“‘Things which must shortly take place and He sent and signified it by His angel to his servant John’. For the first time ever, we see the angel coming into play in the New Testament. You read the entire four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. You read the Book of Acts. Actually in the Book of Acts, you see an angel coming there as well. But you read in the epistles of Saint Paul, you read in the epistles of Saint James, Peter, John, and Jude, there is no mention of angel. The author of the book, the writer of the book, is the Holy Spirit. In all of them, the gospels, Book of Acts, the epistles – in all of them the author is the Holy Spirit. In the Book of Revelation it says ‘The angel brought it.’ No mention of the Holy Spirit. Do you know why? Again, Holy Spirit is God. God is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God Himself. And since God is not going to judge, and since the Book of Revelation is the Judgment Book, the Holy Spirit pulled out and gave it to the angel to come to give it to John and and we will see which John is this. And here it says that the angel gave it to John.
Why does an angel appear in the Book of Revelation? When we read in the gospel of Saint Matthew, Chapter 13 and verse 39, and the reapers. Now when they used to plant wheat and when the harvest come they would reap the wheat. So, it says in Matthew 13 verse 39, and the reapers are the angels. When you read in Chapter 13 and verse 38, the Lord Jesus was talking about the end, the finale, the Judgment Day. He’s talking about the field, the sower went out to saw some seed of wheat. And he said the disciples did not understand what the Lord was saying in this parable, so he is explaining the parable to His apostles. He said the field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares or the bad seeds or the weeds are the sons of the wicked one, the sons of Satan.
Verse 39 – ‘The enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age and the reapers are the angels.’ So, who’s going to be involved on judgment day? Angels, not God! The Son of Man and the angels will reap what the Son of Man is going to say. So the Son of Man will pass the judgment. The angels will execute the judgment. You know when in court, the judge hits the hammer, and he says I hereby sentence you to five years imprisonment and he slams the hammer, the judge passed the judgment. There are some officers standing in the courtroom. They go and grab that guy and cuff him or cuff her and take them away. So, the angels are those officers. The judge is Jesus Christ and the angels are the officers awaiting the Judge ruling.
Secondly, why do angels appear in the Book of Revelation? The angel is a messenger. He delivers God’s message but does not interfere with humans’ salvation. We find this in the Book of Acts, Chapter 10. In the Book of Acts, Chapter 10, there was this man from the pagan world called Cornelius. Cornelius fasted for four days. He was fasting to get a message from God. And then, the angel came and appeared to Cornelius. He said, ‘Cornelius, your prayers and fasting has reached the throne of God and God has accepted your fasting and accepted your prayers. That’s why He sent me.’ And why did the angel appear to Cornelius? Because, when Cornelius was praying, who actually delivered the prayers of Cornelius to God? The angel! All of us have angels with us my beloved friends. You have an angel with you 24×7. Whatever you say, whatever you do, I will be there for you. Whatever you say, sounds like a song, whatever you say and whatever you do, the angel is listening, is hearing, and then he takes it all the way to the throne of God awaiting a reply from God. So, Cornelius was praying and the angel was standing right next to him. He did not see the angel but the angel could see us, and could hear us, so once he finished, he took the prayers and the fasting of Cornelius all the way to the throne of God and God said, ‘I accept. Go, and reveal yourself to him.’ When the angel appeared to Cornelius, Cornelius came back and said, ‘What can I do to be saved?’
He said, ‘Sorry, not my job. My job is to deliver the message. But when it comes to things that do with salvation, listen Cornelius, go all the way to a place called Joppa.’ Joppa is in Israel. ‘Go to a place, a city called Joppa, and ask for someone called Simon and they refer to him as Peter. Go and ask Simon Peter to come to you and he will tell you everything that you need for you and your household to be saved. Why? Because I am an angel and an angel does not have a body. I did not put on a human body. Therefore I don’t know what salvation is all about. I cannot relate to it. My hard drive is an Apple Mcintosh. Your one is an XP that crashes a lot and gets bugs in it all the time. Therefore, since I did not become a human, I cannot relate to your agonies and your sufferings’.
The angel is spirit. They are made out of fire and spirit. They do not understand our feelings. They do not relate to our cries and tears. But someone like Simon Peter, who’s been there, who’s done it, who’s fallen so deep in sin, who’s gone astray, just like any one of us has done so, he knows what salvation is all about. When he got touched by Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world, and the supreme judge of everyone.
‘Go, get someone who relates to you, who understands you, who can share his testimonies with you. He’s a human like you. I’m not. I’m a messenger only.’ So, Simon Peter came and spoke to Cornelius about one man, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. He believed, he got saved and his household.”
You can watch the sermon here.