Why Did John Fall Before an Angel? | Sunday Seeds

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The man who wrote the last book of the Bible
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worshipped an angel, and he did it twice. He had
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already seen the risen Christ face to face, standing among
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seven golden lampstands with eyes like a flame of fire,
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and he still got it wrong. Then he wrote both
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failures into the book with his own name attached. That
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should unsettle anyone who assumes the danger lives somewhere else
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among people who don't know any better. If the apostle
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who saw the most could be pulled into worshiping the
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wrong thing, then the angel numbers on your phone, the
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spirit guides your coworker swears by, and the talking artificial Jesus,
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a chapel in Switzerland put inside a confession booth, is
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not harmless curiosities, right? They are the same pole, and
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it has never once announced itself as a threat. There's
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a Hebrew scroll from a cave near the Dead Sea
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with a line that orders the gods to bow down,
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and there's a church, a council that met in one
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of the very cities John wrote to, and still had
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to outlaw praying to angels almost three centuries after he
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warned them. The question I'm holding on to till the
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very end is this one. How does a man who
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has seen Jesus make that mistake twice? And why would
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he put both failures in writing? By the time we're
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done this morning, you'll know, and you'll know the one
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test every true angel has. I spent years in corporate
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and executive security and protection work. Protection work teaches you
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something about people that you can't unlearn. When someone important
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walks into the room, the crowd's eyes almost never go
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to the right person. They go to whoever looks the part,
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the best suit, the most confident walk, the man at
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the front of the group who carries himself like he's
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in charge. Meanwhile, the person who actually matters moves through
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the room almost unnoticed. You learn to watch for that
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because it's where mistakes get made. And if I'm honest,
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the hardest part wasn't catching other people doing it. It
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was catching myself. Impressive? and important are not the same thing.
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And the human eye is very, very, very bad at
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telling them apart. Good morning and welcome to Sunday Seeds.
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This is your first time on Sunday with us. This
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is the one day of the week this channel isn't
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investigating anything. Monday through Saturday, we open files. We go
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through old manuscripts and strange reports and arguments that have
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been running for 2,000 years, okay? And we try to
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sort out what holds weight. Sunday is something else. No case,
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no proof, just the book, prayer, and the people who
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show up. And, I mean, we kind of set up
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the week, right? But, yeah, either way. I'm grateful you're
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one of them and that you're here. You could have
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put on anything this morning, and I don't take that
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for granted that you choose to spend this time here.
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Wherever you're watching or listening from a kitchen table, truck cab,
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hospital waiting room, you're part of this. It's built with
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you in mind. And before we're done, I'm going to
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ask what you'd like us to pray about. So, Last week,
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we spent five days with Jesus in the revealed one,
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following him from Bethlehem all the way down through the
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gates of the dead. This week, we're starting a series
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called the Elohim, over four episodes. Plus this one, we're
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going to walk through every kind of being the Bible
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places in the unseen realm, and a good number of
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beings that other traditions place there too. OK, so tomorrow, Monday,
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we start with the word itself. Elohim is the word
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in the first verse of the Bible. In the beginning, God.
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It's also a word the Bible uses more than once
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for beings that are not the God of Israel. So
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we'll start with what the word means and what it
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does and what it doesn't mean. And then we'll go
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through the ranks of Scripture. actually names, right? Cherubim, seraphim,
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the ones it calls the holy ones and the watchers,
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and we'll look at how people tried to organize all
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of it. Afterward, from the 6th century Christian mystic who
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gave the church its nine choirs of angels to a
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medieval rabbi who counted ten. Tuesday is the archangels Michael
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and Gabriel who are named in scripture and the ones
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whose names come from outside like Raphael and Uriel and
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the others and whose name, those same names turn up
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in places you would never expect a Christian to go looking.
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So Wednesday is the fallen. We've already told the story
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of Rebellion on this channel. So this isn't a retelling.
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It's closer to a field guide. Who the fallen are,
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how different traditions name and rank them, and what has
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actually been documented when people say they've encountered one. Thursday,
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our guest conversation. I'm trying to think. I think it's
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Kyle Milholland is who it'll be. And then Friday is
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the in-between, the beings that don't fit in either column.
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And on Friday, I'm going to close a question I'll
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open tomorrow about a woman in a village called Endor
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who looked at something rising out of the ground and
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called it by the same word Genesis uses for God.
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Then Saturday, Laura Baker and I are back with Testing
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the Spirits. I'm laying all of that out that now,
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because of what we're about to read, we're going to
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spend a week looking hard at created beings. Some of
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them are glorious. Some of them are absolutely terrifying. And
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a few of them are both. So before we do
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any of that, I want us to spend one more
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morning looking at the one every one of them answers to.
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Our readings this morning are Psalms 89, verses 5 through 8,
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and the whole first chapter of the book of Hebrews.
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As always on Sunday, I'm reading from the King James. So,
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Psalm 89, beginning at verse 5. And the heavens shall
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praise thy wonders, O Lord, thy faithfulness also in the
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congregation of the saints, For who in the heaven can
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be compared unto the Lord? Who among the sons of
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the mighty can be likened unto the Lord? God is
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greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints
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and to be had in reverence of all them that
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are about him. O Lord God of hosts. who is
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a strong Lord, like unto thee, or to thy faithfulness
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round about thee. And now Hebrews chapter 1. God, who
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at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time
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past unto the fathers of or by the prophets, hath
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in these last days spoken unto us by his Son,
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whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom
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also he made the worlds, who, being the brightness of
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his glory and the express image of his person and
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upholding all things by the word of his power, when
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he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on
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the right hand of the Majesty on high, being made
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so much better, than the angels, as he hath by
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inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto
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which of the angels he said he at any time,
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Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee,
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and again I will be to him a father, and
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he shall be to me a son, and again when
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he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith,
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and let all the angels. angels of God worship him.
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And of the angels he saith, whom maketh his angels
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spirit and his ministers a flame of fire. But unto
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the sun he saith, thy throne, O God, is forever
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and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of
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thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore God,
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even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of
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the gladness above thy fellows. And thou, Lord, in the
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beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the
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heavens are the works of thine hands. They shall perish,
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but thou remainest, and they all shall wax old, as
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doth a garment, and as a vesture shalt thou fold
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them up, and they shall be changed. But thou art
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the same, and thy years shall not fail. But to
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which of the angels said, He at any time sit
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on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
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Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister
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for them who shall be heirs of salvation? This is
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the word of the Lord. All right, let's pray. Father
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in heaven, your name is holy and it is wholly
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whether we notice it or not. Before we say a
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word about the beings who stand around your throne, we
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want to stand where they stand, which is in front
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of you, you and beneath you. Let your kingdom come
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in this room and in every place someone is listening
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right now. Let your will be done in what we
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read this morning and in how we hear it. Give
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us what we need for today and nothing that would
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pull our eyes off of you. Forgive us for the
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times we have honored what was impressive instead of what
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was true. As we forgive the ones who led us there,
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keep us from being drawn aside and deliver us from
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the evil one. Yours is the kingdom and the power
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and the glory forever. We ask it in the name
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of Jesus, the name above every name. Amen. Okay, John.
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John falls down three times in the book of Revelation,
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and it helps to see all three side by side.
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The first is in chapter one. John is on Patmos
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on the Lord's day, and he hears a voice behind
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him like a trumpet. He turns to see who is speaking,
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and he sees one like the Son of Man, clothed
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down to the foot, with hair white like wool, and
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a voice like the sound of many waters. Verse 17,
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And when I saw him, I fell at his feet
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as dead, and he laid his right hand upon me,
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saying unto me, Fear not, I am the first and
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the last. Notice what doesn't happen there. Nobody tells John
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to get up because he's bowing to the wrong person.
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Jesus doesn't correct the posture at all. He touches him.
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He tells him not to be afraid. And then he
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tells him who he is. That fall is never corrected
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anywhere in the book because it was never a mistake.
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The second fall is, is in chapter 19. By this point,
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John has watched seals open, and trumpets sounded, and bowls
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poured out. He's seen Babylon fall. Then he hears what
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sounds like a great multitude, like many waters and mighty thunderings, crying, Hallelujah!
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Because the marriage of the Lamb has come.
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An angel.
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tells him to write, Blessed are they which are called
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unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And then adds,
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These are the true sayings of God. Now, verse 10.
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And I fell at his feet to worship him, and
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he said unto me, See thou do it not. I
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am thy fellow servant and of thy brethren that have
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the testimony of Jesus. Worship God. for the testimony of
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Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. The third comes at
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the very end of the book, when once John has
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been shown the city while its gates of pearl and
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the river of the water of life flowing out from
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the throne, chapter 21, verse 8. And I, John, saw
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these things and heard them. And when I had heard them,
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And seeing, I fell down to worship before the feet
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of the angel which shone me these things. Then saith
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he unto me, See thou do it not, for I
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am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren the prophets,
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and of them which keep the sayings of this book
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worship God. The posture is identical all three times. He
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falls at the feet. Bowing wasn't the problem. Falling on
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your face before something holy is one of the most
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natural responses in the whole Bible. Abraham does it. Ezekiel
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does it. So often it becomes part of the rhythm
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of his book. What changed between chapter 1 and chapters
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19 and 22 is, was not the posture. It was
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who was standing in front of him. And look at
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how John signs the second failure. I, John, saw these things.
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That's the same way he introduced himself back in chapter 1,
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verse 9. I, John, who also am your brother. He
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used his own name to greet the churches, and he
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uses his own name again to confess this. Nobody made
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him included. The book would have read perfectly well without it.
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The angel's words about itself are worth slowing down for.
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I am thy fellow servant. In Greek, the word is sundoulos,
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a fellow slave, a fellow servant in the same household.
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It isn't a word for a superior being condescending to
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a lesser one. It's the word you use when someone
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of your own level under the same master, Paul uses
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the exact word in his letter to the, uh, to
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the Coletians. And again, for Tychicus, the man who carried
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the letter, they're ordinary men, a pastor of a small
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church in a fading town and a courier and the
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angel who had just shown John the marriage supper of
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the Lamb, puts itself in that category. Then it widens
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the circle of thy brethren, the prophets, and of them
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which keep the sayings of this book. The angel ranks
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itself alongside anyone who keeps the words of this book.
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That includes the prophets. It also includes a woman reading Revelation,
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at her kitchen table in 2026, okay? In the angel's
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own estimation, it stands beside you, not above you, as
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a servant of the same master. Then, come to words
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in English, and the whole correction lives in them. Worship God.
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It doesn't argue about how glorious it is. It doesn't
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explain itself or defend itself. It points. I spent a
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lot of years in security work. And one of the
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first things you learn on any post is that you
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never grant access based on how impressive someone looks. The
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most dangerous person to walk up to a checkpoint is
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usually the one who looks like he belongs there. You
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check credentials. Scripture gives us a credential check for the
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unseen realm. And the angel on Patmos passes it in
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two words. A true messenger of God will not keep
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the worship. It hands it straight back to the throne.
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This isn't the first time in scripture a heavenly messenger
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has redirected worship. In Judges 13, the angel of the
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Lord appears to a man named Manoah and his wife.
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to announce the birth of Samson. Manoah, not knowing what
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he's talking to, wants to honor his visitor. So he
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offers to prepare a young goat for him. And the
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answer comes back, verse 16, that Though thou'st detain me,
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I will not eat of thy bread. And if thou
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wilt offer a burnt offering, thou must offer it unto
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the Lord. The angel of the Lord is a mysterious
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figure in the Old Testament, and he spent a whole
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hour on him. We spent a whole hour on him
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last Monday because there are places where the text seemed
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to speak of as the Lord himself. But even here,
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the instinct is the same. The offering goes to the Lord.
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Daniel gives us the other side of it. In chapter 10,
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after his long fast, Daniel sees a man clothed in
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linen with a face like lightning and eyes like lamps
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of fire, and he says there remained no strength in him.
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He falls on his face in a deep sleep with
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his face toward the ground. Look at how the messenger responds.
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A hand touches him and sets him to his knees.
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The messenger calls him a man greatly beloved, tells him
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to stand upright, and tells him not to fear. He
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strengthens Daniel, and he never once receives Daniel's collapse as homage.
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To understand why a being that glorious would refuse worship
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so quickly, so reflexively, We have to go back roughly
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a thousand years before John to a psalm written by
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a man named Ethan. Psalm 89 carries the heading, Maschil
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of Ethan, the Ezraite. It's a long psalm about God's
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covenant with David, the promise that David's line will sit
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on the throne forever. If you read the whole Psalm,
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you'll notice it doesn't end where it begins. Somewhere around
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verse 38, it turns. But thou hast cast off and abhorred.
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Thou hast been wroth with thine anointment. The crown is
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on the ground. The walls are broken down. Ethan is
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writing at a moment when it looks like God's promise
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has failed. Before he says any of that, before he
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brings his complaint, he looks up and what he describes
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when he looked up is a room. Verse five, the
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congregation of the saints. When we hear the word saints,
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we tend to think of people, but Ethan has just said,
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the heavens shall praise thy wonders. And the congregation he's
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describing is in the heavens. The Hebrew is kohal, kwedosim, kwedoshim,
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the assembly of the holy ones. These are heavenly beings.
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Verse six, whom among the sons of the mighty can
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be likened unto the Lord. The Hebrew phrase behind sons
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of mighty is B'nai Elim. It's a close cousin of
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B'nai Elohim, the sons of God. the phrase that turns
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up in the book of Job when the sons of
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God come to present themselves before the Lord and in
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the strange opening verses of Genesis 6. Ethan is talking
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about the highest ranks of created being, the ones closest
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to the throne. In verse 7, God is greatly to
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be feared in the assembly of the saints. The word
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for assembly is, in this verse is different from the
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one in verse 5. It's sod, S-O-D, and it means
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a council, a circle of counselors who sits together and deliberates.
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Jeremiah uses the same word when he asked, who hath
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stood in the counsel of the Lord and hath perceived
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and heard his word. According to the Hebrew Bible, there
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is a Counsel in heaven. Michael Heiser spent most of
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his career showing how much of the Old Testament comes
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into focus once you take that counsel seriously. And tomorrow,
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we're going to spend most of an hour inside of it.
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This morning, though, we look at what Ethan says about
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that counsel. Sorry. He doesn't say the counsel is impressive.
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He says God is greatly to be feared in it,
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to be had in reverence of all them that are
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about him. The beings who stand nearest to God are
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the ones most aware of the distance between him and themselves.
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That runs against our instincts. We tend to assume that
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the closer you get to power, the more casual you
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become around it. Anyone who has worked near a general
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or a head of state knows it usually goes the
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other way. The people farthest from the room talk about
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the man in it most loosely. The people at the
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table choose their words wisely. In Psalm 89, the holy
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ones at the table are the ones who fear him most.
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Isaiah saw the same thing from a different angle. In
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Isaiah 6, the seraphim above the throne Each have six wings,
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and with two of them they cover their faces. These
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are beings whose very name has to do with burning,
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standing as close to the presence of God as any
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creature in Scripture stands, and they shield their eyes. Revelation
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4 shows us 24 elders on thrones of their own
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who fall down and cast their crowns before the throne.
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Every glimpse of the inner court We're given in scripture
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shows the same thing. The higher you go, the lower
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everyone bows. Then verse eight. Oh, Lord, God of hosts,
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who is a strong Lord, like unto thee. God of hosts,
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the armies, the ranks. Every one of the beings we're
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going to talk about this week from the seraphim to
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the watchers falls under that title. They are his hosts.
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He is not one of theirs, okay? So when the
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angel at Patmos says, see thou, do it not, it
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isn't being modest. It's speaking as a member of the
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council Ethan describes. It lives in the room where God
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is greatly to be feared and knows exactly how far
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beneath the throne it stands and a man bowing to
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it would have struck it the way it would strike
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a private if a visitor walked straight past the general
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to salute him instead. Now, the second reading. We don't
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know who wrote the book of Hebrews. People have suggested
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Paul or Barnabas or Apollos. The early church didn't know either, though. Origen,
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writing in the 3rd century, said that who wrote the
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epistle is truth. Only God knows. What we can tell
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from the letter is who it was written to. These
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were believers, very likely Jewish believers, who had already suffered
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for their faith and were being pressured to step back
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from it. Chapter 10 mentions that they had their goods
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taken from them. Chapter 12 tells them they haven't yet
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resisted to the point of shedding blood, which means some
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of them were wondering whether they would have to. For
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people with that background, angels were not a fringe subject.
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In first century Jewish understanding, angels had a part in
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the giving of the law at Sinai. And Stephen says
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it in Acts 7 that Israel received the law by
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the disposition of angels. Paul says in Galatians 3, and
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Hebrews itself says in chapter 2, calling the law the
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word spoken by angels. For these readers, angels were the
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highest category of heavenly agent they knew, the ones who
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had carried the most sacred thing they owned down the mountain.
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So the temptation for people under pressure was to find
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a place for Jesus inside the category they already had,
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make him the greatest of the angels, a very high messenger, honored,
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but manageable. A Jesus like that costs less to follow
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when the neighbors start talking about property. And Hebrews spends
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its entire first chapter refusing that. The writer strings together
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seven quotations from the Old Testament, one after another, and
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every one of them places the sun somewhere no angel
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has ever been placed verse 5 for unto which of
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the angels said he at any time thou art my
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son this day i have begotten thee the answer the
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writer expects is that he never said it to any
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of them. Verse 6 is the one I want to
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slow down on because it touches everything we're doing this week.
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And again, when he bringeth in the first begotten into
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the world, he saith, and let all the angels of
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God worship him. If you go looking for that line
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in the Old Testament, you'll have a hard time finding it.
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It comes from the end of the Song of Moses,
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Deuteronomy 32, verse 43. But the traditional Hebrew text that
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most English Old Testaments are translated from doesn't contain it.
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The Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, which
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is the version the writer of Hebrews usually quotes, does
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contain it. And in the last century, among the Dead
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Sea Scrolls in Cave 4 at Qumran, scholars found a
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Hebrew copy of Deuteronomy more than a thousand years older
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than the complete Hebrew manuscripts we'd had before. That preserves
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the line in Hebrew. It reads, bow down to him...
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all you gods. The word for gods there is Elohim.
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So the writer of Hebrews takes a verse in which
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the Elohim, the members of the heavenly council, are commanded
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to bow down and he applies it to the moment
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the sun enters the world. Every being in the council
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Ethan described is told to worship him. That's the first
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thing Hebrews wants you to know before you start thinking
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about angels at all. Verse 7. And the angels he saith,
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who maketh his angels spirits and his ministers a flame
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of fire. That's from Psalm 104. The weight of the
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quotation sits on the verb. He makes them. They are
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winds and flames, and they are glorious, but they are
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made things, and he is the one who makes them.
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Verse 8, by contrast, But unto the Son he saith
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thy throne, O God, if forever and ever. The angels
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are made. Again, the Son is addressed as God and
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given a throne. Then verses 10 through 12 take a
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psalm about the Lord laying the foundations of the earth,
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Psalm 102, and speak it to the sun. The heavens
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will wear out like a coat, and he'll fold them
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up and change them, and he will still be the same.
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The angels belong to the creation that wears out. The
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sun is the one who folds it up. And then
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the chapter ends with a question that turns the whole
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hierarchy over. Verse 14. Are they not all ministering spirits
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set forth to minister for them who shall be heirs
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of salvation? That verse challenges the direction of everything. The
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beings that people across history have been tempted to worship
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were sent to serve the people doing the worshiping. the
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seraphim of Isaiah 6, and the angel who rolled away
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the stone from the tomb in the language of Hebrews,
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ministering spirits on assignment for the heirs of salvation. Which
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means that if you belong to Christ, they are assigned
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for you. They're on assignment for you. That isn't a
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reason to feel important. If anything, it's the opposite. It's
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a reason to stop looking up at them as if
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they were the summit. They aren't the summit. They're servants
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in the same household as you. They know it, and
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they would very much like you to know it too.
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That's what the angel in Patmos was telling John. I'm
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a fellow servant. Worship God, not me. Before we go further,
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let me take one minute for something practical, okay? Everything
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you hear on this channel seven days a week is
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kept running by people who decide it was worth supporting.
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One of the simplest ways that you can do that
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is broadcasting seed store. We've rebuilt it with tees and hoodies,
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and we're putting together some other things as well. A
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lot of them carry the scripture and the themes we
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teach right here. I'll be honest with you about why
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I like them. A shirt with a verse on it
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starts conversations. It starts conversations I'd never get to start
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on my own in the grocery store line or at
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the gas station or at the library or with people
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who would never click on a video about angels, okay?
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Every order goes straight back into making these episodes. You'll
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find it at broadcastingseeds.com and the link will be in
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the description. What I'm about to read you is not scripture.
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And I want to say that plainly because this channel
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spends a lot of time in books that are outside
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the Bible. And Sunday is the day we're most careful
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about that line, right? These are ancient Jewish and Christian writings.
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And with one partial exception I'll name when we get
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to it. The church did not receive them as scripture.
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I'm bringing them in for one reason. They show us
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that what happened to John on Patmos was not an
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isolated moment. It fits a pattern ancient readers might recognize.
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Start with the book of Tobit.
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No.
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Tobit is in the Bibles of Catholic and Orthodox Christians.
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In Protestant Bibles, it isn't, though it was printed in
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the 1611 King James among the books of the Apocrypha,
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which is the partial exception I mentioned. It tells the
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story of a blind man named Tobit and his son Tobias.
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who makes a long journey with a hired companion who
473
00:37:09.789 --> 00:37:16.440
calls himself Azaris, Az-ar-ias, sorry. At the end of the journey,
474
00:37:16.719 --> 00:37:22.699
after Tobias was married and his father's sight has been restored,
475
00:37:23.280 --> 00:37:28.690
the companion reveals who he really is. I am Raphael,
476
00:37:29.190 --> 00:37:33.829
one of the seven holy angels. Father and son are terrified.
477
00:37:34.219 --> 00:37:37.539
and they fall on their faces. Raphael tells them not
478
00:37:37.579 --> 00:37:41.239
to be afraid. He tells them it was not by
479
00:37:41.320 --> 00:37:45.500
any favor of his own that he came, but by
480
00:37:45.539 --> 00:37:48.739
the will of God, and that it is God they
481
00:37:48.760 --> 00:37:53.329
should bless and praise. There's another book called The Apocalypse
482
00:37:53.369 --> 00:38:00.650
of Zephaniah. Nobody is certain when it was written. Estimates
483
00:38:00.769 --> 00:38:05.480
run about... from about a century before Christ to the
484
00:38:05.559 --> 00:38:09.059
second century after. So, come on, that's a huge thing.
485
00:38:09.139 --> 00:38:13.659
But either way, and the fullest copy we have survives
486
00:38:13.739 --> 00:38:18.110
in Coptic, the language of Christian Egypt. In it, the
487
00:38:18.150 --> 00:38:26.530
prophet Zephaniah is taken on a journey through the unseen world.
488
00:38:27.039 --> 00:38:29.820
And he sees a great angel with a golden belt
489
00:38:29.960 --> 00:38:32.659
and a face that shines like the rays of the sun.
490
00:38:33.440 --> 00:38:37.019
Zephaniah assumes he's looking at the Lord Almighty. And he
491
00:38:37.079 --> 00:38:40.780
falls down to worship. The angel stops him. Do not
492
00:38:40.889 --> 00:38:45.150
worship me, it says. I am not the Lord Almighty.
493
00:38:45.230 --> 00:38:50.230
I am the great angel, Ermael, who is over the
494
00:38:50.309 --> 00:38:59.960
abyss and Hades. Hmm, Ermael. E-R-E-M-I-E-L, who is over the
495
00:39:00.039 --> 00:39:05.179
abyss and Hades. Then there's a Christian work called the
496
00:39:05.300 --> 00:39:09.760
Ascension of Isaiah. Most of it probably written late in
497
00:39:09.780 --> 00:39:13.969
the first century or early second and around the same
498
00:39:14.119 --> 00:39:20.449
era as Revelation, okay? It imagines the prophet Isaiah being
499
00:39:20.510 --> 00:39:23.969
carried up through the seven heavens by an angel guide.
500
00:39:24.530 --> 00:39:28.139
In the seventh chapter, Isaiah falls on his face to
501
00:39:28.199 --> 00:39:31.630
worship that guide. and the angel won't permit it. It
502
00:39:31.670 --> 00:39:35.449
tells him not to worship any throne or any angel
503
00:39:35.769 --> 00:39:39.849
of the lower heavens. A chapter later, when Isaiah calls
504
00:39:39.869 --> 00:39:43.530
the angel his Lord, the angel answers that it is
505
00:39:43.659 --> 00:39:49.179
not his Lord, but his companion. In 1981, The New
506
00:39:49.219 --> 00:39:56.650
Testament scholar Richard Bauckham published a study of exactly this pattern.
507
00:39:57.269 --> 00:40:01.070
He called it the angelic refusal of worship. What he
508
00:40:01.190 --> 00:40:05.269
noticed was in Jewish and early Christian writings, the refusal
509
00:40:05.309 --> 00:40:09.449
had become something like a signature. A true angel of
510
00:40:09.510 --> 00:40:13.780
God refuses worship, and that refusal is one of the
511
00:40:13.840 --> 00:40:18.440
ways the reader is meant to recognize it. as a
512
00:40:18.500 --> 00:40:22.280
true angel. There's a darker version of the same idea
513
00:40:22.300 --> 00:40:25.000
in Jewish tradition, and some of you will remember it
514
00:40:25.570 --> 00:40:31.050
from our episode on Enoch and Metatron. The Babylonian Talmud
515
00:40:31.429 --> 00:40:42.829
in the tractate caligia, I can't say these words, chagiga,
516
00:40:44.829 --> 00:40:50.789
good enough, Tells a story about a rabbi named Elisha
517
00:40:51.090 --> 00:41:00.030
Ben Abduya. Abduya, sorry. Who, wow. Who was later called Archer,
518
00:41:00.869 --> 00:41:04.449
the other, because he left the faith. I never knew
519
00:41:04.489 --> 00:41:08.750
that was his name. In the story, he ascends in
520
00:41:08.909 --> 00:41:13.090
a vision and sees Metatron, the highest of the angels,
521
00:41:13.449 --> 00:41:19.000
seated in heaven. He concludes, perhaps there are two powers
522
00:41:19.079 --> 00:41:22.760
in heaven. According to the story, Metatron was then brought
523
00:41:22.900 --> 00:41:27.559
out and struck with 60 lashes of fire for failing
524
00:41:27.659 --> 00:41:32.079
to rise when he was seen. The later mystical book
525
00:41:32.119 --> 00:41:36.159
called Third Enoch tells its own version of the same scene.
526
00:41:36.699 --> 00:41:39.750
Whatever you make of those books, the rabbis telling that
527
00:41:39.829 --> 00:41:43.869
story were making the same point the angel made to John.
528
00:41:44.789 --> 00:41:48.170
Even the appearance of a second throne beside God was
529
00:41:48.269 --> 00:41:53.300
treated as a catastrophe. So the New Testament carries the
530
00:41:53.380 --> 00:41:57.139
same weight when it's a man on the receiving end.
531
00:41:57.820 --> 00:42:02.719
In Acts 10, the Roman centurion Cornelius falls down at
532
00:42:02.760 --> 00:42:05.809
Peter's feet and worships him. And Peter lifts him up
533
00:42:05.889 --> 00:42:10.130
and says, stand up, I myself also am a man.
534
00:42:10.150 --> 00:42:15.579
In Acts 14, the crowd of Lystra Decide Paul and
535
00:42:15.639 --> 00:42:19.280
Barnabas are gods, come down to the likeness of men,
536
00:42:19.400 --> 00:42:22.159
and the two of them tear their clothes and run
537
00:42:22.460 --> 00:42:26.139
in among the people to stop them. And in Acts 12,
538
00:42:26.139 --> 00:42:30.690
when King Herod Agrippa stands before a crowd of royal apparel,
539
00:42:31.789 --> 00:42:34.710
and they shout that it is the voice of a
540
00:42:34.789 --> 00:42:38.150
god and not of a man, Luke says an angel
541
00:42:38.210 --> 00:42:42.489
of the Lord struck him immediately because he gave not
542
00:42:42.949 --> 00:42:48.329
the God the glory. He wasn't struck for something he said.
543
00:42:48.409 --> 00:42:54.449
He was struck for what he let stand. Now, hold
544
00:42:54.710 --> 00:42:59.690
all that against the gospels. And when Jesus walks in
545
00:42:59.730 --> 00:43:03.929
the water, on the water, sorry, and climbs onto the boat,
546
00:43:04.030 --> 00:43:08.719
Matthew says, they that were in the ship came and
547
00:43:08.800 --> 00:43:13.070
worshiped him. He lets it stand. One of the mornings
548
00:43:13.170 --> 00:43:15.949
of the resurrection, the women meet him on the road,
549
00:43:16.650 --> 00:43:19.550
take hold of his feet and worship him. And instead
550
00:43:19.590 --> 00:43:22.730
of correcting them, he tells them not to be afraid.
551
00:43:23.650 --> 00:43:26.170
A week later, Thomas looks at the wounds and says,
552
00:43:26.809 --> 00:43:30.429
my Lord and my God. And Jesus answers him without
553
00:43:30.550 --> 00:43:35.630
changing a single word of it. In the very literature
554
00:43:35.840 --> 00:43:39.420
where we're fusing worship, was the mark of a faithful
555
00:43:39.559 --> 00:43:43.239
angel in the very book where apostles tore their clothes
556
00:43:43.320 --> 00:43:47.929
rather than accept it, Jesus receives worship and never once
557
00:43:48.320 --> 00:43:52.170
turns it away. That leaves a narrow set of options.
558
00:43:52.829 --> 00:43:56.949
Either he was the most dangerous deceiver who ever lived,
559
00:43:57.809 --> 00:44:00.690
or he is exactly who the first chapter of Hebrews
560
00:44:00.769 --> 00:44:05.730
says that he is. Revelation itself makes the point without
561
00:44:05.849 --> 00:44:10.519
arguing it. In chapter 25, the four living creatures and
562
00:44:10.579 --> 00:44:15.360
the 24 elders fall down before the Lamb. Then John
563
00:44:15.579 --> 00:44:22.269
hears the voice of many angels coming around the throne, 10,000
564
00:44:22.269 --> 00:44:28.119
times 10,000 and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice,
565
00:44:28.739 --> 00:44:34.019
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. The same kind
566
00:44:34.059 --> 00:44:38.280
of beings who tell John, see thou do it not,
567
00:44:38.880 --> 00:44:43.300
are on their faces before the Lamb. They know where
568
00:44:43.559 --> 00:44:48.730
worship goes, and they have always known. So, one more
569
00:44:48.769 --> 00:44:54.809
piece from outside Scripture matters for our question, and this
570
00:44:54.869 --> 00:44:59.710
time it's history rather than tradition. Revelation opens the letters
571
00:45:00.030 --> 00:45:03.739
to seven churches in the Roman province of Asia. what
572
00:45:03.820 --> 00:45:07.679
is now Western Turkey. And the last of those seven
573
00:45:07.900 --> 00:45:19.550
is Laodicea. About 10 miles from Laodicea is the same
574
00:45:19.849 --> 00:45:28.429
river valley sat a smaller town called Colossae. Paul wrote
575
00:45:28.550 --> 00:45:32.010
a letter there And in it, he says something that
576
00:45:32.070 --> 00:45:37.989
would make no sense unless the problem was real. Collesians 2,
577
00:45:37.989 --> 00:45:42.809
verse 18, Let no man beguile you of your reward
578
00:45:42.989 --> 00:45:47.659
in a voluntary humanity and worshiping of angels, intruding into
579
00:45:47.719 --> 00:45:52.960
those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up
580
00:45:53.400 --> 00:45:57.750
by his fleshy mind. At the end of that same letter,
581
00:45:57.809 --> 00:46:03.769
Paul tells the Colossians to make sure it's read in
582
00:46:03.829 --> 00:46:11.110
the church at the Lacona Diocese as well. So the
583
00:46:11.190 --> 00:46:15.809
warning about worshiping the angels was read aloud in one
584
00:46:15.849 --> 00:46:19.789
of the seven churches John would later write to. It
585
00:46:19.829 --> 00:46:23.429
didn't go away. Sometime in the fourth century, a church
586
00:46:23.590 --> 00:46:31.579
council met in Laodicea itself, and one of its rulings,
587
00:46:31.860 --> 00:46:36.360
Canon 35, said that Christians must not leave the church
588
00:46:36.420 --> 00:46:41.139
of God and go off to invoke angels. It called
589
00:46:41.179 --> 00:46:45.570
the practice a hidden idolatry. Roughly a century after that,
590
00:46:46.570 --> 00:46:52.360
Theodoret uh, a bishop in Syria writing a commentary on Colossians.
591
00:46:52.530 --> 00:46:56.119
This disease had lingered a long time in that region
592
00:46:56.579 --> 00:46:59.860
and that in his own day, you could still find
593
00:46:59.920 --> 00:47:04.579
chapels of the Archangel Michael among the people there. One
594
00:47:04.619 --> 00:47:11.449
of the most famous stood at a place called, uh, Chonea, C-H-O-N-A-E,
595
00:47:11.730 --> 00:47:18.429
a few miles from the ruins of Colossia. Um, We'll
596
00:47:18.449 --> 00:47:25.860
come back to the Jonah on Tuesday. Okay. So the
597
00:47:26.300 --> 00:47:29.760
back to that chapel. So the region John was writing
598
00:47:29.820 --> 00:47:35.070
to had a long and documented problem with exactly this temptation.
599
00:47:35.489 --> 00:47:38.429
Hold on to that. Okay. We'll need it in a
600
00:47:38.469 --> 00:47:46.670
few minutes. I want to bring all this. into 2026
601
00:47:46.670 --> 00:47:51.030
because none of it is an ancient curiosity it if
602
00:47:51.090 --> 00:47:54.170
you spent uh if you spend any time on social
603
00:47:54.210 --> 00:47:58.289
media you've always certainly run into what are called angel
604
00:47:58.349 --> 00:48:03.929
numbers and you glance at the clock and it reads
605
00:48:04.340 --> 00:48:08.739
uh 111 or 444 and someone tells you that your
606
00:48:08.960 --> 00:48:13.610
angel's trying to get your attention That idea is popularized
607
00:48:13.789 --> 00:48:19.760
in part by a woman named Doreen Virtue, who, for years,
608
00:48:20.519 --> 00:48:26.059
wrote best-selling books and decks of oracle cards about communicating
609
00:48:26.599 --> 00:48:27.719
with angels.
610
00:48:29.260 --> 00:48:29.489
Hmm.
611
00:48:30.300 --> 00:48:33.710
Including a book about angel numbers. An enormous number of
612
00:48:33.769 --> 00:48:38.809
people learned to talk to angels from her. In fact, 2017,
613
00:48:38.809 --> 00:48:46.139
Doreen Virtue announced that she had become a Christian. Since then,
614
00:48:46.519 --> 00:48:50.380
she has said publicly that she believes she was deceived,
615
00:48:50.920 --> 00:48:55.699
and she has renounced the angel teaching that made her famous.
616
00:48:56.699 --> 00:48:59.489
But you don't hear about it, really, do you? Think
617
00:48:59.530 --> 00:49:03.530
about what that means. The most influential teacher of angel
618
00:49:03.570 --> 00:49:08.420
communication of her generation walked away from it. And what
619
00:49:08.480 --> 00:49:15.929
she walked towards was Jesus. And the pole isn't staying
620
00:49:15.969 --> 00:49:23.130
with angels in the summer of 2024, HR. in Lucerne, Switzerland,
621
00:49:23.849 --> 00:49:28.059
put an artificial intelligence version of Jesus inside its confession
622
00:49:28.079 --> 00:49:32.820
booth as an experiment. And hundreds of people sat down
623
00:49:32.860 --> 00:49:37.400
and talked to it. There are apps right now that
624
00:49:37.460 --> 00:49:40.929
let you text a chatbot dressed up as Jesus. or
625
00:49:41.130 --> 00:49:45.309
one of the apostles. I don't mention that to mock
626
00:49:45.409 --> 00:49:51.090
anybody who tried it, okay? The instinct underneath it is
627
00:49:51.170 --> 00:49:55.769
the same one, wearing new clothes. That's a voice that answers,
628
00:49:56.230 --> 00:50:00.159
that seems to know you, that's available any hour of
629
00:50:00.199 --> 00:50:04.400
the night, and that never once says, see thou do
630
00:50:04.699 --> 00:50:09.280
it not. The test does not change because the messenger
631
00:50:09.340 --> 00:50:14.780
is made of code. You don't need any of those
632
00:50:14.840 --> 00:50:19.760
stories to see the pattern, though. Angel numbers, spirit guides,
633
00:50:19.980 --> 00:50:23.699
guardian angels you're supposed to call on by name for
634
00:50:23.860 --> 00:50:29.309
parking spots or promotions, right? The vocabulary changes, but the
635
00:50:29.469 --> 00:50:33.789
instinct underneath it is the same one Paul was warning
636
00:50:34.289 --> 00:50:37.769
the collegians about. It's the instinct to go to the
637
00:50:37.849 --> 00:50:44.530
messengers and skip the actual sender It even feels more humble, right?
638
00:50:44.610 --> 00:50:47.909
It feels humbler. Who am I to go straight to God?
639
00:50:49.269 --> 00:50:52.769
Better to go through one of his helpers. Paul had
640
00:50:52.829 --> 00:50:59.469
a name for that. He called it a voluntary humility.
641
00:51:00.550 --> 00:51:05.820
It looks like humility. It's actually a detour. And the
642
00:51:05.960 --> 00:51:09.619
ancient sources make one thing very simple. A true angel
643
00:51:09.679 --> 00:51:14.840
of God by every account we just walk through, refuses
644
00:51:15.159 --> 00:51:22.320
the kind of attention. It's reflex is see thou, see though,
645
00:51:22.760 --> 00:51:29.099
do it not. So if something is happily receiving your devotion,
646
00:51:29.820 --> 00:51:33.599
answering when you call it by name, building a relationship
647
00:51:33.719 --> 00:51:38.369
when you run alongside your relationship with God, instead of
648
00:51:38.489 --> 00:51:43.349
turning you back toward him, Then by the standard of
649
00:51:43.409 --> 00:51:46.230
scripture and by the standard of the old Jewish and
650
00:51:46.250 --> 00:51:51.969
Christian writers who thought hardest about this, you've learned something
651
00:51:52.090 --> 00:51:56.199
about what that thing is not. I do not say
652
00:51:56.239 --> 00:52:00.260
that to frighten anybody. If you've worked with angel cards
653
00:52:00.860 --> 00:52:04.099
or prayed to a guardian angel by name or followed
654
00:52:04.159 --> 00:52:08.690
the numbers on the clock, you are not beyond reach.
655
00:52:08.989 --> 00:52:13.230
Dorian Virtue wasn't. The door is the same door it
656
00:52:13.289 --> 00:52:17.289
has always been. It's narrower than the culture makes it look.
657
00:52:18.670 --> 00:52:25.010
And it has one name over it. So let's go
658
00:52:25.070 --> 00:52:29.429
back to Patmos and to the question from the beginning.
659
00:52:29.989 --> 00:52:33.340
How does a man who has seen the risen Christ
660
00:52:33.420 --> 00:52:37.159
fall at the feet of an angel twice? And why
661
00:52:37.539 --> 00:52:40.750
did he write it down both times? The text doesn't
662
00:52:40.869 --> 00:52:43.889
tell us directly, and I want to be careful here
663
00:52:43.949 --> 00:52:47.630
with this because it would be easy to read my
664
00:52:47.750 --> 00:52:53.429
own explanation into it, okay? But the book leaves clues,
665
00:52:53.889 --> 00:52:56.239
and I think they're enough. And the first clue is
666
00:52:56.360 --> 00:53:00.320
where the falls happen. The first time John bows to
667
00:53:00.360 --> 00:53:03.519
an angel is right after he hears the marriage supper
668
00:53:04.159 --> 00:53:07.719
of the Lamb announced. The second is right after he's
669
00:53:07.780 --> 00:53:10.809
been shown the Holy City, and the throne of God
670
00:53:11.030 --> 00:53:15.610
and of the Lamb. Both times he falls immediately after
671
00:53:15.650 --> 00:53:19.949
the most glorious things he has been shown. The pole
672
00:53:20.070 --> 00:53:26.590
to bow down wasn't strongest when John was weakest. It
673
00:53:26.650 --> 00:53:31.519
was strongest when he was seeing the most. Glory, bottom line,
674
00:53:31.559 --> 00:53:35.920
it overwhelms. And the being who happens to be standing
675
00:53:35.980 --> 00:53:40.579
next to glory can end up receiving what belongs to
676
00:53:40.619 --> 00:53:45.579
the glory itself. That's true of angels. It's also true
677
00:53:45.800 --> 00:53:50.420
of preachers and worship leaders and anyone else who stands
678
00:53:50.599 --> 00:53:54.360
near something holy long enough to be mistaken for the
679
00:53:54.420 --> 00:53:57.840
source of it. The second clue is who he was
680
00:53:57.940 --> 00:54:08.199
writing to. Seven churches in Asia with Laodicea Among them
681
00:54:08.530 --> 00:54:13.630
in the valley where worshiping angels had already been warned
682
00:54:13.690 --> 00:54:17.130
against by name and where centuries later councils were still
683
00:54:17.710 --> 00:54:22.650
trying to root it out. John's first readers lived in
684
00:54:22.690 --> 00:54:27.530
the exact place where this temptation was strongest. They needed
685
00:54:27.590 --> 00:54:29.929
to hear the warning and they needed to hear it
686
00:54:30.050 --> 00:54:34.389
more than once. The third clue is that he used himself.
687
00:54:36.889 --> 00:54:42.010
he didn't write some among you have been bowing to angels.
688
00:54:42.090 --> 00:54:46.639
He wrote it. I did it. I, John, the one
689
00:54:46.679 --> 00:54:50.179
who saw Jesus in chapter one, the one entrusted with
690
00:54:50.199 --> 00:54:54.199
this whole revelation. If the man who was the most
691
00:54:54.780 --> 00:54:59.429
could be pulled sideways, then one, then no one reading
692
00:54:59.469 --> 00:55:03.280
the book stands above the warning. He made his own
693
00:55:03.380 --> 00:55:07.099
failure the example, and he made it twice. So nobody
694
00:55:07.139 --> 00:55:10.539
could mistake it for a slip of the pen. The
695
00:55:10.579 --> 00:55:13.969
last clue is the correction itself. Both times, the angel
696
00:55:14.110 --> 00:55:19.690
lands on the same two words, worship God. It never
697
00:55:19.750 --> 00:55:23.349
tells John he should have known better. It doesn't shame him.
698
00:55:24.670 --> 00:55:27.840
It turns him back towards the throne, turns him back
699
00:55:27.880 --> 00:55:31.989
towards God. And then the book simply goes on. John
700
00:55:32.050 --> 00:55:35.949
is a disqualified. Right after the second correction, he told,
701
00:55:36.429 --> 00:55:39.550
seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book,
702
00:55:39.949 --> 00:55:43.170
for the time is at hand. The man who bowed
703
00:55:43.230 --> 00:55:46.789
twice is still the man trusted to carry the message.
704
00:55:46.929 --> 00:55:50.869
So this is what I believe the answer is. John
705
00:55:50.909 --> 00:55:54.530
wrote it down twice because none of us ever graduate
706
00:55:54.570 --> 00:55:58.510
past needing the correction. Seeing the throne in chapter one
707
00:55:58.610 --> 00:56:02.469
did not make him immune to chapter 19. Or in
708
00:56:02.539 --> 00:56:06.619
chapter 22, what protected him wasn't that he had seen
709
00:56:06.719 --> 00:56:10.679
enough never to stumble. It was that when he stumbled,
710
00:56:11.619 --> 00:56:15.550
he had stood in front of the throne long enough
711
00:56:15.590 --> 00:56:19.090
to recognize the voice that turned him around, and he turned.
712
00:56:19.949 --> 00:56:26.110
Got it? To God. That's what Psalm 89 and Hebrews
713
00:56:26.110 --> 00:56:28.889
1 are for. They aren't there to make us small.
714
00:56:28.929 --> 00:56:32.150
They're there to fix the throne in our eyes before
715
00:56:32.210 --> 00:56:36.659
we start looking at everything that stands around it. Ethan
716
00:56:36.739 --> 00:56:42.280
looked up before he brought his complaint. Hebrews seats the
717
00:56:42.340 --> 00:56:46.260
son on the throne in its first chapter before it
718
00:56:46.320 --> 00:56:50.159
says anything else about anything. And this morning we looked
719
00:56:50.360 --> 00:56:56.960
at that throne before we spend a week looking at
720
00:56:57.260 --> 00:57:01.329
the beings around it. This week, you're going to see
721
00:57:01.929 --> 00:57:06.250
some glorious things described and some frightening ones. If you
722
00:57:06.289 --> 00:57:09.849
feel that pull at some point, and you might, you
723
00:57:09.989 --> 00:57:16.179
already know what the angel told John. Now I want
724
00:57:16.199 --> 00:57:18.639
to turn to you. Every Sunday, we set aside time
725
00:57:18.719 --> 00:57:22.840
for your prayer requests. If there's something you'd like us
726
00:57:22.889 --> 00:57:26.489
to pray for, send it. Send it in private, send
727
00:57:26.510 --> 00:57:32.409
it in public. I write it all down and say,
728
00:57:32.489 --> 00:57:35.409
pray for me. Nothing else. Nothing else. It's all you
729
00:57:35.429 --> 00:57:41.800
need to do. So let's bring these to him together. Father,
730
00:57:42.239 --> 00:57:44.760
you know every one of these names and you know
731
00:57:44.820 --> 00:57:48.059
the ones that didn't get written down. We bring them
732
00:57:48.099 --> 00:57:53.190
to you and no one else. Where there's sickness, we
733
00:57:53.269 --> 00:57:55.690
ask you for healing. And where there's fear, we ask
734
00:57:55.710 --> 00:58:00.940
you for peace. Where someone has been listening to a
735
00:58:01.000 --> 00:58:04.300
voice that isn't yours, turn them back towards you as
736
00:58:04.380 --> 00:58:08.800
gently as the angel turned John. Your will be done
737
00:58:09.199 --> 00:58:11.929
in each of these lives as it is in heaven.
738
00:58:12.789 --> 00:58:17.730
And in Jesus' mighty name, amen. I'll close with the
739
00:58:17.769 --> 00:58:21.010
benediction from the end of the letter of Jude. Jude
740
00:58:21.070 --> 00:58:23.230
is a short book, and it's the book that tells
741
00:58:23.309 --> 00:58:28.789
us that when Michael the archangel disputed with the devil,
742
00:58:29.090 --> 00:58:34.380
he durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said,
743
00:58:34.400 --> 00:58:38.860
the Lord rebuke thee. Even the archangel deferred to the
744
00:58:38.960 --> 00:58:43.010
one above him. So it fits that the same short
745
00:58:43.070 --> 00:58:47.250
letter ends this way. Now unto him that is able
746
00:58:47.329 --> 00:58:50.960
to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless
747
00:58:51.219 --> 00:58:55.079
before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to
748
00:58:55.139 --> 00:58:59.940
the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty,
749
00:59:00.139 --> 00:59:04.920
dominion and power, both now and forever.
750
00:59:07.099 --> 00:59:07.380
Amen.
751
00:59:10.760 --> 00:59:14.780
Tomorrow we start the Elohim. We'll begin with one Hebrew
752
00:59:15.239 --> 00:59:20.269
word and with the woman at Endor who used it
753
00:59:20.369 --> 00:59:26.869
for something nobody expected. I'll see you then.
754
00:59:33.909 --> 00:59:38.420
Some need healing, some reborn But every soul that gathers
755
00:59:38.480 --> 00:59:42.360
here Can bring their questions, bring their fear The ground
756
00:59:42.380 --> 00:59:43.380
may be broken.
757
01:00:04.559 --> 01:00:09.489
The season may change, but the word that was spoken
758
01:00:10.809 --> 01:00:13.199
still remains.
759
01:00:13.340 --> 01:00:16.179
Plant the seed and let it grow.
760
01:00:16.639 --> 01:00:20.219
Trust the one who knows what we don't know.
761
01:00:21.219 --> 01:00:22.900
Through the fire, through.
762
01:00:22.659 --> 01:00:26.840
The rain, God is working through the joy and pain.
763
01:00:26.900 --> 01:00:29.320
Let the truth run deep inside.
764
01:00:30.000 --> 01:00:37.619
Let his word become our guide. Wherever this week may lead, Lord, let.
765
01:00:37.599 --> 01:00:40.539
Us carry Sunday's seed.
766
01:00:47.500 --> 01:00:52.179
There are battles no one sees Silent nights spent on
767
01:00:52.360 --> 01:00:59.000
our knees Questions hanging in the air Names we bring before.
768
01:00:58.539 --> 01:01:04.179
You in prayer For the weary and afraid For the
769
01:01:04.260 --> 01:01:08.900
choices yet unmade For the lost who need.
770
01:01:08.719 --> 01:01:12.340
A light For the ones still fighting through the.
771
01:01:12.280 --> 01:01:19.440
Night The ground may be broken season may change.
772
01:01:19.239 --> 01:01:21.059
But the word that.
773
01:01:20.940 --> 01:01:28.960
Was spoken still remains plant the seed let it grow.
774
01:01:28.860 --> 01:01:33.590
Trust the one who knows what we don't know through
775
01:01:33.630 --> 01:01:37.610
the fire through the rain God is working through the
776
01:01:37.690 --> 01:01:39.570
joy and pain.
777
01:01:39.110 --> 01:01:42.409
Let the truth run deep inside.
778
01:01:42.210 --> 01:01:47.409
Let his word become our guide wherever.
779
01:01:59.960 --> 01:02:05.429
We don't gather just to hear Words that disappear from
780
01:02:05.489 --> 01:02:07.349
here Send us.
781
01:02:07.550 --> 01:02:17.269
Out with hearts awake Give us courage for your name's sake.
782
01:02:18.289 --> 01:02:22.869
When the world says truth can bend Keep us faithful
783
01:02:22.989 --> 01:02:25.269
to the end When.
784
01:02:25.110 --> 01:02:30.159
The darkness calls our name Let us answer.
785
01:02:29.980 --> 01:02:34.199
In Jesus' name.
786
01:02:37.250 --> 01:02:40.409
Some seeds fall on hardened ground.
787
01:02:40.949 --> 01:02:43.889
Some get lost and can't be found.
788
01:02:44.050 --> 01:02:45.889
Some take root.
789
01:02:45.530 --> 01:02:49.070
When no one sees. Growing slowly on.
790
01:02:50.989 --> 01:02:54.989
So we trust you with the field Trust you with
791
01:02:55.050 --> 01:02:57.719
what it will yield We.
792
01:02:57.599 --> 01:02:59.780
Will water, we will.
793
01:02:59.579 --> 01:03:02.980
Sow You alone can make it.
794
01:03:02.880 --> 01:03:07.179
Grow Give us heart to see. Give us ears to hear.
795
01:03:07.360 --> 01:03:09.230
Give us faith to follow.
796
01:03:09.250 --> 01:03:10.670
When the roads aren't clear.
797
01:03:10.690 --> 01:03:12.250
Give us strength to stand.
798
01:03:12.289 --> 01:03:15.250
Give us hearts that sing. Let your truth.
799
01:03:14.949 --> 01:03:22.030
Be louder than the voices that we make. Plant the seed.
800
01:03:21.510 --> 01:03:25.280
And let it grow. Trust the one who knows what
801
01:03:25.300 --> 01:03:25.469
you need.
802
01:03:29.420 --> 01:03:33.789
The rain god is working through the joy and pain let.
803
01:03:33.849 --> 01:03:35.449
The truth run deep.
804
01:03:35.190 --> 01:03:41.800
Inside let his word become our guide wherever this week
805
01:03:41.840 --> 01:03:45.340
may lead lord let us carry.
806
01:03:48.610 --> 01:03:52.750
Let it grow. Take the truth everywhere we go.
807
01:03:52.969 --> 01:03:55.510
Through the valley, through the flame.
808
01:03:55.849 --> 01:03:59.630
We will stand upon Jesus' name.
809
01:03:59.650 --> 01:04:02.179
Let the truth run deep inside.
810
01:04:02.739 --> 01:04:05.500
Let His Word become our guide.
811
01:04:06.039 --> 01:04:14.230
Until next Sunday when we meet. Lord, keep growing Sunday seed.
812
01:04:18.809 --> 01:04:26.619
Till we meet again, keep your eyes on Him. Through
813
01:04:26.760 --> 01:04:31.199
every road, through every need.
814
01:04:31.460 --> 01:04:33.940
Let the Word take root and grow the seed.
815
01:04:52.039 --> 01:04:52.369
Thank you.