When I was a brand new Christian, and very, very ignorant of the things of God,
I had a Sunday School teacher who thoroughly embarrassed me one day.
It was a small class of teenagers.
The lesson had something to do with angels, although I can’t remember past the first five minutes.
In his introduction, the man asked us if we ever thought about our girl-friend or boy-friend as an angel.
After another couple of moments, he looked at me and asked point blank asked,
“Don’t you ever think of Judy as an angel?”
Immediately he had everyone laughing at me for thinking something so thoroughly un-Biblical.
I was so embarrassed that I didn’t remember a single point in the rest of his lesson.
When people die they don’t become one of God’s angels.
Before they are born, babies don’t fly around Heaven as chubby little angels.
While people are living, they aren’t God’s angels.
Fish are fish, horses are horses, people are people, and angels are angels.
Each of these creatures were created that way, and there isn’t any crossing between those lines.
But that doesn’t mean that it’s a waste of time studying angeology, zoology or even boring botany.
Fourteen years ago there was a best-selling book called “All I Need to Know I Learned from my Cat.”
When I entered those words in Google, it spit out a pretty good sermon with that title.
We can learn from cats, dogs, horses and even more particularly from ANGELS.
For the sake of a lesson or two tonight, let’s answer the non-theological question: “What if WE were angels?”
What do we see in angels, or particularly the angel who visited Cornelius, which would be good for us to imitate?
Some of this will be review, but there will be a little review in just about every message you hear.
You don’t know? Why not?
Do you suppose that angels don’t have names?
I think that because we know the names of at least three angels, that there is a good likelihood that they all have names.
What are the three angelic names that we know? (Michael, Gabriel and Lucifer).
Why didn’t this angel share his name with Cornelius and with us?
Because it wasn’t important.
Years ago, I heard a Baptist preacher from Denver say from the pulpit that he did as much as he could to get his name and his church’s name in the newspaper.
And that took some concentration because his last name was “Avanzini.”
As we read through the Bible, we see angels doing important work on behalf of the Lord.
And then the Bible teaches that they also serve the Lord doing other extremely important things which never get reported or that come to the attention of a single human being.
Do you suppose that it bothers our angelic cousins that they work so hard to be ministering spirits to us and we never thank them, or even know about their service?
Besides the fact that they probably don’t sleep, I don’t think that they loose a single minute’s sleep over it.
I know that there are different kinds of angels, perhaps in the same way there are different races of people.
And perhaps we shouldn’t lump them all together, but in our ignorance some times we are forced to.
The angelic creature in Isaiah which stood above the throne of God “had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.”
Why did the seraphim cover his face?
Because even in their sinless innocence, they knew that they were unworthy of the Lord.
There is contained in the heart of every angel of God a natural humility.
And there should be that same kind of humility in us.
How much does the Bible speak about humility?
It is a huge study, because it is a monumental theme.
“Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.”
“Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.”
“Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, same is greatest in kingdom of heaven.”
“And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.”
Humility is one of the things that we should learn from these creatures.
As such we represent the Omnipotent.
Weren’t angels sometimes sent to do things which we might call “miracles?”
Over time, angels began to be respected and feared as the arm of God.
And he also called down fire from heaven and consumed a couple of detachments of soldiers.
Towards the end of his life Elijah was recognized, respected and even feared.
And those who didn’t respect him, sometimes suffered horrible consequences.
Mary and Gabriel; Joseph and Gabriel; the soldiers at Jesus’ tomb; Balaam’s ass.
We could actually make a long list.
What in the appearance of those angels made those people so afraid?
But other than that the only thing often described is their brightness or the brightness of their clothing.
Very often angels are described as looking like men, but in bright apparel.
“And Cornelius said, Four days ago I was fasting until this hour; and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and, behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing.”
Could we make an application in regard to their clothing?
Could we say that Christians ought to do the same?
Could we say that Christians ought to take their appearance seriously?
Could we say that if we tried to make this a distinctive mark of our lives, we might be more recognizable as the servants of God?
Dressing up in a $5,000 suit doesn’t make someone pastor of a mega-church.
Dressing like a whore, doesn’t make a woman a whore.
But on the other hand they might make us appear to be these things.
Rather than making us something, our clothing ought to be used to REVEAL who we already are.
No, our clothes won’t make the world respect us.
But they should reflect heart of people who deserve respect because they do actually serve the Lord.
Why do angels fill people with awe?
Because they are known to represent and serve the Lord.
And their clothing and countenance speaks to that effect.
Do YOU serve God?
If you really do, then your neighbors ought to be able to recognize that.
Just as the world often recognized God’s angels, when they weren’t working incognito.
The thing to keep in mind is that when judgment is dispensed in the name of the Lord it is holy & good.
But laying aside that aspect of the work of angels, when we think about the angels whom we have met in the Book of Acts have all ministered real good.
And there was an angel gave Peter and John their “Get out of Jail Free” card.
The words that leave their mouths, the work that leaves their hands, the very thoughts in their minds are righteous and God-honouring.
And when you think about the three or four angels of the Book of Acts, their service was really quite small.
While the disciples “looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up,
Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?
This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven,
Shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.”
But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth, and said,
Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.”
He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius.
And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord?
And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.
And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter:
He lodgeth with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the sea side:
He shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do.”
In Cornelius’ case the angel simply told him where to turn to find the answers to his questions.
But that is something which we never see the angels doing.
We’d enjoy singing a special in that service, even though we don’t have a voice like Charlotte Church or Placido Domingo.
We’d consider it a privilege to invite a neighbor to church and to lunch afterwards,
Or simply to do something neighborly, in the name of the Lord, for someone who lives up the street.
Just to point that finger is an honour, and yet it’s really such a small thing. Amen?
And then too, angels know the mind of God, or at least as much as the Lord wants them to know.
And they know their human subjects too.
And they probably even know the people who should be there but who are absent.
And there was the angel who visited and encouraged Daniel.
What would YOU have thought about Cornelius?
Or would you have tried to point him to the truth and the fulfillment of his search?