What Is Truth?

Pilate's famous words in John 18 speaks to our world when as people search for the meaning of life they are really searching for truth. John18: 37 Pilate said, “So you are a king?” Jesus responded, “You say I am a king. Actually, I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true.”

38 “What is truth?” Pilate asked. Then he went out again to the people and told them, “He is not guilty of any crime. 39 But you have a custom of asking me to release one prisoner each year at Passover. Would you like me to release this ‘King of the Jews’?” 40 But they shouted back, “No! Not this man. We want Barabbas!” (Barabbas was a revolutionary.) Pilate in saying What Is Truth was not necessarily asking for a definition, but he seems to wonder where you can find truth.

Jesus spoke to this subject in John 14 when asked by Thomas "where are you going, we don't know the way." John 14:5 “No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. Truth (def) - that which is true or in accordance with fact or reality.

Seargent Joe Friday in the old tv show Dragnet when questioning a witness would cut to the chase when he said "Just the facts please." Pilate did not know the truth or the way to truth, so he turns the decision about what to do with Jesus over to the mob. The mob indicted Jesus and asked for Him to be crucified instead of the criminal Barabbas. I have heard it said that "we" are the ones who would have called for Jesus to be crucified and for a while I had a problem with that thought on the situation. After looking at it a little deeper I can see that it could be true and it could be based on our denial of Jesus as Lord.

If Jesus had been with Pilate a little longer without the religious leaders in attendance, Pilate might have had a little different way of looking at truth, because whether he knew it or not, Pilate was looking at the very truth he did not possess. Pilate apparently knew some truth and in Mark's account the scripture says in Mark 15:9 “Would you like me to release to you this ‘King of the Jews’?” Pilate asked. 10 (For he realized by now that the leading priests had arrested Jesus out of envy.) 11 But at this point the leading priests stirred up the crowd to demand the release of Barabbas instead of Jesus. 12 Pilate asked them, “Then what should I do with this man you call the king of the Jews?” 13 They shouted back, “Crucify him!” 14 “Why?” Pilate demanded. “What crime has he committed?” But the mob roared even louder, “Crucify him!” 15 So to pacify the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.

Just a little background on what basis Pilate made his decision as written by Matthew in Matthew 27: 15 Now it was the governor’s custom each year during the Passover celebration to release one prisoner to the crowd—anyone they wanted. 16 This year there was a notorious prisoner, a man named Barabbas. 17 As the crowds gathered before Pilate’s house that morning, he asked them, “Which one do you want me to release to you—Barabbas, or Jesus who is called the Messiah?” 18 (He knew very well that the religious leaders had arrested Jesus out of envy.). Even Pilate's wife told him to leave Jesus, the innocent man alone as he was giving his judgment, but he still proceeded to leave it to the mob and their decision was for Jesus to be crucified.

If we are not people of the Word of God we will unknowningly be a part of the mob who are ill informed and led by evil to crucify Jesus again and again in our hearts. Those who follow Jesus should never bow to a worldly form of Christianity that denies a true life change in a person who has been born again. To water down the truth in the salvation experience is to water down the effectiveness of that person growing deeper in their faith. There are so many converts who have never gotten out of the "newborn" phase in their faith and are languishing in a mediocre faith that has no effect in sharing the gospel to a lost and dying world. Many times those are the people who end up in strong leadership positions in church families and base their decisions on worldly thinking. To keep this deceit out of the fellowship of believers is to elevate "real" truth that is pure and undefiled. Peter wrote the formula for this in 1 Peter 2:So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech. 2 Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment, 3 now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness.

What is truth? The uncompromised, unblemished Word of God. Jesus IS the Word of God and the natural step for each of us as believers is to cling to His truth without the influence of the worlds compromised truth, which is not truth at all. This is the part where we who are believers are "in" the world but not "of" the world, as Jesus spoke in John 17:14 I have given them your word. And the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. JESUS IS TRUTH and the world rejected HIm and His truth. Let HIm be your truth today and let HIm live through you in every way.

As Joe Friday said, "Just the facts please." Jesus is the fact. Nuff said.

Today's Message,

David Warren