A Fool’s Truth

This message was delivered by Pastor Brent at River of Life Church

…Jesus responded, “…All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true.” “What is truth?” Pilate asked. (John 18:37, 38, NLT)

Today we are continue in our series “What a fool believes”. Last week we looked at “fools talk” and we saw how the the way people see meaning in life has changed in the last 50 years. Well, actually, we know that the change started during the Enlightenment and had been slowly working its way through the fabric of culture and society until we arrived in our day with what is clearly a change. Last week we looked at how the gospel addresses the ultimate questions of our world even though to those who are not listening carefully hear it as fool’s talk.

This week we are looking at “Fool’s Truth”. When we think about our place in the world, one of the first passages I think of is John 18:37-38 when

Pilate is interrogating Jesus.

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. (John 18:37–38a, NLT)

In this passage Jesus is facing a death sentence and his defence before Pilate is rooted in this idea of the truth. Yet, for Pilate that was a foolish statement — we can almost hear his disdain when he says: “What is truth”. I think the reason I can almost hear the disdain is because it is exactly what somebody would say today if we were having a conversation about truth.

Talking about truth is very much out of sync with our culture. The first step was in the Enlightenment when the lead thinkers decided that God needed to be removed from all our questions about truth. Entire thought systems of ethics and morality were created without appealing to God or his ways.

Ultimately where that led is today — where Western society believes that anything related to God is “unknowable”. It belongs to the category of preference, or opinion — but definitely not things that we can say are true.

Truth without God looks very different than truth with God.

Truth without God

First, without God, truth is about what can be known and since our world has arrived at a place where spiritual things can never be known, spiritual things cannot speak to what is true. This is what our world thinks.

It is not uncommon to hear people talk about the “leap of faith” as if it were believing without evidence or even believing against the evidence. But faith in the Bible is not like that. The leap of faith is still a movement into the unknown, but it is firmly rooted and in line with one’s knowledge and experience of faith. The modern idea of “leap of faith” Dallas Willard calls a “leap without faith”.

Eventually, once faith has been categorized as completely personal opinion that cannot inform real knowledge or what is true, it simply doesn’t matter. Spirituality and religion can say whatever they want to say. Who cares — the world says — it’s all just make believe.

Obviously this creates a real problem for the person of faith. When we speak of truth or of spiritual knowledge — people think of it as “fool’s truth”. Truth based on fantasy and imagination — not on facts.

The thing is, if you rule out that there is a spiritual world. If you rule out God and all the things connected to God — the modern viewpoint makes sense. But here’s the issue. Once you add God into the equation — none of the numbers add up any more. Truth without God, in certain areas of life look very different than truth with God in the picture.

Truth with God

Now, obviously, 2×2=4 regardless of one’s faith. In fact, the great classical mathematicians were pagan Greeks. Later, mathematics and the teachings of Aristotle were preserved and added to by the Islamic Scholars. So much so that our number system is actually based on the Arabic number system. At so many levels of life, faith is not part of the equation. But at another level, it is the foundation of the equation.

Oxford mathematician John Lennox gives the illustration about a beaker of water boiling in a science lab at a university. The professor asks the student, “why is this water boiling?” The student analyzes all the features of what makes water boil — what temperature is needed and for how long and at what specific gravity. The professor says to the student, that’s very good, but the reason why the water is boiling is because I wanted some tea!

Truth includes revelation from God

The hard knowledge of science can give us great and wonderful information, but the spiritual dimension gives us a different layer of information. We treat people well, not just because it adds to social cohesion and creates safe places for humans to develop and thrive — we also do it because every person is made in the image of God. Every person has value and significance. It is not connected to how much you contribute to overall social cohesion or community — you are — at the very core of being — beautiful and treasured by God. It doesn’t matter if you’re a scholar or have intellectual challenges. It doesn’t matter if you’re a criminal or a philanthropist or straight or gay, skinny or fat or anything else — each person carries the image of God in their person and there is something of infinity..of eternity in every person.

Pol Pot and Stalin had very scientific ideas about the worth of single life. One doesn’t have to look at nature very long to see that the strong prey upon the weak in every species. They just have to observe the male lion killing his male cubs to understand that staying powerful requires radical violent behaviour. And yet once we bring God into the equation, we see Abraham bartering with God to spare Sodom and we see Jesus reaching out touching the outcast-leper. In this we see an alternative point of view that is very different at its core.

As soon as we allow God into the conversation, we have to account for what God says. What God’s opinion is on a particular matter becomes an important part of the equation. Dallas Willard makes this comment:

The “double-minded” person is someone with a reality problem. The New Testament writer James, brother of Jesus, precisely describes the life of such a person. He says that individual is “unstable in every way” (1:8). That is what lack of knowledge at the worldview level does to you. It destabilizes your whole life. (Willard, Dallas. Knowing Christ Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual Knowledge (Kindle Locations 726-728). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition).

We don’t want to have our whole lives ‘destabilized’ because we fail to accept the reality of God and allow God a place in our discussions. Once we let God into the mix, we quickly see that…

We can know spiritual matters

Once we accept that God has spoken to specific matters and just generally about a lot of areas, we begin to see that spiritual matters shape what we know. This doesn’t mean that the bible speaks to how old the earth is. Anyone who reads the bible will tells you God doesn’t spend a lot of time dealing with modern scientific questions. The eternal matters – things that ultimately matter — that’s what comes out as important for us to see.

I remember seeing one-zero-zero and thinking one hundred. I was taught this in school and never doubted. What I was not taught was that that actually depended on what base number system I was using. In a decimal system, where after nine, you start over in the one’s column and place bump up the tens column, one-zero-zero was one hundred. But what if I were using a binary number system? In binary one-zero-zero represents four. I remember how excited I was when I learned about different number systems. I was 20, Lise and I had just moved into our first apartment — the basement of former school teachers. In our storage room was a box of old school books. Our landlord said if we wanted any of them to take them. The one I was interested in was a math text (and a Latin text). Reading that book — it was chapter one that they taught about number systems was the first time in my entire life that math was interesting to me. It was a result of reading that one chapter from an old high school text book that made me buy more math books and relearn math that I never really understood as a student.

Why do I tell that story. Because science can’t tell you if one-zero-zero is one hundred or if it is four or some other number — several could be true depending on other information. In the computer age, we can’t even say that normally it would be one or the other because base-2, base 8, and base 16 systems are commonly used. Someone needs to give us some more information — information from outside — so we can interpret properly. Once we know it’s binary, we know it is 4. If we learn it is decimal, we know it is 100.

When it comes to learning why the water is boiling — God gives us information from outside. God reveals to us important pieces of information that helps us understand and make decisions about our world. God is the key that unlocks our understanding about the deep questions of life.

What is reality?

Who is well-off or blessed

Who is a truly good person?

How does one become a truly good person?

(these worldview questions are from Dallas Willard, Knowing Christ Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual Knowledge (Kindle Locations 876-878). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition. )

These are the deep questions that are of ultimate importance and require information from outside our bubble to answer them. Because God has revealed the answers to these questions (and others) our …

Faith is rooted in evidence.

But it is evidence that is disallowed by an unbelieving world.

Perhaps most importantly, we need to understand that because

Faith and truth are connected, we must act on it.

Pilate asked Jesus: “What is truth?” Many people are cynically asking that question today. People were asking that same question in the early church. The early centuries saw the church grow exponentially. People were accepting the ‘truth’ of Jesus. But why? One reason was that so many christians lived authentically. What God said was truth. What was true was lived — at times — died for.

Yes, there were fakes and phonies — but mostly there was authenticity. They were not doubled minded people but were single-minded in their love for Christ and their commitment to live as kingdom-of-God people.

This is a big deal. When we look at the Western world today, what passes as Christian is often a sad mess of moralistic violent nationalism. This is the realm of the zealots of Jesus day. They were invited into his circle, but they were called to change. To love their enemies not kill them. To be generous with their money and their time. To give value to those on the margins of life and to hunger and thirst for the just way of life what was called in those times – righteousness.

Our truth is rooted in God and his ways. To our world this is seen as a fool’s truth and weakness — but as Paul said long ago to people not unlike us — Christ is both the power of God and the Wisdom of God. (1Cor 1:24)

Seek the Good (Brent Hudson)

KEY QUESTION
What does it mean to do the right thing? How do I know?

KEY IDEA
I choose to be kind and good in my relationships with others.

KEY VERSE
Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good (lit. “the good”) for each other and for everyone else. (1 Thessalonians 5:15, NIV)

Introduction

Today we are looking at two virtues of the Christian life – goodness & kindness. These are often seen as a bit bland and perhaps they are so obviously part of the Christian life that one could think they hardly warrant a message. On the surface, I agree. To use an idea from Paul, among the virtues these seem like “elementary teachings” or “milk, not solid food” — but I think the deeper we delve into these ideas, the more we see that simple ideas can sometimes be easy to ignore.

When you look up the word “goodness” or “good” in the standard theological dictionary of Greek words (NIDNTT) you notice right away that there are three words grouped together under the general idea of “good”.

The first refers to what is “good and moral”
the second to what is “good and pleasing” and
the third refers to what is “good and kind”

I’m simplifying, of course, human language is rarely consistent and often used ironically or in some symbolic manner. But it is important for us to see that it is a big idea and that the concepts of what is good and what is kind are connected.

Sometimes in a translation, you find that an original saying is explained more than translated because the two languages don’t line up very well. I find the text of 1Thess 5:15 is like that. Literally the text reads: “pursue the good for each other and for all”. Most translators will say the phrase “the good” is awkward and change it to “what is good” and then they add a verb “to do” to make it more clear “seek or strive to do what is good” even though the Greek text is actually more powerful when it says: “pursue the good”. I want to leave the idea of “the good” alone and not make it “what is good” or “things that are good” — I want to leave it as it stands “the good” because I think it helps us look at our actions from 20000ft up above the ground. The view is clear in a broad way and I think it helps us understand the big picture. I am a firm believer that understanding the big picture of what God wants is the best help available in getting the details right in our lives.

And from our passage what is clear right away is. . .

“The good” exists…

It’s a strange thing to say really, but I think sometimes we forget it. There is a moral category called the “the good” and it does exist and we need to be aware of its existence as we make life-choices. As we look to the text Paul doesn’t hesitate in declaring we need to look for it. It’s there in every circumstance. Sometimes it is hard to see. Other times we may wonder if it is worth the effort to find, but we must never deceive ourselves into thinking it doesn’t exist. In every circumstance and on every occasion, there is “the good” and we are told to look for it.

The very first line of Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life says: “it’s not about you”. While that may seem ho-hum in a christian context, in a world that defines “#1” as “self” — it’s an important reminder. And we need to be reminded regularly that life is not primarily about us and achieving all the things we set out to do. Primarily, life is about God and bringing God glory. We do that primarily by believing in his Son, Jesus Christ and in an on-going focus on looking for what God is doing or wants us to do. The thing that God would have us do we would call “the good”. The good exists because God exists and “The Good” is primarily about God and his purposes, not about what I want. Paul makes this clear in the passage when he says that for the Christian, it is the good of others and everyone that we are to be concerned. We are part of that “everyone else” he refers to, but we are not at the center.

Even so, I know that we often struggle with figuring out “the good” in real-time. The fact is that

“The good” can get complicated

It is often hard

The decision making is difficult in the best of times. Usually there are many factors involved. When you add the idea of the “the good” and then compound that with “for each other and everyone” — our thinking slows down. Now we have to think about how our decisions affect others outside our immediate group — our spouse, our kids. Now we look at our extended family, our church, our friends & neighbours. The reach grows immediately from something simple to something hard.

But you know as well as I do that what is most difficult is actually doing this. Sometimes it is obvious what “the good” is but doing it will require something from us that is difficult.

Others may disagree

Another reason pursuing the good is complicated is that it conflicts with our desire to promote ourselves. Sometimes doing “the good” will get us criticized. Sometimes people will misunderstand and sometimes people will just simply disagree with our understanding of what “the good” is. These are the risks we run when we break free of a self-focused existence.

I know that the bible teaches to give a portion of my income to the church. Traditionally, that is 10% – a tithe. The NT teaches that all my possessions belong to God, but we like to give the first 10% of our income to our local congregation to support our common spiritual life. If you come from a non-christian family, the first thing people will say if they find out is that you are crazy. Maybe brain-washed. I mean, who does that right. Particularly if you are trying to get yourself out of debt or save for retirement or pay off a mortgage. In a world acclimatized to “the easy” or “the self” — pursuing “the good” is a strange and often disagreeable thing.

We must decide

Finally, pursuing “the good” gets complicated by the simple fact that we need to make a decision and act on it. It goes beyond a mental exercise. There may be 10 possible choices, be we must discern which one represents “the good”. It may be that half of our options ‘good’ and so we need to look for what is best — the most good of our good options. In either case, being frozen in indecision is not the same as pursuing “the good”.

We are called to actively pursue “the good”

To say that we are ‘called’ to actively pursue the good is a bit of a euphemism. Yes, it is true that we are called, but more accurately the Bible tells us to do this. It is not a suggestion, or some ‘big over-arching’ idea about meaningful living — it is a command. The command ultimately is rooted in another command — Love one another. We cannot love one another and not seek the good for each other. We cannot love one another and only choose what is good for me. More importantly, Paul tells the Thessalonian Christians that “the good” stands as the opposite of evil. Do not repay evil for evil but pursue the good for each other. You see when you read the whole thing, it becomes clear that the “one another” part is not just people who are treating you well. In this case, it is someone who may be treating your in an evil manner. Someone who you may be tempted to get revenge on or at a minimum totally ignore. But Paul says we must seek the good for each other — even if the ‘other’ is doing something hurtful to us. This is ultimately the way of Christ.

Richard Hays wrote a massive book a decade ago and it is now consider a standard among scholars who teach NT ethics at the university level. I’ve used it for courses I’ve taught at Crandall, but even more significantly, I use it as a pastor navigating the many life issues that come our way.

Hays doesn’t give all the answers, but what he does do is give three lenses to look through as we try to figure out what “the good” is in any circumstance. I want to share those three ideas because — obviously — being able to know what is good is essential if we are to live for Christ in this world. The first lens is the cross. The cross has great significance to the Christian faith — it is the place where sin was beaten and our collective debt to God was paid in full. As an example though. . .

The Cross teaches us to sacrifice

We need to be reminded again and again that personal sacrifice is the norm for the Christian life. If we are to seek the good for each other, that means that we all sacrifice and we all benefit from each other’s sacrifice. We are actually strengthened by that sacrifice rather than weakened by it. And I’m not just talking spiritually — though that also is true — I’m referring to strength of character. It is as we learn to put others before ourselves that we learn what real strength is. Anybody can be a bully or self-centered person. It’s actually really easy to just focus on self — what is hard is putting that aside. The cross teaches us that this is God’s way. It’s not something for us to boast about. It’s not something that makes us better than others. Sacrifice is the way of God. It’s what the Father did when he sent his Son; it’s what Jesus did when he gave his life, it’s what the Holy Spirit within us is doing as we grieve and quench His holy presence in us because of sinful choices. God sacrifices. If we are to pursue the good, we must be ready to sacrifice. It’s not always necessary, but we must always be ready.

The second lens Hays gives us the church — but not the building or institution — the community of people who profess faith in Jesus Christ and have experienced spiritual rebirth in Christ.

God’s community discerns and expresses the good together.

It is in spiritual community that we understand what “the good” is. We discern it together. We pray for understanding and we discuss God’s word together. We declare “the good” as it is clearly stated in Scripture and we learn from each other how to apply God’s truth with humility and grace in our modern world.

In John 17, Jesus makes it very clear that it is in the community of his followers that the world will see hope. It is Christians unified in Christ, worshipping him and living for him — following his ways in all things — that will show the world that Jesus is God’s son. That’s an amazing privilege and responsibility.

At the human level, our first connection must with others who seek to follow Jesus. People who can help us and correct us. People who see things we don’t see and who may not see what we see. There is a mutuality to it and in this mutual love and friendship we find the good together. None of us lives in a vacuum. We need each other, not just for emotional health but to truly understand the ways of God.

Finally, Hays’ third lens to help us find “the good” is to accept and cooperate with His Spirit in us.

God gives us power to demonstrate goodness and kindness

Even though we are prone to make selfish choices. We are prone to deceive ourselves about what “the good” actually is. God has placed his Spirit in us to give us the power to change and to live for him — to pursue “the good” for each other and everyone else.

In Galatians 5, we see that goodness and kindness are among the qualities that are produced by the Spirit living inside of those who believe in Jesus Christ. God is doing that inside of us. The seeds are planted and power to grow is in us. We have no excuses when we are angry and hurtful to each other. Choosing “the good” is always an option.

Sometimes pursuing what is good for others will mean hardship for ourselves. People may criticize us. People may find fault in us. Yet at the end of the day, we are a people called to follow Christ and to seek the good for others and everyone else.

That is the way of the cross.

That is the way of spiritual community.

That is the way of the Spirit of God, at work in us, giving us the power to Seek the Good.

Patient Pain (Micah Knowles)

[Editor’s note: These are the preaching notes for Micah’s message and not a manuscript]

Definition: Patience is the state of endurance under difficult circumstances, which can mean: persevering in the face of delay; provocation without acting on negative annoyance/anger; or exhibiting forbearance when under strain, especially when faced with longer-term difficulties.

Patience is important in the Bible– Job, Joseph, Abraham, Moses in the wilderness, the disciples waiting for Jesus.

What does a world without Patience look like- a lot like it is now

Patience is a pain

I want it now

“It is easier to find men who will volunteer to die, than to find those who are willing to endure pain with patience.” ~ Julius Caesar
This is the type of world we live in, phones, internet, information highway, amazon.
Practicing impatient habits… we do all the same stuff- we grab our phones, park in the closest spot, getting in the short line, using your phone, – we are generally rushed without the need to be… you bathe your child and rush it, without anything else on the schedule.
We live in a world of lists and pride ourselves in getting things done
What we really need is to slow down, stop and smell the roses,
Life moves fast and you blink and things are gone
We are so excited about what’s next (having kids, getting the kids out of the house, grandkids, retirement) we choose the future over the present to our detriment.

People drive me crazy

None of us are going to argue that people aren’t annoying.
They don’t do what we want them to do.
And they do what we don’t want them to do
God is patient with us

God is too slow-

God’s time is not like our time.
And he takes his time: 400 years between the last prophet and Jesus, 2000 years we have been waiting for Jesus to come back
I like being in charge
Satan uses impatience to frustrate us with God.
We like it when God moves fast, but we must simply learn to like it when God moves slow as well, and enjoy these moments where we are… moments of solitude, silence, quiet and fasting
It will amaze you how much you see God when you slow down! You wont take things for granted (your family time, simple prayers, the beauty of nature and a good meal) all of these things are gifts that you can miss.

That’s what it actually means! Long suffering

Sanctification and growth comes from trial… no one needs to be patient when things are good! And no one grows either

– By perseverance the snail reached the ark.- Charles Spurgeon

2 sides of patience

Explain how the Greek works

Work:

Anechomai (ἀνέχομαι)– stand firm, endure, – Ephesians 4:2 NIV (…bearing with one another in love).

Kartereo (καρτερέω)– Strong and steadfast- Hebrews 11:27 NLT (… He kept right on going…)

Hebrews 12:1 – Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

KJV and several others translate this word directly as patience.

-Paul Running the race patiently but with endurance, perserverance

-This type of patience is not passive, it’s about running!

– not by fast sprints but slowly and surely, waking up every day and saying let’s do this again today. I’m going to walk in patience and endurance again today.

– Do you remember when you were young and were excited for Christmas morning? Or something exciting to happen? I remember laying in my bed staring at the ceiling fan, waiting for the morning to come, checking my alarm clock and watching the minutes pass like hours. When you are waiting the worst thing to do is nothing. If you want the time to go by and enjoy it in the meantime then get busy! The time will fly by and when you turn around heaven will be there

Growing comes from doing, and doing takes time!
Too many churches/Christians relied on waiting

Wait:

hypomeno (ὑπομένω)– waiting behind, perseverance- 2 Thess 1:4 NIV ”…we boast about your perseverance”

Macrothymia (μακροθυμέω) – passive, long suffering- James 5:10 (NIV) “ …patience in the face of suffering…”

We read the verses: “those who wait upon the Lord” but it doesn’t change how hard this part is.
There are things we can’t change
Waiting for a kid’s conversion,
Hard for me, I have given my whole life to ministry and I can’t make a Christian!
Romans 8:28
Do we Believe that God has this thing under control?
Do we believe that God is perfect, faithful, all knowing and all powerful? – than why don’t we trust him and sit patiently with him knowing he has everything under control
Patience at its core is about faith- This is about trust in God.
Freedom…
Surrender vs. Ability (all of my ambitions hopes and plans, I surrender these into your hands, for its only in your will that I am free).
Proverbs 3:5-6

you don’t drop one to do another.

No pain no gain

Patience is HARD!

We grow through hard times and struggles

Calm seas never made a skillful sailor

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:2-4

“Learn the art of patience. Apply discipline to your thoughts when they become anxious over the outcome of a goal. Impatience breeds anxiety, fear, discouragement and failure. Patience creates confidence, decisiveness, and a rational outlook, which eventually leads to success.” ~ Brian Adams

Christ indeed endured pain through patience.

“Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life”.(1 Timothy 1:15-17, NIV).

Patience is dealing with the adversities/pain of life-

After looking at our 4 words of patience and really our two main subjects: waiting and working our application comes into play

(group of pastors) God gets what he wants
God’s time is not like our time.
Running a Marathon takes training
Waiting for God to help me change the world.

And by that trusting God with what is in his hands, (what only God can do)

Believing God is in control.
Freedom
Surrender + trust
Recap
“Be still and know that I am God”

Doing everything you can with what is in your hands.

Recap

Ending with Heaven

Everyone walks towards death with no hope (grandparents)

Yet we have faith, and trust that in patience we will someday arrive in heaven

Upon the day that I walk into heaven and I see God I will not be concerned with getting things done quickly, the frustrating people, or why he was doing what he was doing. Instead I will stand in awe, spending eternity with Him, and there is nothing I can hope for more than that he will look at me and say you did well on earth, and now you’re here.

1st Corinthians 15:58