Notes of Meeting Sunday 5th December 2021

HOLY CHILD, who chose the hearts of men

How did he save us from the punishment of our sin?                                                          

Hebrews 9.26 “Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.”

Jesus didn’t ask us to remember his birth particularly but remember his death often through the emblems of bread and wine.  Even at Christmas as we adore Him in the manger we must also look to the cross where he died for us. It is there where our salvation was obtained.                                                                                                                                   

Breaking of Bread       

Brian’s Message

ANGELS

I wonder how far you’ve got your preparations for Christmas. You’ve maybe got out the lists of people you want to send cards to this year, and maybe started culling the list a little. Perhaps you’ve even ordered a turkey, in the probably false belief they may be in short supply this year. And you are almost certainly already getting worried about what on earth you can give to so-and-so who’s got everything this year.

Well, just over 2000 years ago, some very special people were getting busy preparing to do some important work for the boss. I’m thinking of course of the angels in heaven – who had to awake from their slumbers and get off down to earth to bring some wonderful news to people in Palestine.

No Christmas decorations would be complete without the images of angels, often represented by fairies and given pride of place on the top of the Christmas tree. But what more do we know about angels – who are they, what did they do in biblical times, and are they still around today?

I want us today to look at what the Bible tells about angels – how God used them, how we should view them.

Firstly, some facts about angels.

1. Where did they come from? We know from Psalm 148: 1 – 5 that they are created beings, made by God for a purpose – in this Psalm they are seen as just part of the heavenly hosts bringing praise to the name of the Lord.

                So as eternal created beings they are still in existence today.

2. We know too from what Jesus is recorded as saying in Matthew 18: 10 that they “behold the face of the Father in heaven”. So they are indeed heavenly beings.

3. When are they first mentioned in the bible? We find in Gen 16:7 that “the angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert”. Hagar was Abram’s servant girl whom he had  married in order to have children, because he and his wife Sarai were childless. She had run away from Abram’s home into the neighbouring desert after a disagreement with Sarai.

The angel brought her words of instruction and encouragement Genesis 16: 9 – 11 “Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” The angel added, “I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count”. What a promise that was to receive from God.

So here we find the principal role of the angels – that of being a messenger from the Lord. He had heard the cries of anguish from Hagar – and He responds by sending an angel as his messenger.

4. When Moses had his encounter with God in Horeb, it was initially the “angel of the Lord” that appeared to him from the burning bush, although it’s later related that it was God himself who spoke to him and gave him some amazing promises and instructions.
5. Sometimes we find the angels appearing as men – for instance to Abraham under the trees of Mamre; and to Lot as he sat at the gateway to the city of Sodom, where we find him prepared to welcome and care for the angels just as he would have looked after any other visitors.
6. Sometimes we read of an individual angel, and even on their own they clearly have very great power. In 2 Kings 19: 35, in response to the prayers of king Hezekiah on behalf of the Jewish nation when under attack by Sennacherib the king of Assyria we read “that night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death 185, 000 men in the Assyrian camp”. A mighty response to the needs of the nation at that time.
7. In other places, we find reference to much larger numbers. After he was arrested, remember Jesus claimed he could call down more than 12 legions of angels to his defence – that’s 72,000 angels – if he chose so to do. And in Revelation 5: 11 John speaks about his vision of heaven and “the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand” as they brought praise and worship to the Christ, the Lamb of God upon the throne.

So much then for a background introduction to angels.

As we approach the time for our Christmas celebrations, our thoughts inevitably go back to the events recorded for us in the writings of Matthew and Luke. Each give us their own accounts of the dramatic events which surrounded the coming of the Saviour Jesus Christ into our world.

It was an event that had been foretold by many prophets, even down to detailing the location of his birth. Many had long since given up on the thought of the Messiah ever coming to their aid as a nation, although a faithful few were still looking out for his coming.

Their nation had over the centuries been taken captive by the mighty Assyrian and Babylonian armies – God had allowed them to suffer as a result of their refusal to remain faithful to him. In the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi in about 430 BC addresses the Jews as they began to return from captivity, focussing in particular on their need to restore their relationship with the God of their forefathers. They had the opportunity to return to God, and to know his blessings upon the nation, if only they would listen and change their ways.

Malachi concludes his message with these words: (Malachi 4: 5 & 6)

This was of course foretelling the coming of John the Baptist who in turn would herald the coming of the long-promised Messiah, but the people were to wait a long time for this to happen.

The 400 years between Malachi and the events of the New Testament were a time of complete silence from God – no genuine new prophets, no visits by angels. God had of course spoken in the past, through many prophets to whom he had given words of challenge to the people – would they listen and know His blessings, or would they continue to reject his voice? God obviously hoped that his people would respond and return to Him.

It’s evident that many did, because by the time Jesus came the spiritual life of the nation had changed. Instead of being focussed on the temple in Jerusalem, synagogues had opened up all over the country, where teachers of the law and the people could gather for worship and teaching.

The nation of Israel had been conquered by a number of the great powers, culminating in the takeover of the nation by the Romans in 63 BC. This resulted in the Jews having to pay their Roman bosses large sums of money to help finance, amongst other things, the Roman aspirations for road building throughout their empire.

The Jews were living under the authority of the ruler installed by Rome – firstly by Antipater, then by his son, Herod – Herod the Great, as he became known. And it was during his reign that God’s silence ended. Although the Jews had been allowed freedom to worship, they actually longed for much more, in fact for the coming of the Messiah, who they believed would be a warrior-king, setting the nation free from being under the authority of the hated Romans.

It’s interesting how the years of silence from God come to an end. Luke tells us in his gospel, in a passage we often hear read as we approach Christmas, (read Luke 1: 5 – 13)

There was Zechariah, getting on with the jobs he had so faithfully carried out for so many years. He wasn’t on his own, because we read “a great crowd stood outside, praying”. That support must have meant a lot to Zechariah as he carried out his priestly duties. How good it is to know that people are praying for you, especially when you’ve got some particularly onerous tasks to carry out

Suddenly something happened which was different – an angel of the Lord appears and speaks to him. Luke says he was “shaken and overwhelmed with fear” – I guess any of us would feel the same if an angel appeared right in front of us, just as we were getting on with our daily duties. The message the angel delivered was from God, who had heard the prayerful pleas of Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth, and they were now to be gifted with the son they had been seeking for so long.

At first, Zechariah doubts the words of the angel, and seeks assurance that this is for real. So the angel tells him a bit more about his authority (v19) “I am Gabriel! I stand in the very presence of God. It was he who sent me to bring you this good news”.

It’s interesting to note this was the same angel whom God had sent to Daniel, of lion’s den fame, some 500 years previously. And here he is now, breaking the long silence from heaven, and bringing great words of encouragement to his faithful servant Zechariah.

I won’t complete the story today – no doubt we will hear more in the course of our Christmas celebrations.

But this wasn’t the end of the angel Gabriel’s work that year. Just some 6 months or so later, we find him back again on another mission, this time to a teenage girl named Mary.

Luke 1: 26 – 31

Just imagine yourself – at the age of 15 or 16 – being confronted by an angel. You’ve heard about angels appearing in the past to some very great people, but.. wow, to me? What have I done to deserve this?

The text says she was “troubled” as the angel introduced himself – another rendering says she was “confused and disturbed” – I guess that could be described as an understatement.

But she remained calm and listened to what Gabriel had so say. And she concluded her time with him by saying “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true”. Then the angel left her.

So Mary now knew what her task was to be – God has spoken through the angel Gabriel, and she accepted what she heard.

We also find that an un-named angel appeared in a dream to Joseph, Mary’s fiancée. He was to take Mary as his wife, and the child she was to bear was to be named Jesus. We read that “Joseph did as the angel of the Lord commanded”, taking Mary as his wife.

These appearances of the angel Gabriel and another angel are of course only the beginning of angelic activity that we read about in the New Testament. Some 9 months later, we find one angel appearing to a group of startled shepherds on a hillside just outside Bethlehem, and telling them of the birth of Jesus. Having given them the news, we find he is joined by a vast host of other angels appearing in the night sky, all praising God. “Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased”. It seems they didn’t hang around too long, because we read that it was “after they had returned to heaven” that the shepherds decided to go to Bethlehem to check out for themselves the truth of the angel’s message.

When Jesus was still young, we find an angel appearing to Joseph again – this time telling him to escape with Mary and the babe into Egypt, to escape from the hands of Herod. Again, Joseph was obedient to what he heard from God through his angel.

The next time that we read of angels in the gospel records is when Jesus had successfully countered the temptations which the devil put in front of Him. Matthew tells us the devil went away , and “angels came and took care of Jesus”. God knew Jesus’ time of need, and was right there to support him through his angels.

And on the great day of resurrection, we read that it was angels who opened up the tomb, and announced to Jesus’ followers that he had indeed risen from the dead.

If we had time, we could look at other incidents in Jesus’ life, and in the teaching of the New Testament writers regarding angels. But I want to close by putting angels into perspective. We could quite easily get so taken up with the wonder of angels that we begin to worship them, as many peop0le have done down through the centuries.

In the last chapter of the book of Revelation, the apostle John wrote these words: Rev 22:8 & 9

So we see the angel pointing out very clearly to John that he is not be worshipped, as he, like John, is simply a servant of God. And therefore his worship must be directed to God, and to Him alone. Sadly, many false teachers in the early church taught that God could be approached only through angels. In Hebrews 1: 4 the writer, having spoken about Christ as radiating God’s own glory and character, goes on to say: ”This shows that the son is far greater than the angels, just as the name God gave Him is greater than their names.” And later in v6 we read “When he brought his supreme Son into the world, God said “Let all of God’s angels worship him.””

So, when you receive or send a Christmas card with a traditional angel on the front, what will come into your mind? The angel on the top of the Christmas tree, or perhaps a reminder to you of the wondrous things which God has done for mankind through his angels? But remember – don’t worship them, but give all the glory to the Lord Jesus Christ who alone is worthy of our praise.

We’ve focused on angelic activity today. But you might well ask “Why don’t we see angels today?”.

Remember their primary roll was to be God’s messengers. Hebrews 1: 1 & 2 tell us that “God spoke in the past in various ways , but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.” So does he really need to say any more? He has also given to believers his indwelling Holy Spirit to comfort, to teach and to guide us through life. He has also made his precious word available to us.  So do we need anything further? You could say the angels are redundant – but scripture tells us they are in fact very active in heaven, and are awaiting the great and glorious day of Christ’s return to this troubled world.

May God bless us this Christmas time as we reflect once again upon the events of over 2000 years ago – when God spoke – through his angels – and through his gift of Jesus to mankind.

SONG: 24 Angel voices ever singing

Notices:

1. Wednesday 7.30pm Bible Study on Zoom
2. Saturday at 11am – Carols in Town Centre led by Churches for Horley
3. Next Sunday – speaker is Ken Cowell
4. Advance Notices

• Sunday 19^th December – Carol Service
• Dec 25^th – Christmas Day service at 10.30am
• Dec 26^th – NO services