This week on the podcast, I want to answer one of my favorite questions that I have been asked. The question is, do we have guardian angels? Something we hear about a lot. We talked about it a lot. People make reference to angels watching over us and having guardian angels. But the question is, do we? Is that something that we can see from Scripture? I think the answer is yes. I think we can say that Christians who have turned from their sin and are trusting in Jesus Christ, I think we do have guardian angels. Let me tell you why I think we can say that that is true from the Bible. In Revelation 1, the apostle John gets this vision of the ascended, glorious Christ. As he describes, this ascended Christ, one of the things he describes about him is in Revelation 1:16, which says, “In his right hand, he held seven stars.” And then, if you keep reading through to the end of the chapter, it’s explained what those seven stars are in verse 20, “As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw on my right hand, and the seven, golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches.” The number seven, there is a reference to completeness and fullness. So he’s talking about the fullness of his church. He says that those stars that are in his hand represent angels that oversee his church or his churches. We know from the testimony of Jesus Christ himself that he has sent angels to watch over his church. When we know that it explains a passage that we can often find perplexing. In 1 Corinthians 11:10, the apostle Paul is talking about how Christians should act when they gather for public worship. He’s particularly talking about how men and women should act when they gather for public worship. And he says that a “wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head.” Now, I’ve talked about that in a different podcast about what it means for women to wear head coverings, so I won’t go into that this week. But in 1 Corinthians 11:10, he gives an explanation about why a woman should wear a covering on her head in public worship. The Bible says that is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels. So you remember, Jesus says in Revelation 1 that he has sent angels to watch over his church over his churches. And the Apostle Paul says, hey, in First Corinthians 11:10, when you’re gathered for public worship, you are not just in the presence of God, you are in the presence of the angels that the Lord has sent to watch over his church.
This will change your experience of corporate worship. The next time, you’re at church on Sunday. Imagine you sitting there, or as you’re standing and singing the songs and listening to the sermon, and you see the preacher and the leaders up front and your brothers and sisters sitting around. And imagine that the unseen space of that room is filled up with spiritual power and spiritual authority from heaven that exists in the angelic realm, and is there in the presence of God just as you are? It’s truly a remarkable and a glorious thought to imagine. Those are two verses that talk about angels being sent to watch over the churches. But what about guardian angels? Well, we move a little closer to the meat of the answer to that when you look at a passage, like Matthew 18:10. Jesus says, “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. I tell you that in heaven, their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.” When he talks about little ones, he’s talking about his people. He’s talking about the people who trust in him. He’s talking about the people with childlike faith. Then he says his people have angels who are always viewing the face of God. He’s saying one of the reasons why you ought not to mistreat my people is not just because they’re my people and not just because God is watching, but because they have angels who are watching them. We don’t want to do more with a passage like this than we should. But we also don’t want to do less with it than we should. And I think what we can say is from the lips of Jesus’ own mouth is that if you know him, if you are trusting in him and resting in his salvation, then you have guardian angels. Our ultimate hope is not in angels, our ultimate confidence is not in angels. Our ultimate confidence is in the Lord, who sent his Son Jesus to live and die and rise for us, and we trust in him. But as we trust in the Lord, one of the ways that he mediates his care to us is by giving powerful, glorious, unseen angels to guard over us. So do we have guardian angels? Yes, we do.
