The Truth of It All
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Turn with me to our scripture for this year
And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.”
Jesus says, hey look at him. He was dead and now he is alive
He is hindered by the bandages of death - Loose him
He is held back from where he has come from - let him go
And that is what Jesus is saying to his church today - loose them and let them go
But first, his church must become unhindered themselves.
And Jesus gave us the model for that when he showed us how he became in people’s lives whatever they needed.
If they needed saving - he was the savior
If they needed to be healed - he was their healer
If they needed to be found - he was the way for the lost
If they were dead - he was the life
and we looked at these two already from the viewpoint that if this is who Jesus was and Jesus is working through his church, then his church needs to be these things or at least an example of them in our world.
We said the church should be living in the WAY
We need to learn how to love the Way - and allow that to cause us to love what He loves.
And then as that love changes our hearts, we will become the people who stand up for His Way but with a heart of compasssion
And then last week we said that the church should be living the Life.
That Jesus offers us the greatest life around
And so as we live that life, we lead others to THE LIFE
That when the world sees us fulfilled in Christ, they will desire what we have.
That the Church should be full of life so that when people visit, they are blown away by the presence of THE LIFE (Jesus) in the life of the church.
And I asked this question - Jesus’ physical body was strong enough by the activation of the Holy Spirit to rise from the dead and walk out of the grave. Is his spiritual body strong enough to do the same?
Because He expects us to.
So let’s go over to
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
How does the truth come into play here?
We could not know the way, or follow the way, or walk in the way or even see the way - if we first didn’t know the truth.
We could not know true life, or know what to do with Jesus’ life if it first weren’t for the truth.
In other words, without truth, how do we know what is the lie.
If you tell me something that is not true, how do I know that?
I have to have something to compare it to - correct? I have to have truth to know what is not of the truth. Without truth, I will accept the lie.
We see this in Adam and Eve.
We see this in the account of Jesus standing before Pilate - What is truth?
Jesus said, I am the Truth.
Jesus is the Truth
Jesus is the Truth
Remember back in we are told that he was the Word of God in the Flesh.
Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.
How could Jesus say that His Words would never pass away? Because he knew that they were the truth.
Truth is rooted in something that is rock solid - it cannot change.
The circumstances surrounding it cannot change it
Man cannot make a new meaning for it
Even God himself cannot change it. It’s truth. It’s eternal
God is rock solid, God cannot change, Man cannot change God (though we sure are trying) God is eternal
So truth is rooted in God
So to the many people that come to me and say Pastor, how do I know what is true?
I always say, you cannot know what is true, until you know truth - so get to know God - not religiously, but personally
Truth is More Than Facts
Truth is More Than Facts
In
Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
We looked into this a little last week, when we spoke about living connected to Christ.
Facts don’t always set someone free. I can give a list of facts from the Bible today, and there are other facts that someone might be able to stand up and refute my facts with.
But when you are connected to Jesus - When He truly becomes your lord and savior. When you live for him - It’s not about facts, it’s about what the truth is working in your life.
It’s not about what we think or feel - it’s about what we know.
Which is why John says in
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.
When the accuser came against them, they just didn’t spurt out facts. They showed him the blood of the lamb - What Jesus had done - and showed who they were because of them.
Truth is more than Moral Guidelines
Truth is more than Moral Guidelines
Again, moral guidelines are taken from truth., but moral guidelines just give us away to apply truthful living to our lives.
Jesus said, I am the Truth. He wasn’t saying that I am giving you some truth so that you can live life a little cleaner
He was saying I am the truth and because of me your life will be much fuller and rich.
The Church Must Be People of The Truth
The Church Must Be People of The Truth
We must be walking in the Truth
This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers. For I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.”
Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.”
When we walk in the truth our souls prosper. It defeats the lies and the tricks of the enemy. It gives us ground to stand upon
If you aren’t walking in the truth, we are walking in a lie
We will fall for things that might lead us away from where God wants us to be
We will be speaking things that aren’t truth. Teaching things that aren’t truth - leading others away from where God wants them to be
The Pharisees -
We must love the truth
and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Jesus is talking here about the great apostasy. The great falling away from the church of Christ
When satan will attempt and succeed at leading many who claim to be believers and followers of Christ away from doing so
How will he do this - through lies and deceit. Through Lawlessness.
and it will be those who were not lovers of truth that will be lead astray.
To love something is to desire it
To love something is to commit to it
To love something is to care for it and to nurture it and to protect it
This is what the church needs to be doing with the truth today.
We need to believe in the truth.
I would take that from this last verse that we read.
To love something is to believe in something.
Teaching from - importance of foundations without cracks in them.
And then
And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
This is the where it comes together.
We are to speak the truth in love
So we love the truth, but we also allow that love to dictate how we speak the truth.
This is the difference again between truth and facts and guidelines.
The truth will set you free - it will make you miserable at first, but in love in brings healing.
Today, you are hearing truth. It might even be stepping on your toes a little, but I guarantee you are all feeling good about it.
As Christ the living Word is truth, so his written word is truth. Though heaven and earth will pass away, God’s truth never will.
How many can see this morning that to be unhindered in our serving God.
Over half the New Testament uses of “truth” (aletheia) are in John’s gospel. Truth is reality. It’s the way things really are. What seems to be and what really is are often not the same. As I develop in my novel Deception, “Things are not as they appear.” To know the truth is to see accurately. To believe what isn’t true is to be blind.
That to be free in our serving others
God has written His truth on human hearts, in the conscience (). Shame and twinges of conscience come from a recognition that truth has been violated. When the world hears truth, if spoken graciously, many are drawn to it by the moral vacuum they feel. The heart longs for truth—even the heart that rejects it.
That to really be able to care for others
As followers of Christ, we are to walk in the truth (), love the truth, and believe the truth (). We’re to speak the truth “in love” ().
WE NEED THE TRUTH
Truth is far more than a moral guide. Jesus declared, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no man comes to the Father but by Me” (). He didn’t say He would s
People that come in here need the truth
but if we stop there we have failed
Because people that come in here, need the truth as He lives himself out through the people who claim to be serving Him
People need Jesus! Not religious Jesus - Friend, savior and personal Jesus
Let’s Pray!