"What is Truth?"

Intro

Good Evening and WELCOME TO CAMP!

I cannot believe that we are all finally here! We’ve done the fundraising, we’ve been on the stinky van. We’ve survived our first dinner experience here and we are about to go on the ride of our lives as we discover what God has for us this week.

This camp is special to me, because this is the camp where I gave God my future back in 2008. I said to God that he could have me and use me for whatever He wanted. Then, a few years go by and I started dating this girl. Literally as soon as we started “talking” this girl told me that she hated God, and as the good christ follower I was at the time, I said “huh” and kept dating her.

EVERYONE SAY: Bad Idea!

Well at camp THAT year, we were at Carin Uni and I remember God showing me that this Girl and I were not compatible, at all. So I got on my hands and knees and begged God to show himself to Liz so that she would be able to know HIM. HE DID! She started getting closer with the LORD, in a much more storied, and round about way I did as well and then we got Married!

This is my wife LIZ.

Then we had a baby!

That’s my Family, I grew up a missionaries kid in Aus, and I’ve been in youth ministry for 6ish years and I’ve loved it and I can’t believe that I get to do this now. I get to share with you some of the truth out of Gods word!

Tonight I am going to ask everyone to turn to the book of John chapter 18 verse 37. If you have an app, it’s easy! If you have a paper bible, John is in the Gospels, Matthew - Mark - Luke - John Big number 18 little number 37.

Tonight, in keeping with the theme we have for the week we are going to be answering the Question:

How can I find Truth in this world?

You see, finding truth is something that the human civilization has been struggling with for since forever. All the way back in ancient Greece you had people trying to determine who and what was the truth. You had people like Socrates, and Plato (Ancient Greece). You had Confucius, you had Karl Marx plus almost every leader of every country since forever, all in the pursuit of finding Truth and the best possible path forward for humanity. These people would literally go full Pooh Bear and sit and “ponder ponder ponder” until they thought they had a good idea and then they would try it and it wouldn’t work out so well, or their idea made others angry so they were burned at the stake.

Today, truth finding is still alive and well. In fact, instead of a few intellectuals having a go, this “Ultimate Truth” finding situation is one that has now been pushed onto the masses. According to the world, and by that I mean the “powers that be” the influencers of our culture, according to them you are the only person in your life that is capable of finding your truth.

This idea of you finding the truth that works for you is an idea that is both somewhat new, and very confusing.

Who here has heard of the term “Post Modern”?

Post Modern

That was a term used to delineate our current cultural period, and well as a mess of other things like music, thought, architecture and the like. It’s basically a nerdy term so people can feel like they know what they are talking about.

Well you, Gen Z and depending on who you talk to, we have a few Gen Alpha’s either here or on their way, you are on your way to entering a world that is no longer

We are no longer Post Modern but now:

Post Truth

All through History, human kind has looked to an outside authority to determine what Absolute truth was. Of course you’d still have a personal truth of “i don’t like fish” or “The color purple isn’t a great color”. But you would, look to religion, or the Government or a leader of some kind for an Absolute truth that you could tie yourself too. This truth would be the basis of your identity and all the rest of it. A really good example is in the 60’s, the culture influencers of the time, said that a

Woman had to be a good house wife

60’s Ad

Which is a mess and I am really excited to talk about that issue specifically on Wednesday night, but ladies from that era built their identity based on this absolute truth… Men did as well because they had a standard to hit… Big house, car, Job....

So, all through history, we’ve always looked OUTSIDE ourselves for truth and purpose. Now, in a “Post Truth” society we are being encouraged to “look inside” for truth. Your truth is going to be a bit different to mine. Theoretically, we could end up with 350+ truths in this room and none of them would match up.

The world is telling you that this is good, and better and necessary for the development of human kind. But all i’ve seen it do is breed confusion. All i’ve seen it do is make life harder. Because instead of relying on something bigger and better than yourself for stability and reasoning, you are looking inside and trying to selfishly figure out how you tick and what your purpose on this earth should be.

Then comes the issue of “What happens if you pick the wrong truth that others don’t like, or it’s just wrong. What if, your truth doesn’t line up with the ones your friends and family pick?”

This week we are going to be discussing how we can have assurance of Absolute Truth to rest in that we might be able to find our true identity, as well as our purpose in this world.

Tonight we are going to have a look at an interrogation that had the mission to try and locate truth, that took place 2000ish years ago between Jesus and Pilate.

Before I go any further here tonight I want to ask you all a favor. So everyone look up here just for a moment.

Go out of your way this week to learn everything you can about God, so you can make an informed decision

I’m not going to presume that you all believe or are saved. In fact, some of you are only in here because your crush was going. But I need you to at least learn as much as you can, I’d hate for you to not believe because you didn’t have all the facts. Make an informed decision.

That being said. Let’s tuck into God’s word this evening.

John 18:37–38 ESV

Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him.

To set the stage here for a moment. This scene takes place right before Jesus is Crucified, literally on Good Friday Morning. Jesus the night before had been arrested becuse Judas betrayed him. Even though this took place 2000 years ago, the romans actually had a complex system of laws and proceedings in law a lot like we do today. So when the Jewish Religious leaders of the time took Jesus to Pilate, the Roman leader of the area, they accused him basically of claiming Kingship. Which would have been treason because there was already a king. Cesar. So Pilate’s job is to arraign Jesus to determine the his guilt and wether he is to be punished. That’s what the conversation that we just read was.. The interrogation between Jesus and Pilate to determine Jesus’ guilt.

The conversation starts with the beginning of V37 “So you are a king?” You see...

Pilate is searching for THE Truth

Pilate has been hearing about this Jesus. Everyone had, and Pilate is Roman in charge of this part of the world, so when the religious leaders of the time were getting grumpy about the things that Jesus was teaching, it’s safe to assume that Pilate was starting to hear about it as well. But now, instead of something to ponder alone, Pilate is face to face with Jesus… Jesus is in his office… and it’s his job to determine what the TRUTH of the matter is in this situation. So he questions Jesus, and they go back and forth with Pilate trying to determine what Jesus had done, and Jesus trying to tell Pilate that he is simply God’s messenger on this earth, and that he is of no threat to the Roman empire because his mission is not to overthrow.... Because Jesus and Pilate have been exchanging for a moment here, you can almost sense a bit of frustration and lack of patience in Pilate with this prompt “So you are a king?” In fact, if you read this verse in it’s original language, greek, you can see that Pilate is actually asking this question rhetorically. Pilate ASSUMES that Jesus is going to just say “yes”.

But Jesus does something so much more than that.

Jesus Points to God’s Truth

If you go back and read V33-35 in your dorms this evening, you’ll see the full exchange, but at this point, Jesus decides to just lay it out as plain as possible. So Jesus says:

John 18:37 (ESV)

...Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth....

Jesus says to Pilate You are saying that I am a king, but my purpose here on this earth is to bear witness to the truth. Jesus’ time here on earth was one of great purpose. Because to Bear witness is to tell people of something that is factually true. Something that is verifiable. It’s a term that you could use in a trial. When you are on the stand you are to be a witness. You are to tell the court of only the facts. The things that you saw. THAT IS IT.

This begs the question; What truth is Jesus bearing witness to?

Simply put; The Gospel.

If you go all the way back to Genesis, you’ll see that God created Man and Woman and everything else that you see all around you. Then you’ll see that the Man and the Woman did what God asked them not to do. They sinned. When they sinned, all the good that God created was broken., Our relationships with each other, who has had beef with a friend. Who has been emotionally wounded by another human? Our relationship with creation - look at all the natural disaster, and animal attacks and environmental disaster that we see all around us. And ultimately our relationship with God was broken. God used to walk on the earth with Adam and Eve. Now he can’t because he is HOLY and we are so much less. Holiness and sinfulness are like oil and water. They just don’t mix. So to fix that issue, God sent Jesus to die for our sin! That sin that you and I do needs payment. There is nothing that we can do on our own to pay for that sin. Because we are just sinners. But God sent the perfect, sin free Jesus to die to pay the sin, and defeat the enemy, satan, and rise again (That’s the best bit, dying is easy all other Gods are dead in their story, but Jesus lives!) so that we could have forgiveness, eternal life and a life more abundant here on earth. That’s the gospel! I think that people often relate God’s forgiveness with us saying sorry and God shrugging and going “Eh, no worries”. Like you get to the drive through at Starbucks you order Trenta (yes you can get a 30 oz Starbucks bevvi)Iced White Mocha with Sweet Cream Foam and Extra Caramel Drizzle and 2 Venti Gummy Bear Drinks and the person at the window says “Actually, we’ve decided to just to not charge you”. But that’s not what happens! What happens, is you order those monstrous drinks that aren’t even close to coffee and would have Luigi Bezzera (guy that popularized espresso in 1906) literally turning in his grave, you get to the window and the Barista says “That’ll be $37.65” and you’re sitting there without ANY MONEY. You are more broke than your youth pastors car and then another barista comes to the window and says “look, I know you can’t pay for this… I’m going to stay extra long on my shift tonight and have them take it out of my check, you are forgiven”.

Jesus isn’t ignoring your sin when you accept him. He is paying for it. By his death & resurrection)

That’s the gospel. It’s the solution to the worlds pain and suffering. It’s the solution to the worlds problems. It’s the solution to your problems (not that they’ll all go away) but you’ll have a partner that is willing to pay for your mistakes, has already paid for all your mistakes and walk with you as you do life.

Jesus’ reply to Pilate was “I’m not a king like you are suggesting. I am here to show people the solution for their pain, their suffering, and their hurt”.

In today’s world of truth searching and not much truth finding, I found the original Greek of this text very interesting. (This verse was originally penned in Ancient, common or Koinic Greek) is that

the word that was used for “Truth” here was

ἀλήθεια - alētheia

truth (quality) — conformity to reality or actuality; often with the implication of dependability.

The truth here is one that is directly to REALITY. Like I am on this stage and you are in your seat, the truth that Jesus is proclaiming is REAL

The truth here is dependable, it’s something to rely on to put all your hope in.

This truth also has LEGACY.

The truth of the gospel was one that has been talked about since the original sin in the garden of Eden. The whole bible up to this point is full of stories, of all types of human mess and God’s faithfulness to his people despite his people being a mess. At the end of most of those stories, there is always a promise of a saviour that is to come and pay for human sin once and for all so that there is no need for sacrifices, and so that we can be in community with Jesus forever.

What we can understand from this statement is that Jesus’ message of the Gospel is more than just a truth, it is THE TRUTH,

The Absolute truth, and

People who accept this truth are able to receive Truth from Jesus

Jesus finishes that sentence with

John 18:37 (ESV)

… Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

To be OF something means to belong to a club, a family or a group. You would be of a church or of a sports team. If I wanted to be hyper pretentiuous, I could introduce myself as Lord Timothy of the Trinkle family.

With that in mind, let’s have a look at what it is that Jesus is saying here, word by word...

Everyone: Everyone isn’t a trick, it’s literally everyone and anyone who is of “The Truth”. That means if you have accepted the Gospel, if you have confessed wioth your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord then you are of “The Truth” because you have accepted the Gospel.

When Jesus says Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice, we can from that statement take two really important things.

Only those who believe in Jesus are going to understand the Gospel and be able to learn from it and

Those who have accepted the gospel and believe in it are able to understand the truth that they receive from Jesus.

Let’s take a second to fully explain what that means. What Jesus is saying is that: in a world full of multiple confusing and conflicting truths, we are able to hear from the CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE. When we have a question about life, we can go to God’s word and learn from him. When we are having difficulty we can to to the Lord in prayer. When we are weathering the storms of life we can hold fast to the LORD above for direction and comfort. When all the people around us have to rely on whatever “Truth” they are able to think up, we are able to go to THE WAY THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE and receive absolute truth from God above!

Isn’t that incredible?

So you have Pilate and Jesus having this conversation… Pilate throws out a snarky rhetorical question, and Jesus replies with a boss answer of I’m not a king of a worldly kingdom, but my purpose on this earth is to share “The Truth” with everyone, and everyone that accepts this truth is able to hear my voice.

Let’s take a look at how Pilate responds to that -

John 18:38 ESV

Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him.

Pilate really was struggling with some attitude problems. After Jesus’ final response, Pilate throws out a “What is truth” then he goes out to the balcony and lets the angry mob know that he is unable to find any reason to punish Jesus.

You see, when Jesus told Pilate about the fact that he isn’t a king of the world, Pilate saw that there was no reason for the Roman empire to be nervous about a coup so Pilate put Jesus in the category of “Not my problem” and moved on.

“What is truth?” It’s a good question. It’s the one that we are trying to answer tonight. It’s the question that philosophers have been trying to answer since the dawn of time, and it’s a question that never had an answer that satisfied the human soul until Jesus came into the world.

What I find interesting, is that Jesus didn’t answer the question. Actually, the fact that it was a question that went unanswered is proof that it was a question dripping in sarcasm much like the rest of the exchange between Pilate and Jesus. It’s not like Jesus was unable to answer the question. Jesus is the answer. Jesus had been telling people about the gospel for the past 3 years! It’s not like Jesus was unwilling to answer the question! He had the same conversation with Nicodemus, a religious leader in the Jewish camp at the beginning of his ministry back in John chapter 3.

At the end of the day, Jesus is ab.le to see someone’s heart. Jesus was able to see that Pilate was not able to hear him because he simply did not want to. Pilate had Jesus brought in on charges, interrogated him, decided that the charges were bogus and honestly just wanted him out of his office. Pilate had a bunch of preconceived notions about who Jesus was and what he was about and Pilate decided, I think, that he didn’t want anything to do with Jesus before Jesus stepped foot in his office. Pilate was not able to hear the Truth of the Gospel, because he was too busy listening to wether or not Jesus was planning a military coup.

That brings us to the most important question of the evening.

What are you hearing?

Pilate was receiving words full of life, and hope and forgiveness of sin, but what he was hearing was nothing as special. Just answers to questions to help him finish his day at the office.

Before you answer that question, answer me this: Are you Pilate this evening?

Camp is literally the best, and youth pastors move heaven and earth to get you all here. The camp staff do all this work, the games are fun, you get to spend time with your friends, and it’s okay that the reason you came was because it’s literally the best part of summer, but my question is: Are you in here thinking that Jesus isn’t for you and you just need to survive these sermons 2 times a day to get to the best part of camp. Did you come in here assuming that you know what was going to be said, so because of that you sit politely and listen but not HEAR.

Guys! Pilate was in the room with JESUS! THE JESUS but he was unable to hear the gospel because he already dismissed it.

Don’t be a Pilate.

If you are in this room, and you think “Man, I got this, I believe, I’m a Christian going to heaven and I came for the fun, I don’t need these messages” Don’t fall into that trap. Because God is able to speak to us the best when we are open to hearing from him! All throughout scripture, God is able to speak to those who are trying to hear from him. Look even if you are a christian in the room tonight, you have some struggles you are facing that you need some answers on. You have friends maybe that are struggling through Abortion decisions, identity questions and substance use. You need to know how to handle those things with the utmost of wisdom and love. You need the Absolute Truth to fall back on so that you can confidently love your friends exactly like Jesus would. Maybe it’s not your friends, maybe your parents are having issues and you are trying to navigate that. You need The Truth, Jesus’ truth. Maybe it’s school, or even your identity and you don’t know who you are or what you are or what you’re expected to be because you have all these conflicts inside and outside and it’s all so hard you need to be able to anchor yourself to something and that something is the Truth of Jesus!

If that’s you, if you are a christian in this room, please pray that Jesus would open your heart to these messages and the small groups that you are going to go to and the conversations that you are going to have this week. DO NOT write this week off and just fun, yes have the fun but HEAR from Jesus the Absolute Truth for your lives, and when you get home, keep listening. Pray, read your bible, go to church! Please go to your church. Do not let your heart be hardened so that you cannot hear the Truth from Jesus. Lean in and hear what he is saying. In a world full of conflicting truth, hear from Jesus all you followers of Christ by assembling, praying and reading from God’s Word.

Some of you in here are still searching for the ultimate absolute truth. Some of you, you have your own truth, like everyone else, nothing to be ashamed of, but you have your truth and it’s hard. Maybe it’s not working, maybe you have decided you don’t like it. Maybe it’s causing conflict with your parents or friends or school. Maybe you find yourself anxious and confused. Maybe you just don’t know. If you are in that camp, don’t be Pilate, assuming that you don’t need Jesus. Won’t you trust Jesus this evening?

Trusting Jesus means that you are able to stop worrying about all that mess out in the world. It means you are no longer responsible for figuring yourself out, you are only responsible for listening to Jesus, the giver of Truth. Jesus, with His ultimate truth is ready to take your sin, help you defeat your habits, calm your anxiousness, uplift your depression and guide you through life on this earth, and then take you home to be with Jesus for all of eternity. To believe, all you need to do is confess with your mouth and believe in your heart and the bible says that you will be saved and once saved you can go on a journey of discovering God’s truth for your life. God’s identity for your life and God’s purpose for your life. Please, if you don’t know Jesus this evening, please wont you trust him. Believe it or not you need him. He loved you won’t you trust Jesus.

Camp is about decisions. Every night, we are going to have opportunity to make decisions as a group, and tonight we are going to make some decisions regarding wether or not we are going to allow ourselves to trade in the world’s idea of individual truth for God’s perfect idea of Absolute Truth.

I have your leaders standing at the back of the room because I don’t believe that this needs to be a spectacle. I don’t believe that it is something that needs to be a show.

If you are a christian in the room and you know that your heart is hardened to the truth of Jesus. You believe in him, you are going to be in heaven with him, but you know in your heart of hearts that you are like Pilate and you aren’t truely hearing and learning from Jesus Truth, or if you haven’t trusted Jesus yet and you know you need to do that. You know, beyond a shadow of a doubt that you would like to trade in all the confusing mess the world has to offer for something simple and concrete, for true acceptance as you are, pause for a second, everyone listen, if you would identify as LGBTQIA+, you’re loved by Jesus NOW. If you are having a sexual relationship with someone that you know you shouldn’t be, you’re loved by Jesus NOW. If you’ve been on a journey that included something hard like abuse, or deciet or abortion, you are loved now. Right now. Won’t you accept Jesus?

The question that we tasked ourselves with answering this evening was “How can we find truth in this world” and the answer is quite simple, believe in Jesus so that he is able to show you the Absolute Truth that comes from God Himself. The truth of the gospel, the truth of sin, the truth of life more abundant, and the truth of life eternal. Won’t you accept Jesus?

If you feel like you have some work to do in either group, your leaders are at the back now ready to talk. They aren’t going to judge, they aren’t going to call home and taddle, they aren’t going to do anything other than show you the love of Jesus Christ. Staff members are back there as well. you can talk to them.

I’m going to pray, as soon as I say AMEN if you have business that you need to do, let’s do it. I’m going to pray, say amen and I want you to just leave your seat and go to the back and find someone. Everyone stand so we can pray.

Prayer

END