Transcript
A (0:07)
Welcome again to Things Unseen, and especially if you're new to our podcast. We've devoted this week to thinking about angels in the run up to Christmas, and we ended yesterday reflecting for a moment on the visit of the Archangel Gabriel to Mary to announce the coming of the birth of Jesus. And we certainly see the wonderful ministry of angels in his life. Now, you might think that's not surprising because he's their creator and their king, but I think it's worth noting that angelic appearances in Scripture come in clusters, especially when the kingdom of God has reached a crucial point of either advance or severe conflict. And that's exactly what we find in the life of Jesus, both of them. I said yesterday that the description given to these angelic creatures in Daniel chapter four is a very interesting one. They are watchers, and they were watching over Jesus during his ministry. Remember how he said he could call 12 legions of angels and they would come at a moment's notice? He didn't actually call for their help at that time, but there are a couple of occasions mentioned in the Gospels when the angels did come, and they came specifically to minister to our Savior. I find them very moving incidents, and today I want to reflect on them just for a moment or two. The first occasion is early in his ministry. Jesus had been baptized, and then, you remember, he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to face down the devil. It's really a rerun of the Garden of Eden in a sense, isn't it? But our Lord is in the wilderness, not in a garden. And he's surrounded by wild beasts, not by tame animals. His situation is the very antithesis of Adam's. And you maybe remember how Matthew tells us that when the devil left him, behold, angels came and were ministering to him. He must have been absolutely exhausted. We don't know how many came, but you can imagine the privilege they must have felt.
A (2:18)
I remember a wonderful associate minister I once had preaching a children's sermon on Jesus as the light of the world, the light that couldn't be extinguished. And he had brought along a very realistic everlasting candle and invited the children to blow out. The first tried and failed, and then the second, and then the third. And there was such eagerness to be the next, to try, each child confident he could do it, that I thought for the moment there was going to be a riot in the church. It was fantastic. And when I think of the enthusiasm of those children, unable to contain their cries of Let me try, I can imagine the eagerness the angels must have felt Let me go to minister to my King. Now, hungry and weak, tempted, surely physically exhausted, as the temptations climaxed and they saw him in his fragility.
A (3:16)
Says, well, there is no jealousy among these angels in heaven. Don't you think when the Father said just to some of them, go to my son and minister to him.