Thank the Lord that we had that time together to worship Him together. It was just a real blessing.
On behalf of the brothers and sisters in Toronto, I just want to welcome all of you here. I see that there are a lot of you who are here for the first time. We are very thankful to see all of you here.
We’ve been praying a long time for this, pretty much since soon after last year’s conference, and we’re just delighted to see you all here.
We’ll just have another word of prayer together before we begin.
Lord, we just want to give You thanks for this time that we have together. Lord, we know that You had this time on Your mind before any of us did. Lord, You’ve called each one of us here, and we thank You for bringing each one of us here.
And Lord, we know that You have a purpose for this time. So we look to You. We look to You for the word that You have and for the work that You are going to do.
Lord, we just want to commit each one of us here, each one of these hearts here, back to You. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Could we just start by turning to John 18?
We’re just going to read the passage starting at verse 28, up to the verse where we find the first question that is in our theme this year.
So, John 18:28.
Then the Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor.
By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness, the Jews did not enter the palace.
They wanted to be able to eat the Passover.So Pilate came out to them and asked, “What charges are you bringing against this man?”
“If He were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed Him over to you.”
Pilate said, “Take Him yourselves and judge Him by your own law.”
“But we have no right to execute anyone,” the Jews objected.
This happened so that the words Jesus had spoken, indicating the kind of death He was going to die, would be fulfilled.
Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus, and asked Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?”
“Is that your own idea?” Jesus asked. “Or did others talk to you about Me?”
“Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “It was Your people and Your chief priests who handed You over to me. What is it You have done?”
Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, My servants would fight to prevent My arrest by the Jews. But now, My kingdom is from another place.”
“You are a king then!” said Pilate.
Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world: to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to Me.”
“What is truth?” Pilate asked.
For a conference theme where one of the first questions is, “What is truth?” I think reading the context of this passage and seeing how Pilate asked that question seems to be an odd place to go.
Because Pilate here really didn’t care about the truth. He didn’t really care to know the truth. He really said that more as a way to stop Jesus and just cut Him off.
But here we are. The burden that we do have for this time, for this week, is that we might consider, “What is truth?” and mean that in a genuine and true way—to ask that question: What is truth?
I think if we look up the meaning of this word, the Hebrews’ understanding of truth had a lot to do with the matter of faithfulness. For the Greeks, it had a lot to do with having an accurate representation of reality, or a factual representation of reality.
And yet here in this passage—and actually even earlier in the chapter—we find that there is much that is not true, much among many who don’t care about what the truth is.
Before this point that we just read, Jesus has already been betrayed by Judas. Peter has denied Him. Annas and Caiaphas have interrogated Him. They couldn’t find anything, and yet, for reasons that didn’t make sense, they still brought Him before Pilate.
Here we have Pilate questioning Jesus. His verdict is that Jesus is innocent and there is nothing to blame Him with. But his actions don’t agree with his verdict, as he sends Jesus to be executed.
So it’s really in this context that we are considering, “What is truth?” And maybe this context is not too different from the context that we are living in today—the times that we are living in today.
I think if we look around and consider the times, there are not many who care about truth. People want to advance their agendas. They want to do things for their self-gain, but there are not really ones who are standing for the truth.
In this chapter, the only One that we see who is true is the Lord Jesus Himself. Everything He says, everything He does, and who He is, is completely true.
Like you, I just spent some time reading through the passages that we were supposed to be reading. So today, I just had a couple of thoughts about truth that I wanted to share with you.
The first thought, and just the first thing that I noticed, is that truth is a person.
Truth is not just a set of propositions. It’s not just presenting evidence and then demanding a verdict, although truth does do that. It’s not just some sort of concept. It’s not some idea. It’s not something that is just to be observed externally. Truth is a person.
And the Lord Himself said that in John 14:6:
“I am the way and the truth and the life.”
I know that we spend a lot of time talking about, I guess, in Christian circles, this matter of absolute truth—how truth is uncompromising. And that is totally true.
But sometimes I feel like we can take that and sort of turn it around, and we make the focus about being right or wrong in such a way that we’re just more concerned about us being right.
And so that’s not the truth that touched me as I read through the Book of John. Truth is a person. The person of the Lord Jesus came. He didn’t come to show us how right He is.
He’s the One who knows. He’s the only One who really knows what the absolute truth is, and He’s the only One who has a perfectly objective view of how everything is. But He’s the One who decided to come and dwell among all of us who are wrong, and to die for us who are wrong, so that we might be reconciled to the Father.
It’s the Lord, in His love for us, who came to seek us out.
Another thing that I noticed about truth is that there are not, as I said already, ones who are really looking for the truth. Can we just turn to Psalm 53?
I’m just going to read verses 2 and 3 from Psalm 53.
God looks down from heaven on the sons of men
to see if there are any who understand,
any who seek God.Everyone has turned away;
they have together become corrupt;
there is no one who does good, not even one.
So, I mean, when we talk about this matter of truth, it’s really not like somebody, out of their zeal or quest for the truth, went and sought out the Lord and found Him.
Even throughout the Word, we find that it is the Lord, in His desire to dwell among His people and to reconcile people to the Father, who has gone and called different ones. We find different ones who have responded to that call, who have stood there to testify for Him.
They’re ones who have responded to that. He’s the One who is seeking. It is the Son of Man who came to seek and save the lost. It’s not the other way around.
So this is the person of truth who has come to seek out those who are lost.
Another thought: truth is not out there. Most of you guys are too young to know about this TV show that made this phrase popular, but the truth is not out there.
It’s not something that is sort of on the outside that we can just observe, take notes about, and try to understand or study.
This matter of truth—with the Lord, it’s His Spirit of truth. It’s the Spirit of truth that guides us into all truth. It’s the Spirit that desires to live in us.
So this is not something that just leaves us untouched. When we come and encounter the truth, when we meet the truth—the person of truth—it’s not something that we can just say, “Okay, well, that was good. I studied that, and now I can move on.”
It’s something that leaves us changed. We can’t leave unchanged when we actually meet the person of truth.
And also, the truth desires to be known and obeyed. I think we see that throughout John. For you who’ve read through this book, you see how much the Lord desires to be known and obeyed.
And the last thought I had about truth as a person was—we’ll go back to John 18.
Just in verse 37, as the Lord is answering Pilate, at the end of that verse the Lord says:
“Everyone on the side of truth listens to Me.”
So this calls for a response. Truth is not just there for us as information. It calls for us to hearken, to listen.
And that made me think about those who may be here tonight, those of you who may not know Him. Maybe you’ve come because your friend has brought you. Maybe you’ve grown up in the fellowship, and you’re here.
It’s no coincidence that you’re here. The Lord has called you here. He’s brought you here.
And at the same time as the Lord comes to meet us, He is calling for this response: that we might hearken unto Him, that we might listen to Him. He’s not just sharing something with us and then letting us walk away.
When we meet truth, the person, He’s asking for us to respond to Him, to obey Him. So if you have not done that, then I really would encourage you that even tonight, when you go back to your townhouses, you would just grab the brothers and sisters in your room.
Take that time to pray and respond to Him.
The second thought that I had is that truth is everlasting. So let’s just turn to Psalm 119.
And just verse 160.
Psalm 119:160. I’m just reading from the New American Standard Version.
The sum of Your word is truth,
and every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting.
I think we’ve also read before in Psalm how, from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. In Ecclesiastes, it speaks of how God has set eternity in the hearts of men.
So this matter of truth being eternal—everlasting—it’s timeless. That’s one thought that I noticed about it.
But also, the other thought is the eternal nature of truth. So it’s not merely about time and it lasting forever, but it’s also the nature of it.
And what I mean by that is, there’s a verse that we’re all very familiar with in John 3:16:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
And then, if we turn to John 17:3, it says:
“Now this is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
What really struck me was that this matter of eternal life is not just a matter of time, but it has to do with knowing the Lord. It has to do with our relationship with Him.
And this truth—the person of truth—desires to have a relationship with us. He calls us to know Him. He desires to be known. And at the same time, He has perfect knowledge of each one of us.
He knows exactly who we are. It’s not like how a lot of us have these, how to describe it, redacted personas. You filter yourself with your friends and the people that you’re with.
You don’t feel like you can quite rest because you’re worried that if they know this thing about you, then they won’t accept you anymore, right?
But with the Lord, there’s no such thing. He has a perfect knowledge of who we are—everything about us, all the good parts, all the bad parts. There’s nothing about us that He doesn’t know.
It’s never the situation where He is appalled by something about us, where we’ve done something and He says, “Oh, I didn’t think you were going to do that.” That never happens, right?
His love for us is really unconditional. And when we know that, we can relax in that. We can relax in His divine love.
So that’s Him. That’s His side. That’s how much the Lord loves us, and that’s how much He knows us. But on the other side, He calls us to know Him.
And so I was thinking about this, and it made me consider: maybe there are those here, and maybe this is not your first conference. You’ve been to other conferences, maybe. You’re going through ups and downs with the Lord in your walk with Him.
Maybe you left the conference last year with such zeal and resolve, and you were just going to be strong for Him and you were going to go on.
And I’m not sure what it is. Maybe it’s something that happened at school this year. Maybe it’s just being away. Whatever it might be, you find yourself feeling like you’re far from the Lord.
No, the Lord is not surprised by this.
And for those of you who might be discouraged, and those of you who might be coming in that place, my word of encouragement to you is that the Lord isn’t disappointed in you. He’s delighted that you’re here.
He called you here, and whatever it took to bring you here, He’s done that. You’re here right now, and He has a word for you, and He has a work in your heart that He will do this week.
So turn to Him.
And then just one final thought, and it’s about the last two questions. So let’s just turn to Acts 22.
The last two questions that make up our theme this year are, “Who are You, Lord?” and “What shall I do, Lord?” Both these questions were asked by Paul.
This is on his way to Damascus. He was persecuting Christians at this time. He thought he knew the Lord. He thought he was working for the Lord.
He thought, as a Pharisee, that men are sinners, and what we need to do is put on this yoke of the law, work hard, pull up our socks, buck up—whatever it is—and earn your salvation.
When you’ve earned it, then you can have the joy and the salvation that you’ve worked so hard for.
And maybe Paul was persecuting Christians because he felt threatened by what Christians believed, in how it was so contrary to how he was living: that it was not about working for your salvation, but instead that the Lord has given freely.
He desires to seek and save the lost, and to do that freely.
So when he asked this question, “What shall I do?” I know it’s easy to get sort of fixated on this question. Maybe a lot of us ask that question: “What shall I do?” Whatever situation we’re in.
One thing I noticed, though, when I was reading through this chapter was that even as Paul is asking, “What shall I do?” it’s amazing when we consider and take a look at how much the Lord has done for Paul to be in this place.
The Lord knew how difficult it was to open Paul’s eyes to Him. And He knew that anything less than this drastic encounter on his way to Damascus would not be enough to turn Paul to Him.
So think about the work that went in—all the stuff that Paul had been through in his life, studying in the law, all that brought him to this place.
And then you think about the rest of this chapter: how the Lord spoke to Ananias and brought him to meet Paul, to have his eyes opened, to help him along. Everything that fell in place, everything that was done in the background, so that Paul could be saved.
And I wonder if we know that we’re in that same place. I wonder if we realize how much the Lord has been doing, and is doing, in the background.
But also, I wonder if we empathize with Paul. If there are some of us here tonight who have gone on and have been faithful in meeting, maybe in a subtle way you empathize with Paul’s pre-conversion view of the Lord.
You’re driven more by a sense of duty or obligation, or just doing the right thing, and whatever that means.
Would we, during this time that we have here this week, just once again have our eyes opened? Just like Paul, that we might see the Lord afresh.
Another thing that I noticed was in Acts 22:14. This is Ananias speaking to Paul. Ananias says:
“Then he said: ‘The God of our fathers has chosen you to know His will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from His mouth.’”
Just once again:
“The God of our fathers has chosen you to know His will, and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from His mouth.”
Do we know that also this is a call to us for this week? Each one of you has been chosen to know His will.
And we’re all here because the Lord wants us to be able to see more of Him, and also to hear His word. Brothers and sisters, this is our privilege.
That’s really the thought I had for this time. So, let’s just have a prayer together.
Lord, we just do turn to You. Lord, it is our prayer that You might open our eyes to see You, that You would help us to hear You.
Lord, we just want to commit this time to You. Lord, we pray that You would have the freedom to work in our hearts, to make Your will known.
Lord, we just want to commit each one of us here to You. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.