hearing, the call of God.

 How are we going to respond? Is it, “Yes, Lord, I am a sinner, but I want to be a saint”, or is it, “No, Jesus, I am not interested in religious things, I want to stay the same.”

How sad it is when people respond in the second way. They are condemning themselves to an eternity away from God, unless they repent before it’s too late.

 

 

May we all be true saints of God:

  •  faithful and believing ·
  • holy and sanctified 
  •  called by the Lord, and responding to the call.

May it be said of us that we are “saints” – people through whom the light of God shines. Jesus said: “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” ( Matthew 5:16 )

 

 

 

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Fallen Angels

October 22, 2009 at 9:45 pm · Filed under New Testament, Old testament, evil ·Tagged , , ,

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Satan cast out of heaven by   Gustave Doré

 

Introduction

 
Last week we were thinking about angels. Yes, they do exist! They are real spiritual beings who surround the throne of God and are his messengers for mankind. Billy Graham refers to then as “God’s Secret Agents” in the world. But if this is the case, why then is there so much evil in the world? Why do ( to quote the poet Burns) “the best laid plans of mice, and men, gang aft agley” ?

Why is it that all the best utopian schemes to eradicate poverty, and to usher in world peace, and all the political solutions to the world’s problems fail, time and again? Why are we humans so ineffective at doing good?

Partly, we must admit, it’s our own fault. It’s the inherent selfishness and sin of mankind. But I think it goes further than that. Why, for example, does evil sometimes take such a personal and vindictive form? How can we understand such a man as Hitler, who had an insane hatred of the Jews?

The Bible writers ( the Prophets, and Evangelists, and Apostles ) and even Jesus himself, would answer that Satan and the fallen angels are behind all this. Evil is not just the absence of good. There is more to it than just the forces of decay and dissolution at work in the universe. 

No, evil is personal, and it is anti-God. There is an extremely powerful, malign being who hates God and his people and who does all in his power to thwart God’s purposes in the world. More than that, there are millions of such beings – devils, demons, evil spirits, fallen angels – call them what you will.

What then are these fallen angels? And since we are coming up to Hallowe’en, when many people will be concentrating on the occult, it might be a good thing now for us to think about them. After all, you have to know your enemy.

The Fallen Angels: their origin

Genesis tells us that Adam and Eve in Eden were tempted by the Serpent. Other passages of the Bible indicate that the Serpent is Satan. But how did Satan get there? Was not everything “good” when God created it? How did evil originate,  and how did Satan become evil?

Now we can not be dogmatic about this, but it seems obvious that if God created beings who could love him of their own free will then he would also have to allow the possibility of their not loving him. If they really are to love him freely they they also have the choice of rejecting him. He did not create them as robots.

This theme of the fall and rebellion of Satan and his followers is dealt with great poetic genius by Milton in Paradise Lost. It may read a bit like mythology in Milton but this idea is found in Scripture – the idea that some of the angels became evil.

For example

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 judgment. ( 2 Peter 2:4 )

and

The angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day;
( Jude 6 )

Nothing is said about what their sin actually was, but it is likely that they exalted themselves against God and aspired to the supreme authority. Satan, when he wanted to tempt Adam and Eve, used the same lure of selfish ambition and pride.

 

Their leader: the Devil

He appears in Scripture as the recognized head of the fallen angels. It seems that he was originally one of the highest princes of the angelic world. Perhaps he was the chief of all the angels. So when Satan led the rebellion against God, then Michael would have been promoted to Archangel ( see Revelation 12:7-12).

What titles are given to the Devil in Scripture?

Satan
This comes from the Hebrew “shatan”, which means “adversary”. This title emphasizes the fact that he is  the enemy of God and Man. That is why he caused the Fall of Man. That is why he attacked Jesus at the start of his ministry.

Apollyon
This comes from a Hebrew word meaning “destroyer”. Because he seeks to spoil all that is good and to destroy God’s works.

The Devil
This comes from the Greek word “diabolos”, which means “accuser” or “slanderer”. What the Devil does is, firstly to  tempt us to sin, and then secondly to accuse us of sinning! So we are tempted to wallow in our sins and to give up trying to be good. “May as well be hung for a sheep as for a lamb”.

The Devil is the author of all those guilt feelings which don’t go away, even when we confess our sins. (It is interesting that it is also the work of the Holy Spirit to make us feel guilty – He convicts us of our sins. But when that happens we turn to Jesus and receive forgiveness. On the other hand, the guilt feelings that the Devil produces do not lead to salvation.)

The prince of this world
Or even “the god of  this world” ( 2 Corinthians 4:4)
 This doesn’t mean that Satan is in control of the world – simply that he has power over all who do not submit to God. After all, you don’t actually have to be a Devil-worshipper or Satanist to do the Devil’s work. All you have to do is to fail to love and serve God.

As “prince” or “god” ( note the small “g”) of this world Satan has tremendous power and knowledge, but he is not all-powerful and all-knowing. Only God is. Satan’s power is limited by God and will ultimately serve God’s purposes.

We see this pre-eminently in the events of the Crucifixion. It was Satan who entered into Judas and tempted him to betray Jesus. It was Satan who motivated the enemies of Jesus when they agitated for his death. It was Satan who brought Jesus to the Cross.

But in Gods sublime purpose that very Cross was turned from defeat to victory. Through that Cross Jesus saved the human race, and indeed brought liberation to the whole universe. For all his evil intentions Satan only succeeded in fulfilling God’s plan. How amazing and mind-boggling is that!

 

Fallen angels: their activities

It is instructive to contrast the good and bad angels.

  • The good ones perpetually praise God, the bad ones perpetually curse him
  • The good ones fight God’s battles, the bad ones oppose God.
  • The good angels carry God’s messages, the bad ones try to deceive God’s people.
  • The good protect God’s people, the bad bring harm on God’s people.

They have many ways of doing these things:

  • Demons can possess people, sometimes causing physical or mental illness.
  • They possess Spiritualist mediums, impersonating the dead in order to deceive people. They lead people into occult bondage.
  • They bind and imprison humans with the ropes of fear, despair, discouragement, sorrow, lusts and temptations.

All these are ways used by the Devil and his angels to destroy God’s work.

 

But we must remember that they are on the run! They are on the losing side, and they know their cause is hopeless. Even though they are chained to hell in pits of darkness ( Jude 6). As Calvin said, “Though as spirits they are not limited to one place, they drag their chains wherever they go.”

 

Fallen angels:  their downfall

In the Parable of the Strong Man ( Matthew 12:22-29 ) Jesus likened Satan to a tyrant who has to be overcome and bound before his house can be despoiled and his captives released. Jesus himself is the one who binds Satan by his victory on the Cross.

Yes, Satan was mortally wounded at Calvary, but he still thrashes about ( as Michael Green says). He is rather like a conger eel in a fishing boat.  It is dangerous for hours after it has been caught. If you go near it it will bite your foot.

So Satan and his angels refuse to lie down and die. They still seek to harm us. But when, by faith, we stand in the victory of Christ we can bind them. Some people indeed have a special ministry of binding evil spirits and releasing the captives.  But in a sense, all Christians can bind Satan and his cohorts. Whenever we take up the weapons of love and encouragement, of joy and trust in the word of God, whenever we hold up the shield of faith we are binding Satan – we are holding back his evil purposes.
Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.  ( Revelation 12: 12)

He knows he has a lost eternity. He is destined to be cast into the bottomless pit, with all his followers  ( Revelation 20:10).
All this might seem to be a bit scary. The activity of the fallen angels is frantic and their power is great ( for the time being). But we must remember that Christ and his angels have the final victory, and we shall share in that victory if we trust in Jesus.

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Angels

October 22, 2009 at 9:25 pm · Filed under New Testament, Old testament, worship ·Tagged , ,

 

depiction of a seraph from a mediaeval manuscript

“Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?” Hebrews 1: 14

 The other day I was walking past a little “New Age”-type shop in the town which often has dubious items in its window. (Some weeks ago there was a display of items connected with witchcraft – occult books, magic wands, crystal balls, etc.) What caught my eye the other day a was a display all about angels – or rather “Angel Therapy”. Apparently a lady by the unlikely name of Doreen Virtue has made this her speciality. She has cornered the market on “angels” and has written books about how you can contact your guardian angel and get help from them. You can buy special Angel Cards which are used rather like Tarot cards to tell fortunes.

I know that none of you would ever have anything to do with such occult rubbish as this. Don’t be misled by the word “Angels” – it really has nothing to do with the angels in the Bible, or not with the good ones anyway. (There are, of course, fallen angels or demonic spirits and it is far more likely to be connected with them.)

So realizing that such a thing as “Angel Therapy” is now quite popular in some circles I thought it was a good idea to look once again at what the Bible has to say about angels. (Looking into my sermon records I see it was eleven years ago when we last looked at this topic.)

People sometimes say, “Do you belive in angels?” And I feel like answering, “Yes, I believe in angels – but not necessarily the same as the angels you believe in. I depends what you mean by “angels”.

Well, what does the word “angel” conjure up for you? If you say someone is an angel you mean they are a very good person or a very caring person. Nurses are often called angels. If you say a little girl looks like an angel you probably mean she is pretty and has fair hair. If you say a child is an angel you mean they are well behaved.

For many people angels are confused with fairies. They don’t distinguish between the former which is a powerful spiritual being mentioned in the Bible and the latter which is entirely fictional. They think of some kind of delicate creature, usually female, with wings. Our ideas have been conditioned by illustrations in fairy-tale books, and by Christmas cards as well as by the paintings of the great masters of the renaissance period.

I think we may have to jettison all these ideas and go back to the Bible if we really want to know what angels are. Think for a moment: how would we react if an angel were to appear before us at this moment. Would we say, “Oh how lovely, how cute!” or would we be struck dumb with terror?

I would suggest the latter. Indeed, most times we read about angels in the Bible, the very first thing they have to say is, “Do not be afraid”. In the Bible people are always struck with awe at the appearance of a heavenly spiritual being.

Let’s try to answer some questions about angels:

 

What is an angel?

Our text says that they are ministering spirits sent to help God’s people. They are also described as fellow-servants with us humans ( Revelation 22:8).

The word Angel comes from “Angelos” in Greek, which means simply a messenger. The Hebrew word is Malak, and that also means messenger.

Here is a dictionary definition: “Angel: a messenger of God, familiar with him face to face, and therefore of an order of being higher than that of man.”

Angels are created beings, just as we are, but holy and uncorrupted. They are moral beings – pure spirits who worship God freely. No wonder that people are always terrified when they meet an angel! Angels shine with some of the glory of God himself. They bring to us a touch of his holiness. Sometimes they are called Seraphs or “burning ones” – a reminder to us of the fact that our God is a consuming fire ( Hebrews 12:29).

As purely spiritual beings, angels exist on another plane than ours. They inhabit another spiritual dimension. But Jesus tells us at the Resurrection we shall be like the angels. We shall be raised with a new spiritual body ( 1 Corinthians 15) and we shall share in the incorruptible life of eternity.

 

What do they look like?

Who knows? As purely spiritual beings angels are not visible to us. How they appear to one another we do not know, but when they manifest themselves to us they usually take human form.

Now, if we base our ideas of angels on works of art, or Christmas cards, or children’s nativity plays we might they are delicate, fairy-like, female creatures. (It’s always the little girls who get to play the angels in the nativity play – never the little boys!) But in the Bible, on every occasion the angel appears in the form of a man, with or without wings. In Mark 16:5, for example, we read of a “young man in a white robe” appearing at he tomb of the risen Jesus. On other occasions the angel is always referred to as “he”.

As far as I know ther is only one reference in the Bible to angels taking a female form, and that was in a vision or dream. The prophet Zechariah had a vision of two angelic creatures in the form of women with wings like those of a stork (Zechariah 5:9).

However, although may use a masculine personal pronoun when speaking of an angel but that does not mean they are men. Because angels are without a biological body they do not have a gender – you do not think of them as male or female.

As for the idea of angels having wings, this seems to have come from Isaiah’s vision of the seraphim crying “Holy, holy, holy!”

“I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” (Isaiah 6:1-3)

It is interesting to note that they had six wings, not two. Why then are angels usually depicted as creatures with two wings?

 

What do angels do?

One of their tasks is to bring messages from God. Sometimes messages of good news and sometimes messages of judgement, or of warning. Sometime it is a summons to action: “Get up, get going!” For example:

· to Gideon: “Arise and go in thy might”.

· to Elijah: “Arise and eat”.

· to Joseph of Nazareth: “Go quickly”.

· to Philip: “Arise and go”.

It’s all a bit monotonous really – but then, a fire alarm is monotonous!

Sometimes the angels help God’s people in times of trouble. For example, when Elijah was worn out and depressed after the contest on Mount Carmel, the Angel of the Lord came and strengthened him.

Some angels watch over Gods people and preserve them from harm. These are known as guardian angels. In Daniel 10 we read that each a nation has its guardian angel. And Jesus refers to the guardian angels of children: “See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 18:10 )

According to Hebrews 2, the angels were active in the giving of the Law to Moses.

In the Book of Revelation it is the angels who will execute God’s final judgement.

 

How many angels are there?

Perhaps God only knows the answer to that one. There must be far more than we can imagine – Daniel 7: speaks of “myriads upon myriads”. But their number is still finite: only God is infinite.

 

How may different types are there?

Again we do not really know, but we do read of various types of angels in the Bible:

 

Cherubs (or Cherubim)

The image suggested by the word cherub is probably of a chubby, red cheeked child. That is how cherubs are depicted in the paintings of Raphael and other Renaissance artists. This image owes more to the pagan Roman Cupid than to the Bible.

Cherubs in the Bible are very different. They are the angels who guard God’s presence. Two statues of cherubs were placed above the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies.

When Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden of Eden cherubim prevented them from returning: “So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.” ( Genesis 3:24)

 

Seraphs (or Seraphim)

These seem to have a similar role to cherubim and they also worship God without ceasing.

We have already referred to guardian angels.

 

Destroying angels

At various times in the history of Israel God would bring his judgement upon the nation and send his destroying angel. The Angel of the Lord Very often the angel sent by God is referred to in these terms.

Sometimes the Angel of the Lord even seems to be a manifestation of God himself – a pre-incarnation manifestation of God the Son or an appearance of the Holy Spirit. If this is so then we are not talking of an angel here but of God himself.

 

Angel Gabriel

According to Jewish tradition there are four archangels: Gabriel, Michael, Raphael and Uriel. But in the Bible only the first two are named, and only Michael is said to be an Archangel.

 

Archangel Michael

He is the guardian angel of the people of Israel.

Reference is made in several places to various ranks of angels, but we haven’t got time to go into these now.

And then there are the fallen angels: Satan and his demons. This will be the subject of another sermon.

But going back to the good angels:

 

How do they work?

Once again we don’t really know. Often their ministry is secret and invisible. Billy graham has written a book entitled “Angels: God’s Secret Agents”. There are many instances, even today, when people have had food provided apparently miraculously, or have been saved from danger by what seems to be angelic intervention.

Only on occasions of supreme significance in the history of our salvation do angels reveal themselves. For example: in the life of Jesus. Angels ministered at his birth, his temptation, at the Garden of Gethsemane, at the Resurrection and at the Ascension.

 

Why are angels so often unseen?

Perhaps it is because if we could see them we would be tempted to worship them, as John was in the Book of Revelation:

I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me. But he said to me, “Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers the prophets and of all who keep the words of this book. Worship God!” ( Revelation 22:8-9 )

In the Early Church there were some groups who worshipped angels. The Letter to the Hebrews was written to combat this heresy. In it the writer compares Christ to the angels and stresses his superiority over them.

 

Why do people so often misrepresent angels?

Why do they persist in seeing angel as fairy-like creatures? It’s surely because every picture they have seen in the media, in books, in popular art has been influenced by the art of the renaissance. This in turn has come down from images of Greek and Roman Pagan gods in classical art. If people read the Bible they would have a much better idea of what angels are.

 

Conclusion

Why should we think about angels? You might be thinking, “This is all a bit theoretical. What practical help is it to the Christian life?” A great deal, I would say.

Angels are holy and awesome beings who reflect God’s holiness and power. Read all the passages in the Bible about angels and you will inevitably be led to think about God’s holiness and to worship him.

Too often we let our worship sink to the merely human, mundane level. But we don’t just come to church to feel better, or to be entertained, or to meet people. We come to worship and honour God.

Often nowadays, in many churches in Wales, it is a small group of ten or less people gathering to worship. For them it is a great source of encouragement to know that the glory of God in worship does not depend on the number of people attending. However small our congregation we know we are joined by countless millions of angels in our worship of God. Let us be encouraged as we remind ourselves that our faith is not just of this world.

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