I Am Truth
One afternoon a man came home from work to find total mayhem in his house. His three children were outside, still in their pajamas, playing in the mud, with empty food boxes and wrappers strewn all around the front yard.
The door of his wife’s car was open, as was the front door to the house. Proceeding into the entry, he found an even bigger mess. A lamp had been knocked over, and the throw rug was wadded against one wall. In the front room the TV was loudly blaring a cartoon channel, and the family room was strewn with toys and various items of clothing. In the kitchen, dishes filled the sink, breakfast food was spilled on the counter, dog food was spilled on the floor, a broken glass lay under the table, and a small pile of sand was spread by the back door.
He quickly headed up the stairs, stepping over toys and more piles of clothes, looking for his wife. He was worried she may be ill, or that something serious had happened.
He found her lounging in the bedroom, still curled in the bed in her pajamas, reading a novel. She looked up at him, smiled, and asked how his day went.
He looked at her bewildered and asked, “What happened here today?” She again smiled and answered, “You know everyday when you come home from work and ask me what in the world did I do today?” “YES” was his incredulous reply. She answered, “Well, today I didn’t do it.”
This shows that sometimes we learn truth the hard way.
Truth is one of those words that some believe, many question and others just outright deny it.
I hope today that as we examine the challenge Jesus faced with those who couldn’t see truth, that we will be challenged to see the truth and apply it to our own lives.
LETS PRAY!
“There is no such thing as absolute truth!” These are the first words that came out of one of my college professors mouth on the first day of class when I was at Kent many, many years ago. Basically what this professor was saying is that there is no right and wrong for everybody. What you believe is what is true.
Possibly many of us here squirm at the words of the professor, but there is more than likely a segment of people who take the professors statement as true.
I know this because statistics say that 3 out of 4 people outside the church don’t believe in absolute truth(there is right and wrong). That’s not the problem although. 2 out of 3 inside the Church don’t believe in absolute truth either.
For example, Story of being in Barbershop(there were four of us talking about truth and and the truth about God. I was the only one of four that said that Jesus Christ was only way to God even though we all professed to be Christians).
Many of us think because we believe it or don’t believe it that that changes the truth.
Let’s look at Jesus and how he faced challenges from some of the religious leaders regarding the truth. Please turn with me to John 8. The Pharisees and teachers of the law(religious leaders) were always questioning Jesus on all kinds of matters. Early in this chapter they had questioned Jesus about a woman caught in Adultery. Then they begin to question Jesus about himself. They think Jesus is talking about killing himself in verse 22 because he told them where I go you cannot come. Jesus has been telling them who he is all along and the religious leaders are struggling with understanding who he is. Jesus tells them in verse 42 “If God were your father you would love me, for I came from God and now am here.” They think that God is their Father and Jesus is saying if he really was then they would know who he was because he is of God. We get to verse 48 and the Jews are still confused. Verse 48 they say, aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon possessed?” Jesus responds by telling them plainly in verse 49 “I am not possessed by a demon. And he doesn’t even respond to being called a Samaritan because they could probably look at him and tell he wasn’t Samaritan. How would you feel if someone labeled you as something you were not ?
Jesus tells them in verse 51 I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death. This is interesting because they couldn’t even figure out his ethnicity and then he hits them with truth about never seeing death if they keep his word.
Jesus is telling us here that there is truth. There is truth about who he is. He was born a Jew, the Son of God. And by knowing him you never have to face death. Brothers and sisters either what Jesus is saying here is the truth or a lie. There is no middle ground.
Look at their response in verse 52 & 53 “Now we know that you are demon possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that if anyone keeps your word, he will never see death.” Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?”
The Religious leaders are now even more confused. Just because they can’t understand or figure out what Jesus is talking about they label him as demon possessed. They didn’t understand what true death was. Everyone has a physical death, but what Jesus was trying to tell them was that even though you will die physically in the same instance if you have trusted in him you will be more alive than ever before in the prescence of God. If you die physically without knowing him you would be considered spiritually dead because you would be separated from God forever. The Bible teaches that there is a second death. Revelation 20:14-15 says Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Also Jesus would have considered these Religious leaders dead even though they are walking and moving around because there is no True spiritual life in them. For Example, Some of us in here are dead and some alive.
Verse 54-55 state Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing, My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. 55 Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and keep his word.
Jesus sets the record straight on who really has God. He says they claim to know God, but they are liars because they don’t know him at all.
Jesus shows us here that belief doesn’t change truth. These people thought that God was their Father, but he wasn’t. This is no different than what we hear today concerning different religions and maybe some of you have said this. “We all worship the same God just in different ways.” Hogwash! Buddha isn’t God, Confuscuis isn’t God, Allah isn’t God, There is only one God and one mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus(I Timothy 2:5). John 14:6 Jesus said I am the way, the truth, and the life no one comes to the Father except through Jesus.
This is a hard message. WE will not say it arrogantly or with our noses in the air, but with love and compassion at the same time not compromising the message of truth.
There are a lot of lies out there. What We believe needs to be the truth. The next time you here someone say there are no absolute truths say what I told my college professor when he made that statement, "You say there are no absolute truths, but we are suppose to accept your statement as truth." All he could say is you got me with that one. What we believe must be the truth or your following a lie. Jesus is truth.
Verse 56 Your Father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day: he saw it and was glad.” Jesus why did you go and say that. Verse 57 You are not yet fifty years old, “and you have seen Abraham! They really think Jesus has flipped his lid now. They are thinking you have only been around on this earth no more than fifty years how have you seen Abraham? Don’t miss this verse! Verse 58 “ I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, before Abraham was born, I am!” With this statement you want to know what Jesus is telling them clearly. I am not only a man or just the Son of God, but I am God. You wanna know how I know this because this expression of I am the Jews would know this from Moses. Remember our Old Testament Scripture Exodus 3:1-15. What did God say to Moses when Moses asked him what should I say your name is if the Israelites ask who was sending me. God said “I am who I am” You know you are bad brother when you can just say I am who I am. Exodus 3:15 says God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, The Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob-has sent me to you.” This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.
This is why they wanted to stone Jesus after saying before Abraham was I AM. The Jews knew their history well but not well enough to know that the God of the Universe had come to them as a man in order to rescue them.
This Scripture also shows us that even when truth isn’t very clear to us it’s still the truth. The religious leaders couldn’t totally understand the truth that Jesus was giving, but you know what-it is still truth.
We may not understand exactly how God made the world, but it’s still truth. Or how God chooses to speak to us through Bible, it’s still truth. It may boggle your mind how God sent his Son to die for our sins on the cross and that being the only way we can know and live with God forever, it’s still the truth.
We’ve got three choices concerning the truth about Jesus. Either Jesus was a liar, a lunatic, or he is Lord. What would make him a liar is this. When he went around saying he was the Son of God and if he knew he really wasn’t the Son of God that would make him a liar. Choice#2 he was a lunatic he was this crazy dude that walked around babbling about being the Son of God, but was really out of his mind. But how do we account for his miracles and the disciples willingness to give up their lives for Jesus after his death. They would have known he was crazy!
Choice#3 He is Lord-This would mean his claim to be Savior of the world was without a doubt true.
If he was a liar or a lunatic then its OK if we ignore him. No response is necessary. If he is who he claimed to be we need to fall at his feet and call him Lord and God.
Jesus wants us to know him and acknowledge him for who he really is. HE loves us so much that he laid down his life on the cross, so that you and I could know and live the truth. Jesus said in John 8:32 You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. Lets Pray!
