Do Angels Carry Our Prayers to God?
00:00:00.000 | Do angels carry our prayers to God? Do angels play a mediating role between us
00:00:10.860 | and heaven? That's today's question. And what makes this question especially
00:00:15.400 | interesting is a theme that we've already looked at three times on the
00:00:18.440 | podcast in the past, and that's the fact that the angels do hold the prayers of
00:00:23.520 | the saints. They hold them. That's the glorious point of Revelation chapter 8
00:00:27.080 | verses 3 to 5, that the prayers of the saints, our prayers, accumulate in golden
00:00:33.680 | bowls full of incense, bowls that are held up by the angels according to
00:00:37.960 | Revelation 5-8. It's an incredibly encouraging image, it's meant to be,
00:00:42.360 | because God wants us to know that every one of our prayers, our answered prayers
00:00:46.520 | and our yet unanswered prayers, all of them are heard by Him, are precious to
00:00:53.320 | Him, and always exist before Him. It's a trio of glorious truths that we saw in
00:00:59.560 | APJ episodes 37, 630, and 1226. Just an amazing image for us to grasp. But this
00:01:08.480 | question today is different. Do angels carry our prayers to God? That's the
00:01:13.320 | question on Barb's Mind, a listener to the podcast. Pastor John, hello. Do angels
00:01:18.920 | carry our prayers to God? I've heard this ever since I was a little girl, but
00:01:23.880 | passages like 1 Timothy 2.5 seem to suggest otherwise. Pastor John, what
00:01:28.240 | would you say to Barb? I had a grandmother growing up, lived with us,
00:01:34.720 | who embodied some of the impulses, I think, for why over the centuries some
00:01:43.640 | churches and people have felt the need to shrink back from direct Christian
00:01:50.960 | access to God through Jesus, instead to put various other beings between us and
00:01:59.160 | God to represent us before Him. Barb, in this question, mentions angels as a
00:02:06.520 | go-between. And in Roman Catholicism, the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus, is put
00:02:14.400 | between us and God as a mediator. People all over the world, sadly, pray to Mary,
00:02:22.440 | say their Hail Marys, do their rosary, instead of coming to God directly and
00:02:29.920 | confidently and humbly through Jesus alone. My grandmother was fond of saying,
00:02:37.640 | as she declined to participate in family devotions, to the great grief of my
00:02:44.120 | father, "God has more important things to do than listen to my prayers." Now, on the
00:02:52.160 | face of it, that sounds humble. It is meant to sound humble, but in reality
00:02:58.960 | it's not humility. It's a form of Christ-belittling, Christ-rejecting pride.
00:03:07.560 | Her supposed sense of unworthiness was not the reason she didn't pray. She
00:03:17.280 | didn't pray because she did not believe the Word of God. She did not believe and
00:03:24.480 | cherish who Jesus was and the price he paid to open the door to God for sinners.
00:03:32.280 | Her refusal to come to God the way God offered, through Christ, was not a humble
00:03:41.600 | refusal. It was a self-asserting refusal to see herself as needing a Savior whose
00:03:50.440 | life and death were utterly, gloriously sufficient to open the way to God and
00:03:58.360 | bid her come boldly to God. She did not believe that God is glorified by
00:04:06.600 | welcoming our burdens and carrying them like a strong God that he is for us. And
00:04:13.920 | she didn't believe that what Jesus did on the cross and what he's doing today
00:04:21.240 | in heaven would be glorified if she really humbled herself and was stunned
00:04:29.440 | out of her mind with wonder that the Son of God came into the world to open a way
00:04:35.480 | for repentant sinners beyond all imagination to come into the presence of
00:04:41.320 | the infinitely holy God through Christ alone and find a fatherly reception
00:04:48.360 | rather than incineration. She did not believe and millions don't believe that
00:04:55.200 | the infinite blazing holiness of God is so great that no angel nor the mother of
00:05:05.760 | God, Mary, could be a better protection for us than Christ. Let me say that again.
00:05:12.920 | That's just so crucial. She didn't believe, millions don't believe, that the
00:05:18.720 | infinite blazing holiness of God is so great that no angel, no mother of God,
00:05:27.320 | could be a better protection for us than Christ. If we're going to approach
00:05:35.080 | infinite holiness in prayer now, in fellowship with God now, and finally
00:05:44.240 | approach him face to face, then the thought of adding Mary or an angel, the
00:05:51.920 | thought of adding them to Christ for supplementary protection and acceptance
00:05:59.200 | is absurd. It's simply absurd. It's like saying, "Well, I've got an asbestos
00:06:05.240 | fire suit here and it's 12 inches thick. Now let's add a layer of tissue paper to
00:06:10.880 | make it more resilient." There is not one scripture that teaches us to approach
00:06:18.960 | God through angels or through Mary. Not one. Let that sink in. Not one. All of that
00:06:28.560 | insertion between us and God, in addition to Christ, is unbiblical tradition.
00:06:38.960 | It is a dishonor to Christ and what he accomplished on the cross and what he's
00:06:46.880 | doing today. So let me celebrate with you for just a moment the glories of Christ's
00:06:54.360 | finished work for us on the cross and its ongoing application to us in heaven
00:07:01.320 | as he intercedes today for us and opens the way to God moment by moment for you
00:07:07.480 | to come. So we start with that text that Barb mentions in her question, 1st
00:07:13.440 | Timothy 2.5. "There is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the
00:07:20.600 | man Christ Jesus." There are not multiple mediators that make it possible to
00:07:26.240 | relate to God joyfully without being destroyed. There's not. Christ and Christ
00:07:31.000 | alone accomplished this once for all. Then there's the glorious clear
00:07:37.040 | statement of Paul in Ephesians 2.17 and 18 and chapter 3 verse 12. Christ came in
00:07:45.400 | to the world to preach peace to those who are far off and peace to those who
00:07:51.080 | are near. Here's the key phrase, "Through him we have access in one spirit to the
00:08:00.200 | Father." And then this phrase, "In him we have boldness and access." I mean, could it
00:08:09.120 | be clearer? "In him we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith
00:08:15.720 | in him." That's 3.12 Ephesians. And how did Christ do that? How did he open the way
00:08:23.520 | for sinners to come boldly through him to the creator of the universe in
00:08:29.440 | infinite holiness? Ephesians 2.16, "He reconciled us both to God in one body."
00:08:38.000 | Key phrase, "Through the cross." Glory. I love it. What a great gospel. Through the cross,
00:08:47.480 | through his death. Or here's the way it's put in Hebrews 10.19, "We have confidence
00:08:52.760 | to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he
00:09:01.160 | opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh." So the blood of
00:09:07.320 | Jesus and the torn body of Jesus dying on the cross in our place covers our
00:09:15.360 | sins, provides us with the righteousness we need to stand in the presence of the
00:09:22.760 | holy creator of all things. And then the living risen Christ goes on today, forever,
00:09:33.120 | interceding for us by pleading his perfect sacrifice. Romans 8.34, "Who is to
00:09:40.640 | condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised, who is at
00:09:47.800 | the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us right now as I talk."
00:09:57.080 | Or 1 John 2.1 puts it like this, "I am writing these things to you so that you
00:10:03.800 | may not sin, but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus,
00:10:13.680 | Christ the righteous." We don't need another advocate. It's almost blasphemy, I
00:10:20.720 | want to say, to say we need another advocate or some intercessor or mediator
00:10:26.800 | besides Christ. And it's forever. Hebrews 7.25, "Jesus is able to save to the
00:10:34.360 | uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to
00:10:43.160 | make intercession for them." Always, always, and forever welcoming us to God
00:10:49.040 | through his work. So how do we come into the presence of a holy God in prayer and
00:10:55.400 | fellowship now? How do we come? Here's Hebrews 10.19, "We have confidence to
00:11:03.600 | enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he
00:11:09.720 | opened for us through the curtain, through his flesh." Can't say it too many
00:11:15.120 | times. So, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the
00:11:20.000 | heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us come with confidence and draw near to the
00:11:27.920 | throne of grace. And how do we pray as we come to this throne through Jesus? Do we
00:11:35.120 | hold on to a rosary and pray our Hail Marys as if the Mother of God could
00:11:41.520 | improve on the access that Jesus has made? Do we call down some angel and hope
00:11:48.600 | he has greater access with our prayers than the Son of God? No, we don't. Here's
00:11:57.640 | what Jesus said, and this is simply amazing how precious, glorious,
00:12:02.400 | unthinkable it is. He said, "In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say
00:12:12.440 | that I will ask the Father on your behalf, for the Father himself loves you
00:12:20.200 | because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God." In other
00:12:26.840 | words, when you speak to God, pray to God, the infinitely holy Creator of the
00:12:34.480 | universe, "In my name," Jesus says, "that is, in my forgiveness, my righteousness, I
00:12:41.720 | don't even have to ask Father to hear you. He loves you. He loves you as
00:12:50.760 | he loved me. That's what it means for me to be the one and only mediator between
00:12:57.120 | you and God. Trust me, sis, come to God through me." Yes, come to God through
00:13:06.480 | Christ. It's a bold offer, a bold promise. Thank you, Pastor John, for that, and
00:13:11.320 | thank you for the question, Barb. Hebrews chapter 10 and 19 grants us this
00:13:15.160 | confidence. It tells us that we have confidence to enter the holy places by
00:13:20.000 | the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the
00:13:25.360 | curtain, through his flesh. Amen. That is a glorious fact that we cannot repeat
00:13:32.760 | too often, so next time we're gonna say it again, we're gonna celebrate it again
00:13:36.600 | from another angle. Thank you for joining us today. Ask a question of your own.
00:13:40.760 | Search our growing archive or subscribe to the podcast all at AskPastorJohn.com.
00:13:47.640 | I'm your host Tony Reike. We'll see you back here on Wednesday. Thanks for
00:13:52.800 | listening.
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