Leading The Spiritual Life (Part 3 Truth) Series

Central Christian Church

St. Petersburg, Florida

January 2002

True Worshippers Do So "In Truth"

We started this series on the spiritual life with this text:

John 4:23 "But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.

John 4:24 "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

We have examined the "true worshippers" and what worship is and last time we looked at living a life controlled by the Spirit of God and not the sinful nature or the flesh and tonight we are going to look at this word "truth."

Truth- According to my College Standard Dictionary is: Conformity to fact or reality.

The bible has a great deal to say about truth it shows up 202 times in the NASB translation.

But our question is what does it mean to worship in the truth

What is it or maybe even better yet who is it?

Pilate asked the same question to Jesus didn’t he?

You remember when Jesus was before Pilate after he had already been before Caiphas and Annas. In John 18 v 33 Pilate asks Jesus are you the king of the Jews?

Jesus told Pilate "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place."

John 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."

John 18:38 "What is truth?" Pilate asked.

Truth is whose side you are on. The Good News is there are only two sides from which to choose. The bad news is if you are not being conformed to the Truth, by living in the truth, you are on the Devil’s side.

As far as I am concerned it was Pilate who was on trial that day, along with Annas, Caiaphais, all the high priests, Sanhedrin and all other Jewish sects. Today the world is on trial for the same truth.

Jesus told Caiaphais "if I tell you the truth why do you strike me." But he told Pilate even more, He had already answered his question He said" I am the King, I testify to the truth and everyone on the side of truth listens to me."

That is how you know whose side you are on, do you live by the truth or by the lie. If you live by the truth God is your Father. Jesus told the Pharisees:

John 8:42 Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me.

John 8:43 Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say.

John 8:44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

And what Jesus is really saying is what the apostles finally realized, the truth is Jesus and Jesus was testifying before Pilate, that He came into this world to testify about himself.

To tell the world that He is the Son of almighty God. To tell us that He is the way, the life, the light and the truth. If we are on His side we will listen to Him and obey him and testify to the Pilate’s, Annas’ and Caiaphais’ of this world that He is the truth and our lives will reflect that we listen to Him and that we are on His side. Because He is the King of the Jews and the truth is He died for us the church and not just for us but for all men that they might be the church as well.

Jesus said 78 times I tell you the truth, why did Jesus tell the truth because He is the truth and He cannot deny Himself. Why should we also be truthful in all things, because if we testify that He is the truth we accept Him, listen to Him, obey Him and desire to be just like Him.

We cannot tell part of the truth or live in the shadows of the darkness and be conformed to the reality of Christ. That means there are times when each of us as Christians must admit we have sinned and we are wrong.