6 years ago Al Gore was celebrated for his quasi-documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” Almost fifty years after the event people are still looking for the truth surrounding the assassination of John Kennedy and the suicide of Marilyn Munroe, there are those who are convinced that we have never been told the truth about 9/11 and don’t even get me started on the Moon Landing.
When I talk to people about the bible and Jesus they will sometimes ask “How do you know it’s true?” Often it seems that the cry of the people over and over again seems to be “What is truth?” And that isn’t a bad question, it’s good to know what is true and what isn’t true. Especially if you are betting your eternity on it.
But the question isn’t all that original. It was asked 2000 years ago on the day that Jesus was crucified.
It was a tough spot to be in, especially for a career politician who had based his entire career on compromise. On one hand he had the crowd to please and in the other hand he held the life of an innocent man. The story is a familiar one, Jesus has been arrested and hauled before Pontius Pilate the Roman Governor of Palestine, and Pilate wasn’t sure what to do with this itinerant preacher from Galilee.
It wasn’t that he was unused to conflict, in fact if you looked at his record he would appear to have thrived on it, and when it wasn’t there he created it. He had been sent there by Rome because Palestine was a political hot potato, it is funny how some things never change. There was the constant threat of rebellion and terrorism and the Emperor needed someone who wouldn’t be pushed around, and Pilate fit the bill to the t. But this was different, oh sure it was the week of the Passover celebrations and there was bound to be a little trouble. The zealots liked to point out that God had delivered the Jewish people from slavery once and it wouldn’t be too much to expect Him to do it again. And then simply because of the nature of the celebrations there would have to be extra troops around Jerusalem, just to keep the peace.
But he never expected anything like this. The high priests who normally viewed Pilate as the Devil personified arrived at his door demanding a favour; this could be interesting and profitable. Having the Jewish religious leaders in his debt certainly had possibilities. And it really wasn’t a difficult request; all he had to do was to order the execution of this man Jesus. There were several already slated for public crucifixion, one more cross wouldn’t be difficult to come up and besides, every once in a while he ought to look like the good guy.
And it should have been easy, interview the prisoner, grant the high priest’s request and take the rest of the weekend off. Nothing to it. Except it wasn’t that easy. First there was the prisoner, he was like no-one Pilate had ever met before, there was a presence, a power that Jesus had. He didn’t appear to pose a threat to Rome; Pilate could find no logical reason to have him crucified. He hadn’t called for rebellion, or political overthrow of the government, the guy even told people to pay their taxes. You gotta love that. And then there was the dream. Right in the middle of everything Pilate gets a message from his wife saying, “Leave that innocent man alone.” So now he has an angry mob, an innocent man and an upset wife.
And Jesus wouldn’t defend himself, just kept smiling and talking about knowing the truth, what was it he said in John 18:37 Pilate said, “So you are a king?” Jesus responded, “You say I am a king. Actually, I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true.”
Truth, truth, Pilate couldn’t contain himself anymore and looked at Jesus and demanded, “What is truth?” That’s the question isn’t it? What is truth?
And for those of you who are familiar with the story of Jesus, you know that question had already been answered by Jesus himself. In John 14:6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. Two weeks ago we looked at how Jesus was “The Way”. He didn’t say that he came to show us the way, or point to the way he said “I am the way” And he didn’t say he was one way, or a way, he said very clearly “I am the way. No one can come to the Father except through me.”
And as part of that statement Jesus also said he was “The Truth” not “A Truth” or “One Truth” but “The Truth.” And while that might seem a little dogmatic we have to realize that by definition truth has to be dogmatic. If you can’t be dogmatic about it then you don’t really believe it is the truth. And Jesus said he was it, and that there was no other way to the Father except through him. He didn’t say “I am one truth and Mohammed will be another truth and Krishna is another truth, and Buddha is yet another truth.” He said I am the truth.
I prayed the closing prayer at the CPA high school graduation a couple of weeks ago and another pastor prayed the opening prayer, and it was a very elegant and well crafted prayer. But in an effort to be inclusive and political correct he invoked the name of Jesus, Mohammed and Krishna. But in trying to please everyone he would have alienated followers of all three. Because they can’t all be true.
So what is truth?
The dictionary defines truth this way:
truth (trth) noun
1. Conformity to fact or actuality.
2. A statement proven to be or accepted as true.
3. Sincerity; integrity.
4. Fidelity to an original or a standard.
5. Reality; actuality.
But there must be more to it than that. What is truth? Would we even recognize it if we found it? Winston Churchill said “Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened.”
And how would we recognize it? What does it look like? Owen C. Middelton made this statement “Truth is not beautiful, neither is it ugly, Why should it be either? Truth is Truth.” Which kind of adds credence to what Lily Tomlin meant when she said “If truth is beauty, then how come no one has their hair done in a library?”
John seems to be very fond of the concept of truth because of all the times the word truth is used in the bible almost 20% of them are found in the book of John. Which is really incredible when you consider that John only makes up 2% of the entire bible.
The question is as real today as it was when Pilate asked it 2000 years ago: What is the truth?
1) There is the Word of Truth In the New Testament letter 2 Timothy Paul writes to a young preacher to encourage him and to instruct him. A good portion of the New Testament is made up of these books that are called epistles, which is just a fancy name for letters. And in fact these books of the Bible were originally letters written to very specific people. And so when I pull up 2 Timothy 2:15 for you we are actually reading someone else’s mail, and this is what it says:
2 Timothy 2:15 Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth.
Did you catch that last part of the sentence, correctly explains the word of truth. What is the word of truth? It the Bible, the word of God, the scriptures. And this contains what we need to live our Christian life. And yes I’ll be the first to admit that there is certainly areas of the bible that are open to interpretation, and we can argue and nitpick over some of that stuff until the cows come home but the basics are pretty simple. Let’s go back to a quote that I’ve used before, it was Mark Twain who said “It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.”
God didn’t set us down on this earth without an instruction manual, he didn’t expect us to figure out how we were supposed to live by chance, he isn’t going to judge us based on a bunch of unwritten rules. Instead he gave us his word, and his word is the truth. If you focus on doing the things you understand, on obeying what you understand you won’t have time to waste on what you don’t understand.
God has given us this book for a reason and his rules are for a reason. And that is because he loves us and cares for us. When he says a certain behaviour is sin he is trying to protect us from the consequences of that sin. And so when God says the act of sexual intimacy is reserved for marriage it isn’t because he’s a spoil sport it’s because he is protecting us. And if you don’t believe that then talk to the woman who ends up pregnant and deserted or to the person who contracts aids because they were sexually active outside marriage or worse because their spouse had cheated on them.
When God says do not hate understand he’s protecting us from what hate will do to us not just to the person we hate. We’ve been down this path before, we don’t forgive for the person who has done us wrong, in many cases they couldn’t care less if we forgave them or not, we forgive for ourselves, because forgiveness sets us free from past hurts.
But this is only relevant to your life if you read it. If it sits on a bookshelf or the living room coffee table and just collects dust it’s not doing you or anyone else any good. The truth is in here.
And as we read the Gospels we discover that Jesus was the fulfilment of that the word of truth, all of the Old Testament points to his coming and much of the New Testament points to his return. When Jesus said “I am the truth” he was saying that he was the truth that had already been revealed to the people of Israel, the truth that had been promised in the word of God, which is why we are told in John 1:1 In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. Which leads to our next point.
2) There is the Person of Truth And it became apparent that mankind was not interested in reading the truth or hearing the truth. And so it became evident that people were choosing to exercise their free will and to ignore the truth. And because of that decision and because God loved us so much, he made the ultimate sacrifice and that was to send his Son, John 3:16 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
What’s that got to do with truth? Well Jesus said John 14:6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” Jesus said he was “The Truth” not “A Truth” not one truth. And I know it sounds dogmatic but it is a characteristic of truth to be dogmatic. We know if we drop things they will fall, why? Because gravity’s not just a good idea it is the law. It is a truth and we can be dogmatic about it.
And does it make Jesus the truth simply because Jesus said he was the truth? After all when Richard Nixon accepted the nomination for President he said “Let us begin by committing ourselves to the truth—to see it like it is, and tell it like it is—to find the truth, to speak the truth, and to live the truth.” And that didn’t mean anything.
CS Lewis a Christian writer from the last century said that because of Jesus’ claims to be God that he could only be viewed one of three ways: As a liar, as a lunatic or as Lord.
And so if Jesus said he was God and he wasn’t and he knew he wasn’t then he was a liar. And not only was he a liar but he was willing to die for his lies. Worse than that he would have been demonic because he claimed to be the only way to heaven and if he wasn’t then he has lead countless generations of people away from God with his lies. But there is nothing in the scriptures that would lead us to believe that he was a liar. There is nothing in his life, his actions or his teachings that would make us doubt his word.
Or maybe Jesus said he was God and he wasn’t but he thought he was. In which case he would be a lunatic. Kind of like the guy who finished up with his psychiatrist and the Dr. said, “You’re cured, how do you feel?” to which the patient responded “Terrible, when I came here I was Napoleon Bonaparte the emperor of France, now I am a nobody.” CS Lewis says that making the statement that you were God in a society as fiercely monotheistic as the Jews were would be the same as claiming you were a poached egg. And again there doesn’t appear to be any evidence in Jesus life or teachings that he was a lunatic. No other delusions, he doesn’t behave like a mad man.
Sherlock Holmes said “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” And so if Jesus Christ isn’t a liar and he isn’t a lunatic than the only other answer is that he is exactly who he claimed to be and that is Lord, the way the truth and the life. And if that is who he is, then we need to examine what that means in our lives. CS Lewis said “You can shut Him up for a fool or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us.”
What place does the person of truth occupy in your life? Jesus said “I am the truth” but that is irrelevant to you unless he is the truth in your life.
3) There is a Spirit of Truth I think this is one of the great promises of the Bible, because not only does God give us the word of truth, not only did he come himself as the person of truth but he’s still with us. People say, “Denn I can’t live the Christian life, I can’t follow the truth as laid down in the word of God. It would be so much easier if Jesus was right here with me, and when I needed to have help doing what I know I should do he would be there for me.”
I know, and that’s alright to feel that way because the apostles felt the same way. When Jesus told the apostles that he would have to leave them they panicked, but he reassured them in John 15:26 “But I will send you the Advocate—the Spirit of truth”
And in the very next chapter Jesus defined what the spirit would do when he arrived, John 16:13 “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.” And that promise is as real as it was 2000 years ago. We don’t have to do it alone. He didn’t just say “Hey, this is what I expect of you, you are on your own let me know how it turns out.” We live like that but that isn’t how it’s supposed to be. He didn’t leave us without direction.
So as Christians when we ask “What is truth” we have a threefold test for truth, the Word of God, the Son of God and the Spirit of God, and there will never be a conflict between the three after all truth does not contradict truth.
The truth is out there, but the question this morning is this Is the truth in here? And how does that happen? John wrote in
John 1:12-13 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn! This is not a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan—this rebirth comes from God.
But it’s more than simply head knowledge; it has to be heart knowledge as well.
