Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. The word angel in Greek is angelos, which means messenger. God has used angels down through the ages to communicate to His people. Today we continue a series detailing what angels are all about. Our focus will be on the angel of the Lord.
Stay with us. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, some people see angels as mythical white-robed flying creatures. Is this far from the truth?
Dave, I think it is quite far from the truth. We as human beings always want to try to visualize in our eyes and in our minds what the spirit world is like, but we really don't know. All that we know is that angels are spirits. They have intelligence. They have personality.
But at the same time, they are quite different from us. And what we must do is always hold them in high regard. For a gift of any amount, I'm making a very special gift available for you, even as we anticipate Christmas. Would you like to have a gift that you could give to a child? It could even be a legacy gift, you as a parent or a grandparent.
It's entitled, 1-2-3, Jesus Loves Me. It's a hardback book, beautifully illustrated, written, by the way, by my lovely wife, Rebecca. For a gift of any amount, it can be yours. We intend to make resources available for you that will help you live the Christian life and will help you pass it along to the next generation. Go to rtwoffer.com.
That's rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. At the end of this message, I'm going to be giving you that contact info again. Listen carefully. You know, at Christmas time, we always talk about Jesus being born in Bethlehem. We speak about the angels and the shepherds.
And so as we talk about these things, we seldom ask this question, what was Jesus doing before Bethlehem? What was he doing? As you may know, we have seven very beautiful grandchildren, Rebecca and I do, and little Abby, who is six, was looking at the moon with her mother, our daughter Lisa. And Lisa was saying, look, Abby, God created that moon. Jesus created that moon.
And little Abby said, no, mommy, not Jesus. Because Jesus wasn't in the Old Testament. He wasn't born yet.
Now, little Abby needs to have her theology tweaked a little bit. And maybe you and I do too. We have no idea what Muhammad was doing before he was born, or we do have an idea. We don't have any idea as to what all the other religious teachers have been doing, because the answer is, quite frankly, they weren't doing anything. Because we as human beings have only potential existence, but Jesus had actual existence.
So he created the world's abbey. In fact, the Bible says that in Colossians chapter 1 verse 16, speaking of Jesus, by him were all things created.
So he was there creating the world before he was born. And he was also interacting with human beings, as we shall see in a moment. When Rebecca and I were in Germany many years ago, we went into a store that was all dedicated just to the angels. And of course, here in America, you can do the very same thing, angel stores. I don't know of any store that is dedicated to nothing but Jesus, but there are stores out there dedicated to angels.
And this over-belief in angels has created a whole host of occultism. If you're here today and you've connected with the angel that is within you, and there's actually an entity that you are connecting with, you're in deep trouble, come up later on and we'll pray for you. Because nobody has an angel that they should be connecting with deep inside of them or connecting with angels at all. They may appear, they may help us, but you never, never connect with an angel. But that's a separate story.
What I'd like us to do today is to talk about Jesus in the Old Testament and then answer a fundamental question. Why did he become man if he was doing so well in the Old Testament, helping people and revealing God and doing all those things back then? Why the necessity of Bethlehem? I have to warn you in advance that if you came here with an open mind and a willingness to learn, you are going to leave blessed today.
So maybe before you came to church, you said, Lord, I'm looking for a blessing. If it hasn't happened already, and it probably has through music, but the blessing is on its way from the word. My basic proposition to begin us today is this, that in the Old Testament, there was a distinction between angels, which were many, and the angel of the Lord. When you see the angel of the Lord, it's referring to a specific being and I'm going to show you from the scriptures that that actually is a reference to Jesus in Old Testament times For example if you have your Bible and you may follow along though when we get to the New Testament I especially want you to follow because the text will become very clear as we read it But in Genesis chapter 22 and thanks to the many of you who are seeking for your Bibles and you want to follow along with us, which is what you should be doing every time God's Word is opened by someone. Genesis chapter 22, Abraham is about to sacrifice Isaac, and he is willing to sacrifice Isaac.
And the angel of the Lord, the angel of the Lord, verse 11, calls out to him, and he says, you have not withheld your son from me, that is from God. And then you'll notice it says in verse 15, lest we don't get the message, and I'm skipping verses here for lack of time, verse 15, and the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, by myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you. The angel of the Lord turns out to be the Lord. Old Testament Hebrew word, Jehovah.
Now, if you're still unconvinced, another passage might be Exodus chapter 3, the burning bush. And Moses is there keeping the flock, and then it says in verse 2, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush.
And later on, the angel of the Lord basically turns out to say, I am that I am, a reference to deity, Jesus. And how do we know that this angel of the Lord is not God the Father?
Well, that's answered for us in another text, and this is the last one in the Old Testament today, the book of Zechariah. I know it's a hard book to find. The easiest way to find it is to go to the division between the Old Testament and the New Testament and then move backwards several pages and you'll find it there. I have the good advantage of having put a sticker in my Bible ahead of time so that I can beat you to it. That is an advantage.
You'll notice it says in verse 11 of Zechariah chapter 1, Then the angel of the Lord said, O Lord of hosts, how long will you have no mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah against which you have been angry? Wow, what's going on there in the text? The angel of the Lord is speaking, the angel of Jehovah is speaking to Jehovah. by the way the Bible is a remarkable book you know sometimes you come across passages like this and it kind of boggles the mind regarding its accuracy and how the Old Testament fits with the new and the theology that's taught here may be explained further in the New Testament but it fits together the only one way to explain this is the Trinity Jesus is speaking to Jehovah the angel of the Lord Jesus is having a conversation with the Lord God, the Father Jehovah. And that's how come we know that the angel of the Lord must be Jesus.
I've shown that previously. And now the two members of the Trinity are talking and the two members of the Trinity frequently talk. Just open your Bibles and see all the prayers that Jesus gave to God the Father.
So we see here that the angel of the Lord is Jesus. By the way, after the incarnation, in the New Testament, you never find another reference to the angel of the Lord. When it comes to the Christmas story, it says, an angel shouted glory to God in the highest. An angel, not the angel of the Lord. Because once Jesus became man, he never assumed the form of this angel of the Lord again, so far as we know.
Now, with that background, isn't it interesting that Jesus is found in the Old Testament, if you were to take a concordance and look up references to the angel of the Lord, you'd very quickly see that in the Old Testament, he was doing many of the same things that he is doing in the New Testament. For example, one of the things that he did in the Old Testament, as became clear, is he is actually revealing God. He's revealing God. And we've already seen that's what he's doing at the burning bush. And in the New Testament, Jesus reveals the Father.
He who has seen me, Jesus said, has seen the Father. No man has seen God at any time, but the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, he has revealed him. Old Testament, the angel of the Lord, Jesus, revealing God, the New Testament, he's doing the very same thing. He's not only revealing God, but he is also interceding for his people. We've already seen that in the Old Testament where in Zechariah he is pleading for his people.
And in the third chapter of Zechariah, if we took the time to read it, a remarkable passage. You remember Joshua, not the Joshua the military commander, but another Joshua is standing with filthy garments and Satan is accusing him. Just like Satan is accusing some of you because of your past And Jesus is there the angel of the Lord defends Joshua and puts clean clothes on his spattered garments full of filth Wow So Jesus is doing that in the Old Testament as the angel of the Lord. You get to the New Testament. There he is.
He's interceding for his people, and he is praying for them just as he prayed in the Old Testament. We could continue the list. He comforts his people. Old Testament, Hagar. You remember that story, Genesis 16.
She's cast out of the home, Abraham and Sarah, and that whole story. And Hagar finds herself beside her in a desert, and she's unable to take care of the child. And the angel of the Lord appears to Hagar and says, Hagar, if you look over to this side, there will be a well there where you can get water. And God is saying, I am here to comfort you. New Testament, Jesus is comforting his people.
You have also another similarity, and that is he judges his people. You remember that incident? It's very confusing in many respects. David, he decides to number the people and is judged for it, probably because of his pride. And God says, I'm going to send a plague, and the angel of the Lord came and judgment fell on the people.
What does it say in John 5, 22? God has committed all judgment onto the Son. New Testament, Jesus is spoken of as the one who will ultimately judge all men.
So you can see the similarity. May I give you one more? And that is he delivers his people. We've seen that in the Old Testament where he appears to Moses and says, I will be with you, I will deliver you. And that, of course, is the angel of the Lord.
Jesus in the New Testament delivers his people as well. All right, thank you for staying with me as we took this quick tour through some Old Testament theology, because here's what I want to ask you now. everyone thinking at this point. If the angel of the Lord, namely Jesus, was able to do all these things in the Old Testament, why would he bother becoming man? Why didn't he just continue as the angel of the Lord, revealing God, judging his people, interceding, and continue in the same way in the New Testament as he did in the Old.
Why the incarnation? Why does the angel of the Lord, namely Jesus, have to become a man? If you're asking that question, it's a very good question for which the New Testament has a very blessed answer.
So before I continue, I have to ask you in advance, are you ready to be blessed? How many of you say, I'm ready to be blessed? Could I see your hands, please. I'll go with 40% of you. For the rest of you, I've been praying that God is going to surprise you and bless you anyway.
The text I want you to turn to is Hebrews, actually. Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews 2 is very interesting because what the author is doing is he's going to compare Jesus with angels. Because you have to understand that in those days, there was also an over-belief in angels. People want to always connect with angels.
They prefer angels rather than God. God seems so distant and so harsh, but maybe if I can connect with my angel, it'll be a lot easier.
So what the author is going to do is to show that Jesus is superior to the angels. He is the angel of the Lord, but he's superior to the rank and file angels that were created by God. And in the process, the author is going to show how that Jesus can do what angels can't and why the incarnation was necessary and how it affects you.
So we're going to read the text. We're going to allow the Holy Spirit to use the Word of God simply by my reading it, and then I'm going to give you four or five reasons that jump out of the text as to why Jesus became a man and why he did what no angel could ever do. All right, chapter 2, and we'll actually begin at verse 7.
Now, it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere, and the somewhere happens to be Psalm 8. What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the angels for a little while. You've crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.
Well, that's not exactly true, is it? Man doesn't have everything under his feet today. And so what the author is saying is that originally man had everything under his feet, but he lost that dominion, but it is picked up by the supreme man, namely Jesus. And now notice, now in putting, I'm in verse 8, now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside of his control. At the present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.
I have to pause here. Jesus today has as much power as he'll ever have. He has as much knowledge as he'll ever have, but he is not ruling directly as he's going to during the millennial kingdom.
So we know that all things are under his control, but not everything has brought in under subjection to him yet. Ultimately, it is already, but we don't see that, do we? Just look at the headlines, watch the news on TV. And so during this period of time, Jesus, however, is in control in heaven. Years ago here, I quoted Savanarola, the great reformer of Italy and Florence who said he who believes that Christ rules above can accept anything that happens below Because Jesus is in control But we don see everything yet under his control And God made him for a little while lower than the angels.
We have to pause here. In a sense, if you look at angels today, they've got so many advantages we don't have. I mean, they've got glam, they've got speed, they've got accessibility to God. And for a little while, we are lower than the angels, and so was Jesus in Bethlehem. It's not going to always be that way, either for him or for us.
we will be above them, but for now we are all a little lower than the angels. But why was Jesus made lower than the angels? You'll notice it says, verse 9, but we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. All right, it's time to pause. If Jesus had remained as simply as the angel of the Lord, he would not have been able to redeem us.
Because you see, God says the soul that sins will die. We all sin, therefore death, both physical and eternal, is our lot. The only way that we can be exempt from this judgment is if somebody dies for us and gives a sacrifice that God the Father will accept. I can't die for you, you can't die for me, because we're all sinners. We can't even die for our own sin, much less the sin of somebody else.
But if a perfect sacrifice comes, if a perfect man comes, if a man comes who has the kind of righteousness that God is willing to accept, And if he dies on the cross as one who is in experience innocent, but if he dies in our place, there's hope of redemption. Or to put it more clearly, you cannot take a spirit and nail the spirit to a cross and then expect that blood is going to flow. And without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins.
So God says, if I'm going to redeem humanity, I'm going to have to do it because there's nobody out there who's qualified because they're all sinners.
So I'm going to have to do it myself. I am going to let the angel of the Lord Jesus become a man as the second member of the Trinity. he will die in the stead of others, and he will taste death for anyone who is willing to believe on him. Amen. That would not have been possible if Jesus had simply remained as the angel of the Lord.
So the first purpose is that we might have a substitute who is one like us who can redeem us. That's number one. Isn't it wonderful that Jesus Christ was very different from the angels? He was indeed the Son of God, God in the flesh, so that he could redeem us.
Well, Christmas is not too far away, and I have a very special gift that I believe is going to be a blessing to many children. It's a book entitled, One, Two, Three, Jesus Loves Me. It's actually written by my lovely wife, Rebecca. What it does is it teaches children to count, one, two, three, but at the same time, each of those designations has a story from the New Testament.
So introduce your children, your grandchildren, or other children to Jesus by teaching them to count. For a gift of any amount, this book can be yours. By the way, it's a beautiful bedtime routine. It enables children to calm down, to think about Jesus as they drift off to sleep. Once again, I want to emphasize that for a gift of any amount, it can be yours.
Go to rtwoffer.com. You can see the book there. But also, while you are there, click on the Endurance Partner button. The Endurance Partners are those who stand with us regularly with their gifts and with their prayers. They help us get the gospel of Jesus Christ around the world.
Go to rtwoffer.com. Of course, rtwoffer is all one word. rtwoffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. Pass your faith on to the next generation. Think about the children and you will be blessed as you have the opportunity of giving them the book, 123 Jesus Loves Me.
You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. For the most part, angels are anonymous. Only two have names we see in the Bible. One is Michael, a great warrior. The other is Gabriel, who told Mary that she would bear the Christ child.
next time on Running to Win we'll learn more about the one the Bible calls the angel of the Lord for Pastor Erwin Lutzer this is Dave McAllister Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church
