Finding Truth

What is truth?

Give a definition: Something which is in accordance with fact or reality. Expand

Why speak on truth? The world has lost sight of truth, it is like it has chosen to avoid it at all costs as if to bury its head in the sand even though truth is staring them in the face.

Truth is unavoidably present through the person of Jesus and He has the power to impact you and me. Jesus said, you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.

This statement is the foundation of of this series on truth. You will hear it many times. Why it is important… We need to be set free.

They say truth is stranger than fiction. In fact that line was used in Rob Hunter’s book that I’ve just finished reading. Explain about his story… almost unbelievable. Could that really have happened? Surely it was made up?

The Bible contains many stories that despite being true are beyond our wildest imagination and fit the ‘stranger than fiction’ category.

Creation account in Gen 1-3

Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah.

Jesus going to the cross

What is it about God’s truth contained in these stories that is stranger than fiction? I guess we have to agree that God is far more creative, powerful and stranger than any man-made concepts or imaginations could ever be. His truth confounds us and he has more in store for us to discover that will be beyond our wildest dreams. God’s truth is certainly outside of man’s ability to conceive.

Pilate and Jesus

Read “You are a king, then!” said Pilate.

Truth stared Pilate in the face.

Read “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.”

38 “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.

Pilate it trying to figure out who Jesus is. So when Jesus agrees that he is a king, he goes on to explain kingship, his kingdom is defined by truth.

I wonder what Pilate was thinking? He appears to dismiss Jesus’ comment by stating, ‘What is truth?’ Either Pilate was being sarcastic or it was a genuine question.

The New International Version. (2011). (). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Pilate was in a position of power, or so he thought, and to have someone in custody claim to be a king with a direct line to truth may have been a bit too much for his pride. What is the good of truth when you are a captive of mine? Does truth really matter if you have lost your rights?

Then again maybe Pilate was so used to perverting the course of justice to suit his own needs that truth to him was but a joke. He had the power to play with truth. He made truth happen.

Yet again Pilate may have seen so much misuse of power and injustice that his conscience was now affected and this was a cry for reality.

Regardless Pilate saw no cause to punish Jesus for teaching the truth.

Yet Jesus was killed for telling the truth.

The world we live in and truth

We live in a crazy world that seems to be getting crazier each day.

Loving and caring for others has been replaced by materialistic selfishness, Biblical morality with unbridled permissiveness and truth with relativism.

This has not happened by chance as if it is the inevitable result of a world that is changing. This is the deliberate agenda of those who despise and reject the truth and seek to implement their own humanistic and atheistic beliefs.

The irony is that in countries where we have fought so hard to secure our freedom to live and believe as we wish we now find Christianity being hunted and silenced. Consequently weak-minded Christians have become apologetic of the truth and succumbed to the pressure of humanistic ideology. Whereas in countries where Christianity has been outlawed and suppressed for years you find the Christians unashamedly committed to the cause of Christ resulting in massive growth.

It is as if the freedom

Where did it all begin

Where did it all begin

From the beginning of time the enemy of God, the devil, has been intent on using humans to reject the very one who lovingly created them in his own image.

Adam and Eve chose to reject God

Sin and the rejection of God entered the human heart.

The bible says every person has enmity in their heart towards God and therefore need’s God’s saving grace to set them free from the chains of sin and eternal death. If we believe in this truth we shall be set free.

This includes you, me and every person that walks the face of the earth including those who are trying the hardest to rid the world of Christianity.

Without the knowledge of the truth and God’s saving grace we remain as enemies of God and his purposes.

Despite the fact that the saving truth of Jesus is at our fingertips the bible says in , ‘They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator’

Read . Put on screen.

The truth that comes from God is balanced, right, good, wholesome, it makes common sense and it works. It makes people happy. Give example

You see to reject truth is to reject God. No wonder the very character of those who reject God the

Nature of Truth

Truth has an eternal aspect to it. If it is true now it also must have been true yesterday and tomorrow. Already we are heading outside of the realm of mankind. Only an eternal being can hold truth and be truth.

Truth originates with God. (NIV)

5 Guide me in your truth and teach me,

for you are God my Savior,

and my hope is in you all day long.

Truth is also an aspect of God’s character… He is faithful and reliable. He shows justice and mercy.

Do you realise that God’s character can be your character? We can reflect the nature of God. God takes delight in us when we reflect his attributes, of course Jesus does this when he lives within us.

Lets go back to our theme verse...

If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. (8:31-32)

To hold to the teachings of Jesus means to...

Believe and keep on believing. Faith continues on past the time you first trusted. You can’t just taste truth of Jesus and then think that is all you need. Keep eating and drinking… Hold, continuous, to my teaching Jesus said.

Jesus hears the voice of the Father and speaks what the Father desires… His will and heart (8:28)

Jesus’ teaching causes us to know the truth… about God, Jesus as the Son, about our sin and its consequences of eternal death, if fact all that is necessary for salvation.

The world and its philosophical teaching may condemn Jesus’ teaching as crazy yet Jesus teaching aligns perfectly with the will and character of God and is therefore unfailingly true.

Most importantly for us this knowledge of the truth brings freedom from slavery to sin and death.

Encourage people to hang on to the truth that is in the Word of God.

Can this freedom be ours, yours?

God’s intention was that we would be free people able to choose wisely and right. Yet because of the curse of sin we are not only held captive by our own sin but we are often held captive by other people’s greed and selfishness. Consider the history of taking other people captive in our world. Expand.

Jesus’ words of freedom to us are broader than freedom from sin. Remember what Jesus said when he returned from his temptation in the wilderness,

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free,

19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Explain this passage.

Jesus wants to set us free from slavery to sin, slavery to others and slavery even to our own thinking.

It is a beautiful picture to see someone set free… describe.

When Jesus lives on the inside he then has the licence to completely free us. To know the truth is to know Jesus and to know Jesus is to have him reigning on the inside of our lives.

Pray