The Festival of St. Michael and All Angels
Revelation 12.7–12 + Matthew 18.1–11
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Today—September 29—is the Festival of St. Michael and All Angels. It is the day the church has selected to specifically teach us about the angels. It’s not that we never hear about angels throughout the church’s year. The angel Gabriel appears to Mary to announce to hear that she will conceive by the power of the Holy Spirit and bear the Son of God. An angel appears to Joseph in dreams, directing him in his leadership of the holy family throughout the Christmas season. Speaking of Christmas, an angel appears to shepherds watching their flocks by night, tells them about the Messiah’s birth, and is joined by the heavenly host singing “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” (Lk 2:14). Angels announce Christ’s resurrection and His return in glory. From these passages and others, we understand that the angels are God’s messengers. In fact, the word angel means messenger. But bringing messages from God is just one of the ways they minister to or serve God. After Jesus fasted forty days and defeated the devil’s temptations, angels came and ministered to him (Matt 4:11). After praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him (Luke 22:43). On the Last Day when Christ returns, “The angels will come forth, separate the wicked from among the just, and cast them into the furnace of fire” (Matt 13:49-50). From all this, we know that angels serve God and minister to Christ.
But today, St. Michael and All Angels teaches us specifically how God serves us and ministers to us through the ministry of His angels. Jesus tells His disciples in the Gospel that they are not to despise, or think lightly, of the little ones brought to Him. Christians are to be careful not to offend the little ones in word or deed but to bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord (Eph 6:4). To help Christian parents keep this in mind, Jesus reminds us, “Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven.” From this we know that all children brought to Jesus—and children are brought to Jesus now by bringing them to Holy Baptism—have an angel to watch over them. And if God gives little ones who are brought to Him angels for their protection, how much more ought we to protect children from opportunities and temptations to sin by our example and our teaching? These little ones believe and enjoy all the blessings of God, including angelic protection. How much more ought we to think highly of them and our duty to them as parents, pastors, and congregations?
And the little ones brought to Jesus in Holy Baptism don’t “age out” of angelic protection, either. Throughout Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that God sends His holy angels to minister to those who believe in Him. Psalm 34:7 says, “The angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him, And delivers them.”Psalm 91:11 says, “He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways.” God sent two angels to Sodom to save Lot in Genesis 19. After surviving a night in the lion’s den, Daniel tells the king, “My God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths, so that they have not hurt me, because I was found innocent before Him; and also, O king, I have done no wrong before you” (Dan 6:22). When Lazarus died, he was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom (Lk 16:22). It was an angel whom God sent to rescue Peter from prison and certain death in Acts 12. So it is not just little ones to whom God sends His holy angels. It is all who believe in Him. Unbelievers do not have angels, and if a believer falls from faith, he does not have the fellowship and protection of the holy angels. The author of Hebrews asks, “Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation? (Heb 1:14). Yet, when there is repentance and return, the holy angels rejoice, for there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Lk 15:10). This is motivation—as if we didn’t have enough in the gospel—to live godly lives and repent as often as we need, lest we lose the fellowship of the holy angels.
Today’s Epistle reminds us why we need the protection of the holy angels, for not all angels are holy. Sometime before the sixth day of the world, an angel—whom we now call the devil—chose not to remain in the truth. Jesus says this one “was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” Choosing of his own free will not to remain in the truth, he corrupted himself with lies. Nor was he alone. He was the chief of those angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, as Jude writes in his epistle (6). The devil then went on to murder our first parents by lying to them and tempting them to sin, the wages of which is death. Now, God promised to send a Messiah who would crush the serpent’s head; all who believed that promise received the forgiveness of their sins and everlasting life. But the devil still went before God’s throne to accuse them, as he did to Job.
That is, until the Messiah arrived and conquered. That is what we see in today’s epistle. St. John sees a war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought with the dragon and his angels fought. It seems that this battle took place after the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ to the right hand of God. The dragon and his angels did not prevail, nor was place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. No longer can the devil go before God’s throne to accuse those who believe in Christ Jesus, for Christ Jesus Himself is at God’s right hand, interceding for those who trust the promise of forgiveness, life, and salvation for His sake. With Satan cast out, the heavens rejoice, and so do all who believe Jesus’ gospel, for there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit (Rom 8:1).
But the voice John hears from heaven also warns us, “Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.” Unable to accuse the saints before God day and night, he is cast, not to Hell but to earth. Peter says in God cast the evil angels down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment in 2 Peter 2:4. But by this we don’t understand hell itself, but the torments of hell, so that the evil angels, here on earth, are tormented by the fact that they will enter eternal punishment when Christ returns and that they are chained in that they can only do what God permits. And for now, until Christ returns, God permits the devil to rule as the prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2). During this age, the devil is like a bird of prey who snatches the word of God from the hearts of those who half-heartedly hear God’s word, “lest they should believe and be saved” (Lk 8:12). Here on earth he walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Ptr 5:8).
This is the reason God sends His holy angels to minister for those who will inherit salvation. Our fight, our battle, is not against flesh and blood, no matter how much it may seem to be the case at times. Our fight is against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places(Eph 6:12). For this fight, God gives us the armor of the gospel, the sword of the Spirit—which is the word of God. And for this fight against the devil and his angels, He also sends us His holy angels. The same Michael, the same heavenly host, who victoriously battled the dragon and his angels battles for us in arenas unseen. For this angelic protection in every danger and temptation, we pray each morning and evening with the words of the Small Catechism, “Let your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me.” For this, we give God thanks and praise, that though we are beset by many enemies, our accuser has been cast down, and we conquer by the blood of the lamb. Amen.
May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
