Advent: Joy to the World Various passages December 18, 2012

Transcription

1 Advent: Joy to the World Various passages December 18, 2012 Introduction: One of the casualties of the holidays is the absence of the emotion so often associated with Christmas and that is the feeling of joy. Christmas is a season that frequently utilizes words of happiness: we say, Merry Christmas, and Happy holidays, and speak of peace and joy and of being of good cheer. But often times the Christmas season isn t one of peace and joy: it can frequently be a season of great stress and irritation as we shop for presents and cook the holiday meal and send out cards and put up Christmas decorations and attend those Christmas parties and do all those other activities that add an extra burden on our already packed schedules. Add to it the stressful requirement of getting together with family members you don t always enjoy or the painful reminder that this Christmas once again you aren t with a loved one who has passed away, and it can make the holidays anything but happy and Christmas seem far from merry. With Christmas being just a week away, visiting family and shopping and gift wrapping may have sapped whatever joy you once had and made you instead just think, Man, I can t wait for this to be over! This morning as we come near to the end of our holiday sprint, it s good to recalibrate and take a moment to remind ourselves what it really is that we re supposed to be joyful about. To that end, we re going to look at the last of the four Christmas hymns that we ve been using for our Advent sermon series. Today we re going to focus on the joy that is ours in knowing Christ has come to redeem his people and restore his creation. Background: To do that, we re going to be looking at the beloved Christmas hymn, Joy to the World. Now by way of background, this hymn was written by Isaac Watts, a man responsible for composing no small number of hymns we still sing today. He was born in 1674 and showed an exceptional aptitude for learning at a very young age. He learned Latin at the age of five, Greek at nine, French at eleven and Hebrew at thirteen, all of which was probably helped by the fact that his father absolutely refused to let him waste his time playing Pokemon Go on his iphone. So, having to find other ways to entertain himself, Isaac developed the habit of rhyming incessantly in his everyday conversations, much to the annoyance of his father who was probably about as thrilled with it as Vizzini was with Fezzik in The Princess Bride, for those of you who know what I m talking about! Anyhow, one day on the way out of church he complained to his father about how dull and boring the music was, which he no doubt communicated in the form of a rhyme, and his father, exasperated, exclaimed, Well then, why don t you give us something better young man! To which Isaac likely replied, Then I certainly will, to show you I can. So he started writing hymns and ended up, before it was all said and done, publishing over 600 hymns during his lifetime. 1

2 Joy to the World is one of those hymns, based off of Psalm 98. Turn in your Bibles to Psalm 98 once and let s see if you can pick up some of the echoes of the lyrics in what we read there. It s only nine verse long so let me read that for you as you follow along. Oh sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. The Lord has made known his salvation; he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises! Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody! With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord! Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who dwell in it! Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills sing for joy together before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity. Now what s a bit ironic about this is that neither this Psalm not the lyrics of Joy to the World mention anything about the Christmas story directly. There are no angels or babies in mangers or shepherds mentioned anywhere. If this hymn wasn t associated with Christmas, and historically I m not really sure why it is, it could just as easily be sung at any time of the year since its focus is on Christ s second coming. Nevertheless, since Christ s first coming inaugurated the blessings that will fully come to us at his second coming, I still think it works pretty well as a Christmas hymn (plus, it s not like anything I m going to say is going to stop you from singing it each Christmas, so we ll just keep singing it anyway). Each of the four verses focus on some aspect of Christ that is a reason for joy, so what I want to do this morning is examine each of those verses and highlight how each of them brings out a different facet of Christ that should bring us joy this holiday season. So with the background information out of the way, let s begin by considering how the first verse reminds us of the joyful news that 1. Christ is the savior of the world The first stanza begins: Joy to the World, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King; Let every heart prepare Him room, And Heaven and nature sing, And Heaven and nature sing When the Jews were anticipating the arrival of the Messiah, they only thought of him in a nationalistic sense, in that they believed he would come and be a Jewish Messiah who would deliver the Jewish people from earthly oppression. In other words, the Messiah was coming to save them and to defeat the Gentiles. 2

3 Now on the one hand we can t be too hard on them for thinking that: after all, God s chosen people throughout the OT had been Jewish. The nation of Israel had been the focus of God s salvific activity. Not that God didn t also offer salvation to Gentiles; but in so doing one had to become a Jew and observe the Law: you needed to eat kosher food, make animal sacrifices, get circumcised if you were a male, and obey any other stipulations the Law required. But God had hinted in Scripture that he had greater plans than just saving the Jews: he was going to save all mankind, whether they were Jew or Gentile. Perhaps this is most simply seen in Genesis 12:3. In God s call to Abraham, he makes this promise to him, I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. That s a universal promise. It s not just for Abraham and his descendants: it for all the families of the earth whether they re related to Abraham or not. Or consider what Simeon says when he gets to hold Jesus as a baby in Luke 2. He says, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel." Jesus isn t just for the glory of the Jews; he s also come as a light for revelation to the Gentiles. Jesus is the savior of all, whether Jew or Gentile. So when we sing this first stanza, we are singing about the universal salvation that Christ offers to all who believe. It s not just Joy to the Jews but Joy to the world, let the earth receive her King. Every heart should prepare him room. He s the savior of all who believe in him, no matter your race or nationality. In Christ, the savior of the world has at last come to redeem sinners wherever they are found. Considering that probably none of us here this morning are Jewish, this is great cause for joy. Christ came to save you as a Gentile, you as a person living in Iowa here in the 21st century. He s as much your savior today as he was the savior of Abraham, David, Isaiah, Peter, and Paul. Christ has come to gather for himself a people of every tongue, tribe, and nation and as a Christian you ve been included in that number. Your language, your race, your nationality, your cultural background will all be included in the kaleidoscope of worship that will exist around God s throne for all eternity. So Joy to the World, the Lord has come for all people, not just the Jews but for us Gentiles as well. But not only are we as people to rejoice in the coming of Christ, but creation joins with us in what God is planning to do through the advent of Christ. So our second point this morning is about how 2. Christ is the Lord over all creation The second stanza reads: Joy to the World, the Savior reigns! Let men their songs employ; 3

4 While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains Repeat the sounding joy, Repeat the sounding joy The hymn reminds us of what the psalmist in Psalm 98 said about creation s response to God. It said there, With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord! Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who dwell in it! Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills sing for joy together before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. Scripture uses this wonderfully descriptive poetic language to communicate the joy of knowing that Christ has come and Christ is Lord. There is this vision here of a cosmic chorus where all of creation be it men and women or the rivers and the hills all are eagerly bubbling forth praise. While the material creation does not obviously have a literal voice, nevertheless Scripture tells us that it speaks the praises of God to those who would listen. Consider Psalm 19 for example. David opens up this psalm using anthropomorphic language for creation saying, The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their measuring line goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. We are to consider the wonders of creation majestic mountains, the deeps of the ocean, the gorgeous variety of animals and plants, the splendor of the stars and galaxies, the stunning complexity of the cell and our DNA and recognize that each of these aspects of creation is calling out God s praises, some saying that he is mighty, some that he is beautiful, some that he is rich in creativity, but all in their own way praising their Creator. If that s the case, how much more should we who alone in all of creation have been given the gift of language use our voices to proclaim our joy! This is no time to be silent. As Jesus said to the Pharisees who tried to silence the crowd as he made his triumphant entry into Jerusalem, I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out. You cannot silence his praise: it is going on all around you throughout all of creation. All you can do is lend your voice and join in the chorus of joyful worship already being sung by every created thing. That s what we re being invited to do here in this verse, along with the rest of Scripture. But there is reason for creation to rejoice beyond simply the fact that God s is our creator; he is also our redeemer and restorer. While creation boasts in God, in Christ we find the one who will put to end the curse that has come upon creation. So our third point this morning concerns how 4

5 3. Christ is the end of the curse Let s consider now the third stanza of Joy to the World: No more let sins and sorrows grow, Nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make His blessings flow Far as the curse is found, Far as the curse is found... The coming of Christ on Christmas marks the very beginning of the end. Not only does Christ redeem us from the curse of sin, but he redeems all of creation. Look with me at Romans 8, a passage Isaac Watts no doubt hand in mind as he penned these words. In v of Romans 8 the apostle Paul says this, For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. Jesus is going transform creation. Right now it is in bondage to decay, but with the arrival of Christ to suffer, die, and be resurrected, the first domino has fallen. This creation as we know it is going to be transformed and us with it. The sin and death that is now so prevalent in the human race has been defeated on the cross. The seeds have been planted. As a Christian, you ve been set free from the enslaving bondage of sin. You don t have to sin anymore; you are free to live in accordance with the Spirit of God that dwells in you. But between now and Christ s return you can still choose to sin, and you can still suffer the sorrows that come from sin, both your own sin and the sin of others. But what this third stanza reminds us of is what is reiterated throughout the NT, that when Christ returns our salvation will be complete. In Christ, we will be resurrected to eternal life, where every tear will be dried, every sorrow removed, and sin and death will no longer have any power over us. And this present creation that is currently characterized by death and decay will be transformed. The curse of sin will no longer be present, neither in the new earth nor in those who dwell there in perfect, glorified bodies. For those who know the weight of their sin, there is much reason to rejoice over this: Christ has come this Christmas to lift the curse and set all of creation free! Moving on now to the fourth and final stanza, Isaac Watts speaks of the character of Christ in this way: he s says that 5

6 4. Christ is the glorious expression of God s love In this last stanza, we sing about Christ with these words: He rules the world with truth and grace, And makes the nations prove The glories of His righteousness, And wonders of His love, And wonders of His love The whole song is leading up to this final description of the character of Christ s rule. At last Christ has come: he has saved his people, he his liberated creation from its bondage to decay, he has removed the effects of the curse of sin and death. He is the Lord of all, ruling the world as the undisputed king. His eternal kingdom has come in all its fullness and it is characterized by a number of things. First, it s a rule of truth and grace. Christ said he was the way, the truth, and life and so that is how he will rule the new heavens and new earth: in truthfulness as well as grace. Christ will rule over every tribe, tongue, and nation of the redeemed who have been saved by grace. Furthermore, the glories of his righteousness and wonders of his love will be seen by all. The cross of Christ is the perfect expression of God s righteousness and love: he lived the righteous life we should have and satisfied the righteous requirements of God s justice against sin by bearing God s wrath for us. And for him to do so for us sinners, who deserved nothing by death and hell for our sins and yet we are given mercy and eternal life that is an amazing love. Conclusion What this all means is that we as Christians have reason for great joy. As we celebrate Christmas, we are celebrating the fact that Christ has come and all of those things we have sung about have their beginnings with that little baby lying in the manger. That baby grew up to suffer and die for our sin, he was raised again to new life, a resurrected life that he promises will be given to all who believe in him, and he is coming again to finish what he stated. Death will be removed. The curse of sin abolished. The creation renewed. And we will be present with him forever, to worship him for the grace and love he has blessed us with through the cross. So don t allow yourself to become so overwhelmed with the trappings of Christmas the presents, the food, the relatives, the decorating that you lose sight of the true source of joy we are celebrating. Christ has come and he is coming again. Let God s love for you in Christ be the cause of true joy in your heart this Christmas. Let s pray. This sermon was addressed originally to the people at Grace Fellowship Church of Waterloo, IA by Pastor Rob Borkowitz. Copyright