DO WE STILL ENTERTAIN ANGELS?
INTRO: ANGELS IN THE OUTFIELD DESCRIPTION
BIBLE VERSE:
Hebrews 13:1-3 Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. 2 Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. 3 Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.
I. ANGELS
A) Angels have been around us since the beginning of time. They have been seen an various situations, performed a variety of unusual deeds, and have taken a variety of roles. Have you noticed the key word here: VARIOUS. Look, angels don’t fit into our little box and in many ways their power is unlimited.
B) Angels appear in the Garden of Eden when Adam & Eve are expelled following their sin (Genesis 3). Genesis 16 records an angel telling Hagar to submit to Sarah—the story behind the appearance doesn’t matter for this sake. But technically, about 1500-2000 years or so separates the two incidents. I say this to point out that one thing the Bible teaches us about angels is that they are RARE.
C) There’s a couple more angel sightings in Genesis, including Jacob seeing a whole army of God in Genesis 32. There are more angel sightings throughout the Bible including some major involvement during the birth of Christ. All of them have in common that angel’s are hear to do God’s bidding and absolutely refused to be worshipped.
D) But what about modern times? Do angels appear in modern times?
Read the verse again: … for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.
So, YES, it is absolutely possible to entertain angels!
E) Modern sightings tend to fit into certain categories.
• 1) THE INJURY PREVENTION VISIT: Eye witness testimonies seem to suggest that an angel helped a person recover from what would have been life sustaining injuries. I want to let you know that this type of visitation is consistent with Acts 27:23-24.
BIBLE VERSE: Acts 27:23-24
23 Last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me24 and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.’
This is clearly the case of the testimonies we hard for those of us who went down to Joplin on the Tornado Relief Trip. There are stories of children whisked a way to safety by people the kids referred to as “feather people.” And it wasn’t just one story either, there were multiple stories we heard while we were visiting (leaders, there is a good chance someone who went to Joplin is in your group, please have them share at this time about this).
• 2) THE ANGEL CHOIR VISIT: Some people have recorded visits by angels while worshipping God. You hear stories of people looking up to the heavens and say they saw a choir of angels appear—even as other people in the congregation didn’t see it. This type of visit seems odd, especially since it can only be verified by eye witnesses who evidently don’t see it. But, this is exactly what happened to the shepherds who came to visit Jesus in Luke 2:13. Remember, those shepherds saw the multitudes singing….but who else did? We’ll never know, maybe no one. Which lends itself to the credibility of those who have seen angels during worship.
Do I have an example of this? I don’t know guys. I looked up a whole bunch of things on angels, and I have to say that some of them sound really convincing and judging from people’s testimonies, the people for certain believe them. I believe them too, but I don’t feel like I can preach on it because us teachers have to be above reproach. I absolutely won’t teach you something wrong. But if you want the site, including one clip that a person claims are angels singing, the website is http://bibleprobe.com/miracles.htm. Again, I don’t know how reliable it is, but it was sourced and detailed better than a lot of others.
• 3) THE PHYSICAL FEELING VISIT: You hear people in hospitals, sometimes elderly people, saying something like I slept last night almost as if I was being protected by angels. Well, read Psalm 91:4.
BIBLE VERSE: Psalm 91:4
He will cover you with his pinions,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
*For defintion purposes, a “pinion” is the wing part of the bird, the feathers; and a buckler is a short round shield held on the forearm.
So yeah, angels can absolutely protect us as we sleep. In fact they do protect us in certain circumstances. And the images is a mighty warrior bird, soft as a host of feathers yet mighty as a military shield.
CONCLUSION:
Have I ever been visited by an angel? I don’t know. But there was a really odd experience I had when Lori and I were a younger couple. I was at our apartment complex walking the trash out to the dumpster. And when I was about to throw the trash in, I noticed a man sleeping in the dumpster. Well, after explaining to him that he had scared the crap out of me (he said the same thing of me), I asked him what kind of help he needed. He said something warm (I do want to note that with a brand new baby Victoria bringing him in the house wasn’t an option). So I go back inside and grab the dog blanket and begin heading outside. That’s when Lori stops me and asks what I am doing. By the way I love my wife, especially in moments like this. She scolded me on giving a dog blanket to a person (I was thinking better than a box of trash), so she goes to our couch, and takes the blanket—our best blanket of our house off the couch and says to give that to the man. I did, and I suppose he slept fine. The next day, we found the blanket folded up nicely on our step, the unusual thing is that the blanket smelled GREAT. What? I dunno, but it wouldn’t surprise me to learn later in life that we entertained an angel.
Sources:
Do angels appear to people today? Gotquestions.org.