“People to meet in heaven: Michael”
Revelation 12:7-9
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus.
If there was anyone you could meet, past, present or future, real or even fictional, who would it be?
The people at “wired.com” posted all sorts of suggestions, like, “Dr. Seuss,” for example. The reason why, the author said, was because “I enjoyed his stories and would like to hear his opinion on children’s stories today.” “Walt Disney,” said another. “He seems to be such a legend and I’d like to see what the real person was like.” Another wrote, “My dad.” She said, “He died just after my fifth birthday, so although I technically met him, I have practically no memories of him. I’d like to spend a day with him and show him all the amazing things in the world now like the internet as well as having him meet my husband and son and see the person I am.”
And under the fictional category, writers said they would like to meet characters like Winnie the Pooh, Michelangelo (not the artist, the turtle!), Lois Lane and Wonder Woman.
Others said they would like to meet Abraham Lincoln, Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Elvis and Marilyn Monroe. And, thankfully, quite a number of people also said they would like to meet Jesus.
If there was anyone you could meet, past, present or future, who would it be?
For the past couple of months, we’ve taken time to meet people from the Bible, like the very first two people, Adam and Eve, Jubal (the father of all who play the lyre and the harp), a priest named Melchizedek, a judge named Deborah, a queen named Esther, a cupbearer turned wall-builder named Nehemiah and a prophet named Jeremiah. And today we’ll meet one whose name is Michael.
Now if truth be known, Michael really isn’t a person. He’s a being, an angel. Even more than that, he’s a chief angel, a ruling angel, what the Bible calls, “an archangel.” And, as far as we know, in all the Bible, there’s only one—not Gabriel, not Raphael, not Uriel—only this one named Michael.
If you would, please turn in your Bible to page 1319 as I read the words of Revelation chapter 12. I’ll start at verse 7: “Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, ‘Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!’”
“War arose in heaven,” the Bible said in verse 7, “Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon.”
What’s going on?
If you didn’t already know it, sometime during the very first week of creation, as God made the heavens and earth, the land, the sea and the sky, and all that is in them, He also created angels--“ministering spirits,” says the book of Hebrews, “sent to serve those who will inherit salvation.”
We don’t know exactly what they look like or even all that they do. The book of Isaiah describes them as having six wings—“With two they cover their face, with two they cover their feet, and with two they’re flying.” When one stands guard at Jesus’ resurrection tomb, the Bible says, “His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow.” No wonder that, when they appeared to Zechariah, Mary and shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night, each time they said, “Fear not!” “Don’t be afraid.”
Also, the Bible says there are ranks and divisions among them. It speaks of cherubim, seraphim, thrones, powers, rulers and dominions.
And there are many. Hebrews chapter 12 says, “You have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly.” Revelation chapter 5 says, “Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders.” And as guards took Jesus captive in the Garden of Gethsemane, with their lanterns, swords and clubs, He said, “Don’t you know that I can call upon My Father in heaven and He will, at once, put at my disposal more than twelve legions, 72,000 angels?”
Even more, angels have great power. In the book of II Kings chapter 19, one angel killed 185,000 men! (If one angel can kill 185,000, imagine what 72,000 angels could do!)
But whoever they are and whatever they do, above all of the cherubim and seraphim, the powers and dominions, is one angel, a ruling angel, an archangel, named Michael—which is why we want to meet him in heaven.
But as beautiful and powerful and majestic as angels are, the Bible says, some of them became jealous of God and fell away from God. And as our reading from Revelation chapter 12 says, “A war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.”
So what does it mean that Michael and his angels are fighting for us?
First, it means there’s a war going on that we know nothing about. All around us, there’s a battle raging, dark and unseen, fighting for our lives and for our souls. That’s what Paul meant when he wrote to the Ephesians: “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
Christian singer and songwriter Keith Green once said, “Satan used to have to sneak around. But now we just open our doors. No one’s looking for his tricks, because no one believes in him any more.”
Why is there anger, bitterness and temptation? Why is there pain and suffering? Because there’s a war going on that we know nothing about.
And as thousands of angels fight for us and protect us, they have great power. Look at verse 9: “And the dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”
Those whom God made to minister to us, to fight for us, aren’t cute, little, puffy-cheeked, floating cherubs with harps and mini bows and arrows in their hands. They’re soldiers, warriors, sent to serve those who will inherit salvation.
It was the day after Christmas in 1994, and Beverly Hughes, mother of two toddler girls, was exhausted. The past few days of shopping, baking and wrapping had been hectic. And this was the day she had longed for, with nothing to do but stay home, sleep late and watch her babies play with their new toys.
But now she was in a huff because she woke up abruptly. It was as if someone had hit her to wake her up. She rolled over and looked at the clock to see what time it was. Six a.m. glared at her in bright red letters.
The windows in their single-wide mobile home were frosted over. That was no surprise. It was thirteen degrees outside. She glanced at her husband and checked on the girls, but all of them were fast sleep.
But as she started to fall back asleep, a gnawing feeling loomed over her. She could smell the water pot that sat on the wood stove, which usually meant it was empty. So she threw off the covers and trekked to the living room and saw that it was still half-full.
Then she turned to head back to her warm, cozy bed when she noticed a flicker on the ceiling beside the wood stove pipe. It took a moment to focus, because it was just a flicker. Then, with her eyes still half shut, she realized it was a flicker of fire. She ran back to the bedroom to wake her husband and announced, “I think we’re on fire!”
“You THINK we’re on FIRE?” he said. He followed her to the living room where the flicker had now spread farther around the pipe. Then he jumped into action. “Call 9-1-1,” he said, “and get the girls out of the house!” Then he grabbed his gloves and started ripping out the ceiling around the pipe, throwing burning tile into the ash bucket.
Within minutes, the fire department arrived and got the fire under control. “You were fortunate,” they said. Considering the age and construction of their mobile home, it would have gone up in a blaze in seven minutes had she not woken up.
And as she stood there letting it sink in that their lives had been spared by a margin of seven minutes, she was overwhelmed. She looked at the charred hole in the ceiling, the black ashes ground into the carpet, and her husband’s burnt gloves lying on the table, and she wondered why they were still alive. She asked, “Why did I wake up? And who woke me up?” She believed, she said, that an angel, her guardian angel, had shaken her and whispered in her ear to wake up.
Years later, as she lay thanking the Lord for another day, she still remembered that frozen winter morning when He let her know, without a shadow of a doubt, that He still had a job for her to do. “What can I do today to serve You?” she asked.
The answer was clear. “Tell your story. Proclaim My power, My glory and My grace.”
One more thing. You know, as great as Michael is, and as great as all the angels are, they’re nothing like us. For we, and not them, have been baptized, through water and the Word, into the name of the Lord Jesus, washed clean, with sins forgiven. We, and not them, share in a meal of bread and wine, Christ’s body and blood. And when we turn from our sin to faith in Him, there is more joy, said Jesus, before the angels of God, over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine who need no repentance.
As a hymn once put it so well: “There is singing up in heaven such as we have never known, where the angels sing the praises of the Lamb upon the throne. Their sweet harps are ever tuneful, and their voices always clear; O that we might be more like them while we serve the Master here.”
We thank You, dear Father, for Michael and all the angels You send to protect us. As Luther once prayed, “Let Your holy angels be with us, that the evil Foe may have no power over us.” In Jesus’ name. Amen