Joy to the World, The Lord Is Come
Jesus came to a world of darkness. It had been four hundred years since the last prophet Malachi. That world was similar to ours. He came to bring the light of the gospel of the good news of redemption… he came to set the prisoner free and to open the eyes of those born spiritually blind. He came not to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved.
There are great Christmas hymns of the faith that we learned when we were children. In times past, we were taught Christmas carols in our schools and churches. However, today in the United States, we no longer sing Christmas carols in school since it’s not considered “politically correct.”
The song “Oh Holy Night” was inspired by a choir director in France to dedicate the new organ in his sanctuary….
…O Night Devine, When Christ was born!
Surely He taught us to love one another.
In His name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of Joy in grateful chorus raise we…
Christ is the Lord,
Let all forever praise thee..
Noel, Noel…. O Night Devine.!
At the birth of Jesus, the world had long been in error pining, ‘til he appeared and the soul felt his worth.
He came not because we were worthy of salvation, not because we were deserving, but because of his grace and mercy. He came not because we deserved love, but because of His divine love wherewith he loved us.
We’re living in a world of darkness. Jesus Christ is the light that God sent to illuminate the darkness. According to Matthew 4:16, The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.
We’re all sinners in need of forgiveness… we could not approach a holy God until he reached down, and bent down and bowed down to our level.
Chains shall he break for the slave is our brother… According to 2 Timothy 2:26, the devil takes men captive at his will. There is no freedom without choice. We were born in trespasses and sins. We had no choice but to sin because our nature was to miss the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
John Sullivan Dwight wrote the English version of Oh Holy Night. He wrote that Jesus Christ came to erase the stain of original sin against Almighty God. Therefore bow your heads before your Redeemer. Jesus the Christ the son of the living God has broken every bond to reconcile God’s people that we who were dead in trespasses and sin through his sacrifice on our behalf may be made the righteousness of God in him.
Another beloved Christmas hymn is Silent Night. This song originated in a German town on the banks of the Rhine river by priests who took up the challenge to write a song that didn’t need accompaniment since their church organ had broken. Today, this song is one of our most cherished and popular Christmas carols:
Silent night, Holy night, All is calm, All is bright,
Round yon virgin, mother and child, Holy infant so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace, Sleep in heavenly peace.
Jesus Christ came with the dawn of redeeming grace… For although we were deserving of death, He who was without sin was made the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf…. he bore the penalty of our sin. For in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for the ungodly. His birth was the dawn of redeeming grace.
He came to a world dead in trespasses and sin… a world deserving of death and condemnation. However, though we were unworthy, he made us worthy and now by his grace, his mercy has made us his own.
Because Jesus Christ was born as the Redeemer, we can have joy. This is the theme of the carol Joy to the World:
Joy to the world, the Lord is come
Let heaven and nature sing…
The glories of his righteousness and wonders of His love.
He rules the world with truth and grace
And makes the the nations prove,
The glory of His righteousness and wonder of His love.
The birth of Christ confirmed the angels proclamation to certain shepherds on a Judean hillside: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”
Even though the enemy’s ploys to enslave men has not changed, Jesus Christ was born to set the prisoners free.
The essay, “One Solitary Life” from a sermon attributed to James Allen Francis says, “He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant. He grew up in another village, where he worked in a carpenter shop until he was 30. Then, for three years, he was an itinerant preacher.He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a home. He didn’t go to college. He never lived in a big city. He never traveled 200 miles from the place where he was born. He did none of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but himself.
Twenty centuries have come and gone, and today he is the central figure of the human race. I am well within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned–put together–have not affected the life of man on this earth as much as that one, solitary life.*
Jesus Christ is the central theme of the history of mankind. He came to bring the light of the gospel of peace to a world of darkness. The Christmas message is that we are reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. The greatest Christmas present is the presence of God in Christ in us the hope of glory. Rejoice! Rejoice, Christ the Savior is born…
… that we may ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael
