Sermon – Hebrews 1:1-12 Angels

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

First Presbyterian Church of Ocean City

Sermon – Hebrews 1:1-12 Angels[1]

December 25, 2016

            Merry Christmas!  Today we celebrate the Nativity of Our Lord, the birth of Jesus Christ.  This is the Season of Christmas.  Christmas is a twelve day period beginning today and concluding on January 5^th.  Accord to a popular song this is the day that your true love should give you a partridge in a pear tree. 

            There are many angels associated with the Christmas story.  The Angel Gabriel came to Mary to explain to her that she was pregnant by the Holy Spirit and was to name her son Jesus.  Joseph was visited by an angel to tell him not to be afraid to marry Mary even though she was pregnant.  Joseph was also visited by angels in dreams telling him when to take his family to Egypt and when to return.  And some angels visited a group of shepherds in the field tending their flocks with an announcement that our savior had been born in Bethlehem.  Angels were everywhere talking to everyone on that first Christmas.  They seem to be pretty important.  So on the Christmas morning, let’s take a closer look at angels.  But first, let’s pray.

            “Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

            If you go to Barnes and Nobel bookstore in Salisbury you will find many shelves with books about angels.  Interest in angels got started when Billy Graham published his book, Angels, in 1975.  By 1994 there were eight books about angels on the New York Times bestseller list.   Today there are 151,359 books about angels on Amazon.com

Interest in angels is nothing new.  In the Middle Ages  “angelology” was the rage.  The scholar Dionysius searched the Bible for all references to heavenly beings and compiled a list in his book Celestial Hierarchies.  He placed the seraphim at the top followed by cherubim, then thrones, dominions, virtues, powers, principalities and finally archangels and ordinary messengers to humans.  Speculation about angels grew throughout the Middle Ages.  Saint Albert the Great concluded that there were precisely 399,920,004 celestial beings!

The Bible is filled with angels.  God sent some cherubim to guard the Garden of Eden.  This is just the beginning of 122 verses in the Old Testament about angels.  The New Testament adds another 170 verses about angels.  The Book of Revelation has the most mentions of angel with a whopping 79.   We know of two angels by name, Michael and Gabriel.  The name Lucifer had one mention in the King James Version but is translated as “Day Star” in more modern translations.   Jude 6 talks about “fallen angels”, but nowhere in the Bible are these identified as Satan.  We do see Satan identified as a dragon leading his angelic army against the angel Michael in Revelation 12.  

There are three categories of angels.  Some angels are “praisers”.  These are the ones we hear about at Christmas praising God in the Highest.  They were heard by the shepherds.  The second type of angel are the “messengers”.  The angel Gabriel was the most famous of these with the important message he had from God to Mary.   Messagers were also sent to Zechariah, Joseph and the shepherds.  And the third type of angels are the “guardians”.   We read this in Psalm 91:11, "For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways."  Of course there are also avenging angels like those led by Michael in Revelation.  In the Bible angels always serve as agents of God.  They never operate independently.  Angels always do God’s work. 

            So, what do angels look like?  In popular culture their robes glow, and they have halos and wings.   In the Bible angels sometime look like heavenly beings.  In Luke 24 the women saw “two men in dazzling clothes.”  More often angels just look like human beings.  They are recognized later when people sense that they have been in the presence of God.  In Genesis 18 three men approach Abraham and later Lot in Sodom.  They are described first as men, then as angels, and finally as the Lord.  And Jacob wrestled with a man at Peniel.  We often think of this as an angel.  But Jacob later realized he has wrestled with God.  The point of all this is that we don’t always know when we have come into the presence of angels until we have had time to reflect on their words and actions. 

            At the end of Hebrews there is a story about not neglecting hospitality to strangers because these could be angels.  So perhaps this is what we should expect.  An angel may appear not with a halo, wings and glowing robe,  rather angels may be in disguise as people in need.  Remember that the best way to serve God is to serve the least of these as Jesus taught us.

            From all of this it would appear that angels were the most important characters in the Christmas story.  They gave messages to Mary, Joseph and the shepherds.  They were praising God with the heavenly hosts.   Without them no one would have noticed the first Christmas.  But they are not the most important characters in the Christmas story.  That distinction goes to a newly born baby sleeping away in manger.  His parents named him Jesus.  And the author of Hebrews says this about him.

            Hebrews1:1 In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, ² but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. ³ The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. ⁴ So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.

⁵ For to which of the angels did God ever say,

“You are my Son;
    today I have become your Father”^[a]?

Or again,

“I will be his Father,
    and he will be my Son”^[b]?

⁶ And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says,

“Let all God’s angels worship him.”^[c]

⁷ In speaking of the angels he says,

“He makes his angels spirits,
    and his servants flames of fire.”^[d]

⁸ But about the Son he says,

“Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever;
    a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.
⁹ You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
    therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions
    by anointing you with the oil of joy.”^[e]

¹⁰ He also says,

“In the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth,
    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 You will roll them up like a robe;
    like a garment they will be changed.
But you remain the same,
    and your years will never end.”^[f]

            Angels are not the most important Christmas characters.  All they did was to deliver God’s message.  They were not God’s Christmas gift to us any more than the UPS driver is our Christmas gift from others.  The angels delivered a Christmas gift from God.  The gift we received was our savior, Jesus Christ.

            This Jesus Christ is far more than any angel.  Jesus is God son.  Jesus was present when the universe was created.  Jesus died on a cross in payment for our sin, procuring for us full pardon and forgiveness.  Jesus was resurrected from the dead giving all who believe the assurance of eternal life.  And Jesus reigns in heaven at the right hand of God bringing about the Kingdom of God through the church.  And Jesus will come again to rule the earth in justice and righteousness.  Do you think any angel could pull this off?  No way!  Only Jesus, the son of God, fully divine, could do this.  And Jesus is the gift we receive at Christmas.

            So don’t worship angels, they are not God.  Don’t pray to angels, only Jesus hears your prayer and forwards them to his Father.  Don’t ask angels for protection or power.  The Holy Spirit will do this for you.   But do care for the marginalized in our society because they could be angels testing our compassion.  The person we are to worship, the person who hears our prayers, the person who sends his spirit to empower us, is the baby born on Christmas, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Let's pray.

            “Glory to you, God most high— you have given us a Savior, the Messiah, the Lord— good news of great joy for all. Make us messengers of the gospel and shepherds of your people; guide us always in paths of peace; through Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.”

https://www.pcusa.org/site_media/media/uploads/theologyandworship/pdfs/prayers_for_christmas.pdf

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[1]             Adapted from :A Fascination with Angels , MICHAEL ROGNESS  Luther Seminary St. Paul, Minnesota