Joy To the World

RECORD

This morning I am going to begin a new series of messages for this Christmas season based on a series we did back in the summer called Preaching the Hymns

Only this time, obviously, we are going to concentrate our efforts on the theology of the great carols of Christmas

So where do you begin such a series? With all the great carols out there which one do you choose as first?

Well for me the choice was pretty simple, you start with one of the most famous of all Christmas Carols, Joy to the World by Isaac Watts

Now it might surprise you to know that Joy to the World was never written to be a Christmas carol but was actual intended to speak more to the second coming of Christ than His first

Instead of being inspired by the Christmas narrative from Luke chapter 2 like one might expect, This song is one of two carols that Isaac Watts wrote based on his own personal paraphrase of

In particular verses 4-9

Psalm 98:4–6 NIV

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music; make music to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing, with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn— shout for joy before the Lord, the King.

Psalm 98:4–9 NIV

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music; make music to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing, with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn— shout for joy before the Lord, the King. Let the sea resound, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy; let them sing before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity.

As some of you are aware, a few years ago I started writing a fictional novel, while I haven’t done anything with it in the last 2 years it is still there on my laptop waiting for me to add to the plot

You see the plot is the one key factor to any and every story, for the story to be compelling and intriguing it must have a good plot

I tell you this because as I read the words to this great carol I see how Isaac Watts captured with great eloquence the plot of the Christmas story

A plot that is completely lost on the vast majority of society today

The first verse begins, “Joy to the world the Lord has come. Let earth receive her king”

That’s it, that’s the whole plot of Christmas and it’s so simple and so basic that we almost overlook it in our attempts to find something deeper and more profound

The King of Heaven and Earth has become present among us and is here to bring us joy

Remember the first announcement of the birth of the Messiah? It went like this

Luke 2:8-

Luke 2:8–12 NIV

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Unfortunately most of humanity has lost its joy and instead is wandering around in confusion and fear trying to find that joy in other things

In his book “Wild At Heart” John Eldredge gives an excellent illustration of what I am talking about

He shares how, for 10 years of his life, he was an actor and director in the theater. He writes,

“They were, for the most part, joyful years. I was young and energetic and pretty good at what I did. My wife was part of the theater company I managed, and we had many close friends there… In spite of the fact that my memories of theater are nearly all happy ones, I keep having this recurring nightmare. This is how it goes: I suddenly find myself in a theater – a large, Broadway-style playhouse, the kind every actor aspires to play. The house lights are low and the stage lights full, so from my position onstage I can barely make out the audience, but I sense it is a full house. But I am not loving the moment at all. I am paralyzed with fear. A play is under way, and I’ve got a crucial part. But I have no idea what play it is. I don’t know what part I’m supposed to be playing; I don’t know my lines; I don’t even know my cues.”

We are born into this world and in a sense thrown out onto the stage and unless we know the larger story, the plot, we have no idea what part we are supposed to be playing.

And so we miss our lines, we miss our cues, we miss our part in the production.

And that is exactly what is happened in society, we deny that there is a plot, or that there is even a story teller and so we try and write our own script with our own story but the plot is wrong, because it is centered on us and not on the Lord who has come to bring us joy

In one of the most well known Old Testament passages about the Messiah, , the prophet says in part, “We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost. We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.”

How prolific and how so dead on, we’ve missed the plot of Christmas and tried to insert our own and as a result we miss out on the joy that He came to bring us

But I want to remind you today that God is inviting you to part of a larger story, He wants you to play a role in the original plan.

That’s the purpose of Christmas, to bring us back into the play, the purpose for which we are all here

Joy to the World, the Lord has come

But the song continues from there and says, “Let every heart prepare Him room”

Because we have missed out on the bigger story, the bigger play, the danger is that we will insert our own story and accept and settle a much lesser part than we were ever designed to

Do you remember the actress Molly Ringwald? She was popular in the 80’s but in 1990 she was offered the lead role in the movie Pretty Woman and turned it down

We all know how that part Got Julia Roberts nominated for a best actress Oscar and skyrocketed her to one of the most influential and sought after actresses in Hollywood

Ringwald on the other hand faded into obscurity and was never really heard from again

She missed her big chance and her career never recovered

Maybe it’s a promotion at work, or a few more dollars in the bank, or toys in the garage, or a live it up now and pay later attitude

What it is that all these things and more have in common is that they take up space in our lives that leave little to no room for the Christ child and as a result we settle for so much less out of life than God ever intended

Remember the response of John the Baptist when his disciples came to him warning that Jesus was taking over the baptismal market and was getting all the business and fame

John 3:29–30 NIV

The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less.”

John 3:

John turns to them and basically tells them that he is not willing to hold on to fame and miss out on the Christ

Jesus asked the question,

Mark 8:36–37 NIV

What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

Mark 8:36-37

It is far to easy to get caught up in the business of life and trying to make something out of it and in the process block out the Lord who has come because we don’t have the room for Him

In doing so we write our own script but it could never compare to the one that God has for us if we will only make the room for Him in our hearts

Of course this speaks of choosing the things of the world over the salvation of Christ but it is also a reminder to those of us who have surrendered our lives to Him

Do we still prepare Him room

I think that most of us understand how easy it is for our homes to get cluttered up

The longer that we live there the more stuff that we accumulate and sooner or later we find ourselves having to purge so that we can make room for the stuff that is important

Your heart is the same way, it is so easy for it to get cluttered up and every now and then we need to take inventory and get rid of those things that have been blocking out the more important things

Failure to do so results in us losing sight of the plot and missing out on the role that God has for us in it

So as we begin this Christmas season and this Christmas series we are reminded that the very first Christmas was all a part of the grander plan of God

Galatians 4:4–5 NIV

But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.

Galatians 4:

And we are reminded to take stock of our own lives and make sure that we are allowing Him to have the leading role in our lives so that we can play the part that He has for us to the best of our ability

Let’s pray