Angels and Demons (AKA Created Spiritual Beings)
Christianity 101
CCCAG November 14th, 2019
Intro:
When I got saved in 1993 I was considered to be one of those people that was a true trophy of grace. What I mean by that is I was probably the least likely person to ever come into a relationship with Jesus because of my lifestyle of rampant sin. Yearbook
When I first started attending church everyone quickly learned that I love to read so everyone was giving me books on Christian topics and even Christian fiction. I devoured these books along with the Bible. If you can believe this- there was a time before the Internet so if there is nothing particularly interesting on TV reading is what we used to do. There were many a Saturday were all Tammie and I did was laid together on the couch and each read a book , finished the book and then trade off and start reading the book the other one was reading.
One of these book series that shaped my early understanding of created spiritual beings such as angels and demons was called “Piercing the Darkness” by Frank Peretti. This fictional book portrays angels and demons fighting the spiritual battles that exist all around us.
While highly entertaining, these books do not portray the biblical truth about Angels or demons and it took a long time and probably Bible school for me to get an accurate picture of what these created spiritual beings on both sides are actually like.
Angels and demons are a subject of great fascination in our culture.
I don't think there's been a time in my lifetime but there hasn't been at least 1 television show that deals with Angels. One of the most famous TV shows, “Highway to Heaven “starring Michael Landon as a human who becomes a Guardian Angel.
This show ran for that ran for 5 seasons and either intentionally or unintentionally shaped many people's idea of what an Angel is. Other TV shows like touched by an Angel further push the idea of Angels being just like you and I with a couple of extra abilities.
I think that we can agree that both Hollywood and TV shows have taking large creative liberties with the idea of what an Angel is.
Even more so they have taken liberties when it comes to the evil side of created spiritual beings and how we view the devil, demons, witchcraft, and the supernatural. TV right now is filled with these programs. In movies, probably one of the most famous examples of this is a movie called the exorcist in which a young girl is possessed by Satan himself. I watched this movie before I came to Christ as I used to love to watch that kind of thing and it's pretty bad.
If you have never seen it please don't watch it-it's very blasphemous and not even a remotely accurate portrayal of demonic possession or how we deal with it. If anything, that movie will decrease your faith and what it means to be a child of the king of Kings and the power we all have over the demonic realm.
Today I want to cut through all of what the world is trying to tell us about these created spiritual beings- mainly angels and demons, but also some of the other beings mentioned in the bible.
I want to see what God's word actually says about them and what they mean to us in the here and now and hopefully dispel some of the fiction that might have crept into our belief system.
We're going to be looking at a lot of different Bible verses; so many Bible verses that I may not pause much before I read them, but if you want to keep up, the list in order on the back of your bulletin.
Just to clarify- I’m not preaching or teaching tradition this morning. Our belief’s and measure of truth should be anchored in the bible. If you have questions about any of this, please wait until the end and we will answer them during our Q&A.
Let's ask God's blessing and help as we delve into this lesson
Prayer
So I've organized this lesson in 3 parts. The first part will be dealing with created spiritual beings on Gods side. The second part will be created spiritual beings who are part of the rebellion and follow Satan. The 3rd part will be a very brief look at how both sides interact with us today.
Before we get into that though I want to make one very important point to put the rest of this message and lesson into perspective for you. You may have noticed that I have been saying the same phrase over and over again- that’s intentional.
Everything we are talking about today deals with CREATED beings. No matter which side they're on right now every single being we will be talking about was created by God Almighty. When God finished creation in Genesis 1 and 2 , he said it was VERY GOOD meaning at that very moment, there was no sin or rebellion in all of His newly formed creation.
The reason this is very important is because part of the lie the enemy wants you to believe that he and his followers are on equal footing with God. That is not the case- they were all created by God and chose to rebel, becoming agents of darkness.
More about that in a little bit. For now, let’s look at the created spiritual beings on the side of God. We are going to go from the highest beings, closest to God to the lesser beings. Just for clarification, when I say lesser beings, I’m referring to rank and position- kind of like how a Major General outranks a Brigadier General- they both still bear the rank of General, but one is a little higher than another. I’m still talking about creatures of immense power that on this side of eternity far surpasses anything we can do.
Psalm 8:4-5 tell us our position in relation to heavenly created beings-
Ps 8:4-5
What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
So when it comes to supernatural ability, knowledge, and position, they surpass us at this point in time. That will change in the future, but for now that’s where we are at.
So let’s look at the created beings on the side of good
I. Created Beings- heaven
A. The highest order of created beings are the Seraphim.
We see them described in
Isa 6:1-4
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another:
"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."
At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
Ezekiel saw a similar picture of these beings in Exekiel chapter 1. Please check out the entire chapter on your own, but for the sake of time, I’ll just read a few key verses-
Ezek 1:4-14
Ez 1:4 I looked, and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north — an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light. The center of the fire looked like glowing metal, 5 and in the fire was what looked like four living creatures. In appearance their form was that of a man, 6 but each of them had four faces and four wings.
7 Their legs were straight; their feet were like those of a calf and gleamed like burnished bronze. 8 Under their wings on their four sides they had the hands of a man. All four of them had faces and wings, 9 and their wings touched one another. Each one went straight ahead; they did not turn as they moved.
10 Their faces looked like this: Each of the four had the face of a man, and on the right side each had the face of a lion, and on the left the face of an ox; each also had the face of an eagle. 11 Such were their faces. Their wings were spread out upward; each had two wings, one touching the wing of another creature on either side, and two wings covering its body.
Again, I encourage you to continue to read in that entire chapter. You can also see them in Revelation chapter 4:6-8.
So what are Seraphim? The bible shows they are 4 specific creatures that guard and control access to what is known as the shekinah glory of God. The shekinah glory is the full presence of God.
That’s the presence that Moses asked to see in Exodus 33- God in His complete glory. God told Moses that the glory would instantly kill him, and covered Moses and let him experience the goodness of God instead. As a fallen creature, prior to Jesus going to the cross, Moses would have dropped immediately dead if God would have fulfilled his request. It would be like taking wrapping paper and passing it over a blowtorch. Even if the immediate presence of God didn’t kill Moses, the seraphim would not have allowed anything impure to see God and would have struck him down immediately.
You see this in the covering of the ark of the covenant- there was a covering on the ark called the mercy seat. It had two gold seraphim that had their wings covering the top of the ark, symbolizing both God’s holiness and their role in protecting the throne from anything evil. It was there that the priest made atonement.
On this side of eternity have no contact with Seraphim. They only exist in the immediate presence of Almighty God. That’s a very important point because there are some wierdo beliefs that say differently, but this is the bible truth.
The second order of created being are the Cherubim-
B. Cherubim-
The Cherubim are the Marine Corp of heaven- they are guardians of God. I picture them like I picture Marines that guard the door of the White House or embassy’s overseas.
They are also the first fully spiritual beings mentioned in the bible. After Adam and Eve fell in Genesis chapter 3, they are banished from the Garden of Eden, and verse 24 says God places one of the cherubim there with an unsheathed sword to guard access to the tree of life. It is unknown how many of them exist, but I suspect there are many
Otherwise, they are closely related to the Seraphim in form and function- to guard the throne of God.
In some parts of the bible- particularly in Ezekiel, they are figuratively supporting the throne, or being ridden by God. I think that’s a bit of poetic license on the part of Psalmists, Job, prophets, ect, but the bible does speak of them in that sense.
An important point here- Cherubim and Seraphim are the only created spiritual beings that the bible describes as having wings.
I know all of us probably think of angels as having wings- but that comes from the artwork of the renaissance and modern Hollywood movies or TV shows and has no basis in the bible or ancient Christian or Jewish beliefs.
Again, I don’t believe we have contact this side of eternity with cherubim, with one notable exception we will get to later.
C. Angels
The angels are the last of the created spiritual beings that exist. They are the most abundant of all, and most likely exist in the millions of not more. The bible describes them as innumerable, and the authors that wrote the New Testament used the Greek Language that had a numbering system that went into the 10’s if not 100s of millions so if they could understand and write that high of a number if God gave it to them.
Saying that, their number is fixed- they were directly created by God during creation week. Jesus defines their nature and tell us said they are not given in marriage and therefore there are no baby angels.
They do have a hierarchy meaning they are organized in a way similar to an army. The highest-ranking angels are called archangels. There are two named archangels appear in the bible, Michael- the commander of God’s army’s and Gabriel- the messenger of God. Extra biblical sources like the apocrypha name a few more archangels, most notably Raphael in book of Tobit, however that is not part of accepted scripture- I only include it here in case you have heard the name.
Angels have a specific function when it comes to humanity, and their actions are limited to that-
Heb 1:14 Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?
With the exception of one cherubim, they are the only created spiritual beings that we MAY, in VERY rare circumstances, have conscious contact with.
However, the bible is clear that we are surrounded by them at all times.
Heb 13:2 Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.
The bible also tells us that they often do interact with us, but we don’t perceive it because in their mission to serve humanity. In serving humanity, their main goal is to remain in the background and anonymous so they can glorify Jesus Christ. In fact, sometimes when they appear as angels, people often attempt to worship them, and any angel of God will strongly rebuke a human for doing so.
Another very important point and I hinted at this a moment ago, but it bears repeating- all created spiritual beings including angels are without gender.
Saying that, when they are appearing as an angel and not disguise, they appear with masculine features. The reason is because of the fall- God placing males in leadership, particularly over the family, so when angels appear as God’s emissary, they appear in the masculine.
Angels have supernatural abilities. They are seen flying (think superman, not with wings). They can appear and disappear at will. They can interact with our world, and influence matter. They can even strike down humans or touch them and bring healing upon God’s direct command.
That’s the last point I want to make about God’s angels- God’s angels don’t do their own thing, but only what they are commanded to do by God. They have free will but aren’t as tempted by sin. They have a singular focus- to serve Jesus Christ with everything they are. They worship, they do battle, and they often will protect us and influence us to follow God more closely.
Those are the created spiritual beings that stayed loyal to God.
Now let’s look at the other side- the side that rebelled.
II. Created Spiritual Beings- rebellion
It bears mentioning before we delve into talking about the evil one or the realm of darkness that the bible has very little to say about it and even tells us to avoid too much focus on the devil or his ways.
So this part of the message will be brief, because the bible doesn’t have a ton to say about it.
What we do know is there was a rebellion led by one of the cherubim. The source documents used to translate the KJV said this cherub’s name is Lucifer. The more reliable and older documents don’t list a name, but since most of you have heard that name given to the devil we will go with it for the sake of clarity.
According to the bible, Lucifer was the guardian cherub assigned to Eden.
Ezekiel 28 describes this. The verses are 11-18, but for time’s sake I’m going to condense it a little for clarity. Ezekiel begins chapter 28 by prophesying against the physical or actual king of a city named Tyre, and then switches and beings to describe the spirit behind that evil king.
Ezek 28:11-18
The word of the Lord came to me: 12 (God speaking)"Son of man, take up a lament concerning the king of Tyre and say to him: 'This is what the Sovereign Lord says: (remember- this is describing Lucifer before his fall)
"'You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
13 You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you:
(skip)
14 You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones.
15 You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created
till wickedness was found in you.
(Skip) 16b
So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones.
17 Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings.
What the bible is describing that at some point after creation was finished and before Adam and Eve’s original sin, that Lucifer was found to be in rebellion against God. Lucifer was cast out of God’s presence, and immediately struck back at God by attacking Adam and Eve and causing them, in essence to join the rebellion. Lucifer also influenced 1/3 of the angels to follow him, and they became what the bible calls demons. You see that in Revelation 12. Rev 12 is God showing John a prophetic view of the past- Lucifer is portrayed as a dragon whose rebellion causes 1/3 of the angels to fall.
Rev 12:3-4
3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. 4 His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth.
The stars are figuratively referring to angels. John then is shown a future event a few verses later-
Rev 12:7-9
And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9 The great dragon was hurled down — that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
So, these verses show us the origin of the devil and of demons- they are created spiritual beings that rebelled against their creator. One fallen cherub, and the rest are fallen angels.
Jesus refers to Lucifer now as satan- a title meaning deceiver or liar. His followers have the same character and continue in their rebellion against God.
There is one thing I want you to know about our enemy that God want you to know, to believe, and let it influence your faith this morning.
1. satan is powerful, but not divine. While he is more powerful than you or I, He does not possess the divine attributes of omniscience (all knowing), omnipotence (all powerful), or omnipresence(all present). Therefore he is not the opposite of God. That would be like saying a single baby black ant is the opposite of an elephant. There is no comparison. Satan and all of his followers cannot cause God harm. With a single thought, God could blink them all out of existence if He so choses.
So there is no contest. Satan cannot win this war and he knows it.
Rev 12:12
But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with wrath, because he knows that his time is short."
Satan may try to convince his followers that he can win this war, but the bible plainly reveals that in his heart, he knows he is doomed and the only thing he can do to cause God any pain is to drag as many humans as possible into the pits of hell with him.
Those are the created spiritual beings- Seraphim, Cherubim, and angels on the side of God and us, and the devil and the fallen angels, now called demons on the side of the rebellion.
III. What it means for us today
A few more points-
1. I alluded to this before- angels are dispatched according to the will of God and not our will. We have no authority to tell an angel to do anything this side of eternity.
Therefore, we do not pray to angels. We do not call out to angels. We do not ask for angelic messages to be given to us.
We focus on, pray, and worship Jesus- period. Let HIM decide on what way is best for him to accomplish His will according to your prayers.
2. The bible says we will judge angels 1 Cor 6:3
What does this mean? Does this mean we will sit in judgment of God’s angels? God’s angels do not sin, therefore outside of “Good job” we really can’t judge their actions.
This is a single verse that does not elaborate further. I believe this is referring to those angels that rebelled, in other words the demons.
3. Our authority over those who rebelled- satan and his demons.
If you are a born again child of God, the devil and his demons are subject to your word as you do God’s will.
That doesn’t mean you can tell a demon to do your dishes for you or shovel your sidewalk.
If time, famous preacher illustration
It means you have the authority of God to order them to leave you alone. Jesus and the disciples are seen to do this quite frequently.
However, it was also the exception, not the rule. What I mean by that is this- don’t blame the devil or demons for everything wrong in your life. Most of our pain is self inflicted and not really the result of direct demonic influence. There can be an unhealthy focus on the dark realm that takes away from your worship of Jesus, which is to be your focus.
Amen?
Q&A- email, FB message, phone call
Conclusion
Altar Call
