Today we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God! Find time to join us in a Christmas devotional to celebrate our Savior today.
Merry Christmas from Focus on the Family! Today we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God! Rejoice, for He has come and given us new life. No matter how your Christmas looks, find time to join us in a Christmas devotional to celebrate our Savior today.
Rejoicing on Christmas Day
As you go through Christmas day, pause with your family to discuss the beauty of what has happened. Jesus was born in a manger, as promised. All the promises of Jesus’s coming had come to pass, including His death and resurrection.
In the season of advent, we prepare our hearts for the coming King. Christmas day we get to rejoice for the King has come. Jesus gave us new life through His sacrifice. As you celebrate Christmas, take time to respond in worship, “the Word became flesh.”
Christmas Devotional
As a family, open the Word to show your children how they can respond to the good news of Jesus coming. Ask your kids what they think the purpose of Christmas is. On Christmas Eve we learn the what and the how. On Christmas day help you children understand the why.
The Why of Christmas
Ultimately the ‘why’ of Christmas helps answer the bigger question: why did Jesus come? Jesus came to atone for our sins. What does that mean? What did it look like? Isaiah 53 perfectly lays out why Jesus came, what it meant, and how it would look. Read these verses with your kids to help walk them through why Jesus came.
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
How to Respond on Christmas
Now what? What are you going to do in your heart and with your family to remember this sacrifice? We have an example of remembrance that we as Christians do. Communion is an act of worship. As a family, consider taking communion in remembrance of Jesus’s sacrifice on our behalf. He came, to give this broken world hope and a Wonderful Counselor.
Devotional Communion
For an example of how to do communion with your family, read these verses from Luke 22. Jesus walks through this with His disciples. After Jesus ascended, the disciples continued to break bread and drink wine to remember and worship the One who is worthy of our honor and praise.
And when the hour came, he reclined at table, and the apostles with him. And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
This passage is a very physical representation of how to respond in worship to the sacrifice Jesus made. Taking the time with your family to break bread and drink steers the posture of your heart towards gratitude for the blood Jesus spilled on our behalf. The importance of the season is that Jesus came on a mission to go to the cross. He came to die and defeat death for our salvation.
Respond in Worship
Take communion and remember the sacrifice Jesus made. We have received grace and we remember the promises made in Isaiah 53. The Father kept these promises, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” We are now victors over sin. We are victors in Christ Jesus and we respond daily by picking up the cross. Read the passage below to your kids to encourage them to walk in faith.
What We do After Christmas Day
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
Christmas is about the celebration of Jesus, our Savior. As Steven Lawson from OnePassion Ministries said, “Jesus did not come to create a holiday. He was born to die for sinners.” What good news this is for us, that through Jesus there is no longer condemnation. Charge your family to walk in faith, we have freedom from sin in Christ Jesus! What a truly amazing gift that we get to celebrate. Take time to give thanks to the King of kings, the Prince of Peace, the author and perfecter of our faith.
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. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
Merry Christmas and a happy New Year! To us a Savior has been born!
0800 200 362
support@family.org.nz
Rangiora, 7400, New Zealand