Freedom in the Light
Notes
Transcript
What is truth?
How would you answer that question? It is something that you and I deal with constantly, and yet when people are asked they often don’t have an answer. Do you?
What is truth?
Well, we think, let’s go to the dictionary. Sometimes dictionaries can be less than helpful. Merriam Webster - usually a goto source of definitions says this:
“TRUTH - the quality or state of being true.”
Well thanks, Noah. Noah Webster started that dictionary. Or perhaps we should blame the Merriam brothers, George and Charles. It’s not helpful.
And so our query remains,
What is TRUTH?
What is TRUTH?
How you answer this question will influence everything you do, because we all, whether we think we do or not, live by what we BELIEVE to be true.
We all live by what we believe to be true EVEN if what we believe is a lie.
So what we believe is important. But what’s even more important is what is TRUE.
We’ve been on this journey through the Gospel of John and we’re constantly seeing Jesus and the scribes and Pharisees at odds over the Law or in other words “What God really said.”
What God really said. Who was it that first asked that question? We can go all the way back, all the way back to the first book of the Bible, to Genesis. There we find the first man, Adam, and his wife Eve, and we’re told, “Now the serpent was more crafty than all the other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman,
“Did God actually say…”
(Genesis 3:1)
And that question haunts us to this day. “Did God actually say…”
Where do we go to find what God said. In our time we go to this book right here. This book is unique among all other books ever written. People freak out because there were multiple authors sharing that as a proof of the lack of credibility for the Bible. so let me give you some insights on the Bible.
66 distinct books - 39 Old Testament, 27 New Testament
Written over 1500 years
More than 40 authors from a variety of educational backgrounds. Military leaders, shepherds, philosophers, scholars, fishermen, doctors, rabbi, prime minister, king, court servant.
Composed in a variety of places and cultures.
Written in three languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and the common Greek
Written on three continents: Asia, Africa, and Europe
Variety of styles of writing: Poetry, historical narrative, song, romance, didactic treatise, personal response, memoirs, satire, biography, autobiography, law, prophecy, parable, allegory
The uniqueness of the Bible as we’ve shown here does not prove it is inspired. It does however cause us to pause when faced with its great continuity.
In 2007, Chris Harrison and a pastor friend determined to record all the connections throughout the Bible. They wanted to find a way to represent the sheer volume they found. What they created is really quite beautiful.
Each arc represents one of the 63,779 cross references found in the Bible. The color of the arc is determined by the distance between cross references. Along the bottom each chapter is represented by a bar, and the books alternate white and gray. The length of the bar is determined by the number of verses in the chapter, so you can see the long bar in the middle, that is Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible with 176 verses.
63,779 cross references in 66 books, written over 1500 years, 40+ different authors from all kinds of walks of life, all different kinds of social stature, all kinds of circumstances. AND THEY AGREE!
They agree in how they describe:
humankind - our origin, fall, redemption, earthly and eternal destiny
sin - its beginning, consequences, punishment in this world and the next.
Satan - the instigator of evil, the liar and murderer from the beginning, his war against God and against believers
Israel - her social and political development, idolatry, preservation and final destiny
the church - history from establishment to her glorification
salvation - its provision, according to the divine plan
repentence, faith, the life of the believer, prayer, the service of God.
the Holy Spirit - present at creation, pronouncing the last prayer of the Bible
God - forever the same, in his sovereignty, his eternality, his spirituality, his omnipotence, his uniqueness, his omniscience, his omnipresence, his holiness, his righteousness and his love
Jesus Christ - the person par excellence of all the written revelation.
Mission Woods is a church that seeks to not only read and study the Scriptures; it is also a church determined to do what it says.
That is what I always encourage anyone to be - to be like the Berean’s: “receiving the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things are so,” (Acts 17:11). We’re invited to test and approve the Scriptures.
And in our passage we have Jesus speaking to the Jews who had believed in Him, and he says, John 8:31
“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,…”
Whose word? Jesus’ Word. And Jesus’ Word is God’s Word. He has said this on numerous occasions thus far in John.
“My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.” (Jn 7:16)
What does it mean to “abide” in Christ’s word?
The term “abide” in the Greek goes beyond simple ideas of remaining or staying. Within John’s Gospel God’s presence is taken one step further than the Old Testament precedent: rather than God dwelling merely with his people, God and his people dwell with each other. When believers abide in Christ’s word, his word simultaneously abides in them — a reciprocal dynamic rather than a one directional obedience.
The consequence of this mutual indwelling is given to us in verse 32 which completes the sentence. John 8:31-32
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
So we’re living, dwelling in the Words of Jesus - living in his teaching, and his teaching lives in us. And what is the result?
…you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
So here’s what Jesus is saying, we live into what Jesus is teaching, we will know the truth and the truth will set us free. And we’re brought right back to the question we started with.
What is truth?
So let’s go back to definitions. This is what happened when I Googled the question, “What is truth?”
“Truth is the property of being in accord with fact or reality. At its core, a statement, belief, or idea is true when it matches how things actually are in the real world. It does not depend on personal feelings, popular opinion, or what someone wants to believe.”
Then there is the difference between objective and subjective truth:
Objective Truth: Facts that stay the same no matter who thinks or feels differently about them (e.g., water freezes at 32°F).
Subjective Truth: Personal preferences, feelings, or experiences that belong to an individual (e.g., "chocolate ice cream tastes best").
Here’s the challenge for us, when we speak of our faith as truth are we seeing it as an objective or subjective truth?
Is it fact? Or do we see it a a personal preference?
It makes a difference.
Let’s look at the central verses in our passage again:
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.
First of all we’re not talking about knowing ABOUT the truth.
There is a major difference between knowing about something and knowing something. You can know about skydiving without ever having experienced skydiving. You can see the difference.
The other point I want to make here is that there is a definite article there. Jesus is not speaking of truth in general,
He’s not speaking of knowing ABOUT it,
He’s talking about KNOWING the truth, and relating to it because the truth then turns around and sets you free!
Later in John, Jesus is quoted: John 14:6
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”
the way, the truth, the life.
This is about knowing — not knowing about, but KNOWING — Jesus, and knowing Him personally. He is the one who sets you free.
Sadly, like the Jews of the time, many of us respond that “we have never been enslaved to anyone,” and ask “How is that you say, ‘You will become free’?”
Here it is, John 8:34
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.
We all know it’s wrong to lie. Yet even Christians often habitually lie. We lie to ourselves, we lie to others; we don’t stand up for truth, much less take a stand for the truth.”
Jesus goes on: John 8:36
So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
Right here we get a clear insight of “the truth.” It’s not “WHAT is truth?” but “WHO is truth?” Jesus is “the truth” and it is Jesus who will set us free and as we continue reading we find out how.
Jesus concludes our passage with John 8:37-38
I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”
He points to those among them for how they have sought to kill him, as we’ve talked about from previous passages. Jesus healed on the Sabbath and the scribes and Pharisees sought to kill him for violating the Sabbath commandment on the sabbath no less!
Yet the clearest part of why this is so important is in that closing verse, “I speak what I have seen with my Father…” Jesus reveals the Father, as Paul wrote, “He is the image of the invisible God…”
This is what it boils down to. Each one of us must recognize our habit of seeking to define reality for ourselves which is in direct rebellion against God. Again, and again, and again, and again, in the Scriptures we see the people rebelling against God.
We see God’s Law as limiting our freedom. The Pharisees saw it as their power to hold over others, and as Jesus often pointed out, getting it wrong.
We MUST SEE the Pharisee in all of us that wants to judge others, to lift ourselves up, to show ourselves in the right and those who disagree in the wrong.
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Yet as we come to “abide” live in Jesus Word, to live as His disciples the Truth becomes apparent. We no longer see God’s Law as limiting, but freeing because it points us to God. Abiding in Jesus’ word we come to know Him and through Him know God, and God does free us.
God frees us to live the life we were created to live in the first place. In relationship with God - Father, Son, Holy Spirit - living for His glory.
Before closing, let me ask you What is it you need to be freed from? What sin has enslaved you? Anger? Lust? Greed?
Or perhaps it’s something less defined, What do you fear?
If you abide in Jesus’ word, you are turly his disciple, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.
That’s a promise you can hang your hat on. As God has from the beginning He is inviting us to live our lives in relationship. Yet we can’t do that if we aren’t living in His Word, knowing His word, following HIs Word.
Do you want to live life to the fullest? You’ve got to dig and live according to God’s word.
