"Seen by Angels" 1 Timothy 3:16 Sunday Morning Worship Service

First Timothy 3 verse 16, I'll read the whole verse for us.

1 Timothy 3:16

This is the the first Christmas hymn.

Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness.

He was manifested in the flesh.

He was vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, and that's our phrase for this morning, proclaimed among the nations, and we'll look at that tonight, believed on in the world, we'll look at that Christmas morning, and then taken up in glory, and we'll look at that on New Year's Day.

So I mentioned this is the first Christmas hymn, the oldest song about the most miraculous New Testament wonder, the birth of God as man, that the second person of the Trinity, the eternal Son of God, took on a human nature, took on a human soul, took on a human body, and was born in Bethlehem that Christmas morning.

The middle of this little hymn here has a verse that kind of jumps out at us, seen by angels.

There is something remarkable about angels because angels in a very real way exist in two worlds.

Angels exist in our world in that they interact in our world, they come and go from our world, they minister, they serve the Lord in our world.

Angels are not the creator, they are not gods, they're not demigods, they are part of the creation.

God made them, and so in that sense, they're for our world.

But in a very different sense, angels are not designed for our world.

Angels were made before the rest of creation.

Angels were made before the earth and before the animals.

Angels were made in a position where they could view creation.

Job 38 says the angels saw the stars created and they they applauded, they burst out in joy.

And so God made them and then promptly made the stars.

And so it seems likely the angels were made on the first day of creation, where God separated light from darkness and then later established the stars in the heavens because the angels saw that and they rejoiced and they worshiped.

And so that lets you know that angels were not part of what we would consider like kind of the first heaven, our own world.

Angels weren't designed for that.

They were designed for heaven and for glory to dwell in the very presence of God, and they could see the creation of the universe and they could rejoice and celebrate because that's what they do.

And those kind of otherworldly creatures then interact with our world and they they come and they they walk in this world.

And of course, when people see angels in the Bible, they normally lose their minds, the people, not the angels.

The people fall down and they they can't talk and they lose control of themselves.

So much so the most common thing angels tell somebody is, hey, calm down.

Don't be afraid.

I'm not gonna kill you.

Unless, of course, the angel is going to kill them, in which case they don't say calm down.

And angels do kill lots of people.

I mean, it was two angels that came to Sodom and Gomorrah and wiped out those two cities.

It was one angel in 2 Kings 19, one angel who killed 185,000 people in one night.

When you understand that, now you're more prepared for why people see angels and respond by falling apart.

And they're lethal.

They're lethal.

And yet, Hebrews 12, and then again in chapter 13, says that people can entertain angels.

Angels can move around this world.

You can serve or minister to an angel, and Paul says, without even knowing it, you're unaware of it.

So that doesn't mean you're supposed to guess.

It means you can't know.

It doesn't mean like, oh, I think that person is probably an angel.

No, you won't be able to figure out.

You were unaware of it by definition.

So angels can disguise themselves in that sense.

They can veil their glory so they can dwell in our worlds without being seen.

Nevertheless, they are spiritual beings.

They're spiritual beings.

So I don't know how being a spiritual being in the presence of God and then coming to earth in human form, I don't know how that works.

Sometimes you see angels in the Bible in the sky and they're in combat with each other.

I don't know how spiritual beings can be in combat with each other.

Do they rent a body just for the fight?

I don't know.

So they're very mysterious.

There's a lot we don't know about them because the Bible's not written for them, the Bible's written for us.

And God doesn't want us to know more about them than he has revealed.

But he has revealed a lot about them.

The otherworldly nature of them in 1 Timothy 3.16 causes their appearance in the middle of the verse to be unusual.

It's a description of that Christmas morning, of course, which featured angels prominently.

It's a description of the life of Christ that comes from that first Christmas morning.

And Paul, in the middle of the hymn, directs us to angels.

The Bible refers to them as angels, which is the Greek word for messenger.

The Bible refers to them as the sons of the mighty one.

That's Psalm 89, verse 6.

Psalms 89:6

The Bible refers to them as sons of God in Job 1.

One place the Bible calls them Elohim in Psalm 8, verse 5.

Psalms 8:5

Elohim is just the Hebrew word for that's used for God.

Usually it's plural, and so a group of angels is even called Elohim.

Psalm 89, verse 5 calls them holy ones.

Psalms 89:5

Job 38 calls them the morning stars, and in Job 38, that's interesting because they saw the stars created and they rejoiced and worshipped because of that.

And so Job even identifies them as the morning stars.

Daniel in Daniel 10 refers to them as princes, but the most common New Testament description of angels, the one that Paul uses more than any other, is that of principalities and powers.

They're unseen, they are spiritual, they are principalities and powers.

Nevertheless, they were created, they were designed by God to worship God.

They are not designed to be worshipped.

In fact, a universal truth in the Bible is that every time a person worships an angel, the angel rebukes them.

Says, knock that off.

Colossians 1, verse 16 says that angels were created by Jesus.

Colossians 1:16

And that, of course, makes sense that God created all things in his creation from the Father through the Son by the Spirit.

Jesus is the Word of God.

He was with God.

He is the Word.

He was with God in the beginning.

He is God.

And so in Colossians 1, it says that God created through the Word of Christ all things, including principalities and powers.

So it makes sense that Jesus himself created the angels.

Angels are persons.

They have not human beings, but they have personal identities.

They have personal properties.

They're individual angels.

So that angel is different than that angel is different than that angel.

And angels will be judged by God for their own conduct.

Each angel will stand or fall before the Lord for how he has conducted himself.

Angels have personal attributes, they have emotions and affections.

Jesus describes that in Luke 15 in the story of the prodigal son.

And then the point in the story of the prodigal son is that the servants are kind of on pins and needles here, wondering how the father is going to respond to the wayward son who comes home.

Is the father going to punish him?

In which case the servants would join in punishing him.

Or is the father going to respond with love and joy and receive him, in which case the servants will do the same.

And of course, the father responds by receiving the wayward son back to himself, hugging him and throwing a party for him.

And Jesus says, this is what it's like in heaven when the angels perceive the father's joy with a sinner who repents and is comes to faith.

The angels take on that joy themselves.

So in other words, the angels notice God, see the joy in God, and respond appropriately.

And they are doing this all the time, by the way.

They are always, always worshiping.

When you see them, Revelation 4, verse 8 says they worship day and night.

Revelation 4:8

They don't rest, they don't work in shifts, they're perpetually worshiping Him.

Matthew 18 says they're always before the face of the Father.

They're always there, they're always worshiping.

Moreover, angels have eternal destiny.

The destination of angels in eternity is assigned by God, much like it is to people.

Now, I bring this out just because there's only one other use of the word angels in 1 Timothy.

In fact, in 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, all these little pastoral epistles here grouped together at this part of the New Testament, the only two uses of the word angel, one, 1 Timothy 3.16, where Jesus is seen by him, but the other, just turn the page to 1 Timothy 5, verse 21.

1 Timothy 5:21

1 Timothy 5, verse 21, Paul says, In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, and of the elect angels, I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing for partiality.

1 Timothy 5:21

I don't want to get bogged down with what exactly the command is, but it is interesting to me.

Anything Scripture says is binding on you.

You know, when the author of a New Testament epistle says, do this, then you've got to do it.

So Paul could just hang his hat on that and say, hey, this is the word of God, do it.

But he doubles down, he says, I charge you, and then he adds all these additional words to let you know this is like a super serious charge.

I charge you in the presence of God.

That's sobering, and in the presence of Christ Jesus.

I mean, God sees all things and this is his church, and then he throws in this third command, this third charge, and in the presence of the elect angels.

What in the world?

The elect angels?

So we know from Ephesians 3 that the angels are watching the church and they're learning about how God wants the church to function by watching the church.

That's Ephesians 3 describes that.

Ephesians 3, 10.

So here Paul takes it in a different direction.

Because the angels are watching, don't confuse them.

Act appropriately in church for the sake of the elect angels.

If you thought you had a hard time understanding election when it comes to people, you know, some people want to argue against election.

Oh, it's not fair if God elects some for heaven, but not everybody.

That's not what about people and don't they get a chance?

Okay, pause all those objections.

What about angels?

God chooses angels that will be with him and worship forever.

And of course, the flip side of that is that there's reprobate angels.

There's angels who are not elect.

And they will be sent to hell.

And just like with people, you know, people go to heaven because God elects them and gives them saving faith.

They don't go to hell because they're not elect, they go to hell because of their own conduct.

At the end of Revelation, when the books are opened, people aren't judged based upon their election status.

People are judged based upon the works in the book of life.

You go to heaven based upon whether or not God has given you saving faith by his own election.

But you go to hell based upon your own conduct.

And the same is actually true with angels.

The angels that are confirmed in their holiness are so because God confirmed them that way based upon his own prerogative.

But the angels that are sent to hell in the lake of fire that's prepared for them go there because of their role in the rebellion.

Go back to 1 Timothy 3.

Speaking of the rebellion, what's the deal with that?

Why did angels rebel against God?

Well, you understand that angels were made by God to worship him, and the angels observed the creation of the rest of the earth.

The angels saw the earth created, and they saw how beautiful the earth was.

They saw that it was beautiful, it was pleasing to the eye, is the language the Bible uses.

The earth was filled with animals and green and lush, and it was a beautiful, remarkable place.

This is described in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 2028.

The angels saw this, and the angels coveted it.

The angels, some of the angels anyway, wanted to rule the earth.

They saw how beautiful the earth was and they wanted to have dominion over it.

This is what it means in the Psalms, and they're described as Elohim, gods.

That's a word that's often used for having leadership or rulership on the earth.

The angels wanted dominion on the earth.

And they'd be good at it too, I think.

And they can fly, that's to their benefit.

But instead of giving the earth to angels, God gave the earth to people.

Starting with Adam, who was made out of dirt.

Imagine being an angel and looking at the earth and thinking, oh, I could rule that.

That would be sweet.

That would be a great assignment.

And then God makes a guy out of dirt and says, you can have dominion over the earth.

And then he makes a helper.

The guy's like, the guy can't do it.

So God says, I'll give you a helper, makes a helper from his rib.

Now he got one from dirt, the other from the guy from dirt.

The two of you can subdue the earth, be fruitful, and multiply.

And the angels see this, and at least a third of the angels are not cool with this.

And they rebel.

Psalm 8 describes this.

In these terms, what is man that you're mindful of him?

What is a son of man that you would take an interest in him, that you would care for him?

You've made him a little bit lower than the angels.

A little bit?

You made him lower than the angels, and then you've given him dominion over the works of your hands.

Can you imagine?

So the devil in particular, the angels have ranks, and the devil was a high-ranking angel, rebels on that point.

Jesus in Luke's gospel says, I saw Satan fall like lightning.

He was cast out.

Again, Isaiah 14.

He wanted to be like God, he wanted to have dominion on the earth like the Lord.

He wanted to rise above in his dominion over the earth.

And he's cast out to the earth where he falls and where he goes to war against the people.

Angels, of course, fight people, they hate people, they attack people.

You know, angels, so much of the false religion in the world is demonic.

When you look at practices of false religions, especially in a lot of the third world nations, just how cruel and barbaric they are.

I mean, that is demonic.

And you think, why are these day these demons that were thrown out of heaven, why do they hate people so much?

Why are they always attacking people?

It's because it goes back to why they rebelled.

They wanted the earth and God gave it to people, and so they hate people.

And you think, well, why are they attacking people who aren't even Christians?

Wouldn't it make more sense if the demons went after Christians all the time instead of just, you know, demonic activities, false religions are so prevalent in nations that have no Christianity in them.

If demons hate the Lord, why don't they attack Christians more than who whatever's happening in those other countries?

Well, the answer is demons don't just hate Christians, demons hate all people.

Not by virtue of their relationship with Jesus, by virtue of their being from Adam, they hate them.

And that's why the devil goes into earth and immediately attacks Adam and Eve.

He attacks marriage, the ability to bring fruitful and multiply and subdue the earth.

That's what the devil is after.

To destroy that.

So the bad angels, they hate people and attack people.

What about the good angels, the elect angels?

What do they do?

The elect angels minister to people.

That's Hebrews 1 verse 14.

Hebrews 1:14

The elect angels help people.

And I think this is a helpful way to think about it.

You can tell a person's relationship to God by their relationship to Jesus Christ.

If someone has a right relationship with God, they're reconciled to God through faith in Christ.

If someone rejects Christ, that's the expression of their rejection of God.

You can't be in a right relationship with God if you've rejected Christ.

But if you have received Christ, you are going to be in a right relationship with God.

The same thing is true with angels, only not about Jesus, but about people.

An angel that has rebelled against God, you can tell that because they are going to war against people.

And an angel that is right with the Lord, an elect angel, a holy angel, is serving people.

Because that was the point of rebellion, remember?

The wicked angels attack.

The good angels, the elect angels, the godly angels, they worship and they serve the dirty, stinking, reproducing, fallen, frail, no-flying man.

And at the end of the age, Paul says, We will even judge the angels because they serve us.

So we're angels today.

Three places we'll go through and fast.

Angels are in the third heaven.

This is the place where God dwells.

And what are they doing there?

Well, they're worshiping.

They're worshiping.

Again, Matthew 18, the passage that says, if you cause a little one to stumble, it'd be better if you'd have a millstone tied around your neck and cast into the sea, because their angels are always before the face of the Father.

In other words, there are angels that are sent to be ministering to people, of course, but they are perpetually, continually in the presence of God in the third heaven, where they worship.

Isaiah says, I saw the temple of the Lord filled with glory, and the whole earth was filled, and all the description, and the angels are there, and the angels are singing, and the angels are praising.

And that song is repeated a few times in Revelation.

So angels are before the throne of God and they're worshiping.

That's what they're doing in the third heaven.

The third heaven is where God dwells.

The angels are there and they are worshiping.

The angels are also in the second heaven.

This is a place where they are not in the exact presence of God, but they're also not on our globe.

They're elevated in some place.

Again, they're spiritual beings, so it's hard to imagine this spatially, but it's in a place where they have access to this world.

They can see this world, but they're not here.

That seems to be what Paul describes as the second heaven.

And angels in the second heaven, what are they there doing?

Well, they're wondering.

Specifically, they're wondering about the gospel.

They're wondering about Jesus.

They're wondering about how come God is reconciling himself to sinful, dirty, no-flying, reproducing man.

That's their question.

1 Peter 1, verse 12.

1 Peter 1:12

Angels long to look into the things of salvation.

And in the context of 1 Peter 1, by the way, that's specifically about the Davidic identity of the Savior.

How can Jesus be descended from David yet also be David's Lord?

That doesn't make sense to the angels.

They don't know how this is going to work out.

That's the same question people in the Old Testament have.

How can both be true?

How can holy God be reconciled to sinful man?

You can understand why angels would take a particular interest in this.

Because a third of them rebelled and were cast out.

Angels long to look into the things of this world.

And like I mentioned, Ephesians 3.10, the church, the manifold wisdom of God will be on display for the angels.

The wisdom of God is on display through the church for the angels.

Paul mentions that to the Corinthians as well.

How you conduct yourself in church in at least in one sense is for the angels.

Because they're trying to figure out salvation.

Here's just a great example from the Old Testament.

David sinned against Bathsheba and against Uriah.

And I'm choosing this one just because it's, I think, the most ludicrous, insane depiction of instantaneous forgiveness.

David committed adultery with Bathsheba.

He murdered Uriah.

He was confronted by the prophet.

He repented to the Lord.

He didn't repent to Uriah's parents.

He didn't repent to Bathsheba's parents.

He didn't even go back and repent to Bathsheba.

He repented to the Lord, and the Lord immediately forgave him.

This is a violation of the Torah.

It was a violation of the law given through Moses.

He should have been stoned to death.

That didn't happen.

David sought forgiveness and it was granted to him by God.

That's insane.

On what basis can God forgive David?

How can he do that?

So that's the kind of thing the angels are trying to figure out.

The devil rebelled and he gets the he-ho from heaven.

David rebels and he gets forgiveness.

How can that be?

That's what the angels are doing in the second heaven is trying to figure that out.

And then in the first heaven on earth, angels serve.

I mentioned this earlier.

But the good angels, their relationship with God is manifest through how they serve human beings.

That's Hebrews 1, verse 14.

Hebrews 1:14

The angels are ministering servants sent to those who will receive salvation.

That's Matthew 18.

Jesus says these little children have angels that are designed to minister to them and serve them.

Now, how do angels serve people?

Well, first of all, they pronounce things.

When you see angels in the Bible, they're usually announcing something.

Sometimes it's judgment, like Sodom and Gomorrah.

Sometimes it's good news, like at the birth of Christ or the pregnancy of John the Baptist.

Sometimes when you see angels, they're announcing, sometimes they're judging.

They're doing stuff.

You don't just see angels moving to and fro.

Where you see them going, they're doing things.

They're doing things.

And that's significant because back to 1 Timothy 3, 16, Jesus was seen by angels.

In the Bible, it's usually the other way around.

Usually it's angels seen by people.

People don't sneak up on angels.

Angels sneak up on people.

Normally it's like the person turns, behold, an angel falls over.

But it's reversed with Jesus.

And I've mentioned this last few weeks, but every one of these six things in this hymn, there's six little frames in this hymn, every one of them is passive.

Jesus is being acted on in all six of them.

And some of that that's obvious.

Jesus was manifest in the flesh.

So God acted on the Son, and the Son was revealed in the flesh.

Jesus was vindicated by the Spirit.

The Spirit acted on Jesus and validated his deity and perfected his humanity.

The Spirit works through the church to proclaim Jesus to the nations.

Jesus is believed on.

Hearts put their faith in him and believe in him.

These are the six refrains.

He was taken up in glory to the world.

So that's acted.

God is acting on Jesus.

Things happen to him.

It's all passive.

The one that makes the least sense in that line is he was seen by angels.

Of course, angels see him, it's passive.

The angels are doing the seeing.

But every other time you see angels in the Bible, they're the ones that are seen.

Behold, an angel, but not with Jesus.

It's almost like at the incarnation, the angels are the ones on their toes.

The angels got surprised.

The angels are going around killing people and pronouncing things to people and doing this and doing that.

And then they see Jesus and boom, he's seen by the angels.

The tables have been turned.

So how did the angels behold Jesus?

I'm going to give you several ways.

We'll go through them relatively quickly.

The first way, you see angels and Jesus interact, is at the birth of Jesus.

Now we're going to turn to a lot of these passages.

This is like the Iwana sword drill here.

You can flip over to Luke chapter 2.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

This is the birth of Christ.

You'd already seen angels pronouncing the birth of John the Baptist, of course, pronouncing the conception of Jesus in Mary's womb.

But now in Luke chapter 2 is the birth of Jesus in verse 9.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

An angel of the Lord.

Remember, earlier you saw the angel of the Lord pronouncing to John the Baptist's parents and to Mary.

Now the angel of the Lord appears to the shepherds, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they, speaking of the shepherds, were filled with fear.

And the angel speaks.

Okay, so so far this is a normal angel encounter, right?

As normal as an angel encounter can be.

The shepherds of the angels, they're filled with fear.

Okay, we've seen that movie before.

However, it gets different here.

The angel speaks and says, Fear not, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

That's a very un-angel-like pronouncement.

I just give you a contrast.

The most significant angelic revelation in the Old Testament was the law of Moses.

Where Moses was brought up on the Mount Sinai and he received the Torah, he received the tablets.

Moses goes up, the angels were blasting a trumpet.

Do you remember this?

The angels were blasting a trumpet.

Moses was terrified.

Moses was filled with fear.

Moses began begging that God stop talking to him because of how intimidated he was by the voice of the Lord, the sound of the trumpet, also the tornadoes that were going everywhere.

He begged that God would be quiet.

He couldn't endure.

So the angels weren't telling Moses, hey, don't be afraid.

God was telling Moses, oh, be very afraid.

This was terrifying.

And that produced the law.

The law came from that angelic revelation.

The law was given by angels.

The law exposed the great gulf between God and man, as people couldn't keep the law.

The law was not good news.

The law was not gospel.

It was you're condemned.

You can't do this.

What a contrast with the revelation of Jesus Christ.

As he comes to the new earth, the angels don't have a trumpet that deafens you.

The angels are summoning people and saying, Come, come close, don't be afraid.

Gather around, children.

I have good news of exceeding joy.

This is such a different experience.

This isn't Mount Sinai.

This is Mount Zion.

Remember, Bethlehem is just right down the road from Mount Zion.

The place where Abraham bound Isaac and was going to offer him, and the Lord stopped him, and the Lord said he would provide a sacrifice.

That's right around the corner from this.

This is a long way from Sinai.

This is the birth of Jesus.

This is a better word than the blood of Abel.

The blood of Abel cried out for vengeance and for justice.

That's what happened with the law of Moses, vengeance and justice.

This is a very different scene.

This is the angels not crying out like Abel for judgment.

This is the angels bringing mercy and good news.

And suddenly, the angel says in verse 12, you're going to find a baby in the swaddling cloth.

Verse 11, this baby is in the city of David, and he is Christ the Lord.

So this angel has put the pieces together at the birth of Jesus.

It's the city of David.

Aha, it makes sense now.

He's from, it's not just a geographic anomaly to the angels.

Like, whoa, look at that.

It happens to be where David's city was.

The angels have put the pieces together.

This baby is from the house of David.

The line of David is born in David's city, and he is the Lord.

It makes so much sense now.

The two are the same person.

The angels are celebrating this.

I don't think the shepherds had a grid for this, but the angels got it.

Go and find the baby.

He's in a manger.

That's weird, but go find him.

Verse 13 suddenly with the angel, there's a multitude of heavenly hosts singing and praising God.

Multitude of heavenly hosts singing and praising God.

Okay, in the Old Testament, when you see the multitude of the heavenly hosts, that's an army.

They got swords and lots of people are about to die.

That's when you see the heavenly hosts in the Old Testament.

Here, they're singing.

Glory to God in the highest.

Peace on earth.

That's very different than the blood of Abel that wants vengeance.

This is peace.

The angels bring the news God will make peace with man.

The Romans prided themselves in the pakshramana, the global peace the Romans alleged they brought in the world.

The angels aren't even acknowledging that.

This is real peace right here.

For this moment, the second person of the Trinity, the eternal Son of God, is behind enemy lines.

He's with the children of Adam.

He is now a son of Adam.

The angels would be astonished by this.

The angels would be astonished because they know what glory is like.

The angels know what the glory of heaven is like.

This week I showed one of my friends, well, Alex, Pastor Alex, I showed him some highlights of Messi playing soccer.

And he's like, okay, I guess that's good.

Like the people around him are falling over.

So that I think he's doing something good there.

Because he doesn't have a grid.

Like he doesn't know.

He doesn't know what a good move is.

He's like a penalty kick, that's pretty close.

What can make somebody a good penalty kick?

They just shoot in the goal, right?

I'm like, oh my goodness.

But for somebody who's familiar with soccer, you watch him, you're like, oh wow.

That's incredible what that guy can do because you're familiar with it.

Apply that a little bit to the angels here.

The people are watching the son of David be born.

But the people don't, you don't know what glory is like.

You don't know what the throne room of God is, you don't know what the second person of the Trinity is like in heaven and the kind of worship he receives there.

So you can look at it and go, oh, a baby in a manger and angels, that's interesting.

But if you're an angel, you know what's going on here.

This is insane.

This is the second person of the Trinity, the very eternal Son of God, now with a human body and a human soul and a human nature born and is sitting in a manger with the animals and the shepherds.

I mean, this is unbelievable.

This is what they were trying to figure out.

How can God bring forgiveness to mankind?

And here is their answer.

Jesus went, he followed the devil.

The devil went and attacked the first Adam.

Here, Jesus goes and becomes a child of Adam.

Right where the devil had gone before.

So you see Jesus, Jesus and angels is the birth of Jesus.

You see, Jesus and angels at his temptation.

You can flip over to Matthew 4.

Matthew 4, we've I preached this earlier this year, so this will be relatively familiar.

But the second of the temptations there, Matthew 4, verse 6, the devil says, if you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.

Matthew 4:6

This is from the pinnacle of the temple, the very tallest point of the temple.

Of course, there's the wall around the temple which is elevated as well.

There's so many high points there from the top the pinnacle of the temple to the sides of uh the courtyard there.

Herod had expanded the temple.

Of course, the corners of Herod's new temple were high.

The wall of Jerusalem goes and intersects with the wall of the temple.

That thing towers over the place.

There's so many high places that Jesus, the eternal Son of God, now has a human nature and a human body.

If he wants to play hopscotch across the temple, he's more than welcome to.

Nothing would be more natural.

You think, how is this a temptation?

Of course, God would have the right to walk wherever in the temple he wants to, but the temptation is specifically that he would throw himself down and the angels would catch him, which of course the angels would do.

And you remember when we talked about this, the angels will minister to Jesus throughout his life.

We'll see this in a few verses.

But the temptation is for Jesus to not resist the devil as a man, but to fall back under the prerogatives of deity, to resist Adam, not as a second Adam, but as the eternal Son of God.

And had he done that, we would not have a second Adam who stands against the temptations of the devil who stands in our place.

And so Jesus here is operating through his human nature, he's resisting the devil as a man, as a child of Adam, he resists him.

So he will not throw himself off the temple, even though the angels would catch him.

Because he resists as man, he can vindicate himself.

He is obviously sinless because he resisted the devil where Adam failed.

So we have a substitute, we have a new head.

The first Adam led us into sin.

This head, this federal head, the man Jesus Christ, he leads us into righteousness because he resisted the devil as a man.

And so the devil leaves him.

The devil fails and leaves.

So one angel attacks the devil, and the devil fails and he leaves.

Now other angels, verse 11 of Matthew 4, they come and they minister to him.

So it was not wrong.

It wasn't sinful for Jesus to be ministered to by angels.

That's what angels do, they minister to people.

So Jesus resists the devil as a man and then receives the help of angels.

He was weak, he fasted, he was hungry.

And the angels came and helped him.

This vindicates his sinlessness.

Thirdly, you see the angels come to him when he's in the grave, or rather, he comes to them.

You can flip all the way to 1 Peter 3, verse.

It says verse 9, but that should be verse 19.

1 Peter 3, verse 19.

1 Peter 3:19

When Jesus was crucified, he descends into the grave.

He goes down to Sheol.

This is where all the souls of all who died in before Pentecost went.

Jesus, because he is truly a man with a human soul, he descends down to Sheol.

Not with his body, of course, his body is in the grave, but his soul, his person goes into Sheol, into the grave.

What's he doing there?

Well, he's going to liberate those who died in faith and bring them to heaven.

But he's doing a second thing there in verse 19.

Or look at verse, starting verse 18.

Christ suffered once for sin, speaking of the cross, the righteous for the unrighteous, speaking of his sinlessness, and he bears our sin to bring us to God.

He was put to death in the flesh, speaking of his humanity, his human nature, his human body.

He was put to death, but he was made alive in the spirit.

I think here describing his soul, his spirit, his soul which is alive, now goes and proclaims to the spirits in prison.

So he descends, this is called the descent, he goes into Sheol, into the grave, and he goes to the angels who are in prison.

What in the world?

Where did angel prison come from?

Fortunately, verse 20 tells us they have formerly did not obey when God's patience waited in the days of Noah.

So we're going back to Genesis 6 now.

Old Testament times, before the law was in the world, there were no nations, there were no governments, there was just really chaos and violence.

That violence was fueled by some of the angels, not all the angels, but some of the angels that had rebelled come and attack humans, and they do so with violence.

Some of them are cohabiting with people, having children with people.

And God punishes that by flooding the earth and by taking those angels that did that and putting them in custody.

Remember, not all fallen angels did that, or all fallen angels would be in angel jail.

But only some of them did it.

And those that did it, God takes and locks up, puts him in a dungeon, is the word.

It's underground, it's a prison, and that's where those particular fallen angels are.

Jesus goes there after his death.

Why?

Because he's proclaiming to them.

The Greek word is you know, caruso, to cry out.

It's a preaching word.

Jesus is showing them that they lost, is what he's doing.

You guys gambled with Noah.

You lost.

Now, this is before the resurrection.

So how did they lose?

If he hasn't resurrected yet, how can he proclaim his victory to them?

And the answer is because he has withstood all the temptations.

He finished his course.

The race was marked out before him.

It was marked out with suffering.

It was marked out with temptations.

He resisted all of the temptations.

He led a perfectly sinless life.

Or to use the language of verse 18, right before this, he was sinless.

He was righteous.

He suffered on the cross.

He did not give in to sin, even though sin was imputed to him.

He suffered for our sin.

He died.

He was buried.

He finished his race without ever, ever sinning.

That's the message for the angels.

You guys lost.

The devil tried to keep this from happening.

He failed.

The devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness.

He failed.

And now Jesus proclaims that to the angels that are in prison.

What's going to happen with those angels, by the way?

They're going to hell.

Revelation says God made the lake of fire for these fallen angels.

The devil's going to join them.

He's going to get locked up throughout the kingdom.

The devil's going to be put in jail right with these other prison right with these other angels.

Then at the end of the kingdom, the end of the thousand-year reign on earth, God's going to release them.

They're going to just bring havoc to the earth, and then he's going to cast them all into hell forever and ever.

Hell was made for these angels, and Jesus proclaims to them that they lost.

There's no forgiveness for angels.

Jesus did not suffer for angels' sins.

He suffered for human sins because he himself was a human.

He wasn't an angel.

He was a human.

And so he proclaims that to them.

Fourthly, you see angels at his resurrection.

You can flip back to Matthew 28.

Going back to Matthew.

I normally put verses on the screen for you, but this is just more fun.

Matthew 28, verse 2.

Matthew 28:2

After the death of Christ, the descent, Jesus has gone into the grave.

Mary and the other Mary went to the tomb.

They brought Jesus spices.

They're going to anoint his body again.

Behold, there was an earthquake.

Matthew 28, verse 2 says, And the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came in, rolled back the stone, and sat on it.

Matthew 28:2

I love that.

The angel moves the stone and sits down on top of the stone.

Kind of like, what are you going to do about it?

What are you going to do about it?

Do you remember why the stone was there?

That's what makes this so funny.

What was the stone doing there?

Graves, people weren't buried underground.

They're buried in little caves here.

The Romans were so afraid of the resurrection that they pushed a rock in front of the grave and then sealed it with an official Roman seal.

That way it can't be broken.

It had the Roman seal on it.

It's like, you know, the county commissioner and the county planning committee got together with a member from the zoning committee and we all voted, and we've enacted a new ordinance that this grave cannot be opened without our express written permission.

And we've sent a detachment of officers there with a sheriff to enforce it.

So you know this is a legitimate thing.

It's in the minutes and everything.

And here's the seal.

And we've stamped it with the official County of Jerusalem seal.

And so it cannot be opened.

And if you have a problem with that, Jesus, you can, of course, appeal it.

You know, there'll be a Roman appeals committee.

We meet every third Thursday of every second month.

There'll be a somebody visiting from Rome who will come and hear any appeals you have.

You can take it up with him if you want.

But in the meantime, this cannot be opened.

And there are soldiers here to make sure that this seal is honored.

Stamp, signed, rolled, guarded.

Oh man.

And the angel shows up.

It's like he didn't even read the seal.

You know, he just breaks it open and sits down on top of it.

And the soldiers are sent there for the purpose of protecting that seal.

And what are they doing?

Well, an angel moves it aside.

Well, it says here in verse 4, fear of the guards.

The guards were feared with fear, and they trembled and they became like dead men.

So they're not really standing up for the Roman seal there.

They fall over.

Not the two Marys.

The angel says to the Marys, not to the guards.

The angel's okay with the guards falling over like dead men, but to the two women, the angel says, Don't be afraid.

For I know that you seek Jesus who is crucified.

He's not here, he's risen.

Come see the place where he laid.

Remember, the stone wasn't put there to keep Jesus in.

The stone was put there to really mock the Romans.

And the stone was moved not to let Jesus out.

The stone was moved to let the women in and also to mock the Romans.

Angels were there.

Moreover, angels were at the ascension.

You don't need to turn there.

You know the story.

Jesus was ascended into heaven, went up, there were two angels there.

They said, Hey, why are you all hanging around to the disciples?

Why are you because the disciples are just staring at the cloud that Jesus went up to, and the angels say, Stop looking to the cloud.

He went up, he's coming back, just like he said.

Why don't you go do work?

Like he told you something, right?

Go into all the world, make disciples, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, othermost parts of the empire.

Get going.

That was the angels there.

And then finally, you'll see angels with Jesus at a second coming.

Matthew 13, 49.

Again, you don't need to turn there, but it's just the whole chapter of Matthew 13 is where Jesus says that he's going to come back at the end of the age, and he's going to judge at the end of the age.

And he, when he judges, is going to bring angels with him that will separate the rest.

Righteous from the unrighteous, and the unrighteous will be sent into hell, the righteous will go into eternal life.

This is the angels that are doing that.

So with this list on your screen, take it in for a second.

Birth, temptation, grave, resurrection, ascension, second coming.

Is there something missing?

Like what major event from Jesus' life isn't on the list?

And the answer, of course, is the cross.

There's no angels there.

And on his way to the cross is the sins of mankind, not the sins of angels, the sins of mankind were being imputed to Jesus.

Jesus declares to Peter in the garden, you know, I could pray to my father, and he would send 12 legions of angels.

Just a ridiculous number of angels.

When Jesus says that, he doesn't even say I could summon them myself, which he could in his deity.

He could summon the angels in his deity if he if he wanted to.

They work for him.

But he's speaking even in his humanity here.

I could pray to my father.

He could approach his heavenly father in prayer and pray for the angels to come and help him.

And he says, My Father would give that to me.

He would send them right away.

But Jesus says, I'm not going to.

He's going to suffer for our sins without the aid of angels.

Angels minister to him at his temptation, but not here.

A person will hand him wine when he's thirsty.

He'll have to assign a person to take care of Mary.

All of those human needs taken care of by people, no angels.

So that he can bear our sin himself.

He proclaims victory over the angels.

Then he rises with angels and ascends into heaven with angels.

Come back with angels.

But at the cross, he died alone.

This is the song of Christmas.

That Jesus was beheld by angels.

They saw all of those things.

The cross, though, is for us.

Your sins can be forgiven through the death and resurrection of Christ if you put your faith in him.

Lord, we're grateful to know that you ascended into heaven where you reign even right now.

1 Peter 3 22 says that angels are subject to you in heaven.

In Hebrews 1, you sat down at the throne and angels worship you even there, even now, showing that you are greater than angels.

Revelation 4.

Angels move around your throne where you're seated, worshiping you day and night.

Revelation 5, angels look for you.

Revelation 6, they sing more praises to you.

Revelation 7 and 8, they're still singing to you.

God, we're thankful that you have given us salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

May we too lead lives of worship.

Pray for anyone here today that has never given you their life.

I pray that today their hearts would look to the cross, look to the empty grave, their hearts would, with the angels, look into the sky and picture you at the right hand of our Heavenly Father worshiping, and may our hearts join there as well through faith.

We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

And now for a parting word for Pastor Jesse Johnson.

Thanks for joining us.

If you're in the Washington, D.C.

area, I would love to see you at Emmanuel Bible Church.

For more information on our church or our current service times, go to iBC.church.

For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.

location, go to TMS.edu.

I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel with boldness.