Sing The Good News! -- The Lord Has Come! -- 12/26/2021

Introduction

· Isaac Watts – 800 hymns

· Joy to the World – paraphrase of Psalm 98

o Focuses on Christ as the fulfilment of Psalm 98

o Preach on this text in 2018

§ Posted text of that sermon to our Faithlife group

§ Exegetical material not included in this sermon including reason why it is biblically appropriate to see Jesus as the fulfillment of Psalm 98.

· Watts often wrote hymns on his sermon topics to be sung after the sermon. We will follow that pattern today – we will sing Joy to the World in its entirety.

· Because the text of the hymn is a paraphrase of our biblical text, I will not reference the hymn text as much as in previous sermons in this series. Rather, I will focus my comments on the biblical text and when we sing the hymn, I believe we will make the connect between the hymn and the psalm naturally in our hearts and minds.

· The Psalm calls us to:

o Sing a new song to the Lord and tells us why we should do so.

o Be joyful be for the king and tells how to do so.

o Join all creation in singing together for joy and tells us the reason for our joy.

· This morning I will briefly touch on each of these three actions Psalm 98 calls us to engage.

Sing to the Lord a new song! (Vs. 1-3)

· Why? (Vs. 1-3)

o The Lord has done marvelous things – specifically 3 things

§ His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.

· The Lord uses his might and power to accomplish his purposes of salvation.

· Our salvation is God’s design and only He can bring it about.

§ The LORD had made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations.

· Through the birth of Jesus (God becoming one of us, to bear our sin) the LORD reveals and makes known his righteousness (covenant faithfulness.)[1]to each ethnic group, all nations, throughout the entire world.

§ The LORD remembered his love and faithfulness to Israel.

· In keeping his covenant promises God proves his righteousness to the entire creation.

· What we does this mean for us?

o Do we see the marvelous things that God has done for us in Christ Jesus our Lord. The whole point of Advent and Christmas is to help us grasp the marvelous faithfulness of God to His people Israel to send a Messiah to save his people from their sins. Through faith in Jesus, we have been brought into all those covenant promises.

o Does such great and marvelous grace call our hearts to sing for joy with a new song – for we are a new creation in Christ – each one of us is a unique new creation – and Jesus want to hear our unique song of joy to him! You sing to him using your voice to praise him in song and you can metaphorically sing to him by using the unique talents, gifts, and opportunities that God has given to you to declare the marvelous things that God has done for you and for the world through Jesus. In this way, we can always

Be Joyful Before the King (vs. 4-8)

Our passage in verse 4-8 commands to bring our joyful worship to King Yahweh, to King Jesus. The implication is that when we bring our joyful worship to our King, we also joyfully submit ourselves to his rule and reign in our lives and over the entire creation human, animal, plant, geological and the unseen spiritual realm as well every square inch of everything everywhere belongs to our King.

What does that joyful worship look like?

o Singing – particularly new expressions of God’s saving works which can never be fully and finally capture in human terms.

o Instruments – harp, trumpets

o Proclamation – ram’s horn (shofar) – to signal something important is happening here.

o The shofar was used to signal the troops in battle, it was also used in the coronation of Kings (as it connected with King Yahweh here). Most importantly for us it was used to announce the Day of Atonement. This was the day when the transgressions of God’s chosen people were banished by the slaughter of 1 goat for a purification offering and then high priest would lay his hands on the of another live goat’s head and confess over it all the sins of Israel, then the goat was led away into the wilderness as a visual symbol of the Lord removing the sins of his people from them.

o Proclamation today – is the declaration of Gospel, God offered Christ Jesus as the sacrifice of atonement for our sins, and when we accept that sacrifice by faith all our sins are forgiven.[2]

o Bodily participation (clapping hands and other physical gestures)

o Shouting with Joy

o Our worship should be fresh, new, and passionate each time we gather.

What holds us back from that kind of fresh, new, and passionate worship?

o Our text suggest that the presence of joy for God might saving acts leads to passionate worship described here. Therefore, it’s opposite must also be true our the lack of such passion in worship is evidence of our lack of joy deep joy in the might saving acts of God.

o Is this passage just call us to gin up our emotions – and go hog wild in a superficial display worship? No. Superficial emotion also lacks joy because joy as has a specific and deep-rooted foundation.

o A lack of joy is a direct result of our failure to grasp the marvelous things that God has done in His saving work for us in Christ Jesus and fully plunging the depths of the implications of these marvelous acts of God for us personally, for our marriages, for our families, for our church family and for society at every level.

What is the foundation that will call from us a natural joy that will translate to a genuine joy in worship?

o We must see the beauty in what God has done for us in Jesus.

o Tim Keller said, “religious folks find Jesus useful, but Christians find Jesus beautiful.”[3]

Where and how do we see the beauty of Jesus?

Hebrews 12:2 (NIV)

For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:2 tells us, “For the joy set before him [Jesus] endured the cross, scorning its shame.” What was the joy that was set before Jesus? The joy of Jesus is you and me in a saving relationship with Him. Jesus endured the cross, scorning its shame because the joy of Jesus is our complete salvation. The joy of Jesus is our complete deliverance from every vestige of sin, death, and hell. The joy of Jesus is bringing you and me into the Father’s presence that the Father’s holy, righteous, blameless, glorious sons and daughters.

This is beauty beyond our imagination. We can naturally have joy everyday because Jesus made us the focus of his joy the assurance of our joy. (Repeat)

Hebrews 12:2 also assures us that the joy Jesus gives to us is a joy that exists within and ultimately swallows up our suffering.

Religious people come to Jesus for happiness. If they sense Jesus is useful for that purpose that are willing to go along with what Jesus requires of them and live what looks like a Christian life. But when real evil and deep suffering strike religious folk their Christian pretense will not stand. Religious folk will turn from Jesus concluding that Jesus in not mighty enough, all-knowing enough, and simply not good enough to make them happy.

Hebrews 12:1–2 NIV

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

When real evil and deep suffering afflict the true Christian, we live in the beauty of our Savior Jesus Christ, who “for the joy set before him endured the cross, scouring its shame.” Scorning the evil and suffering that comes upon us, we count ourselves among the great cloud of witnesses in Hebrews 12:1 who fix their eyes on Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.

For the joy set before us, we throw off everything that hinders us and the sin that entangles us and run with perseverance the race our heavenly Father, in his complete goodness marked out for us.

What is the joy set before us?

The Apostle describes it like this in Romans 8:1-2

Romans 8:1–2 NIV

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.

Join all creation in singing for joy because the LORD comes to judge the earth (v.9)

The final verse tells us why we should sing before the Lord. We join all creation in singing before the Lord because the LORD is coming to judge the earth. When King Jesus comes to judge the world in righteousness all his judgments will prove right, true, and just. Even those for whom his coming will be a terrible day will acknowledge the righteousness and equity of Jesus’ judgment. They will finally and fully realize the horror of their choice to live outside of his goodness and love. They will know the devastation of their choice to live outside the grace and mercy that was flowing to them in every moment of their lives. They turned from the pursuit of the joy in the Lord to pursuing the joy of this world which in the end shows its true self – the path to eternal misery.

But for us his coming is beautiful beyond imagination. We will shout for joy on that day. Therefore, we should pray for and long for that day. On that day all things will be made right. The curse of the sin of humankind and its destructive effects will be broken as far as the curse is found!

Our salvation will be fully complete. There will be no condemnation for we who are in Christ Jesus. With all creation we will shout out and sing for King Jesus rules the world with truth and grace, and makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness and the wonders of his love!

Our joy will be complete because the joy of our King will fully realize His joy on that day when by “his hand and mighty are” He marvelously brings all His children home.

Our joyful worship flows as fresh and new as a rushing mountain stream when we grasp that we are Jesus’ joy. This is a marvelous thing. This is the beauty of Jesus beyond imagination. This is Joy to the world!

[1]Kugler, C. (2014). Faith. In D. Mangum, D. R. Brown, R. Klippenstein, & R. Hurst (Eds.), Lexham Theological Wordbook. Lexham Press. [2]Romans 3:25 [3]Keller, T. Sermon: The Joy of Jesus. I am indebted to Keller for some of the concepts, expressions, and Scripture references within this section of the sermon.