Understanding the Angels and Demons

Got the kids transferred back. And again, we're glad everyone can be here today. It's always great to be able to get everyone here. Of course, with this size of group, we notice it whenever someone's gone. So we're thankful to Karen's back today, too. She was ailing last week, so thankfully, much better today. So that's good. I wanted us to start here in Luke chapter 10 with a direction that Christ gives to His disciples. I hope that this can be instructive to us because here in this chapter, in this account, you have Christ sending out His disciples. Here in verse 1, after this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of Him in pairs, every town and place, where He Himself intended to go. And He said to them in verse 2, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest. We read that in Matthew, I think, last week or the week before, and yet here He was giving pretty much the same directive, the same command, as He was sending out. In essence, He was training some of His disciples in the work that they would do in reaching out to others. And of course, He actually told them, go on your way, I'm sending you out like lambs in the midst of wolves. He told them, you need to be somewhat cautious. You need to be realizing that, well, what I'm asking you to do, what I am giving you as the message of the kingdom of God, and the message about the King of the kingdom, Jesus Christ, and the fact that He is the Messiah, and the fact that He is the one who has the answers, and that they should embrace Him. That may not be well received. A lot of people would not receive that information, well, certainly about the kingdom of God, about a kingdom, a literal kingdom that will be coming to the earth to replace the kingdoms of men. Replace the rule, or misrule, I guess can only be described, the misrule of men here on this earth. And as we watch countries around the globe, you see misrule all over the place. In every situation, you don't find peace, you don't find contentment, you don't find people really thriving. You find people in a great deal of distress, a great deal of agitation. And I would think that that would be what Satan would want. That would be in his world, that probably looks normal. That probably looks like the ideal. And yet, to all of us, we look at that and say, that's horrible, that's terrible. Something more is needing to come to the earth. And so Christ sent them out here, and they went out and did their job. They went out and preached the gospel. They went out and learned how to preach the gospel, learned how to reach out to others. But then in verse 17, we find an interesting comeback, because when they came back—and this tells us a lot about ourselves as well. In verse 17, it says that 70, who had been sent out by Jesus, who had been given this mission, who had been given a directive as far as what to do, they returned with joy. And what they said was, Lord, in your name, even the demons, submit to us.

So this was what impressed them. Now, the work that they had to do, the message they had to give, they really didn't seem to be terribly impressed by whether people either received or not. But the thing that they came back and told Jesus was that, look, this is unbelievable. The demons even submit to us, and of course they were saying they submit to us because we are looking to you. We're looking to you for guidance. We're looking to you for strength. We're looking to you for power.

And to follow this up in verse 18, Jesus said to them, I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning.

See, what was it that Jesus was revealing to the disciples? Well, he was revealing the fact that he had eternally existed. He was revealing the fact that he was there with the Father as they had created a spirit world that, for the most part, these disciples knew very little and perhaps nothing about. And so what Jesus was telling them was, well, a part of your training is to learn. To learn how much, as Brian was mentioning earlier, how much we need a spirit mind, how much we need spiritual understanding, and how much mankind is distressed by a spirit world that they don't even know about.

They don't know about, they don't understand, they don't comprehend. And I have to say, we can read certain things, we can know certain things, we understand it. So I don't know that we understand everything about it, but we can certainly understand more about it as we read the words of God. But amazingly, Jesus very calmly says in response to their exclamation, they explain, oh, this is amazing, the demons submit to us. They hadn't, you know, they didn't really, that was a new thing for them.

They didn't even understand perhaps even how much the spirit world had affected other people. And Jesus could just calmly says, well, I watch Satan-like lightning fall from heaven. I know, you know, this cataclysmic battle that has taken place in the past, and this rebellion of the angels, and Lucifer having been created as the bringer of light, as a beautiful creation of God, having gone defective, having turned on God.

He says, I was there. I was watching it. I saw what happened. I saw however long it took for Lucifer to turn a third of the angels against the great God. And he went ahead to say, he says, I've given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions over the power of the enemy. And yet, nevertheless, in verse 20, he says, it's my power. It's not your power.

It's my power that those demons respect. Because it's amazing when you read through the life of Jesus, as we see it described here in the Gospels, how much he interacted with spirits, how much he interacted with demons, how much he interacted, it doesn't say so much about angels, and yet undoubtedly angels were there as well. And I'm saying angels as opposed to demons, angels being responsive angels as opposed to unresponsive and defective angels being demons.

But he says, nevertheless, do not rejoice at this that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. So this was the emphasis that Jesus wanted them to have. Don't be so excited that you have a certain amount of authority that I am just passing on to you and I'm telling you to look to me and I'll handle any type of spirit problem that might arise. But more importantly, you need to rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

And he went ahead in verse 21, that same hour Jesus rejoiced, and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent or prudent, and you have revealed them unto babes.

So this is what he was telling his disciples, that an understanding of how the world has become the way it is, an understanding of the influences that were existing when God in Genesis 1 and 2 created mankind, when he created Adam and Eve and placed them in a garden of Eden, Satan was there. He and his demons were there and, of course, caused Adam and Eve to disrespect God and turn on God and actually then forget.

Or maybe they really didn't, surely God told them, you need to respect me, you need to honor me, and of course Satan started out with a lie, well, you won't die. He told you to die, but you won't die. You know, that's phony. Look, you're wonderfully made, you're a vibrant person. Undoubtedly, they were great physical specimens, I'm sure, to begin with. And yet, they were told a lie. They were sold a bill of goods.

They were deceived by Satan's influence. But this is what Jesus comments about. I thank you, Father, that you've hidden these things from the wise and the prudent in this world, the people who would be viewed in a very positive way, people who are in positions of high authority and rule in this world. But that you have revealed a certain understanding. You've revealed a certain perception about a spirit world that has been revealed unto babes. And He says, yes, Father, such was Your gracious will.

This was what God had wanted. He had created man. He had created man in a type or of a type where we have a shape and a likeness and take on the image of God. And yet, we needed to choose to honor God. We needed to choose to give our lives to God. We need to choose to devote ourselves to God. He says, all things in verse 22 have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.

See, how special is that? How special is it for God to choose to intervene in our lives, to give us a mission, to give us a purpose, to give us a role in human life, but ultimately to show us that we can have everlasting life. We can have eternal life in the family of God as we do the work that we've been called to do, but as we understand, in essence, a certain thing about the spirit world. And turning to His disciples, He had been talking to His Father.

He'd been praying, but turning to His disciples, Jesus said privately, Blessed are your eyes to see what you see. Blessed are your eyes to see what you see, for I tell you that many prophets and kings desire to see these things, and they've not seen them. And blessed are you to hear what you hear, because they didn't hear it. Many people, depending on when God chooses to intervene and call people and bring them into an understanding of the kingdom of God, or an understanding of what it is that He wants us to do to be a part of His family, but a part of that is understanding something about the spirit world.

People have great misunderstanding about the spirit world today. You try to talk to someone about it. People have got all kinds of ideas. Sometimes they've had experiences that affect what they think about the spirit world. But I'd like for us to go over just a couple of things here in our sermon today, disregarding the spirit world, and what it is that God wants us to do, what He shows us, what it is that we can understand and appreciate about the angels that are actually created in order to be servants of those who are heirs of salvation.

But how we can also understand how that there exists in this world today an evil spirit, a spirit that we want to ask God to remove. We want to ask God to take away. We want to ask God to guard us against and to resist, because those are clearly the statements that we find when we read different sections just regarding spiritual understanding. So I'd like for us to go back to Ezekiel 28, because here in Ezekiel 28 you have the foundation as far as the spirit world, because long before Adam and Eve, long before the creation or the reshaping of the earth, there existed an entirely different dimension, a dimension that we see only described in very limited terms.

And yet nonetheless, we can see that the Father and the Son have always existed. We can see that they've eternally existed in the past and into the future. And we also see that there was an angelic creation before even a physical creation. All of us are physical, all of us are flesh and blood, all of us deal with the physical world around us. That all came into being at a certain time, and yet even prior to that time, prior to the creation of a physical world, a spirit world existed. Here in Ezekiel 28, it says, and this is a section that is describing the way that Lucifer is, it says in verse 12, it says, You were the signet of perfection, you were full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.

You were in Eden, the Garden of God, every precious stone was your covering. And yet in the latter part of verse 13, it says, On the day that you were created, they were prepared. And with an anointed caribb as guardian, I placed you on the holy mountain of God, and you walked among the stones of fire. You were blameless in your way. See, here he's describing not a human being at all, but a spirit being, a spirit being that had been at the very throne of God, that had been given every advantage.

But the thing that I want to point out right here is just in verse 13, it says, these angels, these angelic beings were created being. They came into being at the word of the one who would later become Jesus Christ. He's the one who created. He and the Father together created everything, and they brought this spirit world into existence.

And in this description, you find that Lucifer was clearly a magnificent being. And I think it's been described as being one of the highest forms of creation that God could make. And yet, what we find was that even that creation could turn. And of course, God wants all of us to learn. He wants all of us to choose. He wants all of us to continually be appreciative of what He has to offer, because that was really Lucifer's problem. He forgot. He forgot that I'm a created being. I did not exist at some point in time in the past.

And I took on an outlook and an attitude that was defective. See, I doubt that he wants to even admit that today. I would certainly think that that's not the case. And yet, when Jesus Christ, or the Word at that time, the one who was with the Father, when He brought these angelic beings into the creation, down in verse 15, says, you were blameless in your ways from the day that you were created.

Again, I'm only focusing on the fact that we're created beings. Angels are created beings. And in Job 38, you find another verse that I know, again, you're familiar with. Because here in Job 38, you find, as God was speaking to Job, and as He was asking Job things, that, of course, Job couldn't answer.

Job 38, the Lord, in a sense, was chiding Job. You know, how are you talking about things you really don't know anything about? He says in verse 4, where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding. Where were you when I determined how the earth would be created, the physical world that you are a part of today, Job? Where were you when I created those measurements and I stretched the line upon it?

And where were you when I sunk the bases and who laid the cornerstone of it? When the morning stars, when the angelic beings that I had created prior to that time, when they sang together and all of the heavenly hosts, the heavenly beings shouted for joy. So God reveals this angelic realm that was a created realm that was existing prior to the time the earth was brought into being. And of course, we see different glances or glimpses of this as we read through the different passages that we have.

But ultimately what we find was that angels following Lucifer turned against God. They became evil spirits. They became defective. They became iniquity was found in them, was found in Lucifer directly, and then he infected the rest. And yet what do you have? What would appear to be two-thirds of the angels who are wonderful, who are respectful, who are servants, who are actually existing and serving God in whatever way God allows, tells, directs, or wants them to do.

And I think I've mentioned this to you before. Most of us can think back through different circumstances and situations in our lives where we think, certainly we had some angelic help, we had some protection, we had something happen that was beyond what would appear to have been the norm. And whether we could exactly explain that or not, at least that exists.

And yet I'd like for us to look here in Hebrews 1 and 2 because you find a description here of the way that the angelic realm is given direction by God. Here in Hebrews 1, starting in verse 5, of course, the writer of the book of Hebrews was pointing out how that Jesus Christ was far above all the angels. Jesus Christ being the one who created those angels, being the one who the Father looks at as the Son, those angels are nowhere near like the Son of God. He says in verse 5, to which of the angels did God ever say, you are my Son?

Today I've begotten you. See, none of the angels were given that designation. Jesus Christ, the Word, the one who was the Lord of the Old Testament, the one who was with the Father when angels were created and who saw, Lucifer like lightning fall from heaven, none of them are like him.

Or again, to which of the angels did God ever say, I will be his Father and he will be my Son? He didn't directly say that about the angels. He says these things about Jesus Christ. And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, let all the angels of God worship Him. And so, undoubtedly, he was pointing out that, well, the angels, having been created as they were by the Word and the one who was going to come into the world as the Savior of the world, he's going to be respected and worshiped by these angels.

And in verse 8, he says, in contrast to that of the Son, he says, your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and your righteous scepter is the scepter of your kingdom, and you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, God, your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness. And in verse 10, in the beginning, Lord, you founded the earth and the heavens or the work of your hand. See, Jesus Christ, as a part of the Godhead today, as a member of that Godhead who existed long ago and who came to the earth for us, He used to be respected by all the angelic beings.

And yet, of course, you know, Lucifer and his cohorts, now they still don't respect Jesus Christ. They still are creating havoc on this earth, and people are pretty much unaware of that fact. And yet, it goes on to say, in verse 13, to which of the angels has he ever said, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet? To again, pointing out over and over how much greater, how much more powerful, how much more wonderful Jesus Christ is than any of the angels.

But he does say in verse 14, or not all the angels, spirits in the divine service sent to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit. Salvation. Who are the heirs of salvation? And brethren, that's what God holds out before us. You know, inheriting salvation, inheriting eternity. And so our understanding, if we're going to have a spiritual mind, if that mind is going to be led by the Holy Spirit, and we have seen the need to get rid of the enmity, to get rid of the hostile mind that is not subject to or does not submit to God's rule, His law, we see a need to get rid of that.

We see a reason to reject that because obviously that doesn't work. It doesn't work, and our minds can embrace respecting the law. We can embrace obeying the law, keeping the law. And yet, we also gain an understanding of the spirit world. And we see that not only Lucifer and then his followers exist, and as I've said, create a certain amount of havoc on the earth and undoubtedly affect many, many billions of people on this earth, but we also believe that two-thirds of the angels are described here in verse 14, where they are servants of God. And he says they are to be ministering spirits to those who are the heirs of salvation.

That's something wonderful to be thankful for. That was something that the disciples, as we were reading there in Luke 10, they were only becoming aware of an understanding of the spirit world and of how the spirit world not only exists, but how it is that it can be used to our benefit. Now, I point out here in verse 14 that even though angels, good angels, righteous angels, serve those who are the heirs of salvation, they're not directly our servants.

We don't pray to angels. We don't ask. We can ask, I guess, that God would put his angels around us. But again, they minister to us at God's direction. You know, whether he reaches down in any type of a need, in any type of a crisis situation, if he reaches down and helps us with his victorious right hand, which he describes numerous times in the Psalms, that he could do that.

But he could also do that through any number of millions and billions of righteous angels. He could do that. And so we want to have a perception, and we want to have an understanding of the angelic realm that is revealed in the Word of God. You find, of course, not only Lucifer described as a sinning angel, a defective angel, where iniquity was found in him, but you also find Michael, and you find Gabriel. You know, those appear to be angels similar to what Lucifer was, and yet both of them having a different outlook, having a different mind, having a different desire, having a different intention.

And what we see about Michael, and he's directly called the archangel if we go back to Daniel chapter 10, because here in Daniel you find a description of a very wide-ranging worldview described in the book of Matthew. And of course, Daniel, having been in captivity and having come out of Judah, Daniel realized that he needed God's favor.

And yet in some of the things that God was going to give to Daniel and cause him to write down and write them down for our benefit, almost all of it was going to have nothing to do with him right there in his life, but it was all going to have to do with how God projects understanding of the future, how God projects understanding of what's ultimately going to happen. Well, Daniel 2, verse 44 says, you know, a kingdom will come that will change all of what looks pretty normal and pretty solid to people. That's all going to be changed by the intervention of Jesus Christ in world affairs.

And as you read through the rest of Daniel, you find that that is described in different prophecies. And yet here in chapter 10, in verse 12, it says, Don't fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before God, your words were heard. And I have come because of your words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia opposed me 21 days. So Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me. So here we find Michael described in this way. Michael, one of the chief princes, one of the chief angels, one of the, what we would term, an archangel, came to help me.

And I left him there with the prince of the kingdom of Persia and have come to help you understand what is to happen to your people at the end of days for every further vision for these days. He was going to provide understanding and help to Daniel. This was what, in essence, Michael's direction was. That he existed, he was able to contend with the spirits that were guiding other large bodies of people, other world kingdoms.

He was contending with them. And over in Jude 9, it mentions Michael, the archangel, contending with the devil. When they disputed about the body of Moses. Again, a completely different thing, but revealing the spirit world, revealing how it was. You know, that how it is that God views what's going on here on this earth. I think he has to be deeply concerned. And yet, he knows what's going to happen. He knows how there is an answer. He knows what the solution is.

So we find Michael revealed. You see Gabriel revealed. He's described more or less as a messenger from God. And you find Gabriel coming to Mary, telling her she's going to have a son. You know, that would have been an unbelievable thing, certainly to Mary. It had to be. It could have been an unbelievably frightening thing. You see her response was very positive.

She says, well, you know, I'm your servant. I'm going to, you know, that doesn't sound possible to me. But if you say so, then I expect that that will happen. You find Gabriel also coming to Elizabeth, Zachariah, the birth of John the Baptist, or before the birth.

Actually, here in Luke 1, we might look at that one verse. Luke chapter 1, the situation with Mary is here in Luke 2. But in Luke 1, talking about John the Baptist who was yet to be born, he directed, or the angel that was sent to Zachariah, and says, he will turn many, in verse 16, of the people of Israel to the Lord, but the Spirit, and with the power of Elijah, who will go before him, to turn the hearts of parents to their children, to disobey them, to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people.

In verse 18, Zachariah said to the angel, How will I know that this is so? For I'm an old man, and my wife is getting on in years. And of course, as Zachariah was listening to what this angel was telling him, he could hardly believe it because he said, this doesn't look very possible.

You know, Elizabeth is barren, and I'm an older man, this doesn't look like we're going to have a child. And yet you find in verse 19 the angel replying, saying, I am Gabriel, and I stand in the presence of God, and I've been sent to speak to you and to bring this good news to you.

To hear he reveal something about who he is and what he is, he's a messenger, he does what God asks, he does what God directs, he did that in numerous different occasions. You find that even as you go back to the book of Daniel, which I won't take time to do. But here in this case, he says, I stand in the presence of God. I'm at the throne of God. I'm dispatched whenever he wants me to. I do whatever he says. I am there to be his messenger, and I'll come to people like you as there is need, as there is a need to intercede or to provide information. In this case, this is what was happening. I think it's also interesting if we go back here, you've got a lot of information and revelation about angels. And yet, just being mindful of the angelic intervention in this world and the fact that we can ask God for his help, and he may provide that through angelic help, but we certainly want to understand the ill effects of the evil spirits that are in the world as well and resist those. But here in Acts 12, you find another way that good angels were sent to intercede in humans' lives. Here in Acts 12, Peter's in prison.

In verse 7 it says, Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell, and he tapped Peter on the side and said, Get up quickly, and the chains fell off his wrist. And the angel said to him, Fasten your belt and put on your sandals.

I wonder why they had to say he did so. He did it. He was told what to do and he immediately did it. And then he said to him, Wrap your cloak around you and follow me. And Peter went out and followed him, and he didn't realize what was happening with the angel's help and how real it was. He thought he was in a dream. See, Peter thought this can't be happening. You know, the chains falling off, the doors flying open. I'm being told, Put on your shoes, get ready, we're out of here.

But after they passed the first and second guard, they came before the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them at its own accord. They went outside and walked along the lane, and suddenly the angel left them. So here's an example of God intervening, sending a good angel, sending a rescue angel, sending help. But showing, you know, it was something that Peter had to come to understand. It was something that he didn't immediately perceive what was happening. He thought it was a dream, and yet he was living out this dream. And of course, he could go to the others and tell them what's happened.

And, you know, they couldn't believe it either. They couldn't figure out how it is that that could happen. And yet, I think that's a good illustration. It's a good indicator of how it is that God sees this to intervene. Should he need to? And of course, as I've said, there are many times when Jesus would intervene for people. And unfortunately, many times he was able to perceive or to determine how it is that evil spirits were affecting and adversely affecting people.

And they, of course, the evil spirits knew who Jesus was. And I don't have those scriptures written down here, or we could turn to one of them. But ultimately, I hope that we can take from this, you know, that as Jesus told his disciples in doing the work that they have to do, you want to be an alert individual who is perceptive to an understanding of the spirit world, the bad as well as the good. And you want to be, as it says in Ephesians 6, to be putting on the whole armor of God, to be able to stand firm.

Ephesians 6, verse 10 through 13, is put on the whole armor of God, to be able to stand firm because we're not wrestling against people. We're not wrestling against other human beings at all, but against the rulers and against authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against spiritual forces of evil. And we're wrestling against that, and the only way that we can really be successful is, as Jesus was telling his disciples, well, don't be so glad that the spirits are subject to you because really they're subject to me and subject to my direction of you.

But I want you, as it says here in James 4, I want you to submit yourself to me. The way that you'll be able to do the work that you've been called to do is here in James 4, verse 7, submit yourselves to God, resist the devil and his influence, the influence of evil spirits in this world, resist that, and he will flee from you, but draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

Ultimately, that's what we have as a role, that's what we have as a job, that's what we have as a mission. As we reach out to others, we want to reflect Jesus Christ. We want to reflect an understanding that's been revealed unto babes. We're not the high and mighty of the world, but we do have some very, very valuable knowledge, some very valuable, not only knowledge, but understanding, perception that comes from the Spirit of God, and it comes from understanding spiritual things, and a part of those is spirit world that is around us. I hope that by at least rehearsing this or going over some of this today, that it can help us in being able to not only be sure to be resisting the devil knowing that he will flee from us, but that we will be drawing near to God, and know that he will be drawing near to us, and that as we humble ourselves, that he can use us to help and serve others in this age, and then ultimately allow us to be his servants.

As the good angels are going to be, they're going to be his servants, and we are going to be his servants, and yet we are going to be even higher than the angels, having been allowed to be a part of the divine family of God.