What a great group of servants God has in his church! The servants in the church are like God’s servants in Heaven—the angels. God has created these great servants to accomplish his purposes and serve his saints. They are great examples for us to learn to emulate.

 

What are angels like?

Angels are not divine.

Angels are part of God’s creation.

Angels have rank and order.

Angels praise God

Angels are not the popular expressions seen in Hallmark.

Angels are powerful agents of God’s providence.

 

Angels are inferior to Christ

One of the first things we need to recognize about angels is their inferiority to Christ. Hebrews 1:5-13 describes the superiority of Christ.  For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”? Or again, “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son”? ⁶ And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.” ⁷ Of the angels he says, “He makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire.” ⁸ But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. ⁹ You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.” ¹⁰ And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; ¹¹ they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, ¹² like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.” ¹³ And to which of the angels has he ever said, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”? ¹⁴ Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation? ^[1]

Despite what some may claim, Jesus was not an angel. Jesus is a member of the Godhead.

 

Angels are God’s Servants of Providence

God’s angels are servants to accomplish his will and his purposes. We can see God’s angels working in specific ways in the Old Testament and the New Testament. We must assume that God’s angels continue to work his providence to day.

Psalm 103:20, Bless the LORD o you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word! Bless the LORD, all his hosts, his ministers, who do his will!

Hebrews 1:7, “of the angels his says, He makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire.”

Psalm 104:4

 

Angels are interested in God’s Plan of Redemption

Their interest in the Old Testament

Acts 7:38, 53, Moses is “the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai” “you received the law as delivered by angels.

Galatians 3:19, the law was “put in place through angels by an intermediary.”

Hebrews 2:2, “For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable”

Their interest in the New Testament

1 Peter 1:10-12, “Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be your searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequence glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit from Heaven.”

 

Angels serve the saved

Hebrews 1:14, ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation.

Exodus 23:23, “When my angels goes before you and brings you to the Amorites…I will blot them out.”

Numbers 20:16, “When we cried to the LORD he heard our voice and sent an angel and brought us out of Egypt.”

Isaiah 63:9, “the angels of his presence saved them;”

1 Kings 19:5, Elijah lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him rise and eat. And he looked and behold there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again. And the angel of the LORD came again a second time and said, ‘Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.”

I wonder how the angels are serving now?

 

Angels are agents of God’s providence

Exodus 23:20, Behold I send my angel before you to guard you on the way and bring you to the place that I have prepared.

Psalm 91:11-12, “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.”

Psalm 34:7, “The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him and delivers them.

Matthew 18:10, “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.”

 

Be “an angel”

Be a servant of God

Serve God’s plan of salvation

Serve God’s servants

Serve God’s will.

^[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016), Heb 1:5–14.