Guest User 11/29/20 Guest User 11/29/20

Sin and Deception

John chapter 19. It’s going to be interesting. I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I hope you had so much joy and felt great about the world and your family and your relationship with the Lord, and turkey and pie and all of that. Because today we’re really going to talk a lot about sin and humanity’s propensity to it. And the great evil that’s in humanity’s hearts.

Series: John

John 19 - David Stockton

What we have, basically, is we have a lot of problems in our world. Last week we talked about truth, we talked bout lies, we talked about deception. It’s not just words. It’s not just confusion that it creates, but as we know, lies and and deception, when they really begin to take root in someone’s heart, can lead to all kinds of horrible atrocities, including stealing, killing, destroying, abuse. Lots of different things that have caused a lot of pain in this world.

So the question for people who aren’t Christians, and for people who are Christians, as well, is why is there all this evil in the world? Why is there all this pain? One of the things people think is, is it because God is powerless? That, actually, God can’t really do anything about it? That’s one consideration. Another one is, well, maybe God is mean. Maybe he is mean or doesn’t care about all of those things. Maybe he’s just kind of hands off. Leave us to our own devices. That’s another option.

But then another option to consider is maybe it’s because mankind really does have evil inside their hearts. That’s not a fun thing to think about because it means you and I. But the Bible is pretty clear about that. We’re going to get to see, basically, John the apostle answering that very question, as we read the story that he experienced in real life, in real time two thousand years ago.

John was writing so that we would believe that Jesus is the Creator God who created the world and came to rescue it from sin and death. He wrote his evangelistic letter about thirty years after the other three gospels, the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke. So he’s writing with a completely different perspective. Those three books have already been in circulation. He’s read them. He knows what they’re about. So he’s adding something to it. He doesn’t necessarily use the same stories. He uses some other stories and he uses his own version of those stories.

John wants to make sure no one misses that Jesus was fully God and fully human at the same time. John’s not playing around. He really believes that these stories about Jesus can change a person’s life, as well as change their destiny after your life runs out. He talks about being born again. He talks about drinking living water. He talks about resurrection life. He’s emphatic about those things.

We’ve seen in the book of John Jesus rise to popularity to where, at one point, he basically had five thousand men come out to him and say, “Hey, we’re ready to do whatever you want to do. Let’s march on Jerusalem. Let’s take out Herod. Whatever you want to do.”

And from that point on, he kind of plateaued in popularity and then as quickly begin to decline in popularity. Then, last week we left off with Pilate, who was the Roman authority in Jerusalem at that time, presenting to all of the Jews that used to want to make Jesus king, but now aren’t so sure, and he’s presenting to them Barabbas, “the son of the father,” a guy who was known to lead a rebellion and to do some damage to people and things. And then you’ve got Jesus who’s claiming to be the Son of the Father, actually the Son of God, and Pilate’s presenting them to the people, and the people are saying, “We want Barabbas. We don’t want Jesus.”

So that’s where we’re at. We get to see the confusion and deception that has taken root in the human heart when they’re face to face with their Maker. They’re saying, “We don’t want him. He’s too true. He’s too real. We want the counterfeit.”

Then in John 19, it says this:

Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged.

Basically had his back ripped and torn to shreds, hoping that he might confess something.

2 The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe 3 and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they slapped him in the face.
4 Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.” 5 When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”
6 As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!”
But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.”
7 The Jewish leaders insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”
8 When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, 9 and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. 10 “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”
11 Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”
12 From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.”
13 When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). 14 It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon.
“Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews.
15 But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!”
“Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked.
“We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.
16 Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.
So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. 17 Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). 18 There they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.
19 Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: jesus of nazareth, the king of the jews. 20 Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. 21 The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.”
22 Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”
23 When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
24 “Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.”
This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said,
“They divided my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.”
So this is what the soldiers did.
25 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” 27 and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
28 Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” 29 A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. 30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
31 Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. 32 The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. 33 But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. 35 The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. 36 These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,” 37 and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”
38 Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. 39 He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. 40 Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. 41 At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. 42 Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

So this is John’s eyewitness account. He was there in person. He is the disciple that Jesus loved. He’s the one who actually witnessed the spear going into Jesus’ side and blood and water flowing out. He’s telling us all of these details about this moment so that we really would believe that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God, the Creator of the world, and also the Rescuer of the world.

And he goes person by person. He begins to talk about the different people there. We know Judas, who had betrayed Jesus over to the Pharisees, who then took him before Pilate.

We now know Pilate has been wrestling with this in chapter 18 and 19. He’s wrestling with the reality of who Jesus is and what to do with Jesus. He’s very conflicted. He can’t find anything wrong with him. He’s trying to set him free. Yet, ultimately he decides to hand him over to their wishes.

And then you’ve got these soldiers who are putting crowns of thorns on Jesus and putting this robe on him and slapping him and mocking him, who shipped his back, tore it to shreds, trying to get him to confess something. Then, there as he’s hanging on the cross, they’re not really paying attention to what’s going on. Instead they’re trying to just figure out how to get his clothes.

Then you’ve got Mary, Jesus’ mom, and his aunt, and another Mary, and another Mary. A lot of Marys. And John’s there with them. And they’re watching all of this take place. Hearing about it two thousand years later, they’re sitting there and they’re watching Jesus as blood is dripping from his hands and his feet, knowing that his back is ripped to shreds and is up on that tree. And the only way that he can take a breath is to actually pull himself up to get his chest high enough to take a breath. Because crucifixion was actually something that caused suffocation. Asphixiation is the way people died. That’s why they would break the legs, so they couldn’t push up anymore to take a breath.

And Jesus’ mom is standing there watching this happen to her son, who she knows is a lot more than just her son. Virgin birth. All the times talking with him. All the things that he’s done. And she’s watching him be crucified. Her heart’s broken in many different ways. One because her son’s being killed. But two because she really hoped that he would be able to save his people from the pain of sin and death. She really believed he might have been stronger than the wickedness of humanity. But she’s watching the breath leave him. With one of those painful breaths, he actually speaks out words and says, “Woman, behold your son. Son, behold your mom,” as he tries to ask John if he would take care of her. And John does that.

Then you have these other couple of characters. After Jesus is now dead, he’s breathed his last, he’s said, “It is finished.” You have Joseph of Arimathea, who risks a lot, who’s a disciple, yet very afraid, and he goes and asks Pilate if he can take care of the body of Jesus.

And Nicodemus finds out about this and he joins in, because he also wants to take care of the body of Jesus, as he’s been watching Jesus, as he’s been trying to figure out who Jesus is. And they go and put Jesus’ body in a tomb. They honor Jesus’ body, they care for it in a secretive way.

When I think about what John is trying to get across here in this chapter, I think about these different people he’s introduced. We see Judas who actually knew the truth about Jesus. If anybody knew the truth about Jesus, it would be Judas. He was there with him for three years, seeing all the things that Jesus did and hearing all the things that Jesus said. Yet Judas, having a front row seat to the Creator of the universe, knew the truth, but loved money more. He knew the truth. He was face to face with the truth. But there was something in his heart that caused him to be willing to betray Jesus over to the Jews who he knew wanted to kill him, even though he knew the truth. He suppressed the truth because he wanted something else more than the truth.

Then you have Pilate. Pilate basically is saying, “I find no fault in this person.” The interactions with Pilate, based on what John is telling us has kind of got Pilate going, “I don’t know if I want to miss with this guy.” And we know from another of the gospels that Pilate’s wife actually said, “Have nothing to do with this man. Don’t mess around. I just had a dream.” And there’s all this stuff coming to Pilate to where he now knows the truth about who this person is, or at least knows there is a lot more going on than what he understands, and yet he loved his position more. The sin in his heart caused him to suppress the truth that could have set him free. Ultimately he surrendered and said, “I don’t really want to risk my position.” And he handed Jesus over.

Then the soldiers. Their response when they were face to face with truth, is they just ignored it. They just cared about themselves.

And then we have these two at the end, who had been compelled to believe that Jesus was the truth. One became a disciple, but secretly. And though they were believing in Jesus, they continued to kind of stand back and be afraid.

And so, the story in the scriptures, the story with evidence in human history is that the God of the universe, the Maker and Creator of everything, as John said in the very beginning, “He came into the world, and the world did not receive him.” The sin in the hearts of humanity was so grotesque, so evil, so despicable, so deceived, that we, when face to face with the God, the Maker and Lover of our souls, we shouted, “Crucify him. Crucify him. We don’t want anything to do with him.”

Whether we like it or not, whether we acknowledge it or not, this is what is still alive in each one of us. The reason that there is all of the pain in the world is because evil has entered into the heart of mankind. Whether the evil shows up as something super grostesque as a crucifixion or just loving your position a little bit more than the truth, or loving money more than the truth. It’s hard for us to weigh out and say one’s bad, one’s not as bad. But it’s all sin. And it all leads to the same thing.

In the Bible there are four different words in Hebrew for sin, for basically doing wrong:

Khaw-taw is missing the mark. It’s basically this is what you’re supposed to do and you end up going that way or falling short.

Pesha is transgression, which is a breaking of trust.

Avon is iniquity, which is basically just crookedness. Instead of going in a straight line, you’re going in a crooked line and you’re calling the crooked straight.

Sin is missing the mark and worse. One of the things I was doing the other day, I just got this pellet gun and so we’ve been shooting this pellet gun at these cans. It’s a really powerful pellet gun and we were shooting at these cans and none of us are that good. It’s me and my kids and my nephews and stuff. So we’re shooting at these cans. We’ve got these cans all lined up and we’re trying to make sure the site is right. If the site’s not right you can’t shoot straight. The site’s lined up and we’re still not good at hitting the cans. Even if we were good at hitting the cans, we could line that site up and we could hit the can every time. That would be not missing the mark. That’s righteousness. But what sin is, basically, there’s different layers to this in the word in Hebrew. It’s not only just missing the mark to where your aim is off. You are missing the mark because you’re aiming the wrong way. But it also has this idea of your site is off. So even if you in yourself tried to aim it the right way, your site is off, so you still wouldn’t be able to hit it. It’s the next layer, right? So I’m off. My site is off. This is the condition of the human heart apart from Jesus. I’m off. The site is off.

But then it gets even worse. Because what happens is, when I’m off long enough, then I start to blame the site. And then if the site’s off long enough, then what happens is I just start to adjust and, this is going to get a little sad here. It didn’t actually happen, but if this did happen, we have these little pigmy goat now. They’re awesome. We have two of them. And we were shooting these cans and then all of a sudden these goats came around the back side of where we were shooting. And so we stopped shooting because we’re not totally horrible. We’ve got Jesus, you know? But the way the Bible tries to help us understand sin is, I’m off. My site is off. Then all of a sudden I start to hit other things and saying that that is what I’m really supposed to hit. That is the true mark of what I’m going after. As if shooting the goat is what you’re supposed to do.

So you see, there are these different layers of sin. There are different depths of depravity that are inside all of us. This is what it is like apart from Christ, whether you acknowledge it or not. You might say, “Well, I’m not that bad.” That’s fine. Maybe you’re holding all of that inside some sort of manageable to where it doesn’t look that bad. But we know that sin is rampant in our society.

What the Bible says is it’s a diagnosis of the human heart, that when Adam sinned and then we’re born of the seed of Adam, we’re born with our hearts being off. We can’t even get the aim right. And we actually have our sites off, so even if we did one time get our aim right, we would still miss. But we’ve also twisted things to now say, “Whatever I hit, I will now justify as the thing I was supposed to hit.” It’s a great deception.

Not only is that the reality of what’s going on inside our own bodies missing the mark because we’re off, missing the mark because our sites are off, missing the mark because we start to justify whatever we do hit as the right thing, but our world is full of deceptive ideas that love to play to our disordered desires, and then they’re normalized and celebrated in a sinful society.

So it’s not just a problem from within, but our whole society is saturated in this same deception, where the devil and the world and the flesh, there are all these deceptive ideas being thrown around. These deceptive ideas sound good to our disordered desires. And then, instead of those things being checked by our society, instead they are celebrated and encouraged, saying, “Yeah. You should do that. You deserve that. Yeah, that won’t be a bad thing. Everybody’s doing it.” And the deception gets a whole other level deep. And a whole other level of disgust.

This guy, Ray Pritchard, says this:

“First sin deceives us by promising what it can never deliver. Second, sin deceives us by convincing us what happens to others will never happen to us. Third, sin deceives us by creating in us a desire for that which we know can only hurt us.”

We think that we’re getting away with little sins all the time, but what we’re not realizing is those little sins are actually changing our heart a little each time, a little each time. And, again, how do I know this? Not just because the Bible says so. Because you can look at the sociological ramifications and statistics in our society. There is something deeply, deeply wrong.

No one gets married and says, “I’m probably going to get divorced.” But little by little by little by little that becomes the only way out.

No one as a little kid gets up and says, “I’m excited about killing someone some day.” But little by little by little by little they find themselves murdering someone.

No one grows up and says, “I’m going to abuse my children some day.” But little by little by little by little the deception takes root. The deception grows and next thing we know, we have humanity shouting, “Crucify him. Crucify him. Crucify him” to their only real hope.

We have a very serious problem and to say that sin is not a big deal, to say that sin is not rampant in our world, to just kind of minimize it, is to minimize the cross, but it’s also to minimize the problem.

So first of all, how do we escape the deception of sin? I mean, the Bible says that the devil shows up as an angel of light. How are you supposed to know it’s the devil when it’s an angel of light? There’s pleasure in sin, the Bible says. The Bible’s not foolish about it. There is pleasure in sin. How is it supposed to be wrong when there’s pleasure in it? But that pleasure, there’s pleasure in sin for a season but then comes destruction. It’s very deceptive. It’s very challenging.

So how can we escape deception and sin? First of all, the cross. Jesus died on the cross to set us free from sin. His death on the cross breaks the power of sin. It gives us the chance of being able to get free from the bondage of sin. His blood can wash us and cleanse us.

The second thing: Jesus died on the cross so we could be forgiven of our sin. Even though sometimes we get the power of sin broken over us as believers who receive the cross, we sometimes fall into the same deceptions. But then Jesus gives us forgiveness. So the cross really is the answer. The cross is the most important thing. If you have not really come to terms with the cross, if you have not received the work that Jesus has done for you on the cross, you are still in bondage to sin, you are not free from it and your sins are not forgiven.

But when you say, “Jesus, I’m sorry for my sin. I need you as my Savior,” you are now free from the power of sin over your life and you are now forgiven for every sin that you have done, you are doing, or you will do. That’s what the cross can do. That’s what the cross is all about. That’s why the cross is such good news. Because Jesus didn’t stay in that tomb. He rose again and he wants to give us new life.

But then, as we’re walking in this newness from the cross, as we’ve stepped from death to life, as we’ve stepped from darkness to light because of receiving what Jesus did on the cross, there are four things I just want to bring up real quick as we close that will help us with our battle with deception, with our battle with sin.

First of all, the first thing we can do is rest assured. I loved what we sang today, But I’ll rest in the promises of God. Matthew 24:24 says this:

For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

So here, what Jesus is saying is there is going to be so much deception, so much powerful deception that will rise in the world, false Christs, false prophets that will come, that they’re going to be very deceptive, but they will not be able to deceive the elect. Who are the elect? The elect are those who have received what Jesus did on the cross and have been filled with his Spirit as they’re going forward in life.

So there’s a promise that Jesus is like, “You’re not alone in this. I’m going to hold you. I’m going to make sure that you will not be deceived. I’m going to be whispering in your ear. I’m going to be showing the deception for what it was. I’m going to be guiding you, if you’ll receive me.”

The second thing we can do is remain in the truth. 2 Thessalonians 2:9 says this:

the coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, 10 and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

So here he says we need to love the truth. We need to believe the truth. As Jesus said in John 15, we need to remain in the truth. How do you do that? You just spend every day taking in the word of God, both in silence as you listen to what his voice might be speaking to you, but also in the scriptures that have been given to us. You just allow that stuff to wash over you, wash over your mind, cleanse you, be stronger than the voices outside. You remain in the truth.

The third thing, we can encourage one another. This is interesting that this is important in our dealing with deception. Absolutely.

13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

We’ve got to encourage one another. We’ve got to get into each other’s lives. So that one of us begins to swerve off, “What are you doing over there, man? Come back over here. Why you shooting at those goats? Come on man, it’s the cans. We’re going for the cans. Let me adjust your site a little bit. It looks like you’re shooting off a little bit.”

That’s what church is supposed to be. That’s what life groups are for. Take advantage of this opportunity. That’s what friendships are. You’ve got to reach out. You say, “It’s hard.” Who cares? Get over the obstacles. Press in. Press through. If they’re being a jerk, tell me. I’ll go yell at them.

We’ve got to get into each other’s lives. Especially as our world, even right now, is so much more distanced. It is harder. Yes. I understand that. But it’s all the more important. Otherwise we’re going to find ourselves, and this is so creepy,” you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” Your heart will be hardened little by little until all of a sudden you don’t even realize what you’re doing. You don’t even realize what you’re doing. That’s what’s so dangerous about sin.

The fourth thing, we need to rejoice when we feel conviction. What? Yes. Yes. Because conviction is a sign that the Spirit lives inside you. That the filtering has begun. We talked about it a few weeks ago.

In 2 Corinthians 7:9, Paul says:

9 yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us.

So it’s kind of fostering that sensitivity. It’s being so in tune with, “Oh, Lord. That’s not right. Something’s not right in what they’re saying. Something’s not right in what I’m saying. Something’s not right about this place that I’m in.”

There’s a sensitivity that is fostered. You can rejoice whenever that happens instead of hating that. Instead of fighting against that, rejoice when you feel that conviction and go with it. Respond to it. Be quick to respond to it.

Pilate was getting that conviction. He was having that thing, “Something’s not right about all of this.” But at the end of the day he said, “Oh, well.” And he handed Jesus over to be crucified.

And for us, as we continue to navigate our crazy time, I really want us to be people that are aware of the dangers and the deception of sin. Don’t think you’re above it. Don’t think you’re past it. But then, also be so aware of the power of the cross, that it can actually set us free. We are no longer in bondage. That’s what happens. Eventually, as you continue to go in sin, you become in bondage to it. It owns you. It’s on your back. What Jesus did on the cross is he allowed his blood to flow and so he breaks the power of sin over us. So that we can actually go a different way. But then he also gives us the forgiveness that we need to wash us clean as we make mistakes going forward.

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Guest User 11/25/20 Guest User 11/25/20

What is Truth?

John 18. There’s a story to set up the message, that I’ve heard. It’s actually a U.S. Naval correspondent. It could be urban legend or not, I don’t know. But I’ll tell you the story because it works.

Series: John

John 18 - David Stockton

Basically, there was a ship captain of a big ship. He was headed through the night, headed through some fog. He caught on his radar that there was another ship coming toward him in the same direction. So he sends out a little correspondence and says, “Hey, this is Sgt. Whatever or Col. Whatever, in command in my ship and we noticed we’re on the same trajectory here. I encourage you to adjust your navigation 15 degrees to the south.”

The response comes back, “We are also aware that we’re headed in the same direction. We suggest you go 15 degrees to the north.”

So they go back and forth. This is military. They are all doing their job. It’s very important. The guy on the ship says, “Hey, this is the second largest ship in the Atlantic fleet of the U.S. Navy. I’ve been a Col. For this many years and we are on very important business. We don’t intend to change our direction at all. And by the way, we have three destroyers with us and we will do whatever is necessary to maintain our course and maintain the safety of our ship.”

And then the response comes back, many of you have probably heard this before, “Sir, I’m glad to know all of those things. But we’re a lighthouse. You can do what you want.”

There’s this concept of, when you’re in the fog, when you’re unsure, when no-one really knows what’s what, sometimes it’s easy for us to think that there are no absolutes. There is no truth. Post-modernism is this concept that’s eroding the reality that there isn’t any truth. Or, what they would like to say is, everyone can just kind of find their own truth, and that becomes true for you. Or, there are many, many truths. And whatever works for you could be your truth.

The challenge of that from the scripture, the challenge for that from reason is if you are to say there is no absolute truth, you’re basically trying to claim an absolute truth about that. So it doesn’t work for your own argument. But then you’re going against nature. You’re going against the word of God. You’re going against Jesus’ message. You’re going against all of that as well, who claims there is truth. There is truth.

And if you continue on your course, without adjusting to the truth, it will ruin you. Truth is very, very, very important. And it’s hard in these days to know what’s true. Maybe harder than ever with this new information age that’s got us so smart and savvy that we know the answers to everything now. Not true.

We don’t know even who’s president right now, or going to be, in some ways. We don’t know what the realities of COVID - I’ve never seen the medical profession so confused and speaking out of both sides of their mouths about something. We don’t know necessarily how to do church anymore. We’re trying to figure that out all over again. We don’t know if the Cardinals are good or not. Are they? No. Yes. No. Yes. Like, sometimes no. We don’t know if Chris Paul is going to help the Suns at all. We don’t even know if the Suns can be helped. We don’t know what’s going to happen with the stock market. We all think it’s going down, but it just keeps going up. We don’t know a lot of things. We’ve got more information at our fingertips than ever before, but it has not given us more truth. It has given us way more confusion, way more insecurity, way more isolation, way more uncertainty.

A professor at Stanford University, speaking about this information age and all the access we have to this information, says this:

“If the baseline for making a projection about the next today is the current level of benefit vs. harm of the digital life, then I’m willing to express a confident judgment that the next decade will bring a net harm to people’s well-being. The massive and undeniable benefits of digital life, access to knowledge and culture, ]which we have more than ever before] have mostly been realized. The harms have begun to come into view just over the past few years. And the trend line is moving consistently in a negative direction. I’m mainly worried about corporate and governmental power and the surveillance users, about the degraded public sphere and its new corporate owners that care not much for sustaining democratic governance. Then there are worries about artificial intelligence, and the technological displacement of labor, and finally, the addiction technologies that have captured the attention and mind space of the youngest generation. All in all, digital life is now threatening our psychological, economic and political well-being.”

And we all go, “Uh-huh. Okay. Yeah. There’s a bruise there where you’re pushing.”

We all know that. We all experience it. We’re seeing some undoing. We’re just seeing people adding more and more noise and less and less solution. And this is where we now come to the scriptures. We come to this book that has seen many, many claims at truth come and go. We’ve seen many, many different towers of Babel be built, only to bring about greater confusion.

And John is writing this book at his day and age, where in a lot of ways it makes our situation look like a cake walk. When he was dealing with Roman Empire’s truth and all the corruption there. He was dealing with the religiosity of his Jewish nation and the truth claims that they had and what that had done to him in persecution. And dealing with the populistic culture of his day, which was claiming truth because they had the most popularity.

And he’s writing this whole book of John to try and help all of us believe in Jesus, to believe that he is the way, the truth and the life; to believe that he came into the world full of grace and truth, and that, what he’s longing for is worshipers who will worship God in spirit and in truth. He’s wanting to give us a truth different than the truth the world claims to have. A truth that actually sets us free. And a truth that cannot change, and will not change. It is eternal.

And John is writing to continue to give us the truth about Jesus, so that we can put our faith and hope and trust in him. So that’s what we’ve been going through. In John 18, we pick up the latest version of what John is saying:

When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was a garden, and he and his disciples went into it.
Now Judas, who betrayed him, knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. So Judas came to the garden, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and the Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons.
Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, “Who is it you want?”
“Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied.
“I am he,” Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) When Jesus said, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground.

Dominoes. Clanging of weapons. Torches burning people’s hair, maybe. I don’t know.

Again he asked them, “Who is it you want?”
“Jesus of Nazareth,” they said.
Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he. If you are looking for me, then let these men go.” This happened so that the words he had spoken would be fulfilled: “I have not lost one of those you gave me.”
Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.)
Jesus commanded Peter, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?”

So we’re gong to be talking about truth. I’m going to bring up four different things that I think are important for us to remember about truth that I think John 18 is trying to help us see about truth. The first one is that truth is stronger than lies. Let me say that again. Truth is stronger than lies. Anybody happy about that? Because there are lies out there. Not one or two. There’s lots. And the lies just keep getting piled and piled upon the truth. But it doesn’t change the truth. It can never, will never change the truth. Truth is not subject to human opinion. Truth is not subject to whether we believe in it or not. Truth is and always will be marching on. Truth is stronger than lies.

Here in this story, we have the betrayer. Right? We have Judas, who we know from a few chapters earlier, the devil has entered into him. Who is the devil? The father of lies. So he’s come up with this scheme to basically trick Jesus and trick these other people into getting him some gold.

So there in that garden, Jesus, knowing the truth about what was going to happen to him, walks right into the trap that was set for him. And they say to him, these who represent lies, these who were coming to arrest the truth, to convict the truth, to do away with the truth, to deceive the truth, they look at Jesus and say, “We’re coming for you.” And he says, “Come on, then.”

And whatever happened, they’re now on the ground. And in this moment we get this little glimpse, like we get throughout the scriptures from time to time. Like when the angels burst on the scene with the shepherds. It’s like all of a sudden we get this little curtain that just opens up for a second, and reality shows up. What is real shows up. And it shows that our version of reality, what we think is real, is actually the most fake, frail thing there ever was.

And in this moment, Jesus says, “I am he.” (Yahweh is me.) And the full weight of the reality of the truth of who Jesus is comes out in a moment. And it takes all of the lies and the liars and puts them on their back. And yet, they get up and Jesus surrenders to them. And Peter pulls out the sword and goes chopping away. And Jesus is like, “Peter, you need to understand something.” Just like I want us to understand something. “Peter, the truth is stronger than the lies. You don’t need to get crazy. You don’t need to act in fear. You don’t need to pull out your sword and start chopping away. You don’t need to defend the truth or protect the truth. It’s doing just fine.”

And for us, as Christians, we need to make sure we’re not wrestling against flesh and blood. We’re not fighting in worldly ways, because we’re scared that the truth is going to be overcome. It cannot be overcome. Rest assured, Christians, everything is going to be just fine. The truth is marching on and it is stronger than lies. It doesn’t matter how many lies. Remember the filter we had? The colander? Whatever you put in, you could put a billion lies in there, but if it’s a filter that filters out all the lies, only the truth will come out. And we have that in the scriptures and we have that in the spirit.

So that’s the first thing. Truth is more powerful than lies. The second thing. Let’d keep reading:

Then the detachment of soldiers with its commander and the Jewish officials arrested Jesus. They bound him and brought him first to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jewish leaders that it would be good if one man died for the people.

During this chapter we have Peter’s three denials of Christ and the rooster crowing and all that. We’re going to pick that up in John 21 as Peter is getting reinstated by Jesus. So we’re just going to focus on the trials right now. Verse 19:

Meanwhile, the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching.
“I have spoken openly to the world,” Jesus replied. “I always taught in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret. Why question me? Ask those who heard me. Surely they know what I said.”
When Jesus said this, one of the officials nearby slapped him in the face. “Is this the way you answer the high priest?” he demanded.
“If I said something wrong,” Jesus replied, “testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?” Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.

Now Jesus is at the end of his rope in a lot of ways. He’s at the end of his life. He’s already done his business with his disciples. He’s knows what’s coming to him. He knows that the hour has come. He’s dealt with the Father and got his will and submitted to the Father’s will. And he knows what’s happening. And so, as he’s in this trial, and as he has this guy who’s not the high priest but kind of acting in the office of the high priest, is questioning him, is testing him, is trying to figure out what lies he can stick to him. And Jesus basically continues to stand in the truth.

Then this official slaps him. Which, by the way, I’m glad they don’t put the name of the guy in here, because this like the worst thing to ever be known for for the rest of time, right? You were the guy that slapped Jesus. That’s bad news.

Anyway, this guy slaps him because he feels like he’s being disrespectful to the authority in the room. Like the woman at the well, “If you had any idea of who it is that’s sitting next to you right now, we would be having a very different conversation.”

Yet Jesus, even with his accusers, those who are trying to pin lies to him, he pushes them and he presses and says, “You need to decide, are you on the side of the lies or are you on the side of the truth?” He’s making an appeal to the people in that courtroom. “It’s time for you to decide.”

And the truth that we need to know about truth, the second point is: Truth is upsetting to those living in lies. And we live in a world that is full of lies. And the truth is that many of us still believe lies. And when the truth comes, the first response to truth is not like, “Oh, that’s so wonderful. I’m so glad you just pointed that out in my life. You’re just awesome.”

No. We get defensive. If you’re married, and your wife doesn’t even have to say it anymore. She just has to look at you and you know what you’re doing wrong. She just looks at you and you go, “Okay, it’s really about three or four things that she’s always catching me doing. So it’s one of those.”

And our response is not, “Oh, I’m so glad you pointed that out, you know? I’m going to make that adjustment right away.”

No. We get defensive. We go, “Oh, yeah? Well what about your lies?”

Truth is always very upsetting. And John says this in the beginning. When Jesus came full of grace and truth, he came as the light and the darkness did not receive him. And what we know about this story is we’re just about to get to a place where they didn’t like the the truth that Jesus was and represented so much that they crucified and tried to bury him forever. Truth is upsetting to those living in lies.

So if you feel yourself getting defensive, you should feel yourself right after that going, “Okay, Lord. Maybe I need to spend some time with you and see what you want to set me free from.”

And we also need to know the more that we live for the truth and stand in the truth, the more we’re going to be hated in this world that loves its lies. Jesus time and time again is teaching is teaching his disciples that. We can’t be ignorant of that. It’ll never be popular in the world to live out the truth of Jesus. And when it is, you should be very suspicious. That’s what history teaches us.

So the third thing we’ll get to in verse 28:

Then the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor.

So he stood trial first before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish religious authority, now he’s going to the Roman political authority and he’s going to stand trial there.

By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness they did not enter the palace, because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. So Pilate came out to them and asked, “What charges are you bringing against this man?”
“If he were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed him over to you.”
Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.”
“But we have no right to execute anyone,” they objected. This took place to fulfill what Jesus had said about the kind of death he was going to die.
Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
Tell me the truth.
“Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”
“Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”
Jesus said, “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.”
“You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
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. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
“What is truth?” retorted Pilate.

So Jesus again is bringing this back to truth. He’s now standing trial in this governmental authority. He’s having this dialogue and Pilate is saying things and Jesus is basically bringing it right to Pilate and saying, “Pilate, this is your moment of truth. Are you saying this or are you just saying what you’ve heard? Are you ready to call me king, or are you still going to submit to the kingdom of the Romans that you’re a part of and you know is so corrupt and wrong?”

Jesus is pressing him. He’s saying, “I have come to testify to the truth about a kingdom that tis not of this world. And I am the King of that world.”

And the third point we need to know is Truth is only known by those who receive Jesus because he says, “Those who are on the side of truth believe me.”

And Pilate, who so often represents all of us, in the face of the truth claims of Jesus that are so upsetting to our convenience, and all the beautiful lies that are being told us that we can receive and feel much better about ourselves. When we’re faced with all those options, we just throw up our hands and say, “I guess there’s no way to know.”

That was Pilate’s response as he stood and sat before the Maker of his soul. The Maker of the world. The One who knows the truth better than anyone else. The One who actually has all authority. And he basically just said, “Phh. Whatever. Whatever.”

And Jesus and John both want us to understand the word truth. The word truth here is actually a really big deal in the book of John. It’s a big deal in my life too. Such a big deal I named my daughter Truth. Not in the Paul Pierce way. But I named her Alethea, which is the Greek word for truth. We named her Alethea Reese Stockton. Reese means strong or ardent. We named her Strong and The Truth because we knew that she was going to need to navigate the world that she was going to be living in. And she’s doing an awesome job, by the way. And I won’t embarrass her anymore. I won’t even look over there.

Strong and the Truth. But this is such an important thing. Truth is so important to the book of John. It’s so important that Jesus was coming full of grace truth, that we worship in spirit and truth. And when John was writing the book of Revelation, he actually calls Jesus the Truth. The word Alethea again.

And Jesus is pointing everything back to the truth. “You need to make a choice, Pilate. Do you want to be one who can receive me and hear the truth? Or are you just going to throw up your hands in agnostic frustration?”

I get that people hate that Jesus did this. And I sometimes hate it, too. That he claimed that he is the only way, the only truth, the only life. No one comes to the Father but through him. I would love it if there were many ways to God. Because then everybody could just be happier. But if there’s only one way, I’m really glad Jesus told us.

There’s this quote I want to read to you real quick from a guy named Garrett Best. He says,

John sees alethea as an absolute concept incompatible with relativism and pluralism.

These two words are so important. Relativism is this idea that there’s no absolute truth. Whatever I just kind of feel good about, then that’s truth. That’s this post-modern mindset that is so stupid and is going to lead everyone to hell.

Then there’s this other idea that it’s pluralistic. Well, maybe there’s multiple truths. Maybe there is absolute truth, but actually there’s a multiplicity to it.

And this is where Jesus’ claim says, “Absolutely not. I’m here to tell you there is only one way to the Father. And if you go those other ways, you will not end up in the right spot.”

This progressive Christianity, this kind of cultural revolution that we’re having eroding all of the structures and institutions that’s going on, it’s seeping its way into the church and we have to stop it. There is absolute truth. There is right and wrong. There is heaven and hell. We are not the first people to try to get rid of all of those ideas. We are not so enlightened that we don’t need the scriptures, we don’t need the Spirit anymore. We’ve got to quit acting like it.

The only people who can know the truth, the truth that really matters, are those who receive Jesus Christ. And you will never hear anything else taught from this place. And we have to be careful we don’t get caught up in all of the changes that are happening in the mindset of Americans. Because we become liars if we do.

The last point, it’s a little more happy. The last point comes in this last little part with Pilate’s uttering of, “What is truth”:

With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?”
They shouted back, “No, not him! Give us Barabbas!” Now Barabbas had taken part in an uprising.

So here, just to catch John’s amazing eloquence as he’s writing this book… This is in part thanks to other people. You know, everything that I teach, I stole from somebody. Just to reiterate that. And Dan Riccio is one of them and he’s actually sitting next to my daughter so it’s really embarrassing over there right now.

But there’s the idea that Pilate is bringing up Jesus, who is claiming to be the Son of God, right? And then he’s bringing up this guy, Barabbas. Bar Abbas. In the Hebrew, Bar means “son of” and Abba means “father.” So basically you’ve got Pilate presenting to this people, the same people that in John chapter 8 wanted to make Jesus king by force, those same people, he’s now presenting, “Do you want the true Son of God, Son of the Father, or do you want a counterfeit son of the father?”

Do you see the irony here? And what comes out of the people’s hearts? What do they start shouting? “We want Barabbas! We want Barabbas!”

And if you go into chapter 19, which we don’t have time to, he says, “Well, what do you want me to do with the Son of the Father over here?”

And they say, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”

And they did. They took the true Son of the Father and exchanged him for the counterfeit. And they took that true Son of the Father and they whipped him and they beat him and they mocked him and they pinned him to a tree and they killed him. And then they buried him in a tomb so that they would never have to deal with that voice, with that truth again.

But here’s the deal about truth. Here’s the deal about the truth of God. It is divine. It is creative. It is immovable. It is incorruptible. It is unstoppable. And on the third day, uh-oh. Truth rose again. Truth got up from the ground, ascended to the right hand of the Father, where he sits and he’s waiting for the day his Father says he’s going to come back and judge the world according to the truth that he presented to them. And everyone will be accountable to it.

What did you do with Jesus? Did you choose all the counterfeits that this world has to offer? Or did you receive the true Son of God and make him the Lord of your life?

So there are two things here to close. One is, if you have not received Jesus, this is actually good news for you. It’s bad news that you’re living a lie, and you’re on your way to hell. I get that. That’s not fun to hear on a Sunday morning—or any morning. But it’s the truth that Jesus came to preach and proclaim. But the good news is that Jesus came to preach and proclaim that, though that is true, he’s making a way for you so that you can now be on the side of truth, so that you can hear his voice and know his heart, so that you can all of a sudden become part of the truth that will live on forevermore. That’s the good news.

And for you and I, Christians that believe that truth, have received the truth and have seen it show up from time to time in our life, it’s really encouraging for us. Because, no matter how many lies they add to our minds, no matter how many more lies are perpetrated in society, no matter how more sophisticated they get at these lies, truth is never going to stop. Truth will always keep marching on. If you don’t believe me, believe this guy. We’re going to play a little quote from a guy who also faced some pretty challenging, confusing times. But he had such an ease on the last day that he preached a sermon. Such a hope in his heart because of the truth that he knew, that he spoke these words.

Martin Luther King:

I come to say to you this afternoon, however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because truth crushed to earth will rise again. How long? Not long. Because No lie can live forever. How long? Not long. Because you shall reap what you sow. How long? Not long. Because truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne. Yet that scaffold sways the future and behind the dim unknown standeth God within the shadow keeping watch upon his own. How long? Not long. Because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. How long? Not long. Because mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. He has loosed the fateful lighting of his terrible swift sword. His truth is marching on. He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat. He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment seat. O, be swift, my soul, to answer him. Be jubilant my feet. Our God is marching on. Glory, hallelujah! Glory hallelujah! Glory hallelujah! Glory hallelujah! Glory hallelujah! His truth is marching on.

His truth is marching on. It cannot and never will be stopped, We can rejoice. We can let our fear, let our worry, let our uncertainty go because his truth is forever. And it is so important for us to quiet ourselves before him. It is so important for us to limit the intake we get of all the noise that’s going around these days. And seek his face for truth. He said that, “My sheep know my voice.” And if you will surrender your life to Jesus and you will spend time at his feet, he’ll talk to you.

He’ll talk to you about what’s what. He’ll talk to you about what he thinks is important for you. And it’s really important we get this right, you guys. Because if we can live out the truth in our world, not only will it set us free, but it will give other people access to the truth, that are so confused right now. And then they can be set free as well.

Let’s pray. And when I say, “Let’s pray,” that doesn’t mean let’s end the service. It’s doesn’t mean, “Let’s check our phones and check out.” It doesn’t mean, if you’re at home, you, I don’t know what happens there. It means, “Let’s take advantage of this moment to sit at his feet and allow him to bring to mind any lies that he might want to talk to us about. Any counterfeits that we’re allowing in our lives, whether we know it or not. And also, what truths about who you are and what he’s calling you to do.

Holy Spirit, please speak to us.

In the area of finances, I think we need to be real careful that we don’t allow fear or greed to be a part of our decisions. In our relationships with others, I think we really need to do a better job of listening to what people are trying to say, even if they don’t say it in the right way.

Lord I do pray that you would help us to be really good purveyors of truth in our world. I pray, if we’ve been perpetrating lies or spreading things that are not true or helpful, I pray that you would just stop our mouths, Lord. That you would convict us deep and hard every time we’re about to do that again. And instead, help us to speak truth, Lord. Amen.

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