How to Discover Awe Through the Christmas Story
Awaken your heart from indifference and discover the awe of God through the Christmas story. This blog examines why God chose to announce the shepherds for the angels to proclaim Christ’s birth and how we can identify with them to find satisfaction in God.
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The Shepherds and the Angels
8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”[a]
15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. 17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
Discovering Awe Through Creation
Awe: a feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear or wonder.
Let’s talk about the gift of awe before a holy God. One of the clearest methods to experience awe is to view photos of outer space. Now, we have the James Webb telescope producing even clearer and higher quality photos.
The Webb Deep Field is the deepest infrared view of the universe ever produced, revealing thousands of galaxies in an area of the sky the size of a grain of rice held at arm’s length. Some of the galaxies in this image are 13.1 billion years old, captured as they appeared when the universe had only just cooled enough to allow star formation.
Phantom Galaxy: Some 32 million light-years away, a galaxy known as M74 or the “Phantom Galaxy” is aligned so we can look down on the full glory of its spiral structure. This swirl of stars may be similar to our Milky Way galaxy, with a diameter of 100,000 light years and an estimated 100 billion stars.
The Pillars of Creation. These structures, the largest of which is five light-years tall, are part of the Eagle Nebula, an active star-forming region about 6,000 light-years away. The enormous pillars of gas are studded with luminous points of light from newly formed stars.
When we see these images and ponder the vastness of the universe, this is why the Psalmist wrote, “The heavens declare the glory of the Lord.” God stretched out the heavens before us so that, according to Scripture, we can behold the greatness of the Creator.
Who Praised Christ First? | About the Angels | Why Do Angels Praise the Christ?
“And an angel of the LORD appeared to them, and the glory of the LORD shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And an angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.’” Luke 2:9-10 (emphasis added)
In the context of the images above, process what it must be like to stand fully in the glory of God and His presence. Imagine His glory when He unzipped the reality of the heavenly realm. Suddenly, alongside a host of angelic beings, He manifested Himself before these shepherds. Consider how much awe that situation would transcend.
“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased!’” Luke 2:13-15
This verse raises a question: Who praised God first when Christ was born?
The answer is angels, A multitude of angels, to be precise. Scripture doesn’t tell us if that was a hundred, thousands, or tens of thousands. Regardless of how large the multitude was, we must pay attention to this verse because the angels have insights we may not have access to.
Angels have never sinned; therefore, they require no Savior. Angels haven’t fallen or rebelled in the heavenly realm; consequently, they don’t need a Redeemer. They do not need Christ’s atonement through His bloodshed, yet they still praise Him.
They praise Him because they know:
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” Colossians 1:15
“. . . by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him.” Colossians 1:16
“He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” Colossians 1:17
“He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power.” Hebrews 1:3
The angels praise Christ because they know what He is doing! They know:
The misery sin has brought into creation.
How sin has brought brokenness in individuals, families, broken down trust between people, brokenness in nations, and brokenness between the nations.
The blessings of Heaven and the gift of an open door to Heaven through the Son.
A deep love and compassion they feel toward lost humanity and rejoice in the glorious prospect of many souls being saved and plucked from the burning fire of separation from God.
This is why praise for the Lord is never based on our mood or on which way the wind is blowing in our lives. The Angels praise Him for all those things and more!
The author C.S. Lewis said, “A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell.”
This praise is the reason Jude would be inspired to write the words:
“…to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.” Jude 1:25
It is the reason the Apostle Paul was inspired to write:
“Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen” I Timothy 1:17
And it’s the reason John Piper would write:
“If you don’t see the greatness of God, then all the things that money can buy become very exciting. If you can’t see the sun, you will be impressed with a streetlight. If you’ve never felt thunder and lightning, you’ll be impressed with fireworks. And if you turn your back on the greatness and majesty of God, you’ll fall in love with a world of shadows and short-lived pleasures.”
The angels praise Him because they see His worth and worthiness to be praised and exalted for Who He is—and so should we!
Why Shepherds?
And so, the shepherds say to one another…
“When the angels went away from them into Heaven, the shepherd said to one another. ‘Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the LORD has made known to us.’ And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child.” Luke 2:15-17
So, why did God show up with a multitude of angels to reveal this glory to shepherds?
Before answering that question, we need to address something else: God has no coincidences. He is not a god of randomness. Instead, He is always intentional.
In my life, I’ve learned that through pain and struggles, you either run to God or away from Him. Through that pain, I’ve run to His word, and things have been unveiled in ways I’d never seen before. I began to notice that God has command of the wind and the waves. I began to see more deeply in His sovereignty that I could trust God in my circumstances.
Returning to our original question: Why the shepherds?
God is messaging something to us in the lives of the shepherds, and it is in our best interest to pay attention to it.
In general, Shepherds had bad reputations. They were known as dishonest and unclean according to the standards of the law. On a societal level, they were viewed as being far from God. This says something very profound. The outcasts and people who have bad reputations as sinners are people for whom Jesus came.
But what is even more important is our identification with the shepherds. We, too, apart from God’s grace, are outcasts. If all of our sins were made known, our reputations and identity would be like the shepherds’ Unclean.
JESUS: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” Mark 2:17
We all need a physician. There’s not a person on this earth who hasn’t broken God’s command. Psalm 53 informs us, “There is none who does good, not even one.”
How to Wake Up From Indifference to Awe
In the early 2000s, the popular rock band Evanescence released a song called “Bring Me to Life.” The lyrics to the chorus are:
“Wake me up inside (save me)
Call my name and save me from the dark (wake me up)
Bid my blood to run (I can’t wake up)
Before I come undone (save me)
Save me from the nothing I’ve become.”
The singer, Amy Lee, wrote these lyrics during a dark and deep depression. She felt cold and numb. However, this chorus, “Wake me up inside,” is a common cry for the human heart. “Wake me up inside” is not a cry of indifference.
Contrast that to the religious establishment of Jesus’ day.
“When Herod the King heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him Bethlehem of Judea…” Matthew 2:3-5a-b
The rumor mill is flowing, but the religious establishment is anything but awake inside; They’re indifferent and unaffected by what’s happening here.
We’re not as different as we’d like to believe. We can spend our entire lives moving at the speed of life in a false security manifested in indifference toward spiritual things. Be warned, it happened to religious leaders, and if it can happen to them, it can happen to you and me.
Jesus was “laid in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.” Luke 2:7
While that is a place of humility, and yes, there’s intentionality there to show that God, encapsulated in human form, humbled Himself to a manger. But the manger Jesus was laid in was actually an animal feeding trough. God is telling us that He is our source of nourishment. Jesus is the one who will satisfy the deepest desires of your heart and life.
It’s a poetic picture of glory and humility mingled together to save outcasts who are far from God.
Angel: “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:10-11
This news was given to shepherds, not to priests and rulers, but to shepherds. It wasn’t given to scribes and Pharisees but to outcasts—people who need saving from the consequences of their sin. People like you and me.
“Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom He promised those who love Him?” James 2:5
The word “poor” in that verse isn’t limited to material poverty, but those who recognize their poverty of the soul and cry to God, “I need you! I don’t want to be indifferent. Wake me up inside!” So the angel declares, “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.”
The good news is that Jesus is the source! He will satisfy you.
It’s not just that He delivers you from sin and death but into a new life. We can be filled with great joy because joy is a person named Jesus. We can see and understand who He is. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and the one who created the galaxies we saw in the images above. Through Jesus, our hearts can be filled with awe before a holy God.
TL;DR
The blog discusses the concept of awe and its connection to a sense of reverence, fear, and wonder before God.
The angels' praise of Christ's birth is explored, emphasizing the uniqueness of their perspective and their knowledge of Christ's divine nature and role.
The blog delves into the significance of shepherds in the Christmas story, noting their societal reputation and how they represent outcasts who need salvation.
Readers to awaken from indifference to awe, drawing parallels between the religious establishment's indifference in Jesus' time and potential spiritual indifference in our lives.
The manger where Jesus was laid is seen as a symbol of humility and God's provision for spiritual nourishment.
The good news of Christ's birth is proclaimed as a source of great joy and an antidote to indifference, emphasizing that Jesus satisfies our deepest desires and brings us awe before God.
Related Reading
How Do I Find Satisfaction in God by Rev. Paul Lawler
How to Hear God Amid Divine Interruptions by Rev. Paul Lawler
A Light in the Darkness by Rev. Jacky Gatliff
