I’ve seen them on the streets of New York City, weaving in and out of traffic like two-wheeled acrobats. A certain segment of life and business in big cities depends on them—the century-old corps of bike messengers. Even in today’s digital world, when files are too big for email, when a book needs to be delivered, or when a portfolio of documents hasn’t been scanned into a computer, whom do people call? Bike messengers. They are fast and focused. Their mission is to get your message from you to your recipient. There are many of them zipping around major cities of the world at this moment.

There is another corps of messengers zipping around the world at the same time. They are God’s messengers that we call angels. And God’s messengers are also fast and focused. Their mission is to deliver God’s messages from heaven to earth. The message could be one of news, joy, judgment, or comfort. Regardless of the content, angels are God’s messengers.

The same things that commend bike messengers in big cities—their speed and success—seem to characterize God’s messengers. Indeed, their transit time appears to border on instantaneous. At least, that’s what some people have experienced.

Arthur Blessitt, the roving evangelist who carried a twelve-foot cross across the countries of the world, was walking down the Pan American Highway in Nicaragua in 1978, telling people about Jesus—during a civil war. Two of his coworkers drove ahead and parked a truck filled with supplies, towing a small trailer where they slept at night. When they pulled off the road to camp for the night, Blessitt and his friends were warned about guerilla soldiers in the area. But they trusted their safety to God and were soon fast asleep.

In the middle of the night they were awakened by banging on the trailer door and shouts of “Narcotica policia!” Forced outside the trailer, Blessitt quickly realized these weren’t policemen but guerilla soldiers. In spite of trying to tell the men about Jesus, they stood him against the side of the truck and lined up in front of him, rifles raised. He was facing a firing squad!

Ignoring the danger, Blessitt grabbed a box of Bibles from the truck to distribute to the soldiers. When he stood up from trying to open the box, all the soldiers were sprawled across the ground—the leader of the group was actually lying halfway inside the door of their trailer. Some unseen force had knocked all the soldiers to the ground. One of Blessitt’s friends said he heard a sound like “meat against meat.” Refusing the water and aid Blessitt offered them, the group of soldiers piled into their truck and fled.

Later, locals who lived a short distance away told Blessitt and his friends they had seen a bright light followed by the gunmen falling to the ground. But that wasn’t the only thing someone saw that night. Friends of Blessitt in the U.S. were drifting off to sleep in their bed when suddenly the wife awoke with a start. Waking her husband, she shouted, “Pray! Arthur is about to die!” She had been reading Billy Graham’s book on angels, and she prayed for God to send twelve strong angels to defend their friend from the danger he was in. Blessitt would say later, finding out about that prayer, that God most definitely answered it.¹

The unspoken message of the angels to the soldiers? “Hands off my chosen servants who are telling people about Jesus!” Message sent; message received.

Majestic Messengers

How do messages get from one nation to another in our modern world? Of course, there are hi-tech services: emails, cables, and so on. But when the head of one nation wants to send a message to the head of another nation—a formal message carrying the full authority of the sending head of state—they call on their ambassador. Most large nations have an embassy in every other nation and an ambassador who represents the government. Ambassadors, when they are delivering a message from the head of their government, are delivering a royal message—a message from the very top of their government.

It’s the same in heaven. God is the head of state, and He sends messages via His angel-ambassadors. Imagine being the recipient of a message from God Himself! Just because we don’t see these angel messengers does not mean they are not there. If we had eyes to see, we might see untold angels soaring around the world delivering messages from God to inhabitants of earth. The Bible tells us we might well be recipients of those messages when needed (Hebrews 1:14; 13:2).

To get a picture of the magisterial (royal) role of angels in heaven, all we need to do is read through the book of Revelation—the most detailed glimpse we have of life inside a royal “embassy.” Angels are mentioned some 72 times in Revelation in all manner of capacities, which shows their magisterial status. They are God’s messengers, ready to do His bidding at a moment’s notice: “Bless the Lord, you His angels, who excel in strength, who do His word, heeding the voice of His word” (Psalm 103:20).

What kinds of messages and missions do these majestic messengers undertake?

Missionary Messengers

Literally speaking, angels are missionaries—in the sense that they are “sent ones” (the meaning of the word apostle). Just as the apostles were sent by Christ into all the world with the message of salvation (Matthew 28:19-20), so angels are sent into all the world with God’s messages for mankind.

• Messages of caring. Angels were sent to Sodom to deliver Lot and his family from the judgment coming upon that city (Genesis 19:1-11). An angel brought a message of consolation to the exiled Hagar and her son in the wilderness (Genesis 21:17).
• Messages of corroboration. An angel went before Abraham’s servant to guide him to the one who would be a wife for Isaac (Genesis 24:7).
• Messages of commission. An angel commissioned Philip to go from Jerusalem to Gaza with the Gospel, the trip that led him to the Ethiopian official (Acts 8:26-27). An angel commissioned the centurion Cornelius to send for Peter, who then preached the Gospel to Cornelius and his household (Acts 10:3-8, 22; 11:3).
• Messages of clarification. An angel was sent to clarify for Daniel the meaning of a vision. The messenger-angel was delayed three weeks while fighting a demon who tried to prevent God’s angel’s mission to Daniel. The angel only succeeded because he was aided in the fight by Michael the archangel (Daniel 10:12-14).
• Messages of confirmation. Peter was jailed in Jerusalem for preaching the Gospel and an angel freed him (Acts 12:7-11). Those jailed in this manner were sometimes killed (John the Baptist, James). Peter’s freedom by the angel was confirmation that his ministry would continue.
• Messages of comfort. Angels ministered to Jesus after His forty days in the wilderness and during His agony in Gethsemane (Matthew 4:11; Luke 22:43).
• Messages of critique. King Herod Agrippa I was struck down by an angel for taking to himself glory that belonged to God (Acts 12:23).

These are just a few examples of the messages God has sent to earth by His messenger-angels. Sometimes the messages were revealed in words and sometimes in dramatic actions—and sometimes in both. And it is no small thing when an angel reaches its destination and delivers its message. The frequent first words of the angels are, “Fear not”—and for good reason. It’s hard to imagine the pure majesty that is revealed to those who receive one of God’s messages via His heavenly messengers.

You and I may never see an angel in person until we reach eternity. But God has revealed His purposes through them frequently enough to know that they are all around us doing His bidding. We need to live with biblical awareness of the domain of angels and how God uses them to minister to us and bring us His messages. Make sure you have incorporated angels into your biblical worldview.

¹ Arthur Blessitt, The Cross, accessed July 17, 2018, http://www.blessitt.com/the-cross-chapter-9/.