Scripture Luke 2:8-15
Luke 2:8-20
And there were shepherds living out in
the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the
Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they
were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you
good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of
David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign
to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly
host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in
the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." When the
angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another,
"Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the
Lord has told us about."
The
angels came from heaven and the angels returned to heaven.
How
many times have there been such a visit from the angels to earth?
The
multitude must have been waiting in the “wings” ready to burst onto the stage
to celebrate what “an” angel was announcing. Angels are not human, but they
have intelligence and reasoning capabilities – enough so that Lucifer
challenged God’s authority. Therefore – it’s not like they are sitting around
playing chess till God needs something done. The birth of Christ was planed at
least since Genesis 3:15 – or shortly after Adam and Eve were disobedient and
sinned against God.
Have you ever wanted to tell some one
some really good news but someone else is right there almost jumping over your
words and telling their version or their excitement about it? What the angel
announced feels like a complete thought, but he could have also had more to say
but the multitude were right there on his coat tails shouting how excited they
were about this news. How many is a multitude (Dan. & Rev. suggest there
are at least a million…but a million would have been seen by many. But what did
the multitude say? The record of what they said is one sentence with one comma.
"Glory to God in the highest, and
on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."
The angels are not saying – “Way to go
humanity – your sin has brought about this great event!” They are saying – “Way
to go God, you deserve all the glory, honor and praise for this eternal
redemptive act you are performing at this very moment” Think about it, when did the angels announce
it? Right after Jesus was born – right after access to the tree of life was
granted once again.
What do I mean? Angels were involved
with this one two – in fact, the first angels we are introduced to in scripture
are in place till this moment – and really until Jesus death and resurrection –
but this announcement tells them, that their job they have been exercising
since the beginning of time is about to come to an end, which will bring great
glory to God and favor to men.
Gen
3:22-24
And the Lord
God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil.
He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of
life and eat, and live forever." 23 So the Lord God banished him from the
Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 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.
Ezekiel mentions Cherubim in prophecy
for the end times. The OT mentions them often but every instance is about the
Golden Cherubim crafted on top of the ark of the Covenant.
How did angels appear to people in the
Bible?
The
Bible acknowledges the existence of angels and records visits by them to people
on earth.
Angels appeared to people in the Bible in three ways.
First, some angels appeared to people in a recognizable form,
even seeming to be human. For example, the angel that announced the virgin
birth to Mary appeared in some kind of recognizable form (Luke 1:26-38), as did the angel who appeared to the shepherds and the
angelic multitude who praised God (Luke 2:8-15). The angels who appeared to Abraham and Lot in Genesis 18—19 were humans from the men's standpoint.
Second, other angels appeared to people in dreams. This was
especially true surrounding the birth of Jesus. An angel appeared to Joseph in
a dream to tell him to take Mary as his wife and that their son would be Jesus,
the Messiah (Matthew 1:20-21). An angel also
appeared to Joseph in another dream to warn him to flee to Egypt with his
family (Matthew 2:13).
Third, some angels appeared to people in visions. This was true
of Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1 and 10), as well as John's vision in Revelation. These visions
were distinct from dreams, as they took place when the individuals were awake.
However, these visions were also different from appearances in which angels
came to people in a recognizable way, or as humans, and could be seen by
others.
Do angels appear to people today?
Perhaps
this is one reason Hebrews 13:2 teaches,
"Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have
entertained angels unawares." We cannot plan for angelic encounters or
simply seek them. God controls when and if an angel will appear to minister to
someone in need.
Angel’s
are God’s messengers and sometimes those messages come with great joy, like
announced at the birth of Christ – and yet surrounding that birth was great tragedy
with the death of all male babies in
Bethlehem – and the future death of the son of God. God can bring good
for us no matter how the message is delivered.
I hurried into
the local department store to grab some last-minute Christmas gifts. I looked
at all the people and grumbled to myself. I would be in here forever and I just
had so much to do. Christmas was beginning to become such a drag. I kinda
wished that I could just sleep through Christmas. But I hurried the best I
could through all the people to the toy department. Once again I kind of
mumbled to myself at the prices of all these toys. And wondered if the
grandkids would even play with them.
I found myself
in the doll aisle. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a little boy about 5
holding a lovely doll. He kept touching her hair and he held her so gently. I
could not seem to help myself. I just kept looking over at the little boy and
wondered who the doll was for. I watched him turn to a woman and he called his
aunt by name and said, "Are you sure I don't
have enough money" She replied a bit impatiently, "You know that you don't have enough money for it.”
The aunt told the little boy not to go anywhere that she had to go get some
other things and would be back in a few minutes. And then she left the aisle.
The boy continued to hold the doll.
After a bit I
asked the boy who the doll was for. He said, "It
is the doll my sister wanted so badly for Christmas. She just knew that Santa
would bring it." I told him that maybe Santa was going to bring it.
He said "No, Santa can't go where my sister
is...I have to give the doll to my Momma to take to her". I asked
him where his sister was.
He looked at me
with the saddest eyes and said, "She has gone
to be with Jesus". My Daddy says that Momma is going to have to go
be with her. My heart nearly stopped beating. Then the boy looked at me again
and said, "I told my Daddy to tell Momma not
to go yet. I told him to tell her to wait till I got back from the store".
Then he asked me if I wanted to see his picture. I told him I would love to. He
pulled out some pictures he'd had taken at the front of the store. He said
"I want my Momma to take this with her so she
don't ever forget me. I love my Momma so
very much and I wish she did not have to leave me. But Daddy says she will need to be with my sister."
I saw that the
little boy had lowered his head and had grown so very quiet. While he was not
looking I reached into my purse and pulled out a handful of bills. I asked the
little boy, "Shall we count that money one
more time?" He grew excited and said "Yes,
I just know it has to be enough". So, I slipped my money in with
his and we began to count it.
Of course, it
was plenty for the doll. He softly said, "Thank
you Jesus for giving me enough money." Then the boy said to me,
"I just asked Jesus to give me enough money to
buy this doll so Momma can take it with her to give to my sister. And he heard my prayer. I
wanted to ask him for enough to buy my Momma a white rose, but I didn't ask
him, but he gave me enough to buy the doll and a rose for my Momma. She loves
white roses so very, very much".
In a few minutes
the Aunt came back, and I wheeled my cart away. I could not keep from thinking
about the little boy as I finished my shopping in a totally different spirit
than when I had started. And I kept remembering a story I had seen in the
newspaper several days earlier about a drunk driver hitting a car and killing a
little girl and the Mother was in serious condition. The family was deciding on
rather to remove the life support. Now surely this little boy did not belong
with that story.
Two days later I
read in the paper where the family had disconnected the life support and the
young woman had died. I could not forget the little boy and just kept wondering
if the two were somehow connected. Later that day, I could not help myself and
I went out and bought some white roses and took them to the funeral home where
the young woman was. And there she was holding a lovely white rose, the
beautiful doll, and the picture of the little boy in the store.
I left there in tears, my life changed
forever. The love that little boy had for his little sister and his mother was
overwhelming.
Some would think the person with the money
was the angel in the story. I think the message of God came through the little
boy to help the curmudgeon of Christmas
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