Sermon Tone Analysis

Grace, mercy, and peace be yours from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth.

Amen.

Oops

The truth when it comes out of darkness scares us and it rightfully should!

The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth when it comes out of darkness scares us and it should!

The truth of who we are!

Maybe it’s the truth of what the scale says or the cholesterol numbers or blood pressure.

Maybe it’s the truth that are you are no longer 29 and haven’t been for a long time (at least 5 almost 6 years).

The truth of who we are when it comes out of the darkness and comes into the light scares us.

The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth scares us when it comes out of the darkness and points out who we really are…more then our health and age.

It’s more than that…it’s a scary reality when the truth hits us between our eyes…that we are by nature spiritually blind, dead, and enemies of God.

Ugh!

It’s this Truth brings fear and trembling.

And the fear of truth has brought into question, “what is truth?”

A question that has been asked for quite a long time.

The meaning of truth is put up for grabs in the world.

Is there such thing as Absolute Truth?

One might ask.

And if we say yes, we can be branded as mean.

The measuring stick of truth we’d rather have brandished against someone else.

Truth causes fear!

There’s a man in Scripture that pointed this out!

King David and his lustful thoughts turned into at least one wild night with Bathsheba and maybe even a full-blown affair.

She becomes pregnant, which causes fear to David (if the truth comes out what would people think of him?)

He calls home her husband, Uriah to spend time with his wife, but he didn’t spend any time with her and David quickly has Uriah killed.

In noble-gesture David takes the grieving war-widow in as one of his wives.

David is hoping that no one knows the truth about what happened...

There is one that does…God does.

God knows David’s truth that causes David much fear.

And God sent Nathan to point out to David the truth.

Yet, as Nathan tells the story, David doesn’t see the truth, David sees an evil man who took the poor man’s ewe lamb for himself.

David wants justice..the truth of this man needs to come out.

David cries out, “As the Lord God lives, the man who has done this deserves to die!”

And then the truth comes out as Nathan looks at David, “You are the man.”

David heard the truth from another human being.

This Truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth convicted David.

This was God’s conviction.

He for awhile hid the truth.

He didn’t want anybody to find out about the truth.

Yet God knew it, it convicted David!

The Spirit of Truth convicted David of his Sin.

He was led by this Spirit to say, “I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me.”

Yet for awhile David didn’t let the truth come out.

Perhaps he had a hard time accepting any form of Absolute Truth himself.

Perhaps he even asked what is truth?

And it’s a question we ask today.

We wonder what the truth is in the government - from Watergate to Benghazi to everything in between.

There are scandals in the church - from sexual transgressions to the embezzlement of funds.

Stung by leaders falling into business profiteering and money laundering.

Stung by educational systems - bullying run rampant along with other types of violence.

And not to mention the sports world with Performance-enhancing drugs and and Deflategate!

No wonder people become skeptics to the truth.

No wonder people say that truth is what it is to you, and I may see it differently.

So we ask the question, “What is truth?”

Much the same way as the Pilate did to Jesus.

Yet as The Spirit of Truth is sent, isn’t trying to just get you to say “It happened this way,” or “I’m telling the truth.”

This Spirit of Truth testifies and points to the Word, revealing that God’s Word is truth, that Father is truth, the Son is Truth, and the Spirit is truth.

God not only knows the truth…he embodies the truth.

He speaks His Word of Truth and it is truth, whole truth and nothing but the truth.

And this truth is reality and that reality hits David!

It pointed out the truth to David.

The Same Spirit of Truth who came to David, comes to convict the “World concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.”

You and I can identify with David.

We are afraid when the truth comes out of the Darkness.

We would prefer it to stay hidden…brushed under the rug, shoved in the closet, put into the dark recesses of the basement or attic.

We make good stories to protect our reputation.

We actually consider ourselves better than the unbelieving sinner who exchanges the truth of God for a lie.

We may accept the truth that God created the heavens and the earth, that he ascended into heaven.

That truth doesn’t hurt us.

The truth that exposes us and makes us vulnerable before the Holy One - we don’t want to address it.

This truth scares us.

We utter on our lips, “there are people who do worse then me.”

The thing is the Spirit of Truth comes into your life and He exposes the Truth.

It pierces your darkness and brings the hidden things to light.

He brings the ugliness of the truth to light.

He brings the truth the scares you into the open.

The Spirit of Truth says, “You are the man!

You, you are the one with the secret sins - no matter the secret whether it be sexual, financial, with alcohol, or other great shame and vice.

You are the man!

It’s not the one that shows up on the newspaper or the convicted felon.

It’s you!

You are the one with sickening the truth that lives inside of you.

Aha!

It’s a truth that scares us!

And yet there is another truth - A beautiful truth - that is revealed by the Spirit of Truth!

This truth is something that we do not have to be scare of.

St. John reveals Jesus’ Words:

26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.

He will bear witness about Jesus..and his work of righteousness.

The Spirit convicts the world also of righteousness.

It’s a conviction based on the conviction that Jesus Christ had.

Instead of you bearing the brunt of being “the man” God the Father pointed to Jesus and said, “You are the Man.”

For the bloody death of Christ on the cross delivers to you righteousness.

The bloody death of Jesus on the cross exchanges your ugly scary truth of being a sinner…to receiving a truth, for more beautiful, far more safe than you can imagine, a truth that despite the truth that you are sinner, God is for us!

This is God’s reality for you!

God is true to His Word, His Word of promise that He would send a Savior to take the World’s Sins away.

He did that for you.

Jesus died for you, Jesus rose for you.

Jesus reigns for you.

Jesus even not is interceding on God’s right hand for you.