I Am The Truth Series

November 18, 2007

John 14:6

I am the Truth

“I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.”

What is truth? What makes something true? Is truth simply what is true to you? Or is there a universal truth that is true for everyone? What is truth? We live in a society that is continually changing truth. Truth is not what it once was, it has changed…at least in our perception of it. Truth used to be a universal capital T truth. It was transcendent, it was from above. Truth used to be viewed as something that was set, that was. Truth for thousands of years truth was what God said it was. The church then took advantage of that for its own personal gain and used the capital T truth that comes from above to control the ignorant masses. Then the masses got educated and society shifted. This shift for you historians was the shift from pre-modernism to modernism. As a result of this shift the nature of our understanding of truth changed. Truth was no longer capital T or a universal truth that came from above, but a universal truth that was out there to be found. This was the age of science and reasoning. Truth still existed in our understanding as universal as total…it was just a truth that needed evidence and study to support. Many of you were alive at the peak of this modernist movement, in fact many of you probably think along those lines. Modernism is fading. In the shift from modernism to postmodernism our understanding of truth has shifted once again. Truth is no longer a capital T universal truth that is out there to be found…but a lowercase personal truth that is within to be discovered. Postmodernism makes truth a relative entity. What does that mean? Has truth changed? Or is it just our perception of truth that has shifted? What is truth?

When I was little I used to get into all kinds of trouble. I was a bratty little kid and well let’s just say there is a good reason my dad has all grey hair now. I was a troublesome little kid. I would try to get away with anything. We had a rule that you could not watch t.v until your chores were done on Saturday morning. I hated that rule…by the time you got all your chores done…all the good shows were over. So I would watch t.v before doing my chores sometimes. My mom used to ask me if I had done my chores. Bratty little kid that I was I would tell her that they were done even when they weren’t. Of course she had a knack for catching me…but was what I said a lie? Or was it simply my perception? I was satisfied with how clean my room was…so maybe to me it was clean. So maybe I was telling her the truth right? After all…what is truth?

You may be wondering…wait…why are we talking about truth and not the way this week. We are out of order. Yes we are. But, from the very start we need to have a clear understanding of truth that we have established in order to accept and discuss the way and the life. Truth is the foundation upon which we must build, so it seemed only appropriate to start with the foundation.

What is truth? This is on the heart of every intellectual and scientific mind. There are many things out there, many opinions on life…but what is the truth? You may think that this is a new question…but its not: In John 18 we find that someone asked it a long time before we ever did.

Jn 18:37 “You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” Jn 18:38 “What is truth?” Pilate asked. With this he went out again to the Jews and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him

What is truth? Its an age old question that has been on the hearts of men for thousands of years…’what is truth?’. We live in a society that is built on relativism…that is built on tolerance. There is no universal good or universal evil…there is only good for you bad for me and bad for you good for me. Our society truly believes that truth is a relative thing. Whatever you believe is right for you…whatever I believe is right for me…but does that make it so? Is that what truth really is?