What The Angels Know About Christmas

The nativity scenes that most of us have in our homes or at least are familiar with usually represent the major players in the Christmas story. We have, of course, Mary, the young teenage girl who was willing to be used by God in a supernatural way to give birth to the Lord Jesus Christ. We have Joseph, the patient husband who, although he did not understand everything, was willing to trust God. We have the Shepherds, the lowest rung of Jewish society, who rushed to Bethlehem after the heavenly announcement because they understood their need for a Savior. We have the wise men who came later to see the Messiah about whom the Old Testament prophesied.  

However, today, I want us to look at the Christmas story from the point of view of a group that is missing from most nativity scenes, and yet it is a group that probably had a better understanding of the Christmas story than anyone we mentioned.

In 1 Timothy 3, Paul is writing to Timothy about how to run a church, reminding Timothy that the church is the pillar and support of the truth.

Our job is to lift up the truth to an unbelieving world. That is the whole motivation for everything we do, from our international media ministry to rebuilding the historic sanctuary. These ministries are not the ultimate goal of our church—they are a pedestal, a platform, a pillar to help us lift up the message of Christ to our city and world.

And what is the truth we are to uphold? Paul summarizes it in verse 16. More than likely, verse 16 is one of the first songs sung in the church. I don’t know whether it was sung in traditional or contemporary fashion—whether it was a hymn or praise chorus. The form is not important, but the message is key.

The song is about Jesus Christ.  

It says, “By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was revealed in the flesh, was vindicated in the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory” (1 Timothy 3:16). 

I want us to think about these words, “Seen by angels.” Jesus Christ was beheld; he was seen by the angels.

No one understood the Christmas story any better than the angels because they had the best seats in the house, as it were. They watched the whole drama of Jesus Christ unfold from the beginning to the very end and thus better understood who Jesus Christ is than any of us.

Colin Smith, in the article “Christmas as the Angels Saw It,” suggests that there are seven facets of Christ’s existence that were witnessed by the angels, which gave them a fuller appreciation of the Christmas Story.  

I would like to expand on those. What did the angels see?

1. Christ’s Glory in Heaven (Isaiah 6:1-3)

One of the questions I am asked is, “Where were we before we were born?” Many times, you will hear or see portrayed on television the idea that before our birth, we were spirits or even angels in heaven. But the simple answer to the question “Where were we before we were born?” is that we weren’t anywhere because we weren’t … period. We did not come into existence until our conception when God breathed the breath of life into us.

But Jesus is not like us. He did not come into existence at his birth in Bethlehem. He is eternal; He has no beginning or end. Jesus said to the Jewish leaders, “Before Abraham was, I am.” Abraham lived 2,000 years before Christ. But Christ preceded him because He is eternal.

In other words, Jesus Christ created the angels. We don’t have a lot of detail in the Bible about their creation or when it happened, but it happened long before God created the earth. That means the angels were eyewitnesses to the creation of this world. Job says that the angels sang for joy at the creation of the universe.

But I want you to think about this—whenever the angels were created, imagine what they must have seen when they came into existence. The angels weren’t born, but when they were created, they immediately saw the Lord Jesus Christ on His throne in heaven. They saw Him in His glory.  

The angels were also witnesses to . . .

2. Christ’s Incarnation at Bethlehem (Luke 2:13-14)

You can understand then why the angels must have been astonished when they saw the Lord God whom they worshipped rise from his throne, step down, and vanish from their view.

Where did He go? The great Creator of the Universe poured himself into a tiny embryo implanted in the womb of a teenage girl named Mary, living in an obscure corner of the world. It almost takes your breath away when you think of it.  

And the angels saw it all. They saw the Son of God they had been worshipping in heaven, now lying in a smelly feeding trough for animals. That is why when they appeared to the shepherds in the field that night, they could not contain themselves. 

The angels also saw and were present for . . .

3. Christ’s Temptation in the Wilderness (Matthew 4:1)

Jesus felt the very same temptations we felt, and I submit to you that He felt them more intensely because He was perfect. You see, if you endure enough pain, eventually, you will pass out and feel no more pain. But someone who could never pass out, never give into the pain, would experience pain at a level others don’t.

The fact that Jesus was sinless and could never give in to sin means that He faced temptation at a level we will never experience. That is why Matthew 4:11 says that after the devil departed from Jesus, the angels came and ministered to Him. He was exhausted physically, emotionally, and physically.

And that means He understands and sympathizes with you when you are tempted. 

The angels were also witnesses to . . .

4. Christ’s Agony in the Garden (Mark 14:35)

The next time the Bible refers to angels in the life of Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane, shortly before His betrayal. 

Jesus asked God to spare Him from the agony of the crucifixion—not just to spare Him the physical pain of the cross, which was horrific enough, but to save Him from the even more painful experience of bearing the sins of the world and resulting wrath of God on Himself.  

There is no way we can understand what it would be like for Jesus, who knew no sin to take our sin, and for Jesus, who had perfect fellowship with God the Father, to suffer separation from God because of our sin.

Jesus prayed that God would spare Him from that experience.  

Jesus prayed, but then he added, “Not my will, but Your will be done.” The greatest struggle we ever endure in life is not with Satan but with ourselves. It is the struggle over whether we demand that our will be done or we pray for God’s will to be done.

The struggle with Jesus was so intense that Luke 22:43 says that an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him.

The heavenly body of angels looked with astonishment as the One whom they had worshipped in heaven had humbled Himself to the point that He needed their assistance. Of course, this was simply the prelude to the ultimate purpose of Christ’s departure from heaven to earth.

The angels also saw. . .

5. Christ’s Sacrifice on the Cross (Matthew 26:53)

What must the angels have thought of the human race as they watched the Savior of the World, given as a gift from God, being delivered back to God on the end of a bloody Roman spear?

The angels must have stood at the edge of heaven, just waiting for a command from the Lord Jesus Christ to come and deliver Him. In Matthew 26:53, Jesus said to his accusers, “Or do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?”

But he didn’t call on the watching angels to intervene because His death was God’s plan to bring salvation to us. The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.  

The angels saw that sacrifice, and they were ASTONISHED.

But the story doesn’t end there. . . the angels also were witnesses to . . .

6. Christ’s Resurrection from the Grave (Matthew 28:1-6)

Matthew 28 tells us that early on that Sunday morning after Christ’s death and burial, there was a violent earthquake, and an angel came and rolled the stone away and then sat on the stone!

Imagine the angel sitting on top of the stone, with arms crossed, as if to say defiantly, “So much for the power of death!” Remember, the women came to the tomb and asked where the Lord was. And the angel announced, “He is not here. He has risen from the dead, just as he said.”

A few weeks later, again, two angels were present when Christ ascended into heaven, and they said to those assembled, “Why do you stand gazing into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you, will come again in just the same way.”

And the Bible says that the angels will one day see . . .

7. Christ’s Return for His People (Matthew 25:31)

The angels will not only see but will participate in the promise of Jesus, which is the hope and heart cry of every Christian—Come, Lord Jesus, come.

But until that time, what are the angels doing right now? As we saw in our study of Revelation 5, the angles numbering ten thousand times ten thousand are encircling the throne of Jesus Christ, bowing before Him, and crying out with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.” The angels in heaven are worshipping Jesus Christ.

All of these lead to a very simple application: How do people today respond to Jesus Christ?  

Unbelievers reject Him. They either don’t believe that He existed or deny that He was the Messiah and represents the only way to heaven.

Unfortunately, many professing Christians simply ignore Him. They are not spiritually dead but spiritually asleep. Although they say they have trusted Jesus for their eternal future, they live their lives as if they are going to live forever with little thought about the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven and what He desires for their life.  

Unbelievers reject Him, and many believers ignore Him, but the angels in heaven adore Him.  They worship Him with their praise, and they submit to Him with their obedience.

Now let me ask you a simple question. Who sees reality more clearly—the angels or us? The angels have the best seats in the house. Unlike we humans, who James says are a vapor that appears on this earth for a little period of time and then vanishes, the angels have watched the whole drama unfold from eternity past, and they fall down before the throne of Jesus Christ and worship Him.

And so should we.  

We adore Christ—we worship Christ—by receiving rather than rejecting the gift of Salvation He offers.  

We adore Christ when we resist the temptations that constantly assault us.  

We adore Christ by giving to Him through His church our very best gifts.  

We adore Christ when we say to Him, not my will, but Your will be done.

Full Passage: 1 Timothy 3:16