John 1:10-11 - Homiletics

The double rejection of the Light.

I. THE FIRST REJECTION . "He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not." These words describe the world's unbelief before his incarnation.

1 . He was here invisibly, though the world had no eyes to see him. In him "all things live, and move, and have their being." The revelation of himself has been continuous since man was made. The Life has always been the Light of men. He was and has ever been in the world.

2 . The world ' s ignorance is all the more remarkable because "the world was made by him. " The world did not see the evidences of boundless skill and beauty all around. It is a precious thought to the believer that the Creator of the world is his Friend. "It is my Father's house. It is my Brother's handiwork."

3 . The mystery of the world ' s ignorance. "The world knew him not." "The world by wisdom knew not God." The Apostle Paul found an altar to the "Unknown God" at Athens. What a satire on man's privileges! This darkest page in the world's history may well sadden us every time we read it.

II. THE SECOND REJECTION . "He came unto his own, and his own received him not."

1 . Israel was the home of our Lord. Its land, its cities, its temple, were all his own property, and were originally granted by himself, Israel was "his inheritance."

2 . His people, the Jews, were not left to interpret the light of nature, conscience, and history as they could. Light first broke upon them when it broke upon Abraham, but it was only a preparation for the Incarnation, which is the central fact in the world's history—the pivot on which its history turns.

3 . His own people rejected him. They "received him not." This is stronger than the statement that the world did not know him. The Jews were more guilty than the Gentiles in their rejection of the Redeemer, because they were of those "who see, and therefore their sin remaineth" ( John 9:41 ). "The God invoked by the nation appears in his temple, and is Crucified by his own worshippers."