Born to Give Truth

If you are a fan of Lionel Messi or Argentina, congratulations. Aren’t you glad that you didn’t have to make the hopefully not difficult choice between Sunday’s service and their finals of the World Cup this morning? God kind of planned like that. But hopefully, when the choice is given in the days ahead, you will still choose Sunday morning service. I’m so thankful to be worshiping with all of you this morning, especially grateful for all the guests that are here.

Pastor, and the rest of you that are here, will be mentioned at the end. We’re so grateful that you’re worshiping with us. We want to ask for your prayers, especially for some very important upcoming meetings, notably our missions conference in Indiana. We’ll be leaving for it on the 28th. We’ll be traveling and driving from here, almost 15-16 of us, so we request your earnest prayers for that. Coming up in the next week, we are so grateful for God’s continued care and protection. I know so many of you have been sick, getting in and out of sickness. We’re so thankful for God’s healing and for keeping all of you from getting badly ill. It’s really bad out there with the flu outbreak and some COVID cases. We’re so grateful for God’s continued care and comfort in each one of your lives.

We’ve been going through this series “Born to Give” in the last couple of weeks. The first week we talked about the fact that Jesus was born to give us light. Last week, we discussed Jesus being born to give us adoption, to be known and to become children of God. This morning, we’ll be focusing on the fact that Jesus was born to give the truth to us. Let’s turn our Bibles this morning to the Gospel of John. I’ll read for you from 1:14 and then also from 1:17-18.

“The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only who came from the Father, full of grace and truth…For the law was given through Moses; Grace and Truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but God the one and only, who is at the father’s side, has made him known.”

I don’t need to stand before you this morning and tell you about how much of a post-truth culture and world we are living in. Every single day, things that are tried and true are being turned upside down. The message of Jesus is more relevant and more applicable than ever before, especially as it relates to absolute truth. I had a discussion this past week with one of my co-workers. She’s going through a college philosophy class, and one of the questions asked was, “How do you know the difference between right and wrong if there are no absolute truths in this world?” She isn’t a strong believer and asked how I would respond. I turned the question back to her.

In a world that does not accept absolute truth, right and wrong become whatever you feel like. Without belief in absolute truth, even basic notions of right and wrong can be lost. In fact, you will never be able to condemn anyone for any wrongdoing in this world if you don’t believe in absolute truth. Who says that murder is wrong? Who says that adultery is wrong? Who says that aborting children is wrong? Who says that this is wrong and that is wrong? When the foundations are taken away, when truth becomes relative to the mind and becomes something that can be shifted based upon what is popular in the culture, even the basic notions of right and wrong can go out the window. In the midst of that, I’m so grateful for God’s word that doesn’t change.

John 1:14 clearly tells us, “The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” My time this morning does not allow me to go into great detail about these beautiful verses in God’s word. The word, the Eternal Word, was with God from the beginning, and the Word was God, as stated in John 1:1. That same word that created everything became incarnate, became flesh. If you read this word in the original language, it is so beautiful. It is saying that God became flesh and did not just come and live with us. It actually says he made his Tabernacle among us. For the people who know anything about the Tabernacle of the Old Testament, you understand why God’s Holy Spirit chose that language. The Word that was eternal became incarnate and made flesh and made his Tabernacle among us. Do you know what Tabernacle means? God made his dwelling among us. The right translation here is, God’s presence is with us. It is here for a season only, just like the Tabernacle was moved from place to place, and God’s presence would also move along with the people of God as the Tabernacles moved. The God of the heavens now comes among the mortal men and makes his presence among us in the form of Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man.

Then John says, we have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father. He then tells us something so profound: He is full of grace and full of truth. Oh, full of grace and full of truth. The Holy Spirit could have easily said that the one and only Son came from the Father and he had grace and truth in him, or that he gives to us grace and truth. But he says to us something so profound in verse 14: Jesus was full of grace and truth. What that means is that, through and through, everything about him has to do with grace and everything about him has to do with truth. All truth comes from him. There is no truth apart from him. He is the source of everything that is true, and everything that is contrary to who he is, what he teaches, and what he stands for is absolutely false in this world. He is the only one that is full of grace and truth.

He continues and says, here’s the good news of the Gospel: The law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. The law was given through Moses. The law definitely had truth to it because it came from God. In fact, the Psalmist cries out and says, “Oh Lord, your word is true,” and that is absolutely true. The law was true, but in order to fully understand what the law stood for, grace and truth came through the Lord Jesus Christ. What do I mean by that? I’ll talk about grace next week, but today I’m focusing on truth. If you remember his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus did this so beautifully. He would take an Old Testament passage and he would say, “You have heard that it is written like this, but I say to you.” What is he doing? He is adding the truth of God to the word, the law, that was already given to them. Why? By the time Jesus came, the people had distorted the law. People had made the law to be something that fits their own narrative. They had given wrong interpretations to the law. The truth of God was missing from the law that was given into the hearts of God’s people. The law had become something by which the people of that time could exercise their authority over others. And Jesus is interjecting his truth, saying, “You have heard it is written like this, but I say to you.” What does that mean? The word that he is speaking in that sermon is as truthful as the written word of God in the Old Testament. Why? Because he is the God who is full of grace and truth.

Only a God could come and tell you, “You have heard it is written like this, but I say to you.” No prophet of the Old Testament would even have the audacity or the authority to say such things. Only Jesus comes and is able to say those things. Why? Even the law of the Old Testament was a gift from him, and now he comes to make it fully known and clear to the minds of the people. Satan has always been in the business of taking partial truths and distorting them, coming up with his own religion. Every religion in the world, every philosophy, and even the Jewish religion of that time had some sense of truth in it, but it was not the full truth. And that’s why Jesus Christ came into this world.

The story is told of a devil who was walking with some of his cohorts. They saw a man ahead of them picking up something shiny from the ground. The little devil asked the chief devil, “What did he find?” The devil answered, “He found a piece of the truth.” The little devil was bothered by that and said, “Doesn’t it bother you that he found a piece of the truth?” The devil answered, “No, because I will see to it that he makes a religion out of it.” Truth that is taken out of context and twisted can make people believe whatever you want. In Islam, there is some truth, but it’s not the whole truth. In Hinduism, there is some truth, but it’s not the whole truth. In Judaism, there is a lot of truth, but it is not the whole truth. Jesus Christ came to give us truth, and absolute truth only comes through him and him alone.

We can see what Jesus is doing here: He has come to give us grace and truth to go side by side. We can see one of the most dramatic expressions of this in the encounter between Jesus and Pilate. I don’t know how many of you ever paid attention to what God’s word says in the immediate context of Jesus appearing before Pilate. I want to highlight that to you. John 18:28 has a very interesting verse. John writes, “The Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the Palace of the Roman Governor, which was Pilate. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness, they did not enter the palace.” Think about this: What have they been doing? They have been plotting against an innocent man, bribing one of his disciples to catch him. They know in the deepest parts of their hearts that this man does not deserve death. Yet, they are so concerned about what is on the outside. False religion, not much truth to it. They would not enter the palace of a Gentile governor. They don’t want to be ceremonially unclean. They’re about to eat the Passover meal. 

Here they are dragging an innocent man, the most honest man, the most truthful man, the most holy man the world has ever seen, and they’re about to hand him over to be crucified and killed like a murderer and a thief. Yet, in that very moment, what they are so concerned about is not the cleanliness of their heart; they’re worried about ceremonial uncleanness. I want you to picture this: these guys know they’re crooked in their heart. They have to know they’re crooked. They know that they are absolutely corrupt. They know that what they’re doing is wrong. Yet, they come to the palace and they all stop. “Oh, we cannot go inside. We will become ceremonially unclean before the Lord if we are to go inside.” This is religion that is devoid of the truth of God. And look at what they do: they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. Handing over an innocent man to be killed was not prohibiting enough to eat the Passover that night. But entering into the palace of a Gentile king would prohibit you from eating the Passover that night.

Think about our lives. Are we people that major in the minor and minor in the major? Yeah, many of us are so guilty of that, including myself. We focus on the wrong things other than the things that really matter to God. Here they are standing outside and they want to be able to eat the Passover, so they do not enter into Pilate’s place. Pilate comes to them, “Who is this man?” Early morning, probably woken up, maybe just wearing his pajamas by that time, and he comes to him and says, “What did this man do? Why do I need to be woken up this early in the morning? What did he do?” Nothing to say. He says, “Obviously, we would not bring him to you unless he did not do anything wrong.” They’re not answering the question. He said, “What did he do wrong?” And they answer by saying, “Obviously, we would not bring him to you unless he did something wrong. We want… we don’t have the right to kill him, you do.” Then God’s word says something so beautiful. This happens so that just exactly what God had planned would happen to the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because he was supposed to be crucified, because he was supposed to be cast as a shameful one. He was supposed to die that death because God had foretold the way that if the Son of Man is lifted up, He will draw all men unto himself. He had already talked about the way he would die long before they thought they were doing their own work. Little did they know they were doing the work of God.

And then they come to verse 28, and then they come to verses 32-33. Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus answered him, not by answering his question, by saying, “Is that your own idea, or did others talk to you about me?” And then Pilate asked, “How would others talk to me? Am I a Jew? Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?” 

Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.” Jesus says that. Now Pilate sees kind of a little bit of an opening because he is claiming to be equal and a king, and his loyalty is divided. You have Jewish people on one side; he wants to do what they want him to do. And there’s a lot of history behind it as to why he is trying to do what they want him to do. And he also, on the other side, has Tiberius Caesar, an extremely jealous king, one who would always crush any kind of insurgence against him. And Pilate knows that really well. So he sees an opening, and he says, “So you are a king then?” Because that would be a reason to put him to death because only Tiberius Caesar is supposed to be the king.

But look at the next words, verse 37. 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.” Jesus says, “You know why I came into this world? You say that I’m a king, but I have come not as the king of any earthly kingdom. Ultimately, I have come as the king of Truth and to make the world know what truth is.” Hallelujah. And he continues on by saying, “Everyone on the side of Truth listens to me. Everyone on the side of Truth listens to me.” I came not to establish any kingdom because every kingdom in this world is built on some kind of falsehood, some kind of thing that is not true. My kingdom is different. I have come because this world is filled with lies. I have come because this world is under the control of the Father of Lies. I have come to testify of the truth, and the ones who are on the side of Truth listen to me.

And then, rhetorically, Pilate asked one of the most pointed questions in all of life, “What is truth?” What is truth? Talk about missing. Talk about failing to see the obvious that was standing before him. And with this, look what he does. With this, he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him.” I want you to see this. Jesus has told him that he came to testify to the truth. Pilate knows in his heart that Jesus is innocent. He himself says it, “I find no basis for a charge against him.” So what is the right thing to do? What is the truthful thing to do? Let that man go. But look what he does. He goes into a bartering with them. “But it is your custom to release one at the time.” He’s not saying that Jesus is innocent or not. Put your punishment. He’s trying to exchange him for Barabbas. “Do you want me to release the king of the Jews?” By his very action, the very moment after, Pilate has already forgotten all the conversation that he had with Jesus. He has failed to impact his life. He asked the question, “What is truth?” not knowing that the very embodiment of Truth was standing before him. He missed out on the greatest blessing this side of eternity and for all eternity to come because he was more concerned about holding on to his governorship. He was more concerned about holding on. To him, his power was more important than accepting and believing upon the man of Truth, the God-man, Jesus Christ, who was standing before him.

Winston Churchill so beautifully once said this, “Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.” Exactly what Pilate did. Everybody in the world, one time or the other, even the most hard-headed atheist, agnostic, out there, in his deepest heart, would have definitely looked at a sunset, would have definitely looked at the order of the universe, would have definitely looked at the beauty of the world around him and thought to himself, “What if there is indeed an intelligent being behind all this?” But you know what most of the people do? They stumble over the truth, but they pick themselves up, dust off, and continue in the path of destruction because truth is something they don’t want to accept. And just like that, Pilate also missed out on the greatest blessings of his life.

And the word of God says to us in John 1:18, Why did Jesus come? “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made Him known.” No one has seen God, and so you know what God did? The one God, the God Himself, the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is closest to the Father, came down so that we can know who God is. We can understand who we are, and we can have a better understanding of what truth is in this world. The only way we know about God is by looking at who the Lord Jesus Christ is.

In an article in Moody Monthly, Frank Fairchild tells the story of a beautiful fresco on the ceiling of a Roman Palace painted by a very famed Italian artist in 1614. It was one of the most impressive works of his day, but people who visited this Palace could not fully appreciate this masterpiece drawn on the ceiling. You know why? Because you almost had to kind of look at it like this, so people would look at it, and after a while, their neck would start hurting. It would kind of start getting a crook on their neck, and they would stop looking. So you know what the people in the Palace did? They placed a large mirror on the floor beneath the painting. Now, everyone who comes to the Palace does not have to look up at the ceiling to see the painting anymore. They just have to look at the reflection in the mirror of what the painting looks like. Then, Fairchild writes this, “Jesus Christ does precisely that for us. When we try to get some notion of God, He interprets God to our dull hearts. In Him, God becomes visible and intelligible to us. We cannot, by any amount of searching, find out God. The more we try, the more we are bewildered. Then Jesus Christ appears. He is God stooping down to our level, and He enables our feeble thoughts to get some real hold of God Himself. Jesus is the mirror that came down to reflect the glory of the Father so that we can say, ‘If you’ve seen me, you have seen the Father. When you hear me, you hear the words of the Father. When I speak, I speak the words of the Father.'”

Yes, the Father was a distant God, unknown to the people of that day. Aren’t you glad this afternoon that the God of the ages did not leave you in your ignorance? Hallelujah. In the fullness of time, God Himself came down so that when we look at Jesus of Nazareth, what we see is the glory of the Father in Heaven. Oh, what Grace came down into our lives today. No one can say, “I do not know God.” God has already come down and walked among you. No one can say, “I don’t know what God speaks like.” Read the New Testament; you can hear the very words of God. No one can say, “I don’t know what God would act like in a particular situation.” Look at the life of Jesus; He tells you how God would act in every situation – His forgiveness, the way He talked to people, the way He acted, the way He lived, the way He died, the way He rose again. Everything communicates to us about the glory of the invisible God, and we worship Him today in the knowledge of Him because He came to give us truth and the full revelation of it. I was ignorant; you would have been ignorant unless and until He came and revealed to us the kingdom of Truth. Today, living in the 21st century, if you open your hearts and gaze upon the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, you will know that there’s a God who created everything. You will know that there is a God who has a plan for all humanity. You will know that without God, we are completely lost. You will also know that God loves us so much that He gave His Son to die for us on the cross. You will also know that He is coming back again to take His children to be with Himself, to live with Him forever. All of these truths came to us because Jesus came and gave it to us.

John 14:6, Jesus told them, these are statements that He’s making just a few hours before He was crucified. He says, “I’m going away.” Thomas wants to know, “Lord, tell us where you’re going. We have no idea. How can we follow you if we do not know where you’re going?” He answers, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” It is not that I will show you the truth; I am the truth. I am the truth. I am the truth. Listening to me this morning, I want to tell you, your biology textbook is not the truth. Your science book is not the truth. Philosophy is not the truth. Counseling is not the truth. Nothing of this world is the truth. Jesus alone is the truth. Believe in Him for life now and life eternally. Don’t allow the world to make you walk in ignorance and darkness anymore. If anything contradicts Him, it is falsehood. Why? I am the truth. There is no truth apart from Him. Everything that is true is contained in Him.

In John 8:30-32, here we have Jesus speaking, a lot of people believing in Him. Even as He spoke, many believed in Him. To the Jews who had believed Him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They’re still baffled. In verse 33, they answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be free?” Again, they’re living in their ignorance, living under the law; they think they’re still free. We are Abraham’s descendants; we are not slaves anymore. But Jesus says to them, “Truly, I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now, a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” See, our freedom in our life comes from knowing the one who is in charge of the household of God. He has set us free. He has given us freedom. Even this afternoon, Church, aren’t you glad that we are a group of people, by the grace of God, who have freedom in our life because we have known the one who is the embodiment of Truth? That truth has set us free.

I’ll end this morning by quoting from you, Matthew Henry.

Matthew Henry wrote so beautifully, “He rules in the minds of men by the power of Truth. The foundation and power, the spirit and genius of Christ’s kingdom, is truth. Divine truth. He conquers by the convincing evidence of Truth. He rules by the commanding power of Truth. How do you convince people? By speaking the truth, and truth alone. And you know what God is calling us to do? Always speak truth, but always speak the truth of God’s word as well. One of the greatest responsibilities for the coming generation is to speak the truth of who Jesus is, of what God’s word is, and stand for the truth. The world is in the bad shape that it is today. Can you imagine what it’s going to be like 20 years from now? I don’t even know if a pastor could preach, stand in a pulpit 20 years from now, and preach about truth without being arrested. And if you think I’m exaggerating, think about how your life was 20 years ago and what it is now. See, the evil is unimaginable. The deception of Satan is beyond your wildest imagination. But the only thing that can combat that is the eternal truth of God. We have to preach it; we have to stand for it. Not only that, if you are a child of God, you also have to be a truthful person in your life. Your God is a God of Truth. Be truthful. Satan is the father of lies, so don’t lie. Don’t be deceived. Don’t be a deceptive person. Speak truth. If your yes, let your yes be yes. Let your no be no. Clear, concise in our words and actions. Why? We are children of God. We are children of Truth. We have believed the one who is the truth. It’s my prayer that the God who gave you light, the God who gave you adoption, the God who came to give you truth will fill your hearts with His truth in the days to come. In the midst of all the lies around us, may His truth always be the guiding light of our lives.

Heavenly Father, we thank you that you came, sent your son, full of grace, full of truth. You came. The law was given through Moses, but you came to give us grace and truth. You are the truth. In you, we find the true meaning of life, the purpose of life, our past, our present, our future, makes only perfect sense in you, and you alone. Heavenly Father, we are so grateful for your son. Pray that his truth will flood our hearts, especially as we now enter into a time of remembering what you purchased for us on the cross. We will enter into that very solemn occasion with a heart that is filled with truth. Oh God, remove any deception from our lives and lies from our life and wash us again with your precious blood for His name, the Lord Jesus, that we pray.