St. Michael and All Angels
Rev
12:7-12
9/29/19
Today is the Feast of St. Michael
and All Angels. It is the day in the
church year when we consider these spiritual beings created by God. This is a good and helpful thing, because when
treated apart from the guidance of God’s Word, the topic of angels brings out all
kinds of goofy stuff.
It is not uncommon for people to talk
about those who die “becoming an angel.”
Angels are treated as mediators who provide spiritual guidance and help.
So, you can find books like Michael:
Communicating with the Archangel for Guidance and Protection, and, The Angel
Code: Your Interactive Guide to Angelic Communication.
In TV shows and movies, angels take
on bizarre roles that have no relation to Scripture. In the 2010 movie “Legion” God has lost faith
in mankind and has sent his angels to destroy us. There is however a baby about to be born who
will save humanity. So the angel Michael
disobeys God as he protects the mother and child from Gabriel who is sent to
kill them.
Even within the Christian church we
find practices related to angels that have no biblical basis. So in the Roman Catholic church there is a
specific prayer directed to St. Michael the Archangel. Last year when news
about sexual abuse scandals were coming out, various parts of that church had
parishes say this prayer after Mass as part of the response to the spiritual
crisis.
In our text this morning we hear a
dramatic account from a dramatic source – the Book of Revelation. The first verses of our text begin by saying:
“Now war arose in
heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the
dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no
longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown
down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the
deceiver of the whole world--he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were
thrown down with him.”
Now
this is great stuff! It is the kind of
thing that Hollywood really could get into and produce some amazing visual
effects. But here, as always in
Scripture, the angels aren’t the main thing. They are important, and today is
their day, but they can never be the main thing.
The
main thing has just been described in the first part of the chapter. And it is something that reminds us that we
are in the unique setting of Revelation where so much is symbolic and meant to
make an impression on the reader. John
describes a great sign that appeared in heaven – a pregnant woman in the agony
of childbirth. Then there appeared another sign in heaven, a red dragon who
wants to consume the woman’s child.
However, we are told, “She gave birth to a male child, one who is
to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to
God and to his throne.”
It
becomes clear that the woman is the virgin Mary, and that the child is Jesus
Christ. In the most compressed form
possible we have reference to the saving work of Jesus in his death,
resurrection and ascension. It is as the crucified and risen One that
that Jesus has been exalted to the right hand of the throne of God.
The
war in heaven described in our text is a result of Jesus Christ’s death and
resurrection for your sins. We learn
this in our text when John says, “And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, ‘Now the
salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his
Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown
down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they
have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony,
for they loved not their lives even unto death.’”
From
the Old Testament books of Job and Zechariah we learn that Satan had been able
to appear before God and raise accusations against God’s people. He was able to accuse them of their sins
before God. But now that Jesus has offered himself as the sacrifice – as the
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world – this is no longer
possible. Satan has no ability to accuse
you before God because the blood of the Lamb has paid the price for your every
sin. Because of Christ, in God’s eyes
you are holy.
This
fact is described in our text as a war in heaven. Michael and his angels fight against the
dragon – against Satan and his angels, and kick them out. Satan and his angels
are cast down to earth. No longer can
Satan appear before God and accuse you as a sinner.
It
is an awesome scene – this war between the angelic and demonic forces. We confess in the Nicene Creed, “I believe in
God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible.” Angels are part of that
creation – spiritual creatures made by God to carry out his will. They are powerful creatures – not cute
cherubs whose cheek you want to pinch.
However,
you are more important to God than
the angels. You were created in the image of God. They weren’t.
And the ultimate proof of this is that God sent his Son into the world
in the incarnation. The Son of God
became man, without ceasing to be God.
Conceived by the Holy Spirit, he took on a human nature and was born of
the virgin Mary. He did this to redeem
humanity. He did this to free us from
sin and death. By his resurrection he
has redeemed our bodies for eternal life with God in the new creation.
Angels
were God’s servants as the Son of God, Jesus Christ, carried out this work for
you. They announced that the forerunner
of Christ, John the Baptist, would be born. They announced the incarnation to
Mary and Joseph. They ministered to Jesus after he was tempted by Satan in the
wilderness. And they were there at the
empty tomb on Easter morning to announce the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Their work continued in the Book of Acts as they served to assist the church in
sharing the Gospel. We believe that God continues to use angels as his
instruments to help and protect his Church.
God’s
angels have been his servants, playing their specific role as the Father has
carried out the work of salvation in Christ.
But the work of the angels can only be understood in relation to Christ. They are the “support team” as it were. They are never the focus. They should never
be the focus. It is only Jesus Christ
and his saving work that has caused Satan no longer to be able to accuse
you. Any ideas about praying to angels
or communicating with angels misses the point altogether. It is because of Jesus that we now have
access to God. It is because of Jesus
that we can pray to the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit.
And
in fact, we learn in our text that the angels are told to rejoice about you. In our text the voice announces that Satan,
the accuser has been thrown down. He
says that believers “have conquered him
by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they
loved not their lives even unto death.”
And then the command is given: “Therefore, rejoice, O heavens
and you who dwell in them!” The angels are told to rejoice about your salvation. You matter to God more than the angels. In the incarnation he sent his Son of suffer
and die for you. He has redeemed your
humanity so that in the resurrection on the Last Day you can again live as you
were meant to be. Angels are God’s
servants whose work is to help and serve in carrying out God’s will to make this
happen.
It
is a blessing to know that angels are powerful spiritual creatures used by God
to carry out his will for us. But there is also another side to this, because
it means that Satan and his angels are also powerful spiritual creatures. However,
they are completely opposed to us.
Our
text ends with the statement, “‘But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you
in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!’” And at the end
of this chapter we learn that the dragon went to make war “on those who
keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.”
Our text alerts us to the reality of the spiritual threat we
face. With good reason the apostle Peter warned, “Be
sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls
around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” It would be much easier if Satan showed up
looking like a dragon as in the book of Revelation. But as our text says, he is the deceiver of
the whole world. He is the one whom St.
Paul tells us “disguises himself as an angel of light.”
Satan can no longer appear before
God and accuse you of your sins because of Christ. So now he seeks to keep people away from
Christ. He seeks to draw believers away
from Christ. He uses every distraction
available - the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride
in possessions- to draw people towards the world and away from Christ. He uses every intellectual and cultural trend
that minimizes and rejects Christ.
Because this is so, we must cling to
Jesus Christ in faith all the more firmly.
We must pay attention to the one thing that Satan wants us to ignore:
Christ’s Means of Grace. For it is
through these gifts of Christ that his gives us forgiveness and strengthens
faith. We listen to his Word. We turn in
faith to our baptism. We confess our
sins and receive absolution. And in particular, we come to receive the
Sacrament of the Altar. Here the
ascended Lord is bodily present with us.
Here he provides the assurance of our resurrection for he has promised,
“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise
him up on the Last Day.” And here we
join together with St. Michael, and the angels and all the company of heaven as
we sing praise to the incarnate Lord who died and rose again.
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