John 18 - What is Truth?

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​John 18

“What is truth?” Pilate scoffs as he walks away, declaring to the Jews that he finds no fault in Jesus. What threat is this Jesus if his kingdom is truth? I imagine Pilate is thinking.
 
This is in response to Pilate’s earlier question to Jesus asking if He was the king of the Jews. Jesus responds, “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.” 
 
God came to earth on a mission of truth. Jesus tells us He is the WAY, TRUTH, and LIFE. His kingdom is truth. And while this was not at all a threat to Pilate concerned only with his political status, it was offensive to the Jews, and it is just as offensive to many today.
 
In 2 Timothy 4:3-4, Paul warns, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”
 
Abhorring the idea of truth, our culture likes to live in a kingdom of pragmatism (if it works, do it), relativism (no all-encompassing truth; your truth is your truth, and mine is mine), and inclusivism (all ways to “god” are equally valid and lead to the same place in the end). In fact, Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year for 2016 was “post-truth.” And earlier this month GQ published an article with the “21 books you don’t have to read.” No surprise the Bible was number twelve, calling it, “repetitive, self-contradictory, sententious, foolish, and even at times ill-intentioned.”
 
Friends, when we declare Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are plummeted into a spiritual battle. A war with the forces of the world led by Satan himself, the Father of Lies.
 
Paul says in Ephesians we need to put on the full armor of God to stand against the schemes of the devil. First up, the belt of truth buckled around our waist. Truth matters! Truth is foundational and helps hold everything together. So, what is truth? It isn’t cultural norms, the most followed news source, a celebrity opinion, a professor’s latest publication, our emotions, comfort or desires. It is Jesus…the WORD become flesh…God’s Word. God, help us continue to know and live by Your truth. Help us grip tightly to it in a world that is doing everything to nullify, undermine and destroy it. Under all of our armor as part of our daily battles, let us always have the belt of truth securely fastened. Help us believe and cling to THE truth; Your truth.

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