Text: John 1:1-14
Theme: “Our biggest need”
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Intr –  What is your biggest and most profound need? And how would it look like if your desires would be granted today?

“Pastor, my biggest need is money.” Boom, there it is. Seven digits in your bank account. Now you have security to live your life.

“Well, pastor, money is good, but my family is more important. So I’d like to have them closer, or that forgiveness would be shared.” There you are. Now you have a family, or if you have one, it is mostly problem-free.

“In my case, pastor, health. I’d like to have 2026 full of good health.” Perfect health in your body, just like that.

The list could go on. All those things being good things for sure. We need family, money, health, and countless other things to keep going. But I started by asking “what is your biggest, most profound need?” Biggest, core, most needed, foundational.

Those three mentioned, and many others, are life’s needs. But how foundational are they? Money, Family, Health, Job… Every single one of them may fail, go away, burn, run away with someone else… and many other things. When money runs out, when families fracture, when health fails— those painful moments, we discover we need something deeper, something that cannot be taken away.

What is our most deep foundational need?

God has a different perspective on that. He looked down on earth after humanity fell into sin and assessed our greatest need. He looked to us with love and nailed down what we need the most.

The John Story

John begins his Gospel not in a stable, not with shepherds, but in eternity: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Before time began. Before the universe existed. Before anything was created. The Word was there—with God, and the Word was God.

But here’s where it gets personal. John says, “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” We live in darkness. The darkness of sin, of separation from God, of death. We try to create our own light—through many human efforts—but that darkness keeps pressing in. We need real light. Light that the darkness cannot overcome.

And so John brings us to the moment we celebrate today: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”

The Word through which everything was created enters creation. The Eternal One entered time. God became man. The Word—who existed before all things, through whom all things were made—didn’t stay in the clouds. He moved into the neighborhood—into the mess of our cities, the reality of our streets, and the quiet of our homes.

Why? John tells us: “We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” And Matthew reminds us: “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’—which means ‘God with us.'”

Grace and Truth

What is our biggest need?

Grace and truth. That’s at the core of what we need. We need a Saviour, a Redeemer. A friend. Jesus

We couldn’t earn our way back to God—we needed grace, undeserved favor, a gift we could never merit. We couldn’t figure out who God really is on our own—we needed truth, God revealing Himself to us in a way we could see and touch and understand.

And so the Word became flesh. Jesus was born in Bethlehem. God with skin on. God in a manger. God crying, sleeping, hungry, fully human and fully divine.

You want to know what God is like? Look at Jesus. You want to know if God cares? Look at the manger. You want to know your biggest need? Look at why He came:

If our greatest need had been education, God would have sent us a professor.

If it were technology, He would have sent a scientist;

If it were money, an economist or a big entrepreneur providing super well paid jobs;

If it were party and pleasure, he would have sent a producer or promoter;

But since our greatest need was forgiveness, love, and life, God sent us the Savior — Jesus.

That baby in the manger came to do what we could never do for ourselves. He came to live the perfect life we couldn’t live. He came to die the death we deserved. He came to rise from the grave and offer us forgiveness, reconciliation, and eternal life.

Conclusion – Christmas is the celebration of God became flesh. It announces that our deepest need—forgiveness, reconciliation, eternal life—has been met in a manger in Bethlehem.

Whether your 2025 was a year of plenty or a year of lack, whether you are here with a full heart or a heavy one—your biggest need has been met. The Word is flesh. God is with us. Right here in Port Coquitlam, right here in the Fraser Valley, just as He was in Bethlehem. Money may come and go, health may fail, and seasons may change. But Immanuel is here. God is with you—today, through 2026, and each day until the last one

Our biggest need? It’s been met. Jesus is God with us.

Merry Christmas. Amen.