We have all been on the receiving end of good news.

Cast your mind back to the news of your first ever selection. Perhaps you read the starting line up on the notice board or heard your name announced in assembly to represent your school. That was good news!

Ever since then you’ve been on the receiving end of good news. A call up to the first team, selected for the county, offered a new contract, made club captain, international honours…take a moment to reflect on the good news you have received in your sport and thank God.

Now, we are back with the shepherds on that hillside outside Bethlehem on that world-changing night.

We’re looking at the message from the angel that brought the greatest news ever - The announcement of the birth of Jesus.

“I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.”

Look at that statement of intent!

• This news holds great content.
• This news brings great joy
• This news has great breadth

Great content

The essence of the news of Christmas is inherently and wholly good. It is “good news.” There is nothing bad, indifferent, or neutral about it. We see next that a baby has been sent by God to be the saviour of the world. It is good news that this baby has been sent for our good.

Great joy

It will bring the hearer “great joy.”That means it will cause a great joy in the hearts of those who hear and believe it.

Think about the joys we receive in our sport. God gives us every day ‘joys’ in sport to point to and deepen the experience of great joy. We can’t have great joy without knowing joy first. God has designed his world of sport, that brings so many joys, to prepare us for the great joy in his Son.

Great breadth

This news has a vast reach. The angel says it is for “all the people.” This is not good news just for the rich, the homeowners, the savers, the prominent members of society. It is good news for the shepherd boys, the poor, the homeless, the outcasts. It’s good news for you. It’s good news for the striker, the goalkeeper, the full back, the flanker. It’s good news for your coach, physio, supporters, chairperson, bus driver, groundskeeper. It is good news for your competitors and the opposition. Hopefully, you get the picture!

This is not a once heard, once experienced piece of news quarantined to the fields of Bethlehem.

No, it is good news extended to all kinds of people - sports people, in every club, city and country throughout all of time.

It is good news to share.

When I was a boy, I never really understood why we sang the chorus of this very evangelistic carol at Christmas:

“Go, tell it on the mountain,
Over the hills and everywhere
Go, tell it on the mountain
That Jesus Christ is born.”

But now I do - it’s because of the great breadth of this good news - it’s for absolutely everyone!

This week, ask God to help you see that His good news is for everyone you engage with in your sport.

This Christmas news brings great joy and it is for all people.

Pray for yourself

Father God, thank you that the good news of Jesus is for everyone in my sporting world. Please help me to be bold in speaking to sports friends about the great joy it is knowing I’ve been rescued and transformed to play my sport. Amen

Pray for your friends

Finally, take a few minutes to pray for those in your sport - that God will open a door for his message in your club or team this Game Day.