He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him.He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world didn’t recognize him.He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world knew him not.
8 sermons cite this verse
… The true light who gives light to all people was coming into the world. He was in the world. And though the world was made through him, the world did not know him. He came to his own people, but his own people did not receive him. but to those who did receive him, to those who are trusting in his name, he gave them the authority to become children of God. Children born not in a natural way, not of a human decision, not of a husband's will, but children born of God. And the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only son sent from the father, full of grace and truth, full of steadfast love and faithfulness. John bears witness about him. He cries out, the one who comes after me is greater than me because he was before me. Later, this guy John, he sees Jesus walking toward him and he says, Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. …
… John tells us in John chapter 1, that he was in the world and the world was made by him, but the world did not know him. that's one of the most painful things of all is in life, when you've poured out your life parents know this pain when parents pour out their life for their children and then their children grow up to be disrespectful to the parents' sacrifices that's a pretty painful thing folks if you've never had kids Dr. Warren Wiersbe says children, our kids when they're little they step on our toes when they're little but when they grow up and get bigger they step on our hearts and one of the most painful things is when we're not grateful and rejection here's Jesus being rejected by the world that he created and in my life in your life I grew up rejecting Jesus if you would have asked me then and there do you know you're rejecting Jesus I didn't know that it only turns out that after you find out how great my sin is how great your sin is that you realize, oh my goodness, I can't believe I lived like that or I thought like that. Rejection. All of these things plague our culture today. Rejection, defeat, shame. …
… and the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. The question we have is, is that worth the wait? Like, is what God has done, is that worth the wait? Because think about this, from the beginning of the story, from the actually very first story. Here's Genesis chapter one and two, chapter three, everything falls apart. But in the midst of Genesis chapter three, Genesis chapter three, verse 15, God promises, he promises that there is going to be one who crushes the head of the serpent. There is gonna be one who restores all things. And then the whole rest of the story is people waiting from Abraham to Isaac, to Jacob, to the judges, to the kings, to the divided kingdom, to the civil war, to exile, through all the whole entire story, all the way to Jesus. is that worth the wait? I was thinking about, you know, this, think of right now, Christmas Day. I think a lot of us, we get really excited. …
… one that he was preparing the way for. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. I hope that's not you. Now, that's talking about his own Jewish people, but you think of all of the privileges we have in a place like Charlotte, in a place like Christ's covenant, a good Bible denomination like the PCA, a part of the country that still has lots of Christians and churches to his own people? Will you receive him? What have you done with the Lord's second chance, third chance, 400th chance? Zechariah blew it in his moment. Some of you can look back on this week or you feel like your whole life has been an episode of failing the moment God gives you. Well, he gives you now another moment. He's opening his mouth through this word, speaking to you. …
And every year I enjoy hearing it sung on Candlelight Christmas Eve. It happens after the sermon and before the passing of the candlelight. And because I've been here 35 years, this will be my 36th Christmas Eve as your pastor. and I often will have eight or nine services that I preach and I've heard it over 200 times. It's etched in my memory and on my heart and the words and the melody, they just touch me. And so today we're going to kick off a series of sermons for Advent in which we're going to look at the Advent message through the lens of that song, through its lyrics, its music, and we're going to learn a little bit about the song today. We're going to learn a little history about Israel today, a little history of France, and then we're going to try to ask what is this message of Advent about hope and the message we hear from the book of Isaiah. What does it mean to us today? How does it speak to us today? I want to begin, however, by mentioning, as we said at the beginning of the service, some of you weren't here yet, the word Advent comes from the Latin adventus. It means arrival or coming. And we got that name for this season of preparation and, you know, reflecting and getting ourselves ready for the celebration of the birth of Christ and for His second coming from the Romans. So, the Romans, when the Roman emperor would travel across the …
… The Bible said by him all things exist. He was in the world and the world was made by him. Before time there was God. Before angels, there was God. Before space and galaxies, there was God. Before creation, there was God. He spoke everything into existence. This God who could not die, he was eternal. He was the beginning and the end, and there is no end to him. But this God who could not die found a way that he could die and taste death for every one of us. This God who could not be tempted was tempted like all of us yet without sin. This God who had no blood, who had no bones, who had no skin. He was a spirit. He found a way that he could be just like us and yet be God inside of skin bones with blood. And he knew what he would do without controversy. This is the great mystery of God. The text said that God was manifest in the flesh in Jesus Christ. And when When 5,000 women and 5,000 men were hungry, he challenged them for he knew what he would do. …
… He, because this is Jesus, He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. He says, so this is what happened. The light, Jesus, came into the world. But the world that he made didn't know him. And earlier in that passage, the world actually preferred darkness. It's like the light was coming to the world, but there's some people in the world, the Bible says, that actually prefer darkness. They don't want light to come in and expose what they've been doing. And I was talking to some of my friends in the TL that live in SROs. They go, gosh, I just want all my windows blacked out, my doors just closed. …
… And again, this awful judgment. He was in the world. The world was made through Him, but the world didn't even know Him. He came to His own, but His own did not receive Him. Many years ago, I was being interviewed by Dr. James Montgomery Boyce in Philadelphia for his radio program. And we were talking about John 3.16. Everybody knows what that says. God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son. Whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Jim goes on to say to me, he says, R.C., everybody knows John 3.16. He says, what's John 3.17 say? John 3.17. That He sent His Son into the world not to condemn the world, but through the world, through Him should be saved. So the examination kept going. He said, okay, let me hear John 3.18. And I said, this is the condemnation that men loved the darkness rather than the light. And he said, why is that? And on his radio program I said, because their Eads are deevil. …