John 1:4-5, 9-12; 2:23-25; 3:18-21
April 25, 2021
preached by Pastor Doug Cooper
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Time of Reflection Quotations

“I remember my father telling me, ‘The eyes of God are on us always.’ The eyes of God. What a phrase to a young boy. What were God’s eyes like? Unimaginably penetrating, intense eyes, I assumed.”

~ an excerpt from the film Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) written and directed by Woody Allen

“Religion: a fairy tale for people afraid of the dark.”

~ Stephen Hawking (1942-2018), English theoretical physicist, cosmologist and author

“Atheism: a fairy tale for people afraid of the light.”

~ John Lennox (1943-present), Northern Irish mathematician, bioethicist, Christian apologist, and author.

“In faith, there is enough light for those who want to believe, and enough shadows to blind those who don’t.”

~ Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, writer and theologian

“Man is not what he thinks he is, he is what he hides.”

~ André Malraux (1901–1976), French novelist, art theorist and Minister of Cultural Affairs.

“Man is the only animal that blushes, and the only animal that needs to.”

~ Mark Twain (1835-1910), American writer

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”

~ Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

“The Cross showed man at his worst, and there Jesus shows God at His redemptive best. The cruelest, darkest word that life ever spoke was at the Cross, and Jesus took all that cruelty and darkness and turned it into pure love and pure light… What a light it sheds upon the tragedy of life to find such a fact at the center of our faith.”

~ E. Stanley Jones (1884–1973), American missionary and writer

Sermon Passage

John 1:4-5, 9-12; 2:23-25; 3:18-21 (ESV)

John 1

⁴ In him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it…

⁹ The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. ¹¹ He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. ¹² But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…

John 2

²³ Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. ²⁴ But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people ²⁵ and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.

John 3

¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. ¹⁹ And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. ²⁰ For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. ²¹ But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.