St. Michael and All Angels Day
October 4, 2009
"Guardian Angels"
Matthew 18:10-eleven
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"Take heed that you do not despise one of these teenagers, for I say to you that in heaven their angels at all times see the face of My Father who is in heaven. For the Son of Man has come to retailer that which was misplaced." Matthew 18:10-11
I walk with angels all the metho d,
They protect me and befriend me;
All satan's energy is held at bay
When heavenly hosts attend me;
they're my bound protection,
All fear and sorrow, therefore!
unharmed by way of foes, do what they may additionally,
I stroll with angels all of the means.
one of the most influential Lutheran theologians of the 20 th century was a person by the name of Rudolph Bultmann. Bultmann grew to be noted for advocating – right here's a fancy time period for you – the demythologizing of the Holy Scriptures. what is demythologizing, you ask?
Bultmann, along with most up to date theologians, assumed that the Bible contains myths that can't be taken actually by way of us nowadays. historic peoples lived in an international inhabited by way of angels and demons because they didn't keep in mind what we understand from modern science. They attributed what they didn't bear in mind to the company of spirits. Accidents and illnesses have been noted to be caused by way of demons. When issues went smartly it become as a result of angels were retaining the americans.
This pre-scientific view became perfectly pleasant for then and there, nevertheless it gained't do for the church of the twentieth century. We need to reinterpret the Bible, Bultmann insisted. We need to extract from it its legendary aspects as a result of americans these days simply gained't purchase right into a Christianity laden with amazing myths.
smartly, you could imagine what came about when individuals started demythologizing the Bible. earlier than you knew it, the entire supernatural aspects were long past. long past turned into the atoning sacrifice for sin and the bodily resurrection from the lifeless. Who can accept as true with such issues anymore? every thing astonishing become stripped away. The demythologizing of the Bible was nothing but a wholesale rejection of biblical teaching.
Bultmann wasn't as smart as he concept he was, but then Bible doubters infrequently are. modern science can't disprove the existence of angels. The incontrovertible fact that people don't trust in whatever is no facts that it doesn't exist. We do reside in a world inhabited through good and evil spirits. They encompass us each day. It is true that during the past individuals ignorantly ascribed to the agency of angels and demons things that had a superbly herbal clarification. but if americans in times past had been ignorant regarding angels, our era is probably the most unaware of all of them.
at the present time angels are at all times pictured as sweet, pretty, and relatively harmless creatures. within the Bible angels appear as guys however never as ladies. nowadays angels are usually pictured as girls. If the regularly occurring view of angels reflects prevalent piety we are able to expect that for most people today faith is decorative and basically intended for women.
however the biblical view of angels is rather distinct. The Bible portrays angels as fearsome creatures. After Adam and Eve sinned and have been expelled from the backyard of Eden, God sent angels with fiery swords to keep them away from the tree of life. When Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, mocked the proper God and went to war in opposition t Jerusalem God despatched one angel who destroyed his whole military. Sennacherib had to go home in disgrace. (2 Chronicles 32, 20-22) When an angel perceived to the shepherds outdoor of Bethlehem to announce the delivery of Jesus Christ, they have been struck with fear. Biblical angels aren't relatively and harmless. They strike concern. When Zacharias referred to as into question the angel's testimony in regards to the birth of his son John, here's what St. Luke records took place:
And the angel answered and observed to him, "i am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and turned into despatched to communicate to you and convey you these joyful tidings. however behold, you can be mute and never able to communicate except the day this stuff take location, since you didn't consider my words which should be fulfilled in their personal time." Luke 1:19-20
As we know, Zacharias remained mute except John become born.
The word angel capacity messenger. God has often communicated via angels. He announced the idea, beginning, and resurrection of Christ via angels.
Angels are spirits. They don't have any bodies. Angels don't seem to be human and human beings don't become angels once they die. once in a while angels appear as men. from time to time, as in visions, angels appear with wings. whereas the Bible photographs angels in a lot of methods, strictly talking, angels are invisible.
They serve God and God's individuals. They communicate for God. They act on behalf of God. they're powerful.
And, based on our Lord, the children have guardian angels. kids are not simply people who are young in years. It contains all who are like the little toddlers, who are little in their personal estimation, who hold with the faith of a baby to the guarantees of God. Their angels behold – they see, they appear upon – the face of God the father.
Jesus spoke of so. Jesus cannot talk falsely or mislead us. Jesus places remarkable price on babies and on their religion. When he warns against offending them or causing them to sin he is warning towards inserting their faith in jeopardy. What does this mean? It capability depriving these baptized in Jesus' identify of God's note by which they might also grow and be bolstered in their religion. This can cause them to fall away. It refers also to instructing false doctrine that might confuse the youngsters and change the genuine faith the Holy Spirit has labored in their hearts with a counterfeit faith that yields loss of life as a substitute of existence.
God values the little children. He proved it via fitting one in all them. The devil antagonistic the incarnation of the Son of God. He resented the advent of man. here's why he led Adam and Eve into sin. 
He desired glory for himself. while the angels of God had fun in God's introduction of man and girl in his personal picture, satan and his demons despised the human race from the very beginning. The battle in heaven that resulted in the casting out of satan was waged with the aid of Michael, the archangel. Michael is none aside from the Lord Jesus Christ himself. The cosmic battle between God and the devil, between first rate and evil, between Christ and the accuser of his individuals all started at first of time and the decisive victory was received on Calvary where Jesus, the seed of the lady, crushed the lying head of the historic, evil foe, the satan, the murderer of souls, the slanderer of God's americans, the daddy of all lies, heresies, and false teachings.
Rudolph Bultmann become a idiot and he's joined via hundreds of thousands of alternative nominal Christians who foolishly think that the realm it truly is measurable by scientific measurements is the handiest world wherein we live. We reside surrounded by means of respectable and evil, by way of spirits devoted to the first rate and spirits committed to the evil, with the aid of angels and demons. here is now not the mythical world of our ignorant and superstitious ancestors! this is the real world. It's a global wherein the combat over souls is waged every day.
The angels served our Lord Jesus in his combat in opposition t the devil. There changed into not a time during Christ's lifetime of holy provider and his sacrificial demise that the heavenly angels didn't attend him and endure him up and toughen him. These are the angels who serve people that consider in Jesus, who have faith in his victory over the devil, who appear to him as their handiest Mediator before God throne of justice in heaven.
The value of infants is viewed within the incontrovertible fact that God grew to become a bit baby. 
He became certainly one of us: a child, a boy, a person. He provided his life as much as the penal justice of God as the sacrifice of atonement to buy again the little ones who had been led into sin and death. Christ's incarnation tells us the price of little ones.< /p>
babies do not exist for the leisure of their fogeys. God doesn't give us children so that we may additionally live vicariously via them. infants are advantages that we provide back to the God who gave them to us.
Fewer and fewer infants are being born at the moment. Fewer people are getting married and they're no longer having children. Abortion on demand is the settled legislations of the land. little ones are viewed as fairly inconvenient and expensive commodities. fogeys employ others to lift and teach their babies. The so known as experts on childrearing teach infants exactly the opposite of that humility wherein a child enters into the kingdom of God. absolutely, we are living at a time when infants are despised.
Yet Jesus says that if you often is the most effective within the kingdom of God you should be converted and turn into like a bit child. they are small and unimportant. however this is how we come to understand God. We come to grasp him in humility.
God will avenge his toddlers. The reason murdering abortionists is incorrect is not just because it is taking the legislations into your personal palms and appearing against dependent governmental authority. It's worse than that. it's an act of unbelief, assuming that God received't avenge the little toddlers. he'll. he will come up and choose those who slaughtered the kids for profit. And he will at all times be the refuge of forgiveness for those that have wronged the little infants and have come to repent of their sin.
Let the little infants come to me, says Jesus. Christians baptize toddlers, they don't abort them. and they deliver them to Jesus, no longer simply when they're baptized however right through their lives. In so doing they walk with angels.
Little little ones of every age need a Savior. After warning us no longer to despise the little babies, Jesus appeals to the undeniable fact that he came to retailer people that were lost. he's all in favour of this. sooner or later, everything he orders his angels to do is for this aim: to convey sinners to repentance and faith. Now on the heart of this religion is the crucifixion of Jesus for our sins. We examine him death for us and we believe that God freely forgives us all our sins for Jesus' sake. on account that Jesus has lived and died for us we trust that he has won forgiveness and salvation for us and that he gives us this forgiveness in his holy observe. This we accept as true with.
And in believing this, we live as smartly on each be aware that God speaks. We don't despise the faith of our fathers in God's promise to send angels to give protection to us. actually, we rely on God day by day to bless our efforts and to ship his invisible servants – his angels – to defend us from hurt.
And when we acquire together here in this vicinity to compliment our God and to acquire from him the heavenly treasures he presents us in his gospel and sacraments we're joined in fellowship with the angels. We sing the Sanctus – the holy, holy, holy – with the angels in heaven. Then we go to the altar to consume and drink Christ's body and blood, given and shed for us, for the forgiveness of our sins, for all times, and for salvation. The angels ascend and descend for here is the gateway to heaven. right here Jacob's dream is fulfilled as the Lord God turn into the Son of Man involves us, forgiving us, embracing us, and guaranteeing to us victory over all evil. We stroll with angels and so we stroll with Jesus and what a wonderful walk it's!
Amen.
Pastor Rolf Preus
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