KJV Sermon Outlines

ANGELS

Bible Reading: 2 Kings 6:8-17 and Hebrews 1:14.

Aim: To be encouraged from God's teaching about His angels ministering to us.

Introduction:
Is there intelligent life apart from man in the universe? Yes. Are they friend or foe? They are both. Is their civilization older than ours? It is. Will we ever communicate with them? Some people have already. Who are these extraterrestrials? They are angels.

The Word "angel" occurs 273 times in Scripture. (108 times in Old Testament, 165 times in New Testament). In the Greek New Testament it is "angelos", in the Hebrew Old Testament it is "mal'ak", both meaning messenger. It basically means "one who is sent".

In Biblical appearances, angels always manifest themselves as males, never as women or children.

Moses and the tabernacle craftsmen knew what winged cherubim angels look like, because they made two cherubim of gold on the ark of the covenant (Exodus 37:6-9), as did Solomon (1 Kings 6;23-32).

Balaam's donkey saw the angel but Balaam did not. (Numbers 22:31). They have selective visibility.

The main tasks of angels are to:
1. Deliver messages from God to man (Daniel 9:21-23).
2. Encouraging and ministering to people's needs (1 Kings 19:1-8).
3. Opposing the work of Satan and demons (Daniel 10:20).

Benefits of studying the doctrine of angels are:
1. They constantly watch our lives. Hence we will improve our conduct.
2. They protect us, hence we understand God's care for us (Hebrews 1:7).
3. As we see their great strength and authority as they humbly perform small tasks, we learn to serve God with humility also.
4. As God created many holy, powerful angels who worship Him, so we are encouraged to worship God (Revelation 22:8, 9).
5. Understanding the angelic conflict helps us to be more committed to winning the spiritual war for people's souls.
6. As God opposes and judges wicked angels, so He will oppose and judge us if we fall into sin.
7. Much evil in this world is from evil angels. This helps us to understand human affairs.
8. We will be more cautious to watch for the deception of evil angels.
9. As angels deliver us from danger, so we can trust our lives to God who sends them (Hebrews 1:14).
1. As angels are completely devoted to God and ready to serve Him, so should we follow their example. Their unceasing service should motivate us to more devoted service to God.

I. EXISTENCE OF ANGELS.
Jesus, Paul and most great Bible characters taught their existence. In Matthew 4:11, angels ministered to Christ after His wilderness temptation. The word "angel" first occurs in Genesis 16:7, where the angel of the Lord ministered to Hagar after Sarah had mistreated her (1913 BC). The existence of angels is tied to the reliability of the testimony of Christ and the Bible.
 

II. ORIGIN OF ANGELS.
Angels, like man, were created by a special act of God. They were not formerly men, nor did they evolve, but were created as angels, and do not procreate (Matthew 22:28-30). They are called "sons of God" (Job 1:6; 2:1) because they are directly created by God.
"All the sons of God" shouted with joy at the creation of the earth (Job 38:4-7), shows that God created angels before He created the earth.
"Praise ye him, all his angels......for he commanded, and they were created." Ps 148:2,5.
Jesus Christ created them all (John 1:1-3, Colossians 1:16).
The purpose of their creation was to glorify and worship Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:6; Revelation 4:11).

III. THE FALL OF ANGELS.
1. The Fact of their Fall. All angels were created sinless, but Lucifer who wanted to be like the Most High (Isaiah 14:27-17, Note his five "I wills") through pride led a rebellion of angels against God. Ezekiel 28:15-17 describes Satan's fall. Some angels are evil (Psalm 78:49; Matthew 25:41; Revelation 9:11; 12:7-9). This is because they left their own principality and proper habitation (Jude 6) and sinned (2 Peter 2:4).
2. The Time of their Fall. Their fall occurred before the fall of man.
3. The Cause of their Fall. Angels were created perfect with every affection of their heart directed to God.

Question: How could such a being turn away from God?
Answer: Their fall was due to their deliberate, self-determined revolt against God. They chose self and their interests in preference to God and His interests.

Question: What motive caused their revolt?
Answer: Undue ambition and the desire to surpass God, along with great prosperity, beauty, selfishness, pride, discontentment with what they had, and craving to get all that everyone else had. The cause of Satan's fall, was the cause of the fall of other evil angels.

IV. THE RESULT OF THEIR FALL.
a) All of them lost their original holiness and became corrupt in nature and conduct (Matthew 10:1).
b) Some were cast down to hell (Tartarus) and are held there in chains until the judgment day (2 Peter 2:4).
c) Some are left free to oppose the work of good angels (Revelation 12:7-9; Daniel 10:12,13,20,21).
A. Number of Angels.
"to an innumerable company of angels". Hebrews 12:22
"And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands." (Revelation 5:11)
The number of angels is innumerable, 200 million is just an initial estimate of what John could see around God's throne. Hence angels constitute an exceedingly large number which cannot be counted. There is no increase or decrease in their number because they neither reproduce nor die.

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