Port City Faith Church
Sunday Morning - December 21st, 2025
  • You've Already Won
  • It Is Well With My Soul
  • Cornerstone
  • Today is the Last Sunday of Advent,
    We have looked with Hope of for the arrival of the Messiah, Emmanue, God with us
    We have sought peace during these troubled times, just like so many before us
    Last week was canceled due to weather
    So this week we look at the Love and Joy that Christ brings,
    And as we have been looking into the history of some of our favorite Christmas songs, today we look at one of the most Joyful Christmas songs, Joy to the World,
    Joy to the World was Written by Isaac Watts in 1719, and was set to music from George Friedreich Handel, by Lowell Mason in 1839
    Handel is of course the same composer who wrote the hallelujah chorus. The melody of Joy to the world also comes from Handel’s Messiah, like the hallelujah chorus, which may be why it became a Christmas song.
    It is the most published Christmas hymn in North America
    Joy to the World was originally not a Christmas Song
    It was originally a poem meant to echo psalms 98 with the knowledge that it pointing to Jesus. And we shall explore that psalm as we go through the hymn.
    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, And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.
    Psalm 98:1–6 ESV
    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!
    You can see where the call of joy comes from.
    And notice what Watts is doing, he is taking the point where the Psalm reads “God has made known his salvation” - which in Hebrew is Yeshua- the Hebrew name of Jesus, and saying Hey Jesus is the king that this plasm was talking about. Let’s sing this psalm about Jesus.
    And as he does that he include the line “let every heart prepare him room”
    Luke 2:6–7 ESV
    And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
    Joy to the World has us sing about making room in our heats for Jesus, with the knowledge that when Jesus was born there was no room for him in the house, and he was born in a stable - probably a cave.
    The Savior of the Universe, God almighty, the most important person in history, born in a cave.
    But we are to open our hearts to him
    The Second verse is similar to the first:
    Joy to the Earth, the Saviour reigns; Let men their songs employ; While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains, Repeat the sounding joy, Repeat the sounding joy, Repeat, repeat the sounding joy.
    Psalm 98:4–8 ESV
    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
    the second verse continues its exploration of Psalm 98 - echoing the need for song from men, and musicians, and even from the earth itself.
    verse 3 takes a turn:
    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, Far as, far as, the curse is found.
    This calls back to the Earliest Chapters of Genesis
    Right after Adam and Eve Sinned, and God curses the Serpent, giving the earliest prophecy of Jesus that there is:
    Genesis 3:14–19 ESV
    The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
    The Serpent is cursed for being the deceiver, forced to crawl on the ground,
    And one day a son of the Woman will crush the head of the serpent.
    The Woman will find pain in Childbirth, and as every woman knows who has given birth it is painful.
    As much as i like to song silent night, I am pretty sure Mary was not silent when giving birth to Jesus.
    And because of Adam’s sin, the ground was cursed with thorns and thistles, which have often represented just how hard it is to root sin out of our lives.
    And Isaac watts mentions this, that with Jesus coming
    the thorns of sin will no longer take root in our lives,
    because his work will be to crush the head of the snake.
    And Church he crushed it.
    And now we wait free from the curse of sin, yet living in a world where the curse has already damaged the world
    We still have weeds in our gardens,
    Childbirth is still painful
    there are still snakes slithering around on their bellies.
    And we still have sin,
    but that Sin is forgiven when you put your faith in Jesus.
    Verse 4
    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, And wonders, wonders, of His love.
    Psalm 98:7–9 ESV
    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.
    The final verse of Joy to the World goes back to Psalm 98 and finishes it, noting that Jesus will be a judge or ruler of the world, who will judge the nations with righteousness and fairness.
    At once that should be concerning, because if Jesus were to judge righteously, then all of us sinners would be punished, but as we already established, he died to forgive us of our sins, and so his righteous judgement is surrounded by Grace and Mercy and love for us.
    What better reason is there to rejoice?
    God has found a way to undo the curse from the dawn of time, and in his righteousness paid the price for our sins, so that we may be free.
    That is what we celebrate at Christmas, that Jesus, our savior, destined to die for our sins, has come into the world.
    And the true joy of the season comes when we open our hearts to him.
    But what does that look like?
    Jesus himself explained it this way
    Matthew 25:34–40 ESV
    Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
    When we open our hearts to the poor, the needy, the imprisoned, the sick, the homeless, the strangers, and the foreigners, and give them gifts, we open our hearts to Jesus.
    So my challenge for you church is this, share the joy of Christmas with someone else who needs it.

      • Psalm 98:1–6ESV

      • Luke 2:6–7ESV

      • Psalm 98:4–8ESV

      • Genesis 3:14–19ESV

      • Psalm 98:7–9ESV

      • Matthew 25:34–40ESV

  • Joy To The World (Antioch)
Port City Faith Church
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