Today’s Christmas Devotion

December 22, 2024

Bible Reading: Luke 2:8-14 & Romans 10:13-15

It is most fitting that the birth of the Good Shepherd (John 10:11-18) was first announced to shepherds. The patriarchs were shepherds. David was a shepherd. The Prophet Amos was a shepherd. 

Good tidings were brought to Moses concerning God’s deliverance of His people from slavery while Moses was keeping sheep. How appropriate, then, that “good tidings” of a far greater deliverance, God’s deliverance of His people from sin, were brought to “shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.”

The angels were not sent to the shepherds with good advice, but with “good tidings” or good news. They were not sent to tell the shepherds what they ought to do, but sent to announce to the shepherds what God had done for them. We hear a great deal of good advice from modern-day pulpits. We hear a lot about what we ought to do and how we ought to live. Unfortunately, many modern-day pulpits are all but silent when it comes to “good tidings” or good news. Few are proclaiming what God has done for us in Christ.

The good news that the angels brought to the shepherds was for “all people.” The good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is for all people everywhere. It is for red and yellow, black and white. It is for the famous and obscure. It is for the learned and uneducated. It is for the millionaire and the pauper. It is for those in the White House and for those in your house. It is truly for everyone, regardless of the paucity or plentifulness of their possessions, prominence and power.

What really makes the Gospel such good news is not the fact that it’s for everybody, but that it’s especially for you. Notice, the angel said, “For unto YOU is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” Not only did Christ come for everybody; He also came for you! If you had been the only person upon the earth, Christ would have still come just for you!

I am so glad that my Father in heaven

Tells of His love in the Book He has given;

Wonderful things in the Bible I see—

This is the dearest, that Jesus loves me.

I am so glad that Jesus loves me,

Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me;

I am so glad that Jesus loves me,

Jesus loves even me. (Philip P. Bliss)