The joy for a Saviour
Christmas Series: Joy to the world.
Jesus told us to remember Him, and at Christmas we remember Jesus, who He is and what He’s done. One way we do this is by singing Christmas songs like “Joy to the world”. Isaac Watts wrote this hymn around Psalm 98 which foretells, not only Christ’s birth, but also His ultimate victory. When we celebrate Jesus Christ, are we celebrating what He’s done as well as what He will do, and what do we do with this wonderful knowledge of His Salvation?
Scripture Readings
Psalm 98:1-3 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. 2 The LORD has made known his salvation; he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. 3 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.
Luke 2:10-14 ESV And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
Bible Study Questions
God’s Salvation Revealed
Psalm 98:1-3 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.
Psalm 98 prophesies that God will work His Salvation and reveal it so that the ends of the earth will see it. How is Jesus revealed as the fulfilment of this promise in Matthew 1:21-23?
Matthew 1:21-23 ESV She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
Joy for all people
Psalm 98:2-3 ESV The LORD has made known his salvation; he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. 3 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.
The Psalm speaks of God faithfully loving Israel and the nations seeing the Salvation of God as He reveals Him to the ends of the earth, why would God’s faithful love to Israel be great joy for “all the people”?
Luke 2:10-14 ESV And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
Saved from Sin, Death and Satan
Luke 2:11 ESV For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
A Saviour is only needed when their is an enemy too strong for those who need saving. Which three enemies has God saved us from through Jesus Christ?
Colossians 2:11-14 ESV And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
Peace with God through our Saviour
Luke 2:14 ESV “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
Jesus glorified God by bringing peace. What peace has Jesus already delivered to those with whom God is pleased?
Colossians 1:19-23 ESV For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. 21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.
Peace on Earth
Psalm 98:3 ESV 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.
God has promised great things to the people of Israel, including peace on earth. Have all His promises already been fulfilled, or are there promises to Israel which will also bless the nations and are yet be fulfilled?
Isaiah 2:2-5 ESV It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, 3 and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 4 He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. 5 O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD.
Kingdoms thrown down, the Kingdom established
Daniel 2:44-45 ESV And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever, 45 just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.”
While the people of God have been saved from the domination of sin, death and satan’s hold over us, Daniel speaks of earthly kingdoms that will be overthrown and replaced by the everlasting Kingdom of Jesus Christ. How do we know that this will be an actual war, in an actual place on earth?
Zechariah 14:3-5 ESV Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. 4 On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward. 5 And you shall flee to the valley of my mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azal. And you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.
All promises kept, all prophecies fulfilled
Ezekiel 38:18-23 ESV But on that day, the day that Gog shall come against the land of Israel, declares the Lord GOD, my wrath will be roused in my anger. 19 For in my jealousy and in my blazing wrath I declare, On that day there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. 20 The fish of the sea and the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the field and all creeping things that creep on the ground, and all the people who are on the face of the earth, shall quake at my presence. And the mountains shall be thrown down, and the cliffs shall fall, and every wall shall tumble to the ground. 21 I will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains, declares the Lord GOD. Every man's sword will be against his brother. 22 With pestilence and bloodshed I will enter into judgment with him, and I will rain upon him and his hordes and the many peoples who are with him torrential rains and hailstones, fire and sulfur. 23 So I will show my greatness and my holiness and make myself known in the eyes of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD.
God has promises to intervene in the great battle waged against Israel and to destroy His enemies that dare threaten His beloved people. How will Jesus Christ, as Immanuel, God with us, finally fulfil all God’s promises?
Genesis 3:14-15 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. 15 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.”
Revelation 20:7-10 ESV And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. 9 And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, 10 and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.