What Does The Bible Say About Angels?
Podcast:
What does the Bible say about Angels?
— John Harding
Well, that's an interesting question, isn't it? It's, quite a festive, Christmassy topic, too, because angels play a pretty big role in the Christmas story. And what do angels have to do with the Christmas story?
What Does The Bible Say About Angels And Christmas?
So I thought I'd begin this talk for all of you lovely people at CROWD church tuning in today with a Bible reading. So let me read to you from Luke 2:8-15.
“And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.””
A great reading, a great part of the Christmas story. And undoubtedly the angels are significant characters in the whole Christmas story.
An angel visits a man called Zachariah, Mary's brother in law, and announces to Zachariah that despite him and his wife, being old and childless, he and his wife Elizabeth will miraculously have a son, and they'll call him John (John the Baptist).
An angel visits a young, engaged-to-be-married girl, probably no more than 15 years old. An angel appears to Mary and announces to Mary that she will become miraculously pregnant, and her child will be God on earth, God in human form.
Well, an angel, not surprisingly, visits Joseph, Mary's fiance, you know, just to get Joseph up to speed with this unusual turn of events.
Later on, angels will visit Joseph again and warn him of Herod's murderous plan to kill all the newborn babies in the region, and they'll tell him to go with the Holy Family to Egypt.
Here in our Bible reading today an Angel visits shepherds out in the fields, not just one angel, but a huge heavenly choir of angels. Actually, there are at least 113 instances in the Bible, when angels appear!
Well, What Do Angels Look Like?
Sometimes when angels appear in the Bible, they are in human form, like humans, indistinguishable from other ordinary people. Sometimes angels are invisible. It's just a presence is felt or their voice is heard. Other times in the Bible and like in our reading today, angels are bright, shiny, fiery beings. On those occasions, the angel usually greets a person with the words "fear not. Do not be afraid". Why does the angel say, do not be afraid? Simply because there's something so extraordinary, something so unexpected at being about your day to day business, like these shepherds out, washing their socks by night as the Carol goes, so unexpected from out of nowhere, this being of pure shining light appears, and these rough and ready shepherds, they were terrified.
What Is The Purpose Of Angels?
Well, in pretty much all of the cases where angels are mentioned in the Bible, angels are messengers, angels are heralds, like we sing, Hark the herald, angels sing. Angels bring news from God to the people. They are like God's megaphones, God's mouthpiece.
In fact, the New Testament, ancient Greek word for Angel, angelos, is the same word for messenger. Angels are God's messengers. And in today's reading, in Luke, these angels brought the single most important piece of news ever communicated from God, to man. The news they proclaimed was this, a saviour had been born for the whole world. Jesus, the Saviour, had come to earth. I mean, well, this was such good news. So extraordinary news that the angels didn't just announce it, they didn't just whisper, "hey shepherds, the Saviour has been born". No, this was such incredible good news that the whole of Heaven erupted into joyful song. The choir of Heaven announced the birth. This was sort of God's version of those big baby reveals, you know when a couple are just so excited about having their first baby that they do a confetti cannon gender reveal all over social media. Here is God the Father announcing the birth of his son, a saviour, with a multitude of shining heavenly hosts in four part gospel harmony.
I Believe In Angels
Now, let me say something I think is really important at this point in my talk. I do not believe that these Bible stories about angels are fairytales or fables. I do not believe that. And I'm not talking about angels like someone might talk about unicorns or fairies.
No, as a Christian, I believe that the shepherd's encounter with the angels was a real, historical event. As a Christian, I believe in angels. Not the Abba song, "I believe in angels". No, it's not like when someone makes you a nice cup of tea and and you go, "oh, bless you. You're an angel." No, I believe in angels as the angelic beings we see in the Bible.
I was chatting to a couple of friends a while back, one was a doctor and the other two were scientists with PhDs in science. I think one of them's done a CROWD talk. We were saying that generally when you say that you believe in God, people are okay with that. Oh, you believe in God? Good for you, great for you, each to their own. But as soon as you start to talk about something like a spiritual world, the human soul, spiritual places like heaven, and hell, spiritual beings, like angels, or demons, well some people just don't seem to be able to cope with those sorts of ideas. They feel that there's no place for those old-fashioned sorts of ideas in what they see as a modern scientific world.
Actually, as I was chatting to my friends, those super brainy scientificy type of mates, they were saying that for them, there was really no conflict between the supernatural world we see in the Bible, and their understanding of the physical material world that we experience. Actually the more that you study the physical world, the more you realise, just how unexplained it all is, how unexplainable it all is, a mystery beyond human understanding, beyond the measurability of science. That's what they were saying. If there is a supernatural world, and we've got no reason to believe there isn't, then such a world couldn't be measured through normal, scientific, empirical endeavour, could it? If you think about it, because it's not of that world.
Angelic Encounters
I remember my mum used to always tell me the story of how when she was a young girl, around 12 years old, shortly after the Second World War, she became a Christian. Someone told her about Jesus. She received Jesus as her saviour and she wanted to take the bus from the little mining town in which she lived, into the city to the church to get baptised in water. A six-mile journey, bad weather, dark nights. The only problem was she had no money. Not a penny. No one in that house had money. I mean, this was the end of the war, the 1940s, rationing was still in place. So you even bought your food, not with money, but with tokens, with stamps. There was no money anywhere in the house for a bus.
Anyway, there she was. A new Christian praying, telling God about how much she wanted to go to this baptismal service, to be baptised. And there in front of her in the bedroom was an angelic being! A being of pure light pointing down to the ground.
And the place where the angel pointed was the money for the bus. She was able to go and be baptised. Well, you wonder why I believe in angels!
The 19th-century Scottish missionary John Paton records in his journal the story of how he, his newlywed wife, their six-month-old child spent their first night on mission in a hut on one of the new Hebridean islands just off the coast of Papua New Guinea. He tells of how, all night their hut was surrounded by tribal cannibalistic headhunters. So they prayed all night long as you would in that sort of situation.
When daylight came, they were amazed to see all their attackers had left. About a year later, Paton records how the chief of the tribe became a Christian. Remembering what had happened on that first night Paton asked the chief what had kept him from burning down the hut and from killing him and his family. The chief replied, saying, well, they couldn't do it. They were afraid to attack because they had seen hundreds of men in shining garments with drawn swords surrounding that missionaries hut. Well, I believe in angels.
Entertaining angels unaware
Two quite dramatic stories of angelic visitations on Earth. Honestly, I reckon that sort of thing must happen all the time only without us knowing because we read stories in the Bible where people encountered angels, but they didn't realise they were angels. They weren't aware that they were angels. Like it says in Hebrews 13:2, “entertaining angels unaware”.
That time you were walking on your own down a dark alley and a kindly couple turn up and walk past and you felt safe in that moment. That time maybe you were on the motorway, and had a flat tire or a blowout and someone pulled over to change your tire for you. I was once climbing Mt. Tryfan on the north side, and it got hit by unexpected snow and ice. A snow bomb they called it. I wasn't quite sure of the route up. There were steep drops on either side and out of nowhere, this guy caught up with me emerging out of nowhere, out of the white-out, and he guided me and my two friends to the top. We stopped at the top for a break. He just kept on going, never to see him again.
Of course, all of those things could be coincidences. Of course they could. They could totally have natural explanations and do you know what? I would be fine with that. But also, maybe we were entertaining angels unaware. Maybe we do that far more than we realise. The Bible is loaded with stories of angelic visitations. The Christmas story is loaded with angelic visitations. God's messengers bringing joyful news of salvation, pointing to Jesus, drawing attention to Jesus. They say to the shepherds, go and look and find Jesus.
When a person gets a bit obsessed with angels and guardian angels and supernatural forces in the world, and when that distracts them from focusing on Jesus, well, I don't think that matches up with the purpose of angels in the Bible or the story of angels in the Bible. I think that's when it all becomes a little bit unhealthy. The angels in our Christmas story, in our reading of the shepherds says they came from heaven to earth, and after they made the announcement the Bible says they went back up to heaven. I don't know if you noticed that. So there's a sense that angels bridge Heaven with Earth.
Jacob's Ladder
There's a story in the Old Testament about a man called Jacob, it's called Jacob's Ladder. Jacob falls asleep. He has a vision of a ladder and on that ladder, bridging Heaven to Earth, angels are ascending and descending on that ladder. This angelic encounter for the shepherds was a moment of Heaven invading Earth, a moment bridging heaven with Earth, a moment of Heaven drawing close to Earth. I believe that that is true for each one of us in this moment right now. This is a moment of Heaven drawing close to Earth, a holy moment, a moment that is an answer to that prayer that we pray as Christians all the time.
Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Heaven touching Earth. And as we've seen in the angel's story God is wanting to speak to us in this moment. Now, we probably won't see angels or be aware of the angelic hosts, but God is with you right now, as you watch this video, and He is speaking to you right now as you watch this video, He's always wanting to speak. He is always announcing the arrival of His Son, Jesus. A Saviour has been born.
In the words of that great carol,
Hark the Herald angels sing, glory to the newborn king,
Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled.
Joyful, all the nations rise, join the triumph of the skies
With the angelic hosts proclaim, Christ is born in Bethlehem.
Hark the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn king!
CONVERSATION STREET
With: Rach Marshall & Phil Watson.
What is Conversation Street?
Conversation Street is part of our live stream, where the hosts (in this case, Rach & Phil) chat through John’s talk and answer questions that were sent in through the live stream. To watch the conversation now, click here.
Rach: So, what did you think of that then, Phil?
There's a lot that we covered there.
Phil: There's so much in John's talk, but even the song. I'm a man of a certain age and background so I grew up going to church a lot of the time but I used to go every year, certainly on Christmas Day and often on Christmas Eve so Hark the herald angels sing is one of them phrases that's just part of my vernacular, it's just part of the language I use. But I was thinking about it a lot. I have read this because I'm a bit, you know, a bit of a nerd. Hark is a 1000-year-old word, it's a bit Germanic. We don't say it anymore, do we? Ever. Apart from in this song.
But it's a hunting term. Let's say a load of people are out racing through the woods, forests, and you go "Hark" (I know it sounds a bit odd), but it would be "listen in, listen in", and it would be listen intensely and take action. The only phrase I can think of that we say today is we sometimes say this harks back to a bygone age. It's something to do with hunting dogs being recalled to go in another direction.
Rach: It's almost like a command do you think?
Phil: It is. I think it might be the Hebrew word Shemar which means listen and take action, not just to take action, but obey. But then I was thinking about the word Herald. In this song we have herald, then sometimes we get old newspapers called the Herald. Well, I was at a pantomime yesterday and you know the fella that comes in with a kind of strange outfit and a little trumpet? It's the Herald. The herald that brings information. This has happened and then this is going to happen. You also get Herold's in Shakespeare, and I just thought, ah, this phrase "hark the herald angels sing". Listen. The herald angels is almost a tautology. It's almost like angels tend to bring information that you really need to listen to. In this case, Jesus is gonna be born.
Rach: I's a big deal, and like it said on the chat, there are 113 incidences of angels throughout the Bible, but loads of them are connected to Christmas, probably more than any other event in biblical history. So it's a huge deal, isn't it? We know that it's talking about Jesus and announcing his birth, and Jesus being the Saviour of the world.
Do you think angels are people? What do you think they are?
Phil: Well, thank you for asking me that question. If only I absolutely knew the answer. I think it's really interesting because one of the stories that John Harding mentioned there is about when an angel appears to Zachariah. If you notice that when angels do appear in the Bible, one of the first things they often have to say is don't be afraid which suggests to me that they're quite unusual and
Rach: Quite impressive do you think?
Phil: Yeah, to humans, it's like, oh, my word what's going on here? You're going into a supernatural realm, aren't you? It's funny, a lot of people say, oh I believe in the supernatural. You go, what about angels? Well, I'm not sure about them. That seems a bit weird. I mean, for me, I don't think I've ever seen an angel myself with my own eyes. But I'm quite happy to believe that they exist because the Bible tells me they do, but I actually believe lots of things that I can't necessarily prove. That's the nature of faith.
But when an angel appears to Zachariah, who is the father of John the Baptist, if that makes sense, who just lived at the same time as Jesus. But if I've understood this correctly, even though an angel appears and says, don't be afraid, and explains he's an angel, Zachariah is still a little bit unsure about whether to believe him or not. I'm going to be extrapolating a lot of nonsense here, but Mary seems to believe the angel very quickly. Maybe there's something about women having more faith than men there, I don't know. Men go, no, prove it to me.
I've strayed onto dodgy ground there. I haven't got a personal story that I know of where I've encountered an angel, although I might have done because I've had all sorts of people in my life. Maybe some of them are angels.
What about yourself Rach?
Rach: Well, I've been thinking about it quite a bit, obviously. I do remember one instance on the train when I was quite nervous and I was on my own, and I was going down to London, and I just felt really nervous on the train. I don't particularly know why. Then this person walked past me, and I just felt a great sense of peace and calm after they did, and it is exactly like that story he shared. It just brought great reassurance to me, and I just thought, do you know what? I wonder if that was an angel, just bringing a sense of comfort, and everything's going to be okay. I often think this on the motorway because motorways are crazy these days, aren't they? And I think, I do wonder how many incidences and things that angels almost intervene in. I know awful things can happen, but I do feel a sense of protection. I do think that's angelic. And it does say in the Bible that God will send angels to protect us and to watch over us. I mean, what do you think about that?
People talk about guardian angels and things. Do you ever wonder about that yourself?
Phil: I do, and I know a lot of people who believe in angels, and they're generally not crazy. Not all of them anyway. A lot of them are very sensible. It's like Einstein allegedly said, only two things are infinite, only two things are without end. One is the universe, and the other one is human stupidity. And he's not sure about the first one. I always think it's a funny quote, but the point of what I'm saying is, as a human being, I can't get my head round the size of the universe. It's too big for my brain to comprehend. For me, I don't find it an enormous leap to go, and there's a God who's outside time and space who's bigger than the universe, who's all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving, everywhere. I can't legally prove it to you in a court of law, the idea that there are angels. I don't have any trouble with believing it at all.
If somebody had said to me, what's your first verse about angels? I would have come up with the encounter with Mary, Zachariah and Joseph, and then the classic one of the shepherds where the angels appear. I also like the idea of treating the stranger with hospitality because you don't know whether they might be an angel. This is a great thing for me because I really like the idea of everybody being made in the image of God, that everybody's important. Everybody's got value. I think we should treat everybody with it.
We both work in the kind of social services, social care world. So we've got this mentality that everybody is vital, everyone's important, but the idea that some of the people that I've helped in my life go might have been angels, and I had no idea. Not that it should be my motivation. They might be an angel, so I'd better be nice to them. Oh, they're a human, so I'd better be nice to them because it's good to be nice to people, or they could be an angel. I find that quite exciting.
Rach: Yeah, absolutely. And I love the fact that the Bible's full of us looking after people from other nations whether that's refugees, people in need. That is the heart of God. But it's funny, I do think on these things and think, I don't think we'll fully know till we get to heaven, and then we'll go, oh so that's when... I've got a funny story...
So, a few weeks ago, it was storm whatever. Was it Alwin? Arwen? I don't know. Someone was being stormy. Well, we live on a hill, and we get battered by the wind. I remember, at three in the morning, praying and saying, Lord, please, can you send two really big angels just lie on my roof, so it stays on? And then I fell asleep. I know it sounds mad, but I had pictures of two massive angels, keeping the roof on because that's how bad it felt. You know, occasionally I do pray and say, God, send an Angel to protect this or that. And I wonder when we see the answer to those prayers when we're with Jesus, and we'll go, okay, I get it now. I get it now.
Phil: Yeah, I wonder. My theology is a little bit similar to miracles. Well, did this amazing thing happen purely by chance? You know, you could say, well, your roof wasn't blown away. That could have just been physics. Yeah, possibly. It's a bit like with miracles. Was it a miracle? Or was it just science? Was it just statistics and you go, I don't know, but my faith gives me peace. You might go, you're deluded. And if this is deluded, I'm quite happy to take it over anxiety. You might go, that's just stupid. I'm saying, well, maybe, but I'm quite happy with it. I think it's odd if God is all-powerful, why does he send angels? Why doesn't he do it himself? A great answer to that is, I don't know because I'm not God, and I don't mind not being God. That, I can live quite happily with. Maybe we'll find out one day in heaven, I don't know, but I'm happy with that. I'm happy because God's in charge.
Rach: Yeah, I love what you just said there, and Matt's highlighted it in the comments.
My faith gives me peace.
I think right at this moment, in this day and age, that is what we need. I know when the angels announced the birth of Jesus to Mary and to the shepherds, and everyone's like, oh, my goodness. When they said, do not be afraid, the sheer presence of them was so extraordinary that it would have conjured up fear. Then the angels reassured them that it's okay, to not be afraid because this is a message from God. And I think, you're right. My faith gives me peace. I think, for all of us listening today, we need peace. Only true peace comes from heaven. God can minister that in lots of different ways through people, through angelic beings, or things happening in our lives. It brings us hope and comfort.
Phil: I couldn't agree more. And I think in whichever circumstance you live, you can find something to worry about. These things can be relative though, can't they? So you might go, what have you got to worry about if you happen to be living in the western world in the 21st century? I like history. I'm going to suggest to you that there's never been a better time to live. If you go back in 1000s of years of human history there's not been a time like there is now. In Western Europe, we don't actually have a war happening at the moment. We're not being bombed a lot like we would have been in World War Two. We don't have the diseases we had centuries ago. We have more rights. We have terms and conditions. We have health and safety. We have the NHS. We have social services.
In spite of all that, it's still perfectly standard to have worries, to be anxious, to not sleep and to have mental health issues. I can struggle with all those things, but the Bible tells me, grab a thought and check it. Is it going to help me? Is it going to hinder me? Is it going to rob me of my peace? If it doesn't help me, don't think about it, don't dwell on it. The Bible's a pretty wise book, full of wise advice that we sometimes reinvent in 2021 and go, hey, I've got a really good idea. Let's call it mindfulness, or let's call it this. These are great things, but they've existed for 1000s of years. To me, believing in a God who loves me, and wants the best for me, even though I can't quite understand that is a tremendous source of peace.
Rach: Yeah. You know, the angel said, "glad tidings". They're bringing us great joy. Just picking up on what you're saying, there's an amazing description of what Jesus is like in the Bible. It says, Wonderful, Counsellor, mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, and the government, so like, ruling, will be on his shoulders. I heard that this morning in church, but just to hear the phrase, "wonderful counsellor" because I'm all pro-counselling but Jesus is the wonderful counsellor and I think that's why the angels went so bonkers didn't they? To announce the best thing in the world, the best person in the world which is here right now.
Phil: Here's another one for you. Were you in a school nativity when you were a kid?
Rach: I was yeah, yeah.
Phil: If you're watching in the UK, and I'm assuming in most Western nations, you would have been in a nativity play, and that's probably most people's first and perhaps only introduction or involvement with angels is when somebody is the angel Gabriel. Even the word, even that phrase trips off the tongue. The angel Gabriel. I don't know why but in my head, the angel Gabriel was a sort of beautiful looking and even angelic. So, you've got to be all cute and lovely. I'm not sure that's entirely true or biblical though.
Rach: No, if he's saying to Mary, don't be afraid, he's not gonna be cute, is he?
Phil: No I wouldn't have thought so.
I'm extrapolating a lot out of the nativity here and the bits out of the Bible, but I'm just assuming a certain size out of an angel.
Rach: I think what you're highlighting though is, we've got imaginations, so let's use them. So let's think, why was she scared? What would terrify me? She was young as well, wasn't she, Mary? She was young, so it's good to imagine it.
I've got a question for you because you're the linguist amongst us. So, Claire messaged in in the week, she said that her and her seven year old are listening to a song and they're loving it. And it's got the word Hosanna in the lyrics, so what does hosanna mean?
Phil: I think it's another variation of, "let us adore him". It happens a lot in the Bible where the same idea is repeated. In the English language, we have a much bigger vocabulary than most of the continental European languages. So we can say the same thing in many different ways. But we're still saying the same thing. Hosanna means let's adore him, let's worship Him, as far as I'm aware. And, you know, it's a nice-sounding word.
Rach: In the old part of the Bible, the Old Testament, it says that God will protect us and He'll command His angels to do the same. We hope that you have a great week!
More Bible Verses About Angels
Luke 2:8-20 - And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
Luke 1:30-35 - And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”
And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born[b] will be called holy—the Son of God.
Revelation 16:5 - And I heard the angel in charge of the waters say, “Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was, for you brought these judgments".
Matthew 18:10 - “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven."
Revelation 15:1 - Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and amazing, seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is finished.
Hebrews 13:2 - Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
Revelation 5:11 - Then I looked, and I heard around the throne, and the living creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands.
Isaiah 6:3 - Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!"
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