The Angel Gabriel – Part 1 of 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Most people take their definition of angels from the culture and its books and TV shows. It's far better to define them the way the Bible does. And so today we'll hear a biblical doctrine of angels as we learn more about the role of Gabriel in the Christmas story.

Stay with us. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, it seems from the Bible that angels exist in a hierarchy of authority.

Any idea how many ranks there are? Well Dave, I can't answer your question specifically but this we know they are highly organized. That's also true of the evil spirit world, the principalities and the powers. And of course we know about the archangel. But this we know all of the good angels do God's will consistently, all of them bringing glory to the Lord. Well, as we think about Christmas, of course we always think about angels but we also have to make spiritual preparation because the brand new year is just around the corner. And this is one of the last days we're making a devotional available to you entitled God's Best for My Life, Daily Inspirations for a Deeper Walk with God.

For a gift of any amount, this can be yours. We thank you so much for praying about the possibility of supporting this ministry. But here's the contact info.

Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. And how we thank God for the angels that obey his will. Gabriel was sent by God. Secondly, Gabriel understood God's word. Now let's pick up the text. It says that he said to her, greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you, verse 29.

But she was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the most high and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom.

There will be no end. Three things that Gabriel says about Jesus and then three job descriptions that will involve Jesus. The first is his name shall be called Jesus, Savior, Yeshua, Messiah. You're going to bear him, Mary. Second, he shall be great and most assuredly he shall be great and he shall be the son of the most high, which indicates his rank, his position, and even his eternality as the son of God. So Mary, just understand that this is not an ordinary baby. You are going to bear Messiah. And then he goes on to say that he will have a throne, he will have a house, and he will have a kingdom.

He will reign over the house of David. Now I have to ask you, how do you think Mary understood this? Do you think that she understood this to mean that Jesus was going to rule in heaven?

I don't think so. I think she actually thought that Jesus was going to rule over the territory over which David ruled. That there is a coming kingdom yet on this earth when the law shall go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem and they shall beat their swords into plow shears and their spears into pruning hooks and there's going to be a time of peace and prosperity and Jesus is going to rule.

I think that's the way in which he understood it. But I want you to know that Gabriel here is quoting scripture, 2 Samuel chapter 7 verse 16, and oftentimes passages of scripture which may not intrigue us may really intrigue angels who are interested in God's purposes and ways in the world. So he understands the word of God and connects this word with the birth of the Messiah. And then he understands God's ways because she quite naturally asks him how shall this be verse 34 because I am a virgin and the angel answered her the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you therefore the child will be born who will be born will be called Holy the Son of God. Gabriel says you have to understand something Mary we're talking about a God of miracles a God who can overshadow you and you don't need this child does not need a father. One day I was talking to a young man who was pastor of a small church and he said I'm going to resign and I'm going to go to university going to go to seminary and I said why he said because there was someone in my church who didn't believe in the virgin birth and so he said I need to be able to answer how that could come about. I said well it's good that you want to go to seminary and university but I want you to know that you will not discover through your studies how that can come about because that is a miracle that is done by God and only God knows how he does miracles only God knows how he creates.

You've heard me say that if you want to be like God take nothing into the laboratory and and stay there as long as you need to until you create a molecule out of nothing but like I always say take your lunch you're going to be there a very long time. We don't know how God did it God can do it and and today the virgin birth in the minds of some people is optional you know it's optional to believe in the virgin birth. There are pastors here in this city who are teaching today at Christmas time that it's optional that you believe in the virgin birth.

What they do not understand is it is necessary to our faith because the virgin birth preserves the sinlessness of Jesus. If Jesus had been a sinner he couldn't be a redeemer because he could not be a part of our predicament and redeem us and so his sinlessness had to be preserved and so it was a miraculous conception and Gabriel understands this and says to her I love verse 37 for nothing will be impossible with God we're not dealing here with human medical limitations nothing is going to be impossible with God and Mary says behold behold the servant of the Lord let it be to me according to your word and the angel Gabriel departs from her. Can't you imagine him going back to heaven and giving a report and saying God just want you to know mission accomplished right woman right message right answer it's all been done and Gabriel awaits his next assignment. Now as you stop to think of it when Joseph was told about this he did have a dream and an angel did appear to him in the dream because God willed it so and so it may have been the same angel maybe it was Gabriel though the angels name is not given to us. I'd like to take these thoughts today and and help us have three transforming lessons that we need to learn more broadly from the whole doctrine the biblical doctrine of angels. First of all the ministry of angels is limited to God's people it's limited to God's people Hebrews 1 14 are they not all ministering spirits and forth to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation. Angels protect us they guard us and they will meet us at death.

You remember when the rich man died he went into Hades but when Lazarus the poor man died he was carried by angels to Abraham's bosom. I would think that at the death of a Christian though they are usually invisible angels are there to escort the person the soul into the very presence of almighty God. Now how do angels minister to us sometimes maybe invisibly invisibly sometimes visibly and they take the appearance of a person the appearance of a man and and and events may happen events may happen on earth that that we look back and we say you know maybe I met an angel because even the angels of scripture it says some have entertained them unawares when Abraham had three angels and they came to him and he actually fed them and they ate with him. So so it may well be that sometimes they appear as people and you have these strange occurrences I think of a car accident in Canada where three three Christians were killed the driver his life was spared actually he was driving along and hit ice and a great van came great semi-truck killed three people. It was said by witnesses that after the accident for a few moments there was a man who is at the vicinity the car who later on disappeared and was seen no more. I don't know but the wonder if it could be an angel at the scene of an accident. Would you like to hear a an angel story that Rebecca and I have had?

I'm not sure absolutely that it was angels but we have no other explanation for what happened to us. One day when we were newly married about 1971 or so we were on our way to Canada for Christmas. We crossed the U.S. border into that tundra called Saskatchewan cold blowing wind maybe zero degrees high wind snow. We drove a mile or two on the other side of the border on the highway and virtually no traffic and the car begins to swerve and I notice that something obviously is wrong and I get out I'm not dressed very well certainly not dressed for that weather discover that we have a flat tire on the back the tire is flat.

As I say we were not dressed well we should have known better. Now what is it that you do? We thought about it for a moment and on a side road on a side road now these are the kinds of roads that farmers use a couple times a year you understand this is not highly traveled. On a side road a car is coming very very slowly we see its lights it turns right beside us the window rolls down and the man says you know can we help you I said yeah I have a flat they said you stay in the car we're going to change it for you. I said who are you and they said oh we're just going around looking for people to help like you.

Oh okay it's fine. Now you know when when you have a flat tire and and you're driving and and you're on your way to somewhere there's suitcases in the back and they all have to be taken out now you have to understand I'm the kind of person who doesn't know which end to pick up a screwdriver with you know and I could probably change a flat tire on a real nice sunny day with daylight and if I began early in the morning it'll probably be changed by night maybe. So these men go to work as they are finishing up I do go out of the car and go to the back to thank them I want to pay them oh no no no no you know we're just we're just here to help you all right fine thank you very very much. Now as we are leaving to drive onto the highway we look in the rearview mirror and what do we expect we expect these people to continue on in the highway because after all they were just going this was just a nice juxtaposition of events. What they do is they turn around in the highway and then they go back that same old country road and disappear in the distance. Where in the world those guys come from and where in the world did they go if they weren't angels all that I can say is we sure we sure had the protection and the guidance of a sovereign God in some way but you know so angels are sent to help people yesterday someone in the church I told this story to and she said that when she was walking in a very dangerous place in Chicago she met a man who seemed to be very unique nicely dressed who warned her don't go in this direction go in that direction and she just took it as the direction of God. Again maybe we can't be sure but the Bible says that they are ministering spirits and forth to minister for those who are heirs of salvation and if we had time we could look at the way in which angels minister to Jesus when he's there in the desert and he's he's hungry and he's weak angels come and they minister to him after his confrontation with Satan and you think of many stories one more from a friend of ours who's written a book and I won't go into the details it's not a book about angels it was just thrown in she was in an airport in Eastern Europe and didn't know where to go and didn't have the right papers to leave the country when it was under communism and a very well-dressed man came to her and said to her I know the papers that you need get into the car with me and we'll go get them. She never met him before no conversations now normally a woman should never get in the car with a man but she felt so confident that this man was right that she went he went picked up the papers and they came back to the airport he helped her there with her luggage and she turned to thank him and he was gone never did see him angels ministering spirits you say well do they ever minister to the unsaved well I do know this that the Bible is very clear that angels do perform a function to those who do not know Christ as Savior but unfortunately according to the book of Revelation it is a function of judgment you have Jesus returning from heaven in flaming fire and his holy angels taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ these angels are not out there doing all kinds of miracles for anyone no matter what you believe God sovereignly may help those but let's remember that they are sent forth as ministers ministers to those who are heirs of salvation these are God's holy angels so first of all angels their ministry is limited to God's people and of course there are miracles that fallen angels do too you understand so some of the angel stories undoubtedly are true even though they may be performed by the wrong side of the spirit world secondly angels I believe and we're talking about the holy angels they have a particular interest in redemption a particular interest in redemption and we can understand why here they were with her colleagues and a man by the name of Lucifer decided to keep some of the glory to himself evidently he was a choir master he had the responsibility of getting glory and making sure that all the glory in the universe was going to God and he began to keep some back he began to hold some to himself and that began of course the whole chain of sin and if we read revelation correctly if it is true that a third of the angels spell you can understand now that the other two-thirds are saying wow our colleagues fell into disobedience and they are going to be in hell forever and there can be no redemption for them absolutely not you say well what if they wanted to be redeemed they could not be redeemed because there was no sacrifice made for them the Bible says in the book of Hebrews he took not upon himself the form of angels he took upon himself the form of the seed of Abraham to redeem us he had to become like those whom he redeems so now the angels are beginning to see that we fell really as far as Satan did in our rebellion and now God is going to remain just and become the justifier of those who believe in Jesus and and this intrigues them I believe greatly that's why they desire to look into these things and then the fact that we shall be exalted above them and have privileges that they could never possibly have because we're brothers and sisters of Jesus which they could never be because they're ontologically different all of that I think holds their fascination and so angels angels observe today the church there's a passage in first Corinthians that says of speaking about the order of the way in which things should be done for the church it says you should do this because of the angels because they're watching our worship and are very interested in God's redemption so much so that when in it when a sinner repents there are angels in heaven that rejoice wouldn't it be wonderful this morning if the angels would rejoice because someone at the moody church repented and received Christ a savior and then finally we admire angels we admire them but we never worship them never invite them into our dreams if God wants to send an angel to give you a dream let God make that decision when we open our lives there are other angels out there as I mentioned who may take advantage of our naivete and and listen to this passage of scripture from John now if we saw an angel if an angel walked into this church if an angel came in today the first temptation that you and I would have is to bow before it if we saw it in its glistening beauty and purity and strength and power we we'd be tempted to fall down that's what John did in revelation chapter 22 he hears this revelation from an angel and I John am one who heard and saw these things and when I heard and saw them I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me but he said to me you must not do that I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets and with those who keep the words of this book worship God the angel says when you go into a new age bookstore you have all these people who are fascinated with angels what we need to be reminded of is worship God and come to God through his son which is the only way that worship can be received by him angels can be admired but they're never never to be worshiped our hearts belong to God alone let's pray together our father we want to thank you so much for angels thank you for Gabriel thank you for Michael who contends with those angels that fell thank you father that you sent forth ministering spirits to us and that because of this we have the assurance that we are never alone you're always with us and your angels as well help us in this age of confusion and for those who have never trusted Christ as Savior they've never reached out and believed on him caused them to do that today we pray in fact if you have not believed on Christ could I speak to you now and say whoever you are listening at this moment say Jesus I receive you as mine I receive your cleansing and your forgiveness I desire to be reconciled to you and now father I speak to you again as father as God is Lord for those of us who know you we pray that this Christmas season might be one of great joy and the opportunity to share with others the warmth of the father's home and the forgiveness of the father's love we pray in Jesus blessed name amen amen you know you'd be surprised at the number of people who like to be fascinated with angels because they think that surely angels are more accessible than God but of course that's a deception well we have Christmas just around the corner and of course after Christmas comes the new year have you made spiritual preparation for January 1st beginning then well we have a devotional for you and this is one of the last days that we are making it available it's entitled God's best for my life daily inspirations for a deeper walk with God of course you need contact info here's what you can do go to RTW offer.com of course RTW offer is all one word or you can pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337 now because this is a matter of some urgency one of the last days as I've mentioned that we are making this resource available I'm going to be giving you that contact info again but thank you so much for your prayers and for your support of this ministry we do not take it for granted but as you think about the new year think of the devotional God's best for my life here's what you do go to RTW offer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337 that's RTW offer of course as I mentioned all one word RTW offer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337 you can write to us at running to win 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard Chicago Illinois 60614 the Christmas carols tell us of a host of angels appearing over the birthplace of Jesus angels are messengers and this appearance marked the greatest message ever told that unto you is born a savior next time on running to win join us as we relive a blaze of light over the small town of Bethlehem running to win is sponsored by the Moody Church.