2 John - Learn, Love, And Live The Truth Series

Postcards: 2 John

Pastor Jefferson M. Williams

Chenoa Baptist Church

11-05-2023

Birds Aren’t Real

In 2018, Peter McIndoe wanted to let people know about the government conspiracy concerning birds.

From 1969 to 2001, the US government murdered over twelve billion birds and replaced them with surveillance drone replicas.

He started a movement called, “Birds Aren’t Real,” uncovered CIA documents proving this fact, and traveled the country in a van protesting the fact that “bird watching goes both ways.”

He led rallies where hundreds of people showed up and chanted, “Birds Aren’t Real” at CNN and Twitter headquarters.

It is not unusual to see signs at sporting events and on college campuses and posts shared on FaceBook that say, “Birds Aren’t Real” and the media has written national stories on the movement.

The only problem with this? It’s all fake. Peter started “the movement” as a social experiment to show how gullible people are concerning conspiracy theories.

But even after he wrote a front-page article in the New York Times and did a TED Talk admitting that all the facts were fake, there are still people who believe that Birds Aren’t Real.

More and more in our culture, we are having trouble with the line between true and false.

Overview

John was Jesus’s closest friend during His earthly ministry. After the resurrection, John was a leader in the early church. He was the only apostle not murdered for his faith. He was eventually exiled to the island of Patmos.

He wrote five books of the Bible - John, I John, 2 John, 3 John, and Revelation.

He wrote 2 and 3 John as attachments to the letter of I John.

By the time of writing, 85 AD to 95 AD, he had been freed from Patmos and now was in Ephesus.

This morning, we are going to study the little letter of 2 John. It’s only 13 verses and about 300 words in English. But it is a powerful reminder to believers of the power of truth and love.

Turn with me to 2 John. (1905 in the pew Bible)

Prayer.

What is Truth?

Jesus was brought before Pilate who was very interested in His claim to be a King.

Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” (John 18:37)

Pilate responded with these now-famous words:

“What is truth?” (John 18:38)

The Greeks defined truth as “an accurate perspective on reality.”

The Romans defined truth as “a factual representation of events.”

We live in a postmodern world where we are told daily that truth is relative. I have my truth and you have your truth and both are equally valid.

But that’s not how truth works. Webster's definition of truth is “the absolute standard by which reality is measured.” 1 + 1 = 2. That is true.

But in this post-truth culture, truth has become a little squishy.

Comedian Steven Colbert coined the term “truthiness” in 2005 to describe “a truthful or seemingly truthful quality that is claimed for something not because of supporting facts or evidence but because of a feeling that it is true or a desire for it to be true.”

“I want the truth! ” Tom Cruise yelled at Jack Nicholson in a “Few Good Men.” Jack’s famous response? “You can’t handle the truth!”

It seems most people today have a hard time “handling the truth.”

George Santos, a representative from New York, has become the poster child for our truthiness.

He claimed his grandparents fled the Holocaust - they didn’t.

He claimed his mother was killed in the 9-11 attack. She didn’t.

He claimed he graduated from Baruch College with degrees in economics and finance. He attended the school at all.

On top of that, he told the story, multiple times, that he led the Baruch College volleyball team to a league championship. This isn’t true either.

He claimed on his resume that he worked for Goldman Sachs and Citi-Group. He never worked at either of these companies.

He claimed to have lost four employees in the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando. Not true either.

He even claimed to be Jewish but later admitted that he’s “Jew-ish.”

When asked why he lied so much, he responded with a smile, “Everyone embellishes their resumes a little bit.” He has refused to apologize or resign.

Why? Because very few people care about the truth anymore.

?

There is a post going around claiming that Facebook is blocking pictures of the cross and telling people to post crosses on their pages. This is fake. It’s not true. It never happened. Yet, the post has been re-posted thousands of times.

There’s another post claiming that Facebook is taking down The Lord’s Prayer. This is fake as well but this is being reposted far and wide.