What is Truth?

Father, we confess before you that we know at an intellectual level that we are very

good at seeing little tiny specks in other people's eyes, but very bad at seeing huge

logs sticking in our own eyes.

And we know that, Father, at an intellectual level.

But Father, at a heart level, it's hard for us to know that, and it's often hard for us

to recognize the different ways that we can pick out those tiny specks in other eyes and

just be so blind to the huge log in our own eyes.

So, Father, you know our weakness.

You know how desperate we are always for your grace.

And so we ask that the Holy Spirit would move deeply within us so that we might truly listen

to your word.

Listen to your word, Father, seeking to understand it, seeking, Father, to believe it and

try to put into practice and hearing how it speaks to our heart first and foremost.

And all this we ask in Jesus's precious name, your Son and our Savior.

Amen.

Please be seated.

So we get to begin our sermon today when there's morning prayer.

We get to do it while the kids are singing, which is sort of an interesting thing, having

a soundtrack to a sermon.

So the text that we're going to be looking at in a couple of minutes is a text that lots

and lots and lots of us Christians like.

We especially like it because we see the world getting swallowed up with moral relativism and

intellectual relativism.

But even before we start to read it, we have to acknowledge that this text has profound spiritual

dangers for us.

As you might have picked up in the prayer, one of the problems that we have is that we

very, very, very quickly talk about this text as if somehow or another we Christians have

arrived.

All the other people in the world have all of these problems and we can be very good at

finding the instances of these problems.

But somehow or another, we don't have these same problems.

But the Bible is going to be describing several very, very difficult things that are profound

human problems.

And we have to always acknowledge as Christians that a human problem is a human problem.

And surprise, you and I are humans.

Therefore, we have those problems too.

And just because all of a sudden we say that we're a Christian doesn't mean those human problems

go away.

It means we have a different place to stand to deal with them.

It means we have resources to deal with them.

But we still have to deal with them.

So if you take your Bibles and turn to John chapter 18, we'll have a look at this spiritually

John 18 · chapter mention

dangerous text.

A text which we can easily read and easily trumpet and all the world hears is that somehow we think

that we're better than them.

Which any time you read the Bible, and if you ever read the Bible and think that it's teaching

you that you're better than other people, you haven't read the Bible right.

Because the Bible is always going to be convicting us of our need for grace and our need for Jesus

always.

So John chapter 18, verse 28.

John 18:28

And in the flow of the book, those of you who are guests, this is one of the original,

this is one of the ancient eyewitness biographies of the life of Jesus.

And the way this biography, that John has chosen to tell the biography of Jesus, different than

the way Matthew, different than the way Mark, different than the way Luke tells it.

And, you know, one of the things, I haven't said this in a while, one of the things, there's

nothing in any of these texts that contradict each other.

But they haven't sat down, the four different writers of these ancient biographies, to try to

make sure that we North Americans, who like to have every little detail lined up, we love,

some of us more than others, love those things that you see in the newspaper, you know, after

there's been a terrorist attack or something, and it has a map, and it has, you know, number

one, number two, number three, number four, and different spots, and there's a chronology,

and we love that.

But the writers of the Gospels didn't get together and do that.

And one of the ways I like to understand the differences is this, I hope, you know, like,

so in 40 years or whatever, when Louise finally dies, my wife, and, you know, she's in her

hundreds, and she's been playing with the grandkids up until the night before she died, I mean,

that's what I hope, and that's what she would hope as well.

And then when it finally comes time to do a bit of maybe a memorial service for her, and

we have nine kids, and so maybe the nine kids would decide, well, we're going to have

four of us, four of us speak a little bit about Louise.

And so maybe they'd all team up a little bit, and Tosh and Jesse would get up together, maybe

Jesse the spokesman for the two of them, and maybe, you know, when Jesse's talking, he'd

really emphasize a lot of those late night conversations he had at the crucial years growing

up with Louise that meant so much to him. And maybe the three younger girls would designate

one of them to get up, and they might focus on other different aspects of Louise. They might

focus a little bit on Louise and the different lessons they taught her as a woman, and maybe

they'd spend a bit more time on their childhood and the funny things that they did with her,

and then maybe Joseph and Jacob would get together, and you get my point. All four of them would

say different things, all true, every single thing would be true about Louise, but afterwards,

if you tried to figure out the chronology, you might be a little bit puzzled. If you got

all the nine kids together afterwards, they'd be able to say, oh, yeah, no, no, this happened

before this, and that happened before that, but they'd all take a different approach in

telling the story of Louise's life, and that's what happens with the gospel writers. All of

them true, but four different approaches, emphasizing different things, and they weren't, if you could

go back in the time machine, they'd all say, yeah, no, no, no, that happened this, and that

happened that, but, you know, it's not how you'd tell it. Just like, you know, with stories

about Louise, they might group a whole pile of instances, one after another, because it

illustrates something about Louise, but those incidents might span a big time. I've gone

far enough on it. So the way John has organized his telling of the life of Jesus is that, first

of all, earlier he spent time just looking at seven miracles. Jesus performed many, many

miracles. John says this. He spent a long time looking at seven significant miracles

that Jesus performed and what they meant, and then he actually spent a very, very long

time on what Jesus said privately to the disciples on the night that he was betrayed, when he knew

that Judas was going off to get the soldiers and the police to arrest him, and Jesus knows

he's going to die, and John spends a lot of time talking about that, and now we've come

to the place in the story where Jesus has been captured. We looked at that last week.

All of the disciples have abandoned him. Peter has denied him, and the Jewish authorities have

condemned him, and now the story continues, and here's how it goes. Verse 28.

Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the praetorium. It says governor's headquarters.

In the original language, it's praetorium. I'm saying praetorium because it emphasizes

Rome has him now. Rome has him. He's in the praetorium, and that's where the Romans who've

conquered Israel, and there's a fellow who is both a military commander and, in a sense,

the ruler. In some ways, you could look at it as they're almost like it's under military rule.

They allow the Jewish people a lot of leeway to do things, but at the end of the day, there

is the iron fist of Rome, which is not going to let go of power. And so in the original language,

it actually says praetorium. It's emphasizing we've now come to where Rome rules. And so go back

again. Verse 28. Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the praetorium. It was early morning.

They themselves did not enter the governor's praetorium, so they would not be defiled,

but could eat the Passover. So Pilate, and he's the Roman head of that region, went outside to them

and said, what accusation do you bring against this man? And we just need to pause here for a little

bit because there's lots of stuff going on so that you understand the story. First of all, the Jewish

leaders are going to be really put out. We're going to see this in a moment when we get their response.

The spiritual leaders are put out because as we saw last week, when Jesus was arrested,

he was arrested by Roman soldiers and Jewish police. And the Jewish spiritual leaders have

no authority over Roman soldiers. Pilate was in on it. So, you know, if you're there with them,

all of a sudden just put on your spiritual leader hat, you're going, what game are you playing,

Pilate? You agreed to this. They're going to be pissed off, we'll see in a moment, in terms of

their answer. I don't know if you're allowed to say that from the pulpit, but I just did. So there

you go. But the other thing which is really going on here is, if you think about it, the Passover is a

very, very holy time for Jewish people. It's the annual remembrance of how God delivered them from

slavery in Egypt to make him his own people. And it's celebrated for seven days. And here's one of

the big spiritual dangers in the text for us who read it. And in fact, you know, our Jewish friends,

they deal with us as Christians with a long legacy, almost 2,000 year legacy of anti-Semitism

from Christians, of pogroms, of horrific things that people have done to Jewish people in the name

of Christianity. And so they're going to be, it's very, very easy for us to look and say, you know,

look at these Jews, look what they've done. This text is a profound critique of religion and

spirituality first and foremost. It shows the great danger in religion and the great danger in

spirituality that these human beings, while they are plotting and doing all they can to use the law

to have an innocent man murdered, that's what they're doing. They want an innocent man murdered

because he's inconvenient to them and threatens their power and they're filled with envy.

But at the same time, they don't want to become ceremonially unclean because then they can't eat

the meal. You see that? There's a profound critique of religion and spirituality here.

In fact, as I like to tell my non-Christian friends, Christopher Hitchens and other atheists

who critique religion can't beat Jesus. Like I'll say to them, go read the Gospels. If you read the

Gospels, you want to read the Gospels with me, and I'll just show you time and time and time and time

again, the person who critiques religion the most is Jesus. Jesus is regularly talking about how people

use religion to justify themselves, justify their position of power. And to try to justify yourself

is to walk away from God. And Jesus is showing it all the time. And here we have them. They want to

justify themselves to look religious, to look spiritual. They don't want to break some minor

little rule, which they've actually made, because there's nowhere actually in the Tanakh that says

that to walk into the house of a Gentile instantly makes you unclean. But they've added this extra rule.

They don't want to break that rule, but it's all right to have somebody murdered. Now, by the way,

it's not only a critique of religion and spirituality, but it's actually Jesus throwing open to us

a profound human problem, several profound human problems. I mean, one of them is

that human beings get on bandwagons to try to destroy people.

I'm going to give a very dangerous illustration right now, and after I give this illustration,

I might lose 80% of you, and you won't listen to the rest of the sermon, but I'm going to give it anyway.

I was sitting in this Starbucks the other day, and I overheard two men talking,

and the two men were probably early baby boomers, around 70. And one man said to the other,

the thing that would make me happier than anything else in life is the day they take

Donald Trump out of the White House in handcuffs. And the other man said,

I actually think it would make me happy is when he's killed. Not making this up.

Now, I might have lost you, because you might say, oh, but Donald Trump deserves it.

Whoa, one second. One second. Read this text. Does he really? Have you jumped on a bandwagon?

I might have lost you. I'd say the same thing, by the way, if Hillary Clinton had become president,

and there was a whole pile of very, very conservative people who were attacking her

and saying things like they would just love to see her take out in handcuffs.

And then even when I'm giving this illustration, some of you are saying, but George, how on earth

can you compare the two of them? And I'm just going to say, once again, look at the text,

and let the text work in your heart. Let the text work in your heart.

It's a human problem. Human problem is that we love to jump on bandwagons to get people when they're down.

We love to think of characters. We stop thinking. It's a very standard problem, you know,

amongst anybody who has any type of ideals. I know it's going to sound a bit political,

and I can't avoid it. I'm not really making political points here. I'm not. But all the people

who want to go to save the planet, and they go on private jets to stop the use of fossil fuels.

I mean, that's a profound hypocrisy. That's wanting to appear righteous,

but actually doing something which is not. I was just talking to a friend who's an academic,

and the apologetics conference that we're organizing in early November of 2019 is going to be on

intelligent design. And we're going to be bringing a physicist, and a biologist, and a doctor,

and a philosopher who are going to show you very good scientific and intellectual reasons why the

natural, why what is taught in universities and schools about naturalistic evolution doesn't work.

It's not true. And one of these academics I was talking to on the phone on Friday, he mentioned

a specific place where people go to talk, and he said, are you part of it? And I said, no. And he said,

okay, it's secret. Why is it secret? Because of the trolls and the angry emails that you get,

if that's revealed in public, that you have doubts about it. So what I want to show is, and you know,

if this was a country that was in a time which was far more right-wing, this isn't like a problem of the left.

It's not a problem with religion. It's not a problem with spirituality. It's a problem of the human heart.

And it's also a problem for those who call themselves Christians.

This is going to be very hard for you to believe. I've used the illustration before. After the service,

go talk to somebody like Sean or Gary, who have been Anglicans for a long time.

But it is not at all unusual in an Anglican church that if I was to say hallelujah during Lent,

people would be offended. But if I preached a sermon saying that Jesus didn't rise from the dead,

they would applaud. And they would see no sense of irony or inconsistency in that.

It's a religious problem. And it's not just a religious problem for liberals.

I was talking to one of these people who were involved in the intelligent design movement,

and one of the things he shared is that actually a lot of the angriest emails he gets

are from people who are young earth creationists.

And they will send him the most angry, hateful emails.

Friends, it is a human problem.

It is a human problem.

And we see it told at a very, very subtle but very powerful level in this story

of the spiritual leaders of God's chosen people

being all upset and not wanting to risk getting ceremonially unclean

while they pursue murder against an innocent man.

So what happens next?

Remember I said Pilate says, look at verse 29.

Pilate went outside and said to them,

what accusation do you bring against this man?

And by the way, if you're just reading this for the first time,

Pilate sounds like a very reasonable man, doesn't he?

He sounds like the guy you'd like to have as your deputy minister or as your boss.

He sounds like the guy you'd like to have as a cabinet minister.

He sounds like the guy you'd like to have on your wardens or your council

because he asks a very honest question.

What accusation are you bringing against this guy?

He's the good guy here, Pilate, isn't he?

Well, let's continue to see what happens with Pilate as this goes on.

Verse 30, the spiritual leaders of God's chosen people answer him.

Verse 30, if this man, referring to Jesus, were not doing evil,

we would not have delivered him over to you.

And then they're under their breath saying,

and you know this, by the way, so what game are you playing at?

But Pilate, verse 31, said,

take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.

Once again, Pilate comes across as a reasonable guy,

safe hands to handle a difficult problem,

the sort of guy that we would want to give the problem to.

The Jew, the spiritual leaders replied to him,

it is not lawful for us to put anyone to death.

And there we receive what their real desire is.

They want to have Jesus put to death.

In verse 32, this was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken

to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

It's very interesting that they inadvertently,

these people are the enemies of Jesus,

inadvertently have Jesus' prophecy fulfilled.

Inadvertently, seeking to be wise, they become fools.

And because, you see, Jesus had prophesied

that he was going to die on a cross.

And Jewish people, if they had had the power at the time

to kill him for blasphemy,

or any other way, they would have killed him by stoning.

And Jesus' prophecy about how he would have died

would have failed.

So these people inadvertently are actually having the words of Jesus fulfilled.

So, we see Pilate, he's asking very, very reasonable questions.

You know, what's the charge against this guy?

Charge him yourself.

And now, we finally come to the next bit,

where Pilate's been doing all of this in the courtyard

so that the spiritual leaders won't get unclean.

He says to the, he now takes Jesus and goes inside the praetorium.

The Jewish leaders stay outside.

It's just Pilate and whatever attendants and soldiers he has with them.

And he's with Jesus.

And that's what happens now, beginning at verse 33.

So, Pilate entered the praetorium again and called Jesus and said to him,

Are you the king of the Jews?

Jesus answered,

Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?

Now, just pause.

One of the things that people often tell me that they dislike about religion

is that they like to speak in riddles.

And it's just an attempt to look wise and insightful,

but it just, often things just don't seem to follow.

A doesn't, A, you know, B doesn't really seem to follow A,

and C doesn't seem to follow B,

and somehow or another, you know, we Christians go,

Ooh, ah, over these types of things.

But they don't really make any sense if you're just thinking rationally.

But here I'm going to give a bit of a spoiler alert.

Because you might say, up until now,

and in fact, if you were to keep going for the next few questions,

Pilate is the solid guy.

He's the guy you'd like to have as your boss.

He's the guy you'd like to have handling your problems.

He's asking the good questions.

He's not being pushed around.

But what we're going to see, if you just,

could you skip to the next scripture text?

I think it's the next one.

Look at the end of this whole thing in verse,

the last part of verse 38,

if you can follow up there on the screen.

You know, what you're going to find out if you keep going on

is that Pilate knows that Jesus is innocent.

And then in verse 38b, after he had said this,

he went back outside, that's Pilate,

to the spiritual leaders and told them,

I find no guilt in him.

But you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover,

so do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?

They cried out again and again,

not this man, but Barabbas.

Now, Barabbas was a robber.

We know from other places he's a murderer.

The point I'm reasoning is this,

is that the end of the conversation reveals what's really going on with Barabbas.

He does not give a hoot about the truth.

He doesn't care about the truth at all.

He doesn't care about being sound.

He doesn't care about all of these categories.

And Jesus recognizes this.

And that's why Jesus asks Pilate the question he asks him.

And we, if we were just following through it

and we didn't know the other things that happened,

we go, that's a reasonable question.

That's a reasonable question.

That's a reasonable question.

That's a reasonable question.

Pilate's a reasonable guy.

Why on earth does Jesus give this odd response to him?

Because Jesus knows what's going on in his heart.

That he doesn't care about honesty.

He doesn't care about justice.

He doesn't care about truth.

He doesn't care about any of these things.

He's playing games.

That's what Pilate's doing.

He's playing games motivated by power.

If you could go back up, sorry, to the previous screen.

For those who are using the screen to follow along,

those of us reading in our Bibles,

we just go to verse 33 again.

So Pilate entered his praetorium again and called Jesus

and said to him, are you the king of the Jews?

Jesus answered, do you say this of your own accord?

Or did others say it to you about me?

You see, what Jesus is doing is he's asking Pilate a heart question.

He's asking him a question about his heart.

Pilate, why are you asking me this question?

Like, you're asking me this question because you believe it?

Are you asking me this question because you're threatened by it?

Are you asking this question because you're actually really curious?

Like, are you asking this question because you're looking for grounds to set me free?

Like, what's going on?

And so Jesus responds with a question that's going to reveal Pilate's heart.

And as it goes on, Pilate's heart is completely and utterly revealed.

And you see, every time Jesus asks a question that reveals a heart,

it's also an opportunity for us to repent.

To be stopped in our tracks and say,

good one, I don't really care about the answer.

Maybe I should.

Actually, you know, there's an opportunity to repent here for Pilate,

which is we're going to see he doesn't take.

And so Jesus answers in a way that could at least potentially make Pilate reconsider.

But look what happens in verse 35.

How does he answer?

Am I a Jew?

Like he's in the praetorium.

I have a thousand troops.

I don't know how many it is, but a lot of troops.

I think it's like a huge number of troops.

I have all these troops.

I'm not a Jew.

You're a Jew.

Jews are on the ground, even those religious leaders out there.

And Rome's foot is on their neck.

I don't care about stupid things like Jewish kings.

Am I a Jew?

I'm Roman.

Verse 35 again.

Pilate answered, am I a Jew?

Your own people and the chief priests have delivered you over to me.

What have you done?

Like, what have you done?

Now he's maybe a bit curious.

But Jesus answered, he goes back to the original question.

He says, my kingdom, and by this he's implying that he is a king,

is not of this world.

If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting that I might not be delivered over to the spiritual leaders of the chosen people.

But my kingdom is not from the world.

Jesus says his kingdom is not of the world.

It's not from the world.

We now know that this is opening this whole, it's all part of Jesus' teaching that the old covenant,

God is going to continue to maintain his Old Testament covenant promises to the Jewish people.

But a new covenant is being opened.

And in this new covenant, there's not going to be a chosen nation or a chosen people,

but there will be disciples of Jesus who have trusted him as their Savior and Lord in every people group on the planet.

It has no borders.

In fact, the borders are going to be, the border to the kingdom is truth.

The border to the kingdom is trusting the words of Jesus.

That's the border of the kingdom.

That's what separates the kingdom that Jesus is about to inaugurate and create from the kingdoms of this world.

And the primary weapon of the kingdom of Jesus as we're about to see is the truth.

Not the sword, but the truth.

And justice and mercy and grace.

So verse 37, then Pilate said to him, oh, so you are a king.

Jesus replied, you say that I am a king.

And that's, it's a Hebraism.

It's translated accurately, but what it really means is, yes, I am a king.

And then he says, 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?

Now, just here's one of those other hard situations or this very controversial text.

I just want to draw out the controversy of what Jesus has just said.

Jesus says, everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.

He says, in a sense, if there is a visible church that doesn't listen to the voice of Jesus,

the words of Jesus, it means it is not a church of the truth.

There is a spirituality, a philosophy, an economic system, a political system that is completely

and utterly uninterested in listening to the voice of Jesus.

It is not of the truth.

If there is a religion that does not want to listen to the voice of Jesus,

it is not of the truth.

And the normal Canadian response, and some of us might be profoundly uncomfortable by me saying this in public,

but the normal Canadian response is to say that this is a deeply arrogant statement by Jesus.

And all I want to say right now, I'm not going to go into a long defense of it,

all I want to say is that the death and resurrection of Jesus changes everything.

The death and resurrection of Jesus changes everything.

I was just in a coffee shop yesterday afternoon sharing the gospel with a man,

listening to him and trying to share the gospel.

It's hard to share the gospel in a long conversation.

He has a very, very developed system of thought and moving hither and yon.

But at the heart of it, I said, you know, listen,

ultimately the reason I trust Jesus is not just because on the third day,

after he was completely and utterly dead, that he rose from the dead and defeated death,

and that there's good reasons to believe that.

It's not an unreasonable thing to believe that.

It's not like believing in two plus two equals four, but it's a reasonable thing to believe.

And it's not just that the resurrection changes everything,

but that the resurrection comes after the cross.

That for me, it's those two things, and it changes everything.

It means that Jesus is revealing the God that really does exist.

I told him, I do not believe in the God that Canadians believe in.

I believe in the God who's revealed by Jesus.

And when we're suffering over,

when we're trying to struggle over questions about the fairness of God,

or the justice of God, or the love of God,

I am not talking about an abstract God with an abstract goodness in an abstract place,

doing abstract things.

The God that I believe in came and lived amongst us,

and out of love for you and me,

died on a cross to do everything that could be done to make you right with God.

And if your understanding of God does not include Jesus dying on a cross,

and his blood falling down,

then you and I are not talking about the same God.

And Jesus dies on the cross.

He does it out of love for you and out of love for me.

And after tasting all there is to taste of death,

and after dealing with sin,

on the third day, he rises from the dead.

And if that doesn't justify and vindicate who he is,

and what he accomplished, nothing will.

And so even the arrogant words of Jesus,

these are just a prelude to him dying upon the cross,

and the cross and the resurrection changes everything.

This is not a statement of arrogance.

It is a statement of urgency.

Listen to my voice.

Faith comes by hearing.

And it is by faith alone,

in Jesus alone,

that the grace of God comes with power into your life to change you.

And Pilate's response in verse 38 is,

what is truth?

Now here he is,

the preeminent Canadian academic and newspaper writer,

an average person that you will meet in a bar or in a coffee shop.

What is truth?

Now we're going to unpack this more in a bit of a moment,

but let's just see what happens next.

And remember,

see what the thing happens in this story form

is the story form helps you to understand the truth.

It's not as if John is writing a whole pile of abstract philosophical points,

this and this and this and this.

He tells the story.

But in the process of the story,

at the level of the story,

we imaginatively enter into a very, very, very important truth.

I'm going to make it a point in a couple of minutes,

but the big thing here is,

is that when you abandon the concept of true truth,

you inevitably abandon justice.

Because look what happens.

What is truth?

We go outside.

After he had said this,

Pilate went back outside to the Jews.

I'm in verse 38.

The Jewish leaders,

the spiritual leaders,

and told them,

I find no guilt in him.

But,

you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover.

Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?

How is that just?

What would it be like

if Canadian government found a serial killer?

And then all of a sudden,

the Canadian government came in here one day

and grabbed one of you,

grabbed Nora,

grabbed Dick,

grabbed Anne,

just grabbed an innocent person

and brought them out onto Parliament Hill

and said,

by the way,

I'm really,

I'm just feeling really good today.

I'm going to give you guys a choice.

Who do you want to have killed?

The serial killer or Anne?

Well, how is that just?

Anne's just a sweet,

I didn't,

I almost was going to say,

well,

lady,

a sweet,

long-lived lady

who hasn't heard a fly.

And you're going to just give a whole group of people

who hate Anne,

all half a person in the world who hates her,

and say,

you know,

you have the choice.

You have the serial killer go free.

Or Anne,

and Anne get killed,

or, you know,

have Anne go free.

It's not just.

And so as soon as the,

the doc,

as soon as the idea of truth is lost,

justice is lost.

And boy,

do we see this in our country.

And in verse 40,

they cried out again,

not this man,

but Barabbas.

Now,

Barabbas was a robber,

and we're going to talk more about Barabbas

in,

in the next week,

because he becomes,

it becomes far more important

to the next part of the story.

So here,

here's the thing.

To say that truth is relative,

or that truth does not exist,

is self-refuting.

I mean,

it's,

you know,

people are bothered when I,

they say this to me,

and I say it to them,

and,

but the,

the problem is,

it really is self-refuting.

I mean,

to say that,

that,

that all truth is relative,

you're making an absolute statement

that all truth is relative.

You don't think the statement,

all truth is relative,

is relative.

You think it's absolute.

You know,

as soon as somebody says that,

as soon as say that,

the truth does not exist,

well,

they believe that the statement,

the truth does not exist,

is a truth.

And so,

I mean,

it's,

it's,

it's just silly thinking.

It's not thinking.

It's not thinking.

The fact of the matter is,

is that human beings are made for truth.

We desire truth.

And the big problem,

on one hand,

it's hard to even have any type of category.

The mind can't even work

without having some relationship

to know what is real,

and how to navigate the real,

and appreciate the real.

But the big problem

that we have in our day and age right now

is we have,

we are,

we have fragile selves.

And I think that we live in a day and age

where ourselves are even more fragile

than they've been in other ages.

Statistics Canada,

I was just seeing this the other day,

41% of marriages in Canada

will not reach their 30th wedding anniversary.

We,

I,

I will talk to people in a Starbucks,

and there's probably some of us here,

and they will talk about

not just their biological dad,

but they've had a variety of stepdads

and stepmoms,

boyfriends,

and vice versa.

And I'll ask them about their family,

and the first thing they'll say

is it's complicated.

It's complicated.

And then,

and then you add in things like abortion,

and you add in alcohol,

and you add in drugs,

and you add in institutions

that have failed you.

Many,

many people have watched their moms

or their dads

give decades to a,

a,

a job or an industry,

and then at the whim of a boss,

you're just let go.

And I think we live in an age

where people have

profoundly fragile selves.

And on one hand,

we want to know the truth,

we want to,

we want to be ordered around the truth,

but on the other hand,

because we have this fragile self,

we,

we fear deeply.

You know,

there's all this thing,

it hasn't been talked about much,

about the trigger effects

and all that type of stuff,

and we can make fun of it,

but the fact of the matter is

it's,

it's revealing profoundly fragile selves.

And selves that are very,

very troubled,

if there's an inconvenient truth,

which is mentioned,

it can threaten to break apart

the fragile way

that we're holding our fragile self.

And often our fragile selves

are tried to be based around identities

that we grasp or cling on to.

If anything threatens

the truthfulness of that identity,

it's threatening us

at a very,

very deep level.

And one of the things

what Jesus is showing

throughout the gospel

is that only the gospel

is a solution

for the fragile self.

Only the gospel

is a solution

for the fragile self.

Because you see,

in the gospel,

the entire wonder

of the gospel

is it begins

by the fact

that God comes up to you

and says,

in a sense,

he comes up

and he taps George

on the shoulder

and he says,

George,

I know this is going

to terrify you,

but you are a rebel

against me

and you do wrong things

and you're broken

and you deal with shame.

And I know that you're going

to get red in the face

and you're going to get huffy

and you're not going to like it

when I say these things,

but you need to remember

as I'm saying these things to you

that my son died

on the cross for you.

He set aside his glory.

He knew all about you,

everything about you.

He knew how fragile

your self was.

He knew the different identities

you cling to.

He knew the truths

that you're afraid of

and the lies

that you cling to.

He knows the faces

that you put before the world

to keep people at a distance

and to protect

your fragile self.

He knew every single thing

about that

and yet he came

and set aside his glory

and divine splendor

and he dies on the cross.

He suffers injustice for you.

He suffers pain for you.

He actually bears

in his person

every single thing

that you have done

that's tearing you apart

and tearing you from me

and every single thing

with nothing left over

he bears in his person

for you

dying on a cross.

And it is from that perspective

that I want to tell you

George, in a sense,

God is saying,

can I hug you?

This is my son

and this is what

not just my son

but myself

and the Holy Spirit

we have done this for you

and there is going to be

no truth about you

that's going to catch us

by surprise.

And what I'm offering for you

is that every accusation

you have against yourself

everything you do

which you can't stop

everything that you do

that you're terrified

that somebody will bleed

I have dealt with all of that

I have died for that

I have died for all of those things

I have died for you

and I have defeated death

and sin

and all hostile spiritual powers

all those accusations

I have offered to have on myself

and you can have my favor

and you can actually have me

begin to live within you

when you put your faith

and trust in Jesus

and it's all a gift

it's all a gift

and I will begin

to not only give you

a strong place to stand

where you can begin

with timidity

to look at the things

in your life

that terrify you

and your worry

will make you more fragile

but you can stand

in my strong love

and look at them

and I will give you

my word to give you wisdom

the words of Jesus

as he taught his apostles

and he makes clear the Bible

and my words are wisdom

that will begin

to mend who you are

to make you whole

and to make you free

and to fit you

for an eternal weight of glory

with Jesus

in the new heaven

and the new earth

and my son will live within you

and the Holy Spirit

will live within you

and only the gospel

is the solution

for the fragile self

I had a variety of points

I'm going to really frustrate

you can look on them

earlier on

could you just jump up

to point four please

point four

the sacrifice is true

the love is true

the resurrection is true

the grace is true

the salvation is true

the sacrifice is true

the love is true

the resurrection is true

the grace is true

the salvation is true

could you put the next point up

we Christians

we struggle with telling the truth

just like everybody else

we struggle with lies

just like everybody else

but we know that Jesus

as the gospel grips us

the gospel

if the gospel is gripping us

and we are believing lies

it's not the gospel

that's gripping us

if we believe the gospel

if we think that

if we're afraid of the truth

it's not because the gospel

is gripping us

as the gospel grips us

it makes us into

a people of the truth

who do not believe the lie

and a Christian

is not a perfect person

or a better person

than other people

a Christian is only a beggar

telling other beggars

where to hear the truth

that will set them free

and then if you could put up

the final point

Jesus said

I am the way

and the truth

and the life

no one comes to the Father

except through me

I invite you to stand please

for some of us

this is just an opportunity

just to do some business

with Jesus

and say

Jesus

I have a fragile self

and I'm really

I have just so many times

I don't even share with people

I have these fronts

I have these fears

I have these worries

about your word

I have worries about

what if people knew about

Father I just need to come to you

and ask that you would grip me

with the gospel

that you would fill me

with the Holy Spirit

that I would trust your word

that your word

will mend my soul

mend my heart

mend my mind

grant me freedom

deliver me from lies

and truth

just to call out to Jesus

thank you for the gospel

make it real in my life

and if there is any here

who has not yet given their lives

to Jesus

there is no time better

than right this instant

to do that work

with Jesus

and say

Jesus

thank you for dying

on the cross

for me

and loving me

please come into my life

be my savior

and my lord

and never let me go

and I give

everything that is

within me

even those things

I don't know what they are

everything within me

I give to you

that you might be

my lord of my life

there is no time better

than right now

to call out to Jesus

let's bow our heads

in prayer

father I stand here

with a fragile heart

this is a room

of people

with fragile souls

and fragile hearts

some of us father

have been on the road

have been mended

for a little bit longer

than others

but we all stand here

with different things

within us

and we give you

that are broken

and that we have broken

not just that others

have broken

but we have broken

and father you know

we thank you so much

for your perfect knowledge

of us

and we thank you so much

that with your perfect

knowledge of us

that still you loved us

and still Jesus came

to die upon the cross

for us

to be the one

who makes us right

with you

he does what we could not do

and father we thank you

for this

and we ask that you would

just pour the Holy Spirit

within us

that we might be

once again

gripped anew

by the wonder

of who Jesus is

and what he accomplished

for us

and that as we are

gripped by that

we might read your word

and be open

to your Holy Spirit

moving within us

to start to mend us

together more

and give us freedom

make us whole

that we might live

free and whole

and unafraid

for your glory

father we ask

for this

continued

ongoing

wonderful work

in our lives

and all God's people

said

amen

amen