The Truth About The Truth

Sermon 12-20-09

Heavenly Father, we thank You for our forgiveness because it means that our sins no longer cut us off from You. It means that we can approach You in prayer and that You hear and answer. And, Heavenly Father, now as we read Your words of Scripture, we ask that the Holy Spirit would, through these words, come into our lives and give us the ability to believe Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and to believe the truth of Your word. Lord, touch us with your Holy Spirit and we pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

Scripture Readings -  

Our first reading from Micah Chapter five is always near and dear to my heart. Whenever this reading comes up I think of Roger who was a member of my first church in Michigan when I was just out of the Seminary. Roger always had a great saying. With all the false gods that are around today, he would say, “Unless your God was born in Bethlehem, it’s not God!” He would say that because Micah 5:2 says that the Savior would be born in Bethlehem. Jesus fulfilled that prophesy so you know you are believing in the right God.

Old Testament – Micah 5:2-5  But you, Bethlehem Ephrata, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times. Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor gives birth and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites. He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And he will be their peace. When the Assyrian invades our land and marches through our fortresses, we will raise against him seven shepherds, even eight leaders of men. 

The Holy Gospel is the Christmas Story according to John and it is quite a bit different than the Christmas Story in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. John goes behind the scenes and tells us what it all means. These verses have also served as the basis for our advent series based on John 1:14

Gospel – John 1:2,10-14  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Sermon –

Four Sundays ago we began talking about John 1:14 and all it encompasses: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” - the idea about God in the Old Testament, who He was, the words, the logos,   that describe Him, and that He actually became flesh and dwelt among us. And the last line in John 1:14 says, “We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” If you were here last Sunday you saw the glory of God. And we have talked about God’s grace - His favor, His kindness, His love, and His blessings to those who don’t deserve it and who haven’t earned it – us! So today we want to finish our series by talking about Jesus, The Truth.

How do you know that Jesus is The Truth? That’s a question a gentleman raised during Thanksgiving dinner. He asked, “How do you know this stuff if the truth? How do we believe this stuff?”   Well, John 1:12-13 talks about that when it says “To all who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of human decision but born of God.” It doesn’t have anything to do with you, it’s a God thing and that’s how we know all this is The Truth. You can know that Jesus is who He said He was; you can know that everything in the Bible is the truth, and you can know that all those promises in the Bible are true for you.

Did you know that we are all born with ATBT, the Ability To Believe Things? We are born with an ability to believe anything we want – almost! If you want to, you can believe that the world is flat. You can believe that the world is round. You can believe that there are aliens on other planets. You can believe that there are not aliens on other planets. And if you are like me, last night when you went to bed, you could believe that there would be three to five inches of snow on the ground in the morning! You can believe almost anything you want, but the one thing you cannot believe is the truth of the Bible.

And that’s how we know the Bible is true - you cannot believe the truth of the Bible unless God enables you. We didn’t figure this stuff out by ourselves. In order to believe, you have to be born of God, to have faith given to you by God. 1 Corinthians 12:3 says, “No one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the power of the Holy Spirit.” No one can believe unless God enables them to believe; that’s how we know its The Truth.

And I Corinthians 2:14 says, “The man without the Spirit of God does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him.” He cannot understand because they are spiritually discerned, he cannot believe without the power of the Holy Spirit. And John 20:31 says that the Bible is “written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of   God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” When you read the Bible, something connected to those words comes out of the Bible; the Holy Spirit brings to your brain something called ATBC.

ATBC - the Ability To Believe Christ. It comes to us through Scripture and takes root in our brains - that’s why we believe. God gives us the ability believe and that’s the greatest thing in the world. That’s how we know this is is The Truth.

Now you may say that the very thing I am trying to prove as true – the Bible – I am already assuming as truth, that I’m using a circular argument. In logic, circular reasoning is known as a fallacy, an argument that assumes what it is attempting to prove. A fallacy argumentation is also known as “begging the question” and you can’t prove anything by it. So to answer that, let’s look at a holiday that no one has any trouble believing in - Independence Day, the Fourth of July, the birthday of the USA.  Remember we have ATBT in our brains, this thing called the Ability To Believe Things and that’s how we can believe in that the Fourth of July is the birth of the United States of America. But what would happen if you could not believe that? What would happen to the Holiday?

Here’s what I think would happen if we didn’t have the Ability To Believe Things -  we would get all off kilter with what the holiday is about. Maybe we would develop a mascot for the holiday and call him the “fireworks fairy”. The Fourth of July would become all about getting together with your family and friends, having a barbeque in the backyard, and waiting for darkness to come so that the fireworks fairy would appear and bring fireworks. And furthermore, so we don’t offend people of British ancestry we would call it “The Summer Holiday”.   This is parallel with how people think; Christmas and Resurrection Day are obvious examples. That is what would happen to the holiday if you didn’t have the ability to believe it.

Here are some great truths: your belief in Christ wasn’t, according to John Chapter One, a human decision. It’s not because you grew up with it, or you were brainwashed into believing it, or you were never presented with any other options. You believe because God enabled you to believe. He gave you the ability to believe Christ and put that belief in your brain by the power of the Holy Spirit. God did it and if God did it, it’s The Truth - you believe exactly what He wants you to believe.

Secondly, if you are trying to bring that truth to other people, particularly this week - Christmas is a great time to do it with all the parties and celebrations – know that you cannot get somebody else to believe it by your great arguments or your slickness. And that’s a good thing because the only One who is going to enable someone to believe is the Holy Spirit. Give your testimony, tell them what you believe, give them a Bible, show them passages from Scripture and let the Holy Spirit create in them ATBC – the Ability To Believe Christ. Let God create it, He’ll do it and that’s how you know this is The Truth.

And finally, as you go off into this week, as you head into an uncertain future, and we all have an uncertain future, we can have peace because all those promises in the Bible are true for you. John 3:16 -   God so loved you that he sent his one and only Son for you, that you who believe in Him by God’s power of the Holy Spirit will not perish; you will have everlasting life. John 10:10 says that you will have an abundant life despite the fact that there are a lot of problems in this world. And so that you and I would know that we are not alone amidst those problems and difficulties, Jesus said in John 16:33 “I have told you these things so that you may have peace” And then He said, “Take heart! I have overcome the world.” He has overcome them, He can use them for the good, He can get you through them, and He can help you deal with them. You know those promises are the truth because God gave you the Bible and gave you the ability to believe it. And that’s the truth about The Truth. Amen.  

  Prayer -  

Great God, Heavenly Father, thank You for the truth of Scripture. Thank You for the Holy Spirit who works through Your words and gives us ATBC, the Ability To Believe Christ, the ability to believe Your truth. Thank You, Lord. And we ask that Your Spirit would firm up our faith this week and give us the ability to spread that faith to others that they, too, may know the truth about The Truth.   And we pray this in Jesus’ Name. Amen.