Sunday Sermon

Imprisoned Angels? Dave Shaner July 17, 2005

Introduction:  The Bible has some difficult texts with no easy answers. Anyone who thinks he has God figured out is on shaky footing.

Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. - 2 Peter 3:15-16

through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison - 1 Peter 3:19

Is Peter suggesting that there are angels in jail?

I. Questions the text raises:

A. Who are these "spirits"?

1. Disobedient men during Noah's time?

2. Hebrews 1:14

Are not angels ministering spirits?

3. Wicked angels

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment; - 2 Peter 2:4

And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home — these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. - Jude 6

B. Where is their prison?

C. When were they chained?

Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. and the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire. - Jude 5-7

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment - 2 Peter 2:4-9

D. What was their crime?

1. Scriptures:

When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years." The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown. The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. - Genesis 6:1-6

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel. - Genesis 3:15

2. Why the fallen angel view?

a. "Sons of God" in the Old Testament always refers to angels.

b. He doesn't speak of daughters of God and sons of men.

c. It best explains 2 Peter and Jude.

d. This was the view of the earliest Christians.

E. Why are they mentioned?

1. This passage is to encourage sufferers to not quit.

2. 1 Peter 3:14-15

But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. "Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened. "But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect

III. Questions the text asks:

A. Do we truly respect _________________________?

B. Do we really project _________________________?

Jesus Christ, ... who has gone into heaven and is at God's right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him. - 1 Peter 3:22

C. Do we fully expect _________________________?

Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: "See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones - Jude 14

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