Never Alone – God is Near | John 1:1-14

INTRODUCTION

Wish you a Blessed Christmas!

Today, the world celebrates the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, born some 2000 years ago. Christmas is a reminder of a profound truth: God did not remain distant from us. In His great love, He bridged the gap between heaven and earth, overcoming the hostility of sin that separated us. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. God is with us. He is near us. This is the heart of Christmas—the eternal God stepping into time, clothing Himself in humanity, and drawing near to bring us life, hope, and salvation.

May the message of His presence fill your hearts with peace and joy. May you experience the nearness of Emmanuel, God with us, not just today but every day of your lives.

The first thing Christmas reminds us of is the undeniable truth: There is a God.

1. God Exists

We are living in times when people deny the existence of God. The Bible very clearly declares that God exists.

How does God look like?

John 1:1-3

¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was with God in the beginning. ³Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

God is described here as “Word.” The Word was with God. In Genesis 1:1-2 we also have the Holy Spirit, as the life-giving Spirit of God.

So God exists in 3 persons but they are mysteriously one. They share a relationship with one another. God is one in which three personalities (Father, Son, & the Holy Spirit) are inclusive.

• God is self-existent; 1;1a. God exists beyond time, always existing.
• God is relational; 1:1b. The word was with God. God exists in love and fellowship.
• God is divine; 1:1c. The word was God.
• God is the creator; 1:3. Through him all things were made. Col. 1:16 For in him all things were created….
• God is life; 1:4. In him was life.
• God is light; 1:4. The light shines in the darkness. God brings hope, truth, salvation, overcoming sin & despair.

In the narrative of John 1:1-5, we encounter a profound depiction of God’s existence and nature, beautifully blending eternal truth with human experience. The Gospel begins with a declaration: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This confronts the modern obstacle of skepticism by affirming that God is not an abstract idea but a self-existent being who transcends time and space. Communicating this response, John portrays God as relational—existing in eternal fellowship within the Trinity—and as Creator, the source of all life and light. This passage reveals the relevance of God to our lives: His light penetrates the darkness of our existence, offering hope and transformation.

2. The Big Divide.

There is a divide between God and Man.

In every way there is a difference, a divide between God and man.

God is so different. God is well beyond our grasp.

There is also a moral divide. God is infinitely holy and righteous and good. God hates sin and evil. Therefore, getting to know God, getting into a relationship and communicating with God is impossible by man’s efforts. Even when God created man in the garden of Eden, it was God’s initiative to come to man at the cool of the day. Our chance of fellowship with God separated because of man’s wickedness.

Habakkuk 1:13

Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;

you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.

God is pure and cannot be with us who are evil and sinners.

Isaiah 59:1

¹Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save,

nor his ear too dull to hear.

²But your iniquities have separated

you from your God;

your sins have hidden his face from you,

so that he will not hear.

Our sins are the problem. The creator God has made man in his image and likeness. But man in his will chose to do evil than good and distanced himself from God. There is a big divide.

God Takes the Initiative to Bridge the Gap

In the Old Testament, God initiated a means for humanity to draw near to Him despite the moral and spiritual divide caused by sin. The Day of Atonement, established in the Mosaic covenant, symbolized this divine initiative. On this day, the high priest entered the Holy of Holies with the blood of a sacrificial offering to atone for the sins of the people. Yet, this practice had to be repeated year after year, highlighting the impermanence of the cleansing it provided (Leviticus 16).

Moses, as the mediator of this covenant, encountered the glory of God in a profound way. Overwhelmed by this encounter, Moses cried out for an even greater revelation:

Exodus 33:18-20

¹⁸Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”

¹⁹And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. ²⁰But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”

God said, “Moses, I am going to give a better revelation, but it still cannot be unobscured. It has got to be limited for your sake.” He says, “You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”

Moses saw the glory of the Lord as it were just like the fleeting rays of the sunset at the end of the day. So the Big Divide.

The Big Solution for the Big Divide:

3. The Big Solution: God Became Flesh.

John 1:14

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

John 1 says, you and I get what Moses longed for. We get the glory of God in all its full luminosity, in its unobscured clarity in the revelation of that word of God, who is Christ. The word of God was translated into flesh.

God was not flesh before his incarnation. He enters into and becomes flesh and he becomes man and God.

John 6:51

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh., which I will give for the life of the world.

Giving his life/flesh is the point of incarnation.

We have God with no limits in Jesus. John 1:14b We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The birth of Jesus, the incarnation was necessary that we might know God in all of its fullness. The word of God has been translated in the flesh. Divinity has been translated into humanity so that we might comprehend it.

John 1:17-18

¹⁷For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

¹⁸No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and^[ is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

Jesus in his own person is the embodiment of grace and truth. The word of God is not able to be seen. We can visualise and it is contextualized in Jesus in a particular time and place. He is the definitive revelation of God.

Hebrews 1:1-4

¹In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, ²but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. ³The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. (What did the Son do?) After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. ⁴So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.

We now get to see God because we see Jesus.

John 14

⁸Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

⁹Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.

When you hear Jesus speaking, you hear God speaking.

When you see Jesus living, you see what God is and what God’s priorities look like.

The point is God became flesh. He does not leave behind his body. Jesus is always going to have a body. He will come back in bodily form.

John 2:19-21

¹⁹Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

²⁰They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” ²¹But the temple he had spoken of was his body.

Acts 1:11

“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

Philippians 3:20-21

²⁰But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

Jesus today has a glorious body and he is coming back and he will transform our lowly bodies into a glorious body. So always forever Jesus is going to be a God in body. He has taken humanity into the very deity. That is Word became flesh.

4. God is Near Us.

John 1:14

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

God is dwelling among us. God has pitched a tent among us. Jesus died, rose again and went to the Father. Now God is with us by the means of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “I am with you always to the very end of the age.” Jesus has promised to come back again. The coming of Jesus was not temporary presence for about 33 years. He will come back again and be with us.

God is near us. We have access to God. We have proximity to God. That is why Jesus came.

So Christmas is God becoming man, so that he might die to be near his people.

Christmas Implications:

God Loves You.

John 3:16

John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

Do Not be Afraid. You Are Not alone.

ILLUSTRATION

Uncle Oscar was apprehensive about his first airplane ride. His friends, eager to hear how it went, asked if he enjoyed the flight. “Well,” commented Uncle Oscar, “it wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be, but I’ll tell you this. I never did put all my weight down!”

Fear and worry and anxiety run deep in all of us. People are afraid of being alone, of being unloved, of being abandoned. The most frequent command in the Bible is “don’t be afraid.” It is repeated more than 300 times! The message of the coming of Jesus says to us very clearly, “Do not be afraid.”

In the midst of the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, the message “Do not be afraid” echoes through the ages, resonating with the deep-seated fears and anxieties that grip our hearts. As we go through the complexities of life, fear often whispers insidious doubts—fear of loneliness, unlove, and abandonment. Yet, in the symphony of God’s Word, the refrain “Do not be afraid” emerges as a recurring melody, a divine antidote to our anxious souls.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus comforts his disciples when he broke the news of his soon departure:

John 14:1

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.

Christmas, at its core, is a proclamation that we are not alone. The birth of Christ heralds the promise

John 14:18

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

John 14:27

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

What does God think about the setbacks, the sufferings that we and others experience.

Jesus never saw a disease that he liked. Every single time he is moved with compassion. He hated all sickness. He healed them all. He healed the sick. He cleansed the leper. He opened the eyes of the blind. He fed the hungry. He brought deliverance to those affected by demons. He comforted the bereaved. He rose the dead. The taught the ignorant. He brought hope to the hopeless.

God Forgives Sinners

You say, I wonder what Jesus thinks about sin?” How does he feel about sin? How does God feel about sin? All you have to do is to look at Jesus. He never saw a sin that he liked but he never met a sinner that he did not love. He never met a sinner that he was not willing to forgive. The scripture tells us that was the whole purpose for which Jesus came.

Mark 2:17

On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

We are all sinners. We you are the precise object of Jesus’ love. God loves sinners.

Mark 10:45

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

That was the whole purpose of Christ’ life that he might forgive us and redeem us. He spoke hope and redemption to those who had hit rock-bottom in their life. He said to the thief on the cross who messed up his life, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” Because he had turned to the saviour, Jesus in faith.

CONCLUSION

We are never alone – God is near. Today, we celebrate God’s love breaking into our world. The Word became flesh to bridge the divide, to be near us, and to redeem us. God is with us—loving, forgiving, and transforming our lives. Let us trust Him, knowing we are never alone, and live with hope and peace.