The Truth

Well, good morning, everyone. My name's Steve. I've met you before. I'll leave past here at St. Paul's.

And if you've just joined into amongst us right now, just checked in for the first time in 2026,

we are really beginning this year asking the question, is it still reasonable and desirable or good to be Christian in 2026?

Given that 45% of our neighbourhood declare that they are not religious people at all, they are secularists,

and that in our neighbourhood, we are, in fact, significantly lower than the state and national average on people who claim to be Christians.

So, you know, working on the assumption that we are the minority here, is it still reasonable to be Christian in 2026?

And that's kind of what we're doing. And our main focus as we do that is the bold claim of Jesus in John 14, 6,

to be the way, the truth and the life, exclusively the way to God, exclusively the truth for all of humanity and the life for all of humanity.

And so my focus today, as we unpack those three statements over three weeks, is the claim for Jesus to be the truth,

that is exclusive truth, authority of truth for all people, all times, all cultures that exist outside of the world in which we live.

So that's what we're looking at.

And that is, something is regarded as being true, being truthful, if it matches external facts and reality.

It corresponds with.

That is, a statement is true, a proposition is true when it matches reality.

Linked with the correspondence theory is the coherence theory, and that is, a statement or proposition is true if it fits logically and consistently with a whole system of other statements and propositions that fit with reality and facts.

So combined together, it corresponds with, and it's internally coherent, and therefore it's true.

In both cases, facts and reality are things which are external from us.

In a postmodern world, which we're being marinating in for many decades now, truth is viewed as being constructed.

It's constructed by beliefs, by language, by cultures, and therefore truth is not aligned to an independent reality which has authority over all people of all times.

So every individual group or culture can come up with its own version of truth.

We now, however, live in a time called the post-truth era.

And in 2016, Oxford Dictionary selected post-truth as its word of the year.

It defines post-truth as an adjective relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.

Post-truth.

So post-truth as a concept exploded.

It really began in 1992 with a judgment which was passed down by a Supreme Court judge in the US,

but has exploded in 2016 linked to the US presidential election that saw Donald Trump elected as the president of the US.

That is the concept of fake news.

And post-truth exploded 2,000% in the latter stages of 2016.

And I think you'd search in vain to find a more apt description of our age of expressive individualism

where all forms of universal truth, any claim to universal truth, to exclusive truth, like Jesus does here in John 14, is rejected.

The irony of that is to declare that there is no such thing as a universal truth is itself a claim to universal truth.

That's the irony of it.

It's a universal truth claim.

And expressive individualism suggests that truth lies, which is the post-truth era,

that truth lies within each individual.

And to find true liberty, true freedom as an individual,

you must discover that truth that is within you.

Within you.

And live it.

In all its forms, regardless of any other person's opinion.

Because personal liberty is the highest value,

then any truth that constrains my view of myself

is regarded as oppressive and therefore must be rejected.

In a post-truth world, answers to life's big questions no longer need to correspond to reality,

to fact at all.

They just simply need to cater to my desires and my perceptions of the world.

So what is it here that Jesus is saying?

What is he claiming when he claims to be the truth?

To answer that question, what we need to do is to step back

and have a really broad sweep of the Christian worldview, if you like.

The Bible begins by declaring that there was no reality except God at the very beginning.

And that in that sense, God is ultimate reality.

God stands outside of all things that are created.

He's beyond all things that exist.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Now the earth was formless and empty.

That is, before anything was made, anything could be measured,

before anything could be measured, there was God.

God was.

And then this God speaks.

He communicates.

And when he speaks, he creates physical reality.

He creates reality.

He creates the physical universe.

He creates history.

Crucially, in the Christian worldview, God does not interpret history.

He creates history.

And that statement, that view, is a massive hurdle for people in our world,

modern world today.

I spoke about this two weeks ago when we kicked off this season.

One of the interesting things is, with the remarkable growth in scientific discovery,

science itself is increasingly and powerfully pointing to a designer behind the world,

to a creator behind everything that exists.

In actual fact, it is more reasonable to be a person of faith, to believe in a God,

than it is to be a person to not believe in a God, based purely on scientific fact.

So if you want to trust science as the arbiter for you, as to what's true and what's reality,

then your science is pointing you to a creator.

And so the Christian worldview, quite reasonably, begins with a God who creates all things,

and therefore defines all things, because he is the one who is ultimate reality.

Reality is determined.

It is created, determined, and defined by God.

This Christian worldview also declares that the only way that we can know what is true,

what is reality and reasonable, the only way that we can know the way things actually are,

is if this God was to reveal it to us.

As Ash mentioned in his prayers just a moment ago, first of all, in the created order,

the created order points to a design in some way, but more specifically, in very specific revelation,

this created God speaks.

And so the Christian worldview, Psalm 119, 160, says this about God when he speaks.

All your words are true.

All your righteous laws are eternal.

They're true because they come from an eternal God, the ultimate reality.

When God speaks, because he's ultimate reality, he reveals things the way they actually are.

Regardless of whether we think it corresponds to the world as we see it,

he speaks truth because it is him revealing reality.

And so what truth is, which is linked to the philosophical view of correspondence,

but also the cohesion view, is that truth is when reality and the communication of that reality

are aligned to one another.

They make sense.

And the opposite of that is a lie.

Lies are when reality and when the communication of that reality don't correspond.

You know, like the fridge is open, the ice cream tub is empty on the floor,

and you've got three kids with ice cream all on their faces,

and you say, who ate the ice cream?

Don't know.

The dog did it.

You know, there's a...

The facts don't correspond to reality of what you're observing there in that moment.

The unique claim of Christianity is...

Because what that leaves you with is, well, how do we know then reality?

And the unique claim of Christianity is that the God who made reality known,

the one who has communicated, who created all things, has communicated that reality.

He has communicated the unknowable.

The claim of Christianity is that God did not just simply write a book,

like an instruction manual, like you would get with your car,

on how to, you know, best look after the design of the car.

It's not that he just gave us an instruction manual to tell us the way things actually are,

but that this God who created reality wrote himself into the storyline.

He put himself into the reality.

And that's what our world has just finished celebrating.

The world's biggest festival called Christmas.

That is what we celebrate.

And it's what the beginning of John's gospel,

just chapters earlier than what Mel read out to us,

actually confirms.

In the beginning was the Word.

That is, he existed before anything was made.

And the Word was with God.

And the Word was God.

He was with God in the beginning.

And through him, that is through the Word,

all things were made.

Without him, nothing was made that has been made.

And then down in verse 14, you read something startling.

The Word, who is God, who's made all things,

became flesh and made his dwelling amongst us.

And we have seen.

In other words, we have seen, we have understood,

the facts are there, the reality is in front of us.

The glory, the glory of the God who has made all things.

Who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

And so the question is, well then, who is this one,

this Word who is God, who existed before creation,

who made everything and is full of grace and truth?

A couple of verses later, grace and truth

came through Jesus Christ.

So what John claims here at the very beginning

of his biography of Jesus,

which the rest of his biography explains

and defends and supports,

the claim here is that the Word that was in the beginning

became flesh and lived amongst us

so that we could see reality.

We could witness reality.

And we are told five things about this Word in those verses.

The Word is a person.

The Word is a divine person.

The Word is an eternal divine person.

The Word is the eternal divine person,

is the source of all things.

And this Word is Jesus Christ.

Now, John uses a word here that's very specific.

When he says, instead of just saying, look, Jesus,

he says the Word.

And the Word in the original Greek language,

which is what the New Testament is written in,

is the word logos.

And the word logos in the first century

had an enormous amount of meaning

in the Greco-Roman world.

An enormous.

It was a very loaded word.

Greek philosophers, when they looked at the world,

they saw balance, they saw harmony,

they saw design, they saw order,

they saw all of those things,

and they concluded that what they observed

from the reality and the facts of the world,

that there is order and there is a principle,

there's a design, there's a principle

that sits behind the world,

and they called that principle the logos,

the logic that sits behind the created order.

But for Greek philosophers,

the logos was an impersonal,

it was a divine, but it was impersonal structure

behind the natural order of the universe.

The logos was the purpose of the universe.

It was the reason, the logic behind all things

that make sense to all the individual parts.

And they concluded,

in order to live life well,

you must align yourself to the logos,

to that order, to that principle.

In the same way, you want your car

to not be void of warranty,

you want it to work well,

then you follow the instruction manual.

You don't put diesel in a petrol car,

for instance,

and you don't try to plug electricity

into a petrol car.

Those things are not going to go well for you.

That's the idea of the logos for them.

And if you did not align yourself

to the principle of the universe,

then life would go badly for you.

Either you would experience this sense of lack

of contentment in life,

at the very least,

or at the very worst,

you'll entirely destroy your life.

You see what John is saying here?

John comes along

with an earth-shattering category.

The logos is not a principle.

The logos is a person.

A person that you can know.

That is, what he's saying here

is that Jesus Christ is the designer.

He's the source of all life

and the one, therefore,

that we must align our lives to

in order to flourish well in life.

And that is the radical claim of Christianity.

Jesus is not just ultimate reality

as the one behind all things,

but that he comes into the reality

that he has created

to reveal the existence

of ultimate reality,

of truth.

That's why he claims to be the truth.

That's the Christian worldview.

Now,

there's a paradox here.

Paradox of truth and freedom.

You see,

because the modern Westerner,

ever since the,

particularly the postmodern age,

the modern Westerner

is repelled by such an exclusive claim.

And the reason is that,

the view is that any claim to exclusive truth

that is external from the individual

is regarded as oppression.

It is regarded as a constraint upon my freedom.

So,

in other words,

we must get rid of God

in order to enjoy life.

The British Humanist Society,

a couple of weeks ago,

I mentioned this.

British Humanist Society

put an advertisement

on the side of buses in London

a number of years ago now

where they said,

God doesn't exist,

so enjoy life.

You see,

there's two things there,

two statements

that are being made there.

Number one,

God doesn't exist.

That's a statement of belief.

But secondly,

that it is the existence of God,

the existence of ultimate reality,

that is putting a constraint

on your enjoyment of life.

And that is exact opposite

of what Jesus claims here.

Jesus makes that connection.

Absolutely right.

Truth and freedom go together.

But Jesus couldn't disagree with you more

than the British Humanist Society.

John 8, 31,

if you hold to my teaching,

you are really my disciples

and then you will know the truth

and the truth will set you free.

You see,

verse 22 there promises freedom.

But,

Jesus says in the verse,

it's only if you hold to his teaching,

then you will experience freedom.

To hold to his teaching here

is to embrace it,

to obey it,

to live it.

Much stronger than just simply agreeing with it.

Jesus says

that we can only be free,

truly free,

if we accept his constraints.

That's the paradox of freedom.

In his book,

Two Concepts of Liberty,

philosopher Isaiah Berlin

distinguishes between negative liberty

and positive liberty.

Negative liberty describes personal freedom

as from all constraints,

all external constraint,

and anything that's an outside interference.

That is negative freedom.

In other words,

negative freedom

is the absence

of all obstacles,

the absence of all constraints

to live any way

I see fit

for my personal fulfillment.

That's,

in its ultimate form,

is expressive individualism.

Positive liberty

means freedom

to do,

not freedom from,

it's freedom to do.

It's the freedom

to make choices,

to make the right choices

for,

not just myself,

but for a common good,

for the advancement of others.

Because as others advance,

so do I.

Negative freedom

basically rules out

personal relationships

as central to my flourishing.

Positive freedom

says personal relationships

are essential to my flourishing.

That's the difference.

And so therefore,

for any sort of liberty,

what Isaiah says here

is that you need

to take on certain constraints

in order to be truly free.

For example,

I'm a diabetic.

I've got this

insulin pump

attached to me

all the time.

It's not a pager.

Those things are gone.

And sometimes I tell kids

it's my battery charger

to keep my heart going.

But, you know,

that just confuses them.

I'm a diabetic.

What if I chose

to exercise my freedom

by accepting no constraints

on my diet whatsoever?

No, you know,

like expressive individualism.

I'm going to eat

whatever I want.

I'm going to, you know,

chocolate cake

and Tim Tams

and rice.

Rice is evil, by the way.

Rice and burgers

and Coke.

You know,

I can do whatever I want.

I'm free.

However,

if I did that

as a diabetic,

it won't be long

before my body

will put constraints

on me.

I might not be free

to eat.

Sorry,

I might be free

to eat whatever I want

but I won't be free

to see for very long.

I won't be free

to run.

I won't be free

to walk.

I won't be free

to have both limbs

or fingers

or toes.

I won't be free

to live

before much longer.

Also,

think about,

forget about that.

What if

you've got

two passions

in life

and you want

to be free

to pursue

both passions

and what if

those passions

contradict one another?

What if

I want to eat

those foods

on one hand

but on the other hand

another passion

is,

one of my great passions

in life

might be chocolate cake

but what if

the other passion

in my life

is to run

half marathons?

What if

I want both

of those things?

They are both

deeply embedded values.

The only option

for me

is to constrain

one freedom

in order to pursue

the other freedom.

I can't have both.

You see,

true freedom

is not the absence

of constraints

in life,

it is choosing

the liberating

constraints

in life.

It's the strategic

loss

of some constraints,

sorry,

of some freedoms

in order to gain

the more

liberating

freedoms.

The constraint

of relational

fatality

grows

into the freedom

of intimacy

and companionship

and love.

but

how do we

make those

right choices?

And that's

the point

Jesus is making

here in John 8

because what he's

saying here is

there is a barrier.

There's a barrier

to us making

those right choices

about what

are the things

that I should

pursue

that will

result in

greater and

greater freedom.

amazing

what Jesus

says here

is again

the exact

opposite

of our

post-truth

world.

The barriers

that exist

for our liberty

are not

external barriers

although I

acknowledge that

there are

external barriers

in our world

that we ought

to be working

against for

the liberty

of all people.

but for all

people

the external

barriers are not

laws,

institutions

or exclusive

claims to

truth

it's an

internal

barrier.

There's an

internal

barrier

that gets

in the way

of our

freedom

and we

don't know

it.

in verses

33 and

34

the people

Jesus

speaking to

push back

on him

suggesting

that they're

not free

and they

say we

have

a

hand

of

standards

and we

have

been

slaves

to

anyone

how can

you say

that we

shall be

free

Jesus

replied

truly I

tell you

everyone

who sins

is a

slave to

sin

so Jesus

says

everyone's

biggest

problem

is that

we are

slaves

that's

why he

uses the

word

everyone

they say

here we

are

Abraham's

descendants

we have

not been

slaves of

anyone

now these

are Jewish

people that

he's speaking

to here

right

and they

knew

that he

wasn't

talking

about

external

constraints

they knew

Jesus wasn't

talking about

external

constraints

they knew

that he

was talking

about

inner

freedom

the reason

they knew

that

is because

you just

look around

you got

the

occupying

Romans

right

there

they're

all

there

what

they

were

blamed

to

is an

inner

slavery

an

inner

slavery

to

wrong

decisions

wrong

choices

you see

these people

thought they

were right

with God

and that

they were

in fact

true to

themselves

but inwardly

they were

slaves to

sin

that's why

Jesus

includes

us

in verse

34

with the

words

everyone

he's

saying

what

Jesus

is

saying

is

that

sin

is a

power

in our

hearts

and over

our lives

that

makes

us

that

results

in us

doing

bad

making

bad

choices

and doing

bad

things

sin

sets

us

up

against

not

just

God

but

also

against

other

people

every

person

is

enslaved

to

sin

but

every

person

is

blinded

to

the

deepest

reality

of

that

sin

in

our

life

our

deepest

deepest

deepest

desire

in the

heart

is what

Martin

Luther

called

I

just

couldn't

remember

the

Latin

phrase

it would

just

sound

impressive

I

could

remember

it

but

anyway

it's

curved

in

on

itself

that's

the

English

version

of

it

curved

in

on

itself

every

single

human

sin

means

expressive

individualism

is at

the deepest

sense

of my

life

and

most

part

we go

about

our

daily

lives

thinking

that we

are

free

but

we

are

not

we're

enslaved

to

ourselves

enslaved

to

sin

and

the

Bible

tells

us

that

the

wages

of

sin

is

death

and

unless

that

wage

is

paid

we

are

not

free

in

the

same

way

you

might

have

the

freedom

of

opening

up

the

own

door

to

your

home

but

until

it

is

entirely

yours

you're

enslaved

to

the

mortgage

even

though

you

feel

free

in

your

own

home

that

freedom

happens

until

the

bank

comes

in

and

takes

over

the

mortgage

in

other

words

all of

us

have

got

a

debt

and

we're

enslaved

to

that

debt

now

Jesus

doesn't

unpack

here

what

sin

is

but

the

rest

of

the

Bible

does

sin

is

resisting

our

creator

deep

inside

the

human

heart

is

an

impulse

that

resists

anyone

telling

us

how to

live

our

lives

and

the

ultimate

trigger

for

that

impulse

is

God

himself

Romans

1

puts

us

put

our

resisting

in

these

terms

and

it's

in

the

terms

of

rejecting

truth

the

wrath

of

God

is

being

revealed

from

heaven

against

all

the

godliness

and

wickedness

of

people

who

suppress

the

truth

by

their

wickedness

since

what

may be

known

about

God

is

plain

to

them

because

God

has

made

it

plain

to

them

for

since

the

creation

of

world

God's

invisible

qualities

his

eternal

!

And so

the

question

that we

are left

with

here

if

that's

the

problem

if

my

deepest

issue

is

sin

who

is

going

to

set

me

free?

Verses

35

and 36

in

John 8

give us

the

source

of

true

freedom

now

a

slave

has

no

permanent

place

in

the

family

but

a

son

belongs

to

it

forever

so

if

the

son

sets

you

free

you'll

be

free

indeed

the

image

here

that

Jesus

uses

is

that

a

servant

might

get

to

imagine

a

servant

in a

rich

family

they're

the

butler

or

something

like

that

they

might

get

to

live

in

the

mansion

they

might

get

their

little

section

in

the

mansion

they

might

in

fact

get

to

drive

around

in

the

family's

limousine

they

might

even

get

to

accompany

them

on

overseas

trips

in

the

private

jet

they

might

even

have

a

great

relationship

with

them

over

many

many

years

but

their

relationship

is a

relationship

with

the

boss

purely

that

it's

based

on

good

works

it's

based

on

the

fact

that

they

perform

if

you

do

your

job

you

obey

the

rules

you

could

exist

in

that

environment

and have

all the

the

benefits

of that

environment

and if

you

don't

you're

out

you

don't

get

to do

the

private jet

limousine

in the

mansion

anymore

but

Jesus

says

it's

an

entirely

different

relationship

with the

children

of the

owner

one

relationship

is based

on

good

works

the

other

relationship

is based

on

unconditional

love

the

son

the

daughter

of a

wealthy

person

may

disappoint

their

parents

but

they're

not

always

kicked

out

only

unconditional

love

sets us

free

the

only

way

that

sin

in

our

life

will

be

dealt

with

is

if

Jesus

the

son

is

the

one

who

sets

us

free

the

only

one

who

can

change

us

from

being

slaves

to

sin

to

children

of

God

is

Jesus

that's

what

John

looked

at

last

week

in

that

he

is

the

way

sorry

Nick

looked

at

last

week

he

is

the

way

they're

just

your

twins

!

Can we

see how

Jesus

does

that

right

at the

very

end

of

John

8

58

very

truly

I

tell

you

Jesus

answered

before

Abraham

was

born

I

am

this

is

this

is

where

we

get

a

glimpse

of

how

he

does

it

how

he

sets

us

free

now

the

way

you

might

expect

Jesus

to

say

that

is

something

like

before

Abraham

was

born

I

was

but

he

says

before

Abraham

born

I

am

he

uses

the

word

I

am

very

specifically

because

it

is

the

personal

declaration

from

the

Old

Testament

in

Exodus

3

when

God

reveals

himself

to

Moses

and

is claiming to be the truth.

He's claiming to be God himself.

And so the people around him immediately pick up stones

in order to stone Jesus' death for blasphemy.

Outrageous claim.

Jesus claims to be the all-powerful, all-present, unrestricted,

totally free God, the ultimate reality,

the revelation of God himself right here.

And so they pick up stones to kill him for blasphemy.

And in that moment, we get a foreshadowing of how it is

that Jesus actually sets us free from our sin.

They will kill him, but it will be Jesus' plan

in order to make us children of God, to set us free from sin.

You see, Jesus Christ, God the Son,

gives up his ultimate and infinite freedom

as ultimate reality, comes into his creation,

takes on all the constraints of being in a human body,

being born of a woman.

He descends further still in humility

by eventually surrendering himself to a Roman cross.

He gave power to those Romans in the first place.

His liberty is taken away by nails through his wrists

and in his feet, nailed to a cross.

And then the author of life itself surrenders himself to death

and faces the constraints of a tomb

so that we, the slaves deserving of death,

could have the freedom of being children of God forever.

He was bound to a cross and death

so that we could be free and live.

As he died for us, he was plunged into the unimaginable darkness

of sin and despair and rejection and loneliness

so that we could see he is the light of life

and in seeing, have life and have freedom and have acceptance.

From the manger to the cross,

Jesus Christ gives up his freedom consistently

to set us free

from the freedom that we cannot get,

set us free from ourselves,

the deep slavery in the human heart of sin,

the slavery because we have rejected the one true God

and choose to live life our way.

And we see, once we see what he has done for us,

it transforms us from being slaves to a child of God.

Jesus is truth that causes the blind to see,

for darkness to be extinguished, death to be defeated,

eternal life granted and freedom experienced.

It is remarkable, earlier Ash on the screen

told us about Joni Erickson.

Joni says now, having been a quadriplegic

for virtually seven decades, I think,

says she would again, willingly,

live again another entire life

constrained to a wheelchair with Jesus

rather than having the full function of her legs

and her arms without him.

She feels freer in a wheelchair with Jesus

than life without him

because of the freedom and the peace inside.

So let me just really quickly wrap up how we embrace.

Verse 31, Jesus says,

his true followers are those who hold to his teaching.

The word hold there, as I mentioned,

means to abide in, to align your life with.

In other words, freedom comes

by the constraints of obedience,

living by Jesus, his teaching.

It means accepting God's word

and all that it reveals as supremely true for you in life.

It has the final authority for you in life.

And to take that truth into your life

and live into how God has designed you.

So even if it conflicts with your worldview,

at several points,

what we see is that Jesus, as the truth,

confirms the historic Christian scriptures,

the Bible as God revealing reality.

He confirms the Bible as true,

as reflecting ultimate reality,

the revealing the way things actually are.

And therefore the Bible is authoritative

over all of life for all people

and all times.

And it's also by his Holy Spirit,

as John tells us a little bit later

in his biography,

by his Holy Spirit,

we are led into truth.

It's where we meet God.

It's where we meet him personally.

It's where we engage with God.

It is not a dead letter book.

I mean, it's so intimate.

2 Timothy 3 talks about like this,

all scripture is God breathed.

God's speaking to us.

And he's useful for teaching,

correcting,

rebuking,

training in righteousness.

In other words,

shaping our lives,

conforming it to Jesus.

In the Bible,

God gives us knowledge of himself,

his will,

his work in his world,

wisdom,

meaning,

purpose,

to navigate all the complexities of life.

His word is a liberating constraint.

And when we hold to it

and align our lives to it repeatedly

to do what it says,

we will increasingly grow in freedom.

Freer,

like a Johnny Anderson.

Free from sin,

free from guilt,

free from shame,

free from condemnation,

free from enslaving emotions and desires,

free from what people think of us,

free from needing to prove ourselves,

free from fear,

free from loneliness,

free from the fear of failure,

free from the fear of sickness,

from the fear of insecurity,

free from vulnerability,

and free from the commitment to other people,

free from the fear of death itself,

and free to love,

to sacrifice,

to be generous,

to celebrate the other people's wins,

free to serve others,

free to live within our design,

free to forgive,

and therefore set free to flourish.

When Jesus sets us free,

we are free indeed.

But to grow into that freedom

will mean constraints.

It might mean, for instance,

constraining your,

picking up your Bible

before you pick up your phone

in the morning, for instance.

Constraints on your time.

It will result in things like that.

Constraining on,

fighting back fire with fire.

There are all sorts of things.

It will put constraints on you.

But what you'll discover over time

is that when the Son sets you free,

you will be free indeed.