Ok what would you say that is? What question has at its root an answer that sets everything straight? There is only one correct answer and our world seems to be getting the answer wrong!
Jesus is standing before the governor of all of Israel and they get into a discussion
John 18:36-38
Jesus answered, “My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world.”
37 Pilate said, “So you are a king?” Jesus responded, “You say I am a king. Actually, I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true.” 38 “What is truth?” Pilate asked.
Sadly Pilate never waited for the answer….much like today’s culture no one wants to hear the truth only how they feel about something….do you feel something is right or wrong or do you know by the facts that it is right or wrong….
Representative Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez (o·kaa·see·o kor·tez) this week came out against the “He gets us” campaign
“Something tells me Jesus would not spend millions of dollars on Super Bowl ads to make fascism look benign,” Ms Ocasio-Cortez (o·kaa·see·o kor·tez)
I have a few questions…
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez very little if anything, in the way you live your life tells me that you are a follower of Jesus so how would you know what Jesus would do….I’m not judging her merely exampling truth, Jesus said you shall know the followers of Jesus and the followers of this world by the fruit in their lives. Can we pause for a moment and ask the Lord to soften her heart so she can see and understand the one she is talking about.
Second…the word fascism is being used about anyone who opposes progressives and their philosophy…Fascism defined….
A governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism.
Dictionary.com
Don’t worry I’m not spending today on politics but this is just one of the challenges of truth in our culture. But I don’t see how a commercial about Jesus understanding all of us, especially when we are hurting, as I believe Ms. Cortez is, is fascist! It actually sounds more like what Ms. Cortez and her group are promoting….when businesses are forcibly closed, parents are cut out of knowing what their children are learning in schools and being told to shut up about their objections, people losing their jobs, professors being run out of colleges because their philosophy differs from the progressive point of view.
Pilate’s question, “What is truth?” Is still the biggest question of all.
Jesus answered that question very simply…John 14:6
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.
A recent Barna poll revealed this…
Americans tend to believe that the Bible, Koran, book of Mormon and other such books are simply different expressions of the same faith all leading to the same thing!
What did we just read that Jesus said about coming to God?
Americans are just as likely to believe that Jesus sinned as they are to believe that he led a sinless life
They are just as likely to believe what Dr. Phil, Oprah, Sean Hannity, the view or anyone on Tik Tok has to say as the Bible….where is the proof of what is true, what is right? Or are our feelings king and we don’t need to bother with the facts or truth?
Several months ago I had a conversation with someone who’s philosophy was “no one is really wrong everyone is right if it is good for them, no one should force their ideals or philosophy on anyone else….the problem with that is it makes child molestation ok, rape ok , murder ok, Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Jeffery Dahmer were all ok. If the people feel it is right for them or in the case of the shooter at Michigan state he was right in what he did as so were the police in trying to capture him…..that philosophy only leads to chaos, not peace.
Believers in Jesus, believe Jesus at His word, believe the Bible and believe in absolutes. I have heard some say there are no moral absolutes, which ironically is to establish a moral absolute. In Jordan they have come to a place where they no longer stop at stop signs or obey traffic lights, needless to say there are constant accidents…we must have some absolutes or all we have is chaos and that is what we have in our culture now..
So can we answer the biggest question of all…I believe the answer is yes.
As I mentioned earlier John 14:6 Jesus said He is the truth!
Truth is Jesus!
He did not say he came to bring the truth, to share a philosophy to help us define truth, he said He was the truth. Everything that he did and every example of his life that he gave us shows us that truth….he never compromised who he was or what he believed but he would lead people to a place of freedom….I love the theological debate Jesus had in John 4, he tells a Samaritan woman she has been with a number of men and the man she is with now is not her husband so she is convinced he is a prophet and proceed to share her theology/philosophy with Jesus
John 4: 19-24
Sir,” the woman said, “you must be a prophet. 20 So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim, where our ancestors worshiped?”
21 Jesus replied, “Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews. 23 But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. 24 For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
People worship at the feet of many things today, politics, gender, race, to name a few…notice how Jesus brought the truth…he didn’t answer her question, he didn’t get into an argument with her theology, he took her to a higher place…Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life can we introduce people to the higher place
Can we talk….
to the kid who believes their birth gender is not their real gender, about God loving them, sending His Son to die on a cross for them, for their pain, their wounds, their confusion, their rejection.
Can we talk….
to the person who is bent on talking only their politics about how will what they believe, heal the nation as the Bible talks about how Jesus came to bring peace and good will to all men, how we need to pray and live a life that reflects that peace. That Jesus is the answer to every problem, show them how
Can we talk…
to the racial haters on both sides about how we are all people created in the image of God, fearfully and wonderfully made, masterpieces in God’s eyes designed to reveal his heart to broken people everywhere
Truth is authentic, it is not fake it is reality!
In this world run by opinion polls and surveys we have a tendency to think that truth is ethereal, that it is not real but a construct designed for the moment like something out of the Matrix movies. Truth is not decided by a consensus of opinion…..water is wet, gravity causes you to fall, the sky is blue….we could take a survey and even if the majority of the people said they did not believe in gravity and that the sky was green it would not make it true….truth is real….the problem is some live in a world were truth doesn’t matter and they speak things as if they are true but it doesn’t matter what they believe truth is truth….we will all die….whether you believe Jesus is real or not, he is….whether you believe there is a hell or not there is…..
I have often spoken to people that disagreed with me and posed this logic to them….if there is no after life, no heaven, no hell and you are right all I have done as a Christian is lived a life serving people, loving them and helping them. However, if I am right and there is a real heaven and real hell how are they going to explain to Jesus why should they be allow in heaven and a very real hell is where they are going
God is authentic, Jesus came into this world, died a real death so that our very real sin could have an authentic forgiveness experience, so we could live a true and authentic relationship with God and be guided and in relationship with Him every day. No other philosophy or religion can make such a claim….so if no other religion can, we immediately have a division someone must be right and someone wrong. If there is a contradiction only one way can be right. We have been given His love letter 66 books that show us the way to understanding this truth so we could tell the difference between what is the truth and what is a lie….we need to be warned because Jesus predicted that there would be many philosophies that would be false that would try to sway people away from the authentic truth….The devil was a liar from the beginning and will do everything in his power to deceive anyone who is not grounded in God’s word
Jesus words Matthew 24:23-25
Then if anyone tells you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah,’ or ‘There he is,’ don’t believe it. 24 For false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform great signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, even God’s chosen ones. 25 See, I have warned you about this ahead of time.
My last point today is this Truth is forever!
Truth is forever
No matter what you say, or what you do, truth is immutable it does not change. If water was wet yesterday, it will be wet tomorrow. No matter how times change, people change, philosophies change, truth always will be the same! Our culture will say that is old or out dated and some of our methodologies are, some of our styles are, some of our delivery systems are, some of our people are but Truth will always be the truth.
We can say that is just a little white lie…all sales people do it but it is still a lie, will always determine who they are. A lie is always a lie, stealing and murder are always wrong, confusion in our culture or in a person is never from God. When we see confusion, we know it is not the truth and that there is a truth that has been around since before the earth began that is just as true now as it was then. We do know that the Father of confusion is always around to try to convince us that truth is malleable. Jesus told us about him… John 8:44,45
“For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 So when I tell the truth, you just naturally don’t believe me!”
The problem is if we base our life on a lie we will live in confusion, heartache, and heart break. If we choose to live in the truth Jesus gave us this promise…
John 8:31,32
Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. 32 And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
No matter what philosophy is espoused in your world, in your school, in your work, you must choose what you will believe.
Jesus and God’s word is either all of your truth or none of it. You can’t believe Jesus to be the answer, to be your Lord and Savior and not believe all His Word has to say…if you are picking and choosing your truth, then Jesus is no longer your Lord, you have become God and your life will become chaos if it is not already…..But if you choose to grow and learn, to understand His Word to love him and his truth more each day….you will never be shaken but stand firm…because you will know the answer to the biggest question of all….you will know the truth and the truth will set you and everyone around you free!
Pilate, along with our culture is asking the biggest question of all, “What is Truth?”
Truth is a person, Jesus
Truth is authentic, never fake always real
Truth is forever, it never changes