This morning, we’re continuing our message series entitled, “God Encounters.” As we look forward to what this Christmas season holds, we also look ahead to what God has planned for us in the midst of it. We’re going to learn about God encounters as we work toward the ultimate God-encounter ever experienced; the pregnancy and birth of Jesus! Immanuel, literally God with us!

Last week, we were challenged to seek after God encounters in the midst of our daily routines as to avoid missing them as Jacob almost did and proclaiming, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.”

That God encounter gave Jacob peace in the midst of chaos, certainty in the midst of confusion, and guidance for his life’s journey. In fact, this morning, we look to the beginning of that promise of God unfolding. God was about to bless all nations through Jacob’s offspring and to increase his descendants, as numerous as the dust, spreading across the earth to the north, east, south, and west.

Before we read about this encounter with God, we’re first going to learn a little bit about one of the most common characters used to celebrate this time of year; angels. In fact, angels often play a large part in God encounters and they certainly do in today’s encounter. In fact, they were also a part of Jacob’s encounter with God as he saw them ascending and descending from heaven to earth.

We don’t know all of the details about angels, but there is quite a bit that the Bible teaches us about them. For time’s sake this morning, I won’t quote all of the references for these facts, but they are available upon request. We know that they were created by God before the creation of man. Although it is a commonly held belief, the Bible is very clear that angels are distinct creatures from humans. Angels are not chubby babies with wings. No, when we pass away, we do not become angels. Sure, we do receive new, heavenly bodies free from the corruption of sin, but we do not become angels.

As we learned from Elisha’s encounter with God last week, angels are usually not visible to us. When they do appear to us, they usually appear to us in human form. In fact, the Bible teaches that sometimes when we show hospitality to strangers, we are actually entertaining angels without realizing it. Although this is true, there are also many occasions when an angelic encounter caused people to be terrified. There are also descriptions of angels appearing like a human, but shining bright like lightning.

Angels are spirits sent to minister to Christians, they also serve as messengers of God and are warriors in His army. They essentially help to carry out the plans of God including the judgment of Jesus throughout the end time events and to separate the saved and unsaved at the final judgment. They also act to protect us and to bring us God’s revelation. Angels worship God and totally refuse to be worshipped themselves.

Although the Bible says that the amount of angels in existence are countless, we know that a third of them were cast out of Heaven and we now call those angels demons. Although they were created to carry out God’s plans, they now choose to rebel against God and to resist His plans. Satan, himself, was created as the most beautiful angel of them all and was responsible for waging that war in heaven believing that he could be equal to God.

Being warriors, there is a hierarchy among them and there are also different types. Two of the angels named in the Bible are Gabriel and Michael, who is also labelled as an archangel. The Bible also refers to specific types of angels such as cherubim and seraphim. Although, it really doesn’t explain what the differences are between them. There are also a few verses that seem to indicate that there are angels assigned to us as personally as guardian angels. However, these verses aren’t clear enough to say this for certain leaving this aspect an arguable matter.

Hopefully that helps to bring a little bit