John 18:37-38 Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “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.” Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him.
What can we learn about truth from the rest of John’s gospel?
Jesus is where we will find the truth.
- John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
- John 1:17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Jesus is THE truth, not one of many truths, not something that’s true for you but not me
- John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”
John the baptist was a witness because he pointed to Jesus
- John 5:33 You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth.
Jesus tells the truth, and we can’t handle the truth!
- John 8:40 but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God.
If we are not listening to the truth we are listening to lies. We are not neutral, deciding what is true for ourselves.
- John 8:44-46 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me?
To be a Christian is to know the truth about who Jesus is
- John 17:8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.
- John 4:23-24 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
We need the Holy Spirit to hear and understand the truth about who Jesus is.
- John 14:17 ...the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
- John 15:26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.
- John 16:13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
We are made more like Jesus through the truth about him found in the Bible
- John 17:17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
- John 17:19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
- John 8:31-32 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”