Marilyn Monroe was once reportedly asked if she adhered to a faith. Her answer:
“I believe in everything – a little”
So I guess that we shouldn’t be surprised to learn that in the last Barna Group survey that asked people about absolute truth, only 22% of the participants agreed that “there are moral truths that are absolute, meaning that those moral truths or principles do not change according to the circumstances".
But if you think about it, those who claim that there is no such thing as absolute truth make scores of decisions every day on the basis that they believe some things are true and some are false. We all do. I will not turn on a light without believing in the reality of electricity, or drive a car without believing in the effectiveness of the combustion engine. No one flying in a cloud through mountainous terrain would want to be directed by a navigator who did not believe in the truth of his instruments. No one undergoing brain surgery would want to be operated on by a surgeon who did not believe that some things about the brain were true and some not true.
But for some reason, when it comes to religion, most people a lot more like the people that Steve Turner described in his satirical poem titled “Creed”;
We believe that each man must find the truth that is right for him.
Reality will adapt accordingly.
The universe will readjust.
History will alter.
We believe that there is no absolute truth
excepting the truth that there is no absolute truth.
But if you’ve been with us for any time at all in our journey through Ephesians, you might suspect that Paul would have something to say about absolute truth. And, of course, that is an absolute truth. Before we read our passage for today, I want to make sure that we put this passage in its proper context. So take your bibles out and turn to Ephesians 4 and let’s start reading in verse 11.
Read Ephesians 4:11-21
As you read through that passage, don’t you feel like you’re watching a tennis match? Paul keeps going back and forth as he describes the stark contrast between the life with Jesus Christ and the life without Him:
• Jesus gives gifted people to the church to help them mature and become more like Jesus (vv. 11-13)
• He does this so that His followers won’t be instable and easily deceived (v. 14)
• We grow up into the head as each part does its work (vv. 15-16)
• You can’t live like the unbelievers because that lifestyle is futile (vv. 17-19)
Now in verses 20 and 21, Paul is going to wrap up this discussion by clearly pointing out to his readers exactly what, or, perhaps more accurately, who, determines which of those two paths that we end up on. Let’s read that passage out loud together:
You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.
Ephesians 4:20, 21 (NIV)
Before we begin to look at this passage this morning, I want to give you a heads up. You all know how much I like my sermons to be rather logical. When I’m really on my game I can even come up with nearly the perfect sermon – either three or five points (for some reason most sermons don’t have 4 points) and if I’m really good, I’ll come up with some alliteration or an acrostic to make the points easier to remember – at least for me. But this passage didn’t seem to fit that pattern. So I’m not going to give you five principles on how to find the truth. Instead, I’m just going to make a few observations about the passage and suggest a few ways that we might be able to apply it to our lives.
Let’s begin by focusing for just a moment on that last phrase – “the truth that is in Jesus.” Hopefully, you still have your Bibles open to the book of Ephesians. I’m going to ask all of you to do some work this morning. I want you to scan through the Book of Ephesians and see if you can tell me how Paul uses the name of Jesus differently in the last part of verse 21 than he does anywhere else in the rest of the letter. [Allow time for people to look].
Paul does something very interesting here. This is the only place in his letter where he uses the name “Jesus” without connecting with “Lord” and/or “Christ”. Every other time Paul refers to Jesus, he calls Him “Christ”, “Lord”, or some combination of those titles along with the name “Jesus.” But here, he simply uses the name that God gave his Son at the incarnation. I think that’s very significant. And here’s the point Paul is making:
• Truth is a person
When Jesus stood before Pilate, John records that Pilate asked Jesus this question: “What is truth?” (John 18:38). If I were to go out on the street and ask that same question today, I would get all kinds of answers:
o I learned this week that philosophers have come up with five different theories to explain truth. But even with those theories many philosophers would still declare that there is no such thing as objective truth.
o L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, wrote this about truth:
Truth, as a manifestation of human conduct, would be the holding or voicing of facts as one knows them and refusal to utter or hold statements contrary to what one knows.
In other words, truth according to Hubbard is limited to what one knows. That kind of reminds me of a conversation Abraham Lincoln once had with one of his detractors:
Lincoln said, "Well, let’s see how many legs has a cow?"
"Four, of course," came the reply disgustedly.
"That’s right," agreed Lincoln. "Now suppose you call the cow’s tail a leg; how many legs would the cow have?"
"Why, five, of course," was the confident reply.
"Now, that’s where you’re wrong," said Lincoln. "Calling a cow’s tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg."
o If you’re really bored sometime, just go to Google and type in “definition of truth” and you’ll get over 4 million hits.
So there seem to be about as many different definitions of truth as there are people.
But by using the name Jesus, without referring to Him by his titles of Lord or Christ, Paul is referring to the historical Jesus as God in the flesh. So when Paul refers to the “truth that is in Jesus”, he is proclaiming that the sinless, spotless life that Jesus lived while He was here on earth is the demonstration of the truth that resided in Him.
We tend to think of truth as a concept or a principle, but the Bible is clear that truth is a person – Jesus. The apostle John testified to that truth at the very beginning of his gospel:
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth...For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
John 1:14, 17 (NIV)
But even more persuasive is the testimony of Jesus Himself in this very familiar verse:
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 14:6 (NIV)
So I think that we would agree intellectually that according to the Bible, truth is a person, Jesus. But why is that significant? What difference does that make?
• Only the person of truth can transform lives
In the verses immediately preceding our passage for this morning, Paul had just described the futility of the life of unbelievers who were spiritually ignorant and who had calloused hearts. And I think many of those people sense the futility of that life and want to make some changes. So they try all kinds of different approaches, based on what they consider to be the truth:
o Some people try religion. But religion can’t change lives. I think that is one of the reasons that Jesus was so hard on the religious leaders of his day. The kind of religion they were dishing out – one based on rules and regulations that were intended to insure their power and influence – actually put people in bondage, rather than set them free. But the truth leads to freedom, not bondage.
“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
John 8:32 (NIV)
o Some people try programs. There are certainly many of them out there. You can find them in the self-help section of any bookstore. There are all kinds of seminars out there that promise to help you change your life. And then, of course there is the internet. This week, I found a site called “My Self-Help.com”. The site promises to help you with problems like depression, guilt, eating disorders, and even compulsive shopping – for a fee of just $20/month, of course. That probably won’t help you with your debt problems.
o Some people try will power. They figure that they can change their lives on their own if they just believe in themselves and have enough discipline.
Some of those things may seem to work for a while, but none of them can ever permanently break the cycle of the life of futility Paul described in verses 17-19. Only the person of truth, Jesus, can do that.
As we look back over this section of Chapter 4, beginning in verse 11, we get a very clear picture of the kind of transformation that Jesus brings:
o Futility to fullness
o Ignorance to knowledge
o Deceit to truth
o Separation to intimacy
o Falling apart to building up
o Immaturity to maturity
o Instability to steadfastness
o Sensuality to sensitivity
o Greed to contentment
No one or nothing else can ever bring that kind of transformation in our lives, only the truth, Jesus, can do that. So how do I allow the truth to transform my life? I think Paul gives us a couple of ideas about how to do that in this passage.
• The person of truth transforms my life as I respond to His revelation
Let’s go back to verse 21 again. In the first part of that verse Paul writes: “Surely you heard of him...” The word “of” is actually not in the original language, so a more accurate translation would be “you heard him.” There’s a big difference between those two phrases, isn’t there? For instance, I could say, I have heard of Chris Tomlin. We sing many of the songs he has written in our worship each Sunday. But that’s different than saying that I heard Chris Tomlin when I went to his concert this last Tuesday night.
So how had Paul’s readers heard Jesus? It’s certainly possible that a few of them had heard Jesus in person, but it seems that Paul is probably referring to two groups of people he had described earlier – the apostles and prophets. It was those two groups who were primarily responsible for proclaiming Jesus. They were the ones who described the life of Jesus and proclaimed His words. And by doing that, it was if the listeners were hearing Jesus directly.
Today, the work product of those apostles and prophets, the Bible, has the very same function in our lives. We read the Bible and Jesus is revealed to us – we hear Jesus. But not everyone who hears Jesus has his or her life transformed. In order for that to occur, we have to respond properly to that revelation. Here’s what Jesus said about that:
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
John 10:27 (NIV)
Notice that Jesus’ sheep, listen to his voice, but they also have to do one other thing – follow Him. And obviously not everyone who hears Jesus is willing to make that commitment.
So there comes a time in our lives when Jesus is revealed to us – today that occurs primarily through His Word – and then we have to make a decision to follow Him. But if we truly want our lives to be transformed, there is another step.
• The person of truth transforms my life as I obey His teaching
Look back again at verse 21. In addition to hearing Jesus, Paul writes that his readers also “were taught in him...” I think that’s where the second two groups of people that Paul mentions in verse 11 come in – the evangelists and the pastor/teachers. Their role, especially that of the pastor/teachers, was to take the Word of God and to continually teach it to the followers of Jesus so that they would not be spiritually ignorant and so that they could apply it in their lives.
Jesus confirmed that principle in His own words:
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
John 8:31, 32 (NIV)
Jesus made it clear that if we want to know the truth and be set free from the life of futility that Paul described in verses 17-19, we must not only hear Jesus, but we must also obey Him.
I know that people are here in this church every Sunday morning for a variety of reasons. Some are here out of a sense of religious obligation. But that won’t transform your life. Some of you are here for fellowship and there is nothing wrong with that. But fellowship alone won’t transform your life. Some of you are here for information. But learning what the Greek words mean and having an intellectual understanding of the Bible won’t transform your life.
But if you’re hear to hear Jesus – really hear Him, not just hear of Him – and to be taught in Him so that you can obey and put the truth into practice in your life, then the Bible promises that the person of truth, Jesus, will transform your life.
