Sermon Central
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The Truth Matters! Series
Contributed by Rick Crandall on Aug 24, 2019 (message contributor)
Summary: 1. We must not hate the truth (vs. 25; 30; 32-36). 2. We must hunger for the truth (vs. 25-29). 3. We must trust the truth to hold us (vs. 28-31).
The Truth Matters!
The Gospel of John
Sermon by Rick Crandall
Grayson Baptist Church - November 30, 2016
(Revised August 23, 2019)
BACKGROUND:
*Please open your Bibles to John chapter 7. Tonight in vs. 25-36, we are going to focus on the vital importance of truth. But before we get started, it's important to remember the background here.
*By now, Jesus was at the annual Feast of the Tabernacles, and when we get to vs. 37, we will find out what it was all about. The Holy Spirit led John to give us a lot of detail about these two or three weeks. It's the focus from John 7:1 all the way to John 10:21, so this was a very significant point in the Lord's ministry. (1)
*Verses 1-2 here tell us that:
1. After these things Jesus walked in Galilee; for He did not want to walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him.
2. Now the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles was at hand.
*By this chapter, Jesus was in the third year of His ministry, and the Jewish rulers had been trying to kill Him for at least 6 months, possibly up to a year and a half based on the different timelines scholars have proposed.
*In John 7:21, Jesus points us to one of the main triggers for the Jews' murderous desires. There "Jesus answered and said to them, 'I did one work, and you all marvel.'"
*The "one work" Jesus mentioned was the miracle He performed at the Bethesda pool in John 5. There the Lord healed a man who had been terribly sick for 38 years. But the Jewish leaders found out that Jesus had healed that man on the Sabbath day. And they were so devoted to their manmade laws that they wanted to murder Jesus.
*John 5:16-18 explains:
16. For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath.
17. But Jesus answered them, "My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.''
18. Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.
*Those rulers cared more about their traditions than they cared about the sick man. Jesus pointed out how wrong they here in vs. 22-24. There the Lord told them:
22. "Moses therefore gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath.
23. If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, so that the law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath?"
24. Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.''
*With this background in mind, let's see what happened next in vs. 25-36. And as we read, please think about the fact that the truth matters.
MESSAGE:
*God surely cares about truth. We know this for one reason because the word "truth" is found over a hundred times in the New Testament. The truth always matters to God, and it ought to matter to us.
*But we live in a day when a lot of people believe that truth doesn't matter. They actually believe there is no such thing as objective truth. You can have your truth, and I can have mine.
*How bad has it gotten? In October 2018, the Christian Institute of England reported on a new survey for the Coalition for Marriage. Among the 2,000 people asked, 32 percent supported self-definition of race. Nineteen percent thought it was okay for people to choose their age. They think if I get up in the morning and decide I want to be 43, I can! But for that matter, why stop there? I'll be 23.
*Ten percent of those people also said it was okay for you to choose your own species! In other words: If I get up tomorrow and decide I want to be a horse, that's what I will be. (2)
*This is the kind of nonsense people can believe when they reject the reality of truth, especially when they reject the greatest truth of all: our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As Jesus said in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."
*Lots of people reject the truth today. They think truth doesn't matter. But the truth is that the truth always matters. The next time I get on a plane, and the gauges say there's plenty of jet fuel in the tank, I want those gauges to be telling the truth!
*The truth matters! And tonight's Scripture shows us how we should respond to the truth.
