The Curiosity of angels

Luke 1:26-56 and 1 Peter 10-22

You cannot avoid the presence and power of angels when you read the Christmas story and how God communicates with people through them.
Are we curious? Do we enjoy the challenge of learning new things and information? Do we love going to libraries and finding things out? Children are very curious about the world – especially about presents at Christmas, what is in the parcels. It is wonderful to be curious about the world, about this life and especially about eternity, the world to come. Angels long to look into something, they do not have perfect knowledge. An increasing number of people do not go to church but they are curious about angels.
Angels are creatures that are spirit beings. They appear in human form and they have names that reflect their form. They are very active in the world. They are numerous – see Hebrews 12:1, they are in joyful assembly. They have different ranks. Michael and Gabriel are archangels. Gabriel appears in Luke. Hebrews 1:14 tells us that they serve believers. They are Heaven’s errand boys who carry messages for God and they intervene in human affairs. In the Old Testament the people often had messages via angels.
At the incarnation their role changes, they predicted Jesus’ birth, announced his arrival, comforted and attended him at his agony in Gethsemane. Angels minister to those who will inherit salvation. They are at the flight of the soul at death and they will be at the final judgment. God has they angels at his command.
When we look at the world around us, its wickedness and sin, it is a comfort to know they are protecting us if we are believers. They will bring us home to glory when we die.
Prophets and angels did not understand everything about Christ’s coming and our salvation. Prophets looked into it intently. Peter wrote about how wonderful their salvation was in the face of great opposition and difficulty.
Peter was thinking about the prophets such as Isaiah who predicted the virgin birth. He would have been mystified by this. The prophets such Isaiah, Malachi and Daniel lived years apart and could not understand how it all dovetailed together. Daniel knew it was all sealed up to the end time. Some predicted where he would be born, his suffering, his triumphal entry to Jerusalem, his suffering and his glory. He would be a prophet, priest and king. The central message of the Bible is he died for our sins according to the prophets. The men on the road to Emmaus were told what the prophets said were all linked and fulfilled in Christ. God has progressively revealed how he works in the world and about the Christ. The people in the New Testament saw their fulfillment – amazing, wonderful things. This is our good hope for the world.
Why did angels have an interest? They foretold his coming. Gabriel appeared to Daniel, Zechariah and Mary. They do not have a complete knowledge, they learn like we do as it is spoken. They are holy beings with great authority and power. They long to know these things – they bend over and peer into these things deeply and intently and long to learn of these things like when you drop your watch into a swimming pool and loom for it.
a) What are they concerned to see? The mystery of the incarnation for a start – how could God be contracted into a man, manifested in the flesh and living among men? There is no evidence this has happened on another planet or anywhere else in the world. God commands his angels to worship him for his great work. Jesus is no ordinary prophet or guru. He is unique among men. Angels marvelled at the son of God who came into the world and how he died for the sins of his people to save them from a lost eternity.
b) They marvelled at salvation – there are no saved angels. There are evil and holy angels. No offer of salvation was ever made to fallen angels. The angels marvelled at how God saved fallen men. They must have been appalled at the state of the world and how men were heading for hell. They must have wondered at how God could have planned to restore this broken relationship. This way of salvation was revealed to them – Christ was going to die, the innocent for the guilty, the just dying for the unjust. God would justify the guilty on the basis of the suffering of the Lord Jesus. Angels ministered at every part of Christ work. When men repent – Luke l5:l0 – angels rejoice in the presence of the Lord. They understand something of the joy of God when men repent. Have angels rejoiced over your salvation? Yes, if we have repent of our sins and confess our need of him. Has this turning point come? It did for the prodigal son who lived in defiance of God, he repented of his foolishness and the angels rejoiced when they saw it.
Summing up
a) Do we also yearn look into these things? Is nature fascinating , we continue to learn much about nature, we can see this on TV. It is not just our relationship with nature but our relationship with God our eternal future. We should be concerned about how we stand before God. Angels have never fallen into sin, like believers they are safe and happy. We are not unless we have repented of our sins in the name of the Lord Jesus. Angels do not know what we know. Hebrews 2:3 – how shall we escape if we ignore this salvation? We shall not. Angels must be astonished that there are people who are not concerned and interested about these things.
b) The angels act out of love for God, they serve the living. We cam become his servants this Christmas and have the best reward – eternal life. We have the message of the prophets, gospels and apostles. Be like the angels, look into these things and know the blessing of God in Christ Jesus.