When you worship with the church, how often do you realize that you are worshiping in the presence of angels? Today, Sinclair Ferguson explains how these majestic ministers of praise can guide us in greater devotion to Christ.
Well, it’s the end of another week here on Things Unseen, and with many of us probably preparing for Christmas, we’ve been thinking about that great feature of Christmas carols and Christmas cards: the presence of angels. And from one point of view, as I’ve said, we don’t know all that much about them, and yet it’s amazing just how much the Bible does tell us about who they are and what they do. And there’s certainly a lot more about them than we could possibly cover in this week of podcasts. But as we close out this week, I want to draw attention to one feature of the ministry of angels that we rarely think about: angels seem to serve as ministers of praise in the worship of the heavenly sanctuary.
We’re hopefully all very clear in our minds that angels are not to be worshiped. You remember that the worship of angels was an element in what’s sometimes called the Colossian heresy that Paul warns about in Colossians 2. And you’ll remember, too, that in the last chapter of the Bible, John was so overawed by the presence of an angel that he fell down to worship at his feet. And the angel said to him: “Don’t do that. I’m a fellow servant with you.” No, angels are not to be worshiped. But they are worshipers.
They worshiped at creation. Remember God’s words to Job in Job chapter 38 when He says that the angels, the heavenly sons of God, shouted for joy when God laid the foundation of the earth. And they certainly worshiped at the incarnation too, didn’t they? And in fact, in Psalm 148 the psalmist looks up through the heavens to address the angels and says, “Praise God, all His angels; praise Him all His Heavenly hosts.”
In the early years of my Christian life, every Sunday morning, I used to read through Revelation 4 and 5 to prepare for the worship services of the day. I don’t suppose I fully understood what the passage was saying—I think I still don’t—but I had a sense that this was true worship, and I longed for it—the throne of God surrounded by the four living creatures, reminiscent of the cherubim, and then surrounded by the twenty-four elders, all giving thanks and worshiping Him who lives forever and ever, and casting their crowns down before Him. And then in chapter 5, when the Lamb takes the sealed scroll and is worshiped, that new song of praise breaks out, and this entire congregation of cherubim, and elders, and angels, and eventually every living creature, praises God. What a help to us to join in that heavenly worship with the angels of God.
And then there’s another passage in the New Testament that I think we ought to place alongside Revelation 4 and 5. Revelation gives us the picture, but Hebrews 12:22–24 gives us the theology: “You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant.”
And that’s what we’re doing when we attend worship together. This is the church we’re really going to. We are joining with the angels as they conduct the worship of the Lord Jesus Christ. Interestingly, earlier in Hebrews Jesus is called the leitourgos, the priest who leads the liturgy (Heb. 8:1–2). And so, these angels form a kind of heavenly choir, now singing in harmony with the redeemed saints who have joined them. And as John Owen once wrote, it’s true that all true worship takes place in heaven, so that in our worship, we join our hearts and voices, we “lift up our hearts,” as some of the liturgies say—we lift up our minds, our wills, our affections—and we join in the magnificent worship of holy angels, and cherubim, and perfected saints.
Remember the enigmatic comment that Paul makes on our behavior in worship in 1 Corinthians 11? He comments on what the angels will think. Well, maybe he’s referring to a general principle—namely, remember where you are: you’re in church, and the church that you’re ultimately in is the church in which the angels worship. You’re worshiping their King as well as your own King. You’re worshiping along with these amazing creatures and with the company of those who have now been saved to sin no more. So, remember where you are, remember the angels, and worship with them.
So, thinking about angels should lead us to greater awe and deeper devotion to our Lord Jesus in our worship services, don’t you think, not because we worship angels, but because we have the privilege of worshiping with them the One who is both their King and our King, the One who humbled Himself in the incarnation and now is crowned Lord of all.
So, I hope that you have a very blessed coming Lord’s Day, as you’re led in worship this Sunday, to sing not only here on earth but to sing with the angels in heaven.
