Full of Truth

Intro:

John 1:14 NIV

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

A few things we learn or know from John here that are important for us to remember about who Jesus is

“The Word became flesh” means- becoming human

In His life then we :

Learn how God thinks

See a model of what we are to become, he shows us how to live and gives us the power to live that way

Jesus becomes the perfect sacrifice for all sins and his death satisfied God’s requirement for the removal of sin

Full of Grace and Truth

Here we are learning something about who God is- He is full of grace and truth

Recap- Grace via the slides

The conclusion of grace- because we have recieved grace upon grace we have seen the glory of God

What is Truth?

John 18:37–38 NIV

“You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” “What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him.

What is truth?

The answer to that found in some thing-its found in some one

“For this reason I was born and come into the world to bear witness to the truth”- John 18:37

Again in Jesus we see a revelation of who God is- He is truth- we learn what truth is through the testimony/witness of the life of Jesus

The Implications:

There is truth- truth that everyone should believe

Jesus is the key witness to the truth

Don’t be like Pilate when you hear the truth

There is truth:

“For this reason I came into the world to bear witness to THE TRUTH”

There is truth that exists outside this world

The world does not make this truth up, It doesn’t shape or change this truth

It is THE TRUTH, not truth for me and a different truth for you

A truth for all of us

Unchanging and absolute

There may have been a time when we didn’t need to proclaim this as part of the message, but not today

Today if you an affirmation of absolute truth might be met with accusations of being misguided

There is no God to give absoluteness to truth or if there is a God there is know way of knowing him and what he thinks.

Today if you an affirmation of absolute truth might be met with accusations of being intolerant or prejudicial against what others think

Truth has been defined in relative terms.

If you believe that the truth you see is binding on me then you are arrogant and intolerant

The view that the truth you see is not binding on me is the good and humble view

Truth is seen as the rotten root of bigotry, intolerance and prejudice

Relativism is seen as respectful, tolerant and peaceful

People are no longer thinking about an absolute truth that exist outside themselves

Instead they are trying to experience life to the full and calling that experience truth for them

Not absolute truth, just truth for themselves

In 1987 political philosopher Alan Bloom wrote a book entitled “The Closing of the American Mind” in the book Alan describes how deeply woven into the fabric of American life this view of truth has become- now mind you this was 35 years ago.

“There is one thing a professor can be absolutely certain of: almost every student entering the university believes, or says he believes, that truth is relative. If this belief is put to the test, one can count on the students' reaction: they will be uncomprehending. That any one should regard [relativism] as not self-evident astonishes them, as though he were calling into question 2 + 2 = 4. These are things you don't think about. The students' backgrounds are as various as America can provide. Some are religious, some atheists; some are to the Left, some to the Right; some intend to be scientists, some humanists or professionals or businessmen; some are poor, some rich. They are unified only in their relativism and in their allegiance to equality. And the two are related in a moral intention. The relativity of truth is not a theoretical insight but a moral postulate, the condition of a free society, or so they see it.”

A relativistic society is a moral society- to believe in an absolute truth is then considered immoral

This is us. The problem is that relativism is self contradictory and unbiblical

Relativism contradicts itself

If you say, "There is no absolute truth that everybody should believe," you contradict yourself, because you make a statement that you want people to believe, but the statement you make is that there are no statements everyone should believe.

This is the hidden agenda of relativism - it wants to relativize everybody else's claim to truth, but not its own.

It is the equivalent of saying “we absolutely reject absolutes!”

The self contradiction is a testimony to the fact that we can’t live without absolute truth

It’s no surprise then that relativism is unbiblical- John 18:37

John 18:37 NIV

“You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

John 14:6 NIV

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

There is truth- truth that exists outside of this world, that comes from God and gives meaning to this world

That truth is unchanging

Jesus is the Key Witness

Jesus is gone now and he has left us his Spirit in his place- that is crucial and we believe that

But Jesus that HE was born to bear witness- he is the key witness of THE TRUTH

So if we want to hear or see the witness that Jesus brought you have to go back to those years when he was here- the years of his incarnation, when he walked and talked and worked and died among men

How do we do that? You read the 4 gospels.

John Piper says- “the way you credit a witness is by listening long and hard to him to see if you sense that he is conning you or if he has the ring of truth. That’s what you must do with the gospels.”

Dr. E.V. Rieu was a scholar who translated both the ancient poet Homer and the four gospels from Greek into modern English. He was not committed to their spiritual content at the time.

But he said, "I got the deepest feeling that I possibly could have expected. It . . . changed me; my work changed me. And I came to the conclusion that these words bear the seal of . . . the Son of Man and God. And they're the Magna Carta of the human spirit"

In other words if you will go to the gospels as they stand in the Bible and listen earnestly and carefully and openly, with a willingness to do the truth if you see it, then the witness of the writers and the testimony of Jesus will prove to you their credibility.

“Reading with a willingness to do the truth if you see it”

This is where I think it is critically important that as we read we ask God to help us see the truth, as you watch what Jesus does and listen to what he says. As you think about his attitude.

That I think is very often not as black and white as we’d like it to be

I am not accusing but I want to caution us in that we don’t immediately run to the gospels find one word, action or attitude of Jesus, pull it out of context and turn it into the weapon of truth that we’d like to use against another

Don’t Be Like Pilate

Pilates response to Jesus is, “What is truth?”

Pilate today might so that I’m not included in the criticism of relativism because I don’t say that truth is relative and I don’t say that truth is absolute. All I say is I don’t know what truth is.

It may be relative

There may be an absolute truth

I don’t know- so I suspend judgement

Here is the thing we only suspend judgement in the areas that seem unimportant or troublesome to us

You probably won’t meet a person who has trouble believing in moral absolutes when he is punched in the nose

We tend to immediately believe that the aggressor is wrong/guilty

If a judge would say “not guilty because truth is relative and for him it was a good thing to punch you in the nose and you can’t put the burden of absolute truth on him- you would say that that judge is a bad judge.

You may say like Pilate “I don’t know”- but the truth is when your own personal interest are at stake you probably won’t act as though you don’t know what truth is.

We have very strong convictions when our life and property are at stake

In light of that we must realize how much is at stake in Jesus’ claim to bring truth.

It is much more than a matter of our earthly lives or possession- it is a matter of eternity- eternal life or eternal death

Jesus was not born to keep secret the truth of God. He was born and came into the world to bear witness to the truth, the unchanging absolute truth of God. Realize how much is at stake. Take up the gospel and read. And you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

John 8:32 NIV

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”