Angels Don't Spread the Gospel - We Do!

Acts 10 records the account of the first known Gentile convert, the Roman centurion, Cornelius.

Most are likely familiar with the story. As I’ve written about previously, Cornelius was a man who seemed to be genuinely searching for God. Consequently, the Lord sent an angel who directed him to send for Peter, who would ultimately come to Caesarea, share the gospel, and lead Cornelius to saving faith.

As I studied this recently, I was confronted with an interesting question I had never considered: “Why didn’t the angel just tell Cornelius what he needed to do?”

After all, the angel was already there. He certainly had Cornelius’s attention. Cornelius was already willing and would have been receptive.

We know he would have been receptive because he complied immediately with the angel’s instructions, and then once Peter finally arrived and preached to him, Cornelius and all who were with him believed.

So here was a man like perfectly cultivated soil ready to receive a seed, yet the angel didn’t sow.

Why? Why didn’t angel just go ahead and tell him what he needed to do to be saved?

It seems reasonable to think an angel from the Lord would most certainly do a better job of communicating the truths about God than a human.

How many of us would dare say we could serve as better messengers of God than the angels who’ve been in the very presence of God since creation?

Yet, the angel told Cornelius to send for a man, a fallen man, who would come to him and tell him what to do.

Again, I ask, why?

Let me offer the challenging and encouraging truth we all need to be reminded of.

God has not given the responsibility of spreading the gospel to angels. He has given that responsibility to man.

For whatever reason, in God’s sovereignty, He has chosen you and me, as imperfect as we are, to be the instruments by which He conveys the message of salvation through Jesus Christ to the world.

It was to the disciples and apostles, and thereby extended to us, that Jesus said to go into the world and make disciples – not the angels.

I like what John Phillips said on this topic:

“God has not given the ministry of reconciliation to angels. The work of the gospel has been entrusted to men. World evangelism may be slower that way, but it is sweeter. The testimony of a believer has special weight. ‘I was once lost like you, but one day Jesus saved me.’ No angel can talk like that.”

Think about it this way. When you have something going on in your life, a difficulty, a trial, and someone, well-intentioned, tries to give you comfort or advice, but they have never walked through that same difficulty or trial, how do you receive their words?

It’s much like someone trying to give you marital advice, but they themselves are not married.

Or like someone trying to tell you how to raise children when they don’t have children.

They may know all the answers, and say the right things, and even point to the appropriate Scriptures. But in your mind, what are you thinking? “You have no idea what I’m going through. How can you give me advice?”

It’s a similar concept with angels. They may know how to speak about salvation, but they don’t experience salvation.

I am reminded of something Peter said concerning angels.

Peter opens his first letter by reminding believers suffering persecution that though they are experiencing difficulties, their suffering and trials are temporary and ultimately will strengthen their faith and that they should still be thankful for the inheritance they have in Christ.

As Peter talks about salvation, which has now been fully revealed and realized by the N.T. church, he makes an interesting statement that almost seems to be a footnote but is very revealing in regard to how angels view redemption.

Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace [that should come] unto you: Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into (1 Peter 1:10-12).

Peter is reminding N.T. believers that they are the recipients of the very thing the prophets received and wrote about when they recorded the future offer of redemption and the Messiah’s suffering.

Peter is saying that literally while they documented these things, they “enquired and searched diligently” to know by Whom, to whom, how, and when all these things would come.

Peter is essentially telling the N.T. believers: “You, my brothers and sisters, are the recipients of what the prophets have been writing about thousands of years now.”

But again, he ends vs. 12 with what seems to be just a footnote, but I believe is very informative.

Concerning this matter of salvation, he says “… which things the angels desire to look into.”

Peter is explaining that angels are interested in and curious about this whole matter of being redeemed. They can’t grasp it. Why? Because they have no experience with it.

The angels in heaven have never been separated from God because of sin in their lives. They have been in a perpetual relationship with Him since creation, and that concept of separation and the need to be reconciled is foreign to them.

The Greek word for the phrase “to look into” means “to physically stoop down, peer intently, and inspect curiously.”

Throughout human history, angels have witnessed God’s redemptive work with humanity, and Peter is saying they are amazed by salvation, longing to understand its mysteries.

You and I as believers have something that angels have never had or will never have.

We understand what it is like to be dead in trespasses and sins.

We know what it’s like to contemplate our sinfulness, and then consider that despite it, in His grace and mercy, Christ gave Himself to atone for it.

We know what it’s like to see ourselves as completely underserving, yet through Christ be adopted into the family of God and receive an inheritance that can never be taken away.

Angels never have, cannot, and will never understand what that means.

It’s no wonder that God has chosen fallen man, to preach Jesus to other fallen men. We can simply relate in a way that angels never could.

This world is full of lost people, and as important as the ministry of angels is, it’s not their job to share the gospel.

That job is for you and me. Let’s be reminded of that immense responsibility.

As I mentioned earlier, this is both a challenging and encouraging truth. It’s challenging in the sense that it puts the weight on us as Christians that souls hang in the balance, and our evangelization efforts, or the lack thereof, will determine the eternal fate of many.

But it’s encouraging to know that our testimony matters. As formerly lost sinners ourselves, we can speak to currently lost sinners in a way angels simply cannot. And it may just be that your testimony is the means by which the Lord brings another to saving faith in Jesus.