John 1:3

The World That Jesus Made

All things were made by him John 1:3.

This looks a very easy text. There are only six words in it and the longest one is only six letters. Even the tiniest person here could learn it in a few minutes. But sometimes the texts that look the simplest are the hardest to understand, so I want you to do a bit of thinking with me this morning.

What does this text really mean? Well, we shall get at its real meaning better if we put the word “through” in the place of “by.” Now let us read it again that way, “All things were made through him.” But who is the “him” through whom all things were made? If you look at the first verse of the chapter you will see that it is someone whom St. John calls “the Word.” So let us read our text again and put in “the Word” instead of “him,” and now we have “All things were made through the Word.”

But still we have to ask, Who is “the Word”? And that is the most difficult question to answer, and the most difficult answer to understand. I think you will understand it if I put it in this way. “The Word” is a name given to Jesus before He came to earth at all, when He lived with God from all eternity. So our text reads now, “All things were made through Jesus Christ and that just means that Jesus was God's agent in making the world. God worked through Jesus. Jesus had something to do with the creating of every tiny speck or atom. “Without Him was not anything [not one single tiny thing] made that hath been made.”

And so you see this is Jesus' world as well as God's, and I want you to remember that always and look at the world always in that way.

Will you think about three kinds of things that Jesus helped God to make?

1. First He helped to make the world of Nature. It was through Him that God made the grand old hills, the blue sky, and the glorious sea. It was through Him that God made the sun to shine by day and the stars to twinkle so merrily by night. It was through Him that God made the trees to give us shade, the grass to form a nice soft carpet for our feet, the corn to feed us, the flowers to make us glad.

There is nothing that God made and Jesus helped to make that is not wonderful and beautiful. Sometimes we hear of clever engineers inventing some wonderful new piece of machinery, but nothing that has ever been invented is half so marvelous as just a little wayside flower, and nobody but a God of love could have made it so perfect and so beautiful.

So when you look at anything beautiful in Nature, I want you to think, “That is just another proof of God's love to us in Christ Jesus.” For Nature has a great secret which she is telling every day to those who have ears to hear. The birds sing it, the brooks chant it, the summer winds in the trees whisper it God is love. Are you listening to the secret?

2. Again, Jesus helped to make the animal world. And so when you hurt or torment any animal you are really hurting Jesus, for He loves all the creatures He has helped to make.

There is a beautiful story about Jesus which was found in an old document. It tells how Christ and His disciples were once crossing some mountains when they came upon a man with a pack mule. The path was steep, the mule was heavily laden and had fallen down under its burden. The owner was beating it unmercifully till it bled. Jesus stopped and asked the man if he did not see that the creature was suffering and that its burden was too heavy for it. But the man replied that he had paid a good price for the mule, and he could do what he liked with his own. The disciples also affirmed that he had paid well for the beast. Then Jesus asked them if they did not hear its cries, but their ears were deaf to the cries of the suffering animal. So Christ came and touched the animal and healed its sore wounds. And He sent the man on his way with the words, “Now go on, and beat it no more, that you also may find mercy.”

So Jesus cares for the sufferings of a mule; yes, He cares for the sufferings of a cat, or a sparrow, or even a fly. And when we allow ourselves to torment any of His creatures, no matter how humble they may be, we are giving way to the lowest bit of our nature, the bit least like Jesus, and we are hurting Him more than we can tell.

3. Once more, Jesus helped to make the world of men and women and boys and girls. God made us through Jesus Christ, so we ought to respect ourselves and be worthy of our Maker. God took infinitely more pains to make us than He did to make the hills and the trees and the fields, the animals and the birds. He made us in His own image, like Himself.

But we have all been foolish. We have allowed sin to mar that beautiful image until sometimes it is impossible to recognize in it the likeness of the Maker. We have all spoiled it to some degree some of us more, some of us less and nothing we can do will ever restore it to its beauty and perfection. Then how are we to get it put right again? There is just one way. If God made us through Jesus then it is only through Him that He can remake us, only through Him that He can undo all the harm we have done, wash away all the stains and make the ugly places beautiful again. Are you going to be content to keep your image stained and marred, or are you going to let Jesus make it beautiful again?