WHAT IS TRUTH?

John 18:33 - 38a

King James Version (Chapter 18)

33 Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews? 34 Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me? 35 Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done? 36 Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence. 37 Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. 38 Pilate saith unto him, What is truth?

WHAT IS TRUTH?

The goal of this message, What Is

Truth?, is to understand the ways in

which truth is being “put to death” in

our culture— where decisions are now

being made based on feelings. And it

will explain why it is so crucial for

believers as the people of God to be

people of truth who are not ashamed

to proclaim the Gospel and live boldly

for Jesus Christ, the standard and

embodiment of truth.

Today we are witnessing the “death

rattle” of truth. It’s as if truth were

lying on a hospital bed on life support.

Gasping with each inhale and

struggling with each exhale, truth’s

strength is diminishing before our

very eyes. We stand there watching,

waiting and wondering if truth will

somehow pull through. Because after

all, our culture has already proclaimed

that truth is dead. The demise of

truth in our day has led to a

breakdown in our cultural immune

system. The devastating confusion

that has taken place as truth is being

put to death is seen in at least six very

critical areas.

1. There is psychological confusion.

People’s mental trajectory is off

because there is no truth to define it.

The result is that no one can come up

with any answers to the problems

that haunt the human psyche. 2. There

is also philosophical confusion as

people doodle with ideas and theories

that take us nowhere. The Bible reads

in 2 Timothy 3:7  Ever learning, and

never able to come to the knowledge

of the truth. It’s amazing how dumb

the educated among us are becoming

as they stand at the graveside of truth.

3. We also have scientific confusion.

Paul told Timothy to avoid “the

opposing arguments of what is falsely

called ‘knowledge’” or science (1

Timothy 6:20). Today scientists are

revered as the repositories of reliable

information. But instead of defining

themselves as discoverers of truth,

they want to be determiners of truth,

only to find themselves having to

reverse it. * 4. Another area of vast

confusion is entertainment. The talk

shows pour out babble by the hour, as

confused people lead a confused

audience in endless discussions of

everyone’s opinions. You don’t know

who to believe, who to listen to or

who to follow. 5. There is also mass

communicative confusion today,

especially on social media. Everybody

has thoughts and wants to share

them. So, you find yourself following

and being followed, friending and

being unfriended, because truth is

dead on social media. The Bible says

of these people, “Professing to be

wise, they became fools” (Romans

1:22). 6. Finally, and most

devastatingly, we are living in a day of

spiritual confusion. We have “crickets”

in the pulpit chirping noises without

biblical truth or clarity. Given all this

confusion, what our nation needs

most right now is a return to Christian

character and kingdom values. But to

do this, we have to start building at the

foundation where values are formed,

and that foundation is truth. Without

this, Christian character and kingdom

values carry about as much weight and consistency as the wind. So let’s

start with the question of the ages,

which Pontius Pilate asked Jesus

WHAT IS TRUTH?

SERMON POINTS:

1. THE WORLD IS ALWAYS PUTTING TRUTH ON TRIAL

(V. 28 - 32, 33A FOR THE SETTING)

28  Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment: and it was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the passover. 

29  Pilate then went out unto them, and said, What accusation bring ye against this man? 

30  They answered and said unto him, If he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him up unto thee. 

31  Then said Pilate unto them, Take ye him, and judge him according to your law. The Jews therefore said unto him, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death: 

32  That the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spake, signifying what death he should die. 

My Kingdom Is Not of This World

33  Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again,

• Truth will always be up for debate

among people who think they are

qualified to decide what is and isn’t true.

• Mankind’s feeble attempts to define

truth have taken many forms

throughout history. Three of the most popular today are rationalism,

pragmatism and relativism. º

Rationalism says that truth is only

what you can logically and

intellectually perceive. Truth is that

which your mind can know and makes

sense to you. This is the view of many

in the academic, learned world. º

Pragmatism defines truth in terms of

what works. So if something works for

you today, that’s truth. But if

something else works tomorrow, then

truth changes. º

Relativism and post-modernism both

identify truth according to the way

reality is viewed by each person

(relativism), or even how each person

would prefer to view it (post-

modernism). We hear these views

today being expressed as “my truth”

and “your truth”—and if your truth

conflicts with mine, then I am free to ignore yours.

• This is so because truth is a Person,

not a philosophy or proposition.

THE WORLD IS ALWAYS PUTTING TRUTH ON TRIAL

2. TRUTH EXISTS DESPITE THE WORLD’S DENIALS (V. 33B–37)

33B and called Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews? 

34  Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me? 

35  Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done? 

36  Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence. 

37  Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. 

• Truth is that absolute standard by

which reality is measured, no matter

how we feel about it.

• Because truth is absolute, it is the

same in every generation and every culture.

• Truth is a powerful force that can set

people free from the lies of the devil

(John 8:32) And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. 

TRUTH EXISTS DESPITE THE WORLD’S DENIALS

3. THE SOURCE OF TRUTH IS FOUND OUTSIDE OF HUMAN IDEAS AND OPINIONS (V. 38)

38  Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all. 

The contamination of sin has rendered

human beings incapable of

discovering truth on their own.

• We also have an enemy, Satan, who

deals in lies and seeks to blind people

to the truth.

• The only reliable source of truth is

God’s eternal Word.

• So the question on any subject is,

What has God said about it?

The world of Jesus’ day was under the

influence of Geek philosophy

articulated by Socrates, Plato, Aristotle

and their students—a world in which

people worshiped the philosophers’ “cleverness of speech” (1 Corinthians

1:17) For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. 

The Greeks [Gentiles] searched for

wisdom (v. 22), Paul went on to

explain, but the problem with the

human-centered wisdom of that day

(and our day) was that the Gentiles

considered the preaching of the cross

as “foolishness” (v. 23). You need to

read Paul’s sermon on Mars Hill in

Athens and its aftermath (Acts 17:16-

34) for a perfect example of where the

prevailing wisdom of Jesus’ and Paul’s

day laid. The Romans didn’t care what

the people they ruled believed, as

long as they were willing to toss a

pinch of incense into the fire once a

year and declare, “Caesar is Lord,”

which Jews and Believers could not

do. That’s why the Jews were so vexing to their Roman rulers like Pilate. Pilate was being sarcastic when he said unto Jesus, “I am not a Jew, am I?” (John 18:35).

This sermon will help us discern

between the distortions and lies of

our secularized, cancel culture and the

truth of God’s Word that never

changes. We should realize that the

source of all truth is not in anyone or

anything here on earth, but in the

perfect, eternal and sinless character

of our God, and made flesh for us in

the person of Jesus Christ.

“As our culture descends into even

greater chaos with each passing day,

it is high time for those of us who

name the name of Jesus Christ to

return to the truth.”

“What in the world is truth? It’s hard to

know if you have it if you don’t know

what it is, or who it is, and where it originates.”

“Truth is an objective standard that is

absolute in its origin.”

“Today, we’ve got people walking

around feeling who they are, and

abandoning any objective standard of truth.”

“If you want perfect truth, it must

come from a perfect source, who is

God and God alone. Everything else is guesswork.”

THE SOURCE OF TRUTH IS FOUND OUTSIDE OF HUMAN IDEAS AND OPINIONS

Judge 17:6  In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes. 

Proverbs 21:2  Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD pondereth the hearts.