As a boy I went through the normal routines of church life. I got the Bible when I went into “Intermediates” (somewhere close to the start of middle school I think). I sang in the children’s choir, was active in RA’s (if you don’t know what that is you will survive), went on the youth retreats and faithfully attended Sunday school.
All well and good.
I believed Jesus died on the cross. I believe God created the world. I wanted not to become a criminal or a failure. I fretted over not behaving like I should. I truly believed, but I mostly performed. I knew the routine but not the Rescuer.
Then something changed. I watched young adults start taking about Jesus. I saw young people talk about how Jesus delivered them from drugs to salvation, how they loved to rap about Jesus (that means witness, not a Tripp Lee song) and not just in church. Later a skating rink our church turned into a “One Way Christian Night Club” became a place where Jesus was real and it did not have a church name on the front.
I wanted to know the Jesus these people knew. And I was changed by Him.
There was something wonderful about my church upbrining—a place of teaching, of love, of worship of God. But there was something more in those young adults who met Jesus and became a part of our church.
They did not simply believe in Jesus—they were astonished by Him.
We are no longer astonished by the gospel. We believe it, we say, but do we really? Do we really teach it, share it, preach it as if it is the only thing that makes sense of all things?
Read the book of Acts. Astonishment, wonder, awe filled people in the church and in the culture. Note just a few examples:
2:43 “and awe came upon every soul.” Awe, astonishment marked the church from its beginning.
3:10 “and they were filled with wonder and astonishment at what had happened to him.” A lame man is healed and now gone from begging for money to praising the Lord.
4:13 “When they saw the boldness of Peter and John. . . they were filled with awe, and they realized they had been with Jesus.” The leaders’ lives encited a sense of awe.
8:8 “There was great joy in that city.” The city of Samaria saw something astonishing, that brought much joy.
9:21 “And all who heard him were amazed.” The transformation of Saul the persecutor into Paul the apostle brought astonishment.
13:12 “He was astonished at the teaching of the Lord” Note, in this passage a man was struck blind, but it says the Proconsul was astonished at the TEACHING. Do we share Christ in a way that the message astonishes people? When were you last astonished at the gospel?
13:48 “The Gentiles were rejoicing and glorifying the Word of the Lord” As a result the gospel spread further.
Maybe the gospel is not spreading with power because those of us who claim it have lost our astonishment with it?
Back in the early 1970s some preachers in their suits walked along the streets of D.C. Some hippie-like young men were sharing Christ on the street.
“What are you young men doing?” one preacher asked.
Sheepishly, one of them answered, “We are doing what you just talk about.” He was not trying to show up these pastors. These young men shared Christ naturally out of a sense of astonishment.
We do not need a hippie movement today. But we do need a Jesus movement. We need to recover a sense of astonishment for Jesus. You cannot work that up. You cannot learn three steps to what my friend Jared Wilson calls “gospel wakefulness.” But you can learn, reflect, and live out the wonderful, awe-inspiring gospel. As you understand its power increasingly in your life, you will not grow tired up it. You will tell it more.
As the last line in the old hymn says:
I love to tell the story
For those who know it best
Seem hungering and thirsting
To hear it like the rest
I love to tell the story
Twill be my theme in glory
To tell the old, old story
Of Jesus and His love.
Never get over the wonder, the awe, the astonishment of Jesus and his Story.
