Here’s the transcript, cleaned up a bit, with references corrected.
The Ministry of the Angels
Happy St. Michael’s Day!
The church keeps this day on September 29. I don’t know why this date in particular; if you know, put it in the comments. It’s the day we are made to remember that there are angels: the angelic host that beholds the face of God and also serves us, His people. They are His ministers who do His bidding. Remember that little section at the end of Psalm 103 and the beginning of Psalm 104 that describes the angelic life.
But here’s the important point. The work of the angels, the ministry of the angels, is not apart from the death of Jesus on the cross. We can get at that first by considering St. Michael’s Day as part of the third work of the Spirit.
The Third Work of the Spirit
Remember, the Spirit has three works. Jesus says, “I will send the Spirit to convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment.”
The first is to convict us of sin, because we don’t believe in Him. That’s the work of the law: to show us how desperately wicked we are and how much we need the Lord’s mercy and kindness. The second work is to convict us of righteousness, the forgiveness of sins, the imputed righteousness of Christ. Those first two works are repentance, and that second work is the work of justification, showing us the righteousness of Christ which belongs to us.
The third work of the Spirit is to convict the world of judgment. Not because we’re being judged, or will be judged on the last day, but because, as Jesus says, the ruler of this world is judged.
Why We Need to Be Taught This
That’s an amazing thing. The Holy Spirit teaches us three things we cannot know apart from His work and teaching, and that we need to know. The third is that the ruler of this world has been judged.
Why does the Holy Spirit have to teach us this? Because we don’t see it on our own. When you look around the world, it’s a mess. When we look at the news, or listen to the radio, or hear the stories of our friends and family, and then we think, “The ruler of this world is judged,” it doesn’t fit. It seems like the ruler of this world is ruling and reigning and having a field day.
That’s why the Holy Spirit comes to us in His Word to convince us that the power that was at work when Christ was raised from the dead and set over the thrones and principalities (Ephesians 1) is the same power at work in us.
The Victory in Revelation 12
St. Michael’s Day reminds us of the victory Michael has over the devil, which is the follow-on victory of what Jesus has over the devil. It comes from Revelation 12.
This is the pinnacle and peak of this vision of Christ. We have to remember who is being revealed in Revelation. It’s not a revelation of the news that’s going to happen before the end of the world. It’s the revelation of Jesus.
There in Revelation 12, the pinnacle of all the visions, is the pregnant woman with the garland, the moon, and the stars. It’s Israel, pregnant because of Genesis 3:15, waiting for the baby to be born. Then the great red dragon appears: Satan, who accuses our brethren day and night before the throne of God. He wants to devour the baby as it’s born, but he fails.
The Devil Hates Babies
By the way, that dragon waiting to eat the newborn child is all the trouble of the Old Testament. It’s Herod sending the soldiers to murder the babies in Bethlehem. The devil hates babies all the time, and there are probably lots of reasons for that.
Remember that the very first Gospel promise the Lord preaches is against the devil, and He makes fun of him: “I will put enmity between your seed and her seed.” The devil has no seed. He can do a lot of things, but he can’t have babies. There are no little baby devils running around. There’s no she-devil for him to marry. “Your seed”? He doesn’t have one. So he’s always attacking the seed.
Here he is, trying to attack the seed of the woman, but it doesn’t work. This Child is born, lives, works miracles, establishes the kingdom, suffers, dies, is buried, is raised, and is caught up to God and His throne. He is the one who would rule the nations with a rod of iron, applying Psalm 2 to this Child now caught up to the throne.
The Defeat of the Devil
That’s the work Jesus does to overcome the devil: His death, resurrection, and ascension.
Paul says in Colossians that in the crucifixion He triumphed over the devil. John says it in 1 John 3:8: “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” That’s why He showed up. Or my favorite, Hebrews 2:14: since we partake of flesh and blood, He likewise shared in the same, “that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.” If we clean up that sentence, Hebrews 2:14 says Jesus destroyed the devil through His death.
Not “Look-Arounders” but Bible Readers
So many people, maybe me included, want to be look-arounders. We say the devil can’t have been destroyed by the death of Jesus, because, you know, look around. But we’re not into looking around. We’re Bible readers. There, through the Scriptures, the Spirit is doing His great third work of convincing us that the devil has been destroyed by the death of Jesus. “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” The stronger man binds the strong man and plunders his house.
If you’re looking at Hebrews 2:14 because you don’t believe me, go up about an inch and a half and look at verse 8, which quotes Psalm 8: “You made him a little lower than the angels… You have put all things in subjection under his feet.” Then look at what the writer of Hebrews says: He put all things under His feet, “but now we do not yet see all things put under him.”
We don’t see it. That’s why the Spirit has to convict us of it and convince us of it, because otherwise we can’t get there. But the devil is under the feet of Jesus. He has crushed his head by His death on the cross, and we’ll see it on the last day.
Thunder Before Lightning
It’s like some sort of inversion of lightning and thunder. You see the lightning, then you wait, and you hear the thunder four seconds later. Remember when you were a kid and you’d count the distance? One Mississippi, two Mississippi, it’s three miles away. I don’t think that’s accurate, but no matter. It’s the same event, the same boom. You see it first, and then you hear it.
With the things of Jesus, you hear it first, and then you see it. The Word thunders: through His death He destroyed him who had the power of death, that is, the devil. And then on the last day it will all flash, and we’ll see it.
Silencing the Accusations
So Jesus ascends into heaven with His blood to present it before the altar, before the Father’s throne. This was all foreshadowed on the Day of Atonement; you know that. He presents the blood there, and now the devil has no more work to do.
Revelation 12 told us his work: he accuses the brethren day and night before the throne. Remember Job, when the devil comes before the throne to accuse him. Or in Zechariah, when he accuses Joshua the high priest. The devil is there accusing you and me. He doesn’t have to lie or make things up. We give him plenty.
The Evidence and the Verdict
But now all of this, all of our sins, all that we’ve done wrong, has been died for by Jesus. So Jesus goes into heaven and presents the evidence of our righteousness, which is His blood. It is received into the heavenly evidence locker by God the Father, and the verdict is spoken: the forgiveness of sins. We’re acquitted.
Now there’s nothing for the devil to do. He is completely out of order. Every accusation he would bring, every sin he would try to put before the Father’s face for judgment to condemn us, every single one of them is forgiven.
The devil says, “But Bryan did this.” And Jesus, interceding for me, says:
“Objection. That sin is died for.” “Objection. I suffered for that already.” “Objection. Your anger was poured out on Me.”
So it won’t go to him. Not only is the devil’s voice silenced before the heavenly throne, but everything he says is now blasphemy against the Son of God. It’s time to remove him from the heavenly court, and for that Jesus calls on the bailiff: St. Michael, whose day we celebrate today.
War in Heaven
Albrecht Dürer, Saint Michael Fighting the Dragon, from the Apocalypse series (1498). Public domain.
So there’s a war in heaven, which might be surprising. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, and no place was found for them in heaven any longer. So that great dragon, the serpent of old, was cast down. Kaboom.
Michael is removing the devil because Jesus is removing the devil’s authority. Michael is removing the devil’s presence because Jesus is removing the devil’s accusations. He can’t “satan” anymore. Satan means accuser. But what is there to accuse?
Romans 8 and Revelation 12 Together
This is the whole background of Romans 8: “Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.”
In fact, here’s your homework: read the last half of Romans 8 together with Revelation 12. Boom. It’s just so amazing. The heavenly throne room is now vacated of the Satan who was there to accuse. There’s nothing left for him to accuse. He’s gone. The only one there is the Paraclete, your Advocate, Jesus, interceding for you.
This is so good. And this is true. This is truer. This is the truth that trues everything else.
Overcoming the Accuser
Revelation 12 isn’t over there. The devil is cast down, and he’s in a rage because he knows his time is short. So he goes around trying to devour the woman, the church. But then it says something you’re not going to believe. Well, you have to believe it, but you won’t believe it: it says they overcame him.
Who’s the “they”? The “they” is you and me: the Christian, the baptized. We overcome the devil with three things.
1. The Word of the Testimony
The Bible, the preaching of the Gospel.
2. The Blood of the Lamb
The Lord’s Supper. It’s where you get it. Can you imagine? The same evidence being presented before the heavenly throne is now on the altar. When we go to Communion, it’s like we’re tampering with the evidence. This blood, which is prevailing before the heavenly throne, is now in the cup for you to drink for the forgiveness of sins. The forgiveness of sins is being declared in heaven, and now it’s being declared right here on earth and poured into your mouth and over your lips.
So they overcame the devil with the word of the testimony and the blood of the Lamb. That’s what we do in church every Sunday, by the way. If someone asks, “Why do you go to church?” we can say: for the Word and the blood. In fact, the service has two parts: the Service of the Word and the Service of the Blood. I guess we call it the Service of the Sacrament. Those are the two devil-overcoming things.
3. They Did Not Love Their Lives to the Death
If we’ve got the Word and the blood and the confidence of the love of God, then what is there to fear? What is there to worry about? What is there to be afraid of?
It is appointed for man once to die and then the judgment. But not for you and me. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Do you see this third work of the Spirit? There’s no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The devil is the one who is judged. We have passed from death to life.
Satan Under Your Feet
So we resist him. As James tells us, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Or as Paul ends his letter to the Romans in chapter 16: “The God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly.”
It does not get any better than that. This devil wants to run us down, make us afraid, and convince us that he’s the prince and ruler of this world. But the Lord is busy crushing him under your feet. Your feet. That’s what it says. Those feet that bring the Gospel, that bring good news, that run to the testimony and to the blood.
In Revelation 12 there’s also a place for her in the wilderness. The river tries to devour her, but the earth opens up to protect her. It’s phenomenal. It’s news that can’t get any better.
The Greatest Work of the Angels
So remember that the angels are serving, and remember their works:
- The angels sang the praises of God when He created the world (Job 38).
- The angels sang of the birth of Jesus to the shepherds.
- The angels were the first to announce the resurrection of Jesus to His followers on Easter Sunday.
- The angels protect the children and behold the face of God at the same time. That’s why we should be happy when there are so many kids in church, because it means there are so many more angels hanging around.
But I think the greatest work of the angels is found when Peter pulls out his sword to keep Jesus from being arrested. Jesus says, “Do you not know that My Father has legions of angels that could prevent this right now?” But Jesus does not call on them.
The greatest work of the angels is the work they didn’t do. They held their swords sheathed and did not utterly obliterate the people coming to arrest and crucify Jesus. They stood by and watched as the Son of God died for us.
Praise the Lord for the ministry of the angels. Happy St. Michael’s Day!
