The Truth about Truth

ILLUST - War of the Worlds

It left people asking, “What is true?”

Same question Pilate asked.

John 18:38 (ESV)

38 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 wondered:

Were the Jews right?

Were the Romans right?

Was the vision of his wife truth?

Was Jesus right? What is truth?

Same question today.

In a world of fake news, manipulative facts, and false narratives - what is truth?

Two main parts to answering this question in a way that makes a meaningful difference in our lives:

Knowing the truth

Living the truth

These two must go together.

If you know the truth but don’t live the truth, you are a fool.

If you try to live the truth but don’t really know the truth, you are ignorant.

Would you like to be ignorant or a fool?

Context of John 17

John 17:17 (ESV)

17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

The Reality of Truth

There is truth.

Jesus mentions it twice in this very short verse.

In this verse, truth is both something that is and something that does

At its core, truth is a correspondence to reality - what really is.

If someone states something other than what corresponds to reality, what do we call that person? Crazy.

I’d like to say there has been an assault on truth of late, but the reality is there has been an assault on truth since Genesis 3.

More recently - ‘postmodern turn’ - challenged the traditional philosophical understanding of truth.

Played out in culture as “That’s my truth” “What’s true for you is not what is true for me”

Experiential truth taken as authority (ontological truth) with no regard to it’s correspondence to reality.

ILLUST - Roz the pagan witch making up what God is like.

Beyond this, a society where everyone can state what is true is simply not livable.

The Person of Truth

Remember who is speaking here - Jesus. Jesus is not simply speaking out the word of God - Jesus IS the Word of God.

(Staying with John’s Gospel)

John 1:1 (ESV)

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:14 (ESV)

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Jesus, the Word, is the most complete revelation of God to us because he is God.

God is the Creator of all things, the sustainer of all things.

God does not simply say or do things that correspond with truth; instead, things are true because they correspond with God.

God is the source of Truth - not man.

ex. cogito ergo sum

John 14:6 (ESV)

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

Something is true when it aligns with how the Creator understands reality.

Truth is not a bunch of raw or random facts, it is a living person.

Relationship to truth as facts

speed limit sign - restricts me

Relationship with truth as a person

marriage relationship

This truth doesn’t simply limit me, it shapes me and fulfills me.

Adherence to raw facts is rote obedience found in religion, but adherence to truth as a person is a relationship.

We don’t bring facts about Christianity to people who don’t know Christ, we bring ourselves in relationship to show the relationship with God.

The Word of Truth

Because God IS truth, his word is truth.

The Word of God is true because it is the revelation of the God who is true.

OT and NT are true.

Psalm 19 (ESV)

A Psalm of David.

1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. 2 Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.

7 The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; 8 the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; 9 the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.

Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. 12 Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. 13 Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression. 14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

The Word of God is vital for us as believers because this Psalm points out that without the Bible there is truth about God that we can know (creation, etc.) but without the Bible we cannot know all of God’s truth.

It’s like the intro to a book - we need the rest of the story.

written over a period of 2,000 years, on three continents, by 40 different authors - shepherds, kings, prophets, fishermen - in three different languages and it all tells one grand unified story.

ILLUST - a lamp breaks in our house and our six kids will give us 10 different stories about how it broke.

If God is the source of all truth as the Creator, and His Word is truth, then the more I know about God and His Word, the moreI can align my life with reality.

The Purpose of Truth

17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

Sanctify - set apart - from what? Look at context

John 17:14–16 (ESV)

14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

Purpose of the truth of God’s Word is to

1. set us apart from the world even while we are in the world.

This means the truth of God’s Word acts as a corrective to the stories of truth the world offers.

We must always compare the world’s truth to God’s truth:

truth of friends

truth of a political party

truth of education system

truth of social media

Society may state all you need in order to finally live a fulfilled life, but God’s Word is the only diagnostic tool that can truly reveal what our souls lack.

World may say you identify one way but God’s Word sets the standard for relationships

Culture may claim to offer a solution to injustice, but only the righteous judge can change men’s hearts so we love each other equally

The facts of the Christian faith are being limited now more than ever, and it is not scheduled to get better anytime soon. It’s a good thing the truth of Christianity is not based on the dissemination of facts but on relationships!

ILLUST - it has been my experience that as we live IN the world and separate from the world, others see that we have a foundation on which to base the reality of our lives and they long for it.

2. Keep us from the evil one.

Satan’s tactic is rarely to shout the opposite of God’s Word; instead, he usually whispers a slight variation of what God has really said.

Satan operates less with bold lies and more with bent truths.

- a ship off a few degrees still lands at the wrong port.

When we hear the lies of Satan long enough (without the truth of God’s Word) we may begin to believe them as truth.

You’re not good enough

Things will never change - you always do this

You’re not pretty so you’re not wanted.

You’ll be alone

Nobody loves me - God says: I love you - John 3:16

I can’t continue like this - my grace is sufficient - 2 Cor 12:9

I don’t know what to do - I will direct your steps - Prov 3:5-6

I’m all alone - I will never leave you - Heb 13:5

No one understands me - Holy Spirit knows and prays on your behalf - Rom 8:26

Our Response to Truth

We said it was the fool who knows about the truth but does nothing about it. So, what is our response?

In the form of two questions:

Are you willing to give up ‘your truth’ for God’s truth?

Whatever the cost?

Is 66:2 - the one whom I look

Isaiah 66:2 (ESV)

2 All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.

Verb is nabat- not ra’a

“Esteem” / take note of not visual sight

Josiah:

2 Kings 22:8–13 (ESV)

8 And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it.

10 Then Shaphan the secretary told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it before the king. 11 When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes.

For great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.”

Ezra - hezekiah - do you respond to the word this way?

We allow the Word of God to shape us we do not shape it.

We sit under the Word we don’t speak over the Word.

What are some untruths you are holding that do not line up with God’s revealed Word?

I find that the issue is less the fact that we did not know we held onto lies and more the fact that we are unwilling to release them.

Lies we hold onto:

It’s about me

Isaiah 42:8 (ESV)

8 I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.

It’s ok. God will just forgive me again.

I’m not good enough.

God can’t use me.

Are you willing to look like a fool in order to live out the truth?

Matthew 21:23–27 (ESV)

23 And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” 24 Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. 25 The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?” And they discussed it among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 26 But if we say, ‘From man,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.” 27 So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

The fear of man stopped the church-going, religious people of Jesus’ day from pursuing and living out the truth.

The world is looking for truth but looking in all the wrong places

#3 book On NYT bestseller- Finding Me - self help

untamed book

The world needs the Church - you and me - people who know the Truth and live the truth in relationship with them - lovingly confronting the lies of the world and revealing the grace and truth of Christ.

You can’t do that if you 1. Don’t know the truth or 2. are unwilling to live the truth.

Love and truth are not mutually exclusive. In fact, love is often the best vehicle for truth.

John 18:37–38 (ESV)

37 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.” 38 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.

In a world of facts and fables, Jesus has come into the world to reveal the truth of God to us.

Just like he stood before Pilate 2000 years ago, he stands before you today - amidst the facts and fables the world offers, Jesus stands before you through God’s Word with the one Story that makes sense of your story.

Everyone who is of the truth listens to HIS voice.

How will you respond? Walk away? Or realign?