December 15, 2023

Christ is born.

Luke 2:8-14

Tatiana Pozo-Fiorilo
Friday's Devo

December 15, 2023

Friday's Devo

December 15, 2023

Friday's Devo

December 15, 2023

Friday's Devo

December 15, 2023

Big Idea

God with us.

Key Verse | Luke 2:11

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

Luke 2:8-14

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!” 1 2:14 Some manuscripts peace, good will among men

Footnotes

[1] 2:14 Some manuscripts peace, good will among men

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Dive Deeper | Luke 2:8-14

Before creation, God had a mission: to be loved, served, and worshiped by people from all nations. First, God longs for worship to come to Him from every nation. Second, He will redeem a people from every people. Last, He will defeat evil in order to bring freedom to all people.

After 400 years of silence from God, the birth of Jesus is announced. One might think God could've delivered this news to kings instead of shepherds, or He could've made room for Jesus in a palace instead of a manger. Nevertheless, God sovereignly ordained the details and chose humble situations, locations, and people to fulfill the prophecies of the Messiah from the Old Testament.

Jesus came to this earth to accomplish God's purpose: to reveal God's glory to the world in order to receive glory from all the nations. God delights in His glory, and He is passionate about it. God desires for every nation, tongue, and tribe to glorify Him. In John 17:4 Jesus states, "I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do." We read in John 12:28 that Jesus states, "'Father, glorify your name.' Then a voice came from heaven: 'I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.'"

The message from the angel of the Lord in today's passage begins and ends with glory. A multitude of angels begin to praise God. Worship is the recognition of the glory of God; life abundantly is found in the worship of God. Angels and creation delight in worshiping God (Isaiah 6:3).

Jesus came as Lord, Messiah, and Savior. Salvation through Jesus' death and resurrection is a gift that is God's plan. Jesus came to rescue us from sin and death, to reconcile us to God, so that we can make God's name known. I once heard someone say, "As Christians, we were saved for something, not from something." We are saved for God's glory. May we share the gospel with all people (Matthew 28:19-20), and allow them to taste and see God's love and glory for themselves.

This month's memory verse

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
    and renew a right spirit within me.

– Psalm 51:10

Discussion Questions

1. Do you know someone in your life who doesn't know Jesus? Make a list of 1-10 people (family, friends, acquaintances). Pray that God would open their hearts to Him. Pray that they would come to hear, understand, and believe the message of the gospel and accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

2. What do you think of when you think of the word glory?

3. Let's glorify the Lord with a worship song. Feel free to listen to one of your favorite worship songs. Personally, as I am writing this devo, Shane & Shane's song "Psalm 34 (Taste and See)" comes to my mind. Either way, delight yourself with the lyrics of any song that speaks about the glory of God.

As we gear up to release even more features for Join The Journey in 2025, our staff team, unfortunately, no longer has the margin to continue to support the comment functionality. We have big things in store for Join The Journey 2025. Stay tuned!

MS

Michael Sisson

Re: Lk 2:8 The birth of the Despised Messiah (Isa 49:7; Isa 53:3)…The Good Shepherd (Gen 49:24; Jn 10:11,14)…is first announced to shepherds…a despised occupation at the bottom of Middle Eastern society. Re: Lk 2:13 Luke 2:13 (TLV) And suddenly >>>a multitude of heavenly armies<<< appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, See Pr 30:29-31 Pr 30:29-31 (NASB) There are three things which are stately in their march, Even four which are stately when they walk: The lion which is mighty among beasts And does not retreat before any, The strutting rooster, the male goat also, And >>>a king when his army is with him.<<< See also Mt 26:53, Jn 13:38; Jn 18:36; Heb 9:12; Rev 5:5
GJ

Greg Jones

Liked this from the deeper dive. “Nevertheless, God sovereignly ordained the details and chose humble situations, locations, and people to fulfill the prophecies of the Messiah from the Old Testament.” The message concerning the shepherds is usually something like-they were the marginalized unclean social outcasts of the community. That’s the traditional view anyway and probably will be around for awhile. The low view of shepherds begins with Aristotle about 300 hundred years before Christ. Aristotle a Greek from a different time and culture basically said shepherds were shepherded by sheep rather than shepherds of sheep. Those views would influence later NT readers but there no real evidence his views are influencing the NT writers. The Babylonian Talmud from around 500 CE is another source of the negative view of shepherds in the New Testamant. “The Talmud contains rabbinic interpretations of the Old Testament and interpretations based on the Mishnah. The Mishnah contains rabbinic debates over the correct interpretation and application of Old Testament Law, and the Talmud contains rabbis debating the content of the Mishnah. In general the information in the Talmud is not helpful for interpreting the New Testament. Many of the quotations are simply too late to be reliably useful because the rabbis are so far removed from the first-century context”. This is according to David Croteau and Lifeway Research. https://research.lifeway.com/2015/12/17/christmas-urban-legends-shepherds-as-outcasts/Kim And when they saw it they made known the saying which had been told them concerning this child; and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. Luke 2:17-18 The outcast, unclean, shepherd presented in the Talmud could not be a witness because of their unreliable character. That is not Luke’s New Testament Gospel presentation of shepherds here. Humble, yes very fair, unclean, unreliable, social outcast with a story to tell that would be immediately rejected out of hand like the messengers, that’s not the case in Luke 2. Thank you Tatiana. Some posit that soon after Christianity becomes the official Roman religion and is split by its creed from Judaism that, because the NT had a high view of shepherds it influenced the later lower rabbinic Talmud view of shepherds. That would make sense.
SF

Shawn Foster

Tatiana, Thank you very much for a profound, beautiful, thoughtful and powerful devotional! So grateful to be saved from sin To God’s eternal purposes. Carter bloodcare has a slogan “be a part of something great.” Should that not be our slogan? As you know- The greatest of causes is the cause of Christ. And every time we extend a hand or share a word we are building His kingdom. Hallelujah. Thanks again. Let’s go church!
HS

Hugh Stephenson

Good morning Tatiana and good morning to my JTJ siblings. Thank you Tatiana for a truly wonderful devotional. My takeaway is this quotation - "As Christians, we were saved for something, not from something." ‘For not from’ - to me this invokes the call to mission as you cite in Matthew 28. Also, I link to the call to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3 and also to Moses in Exodus 19:6. In Psalm 71:18. And in the NT in Acts 1:8. Q1. Prayer list for salvation? Awhile back I was shown a different way to organize my prayers. A “salvation” list is now the way I orient that part of my prayers. Many years ago I was taught this prayer for non believers or prodigals- “Please remove all obstacles to their faith and please put people in their life that increase their faith.” More recently I have added “Whatever it takes”. That addition is very important. I’ve been challenged on it several times. Q2. Glory? There are many verses that use this word. Got Qs has a great compilation. https://www.gotquestions.org/search.php?zoom_query=Glory&zoom_page=2&zoom_per_page=10&zoom_and=0&zoom_sort=0 Q3. Glorify in song? As a result of a pastoral process with friends at The Eden Project I have made an Imago Dei playlist of worship songs. The highlight is “King of Kings’. Also, “Who You Say I Am”, “You Say”, “No Longer Slaves” “Lord I need you” “Undivided Heart” and “How Could I”. https://www.edenproject.com
HS

Hugh Stephenson

Reprising these very helpful notes from TC and the ESV SB From the ESV SB “Luke 1:5–2:52 The Infancy Narrative. The opening (1:8–23) and conclusion (2:21–52) of this section take place in the temple and form literary “bookends,” indicating its unity.” Map: Jesus’ Birth and Flight to Egypt (Luke 2:1–20). https://images.app.goo.gl/5efUDVQqamXfBz5c7 Jesus’ Birth and Flight to Egypt As the time drew near for Jesus to be born, a mandatory Roman registration made it necessary for Joseph to return to his ancestral home of Bethlehem. There Mary gave birth to Jesus, and later, wise men from the East came to worship him. The wise men’s recognition of a new king, however, troubled King Herod and the ruling establishment in Jerusalem, and Herod the Great sought to kill Jesus. Joseph and his family escaped to Egypt and stayed there until Herod died. When they returned to Palestine, they settled in the remote district of Galilee, where Jesus grew up in the village of Nazareth, to avoid the attention of the rulers in Jerusalem. Here’s the take away line from the entire story! “The greatest miracle in the history of the world, the eternal Son of God being born as a man, happens quietly in a stable in an obscure village in Judea. Luke’s description is restrained, giving only a very few details.” In the Hillsong video below the most powerful line for me is this- “From a throne of endless glory to a cradle in the dirt”. The quotation above & the lyric cited give me a powerful picture of Immanuel, https://www.gotquestions.org/what-does-Immanuel-mean.html . ——————————————————————————————————————— “Luke's brief account of Jesus' birth emphasizes three things: -First, he described the political situation in order to explain why Jesus was born in Bethlehem. This set Jesus' birth in a context of world history and anticipated His worldwide significance. -Second, Luke connected Bethlehem with David in order to show that Jesus qualified as to be the Messiah. -Finally, he presented Jesus' humble beginnings and so introduced the themes of Jesus' identification with the poor and His rejection. Luke paralleled John and Jesus' births as he did the announcements of their births, and he stressed Jesus' superiority again. No one special announced John's birth, but angels proclaimed the birth of Jesus.”
HS

Hugh Stephenson

FLASHBACK- In late 1998 I had come into a very rough and difficult period. Materially business was great. The Great Bull Market was in full force and money seemed to be flowing in from every possible source. Yet, I was in a spiritual desert. I knew this place. I had spent a great deal of time in it. But this time was different. There was no “buying my way out” with new toys or fancy vacations or other temporary measures. I was not at the “end of the road” but it was coming into view. I got a referral into a psychiatrist on the company health plan. After an initial setting he proscribed Prozac. Plus Ritalin. (Looking back I’m not sure that combination was a good idea.) As an additional measure I started a counseling process with a retired Methodist priest. She grew up in the Salvation Army of the 1950s and 1960s. She was the real deal. After a number of meetings over a period of weeks she made an observation that was life changing. She pointed out that my image and understanding of Jesus was way, way off. I had spent an adult lifetime in church classes and other studies so I was taken aback. She noted that I saw Jesus only in a distant regal sense. Not in any way that represented a daily close relationship that had depth and intimacy. One where He was not 10 feet off the ground floating around in a majestic white robe. But one where He was down in the muddy ditches with me, (see Psalm 40:1-4). We spent many sessions digging into this issue. I came to understand that a more accurate understanding of who Jesus is was the key to my spiritual and mental health. The drugs were not a long term solution; but just a temporary reprieve to give me time. Over the next several years I spent much time in prayer and study so that I could move towards a more accurate understanding. I knew my new road entailed a spiritual reformation and I was energized to fully engage it. What I see in this passage is a great representation of who God is, who I am and what He calls me to do. In time, I dropped the prescriptions. The advent of the great shepherd witnessed by shepherds in a land of shepherds would provide the understanding and revelation that would give me the peace that can only come from the Prince of Peace, https://www.watermark.org/blog/real-peace Please watch or re-watch the pilot episode of The Chosen. It’s 20 minutes long. I am very, very confident it will bless you. https://www.angel.com/watch/the-chosen/videos/bonus/ed6c6ce8-aa3d-4edc-b968-e1f0bf75e77b
SB

Sue Bohlin

Thank you, Tatiana. I really hope there is a video of the angels and the shepherds in heaven. I would love to see the shekinah glory of the Lord shining in the nighttime darkness. I have a feeling that this very familiar passage tells the most basic aspects of the night, and there's a whole lot more to it than what we see. God brings light into the darkness. I love that theme so much!
AL

Amy Lowther

1. I know a lot of people who know Jesus and are doing very well. But, I also know people who know of Jesus and could do a little better. Prayer: May God open the hearts of those who don’t know Him or His Son Jesus to listen to and understand the main ideas of the gospel. May they all accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Amen. 2. God. 3. “This I Believe” is a song which glorifies God. Tatiana - Thank you for sharing your ideas. You made a great point in saying, “God had a mission: to be loved, served, and worshiped by people from all nations.” This point makes it clear everyone and anyone is welcome to know and live life with God. I also thought you made a great point when you said, “Jesus' death and resurrection is a gift that is God's plan. Jesus came to rescue us from sin and death, to reconcile us to God, so that we can make God's name known.” It shows we can trust them.