Joy is Here

December 3rd 2023

Series: The Sounds of Christmas

Sermon Title: Joy is Here

Topic: Christmas Carols/Hymns that Inform our Theology

Key Passages: Psalm 98: 4-9

Sermon Blurb: Songs are impactful. Around Christmas each year, we sing familiar choruses and songs that are memorable and meaningful. Christmas Carols or Hymns are important as they present a biblical message.

Baptism / Dedication Week!

If we do NOT have one at your campus take a few minutes to plug a ministry OR promo something great God has been doing at your campus.

Sermon

Good morning, Family Church!!!!

Today we are jumping into a new series that we’ve entitled The Sounds of Christmas.

Throughout the month of December, we are going to do something that I think is going to be a lot of fun....

It will bring us back to the good old days....

This month.....we are going to allow familiar Christmas Hymns to guide our focus each week.

We’re going to spend time with a few of these choruses and lean into the Bible-message that each of them so beautifully conveys.

If you LOVE Christmas songs… you’re going to LOVE this series!

FAMILY MOMENT – On one of your favorite family Christmas songs....

PAUSE

Songs have a way of making a lasting impression, don’t they?

They stir up thoughts, emotions, and memories...

AND when we combine Biblical truth with melodies, something amazing is produced!

The reality is there are so many songs of Christmas that all of us have memorized.....

Some of them are timeless!

They’ve become a special part of the season…

A unique piece of the excitement surrounding Christmas.

And it’s not only the great Christmas Hymns in the Church, but also the Christmas Carols, and the Classics like frosty the snow man... that we hold so near and dear.

These tunes help us to anticipate the season with joy!

I mean… let’s be honest... without the songs of Christmas, the season just wouldn’t be the same.

Anyone want to Amen that???

PAUSE

So, it’s our hope for this series, that we won’t miss it.

That we won’t go through another Christmas without capturing the meaning surrounding the season… and the great songs that come with Christmas!

That we don’t sing these songs without considering and connecting with the message.

LONG PAUSE

You know one of the things that I have found to become true in our lives is that as things become familiar.....

Those same things can become insignificant.

Can be overlooked...

Can be just expected....

We don’t always appreciate what we have because....

Well.....we have it.

And the same can hold true for familiar songs… even within the Church.

The hymns of old can sometimes become TOO familiar.

We can sing the melodies without considering the deep, rich meaning.

We can sing these songs without allowing the message to impact us or to motivate us toward life-change and action.

PAUSE

And this can happen with familiar Christmas songs too…

The message of the songs we will look at this month SHOULD stimulate faith in our heart and motivate our faith in action!

The very thought of God loving us SO MUCH, that He sent His Son on a Rescue Mission to save us from death and give us the opportunity to forever be in His perfect heaven…

WOW!!!!

And that is the message and meaning of Christmas!

PAUSE

More than the wonderful songs we sing, or the memorable melodies themselves… what I hope we appreciate the most, is the MAGNITUDE of Christmas!

The significance of God coming to us.

If you’re filling in your notes, write this down:

Christmas is about God’s decision to physically live with us.

Repeat

This is the theme woven all throughout the Christmas story and every great Christmas song!

Jesus is also called “Emmanuel” which means “God is with us!”

Jesus’ very name means to be with us!

God decided to make His dwelling with us!

God came to us when we couldn’t make it Him!

Jesus, lowered Himself, taking on the form of humanity

The Creator become like his creation…

All because God wanted to save us from our sins so we could be with Him forever!

PAUSE

Maybe you’re here, or watching online, and you feel forgotten, isolated, abandoned, or alone.

I want to encourage you at the beginning of this Christmas season to rest in this reality that God came to be with you!!!!

Through a personal relationship with Jesus, you can have assurance that you are NOT alone!

PAUSE

And today....

We will see that truth come to life as we look at one of the most well-known Christmas songs of ALL time!

Joy to the World!

Anyone know that song?

PAUSE

I would bet though....

That even though almost everyone knows the song “Joy to the World”....

I would be willing to bet....the vast majority of us do NOT know the story behind how the song came to be.

For starters, it wasn’t originally a song!

It was written as a poem

It was written with ZERO intentions of EVER becoming a tune.

Isn’t that crazy?

In fact, it was over 100 years after this poem was written that it was adapted into a song.

Joy to the World might just be the most “accidental classic” ever written!

PAUSE

I mean think about it....

Imagine if you wrote some thoughts down in your journal.

And 100 years later, someone found your journal and turned it into one of the most well-loved, well-known songs, of all time!

That’s basically how we got this song!!!!!

PAUSE

Another super unique fact about Joy to the World...... it was NOT intended to be a Christmas song.

You heard me correct!

Joy to the World....after it became a song... was NOT written or intended to be a Christmas song!

PAUSE

And let me keep unpacking this onion....with something that I think will shock most of the Christians....

The author of the poem didn’t use the New Testament for his lyric inspiration.....

You’ll find no reference to baby Jesus, or a manger, or wise men or even angels…

I am going to pause here and let that sink in......

Joy to the word was NOT about sweet Baby Jesus.....

Which we ALL think it is.....

LONG PAUSE

You want to know why?????

Because the purpose of the poem was about Jesus’ 2nd coming, not His first coming!

Joy to the World is not about the Jesus becoming a baby to live a life free from sin so he can become this perfect sacrifice for our sins...

NO

Joy to the World was written about Jesus imminent return!

If you are new to church....

The Bible teaches us that one day Jesus will be returning!!!!

PAUSE

Joy to the World, was inspired by

Psalm 98

Grab you Bible and open it up there.

Now let me tell you this....

I would bet 99% of you are going to have a different version that we will have on the screens this week...

We’re going to read the King James Version…

Because that’s what version was around in the time this poem was written.

So this is going to be super old English....

But you can follow along in your modern versions....

Psalm 98: 4-9 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.

5 Sing unto the Lord with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a psalm.

6 With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King.

7 Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

8 Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together

9 Before the Lord; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.

We will stop reading there....

Virtually every scholar, would tell you that Psalm 98 is a powerful, prophetic, declaration of Jesus’ 2nd coming....

All about when Jesus will establish His RULE and REIGN forevermore.

When Jesus comes again, He is coming to establish His eternal place as Ruler.

At this time, He will set every crooked path straight and re-establish a perfect, New Earth.

And at that time judgement for all people....and the lives we have lived....will be passed....

PAUSE

When that Psalm says, “All the earth will shout and praise!”

“All the people of God will celebrate and sing for joy!”

That’s talking about when Jesus takes His rightful place as the Perfect Judge and the Eternal King.

It is then, when Jesus will fully reign over His People… and that is when perfect joy will abound.

That’s the JOY TO THE WORLD, this poem was written about!

Write this down

Joy is found wherever Jesus is found.

Repeat

And here is the good news about that!!!!

The Joy of Jesus is not only for one day in the future...

It is also HERE and NOW!

The Joy of Jesus is for TODAY!

Because all of this is Jesus' creation, and He is present in all of it!

PAUSE

Joy is rooted in Jesus.

Joy is rooted in our relationship with God, through Jesus!

And when Jesus comes, in the future, to gather His followers...

We will experience a JOY unlike anything we’ve ever experienced while on earth.

PAUSE

Think about the most joyful moments you’ve ever had while living in this sin-cursed world.

Like the time that boy or girl said YES to a date...

When you got married....

Like the time you saw a child born....

When one of your kids did something amazing at school or in sports...

When you make the big sale...

When you get an A on a test....

We all have moments of JOY!!!!

PAUSE

Now imagine joy in a perfect environment...

Without the taint of sin....

It would be unlimited and never ceasing.

PAUSE

I think it’s easy to see how Psalm 98 is expressed within the song we now know.

I admit, however, it is a little difficult to imagine this song as anything other than a Christmas tune… right?

But if you disconnect the lyrics from the Christmas genre, you really do have a song that could be sung during any season of the year.

PAUSE

The primary purpose OF this hymn is to highlight the FUTURE rule of God, over ALL things.

And in particular, over those who accept Jesus as their personal Savior and Lord.

That’s why it says, “let earth receive her king… let every heart prepare Him room…”

If you have not opened your heart to Jesus, then you have not yet received the joy of this promise!

PAUSE

When the tune says, “no more let sin and sorrows grow… He comes to make His blessings flow…”

That’s talking in future tense...

A future time when sin will no longer mess everything up.

Again, the time after Jesus returns for His Church.

So, I want you to write this down

Joy comes to my world when I invite Jesus to rule my life.

Repeat

If you have not invited Jesus into your life, to have a personal relationship with a Saving God…

I pray today you will…

Because there is no joy apart from Jesus.

LONG PAUSE

Let me close with this...

So, who wrote the song?

Who wrote Joy to the World?

One of the most well-known hymn writers of ALL time wrote Joy to the World. But again, he didn’t write it with a tune or melody, but a poem.

Isaac Watts wrote the lyrics to a poem that we now know as the song, Joy to the World.

It was an accidental masterpiece… but Isaac Watts is the primary lyricist behind it.

I am curious.....

Does anyone know any other songs Isaac Watts wrote?

Here are 2 that you may have heard of before:

1. At the Cross (at the cross where I first saw the light and the burdens of my heart rolled away…)

2. “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”

And, now we know, Isaac Watts also wrote Joy to the World.

Watts wrote over 700 hymns in his lifetime.

In fact, Isaac Watts is referred to as the Father of English Hymnody.

PAUSE

He was born in England, in 1674, where he would become a full-time minister in 1702.

Watts wrote educational books on geography, astronomy, grammar, and philosophy… but he is best known for his song writing.

And the poem, Joy to the World, he journaled in 1719.

PAUSE

Here’s a little history-nugget for all the Dutch people here in West Michigan…

Watts was part of the Separatist Movement in 17thcentury England, which was deemed illegal because it denied the State Church.

SO… he was part of the group that left England and went to…

Anyone want to take a guess?

HOLLAND!

The Mother-Land!

His group migrated to Holland to get away from the State Church… and eventually, this was the group that would sail to America, those we know as, the Pilgrims.

Sort of a fun fact there, huh?

LONG PAUSE

So… Joy to the World is unlike many other Christmas hymns.

It wasn’t written to be a song, but a poem

It wasn’t intended to have a Christmas theme, but a future-focus on Jesus’ 2ndcoming.

And the author died LONG before this song would be heard.

BUT… aren’t you glad that this song was composed and preserved?

Aren’t you glad that we have this incredible Truth-tune to sing?

I don’t know about you, but I will not be able to unlearn what we’ve learned today.

From here on, every time I sing Joy to the World… I’m not only going to celebrate that Jesus “has” come…

…but I’m also going to celebrate that Jesus “will” come again!

PAUSE

Life Application: Jesus wants to bring JOY into every part of your life. Is there any area of your life that is lacking joy today? Ask God to renew your joy as you anticipate His 2nd coming. I Will ________________.